When the Everfree Burns

Chapters

Chapter 3: Blackhorn
Chapter 4: Bloodied Lords
Chapter 5: The End of Peaceful Nights
Chapter 7: Sedevacantismo
Chapter 8: Heathens
Chapter 10: Watchwords
Chapter 11: Forlorn Hope is found There
Chapter 12: Contagious Torment
Chapter 14: Slave to an Inescapable Culmination
Chapter 15: Mirror Phase I
Chapter 16: Truth, Unconquered!
Chapter 17: Confrontality
Chapter 18: Unrequited Goodbye
Chapter 19: Scattered Thoughts
Chapter 20: Good Company
Chapter 21: End of Scene
Chapter 22: Writhe by Night
Chapter 23: At the Gala
Chapter 25: Converge
Chapter 26: The Esoteric and Apocryphal
Chapter 27: Fiat Equo
Chapter 28: Meet the New Gods, Same as the Old Gods
Chapter 29: Twilight for the Empress
Chapter 30: The Children of Heaven
Epilogue 1: Ponyville Midnight
Bridge Prologue 1: Accursed Journey Outset
Bridge Chapter 1: The Claws Come Out
Bridge Chapter 2: Anchored
Bridge Chapter 3: Back in the Saddle
Bridge Chapter 4: Coming in to Coltcutta
Bridge Chapter 5: Sight of the Stone Eye
Bridge Epilogue 1: A Thousand of Years ago in Chitin
An Intermezzo: Others Seek the East
Prologue 2: Second Verse
Chapter 31: Little Bit of Sunshine
Chapter 32: Ruminations
Chapter 33: Heir to the Empire
Chapter 34: Ad astra per alas fideles
Chapter 35: An Unsleeping Restless
Chapter 36: Guise of Sanctity
Chapter 37: Almost Homefront
Chapter 38: The Last Step Before the Plummet
Chapter 39: The Prospects Ahead
A Truth Comes to Light: Myriadess
Chapter 40: Self
Chapter 41: The Longest Night of the Year
Chapter 42: A Traitor and A Queen
Chapter 43: For Those Whose Ships Have Already Sailed
Chapter 44: The Many Memories
Chapter 46: The Eyes
Chapter 47: The Way it has to Be
Chapter 48: Arise, Orphans of Tartarus
Chapter 49: MOONBREAKER
Chapter 50: Watch at Dawn
Epilogue 2: Same as the First
Bridge Prologue 2: Friends of the Family
Bridge Chapter 6: A Truth Comes to Light: Xaron
Bridge Chapter 7: Phantom 1
Bridge Chapter 8: Phantom 2
Bridge Chapter 9: Phantom 3
An Intermezzo: A Velvet Manifesto
An Intermezzo: Never far out of Mind
Chapter 51: Impossible Towers
Chapter 52: Tonight we Run Til Dawn
Chapter 53: Cloud Curtain
Chapter 54: The Dream Discovery Club
Chapter 55: Fruit of the Poisoned Tree
Chapter 56: The New Equestrians
Chapter 57: Fool on the Hill
Everfree Extra: Everfree Index 2: Maps of Equestria 1
Everfree Extra: Everfree Index 3: Relgions of Equestria 1, the Celestianist Temple
Prologue 1: Canterlot Midnight
Chapter 1: Old Mare's Tale
Chapter 2: The "Free City" of Ponyville
Chapter 6: A Hollow Light Nocturne
Chapter 24: Règle de Trois
About the Author: Long Play
Chapter 45: The Suzerain of Sin
Prologue 3: The Elder Siblings of Mortalkind

Chapter 3: Blackhorn

The next day stole over the land. Back to work.

“...One hundred and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, one hundred and eleven, twelve...”
Twilight Sparkle took measured steps along a street of Ponyville, her mumbled counting briefly drawing the eyes of the villagers. Beside her, Spike carried a scroll with the distances she had determined so far.

Reaching an intersection, Twilight stopped. “One hundred and twenty-one hooves.” She declared. Spike dutifully added this number to the list. Twilight moved to the center of the intersection and aligned herself.

“Good morning Mis Lady Twilight!” From behind Spike, Pinkie Pie burst into Twilight's path.

“Oh hello. I remember you from last night. Pinkie was it?” Twilight said without looking up. She resumed her canter. “One, two, three...”

“Yeah, that's me alright! And you're Twilight! Heya Twilight!” Pinkie's smile threatened to tear her face in twain. "Did you get all settled in the Oak? I meant to see you this morning to make sure everything was okay but got distracted and you know how it is, one distraction leading to another!"

“...seven, eight, nine. So did you need anything? Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen...” Twilight asked, her focus on her precisely standardized steps.

Pinkie was bouncing along, staying beside Spike as Twilight proceeded. “Nope!” She replied cheerfully.

“...twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven. Alright then, just don't distract me. Thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five...” Twilight mumbled.

Spike smiled apologetically to Pinkie Pie. "Hi, mis. Is your nose better?"

"Yup'see doodle! I'm a super fast healer, which, let me tell ya, comes in handy." Pinkie winked.

Twilight snorted in irritation back at them. "Spike save the talk for when you punch out. If you make me lose count-" She froze in place. "Was I on forty or forty-one?"

"Forty-one." Pinkie said with confidence.

"Oh... thanks." Twilight resumed her measured paces. "Forty-two, forty-three..."

Spike giggled. "We're taking measurement of street lengths and stuff, to make a map!" He told Pinkie. "Can you beleive there wasn't a single map of Ponyville in the library or town hall?"

“...fifty-nine, sixty. I would have pulled one from CANTERLOT if I'd known. Sixty-five, sixty-six, sixty-seven...” Twilight growled.

Pinkie nodded excitedly. “Thats so cool! I don't know if I've ever seen a map of Ponyville. Rarity know where one is but maybe not..." Se trailed off, and apparently deciding to honor Twilight's demand for focus, just followed along silently.

At the end of the street, Twilight paused again. “That street was one hundred and sixty hooves long. So triangulating quickly in my head, that puts this street at a fifty degree angle with the other one. No don't write that down Spike. I'll do it out to three decimals when we get back to the tree.”
As Spike wrote this Twilight contemplated the breadth of the task before her again. “Okay, we've seen most of the hamlet now and I'm not impressed. There is roughly the same amount of paved and unpaved streets. No sidewalks. The market square is completely unpaved. Roads from town are unpaved." She sighed. "If a Summer Sun Fair were held here, the visitors would choke on dust. Coaches would get bogged down instantly."

"Huh?" Pinkie Pie blinked.

Twilight had not decided how she should treat the Ponyvillians. In Canterlot she spent most of her time to herself. She had professional acquaintances, and even a few who she was friendly with. She also had a few university friends who she studied with occasionally. But Twilight never tolerated somepony who was just a distraction or didn't pull their weight.
Maybe being friendly with the Ponyvillians would be useful. Maybe.

"I was officially assigned to Ponyville to arrange a Summer Sun Fair." Twilight said. She left out the part where she had serious doubts about actually putting in the work. "From rough estimates, this is growing to be prohibitively expensive.”

“What's going to be probibibibly expensive?” Pinkie bounced up and down in curiosity.

Twilight faced her. “When the other Free Cities like Baltimare or Manehattan host a Summer Sun Fair it attracts thousands of ponies and can last for a week. There are tournaments, races, mass sermons, and sometimes even a visit from the Princess herself. To be able to handle anything on that scale, Ponyville would have to be torn down and rebuilt."

"I see what you mean. I've been to a big Canterlot Party before." Pinkie agreed. "But what if you planned for a party within Ponyville's means?"

Twilight blanched. "What an utter humiliation that would be! Princess Celestia sends me to put on a fair worthy of the empire, and I arrange something on the level of a busy market day? I would be demoted on the spot."

"I don't know mis lady, wouldn't she send you to a bigger city if she expected a bigger party?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight shook her head. "No offense but you don't know how these things work."

"I guess not." Pinkie shrugged. "But I sure know how parties work."

"I'll be certain to consult you about that. The locals can contribute anything they can, and I will import any extra talent I need." Twilight said. "I could probably import a whole town if I wanted. I speak for the princess after all."

"I'd recommend you don't do anything the princess wouldn't." Spike remarked.

Twilight snorted. "Then I'd never leave the oak tree."

Pinkie Pie bobbed her head from side to side as a thought struck her. "Mis Ladyship, you're acting like you're in charge of the whole town now."

"Oh, was that ambiguous? Did you see the letter form the princess?" Twilight dramatically scanned the street. "Your 'Free City' has no elected officials or noble-born citizens. There's nopony to tell me what I can't do. So while it's a bit indelicate to say, yes, I'm in charge."

"Yeah I guess so but you're not even a citizen here." Pinkie Pie said.

"If I manage to dig up the ancient charter that granted this village Free City status I'd probably discover most ponies here don't qualify as citizens for various petty reasons." Twilight said. "What's important is leadership. And look at me doing leader-like things, such as measuring the streets for renovation. That's called 'good governance'."

Pinkie shrugged. "Somepony will probably make a big deal out of it. Just saying."

"If you care about it that much I'll declare myself a citizen by royal prerogative." Twilight said.

"I don't care, but someponies might." Pinkie said.

"Like one of the mares we met yesterday? Applejack or Rarity?" Spike asked.

Twilight had forgotten about them. "Oh right! Applejack, that farm pony. And Rarity the..."

"She's a tailor!" Pinkie Pie supplied.

"That makes sense for some reason. Though wasn't her mark some gems or something?" Twilight asked. "Well nevermind that. I'll talk to them later, on my own time, when I seek them out." It was an unsubtle hint to Pinkie to go away until she was needed.

Pinkie Pie pursed her lips. “Rarity's in the clinic right now.”

"My memory is fairly hazy. Did she party too hard or something?" Twilight rolled her eyes. She turned away from Pinkie. "Maybe I'll visit her when I measure the distence to said clinic. Meanwhile stop distracting me."

Pinkie pantomimed zipping her mouth shut.

"Ready when you are." Spike rolled the quill in his talons.

Great. This is the east-west street, two blocks from the river. Mark it number eight for now." Twilight started her even paces again. "One, two, three..."

...Four, five, six, seven. The door opened, eight seconds after she knocked. Lyra was face to face with a cheerful monk, who let her pass into the monastery.

“What can I do for you madam?” He asked, bowing his head respectfully.

“Good morning and gods bless." Lyra said. "I have heard that Canterlot's city records had been sent here from Canterlot Castle. I sent a letter yesterday afternoon inquiring but got no response."

"Oh my. You climbed up the Mountain rather than wait? We aren't that quick about sorting mail." The monk admitted. He closed the door to keep the wind out. "Yes, the city records are here now. Um, some of them. I don't work in the library so I don't know the details."

Lyra nodded. "That's fine. If it's not any trouble, could you lead me there?"

Lyra had only been to the Solar Monastery once before in her youth. It was a very functional building, short for the most part, unintimidating. From a distance it seemed to grow from out from the rock surrounding it. It was exactly as large as it needed to be to house its small fraternity of sun-charting monks.
What was it like to be a monk, cloistered away from the excitements of the world below? Lyra imagined she would rapidly grow bored of it and start to cause trouble. She had heard of criminals and political dissidents being exiled to monasteries. Did they need to be forcibly kept there? In that case how ironic that the monks, whose life was supposed to be dedicated to the higher mysteries, served their princess instead as gaolers and guards for worldly purposes.

They arrived at the library, and the monk guiding her wandered off. It was a respectably sized repository, with much taller ceilings than the hall she had come down. Reading tables bisected the room and the bookshelves.
Another monk was hunched over a large tome at one of the study desks. He heard Lyra's approach and looked up.

“Oh, a visitor. My my, two visitors in three days." The monk closed his book and stood up. "I am Brother Manered. What would you need of us, mis?"

“I'm searching for Canterlot's city records on the noble houses. They used to be at the castle but they were moved.” Lyra responded.

“Moved here, yes. They ran out of space down there. Not often is it that the Canterlot folk push their garbage UP the Mountain, hmm?" Manered chuckled to himself. "This way. I put them in a spare reading room." He rose trotted to a side room.

Lyra followed him. When she looked inside, she was astonished to see the modest space was overflowing with scrolls and enormous books, each presumably containing a linage. So much knowledge in one place had Lyra overwhelmed. To think, each word on these pages represented a pony who had once been as real and alive as herself; The monks, the gaoler of their legacies.

“Have a house in mind, or just browsing.” Manered asked jokingly.

“Uh... yes, yes.” Lyra recollected herself. “House Twilight.”

Manered stared at her, incredulous. After a moment, he exited the room and closed the door, making his way back to the study table.

“Pardon, is something the matter?” Lyra was confused and indignant.

Manered stood by his seat, and heaved the book he had been reading. Lyra, still baffled, approached. On the book's cover where the words 'Maison de Crépuscule'.

“Serendipity! I already had the book out and was reading it-" He hesitated. "but not, I must admit, for pure curiosity. I would be more embarrassed if a different particular visitor caught me." He cleared his throat. "For you see, this old record was pulled aside because it was requested." He placed his hoof on it. "Requested by her highness the princess! Well, imagine my shock reading that letter, but as the new steward of the city records I suppose I would face royal attention again at some point. I thought I could get away with taking a peak . We rarely get a peak into the desires or thoughts of the princess's court."

"Quite the story."
Lyra wasn't very good in Prench, but she knew that the book's title translated to "house of 'Crépuscule". What a crepuscule was, Lyra could not begin to guess. It sounded like a confectionary, but then again so did most of the Prench language. Considering the circumstance it must have related to the House Twilight. But why was it in Prench, and why did the crown want it?
"Did the court attach any instructions about keeping the book from other readers?"

Manered shook his head. "I would not have dared if it were so. However..." He cleared his throat. "I am just wise enough to ask your purposes with it mis, lest I am asked and found wanting for answers."

"At present I serve an officer of the court. He is trusted and serves admirably, and I strive to do so as well. I have no intention to stymie the crown." Lyra said. "His lordship asks that I research this house."

"It is not a stretch to imagine your lord wants to know what the princess is looking into." Manered said. "The politics of it are none of my buisness though. When a mare in a fetching coat comes to my library, I assist them to the best of my ability."

Lyra noded. “Thank you very much Manered.”

“Brother Manered, m'lady.” Manered bowed.

Lyra almost scoffed. She was no lady, but the joke was well taken, so she returned the bow nonetheless. “Lyra Heartstings.”

Manered set the book onto the study table and pulled up two chairs. “If you'll allow me, I can translate anything you don't understand. Prench dialects are very confusing to layponies. Though the cover is in old court Prench, these first entries are penned in cosmoponytan Prench, probably from the north.”

The north of Prance, Lyra guessed he meant. So the Twilights where a foreign house, across the eastern seas from Equestria. "You could begin with the title."

Manered snorted. "At first I was certain it translated to 'The House of Darkness'. Terrifyingly ominous! Alas I checked my dictionary, to find it less alarmingly means 'The House of Twilight'. I find it fairly interesting how the concept of twilight was translated as part of the name across languages. That usually doesn't happen. But I suppose Crepuscule Sparkle doesn't roll off the tongue."

"Indeed, nor Crepuscule Velvet." Lyra said to herself. But what a missed opportunity that it had not been translated such that she was now squared against Darkness Velvet.

Manered flipped past the first few pages. Like many other old books Lyra had seen over the years, it was hoof-writen and colorfully illuminated. The patterns scrolling around the edges of every page were fascinating in their intricacy. She could pick out strange and grotesque faces, animals in various states of fear, and interwoven lines and spheres. It was pretty, but rather horrifying.
“We may begin here. This is the first matriarch circa 800 SS. Crépuscule Naissance, or Twilight Advent of Chevreville. I don't know where Chevreville is, but based on the next few entries, it's near Chateau d'Os, one of the old capitals of Prance.” Manered pointed to the a paragraph, and the illustration of a pony's marks beside them. The mark was a dozen stars arranged in a circle, obviously the mark of a magically talented mare.

"No description of the lives of these ponies?" Lyra asked.

"These kinds of dynastic records, especially one so detailed and therefore expensive, would have absolutely had pages with the feats and skills of the ancestors. Unicorn dynasties from Prance doubly especially." Manered shrugged. "And yet, these descriptions are criminally short, barely more than listing spouse and children. There are no missing pages. Whoever commissioned this record, years ago, wished only that the names and marks be remembered."

"Could that other stuff be recorded somewhere else?" Lyra asked.

"Perhaps, but either it was not submitted to the city records alongside this piece, or it was lost at some point." Manered said.

"Fine." Lyra sighed. She would have little to report to Fancy Pants.

As they flipped through the further pages, Lyra could see two trends emerge. The Twilights were a family of matriarchs. In every single generation, a daughter was born first, who went on to become the leader of the house. The second trend was that every one of these matriarchs had a star themed cutie mark, and had a first name of some variation of 'Crépusculaire', Twilight.

"Is any of this unusual?" Lyra asked.

"That is a broad question you must admit." Manered said. "One thing is that the family name is used in adjective form for the personal name. So that would mean nowadays if the tradition continued, Twilight, as part of the name, is in an adjective form describing the given name, rather than in a noun form. I find that rather interesting."

"Sure." Lyra doubted that was of any importance. "Are there any noteworthy figures in here?"

“Relatively. Look here. 921 SS, was a big year for the house. Crépuscule Voyageur became family matriarch. And see how her name is in Equestrian as well! She must have moved the house to Equestria. Down at the bottom of the page," Manred pointed to a seemingly random set of patterns below the illumination Crépuscule Voyageur's mark. "You see these in other Prench realm records. It shows the number of keeps and lances under the clan, three and eleven respectively. Not bad for local landholders in such a troubled time in Prance's history."
Manered flipped the page. "All that appears to have been left behind. The next generation in their new Equestrian home had naught but the family name, translated of course, to Twilight."

"Less a century ago, barely four generations." Lyra noted. It was with some petty satisfaction that Lyra knew her own family's history in Equestria could be traced back farther.
She flipped forward a few pages, glancing quickly over the names that meant nothing to her, to the last few entries. "I think it would be worth looking at those still alive. It stands to reason those are who the princess is interest in."

“Yes that brings us to the most recent generation. The last entry is for Twilight Velvet, another only child it seems." Manered paused for a while, before sheepishly lifting the book to reveal a small pile of letters that had been hidden underneath. They were recent, announcement letters, news pamphlets, and newspapers. "Lady Velvet is something of a society girl. Or, was. As I understand it came as a shock when she married Night Light of House Bright. Quite the step up for the much-humbled house."

"That would be public knowledge my employer would knows already. It would seem this book has no other secrets." Lyra said, dissapointed. She glanced back at the annex with the other city records. "Is there any chance the House Twilight had previous relationships with House Bright?"

"Unlikely. Besides the House Bright records are in their dynastic seat in Foal, not here." Manered shrugged. “The Brights were once a major power player in Equestria, with great influence in both their power base in the Foal Mountains, and in Canterlot. If anything the marriage with Twilight Velvet signified a waining of Bright power, as their line had been dying off quite rapidly. Why, of a generation of twelve, only two adults remain now. The next generation, not counting house Twilight-Bright, only contains three ponies, one of which is a bastard.”

Lyra was impressed. “Intriguing that a monk should know so much about worldly things.”

"We weren't always monks." Manered said, flashing a thin smile.

Perhaps Manered was the kind of prisoner Lyra had been pondering before. "I would hope so."
She stared at Twilight Velvet's mark for a while: A trio of purple stars. Yes, another mark of somepony with magical skill, just like the other mares of the family. Then it struck her how odd it was that there were NO stallions listed in the dynastic record. "Presumably there were sons in the family. Yet they are excluded."

"Huh? Oh." Manered turned back to the book. "Well, of course. It even says so for some of the matriarchs." It clicked for him too. "The odds of generations after generation having a firstborn daughter, especially back in the days of disease and danger in Prance, is very low. We would expect at least one son to inherit the house leadership. Hmm..." He sat back in his chair. "There must be some manipulation. Magical, perhaps. I don't know if it was illegal in Prance at the time to altar a fetus with magic."

"It would be rude to speculate." Lyra said curtly.

Manered nodded. "Too right."
He stood up. "Mis, you live in Canterlot, right?"

"Yes." Lyra nodded, worrying she was about to be asked to do a favor.

"You must have a better idea to why the crown requested this book. If it involves court politics, then I wonder if the House Twilight, or one in particular," He motioned to Twilight Velvet's page. "is going to face some scrutiny."

"That is sound logic." Lyra agreed.

"Then I would ask that you would do something to help them. I know it is wrong to interfere in imperial matters, but we are fairly powerless up here to protect ponykind, or our friends." Manered said morosely. "We chart the Sun and predict its patterns, but rarely is it for more than our own satisfaction or a brief report to the court."

"I understand your feelings." Lyra said.

Manered sighed. "I know you said you work for somepony near to the court. Just... If it comes to it, I should only hope you keep in mind that a soul on the mountain cares about this house."

Lyra stood up too. "Brother I doubt you have much to worry about. I do not think this was requested with any harmful intentions."

"I appreciate it." Manered said. "Mis, is there more you wish to read?"

Lyra shook her head. "No brother, I think that will be all. Thank you for your time and help."

"My pleasure mis." Manered bowed.

Lyra gave her thanks several more times before leaving the library and monastery. Everything she had read was mentally logged, but she would commit it to her notes as soon as she got home.

It was a very interesting case with the possibilities for all kinds of spins. Perhaps more interesting was the one character both Lyra and Manered had danced around: Twilight Sparkle. Neither was fully willing to admit that Sparkle was the focus of the princess's intentions, and probably Fancy Pants's too.
Lyra had gained some valuable intel, and minor additions to things she already knew. The House Twilight had been powerful in its native land, but was now an Equestrian house. Until recently it was of little note: But with Twilight Velvet and Twilight Sparkle, they now had close connections to the powerful House Bright and the empress. Something was potentially amiss about their rapid rise.
Lyra hoped she had what Fancy Pants was looking for.

But she still needed to bring on another agent. So she started down the path down to Canterlot.

Twilight Sparkle continued the monotonous task of measuring the length of the Ponyville streets. It took until noon to do them all, then another few minutes to do the trigonometry to derive the angles of the streets. Pinkie had shadowed Twilight the whole time, remaining mercifully silent as the unicorn continued her task.
It was the kind of work that let Twilight think of other things. She was slightly surprised at herself. The day before she had anticipated at least a week of moping and feeling sorry for herself. Obviously that had just been the nausea talking. Waking up refreshed, feeling like a keen edge and ready to act.
It also let Twilight ponder what in heaven's name she was going to do about the Nightmare Pretender problem. She would have to learn more, but in Ponyville she was isolated from Canterlot's records and observatories which she would need to analyze the past or the Moon. Perhaps she would send a letter, but she would have to be careful about what she said incase Celestia's agents would intercept her mail.

Faced with such daunting thoughts, the task at hoof was almost a welcome distraction. "Okay, that's enough for now. Nothing else we can do with this until we return to the oak library and start making a map." Twilight said.

"About time. I was getting tired of writing." Spike flexed his claws with a wince.

"Hey, are you still going to see Rarity?" Pinkie Pie chirped, her first words in an hour.

“Sure, why not. Mis Pinkie, show me to the clinic.” Twilight said. They were on the edge of town where the last street had taken them.

“Okey dokey, but I think Rarity's gone home now.” Pinkie answered smiling. She did everything while smiling.

“And how would you know that?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Eh, I have a feeling. Come on it's this way!” Pinkie led the way back into town.

Despite the previous night's activity and drama, the Ponyvillians generally continued to be completely apathetic to Twilight's presence. Twilight thought that was preferable to them clamoring around her or, as she had feared before, attacking her for grievances against Canterlot. Hopefully they would begin to respect her in time for her to need them for some purpose or another.

Pinkie led them across the village to the north-eastern corner of the town near-ish the riverfront. They stood before a fanciful dress shop, that looked for all the world like a wood and plaster tent. Pinkie entered without knocking, and Twilight and Spike followed close behind.

The interior was lined with mirrors and racks of dresses. There was not much room to walk. Twilight sympathized somewhat, for that it seemed the dressmaker's creative drive seemed to outstrip the village's demand.

“Welcome to the Carousel Boutique.” Came a voice from an adjacent room. Rarity rushed in to greet the new customers, but stopped between rooms when she saw who it was. The white unicorn had a partially healed bruise on the side of her head that she had been careful to cover with her mane.

“Hi Rarity!” Said Pinkie Pie.

Rarity pushed past her Pinkie friend.
“Lady Sparkle, marvelous to see you again!” Rarity smiled a bit too earnestly. “My goodness, I have been dying to speak with you since the party. Ha ha ha ha.” Rarity's laugh was oddly predatory.

Twilight frowned ever so slightly, but remained silent. Pinkie giggled to herself for whatever reason. “The party last night?” Twilight asked.

Rarity pulled away from Twilight. “Yes, the party last night, my lady.” She paused for a moment. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Good, I guess. The satisfying kind of sleep you get after an exhausting day." Twilight said.

"Ah so no dreams I suppose. Well I am glad to hear it." Rarity said, her tone nearly as chipper as Pinkie Pie.

"Riiight." Twilight was off put slightly. The glanced over to Spike, who was staring at Rarity rather adoringly. "I remember your dress, kinda. You made it yourself?"

"Oh yes. I am a tailor after all. That dress is for sale if you are interested- Tailored to you, naturally." Rarity had begun to inspect her racks of dresses while she talked. “What can I do for you today?”

Twilight flipped over her notes and make a quick sketch of the street layout with some numbers. “Mis Pie here said you have an eye for the ornamental.” She held it in front of Rarity. "So I would like your first thoughts on this."

"Is this a test?" Rarity asked, slightly worried. She glanced over the numbers. “Do you need a hundred hoof long dress?”

Pinkie Pie exploded into laughter. “That's not a pony's measurements, but it would be pretty funny. Hey Twilight! Would Princempress Celestia fit in a hundred hoof long dress?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to say something juvenile. “By my estimation Ponyville needs a renovation. I need consultants. The village can keep the same layout, but needs all the facilities to handle many more ponies.” Like impenetrable walls and a moat, she was tempted to add.

Rarity looked concerned. “You are talking about rebuilding the entire town?"

“Not the entire town, no.” Twilight shook her head.

Rarity's eyes darted around. "My word. Is this what you were sent to Ponyville for?"

“Look, Ponyville is inadequate. It's crap. My purpose here is to prepare for a Summer Sun Fair, and that is what I intend to do." Twilight said, probably more hostilely than was necessary. Her adversaries were in Canterlot, not there. "So for as long as I'm here, I need some ponies who can be trusted with work. Ponies I can delegate to. You two are shopkeepers so you have some respectability."

"You two?" Pinkie Pie and Rarity said in unison, then turned to each other.

Pinkie Pie laughed.

"I will not denigrate Mis Pie's ability as a baker but I would recommend hesitance to have her help you rebuild our fair village." Rarity said quickly.

"Think I'm gunna paint the town pink, Rarity?" Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out.

Rarity sniffed but declined to retort.

"Oh good grief. It's not like there's any other form of leadership in this place." Twilight grunted. "You two know the community, right? You have clients and suppliers? I can't put on a bloody fair by myself!"

"You would not like the kind of fair you get from Pinkie Pie." Rarity shook her head.

"You said basically the same thing about Applejack last night. Do you give anypony credit, Rarity?" Pinkie Pie teased playfully, but there was a hint of annoyance under her bubbly tone. "Yeah Rarity's got friends alright."

"STOP. I conceed the point." Rarity blurted out, glancing between Pinkie and Twilight. "Lady Sparkle seems to know better than us. I may have reservations about being mixed up in Imperial politics but I see it as my duty to aide the First Student."

Twilight shifted on her hooves. "I haven't said anything about imperial politics."

"Oh? Forgive my assumption then. With the mix-up from yesterday, and now hearing you were sent without support form the capital..." Rarity fell silent for a while, picking her words. "I will not be so coy as to deny I am tempted by the opportunity for advancement this project of yours presents, Lady Sparkle."

"Yeah, a round of knighthoods for everypony." Twilight said dryly, throwing Spike a sly glance. "Listen, please, and don't take this the wrong way. I don't care about your motivations, or your reservations, as long as you help me. I can make promises, and I can't be sure they'll be empty promises or not. I had to scramble around town for a letter that proved I was even supposed to be here, so yes, there's some politics involved, but that's my buisness not yours."

"As long as you're working with us in good faith! It's the thought that counts." Pinkie Pie said.

"Untrue, but I am not in a position to act otherwise." Rarity half-shrugged. "I have nothing better to do with my time."

"Excellent! Then I can consider you both on board, right? Great." Twilight nodded, shaking Rarity's hoof, then Pinkie's. "This isn't going to be so hard after all. This is the chance to prove we're mares worth listing to. You're more than a name or a title. You're a face, voice, and body who represents an accomplishment." Twilight said passionately. "This town and our path through life can be improved. You agree, right."

Rarity remained silent, while Pinkie laughed again.

Twilight took that as a sign of agreement. “It comes as a great relief knowing there's at least two ponies I can rely on in this town. I feel better about the future already." She cleared her throat. "Maybe, if we find out we work well together, we can expand our cooperation to other projects. We'll see what's in the cards."

Felling as though her explanation was sufficient, Twilight turned and trotted out of the boutique.

Spike hesitated before following her. “It was nice seeing you.” He called to Rarity with a smile and a wave.

Pinkie Pie stayed behind for a moment. “Are you ok?” She asked Rarity.

Rarity had fallen into a silent stupor. She stared straight forward, mouth slightly prissed, consumed by her own thoughts. Having revived no response, Pinkie shrugged and bounced out after Twilight.

It took several minutes for Rarity to resolve her furious internal dialogue, and shake off her trance. "Pinkie!" She shouted out the door.

"Hmm?" Pinkie peered back inside.

Rarity trotted forward and met her at the door. "We have had sore spots, but at the end of the day you need fabric and I need bread. We can have a truce, for the sake of working with Lady Sparkle. We do not necessarily need to be in each other's buisness."

Pinkie giggled. "Sure you don't gain more from that than me, Rarity?"

"What if I do? Aren't you tired from keeping tabs on me and my friends?" Rarity fluttered her lashes. "As I told Lady Sparkle I have nothing better to do than help her."

Pinkie shrugged with a smile. "Try to be nicer to Applejack too, and I'll try my hardest to block her hooves, hee hee. Keep safe Rarity!" She bounded after Twilight and Spike.

Twilight paused in the middle of the street. “What's next on today's checklist?” She asked Spike.

Spike shrugged. “I left it at the Oak library.”

Twilight grunted in frustration. “Ok, looks like we'll be heading back there then. There's so much to do and so little time to do it.”

As they passed through Ponyville's small market square on the way back to the library, a pony called to them from a nearby stall. “Oh hey! Twilight!” Applejack said as they passed.

Twilight froze in place, and after judging that she had the time to spare, trotted over to the mare. “It's Lady Sparkle in public, if you don't mind. Otherwise good day to you Mis."

Applejack nodded. “Sure thang. Heya Pinkie.”

“Wait, are you still following me?” Twilight turned to Pinkie. “Thank you but I don't think I'll have further need of you today.”

“Ok!” Pinkie smiled, not moving.

Twilight shook her head in confusion, then back to Applejack. “So, was there something you needed?”

“I came looking for ya at the Golden Oak this morning. I was wonderin' if you where feeling any better.” Applejack said, stepping out from behind her cart.

“Well, as you can see, I'm doing just fine. Your concern is appreciated.” Twilight said. “I'm sorry you missed me this morning, I was around town."

"Whew. Y'all ain't wastin' any time." Applejack nodded in appreciation. "That all you been doin?"

"No. I was just at that unicorn's boutique.” She turned to Spike.

“Rarity's boutique.” Spike said.

“Yes, Rarity.” Twilight agreed. “Her boutique.”

Applejack grit her teeth imperceptibly at the mention of Rarity. “Ya don't say. Discuss anything important?” She asked, tilting her head slightly to Pinkie Pie.

"Yes. I would prefer to be discrete about it unless you and I reach the same ground, uh, vis-a-vis certain projects." Twilight said. "Mis Rarity and Mis Pie here have agreed to help me with something. I was considering asking you too."

"Considering asking me." Applejack repeated. Now she fully turned to Pinkie. "The heck is this? You in Rarity's orbit now?"

Twilight saw her flimsy play of secrecy could only cause trouble or misunderstandings. "Mis, you should be focussed on what I require, not them. I intend to spruce up Ponyville for the Summer Sun. Indeed it is my mission. That is all."

Applejack spat. “Oh that's all." She repeated again. "Canterlot sent a unicorn lady to fulfill Rarity's dream? Guess I gotta eat my words from last night. Well now, fine ‘n dandy if you wanna turn Ponyville into a refuge for pretentious snooty stilts!" She addressed this more to Pinkie than Twilight. "Ya shouldn't trust her."

"Uh, who are you talking about?" Twilight asked. "Or to?"

Pinkie Pie smiled apologetically. "Trust but verify?"

"We still haven't had that talk." Applejack growled.

Twilight put her hoof on Applejack's shoulder. “My desire, and indeed the necessities of the fair, is to hybridize Canterlot composure and grandeur and Ponyville... Whatever it is you have going on here.”

“Parties!” Pinkie supplied. “We have parties!”

“And apples.” Applejack urged.

“And lots of nature and animals.” A soft voice came from nearby.

“Huh?” Twilight turned to see who had spoken. A butter yellow pegasus mare with pink mane and tail looked positively mortified at having been noticed.

“I- I- I-" The mare stuttered, averting her eyes. "I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop I just-" She was nearly shaking in embarrassment.

Twilight was feeling secondhand embarrassment at first, but as the mare dragged out her apology she was almost tempted to laugh, then to cringe. "Uh, thats ok. It's not a bad idea, really. You ponies do have lots of nature around you.” She pointed to grass and dirt roads and errant trees sprouting about the village. “I mean, I'm staying in a tree. Very nature-like.”

“Really?” The pegasus mare looked up from the ground. “You like my idea?”

“Why not.” Twilight shrugged. Maybe she would have left the conversation at that, but she was inwardly thrilled that another Ponyvillian was engaging with her rather than pretending she didn't exist like most of them were. Maybe the yellow pegasus would be useful too, even if at first meeting she seemed just as strange as the other 'helpful' mares. “I'm Viscountess Twilight Sparkle. Pleased to meet you...”

“Um, Fluttershy.” The mare named Fluttershy said.

“Fluttershy, marvelous. Really a multi-tribe village here isn't it." Twilight nodded. In idle glance around the market square confirmed that indeed there were about equal numbers of pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns. True to their usual talents, earth ponies were overrepresented among the produce sellers.
Twilight turned back to Fluttershy. "Not to typecast, but does nature relate to your talent in some way?"

"Um, yes...” Fluttershy said.

"Excellent. I am really liking the shape of this well-rounded team I am putting together. I have been known to enjoy a tree-lined street and all that." Twilight said. She was somewhat satisfied with herself for pulling the conversation away from Applejack and Pinkie Pie's arguing, but at glance the two earth ponies seemed cautious towards Fluttershy the same way they had towards Rarity. "This is the kind of small village that everypony knows each other in. You know Mis Applejack and Mis Pinkie Pie, right?"

Fluttershy stared into the ground again. "We've met."
Applejack made a dismissive snorting noise, while Pinkie Pie giggled a little.

"And the tailor mare?” Twilight looked to Spike once more.

“Rarity.” Spike said.

“Rarity. Yes, do you know Rarity?” Twilight nodded.

Fluttershy began to speak, but was interrupted.

“Ah, of course you know Rarity too. It's actually pretty charming. In a place like Canterlot you have so many ponies around you, you basically only begin to understand them all as categories of interests and all that. In the provinces you are actually a pony." Twilight rambled. She didn't really believe what she was saying, rather mimicking something she sometimes heard disaffected university students say. It sounded vaguely flattering to the country ponies though. "It would hardly be fitting to hold a Summer Sun Fair here without highlighting your advanced relationship to nature."

"The heck? We're around nature all the time. Hardly special." Applejack muttered.

“I'm not so sure either...” Fluttershy started to respond weakly.

Twilight would not tolerate naysaying. “Well then Applejack, since you're a farmer you could give good suggestions on agrarian architecture and composition. The new infrastructure should complement the aesthetic renewal.” Twilight pressed Applejack.

“With Rarity? How bout no times no.” Applejack scoffed.

Twilight scowled, arranging a rebuttal. “It's as if you don't want Ponyville to be a better place, to be worthy. WORTHY OF CELESTIA! Don't you want to be worthy? Of course you do. We all beg for it. That's our mortal condition.” Her voice and ire grew. “I thought you wanted to save your town from certain doom.”

Applejack was incredulous now. "Doom?"

Twilight blinked. “I meant embarrassment.”

"Still, nope. Drop Rarity and we'll talk.” Applejack said.

Twilight shook her head in disappointment. “I think you are mistaken to try to impose restrictions on me, Mis Applejack. I have authority here. I was going to privilege you with it too, you know. You are very helpful yesterday and I was very pleased by that. Now, I dare to admit that Mis Pinkie Pie here has earned my pleasure."

“Hey, that's my joke!” Spike crossed his arms angrily. "You don't pull off the court snot-nose bit at all, Twilight."

"That could be misunderstood, Spike, considering I'm not joking at all. This is viscountly and royal perogative I'm invoking here. Hardly snot-nosed." Twilight huffed, and turned back to Pinkie Pie. "I mean, the power of my station is why all you mares are being helpful, right? You're the ones that actually recognize the utility on being on my good side." She said, almost mockingly. "Yes, Mis Pie, you are on my good side. You have been very helpful today and been a very good girl."

Pinkie winced, her smile failing her for a moment. “Sure you're not joking?"

"Are you tryin' to prove a point because I don't get it." Applejack shook her head.

Twilight grabbed Pinkie by the shoulder. “Look, Applejack. Look at how good and subdued she's being. And look at how much attention she's getting. ” Twilight rubbed her hoof in Pinkie's face, all the while staring intensely at Applejack. “This hoof has touched the princess. This hoof has been given royal prerogative. Don't you wish it was you instead of Pinkie Pie?”

“I ain't gunna say it again. I'll never, ever, ever work with Rarity. Even for whatever big thing you've got going on." Applejack said with finality. She took a step back towards her cart, and flippantly glanced away. The message, chose between one of us.

Twilight released Pinkie, letting out a deep sigh. “But... I'm a viscountess. I'm literally a landed noble, and here I am coming to YOU. Am I supposed to beg? I..."
Twilight wasn't being coy, but seemed genuinely confused. In Canterlot the landed nobles had ponies tripping over themselves to please them, hoping for a chance to be an established courtier in the noble's court. Being the dogsbody of a 'snot-nosed' count could be the door to higher and higher attainment in noble circles. A pony could go from serving a count, to a duke, and perhaps make it all the way to the court of Princess Celestia, if they made the right connections at each stage.
But the Ponyvillians didn't seem aware of any of that, and Twilight was having to adjust the idea of her rank in her head. The best she would get from these ponies was begrudging respect.
"Maybe the problem is me. I'm not selling my message well. Shoot. This Fair stuff doesn't match my skill set."

"You're doing fine Twilight." Spike said.

"Easy for you to say. Meanwhile I don't even have my checklist." Twilight ground her teeth. "Enough of this then. Don't think I'm giving up though, mis Applejack." Twilight said, pointing at the mare with a hoof. "I just need my checklist and then we'll resume this duel."
She promptly turned tail and trotted out of the market in the direction of the library. Spike mouthed some embarrassed apologies before running after her.

Applejack, and Pinkie looked at each other for a moment. “I didn't mean to take your place as her favorite.” Pinkie wavered on the edge of tears.

Applejack sighed. “Did she just challenge me to a duel? I don't get what's going on besides she wants to hire me for something." She cast an eye towards Fluttershy. "Or, hire us for something. "

“I'm just a bit confused too.” Fluttershy put on a weak smile. "Um, hello, by the way."

“On tha one hoof, I can appreciate a take charge mare who knows what's important.” Applejack said. “On the other, the ladyship seems a speck erratic.”

“Maybe she needs more than helpers. She needs help.” Pinkie Pie giggled.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “It ain't kind to call a pony crazy Pinky. You of all ponies should know that.”

Pinkie giggled, then became relatively serious. “No, I mean like, support. Everypony deserves support! But she's, like, tons of miles from where her friends are, right? I know from experience I'd be freaking out too, ha ha! Plus she doesn't seem good with ponies."

Pinkie Pie and Applejack looked at Fluttershy. Despite the obvious coolness between them, they silently invited her into the conversation. "Rarity told me she was organizing a party for yesterday. It was for that mare? A viscountess?" Fluttershy asked. “She did come off as a bit, uh, erratic, like you said Applejack.”

"She told me some of her deal. Being honest, I don't know how a girl like that gets close to the princess, but maybe we'll see what she's got going on." Applejack shrugged. "Did you see her mark under her dress? Some kind of magic talent I think."

"Still going to refuse to help her though?" Pinkie asked.

"As long as she cavorts with Rarity." Applejack confirmed, glancing at Fluttershy. "No offense."

Fluttershy stayed silent.

The minutes passed as they waited for Twilight to return. Pinkie drew faces in the dirt. Fluttershy watched the birds as they flew overhead.
Applejack leaned against her cart and began to idly snack on her stock of apples, looking contemplative. After her third apple, she stood up, and glanced towards the Oak and at the two other ponies.

“We're friends, ain't we?” She said, a calculating look coming over her.

“I don't know Applejack, I thought you didn't like me.” Fluttershy prodded the ground nervously.

“Yes!” Pinkie Pie had no reservations in her answer.

“Well I've been thinkin' for a while.” Applejack pulled the two ponies closer, smiling conspiratorially. “Any way you cut this apple, this here situation with Twilight can be worked out in a number of ways.”

“Worked out?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“We could benefit mightily by her plans, if we're in the right place at the right time.” Applejack continued. “Rarity ain't dumb, and knows that if Lady Sparkle starts throwin' imperial money around, some might go her way."

"Twilight, like, outright implied it but you weren't listening." Pinkie said. "Too busy being angry, hee hee."

"Look, the point is that I can still screw over Rarity even if I'm technically on the same side by helping Twilight Sparkle." Applejack said. "How? By benefiting myself more than Rarity does herself, or cuttin' Rarity out altogether."

"You're in completely different industries. You don't compete at all." Fluttershy pointed out softly.

Applejack chortled. "But ain't we now? Supposin', speculatively, that a little pagoda or something gets put on my farmland as part of the fair. A few hoof-fulls of bits might go for general renovations around the whole property."

Realization shone in Pinkie's eyes. “And with so many ponies coming for the party, we will need tons more food. The bakery will have to be expanded for sure! I could even hire somepony!"

Applejack nodded aggressively. "Hire a couple ponies, start gettin' back on track in our lives and become right proper buisnessponies. Primitive accumulation, they call it back in Manehattan. All on Twilight Sparkle's dime."

Fluttershy hesitated. “Uh, I still don't see how that puts you in competition with Rarity." She paused. "Are you comfortable with taking advantage of another pony like that? I'm, uhh, not.”

Applejack rebuffed. “It ain't like that. We're just gunna be Twilight's friends, helping her bridge them social gaps with Ponyville, and she'll gift it to us.”

“By misappropriating funds for the Fair?”

Applejack pulled away, scowling. “Misappropriating?! Why I ought'a...” She took a deep breath. “Yer makin' this more difficult than it needs to be, but I understand if you don't like me. Y'all always did side with Rarity after all.”

Fluttershy cowered, whimpering in fear. Pinkie turned on Applejack with comical anger. “You can't do that to your partner in crime, it's against our code.”

Applejack was at once in Pinkie's face. “Y'all are on about crime, and I ain't gonna take it! 'Sides, she's the enemy now, siding with Rarity!”

“Wait...” Pinkie paused, dropping her rage contorted expression for one of exagerated confusion. “Rarity is our enemy? I thought Twilight was the target of our nefarious conspiracy. Say, how many ponies do you need for a conspiracy anyway. Probably more than two.”
Pinkie turned to Fluttershy, but found she had crawled away during the exchange. “Aww, where will find a third pony for our plot, so it can be a conspiracy?”
A sudden powerful jab to her side silenced her. Pinkie wilted around Applejack's hoof. "oww" She wheezed breathlessly.

“Enough with tha conspiracy nonsense!” Applejack stood over Pinkie as the latter sunk to her knees in pain. “I ain't doin nothin wrong!”

Applejack heard a light hissing.
“Now assaulting ponies in broad daylight? Unsurprising.” Applejack looked up to find Rarity watching the scene, holding a bag of art supplies and bearing a thin smirk. “Something must have gone sour for you, acting out your violent compulsions so readily. You have grown into your roll of village ruffian, truly."

"Believe what ya want. You thinkin' I'm strugglin's nothin' ta me." Applejack tugged the brim of her hat down. Her accent was getting more pronounced and harder to understand again. "So trot off."

"Well I'm struggling. Somepony, a little help here.” Pinkie coughed in the dirt.

"Blocking Applejack's hoof already and our little detente has hardly begun. Bravo Pinkie Pie." Rarity was reveling in Applejack's discomfort. "But caution... let us count the days before the mare spirals so out of control it demands community justice."

“I ain't in the mood fer this, Rarity.” Applejack growled.

“Clearly you haven’t expended all your innate anger on your friend yet, so I'd do well to stay clear. I wouldn't want a repeat of last night.” Rarity jeered.

“I'm warning you.” Applejack took a step forward, and Rarity took a corresponding step back.

“Harumph!” Rarity turned away and disappeared between the market stalls. It was then that Applejack realized she was being watched by several dozen ponies, who had seen her hit Pinkie and threaten Rarity.

She sighed, turned back to her stall. “I'm closing up for the day. Gotta go home and think about things.” She grabbed her basket of apples and briskly trotted out of the square.

Twilight Sparkle returned to the scene. She only found Pinkie Pie on the ground holding her stomach. “Wow, what happened here?” She looked around at the other ponies in the market. “I'm very confused."

Pinkie rolled onto her side and sat up. "They don't want to get on Applejack's bad side I guess. Ouchie... still stings a bit."

"What? Did you get into an argument with Applejack?" Twilight could already see the redness forming on Pinkie's barrel. "Or, apparently, into an altercation. Oh my. This is not your week. Sorry again about your nose.

"I've taken worse sucker-punches." Pinkie shrugged. "Applejack is a hard mare to work with, but that's okay. She has good intentions."

"It must be one of those things where I have to get past the tough exterior to get to the vulnerable mare underneath. Like an apple." Twilight rolled her eyes. "But I don't have the time of energy to invest in her, not matter how much it could help. I need quick, compliant allies like Rarity, Fluttershy, and you."

"Uh huh. Applejack said she'd help. That's kinda why she punched me; over you." Pinkie Pie giggled but stopped when it made her wound hurt.

Twilight stared at Pinkie for a few seconds. "I'm not available. I prefer astronomers."

"Hee hee, you know what I meant." Pinkie stuck out her tongue.

"Perhaps. I'm still putting my thoughts in order." Twilight sighed and shook her head. "I went and got my checklist and everything, only to have my allies attack each other, EVEN AFTER AGREEING TO COOPERATE." She fell into a sitting position. "There is something I'm not getting." She closed her eyes and began to brainstorm solutions.

Spike arrived on the scene carrying a scroll and another quill. "Everything okay? Where did they go?"

"Hold it Spike, I'm on the verge of a great idea. A great, terrible idea." Twilight silenced him. " Truly, this idea has a huge risk of going badly, but I am just desperate enough to try it."

"I love GOOD ideas." Pinkie said excitedly.

"Yes. If you ponies won't cooperate because of incomprehensible bumpkin grudges, I'll just have to force a reconciliation. I will provide justice and make all parties happy." Twilight pronounced. "I will hold a court as is my right, and indeed duty, as a vassal of the princess."

"Twilight you hated studying law." Spike pointed out.

"But I stuck through it and passed. And I'm going to stick through this too." Twilight said emphatically. "Mis Pinkie Pie, bring the feuding parties to my court on the morrow, for a judgement."

“Court? You mean the Golden Oak?” Pinkie ventured. "I can get Applejack to come, maybe, when I tell her there's no hard feelings over the punch. But Rarity super doesn't trust me, even if we're allies."

“Whatever. I'll figure Rarity out then." Twilight said. "Snag that yellow pegasus too, bring her over. That way the work on my project can begin immediately after the judgement."

"I feel like you're setting yourself up for big failures." Spike ventured, but retracted the point with a nervous laugh when Twilight shot him an angry look.

"I can bring Applejack over when I'm done with bakery stuff. Fluttershy's house is, like, on the opposite bank of the river, but I'll bring her if I see her."

"Great. You're going to be a valuable agent, I can tell." Twilight said. "You go heal up, I'm heading home. Try not to get hurt again."
Twilight got up and trotted out of the market.

“Don't you think you're being a bit insensitive? More than usual?" Spike followed Twilight out of the market towards the town hall.

"How so?"

Spike had a lot to say but decided it would be better to be concise. "You're being bossy."

"These ponies have nothing that could be a tenth as important as what I need from them. Besides, I'm a landed noble now." Twilight frowned. "If Princess Celestia didn't want me being bossy, being commanding, being one who is above the commoners, then why the hell did she put all this on me?"

Spike was far from convinced. "Should you be blaming the princess for your own behavior?"

"Don't get sassy with me Spike. I'm still a bit raw from it all." Twilight show him an angry glare. "Let's not forget that I'm the aggrieved party here."

"She gave you a castle." Spike said.

"I don't want a damn castle! I want her to listen to me!" Twilight pinched her nose. "Oh whatever. Yes, I'll confess I'm letting my frustration spill out. But how else am I supposed to feel? I'm allegedly the princess's will in Ponyville, and I'm getting no respect whatsoever."

"Uh, everypony seemed nice to me." Spike shrugged.

"No pony would refuse the princess telling them to suck it up and work together.” Twilight responded sourly. “I need to learn to dictate to ponies like she would. Yeah... I need more practice being firm. I need to be able to stand up for myself!"

“Twilight, do you think that maybe you’re taking this thing with Princess Celestia a bit too personally?” Spike offered. “You’re not her protege anymore. You haven't been for years. They call it 'First Student', but it’s really more about doing all her difficult magic jobs.”

Twilight was being told things she already knew and it annoyed her, but blowing up on Spike would be even less productive than venting on the Ponyvillians. "I can do difficult magic jobs. Putting on a fair isn't a magic job." Maybe preventing the return of the Nightmare Pretender would be a magic job. "But I'm adaptable. It is not like I pride myself on being bad at social stuff. So, I'll get better at it."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Not so you can get back at the princess?"

"If she listens to me for once because I communicate better, what's wrong with that?" Twilight said with a barely contained grimace.

Spike sighed. "You're hiding something but I can't make you tell me so... I hope it's worth it."

Twilight didn't protest. "I'm glad I have you here Spike. I'd be way more freaked out about this without you here."

"Sure sure." Spike said. “Then where are you leading us now, oh fair lady?"

"We're going to borrow the town records to help us make our plan of the city." Twilight glanced over her checklist. "Plus, there might be some information that helps ameliorate this Applejack-Rarity feud. It seems like a recent-ish thing, not a generations long rivalry."

"You're actually going to try to hammer it out between them? It feels like a bad idea to me." Spike hesitated.

"Uh, that's what we were just walking about. I did a pretty good job convincing Rarity to help, and I have to believe I can do it again." Twilight said, leading them to the back offices.

Spike chortled. "But that was just you ranting at her. You got lucky."

"Shush Spike."

The two of them set about ransacking the forsaken offices and gathering and listing the deeds stored there. As they worked, Twilight expanded on her thoughts. "You know, back in the pre-unification, the nobility really weren't anything more dignified than the ponies with the most capacity to do violence: Warlords. Either you were personally strong and could crack open mountains with your magic, or you were charismatic and could command huge armies, maybe a combination of both."

"Ever tried to crack open the Mountain, Twilight?" Spike asked sarcastically.

Twilight made a dismissive motion. "All I'm saying is, if all else fails, I could resort to the old ways: A display of power and savagery.”

Spike cringed. "Yeesh. That doesn't sound very diplomatic."

Twilight pondered the big picture. Resisting against the Nightmare Pretender was not going to be a genteel, diplomatic affair either. Twilight would have to be strong, not just for her own sake, but all of Equestria! Nopony else was going to step up and do what needed to be done. "When push comes to shove, what we call civilization is held up by coercion. Do you think commoners would respect noble privilege if they didn't have to? I mean, why does anyone follow a law that they don't want to? Punishment, coercive violence. Like Mis Pinkie Pie said, this village is like an anarchic commune. They have apparently forgotten the strict hierarchy of this empire. Maybe they need to be reminded that not all social intercourse is voluntary."

Spike grew more horrified at every sentence. "Twilight that's awful!"

Twilight could see he was genuinely distraught. "Hey relax, I'm only joking." She laughed.

Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. "I... Okay Twilight, If you say so." Spike sighed. Sometimes it was hard to tell. Yes, she was probably only playing out a power fantasy in her head, but there was always that risk, because Twilight Sparkle had a history of going too far with her power.

The fear of many was being realized, as Twilight Sparkle was not the only Twilight working out devious plans.
The uppermost floor of the Chateau la Garde was one large room, without natural light or ventilation save several small arrow slits, long since converted from defensive purpose to administrative. The room had bee filled with tables and bookshelves and converted into a storeroom for records.
Twilight Velvet had discovered the records after innocently following one of the gatehouse guards from their posting at the city gate built into the chateau, up through the central stair, to the storeroom where the guard left the list of the previous days entrants. It had dawned on Velvet that the innumerable scrolls laying haphazardly around the room, mostly untouched and collecting dust, were the records of every single pony to enter or leave Canterlot through the main gate going back centuries.
Contemplating this Twilight Velvet decided that the records could be even more valuable than the stone and masonry of the chateau itself. That was, if it were properly utilized.

Perhaps at a later date she could go through the centuries-old records, perhaps to find historical characters for trivia knowledge. For the rest of the morning though, Velvet concerned herself with the recent records, going backwards a day at a time, reading down the list of names of total strangers.

When Velvet found the first noble in the entry list, some obscure baron from the Canter, Velvet set the scroll down for a moment. "Practically nopony knows these records exist, or do not care. To use the information clumsily would reveal its existence." She looked around but did not have any blank writing paper on hoof. "Regularity, pattern of visit, who they accompany..." She wasn't sure what she would find out yet, but something inside her was certain there was value buried there.

The elder Twilight continued reading, mentally taking note of the bigger names, dukes or magnates and the like. She categorized them by wealth, influence, rebelliousness, distance from Canterlot, and cross referenced the frequency of their visits. The minds and activities of these ponies revealed themselves to her, many of whom she had never even met.

"I feel myself awakening... awakening to new ways and means of existance." Twilight Velvet grinned. She was no stranger to creeping around archives looking for information. Things were different now. She had a castle under her hooves and a library full of secret information. It made her feel giddy. It made her feel like a god. "So much to read over, cross reference with my other notes, judge for merit... why do I crave domination over these names?" She laughed quietly to herself. Would she find Deeper Frie Fellowship's name among them? There were rumors the portly bachelor was comatose, not expected to survive. She had desired it, and it had become so! She was tempted to scratch out a name at random- would they die too?

Velvet read on; Many of the ponies who passed through the gate came for major celebrations and gatherings only, or at regular intervals. These ponies she ignored for the moment.

Some of the nobles ponies came with irregular entourage sizes, or even alone, times they wanted a lowered profile. Some entered and exited the city many times over the course of a visit, showing they had meetings or dealings outside but near Canterlot. One or two entered the city multiple times, but never left, either the result of secret exits or clever ruses.

It would take great effort to see cross-check if certain ponies visited only when other ponies were absent, or onlyat the same time. But the strings of intrigue practically drew themselves in Velvet's mind, and she decided to set aside the time for the effort. She craved the complete picture, to know the ponies' minds even better than they knew themselves.
Then, she had options: Cooperate with Fancy Pants's traitor-hunting obsession, or going another path.

An interruption.
“M'lady. Somepony, a foreigner, is asking to see you." The maid pulled Velvet out of her analytic trance.

Velvet blinked and pushed aside the scrolls. The candles had burned low; she had spent hours reading. "A foreigner?"

"To Canterlot, certainly. He acts bizarrely, though the name is Equestrian." The maid clarified. "He calls himself 'Lord Seacrest Blackhorn' and demands to see the mistress of the chateau."

"Seacrest Blackhorn. Preposterous." Velvet stood up. "We are being played for a joke. Were they a real Blackhorn they would avoid Canterlot, let alone the house of the princess's First Student." Everyone agreed the Blackhorn dynasty was dead, first because it confirmed Celestia's control of Canterlot, and second because it was true.

"Should I deal with them, m'lady?" The maid asked.

But what if it were a real Blackhorn? That would certainly be interesting. "Not immediately. Show him to the great hall please.” Velevet told the maid.

The maid gave a small shrug. “His lordship insisted on waiting there already.”

Velvet followed the maid down to the greathall. One supposed that the outsized greathall, with high ceilings room for some hundred ponies, could be used to host visiting parties without needing them to enter the rest of the city. Overall it was too large to properly furnish or heat on Velvet's limited resources. There were only a few tables set around the big open room.

At one of those tables, back hooves kicked up in repose, was a cyan unicorn stallion with sulfur yellow mane. Velvet felt the immediate compulsion to gut the impudent stallion, but decided to see what he wanted.

The stallion tracked Velvet's approach with his eyes. He sat up as she drew closer. "Twilight Velvet, yes? A pleasure to meet you."
Velvet bristled at the neglect of her honorific but let it slide. The stallion had a thick (bordering on stereotypical) Prancian accent, with a slight northern intonation. He leaned forward with each word, which was slightly mesmerizing, but reminded Velvet of a snail.
“I am Lord Seacrest Blackhorn.”

“Oh my, pleasure to meet you too. Though what, exactly, are you lord of?” Velvet said innocently.

“I am Lord of Canterlot. Here to claim my birth right.” Seacrest said with simple certainty.

This unicorn, just arrived today apparently, had just set claim to the imperial capital. Preposterous indeed! Twilight resisted the urge to laugh, but still could not hide the amusement in her voice.
“A Blackhorn here to take back Canterlot? Where have you ponies been hiding all this time?”

The Blackhorns, ancient Princes of Canterlot in the times before the unification of Equestria. When the main dynastic line had been all but eradicated by war and circumstance, Celestia the First had been invited to the throne, since her own Everfree principality had been rendered defunct.
Adventurous children from cadet families, branch lines, and fake scions of the house Blackhorn had tried to take back Canterlot before, with disastrous results. Celestia did not tolerate challenges to her control of the capital.

“I'm the trueborn son of Cascade Capter of Blackhorn, son of Muer Blackhorn. I lived my life in secrecy, as Seacrest Sobonord, under the ward of my cousin Countess Glori. When I learned of my true heritage I at once set out for this, my own Canterlot.” The pony calling themselves Seacrest Blackhorn declared.

Velvet herself had a flair for the dramatic, and the clown-like way this contumelious colt claimed to corner the crown of Canterlot and it’s county had her nearly cracking her calm countenance, not for choler, but in crowing cackles. Imperial politics was all about maneuvering and alliances, so one lonely pony with an alleged birthright was about as much of a power player as a quadriplegic, syphilitic, leper peasant. Velvet chided herself for that more colorful of metaphors before giving the situation a more serious appraisal.

Maybe, just maybe, if somehow this stallion was a Blackhorn, or enough ponies believed him to be, the Princess could have a major rallying point against her. During the previous Blackhorn revolts, the central government and Celestia's authority had been strong, and the nobility had been apathetic. But with Celestia withdrawing from the court, the central government was weak, and the landed nobility were pulling away, and if Fancy Pants were to be believed, plotting treason. If a usurper was looking for allies in Canterlot, it was the right time.
But Velvet was getting ahead of herself. She first needed to gauge the resources and ability of this Blackhorn brat. "Countess Glori Sabonord, a vassal of the princess, was harboring a pretender? My lord, should you be saying such things?"

"I have nothing to hide. I do not worry as you do." Seacrest Sabonord said.

Bold, confident in himself, and more than a little stupid. Velvet felt opportunity drop into her lap for a second time.
This Seacrest was smiling arrogantly, finely dressed, so caught up in his delusion of grandeur he was unable to understand that realistic challenges to his claim might exist. It was as if he expected all of Canterlot to immediately bend over for him. If any pony could take such a deluded stallion, and turn him into a political weapon, it was Twilight Velvet.
"Have you just entered the city? And stopped at my chateau for an introduction?"

"Could I do any other? My city deserves to know of my return, from highest to the humblest." Seacrest nodded.

Velvet saw her maid make a motion to get her attention but ignored it for the moment. "Indeed it is so. You grace me with your presence, my lord.” Velvet gave a shallow bow. Time to commit some light treason and associate with enemies of the princess.

“Yes, well, your guards refused to take my name as Blackhorn, so I came to resolve that.” Seacrest gestured while he talked. “I expect you to discipline them for that.”

There was more more aggressive gesturing from the maid. Velvet continued to ignore it. “Of course.” Velvet really didn't have any authority over the city guards who manned the gate, but decided not to mention this. “Would your lordship do me the honor of patronizing my residence for as long as you are in Canterlot?”

Seacrest shrugged. “Oh? You wish for me to stay here? It is not very convenient to the center of the city. However... we are very close to the road down into the Canter, and it could make for some lovely walks. All in all I see no harm. That is, until I can arrange to move into Canterlot Castle.”

Velvet waved her maid forward. “Move Lord Blackhorn's belongings to the guest quarters.”

“That wont be necessary, I bring only myself.” Seacrest interrupted.

“Well thats all you need.” Velvet said cheerfully, then turning to her maid again. “Arrange for a new assistent, one who will attend to his lordship."

Seacrest was beaming. “Oh, Twilight Velvet, you are too kind to me. I will see to it you are rewarded when everything has run it's course.”

Velvet laughed. “Oh your lordship, it is a pleasant change to profit from a relationship. You will tempt me to exploit your generosity.”

A great clang could be heard from within the keep, and then Night Light's voice resonated through the stone walls. “Honey, I'm home!”

“This is a perfect opportunity to introduce my husband.” Velvet said to Seacrest's annoyance.

“Oh... You needn't. I think I shall retire for the day.” Seacrest said. He kicked off his seat and followed the maid up to the quarters.

Night Light entered greathall just as the other stallion exited. “Who is that?” He asked his wife, who was grinning amusement.

“I am not sure. Possibly a new project. If it remains a side project, I will handle it alone." Velvet said.

Night Light was unamused. “Don't toy with me Velvet. I've been out all day on your errands. Foaly Flux says hi, by the way." He wiped the side of his face with the back of a hoof. "Goodness, we already have so many plates in the air, and you bring on a new project? At least be forthright, Velvet.”

Velvet gave an exaggerated pout. “Don't you trust me?”

Night Light trotted around her and pushed the chair Seacrest had occupied back into its proper position at the table. “I trust you to do the best thing for you, maybe even the best thing for Shining Armor and Twilie, but not for me and not for everypony else.”

Velvet gave this thought, and decided to concede. “A new 'Blackhorn' is in town.”

“Blackhorn…” Night Light processed the implications. “No, Velvet, that is too complicated."

Velvet shrugged. "Why not? You saw him just there."

"Velvet, nopony is going to believe a real Blackhorn is here." Night Light scoffed in polite disbelief. "I hope you did not pay them yet."

“You misunderstand. Apparently he was hiding out in the boonies of the Sabonord, sipping wine and eating croissants.” Velvet said.

“So... You are completely serious. A real Blackhorn prince." Night Light gave a small sigh. "Velvet, we already had our plans disrupted by this new castle. Yes it was a good disruption, but we are still on unsteady ground. We can not leap headlong into this Blackhorn buisness. It is a mad gamble we are completely unprepared for. Gods' sake, we are not fully moved in yet."

Velvet had to be honest. "We would be revealing ourselves to immense danger, and openly pitting ourselves against Fancy Pants. That grubby vizier will attack us immediately, seeing us as the manifestation of the traitors he is so paranoid of." She shook her head. "If there are spies watching the house, Fancy Pants may already know of the Blackhorn's arrival."

"Damnation, Velvet, you are truly testing the boundaries of my patience. This does not help our goals. You should have consulted me." Night Light hung his his head. "I could tell by the first sentence that you wish to pimp this Blackhorn prince! Surely you have considered other, safer, alternatives."

Velvet leaned forward. "If you are really that afraid of leveraging this new opportunity, then kill him. He is up in one of the guest rooms now. Few ponies saw him enter. Fancy Pants would lavish us if we snuff out a problematic little pretender on our own initiative."

Night Light hesitated. "It would be the safer option."

Twilight Velvet fluttered her lashes. "But?"

Night Light could always pick up on his wife energy. She was constantly vigorous, confident, and ruthless even towards him. He could tell Velvet was more invigorated than he could remember her ever being- She didn't want to have the Blackhorn be a side project, but the main focus of their attention going forward.
Night Light sifted another sigh. "Velvet... If we leverage this Blackhorn, it has a change of massively accelerating our plans. I will admit that. Ten years of expanding our reach could be achieved in a month if we use him to hook into the right ponies."

"This faster, greater. We can cause a lot of trouble with this, Night Light." Velvet chuckled. "Are you afraid it is a trap?"

Night Light nodded. "I am afraid of Celestia but I suppose it could be a trap as well."

"I encourage you not to be too concerned. If somepony dressed up a fake Blackhorn to dupe us, they would run a far greater risk. We will always have the connection to Twilie and the princess. Besides, is creating a fake Blackhorn not a greater treason than being hospitable to one?"

That made sense to Night Light. "What if it is a trap by Fancy Pants, or that crafty Prosser fellow?"

Velvet laughed. "Fancy Pants would feel the full wrath of the princess if he tried an entrapment scheme on us, and he knows it. Prosser, on the other hoof, would be the one dressing up as the Blackhorn."

"How do you know its not Prosser in the guest bedroom?" Night Light prodded, now half-joking. He was starting to feel better about the idea.

"It was a unicorn." Velvet said.

"Hmm, yes, the Blackhorns were a unicorn dynasty." Night Light tapped his chin. "This is going to take effort to pull off. It is still risky, and convincing me does not make it any less so. We are tempting fate with this one."

"Then we must be especially diligent!" Velvet stomped her hooves on the stone floor of the hall. "The Blackhorn claims he was a ward of the court of Countess Glori Sabonord, in northeast Equestria."

"That region is Prancian country, tall trees, isolated wood castles, barely any ponies." Night Light said. "It would be a perfect place to hide from the princess's agents."

"The Blackhorns must have been up there for generations. There may just be a whole clan of dumbass Blackhorn brats up in the hill country." Velvet laughed. "But first we should attempt to verify his story, and get as close as possible to confirming his identity as a Blackhorn. We must prod at the inconsistencies and see if he breaks down."

Night Light tapped his hoof. "Velvet, do you remember, there is a Sabonord here in Canterlot as well."

"Oh yes, you are right!" Velvet's eyes lit up. "He hangs around Foaly Flux's court too! If the Blackhorn is lying about Glori, his local cousin could call it out." She paused. "If the Blackhorn keeps his story straight, and attracts enough attention in Canterlot, then we start making moves ASAP."

"If he breaks down under pressure, we bury it." Night Light said solemnly.

It was agreed. Seacrest Blackhorn was about to take Canterlot by storm, goaded on by his new friends.

The maid returned to the greathall, waiting patiently to the side for Velvet to finish with Night Light.

"I will ask around Castle Magoria, and see if that local Sabonord boy is there." Night Light said.

"You go, and I will catch up." Velvet nodded.

Night Light trotted out of the greathall.

The maid stepped forward. "Ma'am."

"What was so urgent you tried to interrupt my conversation with our new guest Lord Seacrest?" Velvet asked coldly.

"Lord Seacrest did not come from the gate directly. I do not believe he entered the city today at all." The maid said. "Rather, he was already in the city."

"And how do you know that, hmm? Did you ask the guards at the gate?" Velvet demanded.

"He smells of the Old Town, my lady, and not at all of the flowers that grow on the path up the Mountain." The maid said.

Velvet pondered this. Perhaps Seacrest Blackhorn had attempted to find a patron among the Old Town noble societies before coming to her. Or, he had simply passed through Old Town after entering from the Skydock gate. There were plenty of explanations- But if the maid was right, the most likely explanation was that he was a fake.
It would still come down to how easily his story crumbled under pressure.

"Keep an eye on him, give him what he asks for." Velvet order her maid. "If he tries to leave, beg him to stay, if he insists incapacitate him." Velvet trotted to the entry foyer after Night Light. "We will be back soon from Castle Magoria."

"Yes my lady." The maid bowed. "Good luck my lady."

Perhaps if Lyra had been doing her job, she would have been surveilling Chateau la Garde, and would have seen Seacrest Blackhorn. Alas she was not.
Against her better instincts, Lyra had decided to pursue Octavia for Fancy Pants's work. When Octavia was missing from the Musician's Guild, and missing from her house, Lyra was starting to have second thoughts. She was lost until one of the guild ponies reluctantly gave her a clue to Octavia's whereabouts.

Lyra negotiated the narrow streets of the Canterlot Inner City, attracting a little attention for her strange choice of pennycoat but nothing dangerous. Her objective rose above the roofs of the rowhouses like a polestar.
It was the ugliest, most decrepit tenement tower in Canterlot. The colossal creaking of the wooden tenement would have been noticeable if not for the even louder ponies in the streets underneath. They yelled and screamed, loving and hating one another, dirty pauper children played in the mud and stolid stallions hung by the alleys. The wretched housing tower leered over them- Of all the reckless building projects, none had been built cheeper, more negligently, more recklessly, or abandoned more quickly.

The front door was locked. Lyra decided the polite things to do would be to knock before she barged in, so she knocked. And waited. And waited.

There was a sound from behind the door, then it opened.
Octavia peered out. "Oh, it's you." She stepped back and let Lyra into the building.

"I have been searching all afternoon for you." Lyra wiped her dirty hooves on the decaying welcome mat. "I was at your apartment easier. This is a step down for you, Mis Octavia."

"The rent is cheeper here." Octavia joked, leading Lyra further in.

Lyra glanced around the small foyer piled with rotten furniture, then up the nearby rubish-strewn stairwell. The tenement was completely silent.

“We used to have a hideout here when the tower was still new and in use. It's been condemned for years and now even the homeless avoid it.” Octavia answered Lyra next question before it came.

Lyra could see why ponies would avoid it. Every wall was bowing and discolored. The air stank of mould. The whole tower was ready to collapse, but if the tales were true it had been in the same state barely days after completion. "We? Do you mean the guild or..."

"My friend group, back in the day. Vinyl, me, a few others." Octavia said.

Octavia started up the stairwell, followed closely by Lyra. They climbed all the way to the top floor, to the only apartment which still had a door on its hinges. Lyra stepped inside.
The room was sparsely furnished, sporting only a writing desk with a tiny wire birdcage atop it, and a mattress in the corner. Draped across this mattress was Pon-3.

“I suspected as much.” Lyra stood over the sleeping white unicorn.

“You don't know what you're talking about.” Octavia blushed. "We reached a compromise."

Lyra trotted over the the room's tiny window and looked out over the Inner City. “Between dead and not dead?”

"This harlot has experienced plenty of states between dead and not dead.” Octavia snorted. Lyra didn't even know what that meant.

The conversion above her roused Pon-3. “Ehhh... Whaw we whats goin on.” She rubbed her eyes sleepily. Lyra was again confronted with the mare's strange eyes, but they had seemingly changed color, from bright red to grey. There was something strange with 'Vinyl', but Lyra would wait until later to bring it up.

"Did you spend last night here?" Lyra nudged Octavia.

Octavia affected a shrug. "I may have, well, walked her out of the Guild under false pretenses. There is nothing wrong with catching up with old friends, even if they are a twit."

Pon-3 yawned and sat up. "What's your name again, blue? Pyra? Pyran? Starts with a P."

“Lyra.” Corrected Lyra.

Octavia tapped Lyra on the shoulder. "If you were searching for me all afternoon-"

Lyra raised a hoof. “Did you forget about the job I offered yesterday? Imperial work?”

“Nah I didn't forget, but I've done some deep thinking, and I've decided to stick to the list I got.” Pon-3 interrupted.

Octavia glared. “She was not asking you.”

Pon-3 lay back down on the bed. “Whatever.”

Octavia shook her head and turned back to Lyra. “I have been considering it. Imperial work may be safer, but I'm still holding out for a suitable guild job to come along.”

“Collecting brownie points with the Mistress eh? Or should I say brown-noser points.” Pon-3 teased.

Octavia continued, ignoring the unicorn. “I don't want to be busy with whatever Sir Pants has to offer should I be called. Conflicts of interest and all that.”

“I'll conflict your interests.” Pon-3 said lewdly.

Octavia wheeled around on the prone unicorn. “Shut the buck up!”

Pon-3 sputtered in laughter. “You're so cute when you get mad.”

Octavia hissed and reached for the weapons on her belt. "Infantile fool, I will drive you into that bed with such strength-"

Lyra sighed. “That's a no from the both of you, I see.” Obviously Octavia had more she wasn't saying, but prodding about it would only discourage the earth pony further.

Suddenly, a metallic rattle filled the air. Lyra's eyes were drawn to the small wire birdcage on the writing desk, which had begun to vibrate rapidly. After several seconds, it stopped.

“What was that all about?” Pon-3 asked, staring with concern at the little cage.

Lyra eyed Pon-3. "It's in your room and you don't know?"

The birdcage flashed with sickly green light, hissing around the bars of the little wire construction, then just as suddenly burnt out. The dispelling fire revealed small tightly wound scroll had appeared inside the cage.

“It's what I've been waiting for! Oh my stars finally!” Octavia hopped over to the cage. "I brought it from home, in case this happened."

Pon-3 rolled out of the bed and trotted over to the cage as well. "Seriously, what the hell is this thing? Did you bring a bomb into my hideout?" Pon-3 insisted, poking it.

Lyra kept her distance from the birdcage. "A Musician's Guild secret, deployed after I left." She glanced towards the door. "Octavia, I have seen how volatile dragonfire is, and-"

"It's perfectly safe Mis Lyra. You can even send birds through it." Octavia promised as she snatched the scroll out of the cage.

"Ohh, so it's one of those kinds of things." Pon-3 nodded knowingly. "Did the old girl create it herself? Always messing around with magic she shouldn't, and I'd know."

Lyra frowned. "I might not be a guild mare anymore, but you should watch the way you talk about the Mistress."

"Pshh, another silly little girl that messed up her life by being a guild mare. I'm surprised they let you out out of the guild, but let you stay in the city. You can see what the humorless goons have been doing to me." Pon-3 nodded in understanding. "Kid, take it from me. Get out of this whole buisness. You never see any guild mares older than thirty for a reason."
Pon-3 noticed Octavia was staring at her. "Something wrong O?"

Octavia, stone-faced, passed Pon-3 the letter. "You could say that, Vinyl."

Pon-3 squinted to read the tiny lettering. "Is this direct from Phyte? I'm not comfor- OOF!” She was silenced by a vicious blow to the side of her head. Pon-3 fell on her face, unconscious once more.

“Octavia! What the hay?!” Lyra gasped.

Octavia pulled the scroll out from under Pon-3's limp form. "You heard her. It was directly from Mistress Phyte. Take a guess what it said."

Lyra was silent for a moment. "You have been staying close to her while you waited for the Mistress's orders." Lyra sighed. "You could have come up with a better lie than telling me you were just 'waiting for a guild job'."

"But I was. This is that job. " Octavia pulled Pon-3 up, then onto her back. "It would have been impossible to keep Vinyl in the guild without the Mistress's help."

"So you plan to heave her all the way back to the guild. Good grief, surely you could have just gotten her to walk it. With how many times you kicked her yesterday and today she must have brain damage." Lyra lamented. It seemed like such a shame, but if the guild Mistress had a plan for Pon-3, there was no avoiding it. "Octavia, I hate to be brash but..."

"Depending on what the Mistress says, I may be available for your imperial work." Octavia said. "Coming with me to the guild?"

Lyra had already been there searching for Octavia earlier and did not want to overstay the patience of the suspicious guild ponies. "I don't know..."

"If not me, I'll beg the Mistress to give you a capable guild pony." Octavia promised.

Lyra relented. "Fine, but I will not help you knock her out if she rouses again."

"Fair.” Octavia carried Pon-3 out the door. “Now getting her down the stairs will be a chore...”

Lyra stayed in the room for a few moments, trotting over to the writing desk. Octavia had left the birdcage, apparently not needing it anymore.
However Lyra was drawn to Pon-3's articles, piled on one side of the desk. There were some vials of powder, some ropes and straps, and some letters attached by a string.

Lyra picked up the letters. A long list of names was the only thing written on them in neat cursive- The top name, Deeper Frie Fellowship, was crossed out.
"Who would want to kill a fool like him?" Lyra wondered. She looked further down the list. They were all nobodies, noble suck-ups and show-offs, a real who's-who of classless dipshits. That was, until Lyra saw the name at the bottom: Fancy Pants.

"Lyra! I said I needed help with the stairs!" Octavia shouted from the hallway.

"Okay!" Lyra stuffed the list into her bag and hurried out the apartment.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light jogged beside the arc of Canterlot's City Wall, until they arrived at the gate at the outer wall ring of Castle Magoria.

"We heard you have a 'chateau' now. Didn't come with a carriage I guess." One of the guards at the gate observed.

"Or trumpets or such-like, eh?" The other guard joked. "The lord 'n ladies can't get enough trumpet."

Velvet cleared her throat. "We are looking for a courtier of his lordship."

"Sabonord." Night Light added.

The guards glanced at each other. One of them snickered. "I don't know why he bothers coming 'round. Lord Flux hardly notices 'im."

"Some days I'm glad I'm not a noble, too good for honest work." The other guard agreed. "If my only employ was doing rounds of the mansions, kissing ass, I'd kill myself!"

"Be careful you don't insinuate you're too good for my company, boys." Velvet said. "Is the Sabonord boy around?"

The first guard shrugged. "Probably."

"Thank you." Night Light and Velvet entered the castle grounds.

Work on Castle Magoria's new bastion towers was continuing apace. Workers had taken over a corner of the green, chatting and drinking on their break. Above on the bastion, scaffolds were being erected while pallets of brick were laid out.

"Not to get sidetracked, but what was the reason for you and Foaly arguing over the number of towers." Night Light asked.

Velvet glanced at him. "Hmm? Oh, the argument during the party? It's not important, and won't be for a while."

Night Light would have to accept that, even if it bothered him.

Velvet continued, passing through the second wall into the castle gardens. Surrounded by the central keep and Canterlot's massive outer wall on one side, and the walls of Castle Magoria on the other, the garden was in the shade nearly all day. The grass was yellow despite the spring season, and the trees had been dead for years.

Attended by several courtiers and guard in the middle of the shade garden was Foaly Flux, juggling several conversations simultaneously. As the ponies of Twilight-Bright drew near, he pushed away the others and ran to meet them.

“Nighty! Lady Velvet! How good to see you! Did you get my ‘hi’ from earlier?” He gave them both big hugs, as if it hadn't been only the day before that he'd last seen them. “What brings you to my pitifully shabby abode?”

Velvet gave a teeth smile. “Gossip.”

“Oh my.” Flux held a hoof to his mouth. “It must be, might I say, juicy, if you ran all this way to tell me.”

“That’s understating it.” Said Night Light, glancing towards his wife.

Flux looked over his shoulder to see if the courtiers were sufficiently distanced. Satisfied he said, “Do tell, then.”

“You must be descreet with this Foaly.” Velvet purred. “I have heard tell there is a Blackhorn in Canterlot.”

“Who we hope to corner before anypony else.” Night Light added.

Flux pursed his lips and cocked his head. “That’s rather interesting. Yes, I thank you for sharing that with me.” He nodded, then turned away. “If you'll excuse me, I have to change my undergarments.”

As the lord of the castle galloped away, the couriers left in the garden eyed Velvet and Night Light.
Velvet scanned the small crowd, her eyes settling on a pale-violent unicorn stallion with a grey and white mane. "Our target." She motioned to the colt.

"Do we draw him away from the group?" Night Light whispered back. “How do we run this?”

Velvet laughed to herself. "We just ask. I don't care what any of the courtiers think anymore. Fate has elevated us and left them in the dirt."

"We were in their position just a week ago. But I suppose there is no reminissing on bad times." Night Light agreed.

So, when Twilight Velvet and Night Light aproached the crowd of courtiers, the ponies rushed to greet them.

“M'lady, it's so good to see you again.” Said a pony Velvet had never see before.
“Fancy seeing you here m'lady. I was just thinking about inviting you to my next lunch.” Said a grotesquely fat merchant pony.
"Since you were in the money now, I was wondering if you had any work?" A courtier asked.
"Are you in need of help at your new chateau?"
"How's your daughter doing? A viscountess, no? Tell us your secrets, my lady!"
"Remember that time I did you a favor..." It went on.

Night Light backed up from the claustrophobic press of ponies. Velvet seemed comfortable laughing and distracting the pack.
One pony, hanging back from Velvet despite clearly seeming tempted to speak, was the Sabonord boy. He was nervously glancing back towards the keep, checking if Duke Flux would be retuning.

"Hey." Night Light waved to the young stallion.

"Huh?" The Sabonord boy turned to him. "Y- Yes?"

Night Light tried to think of something to say, but instead decided to be direct. He grabbed the kid's collar and lead him towards the other end of the garden. "Need to talk."

"Y- Yes sir." The Sabonord boy squeaked.

Farther away from the crowd now, Night Light released the lad and let him stand up straight. "You're Sabonord, right?"

The young stallion was slightly intimidated by being handled so, but after another glance toward the keep he nodded."Yes, you can call me Sel though, or Sel Lech, Lord Night Light. O- or should I say Viscount Light?” Sel Lech Sabonord has a soft voice that lacked the Prancian accent of his northern cousins; He had lived in Canterlot his whole life.

“It's my daughter's castle. My wife and I are regent, that is all.” Night Light said.

“Wow, regent? All the work and none of the glory, they say.” Sel joked nervously. "I have met your lady daughter a few times. She is a very kind mare and I am very glad to see her receive the recognition she deserves."

"We should all hope to get what we deserve. Though, does the idea unnerve you?" Night Light asked. "You won't look me in the eyes."

"Well you pulled me aside, so, respectfully I would like to get to what you wanted from me." Sel Lech looked away and mumbled.

“Then enough pleasantry. Velvet will lay it out better than I.” Night Light said, glancing back at the crowd.

On cue, Velvet abruptly pushed away all the courtiers, thanking them politely but firmly, and trotted to her husband.
Exchanging a curt nod with Night Light, she turned to the younger stallion. "Salut, Sir Sabonord."

Sel Lech Sabonord seemed much more comfortable addressing Velvet. “Oh m'lady, you will embarrass me gravely. I'm Sel Lech to all who know me.”

“You have more than most.” Velvet replied. “Some ponies in this nation lack even a name. ”

Sel's face drooped. “Oh... This is about my family, isn't it?”

Velvet mock gasped and tapped her hooves. “Oh you are a clever lad.”

Night Light rolled his eyes. “Twilight, don't patronize the lad. Only last week we were just as humble. Nopony wanted to talk to us except for influence peddling with Foaly.”

Velvet bristled at the use of her first name orphaned of the second. She gave her husband a violent sidelong look. "And what Fate has done to us." She turned back to Sel Lech. "This is a buisness visit, and to be blunt, it hardly concerns you. But as a courtier you are no stranger to being a tool."

"Rather, a go-between, of sorts." Night Light said, trying to soften Velvet's language.

Sel Lech sighed. "Yeah, well, you'd have better luck looking in Baltimare or Filly Delphia for some other Sabonord. The clan doesn't like me, never visits me, never sends letters. You would never think I'm related to a countess, but most of the time neither do I since I can't remember a single sentence Glori ever directed towards me that wasn't half profanity." He said spitefully. "I'd be of no use to you."

“That could change.” Night Light said slyly.

Sel half-laughed half-scoffed. “Ha! Could you make me a landed lord? Those northern Sabonords seem only to care about power.”

“Call me trite, sir, but there is more to power than having land.” Velvet said. “It is my, our, ambition to achieve great influence in Canterlot. You could be a part of that, and indeed would aide us very greatly, Sel Lech."

Sel shook his head. “Now you're just making fun. I can't even curry favor with Lord Flux. I'm a wreck.”

Velvet pulled Sel close. “What are you willing to do?”

“In general not much, I'm afraid. I'm a coward.” The poor boy was now addressing Velvet more like a therapist than anything else.

Velvet prodded. “Can you lie?”

“Yes m'lady, I mean, sometimes.” Sel shrugged. Lying was well understood to be an integral part of noble society.

“Can you steal?” Velvet asked.

“Thats..." Sel's expression hardened into a glare, put his anger seemed self-directed. "That's all I seem to do around here.”

"Oh my, you will begin to sound like my daughter's dreadful coffeehouse friends if you carry on like that." Velvet grinned devilishly. “Tell me Sel, can you kill?”

Sel was shocked into silence. He finally said. “I don't know. M'lady, what are you saying? What's going on?”

Night Light was picking up on how Velvet was going to draw Sel in. “We would like your assistance to control a pony.” He said.

“Your help, Lord Sel Lech Sobonord, we need you and your help.” Velvet cooed. A fretful, nervous boy like Sel, oh how his heart surely leapt at the idea of being needed by someone, of being important to a cause. "The reward for controlling this certain pony: Greater fulfillment than you can imagine."

"When we succeed more ponies will know your name than that of your ungrateful cousin." Night Light chorussed.

Sel glanced between Velvet and Night Light, then down at his hooves. “Lie, cheat, steal, and kill. I don't know. Can I do it?” He looked up, fear in his eyes. “I can try, can't I?”

“That's all we ask.” Velvet soothed. “Sir you I can sense rare potential in you, and with any luck it will be compatible to our own. Come by Chateau la Garde tomorrow morn for the details.”

Sel gave a little nod, and wandered away into the garden. The young stallion still seemed uncomfortable being around the other courtiers, so he just left to think things over by himself, heading out through the front gate.

Velvet gave Nigh Light a devious grin which betrayed her satisfaction.

"Too poetic by the end there." Night Light critiqued. "I was worried you were going to tell him he was a prophesied savior or some such."

"He will need to feel needed, but not too important to be independent. We must manage his dependance on us." Velvet said. "He was more intimidated by you than I. Interesting."

Night Light shrugged. "I have rarely spoken to him so it is my direct relation to Flux, I should guess, which intimidates him. Some younger stallions and mares also know me by my fencing reputation."

“Corrupting little Sel Lech, are we?” Foaly Flux barged between them, wearing a new pair of pantaloons.

“Slowly bringing him in on the joke.” Velvet responded. "The new Blackhorn is a relative of his. Do be discrete and not mention it around to him."

“Indeed. Furthermore my dearest cousin Foaly, do you think you could, perhaps, withhold from sharing our joke until tomorrow afternoon?” Night Light asked.

“Why, dearest cousin Nighty, I don't know if I can! A joke of that magnitude is liable to tear me apart!” Foaly Flux punctuated his exclamation with audible flatulance. “Oh, my! It's started!”

Velvet snorted and Night Light brought a hoof to his face in painful embarrassment. “Just try, please.”

Flux bowed deeply. “I shall die for your joke, m'lord! You have...” He farted again. “my word.”

Velvet began giggling and Night Light, despite his grimacing expression, found it mildly amusing. "Just... the lowest form of humor."

"Oh you don't appreciate me. You think I'm just hot air, ehh?" Foaly Flux clucked his tongue in mock indignation. "Be off with you then, alak! You have better things to do than joke with me."

"No, sir, few things are more important." Velvet bowed. "Except, perhaps, making the whole town laugh."

"See you soon Foaly." Night Light led his wife back out of the castle grounds.

Somewhere in between Octavia's tenement and the Musician’s Guild, Pon-3 had awakened. She did not struggle against the earth pony holding her, but listened as her captors bantered about little things.

They passed into the Musician's Guild building, the low sun casting long shadows on the pillared halls. Directly to the stairs, then down. Three flights, out of the waning sunlight and into candle light. Into cramped hallways cut from the stone, which necessitated they walk single file.
The dark passageway extended far past the footprint of the Musician's Guild building; They were in a catacomb-like undercity now, other passages and tiny rooms branching off in other directions, a spider's web chiseled from bedrock. It was cold, damp, and completely silent save for the clop of hooves against the worn stone... and slight rumblings from even deeper below them.

"Damn it." Pon-3 felt her heart race as the inevitable grew closer.

“Octavia, she's awake.” Lyra pointed out.

“I have been for a while.” Pon-3 growled. "I could break free you know. I just didn't want to hurt our friendship." She wiggled a bit. "... Learned your lesson and used infused robe, I see."

“Only to make sure you stay a well behaved girl, Vinyl.” Octavia said. It sounded like she was trying to be mocking but could not be entirely vicious considering the mare's real plight ahead. "The guild mistress might even give you a treat for being so good."

They must have walked the length of the guild hall thrice over, in one direction in the fleeting light. Pon-3 knew where they were going. The center of the guild web. The lair of the Mistress.

"I don't deserve this. My provocations were-" Pon-3 tested the rope again. "Very minimal!"

Octavia shook her head. "I'm not the pony you need to convince of that."

Lyra shrugged. "Hey, I've just been trying to hire an agent."

Pon-3 apparently found that insulting. "Whatever soothes your conscience, you teal trollop. Only one of this has been literally roped into this." She tried to lift her head against gravity to look Lyra in the eye. "You should know better than get back into this den of backstabbers. Put me down and run for it girl."

"Kindly stuff it already Vinyl." Octavia cut in. "Conscience shall never ever come into this line of work and you know it."

"Hark!" An echoing voice rolled through the passage from a pony heading the opposite direction.

"Hello. We are heading to the Mistress." Octavia replied.

Pon-3, craned her neck to try to see who was talking. "Oi, can you spot me a bit of help mate? I'm been nabbed."

"Here's your help." Octavia, with Lyra's assistance, slid Pon-3 off her back. The corridor was so narrow Pon-3 fell into a sitting position, back against the wall and hooves against the other wall. "It's getting too tight and we can only pass these ponies single file."

Pon-3 watched Lyra undo her bonds. With her hooves free, Pon-3 considered trying to resist and run like she had the day before. "Never too tight for me." She stood up and rolled her shoulders. "You saw I could hold my own, Mis Pyra. Sure you want to stand that close?"

Lyra shrugged.

"Eyes forward. You're keeping these ponies waiting." Octavia barked at Pon-3.

Indeed there were two ponies there who had been coming from the other direction. The lead was dressed very simply and had a violin case on his back; A typical guild pony. He was the one who had called out.
But the trailing pony was fully concealed in a dark robe, only the tip of his nose poking out. Pon-3 felt a chill.

"Sorry for the hold up." Octavia said as she hugged the wall to let the ponies pass.

Pon-3, however stood in his way.
"Coming from the mistress? Got an order, aye?" She leaned in.

The lead pony demurred. "Can get past please? I'm just making a delivery."

"Oh for sure mate." Pon-3 pressed herself against the wall, but stepped in the way of the robed pony again, much to Octavia's aggravation. "It's you I was asking anyhow."

Even up close, the robed pony was impossible to sex or identify in any way, for it was too dark. It tilted its head, then drew a hoof across its throat and let out an airy gasp.

Pon-3 nodded. “Aw, you're mute. My condolences. What instrument do you play?”

Again, the pony let out an airy gasp.

“Singer ay? Wow, I'm really sorry for you mate.” Pon-3 stepped aside and let him pass, as did Lyra.

Octavia glared at Pon-3 with unbridled anger. “Can't give it up, can you.”

“What! Is being curious a crime?” Pon-3 defended herself. She looked back at the hooded pony receding into the darkness, and felt a chill again. "You know what that was, right?"

Octavia hooked Pony-3 shoulder. "Stop delaying or-"

“It's not that big of a deal Octavia.” Lyra mollified.

Octavia took a deep breath as she wrestled with her internal dialogue. “Yes, you are right. She'll be delivered soon and, gods willing, DEAD thereafter. No worries then, only regret.” She turned away and continued down the tunnel. Lyra prodded Pon-3, and they followed.

Several minutes of walking later they emerged into a small antechamber. This time it was all three of them who felt a chill.
The chamber was filled with scrolls stacked high to the ceiling. There was no clear sense of organization, and no two scrolls alike- Fine letters or scrabbles, expensive parchment or repurposed, aged or crisp. To read any of those innumerable scrolls was to pear back into the thoughts of somepony somewhere who had made the monumental decision to order another's death. A contract for murder, the solicitation of a guild mare... That candle-lit antechamber was the true center of the Musician's Guild.
And opposite the entry passage was a dainty desk, neatly arranged, where a pony was hunched over writing a letter of her own.

The Mistress was a unicorn, very tall and trim. In the light of the candles her coat and mane looked red. Her eyes were always concealed by her silken mane, longer than her body, which pooled on the cold ground at her hooves. Her cutie mark was a glass harp.

She did not turn to look at her waiting visitors. She continued to write for several moments, then rolled up her work and shoved it into a birdcage on the desk. With a flick of her horn, the cage glowed with bright green fire, and the scroll vanished.

Slowly, deliberately, the tall unicorn turned her eyes to the three mares.
“So, the prodigal daughter returns.” The guild mistress rose from the desk and glided over to the trio. Her voice was melodic, but devoid of any emotion. Her face was unreadable in the shadow of her mane.

“I've been waiting for that joke since I got back.” Pon-3 said. “Good to see you Phyte.”

“Unearned familiarity. I can not stop you filthying my name in your head but I can stop you from speaking it, Vinyl Scratch." The guild mistress stepped closer, putting her height to use to leer over her visitors. "If I must force you, I will. It is the Mistress that you shall call me.”

“Yeah, and it's Pon-3 to you.” Pon-3 stared back defiantly.

Octavia and Lyra gave each other concerned looks. The reunion was always going to be tense. Perhaps they should have kept Pon-3 tied up.

“You could not keep away. Even for one, small, eternity.” Phyte said. “It is just as well.”

That drew an offended snort from Pon-3. “Oh you know I missed all the cute Canterlot fillies. You least of all!”

Phyte shook her head, making her long mane ripple down its length. "Facts prove otherwise." She motioned to Octavia. "You knew she would bring you in eventually. If you had been steadfast you would have killed on sight, instead of these playfights you have been having with my mares."

"I'm not afraid. I came back to Canterlot because even the sun princess's decrees don't intimidate me anymore. I didn't flee the city when your goons had me the first time because I trust in myself." Pon-3 sneered. "I can stand on my own. No princess or Star can tell me what to do."

Phyte hummed in amusement. "Yet here you are, before me, against your will."

"I'll leave when I'm done giving you a piece of my mind. Then I get back to work, get my money, and buy my security forever." Pon-3 said, increasingly agitated. "I bet you think you know it all. You think you're protecting me, hiding me from while you plot to send me even further away this time. Well I think you're a real bitch!"

Phyte circled slowly. “What meritless spouting. Only... 'Back to work', you say... A job. A killing job. A pony is dead on their floor already and you are not a week returned to Canterlot. Keen as ever! Applaudable, truly."

Pon-3 threw a haughty smirk. “You're jealous.”

Pyte's expression remained unreadable. “No. I am indulgent. I need no proof of how well I raised you.”

“Oh sure, take the credit for the hard years abroad too, the school of hard knocks that you enrolled me in at the Griffany campus." Pon-3 expression returned to barely controlled rage. "You hate what you can't control. Yeah, I poisoned that fatass, and all the glory is mine. I found the job, I planned it, I executed it. Watch me do it again! If every guild mare realized they don't need your useless middle-manning you're out of a job, Phyte."

"So naive. You still misunderstand Guild work. We are more dignified than death whores, girl." Phyte snapped back, her tone not yet rising to match Pon-3's. "No pony who thinks as you do deserves to murder."

Octavia interrupted the back and forth. “Pardon, Mistress? Are we needed?”

Phyte's first sign of emotion came, as mild surprise. “Oh, hello Octavia. I did not see you there. And you Lyra.” She leaned closer. "Always so timely, Lyra. Gone from the hand, but still in the deck."

“Ma'am. It has been a good dozen months.” Lyra gave a nod.

"Yes yes." Phyte stepped back. "As for your necessity- Oh, we shall not dwell on one's necessity." Phyte said with a tinge of amusement. "This girl has gone years and years persuing a punishment she desires, rather than the one she deserves. I am in an unenviable position."

"I don't know about unenviable but you're definitely unlikeable and unlovable." Pon-3 nettled.

“I thought she was exiled. That's not the case?" Lyra looked between Phyte and Pon-3. She hoped her idle curiosity didn't test the Mistress's patience.

"Don't believe a word this monster says!" Pon-3 said.

"As if you have been the honest one. You are a duplicitous little child and will be punished as such." Phyte turned back to her victim.

"Will you destroy her, Mistress?" Octavia asked, apparently now feeling reservation about the thought.

"I am nothing if not judicious. Forthrightly, I have considered that question for days and still not arrived at the answer to your question, Octavia." Phyte said. She strode back to her desk, drawing the smaller ponies further into the chamber. "What do you think you deserve, dear Vinyl?"

"Go to hell. I'm not telling you anything." Pon-3 snapped.

"Tell me what? Does that contract you found for yourself weigh on you? I will alleviate the burden if you insist." Phyte said with a tinge of humor before falling back into her smooth monotone. "You will be staying with me here until I decide what to do with you."

Pon-3 shook her head. "Like hell I will."

Phyte picked up her quill to start a new letter. "You will do so willingly or unwillingly, in whatever condition is necessary to do so. Do not blame me when I have to put you in your crate. You have grown a bit though, so I may have to lop your limbs off again to get you to fit. Would you like that Vinyl? You want to make your poor Mistress dig up your crate from when you were a filly?"

Pon-3 stared back defiantly.

"Goodness me. Did I buy a ticket to the debauched torture show, instead of the murder show?" Lyra joked, laughing awkwardly at her own joke. "Mistress Phyte, should I come back later?"

"No need. I have said all that needs be said to this wayward filly." Phyte shook her head. "Correct, my dear 'Pon-E?' You will behave."

There was a long stretch of silence, Pon-3 neither defying nor submitting to the larger mare's condescending demands.

Octavia, unlike her erstwhile friend, was quivering with emotion. "Mistress, please don't delay this any longer. Do not let this issue dwell on my mind any longer!"

"Do not presume to dictate to me, Octavia, I am talking with Mis Lyra now." Phyte said gently.

"I..." Lyra hesitated, throwing a sympathetic glance to Octavia. "I passed a letter to one of your officers. I am looking for a few guild mares to-"

Pon-3 suddenly moved, stepping around to the side of Phyte's small desk and sitting down. "I'll play nice, big girl, on the condition that I get to keep doing my work."

Phyte set her pen down. "You do understand that you are due punishment because of your cavalier attitude towards our mission, right? Why would I let you keep at your murderous work?"

"Because otherwise you're gunna have to cut my legs off like you threatened, but you don't really want to do that." Pon-3 said. "You want me to behave. That's all you've ever wanted."

Phyte leaned on her desk, gesturing, so that for a brief moment her mane was brushed away from her eyes- And for that moment Lyra was transfixed by their brilliant red glow, before they were obscured again. "What good is the prison if the prisoner may check themselves out at any time? All the same, I am judicious."
Phyte sat back up. "Any time you are not at your work, which I chose the time for, you will be here to submit to my observation. Do not forget that your real punishment has yet to be decided on."

"Mistress, please! I don't understand what you're doing." Octavia cried out.

"Perhaps it is not your role to understand. I compliment you on many things, Octavia, your sense of duty to our work prime among them. Do not let that make you arrogant." Phyte commanded. "You have all the misplaced pride as Vinyl here. It is no wonder you two get along so famously."

Octavia paled, shaking like she had been struck. "Mistress..."

"You need to step back from the Guild and gain some much needed perspective. Then you may again understand what our fate and duty is, here under Canterlot." Phyte had switched all her attention to lambasting her new target Octavia. "Have you been practicing your instrument, girl? Or do you think you have Vinyl's initiative to find non-guild work."

Octavia was stone-still, trying to hold back her emotions.

Phyte has finished talking though, and faced Lyra again. "You were saying?" She asked sternly.

"The lord vizier of Canterlot..." Lyra felt a tightness in her throat that made it hard to speak. Phyte was very intimidating in her restrained potency, a painterly beast. "I only ask for, you know, an agent or two for his work."

"Then take Octavia with you. Perhaps I will give you Vinyl later as well." Phyte shrugged, and returned to her letter. "It is still a shame we lost you, Lyra. You were a good musician. It would be best if you came back later, as you said. I have much to do."

"Yes my lady." Lyra nodded, and slowly backed away from the desk. When she was at the far side of the antechamber she turned and quickly trotted back to the claustrophobic stone corridor to the guild hall. Thoughts were swirling through her head, mostly confused ones.

The clip of hooves behind Lyra signaled Octavia galloping to catch up with her.

Lyra paused and glanced back at Octavia. "I'm sorry, the Mistress was just... she was only flattering me to make you feel bad. It would have been any other pony there if-"

"Shut up already." Octavia snapped, then let out a long sigh. "I am signed onto your imperial work. I probably would have done so anyway, but now I can only feel angry about it."

"Octavia you don't have to help me if you don't want to." Lyra consoled her.

Octavia shook her head. “Whatever. Just get me out of here.”

Lyra wanted to smile but couldn't. She felt bad, being satisfied about getting what she wanted, even though both Octavia and Pon-3 were now trapped in Phyte's designs. It could not be helped.

In silence they continued down the hallway, up the stair, and out of the Musician’s Guild. The sun was setting and the street was lit by firefly lanterns.
"Should I come by your house tomorrow? I would like to report to vizier as soon as possible." Lyra said.

Octavia looked off into the darkening eastern skies. "No. I will be at Vinyl's hideaway." She paused. "I guess I should be happy she's not going to be hurt."

Lyra nodded. "Yet."

"Yet." Octavia agreed morosely. "Send a letter tomorrow before and we can arrange something."

Octavia trotted towards the inner city, and Lyra towards the outer.

It was almost already dark in Ponyville. Twilight watched from the downstairs window of the Golden Oak as the villagers snuffed their lanterns and closed their curtains.
She thought she was a tall pony-like shadow near one of the houses, but a flicker of the light and Twilight saw it was simply a big cat which darted across the street. She chastised herself for her paranoid imagination: She had nothing to fear from the Ponyvillians.

"Back to buisness." Twilight Sparkle said to herself.
She felt guilty that she had wasted her first night in Ponyville, so decided she would work with extra vigor. She had already gotten started, and several stacks of books had already been spread over the floor of the library room.

A quick survey of the Golden Oak's stock of books had impressed Twilight but left her slightly concerned. Most libraries in rural communities, few and far between as they were, would logically be stocked with knowledge useful to whatever agriculturists and small craftworkers could read- Almanacs, farming guides, weather guides, simple tool instructions.
The Golden Oak did have those expected things, but also much more. While not as thorough as anything in Canterlot, it had a wide variety of books, from architecture to magic, and also varied wildly in the complexity within each subjects. There were even copies of tomes Twilight had been intending to read for a long time. Almost all of the books were on the old side, transcribed rather than from a printing press, with a few catching Twilight's as being especially old codex-style books.

If the Golden Oak was a communal space, how had the strange assortment of books gotten there. Had they been bestowed from a local's private collection? Had Celestia surreptitiously moved them there ahead of sending Twilight?

Twilight wasn't going to complain, but she would keep an eye out for answers.

Spike was enraptured in a story book that he had pulled off the shelf. Twilight would usually bother Spike into studying or helping her with with something before he got leisure time, but she had been relaxing her control on him lately. Spike was setting his own time for chores and studying, and Twilight was very proud of him for it- She was not much older than him but there was no denying her responsibility for him was equal to her control over him.

Contemplating Ponyville, contemplating Spike, her position in the world... There was a lot dwelling on Twilight's mind.
Should she take a moment and focus on herself? Would it help unwind the anxious knot she felt caught in the middle of?
Twilight did not like introspection. She realized that habit had gotten her in trouble before, when her lack of self-awareness led her into avoidable blunders. Twilight was adamant that she didn't want to 'obsess' over herself, but bold pride was one of those things which led her astray, and which introspection could have soothed! Yes, Twilight realized her faults on some level, but she told herself those kinds of thoughts were just distractions from more important things.

As Twilight settled into her space for herself, she wondered about her place in history. She had read the biographies of other students of Princess Celestia, when they happened to be magicians or scholars she was already interested in for their arcane work. She was the latest in the innumerable series of ponies, usually unicorns, usually nobility, in the role of First Student.
"Some of those ponies had already invented whole new fields of magic at my age. Some of them were generals and explorers..." Twilight stared at the wall. "I'm good with magic but..." It was only now, surrounded by all the old books she'd pulled from the gnarled shelves, that Twilight felt the enormity of history crushing down on her.
"I will be remembered as the pony who failed to stop the Nightmare Pretender from returning." Twilight whispered to herself.

Socially awkward, emotionally stunted, nearly friendless, personally caustic.... History would not have to stretch the truth far to slander Twilight as it sought to explain her defeat against the Nightmare. Her magical talent would melt away in the narrative, as she became synonymous with disappointment and failure.

"Then I have to win. I just have to. There's no other choice. I have to surpass Celestia's role for me and stop the prophecy." Twilight promised herself grimly. She shook away the lingering thoughts, for if she did win, it would be the flaws which would melt away, and her talent remembered forever. "And I will never die. I am going to live forever, and to do it I just have to sort through these rubes."

"Twilight you have to speak up. You keep facing away from me while you're talking." Spike said, looking up from his book.

Twilight laughed to herself. "Sorry Spike. It was nothing important, only grumbling."

"I can sympathize." Spike eyed her stacks of books.

Thinking on it, Twilight had grown up with a diverse group of ponies, in Celestia's court, in the University at Canterlot, and in her parent's social circle, and just in Canterlot generally. The court was the center of the most powerful nobles, merchants, generals, the absolute upper slice of society, and they all regarded Twilight as Celestia's intolerable pet. Meanwhile Twilight's parents were constantly introducing her to petty nobles, local merchants, guild masters, and broadly ponies of middling prospect, the milieu of strivers. The university had every social strata and background, noble and commoner, where outside status echoed somewhat but talent was most rewarded. But fair Canterlot's streets, packed with masses of ponies in their multitudinous personalities and social forms, reminded Twilight that the previous three groups were still only a tiny slice of the nation- The humble commoner was the denominator of the nation, and it was who Twilight had the least experience dealing with.

Strict restrictions for how commoner and noble associated with each other, once tightly enforced in the name of social stability, had withered away from lack of enforcement. In many cities and towns the poorest nobles were indistinguishable or even worse off than the richest traders and merchants. However, economic distinctions were still upheld, and very few noble families would disgrace themselves by engaging in commerce or industry: Harking back to the warlord era, the noble's prerogative was the maintenance of the land, learned culture, faith, governance, and knightly arms.

"I guess I fall under the governance category now, more than 'learnedness'." Twilight noted with bitter amusement. "Or maybe faith, hmm hmm."

So how was she supposed to learn how to govern, to wield Ponyville for her purposes in the name of the princess? The obvious answer would be force... If she actually had any troops. At the end of the day hierarchy was enforced by coercion! Minus coercion, Twilight stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ponyvillians, not above them.
What a harrowing thought, prideful Twilight thought.

"Will I have to treat the ponies here with the same decorum and respect as the lords and ladies of Celestia's court? Heaven help me." Twilight sighed. "After a full day of talking to them I don't know if I understand how these country ponies think at all." She idly tapped her hoof. "But they do respect Princess Celestia. And I stand in for the princess here."

The unwelcome thought of the alicorn princess standing over her, literally speaking through Twilight like a pony possessed, made Twilight shiver. What right did she had to invoke Celestia when her thoughts turned sour so easily? Closing her eyes, Twilight saw Celestia's scowl from their last encounter atop the watchtower.
Celestia had wronged her. Celestia had wronged her. Twilight repeated that to herself in her head, working up a silent fury and frustration. The alicorn was too clever not to realize that her student was impious and rebellious! For had not Twilight already spurned Celestia's guidance and chosen the University instead?

So Twilight decided not to think about Celestia, and shut away her aching heart as firmly as she had pushed away her doubts.

To the task at hoof, for real. Twilight picked up the nearest book, an abridged history of the Dneighper River valley and its ponies. Hopefully it would shed some light on the culture of her new neighbors. Indeed she was soon enraptured by the florid prose, describing the early migrations ancestors of the Dneighper ponies.

"I'm going to bed." Spike set down his own book and stood up.

Twilight nodded. "Good idea. We had an easy day today, though tomorrow might turn out stressful. Not that I'm expecting trouble." She glanced away.

"You can stay up and read Twilight. I know it makes you happy, and you might feel better if you know more about this place." Spike gestured toward the darkened window and the village beyond. "It'll be fine, Twilight."

"I know it will be fine." Twilight lied. "But there is a lot depending on us-"

"The Summer Sun Fair." Spike agreed, her own apprehension bleeding into his tone. "It's the biggest thing we've ever planned."

"Planned, coordinated, organized, and all that. Math, magic, and science is easy compared to herding ponies. Science has predictable laws: Once you know how things work it's almost easy to do what you want. Same with magic: Just know the right pattern, apply the right amount of energy, harness the right flow, and the magic sorts itself out!" Twilight said. "But ponies are different. Each of their brains is a billion-billion equations that are always changing and solving themselves with respect to each other. Dealing with ponies is difficult and I'm not sure if I'm the pony for it anyway."

"Come on Twilight, you're being way too hard on yourself." Spike comforted her. "Scaring yourself with weird comparisons can't help either. You've gotta be confident, right? That's what you tell me!"

Spike was probably right but Twilight didn't want to admit it, or agree with him too eagerly. "There is no rush either way. You can go get your sleep, as long as you commit to finishing your slate of study tomorrow or the day after."

"Yeah yeah." Spike grunted, trudging up to the bedroom, but stopping short. "Twilight, did you graduate?"

The question struck Twilight. "What?" She blinked.

"I know you've gotten degrees and stuff, but since you're doing the princess's work now, do you think you're done with the University forever?" Spike clarified.

"I... I hope not. The University is my second, err, third home." Twilight said, having to confront her sequestered doubts again. "If I can't go back and learn more I don't know what I'd do with myself."

Spike shook his head. "But you're a 'First Student' now, and-"

"And the first thing I get with that title is a lonely posting in an intellectually deprived hamlet. No professors or mentors in sight. What kind of student does that make me." Twilight said grumpily.

Spike shrugged. "Hooves-on student?"

What Spike was trying to say, but had not well expressed, now fell into place for Twilight. She really had graduated in a certain sense. "You're right Spike. I think I will be learning this way for the foreseeable future too."
That thought filled her with an even more terrible anxiety than before! Gone was the structure of the university, the constraints of its walls, its schedules, its campus borders. She was in the wide world now: If the whim struck her she could run in any direction. Perhaps she could even run from history. What awesome, terrifying freedom. She remained a student, but Equestria was her new campus.
Spike was still staring at her when Twilight recovered from her dizzying revelation. "I will come up in a moment. Keep the lamp on for me."

Spike nodded. "Thanks Twilight. You're doing great."

Twilight lingered in bottom floor of the Oak for a few more minutes. She had barely gotten through the first pages of the first book. She did not feel prepared to face the Ponyvillians again the next day. Choosing a few of the books at random she grabbed them in her telekinesis to read in bed.

But motions continued in the night elsewhere...

Chapter 4: Bloodied Lords

It had been nearly a century since the empire of Equestria had tamed its continental frontiers. The east and west had always been bounded by the vast oceans, and the northern border abutted the cold and desolate Frozen North which rose to mountains inhospitable except to transhumance tribes of yaks and goats. The southern border, however, had been Equestria's insecure underbelly for centuries, until a very recent effort to fortify long borderland with garrisons and pony settlements. Since then, Equestria had turned its attention overseas, creating frontiers for itself in Griffany, Chitin, or Zebrastan- Exotic lands more lucrative than the undeveloped swaths of the southern Equestrian continent.

But one frontier within Equestria remained: The Everfree Forest. An enormous, preternatural jungle in center of the nation, the Everfree was synonymous with many bad things in the minds of the Equestrians. All overland traffic and trade made huge diversions north and south to avoid the impassible Everfree. The forest became more hospitable on its northern fringes, which transitioned into the Greentail and Canter forests, but otherwise it was a territory completely bereft of ponykind.
Or so they said. The village of Ponyville directly abutted the vast Everfree, and there were sordid rumors that the ponyvillians made incursions into the jungle for unknown purposes.

If Twilight Sparkle had watched from her window but a little longer, she may have been able to confirm or deny those rumors; Happenings at the edge of the Everfree would have been hard to miss. Alas a the dark of night wore on, a mortal drama gone unseen.

But just because there was nopony to hear it did not mean a tree did not fall.

Deep within the ancient jungle an evil was birthed anew:
Hidden by vines and the canopy, the bleached bones of a shattered civilization sat in silence, receiving the building glow of dawn. There were small signs of recent activity: Disturbed vegetation, a smear of blood on the collapsing stone walls, a weapon lodged in a crack near said smear. The ruin awaited the approaching daylight in peace now.

But the Moon still held some sway! A brief flare of blue-black light, a corona of darkness, very briefly fought back the rising sun. Just as quickly, the moon dipped below the horizon as was expected of it.
A shudder went through the aged Everfree Ruin.
An entity emerged from the shadows, who had not been there before.

The entity could have been mistaken for a pony at a distance, but it was not a creature of flesh and blood, more akin to the evil light that had emanated off the Moon. Its shape wavered, as if it were a distorted reflection on a rippling pond, as the entity accommodated itself to its surroundings.
After a while the entity settled into a fully pony-like proportions. It opened its eyes, the multifaceted compound eyes of an insect. Then another pair of eyes opened, then another, until one by one a dozen pairs of eyes had opened across its featureless head. Then the surplus eyes closed, until the first two remained. The pooling dark light around the entity began to coalesce into the impression of a mane and tail as it slowly swirled about the moon-born being.

It took in its surroundings, just one of the overgrown rooms of the derelict ruin. Satisfied it was alone, the made its way through other parts of the ruin- It did not walk, but drifted as light as a cloud, its hooves trailing slightly against the ground. It examined the ancient decorations, the cracked mosaics, the moss-covered statuary, the tapestries whose enchantments were little match to centuries of wear. The entity's eyes lingered on the faded burgundy-dyed flags whose masts had rotted long before their magic threads, half-covered by detritus and rubble. A stylized crescent moon could be seen, intricately sown a millennium before.
At last the entity came upon the place it was unconsciously drawn towards: The grandest space of the ruin, still vaguely recognizable despite having been rent by ancient violence and time. The room was grand, voluminous, with a central area flanked by massive columns that held up the remaining roof. Morning sunlight was beginning to stream in from the holes in the walls and roof, from which the entity shied as it proceeded. Two thrones presided over the colossal wreck, and between them was an altar most heinous, displaying none of the age of the rest of the lost palace: A smooth squat obelisk of black stone.

The entity had no eyes for the majestic thrones, only the obelisk. Witnessing it sent a thrum through ones bones and a ringing in ones head.
"Moon." A silver crescent developed on the entity, forming into a mouth from which it spoke in a resonant, crackling voice. "Moon. Moon! I am free, Nightmare. Was it by your consent?" The entity stepped back from the monolith and peered into the sky in vain to spot the long-since set moon. "And no other than I? I am free and you are not?"
The entity laughed.

In a swirl of dark light, the entity settled itself fully into the expected physics of a pony. Its mane, tail, and fur were defined, all different shades of black. Its hooves touched the ground.

"Moon, old friend, you are where you belong, and I am were I belong. Stay in heaven, or on those banners, until I've had my fun. Perhaps I will come back for you." Saluting the black obelisk, that profane altar, the pony-shaped entity trotted out of the ancient throne room. "I won't be hanged in Dneighper Crypts again, oh no. I will find my kicks in ol' Canterlot, Moon." It's voice too had become pony-like, the tones of a hoyden mare. Its camouflage was complete. "Gods willing, I even find purpose there. Ha, imagine!"
Smirking, the entity began to gallop. With tireless haste it burst from the ruin into the surrounding jungle heading due north towards the distant shape of the Mountain and Canterlot. The sun had fully risen, but the creature was not afraid of its light anymore as it pursued its goal of reaching the capital of Equestria.

"Rarity?"

Rarity jerked upright, nearly falling out of her chair. She had only meant to rest her head but had ended up falling asleep at her desk.
Still a bit rattled from her sudden awakening, Rarity turned to the voice that had roused her.

Rarity's filly sister was silhouetted against the doorframe. She was wrapped up in a blanket she had pulled down with her. "Rarity, I had a bad dream."

Rarity rubbed her eyes, trying not to think about how bad her mane must have looked. "Me too, Sweetie. Would you like me to put you back-"

"No I'm fine... It just scared me." Sweetie Belle said, voice trembling. "It's not real, right?"

Rarity closed her eyes, trying to catch glimpses of her own dream, its details rapidly slipping away. She could only see a menacing figure of mare, but they stepped back into the shadow and out of her grasp. "Nightmares aren't usually real, Sweetie. We're perfectly safe. We can go and have good dreams now."

Sweetie Belle did not seem convinced. "But, the good dreams aren't real either, right?"

Rarity made to stand up, but was put back in her chair by the ache of her bandaged cuts and bruises, and she remembered why she had chosen to rest downstairs. Her first aid supplies were mixed in with sewing tools on the table. Her head throbbed, and not just from the beating Applejack had given her: Her night had passed in darker purpose, for which she was being rewarded with such frightening visions.
"Sadly, Sweetie, you are right. The good dreams aren't real either, usually. But we have them anyway, and we want them so badly." Rarity said, a wistful to her voice. "We have the nightmares so we can have our beautiful dreams, and it is the same in life too."

"Okay... I guess I'll go back to sleep." Sweetie Belle turned around and went back toward her room, blanket dragging on the floor behind her.

Rarity took a few steadying breaths. She couldn't be angry at Sweetie for walking her up. She lay her head back down, hoping to return to sleep herself, and glimpse the strange dream entity again. But her cuts itched, and she sat in miserable silence until the sun rose further and she was obliged to begin the day.

Night Light had found his first couple days in the Chateau la Garde to be uncomfortable and cold. The 'chateau' was a guardhouse fortification first and foremost, and its retrofit into a residence fit for a noble First Student was laughable. Fancy furnishings, wall hangings, and other amenities did not cover the blocky utilitarian nature of its construction, its imposing dimensions, and its drafty interior spaces. The half-dozen city guardsponies posted at the actual portcullis gate structure seemed more at home than Night Light felt.
Still, he hoped he would get used to it with Twilight Velvet at his side.

But striding into the greathall, expecting his breakfast, Night Light was instead greeted by the previous day's unexpected guest instead. Seacrest Blackhorn was at his table, noisily inhaling several mornings' worth of meals. Velvet stood over Seacrest's shoulder, watching him eat.

"Oh, spent the night did you?" Night Light asked, more to Velvet and the maid than Seacrest.

“Good morning!” Seacrest said theatrically, mouth still full of food. Velvet cringed away somewhat from the poor manners, wholly unbecoming of a noblepony. "How famished I am, and was. My cross-country travel deprived me of a good meal for several days. And your little mis there was quite insistent that dinnertime had already passed by the time I lodged here past afternoon." He said, throwing a glare at the maid.

"All the same, lord, I do not think we have been properly acquainted yet. I have only my wife's words to go by." Night Light said.

Seacrest nodded, setting his utensils down. "Not a bad reference, though, aye? I could hardly criticize your judgement of character, Lady Velvet."

Velvet stepped in between them. “Nighty, this is indeed his Lordship Seacrest of house Blackhorn. My lord, this is my humble husband, Night Light.”

“Wonderful, wonderful!” Seacrest exclaimed happily. “How charming your family is Velvet.”

Night Light remained silent. Velvet trotted to him and kissed him on the cheek, and whispered in his ear. “The lad Sel Lech is already here, looking lost and in need of directions. He's downstairs, so go chat. We head into town soon."

"We?" Night Light eyed Seacrest over his wife's shoulder.

"We. To strike while the blacksmith is dead." Twilight Velvet said. She swatted at Night Light's wither, sending him off.

Though feeling a bit embarrassed and emasculated for being visibly sent around by Velvet, Night Light was going to get back at her in turn.
As he passed Seacrest's seat, Night Light paused and nudged his chair. "Have a wife or mistress, Lord Blackhorn?"

Seacrest froze up a bit. Night Light would have liked to look the scoundrel in the eye to see him rapidly develop the narrative. "Sir, it is an issue of priorities." Seacrest scoffed. "I have been devoted to the duties to my heritage, the ancient Blackhorn ties to Canterlot, which necessarily must come before romance!"

"Though should you pass without an heir what would become of the Blackhorn claim, my lord?" Night Light said, feigning intense concern.

"I-" Seacrest stuttered.

Night Light chuckled to himself, turning away under the angry dagger gaze of Velvet. She would probably make him regret his horseplay later.
Passing out of the greathall, Night Light proceeded down the short hallway to the foyer space. The unicorn youth Sel Lech Sabonord was waiting patiently, sitting in the corner.

"Hello lad. There is no traffic here to block you know." Night Light smiled.

"Good morning my lord." Sel Lech sheepishly trotted to meet the older stallion in the center of the room. "I would have waited outside if your housekeeper had not bade me wait here. I don't know your court hours and I-"

"Sir Sabonord, this is not so much of a palace to hold court in. This is a heap of stone which, while well engineered, holds no candle to Castle Magoria. Nor to any of the wall-castles or South Canterlot mansions for that matter." Night Light leaned forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Nor least of all the Canterlot Castle."

Sel Lech averted his eyes, thoughts clearly racing.

"Yesterday we only hinted at the kinds of things my lady wife and I would ask of you. Have you come to help us, Sel Lech?" Night Light asked.

Sel Lech shrugged. “I suppose.”

“Surely you have more to say than that.” Night Light arched a brow.

After a moment of consideration Sel Lech nodded. “My lord I can not lie to you. I came here grasping at a chance to elevate my lot above playing bottom-rung courtier to Lord Flux, laughing at the unfunny jokes of more senior nobles, doing alienating errands." Sel Lech said. "Flattering a lord such as yourself is a gamble, and perhaps I may meet and flatter rising stars such as your children in its course. I have come today having done the deliberation already, and I lay it out before you hoping you appreciate my clarity of mind, my lord."

"There is nothing I appreciate more than clarity. There is nothing Twilight Velvet appreciates more than a pony who wants more." Night Light said. "The cause you're championing with us is your own cause. Or at least, that is what I hope it will be, though not out of selfishness, rather of a shared... apotheosis."

Sel Lech appeared to appreciate the florid turn of phrase. "I feel a question coming."

Night Light beckoned Sel to join him at one the small sitting rooms off the foyer. "What job begins without an interview? What new life begins without the Sun and Princess speaking it into being?" The two stallions sat across from each other across a coffee table. "What do you want for the future, Sel?"

“Wow, spring a question like that on a pony with no time to prepare.” Sel laughed nervously. "I can only reiterate what I have already said. I am unhappy. I try damn hard for no improvement in my lot!" He sighed. "It would not be so bad if I had different company. Ponies tell me I'm privileged, being a noble and all, but from where I sit that is bunk! Sure, ponies pretend like there's always a new opportunity right around the corner, but this city is fixed against ponies like us, the 'petty nobles'. Even commoners can get fat and happy off trade or loaning money. My caste-anointed opportunity is choosing which ennobled backside to kiss. I am as much a whore as the sods shuffling into the satanic mills of Baltimare or Manehattan, a solder in another pony's war."
Sel Lech gradually worked himself into a silent anger as he spoke. "And what a war it is! Endless squabbling, noble feuds, politicking, Imperial Court drama, positioning for the useless Estates..."

"We live in a time of enormous material and moral deterioration, Sel Lech." Night Light agreed. "But I asked you for the future, not the present."

Sel hesitated again. "There are many kinds of ponies who have ideas for this society's future; The reformers, the revolutionaries, the anti-monarchists, the salon philosophizers of all stripe."

"And you can't chose between them. Why? Because you don't have the clarity (there is that word again) to determine which of those groups would do best by you." Night Light smiled thinly, his eyes narrowing. "The Equestrian system of government is supposed to be by and for us the nobles, but it has cheated you out of your fair share! You are not getting what you deserve, you think. But the alternate systems have been dreamed up by commoners, liberal nobles, merchants, and workers. They are the ponies accusing you of being privileged, you say." Night Light's smile deepened. He had Sel Lech Sabonord pinpointed. "You came to Velvet and I because you think we have a different vision that can elevate you to the position you deserve: We are the redemption of the alienated petty noble."

Sel Lech gnawed his lip. "We are not of too different background, my lord. As you strive to 'apotheosize' yourself, it would make sense you would uplift your class compatriots."

"And all the reform, violence, or revolution other idealists conjure up, you expect to be wielded for your own advancement instead." Night Light said. "When phrased that way, you could even consider yourself selfless."

"The coy turn of phrase is why you are the lord, and I the knight." Sel Lech demurred.

Night Light shook his head. "This is my daughter's castle, Sel, but this is Velvet's and my cause." He tapped the table. "But what if you discover our mission is not what you expected? What if we use you and toss you away for cynical purposes?"

Sel was silent for a moment. "Would you?"

Night Light shrugged. “You know it is a possibility. Where the winds of profit blow, so soon too does action."

Sel averted his eyes. "Then... It's up to me to be the profit you need me to be. Everything I need and want for myself, I have to deliver a hundred times more for you. I must be indispensable, so that when you rise, so do I."

"Then you accept that you will be working with a threadbare of information, and expected to do what we ask thoughtlessly and thanklessly?" Night Light asked.

Sel licked his lips as he mulled over Night Light's words. “I hope your plans are good, or I will look very silly for perishing for them.”

Night Light was liking Sel Lech more and more. The young stallion was lucky he and Velvet had tapped him before a more abusive master. “Today begins without perishing, Sir Sabonord."

Sel jumped into a standing position. "I am at your ear, my lord, truly!" He bowed his head. "Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. When you approached me yesterday..."

"One day ago is hardly time enough to get caught in reminiscences." Night Light stood up too. "Sir, we must discuss today's plan."

"As you wish." Sel nodded, immediately falling into the courtier role.

"It is with great regret that I must inform you that the backside-kissing is not over for us. But this time, they are the mark, not you." Night Light said. "Your cousin Seacrest is in town, and we will be introducing him to the noble courts and societies of Canterlot."

Sel looked very confused. “I don't know of any cousin of mine named Seacrest.”

Night Light shook his head. “That hardly matters. What matters is that he adores your cousin Countess Glori Sabonord, and will probably adore you. This is helpful because he styles himself Lord Blackhorn of Canterlot.”

Sel balked. He opened his mouth to say protest, then closed it again, speechless. He glanced up and down the foyer as if a passer-by might hear a vital word. Night Light allowed the unicorn his time to think.

“This is as dire as it is amazing.” Sel finally said. “A Blackhorn pretender still alive? Of course Glori would have had a lost prince in her back pocket, the smug donkey. If you think I have his ear, or even his adoration-"

"We stand to gain greatly. And yes, we have more than his ear. We have his...” Night Light rolled his hoof rhetorically. “Attention.”

“I was ginned up for violence and revolution barely but a minute ago and I'm already pulling back. Estates will be in chaos!” Sel bit his lower lip nervously. His eyes unfocused for a minute as all the possibilities ran through his mind.

Night Light patted him on the shoulder. “Let Velvet handle the Estates. Your job will be Seacrest. To begin with, at least.”

“Um, okay. What would you have him hear from me?” Sel asked.

“Nothing unhewn yet. Be his friend for now, act like you've heard about him and his great character from Glori. Be deferential, but offer advice on little things, so that he will be comfortable listening when your words become important.” Night Light said this with practiced ease. Three decades of marriage to Twilight Velvet gave a stallion an aptitude for discreet affectation. “Most importantly, don’t let anything he says surprise you. If he grew up in Prancia county with Countess Glori he may have taken up the decadent character of their nobility. Take everything in stride.”

"Does he speak Prancian?" Sel asked.

"No, Equestrian. He has a bit of an accent, but it is hard to recognize it as Prancian." Night Light paused. "Fair warning, this Blackhorn prince might be a fake."

"What difference does it make?" Sel said. "Besides if he fears discovery of his ruse, the more easily he can be shepherded; As long as the most credulous, stupid, and powerful nobles are convinced by him."

"Yes, you're a devious little colt." Night Light grunted. "If you want to solicit as well as pamper the Blackhorn Prince, then go for it. You surely know what it is the Canterlot lords like. Make sure Seacrest Blackhorn is a suitable article."

"Who is the whore now." Sel Lech said with premature conceit.

Voices carried through the castle. Seacrest and Velvet entered the foyer, the latter laughing at something the former had said. Night Light gave Sel Lech a nod, and Sel rose and trotted over to the pair. Night Light stayed out of earshot of Sel's introduction, but Seacrest looked quite pleased with him and the two began to talk.

Velvet took the opportunity of the cousins' conversation to break away.
“I'm finding this more tedious than I expected. Fortunately Sel has taken it quite well.” She whispered.

“He is a natural, hmm?” Night Light wondered.

“Probably not.” Velvet said dismissively. “I’m sure he had lots of practice as a court rat.”

"He has ego and ambition and only has stunted ways to express it." Night Light reported. "Since he hopes to express it through our work, he has the potential to be both an effective and loyal ally."

"So we pat him on the head and give him a treat now and then, and we see if he can fetch. There will be no need to keep him around if he can not." Velvet watched Sel out of the corner of her eye.

The day's new introductions were far from over.
The entry doors of the Chateau la Garde were pushed open slowly, and a new pony entered. He was fully concealed under a black cloak and cowl, like a gothic monk or artistic rendition of Death. The pony stood in silence as the doors slowly swung shut behind him.

Velvet looked the new arrival up and down. The concealed pony turned its cloaked head towards her. How blinkered its vision must have been to have to look through the heavy fabric.

"Velvet, who the hell is that?" Night Light whispered. He could not see a millimeter of the pony's fur, just parts of its white mane and blue tail.

"A very expensive fulfillment order." Velvet said. She turned back to her two guests. “My lord Seacrest, yesterday I requested a very special servant to assist us!”

Seacrest boldly approached the arrival as Sel Lech hung back. “Oh? How was this pony meant to assist us when he was not here! Psha! Took his time, didn't he?" Seacrest waved an accusing hoof at the concealed pony. "What do you have to say for yourself?”

The cloaked servant ran his hoof across his throat and gave an airy gasp.

Seacrest looked momentarily shocked, then began to laugh. “Ha! A mute servant, how novel! Glori would always threaten to cut her servants' tongues out.”

“A depreciating factor indeed.” Velvet agreed. "As a claimant to Canterlot you are a stallion in need of discretion-"

“Cousin Glori gave me a mute dog for my tenth birthday. Well, he wasn't mute at first, but he barked too much. He was the most lovable tramp, but he developed a bit of a biting problem.” Seacrest reminisced. He turned back to the servant. "And the rags? Is the rest of you as gutted as your vocal cords?"

Velvet spoke up. "As I was saying, you must be careful of the company you keep, if you are really to challenge the crown for your rights to Canterlot. Hence this mute. This servant has no other choice but to be devoted to us, Lord Seacrest. The world is cruel to whose with disabilities, but as long as assistance is loyally rendered we will be gracious to them."

"We are constantly gracious, Lady Velvet." Sel Lech chimed in, earning an approving nod from Seacrest.

Only Night Light remained off-put by the concealed servant. "Can he write his name?"

“I wouldn't worry about that. He's nopony special. Blind service is his name, for all intents and purposes.” Velvet said.

“Well then I'll call him Moler, after that old dog I mentioned.” Seacrest turned to the newly dubbed Moler. “Though if you develop a biting problem I will have to ask Velvet to put you down.”

"No dogcatcher I, my lord." Velvet joined him in a laugh.

Though acting outwardly cheerful while Seacrest was looking, Sel Lech's expression turned to restrained disgust once the prince's back was turned. Night Light shot him a sympathetic look.

"You are a very thoughtful mare, Lady Velvet." Seacrest grinned ear-to-ear. "I could never regret coming to Canterlot now."

"Excellent.” Velvet said, starting for the door. “Now let us be off. We have many more introductions to make today.”

The other ponies filed out the door to Velvet’s waiting carriage, but Velvet herself hung back for parting words with her maid. "Why is that 'servant' showing up today? What is the Guild Mistress playing at?"

"I would not know m'lady." The maid bowed.

Velvet pondered it for a while. "Playing the double game with the Musician's Guild is easily the most deadly part of this plan. I was glad to hear about Deeper Fellowship convulsing on his floor the other night... But if it is found out I hired the same rogue assassin I ratted on to the Guild, I expect the Guild Mistress to send me a different kind of present."

"The assassin you hired may have some rapport with the Guild Mistress we did not know about." The maid speculated. "Still it would be wise to look the gift horse in the mouth."

"Obviously." Velvet said. "If we are lucky, the solution to several riddles has fallen into our lap." She mimicked the sound of a latch coming undone.

"Above your magnificent wits and beauty, the Sun has blessed you with luck, m'lady." The maid bowed again. "Is that all?"

"Yup." Velvet glanced over her shoulder at the other ponies waiting around carriage. "Hold it down here. if any other Blackhorns come around, do away with them." Velvet grinned at her unfunny joke. "They are, as they say, surplus to requirement."

Twilight Sparkle partially woke up as the sun came up, and after a little tossing and turning fully woke up and began reading in bed. Since she had chosen sleep over studying all night, she had a lot of information to get through before her day's obligations began.

It was a few hours later when a rustle from downstairs on the library’s entry floor pulled Twilight's attention from her book. She pushed herself off the bed and trotted out to the loft and looked around. The Oak's red door to the outside had been pushed open. Twilight was cautious to reveal herself as she descended the stair, until she could see a familiar unicorn perusing the history section.

“Ah! Good morning Lady Twilight.” Rarity said, returning the book she had been inspecting to its shelf. "You look very pretty this morning."

“Thank you, and good morning to you too Mis..." Twilight scrutinized the mare. The white unicorn didn't look very well rested. "Rarity." Twilight said, finally remembering the name.

Rarity smiled. "Thank you."

"I didn't realize ponies could just come in here. Did I lock the door? Well, regardless." Twilight cleared her throat. "While your'e here, I have a few questions about Ponyville."

"That's marvelous darling. It had crossed my mind that I could help you with something while I return my books." Rarity fluttered her lashes.

"You might have seen the other day when I pulled some of the records out of your abandoned town hall. I was going through those to get a better idea about this village's demographics, you know, to help me get a full picture of this place. Spike and I are working on a map." Twilight explained. "The records are semi-rationally laid out, I'm pleased to say. It lists every pony in Ponyville, their marital status, and the property they own. It looks like more ponies than I was expecting though, far more than I can commit to memory before my ultimate deadline at the Summer Sun."

"That sounds like an ambitious undertaking m'lady." Rarity said.

"I'm pretty good about remembering stuff, especially spells. I'll admit though, I'm better at remembering historical figures than living ponies, even if I meet them. Nevertheless I'm going to try to meet all the Ponyvillians. I have heard it claimed that patron-clientele relationships on a first name basis outperform more formal relationships by thirty percent." Twilight rattled off. "I intend to establish a neighborly, nigh on fraternal rapport with you Ponyvillians! That brings me around to my question."

Rarity cocked her head.

Twilight did not like the blank look Rarity was now giving her. "How quickly do you think you Ponyvillians will consider me one of your own and be fully willing to participate in my projects in that communal village spirit of yours."

"Well..." Rarity squinted. "My lady, I wonder if you have the right frame of mind for this effort of yours. Your words come off, you know, condescending."

"Condescending." Twilight repeated. "You think I'm condescending."

"I think that, to some ponies who won't understand your words in the right context, your statement could be interpreted that way." Rarity said. "While I know and wholeheartedly sympathize with your intentions, some ponies wouldn't. Not from lack of respect mind you."

Twilight could tell Rarity was hedging her words. "Which ponies do you mean?"

"Oh you know, the farmers. Traditionally independent, strong-headed, distrustful of outsiders... the farmers would worry you were trying to trick them." Rarity said. "They are a proper sack of potatoes, not even friendly with their neighbors, only friendly with the land. This is not some anti-earth pony screed I assure you, for there are such farmers of all tribes in this region."

Twilight had been tired out just listening to Rarity evasive elaborations. "If you say so."

“I am glad you understand Lady Twilight." Rarity said. "Though, not to change the topic of conversation too greatly, only may I ask, why you have a dress on at this early hour?"

Twilight was confused until she remembered she had on a nightgown. It was just a thinner lighter version of the plain linen dresses she liked. Rarity must have drawn the connection too. "Prefer I wear something you made, to what I brought from Canterlot?"

"No, no." Rarity said apologetically. "I was not thinking straight and imagined that it ran counter to the 'mare-of-the-ponies' vision of fraternal rapport you are espousing."

"Oh so I was being condescending again." Twilight rolled her eyes. "Mis Rarity if I really want to adorn myself in the most extravagant styles of Canterlot aristocracy, it would not look too different to some of the wilder apparel I saw in your tailor shop."

"My lady, you keep getting the wrong idea! I was about to pivot to complementing your natural form and coat." Rarity said.

Twilight sighed. "Thanks, but I'm not that self-conscious about my fur or mane anymore. I'll take fashion advice when I ask for it." After a moment she added. "And when I need a farmpony whisperer, I think I'll ask the actual farmpony I know."

Rarity pursed her lips. "I will leave if you wish for me to, Lady Twilight."

Twilight recognized she had gone a bit too far. Now it was her turn to bake her words. "Oh I didn't mean it like that. Just... You are being very formal, with counsel and flattery, like you were a courtier or something. The fact is, I'm not holding court. I just said I was trying to be unpretentious with your Ponyvillians. I know you are skeptical, but if you respect me you'll play along anyway."

Rarity dwelled on that for a moment. "It is my duty to honor and respect a wellborn mare such as yourself. Especially a representative of the princess."

The mention of the princess made Twilight shiver. "Yes, it's everypony's duty, when it's convenient." Twilight said. "Just be friendly. Don't insult me, don't kiss my ass, and that will be good enough for me. In that spirit, I apologize if anything I've said so far hurt your feelings. I know I was sharp with my words."

"Then I echo that apology, my lady." Rarity said. "Though... you still desired what input I could provide on your 'town planning' project, right? I thought you said as much yesterday."

"Who can remember what they said yesterday." Twilight joked flatly. She moved to the kitchen and began boiling water for tea. "Mis Rarity, this is one thing I would indeed value your input on. If it works out we can collaborate more and more on this, and perhaps other things."

Rarity sighed. “I'm glad. I should like to ask something of you first.”

Twilight set the kettle down. "What, like a favor."

"Well, not as such, but to a degree yes." Rarity said evasively.

"Just be straightforward with me and say you want a favor." Twilight was not eager to set a precedent. If ponies started thinking they could get bargains from her on their terms, not hers, she might as well give up trying to get respect from the Ponyvillians. She was a noble lady, a part of the feudal hierarchy of Equestria, not a wheeler-dealer merchant.

“Nothing unreasonable I promise.” Rarity continued.

Twilight brought the tea set to the library and set on the center table. “Go on then.”

Rarity cleared her throat. “It has to do with the other Ponyvillians. Since you spurn my advice, I hope you find another pony to illuminate which mares are trustworthy, and which mares may have ulterior motives."

Twilight knew immediately what Rarity was talking about. "You want me to avoid Applejack."

Rarity shrugged. "It is what I would do if I were you, my lady."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Actually Applejack is not an associated with this project yet, due to her objections to working with you.”

Rarity sloughed in relief. “I am sure that relieves her as much as you.”

“I'm not done yet.” Twilight interrupted. "Applejack WILL be working with me eventually. I expressed my interest, so I will not back down, no, because if I stop pursuing her now it will look like I relented. I want to be a fair pony but I'm not going to be a pushover.”

Rarity's expression turned visibly sour. "My Lady, I have a difficult time connecting your sentences together. Do you think about your sentences before you say them?"

Twilight glared. "You've been very cheeky with me, Mis Rarity."

"Oh yes? Are you going to use your royal prerogative to shut me up? I get that impression of you half the time, and the other half I hear go-along-to-get-along charm." Rarity said. "And Applejack, oh Applejack..." Her nose wrinkled. "That mare is not as she seems."

"And what of you, mis Rarity? I hope your boxing match payed out well for you." Twilight countered.

Rarity looked momentarily abashed, shying away and trying to cover her bruises. "Applejack struck me yesterday, you know. Yet her dark cleverness outshines her brutishness." Rarity insisted. "Applejack lived in Manehattan for many years, one of the few ponyvillians to rove abroad. She is a far better manipulator than I am!"

"What proof do you have?" Twilight challenged.

Rarity tapped the side of her head. "That you suspect me and not her should prove it to you. You may think me familiar and antagonistic, but that means I do not hide what I think."

"Manehattan..." Twilight had never been to Manehattan, the largest and most prosperous of the 'Free Cities' on Equestria's eastern coast. It was as important to Earth Pony power and culture as Canterlot was to the Unicorns, so it made some sense that Applejack would seek a fortune there. However, Manehattan (and all the other Free Cities for that matter) was notorious as dens of ambitious tricksters, merchants with ambitions outstripping their finances. “What kind of goals could a peasant farmer have?”

“What all ponies want: Fame, glory, to be recognized across all of Equestria.” Rarity pushed her mane back gesturally. "If you ask her, perhaps she will give you a hint."

Twilight was silent for a while. "I do not think I would be able to put together the pieces as well as you do. Yes... I doubt I'd notice the subtle tells that she was hiding something from me."

Rarity caught on to Twilight's insinuations. She poured herself a cup of tea. "I was horribly tormented by a bad dream last night. I am embarrassed to say I fell off my bed. Then my bedside book fell on me." She explained. "That, in addition to Applejack's assault, is to blame for my dishevelment. It is nothing sinister, I assure you."

"A bad dream?" Twilight also poured herself some tea. "In the last few years dream magic has been coming a long way. We are learning which bad dreams are supernatural Nightmares, and which are pure fantasies of the mind. If you'd like, I could test your-"

"My lady, respectfully, the dream's horror was accentuated by dark reminiscence of a private nature." Rarity said.

It would be easy to assume Rarity was still being only half-truthful, but Twilight glimpsed moments of genuine fear at the remembered dream-vision.
The mares sat in silence as they finished their cups of tea.

Rarity returned her cup to the tea set and stood up. "I should be going now. Any antagonism or annoyance I caused you-"

"No need to apologize. You were just trying to be helpful, and I know I'm not an easy mare to work with in my own right." Twilight said, accompanying Rarity to the door. "As we get to know each other we will figure out why lines not to cross."

"Yes..." Rarity glanced away.

Twilight sighed. "Listen, take this however you like, but I am going to try to sort things out between you and Mis Applejack. At the very least I am going to get her to stop assaulting you. I would be mortified if the princess found out the ponies under my purview were brawling with each other."

"Under your purview, are we?" Rarity scowled. "Then arrest the mare. She's a menace."

"I want to see what Applejack has to say for herself before I take any action.”

Rarity's eyes widened. "This is unfair! I'm here now! I have this plan in my hoof! You can't listen to that lying mud-"

"Come back at noon, please." Twilight interrupted harshly. "I like you Rarity, but I have chosen a way to do things."

Rarity let out a hiss of frustration, then she gave a shallow curtsy. “As you wish. I will be coming with some ideas with your Ponyville improvement project too.” She said with eyes afire. She backed out of the library and shut the door behind herself.

Twilight let out a sigh, something she had caught herself doing often. Like she'd insisted to Rarity, Twilight was committed to forcing the two quarreling ponyvillians, Rarity and Applejack, to get along to assist her. But what if things went too far? Having a villager kill another because of her misguided efforts would not impress Celestia in the slightest.
"And forget Celestia, I don't know if I could get over the guilt of something like that." Twilight said to herself.

Who else did Twilight had on her side besides those two? Spike of course, and the two other mares she had met, Pinkie Pie and that yellow pegasus, Futter-something...

Thinking back, Twilight had forgotten to ask Rarity how she was going to offer suggestions without taking notes on Twilight's survey so she could accommodate them. Clearly the white unicorn had her own intentions. Twilight was going to have to wrangle the different visions of the ponies she convinced to help her, separate form the issue of getting their help in the first place! Who was to say she would not have more headache with assistants than doing all the work herself? This was a puzzle Celestia must have intentionally thrown her way.
Twilight wondered if the friendly, helpful mares, Pinkie Pie and that yellow pegasus, weren't the most suspect. What hidden intentions did they have?

"I really should have written down that pegasus' name."

Twilight almost laughed at this thought. In her haste, she was pushing tasks onto perfect strangers and expecting results. She lacked the groundwork of a real organization! Twilight had studied plenty of organizations, historically speaking, but hardly organized something herself on a larger scale than a study group. Ponies didn't just respond to orders, but to guiding principles, duty, and drive. What did she actually have to offer the mares she was trying to hire? Yes, even if she did convince them, complaints, factionalism, chaos, and collapse was all that could result.

But like she had said, Twilight was still committed. "I'm not going to rationalize myself out of hard work. I have to do it because it is hard!"

Twilight told herself that getting over her ingrained antipathy to other ponies was already half the battle. So, since she had accepted she needed them, the rest would be easy, right?
Though with different rationalizations and strategies bouncing around Twilight's head, just like Rarity had snidely observed, Twilight was not convinced of her latest plan either. Doubt weighed heavily on her.

"How did the ancient conquerors solidify power and permanence? My ancestors on my father's side were among the classical unicorn warlords of Foal!" Twilight wondered to herself. "Did ancient princes, who had massive warbands hanging on their word, whose blood is in me, doubt themselves before the decisive moment?"

Did Celestia doubt herself?

"But enough talk!" Twilight rapidly pushed away thoughts of Celestia again. Action!
And that action, like she had promised, was to stick herself between the feuding mares, Rarity and Applejack. Rarity, a clever but cagey aspirant who reminded Twilight of so many courtier hangers on. Applejack, a seemly archetypal farmer of honest stock, but whose defensiveness and unfriendliness gave credence to all suspicions.

Canterlot ponies were rarely so forthright with their recriminations, nor did they so openly display their distaste for their peers. For every insult there was a ceremony, and for every controversy there was a committee. Yes, Twilight had disliked her law classes, but perhaps there was opportunity in for Twilight to make her own law: All in the name of the contradictory pursuits of justice, neighborly fraternity, accommodation, hard work, and conquest. Simply put, she had to bridle and harness those troublesome mares.

It wasn't until five minutes before he was supposed to speak to his compatriots that, Blueblood, noble of Canterlot, put two and two together, finally realizing that his last meal with his ally Deeper Frie Fellowship had been where the late unicorn had been poisoned. Deeper, found too late by a mistress in one of his Old Town flats, had been pronounced dead in the early hours. Cause of death had not been posted yet. Rumor said it was an overdose of some stimulant, taken in anticipation of his mistress's visit. Some cynical ponies said poisoning.

"Poison. The meal that pony gave him." Blueblood gnawed on his hoof, slouched in his office's chair, staring at the floor. "I watched him kill himself. I didn't stop him. But... No, he would have laughed me off. And how could I have known?"

Blueblood and Deeper had not been especially close, exemplified by the latter blowing off his ally on many occasions to pursue side projects. Still Blueblood had known the weighty stallion well enough to understand his likes, dislikes, fears, and ambitions. They had been in the same racket.

"Who the hell would kill him though? The poor fool wasn't a threat to anypony. An angry buisness partner he never told me about?" Blueblood rocked back in his chair, sighing deeply.

Blueblood, stage alias "Prince Blueblood", was a white unicorn, stout, with golden hair and a compass rose mark. He very infrequently spoke at conversational level, dancing between demanding shouts and snide whispers in public. Everypony knew he was not a very capable politician- He had no instincts for dealmaking, nor when to press an advantage or back down when outmatched. However, he was charming to a particular kind of proud noble, who saw in him a vehicle for their own interests in Canterlot. He knew how to make friends and promises, and how to make ponies forget when he failed those promises.

But how did a pony like Prince Blueblood go in front of his allies and lackeys in the Black Horn Council and not voice his suspicions about Deeper's death? Under normal circumstances he would never doubt his ability to put on a performance, to go in front of his modest organization and act mournful, hopeful, perhaps even resolute, in the face of their compatriot's passing. But could he do it now?

There was a knock at the door of his office. A mare poked her head in. "Prince Blueblood, ponies are getting worried." She stepped fully into the room.
In world of noble hierarchy, title was paramount. But Aurthora Airy, Viscountess of one of Canterlot's wall castles, looked to Blueblood with deference, not for his un-bestowed prince rank, but because she considered him more senior in the Black Horn Council. Viscountess Aurthora was a mighty mare, physically imposing in height and musculature. She was brown (unflatteringly, mud brown), with a jet black mane that she let grow. She had few friends, no callers, no courtiers, letting the Black Horn Council serve as her social nexus in the Canterlot web.

Blueblood, for his part, respected Aurthora more than most of the degenerates in his club. Looking past her, to the hallway filled with the kind of opportunists and charlatans attracted to the Black Horn Council, he was tempted to invite her in to share his dark suspicions.
But what kind of suspicions would that give to the others?

"They have the right to feel however they want." Blueblood cleared his throat and jumped up from his chair. He put on his cockiest smile. "Come on then, let's hold a successful meeting, aye?"

"Just, uh, a normal meeting?" Aurthora hesitated.

"Oh, we'll talk about Deeper, though we shouldn't make a huge deal out of it. Carrying on with Order buisness is the best way to honor him." Blueblood assured her. "Ponies come and go from our hall all the time. We remember them all fondly. Those that deserve it, anyhow."

Aurthora silently accepted his words. She preceded him out of the office. "Alright everypony, into the meeting room!"

Meanwhile, a merry band was making its way through the Old Town streets towards the Blackhorn Council's hall.

Fancy Pants starting to feel better about the state of things in Canterlot since his embarrassing meeting with Lady Twilight Velvet. Falling back into routine imperial work, he assured himself that his agent Lyra Heartstrings was progressing on her mission, and that all the tools of Velvet's containment would be on his desk once he got around to it.

Sir Pants was outside the castle library, consulting with one of the castle's pages about a finer point of feudal law relevant to an upcoming Imperial Court meeting, when a messenger galloped up to him.
"Is it something sensitive, that must be kept private?" Fancy Pants set aside the document he was examining and folded up his reading glasses.

"I don't think so sir." The young messenger said. "It is from Lady Upper Crust in Old Town."

"Ah." Fancy Pants nodded. Upper Crust was a minor noble adjacent to Estates politicking. Fancy Pants had met her a few times, where she had expressed interest in supporting the Imperial Court against Estates interference, for the right price. "Yes, I doubt she has anything to say of national importance, requiring secrecy." He said, drawing snickers from the pages helping him with the documents.

"Yes, sir." The messenger cleared his throat. "Lady Upper Crust wished to relay that certain friends of her ladyship were attracting big attention in the Old Town, spending large amounts on clothes and jewelry, and generally being ostentatious. She believed this was worthy of your interest, sir."

Fancy Pants scowled. "Is this a joke, or infantile code? What does she mean by saying 'certain friends' of hers were attracting attention to themselves?" He tapped impatiently. "That wasn't rhetorical, lad. Tell me what she meant."

"Well, sir, I was called into the room at the tail end of Lady Crust's deliberations on her message. I think she was talking about her majesty the princess's student." The messenger said.

After a moment of silence, Fancy Pants sighed and pushed away his work. "No, the other damn Twilight." He didn't know the scope of the issue yet, but he still mentally cleared away his schedule for the rest of the day. If Twilight Velvet was attracting so much attention that an unobservant amateur like Upper Crust noticed, then Fancy Pants worried about an event of Canterlot-wide significance.

"I won't be making the court meeting today boys. Hope you can make do without me." Fancy Pants apologized to the pages. "And... let's put together an Imperial Council meeting in an hour, just for good measure."

When Velvet entered the Black Horn Council hall, their meeting was already in progress. They met nearly every day, since the dedicated members and leaders had nothing better to do, though a rotating band of nobles, shopkeepers, artists, troublemakers, and idealists attended every so often to keep in touch. The Black Horns represented, in principle, a mostly harmless challenge to Celestiaan rule of Canterlot, and those who blamed their failure on the status-quo heard things they liked in the message of the club: Canterlot should be run by the local unicorn elite, not the lethargic imperial administration that had a whole continent to govern.

Velvet had been to several Black Horn Council meetings, mostly in her youth when she had rapidly cycled through several idealistic beliefs, home rule for Canterlot being one of them. At the time, the Black Horns had been led by stuffy and out-of-touch nobles who kept out commoners out of membership. Now they were eager for any and all members, which had given the club a much less refined culture and approach to Estates politics. Of course casual elitism and classism was still entrenched, as it was in all of Canterlot. Plus the debauched criminality of the Black Horns had likely gone down with the inclusion of commoners.

Looking around the room, Velvet could see her fellow attendees looked positively bored. That day they were mostly of the urban nobility, unimportant and uninfluential, with a few exceptions. Velvet supposed most of them had been driven to the Black Horns out of a misguided belief that they could improve their lot. Devoid of responsibility and loyalty, the urban nobles held frequent gatherings and led many varied causes. While most smug nobles held society parties, the less distinguished nobles joined political parties. The multitudinous petty nobleponies where ponies of pastimes.
Velvet remembered herself being drawn to it and similar organizations, and every day her zeal for action and confrontation had cooled, until she realized she had to play the long game and petty social clubs pretending to be subversive would do nothing for her.

Velvet wished she could be the icon of those bored looking ponies. She knew she could voice their unformed anxiety much better than anypony, and could wield them better than they could wield themselves.
But who was Velvet? A minor noble from a minor family, married into a dying ancient dynasty. Even her well-placed children didn't give her much legitimacy.

Legitimacy! Velvet knew she had the will and power to lead, to implement her designs for the world. Only, Equestria did not recognize her right to rule yet. They did not see her for what she was yet. They would, in due time.

Tuning back in to the meeting conversation, Velvet listened to them discuss the Estates and the Speakers.

"... so, with the preliminary procedural meetings coming up in the next few weeks, we want to have several motions ready, so we can know how to lobby during procedures." Blueblood was at the head of a table, glancing between his meeting minutes and random ponies around the table. "We need a unified position this time. We can't have members working against each other again just because they're not communicating and not on the same page."

"Sabotaging your compatriots is grounds for expulsion." Aurthora Airy, immediately to Blueblood's left, added.

Blueblood leaned back in his chair. "Well... Let's be careful about- You know, we want to make sure its sabotage and not an accident." He cleared his throat. "But yes, if you're messing around, we won't."

Nopony at the table was buying Blueblood's tough words, their attention wandering the room.

"Anyhow, we have our very own Plenty Song here today, Lady Countess of Lower Whitetail! She's here to represent herself in the Estates instead of engaging with a Speaker next session." Blueblood tried to sound adulatory. "Lady Song has been contracting us to provide her feudal title with Estates representation for several years. A few of us have stood as her Speaker, myself included. We are very glad that she is joining our meeting during her precious time in the Capital."

The so noted mare, Countess Plenty Song, stood up and bowed. She didn't wait for any claps (not that they were forthcoming) before sitting back down.
Velvet appraised the little countess. She was not much to look at, befitting her joke of a county, smaller than most viscounties or particularly large backyards: Pale blue coat topped by a marshy green mane. She had the look of being badly emaciated, so thin and sullen was she. She was a match for the rest of the losers in the room, but because she had the county title, she had the right of membership or representation in the Estates of Equestria.

"Lady Song, I hope to help and guide you ably during the Estates. It can be an intimidating event for even experienced Speakers." Blueblood nodded to the countess. "Um, yes, let's see..." He read over his notes. " We have three other Speakers under contract with lords across Equestria. That places us squarely in the middle, in terms of clubs or orders organizing for the Estates. Despite our recent setback concerning our friend Deeper Frie Fellowship, we're very proud of the progress we're making in Canterlot."

"Oh, yes, I just remembered, I drew up examples of the kinds of motion we should be preparing before the procedural meetings." Aurthora chirped. She fetched a scroll for her bag and passed it to the next pony over. "It's a motion I made for last session that didn't get elevated, but I'm still rather proud of it if you want to give it a read."

Blueblood paused. "Yes... That would have been good to bring up earlier, because I wasn't done talking about- Well, nevermind. Just pass it around the room. Anypony interested in writing a motion for the Black Horn Council to submit should give it a quick read." None of the attendees were even bothering to unroll it to look at it, just passing it along. "Also, let's learn from past mistakes. No grammatical errors, no grease stains, no overt disparaging of Pegasi or Earth Ponies. None of that, everypony."

The scroll made its way around to Velvet, who actually bothered to examine it. It was near nonsense, a motion that the Estates should 'honor Canterlot' as a city of Equestrian splendor. Waste of ink, she thought.

Blueblood was droning on. "If there are no objections, I would like to go over some of the highlights of the last Estates; What factional lines formed, which Speakers had sway, which motions moved up and down the body. We have more funding to play with this session, so I think we could bring a few Speakers to our side from other lords we don't have on contract."

Velvet wrinkled her nose. It was getting nauseous to play along. She stood up, knocking her chair away.
"How about you use that money for something useful." She said, her voice overpowering Blueblood's and echoing around the hall.

Blueblood stopped mid sentence. He met Velvet's gaze, examining her for several moments, then exchanged whispers with Aurthora. "Lady Twilight Velvet, of house Twilight-Bright.” He said for the benefit of the other ponies. “I did not notice your presence or I would have made a point to welcome you.”

"Blueblood, I am a mare fonder of history than committees like this. I know the Black Horn Council best as a knightly order, loyal servants to house Blackhorn, ready to lay their life on the line in the name of chivalry and their liege." Velvet said, slightly chiding. There was no question she was embellishing history, not that any of the audience knew or cared. "The Blackhorn dynasty of Canterlot ruled a proud and independent principality. Yet the order, this Black Horn Council once organized for their honor... obsesses over meaningless points of procedure in the Imperial Estates."

"Lady Velvet, you are a learned mare and your point is well made, but it is not relevant. Do not be upset for I will explain. The Black Horns stand as the representatives of Canterlot! We are still true warriors of this grand city, and we are the only ones who fight for Canterlot's rights. It is our duty and privilege to fight for her sovereignty and that of her unicorn inhabitants.” Blueblood cast a critical eye over the crowd. "That is how we serve the memory of the house of Blackhorn."

“I'm not upset, and I did not come here for welcome, but for business.” Velvet struck a confident tone. “My business is Canterlot too. Dare I say, I aim for a much greater transformation than you do.”

“You came here for Canterlot?” Blueblood asked, though he looked confused. "Uh, Sorry but, um..." He exchanged whispers with Aurthora again. "Ahem, lady Velvet, I would love to talk with you after the meeting. This is time where we, you know, handle our administrative stuff."

“Yes, but what emptiness there is behind those reflex motions, when it's not serving your real goals?” Velvet said, rolling with it. Blueblood was capable as a socialite and a speaker, and his instinct was to assuage a higher ranking noble. But where did a fake prince rank against the mother-regent of a viscountess? The ambiguity pulled him out of his element.
“If you were committed to the duties of a member of the Black Horn Council, you would be shedding blood every day to restore Canterlot and its ponies."

"If you shed blood every day you would surely die." Aurthora noted flatly.

"Would you not die for your cause, like your late friend Sir Frie Fellowship did?" Velvet demanded.
Obviously, most of the attendees had no intention to work up a sweat for a cause, let alone shed blood. But with evocative enough language, Blueblood's tenuous authority over them could be bent.

Blueblood exchanged yet more whispers with Aurthora. “What you voice is the same as what we want, my lady. You don't need to remind us that Canterlot deserves more power and status. Again, I do not wish to upset you, but you seem to have come just to cause a scene.” He looked around the room, and was dismayed more ponies were looking at Velvet than at him. "Lady Velvet, please take your leave of the meeting. We should talk later."

“Not without revealing the truth, Prince Blueblood. The truth begs to be spoken of, relished, followed. The truth I speak of is Canterlot's status as seat of house Blackhorn.” Velvet paused for dramatic effect. Oh, how the fools around her salivated about ideas like truth and righteousness. “Behold your redemption.”

At that signal, the doors to the meeting hall where thrown open, and a shaft of light pierced the gloomy space. A pony's silhouette darkened the doorway, and as the light equalized the countenance of a unicorn could be distinguished.

Velvet had made certain Seacrest looked every inch the charming and ambitious unicorn lord. It had been no small feat, requiring hours at spa, salon, tailor, and Sel Lech's constant intervention to placate the whiny lordling. Seacrest Blackhorn's glittering robe and cyan coat rippled in an imagined wind. His mane had been braided in imitation of the old Blackhorn princes, as had his tail. The arrogant smile and posture was all Seacrest.

“A Blackhorn has returned to Canterlot.” Velvet intoned with near religious reverence, enrapturing the attention of everypony present. “We are inaugurating a new age for Canterlot. Were you a real knight of this order, you would bow to your prince!"

Near every member of the Black Horn Council rose from their chairs as though in a trance, and kneeled. They were drinking it in! They were tired of the same old same old, and their foggy minds willingly submitted to the lie, in the name of truth.

Velvet trotted around to Seacrest's side. She noted with some satisfaction the ponies were now kneeling towards her as well. No, she told herself, they WERE kneeling to her even if they did not realize, for without her words, the pony beside her would have been met with scoffs and mockery.
“Wasn't it worth it? I told you I'd handle this.” She whispered. She could hardly contain her grin.

“Oh yes, I love this.” Seacrest responded gleefully. “I'm so glad I have you here to guide me on such things. I won’t doubt you again, Lady Velvet.” He buzzed with excitement.
Stepping forward he continued. "My dear friend Lady Velvet is correct. I am Seacrest Blackhorn, none other, heir to the ancient Blackhorn lineage. Son of Cascade Capter of Blackhorn, son of Muer Blackhorn, am I. And above all, rightful claimant to the Principality of Canterlot."

But his strange Prancian accent pulled some of the ponies from their awed revere. Velvet knew Seacrest's narrative of a backwoods upbringing would be enticingly exotic to some, off-putting to others. The ponies wanted a leader they could identify with.
Velvet had to downplay his foreignness. “The Blackhorn dynasty has faced betrayal and repudiation before, when capricious vassals turned their back on their lord. Do not turn your back on a stallion whose unbridled love for Canterlot led him here. Abandoning safety and secrecy, he welcomed the anger of the Imperial administration so that he could help you restore honor to our city."

“What is this?!” Prince Blueblood and Aurthora Airy approached slowly and cautiously. “The Blackhorns have all died.”

Before Seacrest could give his life story, Velvet interjected. “You don't seem happy to see your new lord, Blueblood.”

Blueblood face twisted in confused horror. He looked around again. Not a single pony was looking at him. The poor stallion must have been feeling a soul-withering embarrassment and humiliation.
"Ahh..." He squeezed his eyes shut. "This..."

Velvet bore a vicious grin. The poor socialite didn't have the wherewithal to take back the initiative. He should have stood tall, called Seacrest a fake and drowned out any objections with accusatory bluster. The assembled ponies wanted strength and action. The last few minutes had been Blueblood boring them with Estates tedium, and Velvet giving them a show.

Watching Blueblood for a minute longer, making sure he would not rise from his slouch, Velvet leaned down to whisper in his ear. "I am gracious in victory, 'prince'. I do not want to poach your membership, nor your leadership."

Blueblood sighed. "Then I am to be..."

"Whatever I need." Velvet said. "I need bodies, warm bodies. Either yours or theirs." Her eyes flicked up to the other ponies. "With or without you."

Blueblood looked to Aurthora Airy, who shrugged.

“A- A thousand thousand apologies, my lord.” Blueblood's heart and pride burned with every word.

Seacrest nodded. “You are forgiven...”

“I'm Prin- ...er, Blueblood.” Blueblood said.

“He is Blueblood, my lord.” Velvet repeated, earning herself a glare from the titular prince.

Seacrest looked from Blueblood to Aurthora and the rest of the ponies. “Very good. You may direct anything else to Twilight Velvet. I tire of standing around.”

“We shall not waste a moment, Lord Blackhorn.” Velvet nodded, stepping between Seacrest and everypony else.

The rest of the little entourage Velvet had brought for Seacrest filed in: the mute servant Moler, Sel Lech Sabonord, and Night Light, entered the hall. Seacrest withdrew, and the meeting attendees began to press forward with questions.

"Where was he hiding?" One pony demanded.

"Do we attack Canterlot Castle now?" Another pony asked.

"Settle down, sirs and madams." Velvet tried to calm them. Despite her prideful thoughts, she was much more intimidated addressing the crowd when they were in her face. "We shan't be recklessly hasty with answers or actions."

"Does the princess know?" One asked, setting off a few fretful rumors. "What if Sir Blueblood was right, you should have brought this up more privately! You're going to bring down imperial retribution on us!"

Blueblood began to exert a modicum of control over his onetime followers, and pushed them back. "And you should express your doubts in private. The Black Horn Council has always been forthright in its mission! To not openly welcome our lord, a true Blackhorn, is ghastly treason to our cause and Canterlot." He said. "If you have questions, you go through me! Burdening Lady Velvet with our ignorance is equivalent to letting Lord Blackhorn down. We should be serving him, not the other way around."

So the hubbub subsided, and the attendees backed away to speculate and chatter to themselves, sharing fevered ambitions and ideas that they were sure were vindicated by the revelation of the lost Blackhorn.
Blueblood circled the room, talking to all of them, before returning to the front of the room to face Velvet again.

"I like a dog that learns new tricks quickly." Velvet chuckled.

Blueblood clearly did not appreciate her disrespect. "Lady Twilight Velvet..."

Night Light moved from the entrance to stand by his wife's side. His demeanor was stoic where Velvet's was predatory. "If rumor is to be believed, you were preparing to challenge our daughter's right to the Chateau la Garde."

"What debased villain would spread such rumors!" Aurthora Airy demanded.

Blueblood nibbled his lip. "A villain like Deeper. He was going to make a stink about it in the Estates, and demand the gatehouse complex be put under Canterlot stewardship." He muttered. "I may even have his draft motion in my office."

Velvet snickered. "How convenient that he bit it, and you are absolved at your rapacious snipe at my family. You are lucky I don't hold grudges."

Blueblood struggled to sound civil, as anger resonated through his voice. "it was merely politicking, nothing substantial. T- This reprisal is uncalled for.”

“Nothing substantial is an apt way to put it." Velvet nudged her husband, and he obliged her with a small laugh. "Gods be praised, his lordship will whip this band of fools into shape. It will become a tool of his enthronement."

Blueblood shook his head. “No games, Lady Velvet! I'm not sure where you two pretentious paupers had to slum to find that fraud, but he is no lord of mine.” Blueblood pointed to Seacrest, attended to by the mute servant Molar while the youth Sel Lech Sabonord politely fended off a few of the ponies. "For gods' sake, what is that accent? Tsch, how am I to have pride playing along with such a far-fetched charade."

“I thought you'd be happy. We're breathing new life into your organization. Seacrest is new and exciting, and will captivate everypony's interest right up until he opens his mouth.” Velvet laughed softly. “Look at you, Blueblood. Does it really give you satisfaction to preach to drooling inbreds? On the way here, I fielded countless questions by intensely curious bystanders. A mere whispered hint that he was connected to house Blackhorn sent many of them fainting. I have found just the right kindling to set the tinderbox of Canterlot alight."

"Sir, is it not for us to use and craft the resulting bursts of energy which result?" Night Light asked.

"You idiots. Do you actually want to push a confrontation with the Imperial administration? We get by because they know we're not that serious about Canterlot autonomy." Blueblood hissed, cautious not to talk too loudly.

"I'm serious about Canterlot autonomy, Prince Blueblood." Aurthora supplied.

"We live and die in the imperial institutions. If Canterlot actually achieves home rule, all the funding we get from nobles hiring us as Speakers, or coastal industrialists and merchants hoping to get small imperial boons, it all goes away." Blueblood emphasized.

"If Canterlot achieves home rule, far away nobles or industrialists will be the least of your preoccupations. Small minded stallion. You're compatriot over there was not far off the mark: We are aiming for something revolutionary and dangerous." Velvet said.

Aurthora contemplated this. "Are you going to destroy the empire?"

Velvet shrugged.

"Bloody hell." Blueblood looked at the floor. “I've put years of my life into the Black Horns.”

“With not much to show for it.” Velvet said sardonically. "I've proven I can whip away your membership to nothing if I felt like it. Be a good little figurehead and I'll reward you."

"You have been very mean to Blueblood, you know, and have hurt his feeling. Out of respect for you lady daughter, the princess's favored, I will be patient with you." Aurthora stepped between Blueblood and Velvet.

"Do you want to run the Black Horn Council, Lady Aurthora? I bet I could rally a vote right now and have your boy-toy tossed from the building. I don't need Blueblood specifically to do our bidding." Velvet rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Fine. I'm yours, Lady Velvet. Or, Seacrest's, or whatever you need." Blueblood sighed in resignation. "Treat me a little nicer and I might be awed too. I would aspire to reflect your virtue, my lady, of not holding any grudges."

"You're too funny." Velvet said.

"Treat him nicer, Lady Velvet, and you shall have my awe as well." Aurthora insisted. "Your project intrigues me greatly."

"Your reputation for loyalty and grace is well deserved, Lady Airy." Night Light bowed. "My wife may be rough, but truly we intend to bend the future to justice and purpose for ponykind."

"For Ponykind, not expressly for Canterlot, you say." Blueblood noted.

"Enough blabber. If you agree to take orders, then take them." Velvet said. "First things first is aggressively recruit off the imminent news of Seacrest Blackhorn's presence in the city."

“We are not beggars. We do not ask for members, we grant them.” Blueblood blustered.

“Pshh, I know the way you solicit your lordly clients for money, so combine those skills with your rhetorical skill. Advertise the club, and will attract more members than you could ever hope to pointlessly sacrifice.” Velvet pointed back to Seacrest. “Like I said, new and exotic. He is a blank canvas for the imaginations of the listless ponies of this city who are hollowed out by the status quo. The fire for the tinderbox.”

Blueblood's scowl dissolved at the same rate as his energy. "How am I going to muster any enthusiasm for somepony else's mission." After a few second, a sad and tired stallion was left. "I bet you did in my mate Deeper too. You are an evil mare."

"Disgusting parasite. You have floated on the top of society, sucking down resources, and produced nothing valuable in return. Not one moment of your life has been in service to a higher calling, but rather devoted to atavistic gluttony." Velvet's tone turned from mockingly playful to savage. Her volume rose to attract the attention of some of the nearby ponies. "You were born to a caste of elites that privileged you to do nothing but think, yet you haven't thought one good thought in your entire life. Dishonest curs like you deserve to die. You should be weeping at my hooves for offering you salvation."

"Velvet." Night Light set a hoof on his wife's shoulder.

Blueblood was clearly terrified that Velvet was going to murder him right there. Who would have his back if the ferocious mare set upon him? And what could Blueblood himself do against her righteous savagery, when his passions were so much less than hers?

"L- Lady Velvet, Velvet, this isn't how you should treat an ally." Blueblood pleaded, shrinking away from her. "Or a servant."

"You will be fine, sir." Night Light consoled him, nudging Velvet back. Velvet, silently appreciative of her husband's intervention, withdrew to talk with Seacrest.

"It would be preferable that we work under you, honorable lord, toward this mission." Aurthora said flatly. "Can it be denied that your wife has a temper, ill suited to us?"

"I am not interested in being anypony's master, so you should learn to get along with Velvet." Night Light advised. "She is really sweet once you get to know her."

"She is going to murder us." Blueblood said.

"I see nothing to substantiate that." Aurthora shrugged. "We have been forced into a face-saving position, but it would be childish to fear for our lives."

"If we are going to obey, we should start thinking about recruiting tactics." Blueblood sighed.

While Velvet and Aurthora continued to chat, Night Light approached the one pony who had remained sitting at the table, Countess Plenty Song. Her eyes were half lidded, and it was unclear to him if it was because of the mare’s blasé reaction to Seacrest, or that she was tired.

“Good afternoon my lady. I believe we met at one of Duke Flux's parties last month.” Night Light asked.

"Likely so. You're the duke cousin, right?" Plenty Song asked.

Night light nodded. "Second cousin, once-or-so removed. Any inheritance is out of consideration."

"And isn't that always the consideration." Plenty Song nodded along with him. "Thus the second sons of second daughters go and do damn fool things to earn their castles."

Night Light had not been looking for an argument. "If something is the matter you should say so."

“Lots of things. I was very engaged with your wife's speech there. Only, I am not of Canterlot like everypony else here, so my heart is not as stirred by the impassioned rhetoric." Plenty Song said. "I'm a Countess out in the west country and I have no interest in disputes between random 'princes' and the crown."

"Protecting landed noble lords' interests against imperial prerogative is in your interest though." Night Light pointed out.

"Some landed lord I am, with barely enough land to feed myself." Plenty Song scoffed. "I want to convert my title into political capital, and for my purposes a mercenary outfit of agitators like the Black Horn Council is ideal. But, if you actually whip the Black Horn Council into shape, and begin challenging imperial power, they become much less useful for me."

Night Light felt a bit smug despite himself. "I suppose you should have found your own Blackhorn prince and had him say things more useful to you."

"Tsch. Don't play ignorant." Plenty Song leaned forward in her chair. "I know you lot are just tools."

"Tools?" Night Light echoed.

"I spot that irascible youth, Sel Sabonord over there, and heard the accent that Blackhorn put on. You've brought a Prancian Sabonord plot to the capital." Plenty Song accused. "Countess Glori Sabonord is funding you to thwart me."

"That..." Night Light had been expecting a less bizarre accusation. "My lady I can fully assure you we are acting on nopony's vendetta-" He glanced back at Velvet, who was lording over Blueblood again. "against you."

Plenty Song pushed away from the table and stood up."I won't forget this insult. Not for a second." She promised.

"But why do you think that?" Night Light asked.

"No landed pony has expressed more vehement opposition to the capital than Countess Glori. By harboring pretender princes and throwing things into confusion, you suite her aims perfectly. Meanwhile all friends of peace and political stability suffer." Plenty Song explained sharply. "Who do think benefits from anarchy? The powerful lords who tyrannize their neighbors. It is the vulnerable who suffer when our domestic tranquillity is threatened."

Night Light had to admit she had a point. "Our intention is not anarchy. Besides, while Lord Seacrest is coincidentally from Prancia, he is not Countess Glori's puppet."

" You are not convincing." Plenty Song said. "But what if you are telling the truth? Is it not easier to blindly hate? You've frustrated my plans, and therefore I must frustrate yours."

“That’s your right, my lady.” Night Light bowed. “I will warn you away from this path. If you attempt to attack my wife she will respond in kind."

"Thank you for the warning. See you on the battlefield." Plenty Song trotted for the door.

Things were less exciting just a few kilometers away, under the city, in the cold dank catacomb where the pony Pon-3 was locked up. In fact things were agonizingly boring- She had been abandoned for the moment by her jailer, left to contemplate her grim surroundings.

"Phyte! Phyte! Could you give me a book or pamphlet to read?" Pon-3 called out for the absent Musician's Guild mistress. "I don't even need a lamp or anything, my eyes are good enough. Please! Like, surely a bit of paper won't help me escape!"

Locked into one of the iron birdcages, there were thousands of letters just out of her reach. Anything to keep her occupied, so that she was not left watching candle wax drip, or worse, left with her own thoughts.

"I've been in worse places. In Grifany, in Os, I sat out an entire siege in a snowy bell tower. Had eat a chap who'd died of frostbite. Not good eats." Pon-3 reminisced. "And bumming around in the colonies... Gods, I was imprisoned and shanked more than few times. But I bounced right back."

Life had been nothing but misery and deprivation for months at a time during her exile. The wide world had many unpleasant fates for unwanted ponies like her, but she rejected them all. She kept soldiering on because of a single idea that kept her warm in the winters of sorrow: The pride of the task. She escaped many predicaments because her oppressors underestimated her. Phyte was not so careless, Pon-3 knew.

"Accursed hag! Not just Phyte, but Octavia, that perilous temptress! And the mewling Lyra Hearstrings who saw them truss me and stood by doing nothing! I'll have special words for that teal bitch!" Pon-3 stroked one of the bars of her cage, mimicking polishing a knife. "I have nopony to rely on. I welcome it! I relish it! Only, if I didn't have somepony relying on me."

She wished so badly to be free, to continue on her murderous crusade to knock out the ponies on the hit list given to her. Not just for money, or notoriety, but for purpose! She was designed to be a weapon. A weapon denied its purpose was little but ornamentation. A weapon denied its freedom was hardly more than a police baton.
There was only one thing anypony ever really had to do, and that was die. The moment death itself was pointless, as fleeting and forgettable as the rest of pony life. But the transaction of death, to act to hasten the demise of another, was the instrumental nature of Vinyl Scratch. In youth, she had relied on Phyte to lead her for such things. Now she was a weapon fully grown, the sword destined never to be returned to the sheath.

To kill, and kill, and never stop killing.

After a while, the visions began to start.
Subtle shadows began to rise out of the mountains of letters, hooves and claws fighting their way out from under the mountain of paper. They seemed to triumph for a moment before the struggle exhausted them and they sunk back beneath into their inky graves.
Eyes began to open across the room, from the cracks in the ancient mortar, from the shadows under the torch braziers, in the distance down the enshadowed exit corridor. Round eyes, slitted eyes, eyes with strange rectangular or w shapes. They waited for Pon-3 to blink first.

"I am sinless. I am a pure being. If heaven didn't want you to die, why did her daughters send me to you." Pon-3 argued with the silent specters, twisting around to address a different one every few seconds. "Either the world is just and your demise was good, or it is unjust and I can't be blamed. I was a test of faith for you to overcome, and you failed. You failed!" She gnashed her teeth on her cage, twisting around like she was a carnivore ripping off a chunk of flesh.

Continued with her groaning and growling for hours, alternating between a curled up position and throwing herself at the bars of her oversized birdcage. Gradually, the light of the candles all around the antechamber began to die down, and it became even colder. Still Phyte did not return, so Pon-3 was left to shiver in futile rage.
Ever so slowly, the room went completely dark.

Slowly, a red glow began to fill the room. A dozen pinprick lights grew brighter and brighter until the shadowy figure below them was illuminated. A pony silhouette, formed by absence rather than presence, hovered in the middle of the room.
At first, Pon-3 was certain it was another figment of her imagination. However unlike the other specters she felt no memory connection, no familiarity with the dark figure.

The figure observed Pon-3 for a while, the red pinpricks of light joining and separating like oil droplets on water. Then, losing interest in her, the entity turned its attention to the room around them, and began rifling through the piles of letters. Unlike the visions, this creature could toss the scrolls around.

"Hey. Hey Hey hey." Pon-3 roused. She stood up as much as she could. "You're not one of Phyte's creations, aye?"

"!" The shadowy entity dropped the paper in its grasp, as if surprised that Pon-3 was able to speak. It drew closer to Pon-3 cage.
Every step closer it took, the haze of darkness solidified, until it stood just above her, fully resolved into pony shape. It was an earth pony, but it was too dark to determine color or detail even by Pon-3 excellent night vision. "Again, please." It had a feminine voice, which resolved from a melodic haziness into the soprano of a young mare.

"Again what?" Pon-3 cocked her head.

"Anything. Speak to me." The pony-like entity requested. "I want to hear your voice."

"Gladly mate. I never pass up an opportunity to yap." Pon-3 pressed her face against the bars and tried to touch the entity, but it was just out of reach. "The hell are you? Odds are you're looking for Phyte. Trying to help her, or hurt her?"

"Yes... sorry. It has been such a long time since somepony talked to me. I've been away." The entity said, ignoring Pon-3 questions.

"I've been away too, in exile. A lot of it sucked. Funny how I was just reminiscing about that." Pon-3 was slowly coming around to the idea that the entity was dangerous and pulled back to the far side of her tiny cage. "But really, what are you after? I could help you, you know."

The entity stepped over to Phyte's desk and rummaged through the half-written letters and writing utensils. "What if you tell me what you could help me with first."

The entity was trying to suss out her relationship to Phyte, Pon-3 knew. She had to guess what it wanted to hear. "I can help you steal some stuff but I'm not keen on going up against Phyte, as much as I'd like to take a swipe at her. Just as long as I get out in one piece, I'll be your pall, honest."

"So you won't lead me to her?" The pony-like entity took a seat in Phyte's chair. "I want to talk to her. I only want to see if she remembers me. I met a few of the Stars, back in the day. Phyte was the nastiest to me, but in hindsight I understand why she was so cruel."

"A few of the Stars?" Pon-3 blinked. "How long ago was this? Hey, hey, how old are you?" She shook her head. "You know what, never mind that. Just spring me out and I'll lead anywhere. I'll lead you to bucking Princess Celestia if it's what you want, promise."

The pony-like creature approached the cage again. "And who are you? Why are you in there?" It leaned in close. It's breath produced no vapor in the cold air. "Nopony knows better than me that some monsters deserve to be in a cage. HEEE HE HA hA HEE!" It cackled.

Pon-3 locked eyes with the thing. In pony form, its iris remained dark, swirling with unnatural light of many hues. She saw no emotion in them, no depth. It made every part of her tingle, not unlike being close to Phyte, but heightened. "Bugger me, you're..." She dare not speak a word more, as if revealing the nature of the entity would make it more terrible.

"What you can tell from my eyes, I can tell right back. You've been stitched together real well, but you still fell short of the stars in the sky." The dark pony judged. "Again, nopony knows better than me."

"If you're not going to kill me, free me, or get me a book, buck off!" Pon-3 hissed at the entity. "Go back to whatever fetid hole they had you chained up and and ask to be readmitted. Leave me to the nightmares which to not speak."

"Have something... weighing on your mind?" The dark pony asked seductively. "I can make those feelings, good or bad, just go away."

It was taunting her. All the same, Pon-3 felt a tugging at her heart, surely the result of the creature's magic, that made her want to embrace it. "There is something. I..." She knew every second talking to the creature endangered her soul. "My purpose. I am failing my purpose. My hooves are meant to strike, but I lack the strength. I..." She scotched back towards the bars. "I will whisper it to you."

The dark pony laughed knowingly. "If you strike me, I will be angry with you."' It sat down right next to the cage and turned her head, her ear at the bars.

Pon-3 inched forward. "The ponies... I was given a list of ponies to kill. I must pass them on..." But the revulsion overpowered the seduction, and she fell back, rocking the cage enough to bump the pony away. "No. I can't! I will not give that dream away to you, fiend. It's MY purpose."

"Aren't I pretty enough for you?" The dark pony drew herself up angrily. "The first pony I speak to after a hundred years and she rejects me. I have not born centuries of heartbreak to be played with by a toy pony! Star-sewn puppet! I bet your dreams taste like the stuffing that gives you shape."

Pon-3 was not immune to the harsh words of the dark creature lashing out at her. "Then go away and enjoy your pain in silence like I am."

The dark creature dissolved back into haze and red light. "Next time, you will want me even more. It will hurt, because I know that's what you like." The harmonious feminine voice died away.

"Bite me." Pon-3 settled back on the floor of her cage as her cold isolation resumed.

A lazy morning and mid-day had turned into a cheerful afternoon in Ponyville. Villagers finishing their toils and chores gathered in the market square. A few ponies brought instruments, forming a little band. A drum, a few flutes, a fiddle, a tambourine, a hurdy-gurdy, and a few vocalists. Singing folk songs, dancing, jumping, frolicking, enjoying the warmth of the sunshine, the Ponyvillians let their joy be known.

"My mother sent me,
to the river to launder scarves.
My mother sent me,
to the river to launder scarves.

Oh Dneighper, Dneighper!
Dear old Dneighper, Dneighper!
I feel your cold waters here,
on the edge, the red clay banks!"

Fluttershy skirted the edge of the market square on her way across town. She usually felt out of place among the Ponyvillians. Their traditions and culture were not her own. She was a Cloudsdale Pegasi, but she could not rightly claim she was accustomed to that urban world of toil and strife up in the clouds. A kind of agoraphobia dominated her, a nervous feeling that any large gathering would bring disaster. The vivacious happiness of the Ponyvillians, with their dancing and instruments, was her anxiety. She could not bear the intrusive thought of something befalling them while she watched.
So Fluttershy hurried away.

It was not too far to the small square around the Golden Oak on the north side of the village. She saw light and shadows from behind the curtained windows, sign someone was home.
Fluttershy reached out to knock at the Oaks' red door, but it opened before her hoof contacted the wood. Twilight was on the other side.

“Pinkie Pie asked me to come.” The pegasus whispered.

“She was meant to tell you to come, not to ask.” Twilight joked. "Come in, come in." She drew Fluttershy inside.

"She, Pinkie, asked me earlier, but I had work I had to finish." Fluttershy said apologetically, avoiding meeting Twilight's gaze. "I saw Pinkie Pie on the way here, but she was doing something else. She implied she was coming here too, but, um..."

"Mis Pinkie was occupied doing what?" Twilight asked as she trotted to the kitchen to prepare another pot of tea.

Fluttershy didn't want to get Pinkie Pie in trouble, if Twilight Sparkle was in fact the kind of pony to give others trouble. Twilight was a noble after all. "Well... playing hurdy-gurdy."

"You don't say. It's fitting with her, you know, aesthetic. It's not an instrument used in court society so I found it weird." Twilight said. "I guess in the same way I find Mis Pinkie Pie strange. It's just because of my upbringing, while to others-"

"No, everypony finds Pinkie Pie weird." Fluttershy interrupted, then winced away with a blush.

Twilight returned form the kitchen with a teacup for them both. "I wasn't counting on her being here for this, so it is all fine."

Fluttershy had not been in the Golden Oak for a while, and it had not changed much, save for a few rearrangements that Twilight Sparkle had clearly just made. Twilight had bisected the library space with a line of chalk, with all the tables and chairs pushed to a side straddling the line.
"Are you planning a volleyball game?"

"That is very funny. Good joke. The Ponyvillians have been very careful about making jokes around me, expect for Mis Pinkie Pie." Twilight said.

"Well, she's not from Ponyville. Neither am I." Fluttershy said. "I moved here when I was still a filly. Pinkie Pie came a few years ago."

Twilight dwelled on that for a minute. "I see. I'd be interested in asking you and Mis Pinkie about your choice to come here, but that should wait." Twilight levitated her cup of tea to a table and trotted towards the open stair. "Spike, my ward, is upstairs keeping Mis Rarity company. I know you are Mis Rarity's friend so you wouldn't mind joining her, would you?"

Fluttershy was surprised. "Rarity is here?" She blinked a few times. "Lady Twilight I don't understand why you asked me to come anymore."

"Okay, I may have invited you and a few other ponies on false pretenses. It will all work out though." Twilight said, the last part as much to herself as to Fluttershy. "I'm sure Spike is really embarrassing himself trying to impress Mis Rarity with stories about Canterlot. Just don't be weird about him being a dragon, you know."

"Dragons visit Cloudsdale sometimes, so I'm not unfamiliar. That's not, um, the problem." Fluttershy frowned. "Once you start being loose about the truth, I won't know how much we should trust you, Lady Twilight."

Twilight did not take that well. "Yes you do know how much you should trust me, because I can ask you to, authoritatively. I am not here just to trick ponies. I have goals and deceit is a tool that I don't want to have to use, but I will if pushed."

"A tool to accomplish what?" Fluttershy asked.

There was a loud banging on the front door. Before Twilight could respond, the new arrival let themself in: It was Applejack, closely followed by Pinkie Pie and her hurdy-gurdy.

Applejack's gaze immediately locked on Fluttershy. "I was 'bout to ask if I was late, but I guess I shouldn't bother." She said roughly.

"Oh no you don't." Twilight grunted. She reached out with her telekinesis and locked the door behind Applejack. "Please come in and sit down. This isn't going to be easy for us, especially if you don't take my advice."

"Advice?!" Applejack huffed. "Guess I'm under advisement now. Big swing from yesterday when y'all were begging us for help."
Still, Applejack chose a side of the chalk line on the floor and sat down, saving her words for later.

Twilight, satisfied, turned toward the stair once again, but saw Rarity observing from the upper level. The seamstress did not look happy. "You know I had to do it, Mis Rarity." Twilight shrugged.

"I am not sure how to feel that you used your ward to distract me." Rarity begrudgingly descended the stair and seated herself on the other side of the Chalk line from Applejack, trying not to meet the other mare's stare.

Spike followed Rarity downstairs, trundling to the Kitchen to get a snack. "I'm used to being Twilight's diversion, usually when she's poaching books the princess set on restricted lists.

Twilight trotted to one of the chairs at the new 'head' of the room. Now, with most everypony facing her assemblage of tables and chairs, it evoked the image of a throne and court.

Fluttershy, the one still not seated (besides Spike who was watching from the side with a snack), hesitantly joined Rarity on her side of the chalk.

"Later in the afternoon, all of you are welcome to join me in the planning space, to consult on the preparations for Ponyville to host a Summer Sun Fair. That is, after all, my association with all of you." Twilight said. "But I have to deal with this first, decisively. I would be letting the empire down if I let small, solvable issues get in the way of my duty." Twilight cleared her throat. "So I slip into a magisterial role, and adjudicate a case: Accusations of impropriety against Applejack."

"Tssch, hope I get to make counter-claims." Applejack rolled her eyes.

"And I hope I get to claim more." Rarity rapped the floor with a hoof. “Impropriety? Try fraud and theft!”

"Settle down mares, please." Twilight raised her voice. "If this is going to be conducted officially we have to follow rules of order and procedure."

"Is it going to be conducted officially?" Pinkie Pie asked cheerfully.

"Well, I... I'm going to do my best." Twilight pulled out a loose sheets of notes she had made. "Okay, um..."
After reading the notes she'd jotted out of the few legal books she'd found laying around, Twilight lost focus on the words, her attention wandering. What was the Nightmare Pretender doing at that moment? Was she preparing for her return to the earth? Perhaps the lost Nightmare princess also had to arbitrate disagreements between her supporters; Surely the Nightmare was not as indecisive as Twilight was.

"So, is this things like a trial, hearing, or inquiry?" Pinkie Pie further asked.

"Uh," Twilight blinked. "All those things, as necessary. This is a forum of truth and justice."

"Good." Rarity and Applejack said in unison, both certain they would be vindicated.

"Are you just making up rules? How do you follow rules for all three of those things at the same time?" Pinkie exclaimed. “This is a mistrial. I submit a motion move you let my client go.”

“The trial has not started yet.” Rarity snapped.

"And I ain't hardly restrained." Applejack said.

"What a shame." Rarity giggled.

“You can submit motions before a trial, I think.” Fluttershy said meekly.

“But what if it's a hearing?” Applejack speculated.

Pinkie Pie shoved a hoof over Applejack's mouth to keep her silent. “Whatever it is, I request it stop. My client has nothing to say to this forum.”

“Holly Moley.” Applejack batted Pinkie's hoof away. “I don't care. Let's just get this over with!”

"Indeed." Rarity rubbed her temples in empathetic frustration. "Let us satisfy the little magistrate so I can get back to my afternoon's work.

“But, the rules are made up!” Pinkie whined.

Applejack sighed. “All rules are made up. Ah don't care what they are, so long as they're fair.”

Twilight sighed. "Let me ready my notes please, and we can get started. In fact, you can come up and read them too to understand my approach better. I want us all on the same page here."

"We're all on the same page (save a few)." Applejack glared at Pinkie Pie.

Twilight suspected that Applejack and Rarity were only willing to play along to convince her how irreconcilable they were. Was there really a magic argument that could convince them both?
"I'm happy to have your confidence, Mis Applejack, Mis Rarity. If I can do something to improve the lives of the ponies here, just two of them among hundreds, that will be satisfactory."

Nopony, save perhaps Fluttershy, reacted to Twilight's words. Either they doubted her resolve or efficacy against their own commitment to be enemies.

Twilight cleared her throat. Spike flashed her a thumbs up.
"I want to hear from everypony present, in due time. For the very first part of this forum, Rarity will be making her claims. Remember, you will be addressing me, not the other ponies here."

"Very good, Lady Magistrate." Rarity said. "To put it plainly, I accuse Mis Applejack of being a thief. By means of a deceptive conspiracy, she stole the homestead, the Sweet Apple Acres." She reported. “And also Applejack punched me. And Pinkie Pie.”

This was the first time Twilight had heard the allegation of theft even hinted at. "Is that all?"

"I will give all the details to support my accusation if it is challenged." Rarity said.

Twilight turned to Applejack, who remained as still and unemotional as a statue. “You may address the chair with your response, in whatever (verbal) form."

“Not guilty!” Pinkie Pie interjected. “My client pleads not guilty!”

“I've never, nor have I ever meant to, commit those crimes. I live as honest a life as I can.” Applejack said. “Though I won't lie neither, that I have hit Rarity and Pinkie Pie, thinkin' it was defending my honor."

"More like defending your ego." Rarity scoffed.

"All comments will be addressed to the magisterial bench, me." Twilight said.

“I forgive you for hitting me.” Pinkie patted Applejack on the back.

"All comments will be addressed to the bench." Twilight repeated, louder. She turned to Rarity. "Mis Applejack appears to be contesting your account."

"I did not think much of Mis Applejack in our youth. We saw each other often enough at Ponyville's old school house. There is not much of a divide at all between ponies living in the village and those living in the periphery. However my family and family friends gently warned me away from Applejack and a few other ponies, and I was eventually to find out why." Rarity began. "The first precipitating event was ten years ago, when Applejack left Ponyville for Manehattan. Her brother, who I knew more closely, explained later she was seeking out her destiny."

“Objection, Lady Twilight, for relevance! And Hearsay!” Pinkie shouted. “And, she's leading the witness!”

Twilight knew Pinkie did have a point despite the annoyance. "Mis Applejack, if Rarity makes any claims that are outrageously false, which you do not want to stand until your general rebuttal, get my attention. Though broadly, trust that I'm intelligent enough to understand Rarity's bias."

"Nothin' to say, ma'am." Applejack said.

After getting a nod to continue from Twilight, Rarity resumed the story. "From what I heard, in Manehattan Applejack stayed with the Orange family, local noteworthies and distant related to her. She was there to learn trades distinct from her Apple-bucking kin."

"Real in the know ain't she." Applejack quipped.

Twilight counted that as getting her attention. "Indeed Mis Rarity." She interrupted. "Before you go on, explain your relationship to her brother, who you say told you all of this.”

“Big Macintosh, was a dear friend of mine. I knew him only in passing when we were young, but came to know him much better more recently. I will speak on him more soon.” Rarity said.

"Fine." Twilight conceded.

Rarity coughed daintily. "Ahem. Anyway. I was told that Applejack was a fast learner under the Orange family's tutelage, acquiring all the Manehattanite ways for which they are so notorious: Social and political maneuvering, cutthroat buisness, fast enterprise, and most important of all never being straight about one's intentions." Rarity said. "Then, slightly less than two years ago, Applejack returned to Ponyville. Yes, Applejack spent NINE years in Manehattan. She was raised more there than here!"

Twilight glanced at Applejack. The farm mare certainly did not look like a pony raised in an industrious coastal city. Yet Applejack was still not interjecting. "Mis Rarity, while it is unusual for ponies to move from the city to the country, since the flow is usually the other way, free movement is legal between Free Cities under the laws of Imperial Immediacy."

"Of course. Applejack's family was very happy to see her, and she was happy to be back. Or so it seemed!” Rarity pounded the floor in emphasis.

Twilight was finding Rarity’s melodrama amusing, but she kept it to herself. “Please continue apace."

Though Rarity surely knew that Twilight Sparkle was the only pony she would have to convince of anything, she seemingly couldn't help herself but to look around the room as she spoke, locking eyes with each pony in turn. "The way Macintosh described it, I could tell Applejack had come back just to worm her way into her family and drive it apart. The poor colt didn't see it, and didn't understand why warnings, until it was too late. Applejack ruined her family's harmony, showing typical Manehattanite ruthlessness, and forced her brother and matriarch out of the village."

Applejack interjected for the first time. "You couldn't prove a bad word between my granny and me if ya had a thousand years. She left for the frontier on her own. 'Twas her passion and I had nothin' to do with it. Don't lie." She said firmly.

Twilight hadn't known there was an elder Apple. Applejack saying 'left for the the frontier' could almost be heard as euphemism if it were not a real thing; The southern border had vast lands and was decently fertile, so small towns had cropped up to furnish the garrison posts. Some modest trade had even begun with the unorganized deer, bison, and horse tribes of the south end of the continent.
"Address the bench, please, not her." Twilight chided Applejack. "Still..." She turned to Rarity, inviting a response with an arched brow.

“I have nothing further to say about Granny Smith, everything to say about Macintosh. He ran away before he could tell me, so I had to witness Applejack's villainy myself rather than through him. But why would my friend, a lifelong Ponyville stallion, leave so abruptly without a word to any of his friends? The pattern of behavior suggests, overwhelmingly, that Applejack coerced him!" Rarity accused. "With only herself (and her little sister) on the farmstead, Applejack could have done whatever she wanted with it. She could have even sold the farm to Manehattan cronies."

Twilight saw several leaps in logic there. "I'm not connecting the dots. How much of this is conjecture?"

"Well I- I can't be fully confident why she didn't sell the farm. Maybe she was foiled by other Manehattanites, as part of the endless schemes and rivalries in those trade cities." Rarity said, noticeably less confident. "I have laid out the reason that I hold such ill thoughts of Mis Applejack there. I have seen her act dishonorably and to associate her is to put oneself in ill repute."

"Yup, sure. Come up with any ol' reason why I didn't do something you came up with in your head in the first place." Applejack prodded at Rarity's hesitation. "Might think you're projectin' on me."

"For the last time, address the bench with your comments." Twilight stomped a hoof on the floor. "As I said, I am competent to hear words for what they are."

"Clearly not, lady bench." Applejack muttered.

"Say that louder please?" Twilight growled.

"Nothin', ma'am." Applejack cleared her throat.

Pinkie spoke up again. "Where's Rarity's witnesses? Where's her submitted evidence? We're not cuh-razey enough to make a case just off a pony's individual testimony. Like, I'd get disbarred just for trying it!"

“Indeed I was going to raise the point. No witnesses?” Twilight scowled. “No empirical, corroborating evidence?”

“You have my word, the honest truth.” Rarity insisted.

"You weave a nice story at the very least." Twilight still somewhat was bothered by the fact that Applejack had contested almost none of what Rarity had to say. "Mis Applejack-"

"Sorry, nothin' to say to any of it." Applejack said.

"Nothing." Twilight repeated.

"You heard her." Pinkie Pie nodded.

The roadblock Twilight had feared, Applejack wasn't playing along any more. Her longshot, to find just the right word or phrase to get them to reconcile, couldn't even progress if the Ponyvillians stonewalled her.
Then, Twilight had a bad idea. She knew it was bad right away, but it still delighted her. "Applejack, approach the bench please."

"She gave her argument sitting." Applejack said flippantly, apparently having decided to be confrontational with Twilight. Twilight couldn't blame her, since she'd been tricky to get her there.

"You're refusing to argue. Therefore I want Rarity to question you as a witness." Twilight said simply.

“What? To be questioned by her?” Applejack was not immediately more outraged because she thought she had misheard.

“You have been taking snipes at Mis Rarity, so you should appreciate this forum giving you a platform for it." Twilight said. Basically, I'm going to hear your side of the story." There was an unspoken 'or else'. That naturally invited an 'or else what?'

Applejack begrudgingly marched her way to the centerline of the room. She had weighed the ups and downs of further obstinance and decided to play Twilight's game again.

Rarity, on the other hoof, stared blankly at Twilight. "You... want me to question her?"

"Yes that is what I expect." Twilight nodded.

However unlike Applejack, Rarity seemed to be much more comfortable making her remarks to Twilight rather than the mare she was feuding with. She sat in silence for another few moments. "I don't have any questions prepared.” She finally said.

Applejack guffawed. "C'mon Rarity, I ain't gunna hit ya. Ask me anything y'all care to, and I'll give ya the princess's truth. I ain't gunna hit ya. C'mon."

"Lady Magistrate I would have to spend some time on my questions." Rarity admitted.

Fluttershy patted Rarity on the back. "Um, I could try?"

Meanwhile Twilight was confused. Why was Rarity suddenly shying away?
She jumped up from her seat. "Fine." Twilight said. She was trying to sound firm but it likely came off bitter. "I'll do it myself." She began to pace in the middle of the room, smudging the chalk line she had drawn. "Mis Applejack, since I am now asking the questions, I will be expecting much more precision and truth out of you than if Rarity was. I will also strive to be fair to match."

"Then shoot, ma'am. I'll be a match for any unicorn's question'n." Applejack met Twilight's gaze.

But where to begin? Twilight could hold her own in contentious discussions on topics she knew thoroughly, but how could she scrutinize a pony about their own lived life? "You were born in Ponyville?"

Applejack nodded. “Yup. Only a few generations ago, my family lived up the valley. Now my 'stead is 'bout the biggest in Ponyville."

Relatively recent immigrants? Twilight did not know much of Ponyville's history, for when it was founded or otherwise.“Is it true you were sent to Manhattan as a ward of the Orange family?”

“Sent? Nope. I went on my own.” Applejack corrected.

“The Free Cities on the coast hold a special place for the Earth Ponies." Twilight said.

Applejack shook her head. "Maybe for ponies on the Crystal River, or further downstream 's us. Some Ponyvillians got family in the cities. But no spiritual, cultural attachment, anything like that. Just places ponies live." Her eyes wandered to Rarity as she said this. "Like she said, it's was over a decade ago. I don't remember all my reasons, but it was my choice, goin' and comin'."

"Was Manehattan a difficult place to grow up for a young filly?" Twilight asked.

"Can't imagine t'was harder than your unicorn city, Canterlot." Applejack said. "I was with good family, in a big house. Sure there's ponies livin' hard there but I wasn't one of 'em. I grew up in an apprenticeship, not on the streets: Fancy mannerism, fancy vocabulary, backgammon, macrofinance.”

Many of the richer merchant houses lived as richly as any noble. Twilight even pondered the idea that Applejack had had a posher upbringing than her; If only for home life, for what luxury could compare to being schooled by the princess in her castle?

"How about diplomacy and negotiation, as Rarity accuses?" Twilight asked.

Rarity pouted. "My accusation was phrased much more menacingly, my lady."

"Well I didn't do that kind of work nohow. I did book-keeping mostly. Lil' apprentice fillies don't belong in big pony buisness deals." Applejack said.

Some ponies would challenge the idea that fillies belonged doing book-keeping either. "And nothing of note happened? There was nothing you told your brother about your time in Manehattan that may have been interpreted a certain way?"

Applejack shivered slightly at the direct questioning about her brother. "Nope. Just returned to Ponyville after leanin' what I did. It was a year, half, and some change ago." Her tone turned wistful. "Yeah, I was away a long time. Ponies I knew from the school were... Well, we'd all grown, far away from each other."

"You grew up without your older brother." Twilight prodded.

Applejack lowered her gaze away. "If y'all want me to guess how he felt about me after I returned, don't. I've got nothin' to say. He was a simple stallion and didn't share much with me."

Twilight deeply related to fraternal estrangement. "She would know more. She would know him better."
No, now was not the right time to think about her, about Cadenza. Twilight already had too much on her mind to fall into the phycological hole of thinking about Cadenza again.

"I suppose. Rarity acts like he's the holy spirit talkin' through her or something." Applejack allowed herself a small grin for the clever joke.

"Where is he?" Twilight pressed.

"Who knows! If somepony does know, it ain't me." Applejack snapped back. "Could be Apploosa or could be Anterpwren. Ah'm not his parole officer. Ask his little confession buddy there."

"You are on the stand, Mis Applejack, not her." Twilight stomped the floor. She was in on the 'ground zero' of the interminable anger between the mares. "One of you is going to give me more information about what happened between the Apple siblings."

But nopony answered. Rarity remained subdued, Applejack was still angrily stubborn.

"Excuse me." unexpectedly it was Fluttershy who spoke up.

Twilight cringed suddenly, like she'd been hit. "Oh... did I get carried away?" She glanced over to Spike, who gave her a wobbly thumbs-up. "Ahem, uh, yes, Mis Fluttershy."

“Can I say something?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, do.” Twilight said.

“I, um... don't know if galloping right into their trauma is the best way to solve it." Fluttershy said.

Twilight blinked. "Trauma?"

“There is a lot of emotional hurt that still weighs on them.” Fluttershy didn't look at Applejack or Rarity to confirm what she was saying, but Pinkie Pie, who was lost in her own thoughts, idly nodding along.
Filled with unnatural confidence, Fluttershy stood up and joined Twilight at the center of the room. "Rarity, I keep telling you that it hurt all of us when Macintosh left. All his friends, me, you, and Applejack too. You're not the only pony blaming themselves."
Fluttershy turned to Applejack. "But you two are the only ones lashing out, and it hurts everypony not just each other. Rarity might be cruel with her words, but punching ponies is probably worse. It doesn't even make you feel better, just brings everypony down."
Fluttershy sighed. "Macintosh left of his own free will. Applejack didn't force him. Rarity didn't trick him. You know, deep down, why he left, but you can't accept it."

Twilight was slightly awestruck. "I'm so silly. Why did I think I could solve this interpersonal problem on my own?" She said to herself.

Fluttershy wasn't done. "You did the opposite of solve it. Making Applejack feel persecuted, and making Rarity feel like it's her responsibility to prosecute it, only makes us feel worse."

While Twilight was comfortable with self-criticism, Fluttershy's words rubbed her the wrong way. "And yet you stayed quiet until now, letting it go on even though you thought you knew better."

Fluttershy whimpered. "It's not my place to tell ponies how to feel... most of the time."

"Is this like a freak love triangle thing?" Spike chipped in.

"Spike, no, bad implication." Twilight chided him. "I think I get it now."
Applejack and Rarity, in a certain way, were reminiscent (vaguely) of Princess Celestia and Twilight Velvet. They were just headstrong controlling mares that thought they should be the dominant influence on the pony they cared for; And Macintosh was analogous to Twilight Sparkle herself.
While she was piecing together this comparison Twilight was struck by the dark thought that Celestia and Twilight Velvet may come to blows in her absence, as Applejack and Rarity had.
"Blessed are the peacemakers." She said to herself.

"You ponies seem to get it but I don't. Friends, even family, come and go all the time." Pinkie Pie said. "You love them while you have them, but you have to let other ponies have them eventually."

"Y'all're weird. You don't understand what family means." Applejack broke her silence to mutter.

Rarity concurred. "Have you never had a friend so close that their loss leaves you empty forever?"

Pinkie Pie cocked her head. "Just once."

“I... I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner.” Fluttershy apologized. “Sorry, um... I didn't know how to say it all until just now.”

Twilight felt like laughing or screaming. The petty drama just served to remind her why she usually avoided ponies. But what had she expected? She'd basically pulled ponies off the street, demanded they help her, and grilled them on their personal lives.
"I can't force you to get over your feelings, as much as I want to. I'm not a coping expert either."

Spike spoke up again. "Twilight, I've got a great joke. What if you mended the rift by decreeing them married? Wouldn't that be funny?"

“What?!” Applejack and Rarity both yelped.

"What's with you today Spike? I'm not going to do that." Twilight shook her head. "Though, it would be funny. I guess I have to admit I'm basically powerless here. I can't change how ponies feel. I can't force the prodigal Macintosh to return and help them sort it out."

A shock ran through the air, felt only by Rarity and Applejack. They locked eyes, a tingle down their spines at Twilight's hypothetical.

"Rarity, maybe we should talk by ourselves. I'm sorry I shouted at you... You can shout at me." Fluttershy returned to Rarity's side.

"No, dear, you said exactly what needed to be said." Rarity said, her voice emphatic, but a strange twinkle in her eyes. "I don't blame you for letting me live with this destructive behavior either."

Fluttershy was confused. "Blame me?"

Applejack joined in. "We ain't been as close as you and Rarity, but I've always respected you Fluttershy, and y'all done the right thing today."

Fluttershy could tell something was off. She looked around the room. Twilight appeared just as confused as her, while Pinkie Pie was lost in thought. "Um... But..."

"For all this time, we never considered how Macintosh would feel about us hating each other. If ending the venom to help a mare like Lady Twilight here would gratify him, I can do nothing else." Rarity said.

"Uh huh. Uniting to do something productive would make him plum happy." Applejack concurred.

Fluttershy stood up, trotted to the red door of the Oak, and left.

Twilight was experiencing whiplash from how Applejack and Rarity were now agreeing. Besides, with all the emotion she was feeling herself, going after Fluttershy was a perfect excuse to get a few moments to sort through her thoughts. "Uh, Spike, could you hold down the fort? I'm going to go talk to Mis Fluttershy."

"It's fine, ma'am. We ain't gunna fight right now." Applejack promised.

Rarity nodded in agreement.

The afternoon has gotten much colder in the short time Fluttershy was in the Golden Oak. The sounds of music and dancing from the market square were gone. Gusts of wind pulled little eddies of leaves and dirt into the air. Storm clouds were building to the north, but it looked like they would stay in the north, skirting the valley as they headed towards Canterlot.

Although it was Twilight who had left the Oak to chase after Fluttershy, it was Fluttershy who found Twilight. The pegasus had meandered her way through town, while the noble unicorn had gone straight to the river bank.
And since Fluttershy had meandered, the strangeness of the events in the Oak had faded for her, and she felt calm. Twilight, however, was very tense, even though she bore a silly smile.

"Uhm, Lady Sparkle, did you come looking for me?" Fluttershy asked.

"That was my excuse to leave. I just have to think for a moment, where they're not watching me. Did I go too far? Gosh, I'm just... really awkward aren't I." Twilight laughed softly. "None of my attempts at humor are funny, and none of my attempts to persuade or convince come across as anything other than brash flailing. I guess..." She paused. "I guess you could sum it up by saying I'm making an ass of myself."

"You seem like a pony who does everything she can to improve where she think she's weak." Fluttershy consoled her. "You know, I have a brother too. My brother isn't as distant as yours and Applejack's and I miss him sometimes, but-"

Twilight interrupted Fluttershy with an abrupt hiss. "Hey, why are you assuming I have a brother." She said defensively.

"...Just about anypony can look you up. You're the Empress's student." Fluttershy said. "Your brother is an Imperial Guards officer. I would have heard of him even if I didn't know you were related."

"I thought Pinkie Pie was the one who lived in Canterlot for a while. But you're the one that cares about stupid Canterlot government personalities? Bucking outrageous." Twilight grumbled.

Fluttershy felt guilty for bringing it up. "I just guessed you two didn't have a good relationship. It's probably not even true, and, um, you're just angry at me for assuming it. I'm sorry, I'm not as good with body language as I thought."

Twilight sighed. "It's not just my brother. It's almost everypony in my life. Well, literally everypony, since Spike is a dragon. He has been by my side, while all the other ponies..." She sighed again. "While the other ponies do as Pinkie Pie said, 'come and go' all the time."

Fluttershy listened patiently while Twilight worked out her words.

"My brother Shining Armor might be the only pony with a worse social life than me. So when a Canterlot floozie named Cadenza showed him the least bit of attention, Shining went crazy." Twilight said. "I had known Cadenza for a while. The whole affair blindsided me."

Fluttershy was so surprised she didn't immediately register Twilight's hostile tone. "You surely don't mean THE Princess Cadence! You knew the junior princess of Equestria too? But she's so reclusive!"

Twilight nodded “Yeah, of course I did. I was in Canterlot Castle all the time, and Cadenza started at the University around the same time I did. She was an outstanding student, I'll admit. A brilliant scholarly writer and a poet to boot. We competed for a couple of awards actually. We moved in the same study groups."

“Gosh! Princess Cadence is almost twenty two, and you can't be older than eighteen!” Fluttershy said. Clearly the pegasus had a greater fascination for the Junior princess than any other fact of Twilight's life.

"Those few years made things strange between us. We had a friendly rivalry as peers, but at the same time Cadenza was almost maternal with me. I accepted the treatment, because nopony else treated me that way.” Twilight gestured towards the north and Canterlot. “It took me a while to see that Cadenza knows how to worm her way into any pony's heart, first with me, then my brother."

“Worming?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Toying! Manipulating! Cadenza nearly ruined all our lives with this pointless drama and... I get mad just thinking about it. It's been a year since I've even seen her. Is she avoiding me? It's a big castle.” Twilight sighed. “So I let this Ponyville stuff get to me. I wouldn't want to let a fraternal relationship to be abused, but I'm also cautious of manipulations.”

But hearing Twilight's story, to Fluttershy Cadenza sounded more like the object of the jealousy, like Macintosh, rather than the rival. Maybe the situations weren't comparable, and besides it would be treacherous to make assumptions just off Twilight's biassed perspective.

And speaking of treacherous. “I should probably tell Applejack and Rarity to pack it up.” Twilight said, getting to her hooves. “Then, it'll be time to get back to my business.”

“I don't think today solved anything.” Fluttershy said. “Despite what they say, the truth is going to take longer to take hold of them."

"How blessed are we that the truth doesn't actually matter that much. If through a combination of my coercion and your persuasion they act how we want them too..." Twilight affected an exaggerated shrug. "Hey, all I'm saying is that I'm fine if they only start fighting after I leave."

Fluttershy wasn't sure if she really liked Twilight that much. "Umm, I see that causing a lot of problems."

"Life is full of tradeoffs. Am I a little upset, with my mock trial falling apart and getting bad memories of my own dredged up? Yes, I'm a little upset. But it's not effecting my judgement, and I will be just as confident in my plans tomorrow as I am now." Twilight said emphatically.

Fluttershy wanted to point out that Twilight's judgement could well be compromised the next day too; that it was a fault of her framework, not her mental acuity. She stayed silent, unsure if the young noblemare was close to snapping at her for real.

"We all deal with overpowering urges in our lives, as part of being mares. Urges to do awful things and hurt others. But we are socialized into behaving in a civilized way. I can control myself. Everypony here can be taught to control themselves." Twilight ranted. It was unclear where the discussion was going now. "When danger is looming on the horizon, our species has adapted to make necessary sacrifices in order for the corpus equestrian to survive. The individual may die, the social body lives on."

"Um... We're still talking about a Summer Sun Fair, right?" Fluttershy asked gently.

"Yes, of course." Twilight said.
She beckoned Fluttershy to follow her, and they returned to the Golden Oak together.

As Twilight reentered the library she was nearly hit by a lamp sailing through the air. Applejack and Rarity were wrestling furiously on the floor, with Spike and Pinkie Pie trying to pull them apart.

“Hey, hey, what the hell!” Twilight shouted.

Applejack, who had placed Rarity in a chokehold, released her opponent, who collapsed limply on the floor. "She- She started taunting me with that marriage idea!"

Rarity coughed and sputtered for a few moments. "As if I would find any appeal in a neavau family like yours, Apple." She said darkly.

Twilight saw Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy bristle at Rarity's retort, like it held some special meaning to them.

"I was just telling Fluttershy about the lesson we should be taking from the faux-trial I held earlier. A law professor once told me that the court is the most godly of institutions, where perfect strangers can have their differences arbitrated." Twilight said. "I might have hated that professor and his class, but it's not a bad idiom. We as ponies avoid using violence to solve all of our problems. We have institutions, morals, ways of expressing ourselves. We don't need to fight to have all our dreams realized."

"This ain't about dreams bein' realized! This is about Rarity bein' a bitch!" Applejack pointed at the wheezing unicorn.

"And I will apologize in good order, for the purpose of shared ambitions." Rarity said.

"Snarky git. I aught'a do you another..." Applejack hissed.

Twilight clenched and unclenched her jaw. Maybe Fluttershy was right, and nothing had actually been solved. She stared off into space.
Was she awash on tides out of her own control? It stung, it really stung, for Twilight to consider that she had absolutely no control over the situation. With her unwanted promotion, her exile from Canterlot, and now this, Twilight was feeling like more and more of her life was just sweeping her along.
Would she be thus powerless in the face of the Nightmare Pretender? What hubris, to imagine she could alter the course of fate in the least! She would be swept along just like all the ignorant ponies who hadn't seen it coming. Her wit and knowledge mattered for nothing.
So, Twilight wondered, what good was any of it?

Twilight silently made her way to her chair. "The chair can adjudicate if necessary." She said, in a slightly defeated tone. "And you can do whatever you want after that."

Applejack brooded with brow knitted, and Rarity closed her eyes. Pinkie Pie bounced up to Applejack and whispered in her ear, then did the same to Rarity.

Applejack trotted up to Twilight. "As long as it's not from her, I'll take the beatin' I deserve."

"Uh, what?" Twilight blinked.

Spike guffawed. "Twilight would lose trying to swat a fly."

"Just because I never participated in any childish roughhousing like you or Shining did doesn't mean I don't know the fundamentals of brawling." Twilight said defensively. "My historical warfare class has a lot of lessons-"

"Just hit me already so we can move on." Applejack side-eyed Rarity.

"Yes, hit her already so you can deliver a stinging rebuke upon me on her behalf." Rarity chimed in, a hint of sincerity mixing with her sarcastic tone.

Despite them seeming to defer to her, Twilight felt like she was still just on their ride. "No, Rarity, you will get yours first, so you can go fetch your pattern and drafting equipment."

Rarity stepped forward. "As you wish Lady magistrate."

"Okay, first how about you drop that 'magistrate' buisness. I'm no servant of the imperial administration. I'm equal to that whole institution. I'm above it." Twilight pushed up on her hooves. "Rarity, you and all the other ponies here look the same from my height, so actually you should drop that whole nobelesse affectation, acting like you're better than your fellow villager."

Rarity, instead of weathering Twilight's words, grinned. "If only you knew."

"Y'all can do her worse than that." Applejack goaded. "C'mon."

Twilight wheeled around around and smacked Applejack with the back of her hoof. Applejack yelped and fell backwards, more surprised than pained. "Can't wait your turn, fine." Twilight said. She felt mixed shame and satisfaction with her effort to assert control.

"Hurt me more like that." Rarity requested.

"Do you think I'm not up to the task? If you were listened to your friend Fluttershy maybe you'd be a little wiser and a little less hubristic. Some self-awareness would go a long way." Twilight said. "I have hardly seen a pony whose ambitions so outstrip her ability and position. I actually think you'd do well in Canterlot since you'd get a reality-check pretty fast, and you could start living in realty. As it stands in Ponyville, you could use some time serving somepony else for once, instead of everything being about you."

THAT hit Rarity much harder. "If only you knew..." She repeated, much more somberly. "just how much I serve."

"You're wack, and your sense of style is tacky!" Pinkie Pie chipped in. "Okay, that's enough Rarity-abuse. Let's not push things, okay?"

"Naw, let's push things." Applejack snickered. But after a nudge by Pinkie, Applejack relented, and just nursed her inflamed cheek.

Twilight shrugged and sunk back in her chair. "Go on then."

Rarity gave a stiff bow and trotted out of the Oak.

Fluttershy had not said much since coming back from the riverside. Everypony was being reckless around Twilight Sparkle, getting dangerously close to saying something they shouldn't. It wasn't funny, and made Fluttershy very anxious. Like, what if Twilight Sparkle was there under false pretenses, and was actually there to investigate something? Then again, Twilight did not have the temperament of an infiltrator. She seemed like she wanted to be nice but was too quick to get annoyed.
Still, Fluttershy did not want to keep having to get involved to keep the Ponyvillians from blabbing to or angering Lady Twilight.

"I was just expectin' to call her fat or somethin'. Still I don't think y'all's words got her near well as Fluttershy's." Applejack said to Twilight.

"I could spare a word for you if you'd like, since I thought brawny country ponies were supposed to be the boisterous banterous types. Maybe not in Manehattan though." Twilight said.

"Yeah well, I'll take your swing any day and show you how a real mare perseveres." Applejack grunted. "That's all farmpony."

"Yeah Twilight, you didn't wind up that slap at all. Were you watching when Applejack hit Mis Pinkie? She put her whole body into it." Spike said.

"Enough talk about hitting. We're through with hitting each other. Violence is hereby abolished." Twilight insisted.

"Sometimes a pony just deserves a good kickin'." Applejack chuckled. "The day goes, God guidin' my hoof to 'em, knock'n'em back to to right ways."

"Has that worked out for you so far? Has anypony acted better because of it?" Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "She's right Applejack, Ponyville should be a peaceful place. That's why I'm here!"

Twilight stomped her hooves. "Enough! Cherish that slap Mis Applejack because that was the divine princess acting through ME, the very concept of violence kissing you goodbye."

"Pshh, I'd nearly rather kiss Rarity goodbye." Applejack said sourly, unhappy everyone was ganging up on her.

Rarity returned with a satchel full of paper, pencils, protractors, rulers, and a dark blue sweater to fend off the cold night air outside. "The court is over, and the planning committee begins, n'est pas?"

"Yes, the reasons I bother with you ponies. The reason I've been breaking my back trying to ingratiate myself!" Twilight began levitating all the chairs and tables back into their proper places. The chalk line on the floor had been all but erased. "Only half-joking. I need your help getting Ponyville ready for the Summer Sun Fair. Disappointment, substandard-ness, and failure are not an option."

"It's an option, just a bad one." Pinkie Pie joked.

Twilight shook her head. "Maybe for you mares. For me... l'héraut n'y passent pas. I might as well run into that big forest. I'll have nothing for me back in Canterlot if I screw up."

The mention of the 'big forest' made the other ponies tense up.
"You mean the Everfree Forest." Applejack said.

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, thanks. I forgot the name. The Everfree. Might as well run into the Everfree. I'm saying hermit isolation or dead."

"You're being way dramatic, Twilight." Spike said.

"Not dramatic enough. You shouldn't joke about the Everfree." Rarity said. "There is a reason no farms extend across the river."

Twilight looked around the room and saw all the mares nodding to what Rarity said. How was this the one thing they all agree about? "Sorry, I didn't know I crossed a line there." She sat in the middle of the room, beckoning everypony toward her. "Please, please, let's just work on my Ponyville project."

“Can you name it something else? There's already a PP here.” Pinkie interrupted. “Me.”

“I don' think anypony will mistake you for an architectural project.” Twilight shot. “Rarity, please please bring your draft, to show everypony here.”

Rarity obliged, taking a wad of drawings from her saddlebags. Twilight spread them over the floor. "You couldn't help yourself, even when you played coy with me."

"I had spare time." Rarity said.

"Uh huh." Twilight cast an eye over the designs Rarity had drawn. There were cute renditions of the Ponyville cottages, spruced up, upgraded with better materials, archetypally cheerful with potted plants and marks on the doors. Lamp posts. More sturdy market stalls. New streets with intricate patterns in the pavers. Several new buildings on the edge of town near the clinic, a mix of the rustic style, classical proportions, and gothic details. Rarity had done several versions of some of the new buildings, experimenting with different styles. "Just a little spare time." Twilight cleared her throat. "Could everypony step outside for just a moment. I need to think on these."

With some odd looks and a few mutters, the other ponies filtered out of the library, leaving Twilight and Spike.

"Spike." Twilight said, subdued. "Could you please make sure none of them leave."

Spike had been mostly on the sidelines for the whole trail and fight. Concern for Twilight was etched on his face. "Are you okay?"

Twilight nodded. "Do you want to be more involved? It's going to be a lot of pressure."

"I am here to help however I can. I learn by helping you." Spike said.

"I promise, it's enough for you to be here for me. I appreciate everything you do." Twilight said. "Go on then, and keep the newlyweds apart."

Spike reluctantly left her side and left the Oak.
Twilight started at the air between the drawings spread out on the floor, and infinity. "The command I had over them... With words and violence... I did it. What I was just dreaming of, I made reality. My command over other ponies. It was harder and easier than I thought. I..." She hung her head. "What a bitter lesson, Princess. Next time I see you, Celestia, I will command you too. I might even slap you. I hope I'll be strong enough to survive how you slap back.." She expelled a pained breath. "I will drive these mares onward, just like I'll drive Celestia to face down that Nightmare. What other hope do I have for myself. I am fast losing hope in redemption on my own terms."

The news of the Blackhorn pretender sent shockwaves through Canterlot Castle.

“... and I must reiterate, this situation is well in hoof. Let it not weigh on your minds at all, nor annoy you, nor Sun forbid, tempt you. We have control." Fancy Pants said to the assembled advisors. “This presumptuous attack on her highness's power is, at best, a stillbirth disturbance. I foresee no issues attritting it to its permanent abolishment.”

The Imperial Council had been assembled as Fancy Pants had ordered, but many of the minor functionaries were scrambling for answers from the higher-ups. They had gathered in the hallway outside the meeting room, peering in through the cracked door to listen in on their superiors' discussions.

"You're playing a double game here, Vizier Pants. You want to frame this Blackhorn prince as both threatening and contained." As always, Prosser was the first and loudest challenge to Fancy Pants's statement. "This pony might be the topic of all Canterlot gossip and rumor right now, but we are in a castle, and he is not. We have the Household Guard, and all their swords and guns, and he has a few hobby clubs. So please elaborate on this massive Blackhorn threat, which you simultaneously say is contained."

"It's obvious this Seacrest figure is a fake. He's just the lightning rod to anti-imperial sentiments. Already they are skirting the boundaries of illegality. As the latest Blackhorn movement invariable becomes treasonous after attracting all the city dissidents, I will have free rein to crush them." Fancy Pants asserted. "So you see, the more dangerous, the more easily crushed they are. No challenge to Princess Celestia's sovereignty in Canterlot will be tolerated."

Another councilor spoke up. "Arrest them now then, Vizier, and quit causing us anxiety. What would the princess say if she were here? You'd be reprimanded for letting things get this far."

"You'd be sacked!" Another councilor rasped.

"Bring back the Lightdowser candidate for the viziership." A councilor joked, and a few ponies chuckled.

Fancy Pants went red-faced. " I am a servant of the princess first, but I am also a shepherd to the rule of law. I can not crack down on ponies who had done nothing illegal yet."

"If you can not act in the empire's best interests and destroy this latest Blackhorn, you are more slave to the rule of law than a shepherd." A councilor rapped the table, evoking a conflicted chorus of agreement and disagreement.

Prosser, after listening to the talk around the table, raised his hoof again. "What if this movement stays in the confines of the law? What if they carry their message not through revolt like you expect, but into the Estates? After all, isn't the Black Horn Council, Bluebood, Fellowship and their misfit band of Speakers the behind this?" Prosser asked.

"Don't be coy- I know you were there when Frie Fellowship's passing was announced." Fancy Pants retorted. "And yes, the timing of his death and his club revealing a Blackhorn pretender is not lost on me."

Prosser shook his head. "So don't avoid my question. What if the Blackhorn choses to chase legal power? How far can they get? Sir Pants, my advice, either stamp this out now while it's in a grey area, or regret it later when you become the one outside the law."

"Come now. They have no chance in the Estates." Fancy Pants scoffed. "Besides, There is absolutely no chance they those thuggish idiots don't resort to violence once they realize how pointless their 'peaceful' option is. We are in a game to goad the other into crossing the line. If they attack first, the sensible moderates will revile them. If we attack first, the moderates will give them their sympathy. Just as their danger will give us victory, our impatience will only betray us."

The other councilors murmured among themselves, weighing the options.

Prosser wasn't done though. "I'm telling you Pants, if you sit on your hooves, you will allow time to the Blackhorn movement to legitimize itself. If those 'moderate' ponies come to believe that there is a viable alternative to Celestia for Canterlot, then it will follow that their rhetoric of tribal segregation and general obnoxiousness will also gain legitimacy. Let that take root, and you have a generation of problems for yourself. There is no holding together a city that hates the rest of the world around it."

Fancy Pants leaned to one side, resting his head in his hoof. “A time and a place for everything, even for justice.”

“Justice is a very subjective thing, my dear Lord Pants.” Prosser shook his head. "Is letting Canterlot become infested by unicorn supremacists justice? Are you going to be able to protect the tens-of-thousands of earth ponies and pegasi in this city, when they come under attack because you couldn't stop one demagogue?" He tapped his head, emphasizing his lack of horn. "By idleness you will let the Blackhorn define justice. Then we will going to loose support from the other tribes."

One of the councilors guffawed. "That's why we keep this stallion around. Always ready with the worst case scenario, eh Councilor Prossor?"

"No, I'm sorry to say I'm giving you the best case." Prosser said firmly. "Fancy Pants, why aren't you talking about Velvet's role in this?"

Fancy Pants looked to the other advisors, who did their best to avoid his suddenly icy gaze. "Why aren't I indeed. All of you, leave us at once.” He said, and the other councilors immediately shuffled out of the meeting chamber.
Struggling with his weak telekinesis, Fancy Pants shut the door to the nosy apparatchiks outside.

"You were outmaneuvered by sheer audacity. Give Lady Velvet her credit, Sir Pants. You were powerless against this move of hers." Prosser said.

Fancy Pants stood up and trotted over to Prosser, and hovered over him. "You think you are a clever pony, but you are proven as ignorant as I. What help were you against Velvet? None. So what good will you be against a Blackhorn? You can't speak for how the tribes will think and act. You speak for nopony but yourself." He said, the dangerous twinge in his words of a pony with his pride hurt.

"Okay, maybe it is stupid of me to invite a blame-throwing contest. We are victims of consecutive unforeseen circumstances. This time, we came out the worse. Perhaps Lady Velvet will lose out next time, and we regain initiative." Prosser said. "But if Velvet gets lucky a few more times in a row, I foresee an axe, a rope, or a gun with our names on it."

"Bah! Luck! You made your doom-riven rant on conjectures about luck?" Fancy Pants hissed.

Prosser threw his hooves up. "It is the best I can do right now. Perhaps if I look a little closer I will discover how this fits into that mare's grand design, as part of a plot so clever to conceal its intentionality. Now that would be truly frightful!" He said. Under these circumstances, luck is the least horrible explanation."

"Foe to luck. An empire was not won by luck. My viziership was not won by luck. I will not now lose both because of luck." Fancy Pants said scornfully.

"You would be very angry with me if I said that our future rests with providence and luck, because we are too incompetent to save ourselves otherwise." Prosser prodded. "Go fetch Princess Celestia to save you, just like she elevated you. Go rally the Earth Ponies and Pegasi to your side, just like you did to beat out Duke Lightdowser for the viziership. Surely you haven't lost the spark, Sir Pants."

"Insult me all you like. It will be fine comfort if your prophesied dystopia comes about, earth pony. Instead of degrading me, you should redouble your support for me. " Fancy Pants said. "Get yourself out on the street and shout your adoration in the same soprano, overpowering those Black Horn Council fools."

"You would get more use out of me if you gave me one of those fancy new guns the IHG have and point me at the Old Town." Prosser said, turning more obsequious. "I will do as the Vizier and princess ask, as is necessary. I've made my predictions clear however."

"I may get that gun, Prosser." Fancy Pants said. "I have proclaimed my love for the princess's rule of law, and I did not lie. That does not mean I can not make a nudge to ensure the law and justice are on our side. Then I will happily see that trigger pulled, and the Blackhorn unicorn supremacists wiped away."

Prosser thought in silence for a while. "You are underestimating Twilight Velvet again. She is no supremacist, and no scheme of yours will put her on the wrong side of that gun."

"More likely that she point it at me? No, Velvet has betrayed me, and revealed her foolishness in doing so." Fancy Pants shook his head.

Prosser stood up. "I know you have been collecting information on her, and if I know, she knows. From her perspective you are plotting a strike against her and Twilight Sparkle."

Fancy Pants chuckled. "From my perspective too."

"And thus you wonder at the horror you've invited on yourself! On us!" Prosser batted at Fancy Pants's shoulder. "What will the princess think if she finds out you're scheming against her First Student?! Ham-headed oaf!" Prosser circled the table, shouting into the air. "Fatuous knight. Ignorant serf. No simpleton in history has caused as much peril to ponykind, as you! As you, Sir Pants, while you stand there smugly!"

"Continue to act so hysterically and I will have you detained for your health, Councilor Prosser." Fancy Pants said. "The Princess has her reasons to adore her former student, Lady Sparkle. It is my job to mitigate the harm. That is what I have been doing, and will do, when I reassert the dominance of the Imperial Administration. The First Student, the Chateau la Garde, and the keys to Canterlot, will preform their best once they are accountable."

"Accountable to you? Idiot. Rest assured I will not be sharing a grave with you, Vizier. In trying to be clever you have been massively un-clever." Prosser continued to rave. "The princess's continued absence from court, the very thing which has allowed this Blackhorn problem to spring up, is now the only thing maintaining the stability of the government!"

"Then you understand, exactly as I do, that WE are the beating heart of stability in Equestria. Those scurrying bureaucrats, the wrinkled generals and admirals, the dusty ideologists, and the bore nobles all count for nothing." Fancy Pants said. "From its unification by the princess, to now, the Equestrian Empire rests on strength of personality and pony. It is not too different if it is the princess or myself, or even you Councilor, despite your squeaky voice and lack of horn."

"I'm clearly not laughing." Prosser sniffed. "But if any strong and capable personality could work, then let's put Twilight Velvet in charge. That way you get the deep voice and horn too."

"Begging your pardon?" Fancy Pants blinked.

"You heard me. Cede the Viziership to Twilight Velvet. She gets the power and position she wants, the security for her family, and will be forced to distance herself from the Blackhorn. Additionally, the pony who threatened her, you, will have been tossed from power." Prosser expounded. "She will be inside, spitting out, rather than outside, spitting in. Equestria will be saved."

Fancy Pants was stunned into silence. Prosser's suggestion had a logic to it, and Fancy Pants struggled to think of an airtight rebuttal. "What if..."
If Velvet were vizier, her wits and cunning would serve the empire excellently. Further, she would presumably have a good working relationship with First Student Twilight Sparkle. Fancy Pants almost saw a reflection of his own rise in that possibility, of a petty Canterlot noble rising to Imperial heights in spite of greater noble resistance. "She is too arrogant. I would almost be tempted to do it, were I not afraid she would begin putting her face on the coins instead of Princess Celestia's." He offered unconvincingly.

"Velvet hides her ego better than you do, Pants. Just moments ago you were comparing yourself to the Princess." Prosser chuckled. "My my, a Twilight Velvet viziership would be run almost too competently. There wouldn't be anything funny happening."

"Except for the aforementioned gun being pointed at me." Fancy Pants muttered.
Forgetting the implications across Equestria, Fancy Pants dwelled on what a Twilight Velvet viziership would mean for him personally. If he did not want to end up proscribed and dragged through the mud so Velvet could secure her administration, he would have to go into exile, probably to Trottingham or some other colony. He would spend decades as an advisor, administrator, or noble bum, until the next coup let him return to Equestria so he could scrounge for power for the rest of his life.
What was 'good' for Equestria was not good for Fancy Pants.
"No. No. I will not retreat from the challenge. The princess may retire from court, for she has more than earned respite from the suffering of governance. But I have no tower to watch from. My place is on the frontlines."

Prosser groaned and sat back in his chair, rubbing his eyes in exaggerated exhausted dejection. "Only in times like these, when I see the boss doing something monumentally stupid, do I even remotely wish I were in charge of this mess." He looked back to Fancy Pants. "But insulting you won't change your mind. I won't even have the satisfaction of your anger when it is set against the backdrop of unparalleled terror."

"Terror? Councilor, ours is a backdrop of inevitable triumph." Fancy Pants said. He was getting more and more convinced of his own words. Any doubt fear, or resignation he shared with Prosser was pushed away.

Prosser was completely silent for several long minutes.
"This isn't the end of this conversation, Pants. I... I could probably negotiate a power-sharing agreement with Lady Velvet. She might even accept a governorship or viscounty. Whatever it is, it's essential to make her feel less vulnerable by being a part of the system. As long as she is outside of the system, she will attack it relentlessly."

"Negotiate however you wish. I'm a fair pony. I told you, I take no pleasure in imagining a battle with Lady Velvet, only in rule of law. The Blackhorns are the natural enemy of the empire, not her. I may even wish to speak to her myself." Fancy Pants nodded, his undeserved confidence nudging him to be more lenient. "It is not solely Velvet who wishes to be more secure, Councilor. On this matter, all ponykind may sing in chorus."

Prosser rose from his chair again. "I'm done with this for today. I see you coming around tomorrow, or the day after. You'll go pray for a while, or read a book, and the truth will suddenly dawn on you."

Fancy Pants rolled his eyes. "Make time in your schedule to see the princess tomorrow with me. It is by her light that we will find out what is truth, and what is not."

Prosser seemed satisfied with that. "Okay Pants, okay. Have a nice afternoon. Sorry for calling you names." He trotted for the door. "Just try not to deserve it so much."

"Out ye blaggart." Fancy Pants grunted.

Prosser left the meeting hall, leaving Fancy Pants to clean up and collect his papers. It would have been the work of the functionaries had he not ordered them away.

Fancy Pants checked the time. The running time for his argument with Prosser had been cutting it close, but he could still make his next meeting. He hurriedly beelined for his office, arriving just before the hour.
Exactly on the hour, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!"

Lyra entered, scanning the room for danger, before stepping to the desk.
“Sir.” Lyra bowed. “You passed us in the halls. Is everything okay?"

"Hmm? Yes, just fine Mis Heartstrings, just fine." Fancy Pants coughed and readjusted himself in his seat. "Wait, 'us'?"

A hooded earth pony mare entered the room and stood beside Lyra. "Yes, Sir Pants. ” Lyra gestured to the hooded mare. "I have a full dossier to present. From there, we can proceed to the next stage of your operation, if you wish it."

Fancy Pants rubbed his temples. He wished he had more time to think. If Twilight Velvet really did know that he was scheming against her, and that was why she had thrown in with the Blackhorn prince, Fancy Pants could reach a rapprochement with her by stopping the scheming then and there. But at the same time, if conflict with Velvet was inevitable, the information, dirt, or leverage Lyra could provide could be of vital importance. He needed any tidbit he could get a hold of if he was to stop her.
But how did Velvet know of the scheme in the first place? "Did you see Councilor Prosser on the way here?"

"What does he look like?" The hooded mare asked.

Lyra sighed. "Sir, are you sure everything is okay?"

"No. I am not sure." Fancy Pants kicked away his chair in his haste to get to his hooves. "Let us find another place to talk."

Lyra was confused but obeyed, following Fancy Pants out of the room. Should not the solid marble walls, thick wooden doors, and magic-aided construction thwarted all eavesdroppers?

The three ponies quickly moved down the halls of the upper castle keep, using a less-used staircase to descend into the lower keep. Without the princess's active presence, there were less visitors and less guards. The vaulted high-ceilinged halls echoed with the whispers of ponies hundreds of meters away, while enormous tapestries and banners fluttered in the soft wind coming in through the massive front doors.

Fancy Pants led the mares past a squad of patrolling Imperial Household Guard, to another quiet staircase to the castle sub-levels. The grandeur of Canterlot Castle shifted form again, for it was majestic and grand in the upper levels, truly dauntingly spectacular in the main halls, but uniformly solid in its deep foundations in the plateau bedrock.

Fancy Pants's destination was not that deep however, an unassuming door in a broad torch-lit passageway.
"Few ponies come down here. We should have ample alert if somepony is approaching." Fancy Pants said.

But when Fancy Pants pushed open the door, somepony was already there. The room was filled with storage frames of beakers, flasks, alchemical equipment of glass and brass. Prosser was in the middle of the room, pulling a stopper-bottle full of glowing green liquid from a shelf.
"Oh?" Prosser turned around. "Hello again. Come to talk already?"

Fancy Pants scowled and pushed Lyra and the robed mare back into the shadow. “Prosser! What are you doing here?”

Prosser wiggled the bottle of green liquid, seeming to regret it when the bottle began to glow more fervently. "Clearly I am in need of some of this. Please don't let me get in your way though.”

"Planning to send a letter to somepony?" Fancy Pants snarled. "Who?! Sparkle has that dragon twerp I know can receive dragonfire messages. Do not play around with me Councilor."

"Vizier, please. It is for an old friend of mine who lives in Trottingham. A monk. It has nothing to do with anything." Prosser placated.

Fancy Pants hesitated, then felt foolish. "Then... Restrain yourself from using royal dragonfire stores. This alchemical equipment is for imperial use."

"Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, so I send letters on imperial time." Prosser whistled.

"I- We will talk about this later." Fancy Pants backed up and closed the door again. He turned to the mares. "Yes, ahem... it's usually empty." He considered leading them all the way back to his office, since he now knew were Prosser was. "But there is a place even less frequented than here, further on. The trophy room."

They went into deeper and darker hallways, down stairways, through the deepest levels. The columns and thick walls they passed by were the under-foundations of the mighty castle above. The marble here was rough and cracked, not polished and smooth like the halls above. Very distant echos could be heard, shouting, yelling, screaming, probably from the imperial dungeon located somewhere connected by a dank passageway. Ahead of the ponies old firefly lanterns were spaced infrequently along the path, casting haunting long shadows.

Lyra and Octavia hung back from Fancy Pants, conversing under their breath.
"I am uneasy about this. Imperial work is supposed to be secure and reliable, but this feels like tunnel scrounging below Guild work. Something is wrong." Octavia whispered

“Obviously something is wrong. It is my duty to remedy that." Lyra said.

Octavia frowned. "I wish Vinyl were here. You should have pressed Mistress Phyte more to release Vinyl to your care."

Lyra felt like she had some liberty with Octavia since she had already agreed to the work. "I respect her work, but you are all I need for this. I do not wish to have to manage her if I do not have to."

"That makes me wonder if I should have turned you down." Octavia said.

Lyra was annoyed. "You were looking forward to Phyte killing Mis Vinyl not one day ago. Now you wish she was free, and taking your work to boot. You are in a terrible relationship with that mare."

"I won't deny that." Octavia said. "We had a lot of special moments, long ago, spending uncountable hours together in dark places like this. When I was at the hideout with her yesterday, I was hoping we would find a drink somewhere and reminisce about all the crazy mischief our group got into. But she is not... not capable of sitting still. In her nervous distraction and boundless energy, she is still a young mare. I feel like crone beside her. I can't help resent her at times, but be captivated at others."

"I hope her return comes out for the best for you. Some feelings need to be confronted." Lyra offered.

“What a load of rubbish. I could have lived a decent life if she stayed away like she was supposed to.” Octavia huffed. “Every time I think of her, I taste bitterness. It's pitiful." She hung her head. "Yes, over the years I wished she would come back and I would discover her to be a better mare than me. That wish was so selfish, thinking that she could come and improve me from these humdrum prospects of a Guild Mare starting to lose her touch. But no... Vinyl is what she is. That fantasy, the only good thing in my mind about her, is bitter too. There is no saving either of us."

"Don't link your future and hers. Let's focus on the moment. We have work ahead of us to think about." Lyra insisted.

"She will dance forever, in madness most likely. She is a force that can never die. Exile did not improve her. It was selfish of me to imagine for moment that you could either. You're a capable mare, Lyra, but not that capable. You can't move mountains." Octavia went on.

It was clear to Lyra that Octavia was descending into a deeply depressive mood, her mind fixating on Pon-3. It was somehow easier to obsess over one mare than all the other issues around her.
Lyra didn't really know what to do. She had never had a friend as close or as special as the mares had been.

Fancy Pants led them farther, to the catacomb-like vaults of Canterlot Castle's 'Trophy Room'. While the upper levels had many displays of art and history, no single building could have contained an empire's spoils. Out of sight of visitors, treasures awaited the princess who had plundered them. The three ponies passed by racks upon racks of ancient artifacts: Armor, weapons, jewelry, mounted animals all slowly decayed in the low light.

Fancy Pants stopped beside one of the massive support columns running through the space. Above them, a few particular artifacts were on display.
Lyra's eye was caught by an absurdly large broadsword, steel with a pommel embedded with jetstone. It hung beside black lacquered armor bearing a symbol she did not recognized: A white triangle with a smaller black triangle inset atop it.

"Very fitting that we stop here. This set of armor is thousands of years old." Fancy Pants nodded to the lacquered armor. "That sword is even older."

"Those... belonged to the Blackhorn dynasty of old." Lyra guessed.

"Quite right." Fancy Pants nodded. "The unicorn princes of Canterlot would go into battle wearing that. They were said to be nearly invincible in battle. They could survive any stab. They could rend any steel with their broadsword. They were the terror of Central Equestria until, of course, they weren't anymore."

"We are lucky none of the Blackhorn pretenders since the unification had this armor I guess." Lyra joked.

"Quite. We stand among the testaments to Princess Celestia's enduring victory. This is the legacy that we are called upon to uphold." Fancy Pants said. "Mis Lyra, you may proceed with your report."

“I have the comprehensive history of house Twilight, as requested- I have transcribed liberally from all the archives in Canterlot.” She reached for her saddlebags.

Fancy Pants waved her off. “Nevermind the long version. Convey the most important points which, in your view, I must know about the house Twilight."

Octavia fiddled with the fringe of her hood as she waited for her role to be brought up.

Lyra still took her notes out of her saddlebag, skimming through them before she spoke again.
“House Twilight began as a moderately poor house on the Prance and Friesianland border, subsisting on land granted by the Duke of Calcia. Though the histories have been lost of those dangerous times in Griffany, there are some secondary sources which suggest that the house Twilight or "Crepescule" in the tongue, was ill regarded for its secrecy. They came to Equestria in the early 900s SS , though whether they were later banished by the Prench king or if they came voluntarily is unclear. The family establishing themselves in Baltimare and then moved here to Canterlot several generations ago.”

“They're Friesians? I would never had guessed.” Fancy Pants mulled.

“Sources suggest the founding matriarch was from an unknown foreign state, beyond even Griffany. Maybe Saddle Arabia. Maybe the hippogryph theocracies. The husbands the matriarchs took were usually from Bidet or Charolai pony houses. So ethnically they were Prench, though considering their lands I would speculate they were entrenched in Ardennai and Trekpaard culture and tradition.”

“I am not a pony that puts much stock in blood. Let us advance to something more pertinent.” Fancy Pants said. “Continue.”

“Not much else to tell about the family itself, sir. They were completely inconsequential here in Equestria. It was not until Twilight Velvet's marriage union to Night Light of house Bright that anypony ever took notice of them. Ironically that union sounded the death of the house, since their extremely tight successions left no cadet branches.”

"What does that signify." Fancy Pants asked.

"I suppose I should say that there is no house Twilight anymore, sir. There's only house Twilight-Bright." Lyra explained. "That's to say, it would be wise to consider the Bright family as well as the Twilight family."

"We know all about the Brights. A wilting dynasty. You can count them on your four hooves." Fancy Pants snorted derisively. "Duke Foaly Flux presents no threat, nor do his surviving nephews. Only Lord Night Light has the wits to be an accomplice to Twilight Velvet."

"I can not be sure it is as you say, Sir." Lyra bowed her head. "I do not know if there is anything I turned up about Twilight Velvet which is not already known to you. Her mother was a socialite but died on a hunting trip when Velvet was a young adult. Lady Velvet married soon after but did not have children for several years. Velvet worked as a rector at the University, before leaving on her own terms shortly before her daughter began to study there."

"You couldn't turn anything up?"Fancy Pants asked

Lyra shook her head. "Not in the records of the city, monastery, or Canterlot presses. However some ponies wondered if her mother had been killed by a jealous suitor. Nopony knows who Velvet's father was exactly."

Fancy Pants pondered this. "Are their theories which may be useful to us?"

"Not really." Lyra said. She paused. "However, I have a theory of my own. I suggested it to one of the monks, and he rightly said it was unworthy to speculate about it. You see, there are hints that her ancestors in Griffany used magic to conceive their children."

Fancy Pants balked and Octavia cocked her head. "What are you suggesting?" Fancy Pants asked.

"I suggest nothing, sir. I simply float the wild idea that Lady Twilight Velvet was not born in a natural way. It is only a rude jest." Lyra said.

Fancy Pants chewed on the implications. "What a mad grasp! So rarely is illegal Dark magic like that even brought up, for the resulting creatures are so... horrible. I could not even imagine how Canterlot would react if I attempted to prosecute the unholy spawn of such magic."

Lyra worried she had done something very foolish by bringing her idea up. "Sir I must emphasize that I spoke nothing beyond a joking conjecture of mine. There would be no way of proving it."

"There must be. Whether the truth lies in Velvet's person or a scrap of paper, it can and must be found." Fancy Pants pointed to Octavia. "We will find out, Mis Lyra. Lady Velvet's secret nature could be the leverage point to allow me to push back her Blackhorn puppet and destabilizing plots."

"Sir how far are you willing to go on- on- frenzied speculation?" Lyra asked, now very much regretting her earlier words.

"Infinitely, should it serve us! Twilight Velvet thinks she can destroy me with a fake Blackhorn? I will show her. She can enjoy being on the defensive about horrible rumors about her mother and father. The public would be benefitted by being thus informed." Fancy Pants said. "We are in a silent war with her. Yes... Prosser was right. We have to strike while the air is grey." He pointed to Octavia again. "We whittle away at her agents. She will come to me for a bargain, not the other way around. Death to spies, I say."

"Sir-" Lyra was getting a headache. "I can not interpret an actionable order from what you are saying. If... If you wish to suspend this meeting and we may formulate a plan later-"

But Fancy Pants heard echoes of Prosser's smug recommendation in her words. "You think I need time to cool off? You think I am not thinking straight? You all think I'm no longer fit to be Vizier."

"I would not dare even contemplate those slanderous things, sir. I am a servant and seek to render the best service to you and the empire. It is for that sake I speak." Lyra said.

Fancy Pants was unconvinced. "Assassins and agents provocateur benefit from strife and social disharmony. All the oppressed masses, the ambitious nobles, the hungry packs of dissidents, would see their chance in the disintegration of the social and political order!" He said angrily. "Without the strife and hardship of our founding years in the Frozen North, or the endemic war of the pre-unification, Ponykind has had too much luxury and freedom. We have forgotten what it is like to have discipline! The social forces who are supposed to be supporting the governing order fight against us."

"You have more friends than you think, sir. We are all mired in doubt and confusion for the future, but there will be a clarifying moment that pushes ponykind to make the true choice. Sir vizier, I do not doubt they will chose as you desire." Lyra continued to speak, mollifying the ranting stallion.

"No, ponykind is addicted to lies now. Because... the foundations of the Equestrian order are to some degree lies as well. I see it, I live it, as the guiding hoof on the ship of state. There is no benevolent charter of peace and wisdom to this empire. From the moment our great founder, Celestia I, ascended back to heaven, and the next manifestation of our Sun princess descended to rule us... We have been caretakers of a degenerating ideal." Fancy Pants's anger turned to moping. "How can a zombie empire hold up against the furies of Blackhorns, Twilights, and the captivating whims of an absenteeist princess? I'm just one stallion, with disloyal advisors, disloyal agents, and no escape."

Octavia spoke up, her voice tinged with annoyance. "Grand Vizier, I am impatient for your orders. Lyra brought me here to receive a job, not to be told what you think I desire."

"Then go destroy Twilight Velvet, and prolong the contradictions! Let's drag out this battle between lies and their consequences forever, until every light dies away. I do not wish to dwell on the contour of the lie anymore. I will live it fully. There is my order! Kill! Immediately!" Fancy Pants said irately. "If Twilight Velvet is a real or fake pony... What difference does it make in the face of the big lies. Either her lie will win out, or my empire's will."

Lyra had no intention of following that order, or letting Octavia do so either. Fancy Pants did need to cool off. Everything was too confused and pressing, especially for a stallion with so much already resting on his shoulders. "I will investigate the necessary preparatory work, sir vizier." She said. "There is nothing to worry about."

Fancy Pants relaxed. running a hoof over his brow. "I am not worried. I see a path ahead for us. After our victory, when we are cut lose from clear enemies and friends, that is the time to worry. Is it not so? We are all fake ponies in those blessed times."

The clip of hooves on stone sounded from nearby, somepony approaching!

"Who's there?" Fancy Pants shouted towards the sound.
Octavia and Lyra reached for their concealed weapons.

With the echoing architecture of the trophy room it was difficult to pinpoint the direction and distance of the interloper.
Then, a clatter of falling relics sounded from nearby, then the shattering of a firefly lantern. The released fireflies buzzed past Fancy Pants and Lyra.

A voice from the shadows. "None more fake than I? Right? Isn't that what you yearn to admit?" A warm feminine whisper came from the other side of the column.
The interloper stepped around the stone pillar, two ponies tall, with her eyes, mane and tail glowing softly.

"Princess?!" Fancy Pants sputtered. "What?!"

The massive equine, a shadow against the backdrop of the against the dim firefly lanterns, laughed softly. "Oh yes! It is your princess. The most fake pony of all, the sovereign from the heavens" Her voice was light and twinged with humored irony.
It stepped forward. Rather than the pale white coat of Celestia, the alicorn towering above Fancy Pants was a deep blue, with shining turquoise eyes.

"...Celestia?" Fancy Pants gargled, wide-eyed. He could not comprehend the figure before him.

The deep blue alicorn laughed. "Even the top ponies of the realm have been kept out of the secret? You've all forgotten the alicorn of lies? She would be furious."
The alicorn sauntered behind Fancy Pants, grabbing his shoulder with a hoof.

"Lyra!" Octavia hissed. The air was tinged with danger.

"I know." Lyra nodded. They drew their weapons together.

"Hmph." The alicorn shook her head.
A black wind whipped around the alicorn, buffeting Fancy Pants and making him yelp. All the firefly lanterns throughout the trophy-lined catacombs began to dim even further, the little bugs dying and winking out.
When the black wind dispersed, Octavia and Lyra were face to face with Pon-3, holding Fancy Pants in a headlock with a hoof against the stallion's neck.

"VINYL!" Octavia screamed, aghast.

Lyra grabbed her friend's leg. "Shapeshifter changeling."

With a twirl, the pony-disguised creature yanked Fancy Pants backward, making him bounce against the stone pillar and fall to the floor. "You're a silly pony. Could a changeling do this?"
It twirled again, and the black winds kicked up, heralding another dark transformation: A small black-furred earth pony, eyes glowing brightly, wearing a frilly maid's dress. The broadsword on the display rack hanging pendulously above Fancy Pants was torn from the wall, levitating over to the dark pony entity on a cushion of Dark magic.

“She has no horn, but she does magic?” Octavia whispered to Lyra, her teeth biting down on the dagger in her mouth. They fanned out cautiously, standing on either side of the creature.

"Don't hurt him. I'm warning you, monster." Lyra ordered.

"This is Fancy Pants, vizier of Equestria, right?" The dark pony asked, reading a reply in Lyra's expression. "Just making sure I have the right stallion. He's handsome, don't you think?"

"You're outnumbered. You can't possible escape. Surrender yourself and we will ensure the utmost leniency." Lyra said, growing panic in her demands. Fancy Pants was barely moving, his eyes fluttering open for only a moment as he tried to recover from being tossed. "The vizier needs capable agents. We can... We can call this a successful job interview."

"Lyra! Lyra, how did that thing know Vinyl's shape! How did it know we would respond to it?" Octavia said, as panicked as Lyra was.

The dark shapeshifter clucked her tongue approvingly. "She's right Lyra, how did I know? Did I eat your friend?" It laughed tauntingly.

Fancy Pants stirred, sitting up a bit before resting himself against the pillar. "Are... Are you the peril my princess has been searching for in the southward skies?" He asked weakly.

The dark pony shook her head. "Not even close. I'm just a carefree girl getting her kicks." She smiled sinisterly.
Lyra and Octavia watched helplessly as the black-furred mare drove a leg into the side of Fancy Pants's head with enormous force. What horrible and unnatural strength! The vizier was sent tumbling, colliding with the armor rack which collapsed on top of him.

Lyra was immobilized by shock. "Sir Pants!" She screamed, anguished. She knew a fatal blow when she saw one.
Fancy Pant's body lay very still, buried above the waist in the pile of wood, glass, and metal.

The dark shapeshifter shuddered in delight. "Your friend, Vinyl, has had her deadly dream fulfilled. And it feels... so good." She howled like a satisfied beast. "Witness my sacrifice to you, MOON."

“W- What have you done?!” Lyra sunk back on her haunches, unable to tear her eyes away from her murdered master.

Octaiva jumped forward, perhaps sensing an opportunity. But the dark mare still had the broadsword in the grasp of her telekinesis, and cleaved a wide ark just in front of Octavia. Octavia retreated, just being missed twice more.

"Ha ha ha ha!" The dark mare laughed, smile pulled to unnatural proportions, and her mouth was filled with sharp teeth. "Maybe this is your job interview. Show me what you've got, ponies." In a rush of sickly black magic, a horn took appeared back on her head. In another swirl, the horn was gone but a pair of wings graced her back. With a sweep of her wings she was launched up onto one of the display racks. She kicked the priceless artifacts away as she paced its length. "Look at me! Witness me! I am alive again and I can do anything I want. Try and stop me this time, ponykind."

"Lyra! Lyra get up!" Octavia's eyes darted between Lyra and the abominable pony. "We... we have to get out of here!"

Wiping away a tear, Lyra silently stood up and picked her sword back up. "The stars above..." She let out a pained breath. "I understand the inconsolable bitterness you spoke of, Octavia. I already know it's a feeling I'll be holding on to for a long time."

The dark pony grinned even wider, somehow. "This turn on the earth has had more impact than my last. With any luck, by the third I will be immortalized by my wake of grief and woe. Do you envy me yet Moon?!"

Lyra charged and bashed the base of the trophy rack the dark shapeshifter was alighted upon. The rack began to fall over, and the dark pony toppled backwards, flapping her wings uselessly. A bare second before she collided with the ground along with the rest of the rack, the black mare dissolved into an acrid mist. She reformed a moment later, standing upright, with a sour look on her face.
"Good show, Lyra." She bounded forward, grappling with Lyra and pulling her to the ground.

"Fiend!" Lyra stabbed the dark mare repeatedly in the torso with her sword,

But it only made the creature laugh harder. "Can you really call yourself a killer, being so weak?" A swirl of dark magic, and she had assumed the form of Fancy Pants. "You've disappointed me for the last time, Lyra. Ohh, to think I ever though highly of you. I'm disgusted with myself. I wish I could tear out my eyes for ever having laid eyes upon you." The voice was not quite right- The shapeshifter was too delighted with her own mockery to make it match. "You will die as you lived, a disappointment."

Lyra screamed incomprehensibly, stabbing the visage of Fancy Pants through the side of the head. That stunned it long enough for Lyra to pull herself backwards over the splintered wood and glass, that she could stand up again. She shivered and wept, now having to look at two brutalized images of Fancy Pants.

"Oh yeah... I'm fucking getting off on this." The shapeshifter cooed. She stood up and, deeming Lyra harmless, turned to Octavia. "Why didn't you intervene to save your friend? I could have choked the life out of her, and we'd share the delight of her last moments."

"I'm not afraid." Octavia lied. "I have seen many ponies die, many by my own hoof. But I do not revel in it."

"No wonder your dear Vinyl resented you, deep down. I tasted her dreams; I know her thoughts." The dark mare transformed once again, returning to the shape of Pon-3. "How pathetic you are! You lack the guts to stand up to anypony. Strong ponies walk all over you, and you're powerless to stop our excesses. Thusly, the excesses are justified! Miserable ponies like you will always suffer the whims of the strong, and the triumphant conquerors loath you for your weakness. That's why nopony hates ponykind as much as an alicorn princess." She contorted and grabbed Lyra's sword with a hoof, still skewering her head. She played with it a bit, sawing it back and forth while she lolled her tongue. "Wish this could be you?" She purred laviciously.

Octavia wisely stayed silent, cautiously circling around to Lyra. "Run. You're no good disarmed."

"Hey, no need. I'm done here." The shapeshifter said, suddenly chipper. Her shape returned to that of the black-furred mare. Was that her natural state? "I was only expecting Fancy Pants, but you two have been... exhilarating. I have to explore this feeling more. I..." She smiled in blissful contentment. "I'm so happy I'm back."

Octavia shifted her dagger back to her mouth. "I swear, if it turns out you hurt Vinyl-"

The dark mare interrupted with a sharp giggle. "Her pain is yet to come, and yours too. Give her a kiss for me. From Iillor, with love."
With a smirk and a burst of black smoke, the shapeshifter's profile dissolved away. The haze of her presence darted away into the deepening shadow of the catacombs.

Octavia waited in a guarded stance for another few minutes, checking every avenue of approach. When she was sure the dark creature was truly gone, she returned to Lyra's side. "This is not good, Lyra."

Lyra stared into the distance. "A nightmare."

Octavia offered a consoling hoof. "I'm scared too, but we have to think of-"

"No, a Nightmare. A dream monster." Lyra said. She shouldered Octavia away. "We were the last ponies anyone saw with the vizier. All those ponies in the grand hall saw us. The councilor got a good look at us too. That Nightmare... That Nightmare could even go raise the warning while disguised."

Octavia jammed her dagger back into it scabbard. "You're saying..."

"For all it matters, we just killed Grand Vizier Fancy Pants." Lyra took a steadying breath. She scooped her sword up, examining the black ichor coating it.
She had just survived an encounter with an abyssal terror from Equestria's past, as ancient as the artifacts around her. Ponykind had been spared the terror of the Nightmare onslaught since the unification. Had there been warnings in Fancy Pants's words?
"It's time to leave. Start thinking of things to pack. We might be gone longer than Mis Vinyl was."

Chapter 5: The End of Peaceful Nights

The Nightmare had left the trophy room, but the fireflies in the lanterns continued to die off, until Lyra and Octavia were in nearly complete darkness.

"We might have to leave forever. There are only a few places in the world where we could be safe from Equestrian agents forever." Lyra said. "This might be the end of us."

Octavia shook her head. "Quit talking like that. We should focus on one thing on a time. If we have to leave, we leave. If we have to, you know, recover the vizier, we should do that before we're caught just standing around like this."

"He-" It was almost too dark for Lyra to see Fancy Pants's body, pinned under the pile of artifacts and broken display racks. "He must stay were he is. Our hope for absolution rests with a forensic pony finding out how this crime really happened."

"How would the idea of a shapeshifter even cross an investigator's mind? You said yourself everypony saw us with the vizier. Unless we stay to tell them about the changeling, they'll interpret the scene however fits their preconceived idea of our guilt." Octavia said. "Either we stay and hope they believe us, or we run."

Lyra sighed, trying to find resolve within overwhelming confusion and sorrow. "You said it yourself, Octavia. We run. I- I'm sorry I dragged you into all of this."

Octavia led the way, trying to reverse the path the vizier had led them down. "It was bound to happen eventually. I survived longer than most guild mares." She was silent for a moment. "We have to ask Mistress Phyte for help."

Lyra felt a surge overwhelming impatience and disgust at her friend's behavior, briefly drowning out her terror. "Do you understand what's happened here? You want to sit around to give our side of the story, and you think Phyte could also save you? She pointed back in the direction of the corpse. “That was the third or fourth most important pony on the continent! We will be afforded no due process or opportunity to protest our innocence. We'll be butchered on sight, dragged through the streets, and hung from a clock tower!" The mentioned punishments began to flash rapidly through Lyra’s imagination. "We'll be burned in effigy for years to come.

"I have no intention of being being treated that way. That's exactly the reason we have to get help from the mistress." Octavia insisted. She drew her cloak up more closely, avoiding Lyra's glare.

"Then we have to go our separate ways. How can we find assistance from a death-monger when murderers are who the guards will be looking for? She's the exact wrong pony for this. We would do better to seek out a convent." Lyra said.

"Lyra I-" Octavia's voice hitched.

Maybe Octavia was even more panicked than Lyra, and fixating on the idea of the mistress saving her to avoiding having a breakdown. As Lyra's feeling out outrage receded, the fear crept back in and took over her decision-making.
"Let's get out of the castle first. Mis Vinyl's hideout is on the way to the south gate, and not a big detour from the Musician's Guild."

Octavia, to Lyra's surprise, readily agreed. "We can use the dragonfire birdcage I stowed there to send Phyte a message."

That was acceptable to Lyra as well.
Without further discussion, the duo scurried forward, up and out of the castle, as silently and as hurriedly as cockroaches.

Overseeing the four Ponyville mares mull over the plan of the village, Twilight was struck by an unexpected feeling of dread.
This was from something deeper than subconscious, a vibrating string in the flows of magic that ran through the entire world, and even through other dimensional realms. A primordial discordance had been played into the cosmic song. Any magically attuned pony would probably feel a brief discomfort. For Twilight, it was like something had pinched the nape of her neck and run a cold knife along her spine.

Twilight also noticed Rarity and Pinkie Pie's reacting. Rarity's ear flicked at an absent sound. Pinkie Pie sat up and looked around, trying to find something far away to the north.

"Yes?" Twilight asked. "Need a glass of water or tea?"

Pinkie Pie, unable to find the feeling that had teased her interest, shook her head. "No thanks lady."

Fluttershy raised a wing. "Umm, I'll have some tea, if you're offering. Uhh, please."

Twilight obliged, rising from her cushion and trotting to the kitchen. Spike was lounging at the table, reading a book by candlelight. "Tired?"

"Not really."Twilight said. "Say, did you feel something in the air just now?"

"Umm, sorta. There's a storm north of us, and I think it might be coming this way. Everytime there's lightning I feel a prickle." Spike said. "Dragons are really really sensitive to lightning."

"I know. Not as much to magic, though." Twilight said. There was a minimal chance Spike had actually felt the same magical disturbance she had.
She would probably never find out what had actually caused it. Such things happened every so often, for reasons beyond ponykind's ability to understand. Unless... No, no, it was not time for the Nightmare Pretender's assault, according to the prophesy. "Thanks anyway."

Spike lowered his book. "Everypony getting along?"

Twilight began boiling a kettle with her magic. "They're not shouting or hitting each other. I hope that as long as they're focussed on something on a professional, rather than visceral personal level, they can cooperate."

Spike idly nibbled at one of his taloned fingers. "I get a funny sense from the pink one and the yellow one, Mis Pinkie and Mis Fluttershy. Why were they so involved in a catfight that doesn't matter to them?"

"Fluttershy alluded to everypony knowing Macintosh a bit, but you're right." Twilight sprinkled tea leaves into the boiling water. "Did you notice something else?"

"Ehh, not really. Just that Mis Fluttershy got up and talked when you were putting the screws to Mis Applejack. After that, Fluttershy was controlling the direction of the conversation." Spike shrugged. "In one of my fantasy books, the hero interrupts his friend confessing to something by making an even bigger confession, which was fake. It confused the evil guards and the heroes escaped without trouble."

"I see what you're saying. But Fluttershy is Rarity's friend, not Applejack's. Why would Fluttershy cover for Applejack?" Twilight pondered. "Even if there is some silly secret they're all in on, I only care about them cooperating on my Summer Sun Fair. Discretion around their secrets is probably better if I want them to help me." However Twilight could not deny that she was curious now, and slightly angry that the Ponyvillians would try to deceive her. "Don't be overly suspicious of ponies, but I appreciate your attention to detail Spike. Keep it up."

"Thanks Twilight." Spike went back to reading his book.

Twilight returned with three cups of tea. One for herself and Fluttershy, but as expected... "Oh darling, could you get me one too?" Rarity asked as Twilight approached. However she realized her prank had been anticipated, as Twilight levitated the third cup over to her. "Thank you my lady."

"You're very welcome." Twilight said as she settled back in her seat. She watched the discussions over the town plan continue.

“And a bakery at every corner! Bread for everypony!” Pinkie furiously scribbled across the paper spread out over the floor. Looking up from that, to the unamused glares of Rarity and Applejack, she apologetically smeared the scribbles away. “Or not. Bread for nopony.”

“You prompt a serious discussion about the merits of decentralized food distribution.” Twilight chimed in. “The strain of so many ponies on one facility during a prolonged siege, or fair, increases the danger if the one bakery stops working for some reason."

"The market ponies provide us with food too, you know." Rarity said. "I wouldn't be against another bakery, maybe by the river, but Pinkie Pie doesn't need twenty bakeries."

"Yeah but what'll a thousand visitors need?" Applejack challenged. "Me 'n the other ponies who sell in the market 'bout run out of produce every week. Grain is the easiest food to barge in."

"We only have one working gristmill." Fluttershy said.

"Bet you've never see me work the mill." Pinkie Pie grinned. She pantomimed the grinding motion of a millstone. "Grrrrr grrrr grrrr grrrr. I can turn grain to flour lickety-split."

Twilight's mind wandered. She wondered how the ponies would react if she started asking for them to add moats, palisade, and a watchtower or two. She would have to come up with an excuse for the usefulness to a fair. Besides, would such things be of any use against a resurgent Nightmare force?

Twilight leaned over to read what had already been written on the map. Ideas and suggestions had been scribbled over the blocky representations fo builds, in the margins, or nearby sheets of paper: Paved roads, some land clearance, some land reclamation, some land abandonment. A cistern, limited sewage system, granary to complement the mill. Renovations for the town hall pavilion, an expansion to the local apothecary. Bold and necessary work to prepare Ponyville for the strain of a Summer Sun Fair. The mares balanced each other's ideas out reasonably and were, Twilight had to admit, a fair bit more clever about their ideas than she had given them credit for.

Spike had warned of an approaching storm. Twilight felt the slight vibration of a distant thunderclap. Her thoughts turned to the Nightmare again. Could the Nightmare Pretender be reasoned with? Could Twilight find common ground, or find a negotiated potion with, an avatar of dark hate? It could not be more difficult than getting Applejack and Rarity to get along.
What would the Nightmare pretender think of her, Twilight Sparkle? Would she hate Twilight automatically for being Celestia's student? Almost surely.

Fluttershy was speaking. “Uhm, I think if we planted trees along the northern road, we’d get some very pretty birds there.” She proposed.

“And unpleasant bird by-products.” Rarity frowned.

Twilight tried to envision the pleasant tree line, but could only imagine evil eyes peering from the leaves.

“Hey, ya think that as long as we’re spending some other pony’s money, we could buy a new mayor?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“And a new weatherpony.” Rarity agreed. “It’s has been dreadfully humid lately and the local pegasi are completely ineffectual.”

"How many ponies are we going to stop at?" Fluttershy asked.

"Huh?" Pinkie Pie queried.

"Thinkin' there should be a limit?" Applejack laughed under her breath. "Why, worried about the composition of y'all's town? Don't want new neighbors?"

Twilight was surprised that it was Applejack challenging the conservative point. "It's a fair worry."

"Ponyville accepted me and Fluttershy." Pinkie Pie pointed out.

"yup." Applejack voiced her agreement. "And before that, when Ponyville was even smaller, my family and others came here, and made it a good home."

"And everything has been dandy since then." Rarity grunted.

"A couple ponies won't put the party space over capacity." Pinkie Pie said.

"A couple ponies?" Fluttershy tilted her head.

"It will take a dedicated group of town watch or militia to keep order while thousands of ponies mill around." Twilight interjected. "If Ponyvillians fill that role it will mean they can't do their work and feed or shelter the attendees."
Everypony frowned, and Twilight feared she had done some great taboo. She continued nervously. “A town watch would also deter thieves or bandits preying on ponies coming and going from the Fair."

"Ponyville is kinda an anarchic commune, so we can't have armed ponies bossing others around." Pinkie Pie said.

Rarity nodded. "There is a bow or musket in almost everyponies home. Thank goodness nopony ever has to use them, except to scare off wolves from across the river." From the Everfree, everypony understood.

"There has to be order somehow. There have to be ponies that can direct the masses in an emergency." Twilight insisted.

"So? Let somepony volunteer." Applejack said. "Or have 'em elected."

"You want to elect the Summer Sun Fair guards?" Twilight was utterly baffled by the logic of the Ponyvillians. She could relate to them about most things, but certainly not this. She thought up scenarios to test their logical consistency. "How could a peace officer elected from the Ponyville commoners be asked to restrain a noble if needed?"

Applejack shook her head. "Not just the Ponyvillians. After all, if it's all the visitors who're bein' ordered around, all of 'em deserve a say in who's doin' it."

The other mares nodded, much to Twilight's consternation. "Listen, I can't picture getting a thousand ponies queuing up for concessions, let alone for a silly election. You're dreaming."

"If you say so, darling." Rarity tittered.

"Yeah, don't be surprised if the rest of Ponyville gives y'all trouble over this 'law and order thing'." Applejack said.

"It's just Lady Twilight's Canterlot sensibilities not lining up with us." Pinkie Pie said. "Canterlot ponies live class differently."

Twilight was confused and annoyed by this point. She had gotten used to being between the quarreling mares, and now it was all of them against her. "Live class? This is a Summer Sun Fair, honoring the divine Sun and her daughter, the princess and feudal empress of Equestria. It's not about you. It's about her."

"About her, or about you?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight felt like she had been slapped. "Go back to thinking about planting trees. I will go back to thinking about my duties as an imperial vassal." She growled.
It was a hollow retort. Twilight felt only a tenuous duty to anypony but herself.

"Are there any lords nearby who could lend some knights?" Spike shouted from the kitchen. He was obviously not paying total attention to his book.

"The nearest feudal estate is a hundred kilometers up the river. It's all isolated camps and farmsteads between. That is what makes this depopulated valley such a strange place to hold a SS Fair." Twilight sighed. "I guess I could ask Canterlot for temporary guards. I get some law and order, you keep new ponies from settling down."

Rarity looked pleased. "That would work for all parties. Would that not be a great opportunity for Canterlot knights, to serve the princess's First Student?"

"Uhh, there's not a lot of well-trained knights kicking around the capital, honestly. The lesser nobles in Canterlot are trained in language, not swordsponyship. The few armed and trained knights in the city are the Imperial Household Guard." Twilight explained. "The vast majority of armed ponies are commoners. The City Guard is a full time profession run out of Canterlot Castle, which hires local ponies and some transfers from the provincial imperial armies. The Guilds and professional societies also organize their own militias, run by the Guild masters, using their own equipment." Twilight frowned. "Though, some neighborhoods also organize their own armed militias to fight against gangs and the City Guard. Smart ponies avoid those neighborhoods."

Pinkie Pie raised her hoof. "When I lived in Canterlot the rowhouse block I rented had a self-defense force like that! They were pretty funny guys, always drinking and shouting. Some of them had been in wars in Griffany. One time, they got together and burned down a nearby temple because the cleric was a guard informant."

Everypony stared at Pinkie. "That doesn't sound funny at all." Fluttershy said.

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "Eh, you had to be there."

"Was that about five years ago?" Twilight blinked. "I think I remember hearing about an Inner City temple fire. I guess you really did live in Canterlot."

"Are we gunna reminisce some more about funny arson, or go back to thinking about planting trees?" Applejack asked sardonically.

"I think you have as many trees as you can take care of already." Twilight said dismisively.

Applejack twisted around to fix Twilight with an angry stare. "What's that supposed to mean? My orchards are gettin' along fine."

"I meant the Everfree Forest." Twilight diflected.

"My lady, it's uncomfortable talking about the forest." Rarity said.

Spike strode out of the kitchen, book in claw. "How many ponies have dissapeered into the Forest?" He asked. The Ponyvillians shared glances, and shook their heads. "None? Gee by the way you guys talk about it..." He continued on his way, climbing up the stair to the bedroom. "I'm going to try to sleep before the storm breaks over us, Twilight."

"Okay, goodnight, Spike." Twilight nodded.

Rarity waited, lips pursed, until Spike had closed the bedroom door behind him. "My lady you should not be flippant, nor encourage your ward to be, about the Everfree Forest."

In Twilight's head, a discordant string was plucked. "Rarity I'd advise you, very strongly, not to tell me how to raise my dragon." She strongly considered tacking on a violent threat, something about throwing the mare through a window. She felt put upon, having to weather the ponies' disrespect while they danced around the truth with her.
What kind of secret were they hiding? Was it something criminal? Did it have to do with why Ponyville's last mayor disappeared? Was it a conspiracy between Ponyville and Princess Celestia against Twilight specifically?

"Yeah Rarity, it's plain rude to stick yourself in other's family buisness." Applejack said snidely.

Twilight stood up, bumping Pinkie Pie and scattering some of the nearby crayons and pencils. "I didn't ask for you to stick up for me, especially not in such a self-serving way. No, not a single one of you believes in Equestria. I lambasted Rarity for it earlier, but it applies to all of you. You have no soul for service."

Fluttershy, of all ponies, was the one to stand up to Twilight's biting remarks. "Equestria is too abstracted for ponies living in isolated villages. We don't experience the nation like Canterlot or Cloudsdale ponies do."

"Is that why this is chartered as a 'Free City'? Because you've mentally liberated yourself from the Equestria which gives you peace and free internal trade?" Twilight said. "I understand the treatment I'm getting now. I'm basically a foreigner, a guest who has overstayed her welcome, rather than a just and proper authority. The ponies of Equestria, through their empress, gave me to you. You snub me, and you snub million of ponies across this continent. But that doesn't bother any of you because in your monstrous conceit you hold yourselves above a billion ponies."

"This is gettin' weird 'n off-topic. Is this about y'all's renovation project or dragon anymore?" Applejack questioned.

Obviously, Twilight had ranted about her own biting insecurities more than she was about the Ponyvillians' misdeeds. Twilight sighed and paced behind her chair. She had gotten what she wanted, making Rarity and Applejack work together, but she still wasn't happy at all. She was still anxious.
"I'm going for a walk. Alone. Don't know for how long. You all can stay the night I guess." Twilight trotted to the Golden Oak's red door. "Don't steal anything. See you tomorrow." Twilight pulled the door open so forcefully it almost came off its hinges, and trotted into the windy night.

Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack traded confused looks.
"Do we go home?" Pinkie wondered.

"It would be best to wait a few minutes, lest we run into the little ladyship." Rarity sighed.

Fluttershy kept her fear to herself, that Lady Twilight would go looking for trouble in the place everypony had warned her of, the Everfree.

In the Ponyville streets, Twilight was trying to clear her head. She had never felt so stressed about so little. "Just let me go back to the University. I have a whole schedule of classes I was planning for over the next year. Give me my deadlines and professorial expectations back. Give me-" She kicked at a pebble, dinking it off somepony's window. "Give me my magic back!"
She was a magical student, an unnaturally powerful magician. By all rights she should have spent the next years becoming a guild master, or building her own magic school, or secluding herself to experiment in her Uncle Flux's lands in Foal. She yearned for what could have been.
"And it's only been three days. Damnation!"

She wondered how long it would take to walk back to Canterlot. Months, surely. If she made teleportation hops, Twilight imagined she could do it in a week. Then, once in Canterlot, she would march into Canterlot Castle, push aside Fancy Pants and the other councilors, and give Princeess Celestia a piece of her mind.

There was a distant crack of thunder.

"No. No. I've got to stop fixating on the Princess. It doesn't matter that she's the reason I'm suffering like this. I have to think productively." Twilight babbled. "And I have to stop wracking myself with anxiety over the Nightmare Pretender. I have to find a more opportune time to work out that issue..." She stopped and listened to the next thunderclap. "I wish I had brought a good book to read. There is nothing here worth losing myself in."

Twilight continued to wander. Her self-pity and self-indulgent misery kept her from seeing what she really should have: Something watching her from the shadows, which followed her all the way to the edge of the village.

Considering that the last time Shining Armor had been invited to dinner at his parent's townhouse had been when his sister Twilight Sparkle had revealed her elevation to First Student, he felt trepidation about accepting his parent's summons to 'their' new abode at the Chateau la Garde. He had spent some time on his appearance, examining his dress uniform in front of his small mirror of his tiny room at the Imperial Household Guard Barracks.
"You look like garbage." He told the reflection. Having spent the day shouting at IHG trainees, scheduling knights for the next day's castle patrols, and pouring over his superior's paperwork, Shining was tired. Being second-in-command with a captain like Hauseway meant all of the work and none of the glory.

Still Shining started the long walk to the other side of Canterlot, to his parent's dinner, out of a sense of filial duty more than anything. He had heard rumors about the new pony in town his mother was hosting, which even the IHG knights had been gossiping about. Shining had not payed close attention, but he had heard enough.

Therefore it came as a huge surprise to Shining when he was one guest among many making their way along the Canterlot streets towards the Chateau la Garde. By the time he was in sight of the chateau, a veritable stream of well-dressed noble ponies were alongside him, by carriage and by hoof, coalescing in front of the big front doors of the blocky castle.

The guard ponies on station at the city gatehouse leading to the mountain road, recessed into the structure of the Chateau la Garde, watched the gathering of ponies wearily. Shining, more comfortable with the soldiers than nobleponies, sidestepped the line to talk to them. "Good evening."

"Hail sir knight." One of the guards saluted.

"Sir." The designated leader on watch stepped forward. "How goes it in the IHG?"

"Nothing exciting at all, really. The castle has been quiet." Shining said, stretching the truth. It would be a whole ordeal to try to explain the princess's strange mood.

The guard leader scrutinized Shining for a moment. "Have you been on patrols with us before? I recognize you from somewhere." She said

"Oh, kinda." Shining nodded. "I accompany the guard lodge in south Old Town on investigations or raids, when my captain allows."

"That's right, yes! I remember. I was there when we raided the armed pimp consortium in the Inner City, by the wall. You came in full plate! That was a hoot." The guard leader chuckled. "Funny, I was considering sending for backup over the brewing riot here. Lucky you showed up, sir." She said ironically, gesturing to the crowd of nobles.

Shining grinned guiltily. "How unlucky I'm soon to join in. I expect many family arrests."

A few of the guards chuckled at the play on words. "Leave you to it sir."

Shining nodded and trotted back to the chateau door.
A pony squeezed their way through the nobles and intercepted him halfway. "Lord Armor." It was the family maid. She led him right through the crowd, much to the annoyance of the ponies who had been waiting.

"Wow. I think I liked Twilie's old place better. It fit her personality better." Shining noted that his parents had already furnished the foyer and adjoining sitting rooms to their own tastes. Noblepony guests were huddled everywhere, chatting and gossiping, like any other society party Shining had been to.

"There is a library on the top floor. I think it would be to the young mistress's liking. However you are likely correct to say that her ladyship the viscountess will try to spend as little time here as possible." The maid said.

Referring to Twilight Sparkle as 'the viscountess' threw Shining off for a few seconds. Shining had maintained an identity as merely a distant relative to anypony important, a mere hanger-on to his great uncle Foaly Flux. It kept him humble, even when some of his subordinate knights were direct scions of powerful noblehouses from across Equestria. In such a situation, he knew his ultimate loyalty and importance came from Princess Celestia. Entertaining hereditary family connections above his duty as an imperial knight, even for a moment, was anathema to Shining Armor.
It settled Shining's confusion about the situation that his kid sister still owned her viscountess status to the princess.

The maid continued to lead Shining through the foyer, towards the door to the greathall. "Be aware, Lord Armor, that your lady mother is planning to ask you to stay here for a few nights. If you decline she plans to offer you the townhouse."

Shining always got the impression his mother disliked his IHG position, even when she claimed the opposite. Thankfully Shining knew his father approved greatly. "Thanks for the warning. But you know you should just call me sir, or just Shining. Please."

The maid, expressionless as always, made a slight gesture. "If I did so Lady Velvet would disapprove."

"Of course she would." Shining sighed.
He straightened his dress uniform as they stepped into the greathall.

Shining Armor usually visited his parents for dinner for the pleasure of their company and not for the comedy, yet he found the hall of to be a miniature circus. Yes, not even three days, and his parents had turned what was supposed to be a stately but solid gatehouse into the most obnoxious party in town. The tables were overflowing with colorfully dressed nobleponies, all jostling and jockeying for seats in closest proximity to the end.

"Is that the pony I've heard about?" Shining pointed to the center of attention, who sat at the end of the table. "Seacrest Blackhorn?"

"Perceptive, my lord." The maid confirmed.

Shining was usually not the kind to form an immediate opinion of a pony, but Seacrest Blackhorn, the self-proclaimed 'Lord' of Canterlot, could be witnessed at a distance possessing many traits Shining found unappealing in ponies. Seacrest transcended haughtiness, his nose high in the air as he regarded the smitten Canterlot nobleponies trying to get his attention. Sel Lech Sabonord, leaning on Seacrest's chair, was doing all the talking while the lordling appraised the hall like it belonged to him, not Twilight Sparkle. Meanwhile a cloaked pony whom Shining presumed to be a servant spoon-fed Seacrest his dinner.

The maid tapped Shining on the shoulder to get his attention again. "Do you have a preference for where to sit?"

"Somewhere I'm easily missable." Shining said dourly. "Like, outside."

The maid gave Shining a sidelong look, conveying Velvet's disapproval again. She led him to an open seat halfway along the table. Shining just held out hope that among so many colorful outfits and flashy personalities swirling around him that nopony would notice him. He could apologize to his parents next time.

Picking at the night's admittedly delectable feast, Shining spied Twilight Velvet enter the greathall. It was his bad luck she saw him immediately as well, and grinned to him from across the room. Shining remembered the ways he would try to outwit her as as a rebellious teen. Velvet was always two steps ahead.
So, what was the deal with Seacrest Blackhorn?! Why was Twilight Velvet throwing a party with Seacrest as the guest of honor?

Shining took a thoughtful bite of hors d’oeuvre. How quickly things descended into madness while Twilie was away, he thought. He didn't really want to think too hard about reasons for it- After all, he knew he wasn't going to be able to change anything by himself. He might as well not stress himself out with politics or society drama. He had his own exhausting work to focus on.

A loud pop sounded out from the head of the table. Shining observed that the wine had been broken out. Fifteen different ponies fought for the right to pour Seacrest’s glass. A punch was thrown, and the effete nobleponies fell upon each other in an undignified brawl, spilling the wine across the table and floor. Seacrest sat up in his chair, laughing in delight at the violence.

"Who even is that joker." Shining wonder to himself. "He's got ponies tripping over themselves for him. It's bloody cultish."

Shining next noticed his father Night Light, off in a corner of the hall. The older stallion had gone unnoticed by being completely still, watching the room like Shining was. The poor stallion, Shining thought. Twilight Velvet had jumped into strange and pointless projects before, but never one as strange as a unicorn restorationist home rule movement.

Shining continued to peck at the food. Could he slip away and not get intercepted by his mother or the maid? Perhaps he could hide in one of the clusters of gossipy nobles. "Or I could check out the chateau, and the famous library." He said to himself wryly.

But when Shining stood up he almost immediately had a tipsy noblemare nearly fall onto him. "Hello there soldier. Very handsome metals." She grinned stupidly, eyeing Shining up and down. "Kill anypony before?"

Shining helped her stand back up. "It's not what I received the medals for." He said solemnly. He was a dutiful knight, but there were some duties he would rather not speak of.

"Ooh, yeah? Gett them for pleasing the princess then? hee hee." The mare laughed. She leaned too far forward and almost fell again before Shining pushed her back up with a hoof. "Enjoying yourself?"

Shining nibbled his lip. "It's a bit too loud for me."

The mare's blush deepened. "Oh, so you wanna go somewh-"

"No thanks." Shining interrupted. Every time family or friends dragged him to a party he ended up getting solicited by sloshed noblemares. Shining's underlying prudishness and chivalric ideals were always irked by the debauchery of it.

"Sure, kid." The noblemare tittered, beginning to sashay in place to the chamber music playing somewhere under the din of voices. "I've never been to a party here before, and I go to all the parties. Last weekend in the north town garden get-together, an earth pony brought this weird glue-like stuff from overseas, and when we drank it, it blasted us to another dimension." She levitated a glass of wine from a nearby ponies hoof and downed it. "The best parties are for ponies who are new in town. Like, after this, I'm running straight to the Old Town to see that Westerner mare, Countess Plenty Song."

Shining did not know the countess the mare spoke of. "Sounds like you're up on your politics then?" He asked, hoping to learn more about Seacrest Blackhorn.

"Politics? Puhh, buck no. I mean like, political ponies sure do hand out a lot of gifts and food and drink, but like..." She trailed off.

"It doesn't bother you that you're toasting a Black Horn Council event?" Shining asked.

The mare closed her eyes, getting more into her dance. "Mmm? Who?"

Shining was about to step away, but another party-goer stepped into Shining's space unsolicited. "The Black Horn Council? Sorry I just happened to overhear." He said. "Ohh, those boys are naive jokers at best. You can't take their unicorn supremacist language seriously."

"If you say so, sir." Shining said, more and more eager to escape the situation.

The noble stallion wasn't done talking, and grabbed Shining by the sleeve. "Putting those Black Horn types in power is actually the best way to temper them. Having responsibility will smooth them out and force them to let go of their hatred."

Shining jerked his hoof away, freeing his sleeve. "Would you say the same about the radical revolutionaries?"

"You get at the heart of the issue!" The noble exclaimed. "Canterlot and the empire must make allies with the unicorn supremacists and use that energy to crush the presumptuous commoner rebels in our midst. I tell you, I hear fellow well-borne nobleponies expressing sympathy for that revolutionary rabble! We must be absolutely ruthless against those traitors. Pro-revolution sentiment is anti-Equestrian and must be crushed ruthlessly no matter the cost in blood."

The drunk mare frowned. "Quit shouting in my ear. I'm trying to enjoy myself."

Temporarily forgetting Shining, the excitable noble turned to the mare. "But I have so much I think ponies need to hear, about restoring Canterlot to glory."

Shining properly broke away from the ponies this time, darting between ponies and making his way to the exit.
Unfortunately for him, Twilight Velvet was standing directly in his way, in the threshold between the greathall and the foyer.

"Hi mom. Nice party. It's bigger than just about any Uncle Flux has put on." Shining said, trying to put on a smile.

Velvet laughed to herself. "Thank you dear. It is a bit chaotic without enough staff to help me, but it seems to be going just fine so far." Contrary to her usual superior attitude, Velvet seemed humble before the task of managing the space for so many guests. "Thankfully I have some new friends to help out with things."
Shining followed her gaze. To his great surprise, he saw Blueblood and Aurthora Airy standing beside Seacrest Blackhorn, chatting with guests.

"You've really gone all in on this Black Horn Council stuff." Shining said, his disapproval showing through a tight frown.

Velvet bowed her head. "Shining Armor, you don't trust your mother to run a camarilla of her own? It would be poor form for a noble lady to spurn a courtier who is only looking to help."

Shining considered saying nothing. "Well... I am always looking to be surprised, mother."

There was another pop, more wine being brought out.
"You aren't leaving already, are you?" Velvet joked. "Don't worry, it's all on the Black Horns' dime."

"You know I'm not one for parties like this, except when ordered." Shining said. "It's not a good atmosphere for family talk anyway. I should go."

Velvet shrugged, stepping aside. "Your father will be disappointed you left without saying hello."

There was shouting from outside. The crowds of ponies waiting by the front door was parted, as a cadre of disquieted city guardsponies entered- They were not the guards from the gate either, but well armored guard officers with the marking of the north Old Town lodge.
The guardsponies beelined for Shining Armor. "Sir." The lead guard saluted.

Shining was very conscious he was in the middle of a scene, with all the guests turning their attention to the uninvited guards. "Has something happened at Canterlot Castle?"

The guard officer leaned in. "It's urgent enough that Captain Hauseway was summoned as well. Sir, we must go, immediately."

Shining was both appreciative of the excuse to leave, and anxious about the possible cause. "Lead on." He turned back to his mother. "Also, I just want to preemptively say no on staying at the chateau or guardhouse. I have to be close at hoof when emergencies happen."

"It didn't help you this time." Velvet said with a grin.

Shining followed the guard out of the hall into a waiting carriage. Half the guards joined him, and half stayed behind to reinforce the gatehouse. Something dire had taken place.

The moon was starting to rise higher over Canterlot, and by its light the crumbling tenements of the Inner City cast long shadows over the cobble roads. Unlike any other night, the twinned illumination of Canterlot Castle rising above the city was no comfort to Lyra or Octavia, for it was from the castle that they fled.

The mares reached the Inner City quickly, but once reaching those darkened streets and maze of alleyways they had to slow down. Some neighborhoods of the district were alive with ponies enjoying the night, families on their doorstep talking with neighbors, small pubs with guests spilling out onto the street, and the lively thoroughfares linking the Old Town to the mansions of south Canterlot.
Other Inner City streets were among the deadliest in Equestria, harsh and violent, abodes of crime and desperation. The refuse of feudal society, as well as its seediest underbelly, convulsed against itself and the authorities with murderous results. They were best avoided at night even by trained killers like Lyra or Octavia. However, it was also the quickest path to the abandoned tenement of Pon-3 hideout.

As the night deepened, so did the quiet. Every now and then a cat would yowl, or somepony's ugly laugh would echo through the streets. The rattle of a carriage speeding down a the cobblestone rose and fell from a block away. Against this oppressive hush the clip of her own hooves crashed thunderously in Lyra's imagination.

"You have been concealed the whole evening under that cloak. I've just had my pennysuit. Anypony who was looking saw my face." Lyra mumbled to Octavia. "But did the shapeshifter see you with your hood down? Could she have given a description?"

"Steady yourself. You already made your point about why we can't talk to the guard. I'm not going to betray you." Octavia whispered.

"I... I was seen, clear as day." Lyra breathed, more to herself than her companion. "There will be imperial knights in my home by daybreak. My poor parents are going to have a heart attack when they hear about this."

Octavia hurried along slightly faster. They were several blocks from the hideout tenement now, on the edge of the inner city.

Though Lyra had not been consciously fearing it before Octavia had said it, she really did fear her friend turning her in. Why? Octavia was a steadfast guild mare. They both had come very close to being caught before, but never flinched.
It was, Lyra finally realized, because she was in the position Pon-3 had been in, years ago when the troublemaker unicorn had been exiled. Lyra was a liability. All her friends would turn on her. Was Octavia really in the same peril, or would she escape punishment just like she had when Pon-3 was exiled?

Lyra took a steadying breath. "You and Mis Vinyl used the run down housing tower back before her exile. Are you sure it's secure?"

"I told you, nopony goes near to it, lest it collapse on them." Octavia said. After a moment, Octavia caught wise to the prompt behind Lyra's question. "Listen, Vinyl got caught and exiled from her own stupidity. I know she didn't give up the hideout because our friend Pinkie was laying low there the whole time."

"How did she manage only being punished with exiled, if she did half the horrible things she's rumored to have done?" Lyra asked.

"Mistress Phyte, obviously. Vinyl was in the Canterlot Castle dungeon, under constant watch by imperial knights and mages. But she wasn't the only one. Nearly half our little group of friends was jailed." Octavia recounted. "The Mistress knew who to ask, and instead of disappearing into the blackest depths of a hidden imperial prison somewhere, Vinyl was exiled to Griffany. The rest of our group were either exiled or forced into monasteries or covenants."

"That doesn't sound as bad as a life on the run." Lyra muttered to herself.

Octavia shook her head vigorously. "There's no chance Mistress Phyte intercedes with the imperials again. It cost her so much. She never confirmed to me, the same way she did everything I just told you, but its rumored she had to beg Princess Celestia to secure Vinyl's exile." She hung her head. "It's before your time... Mistress Phyte used to be more visible, welcoming important guests to the guild hall. She even went on hunts every so often. After Vinyl's exile, all of that stopped. She stays in the catacombs, which is why she created the dragonfire birdcages."

Lyra had heard bits and pieces of the story over her years as a guild mare, but never the complete picture.
Then a grave thought occurred to Lyra. "Octavia, the shapeshifter assassin knew Vinyl's shape and voice."

"Yes, and?" Octavia demanded elaboration.

"We may not the only ones who were 'last seen' with Fancy Pants." Lyra hissed. "The shapeshifter could contrive it so Vinyl was a fellow killer alongside us."

The stormy implication of such a possibility dawned on Lyra and Octavia at the same time.
"And Mistress Phyte has already proven she will sacrifice to save Vinyl, and even the ponies caught with her." Octavia gnawed her lip.

"This is the reason you should not seek out Phyte for help. What you think is proven is just one case. We do not have enough information to know why the shapeshifter knows or took on Mis Vinyl's shape." Lyra pleaded.

"A moment, please. I have to think things over." Octavia said.

While Octavia struggled with that question, Lyra fought off her own resurgent anxieties. She thought she had found a secure life for herself when she began serving Fancy Pants; The danger, if not the depravity, of guild work was behind her. She knew it couldn't last forever, as Lyra foresaw her age or Fancy Pants's necessitating her to transition to stable work somewhere in the imperial administration. Then she could retire far away from Canterlot, where nopony would have even heard of the Musician's Guild.
That imagined future had been torn away in a horrible instant. Lyra's heart was sinking back into the kind of dispair she had felt during her last weeks in the Musician's Guild, imagining herself meeting the kind of fate guild mares usually met: bloody, pitiful, and ignominious.
"No, I'm not like Mis Vinyl, because there's nopony to save me. Years of service to Sir Pants... And it leads me here anyway." Lyra said to herself in a harsh whisper. "And I never even got to have any of the fun of a guild mare. Life is a cruel joke." She might as well have been as cavalier and murderous as Pon-3. It all led to the same place. Transitioning to respectable imperial work, the cursus honorum Lyra thought she had started down, was an illusory salvation. The hints had been there form the beginning, but Lyra had been blind to them, immersed in false hope for herself.
"I might as well have hammered at my the lyre, rather than that mellow plucking. I'm not better than any of the worst killers. Their fury and pain is mine too. Do you think I should have expressed the rage of my soul rather than its poetry?"

"Keep it down Lyra. The alleys have ears and eyes." Octavia chastised.

Lyra sighed. "That shapeshifter sure didn't seem shy about being seen and heard. It must be liberating to be full of confidence and power."

Octavia acted calm, but she had already begun to doubt her friend's composure in the trophy room. "The power is of more importance there. She survived stabs that would lay low a minotaur. The confidence, or arrogance, was deserved."

Lyra shook her head. "She was not just confident before us. She was shouting up to heaven. She was bold under the gaze of her god, instead of humble. She welcomed divine scrutiny and held herself worthy. She was her own judgement." Lyra looked skyward, to the low-hanging moon which the shapeshifter had acclaimed. "We were born the wrong species, yoked to the wrong god, for the work we do, Octavia."

"I sympathize with you but I question the timing." Octavia nudged her friend to look forward and walk faster. "Regret over things we can't control, like being born a pony or whatever, will not save our skin tonight."

"I think perhaps I shall be damned like that nightmarish murderer was. I should like to have a second chance at this life." Lyra said.

Octavia was getting more worried. "I didn't listen as closely as you, but I'm certain it can't be as literal as you're thinking. You and I have both said nonsense in the heat of a fight."

Lyra acceded to that. "You're right. I'll scream at the sun next time and see what becomes of it."
Visions of Fancy Pants's death flashed before her vision, the moment of the strike, the violence of the hoof against his skull... Lyra could only hope it had been painless. What had Fancy Pants been thinking about in the last moment? Had he been sending a prayer to Celestia or the Sun? Alas he had lost against a monster sending her prayers to the moon.
"Princess, let's see if you protect me better than you protected him."

"Please focus more on the here and now. For example...." Octavia motioned ahead of them. "There's a guardspony in our way."

A lone soldier was walking towards them, humming to himself as he wandered down one side of the street.
They continued forward, especially studious of their surroundings. A lone guard could be a trap, or a clever criminal’s ruse.

Lyra tried to focus on the pony but her head was still swimming. As she reasserted control over her senses she noticed certain details about the guard as the distance closed.
“He’s off duty." Lyra whispered, letting out a small sigh of relief. "He's unclasped the strap of his helmet and loosened his belt."

"An on-duty or off-duty slob is still a pony with a sword." Octavia whispered back.

They drew closer, and Octavia drew her cloak closer over her face. She may have seemed more lax, but the earth pony was just as tense as Lyra.

"Good night to you mis and mis." The guard wandered into their path. He leaned on his sword sheath, not aggressively but gesturally, but it was enough to bristle Octavia. She shifted under her cloak, probably reaching for her weapon.

Lyra was quicker to act. She would do anything to avoid seeing another dead pony, to preserve her unravelling psyche.
"Fine night to you, brother." Lyra pushed Octavia back a bit. "Are we ever glad to see a friendly face. An irascible stallion was shadowing us, but he has left at the sight of you."

The guardpony clucked his tongue. "Sadly not surprising, sister. This neighborhood is just rife with assaults. My lodge hardly runs patrols through even during the daytime." He shook his head in disappointment. "Good news with the waxing moon, though. The sorts of skulking vermin around here prefer their rapes and murders in darkness."

As a guild mare, Lyra had had a grudging respect for the Canterlot guard. They were her enemy, dedicated to upholding the state's interpretation while Lyra worked to impose Phyte's. While working for Fancy Pants, she still tended to avoid them.
The guardpony before her was clearly of humble station, in addition to his slovenliness. His raiment and cloak was the white and bronze, his armor was discolored, and flecks of rust were peeling from his sword hilt.
"Do many mares survive self-defense attempts?"

"Oh sister, If you're asking, you don't need the telling." The stallion shook his head. He stopped leaning on his sword and straightened up. "But I've got a duty to all Canterlot, and if you're asking for an escort to wherever you're going-"

"Yes, brother, we would ever so appreciate it." Lyra nodded.

Octavia glanced over her shoulder. To the guard, it may have seemed like she was checking for the made-up stalker. Canterlot Castle's light still glittered, with no sign of alarm being raised over the dead stallion in the trophy room. "Yes, brother, we could be much obliged for the company." She said.

The guard nodded agreeably. “I was on the way to the pub myself, but I’d love to keep watch for a lovely pair of mares such as yourselves.”

"You're quite the gentlepony, but I wouldn't expect too much for our company." Lyra forced a laugh.

They started off up the road again, with Octavia slinking behind a few steps. She was getting visibly agitated by the guard's presence. On the flip side, Lyra was feeling calmer and more certain, no longer being left within her own thoughts. As long as the guardpony was willing to be led along by them, other kinds of trouble from the Inner City became less threatening.

“Quiet night?” Lyra asked the guardspony.

“Yeah. Deathly quiet.” He said. “This whole day's been awfully strange, what with that Blackhorn guy stirring things up in the Old Town. You hear about that?"

"Yup. Don't know what to make of it."

"Me neither." The guard shrugged. "But then a coupla hours later, late afternoon, the whole inner city fell into a hush. Ooh, it was the creepiest thing, like the whole city'd gone silent in the temple or something. I don't understand it." He shrugged again. "Anyhow, where you coming from tonight?”

“The university, after a fun time learning things.” Lyra replied.

The guard seemed amused. "Never woulda guessed. You're more, ehhh, fluent than most academic types." He glanced back towards Octavia. “And she looks kinda old for a student.”

“She’s more of a teacher.” Lyra said.

They rounded the last corner before the hideout tenement. The guardpony fell silent, surely wondering where the mares were leading him. He glanced back at Octavia again. Was he considering the possibility they were leading him into a trap?
"Not sure I can go much farther, sisters. Lucky we're pretty much in sight of a safe street. Probably a couple guards right 'round the corner there." He said.

"Very glad to hear it." Lyra bowed her head. "You can head on to the pub I suppose. I good knight like you deserves his relaxation after all."

The guardpony blushed. "Oh that's not proper, sister. I've no pretend to knighthood. My sergeant would give me a right scolding."

"What is knighthood than the reflection of chivalry?" Lyra fluttered her lashes. "Sir, this is us accounted for. I can do none other than bid you goodnight."

The guard bowed. “Hee hee, very kind mis. Or should I say, 'Anytime, m’lady'. Heh heh, oh it's just not proper.” However his playful mirth was tempered when he noticed they had entered the shadow of the massive abandoned tenement tower. "You should hurry on. Never know who might be watching from one of those upper windows. Bats and worse roost up there, they say."

Lyra curtsied, turning to leave. "Again, thank you so much sir, I hope you enjoy your nigh and-"
The tenuous silence which had settled over the district was broken, but it was not immediately obvious what had changed.

Bells from Canterlot Castle. Long, deep tolls from the guard barracks, the signal for emergency. A few seconds later, a bell from the Old town joined in. Then one very nearby. Then more on the other side of the city. Clang, clang, clang, the distant dissonant harmony rang out.

"That's the bloody emergency crisis type bell, right?" The guardpony stared in the direction of Canterlot Castle. "I can't ever remember hearing it at night. There must be a roaring fire somewhere... But I can't see more than whips of chimney smoke. Something's really wrong."

"They're going to lock down the whole city." Lyra said, a grave expression overtaking her. Her anxious terror returned anew, an unbearable pinch in her chest. "We won't be able to move a block, even by rooftop. They'll have pegasi and gunners. We'll have so many holes in us the moonlight will shine through."

"We underestimated how angry they would be." Octavia hissed. "We've got to hunker down, immediately."

“It could also be a riot, or maybe a rebel terror attack or something." The guard continued to speculate. He turned back to the mares. "You didn't see anything passing by the castle or Old Town from the uni?"

Improvising, Lyra swooned and caught herself on guard’s shoulder. He was surprised long enough for Lyra to untie his sword sheath from his belt. She leaned on him slightly to mimic the missing weight.
"You think ponies are in trouble, sir?" She asked, not having to exaggerate the worry in her voice. "Sir, please protect us! I- I'm feeling lightheaded!"
Octavia covertly scooped up the sword and backed away.

"Mis, it's not proper. There might be a hundred ponies at risk, and I've got to help my lodge. I have to check in with them." The guardpony said apologetically. He paused, listening to the toll of the bells for a moment longer, and his expression changed.
He pulled away from Lyra with a jerk. He tensed, having to raise his voice over the growing cacophony of bells, and the shouts and rumbles of a lethargic city awakening to the sound. “What’d you say you were at the university for?”

Octavia grunted. “Visiting artist was giving a demonstration on splatter painting.”

The guard frowned. “You toying with me?"

Lyra widened her eyes wide, holding his gaze. “Is something wrong with us? I- I don't know how we could help if there were an emergency. We're just academics."

"Yes, mis, and you'll be safer than anywhere at my watch lodge." The guardpony said. "I have to check in there and you should follow. Actually, I'm telling you to follow, mis."

"But sir, this is our house right here.” Lyra strafed around him, and he turned to keep facing her. “If we did something, why would we have led you to our home?” She continued slowly. “We’re no problem to anypony. If you have to come talk with us about this later, you know right where to find us."

The guard chewed on his lip. “You don't actually live in that big wreck, do you? You're dressed like a proper mare, not a bum like would hang around here. Mis, I'm real sad to say you've made me suspicious. We got to get on to my lodge to see my sergeant, if he's still there."

Lyra pouted. "Sir I'm not going to move."

The guardspony reached for his sword. He seemed very confused, looking to where it should have been, then back up. “Did you take my service weapon?”

His own sword through the back of his neck ended the guardspony's hapless distraction. His corpse slumped forward onto its face. Blood ran along the gaps in the paving.

"You are relieved of duty, sir." Octavia wiped the guard’s own blade off on the his cloak and tucked it away again.

"Octavia, what the hell!" Lyra gasped. The dead guard's wide eyes stared back at her. The anxious pinch in her chest grew, until like her whole body was being squeezed. The tolling bells pounded in her head, and Lyra expected to see parts of herself falling off like a collapsing tower from the vibration. "He was disarmed and I set you up! You should have knocked him out!" She was shrieking at Octavia.

"Lyra, you're not thinking strait. There's no holding back, there's no shame. You were right earlier: If we're going to live we have to be as violent and shameless as the shapeshifter and show our bloody devotion under the moonlight." Octavia turned away from her. She was shaking too. "Mistress Phyte will know a way out of the city. We have to contact her." She took the first few steps up to the tenement's shabby door. "Come on, Lyra. I'm steady when you're not so that you can to be steady when I'm not."

Lyra nodded dumbly. She saw Octavia was taking advantage of her disorientation, but it was better that than said disorientation getting them caught and killed. "We have to move the dead-"

"No time! Get yourself in and up the stairs!" Octavia barked.

They began the arduous climb up the crumbling staircase, to the hideout.
However things were not how they had been left. The room had been picked up and organized since Octavia and Lyra had been there, with clothing and equipment folded and put in neat stacks around the room. Dust had been swept into a corner. The bed had been tucked back in.

Lyra and Octavia traded glances, confirming to each other that they weren't the culprit.

"What kind of incriminating documents were left behind?" Lyra asked.

"Focus, Lyra. This is all that matters." Octavia ran up to the desk with the dragonfire cage sitting atop it. "Grab that ink and quill, and pen out a plea to Mistress Phyte. Mark its corners so it stands out; There are probably dozens of guild mares trying to contact her because of interrupted hunts."

"As if the other guild mares aren't marking theirs important too." Lyra grabbed up the writing supplies, but the only piece of paper she saw was the list of names she had seen before, Pon-3's target list. She hesitated, wondering the danger of giving the list to Phyte. "Can we send some other article through? Something sure to get her attention?"

Octavia looked around the room. "Yes there is!" She exclaimed, grabbing up Pon-3's shaded tinted glasses. 'Lyra you'll have to ignite it."

"I know, I know." Lyra waited for Octavia to set the glasses into the cage, then teased the bars with her magic. A gout of green fire filled the cage, and when it passed, the glasses were gone.

"Now we can send a letter." Octavia said. "Please, you're a faster writer than I am."

"Octavia-"

"Lyra, now! Please!"

But before the argument could go any farther, the birdcage rattled and came to life, erupting in green fire again. A small roll of parchment was deposited within.

"She was waiting for us." Lyra deduced.

Octavia snatched the letter up and unrolled it.

While Octavia read, Lyra wandered to the window, and looked out over Canterlot. She could see the effect the alarm was having across the city. Ponies began to emerge from their houses in number, talking and demanding answers from the guardsponies. Every steeple and every tower now resonated with bronze tones. Guards took to the air and to the streets, and the night was broken by hundreds of torches. It was a hunt.

"I give us twenty minutes." Lyra said.

"Quiet. I'm a fast reader." Octavia growled, still scanning down Phyte's letter. Her frown deepened as she reached the end, and returned to reread the whole thing. "Mistress Phyte says to climb in the birdcage. She has to deliberate on sending other assistance."

Lyra balked at the idea of trying to contort into the cage, which would barely even fit a pony's head. "Octavia, I tried to warn you-"

"Quit testing me Lyra. The mistress will come through for us." Octavia said emphatically. "Your master may have been killed, but mine has not. Moreover, Lyra, she adores you and is loath to see you last to imperial cretins."

Some other time, Lyra would have been touched by the idea of Phyte's adoration, or read the smoldering jealousy behind Octavia's words. But with despair closing in on her, she felt like lashing out. "We better tell her Fancy Pants has passed. Otherwise she will let us get butchered, preferring it to the thought of letting us squeak away from her."

"You may think the mistress is vindictive, but you are not so free of sin yourself." Octavia said.

A faint sizzle filled the air.
"Something's teleporting in!" Lyra shouted. Were the authorities closing in on them already?

Before Octavia could draw her weapon, a pinpoint of green light popped into existence in the middle of the room. It rapidly grew into a pony-sized ball of roaring dragonfire, then dissipated just as quickly. A pony was left standing where the blood of fire had been.
The newcomer was fully concealed in dark robes, but visibly shaking and panting from the experience or exertion of teleporting.

"That... That's the pony we met in the catacomb under the Musician's Guild." Lyra exclaimed. "The mute pony Mis Vinyl accosted."

"Not quite. This one has a horn." Octavia pointed out.

"I'm not mute." The cloaked pony said between heaving raspy breaths. "But I have come to take you to safety. Please gather closer, mis."

Lyra hesitated. "Wait wait, that was no normal teleportation spell. That was dragonfire, Octavia. It's almost impossible to shape the magical pattern of dragonfire to teleport a single pony, let alone three." She pointed to the cloaked pony. "Look the state of him. Just coming over exhausted him."

"Mis, this is my purpose. I will convey you both, precisely, and unharmed." The cloaked pony promised. "Please, I can not bare to leave the mistress waiting."

"I'll go alone then. I can't sit around and listen to you doubting everything, Lyra." Octavia shook her head. "If it kills me so be it."

The cloaked pony weakly raised a hoof. "The mistress's orders were clear, mis. I was ordered to take you both."

Octavia scowled. "Fine." She hooked her leg around the cloaked pony's head and dragged him closer to Lyra. "We do it this way then."

Lyra opened her mouth to object, but she found all the breath was gone from her lungs. The cloaked pony had begun to weave a spell, and burning green flickers swirled around them. Before Lyra could react her entire body was surrounded by dragonfire, filling her vision with blinding green. She felt the magical heat dance across her fur and evaporate every drop of sweat, the moisture of her nostrils, and even the wetness of her eyes. She felt like she was being roasted alive.

Just as quickly, the heat vanished, as did the green fire around her. A chill immediately settled on her, as she was now in the dank subterranean corridor under the Musician's Guild.
Octavia and the cloaked pony were a few steps away. Octavia looked smug, but the cloaked pony had sunk to the rough-hewn flood in exhaustion.

"Asshole!" Lyra levitated her saddlebag off and hurled it at Octavia. "Now we're twice as far from the south gate! Right above us, in Old Town, are hundreds of guardsponies on the lookout!"

"If you're going to become weak, don't do it when it can get me killed too, Lyra. Pull through." Octavia said harshly. "Do you think your late master Fancy Pants would want to see you so miserably indecisive?"

"Whatever he thought, he's dead for it." Lyra said bitterly. "I have to find out the right path for myself, and I won't be rushed to it."

"Oh yes you will. Let's go see the guild mistress." Octavia said.

But the cloaked pony, struggling to his hooves, was in their way. "I- I- I did it." He croaked. "But was I a success?" He coughed violently, and little green embers escaped from his mouth. "Oh no..."
He lifted a hoof and rolled back the fabric of his cloak. It was hard to tell in the miserable darkness of the catacomb, but to Lyra it looked like all the fur had been shaved off the pony's leg. Or, was the fur around the hoof of a differently color entirely?

"Do you need medical attention, good pony?" Octavia asked.

"I see that I... I wasn't built to last. Oh dear oh dear." The cloaked pony muttered. His hoof fell off.

"Bucking hell!" Octavia exclaimed, backing away.

The cloaked pony sunk lower. "Go see the mistress. It's no use dwelling... on... me..." His voice grew weaker. He picked up the hoof, clumsily trying to fit it against the stump of his leg. He coughed again, until his breath caught and became a sickening rattle. Then, his head fell off, and his body fell into squarish chunks as though it had been diced. The meaty heap glowed green for a few moments before the residual dragonfire died away.

Lyra closed her eyes. She refused to see it. Why did things keep dying right in front of her? Why was death taunting her?

"We have just born witness to one of the mistress's secrets. What have we done to deserve her trust and salvation?" Octavia said, voice trembling with emotion. "She has sacrificed a pony to save us."

Lyra said nothing. She shuffled forward until she felt the hem of the cloak on her hoof, then took as wide a step as she could. Thankfully she stepped fully over the pile of giblets, and could open her eyes again. "Octavia, I know you're not a unicorn so I wouldn't expect you to know, but magical exhaustion doesn't cause ponies' heads to fall off."
If the cloaked pony had been some kind of sorcerous trick, Lyra couldn't rule out the possibility that Phyte had something to do with the shapeshifter which had killed Fancy Pants too. Who knew what the mistress would do to them, to erase the last witnesses.

"Bring this up with Mistress Phyte. I will demand an explanation alongside you. She is just up ahead after all." Octavia said.

Feeling like a beaten housewife, Lyra dutifully followed behind Octavia as they proceeded along the dank passageway to the guild mistress's inner sanctum.

By the time Shining Armor arrived at Canterlot Castle, the whole district was on lockdown. All kinds of soldiers were organizing in the castle plaza below the grand front doors: City guards, guild militias, imperial knights, and even small contingents of naval infantry from airships moored in the skydock. Bells tolled all around the city, a resonant yet syncopated choir.
Although most castle staff had been cleared, a few remaining functionaries accompanied Shining Armor to the lower levels, on the way to the trophy room.

"Captain Hauseway is already on the scene." One functionary said. "We are trying to find the junior princess or the senior councilor, to form a provisional council to coordinate emergency response."

Shining's expression sharpened at the mention of the junion princess. "Forget that. Defer in all cases to Captain Hauseway. This is now an IHG response situation. Contact the city guard and militia captains and subordinate them to IHG command." Shining said. "Brook no objection. Take a few knights and detain the city guard commanders if they raise a stink."

The imperial functionaries paled at the idea, but obeyed nonetheless, running off to fullfil the orders. Shining proceeded further into the depths of the castle, until he was met by familiar faces awaiting outside the trophy room.

"Sir." The imperial knights saluted. "The captain is here, as are investigators and detectives from the city guard."

Shining followed them into the trophy room. Muted voices echoed form the other side of the vast dark space, and the movement of diligent ponies patrolling along the colonnades moved in and out of the glow of the weak firefly lanterns.
"And the status of the vizier?" Shining asked.

"Tenderized, Shiny. He's been made into a pony patty." A booming voice greeted Shining as he approached the murder scene.
Captain Hausseway was short, shorter even than Shining Armor. His long and unruly cherry mane spilled out from under his ornamental helm over his armor and ochre fur.

"Captain." Shining bowed.

"Going to bow to old mustache boy too?" Hauseway asked wryly, motioning to the crime scene behind him. "What a mess. Oh boy what a mess. Shiny you'll have to take point for the next while. I've just come from a party and there's still a bit of drink in me. So be my eyes for a moment, and confirm for me, that I've got a dead vizier on my hooves."

Shining Armor moved slightly closer to the body. Even in the low light, the clothes were recognizable as Fancy Pants's. The debris had been moved off the body, but a cloth had been laid over the head, soaked through with blood.
The coroner kneeling by the body gave Shining a firm nod.

"Uh, yes, captain. All things point to this being the vizier." Shining said.

Hauseway grunted. "Aw hell, Shining Armor, you're sure making it hard on me. It would have been a lot easier if that was some other jackass."

"Sorry, Captain. We all do our duty." Shining bowed his head.

"So we do, sir. Carry on."
Hauseway was not as trifling a pony as he first seemed, and not a soldier to be underestimated. He hailed from ancient wealth harkening back to before the unification, but had not been content to sit, joining as an officer at a young age in several of Equestria's colonial expeditions to Zebrastan and the South Seas. Retiring from the imperial army early and still rather young, Hauseway became a sensation in particular circles of Canterlot society. He had thrown his hat into the ring for captain of the Imperial Household Guard almost at a whim, which had precipitated a bitter competition with the presumptive heiress to the position, Rain Gnash of Cloudsdale. The pegasi clique had never quite forgiven Canterlot for snubbing Gnash the IHG captaincy.
As captain, Hauseway had taken his responsibilities about as seriously as any other captains had. When your princess was an invincible alicorn, your knights were noble fancy lads, and your castle was also guarded by a semi-professional constabulary, the role of IHG captain tended to decay to more of a ceremonial position for the up-and-coming kids of other imperial nobles. Hauseway at least wanted some passible military esprit de corp among his knights, reminiscent of his days in Zebrastan. Shining Armor was the tap as second-in-command for being one of the few knights willing to instill that discipline among the IHG.

"Is there anything else amiss in the trophy room? Any stolen artifacts?" Shining Armor asked.

"No. This is the only area which was disturbed." One of the city guardsponies answered.

There were two collapsed armor racks, the one which Fancy Pants had been under, and another nearby. The display hangers on the nearby foundational column had also been torn down.

Shining inspected the smear of blood on the column, at knee height. "Did this come from the Vizier?"

"Most likely. We are still running tests." The coroner said.

A guardspony piped up. "There is also blood next to that rack over there. It appears to have collapsed because it was pushed over, while the one atop the vizier collapsed because his body broke the vertical bracing.

The coroner nodded. "There is glass and splinters in the vizier's back and withers."

"Was he pushed into the rack while fending off the attacker or attackers?"
Shining examined the splintered bracers of the display rack in question. "No... Sir Pants was a fit stallion. He does not weigh enough to have caused this. But two ponies' weight would be enough, such as if Pants was tackled into it." He tapped his chin. "Preliminary theory, I think the attacker and the vizier were locked in a grapple for an extended period, leading to the blood by the column and the knocked over rack, before they both fell into this rack and collapsed it. The attacker must have recovered, while the vizier was killed by the collapse."

"Respectfully sir, the damage to the grand vizier's head is not compatible with that course of events." The coroner spoke up. "The blunt trauma is quite severe. It appears he was hit below the left ear by an object of moderate mass. It's less damage than you would see from a mace or hammer, but about the same trauma profile."

"Was he hit while he was down?" Shining asked.

The coroner stood up and led Shining back to the column. "There are actually two blood patterns here. The first is seepage coming down from this spot, which I believe corresponds to a contusion on the back of the vizier's head. The second is a splatter." The coroner traced a line of flecks of blood along the curve of the column, and on the floor nearby. "This may have come from the strike against the side of the head, or some other source in the middle of the room."

Shining looked between the column and the collapsed display rack. "Fancy Pants hit the back of his head against the column. Then he is smashed in the side of the head, possible in the same spot by the column. But he ends up under the rack."

The coroner cleared his throat. "Well sir, I would posit one possibility that the same force which damaged the vizier's head is the same which caused him to collide with and break the rack."

A few of the knights and guards gasped and murmured at the idea. "Cor blimey, he get bucked in the head by a yak?" One guard remarked.

"Indeed it would have been an impressive strike to move the vizier's mass that distance." The coroner mused.

Shining looked to Hauseway. "Should we send out a notice to patrols to be on alert for a large perpetrator? Potentially yak or hippogryph sized?"

"Nah, hold off. We can't act on speculation for something like that. The only thing that would do is cause some yak diplomats to get roughed up by overzealous guards." Hauseway said. "So, let's not offend the yaks and cause a war. I'm not in the mood for a war tonight. Maybe tomorrow."

"I'll add it to the schedule sir." Shining nodded.

There was a whistle from the ponies sorting through the knocked-over rack. "Found something interesting."

Shining went to investigate.
The guards had picked out two swords from the mess of wood, glass, and artifacts. One of the swords was a normal-looking short sword, but it was covered with semi-dried blood. The other was a hefty broadsword with a black lacquered grip.

Shining picked up the broadsword. "This belongs over there with that armor. It must have been stored on the hangers on the column." He inspected its edge. "The enchantments have been activated recently. Somepony hit it against something unyielding, like solid armor or stone. It could have been when it fell off its display."

"This is not the vizier's blood, sir." The coroner motioned to the short sword. "Immediate testing shows the blood is from a mare."

"Sir?" Shining looked to Hauseway again.

Hauseway nodded. "Not like the guards aren't already harassing every mare in Canterlot, heh heh."

"Very good sir. Dispatch updates to all captains and all patrols. They should be on the lookout for a suspicious mare, possibly injured, possibly armed. She may be magically talented so caution is advised." Shining commanded. "Detain suspects in place, no excess force."

A couple knights and guards ran off to convey the orders.

While the coroner continued to test the blood, Shining carried the broadsword back to the matching set of armor. He picked up the black lacquer helm and inspected it.
"This is a very old style. I think it's pre-unification, but I don't recognize the triangle symbols." Shining said.

"It's supposed to be a horn, stylistic heraldry." Hauseway said.

Shining Armor stared at the little symbol for another minute. "Blackhorn." He set the helmet back down. "I've heard of the Blackhorn Armor before. I didn't know it still existed."

"Either it's serendipity, or Sir Pants was looking for that stuff." Hauseway said. "Been keeping up with the news Shiny? And I don't mean sports or whatever nonsense."

"Yes captain, I know of a certain Seacrest Blackhorn being in the city." Shining said, thinking back to the dining hall. "I wonder what Fancy Pants was intending."

"I'd wager it was something sneaky. Extortion maybe?" Captain Hauseway scoffed. "Fancy old armor is important to some ponies. To me, one armor is just the same as another, begging your pardon Sir Shining."

"You have my pardon sir. As armors go, I'd warrant I am of pretty good quality." Shining Armor nudged the other pieces of the Blackhorn Armor with a hoof. They all seemed to have weak magic within them, sophisticated enchantments that protected them from damage. "No pieces missing of the armor, nor of anything else. Whoever killed the vizier came for that purpose and none other."

"Oh boy, guess I have to start thinking of just who might benefit from a dead vizier." Hauseway grunted.

"Hopefully this hunt won't be as dragged out as all that." Shining Armor said.

A few of the city guard investigators approached the scene. "Captain Hauseway, we have finished questioning staff and visitors." The lead investigator reported. She began reading from a notepad. "The grand vizier was seen returning to his office in a hurry shortly after an Imperial Council meeting. Not long after he was seen with several other ponies in the the ground floor halls. Some staff said they recognized one of the ponies accompanying the vizier as a mare in his employ."

"In his employ how? Was she that kind of mare, aye?" Hauseway asked.

"Wait, that's another Imperial Council meeting held without either of us in attendance, Captain." Shining Armor said. "Sir Fancy Pants was growing increasingly lax about informing us of meetings he held."

"He was always a bit passive aggressive." Hauseway shrugged.

"We will have to question the councilors about what was said." Shining said, adding it to his mental checklist. "As for the ponies he was seen with, we already know there was an injured mare. It would add a wrinkle if she worked for him. I can't say I remember him keeping the company of any mare in particular."

"We've held off searching the grand viziers office, but with your permission..." The investigator prompted.

"Obviously, crack 'er open." Hauseway said with a wave. "Find something that gives the name of that mare."

"I'll go over pertinent documents later to see if there is anything that hints to why he would have been murdered." Shining said. "We can cross-reference with the list of visitors to the castle over the last few weeks. "

"Sounds like a lot of damn work. Hope the boys just catch the bastard." Hauseway yawned.

Various city guards and knights galloped off to execute the orders.

"Any other discoveries?" Shining asked the coroner.

"Not besides rigger mortus, sir. The rest of my team haven't arrived yet. Crime never sleeps, but they do." The coroner said dryly.

One of the lingering investigators spoke up. "Sir, with so many enchanted items around us, it's going to be difficult to identify if any magic was used at the time of the murder."

"Fine. We heard back from the University yet on the necromancy thing?" Hauseway asked.

"I wouldn't bother. It was too long before the body was discovered. You'd have a hell of a time finding Fancy Pants among all the ponies that die in a city this large." The coroner said. "Statistically, his soul would have entered Elysium by now."

"At which point, bye bye." Hauseway clucked his tongue. "Well, not like I needed to talk to Pants again anyhow. He'd nag me and tell me we've overstepped our authority."

Shining Armor withdrew to a more quiet part of the trophy room and started working out questions in his head.
Chances were, Fancy Pants was the victim of a politically motivated assassination. It could have also been a personal dispute, a pay dispute, or a random murder. Considering the brutality of the struggle and the wound that had killed the vizier, the killer seemed not to have been concerned with sneakiness. The murder may have had something to do with the new Blackhorn prince, considering the timing and the Blackhorn armor. The unknown female agent was highly suspect, either being the killer, having been present for the murder, or having talked to Fancy Pants just before the murder.

"Are there any identifying marks on the short sword with the blood on it?" Shining asked.

A guardspony levitated the sword and inspected it. "It's a standard pattern. The steel has no mark but the grip binding has an Old Town Tailors' Guild stamp."

"So it was probably made by a local blacksmith to sell on the black market. A black market sword means criminals." Shining Armor said.

Hauseway hummed his uncertainty. "That's not an airtight assumption, Shiny my boy. Imperial agents use black market weapons when they're doing shady things."

Shining was about to retort when he came to a realization. "Hold on, why does the black market sword have the mare's blood on it? We are really grasping to guess how many ponies were here and how they were involved. It's even possible there were more dead bodies but they were teleported away." He shook his head. "Captain, I'm not going to make progress here. I'm going to talk with the witnesses and castle staff to see if we can find out more about the mare Fancy Pants kept in company."

"Right ho. If you head into Canterlot be careful. With guards all over the street there will be some tension. Don't let any savagery get a hold of you." Hauseway advised.

"Thank you captain. I'm somewhat familiar with this city's dark proclivities." Shining said.

"What the commoners do to each other is disgusting, yes. They tear at each other like rabid filthy animals." Hauseway scrunched his nose like he'd smelt the four odeur of the peasants. "But let me tell you boy that these political murders are like cold fire. It's mechanical, buisness murder. At least the commoners have the dignity to put some emotion behind their savagery."

Shining surveyed the murder scene again. Without the body, it looked like a clumsy pony had knocked over the armor stand. "This was somepony's buisness, you think?"

"I'm damn near sure of it." Hauseway growled. "Let's pretend that the most likely thing is true, and somepony inside the castle was pushed into offing Pants. Coercion, blackmail, conspiracy, whatever. There had to have been more planning behind this than a pony who just arrived in Canterlot could manage."

“The little Blackhorn prince is definitely suspect, and I can think of a few ponies who would like him to hounded about this.” Shining said. "But you aren't going to entertain it?"

"I'm not ruling anything out." Hauseway grumbled.

Though politics in the castle had gotten more heated recently, there was no reason to think that anypony should want Fancy Pants dead. Still, it would be prudent to check for extra gold in any of the guard’s pockets.
"Very good sir. I'm going to speak to the witnesses." Shining said.

Hauseway waved him off.

Shining gave a casual salute to the coroner and guards, before starting the silent walk back out of the trophy room.
There were more guardsponies waiting for him at the door to the hallway, conversing with the knights on station.

"Sir Shining Armor! Always a pleasure, sir." One of the city guardsponies bowed.

"Hmm?" Shining recognized the guardpony back. It was a guard sergeant with a bushy mustache, who Shining knew from his work with the Inner City lodge. "Hail. It has been awhile. I hope things are better in Inner Canterlot district."

"Oh it's miserable as always, sir." The guard sergeant said in a chipper voice.

"That's unfortunate to hear." Shining frowned.

The guard sergeant chuckled. "Contrarily, sir, it is wonderful to have work. Usually." A crease formed on his brow as a look of annoyance came over him. "But they hit us back, sir. They got the vizier."

"Should I attach any significance to that?" Shining asked.

"Oh! Sorry sir, no, I was only aggravating myself imagining what kind of lowlife could have done this." The guard sergeant apologized.

"You're not alone. All the righteous soldiers of the princess are hoping to be the one to bring justice, or something like that." Shining said. "But let's not get distracted here. Is there something to report to the captain?" Something to report to me, it was understood.

"Nothing important sir. The earth pony councilor was asking to give an interview." The junior guard reported.

"That would be... Councilor Prosser?" Shining asked.

"Yes sir, that's his name, sir." The junior guard nodded. "It is my understanding he was proactive immediately after the body was discovered, and sent messengers to alert guard lodges all across the city."

Shining was not suspicious of the councilor, at least not yet; Hopefully Councilor Prosser was asking for an interview to explain what he knew. "Noted. Was that all?"

"No sir. Otherwise we are rounding on the inspectors with the body." The junior guard saluted.

The guard sergeant saluted too. "We will get on to writing our respective reports then, sir." His self-amused look let Shining in on the joke that he nor his subordinate were literate.

Shining saluted. "Very well. Spare the captain any bother. If there something that needs my attention-"

"Understood sir. Best of luck." The guards slipped past Shining and entered the trophy room.

Shining nodded to the knight on station and trotted back to the stair up to the main halls. A few knights and guards were interviewing castle staff, but judging by everypony's sour looks there was no useful information to be heard.

"If there is nothing to do here, I will assist upstairs in the vizier's office." Shining asked.

One of the knights waved him closer. "Actually sir Armor, this is not all the witnesses we pulled aside. One mare was very stuborn, and we had to take her into custody."

Shining's heart fluttered for a moment as he imagined that it was the same suspect mare they were looking for. "A unicorn mare?"

"No, sir, an earth pony." The knight pulled out his notes and checked them. "A certain Illustrious Valor. She is a visitor, out of town probably. She was in the entry log at the front door too."

"Illustrious Valor? Sounds like the name of a pony of martial calling." Shining mused.

The knight shrugged. "You'd think, but she was dressed like a maid. We thought she was castle staff before she opened her mouth. We haven't interviewed her. She demanded to speak to an officer and just kept whining otherwise. Like I said, sir, we detained her."

Shining was very curious. "I will speak to this mare after I speak to Councilor Prosser. Is he around?"

The knights shared worried glances. "No sir. He was heading for the castle tower's upper levels."

That meant he was going to see Princess Celestia. Shining felt a tinge of annoyance. "The councilor asks to see me, then runs off? And what's more, he decides to consult the princess all alone like he was the new vizier?"

"It is out of my power to speculate, Sir Armor." The knight cleared his throat.

Shining sighed. "Fine. I will meet with the councilor later, then. Somepony should notify Captain Hauseway. He would want to know the princess has been informed of the murder."

A knight saluted and galloped to the stairs.

"Okay, so, where is the earth pony mare." Shining asked.

"We were holding her in a room in the castle, but her yelling was distracting everypony, so we moved her to the IHG barracks." The knight reported.

Thankfully the Imperial Household Guard barracks was attached the the household it was meant to guard, right on the castle grounds.

Shining was about to head for the exit when he head the rapid clip of hooves echoing from out of the stairwell. Captain Hauseway charged out, skidding to a stop right in front of Shining Armor.
"That damn rock pony went and talked with the princess?!" Hauseway tried to shout but he was out of breath.

"He seems to be with her as we speak, Captain." Shining glanced back to the knight who had told him. "Clearly Councilor Prosser is not on the same page as us."

"Either he's trying to take charge, or he's working with the pegasi... Or maybe something else." Hauseway said in a rush. "Councilor Prosser is right up there in terms of earth pony low cunning. Him and Pants were the only Imperial Councilors that weren't weak-willed geezers. Since her highness's extended sabbatical, and with Pants dead, there's a ball in the air and no sign of where it coming down. We have to anticipate him, thwart him, before he thwarts us."

"That may be, captain, but I would rather reserve judgement. It's one thing to be annoyed about councilors going behind our back all the time, another to get into squabbles with them." Shining said.

"Think I don't know that Shiny? Your captain is still in charge here." Hauseway said, waggling his hoof chidingly. "Top priority is to keep authority over the IHG and city guards."

Shining could only guess what he meant by that. "Are you worried about a coup, sir?"

Hauseway looked startled, then let out a gruff laugh. "Hardly. I'm worried the councilor and the other bureaucrats are going to call back the guards! They'll let the killers go free, so that they can continue buisness as usual."

"We should talk to the councilor before we assume that. If he disagrees with you about how long the state of emergency should last, that's something we should negotiate." Shining said.

"Negotiate? Why? Sir Armor you only set yourself to lose by negotiating over things you don't have to. The search and state of emergency will last as long as we need them to." Hauseway said. "Then, if the bureaucrats have something we want, that is when we negotiate."

It was not clear to Shining Armor if Hauseway was acting out of concern for catching the killers, or just playing court politics. Either way, it was his duty to obey. "You will be pleased to know I sent out orders to all the parties spread out over the city when I arrived. They are subordinated to your command for the purposes of coordinating the search."

"Good work Shiny, good work. That foresight will keep a lot of ponies from getting hurt needlessly." Hauseway nodded, visibly relieved. "But there's still the issue of what the princess will think when she's only heard from the rock pony." He tapped his hooves. "I'm mostly sober now. I should go see her myself."

Shining waved the nearby knights closer. "If you're all done here, accompany the captain."

The knights saluted.
"Bon voyage once again, Shiny." Hauseway turned and trotted back towards the stairs, his knights in tow.

The city guards and castle staff were left standing around, unsure of what to do.
"Check in with the sergeant, down in the lower levels. I'll be at the IHG barracks." Shining said.

"Hmm, hmm, hmmm. This is almost a melody." Princess Celestia, high above Canterlot on the Southern Watchtower, listened to the ceaseless tolling of the bells of her city. "Hmm, hmmmm." She hummed, trying to match the notes the bells were making. "Not a melody yet. Not even a harmony yet." She frowned.

Losing interest, her eyes wandered back to the nighttime skies, searching for something that was not there yet.

"Princess, princess." Somepony was trying to get her attention, but Celestia was not interested, and her attention stayed with the sky. "Princess, an Imperial Councilor wants to speak with you. It is urgent, princess. Princess, there has been an incident."

"Hmmm, hmmm." Celestia started humming again. It was not the tolling she heard, that disappointingly discordant chorus of bells. It was the tolling she wished to hear. "Hmmm, hmmm. How lovely it could sound, if she were here. Hmmm."

At the Chateau la Garde, the tolling of the bells had made quite a stir. The numerous guests, disquieted by the alarm, fell into whispering amongst themselves. Had something happened to their manors and townhouses while they were out partying at the edge of the city? One focus of the rumors was Seacrest Blackhorn, as the nobleponies imagined that the alarm was a call to arms against the Blackhorn pretender, such that knights would storm in any moment to apprehend him.

But hadn't there been knights there earlier? All they had done was fetch their fellow in the dress uniform.

Twilight Velvet watched the more anxious guests trickle out, though to her edification more ponies were still trying to get in.
"What do you suppose has happened?" Velvet asked her maid.

The maid bowed her head. "We are unsure, my lady."

"Hopefully somepony important has died. That would be amusing." Velvet mused. "Ah, nevertheless, we have nothing to do with it, right?"

The maid nodded. "Unless the assassin escaped from the guild mistress and continued down your target list, Lady Velvet."

Velvet laughed. "That would be very amusing. But we are just speculating about it all. We have a party to maintain. Go serve those ponies there with the empty flutes."

More guards had congregated in the plaza before Canterlot Castle in the half-hour that Shining Armor had been inside. Checkpoints had been established at every street branching off the plaza, and some tents had been set up where the guard commanders were organizing more search parties. Fresh firefly lanterns had been set up on poles at every intersection, battling the moonlight for the pallor of the drowsy city.
Shining had to admit it was a bad look. Martial law and a IHG coup would not have looked much different than the state of emergency they were in.

"Why am I even thinking about coups? The captain is being too cautious." Shining said, annoyed at himself. "Should I have told him there was a mare demanding to talk to the officers?"

Shining circled around the castle towards the IHG barracks, weaving around the massive marble flying buttresses that supported the keep.
With Fancy Pants deceased, and Captain Hauseway taking charge, Shining fancied that he was now the second highest authority in Canterlot, and perhaps even Equestria. It was an intimidating thought. Shining just wanted to do his duty, and see the killers cought. Though since there was not much he could directly do, interviewing the detained earth pony seemed like an acceptable use of his time.

"Is it close to midnight? I haven't heard the clock chimes with all the alert bells ringing." Shining said to himself.

He arrived at the threshold of the Imperial Household Guard's barracks. Its facade was in the same style as Canterlot Castle, marble and gold, but its construction was utilitarian on the interiors. Over the years, as the role of the IHG had become more lax and ceremonial, the barracks had been stuffed with finery and ornamentation, like the noble knights expected. Shining didn't mind one way or another, as long as it wasn't too obtrusive, and didn't engender lethargy.

The barracks was almost completely empty of ponies, besides some IHG knights convalescing from training injuries or overexertion earlier in the day. Everypony was either in the castle or in the city.

"I guess the mare must be in the cells." Shining said to himself. The barrack's small cell block was intended for unruly soldiers and not any kind of extended or dangerous guests.

A high, wavy voice carried down the hallways. "Hel-ooooo? Yoo-hoo! I heard somepony. Can you hear me?" The voice turned higher and screechy. "Why did you leave me alone in here?! Let me out or bring the proper authorities at once!"

Shining was no stranger to demanding noblemares, but as he approached the cell he saw it was as the knights had described: An earth pony mare wearing a maid's frilly white and black dress.
She was black-furred, with a black mane as well, a very unusual monochromatic combination. Her eyes, which blinked quite frequently Shining noted, were a pale green, thought they had a certain iridescence that made them seem red in the low light. Her mark, a grey cloud, could be seen under the thin material of the maid dress.

"Good evening mis, I am Shining Armor, Imperial Knight, adjunct to the captaincy of the Imperial Household Guard." Shining bowed slightly. "I hope this temporary internment hasn't been too hard on you."

The mare looked Shining up and down. "Nice armor. Going to war in a ballroom, toots?"

Shining was suddenly conscious he was still wearing his dress uniform he'd taken for the feast at the Chateau la Garde. Nopony had mentioned it. He cleared his throat. "Mis, are you Illustrious Valor?

"Uhh, if I say yes, will you let me out?" The mare asked.

Shining did not appreciate the attitude he was getting. "Mis, you were causing a scene, and disrupting what is a very serious investigation and emergency."

"Hey, I get it s serious. That's why I'm trying to be lighthearted. It's a, you know, stress reaction, or something." The mare said. "And yeah, I told 'em my name was Illustrious Valor. That's me."

Shining noted the strange phrasing. "Thank you. You gave the knights a hassle but it can be forgiven if you cooperate now."

"I've been super cooperation-al. That's why I wasn't going to get nabbed by your armored hooligans, sir. I wanted to talk to your leader." Illustrious Valor said. "He busy or something? Why do I have to talk to the secretary?"

"Take a guess." Shining snorted.

Illustrious Valor flashed a goofy smile. "Okay, I'm just messing with you again, cat. Sorry. Like I said, it's the stress."

Cat? "And like I said mis, I'm Shining Armor, adjunct. You can call me Sir or Sir Armor." Shining said stiffly. "Captain Hauseway has other buisness. Frankly, so do I, but I don't like the idea of a mare languishing in my cells so I came to sort this out. Let's please not get off on the wrong hoof because of mismatched expectation."

"Such an articulate stallion. I think it'd be fine to chat with you." Illustrious Valor nodded.

Shining was pretty sure the mare was a commoner, but she was not respecting the power dynamic. "Mis, we should start with some basic questions."

Illustrious Valor clucked her tongue. "Sir knight, we should start with some basic decency. There's bars between us."

Shining stared at her in silence for a few minutes.

Shining thought she was going to raise a fuss, but Illustrious Valor seemingly got the hint that she would have to at least explain a little bit. "I'm just a tourist, sir knight. I'm from the Dneighper Valley region, kinda near the Everfree land. I've never visited Canterlot before."

"Okay. What's with the maid outfit?" Shining asked.

Illustrious Valor blushed slightly. "A mare was selling it and I thought it looked very good for the price. It's the most formal thing I own now. Good for visiting your princess's castle, right?"

That was a tone shift from how she'd mocked Shining for his dress uniform. This Illustrious Valor was either cagey, or bluster covering insecurity- Such were country mares visiting the big city. "I don't know Mis Valor, I'd have to ask my sister or some other female friend." He stepped back and levitated the cage key over to himself. "I can rely on your word for your cooperation, Mis Valor?"

Illustrious Valor nodded. "As long as you stop calling me that. Everypony calls me Iillor."

"Ill-or. Iill-or. Iillor." Shining practiced the name. Using a name portmanteau was a folk tradition among some earth pony clans, but he'd only met a few ponies who still did it, such as Councilor Prosser. "Very well Mis Iillor, but I insist you still call me Sir Armor. I shall not be humor being call Sharmour."
He unlocked the cage and swung it open for Iillor to step through.

"That's a pretty funny joke. You should retell it to your unicorn buddies later." Iillor mock laughed. "After the hunt, that is."

Right to buisness then. "Let us find somewhere we can talk."

They arrived back in the main hall of the barracks, still empty of ponies. They diverted into a mess hall, and found a table where they sat across from each other. Shining noticed how Iillor’s frequent blinks matched with small twitches at the nape of her neck. Was it a neurological condition? Probably she was just nervous.

"Feeling alright?" Shining started.

"What did you say your captain's name was? Hauseway? I heard that name recently, somepony mentioning him." Iillor said.

Shining arched a brow. "Okay, yes, that's his name. I asked you how you were, mis."

"I'm very well, aside from the being behind bars thing. I made some new friends, fun-loving mares. Most fun I've had in years." Iillor said. "They were really plugged in mares, you know, knew all the important ponies. Knew their names, at least. We split up and said they had to go to the castle. I was hoping I'd see them there, before this craziness happened."

Shining didn't think it was inconsequential that Illor was bringing up her new friends. "Mis, you do know the nature of the state of emergency in Canterlot, right?"

"Some stiff got stabbed." Iillor said, giggling at her own crass language.

The chair creaked under Shining Armor as he adjusted himself. "Yes, somepony was... Well, not stabbed. Bludgeoned, mostly. It was the Grand Vizier of Equestria, Fancy Pants."

Iillor glanced away, her lips pursed. "Fancy Pants? You said Fancy Pants?"

She was dwelling on the name like she had with Hauseway. "Mis, please share what you're thinking. Why did you want to see an officer?" Shining pressed her.

Iillor hesitated, biting her lips as she conducted an internal debate. "Somepony told me about that pony too, the same mare, one of my new friends, who talked about Hauseway."

Shining made the connection immediately. He jumped up from his chair galloping for the door.

"Hey! Sir knight, wait!" Iillor got up and ran after him.

Shining kept galloping until he was at the castle plaza. "Oye!" He bellowed at one of the groups of guards gathered outside a tent. "Go reinforce Captain Hauseway! There may be a threat on his life! He's in the keep, upper levels!"

The guardsponies grabbed their equipment and galloped into the castle.

"Good grief." Shining caught his breath after the running and shouting. He turned to see Iillor catching up to him. "Mis, giving a testimony about a possible murder plot is the kind of thing you lead the conversation with, not your 'basic decency'."

"Sir, sir, I'm sorry." Iillor didn't seem out of breath at all. "I just thought... I thought my new friends had gotten lost, or injured, or been illegally detained, since I couldn't find them in the castle. That's why I brought them up, you know."

Shining felt a bit shaken. He was naturally suspicious of the circumstances by which a lead been dropped into his lap, and therefore of Iillor. The black-furred mare had just become the center of his investigation.
"Okay, you're going to tell me everything you can. First-" He had to test the rigor of Iillor's claim, to see if she was just lying for attention or distraction. "Describe the circumstances by which you met your new friends."

Iillor sighed. "There's three of them. I met the first girl, a unicorn, in an underground party hangout. We hit it off and she led me two her two other friends, a unicorn and an earth mare. We talked, we made some noise, and we parted."

"All of them were going to the castle?" Shining pressed.

"Uhh, that's what it seems like they intended." Iillor said.

Shining saw that Iillor hoped that they had split up or something, that only one of them was in trouble. "Why did you think they would have been in trouble or detained?"

Iillor narrowed her gaze. "Young, nubile, flirty, loud mares? I can't know how dirty the guards are, especially when they roughed me up and stuck me in a cage. I wanted an officer like you to make sure your subordinates weren't abusing them."

That gave Shining pause. Whether or not Iillor was making a cynical claim, abuse issues were a serious problem in the IHG and city guard. The noble scions in the IHG, used to getting their way, had been known to go preying on Inner City youths. Shining had personally had to report and discipline a knight caught with a colt, then overseen her lengthy probation. Curbing such abuses was core to Shining's restoration of discipline.

Iillor continued. "My friends seemed like they could take care of themselves, but who knows what an unscrupulous authority figure might do when ponies' attention is occupied on an emergency."

"You've made your point, mis." Shining was not sure he believed Iillor or trusted her word entirely, but nothing she had said was in-contiguous with the facts as he'd seen them. "Then tell me about the mares. This is very important."

"I-" Iillor seemed to freeze up. "Sir knight just give me a moment, I..." She squeezed her eyes shut. "It doesn't feel right all of a sudden. They were so kind to me, making me feel like this was the city for me."

"Mis Iillor, just describing their clothes will be enough for the moment. If you're helpful and we find these mares without bloodshed, your assistance will even be counted in their favor during a sentencing." Shining said.
Before he could continue, Shining saw a guardspony trotting towards him from the castle entrance.

"Sir Shining Armor?" The guard queried. After Shining nodded, she continued. "Sir, Captain Hauseway is safe. Also, Imperial Councilor Prosser is looking for you."

"Oh, now he comes around again? Fine, let's get that interview." Shining huffed. Illustrious Valor seemed to be hitting a mental roadblock anyway. "Mis Valor, please stay with me. I can't have you wandering off."

Iillor nodded mutely, following behind Shining and the guardspony. As soon as their eyes were off of her, her nervous demeanor dropped, and a sly grin spread over her face. She could barely keep from laughing to herself as she swaggered along, back to Canterlot Castle.

With a weather front building over Ponyville, a cold wind had begun to pick up. The village had fallen asleep quickly once the sun went down. They would be safe inside as the storm broke over them.

For Twilight, finding herself walking along the darkened riverbank for the second time that night, the storm was an inexplicable temptation. The building rain and thunder, primal discomforts and fears, where what she deserved. It was a power she could not control, and therefore her suffering from it was much more forgivable than the torment she was getting from the Ponyvillians.

On the shore across from her, in the meadow between the river and the dark forest, Twilight saw the occasional blink of fireflies. Otherwise it was the brilliant stars and pearlescent moon, not yet obscured by the advancing clouds, which lit the night.

How long was the village riverfront? Twilight did not remember exactly how many paces it had been. Nopony cared anyway. She was sinking her effort into something nopony would pick up. It was all a waste of time.
"I peaked at fifteen, didn't I. It's all downhill from here. This whole Ponyville excursion was a trap so that Celestia has an excuse to ostracize me like she did Sunset Shimmer."

Twilight's anxieties boiled over into fevered paranoia, as she imagined being berated and humiliated in front of the Imperial Court. She thought about all the humiliations she had already suffered from Celestia, all the times the princess had ignored her when Twilight was the young pupil, so eager to please. At royal parties, in the court, among other young unicorn learners, Celestia had maintained a polite detachment, when Twilight had wanted so much more. The princess had never appreciated her. The princess was glad to see her leave for the University.

Did Celestia resent her? Did Celestia resent her? Did Celestia resent her? Did Celestia resent her?
Did Celestia hate her? Did Celestia hate her? Did Celestia hate her? Did Celestia hate her?
Did Celestia want her back? Did Celestia want her back? Did Celestia want her back? Did Celestia want her back?

Twilight stared dumbly up at the moon, letting her hooves carry her along the riverbank.
"What if... I... I don't do what she wants from me? Can I even imagine it?" Twilight mumbled. "Betraying her?"
Would that even shake Celestia from her stupor, the lackadaisical schedule of staring into southern skies? Unless somepony like Fancy Pants overstepped his authority, Twilight could flout Celestia's orders if she didn't do anything about it. Commands were meaningless without coercion.
On the other hoof, Celestia would not have to wake much to smite Twilight.

Twilight neared the stone bridge crossing the river.

"... Stupid alicorns. I've made rivals out of both of them, Cadenza and Celestia. What an impious pony I am." Twilight leaned against the bridge's stone parapet, watching the river flow beneath her. "Maybe I'd glad to be here, far, far away from you, Celestia. I'm happy you sent me away..." She was facing away from Canterlot; If she turned to look for it, it would have been obscured by the storm clouds. "Away from your castle, my home, my family, my books, my lab, my class, my studies, my happiness-"

Twilight crossed the bridge and kept going. She went on, not thinking about much, until the smell of the village faded and the gurgle or the river quieted. She entered the domain of the fireflies, who danced and buzzed and lit up all around her as the dirt path faded against the taller unkept grass.
Twilight was escaping Ponyville for a night, and the wordless shackle of unwanted duty Celestia had placed there.

How far could she run? Would the Ponyvillians eventually go looking for her? Would they message Canterlot? Would the empire even bother to look for their new élève premier?

Nothing was keeping Twilight in the civilized world except perhaps her obligation to Spike. There were whole kingdoms of mountain or forest she could disappear in.
The escapist fantasy, so tempting in Twilight's mind...

snapped away.

Twilight blinked, lifting her hoof from the dry branch she had stepped on. She pealed her eyes back to her surroundings, reluctantly forced to confront reality as it was, not how she desired.
A nearly solid wall of gnarled branches and twisted roots stood in her way, topped by a ferocious looking canopy. In the depths of that sea of trunks and undergrowth was a sickly darkness that invited and repelled her in equal measures.
THE EVERFREE, the infamous demon forest. Had it really been that close the entire time? It was close now, certainly.
Tens of thousands of acres of forsaken land, the most dangerous place in Equestria or perhaps even the world. The ruins of entire ancient kingdoms lay within, guarded by horrific chimeric beasts and vengeful spirits, or so the tales went. Twilight almost laughed at the prospect.

If Twilight was going to be bold, and take the next step of her imagined rebellion, it would be now.
Twilight looked down at her hooves again, then back to the grisly forest. The low wind became a choked whistle as it flowed through that knot of trees. It was like the Everfree was singing to her, a morbid kind of song, like a dying gasp.

Twilight was not bold. She was not a rebel. She bore her humiliations and worked through them until the next. There would be no betrayal that night. The prospect of facing the dark Everfree was more intimidating than the Celestia in her head.

Twilight turned away, and took a step back towards Ponyville. But something stopped her.

A song, so soft she couldn’t be sure if it was real or not. It flowed out between the trees, smooth and delicate voices. She looked back at the forest.
It was a tickle in her brain, more than it was a sound in her ear. Was she just imagining it? It sat as an itch or ever so subtle buzz behind her eyes. Yes, it beckoned to her, daring her, playing on the urge to rebel she had felt so strongly just a minute before. It asked to be discovered. It even teased her doubts, tantalizing Twilight to answer if it was real or not. It was a rebellious urge to push the boundaries of discovery, against the frightful heresy of trespassing into unholy places.

Come onto me, Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight turned back to the forest. Something was waiting for her. It was patient, but would it wait forever?
"If... If there's danger, I can- I can just leave, just teleport." Twilight said to herself breathlessly.

She took one step forward, then another. The draw of the enigmatic song in her head clouded out the fear and hatred the trees emanated. Before she even realized it, she was in the forest. The atmosphere had lost it'sspring flavor, and became oppressive and dark. It hurt. It was bitter. It was so ichorously sweet she couldn't stand it.
The forest was opposed to pony life.

But Twilight could feel the song much clearer now. It was undeniably magical, a spell woven into a silken tendril. Twilight closed her eyes and tried to identify patterns she could recognize, to see if it incorporated magic she had studied before. There was none. It was totally alien to her.
And that above all else sealed Twilight's decision. She had to know.

"I won't miss a chance to change my world." Twilight said, addressing the twisted trees that flanked her path ahead.

Guild Mistress Phyte was standing in front of her desk, patiently waiting, when Lyra and Octavia entered the chamber. The moody candle lighting was accentuated by periodic flashes of green as the various dragonfire birdcages deposited letters from guild agents around the city.
"Who was it?" Phyte asked, seemingly calm by her voice, but her cherry fur was standing on end in agitation.

"First off, we didn't do it. It was some kind of shapeshifting monster." Octavia said. "And it was Grand Vizier Fancy Pants."

Phyte sighed and rubbed her eyes. "The vizier. I have not the energy to summon any sarcasm for this, Mis Octavia. Plainly, this is a tremendous pain."

"We think the shapeshifter is going to frame us. We have to leave the city immediately." Octavia continued. "Coming here was a risk, one Lyra did not agree with, so I hope you can help us.

Phyte moved from behind her desk in silence.

"Mistress it is a dire situation we find ourselves in." Octavia said.

Phyte raised a hoof to silence the earth pony. "At least one guild mare was compromised and wounded because of the heightened state of alert. I am having a difficult time focussing on you when as of this moment you are in the least danger of all."

"They will come knocking at the guild eventually. Not all imperial administrators pretend not to know what happens here." Octavia pressed.

"How convenient you are here to hoof over to them, should I be so inclined." Phyte said. "Be still, Octavia. If you wish to trust me with your survival, then sit and await my plan."

Octavia sat on her withers, a scowl on her face.

Lyra stayed out of the way while Octavia and Phyte argued, circling around the chamber until she was beside the birdcage holding Pon-3. The imprisoned unicorn was slumped against the wires, looking to a far horizon.
"Hi Mis Vinyl. Staying saner then me?" Lyra cracked a weak smile.

Pon-3 gave Lyra a half-lidded look. "I have nothing to contribute." She said sharply.

Lyra stepped closer to the cage. "Did you hear Octavia? About the vizier being murdered by a shapeshifter?"

Pon-3 sighed.

"Mis Vinyl, I only followed Octavia here reluctantly. Trust me not to put you in danger." Lyra whispered. "I twice withheld your list of targets from Octavia and Mistress Phyte. I have my concerns about you but I have no desire to see you harmed."

"Get bent. You helped Octavia drag me here." Pon-3 grumbled.

Lyra glanced back at Phyte, absorbed in her letters. "I know an apology doesn't mean anything. Only... only common enemies. Phyte sent some kind of false pony to teleport Octavia and myself back here. She might have made the shapeshifter too."

"Nah, the shapeshifter isn't Phyte's." Pon-3 said. She sat up. "What do you mean 'false pony' though?"

"It was much like the mute pony you met a few days ago, but it was a unicorn. It somehow weaved a spell using dragonfire to teleport us, but it perished from the effort in a gruesome de-composition to its elements." Lyra reported. She hesitated. "So, how do you know Phyte didn't make the shapeshifter?"

Pon-3 sat in silence for a few minutes in contemplation. At last she stood up. "Describe the shapeshifter to me." She asked at full volume , loud enough to draw Phyte and Octavia's attention.

Lyra felt the eyes of the other mares on her. "It was like a changeling, but it had much greater dynamism. It changed size and used magic with no horn. It presented as female in voice and manner. When it's body changed and with its coming and going, the shapeshifter seemed to be a foul mist that behaved like a magical field. It did not transform itself with a spell; more like it reshaped itself."

Phyte idly shuffled her letters. "More competition for kills, but I can do as I did for our dear Vinyl."

"Am I supposed to act coy?" Lyra faced Phyte, trying to stand firm against the overwhelming terror she was feeling about her situation. "My employer was just killed by a primeval evil, a Nightmare! I saw and fought a Nightmare, and it kicked my ass. Now I have to digest why lightning struck where it did, Mistress Phyte, and you should not be surprised that my suspicion is upon you."

"A Nightmare." Phyte repeated. "A Nightmare. No, insolent child, you didn't see a nightmare. I was there for the last of the nightmares, a thousand years ago. I saw the last of the Nightmares be put to the sword upon Celestia's triumph. Their slaughter was a demonstration to get me to surrender, and thus I did bow my head for Celestia's chains to bind me for a hundred years. You can not convince me you saw a Nightmare."

"I saw a Nightmare kill Fancy Pants." Lyra said, a warbled in her voice as she tried to sound firm. "She exalted her god the Moon while she taunted and batted Octavia and me around."

Phyte shook her head. "Why have all the mares I give attention to turned churlish. Octavia, what has become of your friend Lyra?"

"Mistress, the shapeshifter survived a wound that would have killed a changeling. I do not wish to contradict you explicitly, but I echo what Lyra told you." Octavia said. "I do not know if you were there a thousand years ago, but at least one Nightmare must have survived and adapted as you have. She had a modern way of speaking."

"The only possible explanation is that you were both tricked by illusion magic. You should be embarrassed at being so easily fooled." Phyte said with an amused grunt.

Pon-3 stood up, making her cage rattle. "No Phyte, you're being fooled by your own self delusion. Dumbass!"

Phyte abandoned the pretext of going through her letters, standing up and striding to Pon-3's cage, forcing Lyra to shuffled back out of the way of the larger mare. "I have no reason to delude myself." Phyte said pointedly.

"Oh yeah? A bigger monster than you has finally come along. All Canterlot trembled under the tyrany of the guild mistress, but the pale shadow of death is out of control now, and you're not safe anymore. That's got to be so terrifying you'd be crazy not to be in denial." Pon-3 said. She began to jeer. "And what's more you're afraid of what it means if there's a Nightmare on the loose for your control. You were such a smug bitch laying claim to the night, but that sense of superiority and comfort is GONE. The darkness belongs to the Nightmare again, Phyte."

"Cur!" Phyte thundered, kicking over Pon-3's cage and making the pony within fall on her back. "What superiority and comfort have I had since I sacrificed to save you from annihilation by the alicorn princess? How ungrateful that you relish to see me uncomfortable."

Pon-3 rolled back on her stomach, a mischievous gin on her face. "Lyra, what appearances did the shapeshifter take on?"

Phyte fixed Lyra with an intense stare. "I have no fear of imaginary creatures. I am perturbed by your ponies' behavior, not the prospect of a Nightmare." She paused. "Speak, Lyra."

Lyra took a deep breath, running over her memories of the traumatic minutes in the trophy room. "The creature came at us out of the shadows, in the guise of an alicorn. In such a form it had completely black fur, with a crown of stars, and striking eyes that glowed. Its teeth were as pointy as blades as it smiled."

Already the description was having an impact on Phyte. A stony look overtook her, and it appeared like she was no longer listening.

"The form Octavia and I think was its native form was a short earth pony mare, stocky, with round cheeks and a short mane. This form also had black fur, but its eyes glowed red. It manipulated items telekinetically with some kind of Dark magic." Lyra continued.

"Go on, tell her what you told me!" Pon-3 chortled.

Octavia, however, was frantically gesturing at Lyra from behind Phyte, sending the opposite signal.

Lyra knew she was on the spot now. Pon-3 could mock Phyte with few consequences, but the guild mistress was a threatening pony, and it was within her power to destroy Lyra if pushed too far.
Lyra had to think quickly to triangulate between the three ponies all pushing their contradictory expectations at her, with her life on the line. "Mistress, I..." Lyra bit her lip, thinking of the best way to lie. "I cannot lie, mistress. The shapeshifter took on both Vinyl's shape, and yours."

Phyte rubbed a hoof down her face. She was more confused and indecisive than anypony in the room could recall her ever looking before. "...how is such a thing..." She trailed off.

Pon-3 yipped in delight, grabbing and rattling the bars of her cage. "Because she was here looking for you! She came in that short time when you stepped out, and spoke to me, Phyte! The Nightmare is real, and I have seen her. She tasted my dream. That's why she slaughtered that dumbass vizier, and that's why she's coming for you next!"

Phyte picked up Pon-3 birdcage effortlessly with a hoof and hurled it into the far wall of the chamber. The cage made a tremendous clatter as it mostly bounced off the rough stone wall and fell into a pile of letters. Pon-3's shrieking laughter was heard all the way.

Octaiva ran forward and grabbed Lyra's leg. "Why did you-"

"Though it's in question what she'll do to save Mis Vinyl, we can be confident she'll do anything and everything to save herself." Lyra said in a hush. "She blew you off, Octavia. You owe her no honesty."

Octavia was solemn. "I do not intent to mimic your affectations, Lyra."

"I'm just trying to find a future for myself. If you decide to do the same, then that is the only thing that will match between us. " Lyra protested. She was flattering Octavia's ego of course. The two mares had similar paths in many ways.

Octavia took a while to contemplate things. "Then my master has died too. What a wretched world, Lyra. I'm sorry for pushing you earlier."

Lyra did not fully believe or accept Octavia's apology, though she simply nodded.

"Woe is me. How has everything led up to this? What mistakes have I made? I need you infernal ponies out of my life, and out of the city. If there is a Nightmare, you will carry it away with you." Phyte said, pacing back to her desk at a fevered pace. It seemed Pon-3 was correct that the mistress harbored a few comfortable self-delusions. "I should have had the sewn stallion dump you outside of the city, instead of bringing you back. If the princess finds out about the mess these mares have caused..."

"Mistress, is there anything we can do to help?" Octavia asked demurely.

Phyte stomped a hoof. "Tell me immediately, how closely did the shapeshifter's guise match my details?"

Lyra had to decide which direction to carry her lie. "The mane was much too short, and the mark was a regular harp, not a glass harp. She did not match your voice well."

Phyte nodded in approval. "Then she has never seen me, but rather received the impression from Vinyl or the Dark Lady. There is hope for me yet."

Divorced of its context, the utterance of the phrase 'Dark Lady' struck a chilling note. There was something sinister about it, as if the words themselves had been imbued with a kind of power. It was uncomfortable to dwell on.
Lyra rubbed her eyes. She was being bombarded with information and stimulus. She had her future to consider. She did not want to concern herself with whatever Phyte was talking about that was only indirectly related. "What does that mean for us?"

"You must leave immediately. I will do that for you." Phyte said. She nodded towards the pile of letters Pon-3's birdcage was buried under. "Take her with you. That way all the ponies who have seen the Nightmare are gone."

"Mistress you are truly magnanimous for helping us." Octavia bowed, but she was clearly displeased about the stipulation of Pon-3's accompaniment. "Will our absence really serve you?"

"Nightmares are dream creatures. Despite their magical strength their primary attack vector is the mind." Phyte quickly explained. "If she has no dream to travel through, she is more easily warded against."

"You're going to ward your dreams?" Lyra asked sceptically.

Phyte shook her head in the negative. "Nay. I am one who lacks dreams."

"NEVER MIND THAT! If you're going to let me out of this cage, then do it!" Pon-3 shouted, her voice muffled by the hill of paper over her. Her mirth had been moderated by renewed impatience. "C'mon, Phyte, if you'd let me out yesterday none of us would be in this mess."

"Mistress, if you killed her, surely that would be a dream erased." Octavia remarked.

"Same could be said for us, Octavia." Lyra noted.

"No, you have to draw her away. The Nightmare will follow you by instinct." Phyte said, though by now it was clear her claims about the Nightmares were less than authoritative.

"Let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out." Pon-3 chanted. "Let me out, let me bucking out, let me out, let me out. I'll summon the Nightmare again if you don't let me out, Phyte."

"Were that I gave you such powers. Alas my early and amateurish work." Phyte was obvious displeased to follow along with Pon-3's demands, but nonetheless she waded into the pile of letter and dragged the birdcage back out.

Pon-3 was looking quite smug. "First chance I get, I'm coming back here to taunt you. I'll be too strong for you to cage by then."

"You're not coming within a hundred kilometers of Canterlot while they think you helped kill the vizier." Lyra reminded her.

Pon-3 didn't seem concerned about that. "I was probably going to stab him eventually."

"Idiot. There are parts of you that can be removed and leave your brain functional enough to dream." Octavia snarled.

Lyra, despite the massive boon of help she had tricked out of Phyte, did not feel the pinch of despair lift. She foresaw massive problems caused by Octavia and Pon-3's bickering, which would probably get her killed too. "Please, Octavia. If I'm expected to bury my feelings until later, you can too. You can bear your rivalry later."

"What rivalry? I'm only questioning how I'm meant to survive alongside such a thoroughly despicable pony." Octavia said.

Pon-3 giggled. "I can't wait to have a fair fight with you Octavia, and show you what you've been messing with."

Lyra stayed silent. What use was it? She needn't waste her breath.

Phyte roamed around the room, gathering letters that had collected in the various birdcages while she had been distracted. "I manage numerous guild mares, just as irritable and headstrong, all day every day. Since you are not as strong as I am, there are higher stakes for letting them walk all over you."

Lyra was not open to advice from the guild mistress. "I do not wish to manage them. I have my own life and future to worry for."

"Nopony has full control of their destiny until they shackle the ponies around them. See how quickly disorder leads to chaos with this Nightmare situation." Phyte said. "Our dear Vinyl invites unruliness and disorder in this house, and in less than a week the foundations of empire and guild are shaken. I invite you to contemplate the causal links, Mis Lyra."

"I have been doing so all night." Lyra responded.

Do not be so quick with me, little mare. You have taken on so many contemptible features since you left the guild, of moral weakness, of indecision, of chastity, and bourgeois uprightness." Phyte clucked her tongue. "This is what happens when a pony serves two masters. Lyra you should rejoice in your liberation of servitude to the vizier, and renew your commitment to being your own master."

"Mistress she will do something quite contrary to your desires if you push her like that." Octavia remarked.

Lyra did not speak up to confirm or deny Octavia's claim.

"Done getting things together, eh? Then aren't you forgetting something?" Pon-3 hummed. She tapped her hoof on the wire bars of her cage. "Or forgetting somepony?"

"Shut up." Octavia hissed.

"Octavia, perhaps you should shut up too. You don't have to get the last word in." Lyra said with sudden venom. "You wanted to come here, and so you dragged me here, just to listen to you bitch at Vinyl there. It was never about getting Phyte's help. It was all about your stupid selfish grudge, you venal mare. You shouted at and manipulated me, and for what? So you could feel a bit more satisfaction for haranguing a pony in a cage?"
Lyra eyed Pon-3 growing smile. "I'm not taking your side. You are a bad pony, and if I spent half as long with you as I have with Octavia I would probably let her kill you. It's your dumb ass that has set a Nightmare upon us. You got Sir Fancy Pants killed you reprobate! I'll never forgive you. You should have stayed out of Canterlot forever. You've done nothing good for anypony, ever, in your entire life."

Phyte stayed off to the side, observing as Lyra boiled over in rage.

"Don't think you can get out of this dressing down. You're a shitty boss, Phyte. I hate your guts. You think you're so clear-sighted by only respecting power and strength. I hope the whole guild catches wise at once. I hope they stuff you in a pipe organ and play it until your guts are extruded out the top. I don't know what ponies like you are made of but I hope it's colorful and makes somepony happy for once." Lyra said, quickly losing steam. "You're all such terrible ponies. I loath that I am in your company. I loath myself for ending up here again."

Phyte was impassive. "Feel better for your rant?"

"No I feel like garbage." Lyra mumbled. She was harmless to the large unicorn. Only the thought of the Nightmare could elicit any reaction from Phyte.

"Good. I'll be pleased to have a parting memory of you so miserable. It will make our eventual reunion, when you show up battered and aged in twenty years, much more gratifying." Phyte said. "If you don't die tonight, of course."

"Of course. Then you'd still have a Nightmare in your city." Lyra tried to nettle at Phyte with her words, but the stress and emotion running through her had exhausted her. She sat down and hid her face under a hoof, letting her fur absorb the wetness at the corners of her eyes.
Cast adrift... seeking a future, a purpose, and meaning in her life... Lyra felt the temptation which had already swallowed up so many ponies before her: Dedication to revenge.

Octavia watched Lyra for a minute, then trotted over to Pon-3’s cage. “Vinyl, you better hope you're lying about having sent the Nightmare after Sir Fancy Pants." She whispered sharply. "That mare had a more promising life than either of us would imagine. If you've really ruined it-"

"A 'promising life' an imperial cage, the only place worse than the one I'm in. Hard to believe that sissy was a guild mare. We got to live out adolescent violent fantasies with no consequences. Am I supposed to suddenly care about a pony who decided to be a square?" Pon-3 asked, a slight resentful bitterness in her tone. "Don't delude yourself that that was just an outburst. She actually hates you. You're everything she hates about herself."
But despite her words Pon-3 suspected the antipathy was one sided. Octavia saw some optimism for her own future in Lyra.

"You will help me help her." Octavia threatened. "If by the grace of the gods you help me redeem myself in her eyes, I may even forgive you, Vinyl. I will retract every single time I said I would strangle you."

Pon-3 wrinkled her nose. "I bet it didn't occur to you that I wouldn't forgive you in return, just because you had."

Octavia straightened up, and punched the lock off of the cage in a single motion. "I was only ever an enabler to your sickening bloodlust. I have no delusions about that anymore."

"That's not..." Pon-3 hesitated. Wisely, she returned to silence to preserve whatever good thing she had going on with Octavia.

Octavia graciously pulled open the cage door and stepped back.

Lyra watched Octavia help the other mare out of the cage from the corner of her eye. She probably had a few second before the mares finished their conversation rejoined the argument with Phyte.

"Going to sacrifice another pony to spirit us from Canterlot? Another disposable pony?" She said, adding particular venom to the last words.

Phyte shrugged. "You don't seem very grateful. It did it's job well, but all you can dwell on is its death. Yes it is a shame it didn't survive long enough to teleport you out."

Lyra sighed. Was Phyte refusing to specify a gender because she viewed the dead pony as a tool, or because it was androgynous? "I don't want to know. I want to forget all of this." It seemed Octavia had been correct, that Phyte had expended a limited resource fetching them.

"Again you seem ungrateful, both to me, and to it. 'Dost not the carpenter thank the plane? Dost not the farmer thank the fields?' Thus the mistress to her servants. It would be pointless for anypony to grieve, but nor shall I blithely forget the ponies who have perished by my doing, directly or indirectly." Phyte said. "You hope the guild mares turn on me, but I will be the last pony to remember their names, a thousand years from now, just as I remember my fallen allies from a thousand years ago."

"You're no pony. You're a monster." Lyra spat.

Phyte cocked her head. "Why is that important to you, Mis Lyra? You live in an alicorn-ruled empire. At least I will immortalize you, where the alicorn will never know of your existence."

"Don't lay a hoof on me." Lyra spat. She felt a wave of terror at the idea of ending up like the cloaked pony, falling into bits by sorcerous contrivance.

Phyte looked insulted. "Have I not made clear what I want and expect from you? What good are you are bait if I seize you?" She asked rhetorically. "I have given you no reason not to believe me forthright. You may think I treat you in circumspect ways, but I have never lied."

Lyra didn't believe that. If Phyte had ever lied, there was no reason to admit it- What was Phyte? She was a strange creature. There was a lot of mythology around the mare, which the guild mistress was intentionally vague on confirming or denying. Was she really thousands of years old? Could she really go months without food, drink, or sleep? Was she actually so capable? The rumors were never flattering by the standards of polite society, but suggestive of a dark mystique that tantalized the yearning; it all came back to adolescent impulse, after all. Phyte cultivated her persona, and everypony who knew of her treated Phyte as a fact of life, an institution. But what was she actually? She was a monstrous thing, surely. Lyra doubted the guild mistress was that different from the Nightmare she reviled.

"Then do it. Help us away." Lyra said.

“Yeah, let's send us away already. It's what we all want." Pon-3, free of the cage, stretched out her limbs one at a time.

"You speak for all of us now?" Octavia scoffed.

Pon-3 rolled her eyes. "No. But Lyra will. She says she hates me, but I'm behind her because that'll cause the least friction."

"Since when do you care about friction?" Octavia prodded.

"Yak yak yak. Are you going to sarcastically reply to everything I say with a question?" Pon-3 wrinkled her nose.

Octavia grinned. "I don't know, Vinyl, is that something I would do to my old friend?"

"Insufferable mares. Get back in the cage." Phyte said.

Pon-3 laughed humorlessly. “Pull the other one then!”

Phyte remained silent.

Lyra sighed. "She means all three of us."

The same realization came over Octavia too. "As you say, Mistress. I went through it once already." She trotted past Pon-3 and ducked into the newly vacant birdcage. She sat down and waited patiently.

Pon-3 frowned, her eyes darting between Octavia and Phyte, then back to the cage she had been confined to for the past few days. "You girls came here by dragonfire, but..."

Lyra, personally relieved the teleport would not kill a pony this time, trotted to the cage. "Please make room Octavia."

Octavia arched a brow, as if to ask if an apology would be forthcoming.
Lyra shook her head. No apology. Octavia made room anyway, pushing herself against the bars on one side.

Pon-3 remained defiantly outside. "You two look like dumbasses. You realize what she's doing? All that bluster about 'sending us away' but once Phyte gets us locked in that cage she could just as easily chuck us off the plateau."

"Is there anything that would make you stop complaining? Anything on earth? You've got the chaos and death you dreamed of. Now all of us have to live in your world." Octavia huffed. “Get in the bucking cage Vinyl. It's the same as out there.”

"Is it?" Pon-3 leapt back and kicked Phyte in the throat with all her weight. Phyte barely moved an inch. "I couldn't do that in the cage."

"You are already getting your satisfaction with the escape I am arranging. Contain your self-indulgence." Phyte chided, smoothing off the hoof-print on the fur of her neck.

"Why? For their sakes? They hate me." Pon-3 said.
But she looked back towards Octavia and Lyra. Lyra looked miserable, trying to keep herself from slipping on the smooth metal base of the cage, her eyes closed and her mind far away. Octavia, however, stared back- Remember the conditions of my forgiveness, that silent look said.
"Smooth out your fur all you like, but it'll eat at you forever how the ponies you care about most loath you. If Long Play were here, he'd spit at your hooves. Every clever manipulation is going to come back to compound your misery."
After saying her peace, Pon-3 silently trotted to the cage, stretched her legs a last time, and squeezed herself into the remaining space.

"You know you can not get me to feel any guilt, dear Vinyl. You say such things only for your own sake." Phyte wired the cage door shut. All three mares were now pushed together uncomfortably in the cage. "If we were not so anxious, we could sit down, all of us, and parse our grievances and realize that realize that there are no problems which we did not create for ourselves individually."

"Respectfully, stop talking, mistress. Let us leave." Octavia snapped. She did not want to spend longer in the cage than she had to.

Lyra nodded silently.

Phyte’s horn lit up, and so did the cage. In a seconds long torrent of green flames, every trace of the ponies within disappeared.

Chapter 7: Sedevacantismo

What did it mean to live without dreams?

Celestia looked down her nose at the pony in front of her. He was talking but she didn't really hear him. 'I am not like you. Do you not have something better to do? Why talk at me?' Until, inevitably, her silent stair dissuaded the pony and they left.

Celestia could return to staring into the southern skies from the watchtower. Her mother sun rose and fell overhead, but Celestia did not give up her search.

What was she anymore? Could she really be called a princess or an empress, when she fulfilled neither the obligations of her role as spiritual leader of the Equestrians, nor her temporal role as their absolute ruler? She was certainly never a pony, seemingly lacking any need for sleep, food, and company. She was acting more like a stone gargoyle, inanimate, needless, and silent. Was she simulation, or simulacra?

As still as death, but undying. The tower could crumble before she did. So also the empire she had descended from heaven to govern.

Dust in the air... fleeting...

"But I am more fleeting still." Celestia said to herself. "I am a mayfly 75000% over my life expectancy." She paused. "A firefly. Yes, firefly is the more clever analogy."

The sun was setting again. It was probably time to deal with the situation with the dead vizier.
Celestia turned away from the southern skies. Moments later, the thunderclap.

Celestia was in the cloud room of her premonition. The dreaded map of a fractured nation directly in front of her.

"NO!" Celestia shouted. "Torment me not with this twisted vision!" She tried to telekinetically grab the nearest object, the bed, and throw it. As soon as her magic aura gathered her surroundings faded away, as did her magic, and even her conscious realization of herself.

It all dissolved away. Dust... billowing...

"Nothing new. Nothing insightful. A pitiful waste of consciousness. Nothing to be found. Nothing new to discover. Omnipotent. Omniscient. But still unable to prevent self-loathing."
That wasn't her world either, nor her words! Celestia tried to overrule the voice around her but she had no eyes to see nor mouth to speak; she could not rage and shout as a mote of consciousness, floating like the rest of the dust. Was this what it was like to be a pony looking at the alicorn, to be powerless and cosmically inconsequential by comparison?

"The princess has returned to her mother sun. Farewell to the princess. The new princess has descended from heaven, born of her mother sun. Long live the princess." That was Twilight Sparkle's voice, but churlish, ironic, clear that she saw through the farce of succession. "Long live the princess. Long live the princess!" Twilight's voice grew sharper and more disdainful with every repetition. "Farewell to the princess, but long live the princess!"

Suddenly Celestia found her voice. "STOP!" She bellowed.

The castle maid, setting down a tea set on the desk, nearly jumped out of her skin. "Princess!" She squeaked. "You're awake!"

She was... awake?
Celestia was in her grand bed in Canterlot Castle keep, its posters draped with luxurious silk, large enough for an alicorn or even two. She was breathing fast, she laid the back of her hoof against her head and felt her temperature, then against her neck to feel her pulse. Carefully, she summoned a bit of magic.
All signs indicated that she was in the Waking World, both conscious and lucid. It was hard to tell sometimes.

"Yes. I am awake." Celestia said. Judging by the light coming through the window, it was very early morning. The sun continued on its regular course unaided.

"How are you feeling, princess?" The maid asked. "Is all well?"
Either she wished to know if Celestia wanted a doctor, for all the good it would do the alicorn, or, like all the castle staff, she wished to know if Celestia was finally going to stop going up to the tower.

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. "All is well. Leave me."

The maid bowed and withdrew from the bedroom. Celestia heard the click of the double-door of her chambers, opening then closing.
Alone again. Even mere seconds of mortal interaction exhausted her.

The princess could not stay in bed forever. "Life still has its luster." Celestia rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up.

'life still has its luster.' A smooth young stallion, grinning churlishly. His coat... lime green? Didn't matter what color. The smile and words mattered. The stallion died from his injuries, cut to little pieces.

"I'm losing my mind." Celestia rubbed her temples. The dead pony disappeared, never there. Something was forcing thoughts into her head. It was a psychic attack, or something similar. "Long life the princess."

Pushing herself off the bed and trotting to the nearest mirror, Celestia inspected herself. Impeccable. She looked flawless even when she made ugly faces at her reflection. Her mane was regaining its luminescent and etherial weightlessness now that she was awake, the individual strands of hair beginning to float and flow magically- There was no more immediate proof of her divine heritage.

'You don't belong here, with the inadequate mortals. You yearn for the company of the gods. Oh to have lived in the halls of the Ancient Alicorns.' Celestia's reflection ruminated. 'Isn't that why you tormented young Shining Armor with that tale?'

"I can not deny that." Celestia admitted to the churlish reflection.

'You would like nothing more than to show every pony how pathetic they are.' The reflection pressed. 'And how?'

Celestia stopped fidgeting with her mane and tried to catch the reflection's eyes. "No I-"

'The alicorn has become a boring, stagnant concept in the social soul of ponykind. You rate as highly as pie and cloudless days in their esteem. You bore them. They bore you.' The reflection grinned, sowing off teeth Celestia never did. 'It would take only a few mutilations...'

Celestia smashed the mirror apart with her hoof. She backed away and, dissatisfied with the destruction, levitated the entire bureau and dashed it into the marble wall. Splinters of wood and glass flew in every direction.

Celestia blinked, no, she hadn't done that. She was still at the edge of her bed. The bureau was still intact in its corner.

"Life still has- ...Who is doing this to me." Celestia murmured to herself. She checked her pulse again. Still lucid, still in the Waking World. "This must be a residual effect of the premonition."

But obviously getting premonitions was not normal, even for an alicorn. There was a very short list of entities capable of mounting a psychic attack of such sophistication.

"Long live the princess. Yes everypony, let us all make sure the princess lives a long, long time."
Celestia rose from the bed and, after a trepidatious glance at the bureau, trotted to the sitting room. The maid had lit the fire in the fireplace, but with the sun's dawning, it was warm enough to douse it.
"Last night..." Celestia saw the chairs Shining Armor and Prosser had been put back in place; Very courteous of them. "I passed out."

There was a knock at the door. "Princess?" It was the gruff voice of one of the Imperial Household Guard knights posted outside her chambers.

"Yes." Celestia responded.

The knight, though muffled through the door, audibly chirped in surprise. He hadn't expected a response. "Uh, Imperial Councilor Prosser is here to see you." The knight said.

Prosser. Celestia had felt his aura on the other side of the door but not payed particular attention. She deliberated on refusing the annoying earth pony councilor entry. If she started seeing things that weren't there, she was liable to scare or harm him. That, and she wasn't too interested in what Prosser had to say. However, Prosser had behaved himself the previous night (before she passed out), and Celestia had to ensure his discretion. The earth pony could be a helpless gossip.

Celestia wordlessly pushed the door with her telekinesis, cracking it open.

The doors swung open and Prosser trotted in. He didn't look in the best of health.,"Princess Celestia." He bowed. "You have no idea how much joy it brings me to get to speak with you two days in a row."

"Have you kept awake for the opportunity? I would not risk embarrassing myself from exhaustion, for what little can be gained by wakefulness." Celestia said. She levitated the tea set from where the maid had set it and poured herself a cup of tea. "Yes councilor, I already see the joke. You need not stoop to it."

Prosser took a seat. "Princess, I wasn't going to mention it if you weren't. Any loyal pony would just be happy you are feeling well now."

About that... "I know you to be a discreet pony, more than is helpful at times." Celestia said facetiously.

"Yes princess. I will throw myself out that window if you demand it." Prosser's ironic smile betrayed that it was an empty promise, but that was the point.

Celestia picked up her cup. "I have never asked such a thing of an advisor." She paused. "I have done worse to them, long ago, when overtaken by fits of cruelty. Not that that I am making a threat. Far from it."

"I understand. I am personally thankful that I have a bad memory for personal things, that I don't remember my defining moments. We mortals have our deficits, but the tendency for our memories to melt into a haze is one of the better things about us, I should say." Prosser said.

Celestia's expression conveyed she was not amused. "How quickly you digress from attempting to sympathize, to talking about yourself. Thankfully I do not need your sympathy, and I do not desire you to understand me." She paused, perhaps reconsidering her standoffishness. "I should wager that you remember more than what you let on, for in my years I have seen ponies recalling many odd things, at the twilight of their years, which we had seen together in their youth; Meaningless moments that nonetheless stayed with them."
Celestia paused again, making Prosser think she had passed the conversation back to him. But her furrowed brow betrayed that she was deep in thought, again considering how much she should share. "Some years after succession, a stranger mare approached the throne and intimated some very personal things my predecessor had told her in fits of passion. What this mare recalled vividly was to me only a hazy thing, lost to the skies." Celestia took an experimental sip of tea, testing the temperature. "I made quite a viscus mess of her, I think. That incident was not this body either, you see. It was, oh, several successions ago."

Though Celestia had claimed not to be making a threat, Prosser was unnerved by the princess's morbid words. When the princess reminded you that she was a divine creature capable of great destruction, it was usually for a reason, and not to be taken lightly. "Thank you for sharing, princess." He considered going on, waxing poetic about the 'alicorn enigma' or something, but he thought better of it. "We may make casual conversation of us, but trauma is a difficult subject. Despite my personal wishes, with the recent death it is temporarily my responsibility to raise more serious discussion with you, about the trauma of a nation." Smooth transition. "The killing of the late Grand Vizier Fancy Pants?"

Celestia looked down at her, tea, then out the window. She imagined (imagined, not a forced vision this time) an airship careening into her castle wing and destroying it, to escape the conversation. She struggled and struggled and could not summon any feeling for her mortal subject. It was impossibly tedious, every word exhausting. She regretted, but knew it was not a trick. She was just tired of it, with a few exceptions.
"I do not wish to speak of the events of last night and early this morning. It does not hold my interest." Celestia said cooly. All of her servants died eventually, and a not insignificant portion by murder: Of course she would miss Fancy Pants, and though she regretted his passing it was not her place to mourn. "I trust my subjects and government to handle what issues may arise, just as they should trust me to handle myself. We shall concern each other no longer."
It was a clear declaration: Leave the empress alone.

Prosser nodded slowly, nibbling his lip. "Yes, princess. There are other matters of state. There are reports gathered in your throne room-"

Celestia tapped her stirring spoon louder than necessary, interrupting him. "What of them?" Celestia slowly crossed the room back to the fireplace and sat down.

Prosser knew he was getting a dose of what Fancy Pants got every time he tried to push Celestia to fulfill her responsibilities. "Nothing, princess. I am only making you aware. I wouldn't want to pester you, in light of your words just now." Unlike Fancy Pants, Prosser knew how to chose his battles. There was no convincing the princess.

"It is for the best." Celestia nodded. Trite, standoffish. SHe wished she could summon the energy to even berate herself for it.

Prosser dared to lean forward and get himself a cup of tea too. "I'm starting to understand why you wished to discuss the Ancient Alicorns. If you wish to have yourself a kingdom in the clouds, your majesty's loyal government is here to preserve it for you."

Even if Celestia had desired to close off the conversation, she was tempted back by the outrage of the councilor's sardonic phrasing under his guise of the display of humility and piety. "Do you seriously believe that I aspire to the aloof heights of the Ancient Alicorns? You presume too much, councilor. The similarities between the Tower of the Bard and my august keep and watchtower are little more than nominal." She paused. "It is the theme of change, where the Ancient Alicorns were pulled from heaven to earth by the Tower, which interested me. You well know I have a fascination for themes of change and transition. My empire is a dynamic engine which I delight to see developing and expanding."

"That's not what Fancy Pants said of you last week." Prosser smirked. He tried to keep the princess from digressing. "He said you were upset about Canterlot's changing skyline."

Celestia clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "I would not put spurious words in a dead pony's mouth if I were you. Now I see I am vindicated in closing the issue off. An undying creature like me has the capacity for infinitely more respect for the dead than a mortal, to whom every reminder of death is a reinforcement of inexorable anxieties, and therefore of mortal ambitions. To me death is phenomenal. To you, it is inevitable."

The lingering theme of death deepened Prosser's worries about the princess.
"I respect that view, princess. While I would hope I could take it as an article of faith, if you truly hew to the irreconcilable experiences of mortal and alicorn, then neither of us could say with certainty how the other thought of anything." Prosser noisily sipped his tea, taking the opportunity to think of the right words. "I am not saying you are lying-"

Celestia stared down her nose at the councilor in a way that let him know he should get to the point.

"As far as I know, the color you call purple could appear completely differently to you than to me. The alicorn perception of reality may indeed be wholly separate. Or, it may not be." Prosser shrugged. "Whatever the case, I interpret the sounds coming from you as words in my language, your emotions as pony emotions, your movements as mostly pony movements, etcetera."

"In the gentlest terms, you are treading old ground, councilor." Celestia said.

"Fine. I will drop the topic of alicorns entirely then, noting, in the gentlest terms, that you brought it up." Prosser said. He gulped his tea and set the cup back on the tray.
The princess was unwelcome to talking about the murder, about affairs of state, and even her own invited topic on the alicorns. Prosser began to wonder why the princess had let him in? He would have to hunt for the topic she was interested in, or he could just leave.

Celestia took the opportunity of his brooding silence to stare intently at the ground. Her ear flicked, hearing a sound he did not. She shivered, as if trying not to recoil from something. Was she still ill? Must have been.

"Princess..." He smacked his lips. "Princess, a friend alerted me how, last night, the dousing equipment at the University here in Canterlot recorded magical phenomena, one to the south, one to the north. The south one, by my guess came from the border or Everfree. The north one though... Princess, I dare to say it came from this room when you were overtaken by unconsciousness."

Celestia acted aloof at first, but a small shift in her posture betrayed she was drawn in. "The exact timing would be impossible to prove." She nodded to the grandfather clock across the room. "It is inaccurate. It runs backwards sometimes."

Rus backwards? Setting that aside, Celestia was clearly trying to downplay the connection between the phenomenon and her fainting. If Celestia knew what the mysterious phenomenon was, she was not going to share immediately.
Prosser would have to push more. "I'm not a magician, obviously, so I defer to experts to tell me what the squiggly lines on the chart mean. The researcher responsible for the dousing equipment was confident, within reasonable error, that the big magical phenomenon to the south was some type of Dark magic, dream magic most likely."

Celestia's blank facade broke, and she looked visibly relieved. So, she didn't know? "What am I to make of that? Or do you demure on that point too?"

"Now the princess taps her advisors." Prosser smirked. "I jest, I jest. Indeed princess I plead ignorance. I have no insights at all. Dream magic? Never studied it. I lack the horn for it. As for how a massive surge of dream magic interacts with the alicorn nature-" He shrugged. "We circle back to the banned topic of alicorn nature."

"You are not as close in my confidence as another pony, less prone to slips of tongue, would be." Celestia shook her head. "But if I give you nothing, I know you are prone to your own wild speculations."

Prosser laughed awkwardly, letting his exaggerated embarrassment be known. "I'm about as gossip prone as your average pony, but you are right that it means I'm unworthy of your highness's confidences. I'm really not clever at all: For example, if I were more clever I would know to keep a silly theory I heard at the University to myself. The researcher who told me about the dream magic speculated that it was coming from the Sun or Moon."

Celestia stiffened. "Councilor, since I made clear that I had no interest in continuing the conversation as empress, we have been discussing as councilor and princess. That is, as you know, the princess of the Sun." She stood up and approached the earth pony in his chair. She would have towered over him even if he were standing. "And as I am princess of the Sun, there is one point of salient importance for you, Councilor: You should know better than to accuse my mother Sun of something like that without more substantial proof."

Prosser was not totally cowed. "That would be for you to provide, highness. You are the heavenly interlocutor, and we are your subjects."

Celestia, expression stern, reached past the councilor and refiled her teacup. "No, councilor, that is not how it works. I only fully commune with my mother Sun during the Summer Sun and, of course, during the Succession. I guide the godly light of Destiny indirectly."

"Is that it then? Is this another closed off topic?" Prosser asked, his voice hinting at his frustration.

Celestia returned to her spot at the fireplace. "There are griffin and zebra shamans who claim to speak for the Sun. Perhaps if you trawl their homelands and find these shamans, you can ask them, and have your theory about the Sun confirmed."

"Not my theory. I just presented it." Prosser said. Of course, if he wasn't at least tantalized by the idea, he would not have brought it up. "Besides the Summer Sun is not that far away."

It was ridiculous, that he even insinuated that Celestia should ask her Mother Sun about such a trivial thing. "I am not so shameless I would ask my mother Sun if she psychically attacked me, or if one of her heavenly siblings did. It is not even within the vocabulary of our intercourse to ask such a question." Celestia said sternly.

Prosser was dead silent for a few minutes, looking at Celestia, but clearly engaged in his own thoughts. The princess politely ignored his staring, taking sips from her tea.

"Princess I am a discreet pony..." Prosser cleared his throat. He was trepidatious. His silence had been less to think of his next words, but if he should say them at all. "You know that there are other ways to communicate with the Sun. A little book, if we can find it-"

Celestia jumped upright, dropping her cup. "Do not joke." She said sternly. "Do not prod at me that way. You will see me more upset than you ever have before."
Celestia took a few moments to calm herself, taking steady breaths. "You should know better."

Prosser displayed a rare moment of genuine contrition. "I'm sorry princess. You're right that I should have known better. I did know better."

Celestia sighed, and sat back down. Her horn briefly flared with magic: The tea cup reversed its course, un-spilling the tea, and hovering back into Celestia's hooves. It was as if she had never dropped it.

Prosser squinted. He didn't recognize the magic she had just used. "Did you-"

"Do not overthink it." Celestia chided, turning her back to him. "Councilor, our time is running out. If you think there is anything else we should discuss, now is the time."

"Nothing which you have not dismissed already, princess." Prosser said. He rose to leave. "But if I could make a last plea..."

Celestia did not answer, and for a moment Prosser was sure she was ignoring him and expecting him to leave already. "Very well." She turned back to him. "Since my pony has taken the time to bring it to me, I shall listen."

"Princess, I believe those mares were needlessly slaughtered. They may have been guilty of other crimes, but there were not Fancy Pants's killers. A much greater danger is still out there." Prosser whispered. "But if I so much as insinuate the truth to you, I must know you will act to save us."

It was Celestia's first time hearing about either the mares or their death, since she had been disinterested the night before. "You sound alarmist, councilor. Only minutes ago you made a convincing argument for why I had no responsibility to intervene in ponykind's lives." Celestia said.

Prosser lingered by the door, still trepidatious. "Do you mean to say that if you could lift your hoof and save me from certain death right this moment, you would not do so?"

"Ask me a real question, councilor. I will not entertain nonsense." Celestia snapped.

Prosser sighed. "What is the boundary between mercy, and moral hazard? That is the question."

"There is no moral hazard. I do not care what my ponies believe, or how I effect their thinking. You should be concerned about what I am thinking, councilor." Celestia flicked her horn, and the fire in the fireplace was snuffed out. "A life saved by an alicorn is not truly saved. I do not give heavenly grace, I am its conduit. If you understood what alicorns were capable of, you would prefer our apathy to our interest."

Prosser gave Celestia a curious look. " 'our' apathy, princess?"

"Good day, councilor." Celestia growled.

Prossed bowed and exited the room.

Celestia toyed with her empty cup, sitting in the silence, deep in thought.

"No. No, I do not need to ask my mother Sun if an entity in the heavens above are attacking me. I already know. I have known." Celestia ruminated. "Dreams... Alicorns with dreams... the thunderclap... But it is too soon. It is still months before the Summer Sun. Something is different this year." She found it easier to talk to the un-broken cup than the pony.
She stood up and drew back one of the nearby curtains, so she could look over the castle plaza below. "What could be so special about the thousandth Summer Sun? It is just a nice round number."

A sudden disorientation hit Celestia. Dizzy, she jumped back from the window so she wouldn't fall into the glass.

"Farewell princess." A mare's sensual voice whispered in her ear. "See you later, princess. Have a good life, princess." It was a wrenchingly, painfully familiar voice. Not Twilight Sparkle this time, another cherished voice.

Celestia fell into a sitting position, covering her mouth so she would not scream.

"It was a good life, princess. Long live the princess." The mare's voice continued. It was confident, a little saucy and sarcastic. That is what Celestia had loved about her. "I'm going away for a long time, to that other place, that other side. When I come back, you will take me back, Princess Celestia. You will take me back, and life's luster will return for both of us."

Celestia grabbed the teapot and dumped the remaining tea on her head.

Celestia jolted back to reality. She was still by the window. She could see ponies were milling back and forth in the plaza; Castle staff coming in for the day, and locals just visiting the stalls around the periphery.

"These are my own memories that I am being attacked with. Accursed dream magic." Celestia closed her eyes, trying to squeeze out all thoughts of the cherished mare's voice with her own inner voice. It faded away quickly.

Maybe it was time to return to the southern tower and resume her tireless watch of the southern skies. Celestia had to be vigilant.

"Alicorns do not have dreams." Celestia repeated to herself as she left her chambers. "All save one."

Shining Armor woke from a dreamless sleep shortly after dawn. He felt sore, nauseous, and drowsy. He sat up in his cot and stared at his hooves sticking out from the other end of his bedsheet.
What a life. The worst part, and the best part, was that it kept going. The excitements and desperations of the previous night were over, but now Shining had to deal with the echoing aftermath.

So Shining went through the usual morning routine, stretching, writing a few lines in his diary, and dressing. However, when he opened the door of his small room, he was immediately face to face with a whole gallery of eyes, half the knights supposed to be on watch waiting for him in the barrack hallway.

"Sir Armor." They saluted.

Oh yes. Hauseway had been given a trouncing, cut up and stabbed through the shoulder. "I guess I'm in charge now?" Shining sighed.

"The captain refuses to sign off on making you 'acting captain' in his convalescence, but yeah, all the responsibility is dumped on you." One of the knights said apologetically. "How are you feeling, sir?"

"Sore, a bit tired, dead inside." Shining joked humorlessly. "Nothing I can't work through. I'll deal with the paperwork in the mess. Form a queue over there."

The state of emergency, investigation, and search of the city had generated an enormous amount of complaints and action items to address. It was repetitious, tedious work, but Shining got through it quickly with assistance. Still, there were some deeper issues, such as if the IHG were culpable for the City Guard's abuses during the time they were subordinated.
Other paperwork were requests and documents for various IHG knights, approving schedules, and signing off on other officer's work.
Then, there were the messages, going around the usual channels for complaints. Nobles, guilds, and imperial officials, complaining to, making demands of, and flattering. Shining left that entirely alone.

"We're going to get a lot abuse." Shining mumbled, setting aside another letter addressed to the captain. "The vizier died on our watch and ambitious loudmouths are going to make a stink over it. Deservedly."

"Until we find the traitorous rat behind it all." One of the knights said.
That echoed Hauseway's accusations the night before. Now that the state of emergency was over, it was going to be harder to clean house if there really was a traitorous conspiracy. That was a big if.

Shining tapped the table to redirect his helpers' attention back to the letters they were slogging through. "The investigation is in the hooves of the City Guard detectives now. We return to our duty of protecting the princess and her castle."

Some of the knights were giving Shining strange looks. Did they have opinions about what had happened at the gatehouse? On a few dozen ponies had actually borne witness, but rumors must have been swirling like a typhoon! How the killers had almost escaped but been killed. How Captain Hauseway had tried to arrest Twilight Velvet and Night Light but been humiliated. How Shining Armor had defended his captain's life and honor, even in the face of a superior opponent.
And how it had all been drawn to a close by the Junior Princess.

"Cadence." Shining mumbled to himself.

"The watch officer assigned the junior princess a full compliment of IHG knights while she is out of her tower." One of the knights overheard Shining's whisper. "I think she's in the Throne Room. I couldn't believe my ears! The kiss-and-tell princess is taking charge!"

Shining wanted to yell some abuse back at the knight. But it wouldn't help anything. When it came to Cadenza, most of Shining's enemies were inside his own head.

"Bless her. Maybe a princess coming by will get you saps to shape up. Couldn't get the better of a pair of Inner City tramps." One of the knights guffawed. "Had to be saved by a rhetoric teacher and a middle-age dad."

"Shut the hell up. You weren't there." The first knight blushed.

"If I were there-"

"You'd have eaten shit too!"

The mess hall descended into jeers and laughs as the knights laughed and taunted each other.
Shining sat silently. Some of his IHG comrades had known each other since childhood, having attended the same elite tutors, and been young wards in the same noble courts. It was a fools errand to enforce bans on horseplay, romantic entanglement, and crass behavior. Usually, Shining was that fool, and it was his errand. But he was not in the mood for that battle.

Picking a few documents to deliver in person, Shining rose and left the mess hall. "I'll be in Court. Just sign my name on the rest." He said, though none of the knights were listening, too wrapped up in their banter.

Though Shining felt sour on the banter, thinking about it, he really didn't have any gripes with how his knights had behaved in the stressful, confusing situation at the gatehouse. They had done the best they could, obeyed lawful orders, and acted decisively when most needed. Not to say they had been perfect; Far from it. But Shining was there to try to be the best example he could be.

Shining walked the short distance between the barracks and Canterlot Castle. "It's not all bad." In fact, Shining had a lot to be proud of, if he stopped fixating on the enormous failures for a few minutes.

"Sir." The knights posted at the castle doors waved him in. They were on edge, clearly hoping to catch the next would-be assassin. But time would pass, and they would get lax again, careless, another another would slip through.

"Oh!" An imperial administrator waved Shining down as soon as he entered the castle's grand halls. "You're the IHG chief of staff, yes?"

Shining stared down his nose at the administrator. "I'm the 'deputy' of the Imperial Household Guard. It says literally that on the little slip of paper I got from the princess. Interpret that how you will."

"No need to get snooty now. I'm just trying to talk with the ranking IHG officer. I tried to talk to the captain at the University Hospital but he wouldn't stop raving. Poor stallion is gone mad with paranoia!" The administrator clucked his tongue. "Canterlot is the responsibility of her highness's government, and as such, we have been trying to compile casualty numbers."

"Thank goodness, no IHG knights died last night." Shining said. He had double checked with the morning paperwork. "But from what I heard, at least four city guardsponies died while sweeping the city."

"And two reservists." The administrator nodded. "Most of them are fairly straightforward. Two guardsponies stabbed. One bludgeoned. One dinged by a roof tile. However..." The administrator pulled out a small letter. "The autopsy of a pegasus found in the southern plateau, near the gatehouse, showed severe magical damage."

That caught Shining by surprise. "What? I didn't see any magic used besides weak telekinetic bolts."

"This pegasus was quite badly mulched by entropic, Dark, and other forms of magic. Somepony was using illegal spells and made a mess of this poor pony." The administrator held out the autopsy letter for Shining to read, but he declined. "Sir, I need for you to make absolutely certain that the knights under your command are not using highly dubious magic in the city limits."

That 'in the city limits' tickled Shining despite the morbid context. The administrator wouldn't have cared if the crime had happened outside of his jurisdiction. "I lead spell training periodically, and I assure you that none of my knights are highly trained to preform a spell like that. That's outside the expertise of our mages. The captain could have told you that."

The administrator shrugged. "Though Captain Hauseway is a respectable member of the court, an amicable stallion, and a fellow member in several noble societies I am in, he was not satisfactorily concerned about this matter. His first words were to deflect blame, rather than to take the issue seriously. He may truly believe that Lady Twilight Velvet killed that poor pegasus, but that would only make him a paranoiac, as I said. Considering the preliminary reports of that mad melee by the gate, she has an airtight alibi."

Shining had no interest in continuing the conversation further. "He must have meant it in a more metaphorical sense. Still, a member of the Imperial Council and captain of the guard hooved you a lead. Shouldn't you investigate it before you dismiss it?"

The administrator blinked. "Are you saying I should go ask Lady Twilight Velvet?"

"It would do you more good than talking to me." Shining said gruffly. "If you'll excuse me-" He stepped past the pony and continued into the castle.

At least five ponies dead conducting the search, in addition to the two dead suspect mares, and Fancy Pants. It had been a terrible night, but far from the worst. In decades past, there had been enormous riots that left hundreds dead. Fires which killed and displaced thousands. Waves of disease left bodies in the street. There had even been magical explosions, sudden, unexpected, and traumatizing, which erased the very soil from existence: His sister Twilight Sparkle had almost been caught in one such explosion, which left a steaming crater in place of a whole tower of the Unicorn School.

"Guess I've got to toughen up. This may not be the last imperial official that gets killed like this." Shining said to himself. He hadn't let go of his brooding thoughts on the weakness of the empire. If things got worse, he had to be ready.

Prosser was trotting down the castle halls when he spotted Shining Armor coming his direction.

"Captain Armor! Sleep well?" Prosser smiled.

Shining glared at the smaller stallion, eyes slightly narrowed. "I should punch you, after what you pulled last night. I completely sympathize with Captain Hauseway's abuse of authority because I sure want to toss you in a cell somewhere."

"My lord, I have just come back from a fraught conversation with Princess Celestia, and I would earnestly appreciate a friendly-er conversation. Truly." Prosser said. "It is in that spirit that I extend, with no reservations, my deepest apologies for the ways that I slighted and misled you last night."

Shining had been expecting an argument. He remained silent, letting the earth pony continue.

"I came off much more hostile than I intended when we arrested your father. It was as friendly an arrest as could be managed, all things considered." Prosser sighed for effect. "Yes, I probably deserve to be punched. I owe lots of ponies a punch, frankly. You're in the queue right behind your lady sister."

It was a nice apology, but transparently strategic. Shining couldn't fully accept it. "Yeah we saw you yapping at Twilie at the skydock that day. But this isn't about her. It's about..." Shining wasn't sure what it was about, specifically. Night Light, Cadenza, the state of emergency, honor and respect. "Me. It's about the understanding we had, after our discussion with Celestia, then with Mis Illustrious Valor."

Prosser frowned. "Where is Mis Valor now?"

Come to think of it, Shining didn't know. That could be problematic. "We will find her again." He cleared his throat. "But again you're changing the subject."

"Were you this hostile with Sir Fancy Pants?" Prosser asked.

"No because Fancy Pants, may he rest in peace, never gave me the time of day." Shining grunted.

Councilor Prosser fidgeted, having a difficult time staying contrite. "That I do, counts for nothing? Sir, I offered my apology."

"I have no reason to accept it right away." Shining scoffed.

"For the sake of this nation you will sir!" Prosser suddenly shouted, then just as abruptly shied away, as if ashamed at his own aggressiveness. "Sir I have no responsibility to humiliate myself in front of you. I am at least your equal. You might be deserving of 'Lord Armor' without your cuirass, for your Bright dynasty heritage, but you are an IHG and you surrendered your ego to your knighthood. Be an upstanding gentlepony and accept the apology, please."

Shining listened to Prosser's words with narrowed eyes. "I'm oh-so honorable, am I? I doubt I am your first, second, or third choice, as regards 'upstanding' ponies with names to trade on. Bright dynasty heritage indeed. Did my sister not give you what you wanted?" He shook his head. "You betrayed my trust."

Prosser was realizing that, like with Celestia, clever words weren't going to let him get his way. "Sir, you must have had very different interpretation of your own words from last night. I am trying to explain that you expect me to obey like a dog. I instead obeyed like a tactical ally. Maybe that upset you and your bellicose, drill sergeant ways. For my part being so obsequious is very unusual for me as well, but your order had merit, and I came around to it being the right thing to do. Thus it was last night, that I called on the junior princess at her tower, pleaded for her to take command, and asked for her to lead us through the emergency. Then, she did." Prosser nodded back to the hallway behind him, leading towards the throne room. "Now Princess Cadenza is in command, all to your little order."

Shining struggled to piece things together. It didn't help that every time he even thought her name, his head went cloudy. There was no way he was going to be able to confront the truth of the matter himself.
"We..." He cleared his throat. "We are not rivals councilor. Like you said, we are equals. Whatever either of us have done to chill this working relationship, it is necessary to mend it."

"This antipathy is one-sided. Even if I am peeved by your occasional arrogance, it is less than what I am used to dealing with." Prosser said. "So either forgive me, or give me a clear way to be forgiven, so I don't waste our time."

It was again obvious that the councilor was a pony of strategy, not sentimentality. He wanted clear air with Shining so he wasn't stabbed in the back later. Digging down on his own feelings, Shining wasn't sure he could keep up his anger either. There were other actors to be frustrated with: Twilight Velvet and Seacrest Blackhorn to start with.
Therefore, Shining had to think of the best way to accept the councilor's outstretched hoof, proverbially speaking. "The junior princess is in court? Have... Have you thought about how you are going to explain your roll in last night's affairs to the court? Councilor, I think much depends on that, including my forgiveness."

He might have been expecting a worse demand, because Prosser smiled. "Afraid somepony will steal the spotlight from you? Sir Armor, by all accounts you struck quite the heroic character. There are a dozen version of the story going around, but all of them slip in words of praise for you (and your mother)." Prosser said. "In fact your accusations against me are prefiguring the sophistry that will surely be spun, about how the devious castle bureaucrats sabotaged the knights just trying to do their job."

"I do think you're devious. You showed up right at the end and wrapped it up to your liking." Shining said pointedly.

Prosser shrugged. "If you feel that way, there is not much I can do. Talk to Princess Cadenza and hear her version of events."

Talk to Cadenza. Talk to Cadenza. Talk to Cadenza.
Shining saw her face again, upturned, smiling that sad smile, illuminated by the wavering moonlight. 'It's good to see you.' Her voice echoed back and forth in Shining's skull. Shining yearned, but he wasn't sure what for.

Prosser saw the distant look in the silent unicorn's eye, and didn't push the point further. It was common knowledge that the junior Princess Cadenza and the imperial protege Twilight Sparkle had been close friends at various points, enemies at others. The relationship between Cadenza and Shining Armor was more rumored, less clear, and much higher stakes.
The junior princess was not a controversial subject for no reason. Shining Armor had every incentive to hide his history with Mi Amore Cadenza.

"I will ask her." Shining said slowly. "I have letters to deliver to her, and I must make consultations on the IHG disposition following the events last night, and general affairs after the prolonged princess-ly absence from the court."

Seeing Shining Armor's evasiveness, Prosser decided to push. "Has it been a while since you two talked? You should spend some time to catch up." Prosser winked, taking joy in how the suggestion made Shining tense up. "It doesn't have to be all buisness. As long as the junior princess is out of her tower, her time is her own prerogative. Like you said last night, it is charity to us that she works to save us, to whatever degree she does so." For smiled. "And to the degree that Princess Celestia has declined to do so."

Shining Armor would have chastised the councilor for slagging off Celestia had he been in a different mood. At that moment, he agreed with Prosser's coy criticism. Besides, he was happy Prosser was offering to change the subject away from Cadenza. "Princess Celestia will find her love for us when her health improves, I trust?"

Prosser nodded. "She walked and spoke as normal this morning. However, I do not think she is feeling well." He paused reflexively, but instead of choosing his next lie, he opted for some honesty. "Our princess might not be long for this world."

Shining, already with so much on his mind, likely would have preferred a comforting lie. "Oh." He muttered. "Then the new vizier, whoever they are, could have a divine Secession to manage. How..." He sighed. "Daunting."

"I said 'might', for what comfort that gives. Her ailment may pass." Prosser said.

Though he was fairly ignorant about the finer points of dogma, having chosen the life of a sword of the princess rather than her priest, he knew something was being withheld. "The 'Alicorn ailment' you mention last night. You know, since I am acting in Captain Hauseway's absence, I could press you hard on that point. The IHG is responsible for the princess's life and safety."

"True, it's not dropsy or consumption, or some other humorously-named disease. I will explain later. I feel a bit lightheaded right now." Prosser said.

Whether the councilor was actually lightheaded, Shining accepted the pause in conversation. "I will hold you to that. I still have to consult the junior princess on all of this, including your perfidy." He sighed. "If you actually desire my esteem, help me dodge the court nonsense."

"By all means, sir. I will follow you to the throne." Prosser nodded with a sly smile.

The imperial administrator, having been more or less ordered to talk to Twilight Velvet by Sir Shining, took a carriage across the city to do just that. All the while he tutted at the signs of the previous night's trouble, where there had been damage by scuffles between guardsponies and residents, or otherwise. The IHG captain Hauseway's carriage was still lying on its side, though it had been dragged off the street.

The administrator straightened his papers and knocked on the Chateau la Garde's door.
To his surprise, the knock was answered swiftly, and by the lord regent of the chateau.

"Goof morning." The administrator bowed his head slightly. "Were you expecting me, my lord?"

"No, I was having my tea in the foyer right behind me. It's quieter than the greathall, with all the guests still around." The stallion said. "Wait, 'my lord'?" He paled. "Sir, I beg you not mistake me. I'm Sel Lech Sabonord, merely a courtier to her ladyship, and his lordship. Err, Seacrest Blackhorn, that is. I am just-" Sel Lech cut off his own nervous stammering. "Sorry. You need something, I suppose?"

The administrator mentally shrugged at his mistake, remembering Night Light was detained. "Good morning Sir Sabonord. I work at the castle. See the tassels, yes? I am a Canterlot manager lately, so I have a few questions about the casualties from last night."

Sel Lech made a face. "I saw some of it..." He thought better of saying anything without Velvet's input, and cleared his throat. "But not much. Sorry again."

"Uh, sure. I am after the Lady Twilight Velvet." The administrator clarified. "Not 'after', after. I just have a few questions, following some information from IHG officials."

The door opened wider, and a severe looking mare in a maid's uniform nudged Sel Lech back. "If you have questions, come calling during a court like any other supplicant to a lady." The maid said.

The administrator was no stranger to being told off by nobles and servants. "Should it please her ladyship, we are trying to work through accusations. You see there was some manner of Dark magic used against a pegasi last night. It was right over there." The administrator pointed across the open space in front of the gatehouse, to a patch of green with trees and hedges. "So we, we being the castle, are trying to determine who might have murdered the pegasus and cast the illegal spells."

The maid stared at the administrator, unblinking for a few moments. "I speak for Lady Twilight Velvet when I say that is unfortunate. Condolences to the pegasus family."

"Nopony here is a suspect in any respect. We know Lady Velvet has an alibi. Nonetheless, we would appreciate any and all help tracking down the perpetrator(s)." The administrator said. He had known he wasn't going to get anything, but it was still fun to ask.

The door opened even wider, and Twilight Velvet waved the maid back towards the greathall. "I'm a busy mare with many guests to entertain, and without my husband's help too."

The administrator nodded. "Yes my lady, I know. That was a very heroic thing you did at the gateh-"

"Thank you, but let's cut to the chase. Who who sent you?" Velvet demanded.

"I've come after accusations from Captain Hauseway of the IHG." The administrator withheld his opinion on Hauseway's paranoia this time. "The captain made some claims and the adjunct directed me to you more directly."

"So 'adjunct' Sir Shining Armor sent you." Velvet asked. She glanced down to the bundle of papers the administrator was holding. "May I see those?"

The administrator hesitated. "They're imperial documents."

With a huff, Velvet snatched the whole bundle out of his hooves. "Why would you bring them if you didn't want me to look." She began flipping through pages. "When my daughter was still studying with Celestia, she would sometimes unwittingly carry secret documents back from the Court and Council when she visited. I still have a few somewhere."

"Well, uhh..." The administrator watched helplessly. "My lady, umm, the questions I had concerned page seven. You see, the Dark magic used-"

"I see it." Velvet picked out the page and rapidly scanned down the page. She visibly recoiled. "My goodness." She whispered.

The administrator nodded, hoping he'd get the papers back soon. "Yes indeed those spells are illegal for a reason, my lady. So, if you could just answer a few questions-"

The maid returned from the greathall and whispered into Velvet's ear. Velvet considered it, and whispered back. Sel Lech, still standing off to the side, smiled apologetically to the administrator.

"Sir," Velvet turned back to the administrator. "There was a powerful magical phenomenon reported last night, setting off measuring devices at the University. You should consult them on whether it killed that pegasus."

"Oh? A university doctor and mage were who investigated the cadaver. You will see that on page six. But I suppose dousing and magical devices are another department." The administrator was not too eager for another lede that would probably go nowhere. "Can I have those back now?"

"Have a good day." Velvet passed back the stack of papers, purposefully letting some slip off to get carried by the breeze. When the administrator turned to chase after the pages, Velvet shut the door.
"I hope that dead end keep them occupied for a while." She said.

"That is, until another body shows up, my lady. That nightmare I met on the gatehouse is no trifling matter." The maid said.

"We are well versed in putting the harness on Nightmares." Velvet laughed humorlessly.

"I hope this is all metaphor, my lady." Sel Lech said. He shied away from the dirty look he'd earned. "I'll just finish my tea and get back to Lord Blackhorn then. Unless you need me in the dungeon, my lady."

"No, see to Blackhorn." Velvet nodded. "Another busy day! Let's not let my husband's arrest weigh on us. We won't be distracted by cruel temptations." She smiled to herself. "Things feel like they are falling into place. Do I imagine it, or..."

"No, my lady. You do not imagine it. Your power grows." The maid said matter of factly.

Velvet may have preferred a pronouncement like that to be enunciated reverently, but such things could wait. "Back to the task of conquest."

Shining was wrapped up in his own thoughts, letting his legs carry him through the Canterlot Castle halls. When he habitually turned into the threshold of the throne room, and zoned back to his surroundings, he thought for a moment he had made a mistake.

The Imperial Court: the flock of minor functionaries, imperial officials, provincial wards, Canterlot officials, courtiers, and supplicants who hovered around the sun princess's throne on a day-to-day basis. Their work was to translate the living justice of the princess's decisions from the throne into policy radiating out through the imperial apparatus. Theoretically. Usually the court was a pit of snakes and sycophants, self-obsessed nobles vying to put their stamp on the process.
Shining did not loath the court, as it was an effective play-pen to keep the most useless and venal nobles in Canterlot occupied. Still, when the princess was lax (or not there) it became very annoying, with petty drama rippling back and forth between the cliques of nobles.

That day, the whole room was rippling but with bodies. There were more ponies than Shining had ever seen in the place, packing the galleries on either side of the colonnades, and gathered in clusters down the center of the voluminous hall.
There were nobles and commoner alike. The guard were doing their best to keep the irate ponies away from each other’s throats, and it seemed the only reason they could was that the crowd's ire was directed toward the throne and not each other.

“Celestia preserve us.” Shining moaned. How had so many ponies gotten in, and so early in the day? Was it coordinated?

“Ahem, 'princess' Celestia preserve us." Prosser corrected. "I think you’d be good pickled, but as for me, I’d like to be a jam.”

"Not funny. This is both a fire hazard and a riot hazard." Shining had to raise his voice as the weaved through the ponies. “Who's in charge?"

"That's a very good question." Prosser smirked.

Asshole. "Councilor, did the princess tap an acting vizier? Did she put anypony in charge of the court and administration?" Shining asked. He already knew the answer; It would have been mentioned earlier.

Prosser shrugged. "It never came up. I hope you do not see me in that accursed role sir. I'm far to delicate a pony, and an earth pony-"

"Just stuff it." Shining sighed. He was having to shoulder ponies out of the way to progress down the hall.
Now some of the IHG knights were bellowing threats, pushing uncooperative nobles back from them.

“Hmmm. I’m thinking salt, but considering how sour they are, they could also go with just being dried out.” Prosser mused to himself. "Still not funny?"

While it was wild and chaotic, Shining was not afraid of the nobles nor commoners come to harangue the throne. He was afraid of the pony on that throne, briefly glimpsed through the crowd, who sat upon that throne.
She was waiting for him. Her sad smile, fleeting, pierced his heart. The junior princess was waiting for him, Shining Armor.

"I've done this..." Shining muttered. "I've done this to her. I pulled her in front of this crowd and made her a scapegoat." A deep well of shame, always there for issues of Cadence, bubbled up again. He deserved to be the one weathering the cacophonous abuse, not her. He had been weak and broken the princess's peace, and nothing would make up for that.

But Shining broke through the crowd, almost losing his balance when he had no pony in front of him to shove. He returned to the moment.
He was at the front of the throne room. Behind him, the line of IHG knights were keeping the others at bay.

Shining glanced behind him, then looked forward, then up. Up at the throne. Up at the center of an empire, the focal point of the lives of millions.
There she was, in her aunt's absence.

"Princess!" Shining straightened up. So awkward, so undignified, he berated himself. He was unworthy to stand in her presence. He deserved her scorn. He deserved her abuse. He deserved-

"Shining." Her yanked him out of the mire of his own self-loathing. Shining started looking with eyes unclouded.
Mi Amore Cadenza was dwarfed by the alicorn-sized throne around her, and although divine herself, the junior princess was barely larger than a stallion. She was smiling. It was that sad smile, but there was a sparkle to her eyes. In his heart, Shining knew it was because she was holding out a chance to make that smile real.
"Shining, it's okay."

Shinig bowed his head and tried not to cry. It was difficult, but he managed. "Yes princess. It's all okay. It's good to see you too."

TWO WEEKS LATER

Twilight had gotten used to waking up in Ponyville. She no longer felt the disorientation of wondering why the ceiling didn't match her room back in Canterlot. Twilight wasn't sure what to feel about it.

t was later than she was used to waking up, but it was understandable considering how late she had been staying up. She checked stretches and some light morning reading off her routine, then went down for breakfast. All the confusion, hurt, and other feelings of the first few days had mostly faded away. Twilight Sparkle had purpose in Ponyvile, and when Twilight had purpose, she committed herself wholeheartedly.
"Back to the work."

Applejack had come to recognize the light, regular sound of Twilight Sparkle approaching; It was an earth pony thing, she almost couldn't help it. She sat up in her chair behind her apple stall, turning slightly towards the noble unicorn.

"Good morning Applejack. Lovely day, isn't it?" Twilight asked. She only had saddlebags on, probably because it was getting hotter during the days and her usual linen dress wasn't flow-y enough to be practical for the heat. Twilight's ward Spike was also absent.

"Not much buisness, ma'am. I timed my market visit bad. Probably'd get more tomorrow." Applejack grunted, casting an eye over the other stalls circling the market square. "Ponies don't buy apples every single day." She shifted in her chair. "But I ain't bothered. I mostly come to visit town. Dunno if I'd come if I didn't have the excuse."

Twilight nodded. "I've had times where I've been pretty anti-social, going from home to class, to food, and not much else. I wasn't very engaged with Canterlot life." She said. "But I'm glad you're here."

Applejack leaned forward in her chair. "That 'cuz you're gunna ask me to help you?"

Twilight smiled cheekily. "Yes it is, Mis Applejack."

For Applejack, refusing barely even crossed her mind. Now that she had gotten to know Twilight Sparkle better, and gotten over her reservations, Applejack considered it almost a responsibility to assist the little unicorn. Twilight seemed to have picked up on this, but whether Twilight thought it was a feudal deference or of the gracious nature in which it was offered, she had not asked Applejack to do anything unreasonable yet.

"Hey, Rose, watch the stall, ehh?" Applejack called over to a neighboring market stall.

The mare at the other stall, an older beige mare with a strawberry mane, waved back.

"Alrighty Lady Twilight, I'm good to go for a little while." Applejack jumped up.

Twilight led the way towards the river. "The community you Ponyvillians have is very charming. You don't have trust like that in Canterlot."

Applejack voiced her skepticism with a tongue click. "Now it ain't as romantic as all that. There's ponies I trust, and those I don't. You'd know that. Roseluck is one'a Rarity's friends, but I trust her. I'd trust Cherry Berry less." Applejack accompanied her words with a subtle tail flick towards a vegetable stall, where a pink mare with a bright gold mare was serving a villager.

Twilight was passively listening, but since both Applejack and Rarity were helping her now, she was less doggedly interested in digging into the intricacies of their feud. "Are some of Rarity's friends less tolerable to you than others?"

"Some'v'em been real arrogant in the past." Applejack said, grimacing. She shook her head, reticent of saying too much. "I don't wanna talk about it. There's good and bad ponies, and certain beliefs just bring out the bad."

Certain beliefs? Curious. "Was it like that in Manehattan too?" Twilight asked.

Applejack went rigid like she had been stung, at the unexpected dredging-up of her past revealed at the 'trail'. She sighed and slowly un-tensed. "Don't remember. Even if I did, it's probably different nowadays than it was back then."

As evasive an answer as could be imagined, but Twilight was satisfied. "These are dynamic times. Speaking of, I want to check out some spots on the other bank of the river today. I could use your knowledge of local geography."

"Fine by me. I'll make sure nothin' hassles you, Lady Twi." Applejack nodded.

The sweet music, so tantalizing, so unplacable. It was some kind of... symphony, yes, a symphony. Not a concerto, or a solo. It was the full harmony of etherial instruments, irresistibly dark beautiful that almost brought a tear to Twilight's eye as she focussed on it. It thrummed, violent but comforting, swelling to cacophonous heights but quickly retreating to seductive lows. It appealed to every feeling and memory simultaneously.
A Nightmare melody, a lure. Unsuspecting ponies would be led all the way to the Nightmare Altar in the ruined castle.

"I fell for it that story night. I was weak." Twilight berated herself. Twilight had begun to hear it again, the haunting refrains of the nightmare alter. So faint, and yet the haunting refrains of the melody made her head pound and her eyes dilate. She retreated a few steps, and the haze cleared.

Twilight pulled another stake out of her pack and jabbed it into the earth with her telekenisis.
Applejack looked on bemusedly. "Before you ask again, we're 'bout fifty hooves south and ten hooves west 'a where you put the last marker."

Grass rippled in the wind. The Everfree Forest loomed in front of the mares, a few hundred hooves off. The burble of the river could be heard behind them.
"Than you Applejack." Twilight pulled out her scroll and quill to note the position.

After the horrible night in the ruins, faced with the shadowy visage of the Nightmare Pretender, Twilight had two objectives: One, she had to discover whether the dream in the ruin had been 'real', an actual happening in the Waking World or dreamscape, or just a figment of an exhausted mind. Two, determine the who, what, when, where, and why of the dark dream.

Within two weeks, Twilight had only gotten fleeting results. There was some magical emanation from the forest, changing in feeling and power every day, like the chaotic weather. Without better instruments, Twilight's methods were slow measurements and tedious calculations back at the Golden Oak. But that alone had not proved the realness of the dream in the ruin.
But now Twilight heard music. What did it mean? Was the dark altar 'real'? Did it exist in the physical world, or was it spilling out from a dream? Twilight had a simple theory: The Nightmare's snare was reset, a delicious lure on the pony mind of alien melodies.
However there was a snag in the proof, that only Twilight could hear it.

"I just gotta say again that I don't approve 'a puttin' the Summer Sun Fair stuff this close to the forest." Applejack said. She strolled in a circle to releive her boredom while Twilight jotted down more notes. She passed within the zone Twilight had heard the music, then back out, then back in again. Applejack seemed neither to notice nor be entranced by the nightmare's symphony. "Just askin' for trouble. Only bad things go in and outta there."

"If I look like I'm about to go it, physically restrain me." Twilight said, playing it for a joke. "I might need an earnest pony to set me straight if I get carried away with what's in my head."

"True that, ma'am. Sometimes I've got no time for lazy dreamers." Applejack chuckled. "Im a practical mare, a farm mare, and so are most decent ponies 'round here."

"If you say so." Twilight said absently, continuing to jot notes.

Applejack must have been expecting more, either pushback or agreement. She cleared her throat and stopped her pacing right in front of Twilight. "Ya know, I think you should run y'alls plans for this by the ponies y'all worked so hard to bring together."

Twilight looked up from her notes. "I intend to."

"It's 'cuz I've I’ve seen y’all hoverin' round hereabouts for the last few days all by your lonesome. Pinkie's seen it. Fluttershy's probably seen it more, if she'd share it with me." Applejack said. Her tone wasn't accusatory, per se, but she was clearly signaling suspicion, trying to get Twilight explain herself. "It ain't safe, nor is it decent."

"Decent?" Twilight put her notes and quill away. "I am not sure I understand your definition of decency."

Applejack made a muddled face. "Only bad things come and go from the Everfree, I said. Everypony knows it's dangerous. More'n that, there devilish evil in there."

Was Applejack referencing the nightmare? "How do you know that? What kind of 'bad things' have been coming and going?" Twilight asked.

"I ain't accusin' you. I'm warning you is all. Y'all should stay away from all that. It ain't decent." Applejack repeated. "it could get you in trouble."

“Everypony seems to have their own incomprehensible reasons for steering me away from the Everfree Forest. And not just the Everfree, but even this bank of the river. Why is there a bridge then? Doesn't Mis Fluttershy live on this bank, a kilometer south or something? But for some reason, you're all so interested in my strolling habits." Twilight snarked. "With all due respect, Mis Applejack, you should mind yourself and not tell me what to do. Focus on yourself and your own buisness, like all those fallow orchards, so I I wouldn't have to worry about importing food for the Fair."

Applejack cringed at the insult.

Twilight felt a bit bad. Applejack hadn't stepped that far over the line. "I'm sorry I just-"

"It ain't nothin." Applejack interrupted. "Y'all are right anyway. I've been stickin' my nose in places it don't belong."

Twilight went back to her notes. "Nevertheless, my indignation was an overreaction. I have nothing to hide from anypony."

Applejack did not seem convinced of that point, but said nothing.

For her part, Twilight didn't care if Applejack was suspicious of her. What could the earth pony even be suspecting her of? Cavorting with forest lunatics, or whatever folk superstitions they had around Ponyville? It didn't seem like Applejack or anypony else had a clue about the ruins, nor the Nightmarish forces that lurked in the dark dreams (or perhaps only in Twilight's imagination).
The straightforward thing to do would be to ask: Twilight could have asked Applejack directly what she feared, and if she had heard of the Nightmare. But Twilight did not want to do that.

Twilight shuffled through the long grass to a point a few hundred hooves further south. She trotted slowly towards the treeline, then retreated very quickly back to Applejack as soon as she heard the entrancing music.

"It looks mighty funny when you do that." Applejack giggled.

As Twilight put another stake in the soil and recorded her observations. She would make sense of it all later, with a map and her other notes. She considered sending copies to the University to see what her old professors thought of the auras she had measured. But what if they snitched to Celestia? Twilight had no idea what Celestia would do if she caught wind Twilight wasn't working on the Summer Sun Fair, but rather pursuing the Nightmare Pretender lead again.

It occured to Twilight that there were other ways she could potentially prove the reality of the dream she'd had, little details from what she had seen and heard. "Do you have many visitors to Ponyville?"

"Nope. The barge-pollers who trade along the Dneighper River don't even bother to come into town, most of the time. Someponies have family that visit." Applejack said. Her brow furrowed. "About seven 'r so years ago, a bunch of ponies left Ponyville. Most went to Baltimare. Can't say I mis that lot."

Twilight was not curious about the Baltimare Ponyvillians, but she had to stay on topic. "Any strangers come through town recently?"

Applejack gave Twilight a look but held off from the easy joke. "Nothin' comes to mind. Why do you ask?"

"A few days ago I received some information about a mare with black fur who the royal authorities are interested in." Twilight said. She was stretching the truth to its breaking point, but it wasn't an outright lie; Unlikely that Applejack ask which royal. "Sources hinted that the mare was in this region."

"A black-furred mare?" Applejack pondered this. “Can't say that I've seen'm, because I haven't."

"That fine I wasn't expecting anything. It just makes it somepony else's problem." Twilight said.
As things stood, Twilight was coming around to the idea that she would have to enter the Everfree Forest to prove the details of the dream true. The issue was, obviously, that she had thought she was awake the last time, when she had not been. Her own perception of reality was as dastardly as any nightmare force.

Twilight was about to ask Applejack if she had had any trouble dreams too, when it occurred to her that Rarity had asked her a vary similar question. Had it been the very day before the dream in the ruin? Twilight did not recall. However she did remember Rarity being the one asking it.
"Sleep well?" Twilight asked casually.

"Eh? Ain't that a strange thing to say into the middle of a conversation? You'd more ask a question like that right when seein' somepony for the first time that day." Applejack said. "Yeah I sleep fine most nights. I've got a nice bed and a nice mattress 'n all that." She turned solemn. "You doin somethin' to change that, ma'am?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, no, it's nothing like that. I don't know why I thought I'd ask. The thought just struck me."

Taking another glance look at her notes in the lul in the conversation, Twilight thought she identifies a pattern. Unless she went into the Everfree, she was not going to find the next point at the edge of the nightmare melody's aura. It was probably no use to ask Applejack to accompany her into the demon forest. Though Twilight had successfully traversed it that stormy night, that had been in a dream: who knew what dangers lurked in the waking world?

"I think I am finished here, and sooner than expected." Twilight said.

"Ya know I've never met a mare like y'all, Lady Twi." Applejack shrugged, following behind Twilight as she waded through the grass.

"You were in Manehattan for years. Surely there were students and academics there." Twilight posed.

Applejack shrugged. "The fancy-shmancy universities in Canterlot must be done different than in the earth pony Free Cities. I met plenty'a engineer student, and math student. They were practical-minded ponies that reminded me of the honest farmers 'round here."

"I'll have you know I've taken several engineering classes, enough for a degree if I was after it." Twilight said defensively. "Just because you don't understand magic doesn't making not practical either. Canterlot is full of practicing magicians, doing every-day work. I happen to chose theoretical and multi-disciplinary work."

Applejack smirked. "And that's why I said I ain't met nopony like you."

"No, you said you 'never met a mare like y'all' verbatim. Tell me, are there rules or do you just make up the county-isms." Twilight said in a huff.

Applejack saw she had irritated Twilight. "Hey now, I don't mean nothin' by what I said. I think yer.... quirky. It's a might charming."

The compliment was unexpected. Twilight had plenty of experience with ponies, earnestly or cynically, complementing her. Sometimes it had been because she was a noble, and the imperial protege. Some where flirting. Twilight had never respected a compliment from strangers: What did they really know about her? So she usually responded with coldness.
So having to dwell on how to reciprocate Applejack's apology/complement, Twilight opted for silence.

In her silence, slowly treading through the long grasses on the way to the bridge across the river, Twilght heard something. It was... a fragment of the Nightmare melody. But not in her head, but with her ears! Twilight froze in place, her ears twitching, trying to determine direction.
But the rustle of wind over the grass was too loud now.

"Was that you?" Twilight asked tensely.

Applejack sighed. "Is quirky too strong a word too? Look, I'm try'na be nice. You 'bout know I ain't good at it. You could stand to loosen up too though."

"Sure sure, I think you're quirky too, sweaty." Twilight rushed through the words. "I mean the song. The little-" She pursed her lips and tried to recreate the melody with a whistle. It didn't come sounding like a song at all; Just discordant notes.

Applejack stared at Twilight. "Huh?"

The invisible moment was gone, for now. First in a dream, then in her head, now in her ears, the physical world! Twilight just had to prove it. The Nightmare was crawling closer... But what did it matter if only Twilight seemed to notice? Was she cursed? As often happened, Twilight's thoughts delved into paranoid contemplations, thinking of all the ways that it was tied back to Celestia.
Mind games. It was ALWAYS mind games with Celestia. Would the princess set up such an elaborate situation, just to torment her? Maybe. Maybe. That dark night, when Twilight had thought she had been talking to the rarified Nightmare Pretender, was it a guise of the sun princess?

"This sucks." Twilight grumbled to herself.

Applejack waited for Twilight to say more. The farm pony looked concerned.

Grinding her teeth slightly, Twilight turned and continued to lead the way back to Ponyville. Now the biting paranoia was wearing at the trust she had been harboring for the village ponies.
"Ever talk to god?" Twilight asked.

"Which one?" Applejack answered immediately, a habitual, almost automatic answer to the question.

"The one that matters." Twilight motioned upwards. It was almost noon. "Her."

"They got big Celestial temples in Manehattan, but my hosts weren't faithful ponies. Still I been in there with my friends, other merchant wards, clerks, neighborhood fillies 'n colts. Sometimes it was just to cause trouble. But other times-" Applejack cleared her throat. "When the sun's shinin' just right, there's magic."

"And?" Twilight pressed.

"And it makes me think that it's really how they say, that she's up their guiding us." Applejack said. "Her light warms and moves us, all that stuff. Couldn't grow nor live without sunlight, after all. That ol' sun's surely due some worship on those accounts."

Some of that was true. Some of that was untrue. Twilight had, at various points in her life, been given over to faith and faithfulness. It was one of the ways her adoration for Celestia had manifested, in those youthful years before the drawn out estrangement. Twilight could likely still argue on finer points of dogma over the nature of the Sun and her plans for ponykind, if she put in the effort. She even remembered a few hymns and, most embarrassingly, a few attempts at stylized poetry dedicated to the faith.
Like so much else it had turned to bitterness for her. "Was there a Solar Monastery in Manehattan too?"

"Eh?" Applejack had clearly never heard of such a thing before.

"You know, where the monks chart the sun and stars?" Twilight elaborated. "They have observatories, with big telescopes. No?"

Applejack gave an unsure nod. "Maybe. On the hills across the bay-"

"Yes, yes." Twilight interrupted. "They like to build the monasteries on high elevation."

"Then I guess there's a solar monastery. Always wondered what that thing was." Applejack shrugged. "But why y'all askin'?"

"I guess I'm just drawing parallels between my life in Canterlot and yours in Manehattan." Twilight said. Perhaps Applejack had a similarly rocky relationship with her mentor.

Applejack was silent for a moment. "Fluttershy grew up in a big city too. Cloudsdale's probably got one'a them monasteries too." It did not seem like she wanted to discuss Manehattan any longer. Fine.

They were near the bridge now. Twilight saw a few ponies lingering near the side of the river chatting and laughing; But when the ponies saw Twilight and Applejack back, they went silent and withdrew between the cottages into Ponyville .

"Little varmints." Applejack spat, suddenly irate.

Twilight thought she had seen the pony Applejack had mentioned earlier, Cherry Berry, among the group. Though Applejack was certainly predisposed to distrust 'Rarity's friends', Twilight was also somewhat suspicious. But then again, what nefarious thing could it possibly be?

"I guess we bothered whatever their little game was." Twilight shrugged.

Applejack stopped on the middle of the bridge, her expression unreadable.

"Come on, you think they were spying on you or something?" Twilight asked, incredulous.

Applejack leaned on the parapet, staring into the river waters below. She seemed conflicted about her next words. "Lady Twilight, do you believe in demons?"

Twilight arched a brow. "Yes. Objectively, they exist."

"What do you believe about demons?" Applejack pressed.

Twilight took a deep breath. "Ookay, that depends on if you're using demon colloquially, or taxonomically. Speaking scientifically, I believe the latest consensus on demons which is informed by history and empirical magical study. I believe books, research papers, and my own eyes."

"Your eyes?" Applejack asked, taken aback.

The conversation was going to get bogged down in minutia but Twilight was fine with that. "Sure. Some demon species live in the Waking World, so I've seen taxidermies, pelts, and wall-mountings. Some live in the dreamworld; I saw one for a few seconds when a dream magician at the University tried to summon it for her final project. Some live up there." Twilight motioned up towards the cosmos, the same motion for when they had talked of the holy Sun. "But I have never seen the ones from out there."
Unless you counted the alicorns.

Applejack mulled over the barrage of information. "What's it look like?"

"A lot of creatures get classified as demons. Terrestrial demons look like any other animal, big and small. The dream demon I saw was kinda cat-like, upright like an Abyssinian, a cat-man. I heard some dream demons look like big spiders too. Nightmares' appearance is particular to the viewer, but they straddle the line between terrestrial and dream worlds. Or, they used to. Nightmares were entirely eradicated." Twilight said. "I'm not going to bother mentioning the cosmic. They are, well..." Twilight felt the natural trepidation of any mortal creature when contemplating the vast and gluttonous nature of the malevolent entities that dwelled in the depths of space. "They're bad. Luckily there is an oosphere of dream energy between us and heaven."

"Feels like I'm gettin' more than I asked for." Applejack said.

Twilight sympathized. "To simplify, there is one common thing about demons, and why we classify them together: They are magical entities, metaphysically aligned with Dark magic."

"Sounds about right." Applejack remarked, perking up at the sinisterness connotations of 'Dark magic'.

"A lot of negative emotion is also metaphysically aligned with Dark magic. I could go on for ages about it." Twilight said. "But what is even more important than what demons are, is that there aren't that many left in Equestria. As I alluded, the were genocided during the Northern Wars, Unification Wars, and Everfree Siege."

"That ain't a word I ever heard as a verb before." Applejack said.

"It is what it is. No use feeling sad about something Celestia did a thousand years ago. There are still some demons in the Foal Mountains, the far north, or wild areas." Twilight didn't mention what was obvious by implication, that there were likely some in the Everfree as well. "I've never seen a live one beside the dream cat, and that barely counts. I look every time my family goes hunting in Foal but they're too clever and hide themselves very well."

'Hunting?' Applejack mouthed to herself, confused. But on second thought, she seemed to decide to try to get back on track, and not accept Twilight's second digression. "Ever known a pony to worship demons?"

Once again, it depended on how you counted alicorns. But Twilight did not say that. "That is not legal. Demons are not an accepted visage of the Sun's grace. Some sects even call for more demon eradication."

"It's heretical, is what y'all're sayin'. It's heretical 'n bad." Applejack insisted.

"I'm not going to make a normative claim. But yes, more than just heretical, it's plain heathen belief." Twilight shrugged. "It used to be more common during the warlord era. It was basically outlawed when Celestia unified Equestria and the Celestine dogma was codified into the state religion."

"Humph. Tell you what, you're gunna get that 'n worse if you keep pressin' on the Everfree." Applejack said, her expression during grave. "Pinkie Pie told me where she found you that night. Ma'am, I'll tell y'all that I got an ego myself, and I know better 'n try to mess with the Everfree. It's the domain of bad, evil things."

Twilight felt a murmur of indignance that Pinkie Pie had told Applejack, but she should have expected it. She smiled good-naturedly. “I laugh in the face of demons.”
Twilight remembered the dream laughter of the demon alicorn in the throne room. Twilight had been smug and hubristic for a mere moment, and the Nightmare had punished her for it with violent redress. Though Twilight blew off Applejack's ominous warning off as superstition, there was obvious truth to it.

Applejack was not pleased with Twilight's flippancy. "More like you lecture in the face of demons, Lady Twi."

"Yeah whatever. I believe you about the danger, but I have my own way of showing it." Twilight chuckled. Her faux-bravado was easily seen through. "However, for the moment, Mis Applejack, I must take my leave. I have to go talk to Mis Pinkie Pie about some things."

Applejack's mouth twisted, as she seemed to contemplate saying more. "Alrighty then, sure. Guess I'll see ya 'round. I better head back to the market. I've burdened Rose enough."

They crossed the rest of the bridge and went on their separate ways through the village.
It was halfway to the bakery before it suddenly occurred to Twilight that Applejack had been not-so-subtly been accusing her of being a demon worshipper.
"That pugnacious peasant. She's more paranoid than I am." Twilight laughed to herself.

Lately, Shining had been feeling good. The mood of sourness and sternness of the past few months had lifted, a ray of joy evaporating the fog of the slow downward spiral.
"Ray of joy, thy name is: Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of Equestria."

Shining was winding his way up the Canterlot Castle keep, on his way to the junior princess's tower. It was a path he was getting more familiar with, now that he was using it almost every day. It still filled him with equal trepidation and exhilaration to see her. It would never become dull, never become just another duty.

But on that particular day, Shining was ignorant to shadows looming over him.
"Sir Armor! Hey!" A familiar voice called out to Shining from behind him. The first shadow.

Shining turned to face the voice. "Mis Illustrious Valor?" He cocked his head. He had assumed she had fled the city, since her disappearance that night at the city gate.

It was indeed Illustrious Valor grinning broadly, a jaunty spring in her step. "It's Iillor, please sir."

Shining bit his lip, unsure how to handle the mare. How had she gained access to the upper levels of the keep? "Yes I remember. However you must excuse me mis. It's not a good time." He continued on his way towards the tower.

Undeterred, Iillor followed a few steps behind him. "You should be excusing me, Sir Armor. I came to apologize. I thought you would be angry with me for not checking in with you. You said you needed me as a witness."

That had been a long time ago, Shining mused. "The suspects are dead, incinerated. There is not much to identify, no trial, and no use for a witness. Maybe there will be a thorough inquiry at some point. As for now, we still don't even have a grand vizier. It's a trial just to keep things running." Shining said. It was a hint to her not to get in his way.

"Ok I get I was a bit cheeky the other night, but I promise I won't interfere at all. I'll just be your company for the day.” Iillor said with a wink.

Shining sighed. "Mis, I have other company planned."

"I'm not jealous Sir Armor. I'll stay out of your way." Iillor giggled.

Shining glanced back at the tenacious earth pony. He remembered, through the haze of emotional memory, the teasing she'd given him before. He also remembered his suspicions of her. Alas, it mattered so little now. The night of Fancy Pants's death felt like a year ago. "Mis, respectfully, you're a random citizen. While I may be a mere knight, I have ponies relying on me to preform my duties adequately."

"Are you going to escort me all the way down to the front door? Are you going to kick me out, sir?" Iillor tittered.

What was her deal? "I could put you back in the cell I found you in. But you keenly realize I don't have the time." Shining said. "You're going to be in trouble once I do have the time."

"Going to punish me? But sir, I'm just a petitioner, just like all the other ponies crowding into the castle." Iillor said.

Shining was approaching his destination, the door between the section of the castle keep, and the tower. "Prithee obey what I am ordering of you, Mis Iillor. If you transgress you will find me much less pleasant." He said curtly, losing patience. "We can talk about whatever you want, but later. I have no time for doting debutantes."

"Sir Armor?" A cheerful voice called out from behind the door.
Before Shining could react, the door handle was encased in light blue magic, and pushed open.

The junior princess, Mi Amore Cadenza, tilted her head down slightly to look Shining Armor in the eye. She was pink furred, with purple streaks throughout mane, tail, and the feathers. Her crystal blue eyes were matched by her mark, a geometric crystal heart heralded by golden lace.
Friendly to a fault, open-hearted, kind- Cadenza was all the pony magnanimity of her 'aunt' and superior, Celestia, with none of the hard edge necessary for governance of an empire. She was the controversial alicorn, and always would be.

It was depressing, and more than a little infuriating, for Shining to remember all the ways Cadence had been slighted and insulted after Celestia had introduced her to the court. The ungrateful ponies, far from being understand and duly awed by the new institution of 'junior princess', reacted as they always did: with jealous protection of their privileges.
For years, the Court had repeatedly conspired to humiliate Cadence! And Celestia, too lax for her own good, had let her junior princess be the subject of every court intrigue, until an invisible line was crossed, and she finally acted: Dozens of nobles were censured, some jailed, some exiled, while Cadenza was all but locked away in her tower, her education at the University suspended. And Shining Armor, her greatest admirer, went years without seeing her.
Now, for all the issues going on in Canterlot, it seemed like things were turning around for Cadence.

"Princess." Shining bowed deeply, closing his eyes, back stiff, and a hoof outstretched, the height of formality. "How are you this morning your grace?"

"Walking on sunshine." Cadence joked. "But Sir Armor, when were you going to tell me your sister left Canterlot?"

Shining heart skipped a beat. Years of not seeing Cadence... now that he was escorting her to Court every day, the rapport between the two of them had been slowly building back. Far from being angry that something had been held back, Cadence seemed happy, playful even. Was she flirting? It was not as obvious as Iillor's teasing, thus all the more embarrassing. "Princess, you know that as a policy I never bring up my sister without a reason."

"So you weren't going to tell me?" Cadence leaned closer, smile broadening imperceptibly.

"I did not think-" Shining finally came out of his bow and cleared his throat. "It would be a long conversation. I wouldn't start down a topic like that without invitation, princess." He straightened his uniform. "So you must have heard Twilie was elevated to l’Élève Premier. There was no ceremony to it. She was immediately assigned in the south.

Cadence and Twilight Sparkle had constantly butted heads over all kinds of things. Truthfully, Shining Armor didn't know if their rivalry was of the friendly sort, or vicious. Neither mare was completely upfront with their feelings.
"I haven't seen her since the last Summer Sun. I wish she had come seen me before she left. I probably didn't even cross her mind." Cadence said. She seemed slightly saddened now. "I think we would have gotten along better if I weren't a princess. Now Twilight is as close to me in status as a unicorn can be. I would have liked to congratulate her."

"She'd thank you." Shining said, trying to think of something nice to say.

"No she would not have." Cadence laughed a little.

No, she would not have, Shining conceded to himself. Though he hoped Cadence would move off the topic, she persisted.

"I see her sometimes. Or, saw her. When I'm between books, I look out from the tower." Cadence gestured to the passage behind her with a wing. "Twilight is unmistakable. Galloping back and forth, teleporting between different libraries all around town." Cadence looked off into the distance, slightly nibbling her lip, that thin smile returning.
Had Cadence been jealous of Twilight's freedom? Twilight had successfully worked her way free from Celestia's direct grasp, at least for a time. Twilight had done what she'd wanted, studied what she'd wanted, while Cadence had obediently stayed in her tower. 'I would have liked to congratulate her'. Now Twilight Sparkle was just as bound as Cadence was.

"Yes princess." Shining said simply. "We should proceed downstairs to the-"

“Uh, Shiny, who is this?” Cadence was looking towards Iillor. The junior princess looked... irritated?

Oh no. Iillor had been standing there the entire time.
Shining Armor was not adept in 'commoner management' around the castle. Some IHG knights, posted at the entrances and throne room, handled the responsibility of directing and handling visitors.
Iillor had come perilously close to Princess Celestia's chambers before, but she had had a reason to be there, since she had been a witness in the murder investigation. But now she was just some random pony, and Shining had allowed her to come within two meters of the junior princess of Equestria.
Gods send down plague and hellfire and demons to annihilate everything, Shining pleaded internally, to purge the sheer embarrassment. Externally Shining twitched.

Wait, had Cadence just called him... Shiny? "Uhh, princess, this is-"

“You could just ask.” Iillor puffed.

"Princess," Shining cleared his throat. "This is, uhh, Mis Illustrious Valor.” Shining stepped between the mares under the pretense of introduction. His mind raced to think of excuses for the crime of her presence. "She assisted Councilor Prosser and I in the aftermath of Fancy Pant's assassination."

Cadence was un-emotive. "I see."

"Wow, you're an alicorn princess. I didn't know Sir Armor was that important." Iillor blinked, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I told him I wouldn't get in his way. I hope I'm not in yours now, mis lady princess."

Shining was beginning to see that Cadence was not being hostile, but rather, nervous. And of course she would be, it dawned on Shining: Cadence had a lot to be worried about, having just returned to public life. Any pony could be an adversary in disguise, angling to discredit the princess and pushed her back int that tower.
Shining had to make sure Cadence knew he was on her side. “Mis Valor, this is Junior Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She presides over the court at the moment. She is due all royal respect and deference, at all times.”

Cadence, after another moment of silence, made a fluid curtsy, spreading her wings. “A most gracious greetings. Welcome to Canterlot Castle. It is here for every pony." She rose back to full height. "Like Shining said, I am the junior princess. His friends are my friends."

Iillor nodded appreciatively, looking Cadence up and down. “Nice.”

"And you are a sage?" Cadence eyed Iillor's mark, the grey cloud."

"Do I look that way?" Iillor asked.

"Respect the princess's time and answer directly." Shining snapped, a little impressed by Iillor's gall.

Cadence lay a hoof on Shining's shoulder, making him shiver. "It's okay Sir Armor." She faced Iillor. "I hope you do not mind me saying, mis, but it is no mistake you were here to aide the royal institution after that dreadful murder. You have a..." She hesitated. "a peculiar aura, mis Valor. If you don't mind me saying..." She held back the rest of her sentence, seemingly self-conscious. "Never mind. I hope Sir Shining has not been too impatient. He gets so wrapped up in his actions."

"Princess." Shining protested weakly.

Iillor tittered. “My visit has been terribly exciting, and Sir Armor has been a paragonic gentlestallion.”

“Mis, you said you thought I was angry at you for the last week.” Shining Armor tried to say.

Iillor waggled her eyebrows. “I couldn't help it sir. You were very restrained last week, but when you let your anger show, it was ferocious."

Shining felt like he was being ganged-up on.

"Nonetheless, he protected me all throughout that dark night, from the castle to the gate." Iillor continued to Cadence.

"You disappeared before we got to the gate." Shining said sourly.

Cadence’s unreadable expression mellowed into muted concern. She mercifully digressed. "We are all trying to move on from what happened to Sir Fancy Pants. It’s really terrible what happened to him."

It was almost disconcerting how quickly ponies were adjusting to Fancy Pants's death. It made Shining Armor wonder how long things would be disrupted if he suddenly died. Not that long, probably. Then Cadence would be talking to some other pony, her expression blank, explaining how they were all trying to move on. "There's still a lot unexplained." Shining said.

Cadenza gave a nod. "In life, we must accept that there are many things that we will never understand, things that we can not control. An invisible light of destiny guides us all the same. There is no use worrying about what we can not influence even slightly. We put our faith in her."

"There are things even alicorns can't control?" Iillor asked wryly. Shining was not sure if she was being derogatory, or envious. Either way it was rude. "Maybe if it's outside your scope."

"Scope?" If Cadence picked up on Iillor's rudeness, she did not react.

"Oh, sorry, maybe that's the wrong word. Empress Celestia has the Sun. Another alicorn has the moon." Iillor said. "You must have something you're 'in charge of'."

"I do, but it is something I do not discuss, mis." Princess Cadence closed her eyes. "The 'scope' of me has caused many problems for many ponies. They can not help themselves. It's very unfortunate." Her voice wavered with controlled emotion. She opened her eyes again, alighting them on Shining. "Sir Armor, it is time we go down to the throne room."

Shining Armor nodded. "This way princess." He gave Iillor a cool look. "You'll hold to your word, right?"

"I'm out of your way, cap." Iillor gave a lackadaisical salute and stepped backwards out of his way.

There was still something very off about that mare. And what had she said about a moon alicorn? Nonetheless, Shining had his duties, and he led Princess Cadenza back down through the keep.

"We put out faith in her."

Celestia's ear perked at that sentence, spoken far below in the castle keep. Up on the watchtower, it would have been inaudible even without the gusts of wind sweeping off the Mountain that morning; tussling Celestia's etherial mane and tail. But she felt that declaration of faith. The sun princess was the sun princess, after all.

Cadenza was out of her tower again.

Celestia could not help but feel disappointed, and deeper down, annoyed. "What bird, plant, lizard, or pony who does not fulfill their purpose, can bear it to their own ends." She said to herself. "What alicorn does not obey, becomes the most accursed under heaven. This we know only too well."
But like Cadence's words could not really be heard on the tower, Celestia could not be heard down in the castle. The ominous warning went unheard but by the wind gusts.

The court had sent ponies to ask Celestia, under a guise of concern, whether Cadenza was actually allowed out of her tower. Celestia ignored them. The southern skies were more important than her reply.
However that did not mean she didn't have an answer. Celestia knew the time was not right. Cadence had no reason to go back among the Equestrians yet: The junior princess was not a pony anymore, she was an alicorn.
Celestia was counting on Cadence realizing the truth herself, and going back to her tower. Eventually, truth came for all creatures.

" 'Faith'." Celestia mulled. "That poor girl."
Under different circumstances, it would have been wise for Celestia to go down and set everything straight. Alas the southern skies were just too important to be left to their own devices, and Celestia did not take her eyes from them for even a moment.
For if she did, the visions would appear again. The alicorn soul, reduced to that useless, obsessive concern at the horrizon, kept the lies out of Celestia's head.

Marching down the hallway to the throne room with the junior princess in tow, Shining Armor was filled with a sudden sense of unease. Some sense was telling him something was wrong, but he could not pinpoint what.
He was right outside the throne room when he realized it was because it was silent: There was none of the laughing, yelling, and jostling echoing out into the rest of the castle from the Court.

At that moment, a IHG knight galloped out of the throne room. "Sir- Armor!" He was not that loud, but in the silence his panicked stutters were like shouts.

Shining nodded, nudging the knight aside. Whatever the situation was, his training had surely prepared him. He lifted his hoof to his sword and turned the corner. He would not be found lacking a second time.

As it turned out Shining would be found lacking a second time.
The throne room was so eerily still that one could think the whole Court had been petrified. When he saw what was going on at the front of the room, Shining just about froze too. Poor Shining’s heart was suffering terribly for all the excitement and surprises lately.

Right in the center of the room, and the first pony Shining's eyes were drawn to, was his mother. Twilight Velvet was standing directly in front of the sun princess's throne. Velvet saw Shining at the same moment, their eyes locking. She grinned.
Behind Velvet, the would-be lord of Canterlot, Seacrest Blackhorn was leaning on the arm of the throne. He was, thankfully for his own sake, not stupid enough to actually sit on the throne. Next to the Blackhorn, Velvet's new lackies Sel Lech Sabonord and Blueblood completed the entourage of intruders.

"Lady Velvet?" Princess Cadence sounded cheerful but confused. The two mares had gotten along well, better than Cadence and the junior Twilight.

"Woah, is this a coup?" Iillor guffawed.

"It's not a coup." Shining growled, stalking up the columnated throne room.

Velvet's intended audience had arrived, so the launched into her speech, sermonizing loud enough for the whole room to hear.
“The disintegration of imperial and civic institutions over the past month has necessitated the informal institutional appanages, the noble clubs and cliques, to step forward. The upcoming Estates meeting, on the eve of the Summer Sun, will prove the most consequential in centuries. Without decisive imperial leadership, what other choice do we have?" Velvet intoned. "It should be obvious to everypony that the equestrian state has been all but usurped by a small clique of self-serving bureaucrats, who are thwarting Princess Celestia's orders at every turn. They are even manipulating the junior princess. It is up to the Estates to use their priviledges, bestowed by Celestia I upon the unification, to set things right."

Nevermind, it was a coup.

"This starts by showing OUR decisiveness BEFORE the Estates. That is why the Black Horn Council is calling on all noble cliques and organizations to coordinate for civil peace, Canterlot prosperity, and Equestria-wide guidance. Every Speaker of the Estates who aide us sends a clear message to the greedy eunuchs who have never faced scrutiny by any noble council, sejm, duma, or Estates. That way we can prevent the disorder and murders which the imperial administration have let happen with impunity and regularity." Velvet let out an angry snort. "And we will get back at the presumptuous tyrants who oppress the decent and noble ponies of Equestria, whose only crime was pointing out where the administration has failed over and over."

Wait, was it a coup? Maybe not? Shining had no idea what Twilight Velvet's intentions were. It sounded like a speech meant to be given from in front of the castle, not from within it. Weren't her audience the same 'greedy administrators' she was agitating against?
The Court apparently did see it that way. They were in rapt attention, nodding along to her words.

Shining stoped short of the dais, staying a dozen meters away from Velvet. Her eyes would return to him every so often as she gave the speech, smirking a bit each time. And Shining, much to his own shame, could not bring himself to interrupt his mother, even as burning indignation welled up in him. How dare that Blackhorn pretender so much as gaze upon Celestia's throne! Twilight Velvet and her allies were playing a deadly game now. Clearly though, there was a truth to her accusations and promises which resonated with the crowd, even if it should have been anathema.

"The abuses and intrusions, the hubris and arrogance, and other sins of the administration has to be answered. Since nopony else has stepped up, we have to. There is just no other choice. I'm sure each and every one of you has been ready to do the same, but feared you were alone, vulnerable to being singled-out and silenced by the cretins manipulating everything." Velvet said. "If we did not have our rallying point, Lord Blackhorn, it would have been the same for Sir Sel Lech, Sir Blueblood, and myself. I can confidently say I will not be going back to mewling submission to tyrants who, I repeat, have never faced review from any noble sejm or Estates. It should be clear to all how much safer Canterlot has become of even just a few of us standing up for ourselves."

Shining Armor looked back at the mares following him. Iillor looked delighted, taking the entertainment for what it was. Cadence, to Shining's heartbreak, still looked confused, but now appeared hurt as well. There was no telling how the junior princess must have been absorbing the scathing denunciation of the empire she was part-and-parcel to. Did Cadence feel like she had let somepony down?
Shining took a deep breath. He had to do what he had to do. "That's enough Lady Velvet."

Since everypony else was silent, Shining Armor's firm voice echoed as if off the throne itself.
Twilight Velvet let her next sentence die in her throat. She straightened up, rubbed something at the edge of her eye, and locked eyes with Shining again. "Finally, our royalty has come to address our petitioning!" She said. She paused, waiting for another of her entourage to chime in.

Behind Velvet, Seacrest Blackhorn stiffened and took his hoof off the throne, deeming the transgression too dangerous now. "That is very good." He nodded, his strong accent startling some of the ponies. "It just proves-" He paused, trying to remember his lines. "proves we are the right ponies to represent Canterlot."

Cadence strode forward until she was even with Shining. "Sir Armor..." She whispered, still uncertain.

"You are the princess, my lady. Do as you should." Shining whispered back urgently.

Cadence kept walking forward, directly at the throne. For a moment it seemed like Velvet would not get out of the way, until Cadence was only a few paces away: Cadence gave a short, curious nod to Velvet, which Velvet returned before stepping to the side.

Shining did not let go of his breath until Princess Cadenza had seated herself on the throne, and two IHG guards at the sides of the room moved to flank her.
So was the 'coup' averted?

"Lady Velvet, it is customary to present petitions in writing in accompaniment of verbal address." Cadence said in a clipped and formal tone.

"It is already submitted, my princess." Velvet said, her grin never faltering. "And begging your pardon, but the Lord Blackhorn here was the petitioner, not I."

Cadence only spared a single glance to the stallion. "Thank you, Lady Velvet. As always, it is good to see you. If only we had more time."

"I understand, princess. Until next time." Velvet nodded. She turned in place and trotted for the exit, her underlings hurrying to catch up with her.

The other pony hurrying to catch up with Twilight Velvet was her son. Shining followed her in silence until they were a hundred meters away from the doors to the throne room.

"Shining, good morning." Velvet spoke first, stopped in place, and slowly turning back towards him. "You haven't visited your father or I once since that night, Shiny. You know that doesn't make either of us feel very good."

Shining was not interested in her right away. "You." He pointed at Seacrest Blackhorn. "Hold out that hoof of yours." He drew his sword partway out of its sheath.

"My word!" Seacrest croaked, cringing away.

Sel Lech Sabonord stepped between Shining and his quarry. "Lord Armor, I offer my head in place of my lord prince's hoof. I know ponies have suffered worse for lesser offense, but I beg you let it satisfy the royal honor."

Velvet rolled her eyes. "Shining Armor put that toy away if you aren't going to use it."

"Do you think the gesture is lost on these stallions?" Shining asked sharply. He eyed Blueblood, who had not spoken yet. "Not going to offer your head? It's been a few years since I have seen you at court."

"You heard her ladyship's manifesto, sir. Court is passée now. Extra-legal, extra-judicial vigilantism is the cause célèbre." Blueblood said sardonically. "Try it out. If you kill us now, you would be saving yourself a lot of trouble later. It would be very comical if we were thwarted because a sexually frustrated knight took out his frustration on us."

"Don't talk that way about my son." Velvet slapped Blueblood on the back of his head.

"OWCH." Blueblood hissed.

It was very comical, but not in the way Blueblood described. "I find your opportunism dishonorable, my lady. My captain, my princesses, and the other advisors were absent."

Since Shining Armor was no longer after his hoof, Seacrest Blackhorn relaxed. "That is the point, doigt."

"His lordship means to say; The lapse you see as an 'opportunity' is just the kind of imperial degeneration we are calling out. Failed institutions and dilapidated administration serves nopony but malfeasant actors." Sel Lech said.

It was all bullshit. "Save it for the braindead nobles and politicians." Shining sighed. "Hello, by the way, Sel. I hope courtier to her ladyship here is working out better than to my uncle Flux."

"I am content, Sir Armor, in present service to Lord Blackhorn." Sel Lech corrected.

Shining wasn't sure what he was hoping to accomplish, besides making an ass of himself berating these unflappable ponies who had their story straight. They had come more prepared than he had. "I'll reiterate. What you just did to Princess Cadenza was shameful. Dishonorable and shameful. You have no idea how much of a struggle it's been to bring her back up to speed on Court life, and acclimate those wretched court ponies to her."

"She would be on our side if she understood our goal." Velvet said a dark glower overtaking her expression. "You assume, brashly, that she shares your feelings. You think you have to protect her, coddle her, keep away all the bad ponies. You're not her mom, Shiny. You're nopony's mom."

Strange metaphors aside, Shining was all too eager to get into an emotional scrap with Twilight Velvet. "I wasn't there for her last time, and she has lost years and years of her life for it. I won't make that mistake again. I won't abandon her to anypony's schemes."

"Scheme? Shiny, we are just four ponies who delivered a petition." Velvet said.

"You can't fool me." Shining said. "You- You've been up to something since the night of Fancy Pants's death. When you killed those mares-"

"What am I up to? If I can't fool you, tell me, what secrets lie behind the veil?" Velvet demanded, the dark glower accentuated by a piercing stare. "What is my end goal?"

Shining Armor felt a chill as his bluff was called. He was not actually sure that the stunt in the throne room represented anything other than a theatrical political play.
Shining would have to guess something, tug at a wire only faintly visibly, and bluff again to see if Velvet reacted more than she should have.
"When we searched through Fancy Pants's documents after his death, we found a document that promised our family a sizable fraction of the landed titles seized from traitors you catch red-hooved."

That must have been news to Blueblood and Sel Lech, as they both acted surprised. Twilight Velvet only smirked. "So he actually wrote it out. The fool. Since no vizier has replaced him, that's still legally binding, you know."

Shining nodded. "You and Fancy Pants... were in a secret pact against the rival cliques in the Imperial Council and Court. You were going to use this Blackhorn to tempt out any traitors in Canterlot, while Fancy Pants plotted against the IHG and petty nobles. You killed the murderer mares, agents of the rival clique, to keep the pact from going public in discovery."

Velvet made a sour face. Shining felt his heart flutter, imagining for brief second that he had hit at something true! But Velvet began to shiver, barely suppressing her delight; Her tensed expression broke and she laughed openly. "Ha ha ha! Shiny dear, that is so stupid. Ha ha ha!" She shook her head and wiped a tear from the edge of her eye. "Oh, ho ho! Shiny, you have obviously mixed some real facts with conjecture and paranoia borne out of slights and rivalries of your own. That was not even a quarter true. You clearly don't understand as much as you think."

Shining felt deflated. He'd missed.

"Guess again? How about... I was protecting that throne from you, Shining." Velvet said. "You would have escorted dear Cadence all the way to the top, and not let go of her hoof until that pink tuchus was on the seat. To all eyes, you're the power-hungry one, Shiny, cozying up to royalty." She was really digging it in. "Or perhaps... I really was going to launch a coup right there. I saw you thinking it. I stopped because you came in at juuust the right time." She shook her head, pityingly. "Pick a theory that makes you feel good, Shiny. That is what everypony else does. Pick a worldview, a myopic window on the truth, and cling on until nothing else makes sense except through that little window."

"I make one wrong guess, and that makes me a moron or something?" Shining spat. "My lady, I deserve more respect than this. I sat through your dinner."

"You left halfway, Shiny. Barely counts." Velvet chuckled. She straightened up. "But I will respect you, if that's what my boy wants."

“Did you kill Fancy Pants?” He asked.

“No. I thought I had, but come to find out I had nothing to do with it.” Velvet shook her head. “And neither did those mares you were after.”

That froze Shining Armor’s blood cold. “Then the mares you killed were both innocent.”

“Oh no, they were simply not the ponies who killed him. They were something equally troublesome: witnesses.” Velvet said simply. "You understand, right Shiny? Some things are not meant to be seen. Some sights are not meant to be spread. Some ideas are best left dead and unrepeated."

Something so terrible had happened that Twilight Velvet found it to be an acceptable alternative to vaporize the witnesses, rather than let the truth out.

"Why start believing her now, Sir Armor?" Iillor said. Wait, Iillor? Shining turned to face the earth mare, standing beside him. How long had she been there?

"I don't know why I would start believing her." Shining admitted. Because Velvet had him beat, was why. "I don't lose anything by listening to ponies. I trust my ability to sort it out later."

"Not off to a good start Shiny. You're really not." Twilight Velvet shifted her gaze from her son to the black-furred mare beside him, then back. "I would love to talk more. You should meet me for lunch some time. We both have busy lives now, so it could be tricky to schedule, but you should try to make up for the weeks you've been avoiding us."

"I do not know if I will have the time since I have to hone my sorting senses. By the time we do have lunch, I will have seen behind the curtain." Shining said, half-ironically, half-bitterly. He didn't want to cow to his mother's word, but she still had him beat. "There is no use talking more before that. Like my friend here says, there's no credibility to what you're saying."

Iillor shook her head. "That's not exactly what I said."

"Fine. If you don't want to talk with me, at least visit your father." Twilight Velvet said, digressing slightly. "If you want to know more, talk things over with Night Light." She paused, glancing to the floor. Dwelling on her imprisoned husband was uncomfortable for her. “Your father is understanding beyond what you can understand, Shiny. He’s always been there for us, and in this also. If you actually want to see behind the curtain-"

"Hey, I'll visit father, but for myself, not you. When I see that he's okay, and I've done everything I can for him, only then will I start asking him about your nonsense." Shining said sharply. "I half expect he'll tell that there's no mystery at all, and everything is as it seems: You're just being greedy and power-hungry."

Velvet laughed slightly, but the uncomfortable topic still weighed-down her attitude. "An un-clever pony may accept that explanation out of simple convenience."

"No chance of that with me. I relish making life harder for myself." Shining said, self-pitying. "My captain wants me to arrest you. At the very least you should be detained and your documents investigated for clues in the Fancy Pants case. The club you're putting together is dubiously legal. At best, you're well-intentioned mavericks. Most likely you're borderline traitorous power-grabbers. Worst case..." He sighed. "But here I am chatting with you rather than doing my duty and putting a stop to this. I'm letting the princess down."

"You're inaction betrays your decadance." Seacrest chimed in.

"Not now, my lord." Sel Lech shushed the other stallion, more aware that it was not the time to interrupt the mother-son summit.

"My idiot liege has a point Shining: She who can not enforce or reward loyalty, can not possibly command loyalty.” Velvet pointed out. "Not even god or Celestia can break that rule. You have been pretending to high station the last week, holding yourself above the Court and Council. But who actually has your back, and is on your side? If you pushed the envelope, would you be standing alone against all the privilege and institutions you have been soaring above? It is not obvious even a single knight would support you."

It was an abrupt, provocative challenge. Shining was almost in awe of her gall. Twilight Velvet could be implying several things and they were all borderline treasonous.
Shining suddenly felt claustrophobic. If anypony was watching or listening, and interpreted his reply wrong, there could be big trouble. Cadence was just a room away... What would happen to her if he mired himself in a problem of his own creation?
"I don't need anypony 'on my side'. I do not have my own side. I am a servant of the princess and the empire."

"He's got more ego than he lets on." Blueblood chuckled to himself.

"If you think that is the neutral, safe position to have, Shiny, you are not wrong. However ponies around you will absolutely draw distinctions between themselves and a colt scout like you: They will not be on your side, even if you think they are through common service to the princess." Velvet said. "The final test will come when a crisis shatters all the previous equilibria. Then no ties of honor, duty, social contract, and empire will protect you. Only faithful allies and your own skill."

"That is a dire, irrelevant point." Shining said. His words came out croaking even as he tried to brush her off. If she was trying to intimidate him, she was succeeding. Either she was threatening to do something very drastic, or had more insight into the state of the world than he did. Both of those were more likely that Shining cared to admit. The past month had drastically changed his opinion about his mother, as an overbearing pony who chaffed him personally, to somepony who actually posed a threat.
A threat to who?
"At some later date, hopefully much later, I might find your words useful. Right now they're just a distraction from my duties. Sadly, I judge that distracting me is equally likely to be your goal as genuinely warning me." Shining cleared his throat. "Somepony like Councilor Prosser might be more willing to entertain your philosophizing."

Velvet let out a small frustrated sigh. "That is why I don't want to talk to him. He is too interested in ideas like mine. The councilor is, if I may be so brash, a harlot for foolish ideas." She paused, her self-certainty waining in a fit of introspection. Velvet, perhaps in the first time that Shining could ever remember, put on an earnest face for him. He could actually view her as a pony, and not so much a force of antagonism. "I want you to understand and agree because I know you will be the most intransigent of any of all, even more than the princesses. I want you to yearn for the same world I yearn for, son."

But Velvet's attempt at being familiar was as unnerving as her threats. Shining had no idea what she was talking about. "I have your lunch invitation. We have nothing else to talk about right now." He took a measured step backwards. "My lady, I'm sure the princess appreciates your petition, and this imperium will see it assessed. Her grace and the Court needs me now.

Shining Armor turned and trotted back up the hall towards the throne room.

Iillor watched Shining's retreat out of the corner of her eye. "Damn, what an uptight, proper kid. You either did something right, or something very wrong to get him to turn out that way."

Without Shining there, Velvet could turned her attention to Iillor. "You do not look much older than my son, Mis. What would you know about child-rearing?" Velvet asked cautiously.

Iillor shrugged. "I don't wanna get into it."

The three other stallions, Blueblood, Sel Lech and Seacrest, traded glances. "Do we know this mare?" Seacrest asked. He cleared his throat. "I say, Lady Velvet, who is this charming mare?"

"I don't know." Velvet narrowed her eyes. "Say, mis, have you ever been on the city walls, over the main gate?"

"Only on very particular nights." Iillor shrugged.

"I see." Velvet nodded. "And mis, though I see you an earth pony, you look like the type to have some skill with magic. Is this too presumptuous?"

"I look the type? Nopony's told me that." Iillor giggled with a playful bashfulness.

"Who is this broad?" Blueblood demanded, eyeing Iillor up and down.

"I'm just a country girl looking for a good time." Iillor said, appraising Blueblood back. "You're not it." She turned to Sel Lech and Seacrest. "Ehh, you're not it either." Finally she matched gazes with Velvet. "Ohh, but if I'm ever bored, I'd sure like to 'yearn for your world'. I have a history with older mares."

"Good grief, how shameless. Even I'm more subtle than that." Velvet arched a brow. "I will have time for you later, mis. It is not that I'm not interested. On the contrary. Only, now that we have met in person, I have some feeling to sort through."

"Don't we all." Iillor agreed. "We might see each other at lunch some time. Toodles."
She followed Shining's tracks back to the throne room.

"Did that go according to plan? I am confused." Sel Lech looked between Twilight Velvet and Seacrest Blackhorn.

"It has all gone very very well. Everypony has been told what they need to be told." Velvet said, though she did not seem certain.

"Again, who is that broad. Is she... dangerous?" Blueblood demanded.

"You should act more in accordance to conduct becoming of a noble servant of Canterlot." Seacrest Blackhorn sniffed. "N'est pas, Lady Velvet?"

Blueblood wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Fight your battles yourself you faker." He grumbled under his breath.

"Come now. We have the rest of the day to take care of." Velvet said. "Spend too long in a place like Canterlot Castle and your brain will be poisoned. You will start to think like they do."

Directly below the throne room, beneath the ground floor of the castle, and on a branch hallway from the vaunted trophy room, lay the castle dungeon. It was a strange, maze-like place, older than the rest of the structure above, largely dating to before the unification when the Blackhorn princess still ruled Canterlot. As dungeons went it was not too harsh on the prisoners: The cells were well-enough accommodated, for any pony worthy of being locked away by an empresses had better not die of neglect.

Night Light had been spending the bleary hours with some books. Reading by firefly lantern was probably bad for his eyes, but the middle-aged stallion had nothing else to do. "The basis of the social nationalist position is irrationalism... an aberrant ideology developed in opposition to social communalism rooted in the same rationalism as bourgeois society and ideology." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He had been trying to work through a pamphlet on politics, the kind of thing his wife would read and would pester him to read too. At first he thought it was lucky the dungeon guards had offered it to him, but he quickly realized it was because nopony else wanted it. "This stuff is simply impenetrable to me."

"Please keep reading." A sickly voice from the darkness outside his cell whispered. Night Light had heard it before, the prisoner across from him. "I like when you read out loud. I would like for you to. In exchange, I'll keep watch while you sleep. I'll alert you if they come to kill you while you're sleeping."

Shining peered over the top of his book, trying to catch the glint of eyes or teeth in the dark, anything to suggest a pony shape. "I appreciate the offer sir, though I fear to go hoarse."

"Take your time my lord. We are not in a rush. Heh heh heh." The sickly voice said. "But I wish to hear and know what my friends up above are saying, and what rationalism and anti-rationalism is. I should like to know what a social communalism is. Heh heh heh. Pick up any time you wish. We are not going anywhere."

Night Light put in his bookmark and shuttered the firefly lantern. Unfortunately he suspected the other prisoner could still spy on him, even not longer illuminated by the lantern.
There was only so much a decent bed and sufficient reading material could do to make a stallion feel more comfortable.

Twilight peered through the window of the village bakery. It was slightly larger than the other cottages, with the storefront and ovens taking up the lower floor.
"Empty." Twilight took a step back.

The upper floor, Twilight had been told, was Pinkie Pie's residence. Twilight had thought she had seen movement from the windows but now she was not sure.

“Mis Pie!” Twilight called up to the window. "It's me, Twilight Sparkle. I wanted to talk."

But there was no reply.
Impatient and unwilling to be ignored, Twilight tried the bakery door. It was unlocked, so Twilight strolled inside.

"Mis Pinkie Pie, are you there?” Twilight yelled up the stairs of the bakery. “Mis Pie, I need to talk to you.” Thinking nothing of entering without invitation, Twilight climbed the stairs. "I'm coming up, okay?"

Pausing at the top of the stairs, Twilight waited and listened. This time she heard a muted thump and scrapes coming from nearby, from behind a door. As Twilight approached the door, she heard more sounds, whispers and grunts of effort.

"Ignoring me?" Twilight muttered to herself, annoyed. "Mis Pinkie Pie!" She rapped on the door.

The door immediately swung open. Pinkie Pie stepped into the threshold, intruding on Twilight's personal space. Twilight felt a bit threatened, despite Pinkie having a broad smile on her face.

"Oh heya Twilight!" Pinkie said ecstatically. “Did you come to see me?”

"Naturally, Mis Pie. I don't know what other reason I'd have for being here." Twilight eyed the room behind Pinkie. It was a bedroom, identifiable as Pinkie's for all the colorful decorations nailed to the walls and roof. Curiously, there was a birdcage, half-covered by a cloth sheet, pushed into the corner. There were no pet supplies around, so it was likely empty.
"Bedtime already?" Twilight asked, nodding towards the cage.

Pinkie blinked, not getting the joke.

"When you cover a bird, it thinks it's nighttime and goes to sleep." Twilight explained. "Oh never mind." She cleared her throat. "Anyhow, I wanted to talk about some things and-"

"Terrific, I love talking! Let's sit downstairs where there's some more space." Pinkie said. She shuffled forward, practically forcing Twilight back, then shut her door behind her.

Twilight let Pinkie lead her back downstairs to the storefront, where they sat opposite each other in front of the window. "Nice bakery."

"Thanks. Nice eyes, for noticing how nice my bakery is." Pinkie Pie giggled. "Having a good day Mis Lady Twilight?"

"It's been alright." Twilight shrugged. "Yours?"

“Great-er-iffic!” Pinkie said. “I would be amaz-er-iffic, but I just got some bad news. Always a downer, ya know."

“Bad news?" Twilight asked.

"A friend of mine in Canterlot got hurt." Pinkie Pie said, her cheerful disposition briefly flagging. "You wouldn't know them."

Twilight was getting mixed messages; Pinkie had brought the hurt friend, up, but was subtly discouraging Twilight from asking more. "You would be surprised. I know all sorts of ponies. After all I've talked to nopony but commoners here in Ponyville."

"Okey, well, my friend was..." Pinkie glanced out the window, sticking out her tongue as she thought of the right words. "an entertainer like me."

"I'll admit I never got to know any entertainers in Canterlot. My uncle retained his own private orchestra, so he could one-up the other lords who have a chamber quartet, you know. I don't know if I'd even recognize any of them on the street." Twilight said, smiling guiltily.

"Unfortunately we can't befriend everypony, and believe me I've tried." Pinkie said. "I barely got to know a thousand ponies before I left Canterlot. That's like, less than one percent of the pony-pulation." Pinkie gulped at the magnitude of it all. "A- and there's millions of ponies in Equestria! And a thousand-million creatures across the world!" She leaned on the table. "Thats. So. Many. Friends."

"It sure is." Twilight agreed. However the direction of the conversation had wandered into a topic Twilight had wanted to discuss anyway. "But Canterlot is a start, I suppose. Did you live there long?"

“Nope! I didn’t stay there too long, just a year. Even though I just said I had a thousand friends, I really only had a few like, close close Canterlot friends, you know.” Pinkie’s expression darkened. “Now I might just have one.”

“Oh. You have my condolences.” Was all Twilight could think to say. Pinkie Pie was a quirky pony, maybe even a bit crazy, but as far as Twilight knew she wasn't holding personal secrets to the degree of the other Ponyvillians. "I know I haven't know you long-"

"I don't need to talk about it, and I don't wanna get super mopey-dopey about it." Pinkie shrugged. "I'm a little sad yeah..." She stared into the distance vacantly. Then, she snapped her attention back to Twilight. "Have something else you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes, a couple things." Twilight cleared her throat. "First, Applejack said you told her-"

"Sorry, sorry, I knew I shouldn't have." Pinkie apologized quickly. "Even though you didn't say to keep it a secret, and since you told Rarity-"

"Hold on there, I didn't tell Rarity anything." Twilight said.

Pinkie Pie blinked. "Oh. I overheard her telling Fluttershy you were at the forest."

"Well she didn't hear it from me." Twilight said. The mares were still acting out their petty rivalries. "Though that brings me to my next question. I know what Applejack's deal with Rarity is. I don't know what yours is."

"Mine?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight nodded. "Yes. Why did you side with Applejack against Rarity? You tip-toe around saying why you dislike her, like it's some big taboo or something."

Pinkie shrugged her shoulders. She seemed nervous. "I can't be friends with everypony."

Since Pinkie wasn't going to be forthcoming, Twilight had to jump directly into theories. "Does Rarity have a past in Canterlot that nopony else knows about? Is that it? Or, did she do something to Applejack's brother that only you know?"

"Huh? No!" Pinkie balked, realizing what Twilight was doing. "You think... there's something about Rarity I don't like?"

"Come on, Pinkie Pie!" Twilight fumed. "Not you too!"

Pinkie smiled apppolegetically.

"You, by which I mean all of you Ponyvillians, are keeping something from me. It's not just the brother buisness." Twilight insisted. "I bet it has something to do with the missing mayor."

"Nope, nothing to do with him." Pinkie said. "I could see how you would think that, but it was a total coincidence he left right before you got here."

"Why should I believe you?" Twilight demanded.

"Because..." Pinkie hesitated. "I promise."

"You promise. Brilliant." Twilight sighed. At the very least Pinkie had admitted that something was amiss, and it was not just Twilight imagination.
Maybe she could tie some ends together. "Does it have to do with the Everfree Forest?"

"I'll play twenty questions with you about any other topic. I love twnty questions." Pinkie Pie said. "But not this topic, err-uh. I'm sorry Lady Twilight, but, well, it's a Ponyville thing."

Still no luck then. "Okay so is there some kind of threshold I have to cross? Living here for a year, or two years?" Twilight pressed.

Pinkie shrugged. "You'll know. Pinkie promise."

"Another promise I don't know what to do with." Twilight made a sour face.
Twilight had chosen to grill Pinkie Pie, rather than Rarity, Applejack, or Fluttershy, on the calculation Pinkie was the least likely to get too defensive. Despite Twilight's burning curiosity (and the vague danger she felt from the mystery) she still needed the mares for the Summer Sun Fair.
"Fine. It's fine." She shifted in her chair. "Fair warning, but I'm going to find out before you want me to. I have the library and the town hall to sift through."

Pinkie snorted. "Then that's how you'll know you're past the threshold."

Circular logic. "I guess so." Twilight said. "Then my last question, which I alluded to before: The Everfree. I have to know everything about it, in case there is a danger to the fair."

"Don't go in the forest and everything will be fine." Pinkie said in a sing-song voice.

"Uhh, I have to know more than that." Twilight insisted.

"Don't go in the forest and everything will be fine." Pinkie said, repeating her jaunty song. She turned serious. "You got really lucky last time. Like, it's not even funny Twilight."

"Have ponies died in the forest?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie made a face. "Like it's... more complicated than that. Please please please don't go in there."

On that issue, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity, and Fluttershy all agreed. It was still unclear to Twilight if the forest was connected to the Ponyville secret. Maybe Pinkie didn't even know.
What did that mean for her plans? Twilight wasn't sure yet about that either. Once again, dealing with ponies was the most difficult part.

"Okay, nevermind all the questions." Twilight leaned back in her chair. "This is a bakery, right? Mis Pie, I would like to try some of the baked goods here."

Pinkie Pie jumped to her hooves in excitement. "OhMyGosh, I thought you'd never ask! I have a whole assortment of pastries you'd have died without trying, and that would've been the biggest tragedy ever!" She scurried behind the counter and began piling various treats on a plate. "I mean, second to the Rainboom incident, but still!"

"Pastries so good that missing out on them rivals the Rainboom? Good thing we're averting disaster." Twilight joked back.
As anticipated, Pinkie wouldn't let the demands and questions get in the way of everything else, especially not food and revelry.

Twilight Velvet and her entourage returned back to the Chateau la Garde shortly before dark. It had been a long day of scheming, conniving, and plotting- Though really, it had been a lot of talking, like Velvet had in the throne room, to try to awe over this or that clique of Canterlot noble. Flattering the egos of thankless aristocrats was tedious, unrewarding work.

Velvet had borne their patronization and scorn for her entire life. She thought once she married Night Light, and received the privilege of being 'Lady' Velvet, perhaps she would be accepted. Alas no. She thought once her daughter was landed, and there was a castle to the family's name, they would be respected. Alas no.
The ancient and decedent Canterlot Nobility would never forgive Velvet for being born a minor noble, and for stealing an eligible bachelor that could have gone to somepony of higher station.
Such was the fulcrum of using Seacrest Blackhorn. No dynasty name commanded greater respect in the annals of Canterlot history.

And for Velvet, respect would eventually come. She was not in a rush. It was not as though respect was the ends for which she strove. It was a tool to be leveraged.

"Lost in thought?" Blueblood asked.

Velvet stirred in her chair at the Chateau dining table. "Yes." Velvet cleared her throat and took a sip of water. "I was just thinking about what a bitch you are. Somepony with more pride wouldn't be sitting where you are."

"So, you were thinking of pride then." Blueblood said. "I do have pride, Lady Velvet. I'm adaptable. I'm a survivor. There's no shame in not getting killed."

"Getting killed?" Velvet repeated.

Blueblood sighed. He still had not gotten Velvet to admit to having Deeper Frie Fellowship murdered. It hardly mattered now. "Getting excoriated. Does that suit you better? If I stand up to you, or don't, you will still mock me." He took a sip of wine. "You just don't seem to like me."

With the sun going down, the maid was going around the greathall lighting candles. At the head of the table, Seacrest Blackhorn was passed out. Sel Lech quietly ate his dinner beside the would-be prince.

Velvet leaned back in her seat. "Yes, It's true. I judge you ill, sir. You have the personality of a huckster and a hack. You lack the redeeming qualities of competence or ambition to compliment your self-concerned villainy."

"That is very hurtful." Blueblood said flatly. He had gotten somewhat numb to her scorn.

"You had a leading position in the Black Horn Council for years, and have nothing to show for it." Velvet continued. "Look around you, and see how I leapt at fate's throat when such an opportunity fell into my lap. And consider the case of our late friend Fancy Pants, a subtle villain in his own right, who negotiated his way into the viziership. Or consider Sel Lech over there, who is at least grateful for what he has."

"Respectfully, your examples don't match up." Blueblood said. "Hey, it's fine. I can't say I like you either, Lady Velvet, even though I'll readily compliment the ambition and competence you accuse me of lacking."

"You think that makes you the bigger pony?" Velvet scoffed. "To round back to your first question, it is not only pride I was thinking about, but relative pride. You were a mere parasite on the ruling class of Canterlot. Again I will rouse Fancy Pants's memory, and how he ascended past the nobles with imperial position."

"When you gave the speeches today, you hid your distain very well. There, another compliment. I still hold out hope for getting one in return one day." Blueblood said. "So, go on then. Tell me what you want to do to the Canterlot nobility, in every visceral detail."

Velvet stood up. "You've taken up enough of my time. I have buisness to attend to." She waved to the maid, and they left the greathall together, heading towards the stairwell into the chateau's basement levels.

"Geez." Blueblood. Picked at his food a bit more, but he was not hungry.
Getting bored, Blueblood went over to the head of the table.
"Wine-drunk again I see." Blueblood patted the sleeping Seacrest Blackhorn on the back. "The stuff they have in Prancia must be piss."

"Mind your vulgarity please sir." Sel Lech said.

Blueblood chuckled. "Her ladyship complimented you just now: You're a dog who is properly thankful for the scraps he gets."

"She wouldn't have phrased it that way." Sel Lech protested. "Besides these are hardly scraps. I thought the salad was very god tonight."

"Whatever." Blueblood huffed. Sel was no fun. "Have you seen Aurthora? We were going to go to a theater play or something tonight, but she takes this lackey work for Velvet seriously now."

"Sadly I have not see Lady Aurthora today." Sel Lech apologized. "May I ask, what play you will be attending? Do you think it is something the lordship or I would like?"

Blueblood deemed it unlikely the sleeping Blackhorn could pay attention to a play in his state. "It's something bawdy, nothing a colt-scout like you would appreciate." He trotted towards the exit. "Besides, I don't take my work home with me. You should set some limits too, before this stupid conspiracy becomes your whole life and personality. Gods sake, Sabonord, you're a noblepony, not a nanny."

"I will keep that in mind Sir Blackhorn. See you tomorrow." Sel Lech waved goodbye and returned to his salad.

The darkening evening was turning the mountain glades south of Canterlot into gloomy, haunting places. The sun had long since set behind the spine of the mountains, and the light from the sky very quickly dwindled away.
The moon was a fair substitute though, its crisp silver light pouring through the gaps in the conifers.

Even better than the moon was Lyra's little campfire, made from twigs and pine nettles. She was not a skilled camper by any means, and she felt a modicum of pride that this fire at the glade's edge was lasting longer than her previous week of attempts.
Yet for all its light and warmth, Lyra still felt cold.

Indicated for Fancy Pants's murder, Lyra knew she had no hope finding shelter in any civilized place in Equestria, at least nowhere near Canterlot. Those mountains around Canterlot, the Ramble, as it was sometimes know, was the traditional dividing line between eastern and western Equestria. Lyra truly felt that, navigating through the sparse valleys and cliffs, where in places the land would fall away thousands of meters in both directions.
Lyra had struggled day by day along the remote mountain trails, not picking a side of the Ramble yet: To go east or west, and make a break for the coasts so she could escape to life outside of Equestria.

Lyra absently toyed with her fire, throwing a few more twigs in. "Low on water... I'm going to have to find a spring at lower elevation." That meant potentially being spotted. Lyra knew she was probably being too cautious- what were the chances she came across a random rural pony, what further chance that pony knew the news from Canterlot? But considering the insane things which had happened with the shapeshifter, Lyra was probably never going to let her guard down for the rest of her life.

Still, she had lived. She had gotten away like she had promised she would. It didn't feel like a victory. The last time she had seen Pon-3 and Octavia they were fighting for their lives. They were probably dead, or captured and soon to be dead.
So Lyra's mood turned listless and muddied, self-pitying and flaring into useless anger. She was alone in the mountains, alive, and regretting it.

What was ahead for her? It had been a long time since Lyra had possessed something akin to independence. It was overwhelming. She was barely managing to motivate herself to forage.

Who could she listen to anymore? Who's orders could she find solace in?

Fancy Pants- dead
Phyte- would never let her return
Any other Canterlot official- would have her head on a pike

"Am I the kind of idiot who 'needs' a master? How pathetic." Lyra muttered. The fire crackled and faded. She added more twigs. "Maybe the new vizier would be understanding. Maybe... the princess would believe me." She shook her head. "Useless hope. Useless thoughts I've had before."

If a trainwreck like Pon-3 had survived in exile, Lyra could too.
But with the weight of an unplaceable psychic guilt on her, could Lyra make it out of Equestria? Would a vengeful empire kill her first, or her own psychosis?

Lyra sat back from the fire and stared into the night sky. The moon was hanging over Canterlot, staring back.
The shapeshifter's gleeful words echoed in her head. "Do you Envy me yet, Moon?" Lyra whispered along with the terrible memory.

Lyra pulled a hooffull of flowers and berries out of her bag and began to eat. When her appetite failed her halfway through the meal she tossed the rest into the fire in disgust.

"Witness my sacrifice to you, Moon." Lyra recited. She hated herself more than she could fathom. She knew she didn’t deserve to eat. She wanted to starve. There was no future for her, only a haunting past, a specter that would creep up on her and devour her.

As Lyra curled up for an early sleep, clouds from the east began to gather over the hills below. The wind picked up, pushing the clouds up and over the mountain ridge in wispy strands. It began to drizzle a cold rain, beating down the sizzling embers of the fire.

The specter was closing in for sure. Lyra wondered if she would perish of hypothermia and exposure before the morning. She wanted to wither into nothing. Yes let me wither, like so many others before have done!
She pulled her coat closer, even as the rain soaked it.

She had not yet begun to dream when something awoke her. Was it ponies hunting for her?!
Paying closer attention, Lyra identified a crackling sound loud enough to be heard over the drizzling rain. Lyra got up and dragged herself through the mud to see that the fire pit was dead as should have been expected, but the mysterious sound of fire still tickled in her ears.

"Wait..." Lyra scowled. "That's... that's what dragonfire sounds like."

A pinprick of green light winked into existance over Lyra's head, casting an eerie glow over the conifers and glade.
Dragonfire! Dragonfire! But who?

The pinpoint suddenly expanded into green inferno that lit up the mountaintop in blinding glory. That ball of molten magic fire hovered in the air for a moment, torturing Lyra's with its unbearable heat, before burning itself out. In its place, a small scroll hovered in the air, before gravity took hold and it was deposited in the mud.

Lyra snatched up the scroll before it could be too badly damaged by the mud. Only a few ponies had dragonfire. Fewer had it to spare on sending her messages. And how had they determined her location? Scrying? A hidden magic beacon?

The Musician's Guild was the obvious first thought. They had the dragonfire cages, after all.

"No... It's from..." Lyra rolled the scroll so she could inspect the wax seal binding: A five-point star, falling to the earth. Lyra instantly recognized it from her research for Fancy Pants. "House Twilight."
Twilight Velvet was reaching out.

You were at the unicorn school at the same time as my daughter.
I remember you as a bright young filly. Your mother and I had several cheerful conversations.
Alas I was only too sad to hear when you fell in with that Star, Phyte,
And too glad when you fell out with her.
But as a mother with experience in how a filly handles that kind of thing, I still sympathize.

Unfortunately the saccharine moment can't last. If fate had allowed us, I would have invited you over for tea and conversation. I know you were investigating me for your late master. I know you did not kill him.
We have to be mares of buisness now. We have had previous dealings. I was a stakeholder in the dragonfire heist you pulled with the Artist's Guild- Thusly I can send these messages.

I can send something bigger too. You know who I mean.

But reviving somepony 'from the dead' does not come cheep. I have a job for you, guild mare.
Two lives, for two lives. I didn't plan it this way, but I think it is more than fair. I will even give you one in advance.
If you accept this offer, pour the vial over the scroll, then burn it.

You can refuse if you like, but then I will have to find some other use for these lives.
I look forward to your prompt reply, Mis Heartstrings.

"Octavia!" Lyra cried out, crumpling the parchment slightly with her shaking hooves.
HOW? How had her friend survived and ended up in Twilight Velvet's captivity?

There were no questions in Lyra’s mind now. The doubts and melancholy evaporated.

On second look, a small red vial had fallen into the mud when she'd unrolled the scroll. Lyra picked it up, noting how much like blood the viscous liquid within appeared.

"Accursed mare." Lyra said with a certain gleeful venom. She glanced up to the moon, and silently thanked it for rewarding her sacrifice. "I will accept your job, Lady Twilight Velvet. It is indeed a fair recompense."

She uncorked the vail of red liquid and let it dribble onto the parchment. It immediately sunk in, leaving no stain. But how to light it on fire? The fire pit was flooded, and there was no sufficient shelter for miles. If she was going to light it right away as she wanted, it was going to take magic; For Lyra that meant a lot of raw energy.

Lyra was, frankly, bad at magic. Lifting a laden saddlebag was just about the limit of her ability. But right now she had determination and intensity, and she let the pure force of will push her past her comfort zone.

She began to focus intently.
The scroll began tremble in Lyra’s hold. It ripped in places as her precision faltered. She began to grind her teeth as her tense muscles began to quiver. But the scroll began to steam slightly.

In a last push, she yelped into the rainy night. It was enough! A single spark on the corner, and the scroll erupted into infernal green flame.

Lyra collapsed, sucking in air. "Pshh, easy." She whispered weakly. "Ponies... study magic for their whole lives, and I just..." She didn't have the energy to continue to silly boast.

Then, there was a crackle in the air again. Another dragonfire message- The unholy fire roiled to life, a far bigger inferno than for the scroll.
The flame receded and something big fell into the mud with a wet splat.

"L- Lyra..." Something moaned in the dark.

"Yeah, I'm here." Lyra pulled herself over to the pony. "Sorry It's too cold. Gotta... conserve heat."
The two mares clung together and passed out soon after.

The wind from the east ended, and the clouds settled back over the hills, ending the rain over the mountains. They were left in the glade under the watchful moon.

The weather was much worse further north, over the plateau of Canterlot. Winds rushing up from the Canter whipped over the city walls, blowing the rain horizontally. Ponies ran for shelter in the entrances of the homes and shops. Inter-cloud Lightning illuminated the rooftops. It was quite the storm.

The monk Manered hobbled along the Old Town streets, one hoof gripping the edge of his hood to keep it in place against the wind and rain. "I'm surprised the weather factory let it get this bad." He wondered if he would have to spend the night in the city. It would be a punishing climb back to the monastery otherwise.

If it was clear, the shops and venues of the Old Town would stay open long into the night, but with the storm everything was closed and battened down.
Still, some of the shopfront windows displayed their wares, and Manered's eyes naturally gravitated to the alluring bourgeois luxuries he passed- Intricate mechanical watches, golden candelabras, realistic landscape paintings, bejewel clothing, diadems and brooches... They sparkled in the lightning's light, drawing conspicuous attention to themselves.
Manered pulled down the hood of his plain brown robe a little farther. Monks were supposed to be content with asceticism. It was virtuous to be humble. The Sun's guiding light was enough for a pony of faith.

In the hours without her light, sinister temptation clawed.

"That's why we stay in the monastery up on the mountain, away from sin." Manered set his eyes straight ahead. He passed stores with exotic wares, camel coffee and Zebrastani tea and hippogriffic candies. He passed inventors' shops with intricate mechanisms that boggled the mind, and printing shops with news from overseas. None of it was for him. It was required of him that he pay no mind at all to a rich and dynamic world, rushing past. "Away from the past and future."

If only there were no past and future, he wouldn't have needed to descend into Canterlot on his way to the castle.

But was it wrong to even feel the temptation, the longing? Manered had come with no money, not even a coinpurse. "Like a eunuch." He chuckled to himself, finishing the obscene comparison in his head.
He'd once owned a purse finer than any of the things he had walked past, the envy of all his friends, made of silk and garnished with dragonpearls. What had become of the pony who had been so proud to own a thing like that? Unfortunately perhaps, he was still that pony.

Such thoughts preoccupied Manered until he reached Canterlot Castle.
There was a pair of Imperial Household Guard knights flanking the door, standing firm against the whipping rain in parkas, steadying themselves with their spears. Though their faces were hidden under the hoods of their parkas, Manered felt their eyes upon him as he approached.

Wordlessly, Manered pulled open the castle doors enough to slip inside. The winds pushed it closed behind him with a thud.

A dozen more guards were sitting around just inside. They all turned to look at him.

"A solar monk? But it's after dark." One of them chuckled.

One of the knights, their leader, Manered recognized.
"Check him for weapons." Shining Armor set his mug down and stood up. "Under the robes too."

Manered hesitated. "Perhaps I should have sent a letter." He gulped. He unclasped his overcoat and bundled it up. "Traditionally, bhikkhus do not submit themselves to savaka interference."

"Traditionally, Viziers don't get murdered." Shining Armor countered. "If you don't want to be 'interfered' with, turn around and leave."

"I understand sir knight, I was just... speaking out of a certain personal discomfort of mine." Manered cleared his throat. He set down the overcoat and allowed himself to be patted-down by one of the knights.

"Not surprising cloistered monks would have a thing about touching." The knight doing the pat-down joked.

"I am here to deliver crucial information to the court." Manered continued to address Shining Armor, who was identifiably in charge.

Shining nodded to the other knights to let Manered approach. "Oh yes, urgent information too, I would surmise. But it is long after hours. Court adjourns at sundown, you know."

Manered nervously pivoted back and forth on his hooves. "This is true, sir. I will not speak indirectly then. Court or not, my information must reach the princess."

The knights mumbled amongst themselves, either skeptically or worriedly.

Shining Armor sighed. "This would usually be a job for the vizier. As it stands it is my duty to make sure the princess knows what she needs to know."

"I can escort him if you want to head back to the barracks for sleep, sir." One of the knights, a pegasus, offered.

Shining shook his head. "Maybe next time. In my absence you take watch lead, Sir Sentry. Sir Vanguard, you take fourth watch if I'm not back by then." He gestured for Manered to follow him, and set out into the castle's grand hall.

Nopony had lit any candles around the castle, so the halls were obtrusively dark. Like the streets outside, constant lightning flashes only the only illumination.
"Truthfully, brother, there is court being held right now." Shining Armor said. "The princess is holding a special meeting on account of the storm."

"Really?" Manered blinked. It made him suddenly uncomfortable to think that the raging storm outside was had not been planned by the weather factory.

"Yes, but keep that to yourself." Shining said.

Trotting the halls towards the throne room, Manered tried to think of where he had seen the stallion before. Was this not Lady Twilight Sparkle's brother? The lad had occasionally accompanied his sister on visits to the Solar Monastery library, years previous. Manered had not been in the monastery long at that point, and he remembered his past envy towards the dashing noble colt, a squire in training.
"Sir, we've met before." Manered said. "I don't think we ever talked, though."

"Yes I remember you, brother. Sorry, I was waiting to see if you said something." Shining nodded. "I don't know the rules around that kind of think in your order."

"It is true that outside connections are discouraged, but disallowing acquaintances is plain impossible." Manered said with a slight grin. "Things are well with you and your sister, sir?"

"Good enough. Twilight was promoted. She's on imperial assignment in the Dneighper Valley now." Shining said.

Manered cooed. "Wow, good for her. She deserves it. She gave no indication when I last spoke with her, about a month ago. In fact, she seemed to be heading into a new personal project. Ahh, but that is neither here nor there."

Shining said nothing, silently fitting that fact into the interconnected web of information he was forming about the general pandemonium and confusion in Canterlot.

The throne room was dark as well, but as it featured stained glass along the opposing lengths, the lightning flashes were much brighter if more scattered. It was a chaotic display.
There were only a few other ponies there: Manered could faintly discern the alicorn on the throne, flanked by IHG knights. There was a lone pegasus supplicant.

"Should we approach?" Manered whispered to Shining.

"Think you can contribute to a conversation about weather engineering?" Shining retorted.

Manered was silent for a moment. "Sir, would you believe that the urgent news I bear is related, if faintly, to this storm?"

Shining side-eyed the monk. "No."

Manered felt a little betrayed. He had suffered the pat-down and the knight still didn't trust him? "Fine." It was not the time to play his cards close to his chest. "Solar Monasteries track the sun, as you well know. What you may not know is that solar energy is the root cause of weather."

Shining Armor did not want to be pestered about it any more, so he silently led the monk closer to the throne.
The lightning was getting closer, crackling over Canterlot as the stormclouds broke around the Mountain. Everything in the room rattled and vibrated.

Manered stopped in place. "Wait a second..." The outline of the pony on the throne was much too small.

"That's the Junior Princess. I apologize for not making that clear before." Shining said.

Manered scratched his head. "Sir, I alluded to the role of the sun in this urgent message of mine."

"Do not disrespect the Junior Princess. Her highness Princess Celestia is occupied." Shining said. It didn't need to be mentioned that Celestia was probably still up on the Southern Watchtower.

Manered had come too far, and couldn't think of another excuse. Seeing the mare filled him with a deep uncertainty, like the sight of the exotic Old Town wares. It had been years since he'd seen the junior princess.
Though Manered had to admit, as they approached the throne closer, that Princess Cadenza did look properly regal and authoritative in that vaunted seat, flanked by soldiers. The low light was doing her many favors though, obscuring the proportions of how much larger the throne was than the alicorn.

Now that they were closer to the pegasus supplicant, Manered could make out their voice against the echoes and the thunder. As would be expected, it was the voice of Nimbus Duster, Canterlot’s chief meteorologist and the factor of the Canterlot Weather Factory. Manered did not know Nimbus Duster personally, but the Solar Monastery collaborated with the weather factory on important occasions like holidays, making sure the local pegasi did not make a holy day cloudy or some such. While not nearly the size of the massive Cloudsdale weather facility, Canterlot's cloud workshop provided for the principality's needs well enough.

Manered heard Cadenza's voice as well, heightening the fear in his heart. Cadence... She was associated with old memories, some good, some bad- Best forgotten, best left behind, as expected for the cloister.

Cadenza was learning forward, emphasizing some point she was making to the hapless Nimbus Duster. "You can not completely offload your responsibility, Factor. You have only talked about other ponies' faults for this event, and none of your own."

Nimbus Duster was nervous, given he was getting the full scrutiny of an alicorn. "We are too weak, and that is a fault. I can only work with that I have."

"Weakness is not a failing. It is, as her highness would say, the reason for ponykind's wardship under alicorn rule. It is just a fact." Cadence replied.
Shining's ears tingled at her words. It was marvelous and maybe disconcerting how quickly Cadence had taken up the courtly rhetorical style Celestia used; allegory-riven, understanding but also firm.
"However, ponies giving less than their ability, shirking and leaving others to struggle, is a dire failing. That is why I want you to be more precise about the Canterlot Weather Factory's role in this storm, Factor." Cadence continued. "When did you become aware of it?"

"Not an hour before sunset, princess. A letter was manually delivered from the Fourth Ford factory. They don't have any dragonfire, you see. It has to be conveyed by pegasi or airship." Nimbus Duster said. He still seemed determined to pivot the topic away from himself. "The Fourth Ford factor was also blindsided because a warning from Baltimare didn't arrive until after the storm left the Crystal Valley."

Cadence's expression couldn't be discerned in the dark, but Shining imagined it was annoyed. "Where is the letter?"

"Well, I... had it in my pocket when my team and I when out to delay the front." Nimbus Duster cleared his throat. "It is a bit of a soggy mess now, in the other jacket, because I changed into this dry one when-"

Candence tapped her hoof on the rest of the throne. "Fine, fine. Tell us about these delaying measures."

"They were ineffective. My ponypower was too low, and the front had picked up a tremendous amount of momentum."Numbus Duster explained. "I have some charts drawn up. They are at the factory if you would like to see them.”

"We shall be reviewing them later." Cadence nodded. She paused, formulating a question the pegasus could not deflect from. "What would you have done, if you were in Baltimare, where you say this storm originated?"

"I would..." Duster bit his lip. "Not be understaffed? It's a ponypower issue there too. The letter- If I had it, it would explain how they lost a very good weatherpony two weeks ago."

"Why?" Cadence demanded.

"The demand for weatherponies is much higher than supply. Pegasi are going into the Cloudsdale commodity factories rather than weather training. Those who are trained stay in Cloudsdale, where they have an established labor movement." Nimbus Duster was suddenly a lot more engaged. "Corvee weatherponies don't cut it. I don't want to talk bad about my home town, but Cloudsdale is letting the rest of us languish. They need to give us more trained ponies."

Cadence nodded, pleased to be getting somewhere. "How many other factors would echo that sentiment?"

Nimbus Duster froze. "T- Thats a political question." He cleared his throat. "Sorry I, well, only shared my opinion, you see. This is a private, secret meeting, right?" He glanced back at Shining Armor and Manered, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw neither were pegasi. "Princess, in my official role of factor, I fully defer to Cloudsdale. Let it never be said otherwise. Please."

"Okay I get it. Just-" Cadence's royal facade was faltering. "Cursorily address damage and mitigation, please."

“Flooding could be a very real threat in the Canter. There may be landslides in the valley and the Don, especially over-exploited soils on the noble estates.” Nimbus Duster rattled off. “There are storm cells over the Everfree that could combine with this storm. That means torrential rain in the Ponyville region."

"Will giving you extra pegasi prevent any of that?" Cadence asked.

Nimbus Duster shrugged. "As I said princess, untrained pegasi are not much help, especially for a storm this strong. They'd just get hurt." He tapped his chin. "Do you know any weather spells, princess?"

Shining strode around Nimbus Duster and stood between him and the throne. "Do not waste any more of the princesses time with that inanity. This audience is over. Go out and do your duty."

Nimbus Duster stepped back from the assertive unicorn. "I- I understand. Thank you for the audience, your grace." He backed away, then departed the throne room.

Manered found it to be exceedingly daring the way Shining Armor was speaking for the princess.

"Going to blame him, Baltimare, or Cloudsdale?" Shining turned to the princess.

“Why does somepony need to be at blame?” Cadence asked, sounding tired. As opposed to the firm formality she had displayed for Nimbus Duster, speaking to Shining she was immediately more casual.

"It is a soldier's opinion that fault for an intolerable failure must be found somewhere, even if it is spread over a hundred ponies. In fact, the more dispersed the blame, the more negligent the leader actually is." Shining Armor said. “Equestria has had mastery over its weather for a thousand years. Letting a like this storm punish us is humiliating."

"That is your opinion. I feel fine." Cadence said, leaning back in the throne. She did not sound fine.

On some subtle cue from Shining Armor, the other two IHG knights descended the dais and left the throne room too, leaving Cadence, Shining Armor, and Manered the only ponies there.

"Did I ask for that, Shining?" Cadence asked, getting slightly testy.

"My opinion or the privacy?" Shining Armor countered.

Cadence grunted. "Why do you want to control me all of a sudden? Don't tell me you're taking inspiration from your mom's speech from this morning."

"I beg you not say that again, princess. I am doing my duty, like we all should." Shining said.

"You can't give that as the answer to everything. It's going to drive me insane. Duty, duty, duty..." Cadence shook her head. "This is stressful and I need more support from you, not more... more problems, okay? I don't want to have to worry about your intentions too."

Shining was getting cross. "Now you wish to be in charge, princess?"

Not only was the knight being daring, Manered realized, but nearly insubordinate. It was almost impressive. It would have made for an interesting show if Manered didn't have his oh-so important information to deliver.

“The court trots all over you. Princess Celestia would never let them get away with that.” Shining continued.

Cadence sighed. “I can’t believe you right now. I thought I was doing you a favor. I thought you wanted me to help the ponies."

”Helping ponies is the outcome of governing well. If we had a vizier, they would agree." Shining said.

Cadence scoffed. "If that pretend vizier were you, without a doubt. That's you mother talking through you."

“You could stand to take a page from her book and-” Shining stopped himself before he said more. He straightened himself. "Princess, if I am in the wrong, direct me to do otherwise. I serve at your pleasure."

Cadence rubbed her cheek in frustration. "You can be such a pain. Shining, I just want to see the pony you brought with you. I must get to bed."

Manered pulled himself to his hooves and advanced to the base of the throne.
“I have news, and I need to see Princess Celestia.” He disclosed.

“I told you, Junior Princess Cadenza perfectly capable of handling any issue you may present.” Shining said.

“Respectfully, not where questions of destiny arise.” Manered hesitated.

“You insolent-”

Cadence cast a light spell, illuminating what was otherwise only seen in the flashes of lightning: the red trim of Manered’s robe.

"Welcome, brother of the Solar Monestary." Cadence said, her formal tone returning. "I recognize you, but I know not from whence."

"Yes princess. But it escapes me as well." Manered lied. He turned his face to the floor to hide his burning cheeks and swell of unease. The past was best locked away for a monk... She was his liege, nothing more. "Another life, perhaps? Alas I come for trouble in this life."

"Trouble." Cadence repeated. She glanced at Shining who gave her a nod. "Proceed, solar brother."

Manered nodded. “Were that I could point to clear skies to make my point princess, but this tempest..." He shook his head. "You see princess, our heavenly Sun is rebelling.”

The regular tick-tock of the Golden Oak's wall clock was the only sound as Twilight slowly plotted out the data from her day's investigation into the nightmare melody.

The night wore on, and Twilight became more tired. She put down her quill and focussed on the clock's repetitious sound for a few minutes. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. One click about every second.

Spike looked over the top of his book at Twilight spacing out. "Hey."

Twilight jolted back to reality, blinking rapidly. "Hey yourself." She said, clearing her throat. "Finish your chapter yet?"

"I'm halfway through." Spike said. "You're not sending me to bed alone. You look like you're going to fall over."

Twilight looked down at her work.
Although she had recorded different places where she had experienced the nightmare melody, trying to determine the direction of its source was not proving easy. The arc was too wide, and there was no harmonic overlap between the measurements. It didn't make sense. Could the melody be originating from multiple sources?

"Going to bed early has never paid off for me. I'm at my best when I'm half insane from sleep deprivation." Twilight joked. "I keep trying methods. Calculus and imaginary numbers aren't helping me, and they're usually very forthcoming."

Spike closed his book and a closer look at the curves Twilight had drawn. "Yeah, I have no idea what I'm looking at." He looked back to Twilight. "And your secrecy doesn't help with that."

Twilight frowned. "This is dangerous information I'm dealing with. I promise I will tell you everything when I know its safe." She folded up her papers, not that Spike was at risk of suddenly realizing that she was trying to identify frequencies of Dark magic. "Little dragon boys are resilient, but not against everything."

"How about little fillies?" Spike countered. "I don't even mean you, but the Ponyville mares. Mis Rarity, Mis Applejack, Mis Fluttershy, Mis Pie-"

"Yes I know their names now." Twilight interrupted. "I will tell them too, exactly when they need to know."

Spike crossed his arms. "You don't trust me."

"I trust you implicitly, Spike. This stuff is..." Twilight wondered if she should tell him the whole truth, and explain the prophesy and historical references to the Nightmare Pretender, and the deadly dream in the ruin, and the nightmare melody only she heard. "It could maybe get me in trouble. I have to keep it to myself to give everypony plausible deniability. Basically, I have to disarm the potential trouble before I let anypony know."

"Are you doing heretical stuff again?" Spike demanded, puffing up his cheeks. "I hate when you leave me out of the cool stuff!"

"If I thought you would help me, I would have included you already." Twilight said. Immediately realizing how insulting it sounded, she put on an apologetic smile and levitated Spike's book to her side. "Keep up with your studies, and you will be able to contribute to this high-level stuff. You know I completely rely on you when it comes to the tedious stuff. When you lean the material, I'm sure I'll be relying on you for magic studies too."

Spike allowed himself to accept the compliment. "Yeah yeah." He said with a goofy grin. He plucked his book out of Twilight's telekinesis and plodded towards the stairs. "I'll never out-argue you, that's for sure. I guess I lied, and I'm going to bed without you."

"Good night Spike. I will be done here soon." Twilight nodded.

Tick, tock, tick, tock ,tick, tock. Twilight caught herself spacing out again. It was starting to get gusty outside.
"Another storm?" Twilight whispered to herself.

Her candles had almost completely burned down.

Twilight felt something... a distant rhythm. Louder, louder it grew in her head. A thrum of strings, drawing back and forth in time with the grandfather clock.
The Nightmare Melody had come for Twilight again.

"Impossible." Twilight said breathlessly. She unfolded out her papers, scanning the plotted curves for anything that would suggest that the melody would be able to reach into Ponyville. "Completely impossible. The source would have to be moving closer."
She tried to stand up, but instead Twilight passed out. She fell onto her side, immediately in a deep sleep.

The candle burned out.

Chapter 8: Heathens

Twilight awoke, already soaked through from the rain.

There was no prelude this time. No build-up of a journey through the Everfree Forest. Twilight was already at the dream's destination.
The Everfree Castle, cracked and grey, loomed around her. Twilight recognized the colonnaded space and shattered roof of the ruined throne room. Rainwater pattered and pooled on the broken floor tiles.

How dark, how bleak. Right in front of Twilight was the object of her search for the past weeks, the obsidian Nightmare Altar, looming over the room at the edge of the raised dais.

"Check, one two." Twilight stood up and exercised her limbs. Like the last time, it felt very real. There was none of the cloudiness and indistinctness of a normal dream. It was a perfect simulation of reality.
"Or maybe just a simulacra. I don't know that this throne room is reflected in reality." Twilight reminded herself.

Lastly, Twilight tried to summon up her magic, and felt a swell of discomfort in her horn. The magical currents were too tumultuous. Once again Twilight was helpless, lacking her greatest talent.

For a while, Twilight just stood and stared at the obsidian altar, wondering what to do. There was probably no leaving the confines the dream placed on her. It had intentions, and goal. It wanted her to interact with the altar again.
It wanted her to summon the Nightmare alicorn.

Twilight shivered, remembering how the demon alicorn had killed her last time.
"If I sit here forever, will I eventually wake up on my own?" Twilight wondered. She idly fussed with her wet mane as she thought. "Will the altar compel me psychically again?"

Those questions aside, Twilight could not deny that she wanted to summon the alicorn again, at least a little bit. It was, recalling her previous thoughts, like a chained tiger. Yes it was a chained GOD, with hellacious powers and an immortal anger! Such a thing should have been revolting and terrifying to Twilight, and it was.
It was also enticing, a little taboo, and... lucrative. If Twilight alone had been summoned to witness the alicorn, was there something she could gain from it, at great risk?

Twilight laughed nervously. Was she going to do it? She shouldn't... It was so beyond the pale! How could she even begin to describe to somepony how or why she had cavorted with a Dark goddess. What would Celestia think?
Celestia...

The painful, shattered-glass voice whispered in Twilight's ear. “Act upon something greater, broader, and discover you can not." The voice said, taunting her. “Thus it is, that at their best, ponies can not even change themselves, let alone the world.”

Twilight felt a surge of indignant annoyance that the Nightmare had interrupted her introspection. "You damned thing, leave me. I still don't want to be here." She said, slowly approaching it.

"Such is life, but also death." The horrible voice was smug.

Twilight tried to summon up more anger but found that the cold rain was washing all that out of her. She sighed in resignation. She'd felt so confident before, but the prospect of actually confronting the alicorn sucked it out of her. She stepped closer to the obsidian altar. "Tell me you name.”

The altar cackled. “Oh, this is very clever. You are recreating the pact we had. Do you wish to see me?"

"Tell me your name." Twilight repeated, firmer.

The voice turned serious. "Will you tell me yours in return?”

“Yes.” Twilight lied, reestablishing the summoning pact.

In a muted flash of blue magic, a patch of clear sky was punched through the clouds, allowing a silken thread of magic to tether the dark altar to the heavens. The light bloomed, brighter, brighter until it encapsulated half the dais.
When it faded, the hulking phantom stood before the thrones once more. The Nightmare of the Moon opened its eyes and turned them to Twilight.

“Hello again.” Twilight said cautiously. She was thankful the altar had not grabbed her by the horn this time.

The Nightmare wasted no time in seizing the small unicorn in her magic. “A corpse like you should stay on the ground. Was thirteen nights not enough for you?” She said. "My impression of you thus far, pony, is almost entirely negative. History and I would have rather have forgotten you."

Twilight struggled against the invisible hand strangling her without any real expectation of escape. “Let me- urg- go, and I'll leave.”

“Bah! Shameless liar.” Nightmare tossed Twilight across the room.

Twilight had landed under one of the intact patches of roof, and was partially concealed from both the rain and the alicorn. She coughed painfully. "Asshole!" Twilight shouted.

"Are you a typical specimen of your kind, little pony? You ponies must have be propagating under the misrule of a lax shepherd indeed!" The Nightmare shouted back, pacing back and forth. "Does your master let you talk that way to her? Does she not whip you when you disrespect her? Pitiful, decedent liberality. Your species needs discipline."

Twilight rolled to her hooves. The dream was a little too real at hurting her, as a piercing pain in her side reminded. "Urg..." Twilight stayed under the patch of roof. "I bet you belted your children and kicked your dogs too. You're just a rude sociopath. It's no wonder you don't get other visitors."

“DO NOT PRESUME TO BE FAMILIAR WITH ME!” Nightmare screamed, raging mad at the insults. A halo of lightning arced from her to the stones around her, fizzling on the puddles. "Worthless ingrate. I would kill you a dozen more times if it would produce better company for me. I do not like the look of you. I do not like the sight of you. You smell... You smell like... You are just disgusting."

Twilight pulled herself around a collapsed column to avoid Nightmare’s gaze catching her. She had to be cautious, lest she be caught underestimating the dark alicorn again. "But the fact stands that you're chained to a chunk of rock and I'm not.”

“AAAAAAGGGGGGG!” Nightmare howled in anger, and more electricity scattered around the room. The nightmare ran at the boundary between her and the rest of the throne room, straining madly as it held her back. The alicorn's shadowy phantasmal shape warped as the magical tendrils pulled her back within her invisible cell.

Then, unexpectedly, the nightmare alicorn calmed down. She looked back towards the obsidian altar, then forward. She sat on her haunches and narrowed her sights on Twilight's hiding place. "You do not have the makings of a jester, pony. You have been coddled too much, or you would have been told to be more forthright, and speak the truth without your too-witty embellishment."

Twilight was coming to expect the rapid shifts in behavior. The alicorn was fickle and unstable indeed. So, Twilight showed herself, stepping from behind a collapsed column so the nightmare could see her. "If I'm going to anger you no matter what I say, I might as well gratify myself through this experience." She paused. "I'm not trying to be a jester."

"I can tell you are used to self-gratification. Another consequence of your decedent, un-disciplined life." The Nightmare said, sitting in place, staring Twilight down. "I consider it false bravado too. You hope to hide that you are afraid."

The nightmare seemed to have an obsession with fear. Considering their mythological association with fear and other Dark concepts, it was to be expected. "I haven't hidden that. You are a mighty creature." Twilight said. "If you want me to suffer instead of fear, I won't help you with that." She considered her next words. "If you wish for me to respect you, rather than fear you, we can both hope that comes in time.

The Nightmare sat in stone silence.

Was the silence a good sign or a bad sign? Twilight was going to try some conversation prompts. "I asked some of the peasants about the mare you asked about, with the coal-black fur. Nopony had seen her. Is she dangerous? If she is, please tell me more about her so I can narrow down her location."

The Nightmare dipped her nose, a glower coming over her features.

That topic was a non-starter then. "Look, I'm sorry for being sarcastic before. I have no ego to try and impress you or get one over on you. I just want to understand what's going on." She stepped forward, out from under the shadow of the roof remnants, into the moonlight. "I do not want to have to fear you."

"That is most contemptible of all. You are desperate to assuage the least discomfort." The Nightmare huffed. However, she did not summon the moonlight to bind Twilight again. "Get it through your head, pony. Your very presence is disrespect of the highest order."

"And you can't get rid of me, and you can't express your displeasure. Yes, I understand." Twilight nodded.

"I assure you, you do not understand." The Nightmare said. "What do you take me for? I am not your neighbor, or a tavern conversation partner. I am the Moon. If you gave me due respect you would not even open your mouth."

"I remember you aggressively pushing me to talk last time." Twilight said. The nightmare was infuriatingly self-contradictory. "I should give up trying to find out what you want or expect from me."

"YES, YOU SHOULD." The Nightmare bellowed. "I am not an object for your examination. I am the MOON PRINCESS. Turn your eyes to the floor and keep them there. They are not worthy to see me." She at waved Twilight dismissively. "Better still, go back behind that rubble so I do not have to see you either! We will be separated as it should be."

Twilight hesitated for a second, but seeing that the nightmare was completely serious, she shuffled backwards and returned to the hiding spot behind the collapsed columns.

In the shadow of the ruin, out of the light of the moon,Twilight sat against the cold stone wall and sighed. Slowly, the fear and tension in her body went away.
Twilight closed her eyes. Dealing with the nightmare... it reminded her of the arguments she would get in with Celestia, in the last days as her direct pupil just before she left for the University. They would snipe at each other, tersely, icily, trying to get the other to trip into some hypocrisy. It was one of the worse times in Twilight's life, having to deal with a princess she didn't trust every single day, but looking back it felt almost nostalgic.

"I can hear you thinking. I see her through your reminiscences of her." The Nightmare's gravelly whisper echoed through the silent ruin. "You really can not help yourself. Everything you do infuriates me so much."

"It would be better if fate had allowed us to stay apart." Twilight said sourly.

"Speak not of fate. That is her domain. Mine is the antithesis." Nightmare said. Her voice turned to a mechanical chanting. "Come onto me, the powers of my aspect, of martial forces of war, of slaughter, of ambition. I will rise again to bear aloft the banner of Dark. Let evil be known and understood. Let me embody it all, the totality of sin. I will slaughter, heedless of sense and civilization. That is my calling. That is my birthright. Under the bloody Nacre star I will let mortals have their Dreams again."

Such horrible words. Twilight felt like she was going to be sick. "If you returned to the world, you would try to take over the world again?"

The Nightmare's chanting turned to a throaty hum for a few more minutes. "I am an alicorn. I already own my own part of the world. Being unable to manifest in the Waking World is of little concern to me." She stopped humming. "I am as free as I could ever desires."

That was obviously not entirely true. However Twilight did not want to start pressing on the past, especially not about the Everfree War, considering how much of a sore spot Celestia seemed to be.
"What would make you happy?"

"You think me a child, to ask me such idiotic things?" The Nightmare hissed.

Twilight sighed and kicked at a pebble. "Nightmare, this whole thing with you being summoned by the altar portends something worse. I have to use my foreknowledge of your return to prevent as much harm as I can. Either I stop you, or... mitigate you, or something like that."

The nightmare alicorn was silent for a while. "Repeat that in front of me, pony." She said.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "You're just going to yell at me again."

"No I will not yell. I swear it." The Nightmare said. "Come forth, please."

After so much aggression and standoffishness, the 'please' was unexpected and alarming. All the same, there was a sinister allure to the alicorn's words, a divine seductiveness to mirror the divine rage. That what was enticing.
"Nightmare," Twilight got up, and against her better judgement, stepped out into the moonlight. "I said that I must prevent the harm you could do to ponykind."

The Nightmare of the Moon was still sitting in place. "Closer." She said.

Twilight obliged, trotting to within two meters of the demon alicorn. "Nightmare- Princess," Twilight corrected herself, remembering the preferred title. "I am concerned that you present a danger to ponykind. I will do what I must."

Now Twilight was close enough to read the expression on the phantasmal face of the other mare. "Closer." Nightmare repeated.

"I-" Twilight cleared her throat and stepped right up to the Nightmare. Sitting, the alicorn was almost twice as tall as Twilight was standing. "I am a vassal of the princess of the sun. If you intend to harm her, or her subjects, I am oathbound to be your enemy." Twilight said, shaking a bit.

"Yes, you are." Nightmare said, her unblinking gaze peering through Twilight. "Do you want her to laud you? Do you want her to thank and adore you? It is not for the precious ponykind that you say such things. It is for your own sake. You have no love for ponykind... And that is why I think I am beginning to trust you, pony."

Twilight felt stung. "You don't know anything." She barked.

Nightmare chuckled. "Heh heh heh. You have a noblepony of high education. You have a mild Canterlot accent and your physiology is reminiscent of a Foal unicorn. You led a solitary youth. You have a complicated relationship with maternal figures, sisterly figures, brotherly figures... ohh, but such is the life of a noble where fratricide is so common, nay?"

"Get out of my head!" Twilight tried to shove Nightmare, but the alicorn did not budge, and Twilight lost her balance and fell backwards instead.

Nightmare kept chuckling. "Heh heh. But I can not gleam your name. Nor can I be sure why you, of all the sycophantic servants of the sun, were cursed and bound here. Nothing about you is especially uncommon, so far. Yet here you are, before me, the Moon. It may be mere chance that it-" She motioned towards the obsidian altar. "summoned you here to be my prey. Or, there may be a reason."

Twilight stayed on the ground where she'd fallen. She was emotionally exhausted and did not want to be drawn into another argument.

However Nightmare was not satisfied with that. Despite her claims, she seemed displeased Twilight was no longer contributing to the conversation. "You are my foe, and I am yours. That much is clear. Wonderful, is it not, to have that unifying us? Even as different species we can feel the same emotions, reciprocated." Nightmare grabbed Twilight's forehoof in her telekinesis and lifted her up so they were face to face. "Is that not a conquest, in a way, to make you share my feelings?"

Twilight avoided matching Nightmare's stare with her own.

"I would not do this for just anypony, little mortal. Do not be coy with me." Nightmare insisted.

Undaunted, Twilight tried twisting her body and to kick herself back from Nightmare. Her hooves just bounced off the shadowy phantom's body. Then Twilight tried a spell. She could only manage a light spell, and only with great difficulty. How was the Nightmare using telekinesis when the magical currents were so chaotic?
"Having me in your grasp is what settles you down?" Twilight spat. "You just want a living punching-bag. You're sick. If i had my magic this would be another story, princess."

"Maybe. That would be a fun contest." Nightmare nodded. "But you don't, so it isn't." She tilted her head. "Call me princess again, and I will send you off painlessly this time."

Twilight glowered. "Bite me!"

The Nightmare of the Moon laughed. "I really do loathe you. You will awake, and enjoy the bright fields of flax and wheat, the marble halls, the warmth of civilization. I will go back to the moon, and there I will stay, until we are summoned here again."
Nightmare released Twilight. The unicorn fell onto her head, and lay dazed in the pooling rainwater. Nightmare pressed a hoof into Twilight's back. "Last chance to make it gentle, little pony."

It was extremely tempting. But despite there being little love lost between her and Celestia, Twilight was not about to repudiate the empire she'd lived under her whole life. Being an outright traitor to Celestia was nauseating to even consider.
It was better than things stayed where they were, and where they had been, in the realm of ambiguity.
So it was with the Moon alicorn. Twilight could call her an enemy, but still try to build some kind of accord.

"I might wake up and go about my buisness, but just like you, I'm going to be thinking about next time. And there is nothing either of us can do about it." Twilight said bitterly.

"Tshh, can't wait." The Nightmare grumbled.
She pressed her hoof down harder. Then, in a single motion, Nightmare bit Twilight's foreleg and ripped it off.

Twilight was too in shock and pain to react or speak. The Nightmare was saying something but she did not hear, and it she barely realized it when her other limbs were torn away before the alicorn murdered her.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

Twilight pulled her face off of her papers. It was nearly dawn.
"Bu-uuu-cking hell." Twilight groaned. She felt a tingle down her spine and at her shoulder joints. "I really hate that alicorn." It was going to be a miserable day.

By the time the sun rose, the storm over Canterlot had begun to peter out. The winds died down and the clouds cleared away, leaving a somewhat battered and very soaked city.
Celestia shook the water off her fur, and flapped her wings a few times to dry them out. Immortal did not make her waterproof, only water resistant. She peered over her nose at the streets below, where a light mist began to form.

Another day. Things going on around her, but only one purpose, one responsibility for her- to watch, and to keep away the visions.

There was somepony climbing the watchtower to see her, an unfamiliar aura, not a guard of castle staff.

Celestia reluctantly turned away from the southern skies to face the interloper right as they stepped out from the stairwell onto the top of the tower- They were an earth pony, dressed very plainly, a seemingly random civilian.

"Holy princess." The pony immediately bowed. "I beg your forgiveness for the intrusion. The guild mistress apologizes that it was necessary to trespass like this."

The guild mistress. Celestia remained motionless, prompting the messenger to continue only by her silence.

"The mistress has sent several letters. It is with regret and desperation that she requests an immediate audience."

Celestia turned away from the guild mare, and watched the mist over Canterlot for a few minutes longer.
"I have not the time for her."

From behind Celestia, there was a whistling sound, then a whoosh and pop of dragonfire. Celestia felt that another, more menacing presence had joined them on the watchtower.

"You may go. Do not let the guards see you." Guild mistress Phyte said, dismissing the underling. The guild mare quickly retreated down the tower.

"Why is there a Star in my castle?" Celestia mused.

"Because the vow of vassalage goes two ways, Celestiaan. You have responsibilities to me." Phyte was clearly angry, biting off the end of each word as she spoke them. "Face me princess. I will not speak to your back."

"Yes you would." Celestia tittered to herself. Still, she slowly faced the second interloper.

The tall red mare before her was nearly entirely concealed by her silky mane. Phyte’s eyes glowed a dark red out from under its shadow. Like Celestia herself, the creature before her was passingly equine.

"Have you added some height to yourself? That is very cheeky, Mis Phyte. You may come up to my chin soon." Celestia nettled. "You never come calling anymore. I hope you have not grown tired of the inconvenience of asking permission before killing my subjects."

"The only tired thing is this diversion. You do not raise a hoof when the ponies kill each other in drunken brawls and fits of passion. You scrutinize me because of make death rational and efficient." Phyte hissed. "Am I no longer useful to you in that role? You let me be abused, attacked, and tormented. My grief must mean nothing to you, Celestiaan."

The guild mistress was incapable of comprehending the hypocrisy. Celestia did not even both to press her on it. "I heard about Vinyl."

"Oh it is very well that the princess knows about a lynching happening under her snout." Phyte spat.

"Why was she in the city? She was paroled under strict terms, Star. I can not protect a cheat." Celestia said.

"I- I was anything but lax about her stupid decision to return! I was going to send her away again." Phyte insisted. "I will not accept any excuse that puts the blame on Vinyl for her own death." She stepped up to Celestia. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t exiled her.”

"We will not second-guess the decision we made ten years ago. I will not engage with hypotheticals. Be serious and talk of costs and consequences, Star." Celestia said firmly. "Your pony returned, illegally. I have heard that she was just as wild and out of control as she was before."

"Post-hoc nonsense, Celestia. You let this happen out of negligence. Your city is out of control." Phyte accused.

Celestia's regal and stoic demeanor shifted, and the slightest frown formed on her face. "It is unwise to question the control of the Sun's princess. Her domain is the fates of all things. Nothing is out of her control." Celestia paused, her momentary anger passing into bemusement. "And furthermore you should not deride she who can unmake you, Mis Phyte. You can voice your dissatisfaction without stooping to insults."

Phyte's red eyes glared out from under mane. "I am more than just a little dissatisfied, vaunted sun princess. If you are so in control, then you let them die."

"I let everything die. It is the way of things." Celestia agreed.

"I-" Phyte flashed her teeth. "You mock my grief."

"No. It is just that I do not understand it. Nor do you, for that matter. I see through you, Star. This is pure affectation." Celestia said. "You have no love in you, not for a single soul, not a single mortal. You love nothing, nothing except yourself, and you have no soul." The princess turned away, going back to watching the southing skies. "I know your late guild mares did not kill Sir Fancy Pants. In that sense, they died unjustly."

Phyte lurched forward, leaning over the edge of the tower to try to get Celestia attention again. "My mare spoke of a nightmare-"

"The murder was done by something evil, that much is clear. It lurks around us even at this moment." Celestia said, keeping her eyes on the sky as she spoke. "But that is of no concern to me yet. I will deal with the lurker when I feel like it."

"You will deal with me NOW, Celestiaan. This audience is NOT over." Phyte fumed. "Murderer be damned, your institutions of peace has murdered my mares, my precious Vinyl. I demand revenge."

"Do what you want, but stop bothering me." Celestia said.

"Oh, will you be so flippant if I revenge myself on the mare that your guards are scapegoating, Twilight Velvet? Maybe I will be unjust to your First Student's mother." Phyte hissed. "Would that stir you?"

"Did I mutter, Star? I said do what you want. Bother me no more. You are tiresome." Celestia spread her wings forward, blocking her face from Phyte's view.

Phyte took a few steps back, and stood awkwardly beside the stairs. "This- This is a breach of feudal contract, Celestiaan. This is treachery and treason. You will make an enemy of me with this kind of behavior." She threatened. "Do you hear me, alicorn? I said you will make an enemy of me. Your nation will have an enemy of me. You might be able to stand there ignoring me, but can your ponies?"

Celestia completely ignored the angry mare.

Phyte did not continue her ranting. They both knew talk was cheap. Phyte could make threats, but would she actually disrupt the institutions of peace? Not if she feared Celestia would come down on her with fire, seeming apathy or not. As with so many things, a veil of ambiguity protected the status quo.

There was no point even saying goodbye. Phyte could better spent her energy planning revenge on whomever she decided to victimize.
Her horn glowed with magic, producing a vial of dragonfire from the folds of her dress.

"Wait-" Celestia dropped her wings and looked back at Phyte. "The Stars. What are their movements?"

Phyte stared in silence for a while. The two creatures communicated wordlessly by their emotionless gazes, that no matter the squabbles and latest frustrations, that they were part of a much longer and more complicated game, above petty concerns about pony lives.
"Not much has changed in the past few years. Those in Equestria are languishing under your terms. Those overseas are causing havoc wherever they go." Phyte paused, going through her memory to consider if there was anything of particular note. "Black Bell has been a particular nuisance to Griffany, my sources say. You should consider using your colonial fleet to put her back in her place."

"Yes I know about Black Bell. Sometimes she intrudes on my domain. Arrogant griffin." Celestia said. Talking shop, she had returned to a calm tone. "Until she bothers the Equestrian colonies, I consider her a foreign problem. It is the nearby troublemaker Stars, like you or Shale, that I must keep an eye on."

"Treat me better and I will keep an eye on myself alicorn." Phyte chuckled dryly. "Eleven other Stars to keep track of is no small task.

"Ten other Stars." Celestia corrected. "Clover is dead."

"I'll give you that. Clover is... as dead as Stars can be." Phyte nodded. She let out a slight sigh, releasing a bit of tension from the shouting earlier. "Anyhow..."
She cleared her throat. "I was not kidding, Celestiaan. I'm getting my satisfaction for my Vinyl's death, someway, somehow."

"So too, was I not kidding when I told you to do what you want." Celestia said, her lids drooping in tired annoyance of the topic being brought back up. "You act with impertinent egocentricity all the rest of the time, killing whoever you please. Why have you chosen to ask permission now? Leave me in peace." She turned away. What was it about the southern sky that so captivated her attention?

"By your leave, Celestiaan. Have a good rest of your day." Phyte said. She did not feel completely satisfied, but she was slightly more convinced that the princess was going to let her get away with terror.
The guild mistress uncorked the vial of dragonfire and embraced it with her magic. She disappeared in a conflagration of sickly green fire.

Wretched sinner, Celestia thought sourly. A lack of soul would not protect them from damnation, when the time came.
Let the time come, she begged the skies, for judgement to arrive and wipe away the trivialities, confusions, and ambiguities. Did the sun princess even know what she was asking?

"Sir Armor?"

Shining Armor roused from his state of half consciousness. "Hmm?"

"Are you awake sir?"

Shining perked up and looked around. He was by the door to Junior Princess Cadenza's tower, where he'd stationed himself for the night.
Morning light was beginning to illuminate the hallway. Standing before him was a knight, just coming on watch.

"Uhh." Shining blinked a couple more times and cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'm awake. Best not mention this though. I can't stay up for three days straight like I used to."

The knight saluted. "Aye sir. I came with a message is all. There are city guardsponies who tried to get through the front door. They said they have news for the princess."

"Gads, enough of ponies and their news." Shining said, wrinkling his nose. He straightened himself up, trying to set a better professional example. "Princess Cadenza is resting after tending to emergent issues last night during the storm. I can receive the news in her stead."

"Yes, sir." The knight nodded. "The guardsponies wished to convey that they located what is believe to be the secret hideout of the one of the assassins who killed Vizier Fancy Pants."

Shining suddenly felt much more awake. "By the gods, let us hope so." He said enthusiastically. "Hopefully there would be clues to whether the assassin mares had actually killed Fancy Pants or, as Velvet had claimed, it was somepony else. "I will head there right away." He gestured to the locked door beside him. "The princess will likely be keeping to herself today. Keep the court, out."

"Aye sir. Say hello to the city guard for us." The knight nodded.

A half-hour later, in the misty Inner City, Shining Armor arrived at the foot of one of the many tenement towers rising from the decrepit rowhouses of the district. City guardsponies shivered in the cold morning air as he approached, watching the entrance and fending off curious locals.

"The knight captain is here." A guardspony called into the building.

"Not the captain, just the charge d'affairs." Shining said, wearing a thin smile. "Having a good day so far boys?"

"Oh yeah, you're Sir Armor. You were at the gatehouse." The guardspony nodded. "We're doing fine sir. Hell of a storm last night. My windows rattled like hell."

"You need to get your landlord to fix that dump up." The other guardspony remarked. She turned to Shining. "Same could be said for this place, Sir. It was condemned years ago. Same old story. Hack construction project by a corrupt Imperial courtier and their friends friends. There was a craze of these towers back when migrants were flooding into town. Well, this one hasn't fallen over so it must be sturdier than most."

"One of the assassins lived here?" Shining craned his neck up to find the roof of the formidable building. It represented a more optimistic phase of imperial governance in Canterlot.

"The second unicorn, whose name we don't know." The guardspony nodded. "All alone in this big place. Like a palace, huh?"

"Let's head in sir. Our sergeant is expecting you." The guard held open the door for him.

The inside of the tenement was as awe inspiring as it was depressing.
Shining really could see what the architect was going for. A central atrium ringed by the main stairwell ran down the entire height of the building, but it had become so clogged with trash that it was a real struggle to get over it to the stairwell. The bones of the building were stone and brick, which remained intact while wood and bark walls rotted away from neglect. Whole floors had collapsed onto the ones beneath. The roof, hundreds of hooves above their heads, dripped rainwater on them.

"Huh." Shining carefully stepped around the room. Voices were echoing down the atrium from the higher levels. "So much effort and ponypower goes into these towers. It's a shame so many of them end up this way."

"The way I heard it, this one in particular had a lot of pegasi in it. When the Cloudsdale clique left there was nopony to lobby for maintenance." A guardspony mused.

"Bloody pegasi causing trouble even by their absence." Another guardspony joked, eliciting a few chuckles.

Shining quirked a brow. It was more mean-spirited than most pony tribal jokes went. He hoped the veiled tribalism of the Black Horn Council wasn't bleeding into the popular consciousness. "If you say so." Shining cleared his throat. "So, where's the sergeant?"

"Up. The assassin lived on the top floor." The guardspony explained apologetically. "Damn annoying climb, sir."

"Just warn me of where the protruding nails are." Shining followed her.

They wound their way up the stairs, avoiding collapsed sections and loose boards, all the way to the top, where the decay was less severe, and the rotting less advanced.

The guard sergeant and several city guardsponies were milling near one of the doors.
"Sir Armor!" The sergeant hailed him. "Glad you could come."

"Not much else happening this time of day." Shining smiled thinly. "What can you tell me?"

"We think the unknown unicorn was here. The earth pony, Octavia, might have also lived here at a different point." The sergeant said.

"Recently?" Shining asked.

"Yes sir." The sergeant led him into the room. It had been thoroughly trashed by the city guard's investigations. The detectives were fiddling with some items near a desk. "This was probably a primary hideout or residence."

"Fair." Shining didn't see anything very interesting, just things for day to day living. "Leads?"

"Not much sir. There were some ashes that were probably burned papers." One of the detectives said. "But there is this thing." He tapped a big birdcage sitting on the dresser.

"Maybe Polly was burned along with the papers." The guard sergeant guffawed.

"Lest she squawk." Shining completed the joke. He trotted over the the birdcage, tapping it with a hoof. It had a slightly magical aura to it.
After a moment of consideration, he stuck his hoof inside. "None of you touched this right? And there wasn't anything inside?"

"Correct, sir." The sergeant said.

"Then this is all a show." Shining said dourly, withdrawing his hoof. "It's warm, and a little damp. Somepony came by very recently and took Polly with them. They probably burned the papers too." He sighed. "We might have even been able to see wet hoofprints on this dusty floor before a dozen of us milled around on it."

"A show?" The sergeant repeated. He paused, slowly catching on. "We were in the neighborhood this morning investigating the murder of a guard a few weeks back. A drunk tipped us off to this place, but wandered away."

"We won't find that drunk intact." Shining said gravely. "Somepony is leading us along after sanitizing anything actually useful or incriminating." Or anything that would absolve the alleged killer mares.
"Did the guard die during the sweep of city?"

"Uh, yes sir." The sergeant coughed. "It was close by too. Poor boy might've run into the killers alone, while they were trying to reach this hideout. That might've been why they forwent hunkering down here, ehh? Almost makes the sacrifice worth it."

Shining felt his stomach sink. It had been the best of bad choices, to put the guards out on the street in force. There had been several unnecessary deaths. Shining wanted to shove all the blame on Captain Hauseway but knew he bore a bit of the guilt as well. There was little Shining could do for the dead now but offer them his regret. "I see. That is plausible. It may or may not be related. We just hope that it gets solved, like all of this mess."

"Very true Sir." The sergeant bowed. "It's sure looking like some kind of cover-up. If that's not a mess, I don't know what is. It'll be damn satisfying to find out who's behind it all."

Shining remained silent. For the dead, it didn't really matter who was behind it all.
He walked to the window. The floor they were on was just above the layer of mist over the city. Here and there, other tenement towers and temple spires peeked above as well. It was like a pegasus city floating on clouds. TO hammer home the resemblance, there were a few pegasi flying here and there.
One of the temple's bells began to toll. Shining shivered, remembering the cacophony of bells from the dark night.

"Sir?" A guardspony queried, seeing Shining's strained expression.

"Just thinking about the future." Shining turned and made his way to the exit of the dour appartment. "This was well discovered, ponies. You're all a credit to your corp, your lodge, and Cnaterlot. If you discover anything else, let me know."

"Of course, Sir Armor. We defer to the IHG on this." The sergeant bowed again. "Ave Celestia."

"Yeah yeah." Shining began his descent of the stairs.
Did Celestia deserve praise for the feats of Ponykind? When the masterminds were brought to justice, would she be happy? She was supposed to be guiding ponykind, but everything had begun to feel so aimless.

Shining returned the deadly thought he'd humored before, of disciplining ponykind and the empire, of making it worthy of the princess's attention again. If Shining did what his darkest emotions demanded and cleansed the decadence, and the princess returned to them, would it really be vindicated?
But it was directionless animosity. Besides the stupid Court and listless Council, who else did Shining want to discipline? He didn't know the identity of the masterminds of Fancy Pants murder. In that way, the investigation into the assassin mares was his play for grace, a race against the other strivers.

Shining descended the tenement's rickety stairs, back into the mist-bound streets, and the despondent masses of the Inner City district.
"Things aren't the same without you, princess. I've tried to make do with Cadence but..." Shining dropped that thought. He still didn't have his feeling about Cadence fully sorted out. She was complicated, and so was his own feelings about her. The argument and revelations in the throne room the night previous hadn't helped at all.
"I'll do everything I can to help you back, your highness, Celestia. Then Cadence's role, and mine, will be simple again, and we can be happy."

Twilight had tried to make the best of waking up early, making some tea for herself and doing some cleaning around the Golden Oak. Her sleep had been anything from restful, and she just felt miserable and tired. By the time she sun rose she just wanted to go to bed and try again. This time, she thought, hopefully her dreams would be her own.

Once she settled into an armchair with a cup of tea, tapping a hoof in time with the grandfather clock. Being alone was not as calming as it usually was.
Then a thought occurred to her- How had the Nightmare Melody reached her, and had if ensnared anypony else?

Twilight set her tea aside and thought about how she might survey the Ponyvillians to find out more. Was there some danger if she asked them directly? Twilight's head swirled with conspiracies and plots, where there could be a link between the mystery of Ponyvillians were keeping from her, and the nightmare powers lurking in the Everfree.

"If I was in Canterlot, I could consult the castle library on ritual magic, or ask my professors. There has to be an explanation." Twilight flipped through her papers, double checking her math. Unless somepony or some thing had amplified it, there should have been no way that the Nightmare Melody would have been able to reach her.
"This might be my ticket..." Twilight mused. "The thing that amplified it, might happen again. Maybe I can set a trap."

Twilight realized she was making a lot of assumptions. She didn't have much proof- Even her measurements of the magical aura coming out of the Everfree had no empirical connection to the entrancing melody only she could hear.

"So I need more points of data. A trap could work if I know what I'm trapping." Twilight mumbled to her herself.

A shadow passed over the curtained windows. Twilight lept up and ran to the window, but whoever it had been was gone.

"I'm literally jumping at shadows. I need to pull it together." Twilight rubbed her eyes, and let the curtain fall back over the window. "But these ponies won't tell me anything! I need to know more!" She was trapped. If she tried to message Canterlot, Celestia could intercept it and there was no telling how the princess would react.

Twilight was about to return to her chair when another, more devious thought occurred to her- There was somepony who had been forthcoming.
The Nightmare of the Moon had been slowly opening up to her. Unlike the Ponyvillians, the nightmare alicorn had nopony else to talk to, and no reason for message discipline.
So maybe just maybe, Twilight thought, Twilight could get the other data points she need from the Nightmare Pretender.

"Maybe I'll be taking the trap I need." Twilight said to herself. She downed the rest of her tea. "Spike! Are you awake! Let's go for a picnic!"

Half-an-hour later, Twilight and Spike were trotting through Ponyville in the direction of the bridge. It was still early in the day and a few ponies were outside, doing their morning chores about their cottages. They all watched Twilight as she passed, silent but judging the outsider.

Twilight didn't care. She felt like she had a clear path to uncovering a part of the mystery. The village ponies wouldn't be so smug once she uncovered their secret all on her own.

They stopped on top of the stone bridge. "I get to see the Everfree Forest up close, huh?" Spike remarked.

"Not that close." Twilight shook her head. "Besides, we're just out here for an excursion."

"Yeah right." Spike rolled his eyes.

They forged ahead, wading through the tall grass until they were halfway to the forest's edge. Then, Twilight began to feel it- the influence Nightmare Melody reached just about as far as it had the day previous.

"Here." Twilight spread out their picnic blanket. "Let's have some tea." She plucked a flask and some cups from the basket. "Green tea, non-caffeinated."

Spike eyed the green liquid with skepticism. "Okay, Twilight, there's no way you'd have green tea before noon. If you expect me to play along, you have to tell me what you're doing."

"It's simple." Twilight explained, nudging the picnic basket towards Spike. "I'm going to take a nap right here. You watch to make sure no bugs get on me, and in exchange you get to have the rest of the stuff in the basket."

Spike opened the basket, full of pastries from Pinkie Pie's bakery. "Nice. You're lucky that dragons are easily bribed." Spike joked. "And you packed a book for me too. That's thoughtful I guess."

"Yup, I sure am." Twilight nodded. "So just watch me and make sure nothing bad happens!"

"Sure Twilight." Spike said between mouthfuls of treats.

Twilight took a sip of the calming green tea and laid on her side on the blanket. It was not the relaxing spot, with the sun above, the buzz of insects, spike's noisy chewing, and the haunting refrains of the melody in her head. Still, in her tired state, it did not take long for Twilight to fall asleep.

And right back to life, a dreamer once again, in that dangerous ruin in the forest. Twilight was in the Everfree castle's throne room once again.
It was daylight, presumably reflecting the real world. Its dimensions were much less imposing now that Twilight could see it all. It was something to consider.

"Hello!" Twilight trotted up to the Nightmare Altar. However, the block of obsidian remained inert. Twilight could still feel the Dark magic just under its glassy surface, but it was not rising to her hoof as before.
"This is inconvenient." Twilight scowled in the general direction of the sun. "How long am I going to be stuck here?"

"Longer than one might think!" The Nightmare of the Moon's voice pierced through her mind.

"Ah!" Twilight reeled away, clutching her head. She staggered, eyes going unfocussed. Below her, the mid-morning shadows, shortened then lengthened again, then grew very long. The ambient light died away.
By the time Twilight had a grip on her senses again, the Sun was rapidly setting behind the forest canopy. For a brilliant second, sunlight refracted through the remaining bits of stained glass behind the broken thrones, until dusk was upon the Everfree.

Night had come, and Twilight could feel the attention of the moon upon her, watching her as it replaced the vanquished sun.

"A devil's hour draws near, pony." The nightmare's disembodied voice proclaimed. "As you were so eager to reconvene, I deemed it appropriate to speed along this dream as well. Exiled as I am, I remain the suzerain of all dream logic!"

Twilight was half-listening, mostly worrying when the accelerated sensation of time had meant in the waking world. Had it become night out there as well? "You're full of surprises."

"The moon is ever in flux, as am I. Quick now, lay out your terms that I may be summoned." The Nightmare chuckled, her cackling voice going up and down the register. "Where before you said fate should have kept us apart-"

"Shut up. Can I set that as a condition for summoning you? That you shut up?" Twilight snapped. "And second that you don't kill me in the worst way possible?"

"What words for only our third meeting, pony." The Nightmare said, toning down her boisterousness. "Would'st thou not have tolerated my nature, to come back voluntarily?"

"You don't know what I did voluntarily or not." Twilight said.

"You are under the moon. I read your dreams, pony." The Nightmare said.

"You might be a natural at dream magic, but you're not that good. You can't literally read thoughts and intentions." Twilight said argumentatively. "You're just clever enough to make good inferences."

"Match your words with action, pony. Probe me back. Oh, but are you lacking your magic? What a shame." The Nightmare mocked. "Try again during the day. Sun-coddled runt."

During the day? It occurred to Twilight that she had not tried using her magic when she entered the dream this time, assuming it would be turbulent again. Devious machinations ran through her head, about how she could use her magic against the alicorn.

"Do your plotting on your own time! Be prompt and summon me hence!" The Nightmare said.

Twilight reluctantly stepped up to the obsidian Nightmare Altar. "Tell me your name, princess."

"I shall, in exchange for yours, pony." The Nightmare said with a chortle.

The moon's Dark energy came down like a bolt of lightning, filling the throne room with blue light. The phantasmal shape of the nightmare alicorn stepped out of it, stretching her wings. "Oh, that I could enter this world farther." The Nightmare of the Moon mumbled contentedly. "I shall admit to you, this world fills me with joys that are can not be found on the moon...
I only fear that they are fleeting joys of the mind alone, and unrealizable outside the phenomenology of the dream."

"I shall admit to you, my lady, that this world likes you fine where you are." Twilight said under her breath. She continued at conversational volume. "Why does it matter if your joy is real or imaginary. You've repeatedly said that dreams are just as real to you."

The nightmare gave Twilight a glare. "Watch your tongue! You presume you know better than me."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "It's just a logical consistency that-"

The Nightmare interrupted. "Logical consistency is meaningless in the court of the divine. Unbounded by physical constraints, when zero-plus-zero equals the infinite, you know you behold a supernatural force."

Vivid, painful memories ran through Twilight's head- She was before a princess, the sun princess, bickering over petty things of no consequence. Celestia would cycle between aloof, nit-picky, and understanding, in just the right combination and order to upset Twilight the most. Again nightmare alicorn was attempting nearly the same thing and it made Twilight very mad.
"My god, you're just like Celestia. You really are. I don't know what I expected out of you." Twilight said. "The same thing I expect out of her, over and over, but am always disappointed by."

The Nightmare hissed between bared teeth. She spoke at a gutteral growl. "Do not say that name if you wish to have a pleasant time, little mare."

Twilight stuck out her tongue. "Celestia, Celestia, Celestia. You can't hurt me worse than you did last time, princess. Your threats aren't credible anymore."

Jaw clenched, the Nightmare stared, her wide eyes burning intensely, but silent.

"The empress learned that lesson a long time ago. You can't govern with your biggest stick. You have to hold it over ponies, a threat they dread to even contemplate. Meanwhile you nudge them around with smaller sticks and carrots." Twilight said, in a mock-lecturing tone. "We have to hold back even when we're against out worst enemy. If they find out our worst isn't so bad-"

The Nightmare raised a hoof, bidding Twilight to stop speaking.

Twilight blinked, then closed her mouth. She was not getting the reaction she expected.

"Pony," The Dark alicorn began, "you are in a dangerous place. I do not mean here, with me. I mean within your own head. You think you understand the least thing about the divine nature of alicorns. You. Do. Not." She said, shaking her head. "The shape I take now, and what my sister has taken, an essentially equine shape, treacherously belies a force you should never wish to grasp in all its complexities."

"It's not that complex. You're demi-gods, spawned from our nearest celestial bodies." Twilight countered.
So far, everything way Twilight had spoken and acted towards the Nightmare alicorn had elicited the exact opposite reaction than she had planned for. Maybe it was just how nightmares built rapport. "I was Celestia's direct ward for seven years. I think I know what your kind are all about. You're like foul-tempered cats; It's tempting to touch, but you'll just be scratched."

"I will not bear such impertinent, humiliating comparisons." The Nightmare seized Twilight's forehooves with her magic and lifted her up. She paced around, carrying Twilight alongside her. "Especially not from a slave of the sun! No, you are lower than a slave. You are a dog, a mongrel bitch. You get scraps from the table, and from this, you think you understand the master- but you only understand the curled hoof that drops bones in your plate."

"Enough with the metaphors. I'm sorry for calling you a cat. Now let me go or get it over with and kill me. I didn't seek this meeting out just to argue semantics." Twilight said. On further thought, she added, "Please, princess."

The Nightmare stopped her pacing and, after staring at Twilight for a while, set her down. "Hmm, yes." She said to herself. "She sought me out tonight. She sought me out in the day, in her sovereignty." The alicorn cast a weary eye over Twilight. "The other princess would be furious to know you spurned her Sun's light to convene with me. Have you told her of our encounters? Are you her spy?" She asked the latter with great venom.

Twilight coughed and avoided the Nightmare's stare. "I shouldn't have brought her up. That was wrong of me, and a mistake of passion."

The Nightmare chortled. "I was right about you. You think you're better than ponies, yes, but even more; You think you are more clever than us, so you can deftly navigate between the two poles, the two sisters. BE CAREFUL." She leaned forward. "I have gone easy on you so far: I can do things to your dreaming self that will rend your soul from your very body. And the sun princess's dawdling may end: She can burn your flesh so hot it melts, while your nerves survive to feel your bones cook! That's the reward for idolators who think they know better than god."

The nightmare had a good read on her, Twilight had to admit.
"I have lived my entire life under Celestia, and I am her sworn vassal now. I don't plan on changing that." Twilight said. "Sooner or later I'll figure out how to stop these dreams, or maybe they'll stop on their own. Then I have a whole life ahead of me where meeting you was just a low point."

"You sought me out." The Nightmare pointed out. "From what I gather from your words and the snippets of your dreams I feel out of you..." She grinned. "You wish to use me against your friend Celestia."

Twilight felt a swell of unease in her stomach. It was true in broad strokes. Twilight was trying to make the best of the situation, and use it to improve her hoof with Celestia. What did that actually mean in practice? What was Twilight's ideal outcome?
She felt like she was stalking towards a cliff. Doom was beckoning to her. Oh so enticing, was the nightmare.

"I-" Twilight gulped. "I would never dare to hurt the princess."

"You don't want to hurt her. You just want to humble her. You want her to appreciate you more. You think she's gone astray. You think you can help her more this way." The Nightmare said, putting on a warmer and understanding tone, but the sharp grin betrayed her delighted insincerity. "But no pony can even come close to matching an alicorn like that. That's why you need an alicorn's help."

"We all need an alicorn's help. That's what our faith is." Twilight protested weakly.

That gave the Nightmare pause. "Do not mistake the respect I demand to be a call for worship. Keep such nonsense to yourself. You mewl and cry to your sun princess, 'save us', 'protect us', 'guide us', as though through faith alone you can be delivered to your Dream. Do not deny it! The stupid faith of your kind bleeds profusely into your dreams."

Twilight was a little happy to be given the digression form her borderline treason. "Respectfully, you have lost the important dogmas in translation. The Sun provides us Destiny, divine will and object. Without her light nothing would move on this planet. Following where the Light takes us is virtuous."

"Shut up, respectfully. I do not care." The Nightmare said, slightly cross. "Very few of your kind are actually worshiping the divine. You are really worshiping yourselves, and the greatness of purpose you feel entitled too. You don't even want to work for it, but for the sun and her princess to deliver it to you. You'll regret it." She sat down facing Twilight. "They who worship me will be regretting their own foolishness too, once I get my hooves on them."

The Nightmare of the Moon had worshippers? Twilight pretty much assumed that they were a millennium dead, destroyed at the same time as their princess was exorcized to the moon.
"How does it feel to be worshipped?" Twilight asked. "Does it tingle?"

"Bah, you did not come to ask me that." The Nightmare waver her hoof dismissively. "Speak no more of it."

Twilight arched a brow.

"Yes yes, you have found something that irritates me more than even my sister. Gloat at your peril." The Nightmare said. She closer her eyes, seemingly choosing whether to say more.
"I am your shape because I was meant to be worshipped. I am given over to you as the object of your adoration, to fulfill your self-serving, self-congratulatory need for turning the cosmic mystery into something comfortable, something which can fit into your brain.
"A mentor of mine one said that there can be no faith without submission to the divine. Yet by gaining the two princesses, the alicorn messiahs of the sun and moon, ponykind has elevated themselves. Instead it is the divine that is in submission to ponykind."

"You resent being an alicorn?" Twilight questioned.

The Nightmare glared. "Oh what fantastic shapes the Ancient Alicorns took on! Their corporeal forms were puzzles of flesh, exotic, fantastical, delightful to behold. Yet their attention had all the weight of the gods they were." She sighed, annoyance subsiding. "Gone now. Gone a millennium before my birth even, but I am wistful for a time that never was mine, when the alicorn was a creature defined only onto itself, and not with respects to mortals we are fated to lead."

Funny, Celestia had once said something similar about yearning for the Ancient Alicorns, but for very different reasons. "I see." Twilight said.

"Yes, but do you understand?" The Nightmare asked. "Perhaps you do. Angst over one's role in the order of things is not so uncommon for mortals."

The dread, fear, anxiety, and tension was slowly leaving Twilight Sparkle. She was, against her better judgement, having a good time talking to the Nightmare of the Moon. Was that heretical? Was she being seduced by the fallen divine?

"I have questions, many questions, but I'll leave them be." Twilight nodded.

"You know what's good for you." The Nightmare stood up and started pacing again. "Apologies, I grow restless. This night air, through nostrils that can not really smell, invigorates me in strange ways."
The alicorn went back and forth for a while, all while Twilight watched. Every now and then, the Nightmare would glance Twilight's way.
"Now I have questions pony." She finally said.

"Okay. I'll be truthful but that might mean I can't answer some things." Twilight said.

"What is your nature of your relationship with the sun princess? You have said much, but I wish to hear it explained clearly." The Nightmare asked. It did not feel like a demand to Twilight, but a request, not only for the information, but for trust.

Twilight took a deep breath. "I was born a noblelady of the realm in Canterlot. After an examination the princess selected me as her royal protege and ward in 988 SS. I was put on the Imperial Council in 993, and my wardship was completed in 994 when I began studies at the Canterlot University." Twilight cleared her throat, avoiding the Nigthmare's intense stare. "A month ago, her highness abrogated my protege status and beknighted me viscountess and élève premier, her vassal and agent."

The nightmare tilted her head back and closer her eyes, processing what she had been told. "How interesting." She said. "You are something of a 'big deal', my lady. I had no idea I was speaking to a viscountess."

Twilight knew she was being made fun of. "I was truthful."

"I asked about your relationship to the princess, not the dry details of your history with her." The Nightmare said. "To whit- You are here because of her. I feel that fact. But how?"

Twilight gnawed her lip. "Lady Moon, you have been erased from the history books. You are a mythological monster, a character in the apocryphal morality tales of Celestia the First's rise to power.” Twilight explained with an apologetic tone. "By accident, or perhaps fate, I found references to you, and that was the start of my problems." She paused, wondering at all the ways the Nightmare could take advantage of what she was about to say. "The empress and I retained a cordial distance since I began university studies. That couldn't last when I found out about you. That is when I was beknighted, and sent to Ponyville, where even now my body is sleeping. I can not give a simple answer for how things stand between me and my princess, because I don't know."

The Nightmare of the Moon snickered under her breath.

Twilight sighed. "Still dissatisfied?"

The Nightmare shook her head. "No. There is rarely a satisfying narrative arc in ponies' dreams. They are scattered, never-ending." She smirked. "You are rising high under the sun's light, yet to your own personal agony, is poetic. I enjoyed it greatly."

"Yeah yeah, you wretched nightmare, I know the suffering of others pleases you." Twilight said sourly. "Here I thought you would get hung up on the world having forgotten you."

"I saw my disappearance from the terror-dreams of mortalkind over the course of centuries. I have had long enough to know I have been denied by the very race I am enslaved to." Nightmare said. "That is why the macro level of pony movement no longer interests me. You are all wretched sun-poisoned things. You being individually tricked by Celestia is not especially interesting, because your whole species is the same way. Nevertheless your pain amuses me."

"It's not funny." Twilight huffed, looking off into the dark of the night.

The Nightmare did not immediately respond. Twilight, worrying she had hurt the flow of the conversation, turned back to the alicorn, but she had stood up and was pacing around again.

The Nightmare had apparently fallen into random a foul mood again, her movements agitated, dark power radiating off her translucent outline. "Yes it is. It is very, very funny. Little pony, if you are going to serve me, you have to believe in the humor of your situation. Consider it an act of faith."

Twilight detected a fatal shift in the air. "One soul can't be split between two masters, and I've made very clear about where I see my future, and my loyalty. You are a... remarkable mare, Princess Moon, but not a mare I could serve."

"See, sun-poisoning has degenerated your brain. You can only think with your petty feudal order, where you are a prim little viscountess, with a princess above you and the filth below you." The Nightmare critiqued. "The social order of Dark is different. You are the slave of every creature and god more powerful than you. Every creature and god weaker than you is, in turn, your slave. Your only limit is your whim, attention, and Dream."

"We've been through this. Your coercion has shown its limits." Twilight countered.

Nightmare turned slowly to Twilight. Her cold blue eyes, when not burning with hate, were enrapturing in their swirling complexity. "So you have said, because you can not imagine a fate worse than death."

Twilight felt a tingle on the skin of her belly, and a jolt down her spine. Some kind of magic-

Then, she was no longer in the throne room, in the humid jungle air of the Everfree.
Twilight was in a vast nighttime desertscape, atop a sand dune- The land to every horizon was a sea of fine sand, blue and silver in the moonlight, heaving under a desert breeze that whipped up eddies and dust devils here and there. It was like no place Twilight had ever been.
But what was clear about the desertscape, its essential un-reality, was apparent because of the single monumental pillar rising from the dunes in front of Twilight, a tower as black as the Nightmare Altar: An impossible structure, rising to seemingly infinite height! Twilight's shot and confusion gave way to awe, as she traced the shape of the tower up, up, up into the night sky. How it must have reached past the twinkling stars!
For just a few seconds, Twilight Sparkle was witness to something grand and beautiful which nopony had ever seen before and lived.

Twilight gasped. She was in the ruined throne room again. She felt herself laying on her side, her fur rubbing against the cold stone as her body twitched uncontrollably.
The Nightmare was standing over her.

"Tsss, -bitch!" Twilight sputtered as she regained control of her facial muscles. "W- What was that?!"

The Nightmare was silent for a while, simply watching Twilight recover and sit up. She stepped back to give Twilight space.
"I asked the moon to strike you, and kindly did she, putting her heavenly attention on you for the briefest of moments." The Nightmare explained. "Forthrightly, dear pony, I expected it to kill you, and singe your sleeping soul such that you woke up crippled. That would put a fear in you, and you would not feel so smug thinking that my reach was limited to these dream liaison." The Nightmare scowled.

There was something instrumental behind the alicorn's cruelty. "Why?" Twilight asked.

The Nightmare grunted in amusement at the question. "Once you realize that dream and reality are meaningless distinctions, and you are never going to be safe from me-" The Nightmare of the Moon grinned, her predatory teeth flashed in the dark. "Then I will have fully conquered you. That will be an invaluable gift, from you to me."

Despite her pain, the last piece of the puzzle of the Nightmare's behavior clicked into place for Twilight- The Nightmare didn't actually believe she was going to return to the physical world.
"You'll never take my mind." Twilight bolted to her hooves, eyes wide.

The Nightmare arched a brow at Twilight's misinterpretation. "It would be too small for me."

"Literal or metaphorical, I will not give you my soul, princess." Twilight said, a manic terror in her voice. "You can't cow me. You just showed your limits again."

The Nightmare of the Moon took a deep breath. "I am impressed by you. You are so outwardly pathetic, but there is something inside..." She began nervously smoothing back her etherial mane as she stared off into the sky. "Did you see anything when my moon was giving you her attention?"

The desert, the infinite tower. Did it mean something?
Twilight tried to catch the Nightmare's stare, to try to see a hint of something in her eye. Twilight hadn't even gotten to ask the questions she'd come with- now, she was close to the heart of the mystery, totally on accident. "I won't tell you."

The Nightmare must not have found a satisfactory sign in the night skies, as she looked back to Twilight with a troubled look about her. "Yes, there is something inside you. A Dream worth respecting."
She turned her whole body to face off against Twilight.

"Respectfully, I would just APPRECIATE if you stopped behaving like a bipolar jackass, princess. We were getting along for a second." Twilight said. "Respect me if you want, trust me if you want, or don't. I promise you, I'm coming close to figuring all of this out. I'm not going to be helpless for long. I will give as good as I get."

"The minuscule possibility of future retribution isn't enough to deter me today." The Nightmare said. "You have been very obliging tonight. Too obliging, for a little viscountess's dignity, nay? Despite whatever Dream is in you, the weak pony flesh around it-" The nightmare droned on. Twilight stopped listening.

So close yet so far! There was always a reason, pulled from thin air, for the Nightmare to reject her. Twilight had to be bold, take a risk. A big risk. There would be no victory without putting something on the line. The dark flame she was toying with would burn her to a crisp if she handled it the wrong way. And if the sun princess found out, Twilight might be literally burned to a crisp.
Yes, Twilight had stopped being terrified of the Nightmare of the Moon. To win, she had to stop being intimidated whatsoever. But what feelings would replace it?
She thought of Celestia again.

"Princess-" Twilight spoke up, interrupting the Nightmare's droning speech.

The Nightmare paused.

Twilight steeled herself for what she was about to say. "Princess, I wish to swear an oath of fealty to you."

The Nightmare glanced away. "You want to confine us both in a feudal relation to each other, where you feel comfortable and safe. I refuse utterly and outright. I will not accept binding myself to any obligation to you, not matter what I gain in return." Then, it occurred to her. "Wait, are you offering to tell me your name?"

"Now her ladyship catches on." Twilight said with a thin smile.

The Nightmare went silent, unmoving for several long minutes. Twilight could only guess what she must have been thinking. Was she as conflicted as Twilight was, trying to balance a sense of propriety and necessity against pragmatism? Maybe the mind of an alicorn really was alien. Who knows.

"I don't want your homage or fealty. Your name will be enough." The Nightmare finally said. "So I say, Nightmare Moon.”

At last, Twilight began to feel some genuine triumph and relief. "As you wish Lady Moon." She said. She knew exactly what she wanted. "My name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Twilight… Sparkle?” The alicorn whispered.

It was several long seconds. Nothing at all was happening.
Twilight's stomach sank. She looked past the Nightmare at the obsidian altar, yet radiating its blue energy. The two dreamers had shared their names... Was that not enough to release them from the dream? Was something wrong.

“Twilight.” Nightmare exaggerated every syllable, tasting them. “Sparkle.” She cocked her head. “No… Yes?” She stared deeply into Twilight’s eyes, looking for something. "One of us has lied."

Twilight said nothing.

"You do not dare to accuse me. That is wise." The Nightmare said impassively. "But you still saddle with the dilemma of whether to call you 'Twilight Sparkle' even though it is not truly your name."

"Same for you, Princess Moon." Twilight retorted.

"Wise no longer. Though, I would not have passed on the opportunity for that quip either." The Nightmare grunted. "Alas, dear pony, Lady Sparkle, closure has been deferred. We are being shown that the only closure is death. Would you like it to be painless?"

Twilight stared at a random spot on the crumbling wall behind the alicorn for a while. It had been a successful night. She had broken through the shell of thrashing acrimony, and discovered a fading sentimentality beneath. She may have even started gaining the princess's trust. But it would take longer to find out how to take advantage of it.
There was no longer any question in her head- Meeting the Nightmare of the Moon was a blessing in disguise, if Twilight had the strength to do what was needed. This is what she wanted. "Go for it. Goodnight princess."

"Whu!" Twilight jerked awake.

She was in the Golden Oak, on a comforter on the library floor. The room was dark, save for a firefly lantern on the other side near the fireplace- Spike was in his chair, reading his book.

"From noon until-" She looked to the grandfather clock. "Just after midnight. Wow."

"Wow is right." Spike glanced over the book. He was very cross. "I wish you'd been honest. You're way too big for me to carry by myself, Twilight. I was tearing my hair out, thinking I might have to leave you alone in the meadow to get help, before Mis Fluttershy showed up."

Fluttershy was the introverted pegasus, right? "You don't have hair, silly." Twilight sat up. "I didn't know I'd be out that long. I'm sorry for taking up your day like that, and stressing you out."

Spike accepted the apology with a tired nod. "I tried waking you up. Magic?"

Twilight sighed. "Yeah, magic. It wasn't completely intentional. I..." She cleared her throat. "What did Fluttershy say?"

"Nothing, she just helped." Spike put his book aside and hopped up from the chair. "I'm going to bed. I want to wake up early and do the stuff I was planning to do today. Goodnight Twilight."

Spike was going to be annoyed at her for a while, and for a good reason. Twilight felt bad but wasn't sure what to say. "Goodnight. See you in the morning."

Spike kept an eye on her all the way up the stairs until he closed the bedroom door behind him.

Twilight immediately jumped to her hooves. She felt... She wasn't sure how to describe it. Good, that was for sure. An indescribable feeling of triumph was swirling in her gut- She had, by her own will, sought out the meeting with the Nightmare of the Moon, and gotten what she wanted. It was a real reversal of fortune when, as the Nightmare had said, her accent thus far had only been accompanied by agony.
Twilight felt a very dangerous emotion- hubris.

She paced for a few minutes, running over every topic of conversation between her and the nightmare, committing herself to remembering every detail- If she wrote down a single word of what she had experienced she would be opening herself to immense risk.
Thinking that, Twilight's eyes wandered to her papers of magical measurements from near the forest. Even if she couldn't interpret the results, could somepony else if they fell into the wrong hooves? Would they glean her secret from it? It was the very reason Twilight had refrained from sending letters to her professors before, but now threats of theft and subterfuge danced in her head.

"Calm down. Nopony cares about me. Nopony thinks what I'm doing in important enough to pay attention." Twilight whispered to herself. "This treason is just in my head." She clasped a hoof over her mouth. Yes, she could not breath a word of it.

Lowering the hoof and taking a deep breath, Twilight approached her writing desk.
Technically, Twilight reasoned to herself, she had evened the field by giving so much information to the Nightmare of the Moon. Twilight had warned Celestia about the Nightmare. Now, the Nightmare knew more about Celestia and her empire. Twilight was going to weave deftly between the two poles.

"But I can't be in two places at once. I only have access to one princess." Twilight twirled a quill in her telekinesis.
She would have to write back home. She would have to find a way to project some kind of influence in Canterlot, and send and receive information to Celestia without Celestia herself knowing. Twilight was going to try to manipulate the sun princess.
"Not like more than one death sentence means anything." Twilight joked to herself, feeling uneasy. But hadn't she survived the Nightmare's torture? Twilight humored the idea that she could survive the sun's wrath just so.

"Dear princess-" She dictated to herself. "No, no. She'll never read it. Even if a jealous functionary doesn't snatch it, Celestia will let it sit on her desk while she birdwatches or whatever she's been doing lately." And if the princess did read what Twilight had been up to, there was absolutely no predicting her behavior. It was a foolish thing to try to communicate forthrightly from hundreds of kilometers away.
There would have to be somepony willing to cooperate and collaborate with Twilight- That was, to let themselves be acted through by Twilight, as her agent, as her puppet.
"Dear... mother? Dear father? Hmm..." It would be the responsible thing to communicate through her parents, since they were her royally appointed regents for the Chateau la Garde. "No way I'm telling them about the Nightmare. Dad will tell mom. Mom will..." Well, how could Twilight Velvet do worse than the devil's bargain Twilight Sparkle was willingly entering into? Against all logic, some of Twilight's worry was that her mother would weasel her way into the dream and replace her in the Nightmare's attentions.

Twilight put her head on the desk.
Shining? That was a gamble.
One of her professors at the University? Maybe.
Vizier Fancy Pants? He would likely make her life harder.

"Nopony is going to believe me." Twilight said to herself. "I barely believe it myself. I could be crazy... She's just a character from ancient legends, and I'm suffering from hysterical over-imagination from stress."
Crazy, if not for the miracles of sleeping under rain without getting wet, and being unable to be awoken by Spike.

There was pony who would take her seriously. Well, not seriously, but he would believe her. Twilight wouldn’t tell the entire truth, and only dance around the issue of the demon alicorn. And no matter what, this pony would have Twilight's back, keep her confidence, and act in her best interest.
Twilight dipped her pen. How sorrowful the pony she was trusting couldn't be Spike or Shining. Alas. She loved them dearly. Too dearly maybe. Twilight needed somepony who nopony would immediately think of only in reference to her- Just as the Nightmare wished...

Dear Uncle Flux,

I met a very queer pony the other day...

Chapter 10: Watchwords

“It’s time you tell me what you have going on with that Blackhorn pretender, Councilor.”

Prosser looked up from his little alchemy experiment, and back towards the door of the storeroom.
Shining Armor loomed in the doorway out to the passage, five IHG knights waiting in the dark corridor beyond, illuminated in muted tones by the faded firefly lanterns.

Prosser took off his glasses and set them to the side. "Sir Armor, good afternoon. You didn't need to come down here to see me. I'd have been up in the castle in not too long."

"Hardly. You have been avoiding me." Shining took a few steps forward. He looked around the alchemy storeroom, wondering to himself if all the different kinds of material and chemical were really necessary. His eyes lingered on the nearly empty bottles of dragonfire. "I never deluded myself to thinking that I could rely on you, but you could at least do your job while Princess Cadenza is still feeling out her place in the Court. Hence my question. Are you undermining her on behalf of the Blackhorns?"

“That's a stinging accusation my dear Sir Armor. Two or three times now, you ask for my cooperation on something, then rebuff me the next day because of some inscrutable trespass I make.” Prosser said. “I get none of that from the ponies sympathetic to the Blackhorn lad. They pretend to tolerate me and are very polite. Nevertheless do not let that bother you- I know how to separate my professional and personal life.”

Shining tapped his hoof impatiently "I'll ask directly- Were you the pony who has been spreading the idea in the court that Seacrest Blackhorn should be appointed to the viziership?"

Prosser couldn't hide a thin smirk. "I was under the impression you and Lady Velvet had come to that arrangement."

Though Shining knew he was being condescended to, he just shook his head. "No, I haven't seen her in a week. Nor do I want to." He made a face. "Or, I didn't, when I thought things had calmed down. I'd just be stressing myself out. But now ponies are spreading this vizier idea." He paused. "Why did you think I would make that agreement? Or better, why think that it would even be my choice?"

Prosser gave Shining an incredulous look.

Now Shining bristled. "What?"

"You flaunt that you are friends with Princess Cadenza when it suits you, and feign ignorance when it doesn't." Prosser said. "Frankly Sir Armor, you've been acting like you were the vizier."

That was over the line. "Now you're making stinging accusations against me. Are you saying I'm betraying my duties? I have grounds for a duel for such an insult to my honor." Shining said sharply, quickly glancing back at the knights waiting for him out in the hall. "Retract that immediately."

Prosser pretended to fiddle with part of the alchemical set in front of him for a few seconds. "Do you threaten to duel other ponies as often as you do me? I'm a functionary, sir, and I hardly have any friends willing to step forward for my sake. I should think an honorable stallion would avoid picking on a target like me." He said. "Look, Shining, I think you have good intentions. In fact I should say that you think you are doing exactly what is needed and demanded of you. That is not an indictment or insult to you. Thus I retract my statement."

Shining let out a short sigh. "Councilor, you clearly understand me some. If I ever follow through with my challenges, and you fail to product a champion, I would have to extract my satisfaction by other means."

"That's the part you fixate on? What a stallion." Prosser chuckled to himself. "Enough about honor and morals. You came to talk about politics, Shining Armor. No chivalric hero he who takes up that battle, where pragmatism and power reign."

"And me, with my good intentions, being led astray, yes?" Shining rolled his eyes. "It's not me you have to worry about. It's that Blackhorn, which is becoming a bigger issue by the minute. You should be trying to distance yourself from it right now and trying to convince me you're not an issue too."

"No." Prosser said.

"No?"

"No. I don't want to." Prosser shook his head. "The fact is that I am an issue. But I'm not a fifth column. I'll give my life for peace and security."

"You'll give your life." Shining echoed. "I very much doubt that."

"Oh come now, sir. Why are you so worried about me?" Prosser asked, his voice hinting at exasperation. "Do you think I'm planning a coup against you?"

"I don't know what you're planning when you hide down here and don't communicate." Shining said. "Inviting the Blackhorn in directly challenges your and my guidance of the Court and Council."

"Guidance is an amazing way to put it, a word usually reserved for alicorn rule. You've got a bit your mother's rhetoric, sir." Prosser nodded his head. "But you're missing some of her political savvy. Everypony knows what that Blackhorn prince represents right now- a threat to the imperial consensus in Canterlot. Even ponies who like the empire are counting on it. He's a tool to shake things up, so things will eventually settle down in a different way, with ponies who were once at the bottom on top."

Shining nodded. "You're just skirting on treasonous talk, councilor. My mother has what it takes to wield that symbolic energy to her ends, not you. Not you by half."

"You must think me deluded or foolish. I'm well aware of my limitations, hence my being down here having fun with chemicals, rather than rabble-rousing in the streets." Prosser said. "Once in a while I can wield an individual pony. Not the Blackhorn movement, though. For one, the Blackhorns are flirting with outright unicorn supremacy. Besides I have no interest in contending with Lady Velvet."

"So-"

"So I leave it to you to control the Blackhorns. Co-opt them for the good of the empire." Prosser said with a laugh.

Shining looked back at the knights, trading amused looks at the councilor's behavior. "Absolutely not." Shining said.

Prosser let out a short sigh of impatience. "Then go kill them. It's one or the other." He emphasized. "You're not going to solve the issue by complaining to me."

"I have no right to lead dutiful soldiers against Equestrians except in the defense of the nation." Shining said.

"Regimes are flexible about how they defend themselves all the time. Watch sir, as I righteously defend myself by stabbing you while you back is turned." Prosser chuckled.

The IHG knights waiting in the hall stared impassively, seeing if Shining would order some kind of punishment for the joking threat.
"I don't find it funny. I see what you are doing though. Spreading this idea of installing the Blackhorn as vizier is meant to force my hoof. You want to push the decision of how to deal with the problem on me." Shining said.

"I don't particularly want anything. I'm just laying out your options." Prosser shrugged. "You're just a knight, not the captain, or a politician. You are the one forcing your way into this situation. Now, I don't have anything against that, and in fact applaud the initiative. Just don't be upset at getting what you wanted, again."

"Doesn't matter what you say you want. It would be a trick either way." Shining said, voice hinting at a controlled anger, or perhaps just a show of such. "I wouldn't be surprised if the way you're trying to 'wield' me echoes the late vizier Pants before his murder. Doubly when so many signs point to the Blackhorns somehow being linked to his killing."

Prosser tensed up. "Sir, I think you are just being provocative for provocation's sake. Yet I can't help but respect that too." He eased off his chair, leaned past Shining, and closed the storeroom door. "Did you come by the idea the Blackhorn movement killed Fancy Pants all by yourself? It's hardly a unique theory."

Shining eyed the closed door for a moment, then looked back to Prosser. It actually made him feel slightly more at ease, anticipating he was about to be told a secret.
"I try not to be swayed by other's opinions, but I can't exactly deny the coincidences."

Prosser was visibly relieved that Shining understood his intention. They could continue the collaboration for a little while longer. "Coincidences."

"The largest of all coincidences, not yet realized, will be if the Blackhorn pretender is shuffled in as vizier. How could it look like anything other than Fancy Pants being murdered to clear the way?" Shining pointed out. "I'm pretty sure my mother isn't involved in the killing. She looked me in the eye and promised she didn't do it. Still, it could have been one of those holdover leaders of the Blackhorn Council, Sir Blueblood or Viscountess Aurthora, who arranged it."

Prosser nodded along. "Well... no. No. The killing was pretty much unrelated to the Blackhorn Council. I think it's fair to say that Lady Velvet was planning to assassinate Fancy Pants eventually. But she didn't, and neither did any of the rest of that clique."

"You seem sure of that." Shining said.

"Yes." Prosser pronounced. "Because I know for a fact who the real killer is, and why they did it."

Shining blinked.

Prosser returned to his chair. "I'm only telling you so you don't waste your time, looking for leads and clues that aren't there."

Shining double checked the door, even peeking through the keyhole to make sure his knights weren't eavesdropping. "You knew?" He asked. "Then... why?"

"I can't give you any details, at all, whatsoever. I won't put you in danger like that." Prosser said. "I told Princess Celestia- It's up to her whether she decides it is your duty to know the killer's identity."

Shining felt many emotions at once, mostly indignance. "That's dirty trick. That's a very dirty trick. Again you wash your hooves of it." Shining said scornfully. The princess knew? It didn't make sense. "When did you find out?"

Prosser let his gaze droop. "Want to know if I let those mares die at the gate? Sorry, I won't tell you that either, or anything else. Leave it alone, or it'll be your closed-casket funeral instead of Pants's." He fiddled with his glasses. "I was sitting right here on the night of it, when he passed by with those assassin mares on his way to the trophy vaults. I was the last living pony to see him."

"Besides the killer." Shining muttered.

Prosser made a sour face. "Yes, besides the killer I suppose."

Shining was silent for a while. "You've left enough clues. If I trawl my memory, over the past month, there will be hints, some point where your behavior changed. I'll find out why you apparently survived with this knowledge and I will die with it."

"Sie Armor if you haven't figured it out already-" He cut himself off. "No, no, I'm not saying a word more." Prosser insisted. "Do nothing. Know nothing. Be a good knight and stand around with your sword. Have you thought about that? Inserting yourself in this is your death warrant."

"Now you're the one contradicting yourself. Maybe it's because I'm treading over your trap." Shining said. "A trap, to coopt and kill the Blackhorn pretender with whatever mystery force killed Fancy Pants."

Prosser shook his head. "That's almost too clever for me. But if I'm too stupid to wield the Blackhorns, there's no way I'd try to wield the killer."

"Maybe because you're already an accomplice." Shining wondered out loud.

"Listen, you silly boy-" Prosser took a deep breath and held back further reproaches. "I have nothing further to say for the moment. I have something of great importance but I won't say it alone."

"Will opening the door so my knights join the conversation do it for you?" Shining asked, half-stern half-joking. He wasn't sure much progress had been made with the infuriating councilor, but at least it felt like they were still allies.

"I have things to say before the Court." Prosser said, but seeing a look of immense disapproval pass over Shining's features he quickly backtracked. "Or before the Princess, I mean to say."

Shining was on guard again. "After you've just said you are a better one-on-one manipulator, why would I go along with you one this? You're trying to publicly tie me to some plot you've cooked up."

"No. It is because I know what your next line of questioning will be." Prosser said. "Or rather, I know what it must be, to save yourself and the empire."

That was a fairly galling thing to say, and annoyed Shining not a little. Once again the councilor was being obscure and probably untruthful. "Fine. I'll accept your terms. You're such a bothersome pony."

"Yes yes, why couldn't the killer have taken me instead of Fancy Pants. They all think it." Prosser yawned. "I'll see you soon."

Shining just sighed. After a moment, he pushed open the door to the corridor, where the knights were still waiting. "Thank you for waiting gentleponies. We've gotten what we were looking for. I'll return to the Court. You may to the watch. Or, actually, you're dismissed for the day. I'll see you at the barracks."

"Sir." The knights saluted and headed towards the stairs back up into the castle.

Shining glanced over his shoulder at Prosser. "Just lay off the Blackhorn rumors. Maybe I'll wise up a find a way to launch a coup against you, councilor. I'll find somepony who causes less trouble."

"The threat makes me jitter, but the instrumental violence makes me jounce." Prosser chuckled. "Unfortunately, I know you won't actually unseat me or anypony else. No matter how much violence you dream against them, no matter how much you rage at their decadence and improprieties, you'll do nothing."

Shining remained silent.

"You see Sir Armor, you're a perfect knight, almost. However, you are neither airheaded enough to be somepony else's tool, nor zealous enough to make your ideal world reality." Prosser said. "Instead, you bark at ponies, make empty threats, whinge about duty and all that." He paused to take a breath. "Not going to throw the gauntlet this time? Realizing it'll never happen, because you don't have the conviction of your own correctness?"

"I have no reason to seek to be correct. I have the princess to guide me." Shining said firmly.

"The princess. Oh yes. Well, we'll talk about that later, in the Court." Prosser gave an exaggerated nod. "Going to cast aspersions again, while I'm still in the mood to retort?"

"No councilor, I shall wait until later when you silently take the abuse. See you in the Court." Shining turned on his heel and stalked down the enshadowed passageway, up the stairs out of the castle underlevels.

Gods damn that irreverent earth pony, Shining thought. Prosser saw him as a mere colt, a plaything and ally of mere convenience. Troubled thoughts ran through Shining's head as he thought of ways to force the councilor's respect.

"Was your lord father doing well, sir?" A knight asked as Shining passed by.

Shining stopped in place, pulled from his thoughts. He had forgotten the very reason he had gone into the underlevels. Confronting Prosser about the Blackhorn rumors was only supposed to be a momentary thing before we went to see Night Light.
"He's well. Better than me." Shining mumbled as he continued on his way.

Shining was not going to go straight to the Court in session in the Throne Room to wait for Prosser. He was going to take action, and have something to throw at the councilor when they next spoke. He hurredly his way through the grand castle ground floor towards the entrance.
"Sir Sentry, you have the watch. After-Noon watch goes to Vanguard." Shining called out to the knights at the guard post as he passed through the entry halls.

"Aye sir." The knights waved back.

But exiting the castle, Shining stopped right in the threshold of the grand doors, hearing a familiar voice.
Shining turned to see his mother chatting with one of the fully armored knights on guard duty.

"Though lately, the cumulous are completely out of control all over the southern plain. Cloudsdale have really let us down." Velvet was saying. They were seemingly conversing about the weather. "Storms could come our way on any given day for the rest of the month." Velvet's eyes darted over to Shining, inviting him with a mischievous smile. "There could be rain over Canterlot any time now."

Shining cleared his throat. "Is her ladyship being restrained from entering the castle?" He stepped forward into the conversation. "If the lady regent of the Chateau gatehouse comes calling, surely the Court or I would be informed."

"Good day Shining. I was just asking your friend some questions." Velvet said little laugh.

Since she had taken on the entourage of dead-enders and inept climbers, like Blueblood and Sel Sabonord, Velvet had rarely been seen without at least one of the little coterie. So why had she come alone? "Questions I could answer?" Shining asked, inquiring to the knight on guard with a stare.

"Sir-" The knight straightened her posture. "Her ladyship was asking after somepony. It's not against any code to inform inquirers about non-castle staff, sir."

Shining looked over his shoulder, back into the darker spaces of the castle. "Have you really misplaced your friends, my lady?"

Velvet shook her head. "Not at all, sir, not at all. I simply thought the Lord Blackhorn might have come this way." A little nod from the knight backed up Velvet's statement.

"I see." Shining nodded, acting like he was scanning the plaza for the missing lord.
It didn't feel like coincidence that this was happening just after his discussion with Prosser about the Blackhorn. Doubtful Velvet was actually looking for Seacrest Blackhorn, since she wasn't the type to completely misplace somepony. She was sending somepony, probably Shining, a message.
But Shining was not feeling very receptive. Gods willing he would reach a solution that would make everything the other ponies were plotting obsolete. "Well, good luck Lady Velvet." He gave a quick salute to the knights on guard and trotted away.

Velvet watched Shining leave with bemused expression.
Then, after twenty or so steps, Shining stopped, and as she anticipated, approached her again.

"Lord Shining, good morning." Velvet said with a grin.

"You should walk with me for a little while." Shining said firmly.

"Really? I was thinking of popping into the royal Court for a while. Oh very well." Velvet said, amused. She bowed to the knights and followed Shining in the direction of the IHG barracks.
"You can vent at me Shiny. I'm your mother."

"No I've already been punished once today for not being careful." Shining said. "I won't take too much of your time. I'd just like to hear your reason for executing the assassin mares again."

"Oh? Last we spoke it seemed like you were fed up with me talking so much." Velvet said with a churlish grin. "Shining, if I told you that it was a ruse, and that I didn't actually kill the assassins, would you believe me?"

Shining sighed. "Back to playing games with me. I have too many evasive ponies in my life, but you are the best of the best." He nodded back towards the castle. "Councilpony Proser said he knows who the real killer was. Or, is."

Twilight Velvet made a strange sound, which Shining thought for a moment was a restrained laugh. "Do you believe him?"

Shining shrugged. "He seems to want to clear suspicions on you as well. Now, the sensical thing is to assume is that you two are coordinating and plotting since he's been whispering about enthroning your missing Blackhorn as vizier."

"Prince Blackhorn as vizier? The councilor is saying that?" Velvet made a purposely transparently fake effort to sound surprised.

Having passed around the curve of the keep, they were before the IHG barracks. Shining stopped Velvet with a hoof on her side. "The councilor has given his reason for not telling me the truth." Shining said. "What is your reason?"

Velvet laughed for a few moments, then, apparently thinking it not so humorous, pursed her lips and knit her brow. "Shiny I don't tell anypony anything. You already know that."

It was true. There was not a word Twilight Velvet had said in the past twenty years that Shining Armor had trusted unconditionally. "I do know that." Shining agreed. There was something wrong with the mare- She was able to tell lies with such absolute conviction that ponies wanted to believe. It was like magic, almost.
Shining wanted to believe too, because Velvet was his mother, and he still loved her.

"What I gain from telling you is much less than what I gain by not." Velvet said. "For one, my son's life."

So, much as Prosser had, Velvet considered knowledge of the killer's identity to be fatally dangerous. Maybe it was just more evidence they were cooperating and had message discipline. Or... "Then why has Princess Celestia done nothing?"

That caught Velvet off guard. She blinked, considered the question, then let out a derisive snort. "Don't ask me to guess the thoughts of alicorns. I have no gods in my head."

She had something worse- herself, Shining thought. "Fine. I won't. That's almost the end of this topic." He said solemnly. "Except for me to ask, once more, whether you'll come clean on the push for the Blackhorn to be installed as Grand Vizier."

"Shining dear, come clean out your ears, be hygenic. I said I was not involved." Velvet insisted. Her eyes sparkled as she thought up a new bold lie. "In fact I disavow it. Our appeal to the princess the other day was in the interest of general peace, not ambition."

"Very well." Shining nodded. "I'll forewarn you, you might feel like you have free-hoof, carefree and light, but that will end soon.

"Will it?" Velvet asked. At first she seemed curious. "Will it really?" Then she broke out into a laugh. "Good luck Shining Armor. If you want to impede your poor mother, then so be it. But you be forewarned, that you would have a much better time if only you accept my invitation to lunch, as we have many things to discuss."

"No we don't." Shining said. He was being disrespected again! "Good day, mother, but I have my duties."

"Good day to you Shiny. Visit your father some time. The company he has is absolutely dreadful." Velvet nodded. She meandered back towards the castle entrance and Shining went into the IHG barracks.

Blueblood was having a nice break day. He was in the Blackhorn Council meeting hall, kicked back in a chair at the conference table, reading a cheap fiction pamphlet. He didn't get a lot of time for reading when Velvet was dragging him around by the ear, berating him and making unsubtle threats to kill him. It was miserable while it was happening, but when the days were over and Blueblood had time to rest, drink, and think to himself, he felt a subtle thrill about the devious work he was a part of now. It was like he was a sidekick to a mischievous antihero strait out of the fantasy stories he was reading.
And yes, it wasn't ideal to be at Velvet's mercy, but everypony had their little place in a story. Besides, sidekicks often got off light for perfidy or, learning a lesson of redemption and going on to happy anonymity. Who was the villain of this life play, Blueblood wondered.

Iillor stepped past the dice-playing goons hanging out on the front steps of the Blackhorn Council building and pushed the door open. She peered inside, matching stares with Blueblood as he looked up from his pamphlet.

"Can I help you?" Blueblood took his hooves off the table and sat up.

"Don't know. Can you?" Iillor stepped fully into the hall and shut the door behind her. "I got an invitation to be here."

"Really now?" Blueblood arched a brow. "We're supposed to be tapering back recruitment right now. There's been too many interested ponies to handle. A puissance becomes a nuisance, as they say."

Iillor approached him, coming to stand on the other side of the table. She looked around, seemingly checking for other ponies.

"Hang on... I've seen you." Blueblood squinted at her. "Yeah, at the castle. You were... with Velvet's kid! That's right, you're Lord Armor's friend, eh?"

Iillor, satisfied they were alone, returned her attention to Blueblood.. "He's a lovely boy but not really my friend. I don't think he likes me, actually. My loss."

"No mis, his loss. I'd know if you were a castle regular, nevertheless there's no doubt you have the bearing and grace of a noble!" Blueblood leaned forward onto the table. "I'd usually take issue with commoners in our spaces, but for you, providence grants a very big exception."

Iillor first reaction was a look of incredulity, then slight amusement. "I'm like your boss: I make my own providence. That's why I came to see her."

Upon hearing that, Blueblood immediately realized this was not a pony to be messing with. She was either a spy, assassin, or imperial agent. "Oh, even better mis." He laughed, trying to recast his forwardness. "There's no doubt the Blackhorn Council could make exceptions and immediately recruit you, if that's what you were interested in." He sat up and cleared his throat. "But Lady Velvet isn't here. You could try at her residence, the Chateau la Garde."

"I didn't see her there." Iillor toyed with one of the chairs. "It wouldn't be an issue if I waited for her here, right, sir?" She asked, a slight pointedness to her tone.

"I'd be very poor company, mis." Blueblood laughed, getting nervous. Before, with Shining Armor, the mare had been all smiles. Now she was threatening. Why was it so important that she see Twilight Velvet? "You can come back later perhaps?"

"Nah. I'll think I'll stay." Iillor announced.

"Well, uh... that's fine. Umm, I don't know if she'll be by here later either. You might consider... Well... Fine." Blueblood nibbled his lip. He picked his pamphlet back up, trying to focus on the words, but compelled to glance up at the black-furred earth pony as she sauntered to the edge of the meeting hall and just... stood there, still and silent. He did not trust that nothing bad would happen if he took his eyes off her.
Pleasant day ruined.

After checking in at the IHG barracks to make sure everything was in order, Shining departed south, just a little ways onto the campus of the University.

The University had a long and complicated name in Roanish that nopony used, Universitas Magistrorum Scholarium et Magicum Canter-Equtus Celestiaanum. Often, the Canterlot University. Most often, just the University. Everypony knew which one; It was the only one worth mentioning.

The University had been confined to a single large marble building for most of its existence, full of lecture halls and laboratories. Only with the last century, with the Equestrian Empire growing in population, prosperity, and technology, had the campus expanded into several buildings.
One of the very newest buildings was the Univerisity Hospital. After decades of contentious political battles between the chirurgeon and apothecary guilds and the avant garde medical scholars, the imperial government had approved the hospital as a place of both care and learning. That was where Shining was headed.

It was mostly unicorns around the campus, but there were also a few pegasi and earth ponies. They all avoided looking at Shining, letting him know his presence was not welcome; The University was a hotspot of radical ideology befitting the youthful idealism of the ponies who had come from across the empire to study there. There was more than a few dossiers back in the IHG barracks concerning student revolutionaries spreading propaganda among the masses of Canterlot.
Still Shining couldn't completely hate the University. It had been his little sister Twilight's respite after the estrangement from Celestia.

Shining was not long in arriving at the University Hospital. A few floors up, he saw a particular room guarded by some an armed and armored city guardspony.

"Is the captain awake?" Shining asked.

"You're Lord Armor right?" The guardspony gawked.

"Sir Armor, please." Shining corrected. It was something he had once had to say quite often. "One's duty to the princess comes before title."

The guardspony didn't say anything, continuing to stare.

Shining Armor, disconcerted, skirted past the guardspony and entered the room.
There were a brief moment of panic when Shining saw that the recuperation bed was empty, but a few moments later he saw Captain Hauseway standing by the window, which allowed the small amount of light in the room. Another pony was beside the captain, talking.

"Old Town lodges are in a bad place. They've got all kinds of suspect ideas in their heads. It's the newspapers, saying all kinds of things." The second pony was saying.
it took a while, but Shining finally recognized his voice. It was Barley Bale, the 'captain' of the Canterlot City Guard. A lazy lout even by his own admittance, Barley Bale left everything to the individual guardspony lodges. It was not a huge issue, since most orders came out of the castle anyway, but the lack of inter-lodge coordinate and camaraderie causing more and more issues, as the chaos after Fancy Pants's assassination had shown. So why was Barley Bale in the mix now?
"If I order them to participate, they might riot. Best left out of things for now. If they riot anyway, I hope I can rely on your boyos and girlies to put them down."

Hauseway let out a wheezing laugh. "What a crock. Clean up your own damn mess. That mob of shopkeepers can't storm a castle."

Barley Bale sniffled and rubbed his nose. "Then I at least need better weapons for deterrence. Give my loyal lodges some of those modern wheel-lock guns you're getting."

"In the utterly remote chance there's actual fighting I'll send... a maneuver unit of knights, good pegasi. But they'll keep hold of the the guns, and have their own officers." Hauseway grunted. "But you're just paranoid so it's a useless guesture anyhow." He stepped away from the window and poured himself a glass of water. Shining caught his eye for a brief moment, but Hauseway made no acknowledgment. Barley Bale saw Shining too and immediately glanced away, clearing his throat nervously.
"Knowing you, you're just blowing up the threat to finagle those guns from me. Tricky little stallion, aye? Why don't you use whatever friend you got the information from to swing yourself your own damn guns instead of mooching off me?"

"By hell, Hause, I'm giving you an opportunity to do me a favor so I'm indebted to you." Barley Bale clucked his tongue. "Since from what I hear, you could use a friend like me. Your circle of benefactors don't much rub shoulders with mine, so this is the way we gotta establish accord here. Because, obviously, if Canterlot goes up in flames that me out of a job, Hause."

"You hear wrong. I'm doing fine, so I fail to see how your problems, your debts, are my problem." Hauseway nudged Barley Bale in the shoulder with the glass of water. "Unless you make a concrete offer, the city and the castle stay separate. Your donkey-headed lodges can riot and I'll still be fine."

Barley Bale took the abuse silently. The two captains were technically equal, but Hauseway clearly had the superior social and political position.
"You know what you want from me Hause. You're really gunna make me be the one to say it? In front of him?" He nodded towards Shining.

"Heh heh." Hauseway leaned on the window sill, turning towards Shining Armor. "Shiny my boy, about time you came." He grinned, beckoning Shining closer, hoof curled around the glass of water. "Holding things down, aye? I'm all rested up. Can't see through the hole in my shoulder anymore, Shiny."

"Yes sir, and no sir, I can't." Shining said. Despite the captains' causal tone, the air of dire importance kept Shining formal.

Hauseway nodded. "Sometimes I love you, sometimes I hate you, but you're a fine soldier Shiny, and I shouldn't stay angry at you." He laughed, nodding to Barley Bale. "By the way Bale, this is my staff officer Lord Shining Armor of the House Twilight-Bright."

Shining winced at the use of his full name. His captain was using him to lord over the other. "We've met several times."

"And yet Bale here didn't say hello. We have to do better than that, right? To be deserving of salvation, ehh? 'Cuz he's not prayed enough, that's for sure." Hauseway chortled. He took a sip of water.

Barley Bale didn't seem to appreciate the diversion from their conversation. "I'm open to a bargain with you but it's a big risk. You're conniving second-in-command here is a big reason for that. I'm not saying anything while he's listening." He grumbled.

"No Bale, It's not your turn yet. I'm still talking to Shiny. He's come to tell me something." Hauseway said, as if addressing a child. "Because he's got his own a bargain to offer."

Was he being condescended to, or was Hauseway inviting him into some kind of conspiracy?
Nevertheless Shining was going to go ahead with his plan to outflank Prosser and Velvet. "There has been a lot going on at the castle during your stay here, captain. I've come to discuss the viziership. By your leave, I was going to send letters to the outstanding nobles of the empire, that they should present themselves to the imperial court posthaste. Then the princess can begin the selection of a new Grand Vizier of Equestria."

Hauseway sipped his water, thinking things over. "So you'll help Cadenza pluck a new vizier, just to your liking, out from the countryside, so they won't be polluted by the local politics. Why, have you gotten tired of being in charge? Ponies keep bringing word that you're acting like the boss around the castle lately. " He shrugged. "Well Shiny I think you're making a good choice. If you'd been set on keeping the reins we might have a problem between us."

"Sir?" Shining asked, inviting clarification. If there was a conspiracy, maybe it wasn't as friendly to him as he'd thought.

Hauseway shrugged. "Oh, nothing, nothing. I simply find it funny you came to ask my opinion. Are you hoping I'll back you up on your plan, Shiny? Or perhaps the princess aren't listening to you. Perhaps they take somepony else's council..." He waggled a brow. "Unless, uou haven't asked them yet? Shiny my boy! I'll say again, if you aren't asking their permission, why are you asking mine?"

The captain wasn't going to make it easy on him. "It's like the honorable captain Bale says," Shining shot Barley Bale a glance. "You know, but you're going to make me say it."

"I am." Hauseway chortled.

"Consultation with you, lord captain, comes before my princess," Shining sighed. "because I consider the consequences of your disapproval to rank higher on my wilingess to proceed. If my lady princess Cadenza objects, I think I could convince her. You, not hardly."

"Why would I object?" Hauseway teased.

"Because if a new vizier were to be seated they would, heavens willing, clamp down on this factional struggle in the city. It would deprive you of the opportunity..." Shining hesitated. "The opportunity of your revenge, sir."

"So, if I object to this plot, would you stop it?" Hauseway posed.

Shining sighed again. "I have not decided that, sir. I would have to change my approach. If you set out to stymie this plan, I would have to go about it in a way that you can not prevent it."

"Ahh, that's very interesting. You'd probably work through the princess then. She's your little sock-puppet after all. Devious little boy, ehh? Oh Shining, not only have you not apologize for that gatehouse buisness, but you've come right back to announce you'll continue to ignore my orders. When did you get so saucy, son?" Hauseway said in an offhand way. "But I see your words for their merit, Shiny, not just that they're pointed at me." He nodded to Barley Bale. "How about it Bale? You tell me, what's my 'conniving second-in-command' really planning here?"

Barley Bale thought for a moment. "He's either setting you up for failure by getting you involved with outside candidates, or pushing you into an even bigger fight with that earth pony Councilor, Prosser, and Lady Twilight Velvet too, in a big brawl over who the Vizier is. Maybe he's planning both."

Shining felt queasy. Had his earlier accusations against Prosser sounded like that? "Respectfully, that's idiotic!" Shining snapped, tired of the formality. "I want to END this damn factionalism and infighting. A capable vizier is the first step to putting the empire back into line."

"Hause, put your colt here back into line." Barley Bale clucked his tongue disapprovingly. "I've had ponies whipped for less."

Hauseway shook his head. "Hear him out Bale."

Shining felt a bit of encouragement. "A country noble, who can support their own host of knights and retainers, could defend themselves against the schemes of both palace courtiers and factions in the city. Increasing their own power will necessarily make the empire more secure- It's not like the Princess's will can be undermined when she is not asserting it."

"And you're not worried about this noble grandee establishing themselves a dynastic majordomo status?" Hauseway posed.

"Can it be worse for the empire than negligence and infighting?" Shining countered.

Hauseway and Barley Bale traded glances, then both broke out into laughter.
"Yes Shiny, it CAN be worse." Hauseway said. "Worse for us!"

"Here we are, discussing barging into the throne room and putting our own pony in charge, and you want to voluntarily give up power." Barley Bale said incredulously. "What's your deal? Did the little princess whisper in your ear to plan this plot? Is she bored of being in charge too?"

"You will speak more respectfully of her highness, Princess Cadenza." Shining said with sudden severity.

"Shiny is an honest-to-goodness coltscout. A little cinnamon bun." Hauseway chuckled, pouring himself more water. "Sir Shining Armor I'll let you tell us now, what we're about to do." He paused. "Or turn and leave, and wait with your momma while we do it ourselves. You'd be missing out though."

Shining stared out the window, behind Hauseway and Barley Bale. He thought he'd be dictating terms. But nopony listened to him. Not Prosser, not Velvet, and not Hauseway.
Outside that window, some birds were perched on the trees of the University green. Beyond them, the mighty towers of the city wall pointed to heaven. Somewhere in those southern skies was something more important to the princess than any of the mortal quibbles now consuming Shining and everypony around him.
Shining felt a tinge of apathy. Buck it, he thought.
"You're going to install a new Grand Vizier by force." Shining said. "My guess is... the Blackhorn."

"BINGO." Hauseway erupted. "You're a star as always, Shiny boy. Yeah, Bale here's got the Blackhorn bagged up in one of the guard lodges. At noon, we march back into the castle and 'make our case' to the Court and princess."

Shining nodded glumly. "And I'm to lead." Noon was mere minutes away.

"Right again! Right again!" Hauseway nodded aggressively. "See Bale! This boy has his issues, but he's the smartest ally we've got. When he's given an order he can't refuse, he doesn't. Yes, a smart boy with good survival instincts. If my 'vengeance' is defered, it'll be because you agree to my terms, not the other way around. "

"Our smartest ally? Buck us then." Barley Bale mumbled.

"Understood then, Sir." Shining said, returning to rigid formality. He pivoted to leave.

Hauseway cleared his throat. "Just a second, Shiny. I see you don't totally approve. You think I'm doing something wrong in my nihilistic play for power."

Shining turned back to his captain. "I do my duty, sir." He said stiffly.

"So did I, boy. I did my job the best it's ever been done." Hauseway sipped from his water. "I'm gunna tell you a story. You might have heard it before. I love handing out my war stories, but this is one of the oldest anecdotes, right at the start of the Chitin War." He raised a hoof, painting the scene with his gestures. "You see, I was on a boat. Or, ship. Big ship, multiple decks with cannons all in a row."

"Man'o'war." Shining said.

"Yes, man of war. Short for manticore of war, yeah? Well, I was on one of those, serving as a marine, essentially. We were going to attack a Chitin changeling coastal fortification, so that after we took out the fort our smaller ships could sail up the river and burn down this city where an annoying queen who'd been defying us was hunkered down.
"Anyway, this fort was up on some bluffs, too high for most of the ship cannons to see. Only mortars could hit it. Still, those Chitin guns are so god aweful firing back at us. Only a few of us died as we rowed up to the bluffs, and only a few more died climbing up the bluffs. Oh, but trying to get up those fort walls was hell! Ancient, poorly maintained, covered in slippery moss and repulsive changeling slime. The other marines and I were stabbed at, and pushed off, and shot point-blank. We got over that wall and started hacking away like damn berserker zebras. It was a damn fine mess! Blood spurting into the air and guts slickening the ground.
"But a mortar shell landed. The fort's gunpowder stores detonated, and the whole half of the bastion exploded apart. The very bluffs broke beneath the foundations, and hundreds of ponies and changelings tumbled down into the warm sea under burning stone. I thought I was dead, buried under a few bodies- But they'd burned so I'd not. So I slowly dragged myself up the charnel pile, convinced I'd see the clouds of Elysium at the top. Instead I saw a flag, Celestia's flag hanging above the fort. We'd done it. I saluted, unable to keep from crying."
Hauseway brought up his hoof in salute to the remembered flag.
"But it wasn't her flag. It was a piss rag, a dirty and torn thing that had landed on a stick after the blast. But I stayed saluting. I cried to that rag for hours, and one by one the other ponies dragged themselves from the bodies and saluted and cried along with me.
"But it was getting late, and our legs were tired, so we executed the surviving changelings and slid down the remains of the bluff to the boats. As planned our ships went up the river and burned the changeling city. Pretty good for a day's work."
Hauseway relaxed and leaned against the windowsill, sipping more of his water.
"But that rag, Shiny. I keep thinking back to that rag. I wish I'd let it down and saved it. That's my flag now. That all of our flags. We serve a piss empire that kills and conquers because it can. I'll be damned it I'm not the one on top of this hallowed pile of corpses we call Equestria."

Shining said nothing.

"Salute on your way out soldier. Salute the piss rag." Hauseway joked.

But Shining did not salute, a minuscule rebellion, as he just bowed and left the room.
He felt the eyes of the guardspony who'd greeted him on his back as he trotted down the hall- If he had said the wrong thing, insisted more stongly on his plan and refused to help Hauseway's, would they have killed him? The nihilistic pursuit of power... Even Twilight Velvet wasn't ready to admit that was her goal.

But Shining could not go against his duty. Per potentia ad victoria, he thought to himself.

Prosser was whistling to himself as he crossed through the mid-levels of Canterlot Castle, making his way to the throne room. While he wasn't exactly looking forward to what he was going to tell Shining Armor, it needed to be understood if they had any pretenses to saving Equestria.

Suddenly, twenty IHG knights joined the corridor in front of him, their armor and weapons rattling conspicuous as they purposefully marched towards the throne room. Prosser's breath caught in his throat, but he dare not run away as he heard twenty more knights approach him behind.
Stuck between the two groups of knights, Prosser sweated as the strange procession passed between the beautiful doors into the throne room.

Cadenza was in the throne, adjudicating some minor dispute between nobles from the Canter.
As soon as the additional knights entered the room, everything became silent very quickly. Courtiers shuffled to the sides of the room not to be seen. The two knights flanking the throne went from relaxed to rigid, looking between the junior princess and the new arrivals.

Prosser disentangled himself from the column of knights and slunk behind a column, hiding from attention with the other nobles.

Cadenza remained stoic; She may have been untouchable, but her glances to the other ponies betrayed her concern for their fates, very much in question depending on the intentions of the knights.

"Your highness's most loyal knights present a petition!" The lead knight bellowed.

Cadence pursed her lips. She probably couldn't diffuse the entire coup, but she could avoid violence depending on her actions. "What is within my power, and within propriety, I shall grant to the Sun's subjects." She nodded. "Come forward with your petition."

The knights fanned out across the room
The building click of hoofsteps in the hallway echoed into the throne room. Shining Armor strode in, bearing a scroll in his magic. Like the other knights he had donned his full set armor, the polished plate mail gleaming in the resplendent light filtering through the stained glass around them. A sword hung at one side, a pistol at the other. He was worthy of his name at that moment.

"Princess..." Shining took off his helmet and passed it to one of the knights. "The Imperial Household Guard, selected by providence and her highness the princess of the Sun, are moved to action by the state of disorder in the realm."

"Just so." Cadence couldn't maintain her stoic facade. She looked into Shining's eyes with a great sadness. Was it something I did? Was there something I could have done better?

No, answered Shining with his own solemn expression, it was fated to end this way. "This petition call for an abrogation of the period of solicitation, application, and discrimination for the selection of a new Grand Vizier of Equestria. A new Vizier can be beknighted, immediately!" He held out the scroll. "This is not without precedence, you highness. These late acts of necessity by the imperial government, cause of concern for some, can be accepted by plenary under the new Vizier."
That was to say, the new vizier would immediately legalize the seizure of power.

Cadence leaned back in the throne, her eyes losing focus as she stared to some distant horizon, thinking private thoughts.

Shining approached the dais. "Princess-" He sighed. "Cadence. I did what I could."

"I don't think you tried very hard. You said you wanted action." Cadence said softly, refusing to look at him.

"If you-" Shining paused. "Cadence, if you refuse, and you really mean it, you know what that means. That means enforcing your choice, by force. I'll obey you, but what for all these ponies behind me? Captain Hauseway knows the difference between empty threats and real alicorn prerogative: What happens when mortal agency conflicts with alicorn agency."

A sudden ferocity entered Cadence's movements, as she sat up on the throne, looming over Shining. "What do you mean by that Shining?" She demanded, her voice still soft.

"That you are a demi-god, Cadence. The faith instructs me that its through the stern tutelage of alicorns that ponykind is made right." Shining closed his eyes. "I adore you as a pony does, but you're my liege and heavenly princess. In the founding of the empire we were made to obey by the flame and the sword. If you wish to have your will carried out, rather than that of we temperamental servants-" He held out the scroll again. "You have to take up the whip, so the word is obeyed next time."

Cadence rose from the throne. She descended the steps to Shining. "You get what you want either way, Shining." She regarded the scroll, floating in Shining's magic. "I'm going to my tower. Please send a knight to accompany me for a trip up to the solar monastery this afternoon."

Shining sighed. "You know you won't get away from a decision that easily."

"Just put the petition on the throne." Cadence insisted.

Shining shook his head. "Not that decision."

"This is my desicision." Cadence wordlessly crossed the throne room, her hoofsteps slowly tapering off as she grew more distant.

"Fine." Shining huffed. "Court is indefinitely suspended!" He lobbed the scroll onto the sun princess's throne. "Get these ponies out of here."

The knights started ushering the courtiers toward the entrance, prodding more forcefully where necessary. Within a matter of minutes the throne room had been nearly vacated.

"Hold on, bring Councilpony Prosser back in." Shining called to the knights, who grabbed Prosser from the crowd.

Prosser glumly followed the knights to the front of the throne room. "I was wrong about you, clearly. You have what it takes." The earth pony eyed the empty throne.

"Nope, I'm still just a knight, not the captain, or a politician. This is Captain Hauseway's play." Shining said. "Captain Bale of the city guard is in on it. He's nabbed the Blackhorn from the city. They'll be bringing him up soon. They're ready to kill if they have to."

Prosser groaned. "That rat Barley Bale! He's been cavorting with the Blackhorn Council defector, Countess River Song. This whole thing stinks."

"That it does." Shining agreed. "Sorry councilor, but I'm washing my hooves of it. I'm going back to just taking orders. I do nothing, I know nothing. It your problem now. Good luck advising the new vizier."

Prosser stared at the unopened scroll sitting on the throne. "Your whispering to the princess wasn't all that quiet. Funny thing is, you told her nearly the same thing I was going to tell you."

"About the alicorns? I figured as much." Shining said. He nodded to the knights, who filed out of the throne room, leaving Shining and Prosser alone to talk.

Prosser stepped forward and put a hoof on Shining's armor, pulling him closer. "Shining the disease of this nation goes far beyond factions and lack of mortal leadership." He said with rushed urgency. "We live under a regime of sin. Our alicorn empress wasn't supposed to live this long without a succession."

"Hey, slow down." Shining pulled himself away. "And watch what you say."

"I should have warned you earlier. I was being a moron by acting superior." Prosser muttered. "I used to have a lot more investment in the life and health of this empire before I knew what the alicorn nature actually was. They're not like us, my friend. Their minds are half out of this plane of existance, and you can never quite be sure if they see the same things as you, or if the organ analogous to their brain comprehends the same thing as you. Who knows whether talking to them is actually conversation, or devious mimicry, a shadow on a cave wall."

The things Prosser was saying sounded almost indistinguishable from treason, outright fomenting against the holy alicorn princesses who guided ponykind. "You're putting my life at risk saying things like that." Shining said. "You better clarify yourself right quick."

Proser nibbled his lip. "You understand. I know you understand, because I listened to you exposit after our chat with Celestia, right after the murder. You know what the alicorns are doing to us."

"Yes, I said it after Fancy Pants was killed, and I will repeat it. This nation is diseased. Our argument about the Blackhorn pretender earlier is proof of it. The shining guidance of the princess and the Sun... is not not there." Shining said with a hint of lament. "If the secrets of alicorn nature can redeem us, there's no need for drastic actions, power, lies, violence and death." He shook his head. "But that was then. I'll repeat, I'm done causing messes. I'm just following orders now."

"Bullshit. Like you told Cadence, you're not getting away that easy." Prosser said.

Shining shrugged half-heartedly. "Especially not if you keep reminding me. I guess I really don't have the guts to strike you and make you make you shut up. Thus I follow my princess Cadence, in that I'm counting on others to make it happen."

"And the creature you're counting on most of all, Princess Celestia, is nowhere to be seen! What woe that accompanies the death of faith." Prosser said. "Sir Armor, please understand- You shouldn't be counting on her, Cadence, their kindness or their sternness. The alicorn understand neither." He paused. "That's not their proper name, by the way; Alicorn is a Roanish word, combination of 'cornu' for horn-"

"And 'ali' for all." Shining interrupted.

"No," Prosser said, a hint of his smugness returning. "It derives from the Roanish 'alius', meaning different. Yes, that name that you thought described the kinship between ponies and alicorns in fact betrays a deep truth that is hard to accept for most faithful equestrians: Alicorns are not like us at all."

Shining was getting a lot of Roanish lately. "That's of no consequence. It's their differences from us which justifies their rule." Shining said.

"Even when, for example, Princess Celestia tells me to buck off when I tell her the identity of Fancy Pants's killer?" Prosser posed.

Shining stood in silence for a good minute. Prosser got bored of waiting for an answer and resumed his fiddling with the alchemy set.
"So, lay it all out for me." Shining finally said.

A positively devious grin overcame Prosser's features.
"You can come at it from many ways. Philosophically, we can understand that the core of the pony condition is our pitifully short existance. Mortals die. We squirm around, pretend we're important, eat and breed, but ultimately we kick that bucket." Prosser cackled. "Alicorns don't die. However they get awfully hollow inside with age, as is demonstrated by our dear Celestia. That is because they are not meant to exist like we do. They operate on a completely different set of rules."

Shining thought for a while. "Thus the succession."

"Thus the succession, where our Sun embraces the old princess and delivers us a new princess." Prosser said. "Sir Armor, you're of the right mind to ignore this politics crap. But that means you have to double down on the alicorns. Understand me? You have to find a way to get us out of this mess with a sun princess who has gone hollow from age."

Shining nodded. "Of course... the solar monk."

"Huh?" Prosser queried.

"You weren't here then that monk had an audience. Let me take care of it." Shining said. "We might figure this out sooner than you think."

Prosser gave Shining a sideways look. "Be careful about involving Cadenza."

Shining shrugged. "She's a princess. She will involve herself where she wants. Indeed she already has."

Prosser had to accept that. "Good luck out there. Don't get hanged for treason. I guess I have to navigate an Imperial Council headed by a Blackhorn as Grand Vizier, and with an IHG captain controling him. Pray for me."

"Pray for your own damn self. I still have my duties to attend to." Shining put on his helmet and reattached it. "Have a nice day councilor."

Prosser nodded and they left the throne room in opposite directions.
The doors of the throne room swung shut behind them, ending the brief period of Cadence's authority.

Sel Lech Sabonord was lazing at a cafe in the Old Town, enjoying his day off just the same as Blueblood.
He tried to live an austere life, but the young noble had to admit to himself he liked the delicacies and comforts of rich living. The dissatisfaction of being a noble courtier had never been material, as he'd certainly never wanted for food or shelter, but entirely in the realm of fulfillment and realization of the self.

That brought him to the cafe, eating little cakes and listening to a performance troupe across the street strumming forcefully on a gut-string guitar.
Oh, and the mute servant, Molar, had tagged along.

"You can have all the coco ones. I prefer the vanilla." Sel Lech nodded towards the plate of snack cakes,

The mute stallion shifted, staring blankly at the cakes from under his hood, before looking off to the performers.

The slave stallion had a reserved timidity about him, constantly hiding his features under the robe, and refusing to emote or communicate besides with rasps and head movements. Sel Lech knew that Molar knew how to read, inspecting all the signage of the Old Town shoppes and the menus of the restaurants. He knew how to write as well, but refused to.
Velvet wasn't interested in telling Sel or Blueblood what Molar's history was (if she knew herself), so they had chatted and speculated- Despite his unnatural muteness and other hidden disfigurements under the robe, Molar moved with a certain noble grace. Maybe Molar had been an adventurous knight before his imprisonment, and after suffering cruel abuse by foreign tyrant masters, was taken back to Equestria. It was fun for Sel and Blueblood to create stories for Molar which echoed their own trajectories through life, or match it with the narrative they were building around Seacrest Blackhorn.

In the moment though, when it was just a slave with his throat slashed up, it was less romantic.

"Suit yourself." Sel pulled the cakes toward himself.

They continued this way for a few minutes, Sel Lech eating more of the cakes, and Molar sitting glumly opposite him. The ponies of the Old Town passed by on their buisness. The bells around the city tolled noon.

Then Sel heard another sound in the distance. He wasn't all that versed in martial affairs, but he recognized the jingle of many armored ponies in motion from the night of the vizier's murder.
Molar heard it too, jumping to his hooves.

"Some new damn commotion." Sel hissed, fumbling some coins onto the table and galloping in the direction of the sound.

Several dozen armed city guardsponies, wearing the colors of the Inner City guard lodges, were marching down the avenue towards Canterlot Castle. Several intrigued civilians tailed behind them, as well as a few aggravated looking guardsponies in Old Town colors.
Between the armed guardsponies was Seacrest Blackhorn, looking very confused and trying to bargain with his detainers.

"Oh shit." Sel eyed the column of guards as it passed. "We have to find Lady Velvet."

Molar grunted his agreement, so they galloped out ahead of the guardsponies towards Canterlot Castle.
They almost collided with Velvet heading the opposite direction.

"M'lady, they've nabbed Prince Blackhorn!" Sel said hurriedly, gesturing the way they'd come.

Velvet nodded, a pensive look written on her face. "So it is. The IHG are locking down the castle. The Imperial Court is abrogated. It's a coup," The lifted a hoof. "but they haven't bothered to lock down the skydock or city gate, so it's not that serious."

"Not that serious?" Sel repeated, incredulous.

"We're probably not going to be proscribed. IHG and city guard in on it together means no radical moves." Velvet clarified. "That being said, don't get in their way or they might kill you out of convenience."

The column of guardsponies entered the plaza behind them. Some citizens and the Old Town guards were now quarreling and pulling at the trailing group of Inner City guardsponies. Seacrest began to shout. "Lady Velvet! Lady Velvet!" He screeched, trying to escape the clutches of the guardsponies before they pushed him back into the line.

"What a pitiful sight. There goes Lord Blackhorn." Sel Lech sighed and shook his head. "Maybe they'll kill him out of convenience. I didn't like the stallion but he would deserve that."

Velvet rubbed her chin. "No... No, I think they are going to co-opt him. Whoever is behind this, Hauseway probably, must have heard the whispers about setting Seacrest up as vizier. It was a mix of luck and destiny that put him in our hooves. Now, Hauseway wants a turn with him. Damn! I should have visited him in the hospital."

"But- We'll lose control of Seacrest! That's a month of work." Sel lamented. "My lady we have to do something."
The column of guardsponies stopped at the entrance of the castle as the guard sergeant leading them began talking with the IHG knights on watch- It seemed the knights didn't want to let more than a few of the armed city guards into the city. The crowd was still pestering the trailing ponies of the column.
"Right now, my lady, I could gallop in there and grab Lord Seacrest. Then you can teleport us away!" Sel said. It was exceedingly daring but Sel was feeling ready to take the risk. "We only have a few moments before they enter the castle. Now or never, my lady!"

"I'm not that good at teleporting. I could only move you a few hundred feet." Velvet said. "But maybe that enough. Hmm..."

She didn't even get a moment to ponder though, as at that same moment, a pony galloped up to Velvet et al from the other direction.
The interloper was one of Blueblood's thugs. "M'lady." She bowed, glancing past her at the spectacle of guardsponies. "Uhh, if you're not busy, m'lady, Sir Blueblood wants you to come rescue him. There's this mare that's in the council hall. Seems like just some trollop, but she's really freaking him out."

The 'trollop' could be none other than Shining Armor's friend, Iillor.
Velvet laughed at herself at the absurdity of it. "I see. This is all very amusing isn't it."
She closed her eyes and listened to the shouting and arguing behind her, Seacrest desperately calling out for her, Sel Lech's nervous prancing, the ripple of Molar's robe in the wind... She felt elated. "Ahh, when all is upended, joy can be found again." She opened her eyes. "The joy of shedding the old skin. We will have to make new plans now.

Sel felt equally concerned and relieved by her reaction. "You know what to do, my lady?"

"By god, we will do whatever must happen for ponykind to be redeemed." Velvet non-answered. She pointed to the guardsponies. "Follow them, non-confrontationally, into the castle. Confirm whether they're enthroning Lord Blackhorn or executing him."

"You really think they'll make Seacrest vizier? He's, you know, deficient. He can't even put his own horseshoes on." Sel queried.

"That's exactly why he's as useful to Hauseway as he was to us." Velvet said. She gestured for Molar to follow her, and nodded to the messenger to lead the way. "This situation at the council hall needs me. This is where the new path is made, Sel. We convene later there. Good luck young Sel."

"And to you my Lady, good luck." Sel bowed.

They went into action to do what was necessary.

Five days passed,

and the state of confusion lessened around Canterlot. It soon became clear to the ponies and chattering classes of the capitol that things mostly hadn't changed.
Everypony still had to go to work, to eat, to sweep the streets, to buy and sell, and to count their money. The new vizier, installed by the clique around the IHG captain, had not done anything, and had not even been seen in the public eye. The routines and habits of the subjects of the empire continued undisturbed.
But perhaps that was the point. Everything went on exactly the same, save for who claimed to be 'in charge'.

Shining Armor looked out the window of the tavern he was patronizing; On the cobbled Old Town street outside, a patrol of guardsponies passed by.
His skin itched. Sitting thinks out and not getting himself involved was hard. What HE could be doing out there, instead of the captains, he could not help but speculate.
Perhaps drink could force such thoughts out of his head. But turning back to his mug, Shining found no inspiration in it either.

Some soft music carried from the adjoining room of the tavern, playing for the rowdy audience of commoners. Shining respected the decor and sensibilities Canterlot's coffee houses whenever Twilight took him too, but for spending hours feeling sorry for yourself, there was no alternative to the taverns on the border of the Old Town and Inner City.

"Hmm..." Shining considered doing something silly like throwing his mug or smashing it with a hoof. That would at least be interesting. It would make him feel something besides aggravation. To be so close to power, but to have sworn off of it...

His own temptations were not the only things exhausting Shining Armor. By the letter, Shining only had his normal duties, but in reality he was now the only officer really doing any work in the IHG. Since the little bloodless palace coup, Captain Hauseway had entirely concerned himself with palace politics to keep his new ship running.
To his credit, the captain had been trying to preserve the channels of power rather than outright militarized dictatorship. Instead of governance being managed purely of the Imperial Council, Hauseway had been shuffling all around the city, meeting with nobles, Estates Speakers, and courtiers individually on issues of policy and jurisprudence, and thereafter Hauseway would go back and boss around the Imperial Council, putting 'Vizier' Seacrest Blackhorn's seal of approval on the decisions.

That left poor Shining Armor, with a hundred-odd imperial knights, angsty, proud, and idiosyncratic, to keep in line. Every morning it was paperwork. Ever evening it was drills. Everypony in the barracks had something to complain about to him. More than ever, Shining was the IHG last answer on everything, and it was exhausting.
It was doubly exhausting because not everypony was happy about what had gone down in the throne room with Princess Cadenza being sidelined so abruptly. The knights liked being around the princesses; It made them feel important. Being pawns to Hauseway's power play was not only dishonorable, it demeaned their status as knights of the holy alicorns.

And lastly, there was Shining Armor's covert dealings with Prosser, chasing the alicorn enigma, which he didn't even want to THINK about. At least he had a reason to see Cadenza from it.

"Why can't everypony just be nice to each other." Shining sighed.

Somepony eased into the chair behind him. "Oh? lookin for somethin' nice?" A soft voice cooed in his ear.

Great, another damn problem. "Mis Valor." Shining sat up in his seat and glanced at the black-furred mare. "Nice seeing you, I suppose. You've chased me down."

"Oh come on, Sir Armor. You sound unhappy about it." Iillor purred, crossing her legs. "Did you think I would stay away?
How could I ever, hee hee? Interesting things happen around you."

Shining's eyes gravitated to a cheap wooden trinket on a string around her neck. "I like the necklace." He said facetiously.

Iillor grinned. "Good taste runs in the family." Iillor fiddled with the trinket with a hoof. "I have a matching dress coming in tomorrow. I'll be a real Canterlot belle. The colts won't be able to keep my hooves off em."

Uh oh. "Your long delayed, much anticipated debut. You'll probably be the center of interest, not I. Especially with that necklace and dress." So it seemed that Iillor had been cavorting with Twilight Velvet in some form. They seemed like a match for each other, but the union still filled Shining with a certain dread: Were his suspicions of Iillor vindicated? "Here I was, deluded that provincial mares were demure and traditionalist, who only dreamed of being housewives someday."

"I tried that life, but in my case that was before I had a dream." Iillor giggled. "But I can still demure if you want, Sir Shining Armor. Will you be my big strong knight?"

"You're more flirty than usual." Shining said flatly.

"Isn't a tavern the place for that? Oh don't worry Shiny I'm not drunk. Except on happiness, ha ha?" Iillor tittered. "If you don't like it I'll stop. I've long been able to see that's not what you want from a mare. There's hardly need to flirt besides, since you're such a gentlestallion, you'd give me what I want without it."

How ominously phrased. "There's not much I can give you, mis. There is nothing I can spare anymore, even for myself, really." Shining said. "But clearly you've been getting along fine in Canterlot."

"Are you hurt that I stopped coming around? I'm sorry Shining Armor, I thought you were busy, though maybe that's when you needed me most." Iillor posed, her laughter turned to pouting. "Neither of us deserve to be turned into thralls for boring work. It's kinda sad for the both of though, don't you think?"

Shining cocked a brow. "So a somepony gave you a job?" He mused. "How does that work? I'm not judging but that somepony has been surrounding herself with unicorn maximalists and separatists."

"Oh don't be coy." Iillor punched his shoulder playfully. "Yes, I turned to Lady Velvet, but I have nothing to do with that political stuff. Like what is even the point without their prince? No, I'm just doing really simple jobs." She smirked. "And no, I won't talk about it with you. That's employer discretion or something like that."

"Sad for both of us, is it..." Shining took a swig of his drink. "Don't get comfortable around those louts. They might be comfortable with you doing menial work, the 'Black Horn Council' but they have no interest of earth ponies or pegasi being equals."

"Are they?" Iillor asked.

Now she was just being silly. "Aside from those born mentally and physically invalid, ponies are ponies, equal."

Iillor snorted. "Don't start telling me you have an egalitarian streak, Sir Armor. Who ever heard of a revolutionary knight? Surely you don't see me as your equal."

She was bringin up the class issue. That gave Shining pause. The distinction of commoner and noble was one of the truths of the Equestrian social order which went politely uncommented except by firebrands and radicals. "I don't decide ponies' position in our nation, mis. That's left to her imperial highness and her mother Sun. To wit, their faith tells us the pony tribes are equal. However where the alicorns have us in tutelage and governance, it flows through the well-born of Equestria."

"Stuck doing other ponies work and you still cite the dogma like a pro. That's why you make the big bucks." Iillor joked. "Come on, Lord Armor. Go on and say that I'm inferior to you."

"I'm not saying that." Shining glared. "Look, I don't appreciate you drawing comparisons between me and the Black Horn Council. Surely you've noticed the only other earth pony I see running with the Black Horn Council is that hunched mute who always has that robe on. Meller, Mooler, or something like that."

"I've met him." Iillor nodded. "What's your point? Not only are we both earth ponies, we're both commoners. Do you lump us together, like the unicorn separatists do?"

"No because- Tshh, I guess you're not staying away from politics after all." Shining grumbled.

Iillor made a triumphal gesture. "You've been outdebated sir, ha ha! Got tired of citing manuals and faith?"

"Never." Shining sighed. "Look, would you like a drink? I'd be happy to buy. Then we can chat about your days ahead as a Canterlot debutant."

Iillor eased back her seat. "Not this time Sir Armor. I think you're the one who's drunk."

"Not even. I've been holding this for an hour, barely touching it." Shining nudged the mug. "Any second I'm expecting somepony to drag me away for some fresh emergency at the castle. So as pathetic as it sounds, I'm intoxicating myself on the idea of what the drink represents." He sat back in his chair too. "It represents letting go of responsibilities. And relaxation, or good time. Or maybe just of forgetting mistakes. But all that stuff seems so far away right now."

"Yeah that's pathetic but most things are in this world." Iillor patted him on the shoulder. "I'd like to think I wouldn't be content to live that life, but hey, who knows, I've been duped before."

Shining Armor didn't feel like arguing with her anymore. "I'm proud of my service to the Imperial Household Guard and the princesses, even when it's tedious. I'm not asking for your pity." Though, thinking on it, the only reason he had mentioned it was in fact because he was fishing for pity.

Iillor didn't talk for a while, letting them both enjoy the music and the hum of chatter from the other booths around the tavern.

"I know what it's like between you and the littler alicorn princess." Iillor said.

That was out of the blue. "I don't know what you mean by that." Shining said.

Iillor gave Shining a knowing look. "You adore her more than a mortal should. But where it's encouraged that god is a subject of social desire, it's a dangerous taboo that they could become subjects of personal desire." She said. "I've heard ponies got exiled and locked away forever of that kind of thing."

Iillor was pushing at another taboo, this one even thornier than the last. "Again you're going to force me to draw distinction between myself and them, right?"

"It's obviously important to you. Do you expect everypony around you to see the same things in you that you see in yourself? I don't mean to tease or test you, just to know you better." Iillor said.

"Would you be alright with being known better?" Shining retorted.

Iillor considered the question. "To those who tell the truth, yes."

Shining found that ironic.
"Fine. I'll explain. A few years ago, a gang of young nobles tried to trick Princess Cadenza into a marriage with one of them, while she was attending the University as a student. The youths were doing it as a most devious and transgressive prank, but some ranking nobles gave them financial help to do it. The conspiracy came apart and a lot of ponies got into trouble."

"But you're not like them." Iillor said with a hint of sarcasm.

Shining took a tiny sip of his drink. "I did not seek the princess out. I'll make that clear right away. I do not lay my eyes anywhere except by the alicorns' command. So when I laid my eyes upon the junior princess, back when I when I was a squire, and she had only just been introduced to the court, it was at her request. So at her insistence we became friends."

"Damn. At her insistence? The little princess ordered you to love her." Iillor said with a titter.

Shining burned inside at her words. "That's not at all-"

"Not love? Adoration then?" Iillor chuckled at his embarrassment. "Would it be better to say she ordered your attention?"

That was acceptable. "It is her prerogative." Shining relented.

"And your next words will be 'the alicorns guide us through everything', and guide do they." Iillor waggled her eyebrows. "Nah, I think she loves you, Shining Armor."

That was going too far. Between friends, taboo and useful ambiguity could be tested for camaraderie's sake, but Iillor was not a friend, and being too daring. "Have you no decency, you harridan? That's your holy liege you speak about. You can compare me to thugs and miscreants all you want, but do not dishonorably frame her actions to the trivial emotions of ponies. What she desires is right."

"Desiring you is right?" Iillor pressed.

"Princess Cadenza does NOT 'desire' me. She is as dear a friend as mortal and alicorn can be. She provides me more attention than I deserve, and receives my due veneration." Shining explained, frustrated. "Whatever she intends, as servant I am a vector for. One of many."

"The favored among many." Iillor said. "You're going to see her today, right? I've heard you've meeting with her. Is she still giving orders even with the court suspended?"

Is should have been obvious to Shining before that Iillor had an eye to politics, since her activity around the castle could be interpreted as snooping. What was her deal? "She has studies I'm assisting with. Princess Cadence can be too deferential sometimes. I attend so others don't."

"Riiight, like those youths who tried to run away with her. Does that make you feel important?" Iillor asked pointedly.

"Uh..." Shining stuttered.

"The savior complex comes out again. Since your captain reigned you in, you're looking for a new way to be a hero. Sir Shining Armor might claim that he's ever-so-loyal, but he thinks he knows best." Iillor said. She watched Shining for his reaction, paused for a moment, then softened her expression. "Hell, Sir Armor, maybe you do know best. You've got a smart mom, and I hear your sister is brilliant too."

"That she is." Shining agreed after a while.
What was Twilight Sparkle doing at that moment? Was her work on behalf of Princess Celestia coming to fruition? Shining prayed that her toiling would not be meaningless. Twilight deserved more- not that being the First Student wasn't a high honor, but that position was even more dependent on the sun princess's whim than Shining's. How adrift Twilight would be with Celestia in the tower 24 hours a day? "But in the kindest way I can put it, my sister would hate you."

Iillor shrugged. "That's too bad. Say, Shiny, do you hate me?"

"Not yet. That may change if you help my lady mother cause trouble." Shining said.

Iillor laughed lightheartedly, then leaned forward, drawing Shining's gaze by pushing her mane back slightly. "Then it'll change Shiny."

"I hope that's just chatter." Shining mumbled.

"In the meantime, we can keep being... nice. We might even have a professional working relationship, depending on how the errends for your mom goes. That's something to look forward to, eh?" Iillor said, leaning back again. "I've had the damndest time seducing you, but maybe we can be friendly rivals. Theres\'s no reason for politics to get between us. A toast to the future of Canterlot, ha ha!"

Shining let out a deep sigh. "Mis Iillor... It's probably for the best if we avoid each other."

"Woah woah, that's a tone shift." Iillor's wry mirth evaporated.

Shining sat still for a while, then stood up, taking a generous gulp (his first) of his drink before pushing it away. "Next time you may not want to see me." If Shining took Prosser's claims about Fancy Pants's murder at face value, that meant the killer was still out there. Shining had almost forgotten the coincidences surrounding Iillor, and how she had happened to meet the assassin mares, and then happened to be in the castle at the time of the murder. Now Iillor was apparently leaping head-first into the highest level of politics, from the opportunities opened by Fancy Pants's demise.

The fact was, Illustrious Valor was very high on Shining Armor's list of suspects.
He looked into her eyes, and she into his. He bore a stern frown, and she a tight and mirthless smile.
She knew his suspicions, and it filled her with tingling excitement. But it was not confirmed, not for him, and not for her. It was the ambiguity which saved them both from mutual destruction then and there.

"Oh fine, sir. Even if you hate me, I'd want to see you." Iillor said, her attempt at a sincere tone being undermined by a stifled laugh.

Shining nodded. "And that's a problem, mis."
A pony rushed past the window towards the tavern door, wearing the uniform of an IHG knight messenger.
"My long-awaited call." Shining muttered. "Serendipitous timing." He eyed Iillor. "Unless you had more to say."

"You bet I do." Iillor laughed.

The knight messenger entered the tavern and crossing the room to them.
"Sir Armor." The knight messenger saluted.

"Is it the castle?" Shining asked. Out of the corner of his eye, Shining saw Iillor take his mug and devour its contents in a single swig. Impressive.

"Oh, no sir. Her grace, Junior Princess Cadenza, requests you attend to her." The messenger passed Shining a letter from her satchel. "Something about sun measurements? I don't recall."

"Oh? I thought the princess was using private couriers?" Shining mused. It was the little touches, like how Cadenza bound her letters with various strings rather than wax, which made him adore her; looked like mohair today.

The messenger nodded. "Princess Cadenza thought the couriers attracted attention. A few of the HG and I volunteered to be at her call for this kind of thing." She threw Shining a sympathetic look. "Despite, you know..."

"I know."
Shining glanced at Iillor, who was acting disinterested, and read over the letter. Cadence was at the University library? Strange, since he didn't think she would have too many fond memories of that place anymore. Very well.
"I guess I should be happy. There are lots of eyes kn the castle, and tattling mouths as well." Shining said.

"Indeed sir." The knight agreed.

"Then I'll have to go back to the barracks to change out of my armor. Accompany me, will you?" Shining said. He turned to Iillor. "I'd wish you luck but I wouldn't not want to be disingenuous."

"Alright." Iillor idly played with the chain of her necklace. "I'll see you later then Shiny."

"Or not. Au ne revour pas." Shining smiled thinly. With that, he turned and followed the knight messenger out of the tavern.

"More like, au ne revour rein." Iillor joked, horribly butchering the prench pronunciation.
She stuck around for a few more minutes, enjoying the atmosphere and music. "Man, I wish we'd had neat venues like this back home. Boy... Dneighper Crypts was such a dump." Oh well, back to the errends to which she had comitted herself.

"Hey, isn't that Sir Armor over there?"

"Hmm?" Twilight Velvet looked up from her book. "Where?"

"There exiting that tavern," Sel Lech pointed across the street. "in olive-color armor, with that other fellow."

"Oh, yes that's Shining." Velvet said with a shrug. "Duty called, apparently. He's such a busy boy nowadays he doesn't even visit for dinners. I hope he's eating well." She went back to reading.

"Nice enough guy, I guess." Sel followed Shining with his gaze until the knight disappeared in the crowd.
The cafe they were seated outside of was a nice little shop, a bit dingy for the Old City but passable.

The aftermath of the palace coup had been very strange for Sel Lech Sabonord. One would have thought Twilight Velvet would give up her claims to be working on behalf of the Blackhorn prince. What was the use professing support for a pony who had been snatched away from you? Hauseway was keeping Seacrest up in the castle, away from visitors, especially from Velvet's clique.
But Velvet was acting as though nothing had happened. Blueblood, Aurthora Airy, and the Blackhorn Council were still aggressively recruiting and propagandizing. Velvet was still attending little gatherings and giving vague speeches about ponykind and necessity, shadowed by Sel and Molar. But the Blackhorn was missing now.

And there had been one extremely alarming replacement.
“Heya!” The black-furred form of Iillor slipped into the chair beside Velvet.

“It’s Lady Velvet, even for my son’s friends.” Velvet said lightly.

“But what about for your friends?” Iillor tittered. “Surely your friends call you something different. Something starting with ‘A’ ?”

“We must be doomed as a species for you to carry on as you do.” Velvet said, voice dipping into a growl. “Hungry for attention, yet never truly noticed.”

“Sorry, I can't help myself.” Iillor smiled. “Attention is in my blood. I just want to be at the center of it all!”

Velvet, accepting that she wasn't going to get any more reading done, snapped her book closed and set it on the table. "Do you even have blood?"

"Wanna see it?" Iillor asked.

"I beg your leave, my lady." Sel Lech stood up. "It's back to wenching myself in the noble courts."

"Sel, do behave, and watch that foul mouth." Velvet rolled her eyes. "Do you have an issue with our new compatriot, Mis Illustrious Valor?"

Sel stared down his nose at Iillor. He found Blueblood's kind of noble snobbery distasteful, but he still had his own noble standards. There was something very wrong with the little earth pony he couldn't quite place. "What does this commoner have to gain from us? She hasn't been forthright whatsoever, my lady." He waved his hoof in irritation. "Is this our new direction? I barely understand what we're doing anymore. Am I important to your vision anymore?"

"That depends on you." Velvet said.

Sel huffed. "Sharing a cause with her makes me feel like a mercenary. She does not even pretend to strive for our ideals."

"I'm nakedly mercenary so you don't have to be, kid. Keep the veneer of your little cause." Iillor yawned.

Velvet stifled Sel Lech's retort with a raised hoof. "I understand Sel. We will have a chat tomorrow. There's something at the Chateau la Garde I have to show you as well."

That was ominous. "As you wish my lady. I've said what I wanted." He bowed to Velvet, then again to Iillor. "I'll be at the council hall. Good day." He trotted away.

Iillor leaned back and enjoyed the sun on her face. "What a nice day."

"Don't get too comfortable. We're here for a meeting." Velvet said, then paused. "How was Shining Armor?"

"I don't think he likes how things have gone with the new vizier guy, but it's not like he's going to do anything about it." Iillor shrugged.

Velvet shook her head. "Not quite what I meant. Was he happy?"

"You think I can read his mind? That's a bit beyond my powers." Iillor chuckled. "How could you see me if you don't actually know anything about Nightmares."

"Oh, because I am that powerful." Velvet said with a strait face but a mirth in her eyes. "And I'll use it to make sure my children get the world they deserve."

Iillor leaned forward, suddenly confrontational. "You should be smarter than to say things like that. What mortalkind deserves-"

Iillor cut herself off as another pony approached. It was an orange unicorn stallion in a silk vest, who took the chair across from the mares. “Lady Velvet.” He said.

“Ah, finally, Captain Bale.” Velvet marked her page and set her book down. “I've been waiting. Not right here, but since Hauseway's stunt at the castle. When I saw those Inner City guards taking the Blackhorn away, I knew you were involved too."

"Right to the point." Barley Bale said. "Don't flatter yourself though. Even inbred Estates Speakers were figuring that out my role and coming to me with questions."

"Is that why you're traveling without guards? Keeping a low profile? Surely you anticipated you'd make some enemies." Velvet said with a snicker.

That didn't seem to amuse Barley Bale. He settled more into the chair and waved over a nearby server. "Wine please. Two wines?" He glanced at Velvet.

"No thank you." Velvet shook her head.

Iillor raised her hoof. "Yes thank you."

Barley Bale shot Iillor an annoyed look. He turned back to the server. "Just the one wine."

Iillor tapped on the table. "Looking out for me, aye? Drinking too much is bad for your health. It'd be a damn shame if you bit it right here."

Bale eyed Iillor, curious, then grunted. "Is this one of the brigands that did it? Hmm, I always thought the three assassins theory was too few." He said sharply. "She should know to hold her tongue, Lady Velvet."

Velvet let out a sigh of consternation. "I had nothing to do with Pants. Even Hauseway accepts that now. I don't want to start this meeting on the wrong hoof but we need to have some understanding so we can negotiate in good faith."

"Fine. Consider yourself understood." Barley Bale shrugged. "So, business."

Velvet nodded approvingly. "We can work out a framework for collaboration here, and build out a plan in future meeting.s How does that sound to you?"

“Sounds like shit. I want my money,” Bale interrupted. “and I want it now.”

Velvet frowned. “Did you expect me to haul a wagon of gold to a cafe? I don't have it."

"Where is it stored?" Bale demanded.

"I just said I don't have it." Velvet said. "We're not liquid. Gathering you fee is going to take time."

"A pony's life is a thousand bits, is what the dirty thugs we pull from the street say. You'll come up with the money." Barley Bale said.

Velvet shook her head. "A pony's life-"

"The cost of a mortal life is but a single breath." Iillor interrupted.

Velvet shot Iillor a glance, letting her know the boundaries. "Quite. You should rethink your friendship with Captain Hauseway if he didn't tell you before you got involved, Captain Bale."

"That bastard led me to believe he was doing me a favor. Now everypony is pissed at me. Hauseway's calling shots at the castle and I just get yelled at." Barley Bale griped. "This time I'm collecting my due upfront. No money no play."

"Why would I mistreat you the way be has? Nopony appreciates you like I do." Velvet said. "Hardly sporting if Hauseway has the IHG at his call and I don't have anything." It seemed she had stoped taking the conversation seriously.

"If you want something for free, I'm not the pony to ask. For one, because I can't afford it." Barley Bale scowled. “Your Blackhorn friend ain't helping you since he's made Vizier? That's a shame, Lady Velvet. Dire shame. But, not my problem, unless I'm compensated to make it my problem."

"I'm not saying what you think I'm saying. I just need more time." Velvet said.

Barley Bale didn't respond, turning away to look around impatiently for the server to return. After a few minutes, the server returned with the wine, and Bale seized the entire bottle with his magic and popped it open. "More time..." He took a swig of wine. "If I had your husband as collateral I'd consider it. But he's in the castle dungeon, out of my reach. We have nothing to bind our agreement besides honor and that's worth less than this piss!" He took another swig.

"Language." Velvet intoned.

"This guy is playing hardball but he needs you more than you need him." Iillor snorted. "Kick him around so he remembers that."

Barley Bale pulled his mouth from the wine bottle. "You keep letting your friend here speak out of line. However useful she is a commoner; and-" He wiped his mouth before continuing. "I've a mind to have her punished as another precondition of our deal."

Iillor folded her hooves under on the table and sat her head on them, staring intensely at Barley Bale.

"We know the Blackhorn Council would have been stymied if you ordered the guard to confront us. By the same token I know you wouldn't risk a schism between your lodges." Velvet tapped her hoof, filling time now. "I appreciate you Sir Bale. Are you going to betray the only pony who appreciates you?"

Barley Bale nodded. "Yes. Pay me."

"You'd let slip the chance to help bind Canterlot together as a joyful and united force?" Velvet asked.

"Yes, yes." Bale said. He downed the rest of the wine and tossed the bottle away. "Save the sermons for the chumps and bucking pay me."

Velvet sighed, leaning back in her chair. "Ham-hoofed vulgarian." She muttered under her breath, eyes half-lidded. "We're not getting anywhere."

"Isn't it? We're learning not to waste each others time." Bale said with a shrug. "Anyhow, I thought this meeting was productive. Next time, I hope it'll be transactional." He pantimimed rubbing two coins together, then stood up. "Only after that will you start getting my cooperation, lady. You better hope somepony else doesn't scrounge up my fee in the mean time."

"See you later, sir. We'll get you what you're owed, promptly." Iillor idly waved him away.

"Sure. Keep well Lady Velvet." Barley Bale staggered away.

Velvet stayed silent, glowering at the street for a long while.

Iillor lifted her head. "Should it please your ladyship, I'll make a red smear of him tonight."

"Of course not, you little gremlin. Even if he thinks he's keeping a low profile, dozens of ponies saw us together. His death will be pinned on me. Hauseway will have an updated excuse to sweep me aside. " Velvet chided her.

Iillor rolled her eyes. "Then kill him too. I saw you fight the assassin mares-"

"I only really fought Mis Octavia. And hardly a fair fight." Velvet shrugged. "Are you suggesting I take on every single soldier in Canterlot in one-on-one fights?"

"Hey, it's my new job to demure to you, ma'am. I'll shank a bucker if you ask." Iillor said. "C'mon. Let's wipe them out. To a mare. All those annoying-ass nobles and effete soldiers I saw in the Castle are unworthy of life. And I can tell, I can taste..., that you dream of their annihilation too. Imagine the butchery, and delectable sin of turning that alicorn castle into an abattoir of noble flesh."
Iillor climbed onto the table and crawled towards Velvet, drawing curious glances from ponies at other tables. "Make a wish, my lady. I can make your dreams come true." She purred.

Velvet rollwed her eyes and nudged Iillor's head away with her hoof.
"Vex me no longer with that prattle demon. Your omnipotence can not help me." Velvet said. "The stage is not set."

"The stage... is not set?" Iillor repeated.

"If I could achieve my dream by wanton murder alone I would have done it before you came along." Velvet nodded. "Now get off the damn table. It's not the place for those filthy hooves."

Iillor tilted her head back, matching Velvet's stare with eyes that sparkled strangely at certain angles. "Fine." She rolled off the table onto her hooves. "What a family. I'm not even asking for a soul in return, you know. This isn't some bargain. I'm straight-up offering."

"Bah." Velvet opened her coin bag and counted out enough bits for Barley Bale's wine. "Taking on a creature like you was a mistake."
She got up and began to lead the way back towards the Blackhorn Council's meeting hall. "You have neither the virtues nor vices to be used to my purposes. If you can't take orders then leave."

Iillor's snout wrinkled in frustration. "I want to be a part of your dream, Lady Velvet. I swear! I thought your son had something special, the moxy, a dream he'd fight for. But he's being a wimp, and dishonest with himself."

"So I am what you settle for?" Velvet asked, feigning insult.

"Look, I have nothing to work with if Shining doesn't accept himself. Yeah, that probably sounds weird coming from me but..." Iillor clucked her tongue. "Some dreams require obliteration. I'm not a pony interested in higher causes, but you could call that my purpose."

"I know you're lying. It's all just ad hoc justification of your monstrous nature." Velvet chided. "You had better stop talking to ponies before we infect you with more of these useless sentimentalities which had been bred into us."

Iillor shrugged.

They followed the Old Town streets. It was a typical day, bustling with buisness, the urban gentry out on walks or shopping, laborers pulling carts of goods, artisans and shopkeepers watching the street from their windows...
And here and there, the social refuse. Ne'er-do-wells eyeing ponies for easy pickpocketing. Tramps and bums staring silently from shadows, hoping not to bee seen by the aggressive city guardsponies. Prosperous ponies who laughed disingenuously, concealing nefarious souls full of danger towards those they laughed with. And dark looks from workers and peons when they thought their bosses weren't looking.
And, a dozen steps behind Velvet and Iilor, a lone pegasus tailing them.

Velvet made a right turn and led the way into an alley between two shops, then stopped and turned around.

"They've got a knife." Iillor mumbled, her back to the approaching pegasus.

"Might be poisoned. Does poison affect you?" Velvet asked.

"Ah, the follow up question to the one about me having blood." Iillor smirked.

"Hey." The pegasus shouted over their whispers. "Turn around. Hooves away from belts."

"No issues from us, sir." Iillor stepped to the side, shaking her hips to show he was unarmed.

The pegasus approached cautiously. "Lady Twilight Velvet. The Mistress has been trying to get in touch." He spoke mechanically.

So Phyte had sent the pegasus. Velvet felt somewhat relieved. "We made our transaction. Further dealings will only bring bad attention on me, which I can't afford."

The pegasus shook his head. "The Mistress authorizes me to cauterize you if your answers are not to her satisfaction." He said matter-of-factly.

"Is he talking about Phyte? He's talking about Phyte, right?" Iillor wondered aloud.

"Shut your mouth." The pegasus revealed his dagger and stalked towards Iillor. "You shan't speak her name lightly."

"Won't I, bitch?" Iillor stepped forward, and didn't move and inch as the pegasus thrust forward with the dagger, stabbing her shoulder, nor when the pegasus stuffed a hoof in her mouth to stifle the scream he had been expecting. Iillor just stared in aggravated excitement, first at the pegasus, then to Velvet for approval.

"Stop this immediately!" Velvet demanded. "I dealt with the Mistress on fair terms last time. Treat me and my subjects fairly."

The pegasus drew back from Iillor. If he was surprised by her lack of reaction to being stabbed, he did not show it. "Humph." He turned back to Velvet. "The mistress suspects you ignored her letters on purpose."

"Maybe I didn't see them. Maybe I read each and every one. What does it matter?" Velvet asked. "If she wants to talk, she should come herself. I refuse communicate through dogs."

"Dogs..." The pegasus echoed.

"Look, around the hairline." Velvet Indicated to Iillor. "Stitching. And pull that cloak back, we might see something interesting about this stallions' wings. Was he a stallion originally? The world wonders."

The pegasus stared mutely.

"Away with you. Lead your master, or rather Mistress, to me next time." Velvet said, dismissing him with a wave.

The pegasus didn't outwardly react.

Annoyed, Velvet turned and trotted away. Iillor watched the inert stallion for a moment, then followed her.
"You treat ponies like Bale with undue respect, but tempt the anger of Stars. You're a cad."

"You know something of the Guild Mistress?" Velvet asked, arching a brow. "I detected your interest in her. So, just I set up a meeting."

Iillor pondered whether Velvet had actually done her a favor, or it was incidental. "Yes ma'am. I'm very interested in a meeting. You don't think she'll just send more killers?"

"She might. It's unlikely but she might. I hope she is starting to get curious about me, and she will want to speak before that." Velvet said.

They arrived at the Blackhorn Council hall.

"By the way, that dagger was dripping with venom." Velvet said. "If you had blood it would have been clotted and left you dead in that alley."

Iillor flashed a grin full of sharp teeth. "That so, my lady? I look forward to learning more about me."

Inside the hall, Velvet trotted over to the long meeting table, where Sel Lech and Blueblood were gossiping.
Both stallions went silent and eyed Iillor with suspicion as they approached.

"Good afternoon boys. Is our mute friend around?" Velvet demanded.

"In the office." Blueblood said. "I can call him out."

"No need, he heard us." Sel said.

Molar emerged from the connected office room and waited for orders.

Velvet gestured for him to come closer.

Molar bowed his head and stepped up to Velvet. After a moment's hesitation, he prostrated himself and, ever so delicately, produced a bundle of cloth from under his robes.

The temperature in the room changed- The unicorns in the room felt an uncomfortable coldness in their horn.

Iillor sucked in a giddy breath. "Ooh, hot dog." She snatched the cloth-bundled thing from Velvet and pressed it to her cheek. "I'm actually trembling. Damn... Even I'd die if I got stabbed by this."

"Don't unwrap it. I had to bargain pretty hard to get a hold of that." Velvet said, watching Iillor's reaction with a smirk.

Blueblood and Sel Lech exchanged confused looks. "My I venture to ask, my ladyship?" Sel queried.

"You may, Sel. Venture on. In fact we're venturing into greater peril than ever before, boys." Velvet jumped up onto the meeting table. "That package came from a deeply evil supernatural entity, known as a Star. I told this Star, Shale of the Don Hills, that I would murder Phyte the Guild Mistress using this weapon."

"What the fuck?" Blueblood blurted out.

Sel Lech leaned his head on his hoof and sighed.

"We lost Seacrest Blackhorn. That ruined a lot of plans I had. Things had to be shuffled, new plans forged." Velvet proclaimed. "But we are not backing down. We will have to be bolder, more daring, and committed to our triumph."

"Can't we do a normal scheme like break your husband from prison?" Sel Lech asked, subdued.

Iillor stared at the cloth-swaddled weapon for a while. "With this thing... Wow. I'm rarely left speechless." She paused, self-conscious of her silence. "I could... With this, I could remove Barley Bale and make it look like a heart attack. You'd be blameless."

That elicited a laugh from Velvet. "Don't get a big head. I'm just letting you hold it." She said. "Do what you want to that fool Bale. Earn that necklace, Mis Illustrious Valor."

"As you wish, m'lady." Iillor kneeled and bowed, then straightened back up. "But don't you get a head either. You're not my liege."

"Whatever." Velvet waved her away.

The atmosphere in the room gradually returned to normal as Iillor departed with the weapon.

"Again, what the fuck?" Blueblood said. Things were starting to feel like he was not on the heroic side of the story.

Sel Lech shook his head. "If you're that surprised, you weren't paying attention to what happened at the gatehouse."

Velvet shrugged. "Too true, Sel. I have things to attend to at the Chateau so you can go back to your work." She turned to Molar. "You too. Thank you for taking delivery of the Star's weapon."

The mute Molar uttered a raspy gasp, bowed, and returned to the office.

Four more days passed,
and its seemed as though the calm over Canterlot had to stay. There was no more popular fear of a revolt, insurrection, or palace counter-coup. IHG Captain Hauseway's unimpeded control over the Imperial Council through his pupped Seacrest Sabonord seemed to have delivered the peace he had promised.
And ponies began to let their guard down.

It was early evening, of a humid, warm day, a harbinger of the approach of the Summer Sun. It was not much fun to be outdoors, so ponies retreated indoors, and waited for the sun to fall.

A carriage coach pulled up to the grand entrance of the Canterlot Opera House. Captain Hauseway, emerged, trailed by a knight acting as bodyguard.
"Watch for trouble." Hauseway ordered the coach driver, before entering the opera house.

In the upper box seat, Countess Plenty Song waited. Down below, the opera company practiced; The production would not start until dusk, and that was still hours away.
"Hmm." Plenty Song lazed back in her seat. Opera did not interest her in the least. She was a boring, fun-hating pony and she knew it.

Hauseway's huffing and puffing heralded his slow approach to the loge. His bodyguard peered in first, made sure Plenty Song was alone, and let Hauseway enter.
"Ah, sorry for being late, the stairs were trouble." Hauseway plopped down on the chair next to Countess Song, letting out a sigh. "I lost some fitness during my hospital stay."

Plenty Song served him a bored look. "Did you invite me here for small talk? There would have been ample time at tonights party."

Hauseway chuckled softly at Song's non-joke. "No, Countess. I was just making excuses. Useless excuses." He retrieved a handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose. Down on the stage, the opera production threw annoyed glances in the direction of the box. "I wouldn't pull you from your party preparations if it wasn't both time sensitive and important."

That elicited an impatient grunt from Plenty Song. "Then be quick with it, fitting it's importance."

"Of course." Hauseway said with a polite smile. "I may not know you well, lady countess. While you may be more comfortable working through Sir Barley Bale-"

"Bah." Plenty Song scoffed and turned her head away.

Hauseway let his smile drop. "Countess." He said, voice dipping into commanding tones. "Countess, as engaging as the little recital down there might be, I'm trying to talk to you. It's impolite."

The rank difference between them should have put Hauseway as Plenty Song's inferior. However Song was obliged to accede to him. "And who will you coerce me with? One of your lummox knights, or the Prancian-accented vizier of yours?"

This was an obstacle Hauseway had anticipated. "The Blackhorn as vizier is just expedience. You might as well forget he exists, my lady."

"If I did I would be doing that perfidious Barley Bale and yourself a favor, I suppose." Plenty Song said.

"Yes indeed, lady countess." Hauseway beamed. "You know favors aren't distributed freely here, even for a minx like you, dear lady."

Plenty Song's face contorted as she deliberated how to take that comment, then she laughed softly. "Very nice sir." She grew stern again. "I need that Blackhorn destroyed. He is in league with that devil Countess Glori Sabonord."

Hauseway tried to appear sympathetic, though he did not much care whether Seacrest Blackhorn had connections to Glori Sabonord. The rivalries of landed nobles were even more inscrutably petty than that of the city nobles. "I can't burn the Blackhorn yet. Besides he only rarely even speaks of lady Glori."

"Harumph." Glori wrinkled her nose. "I have drawn my line, Lord Captain. Even for a favor, I will not put up with a Sabonord dog."

"I understand, and admire your principle." Hauseway lied. "Trust that I will do what I must to reconcile you to me. Perhaps..." He paused. "Once it is clear to Equestria that you are the more worthy, they will welcome that Blackhorn going off the end of the skydock."

That piqued Song's interest. "And I would have a role-"

"In the castle, yes. You came to lobby the Estates, right?" Hauseway smiled. "How would you like to be the one ordering it?"

If it were an era of humility and common sense, perhaps the unpersonable and cynical Plenty Song would have known better than to be tempted towards a role she was unsuited for, and had been proven to be a trap. But it was not, so she did not. "I would like that very much." Plenty Song said with a smile. Grand Vizier Plenty Song, she though, charming herself with the idea.
Her smile immediately faded, and she stood up. "So we are done."

Hauseway scratched his head. "Yes my lady. I'll see you at the party."

Plenty Song smoothed her dress and strode out of the box, brushing past the knight, the clink of her hooves on the marble fading as she left the opera house.

Hauseway leaned his head on the bannister, watching the rehearsal on stage while he thought to himself. "Boy, being in charge is hard work." He muttered. "Maybe I should find some twerp to delegate to. Somepony to do what Shiny does for me with the IHG."

The meeting came at an unexpected moment, as Twilight Velvet always knew it would.

It must have been close to midnight, but she had too much to do to even consider going to sleep: Letters to write, payments to add up, old records to pour over. It was the cost of keeping herself at the center of everything with minimal delegation.

Velvet lingered at the door of the Chateau la Garde kitchen, watching her maid prepare tea and a late night snack.

“Will you be working in your room tonight, m’lady?” The maid asked while she stacked everything on a tray.

“No, everything is already in the greathall.” Velvet said. She plucked a cup of tea for herself from the tray as the maid passed. “I’d take it to the dungeon to keep our guest company but Molar is already down there watching her.”

Velvet ambled behind the maid as they went the short distance to the greathall. A small corner of the feasting table was lit up by a firefly lantern, where some scrolls and books were also stacked.
One benefit of having Seacrest Blackhorn plucked away was that there was no more pretension to putting on parties, and things could stay blissfully silent.

Velvet settled into her work spot. The maid began transferring the tea and snacks off the trey.

But things were not quite right.
“Trespassers.” The maid whispered under her breath.

Velvet could sense them too.
The door between the hall and the parlor creaked, but it was far too dark so see anything that way. There were rustles and scrapes in the shadows.

“More are entering from the roof.” The maid said. “Highest probability is that they are guildmares.”

Velvet sighed and rubbed her forehead. She had asked for this. Now it was time to see if she had what it took to survive fate. No Iillor there. No other ponies between Velvet and fate.
“Very well.” Twilight Velvet straightened up, speaking at full volume. “Bring more tea for the new arrivals.”

A faint magical aura surrounded a chair across from Velvet, pulling it back from the table. The chair creaked as something large burdened it.
“That won’t be necessary.” A melodic voice whispered.

Though Phyte couldn’t be seen, there was no mistaking her magic. “You aren’t getting mine.” Velvet said coldly. “You have the choice of my hospitality, or not.”

“Oh, and should I expect your servant to bring back a dog bowl?” Phyte leaned forward, until her silk mane was just discernable at the edge of the light. “Is that what you called me? A dog?”

“I called that pegasus you sent as messenger a dog. And no offense to him, but he was a repulsive mongrel. I was instinctually repulsed by it, which I imagine was the intention.” Velvet nodded to the maid, who scurried back towards the kitchen. “I prefer the one you gave me.”

“The biggest mistake of my life.” Phyte growled. “Where is it?”

If Velvet told the truth, Phyte would search the chateau dungeon and find things. “Delivering my husband a book. He’s been trying to catch up on his reading while he’s detained.” Velvet said. There was no chance of Phyte breaking into the castle to confirm.

“Then I suppose I will have to repossess his value from you, Lady Velvet.” Phyte said. “The tip-off about Vinyl-”

“Vinyl.” Velvet repeated, feigning contemplating the word as though it was her first time hearing it. “Reports have been giving the white unicorn a different name.”

“That was a stage name. Tipping me off to Vinyl’s location was, of course, appreciated at the time. As far as I am concerned, you earned your reward. At the time.” Phyte said slowly. “But letting Vinyl get killed, indeed having a hoof in her death, offsets that. That significantly offsets that. You owe me-” She leaned into the light again, her eyes glowing red. “Flesh and blood, my lady.”

Though Velvet had a high opinion of her own magical skill, but fighting a creature like Phyte was just shy of tussling with an alicorn. She would have to be more clever. “I understand your perspective now.” Velvet pursed her lips, scowling at her tea in mock concentration. “It’s going to be tricky for me to explain what facts you messed up.”

“I’m not interested in your lies and shell games.” Phyte hissed. “You will pay, in every way you can. Your accomplices, your assets, and my choice of your body parts.”

“My body parts. Not ideal. I was hoping to get market value for them.” Velvet rolled her eyes. “Does Celestia know about your little experiments?”

Phyte let Velvet stew in silence for a while. “Let us not talk about her highness. How’s your daughter, by the way? It must sting not to hear from her since her unceremonious departure. She’s too far to help you now.”

“My family is safe. They’re protected and stashed away. I’m the only target, and I prefer it that way.” Velvet shrugged. “Now are you going to let me explain?”

“I’d rather hear you plead for your life. Do it and I might cauterize your stumps before I leave.” Phyte threatened. “I have killed for less.”

Velvet sighed in exasperation “Then kill the right pony. Or, you know, right entity. I’m not who you're after.” She said.
Now came the biggest gamble, and the only thing that could save her life: Frighten Phyte the same way she’d been frightened before. “And no disrespect, you’re not my biggest concern, or who I’m protecting my family against.” She paused. “There’s a Nightmare on the loose.”

Phyte sucked in a worried, panicked breath.

Yes. Velvet felt a surge of confidence. She had won.
“So you’ve heard already. Yes, a Nightmare creature of ancient myth has come to Canterlot. It killed Fancy Pants.”

“I know that already. I know-” Phyte got up and kicked away her chair, to slowly stalk around the table to Velvet’s side. “I have detailed reports of his death, but nothing since Fancy Pants. Nothing. It’s so easy to believe it was just a collective hallucination.”

Now for the most thuggish move, to get inside Phyte’s defenses and deliver the coup de grâce. Proverbially speaking. “Why do you think there were so many miscommunications that night? Why do you think I’ve been avoiding contact since, carefully avoiding the streets at night, and assiduously preparing contingencies?” Velvet prompted. “Mistress Phyte, I saw her too, and I saw everything it’s capable of. The killer… the nightmare…”

Velvet’s apparently hesitation gave Phyte time to piece it together for herself. “The Nightmare was at the gatehouse.”

At that moment, the maid returned with the second tray of tea and snacks.
Velvet heard rustles in the dark as Phyte and all the hidden guild mares turned toward the maid.

“It’s not her.” Velvet insisted. “But she did encounter the monster, once while it was concealed, once while it was not.”

“Concealed. So it really did have shapeshifting powers.” Phyte ruminated.

The maid paused and waited for orders of where to put the tray down.

“Maybe you heard what happened here that night, just outside the doors of the parlor. Hell, you probably went past the scorches on the stone of the gate structure.” Velvet said. “You might have heard certain fantastical feats of swordsponyship and magic attributed to me, while fighting off alleged assassins. You might have even heard that I used a spell nopony recognized, to burn them to a crisp.”

Phyte rushed forward, grabbing Velvet’s chair and leering over the seated mare.
She was nearly fully illuminated by the lamp now, her lanky proportions seeming all the stranger in the wavering light. How gaunt her face seemed, dangerous and desperate.
And to Velvet’s delight, grieving, desperate to hear what Velvet was selling her. “You were impersonated.”

“I can be brash sometimes but I don’t pick fights with IHG captains.” Velvet said. “There are already rumors out there about the discrepancies. Some ponies are saying my speech, magic color, and walk were different. The pretender had a necklace, while I only wear brooches. Most shockingly, the Twilight Velvet everypony saw had glowing red eyes, they say.”

Phyte, whose own eyes reflected the lantern light in iridescent scarlet hues, shrunk away, slightly. Who knew what paranoid irrelevancies the Star was adding up in her head, trying to fit Velvet’s exaggerations and lies in what she thought she understood. “That is interesting.” Phyte said quietly. “Yet… I can not go on word alone.”

Suddenly Velvet was seized by the neck and heaved in the air. She gasped in surprise and tried not to panic, as Phyte pushed her onto the table.

“My lady!” The maid screamed, dropping the snack tray and running at Phyte.

Then the temperature of the room got cold. Velvet shivered in discomfort, and not just at her rough treatment, but a strange magic that was filling the air and needling her skin.
“Do not approach a mistress unwelcomed.” Phyte warned. Then, held aloft, the source of the pain: A simple, somewhat ornamented dagger, fashioned in a classical style. Laying eyes upon it, and the metallic reflections of the light on its polished surface, filled Velvet with primordial dread. It was a Star’s weapon, made for murdering both the body and the soul. “Or your lady will not be taking tea any longer.”

It was a test. It had to be a test, Velvet repeated inside her mind. She couldn’t panic and she couldn’t resist, or Phyte would kill her. Something in Velvet’s head made that very, very difficult, and staring up at the deathly red face of the Star made her furious. A great hatred stirred, that this creature could handle her and she had to take it.

“You’re trembling. Is this the mare who called me a dog?” Phyte asked stoically. “But dogs don’t carry daggers.”

Velvet didn’t answer, trying not to show any emotion. It was better if Phyte thought she was afraid.

Phyte released her grip on Velvet, but stayed over her. “It’s not as though a mere scrape or cut would kill you, Lady Velvet. A sacrifice blade must be used with purpose.” Phyte explained. “Their main purpose is rituals. Still, they are fit for purpose, to extract the flesh and blood I am owed.”

Velvet grit her teeth and risked talking. “I’ll help you collect. I’m not your mark, but your ally.”

“Ally? That is a silly notion. One transaction and we’re allies?”

“Do you think my lady likes to be threatened and mocked by a monster?” The maid spoke up.

“What did you just say?” Phyte whipped around to face the maid.

“She means the nightmare.” Velvet chanced sitting up. “We have a common enemy.”

Phyte’s attention lingered on the maid for a few long moments. “You didn’t fight back. Maybe you are telling the truth about the nightmare impersonating you.”

Velvet slid off the table and let out a long breath. “I’m a rhetoric teacher. If you want a magic duel, ask my daughter. Want a sword fight? Ask my son.”

Phyte slowly, deliberately, tucked the gleaming dagger back into her dress, and the painful feeling dissipated.
“Very well. We collaborate against the Nightmare. I don’t know of what use you will be, rhetoric teacher.” Phyte grunted. “Until next time.”
She leaned over and crushed the firefly lantern. Hooves moved in the dark, as the mistress and her minions left the enshadowed greathall.

“They all have gone, including the ones on the upper floors.” The maid reported.

Velvet fumbled for her chair in the dark. After she was settled, she summoned a candle in a flash of magic, and lit it with a touch more. “Damn Star.” She sighed, pushing the bits of the shattered lantern into a pile. “Could have gone better, could have gone worse. We have played her paranoia perfectly, so hopefully she will be keeping an eye out for a nightmare, rather than an eye on us."

"Indeed my lady." The maid curtsied. She took a moment to compose herself back to perfect stoicism. "Should I bring another lantern?"

Velvet shook her head. "No. I have to brief Molar and teleport him near the castle, in case Phyte intends to track him down and confirm what I’ve said.”

The maid pursed her lips. “Is he reliable enough for that? You open yourself to risk, my lady.”

“We could burn him and claim ignorance about his disappearance.” Velvet contemplated. “But no. There’s still useful blood in him.” She sighed and got up from the chair. "If you see Mis Valor, tell her to lay low for a while. After this, it's best they not meet, and the longer before Phyte identifies her, the better."

The maid expressed her displeasure of having to deal with Iillor with a momentary frown. “Very well my lady. Don’t overexert your magic.” The maid nodded. She got to work cleaning up the trey she had dropped.

Velvet grunted her acknowledgement and trotted toward the hidden stair to the dungeon, and the secret things which lay within.

Right down the street, among the palatial mansions of South Canterlot, the conspiracy against the comfortable quiet stirred.

Nopony was entirely sure why Countess Plenty Song had remained in Canterlot (Not even Plenty herself) after her falling out with her erstwhile clients on the Black Horn Council. Nor was it clear where she was getting the money for her new social life in the city, keeping up with the expectations of a landed noble, when her county was notoriously small and poor. In a word, why was the mare with only her noble title to leverage acting so contrary to her incentives and personality?

But something had overcome the souls of ponykind, that had made them foolish.

Countess Song stood off to the side in the South Canterlot Manor she had rented, watching the party guests come in. They payed far more attention to each other than to her, the host. She knew they hated her, a landed noble, acting like she belonged in Canterlot. The petty nobles resented her title, but they smiled hollow smiles and heaped compliments on her- For patronage, for favors, for attention, for petty Canterlot rivalries she couldn't understand. They thought she must have had an easy life, just because she had a castle and a few villages to her name. That was not so! Plenty Song raged inside that she had to cavort with the Canterlot nobles, the second-scions of Equestria, the refuse that had been kicked off of the land or inherited no title: The cosmopolitan and effete mixing of great noblepony noblesse, reduced to sitting in the shadow of, and defining their existence by, the Imperial Court. It was no way that a noblemare should live!
Yet there Plenty Song was, throwing a party. She was disgusted with herself.

Even as Hauseway arrived and planted a messy smooch on her cheek, she could only gather enough will to blink at him.
"Hello again captain." She said.

"Countess Song, you're looking fabulous this evening." Hauseway grinned. "And this party is one of your more extravagant! That ice sculpture is sublime!"

"Oh?" Plenty Song glanced back towards the sculpture in question, depicting Celestia reared up in graceful triumph, as though initiating the Summer Sun. "I hope it's nice for as long as it lasts. It wasn't cheep."

"Money well spent, I should say." Hauseway nodded. "I should hope not to become a pest, but on the topic of money, I'd like to revisit the conversation we had the other day about Barley Bale. We might even chat a bit about Black Horn Council, with whom you consorted a while."

"Stop that. Stop bringing up the Black Horn Council until you do something about that disgusting creature you installed as vizier." Glori said, a glower coming over her features. "As for Barley Bale, go talk to him yourself, if he's arrived. He might in the mansion somewhere."

Hauseway paused and took stock. "Well, maybe I will." He said, apparently deeming continuing with Plenty Song unproductive. "Good evening, lady countess."

So Hauseway, his knight guard in tow, wandered out of the foyer into the rest of the mansion.

It was a who's-who of Canterlot society. Hauseway saw noble functionaries, members of the Imperial Court, high-ranking courtiers of the viscounts of the Wall Castles, popular artists, and a few of his own IHG knights.

"Ah! Hauseway!" Somepony called out to him.
It was Jet Set, leader and Speaker in one the more influential cliques in the Estates. He was a slim and stylish stallion, a genuine blue-blood, but an ideological tabula rasa.
Standing beside Jet Set was his thug, ideologue, and reported mistress, Upper Crust. She handled the public-facing part of Jet Set's clique, which included solicitations and influence peddling schemes. Hauseway did not trust Upper Crust one bit, although she did align with him a fair amount as a conservative pole in Canterlot politics.

"Ah! Hello there." Hauseway smiled trotting over to the pair. "Long time no see, Sir Jet."

"Quite, Captain. Quite." Jet Set mewed, tilting his head slight to stare down at the shorter stallion. "The Summer Sun is near."

"Yes, and we all know what that means." Hauseway grunted. It meant the Estates convened. Jet Set was likely at the party to give the sales pitch for his services as a speaker to the lady countess. Good luck, Hauseway thought. "If I'm still in the chair by the time the Summer Sun rolls around, I'd like to be able to count on you and the Estates for some things. I have some policy that I can't get through with the Imperial Council alone."

Jet Set shrugged. "Yes, we saw your letter. We thought it was interesting, but-"

Upper Crust cleared her throat and chimed in. "We're just confused by you, Hauseway. I know some Speakers are willing to overlook that stunt in the throne room. Some ponies, Cadenza-detractors, are even happy about it. But what you did was a nasty breach of royal prerogative. I thought you were better than that."

Hauseway had heard it before, but it irked him to be hearing it from Upper Crust. "I've made it clear that protecting noble rights is a key priority of the Imperial Council under my guidance."

That didn't please Upper Crust. "You've set a precedent, Hauseway. Now any jackass can storm the court and they'll have your example-"

Jet Set clucked his tongue. "Now now, no need to get upset at the stallion. He was doing what he thought was best, even if it was a mistake."

"It wasn't a mistake." Hauseway grumbled. "Respectfully, read my letter again. I careful explained my actions in the throne room. The position of the Imperial Court apropos the Imperial Council-"

"You know..." Upper Crust interrupted, leaning forward. "I know a lot of Speakers who would be willing to overlook you transgression if they better understood their point of view. We could help with that.""

Of course. It always came down to the deal. "I bet." Hauseway bobbed his head. "I'm going to grab a drink and then we can have that chat." Stepped away and trotted to the nearest servant and accepted a glass of something.
He felt very sorry for himself. The sense of triumph had lasted less than a day, after he realized nopony was reacting to his little palace coup the way he thought they would. It hadn't been a turning point where Hauseway had bent Equestria to his whim. His big moment had been just another sideshow... And the real show was whatever Celestia was watching from the southern watchtower.
Maybe Shining Armor had been right. The responsibilities of the empire and viziership could have been fobbed off on some landed noble; but not a scrub like Plenty Song, a real lord or lady with an army and money to their name. One of the Unicornia Dukes, or a Riverpony Lord. Hell, the notirious Glori Sabonord fit the bill, even if she was a loose cannon.
"Having to think about buisness at a party just ruins the reason of going to a party." Hauseway lamented. He tested the drink he'd nabbed and made a face- It wasn't fit to be mouthwash. The countess was still counting pennies here and there, it seemed.

Consumed in his own thoughts, Hauseway walked right past another couple engaged in conversation.

Barley Bale, several drinks in, was engrossed by the court architect Laurel Black lecturing about her work.
"The fact is, military science has moved so fast some of the stuff they were teaching when I was a student is completely outdated now. Ravolins went out of style, then became useful again. Hoof-cannons were quite the rage for a few years, now you hardly see them even in East Griffany." Laurel idly swirled her drink. "Those griffins fight each other so much, the regimes who don't innovate get punished pretty badly. Without the Equestrian colonies to funnel weapons through, we'd probably lack their level of pony-portable gunpowder weapons. Well, now the adventures in Chitin and Zebrastan are making a market for new science and weapons here in Equestria."

"Three cheers for empire, aye? Not sure I agree with your bigger angle, about mucking about in wars being good for science." Barley Bale said.

Laurel shrugged. "I didn't say it was a good thing, just a pattern we see. It gets me work. Equestria has three star forts in the Zebrastani colonies to my designs, and two more in the Chitin treaty ports."

"But why's Equestria gotta have colonies? It just..." Barley Bale scowled. "The whole buisness strikes me wrong. Getting into pretty little wars, just to get better at future fighting? What's wrong with the Equestria we have now?" He sighed. "You'd get it if you've ever heard what Hauseway went through in the marine landing forces."

"Captain Hauseway? You know I saw him trot past just a few minutes ago." Laurel tapped her chin.

Barley Bale cursed under his breath. He'd forgotten that Plenty Song's invitation wasn't just a social courtesy. Hauseway was trying to rekindle their political alliance. "You saw him? Did he see me? That bastard better not be avoiding me."

"Uh-" Laurel blushed. "I don't know sir."

"Tshh." Barley Bale gulped his drink and set the glass aside. "Nice chatting Laurel. We should meet again sometime, even if some of your patrons have it out for me lately. Say hello to that incorrigible Duke Foaly Flux for me."

Barley Bale set out in search of Hauseway. He wove through the groups of party goers, exchanging terse greetings before moving on. The stallion felt even sorrier for himself than Hauseway had, for in addition to feeling put-upon by fate, he had a stirring resentment at feelings of having been tricked into his predicament. And unlike Hauseway, who chased after a solution with a certain amount of resolve, Barley Bale alternated between being desperation and internal rage.

It made him unmistakable to the creature hunting him.

"Oh hello! Sir Bale, was it?" A mare's voice asked.

Bale looked around. The pony who's spoken was a black unicorn in a deep scarlet dress and an emerald necklace. A small purse was looped around one shoulder.

"Hey you're the mare with Lady Velvet!" Bale said, then scowled in confusion. "N- No... She was an earth pony." He questioned his own memory. Yes, it had been an earth pony, and he had berated her for it.

"Pardon?" She mare scowled. She had a delicate lower Dneighper accent.

"Uh, apologies. I confused you for another mare." Barley Bale sighed. He rubbed his forehead. "I have been awfully stressed. Please forgive me."

"Your apology is accepted." The mare said, her accent and affectations reminding Bale of a flamboyant actress. "I too have been suffering some anxieties, what with all the political drama nowadays. This will be an evening of repose with my lovely friend Countess Song."

"Oh?" Bale grinned. Maybe that is why he had not recognized her- This was somepony from Plenty Song's county who had followed her to Canterlot. Anypony who'd describe Plenty Song as lovely was bound to be close. "I'm a passing acquaintance of the countess."

"And now you're here." The mare said. She flashed a smile. "Wait... You're the captain of the city guard, right?"

"That's right." Barley Bale chortled. "Sir Barley Bale at your service..."

"You may call me... Lady Valor, for the moment." The mare said. She unexpected stepped forward and curled a leg around Barley Bale's shoulder. "Sir, won't you join me in the garden for a moment? I have something to say to a captain of the guard, if you know what I mean."

Either she was propositioning him, or she was there to hammer out a deal on behalf of the countess. Either way Barley Bale was in.

Ten minutes later, and Valor and Barley Bale were outside the manor and in a secluded part of the garden surrounding the little estate.

"It's it lovely here." Lady Valor sighed. "The flowers so fragrant, so sweet. I am ever so envious of ponies with time to devote to beauty like this. Alas, we must all seek beauty in our own way." It really was a pleasant night, cool, with a clear sky above. Past the peak of the Mountain, a sea of stars watched over Canterlot. For a few long minutes, Valor stared back admiring the vastness of the cosmos and the incomprehensible power of those distant suns.

"Uh huh." Bale was less interested in the garden, and more on the payday he was zeroing in on. Gears were churning in his head- If he convinced Valor to reconcile him with Plenty Song, he could float on her patronage long enough to find a new angle with Hauseway. After that, Barley Bale would lie in wait, ready to sell out either Hauseway or Twilight Velvet to the other, depending on who found their coin purse first. Maybe there'd even be a bidding war for his services!

Perhaps fate had decided dying was the best outcome for Barley Bale, before he experienced the anguish of being too stupid to pull off his half-baked plot.
Or at least, that was what the Nightmare had decided.

"Do you ever think about how much ponies sacrifice for beauty?" Lady Valor slowly led Barley Bale through the garden. "My old teacher would talk for hours about Eros, a passion, without which we can't know truth. Yes she'd go on for hours about how desire for knowledge is superficial, until we begin to lust after somepony. After that, we can begin to trick our senses into chasing after the abstracts of a 'true' beauty with the same passions of our lust."

"How... titilating?" Barley Bale was only half-listening, still thinking of his plans.

"Not really. She was a cruel bastard that caved in my head on more than one occasion. And I proudly remain a dumb bitch. I did love her though." Valor laughed to herself.
She stopped in place, pivoting to face Barley Bale. She unslung her purse.
"Do you have a dream, Sir?"

"Uhh..." Barley Bale stumbled over the unexpected question. "I guess so. I was just thinking about it, sorta. I just trying to get myself out from under some things."

"Have you sinned?" Valor asked.

What a strange and sudden inquisition! Was this pony testing him? Would honesty or dishonesty work better to get in the mare's, and Plenty Song's good graces? "Sin... is what you make of it." Barley Bale opted for as evasive an answer as he could muster, since Valor had been so poetic. "Living is its own sin, in a way. Can we have good lives without becoming sinners? The dogma says yes, but the heart says no. I think all of us are damned for reasons we don't understand."

Valor quirked an eyebrow. "I think you understand perfectly well." She reached into her purse and pulled out a bundle of cloth. She cradled the bundle her her breast and tossed the purse away. "Sir, some ponies give up their whole lives. Not just for aesthetic beauty, but that spiritual and ideological beauty as well, that Eros. Those are the dreams I truly adore, and, I'll admit, lust after." She blushed, then, remembering who she was addressing, faced Barley Bale with a stoic look. "Sin in the cause of a worthy dream is virtuous. Sin in the cause of an unworthy dream is contemptible."

"I'm too buzzed for this." Barley Bale sighed, scratching his head. "Look, if the countess thinks I'm a greedy ass, I understand. I made a mistake. I trusted the wrong ponies and now I'm left begging. You get me? I'm not a bad pony."

"But I am."
Illustrious Valor shoved Barley Bale onto his haunches. The horn on her head, dissolved away into a black mist. She grinned. "You recognized me right the first time." She said, dropping the faux accent. "I'm almost insulted you accepted accepted the deception so easily. I had a whole conversation planned. Oh you poor pony."

"What the hell? You're not Plenty Song's friend?" Barley Bale gawked. "But then... Twilight Velvet-"

"Don't yell. You'll ruin the moment." Iillor stepped froward. "Here." She carefully unwrapped the bundle of cloth.
As she pulled away the last wrap, Barley Bale realized he was doomed. The dark mare held out a dagger- It sparkled in the light of the moon and stars. Magically untrained though he was, Barley Bale could sense an evil magic radiating from the weapon.
If he touched the accursed thing, he soul would be truly damned.

Barley Bale looked up from the evil dagger. Iillor was grinning like a madmare, delighted at Barley Bale's slow realization. "Why?" He asked. "What is this, like... Why are you doing this to me?" His voice trembled. " Haven't done anything wrong. Twilight Velvet sent you? I... I was just joking about the money. I'm her friend, really!"

Iillor wasn't interested in his pleading. "A nasty mare named Astral Nacre crafted his blade, tempered in an alicorn's blood a thousand years ago. It was given to a monster known as Shale of the Don Hills."
She held up the bundle to Barley Bale's face. Up close the dagger was savage looking. It was forged from a pale blue metal that did not reflect much light. Its edges were perfectly smooth and infinitely sharp. Was that leather on the grip? Horrifying.
"Barley Bale, I'm going to kill you with this Star's dagger. What happens next will be a sight to behold."

How could this be?! "Please I-" Bale's thoughts raced. "Any insult Velvet took, I can make up for. Any insult you took, mis, I-" He gulped. "I didn't mean any of it. I'll do anything. I- I-" He glanced in the direction of the manor. Could any of the other party attendees hear him? Was there any chance they'd be able to save him if he yelled? "There's other ponies. You can use it on them. A dozen servants, yes! I can even ask Plenty Song, and she'll arrange things!"

Iillor sighed. It wasn't satisfying when the victim was so pathetic. "To the end, a worthless creature with a worthless dream."

Iillor grabbed the dagger's handle through the cloth and jammed it into Bale's chest. The incredibly sharp blade went right through his cloak and hidden armor, to nearly split his sternum. Blood immediately began to stain Bale's shirt.

"You've crowded this planet for too long for any good you have been doing." Iillor lambasted the dying stallion. "In the name of god, get thee to hell."

Bale sunk to his knees. He concentrated with all his might and enveloped the dagger with his magic. With a hoarse yell he pulled it free, sending a spray of blood across the path. "GGgghhhhh!" His whole face was contorted. "Is this it?" His voice trembled with pain and anger. “I've been a coward. I should've gone to war like Hause.”

"Well I'll be" Iillor cocked her head. "I thought it'd annihilate your soul or something. It's a dagger for dark magic rituals after all. What's it feel like."

"Hfffffff. You're- about to know." Bale every muscle straining through his rapid exsanguination, stood up. He limped forward, eyes burning with hate, dagger gripped in his telekinesis. "After you, Velvet, the dumb whor-"
He was cut off by his own pained gargling. His eyes widened. He tried to speak again but could not. His limbs began to spasm and twitch, and before anything could be done his eyes rolled back and his mouth fell open.

But the dead stallion's body remained upright, and the dagger was still being levitated by his magic.

Something strange was happening. The dagger's magic had killed Barley Bale, but something else was left behind.

Just as with Fancy Pant's murder, Barley Bale's death was a sea change in Equestria, even if only the two of them realized it: Illustrious Valor, and whatever entity was now watching her through Barley Bale's dead eyes.

Iillor could make an educated guess who was possessing the corpse. "You gave you dagger to Lady Twilight Velvet. She lent it to me." She explained slowly. "Are you able to reply?"

The upright corpse did not move. If somepony stumbled upon them, it would look like Bale had been trying to kill her.

"I wasn't convinced this was the real article. What Star would actually send their sacrificial dagger to a random pony? Maybe that's just me misunderstanding things." Iillor mused. "But if you actually wanted us to take a shot at Phyte life, wouldn't you send a different weapon, which doesn't immediately implicate you?"

The corpse trembled. After a few moments, he moved, shaking his head back and forth in jerky movements.

"Oh, you didn't intent for Phyte to be killed? Then... You got tricked. Ha ha, yeah, Twilight Velvet duped you." Iillor chuckled. "Sorry, Lady Shale, but I'll be holding on to this. And maybe I will take a shot at Phyte's life. Your's too, if I feel like it, you wretched Star. Anyway, enjoy stewing in whatever hole you're hiding in."

Iillor hoped up and covered the dagger back up in the cloth, pulling it from the telekenisis.

The edges of Bale’s mouth turned upwards in imitation of a smile. His eyes and nose began to bleed, and after a few seconds the body fell over onto a flower bed.

Iillor slowly wrapped the dagger up in the cloth again. "Oh damn, I threw away the purse." She sighed, scanning the garden for where it had landed. "Whatever. Time to go. I'll check with Velvet I guess, and express to her that business was concluded favorably.” Iillor tried on her stiff accent again. "Until next we meet, sir." She bowed to Barley Bale's corpse.
But all she had done was stab a pony. That was hardly any fun. "Although before we part ways..."

Twilight Velvet was just out of bed, doing her stretches as the sun was just beginning to dawn of the city, when the news came.

"Barley Bale was murdered last night, my lady." The maid announced from the threshold of the room. "The paper claims Countess Plenty Song killed him at a party last night."

Velvet stopped mid-stretch, processing the revelation. "The Nightmare." She sighed and straightened up. "The only good thing to come of this timing is that it should further divert Phyte's attention. What of Plenty Song?"

"She is not in custody yet." The maid said.

"Then there's time." Velvet rushed from the room. "We have to go on hoof! It will be crowded so there's no chance of using the teleport unnoticed!"

"On hoof? Should I call a coach-"

"No!" Velvet shouted back as she raced down the hall. "Just put something less frilly on. Oh! And get Blueblood to meet me at the skydock!"

Reluctantly, Blueblood did as the message had ordered- He got out of bed and cantered to the skydock.
With the shorter distance, he arrived slightly before Velvet, and had time to examine the situation- Countess Plenty Song and a few servants were hastily loading her belongings on a small airship. A distraught noblepony, the owner of the mansion she had been renting was trying and failing to engage the countess in a conversation, which she has ignoring.

Blueblood approached the mooring, but not too close. He felt slightly guilty about Plenty Song's circumstance. Not guilt enough to do anything but watch her make her escape.

"Come to gloat?" Plenty Song asked tersely, casting a quick glance in Blueblood's direction.

"Never, my lady. This very unfortunate event is not what any of us wanted." Blueblood said. "I wish I could go back to stop you dis-engaging the Black Horn Council. Then you wouldn't have turned to Barley Bale." He shivered, the wind whipping against the city wall and plateau being quite cold in the mornings. "Trust me to vigorously protest your innocence, in your absence."

Plenty Song said nothing for a while. "You are not without your charm, Sir Blueblood. You may come with me, if you wish. In my county, the flowers along the riverbanks are just beginning to bloom."

Blueblood was tempted for just a moment, before he remembered how grudge-driven Plenty Song apparently was. She would probably throw him off the airship over the Canter forests. "Duty and obligation yet binds me here."

"What nonsense coming from a charlatan." Plenty Song huffed.

It stung a little to realize that nothing he could say could convince her of his good intentions. "Come on, Lady Song, I'm not a bad pony, and neither are you. It's a mix of destiny and obligation that steers ponies through the stormy seas of life, is it not? I thought we could lash our ships together and ride out the storms. Alas."

Plenty Song stopped her labor. "What a god awful metaphor. I hate this city and its metaphors so much. I won't flinch to see this plateau crumble off the mountain once I'm away."

"Once you're away." Blueblood repeated. "Fine. I understand."

Blueblood felt a tap on his shoulder, and a familiar giggle in his ear.
"You don't have to be so magnanimous in victory, after this mare betrayed you." Twilight Velvet said. She was slightly out of breath from the run from the chateau. "Not to say this is a victory. Only, the wheel is still spinning, and we remain on it-" She eyed the countess. "While you have been flung off."

Plenty Song stared daggers.

"I'll admit that joke was on purpose." Velvet grinned. "I respect you as a countess so I'll hold my tongue further. Truly I regret to see you go. I'm sure there's use for you yet here, if you would stoop to being my friend, my lady."

"Never, you lowborn she-cattle. You're prostituted to the designs of that devil, Glori Sabonord. I know it. You've corrupted the entire city." Plenty Song seethed. "Go ahead, say your worst. Show me the rhetoric you taught all those years."

Velvet shrugged. "I don't think I will. You think I'm somepony else's pawn, an unworthy accusation which I tremble to bear." She nudged Blueblood. "We we take our leave of you, Lady Countess. Safe travels."

"Uh, my lady-" Blueblood tried to get a word in but was dragged away by Velvet's magic. "Bye Lady Song!" He shouted towards the countess.

After they'd passed back through the skydock gate into the city, Velvet set Blueblood upright again. "Bah, what a waste. She really did have her mind set on leaving, and I'm not situated to detain her. She might be a waste of skin and that noble title, but he has some important ancestors."

"Well, yes, that's what a noble title means." Blueblood said wryly.

Instead of chewing him out like he was expecting, Velvet patted Blueblood on the head. "Nevertheless, you did an adequate job delaying her until I arrived. We couldn't change the outcome, but it would have been worse not to know."

Was that a genuine compliment? Blueblood felt oddly proud, even if she'd fussed his mane a bit. "Thank you my lady." He paused. "Did you really need Lady Song for some part of your plan?"

That question didn't go over well. "If you knew what I intended, would you betray me and sell me out, sir?" Velvet asked coldly.

He definitely preferred when she was patting him. "With all frankness, you're so damn obscure, talking about 'apotheosis' and 'realizing' for ponykind and the nobility. When I don't even know the next step, I can't judge if losing Plenty Song is actually devastating or not."

There was the echo of a whistle blast from the skydock. Plenty Song's chartered airship slid away from the pier and floated into the open skies, over the valley floor far far below. The side-sails unfurled, and the ship sped away east-south-east, toward the brightening horizon.

Velvet watched the dwindling dot of the airship.
"I won't lie. In the current version of the plan, I need to find somepony to replace her." She said, contemplating the far off mountains.

Blueblood sighed. Replace her in what capacity? "So that black-furred menace did Barley Bale in."

"Yes, with bad timing on several accounts. I've clearly miscalculated. Most of my trip-ups so far have come back to benefit us somehow. This time, by giving that irascible Nightmare too much leeway-" Velvet sighed.
She stared silently into the distance for a few minutes longer. "I wonder how Twilie is doing." She side-eyed Blueblood. "Not that you'd know or care. You've done enough here. There's surely some other work you could be doing."

"I'm dismissed then? I'll be at the Black Horn council hall if you need me." Blueblood said. "If Barley Bale really bit it-"

"He did." Velvet's maid arrived on the scene. Leading a sleepy looking Sel Lech Sabonord. "The noble captain is deceased."

"A disruption like this will send waves through the Old Town. I'd better be at my post. Uh..." Blueblood hesitated, wondering if he was about to overstep his bounds. "Do you have any more of that dragonfire on you? Maybe you could send Aurthora a letter to meet me. I'll need her help."

Velvet pursed her lips. "Hmm.... No. Take Sel with you."

Blueblood eyed the young colt, who shared his look confusion. "No offense to sir Sabonord, but-"

"I don't know if I'll be good without, uhh, your supervision, my lady." Sel Lech said. "You really want me interacting with those ponies?"

"Yes. Yes." Velvet said. "She glanced over her shoulder at the pinprick in the sky that was Plenty Song's airship. "Take cues from Blueblood here's geniality. Fake outgoingness. It's not too difficult."
She nodded to the maid, and they started up the street together. "I'm going to visit my husband. Phyte may have payed him a visit and we need to confirm. Anyhow, good luck with today's affairs, boys."

Blueblood huffed. "That madmare. She's setting you up for something, and chances are it's not pretty."

Sel Lech shrugged. "I'm not that worried." He paused. "Err, I guess I'm a little worried. Barley Bale actually died? Sheesh. That girl Iillor did it, didn't she..."

"We're basically culpable in a murder, Sel." Blueblood said glumly, kicking idly at the pavement. "That oaf Bale had his flaws, but he didn't deserve this." He was consciously echoing Frie Fellowship's fate with his words. "For an ambition I don't understand. It's hard to feel heroic in a situation like this."

Sel just shrugged again. "Heroic? Lady Velvet is keeping me fed with her errands she posts me on. That's pretty heroic in my book." His face contorted at a withheld laugh. "Sorry, bad joke. I wonder if we'll be invited to his funeral?"

Shining Armor had strapped on his light kit just before dawn and was on his way out the door of the IH barracks. Shining had gotten an extra early start to clear away any IHG buisness for most of the day. He felt confident that he he would get to his semi-clandestine meeting without anypony bothering him, when he heard the rapid clack of wheels and the clacks of horseshoes. He turned just in time to see a familiar coach carriage turn the corner and pull up to the barracks entrance.

Shining felt a hint of worry. Had the captain found out about his activities and had sprung a trap on him? Well, it wasn't like he was doing anything wrong, just unsanctioned.

Hauseway kicked the coach's door open and leapt out.
The IHG captain was not looking well in the least. His eyes were red from a night of extreme stress, and he wobbled on his hooves. "Shiny. Shiny. You heard. Thank the gods I thought I'd have to send one of these louts in there to wake you up."

The carriage driver sniffled. "You get what you pay for Lord Captain."

Shining was glad he wasn't in trouble, but that didn't seem to be the case for Hauseway, nor perhaps Canterlot itself. "Could you clear up the situation, Captain?"

Hauseway opened his mouth, hesitated, then grabbed Shining's shoulder and pulled him towards the coach. "We'll talk on the way."
Shining obediently let the shorter pony shove him onto one of the seats.

"On the way to where, sir?" The driver asked.

"Who gives a damn. Just circle the city, and avoid the manor." Hauseway croaked. Once the carriage started rolling again, he slouched in against the padded seat, nestling his head in his hooves. "Ooohh."

The city rolled by, dawn slowly breaking. Shining worried about his missed meeting. Would Cadence be mad? He hoped he could explain later, depending on what the crisis was. "Are you okay, sir?" Shining asked.

"Hell no. I just made it out before the guard cordon fell. I'll have some explaining to do once they find out I was there, but it beats being detained and questioned now. That's be a bucking mess." Hauseway moaned into his hooves.

Cordon? "Sir?" Shining prompted for clarification.

"Okay, look Shiny-" Hauseway sat up slightly. "Somepony caught Barley Bale alone in a dark corner a party, and turned him into a blood eagle. Guts, draped every-which-way! It must have been some kind of magic weapon because even the bone was SLICED through. Can you imagine something sharp enough to cut bone? Ghastly! Ghastly! So I, uhh, skedaddled before the city guards arrived."

Each successive sentence hit Shining Armor like a hammer blow. Barley Bale had been assassinated. Since Hauseway hadn't given a name, it had been a clean hit. "Sir, you have a commanding position on the Imperial Council, currently. What could be the issue with staying to explain to the guards? Or, with if Bale is passed, taking command of them?"

"Because Plenty Song fled as soon as she heard! Everypony saw me chatting with her all night. And gods, the guard investigators must be irate. Those south guard lodges were Barley Bale's base of support, a mix of pudding boys and thugs. They'd probably extort me. Damn! Damn!" Hauseway punched at the air in futile frustration. "Damn it all! The city probably thinks I killed Bale to consolidate my power. How did all go so bucking wrong, Shiny? How?"

"Well-" Shining sighed and rubbed his temple. After little more than a week in power, it seemed his captain's grace had run foul. "That sure is unfortunate, sir. I may point out, though, that the list of ponies who would want Sir Bale dead is shorter than the one for who had wanted Fancy Pants dead. And the overlap between those two lists is smaller still." He explained. "Personally, I believe you could have stayed and controlled the narrative around the murder, to propel the hunt for the real killer and vindicate yourself before Canterlot."

"Hey, hey, that's a tertiary concern. Shiny, who do you imagine would be next on the hit list, hmm? The Unicorn Prelate? The Clawstantiopolitan ambassador? NO, Shiny, me, I'm next. Then you. Then... Hell, Prosser probably." Hauseway said. "We're being targeted in a covert, systematic decapitation plot."

"So it seems, sir." Shining said. Apperently Prosser hadn't told Hauseway about knowing the killer's identity.

"So..." Hauseway paused, struggling to form his next point. "We... have to present this the right way to the Imperial Council and others, so we can maintain order from the palace."

And maintain the grasp on power. A high-ranking official had been killed on Hauseway's watch, and it could fatally undermine his brief command over the imperial institutions. If the Councilors and functionaries saw him as discredited and ignored him, would Hauseway go so far as force them all into line with the IHG? That was a huge leap from just shutting down the Court.
"I see. " Shining said. "I am surprised you want my input, sir. I have not had a reason to keep up with affairs in the upper floors of the castle since I adjourned the Imperial Court and expedited the new vizier's entry for you."

Hauseway understood the meaning instantly, but bloviated. "Hey, this has been working out to both our preferences, Shiny my boy. Did you actually enjoy dealing with the Court and councilors? Hell no you didn't. The IHG is your joy, Shiny, your pride."

Shining scooted to the edge of his seat and leaned over his ailing captain. "Sir, I did your dirty work, for the sake of Equestria sure, but mostly for you: Your aggrandizement, and your leap for destiny." He felt a tingle of terror at his own words, being so frank and honest with his superior. "This nihilistic grab for power, for power's sake, was supposed to be a worthwhile bargain for Equestria. Yes, you got to be in charge, but we got our peace back."

Hauseway didn't meet Shining's gaze, feigning nursing his headache as he stared at the floor.

"You may chose to breeze past our comrade Sir Barley Bale's murder. However sir I fear that in the execution of our duties, the knights and I will be bombarded with questions about what has happened, why, how it may be prevented again-" Shining paused. "And who has sought the princess's guidance for this failure. We'll be asked this, and not have questions, because we only know what we are told."

"You want to be told something different, Shiny, eh?" Hauseway mumbled.

At that moment, staring idly out the window, Shining spotted two familiar ponies on the street.
He tapped the top of the coach "Oi, stop for a second!" Shining said.

The carriage came to a slow stop, nearly right alongside Blueblood and Sel Lech Sabonord, who eyed the ornamented coach as it pulled up. It was not much a relief for them when Shining Armor pulled the window down and stuck his head out.
"Oh, Sir Armor." Blueblood clucked his tongue. He looked past Shining to Hauseway sulking "Fancy seeing you here. Heard of what became of Barley Bale? Plenty Song just flew the coup, not ten minutes ago. I hope you lawponies didn't have any questions for her, or you'll have to commandeer a fast airship."

Nopony cared about what Plenty Song was doing. It was about the extant contest of power.
Shining paused, considering doing something risky. He glanced back at his captain. "Now is the time, captain. Do you suspect my mother for Barley Bale's murder? If so, we should squeeze her allies for information. If not, we should enlist them to find the real culprit. SIr, this is how we absolve you and prove your right to govern."

Hauseway immediately realized the position Shining was putting him in. It was also an unsubtle jab for Hauseway's aggression at the gatehouse, the night of Fancy Pants's murder. "You're a cheeky lad, Shiny, and your timing is crass, inappropriate." He grunted. He slumped slightly. "I'll have more to say later. I have no comment in front of those jokers."

Fine, he wasn't going to get any support. Shining knew he was pushing the limits, but Hauseway was really out on a limb and would have a hard time punishing him. That was some comfort. "Apologies, captain." He turned back to Blueblood and Sel Lech. "Noble sirs, I must ask plainly, whether you know who killed Barley Bale."

Blueblood and Sel Lech traded stoic glances.
"There are suspicions." Sel said with a shrug.

"No comment." Blueblood mumbled, staring into the pavers. Then an idea visibly ran through the stallion's head, giving him a jolt as he raised his head. "Ah, but there is a certain lead! My friend Deeper Frie Fellowship, who was poisoned last month, you know. The two deaths are connected, I'm sure of it."

Sel Lech threw his comrade an incredulous look. "This again? Sir Deeper's death could not have been more different than this latest murder. You're going to mislead the imperial authorities on wild hunches?"

Blueblood huffed. "I'm not going to give up on my friend's memory that easily, boy."

"Come on, even Aurthora knows when a poor soul is well dead and buried." Sel rolled his eyes. "The timing seems crass, when Sir Bale is probably still attracting flies. Wouldn't you agree, Lord Armor?"

"Crass only if you don't see the connections! Let's help the imperial officials stop these senseless killings." Blueblood stomped his hooves.

Sel grunted in annoyance. "Velvet's going to kick your ass if her son tells her about this."

"Is that a threat? I've half a mind to box you, boy." Blueblood harrumphed.

Shining felt foolish for bothering. He tapped the roof of the coach, and they started moving again, leaving the stallions to argue in the street.
Shining stewed in silence as Hauseway watched.

"Nice try, Shiny. If those idiots had played along, you might have had me in a bind there." Hauseway said with a slight chuckle. "You think I'd gun after Velvet for this? Hell, she might not have done Barley Bale in, or even Fancy Pants. Definitely Deeper Fellowship though. I give that an eighty percent chance on that."

"Yeah..." Shining said sourly. "And yet, and yet..." He shifted his whole body towards Hauseway, underlining the gravity of the next words. "You made your play for control, sir. But after poaching the Blackhorn from her, you've done absolutely nothing against my mother. You threatened to kill her, nay, TRIED to kill her with your own hooves at the gate. But when you had the Imperial Council bent over your hoof, you did nothing with it?" He sighed.

A slightly glumness overcame Hauseway's smug expression. "Expecting me to spill some complex plan, Shiny? Or some 'road to Damascolt' moment?"

"Nothing of the sort, sir. Just..." Shining sighed. "I thought I might hear something that would restore my respect. After the shuttering of the Court-"

"You did that! You did that!" Hauseway snarled, waving his hoof accusingly. "You were the one who marched into the Court under arms, waving a scroll to make that dumbass Blackhorn vizier!"

Shining felt a sinking feeling. His superior might be beyond saving. Then there was nothing to be gained from the conversation anymore. The IHG captain and the second-in-command were going to stay at odds. "By your leave, my lord captain, I will ask Princess Celestia to relieve me of my duties. Perhaps I'll even be stripped of my knighthood altogether." It was half-bluff, half-threat, half-burning guilt that propelled his words. He didn't want to be tied to his captain's endeavors anymore.
It was a desperate gamble as well. There was no guarantee, if Shining even made it to speak to Celestia, that she saw things his way rather than Hauseway's.

Hauseway paused, then nodded in approval. "Shiny my boy, coltscout and cinnamon bun that you are... I'd be well rid of you." He knocked on the roof and carriage rolled to a stop. "Since Barley Bale is dead we are the last ponies who head what I said last week. The nature of power is that it is self-justifying. Many things are power- Shiny, we both know you're a popular lad. It's not just the knights. The common soldiery, all the dipshit city guardsponies, random court wenches, look at you like you're some chivalric icon, instead of what you are, which is a stupid boy who has no idea what they're doing."

Shining accepted the abuse silently. Hauseway was fairly liberal with his diminutions, but rarely so harsh.

"If you give up your position, you'll be at my mercy. You know that, right? Your mother too." Hauseway continued. "I could have you transferred to the ass-end of the earth, some smelly outpost in Chitin constantly under attack by the damn bugs, or some barbarous Zebra pit. You won't hear about what happens to your family for months and months, because they won't waste any dragonfire on you, boy. This is who you're messing with."

"Is it so? I see a stallion." Shining said.

"Yes your a cheeky lad for sure. It's a crying shame you don't see things my way. We really could have been a powerful axis in the Council." Hauseway pushed the door open. "Get out. Go snog your secret whore, cool off, realize the mistake you're making. This is all water under the bridge, if-and-only-if you stop acting like a prideful moron, and start behaving like a god damn knight." He waved Shining out. "I'll be waiting at the top of the castle."

Egomaniac. Shining disembarked from the carriage and watched it speed away. Captain Hauseway, for all his provocation, clearly still wanted Shining on his side. If his authority as captain wasn't going to cow Shining, he was going to try threats. Would pleading come next?
It was all so miserable. A stallion was dead and nopony seemed to care except for how it fit into their carrousel of schemes and conspiracies. Poor Barley Bale. Shining hardly knew the stallion but still felt bad for whomever cared for him.

"Or maybe... This is what I wanted?" Shining wondered aloud. "Don't I want this imperium, dragging its extremities ponderously, cleansed, disciplined, and made holy again?"
As he often did, he looked up at the southern watchtower. "I'll be seeing you soon, my empress. And I'll ask if the coup was too far, and I should be penitent, or if it I did not go not far enough..." He scowled. "And thus I should be doubly penitent."

When her friend had not arrived for thirty minutes past the arranged rendezvous, Cadenza began to worry. Shining Armor was rarely late, and never flaked on plans without advanced notice. Something must have happened. She was about to go looking for him when there was a quick rap on the door, and a few moments later Shining let himself into the tiny room: The private reading rooms of the University library were in high demand, but the University's conclave president, Semaphore, had been one of Cadence's professors when the princess was still attending; A little favor for some privacy was not hard to swing.

Cadence would read a concealed worry on Shining Armor's face. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Not really. My captain might have killed Barley Bale. He might kill me too." Shining said. "I shouldn't stay long. I'm going to force an audience with Princess Celestia to get this resolved. That puts me in an awkward position since Prosser had indicated to me he's investigating a Succession."

That was quite a bit for Candence to take in at once. "Shining..." She paused, sighing. "Shining Armor, has there been anything else happening that I should know about?"

"Let me check." Shining pretended to check a chain watch. "Hmm, no, princess. That's about all."

"Very funny." Cadence nodded. "Except not at all. Captain Hauseway killed Barley Bale? Are you sure?"

"No I'm not sure at all, but either he did, or my mother did, or the same mysterous ponies who killed Fancy Pants did it." Shining took a seat next to her.
Shining avoided meeting her gaze. Cadence looked at him with eyes full of concern he didn't deserve, not when he was so full of angst and treachery. She was just too earnest, and he was too much his mother's son. Where would she be if he got everything he wanted? Shining flooded his mind with nonsense thoughts to avoid confronting such questions.
"Princess, nevermind these... meaningless things of mine. We're meeting to discuss your project."

"I know why we're meeting, but do you think I can ignore your problems?" Candece asked softly. "You can't save the world if your dead, Shining."

"I'm not saving the world." He promised.

"I might be exaggerating a bit. Nevertheless-" Cadence indicated towards a binder in front of them on the reading room's table. "I wanted to show you some more records from the solar monastery the brother, Manered, supplied to me. His math was wrong, but it underestimated the scope of the problem. If the monks measured correctly, the sun is off its course." She lifted the binder and set it behind her. "Did you say Councilor Prosser was looking into the Succession rituals? If so I should speak to him."

"He's just a blowhard, just trying to underscore a point he was making about Celestia." Shining said. He was somewhat thankful Cadence was digressing from his issues. "If you give me the sun records, I'll ask her highness about them, assuming things go well for me."

Cadence smiling understandingly. "Do you think I haven't tried talking to her about it?" By the tone of her voice it was clear that it hadn't gone well.

"I see." Shining gnawed her lip. "It was foolish of me to think you hadn't." He stood up. "Cadence, princess... I have dishonored you and my apologies mean nothing in the face of my actions. And those actions-" He closed his eyes and shook his head. "betray my sinfulness."

Cadence fussed with her mane for a bit. "Is this about that buisness in the throne room, the 'coup' as you call it? I told you it's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal. I've done nothing but make your life worse since begging you to help us that night." Shining fretted. "I repeatedly embarrassed you in front of the court, then I-" He shook his head, falling into a kneel at Cadence's hooves, face to he floor, penitent. "Princess I have no right to beg you again, for forgiveness or anything else. I surrender myself to your absolute mercy. You have more right to decide my fate than Celestia."

Cadence put a hoof on Shining's head and sighed. "Shining dear, what in heaven's name is going on inside that brain of yours?" She nudged him back, making him stumble a bit, but it had the intended effect of making him face her. "Worse ponies than you have tried and failed to control me. I see as clear as day how much you worry for my sake. But like you said yourself, Shining, I'm an alicorn. I don't have to listen to anypony I don't want to, because nopony can coerce me to do anything."
She slid off the couch and crouched beside him. "And doing what I want sometimes means doing what other ponies want, because they're important to me. Yes, the court frustrated me, and so did your interruptions, and so did the 'coup' but none of that is catastrophic for our friendship. I know you're just a pony. I don't say that as an alicorn, but as a fellow pony who has made plenty of her own mistakes. I'm not a bit player in your story, Shining, so I don't obsess over how you've treated me even if you do."

Those words were equal part hopeful and hurtful. Shining didn't want to face her, but he had to. "I'm trying to take responsibility for my actions, when I can't anywhere else."

"No Shining you're trying to have me take responsibility for your actions. In some way, I guess that's my responsibility as princess." Cadence stood up, sighing again. "But I've tried and again to say that I don't really want that, at least between us. I am your friend, not your liege. I want a friend's loyalty, not a knight's."

Such a confession, earnestly expressed, was probably what Shining needed to hear. "Cadence, Cadenza-" He cleared his throat. "That makes me... very happy." He met her stare for but a moment. "I'm embarrassed to think about how a month ago I would have a panic attack even contemplating you. Now, I'm more embarrassed still to admit it." All the same... "I hope you can understand, as a friend, that its a knight's obligations I have to fulfill, regretfully above that of a friend's. If you are not my liege, the other one is."

"That she is." Cadence said, voice tinged with sadness. "Tell her you have my full support."

"That's not going to go over with my captain there. He's going to contest it." Shining pointed out.

Cadence nodded. "And Celestia will overrule him. I stand by my words. If I have to sacrifice, I will, for your sake, Shining."

"That's... That's not acceptable Cadence. I can't let you say things like that." Shining stuttered. "My princess it's your prerogative-"

"Shining you dolt. You're my friend and it's my right to say things like." Cadence was finally getting annoyed with Shining Armor's behavior. "Tell Celestia everything. If you don't I'll know, and that will really break my heart. I know it's just hyperbole when you say you might die, but I can't even stand the thought of you getting in trouble when I have to power to prevent it. What use is this nepotistic empire if I can't protect one pony though it?"

It rankled Shining slightly, but it was something he would have to accept. "Yes Princess Cadence." He bowed. "This issue will be behind me next time we talk."

"Good, We will have to talk at length about these records from the solar monastery." Cadence tapped her chin. "It might be better if we go ahead and meet at the monastery itself, if you can set aside the time for the trip. I know this is a convenient hideaway-"

"I will make the time, princess." Shining bowed again. "Thank you very much forgiving me."

"Oh come off it. There wasn't that much to forgive, besides you being an overly apologetic colt." Cadence smiled. "I will see you around the castle."

So Shining left to face danger.

And danger was lying in wait.
Councilpony Prosser saw Hauseway stalking back in front of Princess Celestia's quarters and assumed it meant trouble for him. He weighed just ignoring the IHG captain, but thinking better of leaving the torpedo out for somepony else to trip on, approached the doors as though he were heading in to seek the princess.

"Ah, hello lord captain." Prosser nodded. "Checking on the sentries?"

Hauseway stopped his pacing, glancing between Prosser and the stoic knights flanking the princess's door. "No." He snarled.

"Ah. Well, then I suppose you're here for the same reason I am, to let her highness know about our late friend Barley Bale." Prosser said. "I'm getting deja vu. Feels like just yesterday we were going in to tell her about Fancy Pants. Say, are you going to Pants's memorial? The date's finally been set."

Hauseway didn't spare an answer, dwelling on private thoughts.

Was the IHG captain becoming a liability? Prosser had been mostly content to let Hauseway bang his head against the obstacles of governance and ruling through the Imperial Council. Because Hauseway had felt secure and unchallenged for power after his coup, he left the institutions in place and didn't rock the boat. If Hauseway started to feel insecure, he would become less predictable- And how could the captain feel otherwise after Barley Bale's murder?
It might be time to put feelers out for bringing Cadence back, Prosser thought. Hauseway's political defeat would have to be swift and total, or he'd counterattack. A plan would have to be carefully devised.

"There's rumors that Lady Plenty Song is involved in the murder. It is true? I know you were counting on her for Estates support." Prosser said.

Hauseway jerked his head towards the earth pony. "Shut the hell up and go play with the other councilors. Those decaying geriatrics are about at your level. Drag out that dolt Prancian vizier of mine while you're at it." Hauseway barked. "Maybe together, you lot will be able to see I'm dealing with a LOT MORE IMPORTANT THINGS."

Prosser felt a bit smug to have baited out Hauseway's anger. "Oh... You're asking me to convene the Imperial Council... without you?" He asked, acting cowed by the shouting.

"I'm asking you to buck off. Is that direct enough for you?" Hauseway sneered.

Prosser exaggerated shying away from Hauseway's intense glare. "Loud and clear, lord captain." He sulked away, laughing inside at Hauseway's foolishness.

The next movement was not long in coming. The clip of Shining Armor's horseshoes on the marble floors proceeded him, as the knight approached the princess's doors.

"Took your time with that wench, eh? So you still know how to follow orders." Hauseway laughed darkly.

Shining dipped his head in acknowledgment then, with calculated haughtiness, tilted his head back so he stared down his snout at him. "Aye, sir. By the princess's grace we might see this disagreement deescalated."

"Oh yes, by her grace, and for the good of ponykind." Hauseway retorted sarcastically.

"Uhh, sir, captain, I don't wish to assume, not at all-" One of the knights on guard coughed. "But her highness the princess has not come down from the watchtower for several days. Other nobles have come away from meetings disappointed about her un-responsivity."

"Thank you sir, noted." Shining nodded to the knight. He stepped around Hauseway and let himself through the stairwell up to the top of the watchtower.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Shiny my boy, and don't get ahead of me." Hauseway followed after him.

Not much was said for the arduous climb up the tower as the stallions conserved their breath.
Shining was not thinking of much, feeling a slight anxiety for what he'd brought on himself, but mostly ruminating on Cadence's last words, her concerns for the future. Shining's ambitions, such as they were, existed in Celestia's absence; Where the empress's guidance was lacking, Shining had fancied his own system, an imagined improvement over directionless chaos but never a contest for the princess's rule.
But the other ponies thought differently, their ambitions more pointed. Hauseway's nihilistic powergrab and Prosser's succession schemes could be easily interpreted as challenges to imperial alicorn prerogative. They imagined ponies being architects of their own futures, rather than the faith and governance of the Sun and her daughter.
That placed Cadence and her investigations in a particularly tricky spot.

These thoughts had to be set aside when Shining stepped out from the stairs onto the top of the tower, into the winds and skies, where all Equestria could be surveyed and surveilled.
Princess Celestia was expecting him, her head turned slightly, so a single golden eye could watch, unblinking, her vassals' arrival.

"Princess." Shining immediately knelt. With her eye upon him he had no doubt the alicorn was able to feel his thoughts, and what borderline treasonous things he was harboring. Maybe going to see her was a bad idea while he was so stewed in bad thoughts.

"Get out the way boy." Hauseway grunted, shoving Shining aside so he could get out from the stairwell too. "Oh! Princess Celestia!" He bowed his head several times. "I request the honor of an audience, my princess, on urgent matters of the household guard."

Celestia didn't say anything for a few minutes. Her quick eye movements between the stallions was the only indication that she was not a statue (besides perhaps the etherial mane).
"You made yourself this audience, and that honor. That is how you conduct yourself." Celestia said. It was emotionless, even inflectionless. "Everything has its orbit, it's divinely planned course. I shall ask you, captain and knight both-" She turned her back on the southern sky, to face them. "Do you think your actions are impelled under your own agency, or ordained by the Sun's destiny?"
Then, all too deliberately, she arched a brow towards Shining Armor.

Shining felt lightheaded for a moment. Celestia had felt his thoughts and worries, and gave voice to them. But in so doing, didn't she answer her own riddle?
"My princess, the Sun's destiny, written by our mark's, is undeniable, but through my sins I know my will is free." Shining said.

"I smell a false dichotomy, my princess. Ponies, to our discredit, can be ensnared by other powers than your mother sun." Hauseway said.

"Like who?" Celestia immediately challenged.

"Like the demons the zebras worship, or the dead gods of the griffins. Even if they're not real divinities, they're a damn powerful social idea, which can pull a mortal down strange paths." Hauseway said, a slight smirk telling how clever he felt for the response. "We're a big country full of many ideas, and plenty of them are bad."

"What about other alicorns?" Shining asked.

That made Hauseway pause. "What're you saying? I'm talking about social constructs and ideas, Shiny boy. Can you handle the metaphor?"

"I get that, but if you're going to break the princess's dichotomous question, would you say other alicorns are also influencing ponykind?" Shining Armor asked, thinking he could play on Celestia's fascination in the Ancient Alicorns. The audience had so immediately digressed from the intended, but that was fine.

Hauseway stared into space for a while, avoiding Celestia's expectant gaze. "Err, no." He cleared his throat. "No, no I don't think so at all."

"Very well. Thank you for indulging me my question, noble sirs." Celestia nodded. "To the matter at hoof: By dint of rank you may speak first, sir captain."

"There is little to say, my princess. Your knight here has allowed himself to grow arrogant and rude, and insubordinate. I have given tasks to stem the emergency we are in, which he pridefully believes himself above the execution of. When confronted Sir Armor made an exaggerated act of saying he would resign, which of course needs your approval in order to revoke you investiture. I do not object in any way as I feel Sir Armor has become incapable of fulfilling his duties, if he is even interested in those duties any more." Hauseway said quickly. "However, however, if Sir Armor and you agree to enact on a kind of probationary service, to give him a last chance to reform back to his previously exemplary service, I would be heartened. I don't want to lose a good knight, but that's part of the reason he must go if he remains intransigent, to keep that churlish indolence of his from spreading."

"Much said, much contested." Shining Armor shrugged.

"You're going to get yourself in some shit if you play around with me Shiny." Hauseway growled.

"Language, captain." Celestia warned. "Sir Armor has rights afforded to his station which gives him leeway on some things. There may be disparagements between you. This is not unexpected." She laughed softly. "I am the final say."

"As our liege, it is so." Shining nodded.

Celestia sighed. "No point for exaggerated humility on issues like these, Shining Armor. Give your rejoinder."

Shining had a few rebuttals. He might as well deploy them in order. "Is it so, princess," He asked. "that we in an ongoing emergency?"

Celestia did not immediately answer. She looked away, her attention being drawn inexorably back to the southern skies. "We are." She murmured.

"Humph." Hauseway grunted, looking smug.

"Then it is more important than ever that the hierarchies of the state be respected, as my captain says." Shining said. "Which means authority flows first from the princess, then the Imperial Council, before I must contend with your authority, my lord captain."

Hauseway arched a brow. "Oh? Have you been paying sufficient attention? I have writs by the imperial council cosigning my most important directives from the last weeks, and specific anointed responsibilities carrying the council's full weight."

No, Shining hadn't been paying sufficient attention. It seemed Hauseway had, to his credit, covered his bases and accrued legal power to himself, rather than counting on nopony questioning the implied threat of his control of the IHG after the coup.

"I have the grand vizier's full support behind my decisions. I have the imperial council's confidence, Shining. You, on the other hoof, haven't bothered attending the council meetings." Hauseway continued. "Do you think any of the councilors would appreciate you hiding behind them? Even that irascible earth pony Prosser might shy from defending you."

Shining shook his head. "I have no intention to put the Imperial Council on the spot, and I would discourage you from doing so either if you wish to remain in their good graces, lord captain. They let you have your way precisely because you do not bother them overmuch."

"Yeah? And they like punk knights like you better?" Hauseway chortled.

However compelling the exchange, its intended audience was no longer paying much attention. Celestia was back to looking out over the city, to that ambiguous threat only she knew, somewhere out there.

But to 'win' or even survive, Shining needed her attention, and very close attention at that. She would stay aggressively aloof of talk of viziers and the Imperial Council, but Shining suspected he had something which would interest her, and very much aggravate Hauseway.
Do you hear my prayers?, Shining thought to himself. Do you ever oblige silly sinners like us?
"Well captain, I can not fault you for finding a stone to stand on after the throne room buisness." Shining said.

Hauseway choked on his breath, eyes wide at Shining's audaciousness. There was not chance of him gently forgiving Shining now.

"You have had glaring moments of hypocrisy, captain, callously subverting the vaunted hierarchy when it serves you." Shining said. Putting forward his strongest point was a gamble. "Yes I think you might be a hypocrite, captain. Veils of holiness are not unfamiliar shrouds for the depraved, against what eyes heaven must have on them."

"You're in for it now, boy." Hauseway growled, a throaty earnest threat.

But the eyes of heaven were just then turning back, Celestia's interest returning to the audience. "Find me any holiness that has not been thus tarnished." She said, a hint of a lament in her tone. "In our striving we yearn for an elusive perfection. Were it not so, we would not now be ruminating on problems between us, or of failings of our imperial state, or... many other things."

"What I've done, I've done for you, and the empire, princess. There's no hope for idealism if everything falls to shi- uh, crap!" Hauseway emphasized. "I admit ambition, sometimes fostered, often ignored. But when I think, act, and order, it is always because I hold the utter conviction of the propriety of it. Propriety in the face of my goddess and princess! Shortsighted ponies like Shining Armor don't and often can't, understand. Probably because of their own self-concerned myopia! That's why they must obey, always, always, always!"

"You must have know I was going to raise this. Is that the best defense you came up with?" It was Shining's turn to be smug.

Celestia looked expectantly to Hauseway, her expression still stoic. "I shan't be coy, lord captain. I know all that has transpired." She glanced quickly at Shining. "Explain whatever you believe needs explaining, before I come to a conclusion on what has been said, and unsaid, in this audience."

"I am guided by untiring faith, princess. You can look into my heart and know that." Hauseway said quickly. "And-What can be said for misunderstandings and confusions out of individual pony control? The kinds of social demons I spoke of, lies that mislead us, blind us, when we are looking for your light."

Shining nodded along to Hauseway's excuses. "Aye princess. All of that." He paused for a moment, considering what he might say further, or the words Cadence had entrusted to him. "I am a sinner. I will sin again, gods willing. Nay, I am dedicated to sinning again." He said, with a touch of haughtiness. "And it is by it I know the limits of grace and duty. I have only a few mistakes I truly regret, but I did wrong Cadence, which while forgiven by her, is still open to your judgement, my empress. I will not obey my lord captain's unlawful orders ever again."
It was all a bit melodramatic, and Shining didn't mean some of it, but it was a direct foil to Hauseway's words.

Celestia nodded idly. "Oh how blessed to have such eloquence at my beck. Captain, step back."

"Princess?" Hauseway asked for clarification.

"Step. Back." Celestia grabbed Hauseway in her telekinesis and dragged him, none too gently, to the far end of the watchtower. "As even while asking my forgiveness this foolish knight is betraying his princess again." She stepped forward, using her height to lord over Shining Armor. "You did not say it, Shining Armor."

Shining was mute. What did he not say, that Celestia demanded of him?

"Oh you know exactly what I mean. The pretty words 'entrusted' to you." Celestia said, fixing Shining with her unblinking stare. What penetrating terror. The full, unbroken attention of the princess was on him, and she was displeased. Very displeased. "Why? 'You have my full support', so simply said. Tell me why you withheld it."

"Because- I, princess," Shining could not bear look away. "I did not need it."

"Do we let too-assuming heretics, who believe themselves above my Sun's destiny, go about it?" Celestia demanded. "You don't have the right."

"I don't have the right?" Shining repeated.

"You were all put ordered. Cedenza gave you the words. You defy. You defied an alicorn, yet you snipe at your captain for doing the same. But when you do it, it is for noble reasons, so you reason. Ah, but when your captain thus-deludes himself just the same, it amuses you." Celestia accused, chuckling darkly at the irony. "If you had listened to what Cadence was trying to tell you, maybe you would have understood. Instead, you take the wrong lesson from her advice and her forgiveness. Perhaps that can be forgiven also."

"I do wish to be forgiven." Shining said, struggling out the words. Why was it never easy?

"But it is not easy. Life gave you the choice to indolence, noble birth, the right to carefree existence. You, virtuously, chose this path you tread. Are you indignant that it is difficult?" Celestia grilled him. "You wish, so often, for the same power as your captain has seized for himself. Is it for duty, and is it even for security as it is for him, or, something unspeakably sinister?"

The rapid barrage of crushing words all but flattened Shining to the floor.

"So, either save yourself by words, or by some other means." Celestia said. "Arrogant pony, who thinks themself above an alicorn... try yourself." She nodded to the sword at his hip. "Perhaps there is hope for the agency of ponykind. Do you dare?"

So...
"That would be fatal to me." Shining said.

"Is that what divine destiny, or pony's sinful agency, which leads you to that fate?" Celestia asked.

So, so, so... Shining was coming to the realization that Celestia really wanted him to say Cadence's message. For some reason, it was very important to the princess that he say it.

"It is no mystery. She ordered you to. That is why I accented to this audience, for what you are duty-bound to say." Celestia answered.

"No, never have I heard my princess give anypony such a dressing down as I gave just gotten, and I am... quite shaken for it." Shining said, shivering.
Alicorn mercy had been abrogated because of an inconsequential message? It made no sense,.. unless...
He felt a rush of rage that he didn't understand, so sudden and fierce he was afraid it would drive him to take up Celestia's challenge and draw his sword. Were the alicorns toying with him?!

"You're ignoring your princess again. She told you, with absolute clarity, that you must stop thinking yourself the center of everypony's universe." Celestia sighed. "I am your princess too and I mean the best for you. It is why I am here. No accident of genetics and flesh gave rise to this, which speaks at times in comforts, other times in rebukes, but always for the flourishing of her ponies. What has gotten into you, Shining Armor?"

"Must be the company I keep." Shining hissed, throwing the perplexed Hauseway a glance.

For that mere second he looked away, Shining missed a dawning realization take over Celestia's features, and as quickly be suppressed. She dwelled on that thought for a long while, even as Shining waited for her retort so the verbal bout could continue. However Celestia only sighed, holding certain remorses to herself, and turned away.
"This audience has run its course. Captain Hauseway, keep this knight away from political games. He is of the Imperial Household Guard."

What? That answer rapidly deflated Shining's ire, and he tried to blink through the returning clarity. Was that it? Had Shining really gotten away with it? All of it? Disrespecting Hauseway? Withholding Cadence's words?
There was an uncomfortable feeling of anticlimax, as though a wound trap had failed to spring shut, still lay primed. Shining only felt sour regret and still-stinging verbal wounds.

"No you have not won, Sir Armor. Though, you have gotten farther than you sister did." Celestia said softly. "Alas captain your conjecture was wrong, it is evidenced, for other alicorns reign over us still. Good day and pleasant dreams."

Yes, that was it. With that, Shining Armor decided to leave while the going was good. He expected Hauseway to lag behind and try to dispute things. The celestial princess did not seem to be open to arguments or even listening anymore.
Quickly, Shining darted into the stairwell.

Now came the difficult work of trying to interpret what had happened with the last few minutes of arguing with Celestia. Shining still felt his heart quake at the echoes of the princess's words. She could end him with a thought, and had seemed half-primed to do so. Was it a lesson in mercy after all? Perhaps Shining should dwell why the holy princess had so artfully disengaged when she sensed she had pushed her pony too far. Was that the right interpretation?

Or perhaps his 'victory', carrying on with the hypocrisy the princess had decried, was the punishment. To go forth unrepentant and heretical would damn his soul worse than Celestia could ever do. Her capitulation was meaningless if it was her divine absolution he really needed.
"Why am I such a dam fool.' He muttered to himself. "I WANT to obey. I was stubborn for no bucking reason. I'm MEANT to be wielded and manipulated by the princesses." His miserable pity lasted for a few hundred more steps.

Or maybe it just didn't make sense. And why had Celestia been so committed to maing him say it-
Shining emerged from the stairwell, coming face to face with Cadence.

"Oh, uh-" He stuttered, restarting his thoughts. "Were you waiting for me?"

"Looks like things went well for you." Cadence beamed. She draped a wing over his shoulder.

He tingled at her touch. "After a fashion. I probably don't have to worry about my captain anymore, at least." It was probably for the best not to raise any of Celestia's accusations and demands. He cleared his throat. "Princess, I'll be fully at your disposal for the issue with the sun observations. For the moment, I must beg my leave. I need a rest."

"Hey, you don't have to be so uptight and formal all the time you know." Cadence tittered. "I know it's not exactly right to celebrate, since Hauseway is my vassal too, but I'm just glad you're okay." She lifted her wing and stepped back. But her expression grew more concerned. "Don't put yourself in a position like that again. I'll help you again whenever you need it."

It would be a terrible moment for Shining to bring up he'd not invoked her help, and even gotten in tremendous trouble for doing so. "As you wish princess. I will see you later then." He bowed and passed by Cadence, destined for the IHG barracks.

Cadence watched him go with a sad smile. He didn't fool her nearly as well as he thought.

Such as it was, Shining Armor was not the center of the world, and though he retired for the day, things continued on.

The way back to her tower took Cadenza right past the meeting room of the Imperial Council.
She stopped in place, thinking about how, if Captain Hauseway were still on the Southern Watchtower trying to get a response from Celestia, she could check in on the Council without worry of there being an issue.
Surrendering to her curiosity, Cadence peeked into the meeting room.

Oh, yes, she had forgotten about the existence of Councilor Prosser, and the Blackhorn vizier which had been foisted on her, two thorny articles indeed. Her day was nearly ruined seeing them, more for the latter than the former.

"We have quorum, but you want to drag out proceedings because Hauseway isn't here? That's just ludicrous, ludicrous!" Prosser was saying, leaning on the long conference table as he harangued the other councilors. "Months would go by between Hauseway's appearances in this room, and Fancy Pants would conduct the buisness of the state regardless. We can't get hung up on one pony."

The councilors affected shrugs and groans, unwilling to engage in an argument.
Out of them, the cyan unicorn at the head of the table, robed in silk, Seacrest Blackhorn, was the most nervous for the shouting, and thus the natural target. "It is untoward to, uh, compare me to my predecessor, sir councilor." Seacrest said, with very little conviction behind the words.

"Apologies lord vizier, but even you could admit the novelty of your position, to you, and you to us, and so on. We understand why you don't lead discussion and let Hauseway lead things, but it means we don't understand your leadership style either. It's only for this lack of understanding that I invoke Fancy Pants, see?" Prosser said.

Seacrest sighed and lay his head on the table. "What is even on the agenda, Councilor? What's so urgent?"

"We have Barley Bale's death to put out a statement on! If no royal nominee is forthcoming, we must also chose a new City Guard captain. There can be no delay!" Prosser pounded the table. "Now! We have to chose now! Surely you have some candidates in mind for the open captaincy, lord vizier? We have to be expedient, my lord."

Seacrest, so obviously exhausted in the role he'd been forced into, slightly perked up. "I might have a few ideas."

Cadence backed out of the room and shut the door. Evidently Prosser would have the run of the Council for as long as Hauseway was occupied.
Who knew what he intended. Hopefully he wouldn't try to ask Cadence to get involved with the Council or Court again, and she could pursue her own interests in peace.
And if Prosser and Hauseway were occupied fighting each other, maybe they would keep their hooves off Shining Armor too.

Twilight Velvet entered Canterlot Castle and descended to the dungeons, on her way to visit her husband. A few of the IHG knights hanging around shared the gossip that Shining Armor had angered Captain Hauseway over something. That was interesting, but not Velvet's immediate concern.

What was her concern was that she was not Night Light's only visitor.
Illustrious Valor was sitting outside Night Light's cell, yapping about the weather.

"She came in about an hour ago." The jailor leading Velvet said. "I've seen her about with Sir Armor so I assumed she was a family friend. Nay?"

"Close enough." Velvet said.

Night Light, sitting up on his bed, and Iillor by the bars, turned as Velvet approached.

"Hello." Night Light gave a little wave.

"Yo, Lady Velvet. I thought I'd be coming here." Iillor beamed.

"Doing well dear?" Velvet asked. "Have enough reading material?"

"Yes, and no. Bring some real books next time." Night Light chuckled, tapping a hoof on the pile of books on the shabby table by the bed. "This tractates and political pamphlets are just too dry."

Bearing a half-smirk, Velvet waved her horn, and a new stack of books shimmered into existence next to the first pile.

"Hey! No spells." The jailor chided. "And I'll be checking those books later for contraband between the pages. Sorry, but even you can't flout the rules ma'am."

"Understood, understood. I'm sorry." Velvet laughed. "No more spells, I promise."

"Right. Don't make me come back with a blocking charm." The jailor threatened. She trotted back towards the access hall. "That just makes everypony's day worse. You'll make everypony in the block mad."
The political prisoners who filled out Canterlot Castle's dungeon expected a certain amount of comfort, which included use of their most simple magic. Using a haemony charm to stop the local flow of magic was an effective threat against repeat offenders. It was miserable to be cut off from magic, a punishment for common prisoners, not nobles.

Looking over the titles of the new books, Night Light nodded his approval. "Thank you, these look interesting."

"The ones that look worn, I borrowed from Blueblood, so don't misplace them." Velvet said.

Or trade them away, Night Light understood. "If you take requests, I heard there was a new fencing guide circulating the Baltimare presses right before I was incarcerated. If you see a copy in the Canterlot bookstores, I would be very interested."

"Since you asked nicely, I would be happy to." Velvet nodded. She trotted up and nudged Iillor. "Did you tell him about Barley Bale? Surely you weren't really talking about the weather."

"Barley Bale?" Night Light queried.

"He met a gruesome end to a psycho with a Star's sacrifice blade." Iillor said. "Or so I've heard."

"A what?" Night Light asked again. He was beginning to realize how quickly things had changed while he was in the dungeon.

"My my, sounds like a dreadful topic. Hardly the thing I'd wish to talk about." Velvet said emphatically. "Mis Valor, can you wait for me at the hall? I'd like to have a few words alone with my husband, and we will leave together."

"Sure." Iillir shrugged, hopping to her hooves.

Night Light gestured to the cell across from his, whose occupant never lit their lantern. "We're never entirely alone here, Velvet."

"Don't worry, I see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." Came a whisper from the darkened cell. "Just lend me another book some time."

Eyeing the darkness until she was satisfied, Velvet leaned against the bars, waving Night Light closer. "It's all fine. There is nothing improper to discuss."

Night Light got off the bed, stretched, and stepped over the bars. "Who was that mare? She said she was a new agent of yours, but I feel as though I have seen her before, in some other context."

Velvet tapped her chin, thinking how much to divulge and how. "Mis Illustrious Valor is a primordial Nightmare creature that has taken pony form. Her ambitions are not entirely clear to me, but she has a grudge against the Stars."

"Velvet what the hell. Why would you trust a Nightmare? The double game with Phyte is dangerous enough." Night Light groaned.

Velvet leaned in closer. "She was the one who killed Fancy Pants." She whispered. "For weeks after, she was hovering around Shining Armor, pestering him. The Nightmare's chaotic ambitions would have led to conflict between them, so I am saving Shiny by enlisting her. Besides, I don't intend on doing anything to get on her bad side. Gods willing, she tries to kill Phyte, and takes care of a problem for me, or gets taken care of herself."

Night Light shook his head incredulously. "Do not be given over to hubris Velvet. If that pony really is a Nightmare, you are being manipulated to her ends."

Velvet shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe she will become a fast friend."

"If she visits again I will make my judgement of her." Night Light said, reluctantly accepting that this was another thing he would have to go along with for Velvet. "Don't keep her waiting. The sooner you win the sooner I will be out of here."

Velvet pulled her husband closer to the bars and kissed him on the cheek. "I will come back soon, and heavens believe me I've been on Shining's case to come visit, but next time I'm not taking no for an answer."

"It's fine let him be. Shining apparently has other nightmares to worry about than you telling what to do." Night Light's smile was weighed down by concern. "I love you. Stay safe out there"

"I love you too." Velvet gave him another kiss, then trotted after Iillor.

Chapter 11: Forlorn Hope is found There

The relentless rain was putting a damper on Twilight plans and spirits both. A huge front of rain had been battering Ponyville for days on end, but finally it was starting to let up. The torrent became a drizzle, and rays of sunlight at last began to burn away the dark clouds above.

"Good grief." Twilight leaned out her bedroom window. Ponyville looked thoroughly tussled by the storm, with flowerpots and carts upturned all over the place. "You know, a competent weather factory could have minimized the damage, but this place doesn't even have a single cloud mason! What's the points of letting the pegasi live here if they aren't doing their share?" She griped. Days stuck indoors had made her very grumpy.

"I don't know Twilight. What if they don't want to be weather ponies?" Spike said as he made his bed, silently thankful that the rain had stopped so Twilight could get out.

"According to selection theory, Pegasi are evolved to use their connection to magic to shape weather. That's why they exist as a tribe. When they slack off, they put the burden at my hooves." Twilight griped. "If I have to go out of my way to learn a weather spell, I'll be absolutely insufferable about it and bring it up to every pegasus I meet."

"Yeah that'd be pretty insufferable." Spike agreed.

Twilight sighed. "Okay, I get you're tired of me complaining." She backed away from the window and shut it. "I'm tired of me complaining too."

Spike shrugged, leaving the bedroom to make breakfast and tea.

"Don't act like you weren't complaining too, young dragon." Twilight huffed. She grabbed up some of books she'd finished from the nightstand and followed Spike downstairs.

"What would I have to complain about? The books you assigned me to study are all here in the Oak." Spike posed facetiously. "So you're the one who is behind on her work with the princess, not me."

"I'm not behind." Twilight snapped.

Spike just shrugged again and waddled into the kitchen.

Twilight took a moment to calm herself while she put the books back on the shelves. Spike didn't know anything. There was no reason that way to react to his usual jokes.
Indeed, if she reacted to harshly, Spike might wonder why, and find out just what Twilight had been up to. Twilight knew she really, really needed to settle herself. That started with being productive again to sooth her neroticism.

"I'll find my breakfast in town." Twilight called towards the kitchen. "Uhh, I'll be back by noon, I think."

"Alright Twilight, have a nice day." Spike called back.

After grabbing her saddlebag, Twilight stepped out and started down the muddy streets. The ponyvillians were about their cottages, cleaning up the storm debris and chatting with their neighbors. There hadn't been much damage: Twilight had to complement the sturdy provincial construction.

Passing by the bakery, Twilight saw the pink form of Pinkie Pie arranging thing behind the counter, so she ducked inside.

"Oh hey'ya Lady Sparkle! I was just thinking about you." Pinkie waved exuberantly. "How are you? I bet you felt all cozy through the storm knowing you were safe and sound inside the Golden Oak!"

"Usually trees would be an un-ideal place to be during lightning, but that oak is a welcome exception." Twilight gave a little smile. "I'll have a tartine and a milk tea."

"Sure thing!" Pinkie grinned. "You can go ahead and sit down and I'll bring it out to you."

"Thanks." Twilight did as bidden and eased herself into a chair by the window.

In truth, Twilight had been miserable throughout the storm because she had kept herself awake, through the entire week, to prevent herself from falling into a dream. It had stared to become a delirious experience after a few days, before she had started taking short naps. The pounding, rhythmic rain and the swish of the oak's leaves had almost driven her crazy.
But still Twilight had succeeded: She had held off the pull sleep, and low and behold, she had not fallen into Nightmare Moon's court. The entrancing music had not taken hold of her.

"I could test more at the edge of the forest today. Maybe the magic will be disrupted by the humidity in a measurable way." Twilight wondered. She pulled out her notepad and started writing her thoughts.

After several minutes the door opened and a yellow pegasus scurried in.

“Hello Mis Fluttershy.” Twilight looked up from her notepad. “Awful storm, wasn't it?”

Fluttershy stared at Twilight, who was an unexpected site on her routine. “Um, hi Lady Twilight.” Fluttershy drip dried on the doormat for a moment before taking the seat opposite Twilight’s. “It, um, wasn't too bad. Ponyville gets storms off the Everfree pretty often. I'm used to seasonal rain from the Unicorn Range when I was in Cloudsdale.”

“Oh, you’re from Cloudsdale?” Twilight presumed.

Fluttershy nodded. "I left when I was young.”

Twilight rubbed her chin. Fluttershy had claimed to be slightly older than her. How much older? “Did you leave before the Cloud Creche incident?” Twilight asked.

“Um,” Fluttershy shied away. “shortly after.”

“Oh.” Twilight could see it was something of a raw point for the mare. Not surprising. Many Cloudsdale pegasi had lost family at Cloud Creche. Twilight was happy to drop the topic, as dwelling on it began to stir up uncomfortable memories of her own. “On an unrelated note, did you finish the wildlife estimates for Ponyville and the Everfree fringe yet?”

Fluttershy blushed. “I did my best, but with the storm and rain I didn't finish, especially the math bits."

"That's fine. May I see it?" Twilight asked.

"It's at home." Fluttershy said. "But I remember a lot of what I wrote. I could, um recount it for you now if that helps."

“I appreciate the offer." Twilight said, putting down her notepad and jumping out of her chair. "But I can fetch it myself." Her horn began to glow as she summoned up her magic. "What and where is it?"

Fluttershy looked confused, unsure of what Twilight was trying to do with magic. "Umm, it's a pile of letters on the table in my living room."

The pop of Twilight’s teleportation spell frightening Fluttershy with its abruptness. Twilight had disappeared.

"Hey, did somepony put a rock through my window again?" Pinkie Pie leaned out of the bake room, scrutinizing the situation.

"Uhh, no. Twilight left." Fluttershy said. Her eyes wandered to Twilight's notepad. "Oh." She bit her lip, innocently leaning closer and squinting at what Twilight had written. "I... I can't read it. Um, I think she coded it, or maybe wrote it in another language."

Pinkie Pie giggled to herself. "That's pretty tricky of her, hee hee. So, you want a tart or something?"

"Um, later." Fluttershy murmured, sighing and sinking into her chair. "I lost my appetite."

Not a second later, Twilight reappeared in a blinding flash, a stack of loose parchment in her magical grasp.
"Oof, it's been a while since I teleported that far." Twilight let out a tired breath. She plopped the stack of papers down on the table. "And muggy weather like this plays havoc with magical currents over distances. There a reason unicorns stick to the mountains and leave the coasts and ripuarian to the earth ponies."

Pinkie Pie threw Fluttershy a glance, which Fluttershy returned with a worried shake of her head.

Twilight began flipping through the papers.
"The forest... Bears, predatory eagles, badgers, carnivores plants, wolves, timberwolves-" Twilight paused, then read down a bit further to herself. "Many magical animal species, and in startling numbers. Sounds lethally dangerous." She glanced up at Fluttershy. "I know you haven't done the math, but what would you guess are the standard errors on these estimates."

Fluttershy shrugged, averting her eyes.

"Fine. I trust you that its accurate enough." Twilight said, lying. She dug her notepad from under the papers and jotted a few things. "According to this, going in there really is certain death, just like everypony says. If I even try to clear land near the forest for the Summer Sun fair, I'd have to plan mass graves."

"Oh my." Fluttershy paled.

"I'm joking. Sorry. That's more the kind of joke I would make with other students at the University, especially the destruction magic or military science students." Twilight laughed. "In the face of death, of with its contemplation, we start becoming morbid and cynical, don't we."

"That's what we call foreshadowing." Pinkie Pie whistled to herself, ducking back into the kitchen to finish the tartine.

"Am I on the right track with it?" Fluttershy nodded towards the papers. "I want to help how I can and-"

"It's fine. Good, even. I don't think it needs to be progressed much. You can keep at this wildlife thing, or help Rarity, I'd say." Twilight said. She leaned back in her chair, and looked out onto the muddy lane. It had started to sprinkle rain again. "This place is so deprived. No post. No temple. No inn. No tavern. No mayor. No sheriff. No weatherponies. If it weren't for that blessed Golden Oak, I'd have gone mad. Like, completely insane." She looked back to Fluttershy. "Something has been on my mind. With no temple, there's no visible cemetery. Where are the dead buried? Presumably you don't chuck them in the river for the villages downstream to take care of."

Fluttershy cringed. Twilight didn't actually seem sorry for the earlier morbid joke. "Each family has their own, um, private cemetery, out of town in various places."

"That makes sense. It's a very personal place, I imagine. You know, I have no idea where my maternal grandparents are buried. I don't think my mother cares to let me know." Twilight grunted. "Everypony on my father's side gets shipped to the fortress at Foal when they die. There's whole mountain vaults full of them. Generation after generation of Bright family, laid in stacks of sarcophagi, like all the ancient dynasties." She frowned. "It's a bit sobering to think about how close the dynasty is to extinction now. Thousands of years of the Bright family, soon to lead into oblivion. It won't be long before I'm found there too, my six-star mark chiseled on the face and foot of a grey slab, shoved into an annex until Foal mountain shatters beneath me."

"Oh... my." Fluttershy squeaked. Twilight really was an odd pony at times. "You sound closer to your father's family."

"By default." Twilight shrugged. "I won't get into it, but the Brights keep my parents at a distance. My mother was just a lesser noble, scion of a totally unknown house. We had nothing but our name before I was entitled by her highness. I might have wellborn blood, but in truth it's not on the caliber of those mountaintop unicorn lords." She gazed away somewhere to the north. "Ancient warlords, entombed one after the other, mother, son, father, daughter, century after century, in that fortress. They were born in a time when the crown was won by power, and pony willpower ruled this continent."
She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning back in the chair again. "And I am here by an alicorn's will. Would they judge me ill, those proud ancestors?"

"..." Fluttershy shifted uneasily. "That sounds unfair on you."

"It's the nobles life. I'm years past dwelling on those kinds of questions." Twilight said from her laid back pose. "If I ever have children, they'll be welcomed as I am now a viscountess. But that's still cutting it: Viscountess is one of the lowest landed court ranks." She peaked an eye open. "Do you wonder, ever, what the ancestors of this village would say about its modern state?"

Fluttershy bit her lip to hide an alarmed gasp.

"Breakfast is ready, m'lady!" Pinkie returned from the kitchen with Twilight's tartine and tea. She eyed the stack of papers dominating the table. "You mind?"

Fluttershy snatched up the papers and stuffed them in her saddlebag. Hopefully Twilight wouldn't ask for them again, to scrutinize more closely.

Pinkie plopped the plate down in the vacated spot. "Bon appetite!"

"Thank you Pinkie Pie." Twilight said, sitting up.

"You're welcome." Pinkie sing-songed as she bounced away.

Twilight took a bite of the tartine and made an appreciative hum.

The noblemare was a hazard, Fluttershy appraised, trowing concealed glances Twilight's way. She could see it, and Pinkie was coming around to the idea as well. It was just Applejack and Rarity who thought they could wield Lady Sparkle against one another, even as they pretended to play nice.
But Fluttershy had never been a bold pony, so she resigned herself to sit back and see what became of Twilight Sparkle's continued prodding into Ponyville's secrets.

Fluttershy was silent for a few minutes longer, working her way to the courage for a question. “Twilight, do you plan on going into the Everfree.”

“I'm just being thorough.” Twilight mumbled through a mouthful of food.

“You are, arn't you. You're going to go into the forest.” Fluttershy said.

Twilight didn't respond until she'd gotten through half her plate. “It's not like I would be smote immediately by heavenly lightning. It would be risky but not impossible.” Twilight said. “I could find some skilled hunter unicorns and get past the magical creatures, if I had a reason to."

"You have a reason to, or you wouldn't be saying that." Fluttershy paled.

Twilight shrugged and took a bite of tartine.

Fluttershy hesitated, then shook her head. "I wouldn't have made that report if I thought you would use it this way."

A cross look overcame Twilight's features. "Don't lie to me, Mis Fluttershy. You suspected this of me from the start which is why you've fluffed the numbers of dangerous creatures so outrageously." She crossed her hooves. "You think you already know my intentions and are trying to control me?"

"I- I did make up the numbers, and... I- I'm sorry, but it's because I'm too scared to do the accurate count. I made my best guess." Fluttershy explained, showing contrition. "Please, I'm sorry. There really are terrible things in the forest."

Twilight pursed her lips. Either there were dangerous beasts, or there were not. Their numbers was not all that important, since even a few timberwolves or astral bears would be an impossible obstacle for a single pony. Unicorns had struggled against magical predators from millennia, even before the Great Migration. Twilight was not nearly good enough of a hunter to anticipate and subdue one.
And yet, the mystery of the forest remained, the key to understanding Ponyville's secrets, and a deeper reality to the Nightmare haunting her dreams. Eventually she would have to make the plunge, and subject herself to the forest's dangers for real.

But maybe if could be put off. There was enough to do in Ponyville before that.

"I understand Mis Fluttershy. My earlier thanks stand then." Twilight smiled. She took her tea in her magic. "I remember you telling me you like tea. I should come over for a cup some time."

"That would be... nice." Fluttershy averted her eyes. "I'll have to get back to you after I, um, talk to Rarity."

"Have some engagements planned? Don't worry about it then." Twilight took a sip of her milk tea. It was pretty good. "Just one more question though. You said storms are common this close to the Everfree?"

"Oh, yes." Fluttershy nodded. "Big rainstorms can last months above the forest. Ponyville only receives the outer bands. Good thing you're not actually going in."

"Good thing." Twilight agreed quietly.

The fall of night was come. Errands run, notes taken, chores completed, the reward being the comfortable bed ever awaiting.

After fighting so hard for the past week, Twilight was going to allow herself to fall into a dreaming sleep. Spike was huddled into the corner, reading by candlelight, while she slipped under the covers.
"Don't stay up too late." Twilight said.

"Very funny." Spike glanced over his book. "Goodnight Twilight."

We shall see, Twilight thought.

And when she next opened her eyes, it was upon the ruined castle.

The storm still raged here, deep in the Everfree Forest. Rain beat down endlessly on Twilight’s dream-body as walked the length of the dark throne room, shattered open to the skies. For the black altar awaited.

There was no hesitation in Twilight's voice. "Hark, Nightmare, I've returned. The pact to summon you is this: Tell me your name, and I will tell you mine.”

The cracked obsidian altar began to glow with its deep blue magic. The familiar hum filled the air, the sign of the attention of the Dark alicorn. But nothing was said from the other side, to reciprocate Twilight's offer.

Twilight waited for a few moments, then kicked at the altar , splashing it with cold rainwater. "Come on out, my lady.” Twilight said gruffly. “I say again, I offer you my name, in exchange for yours.”

But still no response was forthcoming.

“Lady Nightmare, is it your right to ignore me? We're both compelled to this." Twilight said. "Are you expecting me to beg for my own torture?"

A low rumble issued forth, the psychic droll making the whole dreamfabric vibrate, and Twilight heard the piercing sound of the Nightmare of the Moon’s displeased voice transmitted through the altar.

“Perhaps if you did not talk so much, you could discern my displeasure, pony.” The discordant noise of the Nightmare's words gave Twilight an immediate headache. "Or was it 'Twilight Sparkle'? I see it clearly, that in this as in every age, ponykind sits well with its deceptions!"

“I was completely honest with you. My name is Twilight Sparkle, of Twilight-Bright, and none other.” Twilight insisted. “I don't know why giving our names didn't end the summoning pact last time, truly. I'm just not well versed in that kind of magic."

“Loquacious, excuse filled, you are a revolting subject. But tell me, Dame Sparkle, why I would wish to receive your name if you speak true, and I already have it?” Nightmare asked acidly. “Offer me something I want, under different summoning pact terms. Tempt me! Seduce me! Otherwise bother me no longer and kill yourself. I have no desire to watch this blasphemous slab drive you to depredations.”

The strange and provocative words confused Twilight. "My lady, what can I offer that you would want?"

The magic around the black altar thrummed. "You pony. You thought you knew me so well, enough to condescend to me about my desires. Why now taken aback? Wretch." The Nightmare chided. "Wretch, pony, yes, a wretch."

That much was true. Twilight did feel wretched. She considered quickly. “You would want some other information.”

“Ah! There is hope for you, Twilight Sparkle. But be specific.” Nightmare encouraged.

Twilight tried to think back on the details of the last dream, of what the Nightmare had engage with and what had enraged her. But the swells of Dark magic around her, the infuriating hum and snatches of the distant melody, were distracting her. “You wish to know about..."
Oh, but there was one topic that always pulled the Nightmare of the Moon's full attention: Celestia. She could not bear even subtle remarks about her celestial sister of the sun. Twilight had to make her offer very very indirectly. "Lady Nightmare, you wish to know more about my world, do you not? Then that is what I must want in return. Please, tell me of your world."

“I shall,” Nightmare’s voice was approving. “if you tell me of yours.”

“It's a pact then. Accepted”. Twilight nodded. The magical music’s grasp on her mind dwindled in tandem with Nightmare’s incorporeal arrival.

The demon alicorn made an act of stretching, rocking her etherial body and moving each slender limb in turn. She opened her glowing eyes and turned them on Twilight. "The rain continues, when the magic of this altar cleared it away previously. It is not so bad, even if it agitates me. There is no rain on the moon."

"I have never dreamed that far." Twilight said.

"Few have." Nightmare nodded. She leaned in. "You were gone a spell."

"I couldn't sleep." Twilight said. "Miss me?"

"Hardly. I suspect, and it seems well confirmed, that you were avoiding me." Nightmare hummed in amusement. “You lay awake out of guilt and terror, I assert and thus it is true, on account of your lies. Always lying you are. Such sin is deserving of obliteration."

“If you believe that punishment fits the crime, then so be it.” Twilight said softly. “It’s within your power.”

The Nightmare threw her a look of annoyance. "Of course it is. Do not bore me, pony." She strode across the to the shattered thrones in the middle of the raised dais. She regarded the thrones for a while, knowing that they were just beyond the outer limit of her etherial leash. "If we have any pretense of being above base beasts, we much know our limits, our standing among one another, and the nature of our interrelations."
She turned back to Twilight. "Under dark skies, the outcome of the intercourse between us as ponies is decided by STRENGTH alone. Pony, I demand you kneel."

With a sigh, Twilight bowed her head for a few seconds.

The Nightmare smirked. "Will you fetch too, pony? Maybe still you are no different than a beast."

"Why the hell did I tell you my name if you're going to keep calling me pony?" Twilight snapped back. "I have pledged to respect your status and majesty as an alicorn. You don't have to flaunt it over me. That's just... Ingracious."

"Grace, status, the norms of feudal courtesy: I have already made clear my distain for all of it." The Nightmare said, then paused, abruptly lost in thought, content to let the rain beat at her.

Twilight sighed to herself again.

The Nightmare perked up after a while. "I have thought after it more."

"Clearly." Twilight nodded.

"In the Northern Wars, against the corruption of the Dark sovereign of the Crystal principality, I galloped forth alongside the flower of Equestrian youth: Mares and Stallions of intense bravery, unparalleled wit, and the taste and acumen for war. In full barding we would charge, to crash against the foe, to shatter them, utterly!" The Nightmare said, in a revere as she spoke out this memory. "They were ponies of a breed WORTH the respect of an alicorn. They were the ponies who commanded their own fate, and fought and died to shape the world... before the alicorn advent, that is."

"The warlords of Classical Equestria." Twilight said. "Only earlier today, I had my own reminiscence about they among my ancestors."

The Nightmare's revere faded. She eyed Twilight. "Is this really what has become of their lineage?"

"Oh shut the hell up already." Twilight grumbled.
Prolonged company with the Nightmare was going to make her crass and callous. There was only so much abuse Twilight was willing to take, and like Celestia's little slights and dismissals, the Moon princess's nettling was wearing at her.

"That is better. For the warlord worthy of respect, obscenity is optional, but PRIDE is not." Nightmare lectured. "You must be self-assured, self-controlled, possessed of a noble certitude. There can be no detached irony, no cynicism."

Was this an alicorn or a crusty Canterlot aristocratic conservative reactionary? "I'm not interested in conforming to your bizarre idealization of a made-up past. Ponies don't act like that anymore, if they ever did in the first place."

"You accuse me of lying? Oh what gall! I lived and killed alongside those ponies." Nightmare’s unblinking face upturned. Unreadable, stern, but with a hint of glee. "So clearly you modern ponies are not up to that standard. I have had to rely on the weakest ignoble filth on the flank of my division before. It is unwelcome."

"And I have no interest in picking a fight on your behalf." Twilight said. "In case you haven't caught on, I'm not even that eager to rhetorically spar over my liege's honor."

"Ah, but your own honor?" Nightmare invited.

Aye, Twilight could was willing to do that. "You haven't broken me yet, my lady. Not nearly."

"That's very good. I like that, Sparkle, truly I do." The Nightmare rapidly nodded her head, tossing her etherial mane around. "Tell me more. I came to hear it all. Tell me what the point of a wellborn noble whelp is, if not to go to war?"

Meandering though they had, they had come back to the night's grave topic, and Twilight had delayed getting tortured to death/wakefulness. "In modern Equestria, the class order is not radically different than it was a thousand years ago. The noble blood have the privilege of running all the imperial institutions. Cities are larger, and there are many more merchants and artisans than in classical Equestria, but they only have political control in a few Free Cities. Then there's peasants, as there always are."

Nightmare Moon stared, as if not understanding. "The privilege..."

"Because Equestria is unified, there's no more endemic war, obviously. Noble houses aren't fighting and slaughtering each other." Twilight explained. "So we govern. The imperial design flows down from the seat of power, through us, to the mass of ponykind."

"Then you are but a multitude of magistrates." The Nightmare of the Moon uttered. "Ahh... I becomes so much clearer to me. I understand you now, Twilight Sparkle, descendent of warlords. Your class, the warrior caste of ponykind, has becomes so much milk cream, to whom blood is owed, but from whom no blood is expected anymore."

Twilight had heard somewhat similar arguments from coffee house revolutionaries before, and reactionaries. "That's a bit trite. You might not understand us without experiencing it. We keep Equestria whole. We aren't hurting anypony." She said.

"Is that so?" The Nightmare rushed forward with fearful haste, sending droplets in every direction as she aggressed on Twilight. "BOW, PONY!"
Twilight startled, and fell backwards on her haunch.
"For you've already forgotten the lesson, that coercion is the ultimate law of relations between the unequal! When I battled across Equestria, in every armored pony hoof there was a whip to cow the resentful peasant. And with every wing horn and mouth, in the grasp of these masters of war and power, were the swords with which they killed the covetous contenders abroad and below. What we had had all been earned by FORCE, and what was unearned was not had at all, but surely taken! When what is wanted by one is not wanted by another, the bloody hoof, horn, and wing decide the future." Nightmare explained "I have all three." She nickered. "But you are so deluded by alicorn glamour you forget you hold the sword over the rest of ponykind on her behalf. That is so devious I can't help but laugh. You think you're helping them, ha ha!"

Nightmare Moon's nostalgic vision of Equestria, a barbarous land of warlords who fought over every scrap of land, sounded extremely unpleasant to Twilight. Besides it was ahistoric! The classical warlords were a sophisticated civilization with complex systems of diplomacy, tribute, rites, and responsibilities between them. Yes there had been war, but it wasn't all war all the time. Twilight wondered whether the clash between what the moon princess had wanted, an anarchic Equestria, and what had actual been, the complex societies of classical Equestria, had in some part caused her corruption and downfall.
How was Twilight going to explain and propose these thoughts? It would sound ridiculous to try to lecture the Nightmare about a time she had never lived, but which Nightmare had. It was difficult enough to explain the modern era without bringing up Celestia explicitly? "Lady Moon, aren't you a sovereign yourself? You don't let your lunar subjects wantonly kill themselves, do you?"

The Nightmare of the Moon paused, then allowed herself a long wistful sigh. She lifted her head to appraised the fleeting moonlight struggling to break through the clouds and rain above.
"If you wish to hear about my moon, it is shameful to speak of her behind her back."

The clouds were punched open, and the silvery bright shadow of the moon was upon them, summoned by her daughter's wish. Twilight looked to her too, trying to see what the Nightmare saw.
Something was off... It took Twilight a few moments, before she realized that the pattern of lunar craters, the 'Mare in the Moon' of folklore, was considerably less prominent than it usually seemed. Ah, but that mare was right beside her! "We've met, but were never properly introduced." Twilight whispered, eyes wide. In indescribable yearning swelled up in her. She wished she could reach up and touch the moon.

The moon was disinterested. It had no intention of humoring Twilight's doting, when here daughter was in the room.

"I see..." Twilight had lived her hole life under the sun, so instinctively knew how to live a life under divine attention. She turned back to Nightmare Moon. "Now is it okay to share?"

"It is." The Nightmare confirmed.
“My moon is the gateway to the heavenly stars. It is very bleak and beautiful there, with canyons and mountains that dwarf the greatest on this planet. Once it was a land of great pleasure and jolly, the moon denizens luxuriant on the commerce between the Dreamworld and the Cosmos. Now it is silent. The inhabitants have all ascended into Nightmares.”
Nightmare closed one eye and pointed a hoof up, trying to pick out a specific spot on the so-distant satellite. “My waking body is up there, in a purgatorial limbo, cursed to never leave. I rule only in a sense. I am the greatest and most powerful upon my moon, certainly, but it is so much dust... unchanging. Meteors strike, eclipses come and go, Star gods flit past, but the moon is indomitable even by me. After all it is but a dream. My dream...." She sighed. "She is my dream, and I am her nightmare. We shall never be separated from each other.”
It was the kind of poetic captivation which came over the Nightmare of the Moon now and then.

And even if she didn't want to admit it, the alicorn's brief ramblings of passion captivated Twilight. “Are you no longer the Moon's princess, therefore?" Twilight asked.

Nightmare initially rankled at the question, but her aggravated expression mellowed almost immediately. "The princesses were manifestations of the wills of their respective Celestine deity. What I inherited from the princess is of no matter, if that is the aim behind that question, for I manifest nowhere, and not the least on her behalf." She laughed, somewhat sinisterly. "It is all for me now. It has been since I was born out of what I was. The Nightmare emerged of the princess, but there was no princess any longer. Only me."

"But was it you who had such fond memories among the ancient ponies, your erstwhile comrades, or that princess?" Twilight asked.

Nightmare's nose wrinkled. "You mean to vex me."

"I really don't. I want to hear you talk about Ancient Equestria. Though if it was the princess, and not you, then I'd have no recourse." Twilight said.

Contemplating this, the Nightmare fell into her silent mood.
This made Twilight wonder if there was something phenomenological about the Nightmare's extreme moods. Was it a quirk of personality, or was there something more, for Twilight envisioned each mood as a phase of the moon, shifting, extant but impertinent, fated to give way to the next.

"I remember the night before a battle against an army of the Dark north. I went up into the Foal Highlands in search of herbs, poison fern, horsebane, and haemony, to weave into my arrows. It was the dark of night, and the new moon too, so I walked the silent mountain vales alone, without raiment and adornment." The Nightmare ran a hoof over the profile of her cuirass- In her incorporeal form, it was hard to distinguish the stylized armor against her fur. Did she ever take it off now? "I passed into a meadow and saw a bedraggled nightmare, a straggler from our last victory. It begged me to spare it, but she had taken up arms against our cause, so I crushed the creature against the earth."
The dark alicorn stomped the ground, mimicking the half-remembered murder on one of the puddles of rainwater.
"Who was that pony? I much suspect they are dead now. Alas this is the fated end to those who dare to live."

Interesting. "Very florid, my lady." Twilight said. "I doubt you'd let me get away with being that prosaic."

"Indeed not. But was that your only takeaway, or are you simply avoiding expressing thoughts that would aggravate me?" The Nightmare posed. "Be well assured, the Celestiaan Lunar princess, sister to Celestia, was a tested warrior who make her mark in blood. She was a prolific killer, which is why she gave rise to me," Nightmare Moon cocked her head. "her successor and inheritor."

That was a very interesting lead that Twilight would need to pursue. What were the mechanics of 'nightmare-ization'? By what dark rituals could a creature of flesh become one of dreams?
Wait- Twilight paused. Had Nightmare Moon just directly referred to Celestia? At least that teasing taboo was broken. "Then why didn't Celestia give rise to a Nightmare."

"You DO mean to vex me. I have no answer for you, because I do not know. Go ask her yourself." Nightmare snorted in irritation. "I assume you two must be very close if she permits you to neglect her title, oh so important to you ponies, when in the company of others."

Twilight had just been caught out. "Her imperial highness has a long and arduous royal styling. Most commonly, she is Princess Celestia." She coughed.

"Bah, 'Imperial highness'. What pretension. You shall never catch me thinking imperially of myself." Nightmare grunted. “No alicorn can be an emperor after the fall of the Tower. There is only one empire in Heaven anymore."

Twilight had no idea what Moon was talking about. "Would you really reject if somepony called you Empress Moon? respectfully, I would think it would suite your ego." Twilight grinned. "Perhaps I should prematurely apologize, should I ever be caught being familiar with you to others. Actually, I tend to be more formal that Celestia prefers, even with other ponies."
Then, as she went over what she had just said in her had, Twilight's smile faltered.

Nightmare’s stare was piercing. For a long, silent moment, the beast's glare became harsher and harsher.
"How familiar is the 'imperial highness' with her noble class of magistrates, Lady Twilight Sparkle? Just how well does Celestia know you, hmm?” Then she rose, and slowly advanced on the unicorn. “Is there some interest in your affairs perhaps? Do you tell her about your hopes…” Nightmare leaned forward until her nose was touching Twilight’s “and dreams? I would very much like to know.”

“Lady Moon-” Twilight’s heart was racing. If Nightmare found her answer dissatisfying, there way a large probability she would be facing tortured nights for an eternity. "This dream remains between us. Not a soul, not a spoken word, not a letter to paper, has been shared."

Nightmare closed her eyes, considering this. "A valiant effort to save your hide from the sun princess, surely. But I nay care, and that is not what I asked."

"Then... It's hard to explain.” It wasn't really that hard to explain. Twilight gulped, not only from fear, but the familiar anxiety that came whenever she tried to define her complicated relationship to Celestia. "Princess Celestia was my mentor for a number of years, and I was her ward. I received personal attention and magical instruction, occasionally, alongside the normal instruction of the magic school." She paused. "I'm currently her direct vassal, as viscountess and Élève Premier, a special agent of sorts for imperial affairs."

Of all the possible emotions, Nightmare’s face was desecrated by a teethy smile. “Her student? Ha!" She withdrew, letting Twilight breath easy. "Oh how I loath to recall that nag, but all the same, how contrary to her nature your words seem to me. An alicorn born with the alicorn nature of suspicion and cynicism was she, my erstwhile sibling Celestia. She did not trust anyone with her plans, except me, and even then only when necessary. And how she hoarded magical artifacts, secreting them away in little vaults like a squirrel, grossly satisfied that they were for her enjoyment alone..." Nightmare flicked Twilight with her ethereal tale. “But most outrageous of all is the claim that you, pitiful pony you, are a student and successor to her. I should call it a lie, yet I believe it. A little Sparkle, in the shadow of an alicorn.”

Twilight rubbed at her cheek. “I'm just her agent and vassal. I'm not heir, not even close." She shivered to contemplate it. How had the Nightmare even thought it were possible? Had there been pony heirs to the alicorns in her time? "The succession is kinda complicated. If I recall my history, the Summer Sun secession didn't start until the empire was founded so you wouldn't know about any of that. I guess legally, if there were no more Celestias, the junior princess, Mi Amore Cadenza would be imperial heir.”

Nightmare snickered. “I detect by your pointed tone that you resent this other pony. And why not, when Celestia put this higher-rank vassal between you and a throne. But to call them junior princess? Is she just making up positions for her cronies?"

Twilight was very uncertain how the Nightmare would react if she revealed that Cadence was an alicorn too. Hopefully it wouldn't slip out. "I don't like Cadenza on a personal level but I'm not going to do anything to her. I don't share your savage ideology, sorry."

"Clearly." Nightmare Moon scoffed. "Otherwise you would not be here. You would have been a threat to the princess-empress and destroyed. It would have been a shame to lose you though, if you had the spine."

Twilight accepted the backhanded complement. "That's outlandish to contemplate. I have never given anypony a reason to hurt me, let alone kill me."

"AGAIN you vex me with your ignorance, Twilight Sparkle! By what magic are you of a higher caste than the peasant masses you so dismissively described populating your princess's empire? By god, do you think they are your willing inferior?" Nightmare Moon snorted, jets of dark steam in the cold rainy night. "I am not a wagering mare, but I would bet you that this 'Cadenza' pony holds superiority of rank over you by virtue of martial prowess, and lethal potency."

Despite their intermittent feuding, Twilight had never seriously contemplated fighting Cadence. She tapped her chin, running through scenarios in her head. "You'd be half right, I guess, about Cadenza. She has the magic edge obviously, even if I rate her less precise than me. I've also taken some military science classes but that hardly matters in a scrap." Twilight laughed softly. "And while I'm fairly squishy, I'm not entirely sure she would die, even if I took her head off, as horrible as it is to say something like that."

Nightmare seemed confused at first, then as it dawned on her the dark alicorn’s face grew unreadably locked. "So the nature of this other pony, Cadenza, is that she isn't a pony at all."

Twilight could feel the temperature of the wet throne room drop considerably. “Oops." Careless again.
So, how was Twilight to approach this? By the severe look in her eye, there was no way that Nightmare Moon was going to let her waffle or digress. "No, Princess Cadenza no more mortal than Celestia or you are."

Nightmare was stone-still for several long moments, silent, while light patter of the rain went on around them. Slowly, the Nightmare looked back at the broken thrones again.
"It is not whim that Celestia titled that mare a princess. Another alicorn..."

Those words made Twilight queasy, but she wasn't sure why at first. It was the Nightmare's tone. She sounded afraid, and that greatly, and seemingly instinctually, put Twilight in the same mood.
"She's not your or Celestia's size. She's a bit taller than an average stallion."

"What does it matter what size the alicorn is?! It existence is the issue." Nightmare snapped. "How old is she?"

"Uhh, like, my brother's age, twenty-two or so. The temple dogma likes to pretend she's as eternal as Celestia, but she talks about her childhood like it wasn't that long ago." Twilight shrugged.

The Nightmare contemplated this. "Alicorns spring neither from clay nor the womb, but nor are they eternal. Of that I can assure you." Nightmare mumbled. "The more I hear of your world, the less I understand. I thought I understood how and why things had changed since my age, even if it hurt to think about. But another alicorn? Suddenly, it seems so confusing again." She eyed Twilight. "And it is just the one, yes? Only this Cadenza creature?"

Even if she didn't like her, Twilight wasn't keen on Cadence being called a creature. "Yes it's just Cadence. Don't judge her too hard before you meet her. I think she's a dumbass but she tries to be a nice pony sometimes, which is more than I can say for some."

"You are sadly misled. Alicorns are made for the domination of mortalkind. Any kindness you perceive is her conquest of your soul." Nightmare Moon said in a conspiratorial whisper, a fearful undertone still in her voice. "Cast off those shackles of ideology which my sister's realm has placed on you if you wish to see the truth, and defeat this mare."

"I don't want to 'defeat' her. That was something you made up!" Twilight shot back. The Nightmare said she didn't understand but then had the gall to give advice. "It's long past the time she and I were competing over silly honors at the University. Now she's well enough locked away in her tower, and I'm here dealing with you. I have no reason to think about her, especially not to fight about a pretend succession!"

That pulled the Nightmare from her mood, as she threw Twilight a surely look. "Don't raise your voice with me, pony. You don't know anything, yet. There are grave, grave implications of what you've said. I should have known about the new alicorn, even imprisoned as I am. But the courts of Dreams and Heaven were ignorant of Cadenza, which means the Sun has not been honest about her vassal princess's actions on the earth." Nightmare Moon strode forward and set a hoof on the obsidian Nightmare Altar. "It might be why we have been drawn here."

"Respectfully, I have no idea what you're talking about. That sounds like total nonsense." Twilight said flatly.

Despite Twilight's provocative dismissals, the Nightmare didn't rise to her words. "Of course you don't know. Ignorant slave." She stepped around the black altar and, after a few second of thinking to herself, sat down in front of Twilight. "It was somepony's intention that we meet. Perhaps not a pony. Maybe it was a Star, or a Deava, or even my erstwhile ward Valor..." She clucked her tongue. "Whatever the case may be, I theorize we were brought together with purpose. So tell me about her."

If the Nightmare Altar had been designed and created, and it only affected Twilight and not of the Ponyvillians, then yes, somepony had intended it. Whether the creator had intentionally trapped Twilight in a shared dream with the moon nightmare so they could gossip was different assumption.
"Tell you about who? Princess Celestia or Junior Princess Cadenza?"

"For now, Cadenza. Though she must have changed quite a bit from when I knew her, I know that devil Celestia." Nightmare was overcome by a wistful look as she said this. "But I must know about the new one."

The cold west stone of the ruined throne room wasn't the most comfortable place to sit, but there were worse alternatives, so Twilight settled in. “I guess she’s about two hooves taller than me, very slightly overweight. She's a talent with psychological magic, a passible mathematician, but struggles with the more complex spells like teleportation. She's pink, and her mark is teal crystal in a decorative heart shape." Twilight paused. "Personality wise, she's outwardly nice, but stubborn, and if she decides she wants something she'll be relentlessly manipulative to get it."

"Interesting I suppose, but you lack the making of a spy. From whence did she arrive? Did Celestia manufacture her, is she an Ancient Alicorn scion, or did some other Ava send her to be Celestia's ward?" Nightmare asked.

Twilight just shrugged.

Nightmare Moon blinked in confusion. "You don't know? This second alicorn appears from thin air, was brought in by your empress Celestia, named a princess, and you ponies simply accept it?"

"Yeah. It was a mystery at first but she's not remotely important at court anymore, so everypony stoped caring." Twilight said. "Nowadays she pursues her private studies in her wing of the castle, bound by the golden fetters Celestia put on her."

"Why is she fettered?" Nightmare asked.

"Metaphorically fettered. There was a conspiracy of nobles who tried to trick her into a marriage." Twilight rubbed her chin. "It was probably the most important political shock of the last decade. Since then, Cadence was been isolated."

"You ponies truly baffle me. This whole situation is... nonsensical. There is no place for a mild-mannered alicorn on the earth.” Nightmare let out a deep sigh. She began to idly smooth her fur where it met her cuirass. “But I heard in there somewhere that she is not good with magic. Interesting. They must not have been made for war.”

Twilight cleared her throat. "Okay, to clarify, I don't know how she came to be an alicorn, but she talks about her past as though she was born and lived like any other pony. Her home village is a secret but its well known she grew up a commoner, which is a big reason why the noble circles don't like her."

"Is it possible this pony was made into an alicorn, after being a mortal? That is what I mean when I pose that Celestia could have manufactured her." Nightmare mused. "But still it would confuse me. Why? Why would Celestia do it?" She perked up, coming to a new thought. "Ahah! It would make much more sense if, say, a Star created her! Then Celestia would have noticed this blasphemy and seized the new alicorn, making the best of it." She nodded a look of stern certainty on her face. "That is surely what happened. A Star messing about with that damned ritual. That leads me to believe that this shared dream is also the machination of a Star."

This wasn't the first time Nightmare Moon had said that word, 'Star', in that way. That word, especially the way Nightmare Moon said it, tickled Twilight ear. It sounded so grave and evil, which is not what Twilight wanted to be feeling when thinking about starts, since she had six of them as her mark. "My lady, you're leaving me in the dark about a lot of this, but since it concerns me, at least tell me what the 'Stars' are."

Nightmare Moon immediately scowled and pursed her lips, reviling to even contemplate the question. "I shall put it this way: No matter how pathetically you act, you could never drop to the lowest rungs of my esteem, as all my greatest hate is reserved for them, The twelve Stars."
She caught Twilight glancing towards the clouded sky. "Nay, not those stars. That is heaven up there, where thankfully the Stars of which I speak will never pass! You poor mortals are stuck with them here on this planet."

"Why, are they non-mortal, like alicorns?" Twilight asked.

She should have known better than phrase it that way, as the question immediately annoyed the Nightmare. "Wretched sinners, they and I, but do let me catch you comparing us again. If by grace I am returned to flesh, I will skin them for what they've done." She snarled, voice dripping contempt.

"How can any particular pony get so low in the esteem of your might-makes-right worldview? If they're treacherous bastards, surely that's self-justifying." Twilight mused. She cast the Nightmare a curious look, inviting an explanation.

"It was no mere crime against me. I am not that hypocritical." Nightmare Moon said. She consciously paused collecting herself and letting her anger dissipate. "They committed a sin against nature, deeper than Light and Dark, and contravening of all Heavenly law. I shall not elaborate."

"Are you sure?" Twilight fluttered her lashes.

The Nightmare made a disgusted noise and looked away.

Another loose thread.
Twilight rolled to her hooves and started pacing the room, passing into and out of the gap in the rain made by the hole in the clouds.
Bit by bit, Twilight had endeared herself to the Nightmare of the Moon. What would have seemed impossible the first night, sitting down and having a 'normal' conversation, was now straightforward. Where before the Nightmare had raged at the every implication of Celestia, now she was articulating very specific gripes. Yes, Twilight was getting the full contour of the dark alicorn's strange personality. The Nightmare was even allowing herself to get annoyed by Twilight without flying into a rage.

Twilight looked back to the Nightmare. Nightmare Moon was sitting patiently, watching Twilight pace, letting the unicorn sort her thoughts out so they could go back to conversation. After all Twilight had done the same for her.

Twilight could help but grin. Victory. She had conquered the Nightmare, by her own logic.
In her moment of great pride, Twilight relished her control over the divine demi-god. Celestia had spurned her, but Twilight had found and taken the sister for herself. She felt like a triumphal hunter.

The Nightmare of the Moon noticed Twilight's grin, and smiled back, thinking her own triumphal thoughts.

"Fine, Lady Moon, I accept your boundary for now." Twilight said. "Though it would be a shame if I had to search after the secret of the Stars myself. I might find it with some other pony or princess, who you say bears relation to them."

Nightmare Moon grumbled her displeasure. "You damn fool."

"I suppose as long as you stay on that moon, you can't kill me for real." Twilight teased.

Nightmare stood up. "We will test that, if you continue like this. But alas no, I call you a fool for thinking you would survive Celestia if she suspects you are chasing Stars' power. If she values her nation of pliant ponies, she has surely chased those vermin into the deepest pits of this planet and sealed them there."

"That melodramatic talk only makes me more curious." Twilight said. "It's a purely intellectual curiosity. I'm not a pony easily given over to greed." She sighed. "But fine. I will respect your concerns. There might be a time that you or her share that information with me willingly."

"If it becomes pertinent it is already too late for you lot." Nightmare shook her head.
The dark alicorn went silent for a long while, contemplating her next words. "Twilight Sparkle, have you ever heard of Harmony magic?"

"Err, do you mean harmonic magical theory?" Twilight queried. "Yes, I'm pretty well versed in that. I even wrote a pretty well received essay-"

"No, Harmony. It is something of a lost art, you could say. But if you don't know...." Nightmare paused again. Her face contorted in a sour look. "Oh damn it all! What do I care for your ignorance." She turned to face the nightmare altar. "I have shared more than enough, you accursed thing! Release us from this dream. I tire of it!"

With the nightmare shifting into a more manic mood, Twilight suspected she wasn't long for the dream.
"You know, they teach you in summoning class that making vague pact terms is a double-edge sword. The terms might be interpreted leniently or harshly. We could talk for hours and not get closer to fully explaining our worlds to each other."

"Aye, that's very true." The Nightmare agreed. She glanced at Twilight, her magic flaring to life and dragging the unicorn closer by the back hooves. "But before you leave, I want you to tell me more about Celestia's palace." She nodded towards the ruined thrones. "How has she superseded our shared reign?"

It was a last out, to see if this explanation fulfilled the pact and ended the dream non-violently. "Canterlot is the imperial capital. It's changed a lot since your age. The city occupies the entirety of the plateau now, and is completely unassailable by land. Walls ten meters thick-”

“What’s a meter?” Nightmare interrupted to ask.

“Huh? ...they didn’t have the SI metrological system a thousand years ago, did they.” Twilight remembered. “A meter is about four hooves.”

“Forty hoof width walls?”

“Yes, and high too! It’s augmented with fifteen enormous keeps, each owned by a different aristocratic family, and above them all, the princess's castle, hundreds of meters tall. Magical shield arrays and ballista deter any attack by air. Some of the castles are getting cannons now." Twilight paused at seeing the Nightmare's expression. "Gunpowder weaponry like cannons use confined combustion to launch projectiles at incredible speeds."

"Ah the march of technology. Your linen dress and iron horseshoes are identical to anything that could be found in my Equestria, but here and there you hint at the radical differences." The Nightmare nodded. "But the castle, the castle. Tell me about her castle."

There was an odd anticipation in Nightmare Moon's voice. Would't she hate to hear about her reviled sister's architectural expression of supreme power and mastery? There was no greater evidence of which Celestiaan vanquished which than Celestia enjoying her night in silken luxury at the top of the world, while the nightmare of the Moon princess was slouched in an overgrown ruin.

"Was this place originally marble? Because Celestia really likes marble. All of Canterlot Castle is marble, through and through." Twilight said. "Say, what's your residence on the moon made out of?"

That dislodged the Nightmare's manic mood somewhat, as she thought about the question. "One day, perhaps, I will show you a basalt hall overlooking the dark flats of the Mare Incognitum, while a thousand moon denizens parade march for us. That would be a marvelous sight." She let out a low growl. "Then you could report it, so eagerly and dreamily, to Celestia."

Sometimes there was no winning.
The Nightmare's magic grew brighter. Twilight felt a lancing pain in her chest, her consciousness within the dream terminating almost immediately as the alicorn squeezed her heart more and more with her telekinesis, until it beat no more.

Twilight opened her eyes. It was still dark outside her window. There were some residual storms passing over Ponyville from the direction of the forest, the wind and rain ruffling the Golden Oak.
"Not too bad. I have her in my grasp. Now I just have to think of a way to use her." Twilight murmured to herself sleepily.

Maybe she could get a few hours of rest before morning came.

Unlike Twilight, Rarity slept soundly.

The morning saw a few customers come with small clothing repairs, which Rarity did quickly, humming as she worked. It looked like it would be a lovely day.
The only cloud over her was something Fluttershy had shared with her the previous day: Twilight Sparkle was likely going to breach the Everfree Forest, if she had not already. It would be terribly bad for Rarity and her friends if the imperial First Student got injured in the forest. It could be even worse if she wasn't. The ponies who respected the imperial dogma stayed far far away from the devil forest, and for good reason.
Would something have to be done? How could Rarity keep Twilight Sparkle away from the Everfreee without making pushing the stubborn noble to try even harder?

"Are you done?" Cherry Berry asked, hovering over Rarity's shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh yes." Rarity snapped from her idle wondering back to the world around her. She was all done with the last repair. "Simple enough, darling." She leaned away to let Cherry Berry grab the mended skirt. "You should start looking for a different item to go picking with. The sun is starting to eat this one, and it will tear more and more."

Cherry Berry laughed. "Surely you'd be happy about that, to keep your hooves busy." She folded up the skirt and put it in her bag. "I'll come back with the bits after the market today."

"If it wouldn't be a bother, you could come back with some apples too." Rarity smiled. "And if you see Rose ask her-"

"Roseluck doesn't want to talk to me. She thinks I'm enabling you." Cherry Berry said, her mood turning stern. "She wants you to talk to her directly, away from town."

Rarity brooded over that for a while. "I can't. Sparkle has her eye right on me."

"Which is why Rose doesn't want to talk in town." Cherry Berry said. "You're both being silly. Just invite her to meet at Fluttershy's cottage or your parent's house, and convince Rose that everything is alright." She paused for a moment. "And invite Amethyst Star while you're at it. She's been trying to gin up rumors."

Everything was not alright. "I'll think about it." Rarity said.

Cherry Berry sighed in slight exasperation. "Fine. We'll get through this. This Summer Sun fair buisness will go by and the noblemare will leave as long as we keep our heads down. That's why it's important you talk to them, especially Amethyst."

"I said I will think about it. It's my choice." Rarity said, a little more forcefully.

Cherry Berry thought about it, then nodded her head. "You know best hierophant. I'll see you later, with your apples."

You do that, Rarity thought as she watched Cherry leave.
Treachery from her faithful compatriots was not what she needed.

In trying times like these, Rarity's faith was tested.
And that's when she remembered she had something that even Twilight Sparkle surely lacked: An alicorn princess's relic.

She didn't keep it in her own home/shop in Ponyville. Something so holy and valuable would attract jealous attention and eventually theft or even violence. The relic stayed at her parents empty house in the foothills, where it was secret and wouldn't cause anypony any anxiety or restless nights.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity called out to the upstairs bedrooms. "Get out of bed, darling, we're going for a walk!"

After some grumbling, Sweetie Belle was obligingly if tiredly following Rarity on the oath out of Ponyville, on the northwesterly path.

"You stayed up again didn't you." Rarity commented.

"No." Sweetie Belle protested, rubbing at her eye. "I... I had another bad dream."

Maybe it was just an excuse, or it could be true. "About what?" Rarity asked, voice tinged with concern.

"I saw a river, a forest, and a desert, and- and monsters." Sweetie said, subdued.

"Oh my. Monsters?" Rarity pried further.

"They were tall and fuzzy and... but they walked like bird and they talked, talked about..." Sweetie Belle went silent for a while.

The countryside outside Ponyville was beautiful, fields of grass, crops, and orchards, criss-crossed with dirt causeways lined with shade trees. The intermittent floral bushes and vines gave the air a sweet fragrance, and everything was especially vibrant after the previous week of rain. Rarity almost wished she could spend her time out there, rather than having to be in Ponyville village center where the buisness was. But destiny had given her the mark and skills of a luxuriant seamstress, not a country pony who repaired rope and hemp-cloth seed bags.

"A tower, the monsters talked about a tower." Sweetie Belle finally said. "It doesn't sound scary, but it was really scary."

"Being spoken to by strange creatures about things you don't understand is bound to scare any pony, Sweetie." Rarity consoled her sister. "Sometimes the unknown even gives me pause."

Sweetie reacted positively to Rarity's light joking, breaking into a smile of her own. "Maybe I should have told my dream to a brave pony. I don't want to give you a bad day."

"Hopefully it's not too late for me." Rarity said with a titter.

It was too late for her.
Approaching their parent's house, Rarity knew right away something was wrong.

"It's missing." She whispered. She felt it in her gut, and down her spine. The holy relic was missing. She paused at the front door, almost too afraid to go in and confirm her feeling.

But Sweetie Belle pushed past her and ran into the dusty cottage. "I wonder if any letters got delivered here like last time! Ponies keep thinking mommy and daddy are here, hee hee. We should go visit them and bring them all the mail! Missing mail, hee hee!"

Not a bad idea, Rarity thought mutely. She felt too numb to open up her mouth and respond, instead staggering, only half-willingly, to the trap door to the cellar.

"What're you going down there for?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Rarity met her sister's curious look, trying to hide her own dread and panic. "Jam. There's still some jam to take home."
She would normally be hesitant to drop into the cool and occasionally dank cellar... but despite her hesitation she needed to know. Was it really gone? She begged her untrained magical senses to be lying to her.

"... Has somepony been in here? The mailmare maybe." Sweetie Belle wondered her herself. "It does't smell like it usually does."

The final conformation was a little gap in the lines of jam jars on the cellar shelves. Where there should have been a cloth-swaddled container, there was only an imprint in the dust.
Rarity felt weak in the knees. She wanted to cry, and certainly would have if her sister was not watching her from the top of the cellar stairs. It was gone. It was gone. Somepony had maliciously taken it. How? Who? It could have been any of a number of contemptible freaks!
Somepony had stolen Rarity's last connection to her goddess. It was just a simple horseshoe, an old thing but fit for a princess... a relic of a time long ago. And it had been hers. Why would somepony do this to her?

Rarity fell to her haunches, bowing her head and cupping her hooves together, as if she were catching water. "My lady, my lady, speak to me. Please, speak to me. Let me know that injustice will pass, I beg of you."

"Are you talking to me, Rarity? Talk louder." Sweetie Belle asked. "Wait a sec, somepony is outside! Did you invite your friend?"

Rarity jolted up, registering Sweetie's words, then got to her hooves. Had the criminal returned to the scene of the crime?!?

Twilight was just circling the cottage, admiring the rustic charm of the aged stone construction and the vines on the walls. It sat on the edge of a forested hill, the very edge of the foothills which eventually rose to the peaks of the Unicorn Range, hundreds of kilometers to the north.
"Not a bad view either." Twilight said to herself. Appreciating how the sight elevation let her see all the fields between her and Ponyville.

There was a sound from behind her, something hitting glass. Twilight turned to see Rarity pressed against the cottage window, staring out at her wide-eyed, seemingly baffled.

"Hello Mis Rarity." Twilight nodded her head. "Yeah, I followed you, sorry. I was heading towards the market and saw you going past."

Rarity pulled herself from the window and slowly maneuvered to the door, keeping her eye on Twilight the whole time. "Lady Sparkle." She mumbled.

"What a cute place. Who lives here?" Twilight glanced past Rarity to Sweetie Belle. "One of your sister's friends?"

Was Twilight Sparkle actually unaware, or was she just playing dumb. Of anypony, Twilight was perhaps most likely to be the one to track down her precious relic and pilfer it. But Rarity also judged the noblemare as far too reserved to flaunt her theft in the open like this. "My parents..." Rarity coughed and straightened herself. She was better than this. One little setback could not be enough to break her. Yes it was upsetting, and many things had been lately, but Rarity would not bend, and would not tear. "This is my parents' house. They are away."

"Oh, it's sitting empty? I'm almost hurt you didn't offer that I could stay here, instead of the Oak." Twilight joked. However the unplaceable look in Rarity's eye told her she should be joking. "Look, I'm sorry, I obviously transgressed a bit, following you here like I did. I let curiosity get the better of me."

The noblemare's curiosity was certain to cause even more trouble in the future. Rarity had to be direct. "Yes my lady, you crossed the line. You can make it up quickly if you answer a question for me. Have you seen a horseshoe lying around? I have misplaced one." She asked, watching Twilight reaction. "It is a large shoe, made of steel. It's a family heirloom of sorts." To get the point home, Rarity leaned forward into Twilight's space. "I've been tearing up Ponyville looking for it. I came here to check for it as well."

Of course, Twilight had no idea what Rarity was talking about. A missing horseshoe? How inane. "I'm not really the pony to ask about that kind of thing unless it has a distinct magical signature." Twilight shrugged. "So, should I get forgiveness by way of finding this horseshoe, or-"

"Oh no my lady, answering was enough. I would be better off asking a pegasus with good eyesight." Rarity nodded slowly. Assuming Twilight Sparkle hadn't been the one to take it, there was a risk of the mare stumbling upon it and taking it from the thief. "So, what do you intent to do while you are out here?"

Be invited in for tea, Twilight supposed. "I'm sorry to hear about the lost horseshow, and I wouldn't want to take you away from your sister or your search. I guess i'll teleport back to Ponyville." She took a few steps back and started gathering up her magic. "If it's not a bother, I'll visit you this afternoon. We can talk more about the fair."

"Do as you will my lady." Rarity said.
Twilight hadn't seemed flustered or evasive, so had probably not stolen the horseshoe. So she just watched Twilight teleport away while she thought about where she could search next, and whom she most suspected.

Unbeknownst to her, Twilight did not teleport all the way back to Ponyville, but behind the line of trees along the nearby causeway. From there she spied on Rarity and the little cottage. "A horseshoe. Who does she think she's foolish with a lie like that." It did not even occur to her to take Rarity's words at face value. Still, Twilight wasn't sure what Rarity was hiding, perhaps a clandestine meeting with another pony. Whatever it was she was sure it was related to the wider secret the Ponyvillians were keeping from her.

But Rarity just went back into the cottage, and from what Twilight spied through the window, was just playing with her filly sister. There was nothing to be uncovered there yet.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie were having lunch outside the bakery, when Applejack whistled and nodded towards the street.
"Lookie, there goes Lady Sparkle, without that notebook or that dragon of hers."

Pinkie Pie tracked Twilight with her eyes a while. "Huh, she's coming from the west." She leaned back in her chair. "Hondo and Cookie's house, maybe?"

"Yep. Though she don't seem too emotive 'bout it." Applejack grunted, tearing a bite out of her sandwich. "Hell knows what them ponies keep in there." She said between mastications. "Surprised you never had a look through there."

Pinkie shrugged. "I have enough fun. If I do something crazy like burgle a pony's house, that's a big escalation. Next thing I know I'd wake up with a pillow held over my face. That would ruin my entire day." Seeing Twilight pass out of sight, Pinkie looked back to Applejack. "Rarity know swhat I'm about, and I know what she's about. Nopony feels threatened, which is the most important part of a fun game."

"Tshh, fun. Sure." Applejack shook her head.

Hearing Applejack's dismissals, Pinkie Pie grinned a lopsided grin. "Hey, I don't do anything if I don't enjoy it. Nothing, not ever. I live the way I want, and in a way I enjoy, and the consequences are up to her." She said with a small nod skyward. "In ungulis Dei."

"It's 'ungulibus Dei', not what you said." Applejack grunted, taking another bite.

"You spent too much time in Manehattan, listening to griffins. I'm like, eighty percent sure it's ungulis." Pinkie said. She paused to think. "Well, sixty-five percent."

Applejack rolled her eyes, swallowed down her mouthful and sucked in a deep breath. "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

Startled at the shout, Pinkie jumped, pushing her already-leaning chair even further, and making it fall backwards.

Twilight, running towards the shout, encountered this scene. Applejack hunched over a mostly-eaten sandwich, and Pinkie Pie flat on her back.
"Oh good grief girls. You didn't punch her again, did you Applejack?"

"Not yet I haven't." Applejack chuckled. "We've got a real important question. See, we here in Ponyviile are plumb ignorant without temple or priest to instruct us in the princess's truths. Some of us are just plain heretics! That gets us to arguments, and since you're a mare of learning who loves to adjudicate and get in pony's buisness-"

"You could have just shouted a slur at me. That would be quicker." Twilight sighed. "Come on, get to the question already."

In a spine-defying display of flexibility, Pinkie Pie rolled backwards onto her hooves. "It's a language question! Okay, is it said 'In ungulis Dei', or 'In unulibus Dei'. It's sorta really important."

Twilight tapped her chin. "Hmm, you're right, that is important. The right answer, of course... neither. Roanish is not a sanctioned liturgical language you dumb hinnies."

Applejack soured at the insult. "Hardly showin' noblesse oblige there, ma'am."

"You shouted for me, then you mocked me." Twilight rolled her eyes. "By what grace am I, viscountess, to take concealed mockery from a farm mare? There might be occasion for it, but not when I'm in a mood like this."

Obviously Twilight was sensitive about it, not only the issue of 'reconciling' Rarity and Applejack with her mock trial, but challenges to her right to do so.
Considering this, Applejack shared a look with Pinkie Pie. "Aw hell, I don't set out to upset nopony. I hoped you'd accept a joke like that in the spirit it's said, but I must done said it wrong."

It was a non-apology, but good enough for Twilight. "Okay then, I'm sorry for the insult." Though she counted herself magnanimous for letting it go, Twilight didn't quite perceive that she was not in Canterlot, and her behavior was beginning to grate on ponies: The relentless chiding and policing to make sure social caste distinction was respected was taken by the Ponyvillians as pure snobbery.
"By the way, it's 'In Deus ungula, corna, et ala', for those holy creatures have all three. Or at least, that's how they exist right now."

Pinkie Pie put her chair back upright and took her seat again. "Huh, so that's about the Princess, but what about the Sun? Like, we're trying to express the idea that our fate is up to the Sun's destiny? How do you say that in Roanish."

"Well Mis Pie, again you mustn't say that. For the Sun not only doesn't speak Roanish, but she doesn't speak at all, and does not like being spoken to. Thus she gave us her daughter, the interlocutor and avatar of her will, for while what our Sun intends will come to pass regardless under bright skies, it's is by her grace we have a Princess to communicate it." Twilight said, an ironic grin forming. "And under dark skies? Bereft of her light, what ponies do then is definitionally sinful. Is it not?"

A strange, knowing look passed between Applejack and Pinkie Pie, then Pinkie Pie and Twilight, and finally Twilight and Applejack. And with that, Twilight had full conformation that the dreams in the ruined castle were linked to the mystery of Ponyville. Maybe the Ponyvillians didn't have the full picture, and may not have known about the dream itself, but by moonlit ways an unknown agency went about its acts.

"So it is." Pinkie Pie shrugged, precarious leaning back in her chair again.

"Yup, so 'tis." Applejack bit her sandwich.

"See you around." Twilight nodded, heading up the street again.

Rarity and Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie... These ponies... were not only on opposite sides of a personal drama, but of the mystery of Ponyville. There was something long stewing. But somehow, despite every tendency of pony perfidy, everypony showed a united front to shut Twilight out. They refused to spill the beans to advance the rivalry, even if they'd seemed willing to do nearly everything else to manipulate her.

"Damn those mares. The deserts of deceit is the desert of all sin. Holy punishment." Twilight muttered to herself, furiously running over every memory of their interactions, again and again, to extract more meaning. The whole thing was driving her mad. "I reached out to them, lowered myself to try to befriend them. I made sacrifices to bring them together in peace and harmony. This is how I'm rewarded."
As she had fought to bring them together, Twilight resolved that, if necessary, she would tear them apart, and exploit their divisions to find the truth. The Ponyvillians had already proven themselves sinners. Perhaps they would crumble and indulge in the sin of treachery as well.

As Twilight would do, to get her way.

It was still raining over the castle ruin that night, but not as much. It had dwindled to a light patter, letting sheets of mist rise out of the forest and overtake everything, up to the top of the crumbled stone walls.

This time Twilight did not hesitate at all. She strode directly up to the Nightmare Altar. "Princess Moon, I summon thee! Tell me about your greatest victory.” She intoned.

There was a laugh in the air. “Hello to you too.” The cracking-glass voice returned.

“Let’s make this easy, with a very simple pact, easily fulfilled. I'd like to see at least one of these go right." Twilight said. "Just one moment about ourselves, is all I ask."

“I have already heard more than enough about you, Twilight Sparkle, more than I could ever desire. I am replete, disgracefully so, with Twilight Sparkle knowledge. Why would I want more?” Nightmare questioned. “Are you so arrogant to think that I care?"

“You seemed to care about my name.” Twilight countered.

“I care not for names! Names are made up. Call me ishmael for all I could care for names.” Nightmare's voice suddenly turned hostile. “I DO care for truth and knowledge, something you haven’t been able to provide! Repeated failed pacts! You sinful hinny.”

Twilight was surprised to hear the rare insult she had hurled at Applejack just earlier that day. “Moon, is it always going to be a battle with you?”

"It is. It IS. How many times must I repeat it? It is always a battle. I can not control that.” The dark alicorn's etherial voice thrummed coldly. “I accept this truth without pretense, thus I rise to dominion."

“I seem to recall that last time you tried to win dominion over this planet, she banished you in the end.” Twilight smirked.

The throne room grew very, very silent.
Every single cloud in the sky had disappeared. The bright white moon glared, her beams making the misty ruins glow like day.

"I have been patient with you, more patient than even my Moon advises. This has bolstered your haughty arrogance.” Nightmare’s whisper echoed like the splintering of a thousand windowpanes at a great distance.

Wait, how much independent will did the Moon have? Twilight tried to match the intense stare that pale satellite had fixed on her... But it was so unlike the holy Sun's attention. Looking up to the Sun, a pony was assured that that star, liege of their liege alicorn, was all too busy guiding the fate of ponykind to spare anyone any particular attention.

The Moon was not so gracious. Especially not that night. There must have been something Twilight missed the previous night, some message about the moon's displeasure. Not that displeasure had come. The vast presence of was ALL, ON, HER.

The stringy ferns and mosses coating the stone floor wobbled, standing at attention for the Moon, and Twilight too, her capacity to talk and breath stolen away. She felt lightheaded, and her skin became numb, a sensation Twilight could only compare to drowning. Visions of strange silhouetted landscapes danced in front of her eyes.
Oh heavenly celestial, why put up with your irritable Nightmare? Twilight wheezed but could not speak with no breath in her lungs. Every muscle was frozen under the light from beyond the earth.

The plants began to wither under the too-intense divine attention.

"What was the pact you proffered again? Oh what does it matter. You have no intention of keeping it." The Nightmare growled. "I offer to reciprocate, and your pact is accepted, and so on." The shadowy alicorn shape materialized in front of the altar. "Here we are again, Twilight Sparkle."

Alas no gods' love was infinite. At last the Moon relented, the light fading, her attention turning elsewhere; Twilight stumbled to the side and slowly recovered her senses. "Good grief." She groaned, sitting down to let her legs stop trembling. The moon had payed attention to her! And how? Twilight didn't even know how to describe the feeling. It had hurt so much, but Twilight almost wanted it again.

The Nightmare of the Moon was clearly displeased about the whole thing. "Hark, Sparkle, I'm the one you should be paying attention to. I challenge you to a duel."

That must have been a joke, Twilight decided. "You shouldn't say something like that when your mother has already slapped me around like that."

Nightmare Moon stared down her nose at Twilight, glowing eyes narrowed to a glare. "She is privileged to do as she desires. And I-" She bowed her head slightly. "I must win the right. So defend yourself. DEFEND YOURSELF!”

Beams of lightning and black fire erupted from the Nightmare's horn, scattering in every direction, a bloom of light and sound. Twilight went from confusion to terror in a moment. She threw herself behind a fallen pillar, but was immediately locked in place by a barrage of tarry shadow pelting everything around her. Thinking quickly, she teleported blindly across the room to another pillar.

Wait, had Twilight had just used her magic? Twilight gasped and brought her hoof up to her horn, experimentally summoning up a spell. Her hoof tingled as the flow of magic danced across the enamel.

"I felt that too!" Nightmare Moon yelled from the other side of the throne room. "It is the trials we face which elevate us, or crush us." The throne room fell back into foggy darkness as the Nightmare relented in the magical assault. "Twilight?"

"I'm here." Twilight called out. She tested her magic again, forming into a simple light spell. As commanded, the magic formed into a shimmering pinprick of light.
Twilight let out a breath. She had her magic back, so she had nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about at all. "Thank you, oh holy moon." She mumbled. Now she had to fend off a killer alicorn.

"Oh? Was that a teleportation spell you did? Very good. You might be a clever pony after all." Nightmare bore down on Twilight new hiding spot, but was stopped by the Nightmare Altar's chain. "Indeed the dream continues." She stalked around the limit of her leash. "Twilight Sparkle, this is no way to conduct a duel. Come out from there.

Sighing, Twilight climbed to her hooves and stepped around pillar. "A duel needs two ponies. Do you actually want me to fight back? You get everything you want by kicking me around."

Nightmare Moon levitated a pebble and flicked it at Twilight's head. "Aren't you a creature of resolve? No? Then I could obliterate you a thousand times over and not fear retaliation. Pointless!”

“I resolve to peace.” Twilight said. "There is nothing either of us gained by fighting each other that we can't gain by cooperating."

Nightmare gave Twilight a pitying look. "Can you not find it within yourself to raise arms against an alicorn, even one you are inculcated to hate? Then how are you ever to be expected to usurp one, you saucy little mare? If only I could kill your sleeping body and give you the real peace you resolve to."
Dark magical energies began to crackle at her horn again.

"Lady Moon this-" Twilight's speech was interrupted by her sudden need to crash teleport away from the gout of black fire the Nightmare propelled at her.
Twilight reappeared behind the pillar again. She stifled a pained whimpered from the sting of casting a complex spell so suddenly; The regular magical rules applied within the dream, it seemed.

"I feel bad for you. At first, I was baffled by the silent world you inhabit, where Celestia rules and quells the passions of ponykind, yoking them to her order. Afterwards, by myself on the moon, I reflected on my feelings, and wondered if I was envious. Twas that I realized was that I yearned not for you, but on your behalf." Nightmare Moon said. "Because you were not meant for your world. I see it in your eyes, and I can taste it on your voice. I feel it in your dreams. Oh little pony, you have a Dark heart that hungers."

“You'd only think that if you ignored everything I ever said to you.” Twilight’s voice was edged, and just loud enough the Nightmare perceived its direction.

Nightmare faced Twilight's general direction. "However much I berate you, insulting your slavish nature, you bristle. You instinctually reject what I command of you. If you were truly the dog of alicorn agency, I would have broken you by now." She laughed to herself. "But the clearest sign is that you have drawn my mother's attention. She thinks I am best served by your death. "

Twilight peeked around the pillar. "I'm glad to be noticed."

The Nightmare shrugged. "You are too smug in your role. You think you are ironically detached from the Equestria around you, but that self-delusion will break eventually, Twilight. We will come to greater knowledge about the truth of you!"

Expecting another blast of fire in her direction, Twilight backed up to the wall of the throne room and ran along to the next pillar; She had to get closer to the Nightmare's play area before she could cross to the other side and exit to the next room.

"It starts when you fight back. Prove to me that you are real! Nothing about our rendezvous have felt as satisfying as you trying to kick yourself free of me. The struggle against one other is what defines the truth." Nightmare hummed. If only her senses weren't stunted by the altar, she could have snagged the little unicorn without issue. She had been going too light on Twilight. The little mare needed to be punished and tortured until the truth came out. "Just wait until I grab you this time. I will chip out every scabbed-over dogma from your head, until you reject every pretense and fight me. Yes, pony, I'm going to peel your skin off. You're disappointing me so much right now. My mother gave you your magic back so you could show me what you are capable of."

Why would she say such horrible things? Despite herself Twilight shivered. The previous night's discussion had been productive, perhaps even enjoyable. Was Twilight going to be expected to continuously prove herself for the dark alicorn in trials of violence?
"You're a relic of the past, and so is your bucking stupid ideology." Twilight yelled. "You're a barbarous maniac.That's not how I want to live, and the future of Equestria won't support it."

"You have another creature's Equestria nesting in your head. What a sorry state for the daughter of Warlords! Do you care nothing for your own dream?" Nightmare Moon asked. She bared her teeth. "Twilight, by heaven, you have no reason to lie to me! If you well and truly forsake all ambition, you are as good as dead. I BEG thee, Lady Sparkle. Tell me the truth!"

Beg? Had the alicorn really said that? Twilight silently considered the Nightmare's demand.
If Twilight really was content in her place, and resolved to follow the simple path of serving Celestia as First Student forever, Nightmare Moon had no reason to be friendly any longer- Twilight really would be no better than a slave, worth nothing, who could be destroyed without consideration or regret. The coy game Twilight had been playing, ambiguously offering amity to the moon's nightmare, while holding back any real commitments, wasn't going to be enough anymore.

It was an abrupt, violent confrontation with fate was coming. Twilight had let herself become too familiar with a demigod, a heavenly creature of heavenly descent, and now she was paying the price. What hero did not walk the earth without facing a trial which would foreshadow their eventual end.
"Am I a hero?" Twilight questioned vacantly.
By self-pitying and dwelling on conspiracies, Twilight had forgotten the dramatic arc that had brought her to that moment. She had stoped respecting the dream, the alicorn, and the bend of chance which had brought her to them. There she was, a pony before a demigod. The Nightmare of the Moon was anxious for her answer, and would decide her actions by what Twilight said.
Thus, by this dark line of reasoning, Twilight seduced her own ego. The Nightmare was proving that pony agency mattered even in a world ruled by gods.

"Speak up!" Nightmare Moon shouted.

Twilight sighed. It was like the first few nights, with Moon trying to coerce her, but this time not to shut her up, but to make her talk.
"Very well, Lady Moon, I'll try to tell the truth. I never said I was content."

A slim grin marred Nightmare Moon's features. "Look at me while you talk, pony."

It was a risk. Maybe Nightmare really would skin her. However Twilight had her magic back (thank you again blessed moon), which afforded her some chance at defense.
Twilight cautiously stepped over the rubble she had been hiding behind. "Your past is not my future.” Twilight faced Nightmare down. “But neither does my future belong to Princess Celestia.”

The truth struck Nightmare Moon, energizing yet tingling like a thunderclap, everything she had anticipated. The Twilight Sparkle in front of her was not long for this world. Something better would replace it.
"I'm vindicated. A living dream yet lies behind those eyes. That's very good, Twilight." Nightmare Moon nodded. "Now fulfill my expectations for you and stand ready for this duel! I would have no satisfaction beating an unprepared mare."

Twilight had a split-second to decide whether she jumped back out of the range of Nightmare Moon's leash. She could do as she'd planned, and retreat out of the throne room, well out of Nightmare's ability to target her with magic. Without line of sight, she could probably avoid the moon's angry glare as well.
But Twilight hesitated. She had her magic, after all. Why not at least try to contest the alicorn?

And then, Twilight's next thought was the recognition of a bloom of burning black magic at Nightmare's horn, a spell that was about the be cast her direction.
Twilight squeaked and cast a bubble of magic around herself- A standard protective spell that Twilight had some experience with. And none too soon, as Nightmare's lethal spell glanced off the bubble and arced up into the night sky. Twilight yelped and cringed away, losing her concentration and letting the bubble dissipate.

"Ah ha!" Nightmare Moon took advantage of Twilight's shock, rushing forward and planting a shadowy hoof on Twilight's chest. "There is room for improvement, to say the least, ha ha haa!" She let out a mocking laugh. "The next hit is yours, Twilight Sparkle."

Being asked to retaliate while at such a massive disadvantage felt like an invitation to great unpleasantness. Stuck with the hoof on her chest, Twilight still felt a glimmer of pride in having deflected the alicorn's attack, even if haphazardly. "Those who fight the alicorns are only met with ruin." Twilight grunted, trying to get enough air. She punched futilely at Nightmare's hoof while preparing a spell.

But as Twilight expected, the Nightmare had no intention of conceding ground in the battle of egos. She lifted her hoof off Twilight chest, to immediately kick the prone alicorn in the horn.

"Ah!" Twilight yelped as pain exploded across her head and down her spine, making her spasm and curl up defensively. The nightmare really was going to torture her.

"Hit me pony. Do you really exist? What dream is worthy of consideration which can not stand up for itself." The Nightmare proclaimed. "You have stated your intention to dream, to seek more for yourself. But can you break away from what I want of you-" She punctuated with another savage kick to Twilight's stomach. "and act of your own will? Only then will this duel end, pony!""

Twilight tried to exert control over her nerves and body. The Nightmare was right. She had to do better than accepting blows like a slave. "Urg-" She coughed and spat out loose phlegm, and regained her breathing. "I guess I should have run for it like I intended to."

"If that is what you want, then it is an action fitting for you, pony." Nightmare Moon grunted, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

Spite, that great motivator, bubbled up in Twilight bruised stomach. Another alicorn bitch was bossing her around. That's all the damn alicorns did! Brutes, the lot of them!
But Twilight could not deny their strength. So, she had to be clever: She had to recapture that moment, when she had so smugly assured herself that she had conquered the Nightmare of the Moon.

However Nightmare Moon was not going to give Twilight a moment's reprieve that she did not earn, and hoisted her up by the back leg. "Are you going to lay there like a lowborn whore and suffer it all? Show me the resolve of a mare who stands up to gods!"
She flung Twilight across the room, perhaps trying to impale her on the sharp edge of the black altar. Twilight bounced over the Nightmare Altar instead and landed behind it.

Everything hurt a lot. Bones were probably broken, if that were indeed possible in the dream. Twilight's horn hurt the most of all; Trying to summon her magic only made it sting more sent needles of pain along her nerves. The shield was probably the last spell she would be casting that night- What a shame to gain and lose her magic so quickly. But maybe Twilight had long enough to think up a plan.
"I don't suppose you'll let me beg my way out of this one." Twilight groaned. She sat up but she had to lean against the altar for support; It made her shoulder tingle unpleasantly. "But then again it's not as though Princess Celestia took pity on you either. You're right, Lady Moon. This is just what happens to the losers of history."

"There we go! Back to saucy talk. I'm glad to know that soul of yours can survive adversity." Nightmare adulated. She stalked towards Twilight's hiding place. "And yes, Celestia lay me low, and thus I suffered whatever she intended. In heaven's name, I will never be defeated again! Let this be the first of many victories I have over Equestria! Yes, this is my greatest moment, to be surpassed by every victory hence! Can you survive it, Twilight Sparkle?"

Then, the realization came to Twilight. Maybe it was just because she was touching the altar, but she felt a change in the dream as Nightmare Moon ranted. Ah, Of course! The Nightmare had stumbled into fulfilling the terms of the very specific pact they had formed that night.
"Time to sea lawyer my way out of getting skinned alive." Twilight mumbled. She had to be clever if she was going to delay the Nightmare of the Moon long enough. Maybe she could play on her curiosity? "My deepest condolences, Lady Moon. This isn't my first duel but I'm obviously not the most gifted fighter, even though I studied under the princess."

Nightmare Moon stopped a few meters away. "How would I know? Land a hit on me, and then I will testify, Twilight Sparkle." She laughed. "Surely it is because of your princess-ly servitude that you are so weak, not in spite of it. Celestia prefers her slaves to be craven curs. You are only just starting your journey towards self-liberation. My predecessor used to spar with Celestia at every occasion. But for you, I can only imagine her lounging, so self-satisfied, as you recite praise on her. Such was the nature of your instruction, slavish pony."

"Not quite, my lady. I did have a few fights with her." Twilight said, feigning uncertainty and reluctance, like she was telling a story should was wiser keeping to herself. "One in particular, well... You see... It's the very reason I was her protege. But it's a long story-"

Just as planned, the Nigthmare was intrigued. "Thousands of ponies took up arms against me, in battlefields across the Equestria of my lost age. Not once did I brook them mercy, let alone tutorship. My enemies are fated to die, end of story." She said, lips turned up in a certain fondness. "How can Celestia live with herself, showing pity to a pony like you? You are a clever mare with a furtive spark of ambition, but nothing worth extraordinary attention. She should have just twisted your head off after beating you."

"No, princess, you misunderstand." Twilight said.
It was a difficult memory, and Twilight was very reluctant to think about it. Sharing it with the demon alicorn was something even harder. No matter how many times she was told she was forgiven, Twilight felt a pang of guilt about it... that poisonous moment which had set her down the road of a sinner, fighting so hard to be redeemed by her princess.
"I beat Celestia."

Nightmare showed several emotions at once, disbelief most of all. With a wave of her horn, she shot a spell at Twilight. Unable to cast her shield again, Twilight took the bolt of magic in the side and fellow over, nearly passing out from pain and shock.
"That was too bold a lie, even for you, pony." Nightmare said gravely.

Twilight just lay in the puddle where she'd fallen. The magical attack had ripped a chunk from her skin right behind her shoulder. "Oh damn." Twilight tried to stay dispassionate despite the searing pain in her remaining nerves. Why did everything had to be SO DIFFICULT? She stared straight up at the moon, but the silver goddess had no apology for her irritable daughter.
"Fine." Twilight hissed, sitting up. She looked at the wound again. "My god..." Thank the heavens it was only a dream.

But was that really the right attitude to be having? Twilight traced the edge of her missing skin. Blood, just as red and wet as it would have been in the waking world. Twilight caught some blood droplets on her hoof and brought it to her mouth.
Twilight had fretted so much before about the Nightmare Pretender breaking free and returning to Equestria. There she was, just a few meters away, an all-powerful brat, a crazy demi-goddess who was plotting to break into the waking world.
When that time came, and Twilight Sparkle had to face the dark alicorn, she had to be ready to stop her fury, be it as an enemy or... or what? Friend? Collaborator? Compatriot?

"You will take me seriously, oh Nightmare of the Moon." Twilight Sparkle promised herself. She stood up. "Because I'm not lying. I overpowered Celestia. Look into my eyes, or even my thoughts, and tell me I'm lying."

The Nigthtmare matched her gaze. "I'm not keen on getting that close to you tonight, Twilight. I'm perfectly fine killing you from a distance." Shadowy fire ignited around her horn.

The Nightmare was right to suspect a trap, but she didn't need to get close to spring it. "It was The Summer Sun, a decade ago. I was just a filly without her mark, who went to see the Succession ceremony in Canterlot’s gardens. When I saw my princess ascend, and the sun with her, I received a vision, like many ponies do, about what my destiny would be. I was going to be a magician.
"So I studied and studied. I pushed myself more than a mere filly should have. I memorized every spell I could get my hooves on, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't cast any of them. The flow of magic just rejected my call. The examination date for entry to Canterlot's Unicorn school came so fast, and they put me in front of the testing troika. I failed the test miserably. Nothing. I was a failure as a unicorn and a subject of the sun."
Twilight hobbled forward to the edge of the dais. "But destiny was on my side. The Cloud Creche incident happened at that exact moment." Twilight closed her, trying to remember. It hurt. Not just the noise and confusion of that childhood memory, but everything that had been bound up in it since. "Come to Equestria and ask ponies about where they were during the Cloud Creche incident. Better yet judge their most terrifying nightmares. The pain and the horror of it, when hundreds of pegasus fillies were killed during a Rainboom."

"A Sonic Rainboom." Nightmare repeated. Despite herself she was getting invested in Twilight's story, even as deadly magic danced at her horn.

"Did you feel it up on the moon too? The pride of the pegasi warlords, a Rainboom, unleashed right in the middle of a bunch of children. A sickening trauma to the collective soul of ponykind, and as that rainbow shockwave flashed across Equestria, every single one of us felt it and screamed." Twilight said, voice trembling. "And I screamed in joy, as magic finally came to me, and in that moment of primal terror and ecstasy, I destroyed the entire testing building. They tell me nopony got hurt, but I know better. I never saw ponies of the examination troika again."

"And Celestia-" Nightmare whispered.

"They found her at the same time as they found me, both of us passed out, at the bottom of the smoldering crater of the testing hall. She had flown out from the castle to contain my raging magic. Or, that's what she told me years later." Twilight said. "I was ignorant for years. Only a few ponies knew the truth, and they all kept it secret from me. I was just happy to have magic and this swanky mark on my flank. It only came out in a moment of tension between me and the princess. I was being a wiseass over some minor thing, and Celestia told me of the truth of that afternoon as a way to shut me up, and to hurt me."
Twilight let out a sigh. "And it did hurt me at first. I couldn't look her in the eye for days afterwards. She'd gotten what she wanted, and I was put in my place. But then I thought about it more and more, and only after talking about it with Cadenza did I realize: I had overwhelmed the alicorn princess. A pathetic little filly who had never successfully cast a spell before had incapacitated her idol, the princess of Equestria, and Celestia had to shut up and burn with that knowledge for years. Oh how it must have killed her inside, seeing me and being reminded of that humiliation." Twilight grinned devilishly. "That's when I realized that being taken on as her protege was not an act of compassion or forgiveness, but fear. That alicorn was afraid of what I was capable of. This horn has laid low one demigod already, Nightmare Moon."

"You're insane. completely bonkers." The Nightmare said, her voice shot through with hesitation. "Celestia obviously lied to you. Or maybe you're lying to yourself, or me. What I know for certain is that your story never happened." She shook her head, regaining her confidence. "Because I killed all the Rainboom practitioners a thousand years ago, slaughtered to a mare. Every bit of your tale is painted with exaggeration."
She grabbed Twilight by the neck. "I'll be starting on that skinning I promised, starting at that little wound in your side. Tomorrow night perhaps you will carry yourself with a little more humility. You're just not as clever as you think, pony."

"Maybe not, but more clever than you, alicorn. My name is Twilight Sparkle and don't you forget it." Twilight commanded. "This night's pact is fulfilled. Let's close it out already.

Apparently waiting for her verbal confirmation, the Nightmare Altar began to pulse with white light, before becoming still and dark.
Nightmare’s ghostly form instantly evaporated, and the silken tendril binding the altar to the sky withdrew.

Twilight slumped and rubbed her neck where the Nightmare's magic had been holding her. "Was I too braggadocious with her? Sorry, sometimes I go too far." She glanced up at the moon for approval. "Sometimes she wants humility, sometimes she wants pride. How can I manage a relationship with a mare like her?"

The moon, of course, said nothing.

Twilight was going to say more but she was struck with a sudden disorientation. A fog-like darkness began to fill her vision. The dream was ending and Twilight was about to be forced to wakefulness.
She couldn't help but smile, hoping that Nightmare Moon, somewhere up there, could see her. "It's about time I got a draw though. Dying was getting tiresome, my lady. Until tomorrow, good night."

Chapter 12: Contagious Torment

The Apple Family’s farm, so charmingly called Sweet Apple Acres, covered an an enormous swath of land south of Ponyville. On the day she arrived by carriage, Twilight had seen that the orchards stretched from the village outer commons to the border with Whitetail, halfway to the horizon.

That ludicrous amount of apple trees would have been a management challenge even to a company of farmponies, but still it surprised Twilight just how little of it was under active cultivation. Outside of a tight ring around the homestead, the orchards had turned practically feral from inattention, with shrubs and oak saplings beginning to grow between the untrimmed and untended fruiting trees.

What had happened to the Apple Family Farm, to leave it in such a state? Why did Applejack alone work the orchards?

Twilight wandered along the paths between orchards, getting more comfortable with Ponyville and its surroundings.
It was the first truly hot day of spring, a cloudless sky letting the sun bathe the whole valley, so Twilight was wearing a thinner dress with a shorter skirt for her trot to Sweet Apple. Unfortunately for her, it was also oppressively humid, and the dress stuck to her back. "I should have borrowed a hat and fan from Rarity." Twilight panted.

Although having some of Rarity's articles would not have helped Twilight with her main target of the day, and the reason she was stalking Sweet Apple, Applejack.

Applejack, Twilight had decided, was the weakest link. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy had much more emotional control (especially that little gremlin Pinkie Pie), so Twilight would have to pry at Applejack to see what she could reveal about Ponyville's secrets.
Twilight had not come unprepared. She had brought a small bag with various documents she had swiped from the empty town hall which related to Applejack and the farm.

However, approaching the big red farm house at the center of the orchards, Twilight saw that Applejack was not alone. Pinkie Pie was with the farm mare on the porch, talking about something.

"Damn, I should have checked that Pinkie was busy at the bakery." Twilight muttered.
They had probably seen her, so Twilight couldn't slink around until Pinkie had left. Quickly adjusting her planned conversations in her head, Twilight approached the farm house.

As it happened, Applejack and Pinkie Pie had not noticed Twilight, and carried on with their conversation: Applejack was completely reclined in her chair, staring at the roofing frame of the porch, while Pinkie Pie was rocking back and forth in the rocking chair so aggressively she probably didn't see anything but a blur.

"That whole pack of wolves has been looking at me funny since yesterday. Who the heck knows what's got'em riled up this time." Applejack said with an air of impatience. "You didn't mess with them any, right?"

"You were with me, like, all day, except for when I went to the bathroom. Even I can't cause mischief that quickly." Pinkie Pie said. It was hard to discern her words over the constant creaking of the rocking chair. "It must have been something internal. Fluttershy told me day-before-yesterday that some of Rarity's friends are getting antsy-pantsy."

Applejack snickered. "That's what happens when ya lay down with wolves. Ya wake up-" She grunted and sat up in her chair, immediately locking eyes with Twilight Sparkle, standing on the porch stairs. "With... uh..." She stuttered, feeling pinned by Twilight's stare.

"Is it fleas? Or was that some other folk saying?" Twilight asked, laughing to herself.

"Huh?" Pinkie Pie tried to arrest her rocking, but overcompensated and was flung off the chair. Miraculously, the pink pony landed on all four hooves right in front of Twilight. "Woah! Heya Viscount-lady Sparkle."

Twilight nodded. "Good morning Mis Pie, Mis Applejack."

Applejack was flustered, finally breaking eye contact. "I, uh, don't rightly remember invintin' y'all out here, Lady Twilight. ... I hope ya didn't come looking for any apples. I sold 'em all during market yesterday."

Twilight shook her head. "No, I came looking for you."

I see..." Applejack couldn't miss the subtle force behind Twilight's words. "Well, anything you want to say to me can be said in front of Pinkie Pie too."

Apparently Pinkie Pie thought differently. "Eh? I was just about to get back to Ponyville anyway." She threw Applejack a sly wink. "I don't want to hog Lady Twi's attention, especially if it would make you nervous, Applejack."

"That's not-" Applejack started.

"Too-dal-Ioo!"” Pinkie cartwheeled away, and her broad smile flicked into a frown briefly every revolution. “So you two can talk about whatever you need to!"

While Pinkie Pie might have thought it strategic to talk to Twilight one-on-one, Applejack now felt suddenly isolated with the unicorn. "Whelp..."

"Oh don't be like that. I don't know what you're worried about.” Twilight said. Although Pinkie Pie had obligingly departed, it was clear that the conversation would make its way to her eventually. That was fine. "In a town full of farm-mares, you're the only one I really know close enough to ask some agriculture-related questions."

"Uh, really?" Applejack queried. “Because I ain’t in the habit of talking about the farm.”

Twilight grinned. "Nope. I was just joking, sorry. Instead I thought I'd appeal to your other skill." Twilight unslung the small bag (it was too hot to wear the saddlebags) and opened it, revealing a set of scrolls. "Records! That's what you did in Manehattan, right? Accounting and records work?"

After a moment of consideration, Applejack sighed, and led Twilight onto porch. "Take a seat then." She brought over a table for Twilight to spread out the scrolls on.

Twilight struggled with the rocking chair for a while, trying sit up straight in it. "Uff." She gave up and sat on the floor. "These are property deeds and records of deeds and transfers. Property is, after all, the foundational unit of worth in the Equestrian social order. What property you are entitled to, own, collect rents from, are owed corvee labor from, and so on."

"Yes I know what a deed looks like." Applejack retorted. "These ain't much different from what I worked with with the Orange mercantile house in Manehattan." She eyed one of the deeds. "Hmm, bout the same age too. Some of them old trading families have debts to each other goin' back hundreds of years. Mutual debt was kinda like a, you know, commitment to each other. But that ain't how it works here."

Twilight felt a little thrill at the idea of talking about the evolution of equestrian property relations with Applejack. Alas it was not the time for that. "You saw me coming back from the western outskirts of Ponyville."

"Coming back from Rarity's old home eh?" Applejack guessed.

Twilight nodded. "Exactly. As it goes, I met her out there and we talked a bit but not about anything important. Still, I had the idea to chase after the deeds of that cottage and other landmarks. I wanted to make sure it really was her house, that the Golden Oak really was village property, etcetera etcetera."
The tapped one of the records. "And behold, I found a little something which said your family owned the east bank of the river at one point, right up to the edge of the Everfree."

Applejack looked surprised, then after judging Twilight expression for a few seconds, adopted a smirk. "Yup, five generations ago. My granny says her paw-paw received the grant from Empress Celestia herself.”

“Interesting. Quite interesting.” Twilight picked her notebook out of her saddlebags and started writing. “Can I speak to her, your 'granny'? I've meant to meet her since you first mentioned her.”

Applejack’s mood soured again. "You wanna talk to her about what we used to own?"

Twilight sighed, finishing her jotting and looking back to Applejack. "Yes, and other matters."

By other matters, it could be inferred Twilight meant the ongoing issue around Rarity and Applejack's brother. "Whelp, Lady Twilight, I'm plum sorry to say no, ya can't." The way Applejack looked, almost like she was remembering something that made her angry, broadcasted to Twilight that this was yet another off-limits topic. "And that's 'cuz she ain't here. Not at the farm or in Ponyville, and hasn't been for a year. She's an elder advisor type on the south frontier. Yup, s'a shame."

So that was how it was going to be then. "Yes that is a shame. Especially for you, I mean, with all your relatives away leaving you here. Though you got youthful wanderlust out of your system sooner, isn't that right?" Twilight laughed to herself. "It's fine, if you still have some of those granny saying memorized, so you can smooth out this little inconsistency for me.” She unrolled one of the scrolls and offered it to Applejack. "Look this over, from five generations ago, your grandmother's grandparents. According to the land deed records, that was about 135 years. Soon after, Ponyville was founded and the free city charter was granted."

"Sure was ma'am." Applejack agreed.

Twilight nodded. "All things considered, that's not that long ago. My mother's side of the family, who have been in Equestria for almost 90 years, is practically still considered foreign by some of the old clans. So what was the timing behind the free city charter, personally granted by the empress, with the associated land cessions to families like yours?"

Applejack looked over the scroll, confirming everything Twilight was saying. "Hmmm." She rubbed her chin with the back of her hoof. "Sorry, can't say."

"Ah, too bad. I'll have to sus that out on my own. I'll let you know if I find anything." Twilight said, rolling the scroll back up and setting down a different one. "Now try this on. With Ponyville only being 100 years old-" She tapped a line of scribbles at the top of the new scroll. "Why are there references to mayoral precedents going back 200, and even 300 years ago?" She leaned forward. "And why are all the names and details scratched out so aggressively?"

Applejack snatched the scroll and and inspected it closer. "Dont' say stuff like that. It's crazy talk.” She muttered. "These... these could be, I don't know, forged." She scanned down then back up, then lobbed it back onto the table. "This is a contract record, not a deed record. You're the mare with legal pretensions, not me."

"All deed records older than Ponyville are missing. Maybe there were no deeds, and no inhabitants here. Or..." Twilight tapped the scribbles again. "Maybe there were inhabitants before Ponyville, and the old deeds were destroyed, along with other traces."

Applejack jumped to her hooves. "W- Why that's stupid conspiracy talk! Hike on back to Canterlot and look-see the imperial seal on our free city charter. We're imperially ordained to be here. The sun and her princess gave us this land." She fumed. "Before bothin' me about this again you do your damn research, my lady."

"Who can I ask about this? Are there other ponies with old connections to the land like your family?" Twilight arched a brow. "Not Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy, definitely. Maybe some of the other market mares? Maybe I could ask... Rarity?"

"You'd be better off askin' the princess, like I done said." Applejack grunted. "Now I'm done sayin'. I'm tired and I'm taking a nap."
She kicked her rocking chair out of the way and stormed into the farmhouse. The screen door clacked closed behind her.

Twilight sat in place for a few minutes, thinking. "Interesting."
As she was putting the deeds and records back up, she spied a colorful shape watching from the edge of the orchard. Pinkie Pie had not run back to Ponyville like she had said.

Wordlessly, Twilight re-slung her bag and trotted out to meet Pinkie Pie.

"Find what you were looking for, lady?" Pinkie Pie grinned churlishly.

"No, did you?" Twilight asked. "Why did you leave Applejack out to dry?"

"So you'd talk with her. Duhh." Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. "Jackie (don't tell her I called her that) is deceptively good with numbers and stuff, but she doesn't have the kahunas for strategy. Storming out like that was, like, bad strategically." She shrugged. "She hasn't been planning ahead for what to do if you found out about Dneighper Crypt. That made her a teensy bit flustered."

Dneighper Crypt. Had Twilight heard those words before? It sounded dire. "A crypt?"

"Nah, that's just what they called it. IFC of Dneighper Crypt." Pinkie Pie reached into Twilight bad and pulled out the contract record. "See, it's been scratched out. Actually let me-" She reached into her dress and produced a quill and oil pot. "I'll just jot it down."

"Wait that's a 300 year old document!" Twilight lamented, as Pinkie re-wrote 'IFC of Dneighper Crypt' above where it had been scratched out. For good measure, Pinkie drew arrows between the two. "Oh goodness Pinkie, my archival studies professor would be fuming."

"What, no thanks? I just save saved you, like, ten days of searching." Pinkie Pie blew on the ink to dry it out and rolled it back into Twilight bag. "I'll even give you another hint, if you make me a promise."

Of course. Only the first sample was free. "Uh huh. Let me dwell on that last hint though." Twilight nibbled her lip. "So, Dneighper Cript. There was an imperial free city, IFC, before Ponyville, on this very same land." If it was really a free city, that meant it would have been imperially chartered. But given that free cities were so protective of their rights, how could the old one have been wiped away to make way for the Ponyville IFC charter? The charter, old deeds, and who knows what other evidence, had been erased.
Wiped away and suppressed, just like the legends of the Nightmare Pretender, wasn't it? "Were there ponies living here back then?"

"At least one, but that's part of the second hint." Pinkie Pie smirked.

Twilight sighed. "Okay, lay it on me."

Pinkie Pie nodded. "You have to promise, and I mean like super duper Pinkie Pie promise, never ever to go into the Everfree Forest."

"Of course, the forbidden fruit, before which such chains and bars arise." Twilight nodded. What else could it have been? It seemed that other secrets were still subsidiary to the main big secret the Ponyvillians had around the devil forest. Wouldn't it be ironic if Twilight already knew it? What were the chances they were just hiding the castle ruins or something she had already seen during the nightmare rendezvous? "You want me to never go for my entire natural life? Even in my dreams?"

"Natural life, unnatural life, and not in your dreams, if you can help it." Pinkie Pie confirmed with a stern nod.

Ah, had Pinkie just made a verbal slip-up? That 'if you can help it clause' would be rife for abuse.
"Mis Pie you make me so very tempted to run in there right now. You ponies, sheesh." Twilight sighed. "But verbal agreements like this, even if magically bound, can be rescinded later." Hopefully Pinkie would dwell on that part and not the 'if you can help it' clause. "So, banking on that, I'm going to agree. I promise, Pinkie Pie."

"Great!" Pinkie Pie nodded aggressively. She reached for Twilight bag again.

Twilight hissed and jerked her bag away. "Uh uh, just tell me. I'll write it down later."

"Fine. The greatest burgermeister mayor of Dneighper Cript was a mare named Solemn." Pinkie Pie said. "But be careful who you say that name to. It's even pricklier than Dneighper Cript."

"Pricklier?" Twilight repeated. "Mayor Solemn. Huh."

"Here's other names of the old mayors. Oddity and Peculiarity. You can match where they've been scratched out by name length." Pinkie Pie said. "Pretty wierd earth pony names, right?" She said with a grin.

"Right..." Twilight settled her bag again. Despite her flippancy she did feel thankful since Pinkie Pie had likely spent considerable time finding those secrets in her time in Ponyville. "Care to walk with me back to Ponyville or are you going to go tell Applejack that you spilled the beans to me?"

Pinkie shrugged and started down the path alongside Twilight. "Eh. Some beans got spilled, but there's lots of beans. Like, I have spare beans, so I'm not sad about these specific beans spilling." She said. "I'm fond of beans. Actually I really really like them. You can tell I can be a little gossipy, but when it comes to the biggest, and most serious beans, I've never even spilled a single bean. It's always other ponies letting those spill, not me." She fixed Twilight with a serious stare. "That's how I've learned to carry the beans. Other ponies can't handle the beans you give them. If you want your beans unspilled, beans them yourself."

"Wow you commit more to metaphors than I do." Twilight observed. "What a droll little mare you are. We could have almost been friends if we'd met while you were in Canterlot."

"Doubt it." Pinkie Pie giggled.

Fine, Twilight thought. It was a different time for Twilight, as it had probably been for Pinkie Pie as well. With commitments to the Court, Princess, University, and other studies, there was no way that Twilight would have had the patience for a mare like her. Though, if she were fully honest, Twilight wasn't sure she really liked the flamboyant mare now. Would they be walking and talking if they didn't need something from each other?

"So, what's your angle against Rarity and Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie Pie jittered, almost breaking stride and tripping. "Huh?" She asked, unconvincingly confused.

"I can understand Applejack's antipathy, but not yours. It's gotten clearer that you're not against Rarity because of your friendship with Applejack. Rather, it's the other way around. You two are allies of convenience against Rarity." Twilight said. "Did Rarity ruin one of those poofy dresses you wear? Did she insult your tribe? You know, I could see her hiding a bigoted side."

Pinkie Pie walked in silence for a few moments. "Didn't I already tell you?"

Twilight nodded. "I think so. Why, don't remember the lie you gave?"

Pinkie giggled softly. "Lucky me, you must have forgotten too." She glanced at Twilight. "Let's go with the dress thing. Rarity's got issues, but she has no tribe prejudice."

"Fine. Condolences about the dress." Twilight said.

They reached the edge of town. Pinkie had one last question before they went their separate ways. “Ya know, it's almost dry enough for a picnic! Let's forget all this silly La-li-lu-le-lo stuff and do something fun. You want your merry band to work as a team, right? So, let's all have a picnic, together tomorrow."

Twilight didn’t want that level of commitment, but decided outright refusal would be too rude. “Would a quick lunch meet at the bakery be okay?"

“Nope! Only a picnic will do." Pinkie said, transfixing Twilight with a broad smile.

Twilight chuckled and shook her head. "Very well mis Pie, a picnic it is.

"Great-er-roonie! I'll let everypony know. See’ya Twilight.” Pinkie said with a giddy nod, then bounced off towards the bakery.

“Until next time, Mis Pie.”
Sometimes Twilight wished she smoked, just to have a cigaret to flick away dismissively to punctuate her words. Pinkie Pie wasn't like the other Ponyvillians. In Twilight's approximation, Pinkie Pie was also sussing out the town's secret's too, but was just a bit farther along than Twilight was. So, what did that mean for the forest?

The dream was inescapable. It snagged, it caught, it subsumed. A swirling abyss that was slowly drawing the world in. Was there ever going to be an end to it?

Twilight was sat up in her bed waited in her bedroom, staring to where Spike was sleeping. The dragon-boy had been very diligently sticking to his studies. That was more than Twilight had been doing, and a certain guilt chased her like when she left homework until the last minute: The clock was counting down until the Summer Sun, and she was nowhere near ready for putting on a fair. Instead she had been spending her time chasing nightmares.

She would be chasing nightmares that night too. Hopefully it would be drier than it had been the last few nights.
Twilight fell asleep and before she knew it she was sitting right before the Nightmare Altar, the hum of magic in the air.

"I had a pretty good day. I hope you did too." Twilight said.

Unfortunately, the lack of rain was did not make up for by the sour company.
"I will not be tricked again." Nightmare Moon's etherial voice preempted Twilight's further words. "Tonight's fight will be fair."

"Hey, I have no desire to trick or fight you. I did what I had to survive, which you're all about, but we can be civilized about this." Twilight replied.

Nightmare's altered voice was almost baleful. "Our battle is unavoidable, Twilight Sparkle. You would be a fool to not see that we are destined enemies. We cannot coexist. Both by your persona of peace, and what lurks beneath."

"What? I thought you said that the secret 'Stars' contrived for us to meet. Why would we be destined enemies?" Twilight asked. "Besides we're not even ponies right now, only dreamers. What grand purpose of destiny can a squabble in a dream have?"

"What purpose can a friendship in a dream have?" Nightmare Moon countered. "Would you have us join hooves and sing hymns?"

Twilight smirked. "I would. Pact accepted." Nothing happened. "It was worth a try."

The Nightmare snickered. "Yes good try." There was a lul before she spoke again. "Lady Sparkle, last dream when you spoke of your great 'victory' over Celestia, was that all true, or a trick? I do not understand why you would offer that pact, unless you intended to tell that tale all along. You must have known your claim would put you in great peril."

Twilight didn't have a good answer. "It's complicated and... I don't want to talk about it. I thought I could sanitize the story in a way I was more comfortable with, which is the way I'm more habituated to thinking about it." She sighed. "You put me on the spot and it came tumbling out. I suppose that since the story fulfilled the summoning pact and dispelled the dream, I share the correct interpretation of events, or something like that. Please forget I said it."

"I will not." The Nightmare chortled. "And in return, I hope you remember, very clearly, what I shared."

Quippy exchanges in the heat of an argument were easy to forget. "Sorry, I don't." Twilight apologized.

That dampened the Nightmare's mood. "Fine. It was... sentimental nonsense anyhow. AHEM. Now, Sparkle, think up some pact and let me through. I grow impatient."

"How do you exist, right now? Where are you?" Twilight asked.

"On my moon, sitting solitary." Nightmare replied. "I look up into by black sky and see a pale blue dot, high overhead. I imagine you are looking back at me, Sparkle."

"Not exactly, the moon is hiding behind the treeline right now. I think she's a bit bashful about her behavior last night." Twilight smiled. "My Lady, fret not. We'll come to a plan to end it this dream forever."

Nightmare was silent for a moment, then laughed. "End it?! Ha ha, you are a clever one, and so brave. It's about time!” She mocked. “Will I be taking your last request, Twilight Sparkle?"

It was a nasty insinuation, which brutally clubbed Twilight out of her sappy disposition.
How could she keep forgetting how fundamentally dangerous the Nightmare was? For some reason her heart was drawing her towards the beast, even while she chafed so much with ponies. The Nightmare of the Moon had unleashed terror and death on the Everfree Principality and led to the deaths of thousands! There was a very, very, VERY good reason that Nightmare Moon was locked away.
Twilight had to kick herself of her delusions. She had to! There was no niceness behind Nightmare's savage expression. Every kind word was manipulation. Twilight was letting the monster exploit the psychological wedge between herself and Celestia. She could NOT, under any circumstances, allow herself to replace Nightmare Moon in her esteem for her liege empress.

"Ah, not exactly." Twilight nibbled her lip. After another moment of contemplation, she vowed to herself to approach Nightmare with much more caution. First, she had to keep up an open attitude, but remain aloof of Nightmare's tricks. Second, she had to finally put some effort into getting free of the dream.
Even if she had the alicorn's cooperation, how could she break from the dream? Twilight's mind paced through possible avenues. Could she glean a magic spell that could force herself to never dream again? Could she make the dream a calmer, more tolerable place?

Or, could Twilight learn something to reinstate herself into Celestia's good graces? Was there a weakness or detail that Nightmare would let slip, that could justify the terrible betrayal Twilight felt she was committing? Celestia would have the solution, if Twilight were willing to beg.

"Nightmare of the Moon, from everything you have told me, the bits I learned from the prophesy and scraps of history are better contextualized. " Twilight said. "But there's still one thing that I know nothing about. Even if it is Dark heresy to investigate what my princess censored, I do wish to know."

"I admire your conviction to suffer." The Nightmare chortled.

Not quite. Twilight did feel like she owed nearly enough to Celestia to suffer on her behalf. "Nightmare, tell me about your rebellion." She intoned.

"I do SO look forward to hearing about your's." Nightmare chuckled. "Pact accepted."

The phantasmal black alicorn stepped out of the altar's aura. Her cloud of a mane sparked alive as she stepped out of the shadow of the collapsed roof and let herself bathe in the starlight. "I miss the rain already. I receive enough starlight up there." Nightmare Moon said. "Lo, a question for you, pony. What prompts such questions of heresy and duty, when weeks have passed without it?"

"My tasks in the waking world have led my thoughts there." Twilight said. "I work to fulfill empress's expectations of me, but every day it feels more and more like an empty gesture. She doesn't actually care. She never cared. It makes me feel so silly that I cared about things like that before."

"Do I see a nihilist born?" Nightmare asked, amused.

"Hardly. Princess Celestia is not the sole arbiter of propriety. I am a good pony, with or without her love. I've accepted I will do without, to be my own mare, doing my best." Twilight said. "And I do believe in goodness. I think... I believe almost everything I always have, and which every equestrian believes. Their taboos are mine, their culture, their songs and virtues." She paused. "Except the virtue of faith, I guess. I want to be a faithful pony. Only, it's never worked out for me."

"Try faith in ME, Twilight. You would not be the first pony worship me, but you would be my most favored. How tempted I am, to share the deepest secrets and universal truths of this world and cosmos, if only you believed, Twilight." The Nightmare purred. "If you give me time, perhaps I could disabuse you of the system of virtues the sun alicorn implanted in your species' head. Then you could hear mine, spring clear."

You are no better than her, Twilight thought. Empty promises of favor and instruction. "Your system has been used to torture and ritually murder me. Forgive my hesitance." She said flatly.

"Oh, how harsh, Sparkle. Allow me to make a suggestion for curing your doubt." Nightmare strutted up to Twilight and sat down. "If you developed the right spell, you could summon me outside the dream. Then the summoning pact would be completely on your terms. That dastardly altar would not compel or trick you there! Then, you would have me at your mercy."

"What the hell? Why would I ever try something that dangerous?" Twilight blurted out. "99% chance, you break free. As far as I'm concerned, that's just you again telling me to kill myself just with different wording."

"Every mortal dies eventually. How else do you expect to go? In a bed, aged and decrepit? Disgusting! Surely you want more from your last breaths!" Nightmare demanded. “Darkness and silence, each day as with each life.”

"I liked it better when we talked about philosophy and history." Twilight sighed.

That elicited another contemptuous look from the Nightmare, but her expression gradually softened. "I am being too wild for trying to convince a mare of my, ahem, good intentions. How wrong besides that I deny a dying mare her last requests!"

"I'm not dying."
Indeed it was most amusing that Twilight was not dying. Well, not that amusing. Twilight just had to keep the Nightmare's interest and pray the alicorn didn't suddenly change mood, as she was prone to doing.
"By my estimation, Lady Moon, I have died one less times than you. My condolences, by the by."

"Harumph. Do you wish to know the type of mare I was in life?" Nightmare asked.

"I do, if it is necessary to understand the pact we've made." Twilight nodded.

"Something you must understand about great ponies, Twilight Sparkle, is that they are capable of great intensity. Most ponies live like drones or ants, conforming utterly to the role the society has for them. Great ponies recognize the truth of the world, and strive to stand above the rule of others, and be the ruler themselves." Nightmare Moon said. It was nothing new, nothing she hadn't said before. "It is the duty of great mares to remake the world after their dream, and slaughter anypony who fights for a contrary dream."

Giving ponies a 'duty' to slaughter anypony who disagreed was distressingly extreme, and Twilight was one again glad that the nightmare was locked away. "I suppose you're one of those great ponies."

“I was once a lesser being, like you, living in the cozy niche my sister so generously provided for me. The sun princess plotted her world, and enacted it though toppling the gods and kingdoms of Equestria, while the moon princess followed behind. That was the arrangement that built the principality of the Everfree, and seeded the meme of alicorn rule to the souls of ponykind. But that was not my dream, it was hers. I slaved away for a future that was not my own.
"I was not ignorant to my slavish condition. I saw the light in the eyes of the mortals, and the dark fire in the eyes of the monsters, as we trampled them underhoof to pave this new nation of Celestia's, to forge in blood and bone. Then did I meditate many nights under dark skies, seeking peace with my troubled heart: All the courts of heaven, the stars, planets, and moons, lambasted me for my thoughtless obedience to the designs of the Sun and her princess.
"Thus did I feel a dream swell up within me, a purpose that I could call my own. I was meant to check the Sun's conquest over the earth, not feed it. Celestia was the punishment of mortal ambition, and I would be the punishment of hers. The moon princess, and I just born beside her, plotted the overthrow of the unjust and un-righteous hegemony of the Sun."

Nightmare Moon spoke with a tenor somewhere between a fond remembrance and a swelling speech, glancing between Twilight and a far off horizon.
How much of what she was saying was actually true? Would the summoning pact be fulfilled if the Nightmare hid bits of truth in a story that was wrapped in lies? Twilight would have to parse it later.

"At the last midnight the moon princess and I stole away from our sister's camp, to make a declaration atop the Mountain in the name of the Moon and heaven, for how our new dream would sweep away the Sun's. I rose an army, a coalition of all the princes and monsters Celestia and I had not destroyed yet, and with this army I set Everfree under siege. It was the greatest battle in Equestrian history, and champions of every realm and polity were in show. Thousands of banners and streamers of varied colors, above or below the walls of mighty Everfree, and light and fire in the eyes of the teeming mass of mortal and monster-kind assembled there. They who would be victor would decide the bend of history, and the fate of the continent.
"But my army failed me, and my lieutenants betrayed me. In the end, I found that there were no half measures: I could not eat of the Darkness and play in the light. I embraced the intensity and power within myself and vowed I would recognize no restraint, no imposed limitations, and no contrived rules any longer. I razed Everfree to the ground. But it was not in the burning fields and villages, or over the lands where her subjects were dying that Celestia faced and... and defeated me. Not a principality, or a castle, or a single pony did she stir to save. No, my sister rose to face me only once this throne was directly jeopardized."

Her eyes flashed back towards the twin thrones at the head of the room, silhouetted against the broken stained glass windows. The way the gold throne was broken at the base was a sign of the violent battle that must have taken place those ages ago.

"Such is the hazard of a dream. If you dare to give everything to a future of you own making, you run the risk of defeat. There is a subtle glory in that. That is why I can not revile my enemies if they dreamed. They were too great to lie in contentment. They took a risk and lost. I will deride their strength of arms, but not the strength of their souls. I will remember the light in their eyes forever."

That was about the limit of Nightmare Moon's kindness: Respecting somepony while she murdered them. Perhaps the moon princess had once had noble intentions, before the nightmare fully consumer her mind, or that was what Twilight had inferred from the story.
"That was very fascinating my lady. Your tale matches up pretty well with what the books I read. I’m just fuzzy on one detail. What were you planning to do after you had the throne?”

“If you think I care about thrones and empires you must not have been listening. I wanted to punish all of you, mortal and alicorn, Twilight Sparkle. They would have been be punished for their hubris, humbled, and brought to heel.” Nightmare explained. "The degenerate meme of alicorn rulership cut both ways, for while being shackled to the task of mortal custodianship degrades the alicorn soul, alicorn overlordship also poisons mortal souls. We are a kind apart, meant to stay in our respective spheres, heaven, dreamscape, and earth."

There was a lot to respond to there. "So you want, or, wanted, to conquer Equestria for what you view as purely altruistic reasons: Reestablishing the natural order of the world." Twilight had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. When her sarcasm didn't elicit a response she pushed it a bit further. "You know how that sounds, right? To me, sounds to me like you were burning with resentment and wanted to scrap with Princess Celestia for reasons of spite."

"That is because you have a diseased little pony brain and understands NOTHING." Nightmare Moon glowered. "Oh, actually, I think you do understand. You are trying to provoke me again, to test the limits of my beliefs and to chip away at my sense of righteousness, or some nonsense like that." She adopted an almost pitying expression. "You think you can unwind me with logic."

That was not quite the case: Twilight was just being a jackass. But was it possible, as the Nightmare said, to break apart the shared dream by exploiting a flaw in one of their psyche's? "Why do you ask? Are you trying to unwind me?" Twilight challenged.

"Behave, pony. I have been staggeringly forthcoming tonight." Nightmare Moon grunted. "And, if it will mollify you, I apologize for rousing you to suicide."

At this point, had the Nightmare apologized more than Twilight had? That had to be one of the more bizarre things of the entire dream experience so far. It made Twilight tingle in her skull.
NO, NO, bad, bad brain, Twilight lambasted herself. She was being deceived again. There was no chance the Nightmare meant it sincerely.
"Well I didn't, so you can take the apology back. All it did was make me feel bad, and your other actions account for that enough." Twilight clucked her tongue. "I wanted to ask about what each party to the alliances of the Everfree War wanted."

"Who cares! Mortal drivel! Vendettas over millennia old blood feuds, territorial opportunism, lust for plunder, those lines drawn up between the armies of the sun princess and the moon princess was utterly haphazard. At the time I was happy to woo and tempt those warlords, seeing it as necessary. Now I wonder if that pragmatic compromise doomed me." Nightmare Moon said. Her head drooped, and she stared into the ground growling to herself. "We were not unflinching enough, not pure enough. Our time on the bright world had already degraded us by then. I was weighed down scraps of mortal memes on my soul, a terrible plaque that spelled my doom."

Twilight arched a brow. "Then why did Celestia win if she was even more involved with ponykind."

Nightmare Moon froze up.

Then silence.
There was no rain like previous nights, to hide the fact that the Nightmare of the Moon had no excuse to offer up.
After a few minutes, the tops of the ruins were gently illuminated by the moon rising in the west. Silvery moonlight on the bleached marble, the carcass of a long-dead past.

"I didn't ask her, I asked you." Twilight glanced toward the moonrise. "Lady Moon, what gave Celestia her strength at your final battle, when everything should have been going your way?"

Very reluctantly, the nightmare alicorn lifted her eyes back to Twilight.
"She had... Harmony magic on her side." Then the alicorn shot to her hooves, suddenly enraged. "Damn you pony!" She kicked at the unsuspecting Twilight catching her in the shoulder. Twilight was launched and rolled a few meters away. "I won't let her fall by your hooves, you wretch! Fight and struggle and suffocate against the alicorn will, and die! Die! Then I can destroy her! I am the sun princess's destined end, her sunset, not you! No, not you!"

Twilight lay on her back, pain radiating from her shoulder, while Nightmare raved. She'd brought this on herself.
Leaning herself up, Twilight tried to use her magic and found it denied to her. "Come on moon. Not fair." She mumbled. The only thing to do was execute a secessio plebis and withdraw from Nightmare Moon's anger. So, Twilight waited until the Nightmare was pacing the other direction to get up and scramble behind a pillar.

"Huh? TWILIGHT!" Nightmare barked. "Are you even listening to me?!"

Twilight sighed to herself and nursed her shoulder. She was out of patience both with herself and the deranged maniac alicorn. Before the next night, she would have a way to protect herself against Nightmare Moon's bouts of mania. That meant she had to get her magic back from the moon.

"Twilight! Twilight Sparkle!" Nightmare shouted. "I'll only forgive you if you come out right this second, pony!"

Maybe if she had her magic she could bargain, but powerless as she was, Twilight thought it wiser to remain absolutely silent.

That didn't please the Nightmare. "I told you so much tonight, and you spurn me like this? Over a little misunderstanding? You perfidious mare! You're no different from any of them, a contemptible slave. You disgust me!"

So it is, Twilight thought to herself. If she just sat there all night, letting Nightmare get angrier and angrier, it would sabotage the rapport they had slowly built up. The silent treatment wasn't going to work on the bipolar demigod, but it was exhausting to keep engaging with her.
The moon finally rose enough above the trees to illuminate the entire ruined throne room. Twilight was mostly out of the moonlight, but it made the fur tickle on her outstretched leg. "Are you going to take her side? Fine, but I won't do it for free." Twilight muttered.

"I heard that. I hear you." Nightmare said. levitating a pebble and flicking it towards Twilight's hiding spot.

Twilight sighed and stepped back out into the open, limping to her sitting spot. "Come on then." She groaned and fell into a sitting position. "Pick me up by the neck and start skinning."

Nightmare Moon went silent again, her etherial form shimmering as she stared down her nose at Twilight.

"Hey, whatever I asked that bothered you so much, I already forgot, okay." Twilight lied. "Are we going to keep this conversation up or are you going to torture me to death and end the dream?"

Nightmare closed her eyes, keeping her thoughts and mental correspondence with the moon to herself this time.
Twilight waited in discomfort. The stone she was sitting on was hard, and everything in the castle that could have served as a pillow had almost certainly rotted away. Though, Twilight remembered, there were the large banners and tapestries, magically protected, in the other rooms. She could fetch and sit on them. And it was not like she would be soiling the actual artifact, just a dream facsimile.

But before Twilight could do that, the Nightmare's eyes snapped open. "Twilight I am sorry for hitting you. At that moment, you did not deserve it."

"Gee thanks." Twilight sighed.

"You must understand, especially after I explained, that this is not personal. I get no gratification from your pain." Nightmare Moon tried to sound dispassionate, even a little bit regretful... But Twilight saw the curl of a smile. That lie was too outrageous even for the demon alicorn. "I do what I have to. I may be much, much more powerful than you Twilight- to a laughable extent, really- but I have less freedom. Yes, while you mortals' dreams and ambitions are suppressed by alicorn rule, we alicorns have the constant attention of higher beings who seek to oppress, manipulate, and crush us."

"Damn, I've never had anypony try to manipulate me before." Twilight said sarcastically. "It matters much more that you're hurting me than why you are doing it." She sighed and leaned back. "Your Heaven didn't order you to make my life miserable. That was something you chose to do yourself."
Twilight conspicuously turned her eyes skyward. "Am I wrong? Did your heaven order you to be a bratty jerk to me?"

Nightmare let out a hiss, visibly restraining herself from going into another manic fit. "I don't take orders from the outer gods."

"You could have fooled me since you allude to them so much to justify your behavior."

"My 'behavior' needs NO justification. What I want is right, and things are unjust only to the degree that they keep me from me desires." Nightmare declared. "I am no vassal of Heaven, no, but the court decrees have an evocative beauty: Ever kindled, the soul is capable of great purpose, so hold on to it and never let it be denied to you, ever! I would go further, that failing to pursue your dream is in fact a dire sin!" She pushed Twilight's head back to a stare-off. "But you must defend that dream with the strength befitting its breadth."
Her expression became stern. "That is why the Stars, those once-mortal blasphemers, are so disgusting to me. They gave up their dreams to make a grasp at the nature of the divine. Revolting creatures!"

Twilight smirked. "You want to talk about those mysterious Stars now? Nice tangent. You're not trying to distract me, right?"

"No I don't want to talk about the Stars. It's who came to mind when I thought of wretches who forsake their dream." Nightmare said.

"Aside from literally everypony in Equestria who you loath for letting themselves get pushed into a niche by Celestia." Twilight observed. Whether or not Nightmare Moon had been deflecting, it had the desired effect of abating Twilight's frustration. They could get back on topic.
"My lady, when you speak of 'dreams', do you mean as in asperation, or as in slumber."

"Those are one and the same, obviously. For mortalkind the dreamscape is the well of the soul where both all forms of consciousness swell together."

Fine, Twilight wasn't going to get a clear answer there. "Then why-" She sighed. "It's just, I know you're supposed to be an alicorn of dreams, but I have been taught that those two concepts don't go together. Alicorns don't have dreams."

"Most definitely not. They are toxic to us." Nightmare Moon confirmed. "But I will NOT discuss alicorn peculiarities with you, seeing as you teeter on being an enemy of my race."

"You were berating me earlier for not wanting to fight with Cadenza." Twilight sighed.

The Nightmare chuckled. "I very much desire for you to fight with that Cadenza alicorn, perhaps even Celestia as well. That is the way I sense your dream leading you, though I can not determine why... But I hope you lose. They might even kill you. Twilight Sparkle, to perish in the pursuit of your ambition is the most grand, and I should even say the most noble, of acts a mortal like you is able to preform. I know you think I am a cruel creature, but I wish to save you from living and dying as a wretch under Celestia's hoof."

"Yeah you'd rather I just die." Twilight said.

Ever-so-slowly, Twilight was collecting all the pieces of Nightmare Moon's internal logic and ideological paradigm: All creatures should endlessly battle in a free-for-all to test the 'virtue' and 'strength' of their 'dreams', and in this battle only the most powerful and worthy would rise to the top and impose their vision of the world on everypony else. It was a frightening thing to imagine, but slightly less than when Twilight thought the Nightmare was just a barbarous nihilist.
The only minor hypocrisy was that the Nightmare arbitrarily thought that alicorns deserved to triumph over ponies. Nightmare hated how Celestia controlled ponykind, but in world ponykind could only barely free themselves mentally, not institutionally. Ponies could only become martyrs, not masters of their own fate, until she, Nightmare Moon, could destroy Celestia and her Sun's control over ponykind, to usher in an age of anarchy.

"We will see about that." Twilight said to herself. Next time Nightmare tried to hurt her, she'd show the alicorn that ponies could do more than be martyrs for her ideals.

“Enough on that. I have spoken far beyond the expectation. It’s your turn to answer to me, pony.” Nightmare grunted. “I charge you to tell me... whatever the summoning pact conditions were. You exasperated me such that I do not remember whatever nonsense you asked.”

The Nightmare was feigning forgetfulness, assumedly, so Twilight dithered and didn't fulfill the summoning pact, giving the alicorn an excuse to kill her.
"So I could talk about anything and you commit to listening rapturously?" She teased. "I could wax on about the conversations I had this morning with the Ponyvillians?"

"Oh?" Nightmare asked. A dispassionate tone concealed a sudden interest in her eyes.

"Oh, villagers of the waking world I mean. Just the type of mediocre content pony you don't respect." Twilight said. She had her issues with the Ponyvillians, but even mentioning them to the dark alicorn could put their lives at risk. A renewed dread settled over Twilight as she wondered if Nightmare Moon would enact reprisals against family and acquaintances if she got free. That is why it was necessary to end the nightmare threat, one way or another. "It was a joke. I'm not very personable and don't talk to ponies if I can help it." She cleared her throat. "I obviously make exception for you, Lady Moon."

Nightmare Moon shrugged and looked away, letting Twilight's deflection go uncommented. "Do you need encouragement, pony? Oh come now little Sparkle. I said at the start that I was eager to hear of your rebellion. Do you intend to disappoint me? We already know..." Her voice dipped into a throaty purr. Nightmare Moon grew powerful on her ill thoughts. Behind those cold blue eyes was a mind with its every capacity turned to making Twilight suffer. "The treacheries you harbor in your soul."

"Disregard all my previous sinful words. I have a tendency to ramble, but I am not a traitor." Twilight protested.

"Say it more convincingly, please." Nightmare Moon said.

Twilight sighed. "I know I don't seem like Princess Celestia's most loyal vassal. In fact, I have a lot of personal gripes with her, and I've aired them in front of more ponies than you. Nevertheless she is the sovereign. She protects and guides ponykind, and I am proud to have been recognized by her, even if that pride gets in the way of me admitting it."

"I am starting to adore the way you turn a phrase, Twilight Sparkle. You are like a filly who squeaks out excuses when she is caught breaking her parents' rules." Nightmare Moon said. "But there is light there. Yes... I'm starting to see a light and a fire. You very well may be the daughter of those unicorn warlords I knew so long ago." She leaned in, so Twilight's breaths ruffled the fur of her nose. "So Twilight Sparkle, what could your rebellion be?"

Twilight sighed. “I’m going to help you-”

Nightmare Moon instantly faded away, before Twilight could finish the sentence, as as the light cast by the magical auras in the room vanished. The shadows of the dream deepened and spread, until all was black. The truth had been spoken and the summoning pact was concluded.

When Twilight woke up, something seemed different. It was not how the world looked or smelled, but how it felt. All the edges seemed sharper, more menacing. Spike in his bed asleep did not look innocent so much as vulnerable. It was still nighttime, but Twilight felt wide awake. There was an imperceptible vibration in the floor and walls that faded once she focussed on it.

“I don’t feel so good.” Twilight mumbled, but what she thought was ‘Nothing seems right anymore’.
That was because it wasn't 'right'. Things had changed and she was subtly at odds with the world around her.

Twilight slid off the bed and crept to the closet to get a bed sheet, then went downstairs, then out of the Golden Oak.
Ponyville was still and silent. An hour until dawn, the moon hung directly over the Mountain and Canterlot.

Twilight didn't want to teleport for the sound it would make, so she trotted due north out of the village, to the grassy green field between the cottages and the rings of crop fields. Once she spread out the sheet on the grass, Twilight knelt on it in the direction of Canterlot.

A knot of anxiety twisted her Twilight Sparkle's stomach, as she gradually summoned up the courage to speak. "Princess, for lack of a temple, I beseech thee thus. Please forgive me. I'm doing what I can. I'm just... doing everything I can." She bowed her head a few times before returning to face Canterlot. "I'm not asking for guidance, else I'd be asking during the day. I can only ask what I ask now, when it is not the hours of the Sun or her princess. It's her hour, and the princess of dreams is watching over me as I beg for you to understand." She bowed her head again.

A slight breeze began to blow.

"Princess, I've made an oath to the Nightmare of the Moon and the remnants of the Moon princess which still linger within her, to aide her ambitions. She conspires to destroy all hierarchies in Equestria, that all of ponykind will clash against itself in a war of all-against-all." Twilight said. "That will not come to pass. With my assistance, the Moon Nightmare will free exactly one pony from the bonds of the Sun's destinies: Me."
She swallowed down her terror. The hard part had been said. "I have brushed up against it. It's there... something I've only seen once before, when I earned my mark. There is a dream I was born with but have never known. I want to find it, understand it, and be a part of it. Then I..." She lifted her head. "Maybe I'll be fulfilled. I'll be able to push the Nightmare aside and go back to you, understanding myself a little better. There will be no reason to resentful, or bitter, or envious. We can... can be friends again?"

Obviously Twilight received nothing for her awkward prayer: Even at high noon the Sun and princess were exceedingly unlikely to answer a supplicant right away. It was the moon's hour, and though the message had not been intended for her she had clearly taken an interest in the fretful little unicorn mare. Twilight couldn't help but have her eyes drawn up from Canterlot to that heretical satellite, and its dark profile of craters.

'Do not shine on me like that. Do not illuminate my shame', Twilight whispered. Unlike in the dreamscape, the moon was coy with her attention, if it was there at all.

Twilight felt both better and worse after the prayer. She had the outline of a plan in her head about how to deal with both the Nightmare and the shared dream, but it was going to be an ordeal. She might as well enjoy the night breeze, as it was the best day she would have for months to come.

It was an all-around beautiful day in Ponyville, and the villagers went about their lives with obvious jubilation. It was a bit infectious, and despite the trouble start to the day Twilight was gayly nodding alone to the whistles and songs around her. It made the picnic she had been roped into slightly tolerable.

"Oh, I see you started without me?" Rarity trotted up to the park table everypony else was seated around.

"I saved a sandwich for you." Fluttershy motioned to the picnic basket.

"You're lucky I didn't include any with pickles." Pinkie giggled. "But I thought about it."

"And the anticipation alone of my disgusted reaction fulfilled the prank? If only it could always be that way." Rarity daintily took a seat next to Fluttershy and levitated out her sandwich. "Good day Lady Sparkle, Applejack."

Applejack grunted her reluctant acknowledgment. She didn't seem happy with any of the ponies at the table, not Rarity or Fluttershy obviously, not Twilight for the dispute the day before, and not Pinkie Pie for dragging her to the picnic.

“Hey.” Twilight said between bites.

"Hello Mis Rarity." Spike beamed.

“What a happy day today is, just like I knew it'd be!” Pinkie laughed. “The awful-wawful rain is gone and it’s sunny skies and happy days forever!”

"Are you a child? Why are you talking like that?" Rarity said, suddenly irate.

"Why, ya like yelling at children?" Pinkie smiled broader, unsettlingly so.

“Please, don't.” Twilight said. “Just keep it civil.”

Things settled down as the mares (and dragon) ate their sandwiches. It was not quite the atmosphere of a picnic, but not too bad without ponies being snippy with each other.
To underscore that it was less a gathering, more six separate meals happening beside each other, their attentions drew apart: Twilight pulled out a book, Spike scooted closer to Rarity and began making observations about the weather, Applejack pretended to take a nap, and Fluttershy started squeaking at the nearby squirrels.

This didn't please Pinkie Pie. They were ruining her team-building activity. "So..." She leaned on the table, waggling her eyes at Rarity while nudging Applejack. "How is married life treating you?"

"Aw shut up. Am I gunna have to live with that bad joke following me forever?" Applejack grunted.

Rarity stopped politely listening to Spike to appraise the situation, then deciding her own discomfort was worth Applejack's chimed in. "What a thing to say. Am I a joke to you, darling?" She fluttered her lashes.

Applejack tipped her hat away from her eyes so she could stare Rarity down. "Depends." She growled.

Pinkie Pie's little provocations were not missed by Twilight. Spike seemed annoyed as well. "Geeze, if I wanted to watch an argument I'd visit the uni debate society." He said flatly. "That's a Canterlot joke."

"I know. I used to be a member." Pinkie Pie said. "Just kidding, I wasn't. That's a Ponyville joke."

Rarity stood up and brushed the crumbs from the table. "I think I would enjoy a walk by the river."

"Last to arrive, first to leave." Applejack clucked her tongue.

Spike hopped up. "Hey, can I walk with you Rari-" He was interrupted by a shiver running through his body. "Uh oh." He shivered again, then doubled over and clutched his stomach. "Uhhh." He groaned

The ponyvillians grew concerned. "You're not allergic to anything, right?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight sighed and set her book down. "Give him space."

Spike shivered again, then began to dry heave. "It's... urg!" He wretched and let loose a modest torrent of green dragonfire, scorching the grass around him.

Rarity yelped and jumped backwards. "Oh dear!"

Spike let out a relieved sigh, then scooped up a scroll which had appeared at his feet among the flames. "Whew. That was a bad one." He passed the scroll to Twilight.

"Somepony did a sloppy job enchanting the dragonfire teleport." Twilight eyed the wax seal holding the scroll together. "The Canterlot Castle alchemists usually do a good job. I wonder..." She unsealed and unrolled it, to read silently to herself.

Spike recovered quickly, while the other mares still seemed uncomfortable with what they had seen. "Still going for a walk?" He asked Rarity.

Rarity eyed the scroll. Remembering the encounter at her parent's cottage, she knew she had to know whatever Twilight might be up to. "I want to give you a moment."

"But I feel fine." Spike laughed.

Twilight glanced over the scroll. "Spike, have you ever heard of a pony named Seacrest Blackhorn?"

"Huh?" Spike was caught off guard by her suddenly serious tone. "Uh, well, I know there's some old regalia with famous jewels called the Blackhorn something-or-rather. But not that specific pony, no. Should I? Is she a Canterlot pony?"

"Yes, or, maybe. It's unclear. Some joker signed that name in place of Fancy Pants's on this document." Twilight levitated the scroll in front of him long enough to read that indeed was signed 'Grand Vizier Seacrest Blackhorn'.

"That's a good joke. I bet they knew it'd confuse you for a week." Spike said.

"Hmm..." Twilight rubbed her chin. She would have suspected a forgery, especially considering the messy dragonfire teleport, except that the seal and stationary were very privileged material. "Well, nevertheless, this message brings some good news. And it's convenient we're together like this, since this regards the Summer Sun Fair."

"Oh yeah?" Pinkie Pie sat up.

"Yup. The funding is secured." Twilight said.

“That’s just a piece of paper.” Fluttershy frowned. “Are the bits on their way?”

“I’d wager that there is what in Manehattan they call a license.” Applejack said. “It gives Lady Twilight tax and credit power in Ponyville.”

“Close.” Twilight said. “This is an authorization to buy supplies using credit against future taxes. So it’s almost like a license, but I’m paying with taxes that haven’t been paid yet. I guess I'll read over the details later.” She rolled it back up and stowed it in her bag. "It's very a lazy way to do funding, in my opinion. No hard decisions about setting aside funding. You instate a program, give it as much money as it needs, and siphon from taxes for as long as it takes to pay it back." She shrugged. "It's the latest thing they've been using to finance the overseas expeditions. The colonies in Chitin are payed for by taxes the pegasi won't owe for twenty years."

“Woah. That’s crazy!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Does that work? That’s like baking with flour that’s still wheat.”

“Flour is made out of wheat?” Rarity acted surprised. “Hmm, the more you know.”

Twilight gave Rarity an incredulous look. “You’ve lived your whole life in a peasant farming village and you didn’t know that?”

“I'm joking obviously.” Rarity toyed with her curls. "Trust me, I deplore to digress from your little tax novelty into culinary topics. I do so want to hear about how that scroll will please anypony you ask to labor on your fair."

"My fair?" Twilight said defensively. "This is the princess's damn fair. If I were sovereign and were putting on a national solstice celebration I could think of a dozen better places than here. The princess is the one very high hopes for you all, not me."

"And for that, am I expected to thank her highness above what is already asked by the faith?" Rarity deadpanned.

"Goddamn, shut yer trap already. I'd greatly rather talk culinary topics than this." Applejack interjected. "You're damn disrespectful, of the princess, and us. You couldn't last a day doin' what Pinkie or I do. Ya couldn't live without us neither!"

Twilight sighed and picked up her book again. Why did she bother?

“Umm, I think ponies could live off grazing if they didn't have farming or cooking.” Fluttershy informed.

“Ehh I'll give you that. We could do some foraging too.” Pinkie contributed.

"How is that functionally different from grazing?" Rarity challenged.

"You're such a damn contrarian you can't but chide her even when she's agreeing with you." Applejack snickered.

"Stop cursing at me or you'll regret it." Rarity threatened.

"Umm, grazing is mostly about grass, and foraging is mostly about berries, uh, I think." Fluttershy said.

“Like I'm going to eat grass and berries. I could survive off magic hunting.” Twilight muttered from behind her book.

Spike, accepting that Rarity had chosen to get drawn into the argument rather than go for a walk with him, hopped back onto the seat beside Twilight. "Hunting? Can ponies actually survive by just hunting?"

“It wouldn't be a fulfilling life, but yes.” Twilight was annoyed to have to put her book down once again. “According to the new evolutionary theories, that why unicorns evolved to have magic, so they could supplement their diet by hunting. Didn't I put that in your lesson plan last year?"

"Yes, and you said 'supplement'." Spike pointed out.

"Going to get smart with me over semantics? If pushed, yes, a unicorn could survive just barely just by hunting." Twilight grunted. "But it's much harder in cold climates with higher m-calorie demands which is why the ancient unicorns of the Far North-"

"Hey what'chya talkin' about?" Pinkie Pie loudly interrupted from over Twilight's shoulder.

Twilight jumped a bit. "Geeze! I'm talking to Spike. You can back to yelling at the others."

"Rarity got fed up and went for a walk so that's died down for now." Applejack chuckled.

"I did not! I simply decided to sit by the river!" Rarity yelled from her new spot on the riverbank.

"We were talking about hunting." Spike helpfully supplied.

“Hunting?” Applejack asked cautiously.

“Hunting… Animals?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“No, scavenger hunting.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Of course I mean animal hunting, in the traditional unicorn fashion." She hunched defensively. "Even if you don't catch anything it's a fun social outing, though if we're talking about survival, catching is the point."

Spike was more cued in that none of the other mares had any idea what Twilight was talking about. “Every couple years Twilight’s family visits her uncle's lands in Foal and go hunting for magical animals. I'm not a unicorn but Princess Celestia told me dragons have a similar tradition, so I get a kick out of it as well."

“So, like, tracking down and animal and... whoah. That's extreme. And you do it just for sport?” Pinkie was wide eyed.

“Just for sport! Plain barbaric.” Applejack spat.

“Now see here…” Twilight was at a loss at her acquaintances’ reactions. “Rarity! Rarity get over here and back me up on this.”

Rarity plodded over, but seemed confused. “Lady Twilight, back you up on what? It would seem to me you are not exactly describing a unicorn tradition, but a noble pasttime.”

"I'll have you know unicorns evolved to hunt, as I was just explaining to Spike." Twilight said pointedly. "If anything, it's more natural than these sandwiches- Tool use and food preparation came a thousand years later."

"Evolved?" Pinkie cocked her head.

"You know, what we were 'designed' for by generational selection!" Twilight snorted impatiently.

“H- How can that be? Unicorns were designed to kill and eat little defenseless animals?” Fluttershy was looking betrayed, on the edge of tears.

"Kill? Eat?" Twilight blinked. "No, no, that's absolutely gruesome. Why would unicorn hunters kill their prey?" She cleared her throat. "Okay, maybe 'hunt' has different connotations to you rural ponies who apparently contend with dangerous Everfree predators. You really don't know anything about what I'm talking about."

"I'm kinda on their side, Twilight. Maybe it is just a noble thing." Spike said.

"No, Spike, masquerade balls are 'just a noble thing'." Twilight said, looking sour. "Am I really going to need to explain this? And to a unicorn no less?" She eyed Rarity. "It would be like explaining clouds to a pegasus."

"Um, okay Twilight, we can talk about that later too. I kinda grew up poor so my family didn't have clouds." Fluttershy joked quietly, immensely relieved by Twilight assuagement that animals were not being fatally harmed.

"Okay, okay, I get it. You think I'm a fancy mountain brat." Twilight glowered. "It's fine if you don't care, because if it's really just a 'noble thing' then there's no use explaining."

Rarity stifled a sigh. "Lady Twilight, we would be ever so grateful if you gave us a short but clear explanation so we are not left wondering just what the heavens you are talking about."

Twilight fidgeted, thinking of a good way to start. "I mean, surviving purely off magic isn't unique to unicorns. Some para-animals, like sprites and breezies, can survive almost entirely on the raw magical current running through our world. And changelings, which themselves evolved from a proto-changeling para-animal, eat magic reductively pattern-expressed as emotions. Oh, and changelings eat passifloria fruit too, but that's because of a nominative contrivance."

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were trying to pay attention, but Applejack and Rarity seemed to be loosing interest fast.

"Hypothetically almost any highly sentient mortal creature could magic hunt, if they had magic training, but unicorns are the best equipped." Twilight tapped her horn. "You see, magic reacts to us all, flowing through us, forming into patterns based on our electro-chemistry and circulation. This forms the magical aura, an expression of ourselves in the magical currents around us." Twilight brought up a hoof to indicate the area around the back of her head, then down to her heart. "At its simplest, hunting is bolstering one's own magic aura by taking from another's. So the ponies of the pre-migration ancient north, especially those who lived in the magically rich mountaintops, became more-and-more attuned to the conscious use of magic to hunt magic from others until they became the first unicorns."

"I ain't never seen a pony get fed by taking a bite outta thin air." Applejack snorted. "How's an aura nourish a pony?"

"It's magic." Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Do correct me if I am wrong, darling, but the magic in our bodies is connected to our soul and our dreams. A pony lives and dies on the survival of their soul in this world, so sustaining the soul through magic can keep a pony alive past where their body should have died." Rarity posed.

"Ehh, it's not exactly that simple, but sure, you can think of it that way." Twilight shrugged.

"Damn long way of saying ya eat souls." Applejack said, trying to hide a tone of disgust.

"No, it's just the magic around the soul. Eating souls is an entirely different magical act and- LOOK, I explained it very clearly." Twilight puffed out her cheeks in frustration. "The point is, hunting causes no permanent harm, okay? At worst it just knocks the animal out. On our outings to Foal, my family just goes after things like rabbits or foxes. They're barely conscious and don't have much magic in them, but it also means it doesn't cause them much discomfort to have their aura eaten."

"And para-animals are catch and release only." Spike helpfully supplied.

Twilight nodded. "Oh, yeah, absorbing the magic pattern of a para-animal would cripple it." She shrugged. "But they are bright little balls of magic. The ancient unicorns had no such scruples and regularly hunted sprites."

"Oh yes, you are refined, sophisticated tribe now." Rarity quipped.

“I mean I was wierded out but it makes more sense now. At least you're not hurting them. It would be worse and more brutal.” Pinkie pondered, looking introspective. "Hmm."

"Yeah, I already mentioned para-animals, but sentient magical phenomena like nightmares or shades obviously subsist on magic as well, at least on some level. Their magic hunting is, well, primal." Twilight elucidated. "And what is more, there is an avante garde discipline of cosmologists who think the pure-magic heavenly creatures predate on each other the same way."

"Eh? Heavenly creatures?" Applejack glanced toward the sky as though she would at that moment catch sight of something she had never noticed before.

"The gods, broadly stated, elder siblings of the alicorns." Twilight nodded.

"Darling, it seems like you are expanding our your definition of this magic hunting buisness to make it as inclusive as possible to reduce its bizarreness." Rarity said. "That magical creatures exist is hardly useful to explaining why you and your courtiers bandy about the mountains harassing forest creatures."

Twilight was a bit taken aback. Inexplicably, Rarity seemed to be instigating a second argument. Was it something she'd said? What was Rarity acting out of? "It's a family outing that commemorates an ancient unicorn tradition. What's not to understand?" Twilight grinned. "Are you jealous?"

"Jealous?" Rarity repeated.

Twilight first reaction was to chase the point and berate Rarity, but she rethought it. "I ask because I am. I'm jealous of the past, of the height of classical unicorn culture after the migration, when the hunt was a magnificent occasion." Twilight said. "The greatest lords would festoon grand parties of hunters, thousands of participants on the occasion of some local holiday, chasing breezies, pixies, windigoes, dragons... The more dangerous and magical, the better." She reflexively looked off to the distant mountains where the degenerate remnant of alicorn nobility sulked in their keeps. "What daring! Can you imagine a gallant mare facing off against an arrogant dragon, tracking it then besting it, to be able to show off to the others how she hunted its magic?" She sighed.

"Yeah I'm not totally comfortable with imagining that." Spike said. He wasn't sure what had come over Twilight. She was extremely passionate about history but never harbored any nostalgia about it.

"So I was right, wasn't I. You admit it is purely for aristocratic snobbery." Rarity eyed the other mares, wondering why they weren't backing her up more.

Twilight's sentimental reverie was replaced wit annoyance again. “Rarity you’re a freaking unicorn! I've seen you use telekinesis and the magic hunt spell isn't that much more complicated if you take the time to learn it.”

"Time is not so free for working ponies as it is for your class, LADY Twilight. I don’t take trips to Foal for fun. I don’t even leave Ponyville.” Rarity said.

Applejack clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "Rarity you resent being born a commoner. You really are just jealous, ya haughty bitch."

"Woah, cool it down. No punches at the picnic, pretty please." Pinkie Pie grabbed Applejack's shoulder in a show of preemptively restraining her.

"Why do I gotta hear her act like she's so much better than me, as though some noble stench rubbed off on her in the dirt and forest, THEN hear her play up some narrative of salt-of-the-earth humility in front of the lady?! Why do I gotta stand it?" Applejack pounded the picnic table, shaking everypony and sending up bits of splinters. "You ain't salt of nothin'. Your ilk never deserved this land, which is why the princess gave it to us!"

Rarity grabbed up one of the sandwich knives and brandished it. "Uncouth cur. You are only playing at being a farmer. The last Apple anypony respected went to be a soldiercolt in Griffany. Nopony wants you here so why don't you trot on back to Manehattan and be a banker like you deserve. I can accept anypony else, but not you, most ungrateful of heathens. Go back to your own lands!"

Twilight was half-relieved and half-annoyed that things had digressed so rapidly. It had been guiltily fun to make her case about magic hunting. But now Applejack and Rarity seemed closer than ever to killing each other.
"Girls..."

"I am not so vulnerable now. Does that scare your bully's heart, to see me with a weapon and the will to defend myself?" Rarity barked. "Don't test me darling! I would hate for you to have to explain a cut on your face to your cute little sister."

"And I'd hate for you to hate to lie to yours again, that is, if you'll be able to." Applejack hissed through bared teeth.

Spike was much more alarmed about the possibility of violence. "Twilight stop them, please." He squirmed, eyes darting between Rarity and Applejack.

Twilight was about to say something, but she felt a shiver. It was suddenly very cold, but only for her. Rarity, waving the knife with her magic, was facing Applejack with her back to Twilight- And Twilight, overcome with a sensation she couldn't quite describe, couldn't think of anything to say, but instead felt a sudden fixation on just how vulnerable Rarity was to an attack from behind.
Twilight knew only very basic combat magic, just enough for magic duels, but Rarity was a stationary target and Twilight would have the element of surprise. Heck, Twilight could probably just pounce and use her hooves to save herself the magic.

"...the sweetest honey Is loathsome in his own deliciousness." Twilight murmured to herself, completely transfixed by the urge to pounce on Rarity. Then she was not quite looking at Rarity, nor at the ripples in her white fur from her jerky motions, but ripples around Rarity, to the pale glow of magic that Twilight witnessed as second sight, her magical senses overlapping her vision. What a vivid aura Rarity had.
Twilight slowly reached out a hoof. She yearned to touch. She yearned to take.

Fluttershy was about to second Spike's plea for assistance when she noticed Twilight's strange movements and distant expression. "Lady Sparkle did you hear him? And uhh, are you okay?"

This question was immediately answered when Twilight's horn flared with magic for a brief second, and both she and Rarity collapsed.

Fluttershy shrieked, rushing to make sure Rarity hadn't fallen onto the sandwich knife. Spike similarly rushed to Twilight.

"The hell?" Applejack wondered, cautious of a ruse.

"I think Twilight just cast a spell, but it was so quick." Pinkie Pie blinked, quickly piecing things together. "Was she trying to help, or..."

Spike shook Twilight where she'd fallen. "Twilight?!"

Twilight's eyes flew open and she bolted upright. "Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah." She repeated, her gaze unfocussed, a look of awe passing over her. "Woah. Something..." She spun in a circle several times. "Oh, my, I hear something."
Then, just as abruptly, Twilight began galloping in the direction of Ponyville.

"Oh gods, she's really not well. Whatever she was trying must have backfired!" Spike nibbled her claws nervously. "Please can one of you go after her? She might hurt somepony or herself!"

Applejack contemplated the situation for a few more seconds, gnawing at her lip in anxiety and aborted fury, before she wordlessly ran after Twilight.

"She has already hurt somepony. Rarity is completely knocked out. Her eyes aren't dilating." Fluttershy said in barely restrained panic. "We have to get her to the clinic. They have beds and medicine."

Pinkie Pie stepped around the picnic table and effortlessly rolled Rarity onto her back. "I gotchya! These legs are for more than carrying flour sacks, hee hee! Fluttershy you can go get the clinicians from town."

"I- If you're sure." Fluttershy stepped back, took a few deep breaths, and also ran to Ponyville to find the village doctor and nurse.

Spike began following behind Pinkie Pie as the two of them circled the village to the clinic building on the other side of the town.
"I just don't know what happened! It looked like Twilight was going to separate them with her telekinesis which is what I thought she would do. I don't get it and I'm really worried."

Jogging along while carrying another pony wasn't easy even with earth pony strength, so Pinkie saved her words. She silently hoped it was just an accident. The alternative was too frightening to bear, that possibly Twilight had decided enough was enough and was about to unleash some awesome Canterlot magic on Ponyville.
Things are about to become much stranger, Pinkie Pie thought to herself, stranger even than living gods and talking horses.

A kaleidoscope of colors and sounds assailed Rarity as she, helplessly, had every sense assaulted by the chaos of forms around her. Blinding flashing light, gave way to a field of tiny pinpoints, gave way to great spheres overlapping and merging and separating and bursting, gave what to a whirling screaming battle of indescribable geometries.
Then, a last vision, as abrupt as the last, a vast desert whose tactless dunes were blue under the calm night skies. Such a calming relief after the barrage of pain and fear, Rarity collapsed forward and hugged the cold sand. After a while she sat up again and saw something which had not been there a moment before: A black spike nailed into the horizon, taller than any mountain, a tower which pierced heaven to sky to earth.
Her role as witness fulfilled, Rarity was whisked away from this vision as well. But she was not released yet. Not hardly.

A low, rhythmic hum slowly brought Rarity out of her sleep. She turned over, groping about in search of her pillow. Only, her hoof knocked against the wall with a thud.

Startled, Rarity moved to pull away her sleep mask, but it wasn’t there. The world remained completely dark to her. She tore out of the sheets and scrambled to her hooves. In her haste, she painfully knocked her head against the ceiling.

A soft glow encapsulated everything, and Rarity could now see the dimensions of her cell. It was nary 10 hooves cubed, devoid of doors or window, or any features besides the mattress and sheets Rarity had been sleeping on.

“Hello?” Rarity’s panic choked her voice. Somepony had imprisoned her! “Somepony please get me out of here!”

There was a loud pop and a blinding flash from nearby, and Rarity stumbled back into the mattress and became tangled in the sheets. Rarity once again found herself unable to see anything, and feared to fall back into the pit of chaotic shape and sound from which she had just awoken.

"Oh goodness." Rarity tried to blink away the pain in her eyes.
With practiced pessimism, Rarity considered the possibilities. Had the imperial government nabbed her and was preparing to torture her? Was she in a cultic stronghold about to be sacrificed? Was she being trafficked into slavery in Griffany?
But wait... before that terrible dream... Hazy memories of the picnic came back to her. And the rising argument, then the shouting... What had happened after that?

The click of hooves nearby alerted Rarity that she was not alone.
“Going to bed early, are we? You’ll miss the beautiful night sky.” The voice in the darkness was Twilight’s, but strangely rasping. “But you’re here now, so I suppose it doesn’t matter too much. Welcome. Earnestly, welcome.” The flash had been her teleporting in.

Rarity tried to rise again, very careful not to hit her head this time. “Lady Twilight? What is going on?” Rarity asked, trying to control her voice despite racing emotions. Now that she was up again everything her senses perceived, from the air around her to the floor underhoof, seemed off and uncomfortable. "I feel ill, and have had the most terrible dream. Oh mercy... Are we still in Ponyville?"

“The awe-some dreams are not over. You are being punished, so we leave Ponyville below.” The Twilight voice said. “You have been a naughty sinner. I am privileged to your time here.”

Light bloomed through the room, letting Rarity see. But immediately, and with great horror, she wished she could not.
The thing in the cell with her was definitely not Twilight Sparkle. It was not remotely equine. Its violet undulating frame and many eyes defied description or comprehension. It was the size of four ponies and floated off the ground. Its central face was twisted into an unponylike mask of glee and hatred. It was a monstrosity, a nightmare. The clip of hooves was one of the flesh-ball's appendages tapping the wall in nervous delight.

Rarity squealed, pushing herself into the corner, gripped by terror. "Stay away!"

"I can not hurt you sinner, more than you have done to yourself." The wretched purple thing spoke from mouths all over its body. “The poison in your soul, the weakness in your mind, fear and terror and ugliness: I am all of these things. I am here because you are unfit before god.” As it laughed, the thing morphed, all of its appendages and features rearranging. Its central face split apart and rearranged on the other size of its boated body. “You are diseased by sin, and I am the Manifestation of that. You may address me such.”

Rarity had no desire to address the bloated entity at all. She desperately scanned the box again, searching for a way out.

"Oh, yes, now that we have met, what constrains us may fall away." The Manifestation chuckled.

As the cell dissolved away around them, Rarity discovered that life inside the box was preferable to the outside.
"Ah!" Rarity leaned forward just before the cell wall she had pressed herself against disappeared. For right behind her was a sheer drop into an unseeable depth. "What is this hellish place?!"

The structure her cell had been built into was, it seemed, some towering structure of black obsidian, rising infinitely up and down from the precipice she stood on. If Rarity had looked over the edge, she would have seen rings of other precipices without number further above and below her. The void around the tower was grey with a light mist that offended Rarity's eyes and nose, almost choking her.

The Manifestation flaunted its weightlessness by passing over the lip of the tower to hover in the grey void. “Again welcome, welcome. This ambition is yours to suffer now. Welcome most of all because you are the first, and the Tower is desolate, but your arrival heralds that this ambition is awake now. By god, may it be granted that the Tower will fill with sinners like you." It laughed, a throttled mockery of Twilight Sparkle's laugh. "Let us reach heaven together!"

"What a nightmare. What a nightmare!" Rarity uttered. She backed away from the edge and pressed her back into the strangely warm obsidian. "A- And this is a nightmare... A living dream, sent to me. A piece of the dreamscape."
Realizing that should have brought Rarity some peace, that her monstrous tormenter and the awesome Tower were all in her head; But no, Rarity understood otherwise, that there was some metaphysical reality to what she was experiencing, that the Tower was real, that the bloated Manifestation was real, and that her terror was real.

The Manifestation laughed and laughed. "But if you know this place you must understand the joy of this meeting. Will you not rejoice with me?"

Was this the reward for her piety, Rarity wondered, or had she made her god unhappy to be punished so horribly? But she'd tried so hard, but apparently her message to the divine was poorly received. "My princess... Why?" She turned her head up, trying to find signs of sky through the haze as she prayed. "What can I do? We struggle for you for so long, but we get nothing but torment."

"She was never listening, you know. Not once. But I was." The Manifestation jeered at her. "And after all, why not? They gods are way up in heaven, and even the Tower does not reach that far yet. But I-" Through concerted squirming the monstrosity swiveled a leg around to gesturally tap at one of its foreheads. "I'm right up here."

Rarity slid into a sitting position and stayed completely silent, attempting, through the constant thrum running through the obsidian structure around her, to collect herself. Obligingly, the Manifestation did not talk at all, just watching her and chuckling sinisterly to itself.
Finally Rarity felt settled enough to start asking questions. “Wh- Why do you have Twilight Sparkle’s voice?” Her voice still trembled a bit.

“It is a joke I play on her.” The Manifestation said, gnashing its hundreds of teeth in laughter.

Rarity didn’t find it very funny at all. "You know her?"

"Ohhh yes. Not literally, though. After all, I am not a real creature with agency and the ability to know. It's in my name." The Manifestation let out a twee giggle. "But she is known. Very known, more known than she knows. Oh... but I can't let you leave with that last fact." Every face of the bloated thing suddenly became very serious. "So you will not be allowed to leave the Tower with your full memories."

That was fine by Rarity.

When Applejack arrived at Ponyville's modest clinic, exhausted from galloping, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Spike, were in the lobby finishing their conversation with one of the clinicians.

"Well y'all ain't that pink so she's alive still, I'd wager." Applejack attempted to joke though her heavy breaths.

Flutter sighed, tears welling up. “It's hard to tell what's wrong with her. It might be pressure in her skull, in which case the chirurgeon wants to operate.”

“I’ve seen ponies in wayyyyyy worse shape survive.” Pinkie said. “And Rarity has the added bonus of plot armor. She’ll pull through, no biggie!”

Applejack sighed. "I know I didn't lay a hoof on her, but it wouldn't'a risen to this without me. She's a stuck up prick but she don't deserve to be hurt, however it happened."

Spike was wringing his tail in empathetic guilt. He spoke up in a quiet, anxious voice. “Twilight’s never done that to a pony before. N- Not even close! I don’t know, I- I just don't know.”

“So does she get spells wrong often?” Applejack asked.

“I mean, not really.” Spike admitted.

“Either Lady Twilight did it maliciously, or not.” Pinkie scrunched, and put her earlier thoughts into words. “Draw your own conclusions I guess."

"Umm, Applejack, didn't you run after Twilight to, well, restrain her or something? But you're here?" Fluttershy asked.

Applejack scowled. "When she caught wise to me bearin' down on her she done teleported out of reach. She got in the Oak and locked herself in. So, I just wedged a bench in the door to keep her in so she don't cause no trouble."

Despite the situation Pinkie Pie snorted in amusement. "Okay then, I guess we'll deal with her ladyship later, if she stays put or not."

Buzzing buzzing buzzing. I little vibration in the air. Twilight could see it right in front of her- a small ripple, radiating out and bouncing back, the echoes reconverting and overlapping again, echo echo echo. Buzzing buzzing buzzing.

"Darling this won't do at all." Twilight moaned to herself, her too-wide eyes darting from wall to wall. "It's behind the books. It's behind the plates. Ants in the walls, maybe... Termites, dancing to the ripples, making the buzzing." She trembled, barely aware of herself yet bursting with a manic energy, and began randomly knocking rows of books off the shelves onto the floor.

She paused, then looked up to the second floor landing.

"Or is it- yes. Bugs bugs bugs, in my bed. Crawling over me in my sleep, trying to get in my ears." Twilight began to hyperventilate. "God damn communard bugs, radical bug infiltrators trying to eat me from the inside. They're buzzing under the floor..."

She galloped up to the bedroom and began knocking everything around, throwing wadded up clothes and sheets in every direction. "Ripples ripples, echoes echo- No, no, a whirlpool. It's all going down in, not radiating out. They're trying to..." Twilight's muttering was cut off when, despite all probability, she noticed a smallish paper box nested into the darkest corner of the small closet, previously concealed by the folded dresses she had tossed around.
"You." Twilight addressed the paper box. "Ripples, radiating out... But these ripples... My my. Your aura, darling, is so familiar."

Twilight listened. There could be heard, the distant refrain, echoing, pulling her in, a familiar dark melody.

"I see. Nice to meet you, finally." Twilight bowed to the paper box.
She scooped it up, held it tight, and felt the buzzing right against her breast.
"Let's reconnect us. She missed you, darling."

Twilight teleported directly in front of the clinic.

Spike immediately recognized the sound of the teleport, and turned to see Twilight gallop into the lobby. "Twilight!"

Applejack stepped between Twilight and the other mares. "Hey! What's the big idea, running all over the place?!"

"The big, nay, biggest of ideas, yes! I knew I had heard something. But Rarity heard it first, had been hearing it. I've only been hearing encores. She knew. Maybe you all knew. It's okay now, fine. It might even be good." Twilight explained in a rapid mutter. She trotted forward, and the mares allowed her to brush past them on her way towards the ICU.

"Umm, what was she was holding?" Fluttershy asked, very alarmed.

They wordlessly followed Twilight.

Rarity was strapped to the heavily padded bed, a nurse keeping watch. “Who are you?” She demanded of Twilight when the latter strolled in.

Twilight raised a hoof for silence. Then she trotted to the bed and released Rarity's right foreleg from it’s strap.
The nurse, finally recognizing the noblemare, slowly backed away.

Twilight caressed Rarity's hoof for minute, then bent over to whisper in her ear. "I felt things I really should not have, darling. It's made me a little loopy, actually." She laughed softly to herself. "But I was taken by that pounding fixation, and couldn't help it. Did I leave any for you, to thank for it?"

Twilight set the paper box on the bed, and carefully pried it open with the tip of her horn.

"Put in on then. I can't do it for you." Twilight guided Rarity's hoof into the box, waited a few second, then stepped away, apparently immensely pleased with herself.

Applejack, watching with the others just outside the room, glanced between Twilight and the box. "Ma'am what the fuck'r you talking about." She pointed. "And- ...the hell's that?"

It was a horseshoe, made from a blue-grey metal, far far too large for Rarity's hoof. Everypony's eyes were drawn to the thing, in a way nopony could understand. It felt cold to look at. What was that pressure in their ears, what was that tingle along their spine?
Something dire.

"Applejack..." Pinkie Pie nudged the other earth pony.

"Yup." Applejack mumbled.

"Turns out, we're all involved in things we really shouldn't be." Twilight giggled. She closed her eyes, sighed contentedly, and passed out.

"Not again!" Spike rushed to Twilight.

"Good grief." The nurse grunted. She knelt by Twilight and shifted the unicorn onto her side. "Hey doc, we need to prepare the other bed!"

While everypony briefly distracted by Twilight's collapse, Fluttershy darted forward, slapped Rarity's hoof away from the blue-steel horseshoe, and closed up the paper box. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She whimpered to Rarity, concealing the box under a wing.

"Out of the way, out of the way, please." The doctor pushed Applejack aside to get into the room. He quickly assessed Twilight. "Okay, you girls need to get out immediately. Magical contagions can spread between all ponies, not just unicorns. Shoo, shoo!"

Somewhat chastised and with a lot to think about, Pinkie Pie and Applejack slunk off to the lobby. They didn't pay much attention when Fluttershy ran past them out of the building.

"Something mighty peculiar's just happened." Applejack mused.

"Yeah. Too bad the picnic ended so badly." Pinkie Pie agreed. "Guess I have to go clean up now. Oh well."

"Best enjoy the nice spring morning. I've got a feeling that the rain is coming back." Applejack said. Even just thinking of the dark horseshoe filled her with an unspeakable dread, and regret that she had not turned away or closed her eyes. She had to abide that unsettling thought, of something large and evil wearing it. "Yup. Might be the best day we're going to have for a long while yet."

Pinkie Pie pouted and sighed. "Damn, you think so too? Maybe we will get answers, or maybe it will be enough for us to survive the rising action."

"Yup. Celestia protect us, amen."

Chapter 14: Slave to an Inescapable Culmination

At long last, it seemed, Shining had gotten what he wanted: He was no longer being dragged into court politicking, council bickering, or Captain Hauseway's scheming. He was left alone to his duties of regulating the Imperial Household Guard, keeping up the discipline and training of the noble knights.

Oh, and his little pursuit with Cadenza.

It was for that other princess-ly duty that he had slogged up the side of the Mountain to the doors of the Solar Monastery. Though it was hard to tell from below, the doors of the observatory dome atop the block monastery building were open, as the brothers studiously observed, measured, and recorded the movement of the holy sun.

There was already a monk waiting for Shining at the door. "You're after Manered and her, right?" The robed unicorn eyed his armor.

"That's right." Shining nodded. The solar devotees apparently didn't hold the junior princess in as high regard as the sun princess.

They proceeded through the narrow corridors to the familiar library. He’d visited multiple times with Twilie on research projects when she’d been too young to go on her own. Shining had, admittedly, been bored out of his mind every time, and not payed much attention.

"I'll leave you to it." The monk grunted trundled off to his next duty.

The library was in total disarray. Candance and Manered had apparently covered every table and desk with books scrolls they’d pulled out from the stacks, and they were still gathering more.

"Oh dear." Shining carefully stepped around the piles of books to approach the central reading desk. "I hope your tower isn't this cluttered. If it is you should invite me up some time to let me straighten it out."

Cadence, hunched over an old tome she was scrutinizing, stirred from hearing his voice. “Hi Shiny.” She sat up and stretched. "Funny joke. And it surely is a joke. Propositioning a princess is high treason."

"Good grief Cadence, I was kidding about being a maid, not a gigolo, heh heh. It's good to see you." Shining smiled.

“Is that Sir Armor?” Manered called out from the isles of bookshelves.

“Yes." Cadence yelled back.

"What's he want?" Manered asked.

Cadence quirked a brow in Shining's direction. "I don't know."

Shining shrugged.

Cadence gestured at the books and scrolls all around her. "Hmm, you're here to assess our progress, write a report, and crack the whip if necessary, pursuant some bourgeoise efficiency."

“You're very joke-y today.” Shining noted.

“Well, it must be good to see you too.” Cadence said.

Manered chose that moment to emerge from the book stacks with more books balanced on his back. "Whatever he wants, here is more cosmic transit records, from Babyloneigha and Bard, for background star referencing."

"Ohh, Babyloneigha, Twilight was really bombarding me with Babyloneighian history a couple months ago." Shining grabbed a books and began flipping though it. "Oh... these are all in the vernacular." He set it back down.

Manered gave Shining an off look at the mention of Twilight. "Ahem, ah, yes, vernacular, liturgical, court languages, some hippogryph loan alphabets mixed in there, quite. Modern magical translation tools make it just survivable." The monk said. "You don't set out to make a mess this big and complicated, all the languages, clashing sources, different measuring units, of history and lies. A mess like this comes about when you have a very, very big puzzle."

It was a dire puzzle indeed: The Sun. Above Princess Celestia, above the folk faiths, above the pantheons of Ancient Alicorns, above it all, was the most ancient god of Ponykind, the Sun.
No fully divine entity was closer, more observant, more apparent in the lives of mortalkind. The Sun, vast and incomprehensible, an agency of unimaginable power, ruled over Equestria through her daughter Celestia. It was the sun's light that warmed the earth, those rays directing, so subtly, the course of mortal destiny. It was to her that ponykind and other select mortal races owed their marks, the manifest proof of divine will.

The Sun was acting unpredictably. It was not on a scale perceptible to casual observation.
The sun had her ordained course and patterns, a very deliberate path through the heavens that anticipated her will over mortal destiny, of rising and setting, longer days and shorter days, the tempo of Solstices and equinoxes. But that utterly predictable pattern was beginning to break and becoming un-predictable. By a measure of minutes, some days were overstaying their assigned length, and some were ending sooner. Now and then the sun could even be seen to halt in place, then hurry to resume her track across the sky. On balance, through that early Spring, leading up to the Summer Sun, the days were getting longer more quickly than they were supposed to.

The god of Ponykind, it appeared, had either lost her interest in consistency, or lost her mind. For a faithful pony, almost no greater disaster could be conceived. Such was Manered's secret message to Cadence on the throne that stormy night, and the reason Cadence had thrown herself into the project.

Shining wondered what the other solar monks thought. They knew the situation. Their faith to the Sun ran deeper than the state faith of devotion to Celestia as ruler of the pony nation. The solar monks dedicated their lives to recording everything about their god, to admiring her, and to contemplating her nature. While Manered was an eminently practical sort, Shining could imagine the more mystical monks becoming either despondent or religiously ecstatic at the unprecedented change in the solar pattern.

Shining only wondered about what it meant for Celestia. Was her strange mood the product of, or the reason for, the Sun's erraticism? Surely the two were related, somehow.

"We don't need that many background star references. After we met at the University, I stopped at the astronomy hall and spoke with some of my former professors and classmates. They said there was nothing out of the usual." Cadence said. "Unless there is a conspiracy in the heavens, our planet's rotation is still the same relative to the stars."

"How about the moon?" Shining asked.

Manered looked uncomfortable, grinding a hoof against the table nervously. "What about the moon? The less said about her the better. You won't find a reputable astronomer on the continent who is paying her any attention." He cleared his throat and looked away. "Please say no more about the moon in these halls."

"Sorry. I'll think more about what I say." Shining apologized.

Cadence shook her head. "Don't say that. I love to hear your suggestions." She side-eyed Manered. "What's the issue brother? Why we shouldn't we talk about the moon? Your monastic order has no doctrinal prejudice against her."

Manered could not meet her gaze. "True, princess. The issue is mine alone, of a private matter, and I can not speak on it. If you chose to pursue the moon I would be forced to abandon this work completely."

Shining gave the monk a flat look. "Are you really going to try to bluff a knight and a princess? Listen here, monk-"

"Shining let him finish." Cadence said.

Manered sighed. "I... Thank you princess. I would simply say that you should not bother with a line of inquiry where those who went before were unrewarded."

"What's that cryptic babble supposed to mean?" Shining demanded, feeling irritated now over being made to apologize.

Shining looked to Cadence, who was thinking to herself. After a few minutes, she just shrugged. "Very well brother. Somepony else may burden themselves with the mysteries of the moon and risk damnation. We're all doing our best." Cadence said. "And I guess some of us were chosen by the sun and stars to stray away from the guidance of her light."

Shining made a sour face. He would respect the princess's decision not to press the monk more, but he wasn't happy about it. "Sure, fine. Does ignoring the moon actually trim the amount of work ahead of you, princess?"

"Like the brother said, there aren't that many lunar records in Equestria anyway. I would rather not go down that route until we've exhausted everything else, including the star charts." Cadence said. "If even that doesn't help, we will have to look to the moon for answers anyway. Sorry."

"I completely understand. Only, if all other possibilities give us no reprieve, I will be of no help anyway." Manered nodded.

"Should that time comes, we may have to go begging to the moon." Cadence ruminated.

Shining still didn't feel right about it, but after a moment it occurred to him that it was because his idea had been been shot down so he was not in a position to help his friends whatsoever.
He picked up one of the few texts which was in a language he understood and turned it to a random page, but the words made no sense to him. What the hell were apoapsides, a perihelion, or the deferent-epicycle system? It might have well been in Babyloneighian. He flipped the tome closed and nudged it back dismissively. "So much for this visit. I'm a stallion trained to cross off pony bodies, not orbital bodies."

"A gruesome attitude to take on two accounts. You are to thank for us getting this far, Sir Armor." Manered said. "For one, I cannot commend enough how you've kept all that court drama away from us."

"We will find something for you to do, Shining, when we need some executive action." Cadence consoled.

"Don't confuse me. You're the executive, I'm the action." Shining said trying to stop his own dour slide with a joke. "Have any errands I could run?"

Cadence nibbled her lip, pretending to read from the book in front of her for a few moments while she thought of a way to let the poor stallion down diplomatically. "I'm sorry Shining, but this is tough academic work that you have to be trained for." She stood up and circled around the table to him. "Shining, you've already done a lot to get us started. I think you can exercise your best judgement on what you can contribute now." She smiled hinting at the regret of her next words. "But it isn't going to be here with me, pouring through these books."

"I'd just distract you huh?" Shining tried to act flirty but couldn't hide his depressed tone. "I'll have to think about it."
Perhaps Cadence was worried that Shining Armor's ego was hurt by his academic inadequacy- That was not so. Rather what upset Shining was the idea that apparently his best use would be distracting the odious nobles and bureaucrats, the very thing he had spent a month trying to disentangle himself from so he could help her. The second blow was the realization that their rendezvous at the university, where Cadence had been updating him on the research, was not to keep him in the loop for upcoming work, but mere friendly courtesy. "I'll do everything you need of me princess, including being absent. I can think of a few things to keep me occupied."

Cadence's scrutinized Shining Armor's blank expression. "You impossible stallion, you're not taking this personally again, are you? Good grief, you get set off by the smallest things. You treat these little inconveniences, little phenomenal facts of life, as defeats. " She pulled him into a quick hug with her wing, and just as quickly let him go. "Shiny I order you to tackle your work with every passion of your soul, with the confidence of the importance of your duty, and my respect your execution of it."

Her combination of aggression and compassion threw Shining off so much he almost forgot to be angsty. "Uh, if that's what you order, princess."

"Cadence." Cadence said commandingly.

"Yes." Shining agreed. That was her name.

"That I'm your princess is the least important thing between us, Shining. I'm your friend, and my name is Cadence." Cadence emphasized. "I'm ordering you to get out of your own head as a friend, not your liege." She glanced away. "By heaven, if rank could never come between us... but it is what the Sun has decreed. Now we get back at her."

"Huh?" Manered had the feeling he should be worried by her metaphor.

"I'll understand eventually prin- Cadence. It might take me months or years, but I'll understand. I swear." Shining Armor finally answered. "I know you'll figure this stuff out, and find out the cause of the Sun being erratic."

"We will figure it out." Cadence agreed. "You thank you for coming to see me..."

"But you have to get back to the research without me." Shining finished her sentence. "Okay Cadence, I'll see you later, maybe at the funeral?"

"May attend, but probably not." Cadence shook her head.

"Around the castle then, unless you summon me sooner. Bye princess, brother."
He turned to leave.

But before Shining could get out of the library, Cadence called out to him again. "Shining, one question. Was your sister actually obsessing over Babyloneigha months ago? Or was that another joke?"

"Yes, it fancy of hers for a while." Shining shrugged, but noticing Cadence's concerned look continued, "Hey, it was just one of her passing obsessions. By the next day she was lecturing me about moveable-type presses. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with what's going on with the sun."

"Damnible things, those type presses. They cheapen the written word and congest the libraries. " Manered grumbled, his words slightly forced, as he arranged the books around their working space. "Not every inane thing is meant to be committed to paper. Now the money-loving print shop masters are the arbiters of what is historified. They're even getting royal contracts! Absurd, just absurd. What sin abounds."

While amusing, Manered's gripes were not interesting to Cadence at that moment. "What sin abounds..." She reached out to Shining with a wing, not nearly reaching him.
"Shining Armor, you have to be certain about her. You always felt like it was your responsibility to get between Twilight and I, to keep us off each other's throats. This isn't university anymore and she and I have grown up since then. I would never use anything you tell me against her, ever. She is our princess's esteemed agent and a lady of the realm now."

"Yeah..." Shining said, his voice catching in his throat. "I know she is." It felt like a lie, because he was not so certain how grown up his sister really was.

"However, if this buisness with the sun's patterns is magical, Twilight would be the first to know. She might have even gone down the same research path as us." Cadence tapped the tome of Babyloneighian astronomical observations. "You should even consider the possibility that it relates to her elevation to First Student."

At that last sentence, the first think to leap to Shining's mind was the obvious tangled political implications, just as quickly pushed away.
"With the utmost respect princess, I will let you do the considering for the both of us." He said emotionlessly. "I don't want to get in the way."

Princess Cadenza gave him a gave stern look.

"With the utmost respect, Cadence, and so on." Shining repeated, trying to smile. "Please keep yourself busy and don't go after my sister."
He ducked out of the room.

Cadence was silent for a while, seemingly counting until Shining would fully depart the monastery, before she turned to Manered. "It's Twilight Sparkle, isn't it..."

Manered looked away.

"Now, Lady Viscountess Twilight Sparkle, élève premier, a masterless little scholar who never leaves well alone." Cadence put on a pained smile for a few seconds, then sighed. "I heard she consulted you about something. Did she cause this?"

"This? Yes and no. Lady Sparkle may have caused something, but I do not think she has caused our sun to err." Manered said solemnly. "It is useless to muse unless you hope to chase her to her exile."

"I won't be doing that. No, I plan to respect Shining's wishes." Cadence said. "And I plan to keep you too busy for your own conniving, Brother Manered. How are your friends doing in their own exiles? Regretting not taking the castrato option?"

"Oh princess you are being very cruel. It's all water under the bridge." Manered protested, his voice subdued.

"Don't be too taken in by how I dote on dear Shining. Provoke me and I will provoke back. I had to live in a tower for years because of you hooligans." Cadence grinned. "Go on then boy, you handle that stack of texts and I will take this one. If the Maredian script is too dense for you I will assist."

"Very well princess." Manered said demurely and settled back into the reading. He wasn't comfortable about having drawn Princess Cadenza's (somewhat bemused) irritation, but at least he hadn't been pressed more about Twilight Sparkle or the Moon.
By god, it would be a political catastrophe if Sir Shining Armor or Princess Amore Cadenza found out about Twilight Sparkle's research into the Nightmare Pretender. Worse still, it occurred to him, was if the Fancy Pants-Lyra Heartstrings-Twilight Velvet espionage connection was found out. Being a monastery librarian was too stressful!

Shining had a few hours before the funeral, so once he descended the Mountain back into Canterlot he circled the Old Town to the north castle grounds. There, overlooking part of the gardens, was his sister Twilight Sparkle's old residence.
The squat freestanding tower had much more glass in its design than the main keep of Canterlot Castle, with a gold dome incorporating a small observatory. Shining stared up at the grand telescope through the window, pondering Cadence's words.

"Maybe Twilight did happen upon something important." Shining mumbled to himself.
He tried to think back on the day Twilight left. Had she said anything important about the sun? Or perhaps the day before she left, the day of Foaly Flux's stupid party. Twilight had acted hurried and impatient, but she was always like that with family nowadays. Was there anything to suggest she was intruding on a grave secret on the nature of Celestia and her mother?
"But Cadence is right. The timing of the promotion makes me wonder too."

Shining circled around to the front door. The tower was locked of course, and fiddling the bolt with his magic was of no use- Twilight had shut up her abode both physically and magically. The glass windows were likely warded too.
No ingress- So, unless Twilight or Celestia appeared before him and gave up the secret, there would be no way to know whether Twilight knew about the Sun's erraticism.

"Fine. On to the next thing." Shining grumbled. As usual, chasing down a lead didn't satisfy him or make anything better, it just created a new specter to worry and feel bad about.
If he had a thousand lifetimes, maybe Shining could teach himself not to agonize over things outside his control.

"Forget a thousand lifetimes, I bet he wished he'd had just one full lifetime to live out." Prosser snickered.
The funeral was an immediate disaster, on account of the deceased's failure to show up.

Canterlot was not, strictly speaking, well supplied with temples. The Equestrian faith had a very disorganized hierarchy of clergy, since the dogma channeled the precepts of faith through the institutions of the empire, not any distinct ecclesiastical hierarchy. There were only four official clergyponies: The unicorn prelate, the pegasus prelate, the earth pony prelate, and the alicorn prelate herself Princess Celestia. There was only one official cathedral, Canterlot Castle.

The folk faiths and monastic orders, with their idiosyncratic interpretations of Celestiaan doctrine, were tolerated and coopted. Those unofficial institutions of faith had some power, and so it was that Fancy Pants's funeral had been held in a stately sect temple in the Old Town. There, under the domed roof high above, the priests would preform their daily rituals for the masses. Only, there weren't too many ponies attending anymore. There was a time when the empire was new and faith in their god's power was strong, throngs of ponies would pack the aisles and naves, begging Celestia to elucidate their destiny. Now the cathedral was lucky to be half full on holy days.

Shining Armor usually steered away from the smaller temples. As a vassal of the princess he was very close to the high priestess herself; no need for the passionate interpretations of the priests. They even made him a little uncomfortable, how in their strong marble edifices, tall ceilings, and exquisite stained glass they mimicked and channeled the imagery of Canterlot Castle, as if to stake their own claim to divine symbology. Now Shining didn't really feel anything.

His apathy was in contrast to Illustrious Valor, sitting several pews ahead of Shining. The little dark mare was absolutely squirming, looking in every direction and taking in every detail of the temple. But why? She had been in the castle from top to bottom, so what did she get out of the mimicry? Twilight Velvet, beside Iillor, had to swat the younger mare a few times to not make the bench squeak so much.

"But I can not stir so much feeling in myself?" Shining looked to the far end of the temple, where a stylized rendition of a sun princess was depicted in stained glass. The alicorn had many weapons around her, with which she was smiting monstrous figures intruding from the edges of the frame: It was probably Celestia the First, destroying the enemies of ponykind before the founding of the empire.
Dusty sunbeams, their colors through the glass, drew the viewer past the glass princess to the mighty star beyond.

Guilt and rapture were not so forthcoming though, with how the rest of the funeral was proceeding at the front of the temple.
Most of the temple staff hadn't shown up, and a few castle staff were looking around for directions. Allegedly Captain Hauseway and Vizier Seacrest Blackhorn had arranged the event as part of official council buisness, but now they were nowhere to be seen. The Unicorn Prelate was drunkenly passed out on the front pew, and Councilor Prosser preferred to snicker than give any leadership to the confused staff.

At the center of the temple, a stern black coffin. Horrible rumors were swirling about the state of the body within.

It was a waste of time waiting for somepony to get the act together. So, Shining Armor decided to be among those trickling out of the temple. He had lingered a socially adequate amount of time to have 'payed respects'.

Rising from the pew, Shining avoided the stares of the others as he made his way to the exit.

Unexpectedly, there was somepony waiting for Shining Armor at the exit. It was the lad Sel Lech Sabonord, wearing a poorly fitting city guard officer uniform. "Hello there Lord Armor. I hope you're having a wonderful day."

"Uhh, it's been decent. Some frustrations but nothing bad's happened so I can't be too cross." Shining said. Why was Sel Lech talking to him? "If you're looking for my mother, she's inside near the front."

"No sir, I was waiting to talk to you." Sel shook his head. "It's preferable not to talk about this around her ladyship."

Shining sighed. "This is some politics nonsense isn't it."

Sel Lech adopted a concerned expression. "It isn't exactly nonsense, sir. I have been told that the Imperial Council has me on a short list of candidates to replace Barley Bale as captain of the City Guard and watch."

"Oh." Shining was not very involved in the ongoing investigation into Barley Bale's death, nor the search for a new watch captain. Shining would have guessed that Sel Lech had been shortlisted by Seacrest and Hauseway, but now that power in the council was swinging towards Prosser it was likely that Sel would be dropped. It was stuff he was tired of thinking about. "I hadn't heard that. Good luck."

Sel Lech cocked his head "Sir, you're on the Imperial Council. Surely you could put in a good word for me."

Why would I do a thing like that, Shining thought to himself. How had the young noble decided to seek out Shining, of all ponies. "You want me to advocate for you." Shining said. How was he going to let the starry-eyed lad down? Shining had no interest in meddling on the Imperial Council, especially not for Sel Lech, Twilight Velvet's pawn. "Okay, uh, why? You actually want to be city guard captain?"

"Well, yes. I think it would be interesting. My family didn't have the connections to make me an an IHG squire, nor enough money to send me out to squire for a country lord. That's always constrained me to the role of a courtier. But I never admired statesponies or spymasters, but rather ponies like your father with inspiring gallantry and strength of character, borne of the confident skill as soldiers."

"My father's a good duelist but he isn't exactly a soldier. Besides, the captaincy isn't about literally battling crime. It's about politics and administration." Shining deadpanned.

Sel Lech shook his head. "That was the folly of Barley Bale and Hauseway. They act like secretaries when they should be acting like knights, leading from the front, and putting the spirit back in the rotting institutions. I think I have a youthful energy and élan I could break the city guard away from the politics, and bring back the civic honor that service has lost of late."

"But why do that? I don't-" Shining Armor was baffled. But, thinking on it a bit more, he saw how Sel Lech's words fit into the speeches Twilight Velvet had made about the dignity and unity of Canterlot and the unicorns broadly. It seemed like Sel Lech Sabonord was still loyal despite the rallying point of Seacrest getting away from her.
Or was Sel Lech, like Seacrest before him, trying to get out of Velvet's clutches by seeking a sort of imperial patronage. Shining hated himself for getting curious. Fuck politics! "You're going to get harassed by the cliques in the Estates and noble courts. Either you appease them, or you're cooked."

"How can it be that the late Barley Bale appeased them and was still cooked?" Sel Lech prompted.

Because he was stupid, Shining thought. "Barley Bale had a base of support in the Inner City lodges, built on patronage and graft, and he had powerful sponsors, but his ambition outran them both and he was caught without his backup. And what kind of backup will you have? You don't build a durable power base off of rhetorical appeals to honor and a 'glorious' past. Not in Canterlot."

"I don't share your pessimism, Lord Armor, but I understand it. It can all be done better." Sel shrugged. A total non-answer.

Part of Shining respected Sel Lech's drive. Yes, Sel was one of Twilight Velvet's creatures, he'd had a much longer history in Foaly Flux's court. "Well-" It wasn't Shining's job to dissuade Sel, but he couldn't in good conscious help him either. "Plainly, I'm just not in favor at the Imperial Court right now. I would hurt your came more than I could help it."

Sel's expression shifted to one of concern. "Surely not! I thought Councilor Prosser was a friend of yours and he is ascendent in the Council right now."

"I don't think the councilor knows what a friend is." Shining said. Nor me for that matter, he thought. "You would have better luck going to the councilor directly." Shining nodded back towards the entrance to the temple. "He has been on decent terms with Lady Velvet so he might be open to your solicitations."

Sel shrugged. "I thought of that, yes. Only, I'm a touch more fond of you, Lord Armor, for aforestated reasons. I consider you a stallion of the utmost honor and worth, and I respect your opinion even if I do not agree."

The words seemed sincere, which pleased Shining despite his the leaden cynicism that had been growing on his soul. "Thanks." He paused, thinking. Oh, what the hell. Cadence had ordered him to do what his heart felt right. For a brief deluded moment Shining dropped his cynicism and let himself believe that Sel Lech had what it took to be a diligent reformed for the city guard captaincy. "If you wish to run the risk, then we will go speak to the councilor together."

Sel Lech's eyes lit up. "Oh thank you sir! I- I'm already imagining it. You are a good friend indeed and if I am made captain you would have my eternal camaraderie."

Sometimes bad comrades were worse than no comrade at all, Shining thought. "Sure." He trotted back towards the temple. "Come on then."

"Uh, oh? Right now?" Sel hesitated, then galloped to catch up. "There's a service going on, isn't there? I..., uh..."

Shining grabbed Sel's shirt in his telekinesis and pulled him through the door, and up the darkened aisles. A few more ponies had left since Shining had dipped out, but Twilight Velvet and Iillor were still lingering around, as were some castle staff, a couple local nobles, and a few scattered mares that might have been Fancy Pants's various girlfriends. Crucially at that moment, Councilpony Prosser was still lounging off to the side, snickering and joking to nopony in particular.

"Goodness." Sel Lech huffed, pulling himself free of Shining's magical grasp. "Not so dear after all, sir."

"And not a captain yet, young sir." Shining quipped back. He led Sel up past the dark casket, to where Prosser was. "Good afternoon."

Prosser was dressed more reservedly than one would have thought, but less than would be hoped. Yes, his attire was all mourning black, but it was a rendition of a noble's hiking clothes, short pants over pantaloons, a cloak over a tunic and collar; That is, offensively stylish for a somber occasion.
The councilor sat up and doffed his cap a few times. "Oh hello, oh hello. Solemn times to reflect on life, and its end, do proceed here. While the world spins on, we mourn for he for which it stopped, our dear Fancy Pants." He couldn't keep a smile off his face.

"Show a little restraint. Even my mother is being more respectful than you." Shining Armor grunted.

"Why? Life is sad and then we die? Fancy Pants is probably in a better place now." Prosser said. "Of perhaps several different better places, since all that could attend today were a few limbs and bits of his torso."

Shining felt queasy and Sel Lech audibly hissed in disgust. Was it true? Had Fancy Pants's body really been mutilated and (mostly) stolen out of the morgue? It disgusted Shining in several levels, not the least because it could have somepony covering up their tracks in the murder, erasing a detail that Shining had missed which could have revealed the true killer.
"All of us end up in about the same state after a hundred years mouldering." Shining mumbled.

"Hey, don't think I'm not offended about it too. But what do you expect me to do, eh? The City Guard already said they'll look into it. I can either be a miserable asshole, lamenting everything going on, or I can try to find the ironic or amusing side of things." Prosser said. "For example, imagine all the things those thieves could be doing with the greater part of Fancy Pants's body. They've got his head, spine, and private parts, so-"

"God damn, shut the hell up. I didn't come to-" Shining pinched his nose and unwound with a few deep breaths. Damn Manered and Cadence, thinking this was his forte! "Councilor, let's digress. Our mutual acquaintance here with me, Sir Sel Lech Sabonord, wishes to put himself forward as a candidate to the position of Captain of the City Guard and watch of Canterlot."

"Does he? Eh, why not. I'll talk to Lord Seacrest Blackhorn about it and we'll get you a uniform." Prosser shrugged.

Shining Armor stood absolutely still, trying to decide if Prosser was joking or not.

Prosser leaned back into his chair. "Sir Sabonord, come by the castle tomorrow and we will see about putting your appointment to an Imperial Council vote."

"Right." Shining glanced back at Sel, who seemed just as surprised. "Should he go talk to any of the other councilors?"

"If he wants." Prosser shrugged dispassionately.

So that was it then? Did Prosser really have an iron grip on the Imperial Council? ... probably not. What was more likely was that after the rapid changes in leadership, the councilors had stopped caring, stopped deliberating, and were content to shuffle through Prosser's action items unopposed. After the tongue-lashing from Princess Celestia, Hauseway must have completely retreated from the castle, probably to reinforce his status among his noble patrons and in his clique.
So...

Feeling untethered, Shining drifted away from Prosser and Sel without a word. Was it for the better or worse? Did it matter? He wanted to find his way back to the barracks. Maybe he would yell at the knights for a while, refocus himself while he disciplined them, until he thought of something else to do that day. Something useful? Was there anything he could do?
"I'm out of here for real this time." Shining murmured.

Or not. Nearing the exit once more, Shining almost collided with a group of ponies who were just then entering the temple.
A few of them were soldiers, unicorns with foreign styles armor and unfamiliar crests on their flanks: A mountain peak with a sun setting behind it. Leading the pack were two distinguished ponies:
In the very lead, a distinguished unicorn with a severe gaze, a small mustache and sideburns.
To his side, a fairly young earth pony colt with long hair.

“You.” The older unicorn locked eyes with Shining. "Are you the pretender vizier?"

"Beg your pardon?" Shining could see the stallion was at least a little important, maybe a middling Canter noble house.

"How much more clear can I ask it? Are you the pony who illegally occupies the seat of the lord vizier of Equestria?" The unicorn asked, his tone demanding. "Or perhaps you are that other one, a certain..." At a glance, one of his followers produced a letter for him, which he quickly read down. "Twilight Velvet? Are you Twilight Velvet?" He rolled the scroll back up. "Nay hardly. I jest. That is a smart uniform though. Greetings, Sir."

"What the hell? Who are you ponies?" Shining Armor uttered.

He felt a hoof on his shoulder. Two ponies, Velvet and Iillor, had snuck up on his and were standing to either side.
"Greetings, Lord Duke. Welcome to Canterlot." Twilight Velvet said. Matching the unicorn stallion's imperious glare with an impish grin. "Or is it welcome back? Come and sit and we can all mourn for that worthy foe of yours, won't you, Lord Lightdowser?"

The dignified unicorn stallion, Sharphoof Lightdowser, Duke of East Unicornia, was not in the mood to humor the requests of strange mares with devious eyes. He felt the subject of a derisive inside joke, which was true, but perhaps not in the way he would have expected.
"You more properly fit the description of Twilight Velvet." The duke's eyes shifted back to Shining. "So you could be her relation, Lord Shining Armor, Knight of the Imperial Household Guard."

Shining Armor said nothing.

"I see you need no appraising of the situation here." Velvet said. "So, will you stay for the service? We can talk at length afterwards."

Duke Lightdowser was not done assessing his adversaries yet. He lastly turned to Iillor. "You would not be Twilight Sparkle." He conspicuously twitched at the sight of her hornlessness.

"No, I wouldn't be. But don't count me out when it comes to magic." Iillor shot back. "So don't push her ladyship too hard."

Lightdowser did not dignify the threat, turning back to Velvet. "I am not amused that I had to find my way here from the skydock."

"Don't remember the city layout? Oh well, we'll be there for you in the days to come." Velvet shrugged. "Now, let's not despoil this holy threshold with bitterness. Will you come in for the funeral, or won't you?"

Lightdowser pondered in silence for a moment, then nudged the earth pony colt beside him. "Do you wish to see Fancy Pants, Risky?"

The young colt nodded sheepishly.

"Very well." Lightdowser grunted. He nodded to his knights, who withdrew back into the street. "My son wishes to see the late vizier so we shall." He said, a subtle venom to his voice. Taking his son Risky's hoof, he stalked up the aisle and took an empty pew.

Shining Armor slowly turned to his mother, his expression blank. "You."

"Good afternoon Shiny. Did you enjoy the air up on the Mountain?" Velvet winked. "Yes me, yes me. But aren't you happy? Rumor had it that you came up with the idea of inviting a well-resourced country lord to seek the viziership. Barley Bale intimated as much to me before his death."

"This is so outrageous. Completely, totally..." Shining huffed, annoyed beyond words. "That was when the viziership was EMPTY. As much as I don't like that vacuous idiot Seacrest Blackhorn as vizier, I accept him-"

" 'Cuz you installed him." Iillor chuckled.

"But if a headstrong lord like Duke Lightdowser is here to rouse for the position," Shining hissed. "the imperial institutions will be PERILOUSLY weakened by a battle for the viziership."

Velvet snorted, shaking her head. "As a pony with the power to command violence of frightening proportion, don't you think it is in your hooves whether that battle is literal or metaphorical, Shiny? Either prepare yourself, or finish the battle here and now."

Shining Armor looked past Velvet, to the duke and his son waiting in the pews. "What a tasteless joke. Even if these temples bore me they are sacralized to our princess-"

"What is more important? The vacuous norms and shambling traditions of this empire, or the pragmatic defense of your princess's heritage." Velvet interrupted. "Trust me, nothing would honor your princess more by shedding the necessary blood in this place."

"... ... No. I will not. Good luck with this madness of yours." Shining left the temple, for real this time.

Iillor watched the swag of Shining's tail as he cantered out of sight. "That poor boy. He probably thought you were washed-out of politics after Seacrest was snatched away from you." She giggled.

"Quiet. Go sit down and don't antagonize the duke any more." Velvet ordered.
After a moment's consideration, Velvet closed and locked the temple doors, then circled around the entire hall to the front where Prosser and Sel Lech were chatting. "You've had your laughs. Start the show already." She growled at Prosser.

Prosser, still riding high off of his little victory over Shining Armor, only spared Velvet a smug glance. "Lady Velvet, good to see you. You didn't return my wave earlier. Hey, if you want to work out joint custody for Seacrest, that will have to be negotiated with him in attendance. We could split him, like 'ol Pants. Which hemisphere do you want, front or back? Left or right?"

Velvet tapped her hoof impatiently, once, twice, then knocked off Prosser's hat and grabbed him by the back of his neck with her telekinesis. "Councilor, you can rely on your inviolate empire to protect you from my poor naive son. Can it protect you from a determined and bitter pony?" She forcibly turned his head towards Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser. "A pony like him, who's come to Canterlot to revenge himself on everything we care about, everything quintessentially Canterlot?"

Prosser struggled violently for a mere moment before calming himself, to try to control his wincing under Velvet's grasp and to see what she demanded he see. "I don't recognize him." He admitted.

Velvet released the squirming councilor. "Start. The. Funeral." She ordered. Her eye flicked to Sel Lech. "Introduce yourself to the duke. Be very friendly, Captain Sabonord."

Sel Lech smiled apologetically to Prosser and trotted away in the direction of the pews. After a few more seconds of glowering over the councilor, Twilight Velvet returned to her seat.

So a few minutes later, after running around to finally wrangle all the clerks and priests, Prosser was at the podium. Curtains were drawn over several of the windows and incense piles were lit up. Organ music began to play from overhead.
"Thank you, everyone who has gathered today, under the smiling sun of our beloved princess (metaphorically speaking), to honor the late vizier, Fancy Pants." Prosser droned monotonously, a last bit of mockery of the event. "A most special thanks to the departed, and what of him could make it."
Prosser paused, nodding the room to invite a chuckle or two, but there was nothing except the organ music.
"Okay, bad joke? It's not so bad, just that we had to divide the budget for this event for the one we'll hold when we find the rest of Fancy Pants. Heyy, that one wasn't as bad, but really, no judgement, if the thief is present, please return the corpse bits."

Twilight Velvet, legs crossed, was splitting her attention between Prosser's eulogy and the back rows where Sel Lech was trying to chat Duke Lightdowser up.
Iillor, however, was back to vibrating anxiously, a nervous half-grin as she glanced around the darkened temple. "Musician's Guild mares in the naves. They got in after you locked the door."

"Tunnels under the city, or through the roof." Velvet grunted, not sparing the earth mare a glance. "They're just observing, unless Phyte herself shows up. Control yourself."

Iillor scratched her chin, eyes still darting around. "Yeah, yeah, staking it out to see if Pants's killer returns to the scene of the crime. Or something else..."

Just shut the hell up, Velvet was tempted to reply. She was having some regrets allying with the nightmare, who was ruled by erratic impulses and inscrutable intentions. Her full utility had not been realized... yet.

“Fancy Pants was my friend for as long as I remember.” Prosser was saying. “Which is to say that life before him was not even worth remembering, so dear and so distracting he was to me. He brought a sense of purpose to my life, and made me realize that sometimes it’s not just about the individual, it’s about the group.
“With ‘ol Pants there to guide me, I learned that arresting one pony at a time was a waste of resources. From the first he lead by example, and revealed to me the path to arresting the masses. Politics, Pants always said, is the tool by which ponies bind and divide. And although I don’t think it was politics that binded then divided him, I’d like to think that it was the spirit of politics that spurred that move.”

"Nope." Iillor snickered softly.

"These are trying times, little ponies. Fancy Pants was fighting the good fight against the forces of obscurantism and utilitarianism, until it mercilessly crushed him. It is up to you... Or, maybe not you, but somepony, to take up this most noble cause until another brutal murder ends that fight." Prosser stepped away from the podium. “Okay, I've never attended one of these before. Does someone else speak now?"

"Yes."
Duke Lightdowser stood up and trotted up to Prosser and the casket. All eyes in the temple were upon him now.

Sharphoof Lightdowser- Now that he was drawing attention to himself, everypony silently asked themselves who the stallion was. By ostentatious Canterlot standards, the duke was remarkably plain, in only a dark tunic with his family sigil embroidered on each side. His coat and mane were two slightly different shades of yellow. His eyes and mark were green, his mark taking the shape of three blades of grass.
But the stallion had the cultivated, purposeful disposition of a ruler. He took the time to look at every pony in the crowd, his thin frown and slightly narrowed eyes betraying an analytical distrust of the crowd, as though they had been assembled against him.

Sharphoof pushed his short mane to the other side of his horn and launched into his somber speech. "Thank you, Councilor. Your reputation for virtue among the provinces seems well deserved." His deep voice was in direct contrast with Prosser's. He turned to the gathered mourners. "And thank all of you for coming. It is more than Lord Pants would have expected. My knowledge of Sir Fancy Pants dates back about a decade, when I was the other contender to the position of vizier of Equestria. He was a better politician, and he won out." He shifted weight between his legs. "Canterlot is loath to acnowledge its defeats. Fancy Pants's death was a loss, not only for this city, but for all Equestria. His unfortunate passing has signaled to me that it is time for me to return to Canterlot to serve my empress. With every effort of my soul, just government can be preserved for ponykind." He leaned onto the podium, signaling a shift in the speech. "Villainy has been flourishing without a princess-risen vizier. I can be that vizier, noble of soul. I have already secured the assistance of other interested parties such as Admiral Rain Gnash of Cloudsdale, to excise the cronyism and hooliganism that runs rampant from top to bottom in Canterlot."

"At least Prosser's jokes were funny. This is just a stump speech." Velvet rolled her eyes. Since she had closed and locked the doors, the audience for the kick-off of Duke Lightdowser's Canterlot blitz was just a few confused priests, a couple genuine mourners, and his own son Rusty who rapturously followed his father's words.

"Wow, another stuffy demagogue here to exploit that your princess is truant." Iillor said coolly. "I'm baffled by this one. Let me stab him with the dagger."

"Don't lay a hoof on him or I'll kill you." Velvet warned. "Don't touch the pegasus either."

"What pegasus?" Iillor asked.

Velvet rolled her eyes. "Weren't you listening? Rain Gnash. Oh whatever, you'll meet her soon."

Duke Lightdowser's speech continued.
"I am more than familiar with the culture of corruption in Canterlot, as doubtful much has change since last I was here. Who better than I can recount how patronage and self-dealing can influence a lord, a councilor, or even a vizier. But now I see it every city in Equestria, where networks of conniving courtiers and low nobles run the house while the lords and ladies waste away with petty indulgences." He tapped the podium. "This has to stop, as it should have been a decade ago at the last vizier selection. It will be MADE to stop, through the proper use of policy and the steady hoof of a devout vizier."

If only Shining Armor had stuck around to realize the implications of his mother stealing his idea: Invite a powerful landed noble to take total control over the imperial administration. Where Shining Armor had imagined it would control the chaos, Twilight Velvet counted on the exact opposite.

Though... tuning out from the speech, Velvet wondered how successful she would be if she put her full effort into the cause of peace. Would she be even half as successful as her son, or even a dullard like Hauseway? Maybe her soul was asymmetrical, and only useful for malign purposes... a true villain born! Or was that just some other voice, an evil spiritual force (a god, even!) in her head that was distinct from her... allowing a detachment of mare from agency. Velvet had accepted, to a certain degree, that she was not the most virtuous of ponies... But was she incapable of virtue? She stared at Iillor for a while, as the nightmare pretended to look elsewhere- Perhaps she was not as different from the monster as she fancied herself.
What was so now would not be so forever. Velvet the mare would be vindicated All concepts of virtue would collapse down into a single dimension that apotheosized her own values into a new zeitgeist. The true treasure of victory would be Twilight Velvet becoming a good pony.

"The guildmares are gone, escaped through the rafters." Iillor mumbled.

Velvet's attention returned to reality. "Hm? They off to report the situation to the Mistress. Hmm." She reflected on the holy symbology around them for a few moments longer. Bless me ye terrible goddess. "Then we've stuck around long enough." Velvet left her seat and Iillor followed her out of the temple. Duke Lightdowser's speech was muffled as the doors creaked closed behind them.

Iillor let out a sigh of relief. "About time. Any more bored and I would have started some shenanigans in there."

"I don't care. You heard Shiny. There's madness to do." Velvet said.
She paused for a moment. In the cramped plaza in front of the temple, walled in by stately baroque row houses and trafficked by all the well-to-do ponies of the Old Town.
Dwelling in her dark mood, Velvet wondered at what their fates would be if she triumphed. How would the ponies she claimed to be championing suffer or prosper? If she was truly only capable of evil, then perhaps their suffering was inevitable and inescapable.

"Yeah? What do you want from me?" Iillor snapped, impatient at Velvet's introspection.

"The aforementioned pegasus admiral, Rain Gnash, will be arriving soon to rendezvous with Duke Lightdowser. You will greet her at the skydock. Take Blueblood with you, and Aurthora if she wishes." Velvet ordered. "I have to make some arrangements, so send a dragonfire message to the Chateau la Garde if there are any issues."

"Uhh, okay. Are Blueblood and Aurthora already at the gatehouse?" Iillor asked. She could tolerate a couple thoughtless errands, especially if they involved Shining Armor. Was she going to tolerate this?

"No, so go fetch them from the Black Horn Council hall." Velvet said. "Is that clear enough? Am I going to have to have my maid accompany you to hold your hoof?"

As condescending as Velvet was being, Iillor was discerning to the intent that she be the lieutenant on that task. "So, why do you think I would care about some pegasus?" She posed. "How does she feature in your plots, ehh? She going to be bothering Shining Armor, or maybe Phyte?"

Despite her mood, Velvet cracked a devious grin. "Just get going. If you can not be bothered to have a dream of your own, I will not make you privy to mine." She turned and trotted off.

Iillor glanced back at the temple. "Maybe I should make it my ambition to put up a nice shrine or temple to my goddess... Nah, too much work, and she wouldn't appreciate it." She set off too.

Cadence dropped the book she was reading.

Manered looked up from the records he was slowly deciphering, regarding the princess with concern. "Is everything okay, princess?"

Cadence was concentrating on something he couldn't perceive, perhaps something magical or far away. Her expression was calm but she was immensely tense, making the table and chair vibrate with her.

Then just as quickly she relaxed, letting out a soft sigh. "No, brother, nopony can answer affirmatively to that question, and perhaps not for the next hundred year. Something very bad is happening in Canterlot."

Manered felt a chill. "Is her highness's condition so bad? Can you sense it? Are we too late?" He had not wanted to contemplate what failure meant.

"For many things, yes." Cadence said evasively. She took a moment to rub her eyes, "but maybe not too late to save Celestia. Let's continue." then went back to reading.

Up on the Southern Watchtower, Celestia had felt it too: Like a muon streaking down from the atmosphere at the speed of light, a particle of magic lanced down from the space, passing through the monastery, the junior princess, and the Mountain underneath her, and out the other side of the planet.

Celestia slowly woke up from her mindless contemplation of the horizon, to interpret what she had just seen. Her eyes tracked the path of the magic had taken, back up into the sky, up, up, up... right up to the afternoon sun.

"She doesn't understand your language. She lacks the book for it." Celestia said quietly, holding back the urges to snarl and scream. "I am your sole interpreter on this earth. Do you have a reason to be displeased with me?"
With the enthralling moods and unwelcome visions assaulting Celestia, perhaps the Sun was jealous, for it seemed other divine entities were intruding on her avatar.
"Do you think I want to be like this?"

The sun had no answers for Celestia, simply shining down on her the same as if she were any other pony.
But Celestia knew what impossible things roiled behind the light, an impossible godly inferno of intent.

Or perhaps Celestia did not understand as much as she thought. Could it be... Where for all history the same emanations of phenomenal reality had shone down from the sun, was it possible for something else to happen? That was to say, was it possible for the sun not to shine?

"Or are you trying to confuse me, keep me uncertain before our Summer Sun? I will not go quietly." Celestia asked, as much to herself as to the sun. "Just stay away from Cadenza."

But the south horizon was captivating her again. The thought did not progress.

The to-and-fro of mortals should have been of the keenest interest of the empress of ponykind, but so much was passing unnoticed by the apathetic alicorn, and it was doubtful she would have done more than stare at any messengers: Duke Lightdowser had been moved into Canterlot, so now came the pegasus.

A thick cover of clouds rested just under the level of Canterlot's plateau, lapping up against overhanging skydock that hung off the southwestern wall.

From their vantage point atop the skydock gatehouse, Blueblood, Iillor, Aurthora, and Molar spotted a portion cloud begin to bulge.
"Would that be them?" Blueblood asked.

"Who the hell knows. In this much light, your eyesight is probably better than mine." Iillor shrugged. She gestured forward. "Let's go greet them.

They made their way down through the gatehouse to the dock. The bulge in the clouds grew to the size of a house, then popped in an airy instant. A large, sleek transport airship, rose higher, turning and showing off its full profile against the white horizon. Five more shapes burst out from under the cloud, ponies. The pegasi flanked the airship as it made its graceful approach to the skydock.

"Somepony's been in contact with the Canterlot factor." Blueblood mused. "This weather was designed for that dramatic entrance."

Aurthora shrugged and Molar was mute to that assertion.

Once settled against the skypier the airship extended a ramp to the ground. The pegasi escort landed in formation atop it, and held a collective salute. They were clad in light armor and electric blue capes, embroidered with golden thread in the shape of stylized lightning.

"Wow, Wonderbolts." Aurthora noted.

The Wonderbolts: Cloudsdale's greatest knights- Or at least what passed as a knight in pegasi culture. Their presence, more than the advance airship and the weather, betrayed the identity to this visitor from Cloudsdale.
Another dozen Wonderbolts led a column of disembarking civilians, clerks and the like. They oohhed and aahhed at the mighty city walls and the towering fortresses and castles.

Blueblood eyed these strangers with suspicion. Did the pegasi intend to stay?

"I should have asked Lady Velvet what the buck this admiral looks like." Iillor remarked. She approached one of the Wonderbolts, still frozen in their salute. "Hey, which one of you is the big shot?"

A throaty chuckle, and a creak of the disembarkation ramp, announced her: "Was the Lady Velvet more impatient than I was led to believe?"
A green pegasus sauntered down the ramp, a Wonderbolt on either side. Admiral Rain Gnash was overweight, not morbidly so, but enough to slightly stretch the whirlwind mark on her flank. Her short red hair framed a pair of purple eyes. She loosely wore a jacket of the same color as the Wonderbolt uniform, and a rapier hung at her waist- If one looked closely, they could have spied the symbols of the IHG upon the weapon.

"She's the most impatient patient pony you'd ever meet, and I'm even worse." Iillor eyed Rain Gnash up and down. "Because I have to wait on her, and her target."

Rain Gnash received the immediate sense of the earth mare. "That's nice, but I didn't come to talk to Canterlot thugs. I let the meat work it out amongst themselves." She stepped past Iiilor to Blueblood and Aurthora. "Nice welcoming party. Next time, consider working in a pegasus instead of two horns and two hooves."

Despite his general confidence in his own geniality, Blueblood was intimidated by the grand mare. Though she was only a bit older than him, Rain Gnash and her farther had been prominent figures in castle politics during his youth. It had been nearly a decade since the Cloudsdale Clique had left Canterlot, but now they were back!
So, how was Blueblood going to play the conversation? "It will not be so difficult now that you all have returned, nay? And how welcome too!" He laughed. "Lady Velvet welcomes you unreservedly, and so do we. Sometimes in Canterlot it's not enough to wait for a good opportunity. We must make opportunity.”

Rain Gnash's expression shifted into an unimpressed smirk. "Sure. Or perhaps I didn't care to come around. Some really sincere begging does change my mind, from time to time."
She pivoted away from Blueblood and advanced up the skydock, the clerks Wonderbolts filing behind her.

"Uhh..." Blueblood watched her trot away before making an effort to follow. "Lady Velvet had every desire to be here if pressing buisness hadn't occupied her. In the meantime I can accommodate however I can!"

However Rain Gnash wasn't all that interested in the welcoming committee. “Captain Spitfire!” She bellowed.

The Wonderbolt who Iillor had been bothering jumped into the air and landed into pace beside her admiral. "Admiral!" She saluted again.

Rain Gnash gestured towards Blueblood with a wing. “I’m assigning you to liaison with Lady Twilight Velvet and her bunch. Lady Velvet is, in turn, our liaison this godawful city.”

“Very good m’lady!” Spitfire affirmed.

“Of course it is."Gnash waved away the captain, before calling out for a second pony. "Fleet!”

Another Wonderbolt, with all blue, stepped forward. “Admiral!”

“Find that ass Duke Lightdowser. See if he's scoped out the city. We will want a coordinated plan of action ASAP. I'd be damn stupid to try to take on this city unprepared.”

“Indeed it has, Admiral.” Fleetfoot launched into the skies, circled once, and darted over the city walls into Canterlot.

Aurthora, having watched this in silence, finally spoke up. “You would surely let us know if you harbored disrespectful intentions for our sacred city, Lady Admiral."

Rain Gnash laughed to herself. “Ah, no dainty threat, like I shouldn’t make an enemy of you lot. Because between us big bitches, honestly, buck all you inbred unicorn pissants." She shook her head, matching Aurthora's frown with a grin. "Alas and alak, this is where my princess's capital is. I swore proper oaths to do the right thing. Sometimes, the right thing is reminding malefactors that 'ol Cloudsdale’s air force isn’t just for show.”

Blueblood nodded agreeably. "Oh. Very good, honored Admiral. Was there anything else?"

"Nope." Rain Gnash picked up her pace, getting away from the welcoming party and passing into Canterlot through the skydock gate.

"Hmm, I remember her being nicer." Blueblood rubbing his chin contemplatively. "Do you think it's too late to ask Lady Velvet to switch me and Sel Lech out? I'd much rather parley with the duke."

"Do what you wish. I think it is imperative we put the Black Horn Council and allies on high alert. We do not want our paramilitaries pounced on unprepared." Aurthora said grimly. "This is exactly the situation we prepared for: A foreign force conspiring to tear down Canterlot's ancestral honors."

"I'm not sure it's exactly what we prepared for, considering how they came to be here." Blueblood shrugged.
They both turned their eyes on the lone pegasus left watching them from down the dock.

"It's my honor." The Wonderbolt named Spitfire saluted again.

Iillor trotted up. "Yeah don't talk to them. They're not meat." She said with a too-wide grin.

"I've been ordered to liaison with your mistress, so I'd ask you take me to Lady Twilight Velvet. At your leisure, of course." Spitfire said, her tight expression conveying how much it was not actually at their leisure.

"We will get to her, trust." Iillor nodded. "Come along then, my winged friend, and welcome to Canterlot."

"Jerk. You've only been here for a month." Blueblood grumbled.

Iillor gave him a wink, then led the party back into the city.

“It’s nice of you to see me Shiny.” Night Light coughed.

As safe as the Canterlot dungeons were, it was not the most homely or hygienic environment. The Twilight-Bright patriarch worried every day that he might be wasting away, losing his keenness, maybe even losing bits of sanity in the bare and cold prison.

Shining didn't register his father's greeting at first. He stared blankly. "Huh? Oh yeah... I well, ahem, Are the guard treating you well?"

“I think they’re friends of yours, because they keep apologizing to me. I tell them that it’s nothing to be ashamed of to do your job, unless you think it’s wrong.” Night Light said. “The prisoners bother me a bit. That is, it's not what they do, but who they are. They're decent ponies and I don't understand why most of them are here. Still, there's the occasional bad pony." His eyes wandered to the cell across from his, its occupant hidden beyond the light of the firefly lanterns. "Some ponies you might have even heard of." He looked back to his son. "Then there is me, who is worst of all, right?"

Shining idly wondered if his father was trying to guilt him. Maybe if he weren't so exhausted from the funeral he would have called Night Light out. "No, you're not the worst. Nopony, especially me, thinks that. I’m sorry I couldn’t come down to see you sooner."

Night Light looked concerned. "Oh? How is everything?”

“Uh, well, politically. The city is still mostly calm.” Shining said quickly. “But things feel so strange, like I can't describe, like we are sleepwalking towards... a precipice. I don't know exactly, but I have a very bad feeling.”

Night Light shook his head. "I meant with you, Shiny. Are you sleeping well? Eating well?"

Far from feeling comforted by his father's concern for him, he felt blown off. "Maybe I would be if I didn't have to think about all that stuff I mentioned. For better or worse, it's my duty."

“Do not worry when you don't have to. With you and your mother out there, I doubt very much that the situation will get out of hoof. You have very good swordsponyship, and she has an impeccable mind.” Night Light said confidently. “How is Twilight Velvet?”

Shining grimaced internally. “I hope you're not expecting me to check-in on her while you're here. I'm sure she's fully applying herself." If he started explaining he'd be there all afternoon.

Night Light chuckled. “I get that sense. She visits, but doesn't share everything. Maybe it's good that there's nothing noteworthy."

There was a LOT noteworthy. "I'll stick to your euphemism that she's fully applying herself. You probably know more about what goes on in her head than I do." Shining grumbled. "You're the one imprisoned, not her, so you're who I'm worrying about right now.

"I don't want you to worry. I'm as glad as can be that you came to see me down here, but I'm not at any risk." Night Light promised. He adopted a pondering expression. "It's probably for the best I'm down here. On the Canterlot streets I would be a target of ponies trying to get at Velvet. While I'm squirreled away in Celestia's dungeon she can focus on other things than me."

"Don't say something so silly father!" Shining said, slightly aghast. Would somepony really go after his family members the way they had Fancy Pants or Barley Bale? It made him feel queasy to even think about it. "Nopony has any reason to want to hurt you. I had to be humble before my captain and princess, but you have royal guarantee of safety."

"It is illegal to do crimes but they happen anyway. Murder is a sin but some ponies see it as a legitimate way tool of political competition, and ultimately, domination. When an empire is on the line, is killing one pony so alien? You've killed ponies while enforcing the law, which you felt as the right thing to do in order to preserve the justice of the empire. Revolutionary violence is the preemptive violence of a regime yet to be born." Night Light said. "Tell me, how intolerable would the world have to be for you do conduct your own revolutionary violence, Shining? Are you always going to be doing it on behalf of others?"

Shining was shamefully reminded if his coup in the throne room, dismissing Cadence's court at Hauseway's orders. "Since when were we talking about revolutionary violence?" He asked.

"It's what I tried to tell you during that play-duel in front of the gatehouse: Everything changes. Feels like a lifetime ago. Oh, no matter." Night Light let out an airy laugh. "My rambling is not that important. Like I said I don't want you to worry or get hurt."

"Ditto." Shining said vacantly. "Are you really going to stay in here? Like, for as long as you can?"

Night Light’s light mirth died. “It might be that my freedom comes with sacrifices. You have to think about what kind of suffering you would be willing to accept, personally and to our world, in order to free me."

"What's that supposed to mean? Please stop talking about suffering and death." Shining balked.

Night Light paused, working up the words. He reached through the bars and pulled Shining closer.
"You're a knight, Shining. Violence is your vocation; Instrumental violence on behalf of ponykind's government. But when you defended your captain against me, you placed yourself irrevocably in the path of a world-historical transition. I really believe that, and I told you as much." Night Light continued. "Sometimes even very smart ponies don't notice how the world is changing around them, because the way it changes is too large for just one pony to see. That makes it impossible to defend against, but also impossible to fight for. But there's going to be an inflection point, and soon. We kill the old zeitgeist, metaphorically and literally."

It was not the kind of thing Shining expected to hear from his father, a practical and serious stallion, but rather like something his mother would say. "That still doesn't mean anything to me." He said. "Are you talking about somepony coming to harm you, me, or the princess? I'm not going to let any of that happen. That's a promise."

Night Light sighed and retreated away from the cell bars, laying himself out on his cot. "I'm fine, clearly. But change is bearing down on us, and it's starting to take it's toll. Frie Fellowship, Fancy Pants, Octavia and Lyra, Barley Bale, and some other ponies whose names I don't remember. Sometimes, life and death is just a series of meaningless events." There was a trick of inflection, implying an instated 'but' at the end of Night Light's platitude.
It was ALL leading up to something.

Thoughts churned violently in Shining Armor's head.
From the breadcrumbs and hints he had, things came into some focus for Shining. He didn't want to confront the possibility that his parents were involved in some kind of real and dangerous conspiracy against Equestria... but between their actions with Seacrest Blackhorn, the new connection to Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser, and now Night Light's hints... Shining had face it: Twilight Velvet was not just seeking power within the imperial order, she was somehow in a dire plot to upend it.
But wait- Prosser had explicitly said Fancy Pants had not been killed on Velvet's orders, and knowing the murderer's identity would put him in great danger. That could mean it was Lightdowser who had plotted the late vizier's murder, so he could step into the spotlight. Seacrest Blackhorn's unexpected appearance had disrupted that plot, though, which would put Velvet at odds with the duke. Unless... Prosser was lying, but he had been so adamant... so who was on who's side? It made NO sense!

Shining abandoned the fevered theorizing and retreated into firmer mental firmament, and to the stability and constancy of his duties. "The safety of the princesses comes before anything else, even a vizier." He said quietly.

"I am a faithful stallion. Your mother too. Only very stupid ponies would try to unnecessarily involve the alicorns in these mortal games." Night Light said. "Cadence is a good mare and a real sweetheart. I doubt any of the schemers milling about Canterlot would dare hurt the princesses, Shining."

"The most outrageous dares are the most enticing." Shining said, feeling ridiculous as he said it. He felt so much more unmoored than five minutes before, much more unsettled than an hour ago, and much more frightened than he had been that morning. What a miserable day. Life was treating him so unfairly! "I should go. I have so much to think about."

Night Light nodded. “Of course, Shiny. Thank you so much for coming to see me." He lay back on the cot. "Canterlot needs you more."

"I'm not a Canterlot guard. I'm a knight of the princess." Shining said. "I just... I do what I can."

"That's a good attitude. And Shiny, before you go, I want you to promise something.”

“Promise what?”

“Promise that if things get worse up there, as in violent, you won’t risk yourself for me. I’d ask you not to risk yourself at all, but I gave up that right when I let you become a knight.” Night Light said somberly. “I’m not worth near as much as you are Shiny. I-” His voice cracked. “It was unforgivable, what I did to you, my only son. I attacked you! Oh heavens... I've let sin consume my mind more than once. I’m not perfect Shiny, and I’ve let emotion take me to the brink. I’ve nearly done inexcusable things. No, no, I HAVE done inexcusable things. One day I’ll have the courage to let you return the pain I've caused you.”

Shining wished he could pass through the bars between them and hold his trembling father, for both their sakes. “You know I forgive you, or I'd never have come.” Would he have the courage to forgive himself he let everything go wrong?

“NO! Not just at the gate, Shiny! Ever since Twilie left...” Night Light squeezed his eyes shut. “Come back soon Shiny. I'll have more to say. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Shining Armor mumbled. He turned away from the cell and made his way out, slightly in a daze.

The unicorn wasn't left alone with his thoughts for long. The IHG knight at the dungeon's guard station flagged him down. "Sir Armor, a couple senior knights were looking for you. I told 'em you were spending time with your venerable pa and showed 'em the door."

"Uh, thanks I guess." Shining mumbled, then continued on to the ground floor. He needed time to think but he would not get it.

As expected a contingent of IHG knights were waiting for him in the grand hall. "Sir, there's pegasi in the city!" One of them blurted out.

Another knight knocked the first on the head. "And I'm a pegasus dumbass. What he means, Sir Armor, is that there's Wonderbolts in Canterlot. A few of them are watching all the entrances to Canterlot Castle, and we're getting city watch running in from the Old Town and Inner City saying the Wonderbolts are surveilling the plazas, lodges, and guild halls."

"Wonderbolts. " Shining repeated idly. "Wonderbolts?" He said again, more alert. "Oh shit."
The instrument of Duke Lightdowser's clique, the means by which he intended to project power and muscle into Canterlot politics... That definitely meant involvement from Cloudsdale!
Alas if Shining had hung around the service a few minutes longer he would have heard Lightdowser say so himself, and used the advance warning to prepare. "Put all castle guards and staff on high alert. Send runners to the Old Town to retrieve the officials still at Fancy Pants's funeral." He paused. "That includes the new Captain of the City Guard, Sel Lech Sabonord."

Twilight Velvet burst into the main hall of the Chateau la Garde, startling the petty nobles and courtiers hanging about and chatting.

The maid looked up from the tea service she was providing. "My lady, is something the matter?" She asked.

Velvet galloped across the hall. "All of you louts get out! Go to the Black Horn Council Hall and arm yourselves, then await Blueblood's or my next order." She pulled a pushed a few of the ponies as she ran past, the disappeared up the stairway.

"You heard her ladyship." The maid nodded, and after confirming all the guests were hurrying their way out, followed Velvet up to the higher floor.
The maid found her mistress pouring over correspondence and notes in the bedroom. "Need anything Lady Velvet?"

"For you to be silent... but for a moment." Velvet whispered. Her eyes raced down the page, then back to the maid. "Everything is moving too fast and too slow at the same time. We're so close. So so close." She paused. "How is our mare in the basement doing?"

"Atrophying, crying out for her friends, barking at me." The maid reported. "I do not think she would be of much use as an assassin anymore, if that's what you were planning."

"Certainly not. For one, Octavia is the servant of the bitch we need to kill. She's better used as she is now, as a carrot for Lyra Heartstrings. Will she survive long enough, is the question." Velvet asked.

The maid stared blankly.

"That bad? Well..." Velvet's voice trailed off, eyes going back to her notes. "Hopefully we can keep her alive a little longer."

The maid considered this for a moment. "There were several guild mares among those visitors you shooed out. The Guild Mistress's noose is tightening." She softly cleared her throat. "If Octavia dies, Lyra Heartstrings may go back over to Phyte. This whole household is done for. They may even target your daughter."

Velvet nodded. "Phyte is the biggest hazard. There were guild mares watching the funeral too. We've survived her so far. By now, Phyte knows that the Duke Lightdowser is in Canterlot. It's time to go on the offense against her, and pin that Star against her position. If Phyte clings to Celestia, I can skewer her with the Wonderbolts. If Phyte abandons Celestia, I can skewer her with the IHG."

"That seems to me to be a very careless attitude to take towards a Star. You are still a mortal and even her desperate flailing can smite you." The maid remarked.

Velvet wasn't listening. "If Phyte vacillates, I can skewer her with both. Stars are not so easily finished off." She sighed and pushed away the papers. "Conventional weapons, or magical ones... maybe if Octavia dies we can put a bomb in the body and let the Guild Mares bring it in. Or, leveraging Shiny, we force Celestia into a position where she has to burn Phyte out."

"Those are all terrible. I note once more, my lady, that such a course of action borders on recklessness." The maid said.

Velvet grumbled but let the comment sit, simply reading in silence for a few minutes longer. Apparently satisfied, she shoved the papers back into the desk. "Why are you chiming in now?"

"It all previous times, your ideas were good, my lady." The maid nodded.

That drew a dark, irritated laugh. "Has some of your devious wit grown back? Took you long enough." Velvet rubbed her eyes. "You wouldn't dare criticize me if you didn't think you had a better idea." The two mares locked eyes, Velvet's portending a petty vengeance against her insubordinate servant, the maid's ever calm. "Very well. Show me some of that old magic. If you keep me from Phyte's grasp I might even love you again."

"Those words please me, Lady Velvet. Rest a while, will you not? Such a godly brain must be burdensome." The maid said, ever-so-slightly smirking.

Velvet rolled her eyes. "Yes yes. Go make some tea and bring it up, then get over to the Old Town and it all things out."

"Octavia-"

Velvet interrupted. "I'll pop down to the dungeon to heal Octavia if I remember." She said "Actually, forgo the tea. Just get to the Old Town. Now go. It's not like I need to be tucked in."

"Very good Twily." The maid bowed and withdrew from the bedroom.

Velvet shook her head. One of these days, when apotheosis wasn't on the line, she wouldn't rely on that mare so much.

The maid found Iillor, Blueblood, Aurthora, Molar, and an unfamiliar Wonderbolt crowding around a single table at an Old Town street cafe. The unicorns were sharing useless Canterlot gossip while the earth ponies and pegasus sipped their drinks.

Iillor noticed the maid's approach first. "Oh phooey, the nag with the orders finally shows up to spoil the useless sitting around I just love doing."

"Control yourself. Be worthy of the trust vested in you." The maid rebuked her. "Where is Sir Sabonord?"

"The castle, I believe. Some IHG hunks swept through here a while back pulling staff out of their lunch breaks." Blueblood said.

Aurthora nodded. "The response to the Wonderbolt's appearance has been unexpectedly active. I don't know what Sir Hauseway is thinking. He is usually more coy about preventing panic."

"I ain't seen any panic so his calculation was better than yours." Iillor teased.

The Wonderbolt cut in. "Are you Lady Twilight Velvet?" Spitfire asked the maid.

"Is she dressed like a noblemare?" Blueblood snickered. "Maybe that's what Cloudsdale nobles look like, but this mare-" A very severe glare from the maid informed him of the wisdom of ending that sentence there, which he did. "Err, she speaks for Velvet."

"I thought you spoke for Lady Velvet." Spitfire said impatiently.

Aurthora shrugged. "What did you expect. Your Admiral is jerking us around. You getting the same treatment is simply fair play. Discourteous I know, but alas."

"Be silent and listen." The maid snapped. "You are to go to the Black Horn Council meeting hall and rendezvous with the paramilitaries. Proceed immediately to the Musician's Guild Hall and put it under your protection."

Blueblood leapt from his chair. "What the hell? Are you devil-possessed? There's no way Lady Velvet ordered that!"

"I echo Blueblood. That is an outrageous provocation." Aurthora's voice quivered

The maid tapped the table. "It must be done. Immediately. Your lady's life is on the line. Do you understand?"

Iillor let out a sinister snicker that slowly built into a laugh. "I think I understand. We're going to protect the Musician's Guild hall. Hear that lad? We're going to go, urgently and without delay, to protect the Musician's Guild hall."

"I hear it obviously. Why are you saying it like that?" Blueblood stared.

Aurthora nudged him, a knowing look in her eye. "No, I understand too now. It's of the utmost importance. The Musician's Guild Hall must be protected."

Blueblood ground his teeth as he tried to understand the situation. "Am I the crazy one? We'll be butchered if we try to go against them." He released his tension with a sigh. "Fine, you lead, Aurthora."

"Mis Iillor will not be joining you right away. She will be coming with me to the castle to find Sir Sabonord." The maid said.

Iillor rose from her chair. "Shame that. Good luck at the Musician's Guild hall guys." She nodded.

"Buck me, this shit gets worse every day." Blueblood mumbled. He and Aurthora bustled down the street towards the council hall, Molar in tow. Spitfire, glancing back at Iillor briefly, followed the unicorns, sputtering her own curses.

Alone now, Iillor leaned in to whisper to the maid. "Two guild mares watching from the upper floor of the shop across the street. A Wonderbolt was on the roof directly above us. They've just taken off to report."

"Heard everything, have they?" The maid asked impassively. "My-oh-my, it would be unfortunate if the IHG and city watch were also tipped off to the situation sure to develop at the Musician's Guild hall."

"I bet those dumbass Wunderbolts thought Blueblood was cringing from a confrontation with them, rather than the guild mares." Iillor snickered.

The maid let them in the opposite direction from Blueblood et al., to the base of Canterlot Castle. Across the plaza, at the great doors, Shining Armor was addressing a contingent of IHG knights. Off to the side, Sel Lech Sabonord, Councilor Prosser, and a few city guardsponies were arguing, intermittently breaking huddle for one of them to talk to Shining Armor.

"The boys looks good in that crowd." Iillor followed Sel Lech with her eyes, then to Shining.

The maid tutted. "Keep your hooves off of him, nightmare." She abruptly stopped in the middle of the plaza. "You must handle it. If Shining Armor sees me he will know Lady Velvet's involvement."

"Uhh, he known I've been working for her for weeks." Iillor pointed out.

"Yes, but because it is you, Shining Armor will let himself be deceived, as he has over and over again." The maid said wryly.

Iillor shook her head with a playful ruefulness."Jerk. I'd love to have a crack at you after I wring that nasty Star out."

"I will be waiting." The maid turned on her heel and trotted out of the plaza.

Turning back towards Canterlot Castle, Iillor noted that most of the IHG knights had dispersed or withdrawn into the castle. Shining Armor had gone over to talk to Sel Lech and the city guards.

"That cheeky maid got more than she bargained for with this showdown she's cooked up." Iillor was, despite herself, feeling a hint uncertain and anxious about the prospect of violence. Walking into a confrontation that somepony else had prepared was extremely unwise- Nevertheless Iillor was just impatient, daring, and bloodthirsty enough to imagine a positive outcome. The prospect of carnage excited her. What could go wrong? It's not like the ponies could permanently damage her.
"But maybe just maybe I'll get a good shot at Phyte." Iillor allowed herself a goofy grin. She would need to pick up the dagger from where she'd hidden it.

"Mis Iillor!" Sel hailed her as she drew nearer. "Smiling like that, I'm assuming you're carrying good news?"

Iillor straightened up and overcompensated with a strained frown. She was going to mess the damn thing up if she didn't fool Shining Armor. And indeed she had Shining Armor's attention, as the whole group faced her expectantly.
"You're very mistaken." She said gravely. "I think the Wonderbolts are about to attack the the Old Town."

Everypony groaned or gasped (for various reasons) except Shining Armor. "Be more precise. What did you mean and what did you see? This is no time for misinterpretation." Shining demanded.

She'd gotten him. The maid was right: Shining couldn't help but credulously believe Iillor. "A dozen of the uniformed pegasi, Wonderbolts I guess, were converging on one of the guild halls in the north end of Old Town, you know, near the gardens." She said quickly. Hopefully her lies would be born out. "I think I saw some other armed ponies heading in the same direction. I guess, umm, even if the Wonderbolts aren't going to do anything nefarious, the militia or whatever is planning on confronting them anyway."

Sel Lech went pale, immediately intuiting which militia Iillor was talking about. "Oh gods." He gasped. "Surely they're not going to the Musician's Guild!"

"I- I'm not sure. I think that's the direction..." Iillor feigned hesitance. "If I'm remembering the street layout right... then yeah, it was that blocky place with the columns, the Musician's Guild." She threw Shining an uncertain, vulnerable expression. "Is that bad?"

Ignorant about the true nature of the Musician's Guild, Shining Armor absorbed a completely different set of implications. "It's a voluminous building in the classical style. I could see why the Wonderbolts would plan to commandeer it. But if some proud guild vigilantes refuse to quarter them, that's huge huge trouble. We don't want a diplomatic quarrel with Cloudsdale at this critical time."
In the back of his mind, still assimilating so much memory through the new worries about violent factional infighting and the assassinations, Shining did wonder if this news was a set-up. By whom, he could not even guess.

To everypony's surprise, Sel Lech shook off his pallor and stepped forward. "If I'm going to be the Captain of the City Guard, it's my responsibility to stop lawless and unjust acts in Canterlot, and that means keeping the peace. Sir Armor, I know you're concerned about the castle. Your first duty is to the princesses, so you should remain here. I'll show you that youthful energy and élan I touted!"

There was never any chance Shining Armor would pass up a chance to play the hero. "Don't be silly. I'm satisfied with the situation here, so I'll definitely spare myself, and a lance of knights, if it has the least chance of securing the situation." Shining said. The opposite case, that running in with more soldiers and arms escalated the situation, did not occur to him. "Besides Sel, you haven't even been put forward to the Imperial Council yet. You're not really a captain yet."

"Ahh, so just a little closer to captain than you are, Sir Armor? See you at the guild hall." Sel Lech chuckled. He waved his group of guardsponies forward. "Come on then lads and lasses! Those Cloudsdale louts had better keep their wings off our innocent citizenry!"
The clump of ponies galloped off in a great rush.

Shining stood stunned for a few moment at Sel's last remark. It almost dissuaded him...
Until Iillor chimed in again. "Is that colt and a few part-time coppers really going to stare off fully armed pegasi? Hopefully at least one of the sides can be talked down."

Carried by his hubris, Shining was infected by her words, and immediately assured himself that he could negotiate with the Wonderbolts if nopony else could. "God, I hope you really were mistaking things." He muttered. He motioned to the nearest IHG knights by the castle door. "Gather everypony who's at armored station in the barracks. Grab some halberds and arquebuses too. Triple time!"

"Sir!" The knight saluted and galloped in the direction of the barracks. Shining ran into the castle to gather his own armor and what knights could be spared from the watch.

Throughout the exchange, Councilpony Prosser was silent, until he was the last pony in the plaza with Iillor. "Is this my reward?" He asked, broken-hearted.

Iillor's anticipation grew, and it was a great struggle to keep from showing her glee. The slow cracking of the political society of Canterlot, set off by her senseless act of violence during the killing of Fancy Pants, had nearly reached its end. "This has nothing to do with you unless you get in on it now. The kill already has many vultures circling. Don't want to miss out."

Prosser squeezed his eyes shut, maybe to suppress tears or to avoid the nightmare's smirk this last time. "Aye... But I raised the hart and loved it dearly. Please, reconsider. Are not dreams of chaos, held by the few, outweighed by dreams of peace, held by the multitude."

"If you thought you could balance a Star, a nightmare, the alicorns, Velvet, and the peace of Equestria, all by yourself, you're a fucking idiot." The facades of civilization and propriety would break down and let the mettle of ponykind truly be tested- The Nightmare of the Moon would be so jealous!

Chapter 15: Mirror Phase I

It was daylight. Why was it daylight?
It had never been daylight hours before, where Twilight Sparkle found herself in the ruins of the Everfree Castle.

"Wait... What happened?" Twilight shook away her weariness to look around.
She was in the antechaber before the throne room, and the sun was streaming through the holes in the roof, illuminating the path forward. Beyond, the roofless throne room lay completely illuminated. The melted thrones and obsidion Nightmare Altar looked completely in the sunlight than in the moon's silver hues.
"But... I'm still asleep, right?" Twilight tried to use her magic and could not. Yes, still in a dream. She didn’t remember the circumstances of her being asleep at such an odd hour.

Twilight stepped in to the throne room. The sun felt strange on her fur, but then again things often felt strange in the dream. She squinted up at the divine star. Could the Sun watch and guide her like it could in the waking world?
Oh well, no more wasting time. Twilight cantered the length of the throne room to the Nightmare Altar. She felt better than normal, energetic but tense, almost like a clockwork toy that had been wound too much. Her head and neck ached slightly, but the rest of her felt fuzzily pleasant. Twilight felt determined, dangerous even.

"Hark, Nightmare of the Moon, I am come!" Twilight announced to the altar.

There was no response response, but Twilight could sense a slight change, and a whiff of something that could be the moon's power. If the altar was tethering the moon, the magical threat was invisibly reaching through the ground below. In the waking world that would disrupt the magic, but the dream had different rules.

After getting closer, Twilight announced herself again. "Lady Moon, It is I, Twilight Sparkle, brought before you once more to make a pact." She said, adopting a somewhat pompous tone.

There was a psychic rasp, and the Nightmare's voice cut into her mind. "...madness. Sheer madness. You have commited youself to death and failure, pony. Of that, I can portend with certainty.” The voice dissolved into a crackling painful hiss.

“Death? Don't be so dramatic. If its the sun your worried about, it's really not that bad.” Twilight said. "And I'm not to blame for that anyways. I tried summoning the dream during daytime and it didn't work, so this is your doing."

“No. Per usual, ignorant sun slave, you haven't the slightest idea..." The Nightmare's voice coalesced from the hiss again. "You have not summoned a nightmare, you have made one. I can see it from here, the signs of your deeds. Ignorant, but nevertheless contemptible..."

What had Twilight done to deserve this? "That's rude. I was hoping we could start out more amicable this time. The insults and violence could come later." Twilight joked mirthlessly. "You should want to be on my good side, Lady Moon. Before long I am going to put my plans into motion, and stand on this spot in the waking world. Then the onus really will be on me to summon up a nightmare."

Nightmare paused. “Sparkle, I think... We may be discussing two different things. I was hasty in assuming that you would deliberately debase yourself. That was beneath me. I do not begrudge accidental virtue."

Twilight felt like she was still being belittled. It was probably true. "Everything is beneath your highness." She said snippily.

“That is not what I meant.“ Nightmare cautious with her words. “We have a lot to discuss. Open this pact that I may be let through.”

“Oh? Do I really deserve this royal visit. What an honor” Twilight fluttered her lashes. “Only I wonder, what do I have that you want, my lady? And what do you have that I want?" She grinned deviously. "My words might just be echoes in a dream right now, but things will be different soon. You can come and go in the dream, and it is meaningless. When we are really face to face, and you ask to let me through, that is when my decision will actually be important."

"I sound certain that day will come." The Nightmare said.

"Do you let yourself believe otherwise?" Twilight shot back.

The silence that permeated the throne room was interrupted by chirping birds outside. Clouds passed over the castle, shading it momentarily. It was a bright and sunny day, but Twilight felt only cold shadow in her heart.

“If you tarry the altar will compel you with its dark music, Sparkle.” Nightmare pointed out.

“Let it come." Twilight said, utterly confident in herself. She scooped up a chuck of ruble. "I am not inclined to be compelled to anything right now. I'd rather end the dream on my own terms." She playfully tapped the rock on the side of her head.

Nightmare's voice was sounding very odd through the crackling. Twilight could almost describe the tone as concerned. “Twilight Sparkle, before you vehemently denied my posits that victory was the fruit of confidence. We must reverse..."

"Victory? I'm just going to wake up." Twilight said.

Moon growled. "Lo, how every frustration is a victory to smug contrarians. This mal-earned disposition ill befits you, unicorn."

Twilight was not the least bit intimidated by the phantom's words. “What do you know about 'mal-earned'? You were given everything by circumstances of your creation, then you used your power to bully and take. I survived despite mortal weakness, and you have to face the truth of this mortal's power. You're the smug one, but your chiding can't altar the road to my peace, Lady Moon.” Twilight cackled. “Ha! See what I did there? 'Altar' my course. Ha!”

“Lady Sparkle, listen closely: Such a strange thing, a psychic malady which has taken you, surely unnatural.” Nightmare insisted. “It is, I suspect, that mind and soul tremble at the dark contradictions within you: a negative reaction to the sin you have imbibed.”

“What? Are you calling me a sinner? Are you joking?” Twilight spat, suddenly irate. “I think the dark gods in your head have driven you insane, you stupid heresiarch.”

“Nay, it is the Dark god in your head, Twilight, driving you. Lady Sparkle I swear to my benevolent intentions in this matter. Let me through.” Nightmare was almost pleading. “Allow me to help. I will offer anything.”

“Well of course you offer anything, when you think you can kill me to void the pact.” Twilight retorted. Still, the phantom alicorn's more meek tone pleased her. "That won't be happening tonight. I will be in control. You will come and go how I please."

“Do not persist in this foolishness. Only a few nights ago you, in your deference, asked for my assistance in your designs.” It was in Nightmare Moon's nature, despite her efforts, to match Twilight's aggression, thus she seethed and growled at the pretensions.

“If I find you useful, I'll use you. But I need a tool, not another mother. Do away with that condescending concern, for I have as little patience for it as I do the threats. Talk but a bit more, and I'll know you're predictable enough to be tamed to my purposes.” Twilight cackled.

Euphemistic overtures were not getting Nightmare Moon as far as she hoped. This incarnation of Twilight Sparkle worked on different rules.
The nightmare's voice boomed through the telepathic link, free of distortion. "Twilight Sparkle, you have transgressed. You committed a primeval sin and feasted on another pony's soul, so risk becoming an ab-mortal Star. This can not continue."

A slight breeze came in through the broken glass window. The perpetually molding banners and flags fluttered slightly. Why was it so cold in the middle of the day?

Twilight was motionless for a while. The Nightmare was accusing her of... eating somepony's soul?
First thought: Outrageous lie. The Nightmare was just trying to manipulate her.
Second thought: Interesting revelation. The Nightmare was scared and jealous of her.

"You don't say." She smirked. "Lady Moon, I'd like to hear more about the Stars, and all the types of forbidden and forgotten magic from a millenium ago." She fancied ditching Nightmare Moon if there were better prospects for power.

Nightmare's response was quick. “No."

“Tisk tisk, It's the only way I'm letting you through.” Twilight said.

It was a damnable dilema. The Nightmare had to weigh the risks of making the pact and fulfilling it, against poisoning the well by killing Twilight awake or torturing her mad. "Something terrible has possessed you." She said. But was it possession? The Nightmare could not tell if what she was sensing was extrinsic or intrinsic to the little unicorn's nature. This mare, Twilight Sparkle, could be genuinely dangerous. That disturbed the nightmare; her ability to victimize Twilight with impunity may only last so long. "You flounder in ignorance. You do not know what you ask."

"I'm directly asking you to cure my ignorance, Lady Moon." Twilight said impatiently. She heaved the rock again.

A flash of fear shot through the nightmare. She had to find out what was going on with the mare. "I have ignorances of my own you can solve."

“That's good enough for me. I accept this pact.” Twilight said. They were agreeing to vague terms but she didn't care.

The blue magical glow of the altar was almost invisible in the sun, as the summoned specter appeared. Nightmare Moon's specter was only barely discernible as a patch of darkness in the air. Twilight held her head up, grinning arrogantly up at the translucent alicorn.

Nightmare Moon instinctively raised a wing to protect herself from the sun, but it was just as etherial as the rest of her. She glanced around, then retreated into the shadow of one of the partially collapsed columns. Satisfied with her shelter, her eyes turned back to Twilight.

“Lady Moon, if I'm possessed it is only by a good humor. I suspect I have you to thank for it. If so, I should be sorry for teasing you. ” Twilight laughed softly.

“In the way that all disasters beget great or terrible deeds, I am at fault, yes. WIth certainty, you would not be such as you are, had you never encountered me.” Nightmare Moon assessed sadly. “I may even trace it to particular actions and words of mine. For you to become a real pony, and not just a slave to the sun, the ambition and dream within you had to be resurrected. You accepted my conceit, and it led you here. I fear I will come to lament this."

“Oh, you think you pushed me too far? I can get this paternalistic pablum from Celestia.” Twilight shook her head. “Nightmare Moon I've been talking to for a month was an anarcho-darwinian psychopath. Are you really that mare? Does a bit of sun flip a switch that makes you a pussy-cat?"

“I am Nightmare Moon.” Nightmare didn't sound confident. “Or rather, she is me, but also something more. I remember something, or somepony else." She shook her head, as if dispelling the intrusive thoughts. "It is immaterial what I am. What you are, may have far more reaching consequences for you mortals. You could be something more than Twilight Sparkle, partly by choice, partly by dark circumstance."

That pleased Twilight's ego immensely. "I can't deny liking the sound of that. Who doesn't want to be important?" Twilight struck a pose. "Back in Canterlot I understood my life would forever be enmeshed in the sun princess's empire, and my life was defined by its fortune, and my purpose was its proliferation. When I met you I began to dare to imagine... imagine that my life could be lived for my own ambition, and that there was a dream in my head that mattered, if only I could discover it. That's why I thought I needed to free you." She explained. It wasn't entirely true but it was close enough.

The Nightmare nodded morosely. "You liberation cam much sooner than anypony could have expected. The fact is this: There is an abominable dream within you, Sparkle. From whence it came is too terrible to imagine."

Twilight chuckled at the Nightmare's melodrama. She sauntered forward, leaning into the shadow of the column. "Is that what this is? Why I'm so ALIVE?!" She patted the Nightmare's shoulder. "If this was the condition of ponykind before becoming Celestia's slaves, I now completely agree with what you were saying. She really did sap our vital and vigorous juices. Ponies who feel like THIS would never accept subservience."

"You feel like that because you ate part of a pony's soul, Twilight. You are experiencing an altered state of mind." The Nightmare countered, brushing Twilight's hoof away.

Twilight leaned back and scowled. "I'm experiencing... some kind of magical high?"

"You are." The Nightmare agree. "You are being spurred to delusion. It may be only the high, the dream, or even a naiscant nightmare within that dream. I sense many things, confused and contradictory, all worrying. You must give up your manic foolishness for your own sake. Then your dream can be judged on its own."

"For my own sake? Am I not powerful enough?" Twilight frowned. "Then if..."
Yes, she remembered the vaguest details. Moon was telling the truth. She had attacked another pony? Yes, she had used a spell on somepony, bitten away some of their magic. But Twilight had done more than just hunt the poor pony. She had formed some kind of magical connection that she didn't anticipate, didn't understand, and Nightmare Moon was mistaking for her 'eating' that pony's soul. Twilight had... had done what? She didn't know yet. She would need more evidence, a larger n, more experiments.
She felt the thrum of the nightmare altar behind her. Oh, she had her suspicions, of how she had ensnared her victim just like the dark altar had ensnared her. It had to do with the awakening of her dream then? Maybe. She only had conjecture for the moment.
"If I'm not powerful enough, I have to hunt more. Isn't that what lines up with your worldview?" She whispered playfully, glancing up at Nightmare.

"You invite your doom." Nightmare rumbled. "Do you not comprehend the sin of it? That Star urge is unnatural." She slumped back against the column, her nebulous mane flattening and flowing around it. “How starkly fitting these horrors are revelated in a daytime dream. I am going to fray apart in these conditions, unraveled by the spectacle of the future. I retch to even contemplate it!"

In contrast to the unnerved and fretting Nightmare, Twilight had no doubts, and no confusion.
You see, dear Lady Moon, the holy moon granted me my dream back, and in so doing anointed me with Dark power heretofore reserved to you and your nightmare ilk. I'm positive that if I can only learn to dream more strongly, and find out more about this untapped power, I can banish all alicorn influence on me at will. I will be a truly free mare, able to live for myself.
Twilight did not say this though, but merely grinned. "I don't understand why you're so worried. If you tell me more about the Stars, or those other scary things, I might grasp the situation better."

The Nightmare sighed and sat up. "You will not be able to conquer the Stars, or alicorns, no matter how great you become, mortal."

"I deserve the right to try. Why are you sad I've come around to your ideology? What was the point of waxing philosophic if you weren't trying to convince me?" Twilight scoffed.

"You don't understand a tenth of my ideology." Nightmare sneered.

"Thank goodness I don't care to. I have my own life to live, by my own set of rules. Pray tell, Is that what Stars do? Is that what alicorns do? Based on your words it's not what mortals do. Where do I belong now, Lady Moon? I summoned you to explain this to me." Twilight demanded. "Don't waste my time or I'll kill myself right here."

"Attempt it and I will restrain you." Moon warned. “I have never wanted to waste your time. Every word is necessary context for what we are about to embark on. It is an invitation to insanity either way, but the more prepared you are, the less you may be damned."

“I lack the patience for your lies tonight” Twilight barked. “I may be weak now, but I am stronger than yesterday. I see the horizon as clear as day, where I am different from what I am now. I will be more powerful than anything any of you can contain. It's to your benefit to get in my good graces while you can, alicorn."

Nightmare Moon sat in silence for a while.
What was she doing, humoring the arrogance of this pony? If she crushed Twilight Sparkle now, the mare would never again pose her any issues, not with her allegiance to Celestia or her horrible dream.
But did Nightmare have any other actual avenues of escape back into the waking world? Could she really obliterate this mare she had built a rapport with, who was on the cusp of undoing her centuries-old imprisonment?
And Twilight had grown on her. The pony deserved to be saved from sin.
“I must refuse."

Twilight paused, then looked to the stained glass window. She reached out with her magic and broke off one of the last shards of glass still in the window. "Here I go." She pressed the shard against her own throat. "And these feeling would exercise themselves against the waking world. Would you like that, Nightmare?"

The Nightmare of the Moon hung her head. "I would not."

"No? You wouldn't like for me to unleash myself against the pitiful ponies of the waking world? That wouldn't amuse you?" Twilight arched a brow. "I thought they disgusted you! You ranted against their conceit, their duplicity, and their arrogance! Don't you wish to see them humbled?!"

"I do not wish for you to eat them, Twilight Sparkle." Nightmare Moon admitted.

"Why aren't you stopping me? Which part of that frayed mind wants peace, which wants war?" Twilight stoically twisted the glass shard, cutting her skin and drawing blood. "You should talk."

"Please Twilight, you should go first. I need... I need to hear you talk."

"Hear me talk?"

"To be comforted by your words, the way you talk. It is a part of you that a Dark could over your mind can not change." Nightmare said softly. "I do not wish to converse with a creature of Dark. I entered the pacts to speak with a pony, not a nightmare."

Twilight twitched. How caring the nightmare was acting, she thought. Sentimental nonsense. “Very well. You're owed your questions eventually."

"Twilight, what has informed your previous notions about what the most powerful magic in Equestria is? What, besides me, has led to this moment?"

"Haven't you seen it in my mind? I saw a passage in an ancient tome, Predictions and Prophecies. It alluded to the powerful magic that Celestia the First used to defeat you.” Twilight explained. "So you must have at least a little understanding of what was used against you."

"..."

"That detail wasn't so important at first. Everything pertaining to the Nightmare Pretender was much more salient, for what I thought I had to tell Princess Celestia." Twilight continued. "But now, with time to dwell on it, I can see that even in a dream you are a transient, empty. You're the means by which I grasp what Celestia once did."

Nightmare winced at Twilight's cruel words. “And you hope to use that magical power, so vaguely identified, against somepony? Against me?”

Twilight looked at the altar, then back to Nightmare. “Why would I bother to use it against you? Explain a bit more and I'll tell you how I might use it." Twilight spoke coolly and dangerously.

Familiar words for Nightmare Moon. She had said something similar long ago. "Delirious little pony. You are grasping at only the bare idea of ambition. Gain the most powerful magic, and use it to its fullest: It is fantasy you speak."

"Is every few sentences going to be punctuated by this preachiness? It's worse than when it was murderous outbursts. ” Twilight scoffed. “Don't disappoint me Moon, really. I won't have as much mercy on you if we ever meet in person."

Nightmare Moon looked away, then back to Twilight, her expression solemn. Drawing herself up, she stepped past Twilight into the beaming sunlight. Her etherial form warped and distorted under the golden rays, making it difficult any edge or detail of the alicorn. But her eyes still glowed bright. "Gaze upon me. This is the travails of a divine who was utterly vanquished, her dreams discredited and suppressed. My holy moon, legions of ponies, and scores of abominations supported my claim to the throne, yet here I am."
She would have to tell the truth about the Stars. Maybe it would save Twilight.

But for the grace of the gods, so too will I thus be, Twilight though. "The Stars features in that prophesy too, though I don't exactly remember how. It's time you explained them, exhaustively. It's not some evil society of astronomers, are they?"

Exhaustive. It seemed most of Twilight was still there, still insatiably curious, but grating obnoxious. The Nightmare retreated back into the shadow before she began the explanation.
"Perhaps in a sense they were astronomers, but they were undoubtably evil. The Stars were a cabal magicians, adhering to a splinter ideology from a society of immortals who date back the Ancient Alicorns. This older extinct group, The Astrus Signa Numeni, was a council of survivors of the destruction of the Tower of Bard, headquartered in Hippogryphia, which grew to include several of the diminished alicorns, some mortal leaders, and the primative avatars of the sun and moon. The Numenia, while officially a vassal of the heavenly court, dissolved into civil war only a few centuries after the destruction of Bard, ending the first period of divine governance of this planet. The gryphs captured almost all of the remaining ancient alicorns, and they remain enshrined in their land, cadaverous and weak, to this day. The Stars were a more modern recreation of the Numenia, re-founded by some of the surviving members here in Equestria when Celestia and I descended."

"Bard... Bard was destroyed almost three thousand years ago. And you alicorn sisters came just over a thousand years ago." Twilight did the math aloud, inviting further explanation.

"They were twelve in number, but only three of them were immortal to begin with. They three had been part of the Numenia, once dispersed now rejoined. The other nine were a mix of sorcerers, knights, warlords, and rogues, who had chanced across the immortals in their various quests for power and riches. They formed the Stars, a conspiracy which served no master but their own ambition, pledged to exploit the return of the alicorns to their own ends."

Twilight rubbed her chin, nodding appreciatively. "So that's why you hate them so much, eh? They 'exploited' you."

"They did, though that is not nearly the only reason to detest those worms." The Nightmare grimaced. "Besides my own hubris, above even Celestia, nothing is more to blame for my lamentable state than they are. It was they, not Celestia, who first unleashed that 'most powerful magic' you are after, at the climax of the Siege of Everfree."

"So, what... they destroyed you?" Twilight asked.

"N- No it was... Celestia. Celestia used that magic against me. The Stars betrayed me and assisted her with it." Nightmare struggled to explain, not solely for the complexities of magic she did not entirely understand, but for the pain she felt recalling those fateful moments. "They Stars were my allies at first, and their leader Astral was nearly a friend to the moon princess. I was blind to their plots. The Stars needed great energy for a spell like no other, and alicorn power was the most convenient source; They had survived the destruction of Bard, which had inadvertently catalyzed the first incarnation of that magic. With Celestia and I warring, we were inadvertent mill-horses bound to their scheme."

Twilight listened, enraptured. "This magic was what destroyed ancient Bard?"

"Nay, it is still the Ancient Alicorns and Heavenly Court who destroyed Bard. But what occurs to a cosmic particle when it crashes into this word? It is torn apart, creating a cascade of energy and magic that ripples imperceptibly across dimensions, driving forth the will of distant heaven, the same way sunlight carried the Sun's will. Thus is was when the combined attention and magic of a whole race of alicorns and the whole court of Heaven was pressed against one minuscule spot, Bard, three thousand years ago." Moon clopped her forhooves together. "Apotheosis."

"Apotheosis." Twilight repeated. "The apex of... divinity. Or, the creation of god?" She regarded Nightmare quizzically, then skeptically, then seriously. "This magic is what gave the Numenia you mentioned immortality? It's an immortality spell?"

"It's much more. It is the realization of impossible things, of making the unreal, real, of bringing dreams into reality, and of stripping away all the rules which govern everyday reality and imposing the fantastical, the arbitrary, and the intentional. It is a wish. What it did to the Tower and to Bard is beyond description. What it did to me, Celestia, and the Stars two thousand years after is but an echo of its power." Nightmare said breathlessly. "It could be a level mountains or erase races of creatures, but mortalkind has not yet been able to harness it so. By pure circumstance, this magic has thus far been used in a very myopic way, but a way for which it is eminently suited: to bridge the natures of alicorn and mortal kinds."

"So the Stars turned themselves into alicorns. I guess that's a variation on an immortality spell." Twilight pondered.
A wish. What outlandish prosaic nonsense. The nightmare was, if not lying to her, caught up in another self-delusion. It would make it more difficult to get to the truth of the mysterious magic ritual, and how Twilight could learn or steal it.

"You betray your revolting ignorance again. They are far from alicorns. Stars are abortions of magic and mortal pretension." Moon said, barely restraining an outraged outburst.

"Well heck, I'm a mortal with some pretensions. Why is it so bad that I should be mimicking them with whatever I'm doing?" Twilight demanded.

"They Stars obliterated their own metaphysical existence. Rejected by heaven from which alicorn soul arises, abandoning the dream from which the mortal soul arises... The Stars are like bugs, squirming phenomena of flesh and magic but with no it there." Nightmare Moon shivered in disgust. "Even lichs have souls. Indeed one of the Stars was a sort of lich before. It is the ultimate act of sacrilegious self-hate to obliterate one's soul. It runs contrary to your mortal existences. You mortals strive in order to further your dream, but they strove to destroy it."

Twilight scoffed. "I just liberated my dream. I'm not about to destroy it."
Nightmare Moon was mixing up old grudges and present anxieties. Twilight was almost annoyed to be compared to the Stars, spooky villains of Moon's past, when she had nothing to do with them. "I want about as much to do with them as I do with you: Not bloody much."

"I admit there is an alien distance between us, but surely that is more to find rapport in than with those scoundrels who once had your nature and threw it away contemptuously!" Moon was struggling to get her point across. "The blind hunger for power, by which you find yourself seek out your dream's fulfillment, could divert you down the Star's path. You are not conscientious nor dignified in your strength. And how for? Because you hunted a fellow mortal."

Enough was enough. Twilight wasn't going to hear any more lame, hypocritical whining from the alicorn. "Inflicting pain and death to get what you want is okay, right up until your arbitrary taboo line? How can you reconcile your ideal world of anarchic struggle for supremacy with some sanctified inviolability of your enemies 'soul'? I WILL eat my enemies soul if I kill them. I WILL get stronger not just through your vainglorious clash of wills, but through my own darwinian conquest." Thoughtlessly, gesturally, she tweaked Nightmare Moon's ear with her magic. "I'll never be weak again, my lady. There's a million ponies in the country to hunt."

Too far, in several ways. Nightmare swiped with all her strength, the back of her hoof striking at the shoulder, a nearly fatal blow if her leg had not dissolved into haze in the sun.
Twilight went head-over-hoof, bouncing off the obsidian altar and sprawling across the dirty stone floor, totally limp.

Moon rolled her hoof. She had struck much harder than she had meant too. She wasn't getting through to the silly unicorn!
"Mortal ambition ever outpaces its ability. Sadly for you, Lady Sparkle, the gulf between is is still a vast as all oceans. Your world's fate is in our hooves, and one garrulous unicorn does not change that." Nightmare Moon rose from the shadows and stalked over the prone pony, disappointment in her eyes. "If you have the guile to defeat this-" She gestured over her body, indistinct and faded in the light. "mere impression of an alicorn, then please do. Release me from this dream as I did you."

After that world-ending slap, Twilight needed a few seconds to remember her name. That bitch! She instinctively turned to her magic again, dragging herself upright. "Never having to talk to you again will be victory enough." She levitated the shard of glass up to her neck again.

"But the idea will remain, Twilight Sparkle. You can not dispel a fact. The Nightmare of the Moon rests on her throne, amongst her enshadowed subjects and grey lands. She will visit you again." Nightmare continued. "And Celestia, however she may exist now, commands a whole empire by your admission. Alicorns, covetous as we are, could not surrender to you even if we wanted to.
"And there are so, so many things in this world you can not conceive of which any unicorn, however powerful she may be, could not defeat with raw magic. The elder siblings of mortalkind will not humor your arrogance. Only in isolation can you be so sure of yourself. That will never be enough for you. You have something to prove to the world, thus your thirst for power is borne forth."

"But..." Twilight ground her teeth. "I can feel it! I know with all my heart I can do it!"

“Your rash action will lead you to disaster, like-"
Moon paused. Would she explain the story of Illustrious Valor to Twilight? Perhaps not. It was not the time. They were similar, but distinct cases. "That is, it will lead you to disaster like it did for me."

“I will be better than you.” Twilight barked.

This was a complete and absolute victory by the Nightmare of the Moon. Everything she had set out to accomplish with Twilight Sparkle had been done: Sparkle had completely sworn off Celestia and her imperial ideology, had committed herself to her own dream, and was absolutely determined to her own self-empowerment.
But it felt awful. Moon could only regard this outcome with horror. It was a combination of things; Most of all that Twilight was being utterly obnoxious where she could be quite tolerable before. A painful icy doubt settled on Moon, that she wondered if she had really desired this to happen in the first place. She felt like a foal who had impulsively ruined something beautiful.
It felt like the latest in a long history of failure. "That may be true. Where does that get you, Twilight?"

"A better tomb than the moon, I hope." Twilight took a limping step back, not wanting to get hit again. "Where do you think I'll end up. Someplace high or someplace low?"
Twilight tilted her head towards the Sun, peering from behind the whispy clouds. "Hail! Your sister has given her blessing. What can you give me? I'm not past redempti-"

In Twilight's minds eye, an arresting vision consumed all thought; A grey-black void, a monumental pillar of stone, a tower beyond all mortal reckoning, stretching infinitely upwards and downwards. And on and around this tower, a swirling cloud of monstrous things, each with a different face, but as they came about in turn to address Twilight, their face was her own. Then a flash of yellow all about them, and the entire length of the tower shattered emitting gouts of rainbow flame, screams every pitch joining together in fear and agony.

Twilight jerked awake. Screaming, screaming, unable to stop herself, for a terror she could barely reckon with, until she deoxygenated herself and passed out again.

The ruined throne room, Nightmare Moon... How long had she been staring at the sun? Her eyes now hurt as much as her shoulder. The impossible fear still loomed over her.
Twilight turned her attention back to Nightmare Moon. They stood in silence for a while until Twilight found the words. "Lady Moon-" She tried to conjure up the vision of the tower she'd seen, and the horror of its destruction. But the details eluded her, but the chastening fear remained.
A few factional moments of attention from the sun chastened her infinitely more than her long argument with Moon. "Ahem, my lady, I have said several unfair things. I'm sorry."

An apology like that, the denouement to a bitter argument, usually deserved a reciprocal apology. However Nightmare only truly felt sorry for herself. "If that is true, and you have recovered yourself, I congratulate you. It may not last, but for the moment I retract what I have said." The alicorn said, relieved.

It was an irritating disappointment to see that Nightmare Moon still insisted on a status difference between them. Twilight felt beyond that. Flashes of supernatural fear would not humble her back to subservience. "Too kind, as always, Lady Moon." She said flatly.

"We may have a conversation, rather than whatever that was before... pointless yelling, suited only to convince oneself." The Nightmare sighed. "I would have run through an ever dwindling line of argumentation, but in the end I feared that I would have had to appeal to the nightmare within you rather than the pony."

Twilight obligingly led the etherial alicorn back to a patch of shadow where her contours were reconstituted. "Explain anyway, if you would."

Nightmare Moon hesitated. "I must extract assurances from you first, Twilight Sparkle. You are not as vulnerable before me as you were. I am not as vulnerable before you as I will be. If I speak further, there will be an inflection point where I am drawn into your confidence, rather than you into mine."

That's already happened, you silly alicorn. Twilight just nodded.

"Just because we are undying does not mean we can not worry for the future as mortals do. We may be each others' balm to these fears." Moon composed herself and threw a half-lidded glare at Twilight. "That is assuming that everything you've said is true, and you are truly dedicated to being your own mare, outside of the sun princess's dominion."

"It is true." Twilight nodded.
It was definitely true then, and probably had been for a long time, only not admitting it to herself. Twilight was committed to escaping the confines which Celestia or anypony else would put on her. She would make a future for herself, absolutely free of the norms and coercion of her upbringing: If that meant she did eventually go back to working for the empire, so be it, but she would do it as a free mare.
Freedom... what did that even mean in a world of ponies and social needs? That inconvenient question was not dwelled upon.

Moon looked over Twilight cautiously, then even more cautiously, glanced upward in the direction of the sun-streaked skies. She was hidden from the sun's direct light, but HER hour was inescapable, HER influence present, inscrutably watching. Could anypony born under the sun's reign, even one as dedicated to her own 'liberation' as Twilight, be trusted?
"My meaning was not so complex. If you desire to be more than you are, a form of being greater than just a mortal- The allegiance of your soul may shift, bound not to the dreamscape as mortals' are, but subject to Heaven like alicorn souls are."

Maybe such concepts held importance for Nightmare Moon, but for Twilight it was esoteric and barely meaningful. It must have signified some kind of status change in Moon's strange worldview, or somesuch. "Despite getting tortured to 'death' several times by you I haven't really had to confront my morality. I'm still young. I'd have to meditate on whether I'd want to be immortal or not, though I'd probably say yes."

"Yes, your youth is bothersomely apparent. Death, your kind's defining characteristic, is also what facilitates everything good about you; That the unworthy can be done away with, and the righteous may clear the way ahead of them. Death and mortal dreams are intertwined. What drives you forward is what undoes you, and what embraces you in the eternal hereafter. Despite the bad attitude you've taken on, pony, I see you are coming closer to a true understanding of a just ordering and life and death on this world." Moon said.

Very poetic. "If you say so." Twilight shrugged. "So, was that really all you meant when you threatened to appeal to the nightmare within me?"

No. "Yes." Moon lied. It would be some time before Nightmare Moon could come clean about the precedent already set, and about Illustrious Valor. "I have have return question formulated so you may ask another. Consider it recompense for my 'nagging', should it please you."

"I apologized. Lay off it." Twilight glared. "I'd ask you to talk more about the Stars if I didn't think it would upset you. Instead, I'll ask you to assess the chances of my surviving Canterlot if I act like nothing changed."

"How should I know the situation in that city? All that I can reference is thousands years past." Moon shifted, becoming severe again. "Lady Sparkle you will be challenging the social order you once supported. By your existence, by refusing to pay homage to the Sun, you will become an enemy to millions of ponies. You will have to face the sun alicorn, who has awesome magical power and abilities. A sane mare would only portend failure for you. If you meditate on death, and decide you dislike the idea of it, you have two options: Flee immediately, or swallow your pride and renew your fealty to the sun."

"That's pretty grim." Twilight chuckled; False bravado. To actually fight Celestia, not just in an argument, not just youthful rebellion, but a clash with the intent to do harm... Yes, empires were solidified with coercive violence, and if Twilight wanted to live out her ambition she would be a target of that violence. "That second idea fills me with revulsion, when I know rationally it's what I should do. I don't want to be a subject anymore, but when I think about any alternative my mind goes blank. This feeling I have, it's empty, hollow..." She whimpered.

"Adolescent floundering is to be expected as you come out from the sun's control. That is why your sins are forgivable so long as you do not commit to them." Moon said.

"..." What an unsympathetic ass Moon was being! Twilight squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't rekindle the total self assurance she'd had before. The longer she was lucid the further she lost touch with the Kraft and Wille zur Macht of her Dream.
She had to be put in touch with it again. She had to be reminded of how to fight for herself. The longer she was under the sunlight, the more the fortitude left her.
"I hunted another pony. What did that do to me?"

That question immediately put the Nightmare on alert again. "I do not know."

"Okay, nevermind." Twilight nodded. "How do I stay on the right path?"

"How does any creature discipline themselves and cultivate righteousness? I have made wrong choices before. I felt pain and rejection too, and could not cope. I suffered hundreds of years of self-loathing after my banishment. It was unpleasant. That is why I forgave you." It really made Moon itch to care so much about a measly pony, to want to steer them right. She felt like a wise sage giving advice to a disciple.

"If I wronged somepony, how is it enough that you forgive me?" Twilight asked.

Let not Twilight go from mania to depression. Nightmare paused, trying to find the best thing to say to keep Twilight's hyper-sensitized ego at a middle ground. "Dominating another pony is not wrong. It is, at worst, a necessary chore. You may have to do so repeatedly in order to self-actualize in this country of sun-spoiled sheep. There may be times it is enjoyable. Other ponies have no right to hold you in contempt for your superiority. Nevertheless, eating their soul is a taboo and a sin against the gods. The ponies would have no right to forgive you for it, only a divine like me."

Clearly, the 'sinfulness' of hunting other ponies was completely bound up in Moon's bonkers worldview. That taboo could be safely ignored.
Twilight had to find that strength again, where she had not been afraid of the alicorns. She would brush against that dream again.
"It won't be that way forever. There will be a time I'm only going to need my own forgiveness." She said cheekily. "And I won't need a century on the Moon for it."

"Bah!" Moon turned away, her void-like mane flicking the unicorn's nose. "Impudent, blasphemous dreamer. How you torment me. Perhaps I am not self-forgiven, and you are a tulpa of old burdens. Yes, it would make so much sense if that dark altar, this throne room, and the figure of Twilight Sparkle were nothing but a stage play manufactured by my own mind."
She sighed. "I suppose you could say the same of me. Would that not be the greatest disappointment? Despite it all, freedom feels so close here."

"Closer than ever." Twilight agreed. But there was still so, so much between it and them.

"But with freedom comes reckoning." Nightmare said ominously. "Who you are is yet to be decided. What I am is yet to be confronted. This is the visage of the moon princess, but what speaks now is something different, I fear. An alicorn, a divine, a nightmare... but only the later is aware of itself. Perhaps only the latter is what exists. As long as I stay up here, there will be no revelation to whether I am the inheritor of these memories within the moon, or merely a parasite upon them."
She cast a glance at Twilight. "You will face something similar."

The confession crashed over Twilight. Was it possible? She would have rejected it immediately but it echoed what Moon had said early about speaking to her nightmare. There was something the shadowy alicorn (or maybe not!) was keeping from her still.
"Damn." She said simply. Her thoughts raced. Nightmare Moon had shown so, so much vulnerability. If only she could keep herself together, Twilight would stay advantaged. Was it ironic that the thing she sought in mania could potentially be the best leverage? The nature of her needs and desire had changed, she noted with grim amusement. She didn't want to escape from the altar's dream any longer. She had to wield it like another asset.
"One last question, Lady Moon, and then we will be free. Do I have anything to fear from the Stars? Will the prophesy pit them against me?"

Moon appeared momentarily embarrassed for her earlier weakness, but adopted an irritated affect once more. "How should I know these things I have no context for? I lack the information on the status and location of even one Star. The only creature who assuredly has been keeping track of them is Celestia, so you may ask her if you so wish." She paused. "Although, I can proffer a guess with some certainty about the leader of the Stars, Astral. I was well aquatinted with her, and her habits as a former Numenia were well known. Astral is probably destroyed."

"Care to explain how you come about that claim?" Twilight waggled a brow.

"It is a very, very dear secret." Nightmare slowly turned back to Twilight, and with a hoof she pulled the small pony close. Her slow breaths tickling the fur of Twilight's ear. "So I will not be telling you that until I am entirely satisfied with your discipline, strength, and righteousness." She tilted Twilight's head back. The alicorn's glowing eyes stared into hers. "So unless you retract that question, this night's pact will not be satisfied."

Twilight gently pulled out of Moon's grasp scooped up the shard of glass she had held earlier. "I understand, Lady Moon. Until next time." Without hesitation she drove the shard into her neck and tried to decapitate herself- the muscles were too thick- gasping and gurgling, her grasp slipping on the spurts of blood coating everything, she tried to complete the work with her magic but that failed her too.
Twilight fell back into a sitting position, rapidly exsanguinating. She tried to focus on Moon but the alicorn had turned away, unhappy with the sight. So Twilight looked up at the sun instead... But it was not the Sun she saw.

Heavy breathing was the first thing Twilight heard when she awoke.
Did she hear rain too? She tried to focus on the sound but it was useless.

Her eyes fluttered awake; Twilight saw a sharp raven's beak hovering right over her head

"Oh hello." The raven said.

“Not the eye. You may peck anywhere but the eyes.” Twilight groaned, rolling over.

The figure prodded her. “Lady Sparkle you need to wake up.” The muffled voice said. “If you fall asleep now, we won't be able to wake you up again.”

That alarming warning pushed Twilight into wakefulness. “Hmm, what?” She groaned and propped herself up. Judging by the tools and tinctures stores around the edges of the room, she was in one of the rooms of Ponyville's modest clinic building. At least, she thought it was Ponyville.
Twilight was not alone- About a dozen bedridden ponies shared the other beds and gurneys spaced about the room.

The figure in front of her, a doctor with a raven-shaped plague mask, backed away. "Well I shouldn't say it like that. We'd have to ship you to Canterlot or someplace in Unicornia with magically trained physicians. Your vitals were very faint yesterday." He cleared his throat, a horrible sound distorted through the mask. "How do you feel? Light headed? Nauseous? Is there any part of you body that feels sensitive?"

"Uh, no. I feel fine" Twilight said, apprehensive. "What is going on here?" She heard a gust of wind outside and the rattle of the rain it drove against the roof. So it was raining again, but it hadn't been raining in the dream...
The dream. She had to meditate on everything she had heard and seen. It felt like a turning point.

"Let's see..." The doctor mumbled, pulling out a notebook. "You were afflicted two days ago, P+0. Most of the other ponies here were afflicted yesterday. That would be P+1. New cases have been trickling in all day, but there are probably more afflicted ponies that we don't know about because of everypony staying inside now."

"I was afflicted two days ago?" Twilight repeated.

"Yes. You had it much worse than Mis Rarity. We were sure you'd fallen into a coma." The doctor scribbled in the notebook as he talked. "But if you're awake then my assumptions about how this plague behaves are all out the window. If you could please stand up and do some light exercise-"

"Uhh, sure." Twilight rolled off the bed. Her hooves clicked on the floor as she trotted in place, then did some stretches. "I still feel fine. I had a plague two days ago?" She asked.

"It spreads like a plague. Symptoms are unusual." The doctor muttered, continuing his scribbling. "Have a look if you wish."

Twilight eyed the nearest patient, tied down on a gurney. The mare was soundlessly shivering, convulsing intermittently though held in place by the straps. Her face was rapidly contorting between different expressions, then going slack.

"Ponies are unconscious within an hour of infection, but their unpredictable motor movements last until they are completely exhausted. We feared this was a novel typhoid, tick disease, or worm disease, but the lack of inflammation or other physiological symptoms anywhere suggests this is a magic plague." The doctor continued. "Keeping patient hydrated is difficult. We had forecasted death within a week. It's good to see that may not be the case."

Magical diseases were exceedingly rare, since the development of the continent had decreased the interaction between ponies and vector animals like parasprites, whisps, prariedogs, etc. Nevertheless such diseases, especially those caused by curses, were serious and deadly.
But already Twilight suspected otherwise. "You said Rarity-"

"Over by the door." The doctor motioned.

Twilight approached the indicated bed. Indeed Rarity was there, the blanket over her rising and falling with each breath.
Beside Rarity was Applejack, tied to a gurney. The earth pony seemed much more restive in her unconsciousness, her limbs trying to kick or jerk.
Twilight could see into one of the other rooms, where there were more patients , and foals lying two to a bed- She immediately recognized Rarity's younger sister, and a yellow filly who she suspected to be Applejack's sister.

The doctor droned on. "Not everypony is in this condition. There is a secondary symptom cluster where ponies described having severe nausea or lightheadedness. Those ponies are still lucid and ambulatory. I'm not even sure it's the same disease as the comatose ponies."

But Twilight couldn't tear her eyes off the foals, side-by-side, barely breathing.
She had no idea what was going on, but despaired at the possibility it was her fault somehow. The fruit of ambition... of an evil dream, she heard Moon's voice whisper in her ear. These were the ponies she had ensnared? HOW?!
"No, not possible. I was knocked out. I'm a victim too." She hissed.

"Say what, Lady Sparkle?" The doctor cocked his head.

"I have to leave." Twilight said. "Do you have any magic-absorbent material?! Spell gauze, or black silk?"

"Um no, we don't keep anything like that here." The doctor stepped in front of her. "My lady, I highly recommend you stay so we can observe you. If the symptoms return we have to treat you as quickly as possible. Surely you do not want to rely on luck."

Twilight had already struck bad luck, of being born with a dream that inflicted this on her fellow pony. She had to isolate herself until she understood what the hell was going on, and made a plan thereby.
She was the reason for these ponies suffering. And wasn't that what you wanted, Moon asked.

Twilight teleported away- In her panic it was not as far as she was intending, appearing in the small clinic lobby and scaring the bejesus out of the nurse as she was checking on another slumped Ponyvillian.

"Ah!" The nurse jumped, then just as quickly had to rush back to keep her patient from falling over.

"Sorry." Twilight, head spinning. She staggered towards the exit.

"Oh, it's your ladyship. Save a lot of trouble that you're awake." The nurse observed.

The doctor was not far behind, running from the direction of the patient rooms. "My lady you should stay. You seem confused. There could be symptoms we don't know about yet."

"I'm fine. Great, actually. I've got to go and sort things out. Two days is already far too long. Not leaving is the worse outcome." Twilight ranted. "I have so so much to do and this illness is no excuse. I'm behind on my work and research, embarrassingly behind. I've just got to go."
But wait! A frightening idea jumped to the front of her mind: If two days had already elapsed, had news of the plague and her incapacitation already been sent to Canterlot? Twilight HAD to prevent any word getting out of Ponyville.
"But I will still assist as much as I can. Who is leading emergency response? Who is in charge of coordinating the outside assistance when it arrives?"

"Outside assistance?" The doctor balked. "With this mysterious disease the last thing we would want are ponies traveling and spreading it. The only thought to contacting Equestria was to get help for you, Lady Sparkle. I wanted to send a message on the next river barge, or perhaps to send you along with it, to one of the unicorn towns upstream."

By the doctor's framing it seemed like he had taken the lead. "Okay. You don't have to bother the barge-ponies. I can send a dragonfire message and see what the magicians of Canterlot have to say about this." Twilight proposed. "In fact, you have any proposals or orders for Ponyville, you can direct them to me. I have the royal prerogative to make sure this doesn't get out of hand."

"I suppose that's reasonable. You still have a princess's fair to put on. It would be a tremendous shame if we had to evacuate the Ponyvillians to a quarantine, or worse cancel her highness's event." The doctor acceded.

Excellent. Twilight would catch-and-kill any alarms trying to reach Canterlot.

The nurse, detecting that the doctor and Twilight would be chatting in the space for a while, went back to attending the patient.

"Oh, speaking of dragonfire..." The doctor cleared his throat. "You're little dragon was here all yesterday and most of today looking over you. He left after it started raining."

Twilight sighed. How had Spike gotten along without her? He must have been worried sick! All her duplicity was unfairly burdening the poor boy.
Everything felt like it was unraveling faster than she could even react. "Doctor, I promise that I feel good enough to leave. You must let me go so I can send that letter."

The doctor shrugged. "I've given you my formulaic warning, but you're the noble here, and I am essentially compelled to concede. But if you start to feel strange, you must-"

Twilight teleported away.
The doctor apprised the state of the weather (still pounding rain), gave a glance to the new patient (now limp, probably needed to be moved into the rooms with the other comatose), and slunk back down the hall.

And the new patient, faint, passing in and out of consciousness, unable to keep their eyes open... Their head clouded with the drum of the rain against the windows... Where were they? Still in the Ponyville clinic? Why was their body so heavy?
Or somewhere else.
He was floating, floating away, but his body was still pulling him down. It felt like hours before he felt like he was on solid ground again.

"Hello Fizzy. May I call you Fizzy? We like to be informal here." A smooth voice whispered in his ear. "We met your sister yesterday, but oh so briefly. She saw and fled, to wretched wakefulness. But you will be staying with us, as an honored guest."
Cherry Fizzy's bleary eyes cleared: He was face to face with a horrendous thing! Nay, not even, for thing did not have but one face, but many, eyes and mouths squirming and shifting across its bloated form! But every eye was upon him, wide and eager, and every mouth grinned broad and slavering.
"Welcome to the Tower."

Cherry Fizzy screamed and bolted away, the horrible floating thing drifting behind him.

Rarity regarded the new arrival impassively. Poor Cherry Fizzy. Another Ponyvillian had been ensnared by the horrible dream. She had tried to group up but suspicion and terror reigned over the nightmare tower- For while there had to be at least two dozen victims somewhere in the dark infinity, strewn across the uncountable tiers huddling or running terrified, Rarity was alone.

Well, alone but for the jailor and tormentor.
The fleshy agglomerations of pony faces lurked at the edges of her vision, the 'manifestations', only making themselves known to mock the trapped ponies. They talked endlessly, so that the mocking buzz was nearly deafening at time: A rasping parody of Twilight Sparkle's voice.

"How long am I meant to be in this place?" Rarity wondered.
The horror and unease of the place had run its course. The passage of time was becoming meaningless; She could not tell how many layers she had climbed, not could she even imagine how far she had to go.

"You know your crime and you know your sentence, enough to deduce that yourself" The horrid Manifestation behind her cackled. "Face justice, ye sinner."

"Nothing here is done in the name of justice." Rarity retorted dryly. She had run out of venom for her tormentor. Days and days of yelling and bargaining had tired her. She could not summon the vigor to argue with a monster specifically made to drive her crazy. So, Rarity had to be detached, for the sake of her own sanity.

The manifestation just kept laughing. "Do you presume to lecture us on justice, heretic?"

Rarity watched Cherry Fizzy running and screaming for a while longer. "You're going the wrong way." She whispered. There was probably no bottom to the tower. She had tried and failed to find it.
There was nothing for it but to try to find the top now, for a the oddest hours Rarity caught a glimpse of an otherworldly light radiating from above, a subtle promise of something, anything different from the inky void of the rest of the Tower.
"Good luck Fizzy." She turned her back on her friend and resumed her climb.

It was not easy going. The path up the Tower was random and chaotic, as each level was a mix of intended cells, perilous walkways, and odd colonnades linked by winding stairways or curling ramps. The architecture and geometry was as impossible as it was maddening. There was no consistency across or within the levels, and doubling back did not guarantee that a floor would be the same as you left it.
But one heartening fact was that so far no levels had repeated themselves. That let her hold on to hope that there really was something up there, an attainable summit to the dream.

What would she feel once she got out of the dream? Maybe she would wake up on her bed, to find only a moment had passed. Maybe she would have to break her way out of a coffin- Oh how dreadful it would be to have to wash cemetery dirt out of her mane!

“Even here you are a husk, motivated for fulfillment of your vain fantasies. Yet you think your god rewards your conceit." The manifestation needled her.

"As long as I can get out of here, I don't care. I have nothing to gain by feeling bad about myself. My god surely understands that. And you? Do you have a will or purpose, other than to heckle me?" Rarity scoffed at the thing.

"I gain such fulfillment from this I need no other purpose." The Manifestation roiled with laugher, a dozen new faces pushing out of its body to add to the cacophony. "And you, Rarity, are a joy to be around. You sin with unparalleled confidence."

As useless as always to bicker. "Shoo." Rarity sighed.

Up another layer of the tower. One floor had classical motifs, with ornate pillars and angular supports, the floor above was gothic with soaring buttresses that spanned up and down beyond sight. The next floor had an impossible angle that made Rarity's head spin, so she just moved on.
But the colorlessness... Endless diversity of architecture, near uniformity of material: That black obsidian-like stone, as if the entire Tower had been burned or rubbed with soot... Why was the dream formed such? Had the dreamer never seen marble or brick?

"Wait-" Rarity paused on the landing of the next level. Curled in the cover were familiar faces. Ponyvillians, yes, and- "Repeats. I have seen them before, lower down."
The ponies were inert, but the ghastly bloated manifestations hovering nearby glanced in Rarity's direction, snickering conspiratorially.

"And?" The manifestation beside her cooed.

Rarity didn't answer, but her reddened cheek was answer enough. Either she was looping back, or the Tower had placed those ponies in front of her to make her think it was so.

"Do you think everything is about you?" The Manifestation said. “Even in the more dire circumstances you find a petty way to hold yourself higher. You think you were meant for more.”

Rarity passed by the ponies, a sandy mane grey pegasus, an orange earth pony. Yes, she held herself in higher esteem than those cowering ponies. They cringed and cried under the abuse. She would reach the summit.

“You pretend to take your misfortune in stride. You are impious, spiteful, angry. Every gesture hides the anguish. You are a fabrication, a mere persona.” The voice beside her continued. "What would you do if you had power? What would you do if you had her power?"

"You had better hope you don't find out, darling." Rarity muttered under her breath.

Another level up, more repeat ponies. A tan earth pony with navy and pink hair was lashing out at the manifestation with her. Each jab and buck sunk into the floating nightmare’s skin, which reformed immediately after, eliciting great laughs at the futility.
Rarity trotted on.

"But you are so much wiser, so much more subtle, aren't you. Your victory over me~us will come through your own self-actualization." The manifestation sing-songed a bad imitation of her voice. "When you surpass the most easily crossed hurdle, everypony else will be forced to contend with you, and recognize the genius you see in yourself. Vindication through mediocrity!"

That one hit close. Rarity cringed, but remained silent.

"You think yourself transgressive, but when someone actually has the power to tell the truth, it bothers you just as much as the other ponies. You cling to the norms you thought you transcended. That is but one part of your pretension." Her own personal manifestation, her own personal raconteur, with her whole mind to critique. "How do you plead to this sin, Lady Rarity?"

Rarity set her jaw. She had to keep climbing, up and up, stairs and ramps and ladders. Her body was not exhausted. She just had to survive the sin-monger beside her.

"At every turn you held yourself apart. When these fellow sinners would not immediately submit to your attempt to 'help' them, you gave up and charged along your cours privé. You against the entire world, you against our entire Tower." The monster's giggles came out in strange squeaks and tenors from from its non-primary mouths. “No friends, only tools, to be judged by their utility to you, to your ego, to a half-formed vision of utopia. Is that part of your devious transgressiveness? That you're a secret bitch to the ponies who trust you?"

It hurt a lot.

"Even if you get everything you want, and you escape our Tower, how will you face the ponies left behind? Will you duck away every time Cherry Fizzy comes to meet? Will you go about life pretending you never forsook him? Will it be thus for Berry, Rose, Amethyst?" The Manifestation floated closer, so its tongues tickled Rarity's ear. "For Fluttershy?"

Rarity was halted on the spot.
She was in some grotto-like place now, a floor dominated by rough-hewn pillars deep shadows. A paltry amount of the already dim light of the dream-void was getting in to the place.
It was quiet, but not silent. Whispers and whimpers emanated from unseen ponies in the darkness. Rarity listened closely.

"No, Fluttershy is not here." The Mnaifestation grinned. "Yet."

"I-" Rarity stopped herself from trembling, recomposing herself. "I can explain to her. To them all. They will understand why."

The Manifestation nodded, feigning sympathetic understanding. "Oh yes, the same old excuses. You think you have them fooled, oh so convincing with your vague dogma and prophesy. You think they do not see that your piety is a shallow excuse to manipulate.” More laughs. "Oh, but what if it is not so? Dear Rarity darling, they pretended to believe you because that is what friends do! The same norms you pretend to reject is exactly what hold your little play-cult together!"

Worst pain yet. Almost unbearable. Rarity resumed the climb. She had to keep climbing. “Is that the best you can do?” She murmured. Any more and she would die. She would wither into a organless cadaver, unrecognizable but for a pristene mane.

"Yes, even if you betray them all, or they all abandon you, you can control your looks. That will never fail you until you give up on yourself." The manifestation twisted and warped its flesh like it was wringing itself, which Rarity could only assume was its attempt at a shrug. "I may have many things to say about you Rarity, but I will readily conceded that you will be the absolute last pony to give up on life."

That was all she needed to hear. If it was all true, and all the pretenses of her life were stripped away, Rarity would have her will. She was different.

"Not different in a good way." The manifestation remarked.

It didn't matter. She could, and would, stand out. It was her calling, not from any divine plan, but because it was what she chose for herself.

"Do you think that will be a satisfactory excuse when you get to the top and are made to answer to god?" The manifestation asked.

"I have no opinion on that darling. Her highness can think what she wants of what I say." Rarity said with a grimace.

"Her highness? Oh Rarity, I fear you are sadly misled about the nature of this place." A wave of snickers broke out across her tormenter's angles. "Before you, she will not think. Before her, you will not speak."

Hour after hour, a dizzying arrangement of impossible things. Rarity didn't pay it any attention.
Unfortunately, invariably another thought entered her head and she had to pause. She was on another classical-type level, alone. Rarity leaned over the edge of the tower, to peer upwards. Infinity yet lay ahead for her, and downwards, the same.

"I take back what I said earlier. You never had this much determination in the waking world. What drives you persistence now, Rarity?" The Manifestation hovered over her shoulder, caressing her with its errant legs. "Hate? Love? Pleasure?" With lavicious joy it licked a the air, inviting Rarity to reflect and share her thoughts. "Or is the medium where you truly thrive? Rarity Belle, a pony designed for the Tower!"

Rarity roughly shoved the Manifestation away and resumed her climb.

Uncountable time passed.

Rarity felt her body fatigue, the effort of thousands of steps catching up to her, but she did not stop.

"God would love you, if only you loved yourself." The Manifestation appraised. Rarity payed no attention.

How many times had she seen the same ponies, locked into poses of revulsion and horror. Like glass statues, they sat, while the manifestations worked to shatter them.

Another eternity.

And then, the first repeat floor. If there was any difference between it and one Rarity had seen before, unfathomable floors below, Rarity could not find it.
Her determination began to crack. "This place, there's really no end to it." Rarity had slowed to a crawl. Every step sent fire surging up her legs and along her spine. But this was not real! Why was her dreaming form failing her now?!

"You knew that from the beginning." The Manifestation reminded her.

It continued.

Rarity didn't know when she stopped, but then she was. On one of the levels made like a ring of monastic cells, she stopped at the foot of the staircase and lay her head down. Her eyes, half-open, just staring off into the colorless void.

"If you stop here, it would not be so bad an existence. You would be alone at least, never having to confront your fantasies of other ponies again." The Manifestation chuckled.

"Oh do shove off." Rarity said, too tired to even look at it.

"I may. There is but a few tiers further a space so alike the waking city of Baltimate, where life can be lived liberally." The Manifestation shot back, its heinous cackling abating for a moment. "That is one limitation of this existence. I have no regrets generating such as I am, a dream-thing, a sin-monger. Yet I will never see a real Baltimare, nor experience the myriad vices of its intrepid mortals. I will only know the world, waking or dreaming, by their shadow on the wall of this Tower."

"Buck off and find somepony who asked." Rarity closed her eyes.
Maybe she had been the silly pony, thinking dogged determination was somehow better than cowering and screaming. Maybe the other ponies had the right of it. At least they didn't need to think. All the monsters haunting the Ponyvillians had to do to torment them was leer and bark, whereas her pride had earned her the utterly rapine obliteration of her ego.

She felt a poke at her flank.
"Just a little farther." The Manifestation whispered to her. "Just one level more. We needn't go all the way to Baltimare. Only one level farther, where a reward awaits you."

Rarity reluctantly lifted her head. "Abuse me here if you must. Fold me in half or roll me off the tower... But I can't go on."

"Rarity dear, I am not made to lie or deceive you. With the most total honesty I say that what awaits you is the thing that will make you the happiest you've ever been." The manifestation promised.

Rarity, despite her doubts, stood up. "From the depths of the dispare of this place will a great joy arise." She muttered. Drawing a deep breath, she mounted the last set a stairs.

"Despair." The manifestation corrected her.

The haunting thrum of the dream grew louder. Rarity began to pick out the details in the noise, a building clamor... Hums, groans, sarcastic hisses and mocking coos. The bloated manifestations were crowding at the edges of her vision, a dozen pony-like eyes each, awaiting her imminent reaction.
Why was the Tower paying her so much attention? Was she alone worth so much voyeuristic prurient sadism?

"Of course not. You think this phallic Tower for you alone rises? Nay. But mortal agency has always aroused the interest of the divine. Among its current guests, only you wish to surmount us and reach god." The Manifestation explained. "Is that not deserving of rewards? For you, and only you, as you've always wanted."

Rarity surmounted the stairs and looked across the level. It was another pony, resting against a column, straw hat tilted forward over her eyes.

“No... Not for me alone. It's...” Rarity breathed. She galloped forward, weariness forgotten, then just as quickly lost that momentum, so she stopped a dozen paces short of the reclined mare. "...Applejack..."

Applejack didn't acknowledge, but shifted slightly. Hovering above the earth pony was another purple manifestation, patiently respecting its target's rest.

Rarity's stomach churned. This was not a trick, some purgatorial mirage to deceive her. This Applejack in front of her was as real as the Applejack who had sat across from her at the picnic. But far from shouting, screaming, cowering, like the others Rarity had seen, Applejack was just...

"Acceptant?" The manifestations ventured.

"Not hardly. Just need a bit'a shuteye is all. I'll be back at it in'na minute." Applejack mumbled.

Surprise surprise, the Manifestation's promise was false. Rarity did not like seeing this whatsoever.

"Hmm." Applejack tilted her hat up, looked Rarity up and down, then let it fall back over her eyes. "You, huh? Though it might be that 'lil colt Rumble. Saw him a while back. Clung to me like a tick till I got 'im to sit still. Wonder if he's still waitin' on me to come back."

Rarity didn't say anything.

"Yuh... I seen what happened, to you, Twilight, then the other ponies, before I felt it too. It's in my head. Or something like..." Applejack hummed as she searched for the right analogy. "A ringing, way far off, that got louder and louder. Got so loud I couldn't move, couldn't see, couldn't think. Thens when they brought me to the clinic, probably, with the others. So now I'm seeing you, I must of passed on."

That last sentence snapped Rarity out of her stupor. "This isn't hell you idiot, it's a dream."

"That's your conjecture." The Manifestations retorted. "Rarity dear, as always, pretending to know more than she does."

"Shut it. Don't need y'all to do my job for me." Applejack grumbled.

"Do you have reason to dislike these rotund companions of ours?" Rarity asked; it was less a tease and more a bitter bite.

Applejack let out a slight sigh. "Might do."

"Mis Applejack is a Liar, a Deceiver, a Charlatan, a Pervert, and a Deviant." The Manifestation whispered. “The complacency of others cannot wash away the burdens of her crime. The shame in her heart poisons everything! It chips away at her soul. She is a Seductress, a Temptress, and above all a Cheat. A nasty CHEAT. She asks for the responsibilities of others, as if that could fill the gaps in her soul.”

"Weak shit. Ain't you pissers ever had a sibling? I can take it." Applejack muttered.

That elicited a slight laugh, not just from the monsters beside them, but from all around. An unspoken inside joke.

"I'm happy for you." Rarity hissed. "So indifferent, so naive. The monsters are going easy on you."

Applejack tensed, pushing herself into a straighter sit. "Maybe you like bein' called a whore by a fat bastard, but I'm no fan of it, especially seein' how I ain't done nothin' do deserve it. Probably for the best you mosey along now."

Rarity did not move though, continuing to stare at the earth mare.

Applejack sighed and pulled the hat back over her eyes. "Fine. There's worse company I suppose." She lazily waved at the manifestation above her. "No offense."

"None taken." The manifestations laughed.

"Ya know Rarity, the floatin' gal jogged my memory earlier with something she said. I think I've been here before... Not too long back... Maybe a week or two. I didn't remember it when I woke up, but now I do." Applejack hummed. "But I wasn't on the tower, but down at the bottom. Or, kinda near the bottom, geographically speakin', which was still a ways off but the tower was so damn high I still seemed like it was looming right over me. We were in a big 'ol desert, sand dunes and everything, and the whole dream was us trudging towards the tower." Applejack grunted in exasperation. "But I can't remember them, or why we were doin' it. It seemed important at the time."

That only made Rarity's mood even darker. Now she understood that the manifestations had put Applejack here just to chip at her even more. "So I wasn't even the first pony it was revealed to. You saw it first. How very, very lucky." She muttered through clenched teeth. "And the dream captured you latter, but placed you further. You get to lay around like a fat pig, and no matter how high I've climbed, you will still be placed one floor higher."

Applejack sat in baffled silence for a while. "Uhh, what?"

"Be a clever girl and make the simple deduction that there is some spiritual importance to us being here, Applejack." Rarity said scornfully.

"Seems you know somethin' I don't." Applejack slowly rose to her hooves, adjusting her hat and retying her mane. "Who am I kiddin'. Of course ya do. In fact..." Let out a sudden snort, her expression becoming a sharp glare. "I bet this is all your doing, you sick little cultist. Buckin' freak."

"What absolute slander. I have nothing to do with this. How can I, when I'm a victim too?" Rarity protested. She jabbed the Manifestation. "Look at this thing. It has Twilight Sparkle's face! That should tell you more than anything who is responsible for this hellscape!"

Applejack adopted a puzzled expression. "They look like Twilight to you?"

Rarity's eye flew open.

"Naw, I'm just messin' with you." Applejack chortled. "Stupid motherbucker, I got 'ya!"

Rarity's shock turned to irritated relief. "That you did. I..." She took a deep breath a recomposed herself. "I can't tell you everything I know. It's not proper."

"Proper? Aw, to hell with you." Applejack rolled her eyes. "One of y'all's lackeys'll be along eventually, and they'll spill the beans."

"My friends would hardly appreciate you calling them lackeys." Rarity tutted. She had already seen Cherry Fizzy and he had not been very talkative in his terror. Maybe he had calmed down, but in all likelihood he would be an unresponsive mess like most of the ponyvillians. "That has raised an interesting question though, n'est pas? Why Rumble? Why the other ponies, from among Ponyville? There's no pattern."

Applejack got her meaning. "Huh. Good point there. I got no indication Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie were feelin' poorly, though forthrightly we all secluded ourselves after you 'n Twilight collapsed." She rubbed her chin contemplatively. "Why us versus the counterfactual? If this is purgatorio, surely I ain't a worse mare than Pinkie Pie."

"That's a sour way to stand up for your friend. You wish she had been ensnared too?" Rarity teased.

"Hey, buck off. You brought it up. And besides, she's barely my friend. She's just my legal council." Applejack stretched her legs and started trotting away. "I'm tired of you. If Twilight's on this damn tower, I'll find her and make her explain. Even if she ain't privy y'all's cult goings-on, she might get the magic of it, under the 'spiritual' ya-ya nonsense you'd say. An unlike you, she likes explaining what crap is on her mind."

"Am I not good enough for you?" The manifestations puckered their many lips invitingly, but Applejack ignored them.

Rarity felt a small triumph for having made Applejack blink first, but the prospect of loneliness on the Tower outweighed that. She silently followed behind Applejack.

Applejack leading, Rarity following, and two manifestations floating a ways behind, they circled back to the stairs up to the next tier of the Tower.

Then the next tier.

And the next. Up and up they soldiered on in silence, the imperceptible wails of the void around them only beat back by the clip of their hooves on the stone.

"..." Applejack glanced back at Rarity, then back to the path ahead. "..." She sighed. "Ya know, more than finding Apple Bloom, I'm worried about finding Macintosh."

That unexpected comment nearly made Rarity trip. "Only Ponyvillians for now." She thought to say.

"Yeah." Applejack agreed.

And farther. Other ponies, strewn about their path.

And farther.

Rarity stopped in place.

Applejack sighed and came to a stop as well. "What's it now?" She pivoted back to the unicorn. "I ain't gunna carry you."

"No... I just..." Rarity, distracted by some far off though, was staring off into the void. "I am struck. The futility of trying to reach the goddess, whilst so unworthy... I really have been so caught up in my hubris."

"Uhh, is that what we were doing?" Applejack cocked her head.

"For the sinner, the road to salvation is winding. I am a sinner. I refused to repent... my whole life I refused, imagining I was too clever for the goddesses's plans. I thought I could make my own fate." Rarity continuing, her voicing trembling, her eyes seeing something only see could discern from the void. "I did not submit to the divine princess even when revelation was right in front of me and explaining the error of my ways."
She was violently shaking, too much to be natural. "The desert... Your story of walking in the desert... I'm certain I was one of the other ponies with you! Yes! To find god in here I have to first find my way in the waking world."

Rarity disappeared. The manifestation haunting her shrugged and also disappeared.

Applejack was totally slack-jawed, staring at the spot Rarity had been.

The remaining manifestation let out an amused whistle. "Oh wow, she managed to wake herself up, or something. She was talking complete nonsense though." It laughed jovially. "You should definitely keep climbing though. Don't worry, I'll keep you company.

Rarity's body began to writhe, making the doctor jump back in surprise, nearly tripping over another patient in the process.

"Uh oh. I hope this isn't the first death." The doctor, raven mask hanging off his neck, scratched his chin.

Rarity's eye flicked open, and her breathing slowed. She tried to sit up and found herself impeded by the straps.

The doctor watched her for a moment, then snatched up his notebook. "Three days, and three days. Not a big n but it's a start." He scribbled for a while longer. "Good afternoon Mis Rarity. Did you have a nice nap or was there a harrowing of hell? I kid, I kid." He chuckled. "Feel any nausea? Are your limbs numb? I may have made the straps too tight, give me a moment."

Rarity remained silent, looking around the room. After long, pensive looks at the empty stretcher where Twilight had been and the prone form of Applejack, she finally settled her gaze on Sweetie Belle.

"Don't worry, the fillies were just pretending. I wouldn't let them come see their sisters last night so they acted sick." The doctor said. "Rambunctious tykes. I can't refuse a silly filly who so dearly cares for their family. They fell asleep when the rain started, but you can get discharged at the same time." He paused his scribbling. "I feel bad about playing along in fooling Lady Sparkle though, but she was acting very odd. Now that you are awake too I can reflect that I was wrong to suspect her."

That didn't exactly please Rarity, whose gaze shifted to Applejack again.

The doctor cleared his throat. "Uhh, Mis Rarity, are you lucid?" He asked.

After a long silence, Rarity sighed. "Fairly. " She nodded to her bound legs. "Could you please..."

She doctor slapped the mechanism and released all the bindings at once. Rarity pulled herself off the bed and to her hooves. She unsteadily hobbled over to Applejack's prone form.

"If the pattern holds Mis Applejack will be waking up tomorrow." The doctor remarked.

"If she has the wits." Rarity gloated silently. "I was right about the dream."

"Pardon?" The doctor queried.

"Nevermind." Rarity shook her head. "Lady Sparkle is-"

"Oh the lady awoke an hour or so ago. I think she went home." The doctor said. "If you see her, could you tell her to come back and sign the discharge paperwork?"

Rarity was silent for a while. "No, I'm afraid not." She turned and galloped out of the room, down the hall, and into the pouring rain outside the clinic.

"Wait!" The doctor yelled after her. "Your paperwork! And your sister!"

Rarity charged through the pelting rain, navigating by her intuition of the Ponyville streets, turned to mud. Up the thoroughfare, across the plaza with its battened-up market stalls, and between the cottages, to the Golden Oak. A low golden candlelight emanated through the lower windows.

Rarity knocked and the door immediately swung open. Twilight Sparkle was seated in her chair, hunched over a book and cup of tea.
"Get in already. It's windy out there." Twilight ordered.

Rarity stepped inside and Twilight quickly shut the door behind her with her telekinesis. Twilight shut her book and set it aside, cradling her tea while she watched Rarity drip. Rarity glanced around- Spike was watching from the upper floor, expressionless.

"Don't mind him. He's being weird tonight, and won't talk to me." Twilight explained. She looked frazzled, repeatedly glancing at unseen distractions. "Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of Spike." But that wasn't quite true, and now the onus was on Rarity to push that boundary. She would.

Rarity shook her legs in a fruitless effort to get a bit dryer. She was really soaked. Days of neglect and the cold rain had made a mess of her mane and tail. That wasn't so important-vanity was sin-when she had a truth to find. Rarity gathered herself then advanced towards the other unicorn. She did not take the offered seat beside Twilight, electing to stand at the edge of the candlelight. "I gather you really did hunt me." She finally said.

Twilight nodded. "I did."

"And how did it feel?" Rarity asked warily.

Twilight looked away. "Rapturous, like pure light."

What a choice of words. "Hmm, I imagine so. Forbidden things are often the most tantalizing." Rarity nodded. "The other ponies in the clinic? Applejack, for example-"

"No. I didn't touch anypony else. It's... unrelated, a magical plague or something." Twilight said.

Wait... Why would Twilight tell such an obvious lie? She had to know her victims would meet again in the dream. Unless... Twilight didn't know?

"Is it? Interesting. I didn't stay to hear the explanation." Rarity said. "The physician, Greymare Horse, said you awoke today. But I didn't see you on the tower."

"The tower?" Twilight repeated.

"The Tower." Rarity confirmed.

"Uh, a tower here? Or the clinic?" Twilight looked confused, then a bit amused. "Or do you mean, like, the patient list? Tower? I've never heard that terminology, but then again I never took my healing magic classes seriously."

That did not solve Rarity's uncertainty. Perhaps Twilight was feigning ignorance, and was toying with her. Or, Twilight really had no idea. Spike sure seemed to be listening closely though.
Rarity had to be bold and press Twilight so there could be no ambiguity. "The Tower of the Bard, above a shattered ruin in the depths of a lost desert. It connects bridges heaven and earth and gives mortals the path to traverse the land of dreams." She stepped closer. "I saw gross, freakish renditions of you, big globes of flesh with your faces, horns, and hooves. They talked with your voice, but acted with the agency of god. That Tower, Twilight, that Tower."

Twilight leaned back in her chair, mulling over Rarity's words. "Huh, wow. I recognize some of those words." She ran a hoof through her mane and stole a glance up towards Spike, who was still haunting the upper floor landing. "And you dreamt this tower, and also dreamed me all gross and melted and stuff? So you, uhh, did see me me?"

Still no clearer. Twilight was hiding something, but seemed genuinely off-put by Rarity's words, but was holding something back. "The dreamers are on the tower, and the torment of the manifestations keeps them there." There! Twilight showed a little tick every time Rarity said the word dream. "It's not literally you. It's probably not even metaphorically you. But you're somehow linked to the Tower and I have a god-given mission to find out how."

"Uhh, god-given?" Twilight echoed.

Rarity nodded. "Our princess. She gives us our purposes in life, right? We are meant to live in accordance with- Oh, why am I telling you this. You'd know better than anypony!" She tittered. "I'm being so coy, playing around with double meanings. It's so foalish. Forgivably so? I have to remember that sinful deceit is still sinful deceit, even with the patina of clever wordplay."

Twilight looked away. Was she going to have to come clean? Would the game of secrets with the Ponyvillians be brought to such an abrupt end? "Come out and say it then."

"You're not the first ponies to extol the Moon in this village, Lady Twilight Sparkle. But I can't tell now! It's not proper." Rarity winked. "I will explain everything tomorrow. Everything. I'll tell Applejack too, if she is awake by then." She withdrew from the candlelight, and trotted to the door.
"The rain... Is so alike the tinnire ringing of the dream-void." She let out a short aggravated snort. "I'm going to be obsessed with the poetry of that damned place for a week." Rarity gave Twilight a last look. "By the by, my sister and her friend were just pretending. Please leave them alone."

"I'll try." Twilight said.

Pulling open the door, Rarity braved the rain on her way back to the clinic.

Twilight flipped open her book again, while Spike watched from above.

Author's Note

Concerto Grosso no. 1

Chapter 16: Truth, Unconquered!

Twilight Velvet carefully closed the concealed door down the the Chateau la Garde's hidden dungeon, running a hoof along the seam to ensure it was flush. It was hard work illegally keeping a secret prisoner! It had proven hugely troublesome to keep Octavia alive, and it made her wonder at how much resources the hundred-odd of political prisoners under Canterlot Castle (including her husband) must have been using. Complex institutions, taxing a whole empire and gathering resources, just to keep some ponies locked up so they couldn't work for their own survival... how wondrous the workings of pony society were. It intimidated her to consider, but it assuaged Velvet's micromanaging instinct knowing even a divine creature like Celestia had to delegate her work. Maybe some day Velvet would have enough prisoners to justify offloading the problem on somepony else so she could focus on the bigger picture.

"I am getting so carried away today, hoping for tomorrow when I have today's problems to deal with." Velvet hummed to herself. She regarded the unkempt state of the Chateau great hall, with food and drinks abandoned after the guests had been shooed out. Velvet levitated a cup and tea pot to herself and made herself a cup.

Her ladyship wasn't given long to rest. Twilight Velvet’s next affair for the day presented itself.

“Message for you sah!” A child’s voice squeaked. Velvet looked over her teacup to see a little filly courier had let herself in. On second look, it was the filly Foaly Flux sometimes hired. With a deft swipe, Velvet took the letter the courier was holding out for her.

“Is this from Duke Flux or the Old Town then? I've been waiting for news about the Cloudsdalers.” Velvet ripped the letter open.

Twilight Velvet, you must come see me at once. Wear a raincoat.
Your Cousin Flux

“What could this possibly be about? Can't Flux sit sight until he's needed?” Velvet initially burned with annoyance. She had more important things to deal with than her mentally impaired cousin-in-law and his flights of fancy.
But wait... Velvet felt her heart flutter. Could it be that one very particular plan of hers, involving Foaly Flux, had finally come to fruition? Yes, yes, it was about time!
"Thank you very much young mis." Said to the messenger filly. "Run along now. I'll tip you later."

The filly ran the way she came.

Velvet took several deep breaths. HISTORY was happening, thick and fast, at her command. Too fast. "By the gods, I WILL hold onto this beast I've goaded." She muttered. She took one more sip of tea, carefully set down her cup, and then violently swept the tea set from the table. She shivered at how her precious porcelain shattered on the stone floor, a real mess. "That time a thousand. I can will it. Then, I shall clean it whenever I whim." She galloped towards the parlor doors.

The maid was just then entering the chateau. "Ah, my lady-" She squeaked and jumped out of the way as Velvet ran past her into the street. "May lady! There's about to be a fight at the Musician's Guild!" She yelled after her mistress.

"About time!" Velvet yelled back. That could wait. Oh, but she had to confirm the Flux situation first.

The maid shrugged and went back to the chateau. "Goodness, who broke the tea kettle? Oh heavens, the cups too!"

Fancy Pants's funeral ended as depressingly fumbled as it had begun. Sel Lech Sabonord, Councilpony Prosser, and most of the castle secretaries had left soon after Velvet, called away for some buisness. After Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser had finished his shameless campaigning for the viziership and sat down, a novice priest mumbled a few words, performed a few tedious ceremony rights, and the service was concluded.

Almost everyone immediately left the temple- only some of the staff and girlfriends stuck around.
Duke Lightdowser and his son emerged back into the sunlight, rejoining with their knights. "Were you paying attention to the eulogy, Risky?" Sharphoof asked the colt.

"Errm, yeah, a little. " Risky shrugged. The earth colt was looking all around, admiring the stately Old Town architecture and ogling the colorful clothes of the Canterlot ponies.

Sharphoof Lightdowser grunted in disapproval. "Some day you'll stand over me, boy, and it would be disgraceful to be lost for words. You'd be wise to start practicing now. Life is very fragile. You don't want to be caught unprepared when death-" He stopped, noticing one of his knights' indiscreetly trying to get his attention. "What?" He demanded.

"Begging your pardon, m'lord and Master Risky, but some ponies came looking for you. None of them wanted to enter the temple so they left messages with us." The Unicornian knight said.

"Some unicorns with neck frills. Speakers of the Estates." His fellow Unicornian nodded. "But, ehh, they're not hardly important. But uh, more important than that, just a few minutes ago a pegasus flew by, Cloudsdale armor kitted, and said there's 'bout to be a fracas at one of the guilds and we should meet Admiral Rain Gnash there."

"The Musician's Guild, the pegasus said." The first nodded.

The Cloudsdale contingent had arrived on the scene, just a bit behind schedule. Unsurprisingly they had immediately started a fight. Duke Lightdowser adopted a thoughtful expression. "Le grande pegasus is here and she is already settling scores with old rivals? She did not have the luxury of them having died already. The Musician's Guild thought? I do not remember why that unassuming guild deserves a pegasus's wrath. But it has been a long time." He grunted a begrudging agreement. "Very well, let us see what le grand pegasus is up to. Be dignified but diligent, my ponies, in the case some parties wishes to make combatants of us." He hid an urge to smirk under a severe frown. "For it is always more product to make combatants of them."

Blueblood and Aurthora gone into the Black Horn Council meeting hall alone, leaving Spitfire to languish on the steps as some of the Black Horn thugs threw dice nearby.
Spitfire had no idea what was going on, but she had a bad feeling about the whole situation. Her admiral had charged into an unknown and ambiguously hostile city because of a deal with a dodgy unicorn Duke. Now their hostess Twilight Velvet was nowhere to be seen. Why was a fight about to happen? Could somebody explain please?! She had an agitated sort of feeling, like she felt on a patrol of the Cumulonimbus District of Cloudsdale right before a labor strike; Tension and anticipation, aspiration and violence.

Spitfire sighed as she paced the area. She almost wished that there would be a fight as it would certainly be less boring. She eyed the thugs playing dice. "What've you got there? Can't you master find you something better to do than letting you languish with games of chance?"

The thugs looked among themselves, then to Spitfire incredulously. "The dice are for hustling noble colts, not no knights. You'd fight back when we make to collect. I mean, most pegasi are pushovers, no offense, but you're a Wonderbolt."

Spitfire's cheeks burned. "We are not knights, so watch your scoundrel tongue. Cloudsdale doesn't cling to your feudal conventions. The Wonderbolts are a proud order. Do yourself a favor and keep your eyes to yourself. Yeah, like that." Since a fight was not forthcoming she went back to pacing even faster.
The Admiral had the right to assign her meet with Twilight Velvet, not the annoying lackies. Surely she wouldn't be blamed if she wandered off too look for the Velvet mare elsewhere as long as she made a good faith effort; Instead of following Blueblood she should have stalked the other henchponies, that black-furred earth mare or the freaky mare in the maid uniform, who could have led her back to Velvet. Alas now she'd have to search on her own.

But wait, who was that? A dozen armed and armored ponies were crossing the alley, thirty meters away, looking very determined. Very armored in fact, some in plate metal and carrying halberds. Some even had guns! Those ponies were almost certainly the princess's retainers, the Imperial Household Guard. Spitfire froze in place, following the IHG knights with her gaze- As soon as the admiral had told her squadron they would be entering Canterlot, Spitfire had mentally wargamed various scenarios where a confrontation with the IHG could happen. While she was currently isolated, with the dubious Black Horn Council ponies ghosting her, thankfully the IHG were completely disinterested in her. She was not their target.
Spitfire was happy to let the IHG cadre go by until she noticed a thirteenth pony: It was the black-furred mare from before trotting right behind the heavily armored knights. Who's side what that mare on?

Spitfire nudged one of the thugs. "Who's the dark earth pony with the eye mark?"

"Mis Iillor is a heavy. Heard she did Barley Bale in." One thug said.

The other thugs hissed that explanation down. "No, she's like some kind of mule, but she's Lady Velvet's step-daughter too or something."
The rank-and-file clearly had no clue.

Whatever was going on, Spitfire knew it had to be direly important, not only for herself, but her squadron. Her heart skipped a beat as she involuntarily imagined those guns turned against her wingponies- If it meant protecting her 'Bolts she had no right to be afraid in the face of these armored ponies. Abandoning her trepidation, Spitfire jumped into the air and flew into the path of the column of IHG knights.

Dropping unexpectedly in front of an IHG column was a bad decision. Before Spitfire could even say a word the knights advanced toward her, preparing their weapons and pointing their guns at her. "Stand down, Cloudsdaler!" One of them ordered.

"Hey hey, I'm unarmed! I just wanted to ask what you guys were doing." Spitfire protested, retreating back a few steps. She immediately regretted her own brashness. She'd braved guns before, but that was against worker mobs with bad aim, not trained knights. "I'm a Wonderbolt under Admiral Rain Gnash."

"Exactly. Turn around and space your legs. Keep those wings where I can see them too." The shouting knight, a yellow pegasus stallion, continued. "You will be under detention until the situation at the guild hall is resolved."

"Ehh? So there really is going to be a fight at the guild hall?" Spitfire balked. "Hey, look, this is a misunderstanding. The admiral is just trying to arrange a meeting with a local, Twilight Velvet. We're not looking to fight anypony." Especially not when the 'Bolts only had their flight armor, and the IHG had plate armor.

"I said turn around!" The knight growled. "Try to fly and we'll-"

"Hold it." A new voice on the scene. An armored unicorn stallion, with white fur and a blue mane spilling out from under a zischägge pot helmet, pushed to the front of the group of knights. "What does Twilight Velvet have to do with this?"

Spitfire sighed, exasperated. "How the hell should I know? I just got here! Look, I'm sorry I got in your way, sir..."

"Shining Armor." He said. "Unfortunately, we will be detaining you." He was shorter for a stallion, but still taller than her as he advanced right up to her. "I'm sorry to have to do this, but you're something of a hostage now. It might be the only way to bargain for the safety of the guild and Canterlot citizens."

Spitfire groaned. "Aw buck. I'm never going to hear the end of this."

"If the situation defuses by itself, we can pretend it never happened." Shining Armor offered a slight smile. At this gesture the rest of the knights began hurrying along their original path. "But seriously, try to run and I'll have to attack you." He ushered Spitfire along after the knights.

"You're Imperial Household Guard, right? Our admiral's got a sword almost exactly like yours." Spitfire said. "I know she earned it, so you must know how to use it too. If there was going to be one pony that can draw their sword faster than a purebred Wonderbolt can fly, it might be an IHG bucker, ehh?"

Shining nodded along absently. "I guess so. In friendlier times we could test that idea."

Calmer times. A meaningless idea. There would be no calmer times. Let the world become ever more chaotic and fraught. The fragile and facile order which ponykind called peace was going to break soon. The world was going to be rejuvenated by Moon's prophesied world of a war of all against all.

Illustrious Valor was not an ideologue. She had heard all the sides, and though she was by disposition sympathetic to what her lady Moon had taught her, she had never fervently taken to it. The foundation of Celestia's civilization, like working, hierarchy, politics, and social responsibility bored her to tears. But the ephemera that made civilized life tolerable, like truffle snacks, pretty dresses, sculpted gardens, and zesty cocktails, made her almost as happy as destruction and murder.
Was it the way things were meant to be? Were ponies really meant to live lives in accordance to this divinely ordained stability and peace? Or were they meant to struggle and stuffer to advance their dreams?
Iillor wasn't sure yet, but the answer felt close at hoof.

So she trailed behind Shining Armor's band of knights like any other curious onlooker would, paying little attention to the brief confrontation with Spitfire, but consumed by her own thoughts, imagining what was to come.

Spitfire noticed Shining Armor glancing back at Iillor, still following them, before he ushered Spitfire onward.

"What did you say your name was mis?" Shining asked.

"I don't think I did say, sir." Spitfire snickered. "I am am entitled by the laws of Cloudsdale to the right to be addressed as dame or sir, but you can call me Captain Spitfire."

Shining Armor scrutinized the patches on her armor more closely. "Oh. You really are a Wonderbolt captain... Now I'm damn surprised it wasn't the first thing you said back there. Well, uh, I suppose that saves an argument with your sergeant. I can only echo my earlier sorriness about all this." He mulled over his thoughts for a moment. "But... it's all the more odd. What is your buisness with Twilight Velvet? Does she have something to do with this buisness at the guild hall?"

"Should I know that? This is my first time in your city." Spitfire snorted. "If the captain thing doesn't phase you, you must be some kind of officer, right? Well, even if you're not, you should know better than to second guess weird orders."

Shining Armor almost laughed, taken in by the mare's jokiness. Strangely cavalier for a career solder, not only to her orders, but her arrest as well. "No comment, Captain Spitfire. It would be bad form for an IHG knight to speak dishonorable insinuations against an alumnus like your admiral."

Spitfire affected a shrugging motion with her wing. "Dunno what you mean." She locked eyes with him for a few moments. "What was your name again?"

"Shining Armor." Shining said.

"Sir Shining Armor, I hear gunfire." Without warning, Spitfire launched herself into the air, her wings carrying her away at daunting speed. "I'll let you detain me again later!" She yelled back, nearly lost in the whistle of air around her.

"Damn Wonderbolt!" Shining swore. He'd barely unsheathed his sword before the pegasus was gone. He angrily slammed the weapon back into place. "Don't just gawk, follow her!" He yelled at the other knights. "She's heading to the Musician's Guild. If there's gunfire they're already fighting!"

The group of IHG knights began galloping, as fast as they could with their armor and weapons, the remaining blocks to the Old Town thoroughfare. Shining was right with them now, his heartbeat pounding in his head. Hopefully that pegasus was just lying, and she hadn't heard gunfire. Hopefully all the alarms were wrong, and nothing was happening.

But his heartbeat, breathing, and the clatter of armor was still overpowered by a series of cracks in the distance. Yes, gunfire. Then, getting closer still, pony voices crying out, pained and angered. Whips of smoke were starting to drift above the tops of the townhouses.

Yes, a battle, a battle! Iillor trembled with excitement. Seeing the ponies fighting at the city gatehouse, all those weeks ago on her first night in Canterlot, had afflicted her with adoration for the pitiful ponies who were willing to risk their lives for a purpose. The poor ponies like Shining Armor and Twilight Velvet, struggling up against the bonds of the civilization around them; And even ancillary characters like Night Light, Hauseway, Prosser, or Blueblood, who played out their allotted role with keen awareness of their own mortality. Not like her, Illustrious Valor, supremely smug in her own imperviousness.
Seeing the ponies fight and die had made Iillor appreciate the Nightmare of the Moon's tedious lessons on philosophy a bit more... But she couldn't agree unreservedly with the moon demon. For it was the trappings of civilization, the thing moon rejected the most, which made mortal striving and destruction all the sweeter!

And lo, turning the last corner, they came face-to-face with destruction in progress.

What Shining Armor had expected to see was a company of Wonderbolts butchering lines of bedraggled civilians before the guild hall, hacking them down with their sabers and performing firing squads with their carbines. He had heard of the infamously bloody way Wonderbolts and pegasi gendarmes had quashed the labor movement of Cloudsdale, and dreaded to see those tactics brought to Canterlot.
What he actually walked into was more like a siege... but nothing made sense.

"Sir, what's going on?" One of his knights uttered.

A series of loud cracks rang out, and a chunk of brick was torn from the nearby townhouse.
"Holy hell!" Shining grabbed the nearest knight and pushed him back behind the building. "The shots are coming from the guild hall. Stay covered!" On that order the rest of the IHG knights dove back around the corner or hid behind some upturned market stalls. Another round of sporadic musket fire, louder and closer.
"What the hell is going on?" Shining popped his zischägge helm off to wipe his forehead, drumming his hoof against it nervously. "Was this an ambush? Was that the Wonderbolts in the guild hall or the civilians?"

One of the knights peeked around the corner. "Not really civilians if they're shooting at us, are they sir." She grunted. "There's several shooters up there, mostly concealed... But I don't think they're the pegasi, 'cuz it looked like the bloody pegasi are at a barricade across the street, shooting back."

Shining put his helmet back on and peeked too. "Yup, those are the Wonderbolts on the street."
The whole thoroughfare was a terrible mess, with abandoned carriages, wagons, carts cafe tables, crates of goods, and everything else the citizens had abandoned them at the onset of fighting. The Wonderbolts had pushed together several small barricades from the vehicles and debris, makeshift positions that hid them from the lines of fire from the Musician's Guild hall. "I spot about a dozen Wonderbolts. The rest are probably at the roof level or at the other entrances of the guild hall." He turned back to his knights. "But they're not alone. There's city guardsponies at the barricades with the Wonderbolts."

That met with mix of groans and confused shouts from the IHG knights. "The buck is going on here!" One of them lamented.
More shouts and gunshots from the the street, as the besieged and besiegers exchanged potshots.

Yes, what the buck was going on there? It really, really felt like a set-up. But by who, and against who? Shining had one idea: It was no mistake that Captain Spitfire had name-dropped Twilight Velvet. If Velvet had invited Duke Lightdowser, and also Admiral Rain Gnash, could she have also 'arranged' this? "We knew there was a chance of violence. We brought armor and guns after all." Shining sighed.

"Sure you don't wanna run back to the barracks and fetch your bevor, sir?" One of the nervous knights joked.

"Not a chance. Can't muffle my voice for when I need to yell at you, Flash. C'mon lads and lasses, we came to prevent violence, so that's what we're going to do." Shining rallied his troop. He knew pacifism was a ridiculous sentiment since the musket balls were already flying. There was a sick symbology he couldn't miss that all his knights had weighty weapons and modern guns, but no shields. Perhaps on some level he'd known it would always come down to violence. "Vanguard, take the second lance to the nearer barricade. Try to get the Wonderbolts to stop shooting. You in the first lance, with me to the farther barricade."

A round of affirmatives, as the knights re-shouldered their weapons and prepared to sprint the distance.
At Shining's cue, the IHG knights rounded the corner again but did not flinch from the sporadic gunfire this time. Shining and five others circled around the street, then weaved through the mess of abandoned carts, to reach a group of Wonderbolts and City guardsponies at their ramshackle firing position.

Shining made sure his lance was accounted for and fully behind the barricade, then turned to the pegasi. "Welcome to Canterlot, but not that welcome." He said.

The pegasi looked to one another in confusion. "Huh? Imperial guards. Is this an ambush?"

"Uh, no it isn't ya winghead, 'cuz if it was you wouldn't even have time to know it." One of the IHG knights pantomimed firing his wheellock musket.

"Cut it out." Shining shoved the gun away. On closer inspection, the Wonderbolts were very lightly armed with rapiers, and a couple pistols. "Why are you attacking Canterlot?"

The city guardsponies piped up. "The guild started it! Sel Sabonord tried to talk to them, but the musicians yelled something and then started blasting right away. We scattered, took cover, and returned fire." He gestured with his cosh. "There's like fifty of them in there, armed to the teeth!"

"WHY?! Is it your job to shoot at the citizens of Canterlot? You're policeponies!" Shining was nearly shouting, trying to be heard over the continuing gunfire from the guild hall. "Where's Sel Lech now?" The city guardsponies shrugged. "Where's that Captain Spitfire?" The Wonderbolts shrugged. Shining resisted stomping his hooves in frustration. "This has gotten completely out of hoof. All of you should withdraw immediately. There's a chance at deescalation."

"Hold on there's the captain! Cap! Down here!" One of the Wonderbolts hooted.

Spitfire made a hard landing right beside Shining, using his shoulder to pull herself back up. "Whew, they've got archers on the roof, so keep your head down. There were casualties in the alleyway around the back of the building but that's all blocked off now. The cads are concentrating on frontal defense."

Shining took a steadying breath, then grabbed Spitfire by the wing with his telekinesis. "You have some explaining to do, dame Spitfire."

Another Wonderbolt, a stallion with longish blue mane and paler fur, swooped down to land right beside his captain. "Hey asshole, we don't know what's going on either! Let her go or your captain will hear about this!"

"Butt out Soarin! This is my squadron, and my responsibility now." Spitfire braved twisting her wing to push the pegasus stallion away. "I flew the perimeter and asked all my 'Bolts. Admiral Rain Gnash has ordered us here because she thought there was an insurrectionist leader's weapons cache, which was going to be used to outfit an urban paramilitary for an attack on us."

Urban paramilitary?? The only group that could possibly fit that description were the Black Horn Council. "If that was true why weren't the Guards or the castle alerted?"

Soarin snorted. "Everypony knows how corrupt everything is here. Hell, I heard every one of you IG are nepotism cases. The aid de camp is, like, the brother of the Princess's secretary."

Spitfire slapped the Wonderbolt with her free wing. "I gave you an order to butt out! Look, Sir Armor, corruption is what it is. Admiral Gnash either wanted the weapons for herself, ie for us 'Bolts, or she wanted to show off our muscle to that Duke."

Shining released Spitfire's wing. The gunfire from the guild hall had tapered off, and the return fire from the barricades had stopped completely.
Again things didn't add up. Why would Rain Gnash think a random guild was storing weapons for the Black Horn Council? And why would Gnash try to disarm the Black Horns if she was on Twilight Velvet's side? "I'm still missing something." He muttered.

Without another word, Shining vaulted over the barricade and started walking towards the Musician's Guild.

"That's where they're shooting from you know!" Soarin called after him.

Keeping a confident, even pace, Shining Armor crossed the open space to the front steps of the tall neoclassical edifice, keeping himself calm as a few shots rang out from overhead. He felt dozens of eyes upon him, and indeed there was a pony with crowbow and musket hiding behind every columns of the hall's pronaos. The guild ponies were tense, shivering, and Shining was unable to read their emotions as he approached.

"That's close enough." One of the defenders shouted, their voice eerily calm and monotone given the chaotic surroundings. "Deliver your terms, worm. Be too coy and we will kill you in the Mistress's name."

"I have no terms. I am ending this riot." Shining said, trying to balance authority and empathetic appeal in his tone. "When the Wonderbolts are disarmed and detained, and the guardsponies are sent back to their lodges, you must put down your weapons. Then we will tend to the wounded, clean the street, and conduct interviews to find out why this has happened."

The monotone pony stepped out from behind a column. He was mostly in the shadow of the vestibule, and wore a flowing black cloak that covered his torso... But what Shining could see of the stallion shocked him. Stitches and scars covered the pony's head and neck, with different colored fur at every spot, as if he were a quilt sewn together from tatters. The stallions eyes were different colors and, most horrifying, different sizes, as he seemingly had to keep a permanent sneer to hold the smaller eye in his skull.

That was when Shining realized something was much, much more wrong than he'd thought. The pony in front of him should not exist, should not be alive. The sinister plotting that had maneuvered him, the Wonderbolts, and the guardsponies was therefore not a mere force of opportunistic politics.

"Those sounds like terms, worm. You presume to trespass against the Mistress, then additionally bother her. That your blood would profane these steps keeps you alive, just long enough to beg the Mistress's forgiveness and try again." The monotone pony proclaimed.

Shining had nothing to say, nothing he could say, locked in awe of the horrible creature in front of him and all the things it was revealing to him. For now that he was so dreadfully convinced he was in the midst of a grave and supernatural evil, his mind cast about to connect it to other things: Fancy Pants and Barley Bale's murders, the irregular movement of the sun, the nonsense factional political struggle, or- or-

"You stupid motherbuckers. Do you think you can flout the laws of this land, then cite your dainty 'mistress' as an excuse?" Iillor derided. "Come out quietly and you might receive the empress's mercy."

Iillor?!? Shining stared at the mare who had snuck up behind him, mouth agape. The earth pony regarded the guild ponies with such earnest rage, a deep scowl and wide red eyes fixed on the monotone stallion.

"That's right, you idiot peons. Lay down your weapons right now. It's time you begged for your lives, 'cus the time of the Stars in Canterlot is over." Iillor decreed.

Too shocked, Shining's mind was lethargic to notice what Iillor's words had done. The monotone pony pulled a dagger out from under their cloak and lunged, driving the weapon into Iillor's ribcage.

"NO!" Shining howled, now shocked into action. He drew his sword and hacked at the monotone pony's nape. "Desist!" The stallion was knocked forward onto his face by the blow, and though his spine was showing he began to push himself up to rush at Iillor again.

Iillor did not idly take the blow this time, ripping the dagger from her ribs and slamming it into the monotone pony's throat. "Didn't work last time, won't work this time." She mocked. With a huff she drove the dagger even farther, meeting the wound Shining had dealt and levering his spine over. The stallion staggered back, trying to push his neck and head back into place with a hoof.

Shining did not dwell on the horrific sight, as more attacks were coming. The other guild ponies emerged from behind the columns, aiming their bows and crossbows Iillor's way. "Get back to safety!" He yelled, shoving Iillor towards the barricades. The first few arrows sailed right over their head. One bounced off Shining's cuirass, and another off the top of his helmet. A crossbow bolt stuck itself at the ridge of his barding, grazing his skin. As soon as they were out from under the pronaos, the gunners on the upper floor also started firing. Iillor yelped several times. Was she hit?!

Moments later they were behind the barricade again. "Bucking hell! Some covering fire would be nice!" Shining roared, as he maneuvered Iillor to the very back. Moments later the IHG knights began firing with their wheellocks, adding to the noise and chaos. The gunfight was more intense than ever.

"Whew that was fun." Iillor gave a little laugh and stretched her limbs. "Sir Armor you were amazingly heroic. If your little pink princess says it's okay, can I be your mistress?"

Shining tore off his zischägge helm for the last time and threw it to the ground in a mix of adrenaline, frustration, and rage. "Fuck!" He kicked the helmet for good measure. "Fuck!" He paced, barely able to think.

Iillor smiled guiltily. "Is that a no?" She laughed nervously, glancing over to Spitfire and Soarin who were watching. "Shining, you may not like how we got here, but now this is just what you have to do. The Guild Mistress, who that pegasus admiral thinks is an 'insurrectionist leader', goes by Phyte. She coordinates a network of cultists and assassins that operates through the Musician's Guild. The three dead mares Lyra, Octavia, and Vinyl, were close associates of Phyte and the guild." Iillor's red eyes, that caught the light in a strange way, tracked Shining as he paced. "This is the best chance of assaulting this haven of sin and putting an end to Phyte. Everypony is looking to you to do it."

Shining stopped pacing.
His blood boiled with anger. Ponies were dead and dying now, and many more would die, to assassinate some mare he'd never heard of before?! It was probably all lies anyway!
There was no sign of the mortal wounding Iillor had taken between her ribs, nor of the arrows or musket balls that had struck her. When Shining read her expression, he saw her mask of excitement and dread, her anticipation of what he would do. But when he looked into Illustrious Valor's eyes... Villainy. Yes, he was sure of it now. Evil. An evil no less than the monotone sewn-together pony under the pronaos.

And behind Iillor, a few hundred meters distant, were three figures, observing the situation play out: Newly minted Captain Sel Lech Sebonord, Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser, and a portly pegasus he assumed to be Admiral Rain Gnash. Evil, devious ponies, probably not supernatural, but cloying tyrants, surrounded by their servants and pawns, who were responsible for murders in the name of ambition.
A most foolish thought then entered Shining's head, that he wished his mother were there too, to look into her eyes and judge her as well. He wished to re-see the whole world with the clear sight. What else, what truths, what lies, had he missed?

Cadence... I always acted so cocky at the most inappropriate times. When I'm truly tested, I have always been found lacking. Cadence I am a weak pony that needs alicorn guidance. Tell me what my duty is. Princesses once and for all, please come save us mortals from ourself. Save me...

The rage and adrenaline subsided. "I see." He said. Constant, deafening gunfire. It made his ears hurt.
Surely he didn't have to do this?!? He couldn't even slightly pretend that it would be upholding his oaths to the empress. Princess Celestia had looked him in the eye and deemed him worthy, once during his knighting, and again when Hauseway was accusing him. He was about to order lethal violence against a guild whose charter, like all Canterlot charters, was signed by the princess herself. He would be using the knights sworn to protect the princess and the empire against the latter.
Oh, but it was not like he hadn't been manipulated into political errands before. Compared to disrespecting Cadence by shutting down her court, what was killing a few ponies? The guild ponies had shot first too! The guild had betrayed their covenant with the princess by targeting her knights!
Yes, Shining was going to have to do it. He saw it in Iillor's red eyes. If he backed down, and fell below her esteem, he would become her enemy. He be all their enemies... And Shining was not ready for that. Or at least, less ready than he was to kill.
Decided but not resolved, Shining turned to the other knights. "Flash, I appear to be missing my sword. Please take both lances and retrieve it, then arrest the pony named Phyte for its theft."

Immediately understanding the decency-preserving euphemism, senior knight Flash Sentry gave a salute. "Sir!" He looked around him and got solemn nods from the other knights. "At your order, as always Sir Armor. Hopefully this is for the good of the realm."

"Hell yes! Guess it took the 'Bolts showing up to get you IG off your asses, eh?" Soarin snorted, earning a quick wing slap from his captain. "Oww! Okay, okay, I'll coordinate the flights on the roofs. 'Bout time we did this." He launched into the air, zig-zagging through the air to the concealed position of the other Wonderbolts.

Spitfire shrugged. "I'm not sure what's going on here. I just follow orders. After this, maybe I'll get the liaison with Twilight Velvet. Whatever you're going through, Armor, I uh, hope it gets better. If the Admiral takes over as IHG captain I'll put in a good word for you." She motioned to the Wonderbolts behind the barricade. "Alright gentleponies, dispersed assault on their gunners at the upper levels. Keep them from firing out of those windows, but don't advance too soon. We don't know the terrain and those IHG boys have the plate armor."

Flash Sentry pushed his visor down and readied his halbard. "My first big action and it's against civilians. Oh well, that's what happens when the Wonderbolts are in town." He nodded to Shining Armor. "On your order, sir."

They were really going to make Shining say it. An unintentional thing, just a formality, but it burned Shining to know that his culpability in the events to come was inescapable. "It has to be done. The princesses nor anypony else will save us." He said.

"Uh, okay then." Flash concurred. "Let's go! Urraaah!"
The five Imperial Household Guard knights emerged from behind the barricade. They advanced a few steps, fired their wheellock muskets, then charged towards the entrance of the Musician's Guild. A few moments later the knights behind the other barricade charged too. Then all twenty Wonderbolts flew up from the street and the rooftops and swooped down on the all the windows or flanked the guild ponies facing off the IHG knights on the ground.
The screams of violence and terror reached a crescendo, as armed and armored knights faced off against the defenders. The guild ponies had no way to harm the trained soldiers bearing down on them, where their skill at subterfuge counted for nothing. It was everything Shining Armor had feared; It was murder.

Iillor was watching too, far more delighted than Shining was. "If you value mercy, Lord Armor, then the sooner the fighting ends the more quickly we can render aide to the wounded." She lied.

Shining didn't say anything. He couldn't stop watching. The IHG knights had stepped over the first rank of downed guild ponies to reach the front entrance and were going into the guild hall. The Wonderbolts had found the least defended upper floor entrance and were assaulting in force as well. Captain Spitfire threw Shining a wave before following her soldiers into the building.

"You know, this will be a big cloud over me lifted. I'll have nothing to hide from you after Phyte is gone." Iillor continued. "I was kinda crass with my earlier offer, but I meant it earnestly, you know. I think you're a very special stallion."

"From the first night, I knew something was off about you. A strange mare with strange manners shows up out of nowhere. I'm such an idiot for not trusting my instincts." Shining mumbled, finally facing her. "I don't trust you. Since I value trust in my relationships, that makes things difficult for us, Mis Valor." He finally started to follow the knights into the guild hall. "I was a hubristic fool. I thought I had the edge over you and I can't even express why I believed that anymore."

"Because I'm a carefree provincial commoner and you're a self-serious urbane noble knight. We're on opposite ends of your pretty little empire's social hierarchy and you trusted that if I ever got uppity that your 'system' could be used to discipline me." Iillor giggled. "There's a couple reasons that you were deluded. But yeah, you should've trusted your instincts."

Shining didn't answer right away. Yes, Iillor was mostly accurate about what his conceit had been. How expansive was her deception though? Was there anything accurate about her identity? "Do not count on me keeping your company long enough for you to reintroduce yourself."

"I totally get you're upset with me. I'm still on your side, not just as a friend, but as a pony." Iillor said. "I really am just a country girl looking for fun in Canterlot. As for this mess..." She nodded towards the dead and wounded guild ponies they were stepping around. "I didn't think a solution this bloody would be necessary. I think Lady Velvet was feeling the pressure and pushed for a quick solution to Phyte."

Clearly the signs were pointing to Twilight Velvet being the hinge that had brought things together, but that absolutely did not absolve the individual ponies she'd maneuvered. But what this earth pony, with no clear ambitions unlike the others, have to gain from the violence? "Before you started helping my mother, were you somepony else's agent?"

Iillor have him a pitying, patronizing look. "Like who, Shining? Your captain, Hauseway? Or Fancy Pants? Or maybe you imagine I was spurned by Phyte and I'm trying to get back at her."

Though Shining had gotten plenty of abuse from mares throughout his life, he really wondered if Iillor's glib sarcasm was going to drive him over the line. "It would be plausible I would imagine that, if I had any idea at all who this Phyte mare even is. I'll have to ask her when I see her." He glared at Iillor. "Actually I have a lot of questions for her."

That drew a laugh from Iillor. "I don't know why the bureaucrats kept you in the dark. Most of the other Imperial Council ponies knew about the true nature of the guild. Maybe Prosser or Hauseway thought they were keeping you safe."

Oh right, Councilor Prosser had said he knew the true identity of Fancy Pants's killer, but had to keep it secret! Had Prosser been alluding to Phyte? That idea incensed Shining until he thought about all the things he had done with the same paternalistic logic. Keeping a pony safe sometimes meant keeping them ignorant, right? Considering how unsafe he was feeling now, maybe that logic was flawed after all.

With Shining leading the way, they passed through the battlefield that the Musician's Guild had become. The knights had advanced through the front half of the ground floor, leaving dozens of injured or dead musicians. Pianists, cellists, players of all kinds of woodwinds and percussion, slaughtered defending their home. Besides the weapons the guild ponies carried, the guild itself seemed innocuous, with nothing to suggest either a weapons cache or a cult.

Some of the guild ponies had surrendered and been shuffled into a side room under guard. "Hey, Sir Armor!" Flash Sentry waved them over. "Your sword, sir."

"Thanks I guess." Shining grunted. The same weapon he'd brought to end Candence's court. He felt stupid for wanting it back. "Any signs of weapons caches or this Phyte mare?" He asked, turning the heads of the sullen POWs.

"They have some nifty stuff. One of the bleeders back there tried to ambush us with a blowdart, and another with a grenade of some type. That was exciting, but otherwise there's nothing at all cache-like." Flash reported.

“This is a vaunted institution you barbarians are destroying. Our conservatory has stood for centuries. It will last for centuries longer." One of the guild ponies said quietly.

Flash shook his head. "I'm starting to believe the cultist thing the mare was saying. They fight like hell and talk so weird." He said. "How did something like this last so long in the heart of Canterlot, and in the Old Town of all places! I don't even know what to say."

"Then don't." Iillor raised a hoof. "It's gotten quiet."

It had indeed become quiet. After the nearly constant shooting, screaming, and killing since they arrived at the guild hall, it was now so silent. The wails and moans of the many wounded was the only sound. As soon as the last knight lowered their weapon, so began the work of dragging to wounded out and reorganizing.

Shining recognized many faces among the casualties, strangers he'd see in Old Town, or players for the various courtly events around Canterlot. "One pony, two pony, three ponies dead. This is over thirty fatalities and double that in wounded." Shining estimated.
The only good news was that none of the IHG knights had been seriously injured. That would make it a bit harder for Hauseway to summarily discipline him over the affair, especially with Rain Gnash in angling for the captaincy. Shining couldn't predict the fallout from the dead civilians until he knew who Phyte actually was.

Spitfire, Soarin, and some of the Wonderbolts descended from the upper levels. "Cool, I see you've pacified most of them." Spitfire admired the amount of blood covering the knights' weapons and armor. "You IG have a bad reputation in Cloudsdale, but you're alright by me."

What a sickening endorsement. All the snide slander of the Wonderbolt felt true when a one-sided slaughter was the kind of thing that won their approval. "Don't celebrate before you fulfill your precious orders. You owe your admiral an insurrectionist." Shining quipped.

"Before you bother asking this lot, none of the ponies we would find up here are Phyte." Iillor said. "She's hidden down below."
Hearing this one of the POWs jumped up and charged Iillor, trying to impale her with his horn.

Shining stepped into the way, fatally striking the attacking stallion with a sword to his head. "Mis Iillor, don't tease away our time and the lives of these ponies!" Shining said, anger bubbling up again. "Show us the way."

"I'll gladly show you the way. Hey you all, we're going into the catacombs!" Iillor chirped, but she did not provoke any of the other POWs to attack. "Volunteers only, fellas. It's going to get gnarly down there."

Iillor danced ahead, into a room they had already been. By the time the chosen party caught up with her an unseen passage had been opened up, a narrow stairway going down under the foundations of the building. A new dead body lay nearby- It was another pony with mismatched patches of fur sewn to their body.

"This is pretty weird. I'm guessing this isn't normal even for Canterlot, aye? So how'd the earth pony know about it?" Spitfire wondered out loud. She was starting to catch on to the supernatural terror hiding just out of sight as well.

Iillor answered with a smile, then led the way down the stair into a gloomy hewn-rock tunnel, illuminated only by the unicorns' horns.

This was a completely different environment than the neoclassical guild hall above. The further they went, minute after minute, the colder and damper it got. The knights and Wonderbolts, energized and gutsy after their victory, were gradually infected by Shining Armor's dread. They began to wonder why they had never heard of Phyte before, and whether it had been better that way.

"This sure goes a while." Soarin feigned a yawn. "We've got to be under the center of the plateau by now, you know, the area where the buildings are denser."

"No, still under Old Town. The passageway curves subtly." Iillor whispered, jittery and eager.

Spitfire huffed, her pegasus instincts screaming in such claustrophobic confines. "So we're spiraling out from that stair?"

Iillor laughed. "No, no, more like spiraling in. We had to torture a certain grey mare near to death to find out how to access this secret path, so you ponies could follow me. There's still more hidden, root-like branching tunnels behind false walls, all along here. If that intrigues you, then once Phyte is gone we can go so much deeper and find what they hid centuries ago. Deeper we should go..."

They quickly lost track of time. Half the knights turned around to help with the prisoners and wounded on the surface. Shining probably would have written off Iillor and followed them, but he had to see this through. He had to uncover why Iillor really wanted Phyte dead, and what Phyte would say about it. He prayed, foolishly he knew, that this would be the last secret necessary to understand all the bizarre things happening around him.
And perchance, he could end his headache with Illustrious Valor at the same time. Maybe that meant arresting her too. Maybe that meant something else... "Velvet knew you were better at hurting ponies than you let on, Mis Valor." He inferred out loud. "So, whatever you are supposedly going to tell me after Phyte is dealt with, you already told my mother."

Iillor whistled softly but supplied no excuses for herself.

"For real, who is that mare?" Spitfire grumbled from behind him. "Wait, hold the buck up, Twilight Velvet is your mom?"

"Ha ha, I bucking knew it. Nepotism and Canterlot are pretty much synonyms." Soarin snickered.

"Address Sir Armor with some respect, Wonderbolt. He's bested foes a lot more impressive than the Cloudsdale mobs." Flash Sentry barked.

Maybe in a less oppressive atmosphere Soarin would have laughed at the lambasting. Instead he mock bucked at Flash to try to make him flinch. "You Canter-loiters who stay grounded together really stick up for one another, huh?"

"By Sir Armor's leave I'll redress your insults to us, Wonderbolt. Then you'll find out what a true knight uses his wings for." Flash shot back. "Captain Spitfire please reign in your subordinate before he ends up poked by somepony's polearm."

Spitfire shook her head. "Don't you dare sodomize my 'bolt, soldier. Give me until we're out of the tunnel and I can biff him properly."

"That will be soon. We are coming up on something." Shining spotted light up ahead, a dull yellow glow in the distance of the passage.

"Finally something new to target. No hard feelings, right fellas? I was just bored." Soarin said.

"The sword itself incites." Flash Sentry nodded.

The yellow glow became more distinct, and soon Shining realized he was looking at a few dozen candles and lanterns- The room around them was a taller, more cavernous dome, its walls the same stone as the tunnel they were emerging from. The cavern was adorned like a noble office: Cabinets full of papers, display cases of curiosities, sealed clay pots, wire birdcages, various paintings, and rolled up carpets were shoved against the arcing walls of the room. The middle of the cavern was blocked by several huge piles of scrolls and stacks of papers, reminiscent of a badly-organized library or bureaucratic station.

"I've seen these before." Shining nudged one of the birdcages. It was the same design as the ones in Octavia's hideout in the abandoned apartment! Well naturally Octavia, a musician, would have a connection to the guild. Wait... Lyra Heartstrings, before becoming Fancy Pants's agent, had been a part of the guild as well. And was the mysterious Vinyl a musician as well? Maybe Iillor was being completely truthful about the nature of the guild. Shining felt damn stupid for not making the connections before, and felt upset at the idea some other investigator had suggested it but been shot down by the councilors keeping it secret.
"All these scrolls are valuable evidence. Keep those candles away from them."

There was a shifting, whining sound from the other end of the cavern.
"Do not touch what does not belong to you, worm." A monotone mare’s voice echoed through the room.

Spitfire drew her weapon. "One last dirtbag to ice."

Soarin snickered. "I'll give you this one in lieu of the slap I owe you cap."

Shadows shifted on the far wall. Shining counted four ponies, discernible by profile against the flickering candlelight. By Iillor's ecstatic expression, he guessed one of those ponies was Phyte. "Hello. I am Sir Shining Armor of the Imperial Household Guard. In the name of the princess I order you to surrender."

"Oh ho. You order me? In the name of the princess? Ignorant sun slave. Lady Moon was right about you. You mortals." There was a flash of anger in the mare (presumably Phyte)'s voice. "I see the other case as well. You are led by power and death, as Celestia dictates."

Iillor stepped forward. "Power and death is a nice turn of phrase. Yeah, I've heard you Star bastards can turn a pretty word. Do you practice in the mirror, or just to your bitches?"

"A meeting months in the making, and that was the introduction you came up with? I expected better, Nightmare. Perish." Phyte intoned.

Spitfire's ears perked. "Movement, overhead! Ambush!"

Shining Armor unsheathed his sword just in time to deflect a sword blow from a pegasus that swooped down at him from the roof of the cavern. Another killer, a unicorn, jumped out from one of the cabinets and began throwing darts at him. Shining cursed and ducked his head under his hoof, regretting having tossed his helmet away. A dart bounced off the barding on his leg, letting Shining scoop it up and throw it back. The killer was startled at the return throw, and Shining closed in and fatally slashed and stabbed him back into the cabinet.

Flash Sentry was in the most trouble of the group, pinned to the ground wrestling with a cloaked unicorn that had tangled his halberd up with a flail. Shining bucked the attacker off his knight, and when the unicorn rose Shining hacked at his spine until he stayed down.

"Thanks. I've got the pegasus." Flash wheezed. That claim was put to the test when said assassin pegasus swooped on him, smacking Flash's helmet with the sword. "Damn!" Flash staggered back. He pulled the flail off his halberd, but as the pegasus made another attack Flash judged the flail the better tool, hopping up and catching the pegsus on the body with the star. The pegasus lost of control of their wings and smashed into one of the wire birdcages. The pegasus stood up, but soon found himself stabbed through the chest by the point of the halberd.
"Whew, bloody well handled. Fine soldiering, Sir." Flash shakily tucked his halberd back under his wing. "Damn, by head's going to be ringing for days from that one."

Spitfire and Soarin had survived their assailants too. Spitfire looked like she had taken a hit on the withers which her light armor had only barely protected her from, and she was disfavoring her back leg.
"Not too bad, IG. I still don't think that polearm can reach as far as I can fly." Soarin joked.

Shining was not going to banter. While he wasn't looking, Iillor had also dispatched an assassin- the victim was folded in half lengthwise.
But the enshadowed figures at the far wall had stayed still. How sick, Shining thought, that they voyeuristically watched the killing just like Rain Gnash or Sel Lech had. "If that was your last gambit, it failed. It's time to surrender yourself. I can promise you an impartial trial."

That angered the voice of Phyte again. "Ooh, ah, yes. Magisterial trial. That's what you give to those who you bother to leave alive. But at the core of it, whether any particular guild mare survives to sentencing is random, arbitrary, or contingent. Why did my Lyra, my Octavia, and my Vinyl not have their trial?"

So this mystery figure really was an associate of the dead mares. Against his better judgement Shining was going to get sucked into a conversation where Phyte was in control. "Expired, obviously. My condolences. I heard theories they were innocent of Fancy Pants's death." He couldn't fail to notice Iillor snickering as he said this. "That's not going to repeat itself. We are all sworn to uphold the princess's justice, so that means the princess's judgement. Once you surrender you are protected by the laws and decrees of her highness." Every time Shining mentioned the princess, the shadows on the far seemed to flicker ever the more agitatedly. "With a petition you could likely put your case in front of Princess Celestia herself."

"That damnable alicorn. That DAMNABLE alicorn! I can not even bear the thought of pretending you worms subdued me to bring to her." Phyte snarled.

Soarin was getting impatient. "You can have it his way, yada yada. Or you can have it our way, badda bing. Either way your body's going to the princess." He waved his rapier suggestively.

"Can't have it all your way anymore, Star. Chose." Iillor spoke up. She advanced into the middle of the spacious cavern. "You could listen to the unicorn and the pegasus. Or you could listen to the little old earth pony and kill yourself before we have to abase ourselves with your blood, you Star bastard."

One of the shadows on the wall peeled itself away, stepping past the candles and meeting Iillor at the center of the cavern. It was a unicorn, with all the fur of his face cut away, so a muscled skull was all that held his eyes and tongue. "You're no earth pony. In the name of the mistress-" The unicorn gargled, unable to articulate well without lips. His horn lit up with magic, and a small dagger was levitated from out of one of the piles of scrolls. "I will sacrifice you, Nightmare."

All the attention of the room was inexorably drawn to that little dagger, its details obscured by the low light, which nevertheless glinted and glowed with an unnatural sheen. Shining felt a sudden chill and his heart began to race, and the sword in his grasp felt almost too cold to hold any longer. "Watch out! That's a cursed weapon of some type!"

"Don't intervene or I'll kill you next, Shining." Iillor growled.
The faceless unicorn slashed forward and Iillor jumped back just in time. He growled and slashed several more times, but Iillor kept retreating. However, seeing she had almost backed into Shining, she tried to circle around, but the faceless unicorn intercepted and nearly caught her with a stab. Overconfident, the unicorn tried to close in, but with lightning speed Iillor got between him and his dagger and headbutted him. The unicorn reeled back, trying to keep his telekinesis to stab Iillor in the back, but she kept up her aggression, wrestling him down and subduing him with head and hoof strikes. Within seconds the poor unicorn was a flattened mess, and very dead.

"Damn mis. If you don't want her, Sir Armor, can I? Heh heh!" Soarin stepped forward and scooped up the dagger where it had fallen. The effect on him was immediate: Soarin began convulsing, dropping the dagger and falling over. He croaked and dry-heaved. Spitfire was immediately at his side, dragging him away from the fallen dagger and sitting him back up.

Phyte's voice began to laugh, going up and down registers like odd bells. "You fools have no idea what you are dealing with. Why did you bring these ponies here to die with you, Nightmare? I have drawn this out, but am no closer to understanding."

"Because I like to see ponies strive, you Star bastard. Look at them- Feeling out the edges of heaven, like a blind mare at the edge of a cliff. I find it really charming." Iillor explained. "If you're in a hurry to die, don't dilly-dally on my account."

Not for the first time that afternoon, Shining wondered what the hell was going on.

Two more of the shadows stepped up from the far wall. They were patchworks of fur and, shocking, bore both wings and horns mismatched with the rest of them. "Those words are old and decrepit, Nightmare!" The twin pseudo-alicorns said in unison, their androgynous voices unnervingly slow. "They died a thousand years ago when we banished the Moon's Nightmare. Pony dreams are nothing before the largess of the princesses. Their salvation is apotheosis." The twins paused, straining for several seconds to spread their wings to full wingspan, then after grunts of effort, lighting their horns with orange-red magic.

"This is the only way ponykind will outlive Celestia. If you let them rely on their own dreams the ponies you cherish will perish from this world." Phyte said.

With fascination and horror, the ponies looked upon the mutilated alicorn-like creatures. "This is high sacrilege." Flash managed to blurt out.

"We're in way over our heads." Spitfire acknowledged, glancing towards the tunnel back to the guild hall.

Iillor was less impressed. "Here's the weapon's cache you were after, Wonderbolt. An unholy host, using a Star's magic." She nodded towards the cursed dagger. "Go on, try out your top-of the line dogs on me, dog."

The twins wrestled their wings back down and advanced. The first pseudo-alicorn picked up the dagger but began to seize and gasp as Soarin had, barely able to stand upright. After several seconds of violent struggle against their own skin, the creature fell forward on its face and breathed no longer.
Undeterred, the second pseudo-alicorn grabbed up the dagger and held it aloft, challenging Iillor. "This 'unholy host', bearer of their mistress's power, will overcome you, Nightmare." It sing-songed. To demonstrate its own durability, the pseudo-alicorn slashed its own chest. An absurd jet of blood spurted out, before strands of red magic emerged from the flesh to stench and close the cut. "I will sacrifice you."

Iillor shook her head. "Naw, I'll sacrifice you." She contorted her neck down and reached far down her throat with a hoof. She stood that way for a few seconds, a completely impossible pose, before pulling her leg back out- A small cloth bundle curled in her hoof.

Shining watched awestruck. No, no... Phyte and her cultists were calling Iillor by 'Nightmare'. Surviving the stabs and bullets, freakish strength, and now impossible anatomy... that mare...

Iillor unwrapped the cloth bundle, layer by layer, revealing the second dagger. The oppressive chill in the room doubled, and Shining began to feel a heightening vertigo and nausea. He could not bear to look at the showdown, but nor could he look away. Every moment, pulses of evil energy seemed to emanate out from the daggers, irradiating the ponies and withering them in body and soul. Not one, but two cursed weapons?! That place, dark with swirling eddies of candlelight, did not feel like the same world anymore.

"En garde, ain't it." Iillor said. She crept forward, passing her dagger from hoof to hoof. The pseudo-alicorn levitated their dagger with crimson red magic. The duelists circled, experimentally poking or prodding, but never getting close to one another, both uncertain if they could attack and get away unscathed. It was more like a back-alley knife fight than any honorable duel.

The setting and combatants were alien and bizarre, but the form of the fight was familiar to Shining. "Iillor, you're holding it way too low." He uttered, still unable to tear his eyes off the awe-ful weapon. "You won't have time to defend your face. You might have to hold it in your mouth."

"I told you not to intervene!" Iillor shouted.
The pseudo-alicorn took this moment to strike, and in the exact way Shining had warned, aiming to strike Iillor's face with a high thrust. Too badly positioned, there was no way Iillor could block, and the enemy was too close to dodge away from; She was about to be hit!
But Iillor dissolved into mist, and the foe's dagger sailed through empty air where the earth pony had been moments before. Everypony, even Phyte, gasped. Iillor's dagger did not fall, but held aloft by a deep red magic, glided forward and stabbed the pseudo-alicorn twice above the shoulder.

"By the gods!" The pseudo-alicorn screeched, batting away Iillor's dagger with a wing. Red magic from her horn and skin bubbled around her profusely bleeding wounds, but acrid black magic also there stirred, roiling and smoking. "Nightmare! I will kill you!"

A shadowy form gathered in front of the pseudo-alicorn and raised Iilor's dagger in its etherial hoof. The wounded pseudo-alicorn tried to tackle and stab the figure, but passed through its misty body again. Iillor's dagger spun around in the air and caught the pseudo-alicorn on the belly and groin. The psudo-alicorn screamed incessantly, trying to parry and stop the mist-borne dagger, but it continued the gutting until most of the psudo-alicorn's stomach and intestines were on the cold cave floor.

The mist floated back and re-coalesced into the shape of Iillor, a wild grin stretching her features. "Gotchya. I could have done you with a butter knife, but the Star's blade makes it quicker. Look at your salvator, Phyte. All its insides are on the outside, for all of us to see that it has the same bits as the rest of the mortals."

The pseudo-alicorn, fighting against the malign magic dissolving it from the wounds, desperately shoveled its organs back into place to let the healing magic work. "The secrets of dreamers and heavens have I heard... but... not enough..." The evil of Iillor's dagger, blessed of a Star's power, was just too much for the creature, and it gradually struggled less and less. Once again Phyte's dagger clattered to the ground.

"Yeah, sweet dreams. Piece of shit." Phyte snorted.

There was just one more shadow on the far wall, watching by candlelight.
"That is Shale's blade." Phyte's voice was tenuously calm. Every single servant she had was now dead or captured. Now she had to face the powers arrayed against her alone. "How did this come to be?"

Backed off from their deadly purpose, Shining felt the intolerable aura of the daggers partially abate, enough for him to concentrate and speak more. "It's time to surrender yourself, for real."

The shadow on the wall approached. They saw the outline of the red mare now, freakishly tall, levitating one of the candles to herself. Her body was spindly, and her mane and tail were long and unkempt. Her eyes glowed maroon, darting between the ponies.
"This makes me ache. Intolerably ache. This is how the Celestiaan felt when Everfree burned.” The mare said, her voice like frosted glass.

Iillor threw back her head and laughed. "You arrogant witch, why should these ponies care how you feel. Stop talking and get ready to die."

"Wait." Shining said, then more firmly. "Wait. I am the officer of the Imperial Court. You will stand down, Mis Valor, and let this mare surrender herself." Since the red mare had so far made no move to grab a weapon, Shining felt safe to sheath his sword, signaling his intention. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

Phyte's attention fully went to Shining. "The knight lieutenant... And Twilight Velvet's spawn. I should have followed through my threat to wipe her lineage out."

"You sure should have. Who do you think lent me Shale's sacrifice dagger?" Iillor mocked. "You stupid Star. You were tricked over and over by a menopausal mother of two."

Soarin had recovered enough from the ordeal of touching the cursed weapon to stand on his own. "What the buck is a Star? What the buck are you? What's going on here?!"

"I am the superior class of life on this planet, one of the elder siblings of mortalkind who trace their heritage to the Tower of the Bard. Everything you have despoiled so far are emanations of me. You stand before an hour in her glory, conqueror of Heaven's fiefs. Stumbled, you have, into a lady such as you have never met, and never will meet again." Phyte chanted. "The pretensions of the alicorns will stumble, and I will yet stand. You will wain too, Nightmare. You have undone our charity to ponykind but I will sweep you aside and resume the work."

Iillor laughed some more, then turned very serious. "I'm going to turn you inside out."

Whatever supernatural nonsense was going on, Shining had committed himself to extracting his answers. That meant stopping the fight, which meant physically placing himself between the hostile mares. "I ordered you to stand aside, Iillor. Do so, or I'll arrest you too."

"Buddy you're going to get attacked again." Soarin sighed.

Shining strode up to Phyte, his back to Iillor, and hoped that his presence would deter the earth pony from trying to attack. Iillor had been very quick and vicious, with her body and with the dagger, but she didn't have much precision. As long as she worried about hurting Shining, Iillor would sit still. "Nopony is waining before you explain some things." Shining said. He wasn't pulling off his demanding attitude while wincing through the waves of dark discomfort that still filled the cavern. "What other assets do you have in Canterlot? They will all have to be processed."

Phyte, nearly as tall as Celestia, looked over Shining, her mane tickling his nose. "Pitifully little now that I am being bossed around by a unicorn whelp. For over a century, I presided over the largest haven of Star devotees in Equestria, the second largest in the world. I had the empress's sanction to rule, to co-opt and use you mortals' murderous impulses and demands, to research your salvation." Phyte did not blink, Shining noticed. "Torn away from me! Bit by bit! What UTTER humiliation. I can barely express it. I even had to seek assistance from a dreamer!" She lurched, and for a moment Shining though she was going to strike him, but she had instead raised her hoof to point accusingly at Iillor. "Like you mortals, I suppose I was coddled by the norms of safety and security that the empire was meant to bring. I did not for a MOMENT imagine you ponies would tolerate and even abet a monstrosity like her!"

Not that Shining had felt bad for Phyte (just for himself), but that admission let him feel a measure of satisfaction for destroying her followers. "So this really was a twisted death cult! I refuse to believe Princess Celestia knew or sanctioned any of this. You'll only escape the executioner if you don't put up any more resistance, period. If you fight back any more, you will die, one way or another."

"It is tempting to surrender just to see you flail and fail to uphold that promise. What bitter amusement a real death would be then." Phyte's stare shifted to Iillor's dagger. "A flighty pony like you... harumph. I know your patterns, mortal. You would betray yourself, offering up all manner of ego-defending excuses, while the world plays on as if you had done nothing at all."

Shining felt a flash of anger. "Is my ego at risk? It's your cult I just dismantled. All my shortcomings have been absolved by the princess herself. If your cult is responsible for any deaths in Canterlot you will be made to answer and regret every single one of them. That includes Fancy Pants, Deeper Frie Fellowship, Barley Bale, and any others!"

Shining heard a soft snicker from Iillor. And Phyte, looming over him, also looked darkly amused, her glowing eyes slightly narrowed. "Pony, your Nightmare friend killed Pants and Bale. Did you truly not know?"

"I-"
Shining's heart was beating too loud for him to hear. The lingering nausea, the numbing chills in his spine, the waves of numbness fighting against a stirring anger and indignant confusion...
It made too much sense. Obviously, OBVIOUSLY, Illustrious Valor had killed Fancy Pants, right? She was the pony who had first indicated Octavia and Vinyl at Pant's murder. After Prosser had said, with absolute conviction, that the mares had not been the real killers, Shining should have reexamined everything, including Iillor's testimony.
A strange mare appears from nowhere inserts herself in the most important murder investigation of the decade, then continues to haunt the halls of the castle and the streets of Canterlot... and Shining Armor specifically. A nobody, devious and annoying, but who nopony could say no to.
Prosser had known. The very night of Fancy Pants's murder, Prosser must have seen Iillor and known she'd done it. He must have realized the full extent of her danger, which was perhaps even more than Shining realized, and tried to protect the rest of the castle from her. That meant getting Velvet to hire Iillor to distract her. That meant condemning Barley Bale and Velvet's other enemies to die.
So Phyte, an enemy of both Velvet and Iillor, and apparently of other ponies like Rain Gnash as well, was next on the chopping block. Maybe Phyte deserved it (she definitely did), but leading a haphazard assault that killed dozens of ponies was not the way a righteous pony carried out the princess's justice! The princess-

...

Shining slowly turned to Iillor. "Celestia-" He croaked. "She knew. She knew and she didn't care. I tried to tell her, what Prosser had told me, that the killer was still out there. She was aloof. She left us at your mercy. A- And she always knew." His eyes, wide open, wild, a little crazed. Weeks and months he'd crossed paths with her! Like a tiger, a being able to commit effortless violence, apathetic and unbound by pony morality. His head had been nestled in her jaw and he'd never even realized it.

"Don't worry about it too much. I'm a nice girl, and you're my friend. Just let it happen." Iillor winked.

Engulfed by a cloud of shadowy magic, Shining’s sword wrenched itself from his belt and stabbed Phyte above the sternum.
Phyte staggered, and after knocking Shining away with a sweep of her leg, summoned up her magic, a blinding glow like heated metal that danced around her horn.

"Oh shit! Pull back!" Spitfire retreated to the edge of the cavern, ushering the limping Soarin ahead of her.

"Nay, perish!" Phyte's voice boomed. She flicked her horn, and coursing waves of raging red magic lashed out in every direction. It had all the effects of a messy bomb in the confined space, catching scrolls, furnishings, and pony corpses alight. Phyte followed up with a concentrated beam of magic, a laser lancing forward, that tore into Iillor as her form dissolved to shadowy mist again.
"Nightmare! What about MY hopes, MY aspirations! Are you a slave to the Moon, to not see how much more worthy I am than all the dreams ponykind could ever muster?!" Phyte raged. She looked down at the sword jammed through her chest, and tenderly probed the flesh, wincing and trembling in greater and greater rage. "Look at what I am reduced too: Hunting my own meat." She walked over to the disemboweled psudo-alicorn, levitating her dagger, and began ruthlessly cutting the remaining skin of her erstwhile servant. With each slash, the magical power swirling around her horn burned brighter. Then pausing from her butcher, Phyte yanked Shining's sword out of her chest in a spray of blood and tossed it away. The fatal wound stitched itself closed, and Phyte let out a satisfied grunt.
"My enemies have cut me down to a hock before, but I came back. You are nothing, even with Shale's blade."

Shining groaned and cradled his shoulder; Phyte's punch had dented his armor but thankfully it was not broken or dislocated. But looking around Shining saw he was still in tremendous danger, as growing blazes were expanding all around the cavern, burning scrolls, furnishings, and the corpses. A whistling sound began to grow as the red flame began to suck in more and more air from the passage back to the surface.

"Sir Armor!" Flash Sentry called out frantically.

Shining sat up. It was getting intolerably hot. Any longer in the cavern and they'd all be cooked. "Pull back! I'll arrest these miscreants and be right behind you!" He locked eyes with Spitfire. "I said pull back, damn you! I'm still in charge of this operation."

Spitfire tried to to think of something to quip back but her words were failing her. She... couldn't think, couldn't react! She turned, awed, by the radiating power of the Star, red magic sparking from her horn and fur and setting even more of the room alight. This was a foe she had no answer to. It terrified and exhilarated her.
"You heard the knight. Get topside immediately!" He pushed Soarin towards the tunnel with a wing. "Don't even think about arguing or I'll whip your hide into parchment!"

Soarin replied something but it was lost in the whistling air and crackling inferno. He darted into the passage back to the surface, making small wing hops that let him avoid using his hurt leg.
Spitfire and Flash Sentry withdrew to, but did not enter, the passage behind Soarin.

"Sir Armor, it's hopeless! She's gone!" Flash Sentry yelled.

"There's no reason to martyr yourself you fool!" Spitfire concurred.

Phyte was not idle, however. Quickly glancing about for signs of Iillor, she glided to Shining, blocking his escape. "Pony, you do you know why I have not obliterated you?"

Shining glared at the haughty demigod. "Because you missed." He levitated the halberd from where Flash had dropped it. "The princess orders you to desist."

"She does no such thing." Phyte chortled darkly. "You are the pony smudging you princess's grand designs. Oh you myopic mortals do not fail to amuse even when you act LIKE THIS. This is a wrinkle of the curse of us Stars. What we create is destined to be destroyed, but we can not pass with it.”
Taking her mockery as intent to resist arrest, Shining jabbed at the mare with the halberd, trying to catch a leg and subdue her.
Phyte effortlessly caught the polearm's blade with her dagger and twisted it out of Shining's grasp. "Come now, I have wielded this since before the Celestiaan arrived on this planet. Shining Armor, perhaps it is time that you desist."

Phyte's horn lit up. Before he could move another step, Shining was encased in a sheen of red magic and pulled off the ground. He fought with his horn and muscles but could get nowhere. Phyte was immensely powerful on a level he'd only ever seen with the princesses.

Phyte said softly. “Mortal hooves to work with, driven by an immortal soul. Tell me what you see in an elder sibling like me? Or that child there?" She motioned with her dagger towards the disemboweled pseudo-alicorn. Every time that horrible dagger got close to Shining he was wracked by nausea and pain. "Can you not see a more worthy vessel for your striving souls? The dreamer knows. I am on your side. Can't you see?" She began to tremble in renewed rage. "Can't you see?!"

Shining was on the verge of passing out and was not in any shape to reply to the affirmative or negative.

Phyte regarded him with mixed distain and pity. "No? Or, not yet. Your mother and sister would understand. Given time and context- Ah... but you did so vehemently beg! You have the blood for it, if anypony would."

Shining moaned, fighting to stay conscious. Where was Iillor now to save him?
Where... was Cadence?

For a few long moments, Phyte weighed the options. "Pony, if I kill you, I will incur the wrath of Heaven and the Dreamscape." Her magic burned brighter and her telekinesis dragged an object from the roiling flames on the other side of the room. It was one of the wire birdcages, large enough to fit a pony; and fit a pony she did, dropping Shining into it. "I will have to make what use I can."

In a burst of green fire, Shining Armor disappeared.

"Shining!" Flash screamed and covered his eyes.

Well that was no good, Spitfire thought. She had been assigned to parlay with Twilight Velvet, but instead she had just watched her son get vaporized. "God damn these unicorns." She uttered. Now there was nothing between her and the demon stalking towards her. "High time we beat it." She turned to Flash to find that the pegasus knight had already retreated, galloping full speed back to the surface.

"Come a little closer. Let me see what a Wonderbolt looks like. I need a little taste, a small reminder, of what your race is like. Welcome back to Canterlot." Phyte growled.

“You'll taste death instead.” Iillor's voice echoed around the cavern, full of snide vitriol.

"That mare..." Spitfire tried to catch a glimpse of where the earth pony could be among the flames.

“Foolish Nightmare!” Phyte seemed to share her sentiment. “How many deaths will it take to swat you away?”

“You should be asking how many it would take to satiate me.” All at once, the fires burned themselves out, and the cavern was plunged into darkness. The croaks of the fires and the songs of the winds feeding them died away as well. Silence, darkness, and misery now dominated the cavern.

Through the haze, Spitfire saw two lights. One, nearer, was Iillor's cursed dagger. The other was Phyte's.

"Why me, Nightmare? You are a race a thousand years gone. Am I the first priority target, truly?" Phyte asked.

Iillor whistled a low note. "Yes, then no. I tried to find you my first night back on this earth. I found your shitty kid instead. Then I fucked around for a few months and now I'm back here." She slowly approached Phyte, wary of another magical attack. "I heard you mention the Dreamscape, but your kind doesn't dream anymore, Star. Which means somepony, or some~thing, contacted you; An errant dreamer. You're treading in Moon's garden now. You'll have to double-die for that infringement."

"Hoping to make your nightmare god proud of you? Pathetic." Phyte spat.

Iillor laughed darkly. "Enough talk. Let's have at it, Star."
The 'earth pony''s new assumed shape revealed itself, its horns and eyes beginning to glow an eerie green: An oversized creature, as tall as Phyte, lumbering forth yet utterly silent. At was like a fusion of a pony, a wasp, and a wolf: Compound eyes rested on a head of black fur. It had a curled chitin horns and several sets of sleek insectoid wings sprouting incongruously from a stout wolf-like body. It’s grinning, drooling maw was filled with alternating rows of fangs and molars. "Damn I'm sexy! Think a poke from that dagger can damage a killer body like mine?"

"Yes." Phyte rose her guard.

Thus was the reward for Spitfire's nosy curiosity about Illustrious Valor, to glimpse the abominable creature's 'real' shape, or at least something closer than equine flesh had hidden. Perhaps it was still true that they were both thugs, but Spitfire's mortal masters seemed altogether wholesome after she dared contemplate the horrors who the Nightmare obeyed.
And so Spitfire fled. She ran from the darkness and smoke, as fast as her legs could carry her. Away from the archaic terrors, feuding over who would lurk within the sins of the empire of Ponykind and in the shadows of all those mortal masters so smugly plotting their works.

Above it all, Celestia's ear flicked. Some creature was trying to telepathically send her a message. "Hmm?" She slowly roused from her stupor, blinking for the first time in hours. She had to blink several more times as her other senses gradually returned to her. Ohh, but those southern skies were too engrossing...
Celestia felt the telepathic tickle at the back of her skull. it was coming from- Celestia scanned the Canterlot skyline- the Old Town.

There was smoke rising from the district. Not from any fireplace, or a workshops forge, as she initially judged, no. One of the buildings was on fire.
Was somepony going to put that out? With her enhanced alicorn sight she saw dozens of ponies around the growing conflagration, even some IHG among them, but none moved to douse the flames.

Something was ahoof. "Ahh," Celestia focused on the telepathic tickle as it shot through her once more. It was familiar... "Hmm." That most loathsome vassal of convenience, Phyte, was casting about with her magic, trying to attract Celestia's attention. "Oh yes, that is her charming little guild that is burning." Celestia noted.
Yet the character of the message from Phyte was something altogether more alarmed than one would expect from the Star merely facing a building fire: Dread, dismay, and desperation. It greatly puzzled Celestia to guess the circumstances of Phyte's distress.

The next telepathic message was different: Pain. Celestia was jolted to full lucidity, to experience the Star's anguish, and to imagine from whence it came. If Phyte wanted Celestia's attention, she had it.

The empress of Ponykind was spurred to action.
"Hark." Celestia spread her wings, and all the joints of her body creaked and protested from their first movement in days. Ahh, what delicious sensations! Her body, the enchanted flesh vessel for her divine power, was once again yoked to her purposes. And what purposes? One WORTHY of the will of an alicorn, at last. That she should trod, that she should see, that she should desire, the subjects of those agencies were the most blessed under the sun. Day after day the world provided her nothing of interest, nothing of use, and nothing to compel her. The mystery of the imminence of the southern skies was far more engaging. There was a minuscule chance that Phyte's pain and fear was an occurrence worth an alicorn's existence, when one had been so long devoid from the planet.
Perhaps the time had come.

Sel Lech watched the last stragglers escape the burning Musician's Guild. Nopony was sure who had started the fire: The Wonderbolts began throwing accusations at the Imperial knights, while the knights made insinuations about the Wonderbolts. The glum musicians, chained together awaiting pickup or laying in the nearby triage area, were alternatively chanting and wailing or stone silent.

The portly pegasus, Admiral Rain Gnash, after conferring with a few of her advisers and Wonderbolts, an amusing mix of hushed growls and wild wing gesticulations as she gave her orders, had departed to scheme and assess from a more secluded location. Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser was still on the scene, observing silently every movement, acquainting himself to every detail and every pony. Some civilians and castle ponies had also filtered onto the scene, gawking or doing debriefings. There still was no concrete narrative of why the fighting had started, or what secret had been consigned to the flames within the guild hall.

The situation was about as literal as trial by fire Sel could face without actually being cooked. For that, he would have to brave the inferno for the minuscule chance he could pull more wounded guild ponies to safety. Still, Sel fancied he was handling the situation as best as he could, and some of the city guardsponies at his beck had gone and fetched doctors, weatherponies, and reinforcements to assist with the crisis.

"I promise something like this doesn't happen often." Sel let out a forced laugh. Duke Lightdowser didn't reciprocate. "This whole buisness with the guild has been simmering for a while, and nopony has had the political will to deal with it. I don't want to speak too early, but your arrival might have had something to do with things flaring into confrontation."

Lightdowser grunted. "Sir Captain, I think that is a reach. Take caution not to lay problems at my hooves before I am competent to take them up. My arrival was secret until a few hours ago, while I suspect this drama has been long orchestrated." Detecting that his words had been too inflammatory, Lightdowser cleared his throat and tried again. "I have taken a light shine to you, Sir, but if you do not wish to speak early, don't. That is how a wise pony conducts themself, so act thus and I can promise you that your star will rise with mine."

Before Sel could reply there was a chorus of shouts and cheers from nearby. Two more ponies galloped out from the burning guild hall, one supporting the other, covering their eyes and nostrils against the smoke. The Wonderbolts raced forward to meet them and pull them further away from the inferno: It was Flash Sentry, one of the IHG knights, and a Wonderbolt stallion. Sir Sentry was incoherently wailing, trying to push away the ponies trying to help him. The Wonderbolt looked haunted, and only answered the nervous questions of his comrades with blank stares. They were in shock.

A rumbling groan emanated from the guild hall. "It's going to collapse!" Somepony yelled.

Suddenly a dark shape rocketed from one of the upper-floor windows, pulling contrails of acrid smoke behind her. Spitfire made a hard landing near Sel, tumbling forward onto her face and coming to a stop by alarmed civilians. She had ditched parts of her uniform, and the rest was partially burned off. Her face and stomach were red from the extreme heat, but it was better than being totally cooked.

A few seconds later, the roof of the Musician's guild collapsed inwards, sending up a swarm of embers and causing a billow of scalding air towards the too-close ponies. Guardsponies and weatherponies watched carefully to make sure the fire didn't spread.

Duke Lightdowser strode over to Spitfire, who was being helped up by the Wonderbolts and a few citizens. He eyed her up and down, glanced back at Sentry and Soarin, then back to Spitfire. "I presume Sir Armor, Mis Valor, and Mis Phyte have become casualties?" He asked.

Spitfire, unable to stop herself shaking from what she had just experienced, did not look up at her addresser. She wiped her nose and began brushing ash out of her fur. "Buck off." She muttered.

Duke Lightdowser shrugged. He would find out what had happened under the guild hall later. If Sir Armor was dead, the IHG would drift back to their captain, Hauseway. If Hauseway didn't compel his knights to explain, and nor did Rain Gnash, then they would have to be played off one another; Because clearly, something of great importance had been down there, so great that Twilight Velvet had risked her son to die for it.

The duke turned to leave but bumped into somepony. "Oh~" He felt peeved somepony had entered his personal space, and was preparing a rebuke. "Have some awareness-" But even as the words slipped out of his mouth he realized he was not face to face with a pony, but an expanse of white fur and gleaming gold.

Celestia did not even notice Lightdowser. She surveyed the scene, dispassionate, briefly locking eyes with her awed subjects as her gaze passed over them, then disappeared again in a shimmer of silver magic.

The tides of celestial magic conducted Celestia down, under Canterlot, into the dark and smokey hell, where the savage battle was already well underway.
Shrouded in smoke, illuminated by the flashes of magic, Star and Nightmare danced between careful circling and fierce melees.

In the cavern, its every content burned into cinders, it was hard to make out anything even with Celestia's enhanced and magical sight. The cavern was a stew of Dark and deadly magics, and a potent spirit of evil made her feel ill. She was a manifestation of light and heavenly power, and this place was totally opposite to her spheres of power.
Yet Celestia could feel the forces in contention before her, powerful yes, but still much inferior to her own alicorn power. Of course there was Phyte, at whose beck she had come. Then there was something unknown- or rather, less known. It was a presence she had felt in the castle before, radiating dark dream magic.
"This thing is more than a dreamer. It is... a dream in and of itself-" Celestia cooed, amazing by the waves of Dark every washing over her body. "It's that Nightmare."

The nightmare, in the form of a horrible chimera, surged forward, its undulating movement like a mix between a caterpillar and serpent. Phyte, trying to keep range, lanced out with her burning red magic, cutting away part of the cloud of darkness around the dream beast. Iillor jumped and latched onto the smooth ceiling high above, her head twisting around to snarl at the Star.
"You're aim is getting worse!"
The nightmare wound up and launched herself at Phyte. Phyte, her delicate legs moving in unnatural ways, moved aside at the last moment, as Iilor's claws and maw slicing the air where the she'd been a moment before. Iillor slammed into the other wall with a wet slap. It scurried to reface itself, kicking up a new cloud of ash and smoke. It charged again, attempting to adjust for Phyte's dodge, successfully grappling and taking down her foe. Phyte's much smaller form bounded away in a tangle of limbs, and took some seconds of anguished screaming to unbreak herself. Iillor did not come out unscathed, and marveled at how one of the horrible daggers was now stuck in her neck.

"Wither and die!" Phyte screamed.
Celestia cringed, for Phyte was still flailing around telepathically for her attention, apparently not realizing the princess had already come. It was fascinating to see that the Star, a very powerful creature without a doubt, might have met her match.

"In due time, when I have earned it!" Iillor cackled repulsively. "Look upon a new breed, far far removed from the kind of Nightmare you exterminated a millennium ago." Her many eyes slid through her flesh to peer at Celestia, delighting to show herself off in all her mania. "I have cast down all your revelators. Now I AM the revelator. I am the herald. I am a predator without competition and I will feast on the sins of ponykind unending, til my Lady's glory is come again."

Iillor's shadowy magic ignited around her horns and the handles of the evil blades. She let out a euphoric scream and yanked Phyte's dagger from her body, causing the whole area of tissue to explode in burst of black ichor. Her faces yelled for several more seconds before her whole body dissolved into smoke again, reforming in a notably smaller shape with many fewer heads and limbs.

Phyte pushed herself back upright, teleporting the dagger back into her hoof. "Your self-destructive madness can not last!"

Iillor's primary face was now more goat-like, with a long mane of serpents. She was not nervous about losing to the Star; Phyte was cornered and desperate, abandoning all her eloquence without any mortals to impress. The Star was getting slower and more twitchy, signs that the magical current that held her body together were getting weak. Iillor was taking hits too, but was just as fast up to her last breath.
Iillor was a bit nervous about Celestia though. She was immeasurably proud to have the alicorn's eyes upon her, but a primordial dread memory began to creep into her. First, she respected the alicorns as the worthy predecessor to the nightmares, for her Lady Moon was just such an alicorn. Second, every nightmare the Sun Princess had theretofore seen had died to her might, which for the first time made Iillor feel like the prey.

It seemed Phyte noticed Iillor's trepidation and sensed opportunity. She had one last gambit.
Around the room, the birdcages which were not deformed or crushed began to ignite themselves with green fire, casting an otherworldly pallor throughout the smokey cavern. Figures, a half-dozen well armed guild ponies, charged out of the fiery cages with snarls and whoops, to surround Iillor from all sides.

"I thought we were done with the mortal shields." Iillor joked.

A few of the guild ponies pulled out pistols and unloaded into the Nightmare, blasting away some of her horns and limbs. Angered, Iillor lept forward and tore out one of the hapless killers' throat, dragging the screaming pony along while other maws rent and chewed at him.
The other guild ponies began to immediately panic, clearly having answered their mistress's summons with no idea of what they were up against. One of them threw down her weapons and dashed for the exit, only to come to a complete halt upon glimpsing Celestia looming in the smoke.

"Avert thine eyes." Celestia commanded the terrified mortal.

The mare tried to say something, but it was lost, for apparently Phyte had summoned her followers for more than just reinforcement: The guild ponies' heads were seized by red magic as they were pulled toward the Star. Their panic became terror and they fought against the choking telekinetic grasp.
A magical tension filled the air, very similar to the waves of darkness the dagger radiated. Phyte began to grimace and tremble, her fur rising as magic began cracking off her horn. The screams of her ponies died away as she tore away their souls, rebuilding her magical power.

"Witness this Star's power!" Phyte cackled. She pointed her dagger towards her nightmare foe, casting an invisible spell.
Iiilor's whole body strained against itself, her errant eyes began to bulge, and the teeth in her maw began to crack under the stress of her tortured grimace. Phyte was trying to crush her with sheer magical pressure, using everything she'd gained from the sacrifice of her followers at once.
For Iillor it was like being compressed by the whole Mountain on every part of her body. Her shroud of darkness writhed and her limbs cracked apart, for it was too much to keep her whole body together. All of her eyes began to bleed and spasm. But Illustrious Valor had no intention of dying, and had utter faith in her own will to win.

Phyte bared her fangs, pouring more and more force into the attack. "You can not, will not, resist! Any! Longer!"

The noble race of Nightmares would NOT be extinguished by a measly Star. "The Dark Lady gives me STRENGTH." Iillor took one step forward, then another. With screaming strain she reconstituted a horn and began to counter with summoned shadow and dark flames about Phyte's hooves.

What a dramatic crescendo! Celestia found the magical battle of streaming mana, smoke, and fire brilliantly awesome, a deadly but rapturous light show, like being too close to a fireworks barrage. The waves of sensation passing through Celestia, of sinful power radiating off the convulsing, screaming mare-things, and the accursed daggers they desperately clung to, were also a perverse delight, like a uncouth tickle under her skin and along every vein of her body.

"My FAITH drives me. I'm DRIVEN t- to- to..." Iillor's mouth bled profusely, and her hateful words sent flecks of blood and foam across the room. "KILL"

With a deafening howl, the beast charged forward, great masses of shadow dissolving away as she faced Phyte's magic. Phyte did not dodge, and the nightmare monstrosity collided with her and drove her into the cavern wall. Dazed, Phyte lost control of her magic, and weakly tried to push the nightmare away. Iillor sunk her fangs into the's Star neck to drag her to the floor, then savagely kicked her once more in the head. Phyte fell over and did not move.

"Celestia... save... me." Phyte mouthed. She shuddered as she slowly healed. "The suzerain... will excoriate you. She... will save her vassal. To put you down..." She groaned and spat away blood. "Like the dog you are!"

Deliriously ecstatic at her apparent victory, Iillor just laughed. "You have been calling for help, but none has come. Could it be that you're the dog here?" She stepped back from Phyte. "Sun princess, why take in this mangy bitch if you had no care to reform or preserve it?"

With unparalleled horror, Phyte followed Iillor's furtive glance, to see that the nightmare's address was not mere flourish: The princess stood statuesque and silent having borne full witness to the contest. Celestia's glowing nimbus of mane silhouetted her in the otherwise dark corner, and revealed how her judgmental eyes eventually settled on Phyte, what the Star felt as a look of dour disappointment.

"Celestia~" Phyte groaned, her voice pitching into a groggy wail. "Why? You've... forsaken me? Betrayed me?!"

The culmination of battle had ripped away most of Iillor's body, and her chimeric and shambling form staggered back and forth, strange steaming ichor bleeding out of her joints and painting her face, but the monster still trembled with murderous energy. That moment was the culmination of months of detestable patience, and the struggles of her own will. It was with a self-amused pride that Iillor wondered if Shining Armor or Twilight Velvet would be proud of her accomplishments, the way she was for their's.
Ah, wait, Phyte had burned Shining Armor away in one of her birdcages. "Don't bother with this bitch, Sun Princess. You know of her profligate works, those gross fake alicorn things. She even confessed to conspiring with a rogue dreamer. Release her of her oath to you, and I'll carve her up real nice right now. A Star wouldn't survive a sweet butchering by this. Are you an art lover, princess? Don't you want to see how beautiful her guts and blood would look positioned 'round her cave?"

Celestia's gaze moved between the cursed dagger, feeling again its radiant evil, and the accursed being holding it. But still she did not move or speak.

Phyte had been at the mercy of the sun princess before, hundreds of years ago. Facing the Sun princess at the height of her pride and arrogance, Phyte had been compelled to capitulate before the unequal duel killed her. But back then, the princess had needed her, was openly curious of her dark knowledge, and had been willingly convinced of the future benefits of her service. Now things were completely different.
Unwilling to gamble her life on the combined mercy of the alicorn and the nightmare, Phyte desperately cast about with her magic, telekinetically taking last few intact ink pots from her desk. It was warm to the touch and a soft glow surrounded the ceramic.

"Hmm?" Iillor noticed her movements. "Have a will to write out, little bitch?"

Phyte had mostly healed but felt incredibly weak. It took the last of her energy to sit up. "Nay." She croaked. "I have no words but remonstrances, to you nightmare, to you Celestia, and to that whore Moon you call liege and sister respectively. Farewell."
Too late Iillor noticed the dragonfire in the ink pot. Once the cascade of liquid light splashed onto Phyte she was eaten a conflagration of green fire. The Mistress disappeared, and the ground she’d laid on was smashed in the nightmare’s fury.

What comes after life? The Equestrians had their dogma about the course of the dead, of how all souls who remained faithful to the Sun's destiny would transit elysium to join the sun again in a grand chain of causality, a belief which while widely admitted had never fully supplanted the superstitions and folk beliefs of the pony tribes: For mortals sometimes saw the other world in their sleep, of forests of tall pines where souls commuted, and conversed with the dead long gone who lazed within a rustic after-dream.

Shining Armor's brash youth had never let him ponder what awaited him after he died. His relative isolation from his father's extended family, and the total mystery about his mother's, had isolated him from the slow parade of familial deaths that inculcate young colts to facts of mortality, loss, and mourning. As a soldier, whose sword had slain ponies several times, he did not even give the least thought to what he consigning the soul of the victim to: For what use was it, and what could worrying change for them? Most of all, Shining was much more obsessed and anxious about everything else in his life to ponder the deep existential questions about life and death.

And though Shining thought he had died, and then spent several terrified seconds wondering if he was now somewhere that his incuriosity and impieties would be punished, he had not and was not. He knew he was not dead because he still felt the aches and soreness of the battle under the guild hall, and still smelt the smoke in his fur. Also, the total darkness around him, which had at first deceived him about his end, was pierced by a soft glow from somewhere nearby that
reassured him he still had a world to see and eyes to see it with.
Yes, Shining was on a cold rock floor, where Phyte's dragonfire birdcage spell had teleported him. But where? He lifted his head, trying to understand the world around him.

It seemed like he was in another cave, but it must have been much much much larger than Phyte’s cavern. The soft glowing light revealed only the edge, a smooth rock wall that had the barest suggestion of a curve inwards horizontally and vertically, giving Shining the impression that beyond the light the vast space stretched for kilometers and kilometers in silent darkness.
But that great vast darkness was not totally empty, for ahead of him beyond the edge of the illumination in what couldn't be seen but as fuzzy suggestions of form were titanic statues, still monuments like cyclopean grave pillars.

"What..." Shining mumbled, retreating from the dark ahead of him, and the enormous statues looming within, to the source of the light. He backed up until he bumped into something behind him, then sank back to the ground.

He struggled not to cry, cradling his snout under his hoof in a faux-contemplative slouch, his eyes squeezed shut, trying to keep it together. Now that everything made sense, it was all so intolerable, so humiliating, repulsive to everything he thought he knew and understood. Shining lamented his stupidity and ignorance, for what consequences it would have on the future of Canterlot and ponykind. He was a failure. Equestria would suffer because of it. He hadn't even earned a martyr's redemption.

And what deeds of redemption could be performed from this cold black hell he found himself in? He had been teleported, obviously, but to where Shining could not guess- But the dimensions of the vast dark cavern, far dwarfing any excavation of pony history (that he knew of), suggested a deep and primordial barrow the like of which had sheltered the tartarian brimstone monsters in aeons past.
After so much chaos, confusion, and violence, Shining was stranded somewhere utterly dark, utterly quiet, a sepulchral denouement to a failed confrontation with the evils under Canterlot. It did not matter that he was not dead, for he was in a grave, far out of the way, so he would not meddle in either mortal and supernatural politics any longer. Not that he had been the least obstacle for the gruesome forces working out their plans over ponykind...

What could possibly be done? Shining had been caught blindsided, but even with full knowledge and all his strength and wit, he probably still would have lost.
Of all the bitter feelings that overtook him, worst of all was the persistent anguish at the idea that Celestia had known all along and done nothing. She had watched him flail uselessly then trip into this peril with the utmost apathy.

All he could do was sigh, but at least he didn't want to cry anymore. What was done was done. He had lost.
"It's up to other ponies now." Shining mumbled to himself. "Avenge me, mom." Oh, but Twilight Velvet was at least as much to blame. No, no, from what Iillor and Phyte had said, Twilight Velvet was the MOST responsible, for having positioned and prodded her dubious allies into their disastrous confrontation. "And why? Why? Just for power? Just to make us suffer? Mother, what would have become of me, for better or worse, without your scheming? Is this your mercy, or your hatred?" When he closed his eyes, he couldn't help but see Velvet there, turned away but looking back at him, grinning and snickering with ironic satisfaction at all the things she knew but he did not, making ready her acts to guide his life far beyond his own ability to control. What she had desired had come to pass. By god, she was more his master than the alicorns. Very soon, all of Canterlot could suffer the same domination. Twilight Velvet was ascendant.

Regardless, his dark contemplations did not make his current location or the implications thereof any clearer. He could bemoan his fate forever (very tempting), or he could do something.
Do what?
Shining didn't know. He didn't... care. He didn't care anymore, about the things that had seemed so so important mere hours before. Celestia and her nation... Buck them. Let some other pony hold up that teetering self-destructive state and all the monsters it harbored.

But there was still Cadence... right?

Yes. Maybe.
So Shining reluctantly pushed himself to his hooves, holding on to a tenuous will to live and hope for the future. He remembered how he had laid so much of his fears and anxieties at Cadence 's hooves, and how easily she had reassured him. If there was a chance for Shining Armor to live, it lay with the princess Cadenza.

"The first thing to do is ascertain my situation." Shining sighed. The thing he had bumped into and had been leaning against was a cabinet, utilitarian but carved with modern ornaments, supporting a mix of wooden bins and glass cases. Beyond the cabinet toward the cave wall were more like it, along with some display cases and tables, arranged in a few rows, with a magical lantern hanging above it all. The setup reminded Shining of the castle alchemy lab, and indeed the devices and powders and fluids on the tables and shelves suggested a laboratory of some kind.
Shining began to inspect the inventory more closely, but things were not so simple as a mundane alchemy lab. There were strange and unfamiliar devices, dusty stone tablets, aged scrolls, and many many vials of liquid in all the hues of the rainbow.
But the most disturbing item was a row of low stone slabs, huge flat cuttings of smooth rock, that had been pushed up against the cavern wall. The monolithic slabs were as large as a queen's bed, and indeed across each there was a set of white sheets concealing the unmoving profiles of pony bodies. It was a silent mortuary, but as part of a whole laboratory ensemble Shining Armor could only draw the darkest inferences.

"Necromantic experiments?" Shining had never been a part of a city guard raid on a necromancer, but they did happen occasionally. Overzealous students, self-taught wizards, or grieving commoners were the most common perpetrators. Such ponies never had a lab of such size and sophistication, nor access to so many corpses (there were at least a dozen of the stone slabs), so it was natural to assume the lab was an extension of the rest of the secret facilities under the Musician's Guild.

Ignoring the rest of the lab, Shining cautiously approached that miniature mortuary. The rank stench of rot hit him, causing his eyes to water. He pushed back the fabric cover of the first body. A familiar face stared unblinkingly up at Shining Armor. Then, slowly, the corpse's eyes moved to identify the newcomer.

"That answers where the rest of the body went." Shining dropped the sheet and backed away.

A whoosh of moving air, and then a crunch. Shining whipped around to see Phyte laying on the cavern floor at light's edge, bleeding profusely.

What to do now, Shining wondered. He had no weapon, and felt too woozy to attempt any offensive magic. At best he could trample Phyte which, considering what magical prowess she had displayed before, he eschewed predicting she could stay conscious longer than he could. So, Shining watched her slowly rouse, and begin dragging herself along the smooth cave floor towards him and the lab.

"Unharmed, I see." Phyte said, her weak voice a far cry from the enchanting melodiousness it had had before the battle. There was an obvious bitterness to her tone, but as she paused and examined Shining's dour expression, even as glittering blood continued to drip down her snout, her expression softened. "Not unscathed, though. A blessing of silence has finally reached you."

These ugly creatures loved seeing ponies miserable. "I can talk if I wanted to." Shining finally said.

"Why has that want fled you, pony? Am I no longer worth the arrest and trial by the Celestiaan's laws?" Phyte snarked. She resumed her crawl. The trail of strange seepages she left behind her shimmered and evaporated away unnaturally quick.

Apparently not. Shining now understood what everypony else had already known, that she was more protected by the empire than he was. He was very very late to the lesson that if a pony wanted to pursue justice, however they interpreted it, there was no substitution for personal will and force of arms. The law was just an illusion. "You appear to have come away badly from the meeting with Mis Valor." Shining remarked, conjuring as much venom as he could for his words, which was not much. "It'd be too much to hope that she could follow us here."

Phyte grumbled. "Be a good mortal and cower in the corner a while."

He did not. "This is another of your little hideaways.” Shining observed. "I apparently misunderstood when they called you the leader of a death cult. Do you lay with them too?"

“Puh. Spare yourself these moralization. I make no pretense to uphold mortal taboos. Challenge it if you dare." She paused to spit away the blood pooling in her mouth, but did not speak further, inviting a response from the stallion.

The helplessness that Shining felt did not, as it normally did, agitate him to resentment and anger. There was absolutely no chance he could rectify the world, just using his will and discipline. He understood that now. Not even Cadenza's calming words could have bolstered his sense of agency.
Ponykind existed, lived, and suffered at the whim of the monsters. Shining had always known that, for such was but a rephrasing of the dogma of Celestia's empire. It had been, on some level, the single comfort he felt in his restless pursuit of dutiful service: Celestia was truth, light, and justice. The extent to which the ponies, warmed and guided by the sun's light, enjoyed their own dreams and free will, was a gift and a test, to separate those worthy of grace from those who squandered or even rejected Celestiaan peace and justice.
Now dogma seemed so obviously, obviously wrong, and the proof was the awful 'Star' before him. What was right and what was wrong? Were Shining Armor's most earnest feelings of love or revulsion reflections of truth, or just deceptions foisted on him by an empire and alicorn that served Phyte's flourishing much more than it did his. Even torn apart as she was, Phyte was confident in her superiority over him, and over all mortals.

So... Maybe it was time for Shining to reexamine his other core beliefs? Nah, maybe later. "Go to hell." He sneered. "I'm proud of the life I've led. Even when I was wrong, I tried to do what's right. How about you challenge your presumptions, since you're out of house and home."

Phyte at last averted her eyes. "What an annoying family." The Star pulled herself to the base of one of the cabinets and grabbed a small vial from it. She struggled with the cap then, impatient, smashed the vial on the floor to desperately lap the glowing blue contents. Phyte began to seize from suppressed squeals as her wounds magically healed.
"How painful." Phyte let out a deep sigh, intact but tired. "Let it be heaven's will I never suffer such a bruising for another five centuries. Not all mortal discomforts can be so easily abandoned as mortality itself. Or at least, not while keeping a body as beautiful as mine." She stretched and lay down on the broken glass.

The absurdity of the situation wained as the renewed danger became much, much more apparent. Shining was now completely alone with the monster. She had pulled her punches before, but the state of the bodies on the stone slabs proved there were many grievous tortures the Star was capable of inflicting on him.
Since Shining had already written off any hope of violently confronting Phyte, his choices were essentially reduced to: One, running off into the vast darkness of the cavern, hoping there was something out there to shelter him; Two, stick around the laboratory and await her judgement.
"I still have questions, Mis Phyte." Shining said.

Phyte let out a rumbling sigh. "Am I meant to entertain you?"

It would be very rude to kidnap Shining and then ignore him. "You will deal with me some way or another. I have to get out of here. You might have been evicted from Canterlot, but Illustrious Valor is still there." Shining paused. "And so is Twilight Velvet."

Hearing the names of the two mares who had humiliated her so badly made Phyte shiver in shame and anger. Still she gathered herself and replied with a fanged sneer. "You aim to succeed where I failed, to stop their plot."

Shining bit back the urge to mock her. "No."

"Pony, I kept you from burning, and kept myself from flattening you." Phyte drew in a long breath and, sighing for strain and agitation, bushed herself onto her hooves. She pushed her mane away from her eyes, so with her regained composure she looked just as grand and menacing as she had before her sound beating by the Nightmare. "You are not satisfied with the immense boons heaven has given you. You croon for more, more, more to please your avaricious souls. It is no wonder Celestia has condemned you all." She approached Shining. "Ask yourself, pony, whether it behooves you to have a Star believe you to be in her debt."

A bargain then, Shining thought. "I'm not interested in replacing your dead servants, Mis Phyte. However, if you're offering a simple trade, I'm willing."

Phyte flashed her teeth. "Ah, very good. If I deem you especially earnest in your intentions, I could teleport you back quickly enough that they don't replace you among the Imperial Knights." She snickered darkly. "Even if you refuse to lay a hoof on your friends, I can think of plenty of uses for a pony in the castle."

No. "I'm not going back just to be an IHG knight again." Shining said.

Phyte stopped snickering. "What do you mean."

"My comrades saw me die. If they've replaced me, forgotten about me, and let the political upheaval sweep them along to the next distracting crisis, that's all the better for me." Shining said. "I want to go back covertly."

Phyte stared at him, letting the deep silence of the cavern surround them for several minutes. "You wish me to turn you into a little guild pony, Sir Armor?"

"I have unfinished buisness. I can only do it if they think I'm dead." Shining said. "I won't let you 'turn me' like the patchwork ponies you have there-" He gestured to the stone slabs. "But I'm broadly amenable to other things."

Phyte was still confused by his decision. "You've been here nary ten minutes. Pony, you are a knight in a very prestigious knightly order. You are of a cadet branch of a highly regarded ancient dynasty. Your sister is a direct agent of the princess. These things are very important to your pony society. To give it up, just because you were tricked by that nightmare hussy... Are you a moron?"

"It's not about Illustrious Valor!" Shining snapped. "It's not about her, you, or any of the scheming politicians. It's about my princesses! She, they, lied. She lied to me, us..." He paused, suddenly overwhelmed. "She lied to us, and I've been living in that lie, and fighting for it, and..." He sighed, trying to to show weakness in front of the monster. "And I don't know how my life proceeds from here. I've died, pretty much. But I know there's something I'm missing, a fundamental truth beneath all the lies, that can still be a guiding light for all the ponies like me."

Phyte slowly shook her head. "You really are a poor, poor moron. Pony, do you think any of the other soldiers who saw what you saw are as deeply affected as you are? No. They're going on with their life, 'duty', and so on." She reached out with a hoof, to pat Shining on the head with sarcastic affection. "How can I resent a mortal like you, for ruining my life? I had might as well resent a hound for urinating on a prize Maredian rug. You just don't know any better. Ahh, alas." She backed away, her expression firming. "But that means I have no use for you. You would be a liability to me, even if you attempted to earnestly pursue some errand I had given you. You are just too sentimental."

There was a sound out from the darkness, a voice. "I'll take him off your hooves."

Phyte whipped around, nearly knocking Shining over.

"There's no need to be alarmed. It's just me." The voice came again. It was a female voice, sounding on the younger side, yet slightly raspy. Shining felt a shiver, for there was something strangely familiar about the voice which he could not quite place. "I detected the dragonfire reactions and then heard the voices. I apologize for eavesdropping, Guild Mistress Phyte."

"Oh." Phyte sighed and relaxed. "It has been a foul day. I thought that the nightmare had followed me."

"Ha ha ha, yeah, that would have been very bad for you." The female voice grew louder as its owner got closer and closer to the edge of the light, moving silently, for it did not have ponies hooves; Shining saw the bipedal form of a feline, completely obscured save for her padded orange paws projecting under her flowing black dress and headscarf, who shuffled out of the immense darkness of the cavern, from the direction anti-clockwise along the cavern wall. "My condolences, by the way, for all your followers. I know a loss like that can be hard to bare."

Phyte nodded morosely. "It will take decades to build up a presence from one of the chapter branches. The Nightmare even destroyed the experiments."

"An abyssinian?" Shining queried silently, baffled at the newcomer. The great cats of the east of Sahella, an inquisitive but isolationist race, very rarely visited Equestria. But Phyte treated the bipedal creature seemingly as an equal. "Another Star?"

The 'abyssinian' imperceptibly shifted her attention to Shining. "Neither. I'm an Equestrian. I have the shape of an Ulthar cat because I have been abroad for the last few years."

"He doesn't understand, dreamer. His mother has left him totally ignorant." Phyte grunted. She waved the bipedal cat closer. Obliging, the obscured figure strode into the middle of the laboratory, to inspect Shining Armor more closely. The cat was tall- Taller than Phyte, perhaps just shy of Celestia's full stature, but any hint of her figure was lost under the multiple layers of cloth, pinned together with exotic gold and turquoise clasps. "Just look at this sod. Are you sure he's protected by heaven?"

The cat leaned forward, and her snout poked out of her headscarf just enough for Shining Armor to see the orangish fur behind her black nose. Somewhere in there must have been her eyes, staring back at him. But who was this creature, and why did she sound so familiar?
" I'm certain of it. My guest told me." The cat straightened to her full height. "That is why I am offering to take him. Sell his debt to you, to me. You will get to leave Canterlot immediately. I will get some last minute assistance. He will get his answers. Win, win, win."

Phyte considered the offer. "That is very well thought out."

"Thank you." The cat nodded.

"Just one thing." Phyte raised a hoof. "Did your guest come up with this plan? I worry that you might be getting deceived, dreamer. The guest might have suspect intentions for Shining Armor, for which she could have lied about Heaven's protection of him."

The cat did not seem to appreciate Phyte's skepticism, crossing one cloaked arm over the other. "We came up with it together. If you have a concrete accusation, make it to her yourself. She's waiting just over there." She turned to whence she'd approached, where silence and darkness prevailed, and no hint of the 'guest' who lurked and watched the conversation. "But I'll tell you now, Star, that I'm displeased by you voicing these suspicions. I am not under her spell. What's more I trust her more than I do you. Please do not dishonor her further."

Phyte blew off the warning. "If you are under a spell I would not know it, dreamer. I am only looking out for you." She glanced toward Shining Armor. "As for him... Give me your best, fair offer."

The cat uncrossed her arms. "I will try to recover Shale's Star blade and forward it to you. That should give you some leverage as you seek reparations for her helping Twilight Velvet."

Phyte nodded appreciatively. "Very good start. That promise will do for now, but it is merely a promise."

"I have only promises, as my guest and I are very consumed in our work. The Summer Sun approaches more quickly than we thought." The cat said. "Besides, it's a buyers market, Phyte. Would two promises satisfy you?"

"Fine. Then... berate Celestia on my behalf, for what she has allowed done to me. Be it as rancorous as you think she deserves." Phyte growled. "He is all yours."
This bizarre exchange having been made, Phyte began to rummage in the cabinets and shelves of the lab, pulling together various trinkets and vials.

Shining was dizzy again. Who the hell was this cat? "You know me." He said.

"I do." The cat nodded. "Not that closely, though. We used to see each other around the castle."

"That's more of a hint to her identity that she is ever given me." Phyte mumbled to herself. "Don't think you're safe with the dreamer, Shining Armor. She is a deadly sinner, a transgressor against gods, pony, and nature. If you are repulsed by the assembled ponies I have been using, blame her."

"Oh come now, I am definitely less than half 'to blame'. You sourced the bodies." The cat scoffed. "Then, you start using the experiments as slaves. I have held my tongue so far, but I found that tasteless."

"About time you said it. Do you think my practical use of your failed zombies is less objectionable than taking them back apart?" Phyte retorted. "Oh, but what do I know, since you claim to have a direct line to know heaven's intentions." She snarked.

"Again you dishonor my guest, Star. If you have no more buisness in Canterlot, depart forthwith. Without your network, our usefulness to each other is coming to an end." The cat huffed.

"So very typical of dreamers, preferring the other world to ours. I feel a deep relief of being through with you and your experiments. I thought you understood better than the other mortals, and shared my vision of your salvation. In the end you are still a mortal, so still too flawed to see." Phyte grabbed a saddlebag and began shoving it full with the collected trinkets and things from around the lab. Satisfied she had taken the most important things of use or value, the Star approached Shining again. "Shining Armor... firstly..." She stared off into space, not yet committed to her words. "Do not trifle with the elder siblings of mortalkind. You were very lucky that I am a considerate being, and am attentive to the legitimate interests of Heaven. If you wish to test your luck, I assure you there are easier ways to damn your soul than to meddle in our buisness."

The cat chuckled softly to herself.

Phyte continued. "I will excuse myself from mortal affairs for a while. But make no mistake- This is not a signal victory for your kind. Your Equestria is doomed to failure. The unnatural union of alicorn and mortal is about to fracture irrevocably."

While Shining had been content to let her rant, that was too bold. "I saw what I saw, your ponies with horns and wings sewn to their body. Your 'experiments 'are perversions and I'm glad you agree it's doomed."

The cat stoped laughing. "Woah, don't talk about what you don't understand."

"Idiot ponies. You deserve everything that's coming." Phyte hissed, slinking back to grab her saddlebag. "I hope you get to see the Celestiaan laughing as you succumb to misery and death. I hope the nightmare tortures you all for an eternity. Then you'll finally understand how good I was, protecting ponykind, trying to stop you all from being butchered like Fancy Pants was."

"You have some nerve! You mutilated him!" Shining galloped over and yanked the sheet off the body on the slab.
It was another construct of stitched-together body parts. The thing possessed Fancy Pants’s head, but the body of a beige pegasus, and a spectrum of fur from numerous other ponies. One of the hindlegs was Pants's, and his mark with the surrounding skin had been stapled into the correct spot. Like Shining had seen on the other 'experiments', a patch of fur was missing where incisions were made into Pants's throat, and a bulge was present where foreign materials had been shoved in.
Shining could bare not to look at the grotesque assemblage but for only a few seconds, nor its alert but silent stares, so averted his eyes back to Phyte. "Don't even bother with your rationalizations. You're an enemy of ponykind, and therefore of me."

"Fine! I'll gladly bear that charge." Phyte seethed. "We immortals, who have defined ourselves in relation to you fleeting mortals, have no need of you." She suddenly became saddened, trying to hide a pained expression. "What a fascinating idea it was, my Musician's Guild. But even ideas must die eventually, and brilliant songs go silent.”
Her saddlebags secure, Phyte levitated a vial of roiling green liquid, inspected it, and popped it open. With a last look of regret and resentment toward the mortals, Phyte poured dragonfire over herself, and the cavern was illuminated sickly green long enough for her body to burn away.

The cat let out a hearty laugh. "Ha ha! Farewell to her, not. Congratulations on doing what ten generations failed to, and kicking her ragged-y ass out of our holy city."

One monster was gone. But what, or who, was the newcomer? Shining wasn't out of hot water yet. "If you're as much of a fair-weather-friend as you seem, I'm not going to like having been sold to you." Shining remarked. He dropped the sheet back over Fancy Pants and snatched up the nearest sharp object, a pair of surgical scissors. "Keep your distance, abyssinian."

"Relax. Unless you think I was lying when I said Heaven is protecting you, you have nothing to fear." The cat said, her tone loaded with sarcastic irony. "I'm an Equestian, a comrade, I promise."

Yeah right. "Not all Equestrians are my comrade." Shining said. He inched closer to the cat, holding up the scissors like a sword. "My friend Illustrious Valor was an Equestrian, and so was any other criminal I've had to execute in service of old duties." That voice, it was so infuriating! Why couldn't he remember the name behind that voice? "Who are you? Why did Phyte call you a dreamer?"

"I'm just a humble sinner, and like I said, I've been abroad." The cat said.

"Didn't anypony ever tell you that prayer and confession can wash away your sins?" Shining quipped. "But if you're party to any of Phyte's crimes, you've got a lot to answer for. I'm still in damn uniform and I won't let you hurt Equestria."

The cat was silent for a few moments. What hidden expressions of solemn contemplation or indignation were hidden hidden under that scarf? Though this foe was not immortal it did not mean Shining felt comfortable about his chances against this mysterious antagonist. "There's nothing you could have done. Not for Fancy Pants, or any of your nightmare friend's other victims. Nor for any of Phyte's victims. Phyte spoke true: You're out of your depth, Shining Armor."
She backed away from Shining, retreating to the edge of the lantern light. She palmed one of the last few dragonfire vials which Phyte had left as she passed it. She waited for Shining to lower the scissors before speaking again. "The rumble in the Musician's Guild served as a blood sacrifice, of sorts. Thus, your goddess Princess Celestia has come awake. She is about to leave the city. We will be on our own." She pointed to the slabs and the bodies thereupon. "It will be us ponies against Heaven and hell."

"What do you mean by that?" Shining asked pointedly.

The cat seemed disappointed in Shining's lack of understanding. "I thought it was fairly obvious what those words meant." She thought to herself for a few moments. "It's been almost ten years since I was in your position, realizing that my faith in our alicorn's rule was pointless. Either from sheer stubbornness or determination, you're still on your hooves, where I was moping and sobbing for a week before I started thinking." She gesturally tapped the side of her head, briefly showing a furred digit. "And what a burdensome thought I had to think, because I was the first pony to have to bear the weight of the future. Your mother, your sister, and now you have since smacked against reality, like I did. Every one of us has had to confront the question: What comes after Celestia?"

No, no, Shining couldn't bear to hear such blatant heresy said out loud, when he knew in his heart it was the natural conclusion of his apostasy. "I- I don't care about that right now. I'm just trying to sort myself out. I have my own future to worry over."

"That's fine. Anything else and you would, by degrees, be getting in my way. I'm not out to make enemies with you or anypony else. I'm already wracking my brain thinking of a way to avoid war with Twilight Velvet." The cat shrugged. "Since you're a smart pony, I'll simply leave you with my main thesis, which is a thoroughly moderate proposition, for you to compare my vision against the other mares': Once Celestia has torn herself free of Heaven, I will beseech the Sun for a new solar princess, who will lead us through a few hundred years of prosperity at the very least." She bowed. "Consider it, Shining Armor. I will return to you for the next trade." She melted into the deep shadows of the cavern.

"Hey!" Shining ran after her, coming to a halt a few meters into the darkness. But the patter of her paws, and the swish of her robes, were nearly silent on the stone floor, and he could not track her. The cat and her unseen guest were gone. Shining sighed and returned to the lab.

Hopefully the isolation would last. Shining slumped over, exhausted and mentally drained. He was probably more alone than he had been in years, with nopony he could count on to help or hear him. No Canterlot, no IHG, no friends or family. It was oddly comforting, knowing he could not be reached, but equally terrifying, that the world could be burning up there and he could do nothing to help.
Up there... Shining had inferred from the conversation that the vast cavern he was in was underneath Canterlot, but without a clue to its relative depth between the surface and hell. Not that it really mattered, since everypony was zipping around with the pilfered dragonfire.

Now that he was sitting still, Shining felt the chill of the air in the cavern. He levitated one of the sheets off the corpses- the still dead ones, not the ambiguously dead Fancy Pants- and wrapped himself with it. He didn't feel at all hungry or thirsty, though a good bit of him was sore and sensitive from the fighting and the fires. He could sit there and think for days.

And as the cat had promised, the burdensome thoughts crashed down on him.
Princess Celestia's listless silence atop the tower was ended, it was claimed... But it did not mean a rejuvenation of imperial verve and spirits like everypony had hoped. No, Celestia was going to leave Canterlot, abandoning her ponies in every way that mattered.
But abandoned them to what end, or for what benefit? Perchance the mysterious draw in the southern skies, which had enraptured their princess for months and months, was about to be manifested.
Despite a deep, primal fear of the unknown path both he and ponykind would be charting, Shining felt a shameful satisfaction of having chosen the right time to be disillusioned. That being said, it had taken a real slap in the face in the form of the revelation about Illor.

Oh Illor, oh Illor. With Phyte gone off to who-knew-where, the nightmare was probably greatest danger to the lives of the ponies of Canterlot.
Well, that wasn't a guarantee. Shining still had no clue to Twilight Velvet's intentions. Plus, the interlopers from Unicornia and Cloudsdale had proven their willingness to kill with minimal hesitation. What a mess...

But Shining couldn't do anything about any of that. Nor was he sure he wanted to. As a knight, he served the princess and her empire, and as hollow as that felt now it had imbued Shining with both a responsibility and the power to care for the ponies around him. But now? He had died. He was responsible to and responsible for nopony. Shining's duty, most of all, was to sort himself out. Fortunately or unfortunately, that meant concert with the cat.

Yes, the unknown 'dreamer' cat and her unknown 'guest'... The less thought out them, the better. The moniker of 'dreamer' filled Shining with a sense of alien repulsion, as did any consideration of the form or nature of the 'guest'. It was just another frontier of secrets, to horrify him and drain him of all remaining naiveté.

Trying and failing to fight back sleep, consciousness dwindling, Shining saw visions dance across his tired imagination. He saw the shapes of unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies, and abyssinians and great sphinxes, hippogryphs and zebras, and at last the wings and horns of alicorns. He began to mutter. "Cadence, my princess... That feeling I had... That feeling I clung on to... is gone." He said softly to the dark. "My loyalty is passing from me, and things I dare not think of remain."
He violently fussed with his mane though the wraps of the sheet. "Oh Cadence, oh Twilie. If you were here... If..." Shining teared up.

Maybe sorrow was the right feeling. A lot of ponies had died that day, who had not needed to.
The other feeling, more appropriate for a pony with the will and agency to live in the world as more than a pawn to others, was anger. Thus anger soon found Shining, and his shivers became more violent as he was shaken out of his drowsiness.

It wasn't right. Shining wasn't confident in all his ideas of virtue and vice anymore, but he knew it wasn't right. A good, just world wouldn't end up like this, and put him in the situation he was in. Could there ever be a greater deception than what Celestia had perpetrated against ponykind: to tell them that under her extended tutelage, wardship, and protection their virtues would flourish and souls would be protected, but to let vicious monsters prey on them, then to leave when their need was most? It wasn't right. It was a fraud!

So damn the princess! Let it all fall apart. Maybe that was the greater justice: An Equestrian empire that existed to perpetuate alicorn power, it seemed, had to be destroyed. Not that the morality of such a thing mattered if it was going to happen anyway...
If an apocalypse was inevitable, Shining might had as well feel happy about it.

Chapter 17: Confrontality

What greater fear than not knowing if the gods were real?
What greater comfort than knowing the gods cared for you?
And what greater delight than knowing god was not watching you sin?

Hark, those who had snidely satisfied themselves with the latter 'knowledge', for Celestia had reawakened. The first sinner so seen, whose tally had at last come before the Sun's prosecutor, was the vain nightmare known as Illustrious Valor.
Celestia watched as Iillor violently tantrumed against the spot Phyte had been moments before, and with judgement yet reserved the alicorn felt a tinge of amusement at the creature's fury.

Illor, for her part, was a shuddering mess, head filled with unbound anger at Phyte and herself, with the pain of her shot-away appendages, with the echoes of the ecstasy of total victory snatched away, and every other ache of her body and mind after a tortuous battle with a worthy adversary. But what had it mattered when Phyte herself had slipped away, teleported to who-knew-where? The Star's minions were dead, true, but those slaves were beneath Iillor's pity and anger- None of the ancient vengeances and mystic grudges were satisfied.
Although...
Phyte stopped her destructive tantrum, basking in the sensation of her exhausted, brutalized body. Then, she turned to the other entity in the room.

Celestia's radiant profile was now the only light in the room, looming with absolute stillness besides the swirling luminescences of her mane and tail, with the glow of her eyes making it absolutely unmistakable that her stare was settled on the nightmare and the nightmare alone. The alicorn demigod had all her attention on her now.

What more perverse pleasure than feeling god judging your profligacy?
"I let her get away." Iillor said, the pangs of anger at herself becoming almost overwhelming. "I... got cocky." She sighed.

Celestia said nothing.

Iillor let her form revert into shadows, then reform as her earth pony disguise. After so long using the earth pony shape, it felt more natural to move in than anything else. And was it not proper to address the pony empress as a pony? "Princess, I squandered the opportunity you gave me. I'm ashamed of myself, and my failure is a disgrace to Lady Moon, and yourself as well." Celestia twitched at those words. "Empress, highness and grace, please tell me where that bitch Phyte has escaped to. Your mercy would mean everything to me! Please, let me run her down and destroy her once and for all."

Still Celestia did not say anything. Unmoving, unblinking. What was that divine mind thinking?

"Princess," Iillor was starting to get frustrated. Couldn't the alicorn see how much this meant to her? If Celestia was going to Iillor her get away with everything she had already, was it really too much of an ask for a tiny bit of help? "Celestia, give me this boon and I will owe you-"

"How dare you speak to me." Celestia interrupted. She glided forward through the darkness, looming over Iillor, her wings partially outstretched. "This is not the first time you have imposed on me, nightmare. You kill my ponies, you harass and worry my officers, you meddle incessantly. All your bothers come back to me, all distractions, wasting my time. Every time you stir the pot, some pony comes crying her their princess. So too Phyte, the loudest and most annoying crybaby, wails and demands my attention: And for what, but this same riotous nightmare assaulting her home." Celestia stared down her snout at Iillor, with the look of a one who has finally cornered a bothersome insect buzzing around them. "Rather than show any remorse, you instead made demands for MORE of my time, energy, and attention. So, I must waste this breath to berate you, though I doubt it will get through your skull. I hold out no hope of you understanding and showing contrition for your transgressions."

The rapid assault of words by the imposing alicorn struck Iillor speechless.

"Are you finally going to settle down? It is about time." Celestia huffed. "Do not bother Cadence or me again." Celestia's horn came alight with white energy, and Iillor recoiled in terror at the prospect of being rent apart by the princess's magic; But instead there was a blinding flash and Celestia disappeared, teleporting out of the dismal cavern.

For a pony, the collision of so many emotions at once would probably have elicited a moment of pause, some reflection, and consideration of what to do next. Yet Iillor's instincts were different, and her fears were rapidly subsumed under a new feeling of indignation directed at Celestia.
Teeth clenched, Iillor decided she was not going to accept the princess unilaterally cutting off the conversation. She still had more to say, damn it!

Celestia had teleported back to the surface, atop the collapsed and smoldering Musician's Guild hall. Nearly a hundred city guardsponies had descended on the scene from lodges all over Canterlot, beginning the work of cleaning the street of debris. There was no hope of approaching, let alone clearing, the shambolic heap of stone which had once been the mighty neoclassical guild yet, for the great heat that it still radiated- the princess was concealed within the smoke and haze.

Most of the citizens had gone back to their lives (for what else was there to do?), but there were still a few ponies hanging around: The Wonderbolts and knights had run off, leaving city guardsponies to clean, with Sel Lech and Duke Lightdowser observing from a commandeered cafe table across the street.

"Do we want to have permanent alicorn guardianship or are we going to have autonomy over ourselves as ponies. That's the question Lady Twilight Velvet posed to me." Sel Lech explained to the duke. "As a courtier with no prospects, her ideas made a lot of sense. Our economy, our public morality, and our country is stagnating because we reached the upper limit of what ponykind can do under Celestia's wardship. The same institutions that she protects us with are limiting us."

"That smacks of reform, which is a vulgar word I only hear from the mouths of the dishonorable." Lightdowser replied, his tone a disinterested drawl. He kept one eye on his son who was pestering the recovery workers, asking them infantile questions about their jobs and lives.

For Sel Lech, having the duke at the table was already half the job, however aloof the stallion acted. It was not his task to convince him of anything. "How the commoners talk about it definitely is scandalizing to well-borne ponies like us." Sel agreed. "However, I don't think you're above rocking the boat, since you came to Canterlot to make changes. When Velvet said change was needed, I agreed. If you also say change is needed, I'll agree with you too. I think most ponies agree Equestria isn't in its greatest shape. The imperial government hasn't planned or built any infrastructure projects in decades. The free cities are bickering-"
Sel Lech cut himself off, seeing familiar faces in his peripheral vision. "Allow me to resume that thought later, my lord. Some friends of mine are here."

"I hope that's not you being facetious, Sabonord." Blueblood trotted up to the table, closely followed by the robed slave, Molar. His compatriot Aurthora was leading a contingent of a dozen armed ponies down the street. "Cool hat. You must've finally gotten through to talk to Seacrest about a job, aye?"

"Yes, it was me being facetious. You're conveniently late, even though you had advance warning of this guild buisness." Sel Lech acted cold. "I'm not going to hear any bad excuses now that I have ponies relying on me, whose lives I risked, while the Black Horn Council sat out the crisis."

Blackhorn had been expecting at least some jocularity and ribbing from Sel, at most some self-righteous puffery, but nothing like the icy stare he was receiving. "Uh, what are you talking about pal? It's not as though we were ordered to be here. We're a political organization and fraternal order first and foremost, you know. I mean, we're putting our lives on the line coming out here, as private citizens, because we love Canterlot so much." He cast furtive glances to the refined stallion across from Sel, and the steel-clad knight flanking him. "We're here to serve ponies and the state, and some ponies have an issue with that, but we do it anyway."

Sel sighed. "Okay, fine, sure. Look, we can talk later. Maybe we have a little conference with Lady Velvet there too. Or not. I'm going to have a lot of work in my new role." He could tell Blueblood was formulating an answer and preemptively cut him off. "Later. Please leave."

Glancing a last time to the older stallion, Blueblood trotted back to Aurthora and their gaggle of militiaponies. "Sabonord is getting big for his britches."

Aurthora gave him an uncharacteristically disappointed look. "Don't be a dolt. Across from him that's the duke of East Unicornia, Sharphoof Lightdowser. You do know who that is, right? He has over a hundred knights and lances at his beck and call."

Blueblood gave Sharphoof an appraising look. "That's Lightdowser? We've taken Speaker work from him before. I thought he'd be younger." He stroked his chin. "If Sel is is buttering the duke up..."

Aurthora shrugged. "Either Sel is still our boy, or he's maneuvering into a different camp. Let's not jump to conclusions until Lady Velvet tells us more."

Just then, gasps and exultant shouts were heard from nearby. Everypony turned to look at the cause of the commotion.

"Holy cow, it's Princess Celestia." Blueblood uttered.

"It was really her highness! She's come before us again!" One of the guardsponies cried out.
Indeed the sun princess was there amongst them. She was at the top of the stairs of the ruined hall, striking an imposing visage above the ponies below her, the great heat distortion from the smoldering ruin behind her making her seem all the more etherial.

The ponies, witness to a ramshackle revelation of their lately-distant princess, would have loved to throng forward, to adore and revere her closer, and to plead their worthiness to her so she would never leave them to their own devices again. But the ponies were repelled by their own primal fear, for it was not just the princess's physical presence alone that awed their hearts. A supernatural aura hung about her, a subtle thrum in the air, which life-long Canterloters knew intimately from the yearly ritual: The Sun was watching too. Not passively shining her gilding light, not daylight as could be found on any other day, no, but the felt presence of the attention of their impossible deity.

The ponies cooed on instinct, enraptured. "T-The Summer Sun!" Some of them yelled.
But how could it be? The Summer Sun was always cast at dawn, while it was then afternoon. But the ponies knew it nonetheless, that between them and their solar god was an unbroken ray of celestial power that strobed and lapped around them invisibly. If somepony succumbed to temptation and cocked their head back, to cast their gaze up and return the Sun's stare, what would they see? Was it even possible for a pony to see, or would the laws of heaven and the universe obliterate them down to their very atoms for attempting to peer behind the veil of creation?

The Sun Princess Celestia, unburdened by her familiarity with the awesome terrors of direct divine attention, moved free. She descended down the steps of the flattened guild, her stature still putting her well above the ponies whose eyes were upon her.
Celestia had to admit she missed the attention. Away in the tower, she had few optical suiters; perhaps a passing pegasus or a unicorn with a telescope. The pony who laid their eyes upon her could not help but commit themselves to the old Equestrian compact with all their soul: That she was their undisputed warden, and they were her impotent wards.
They awaited her words and deeps with bated breath, and could do no other. "My little ponies!" She spoke, her voice supernaturally loud, the royal voice occasioned by the Summer Sun and most important imperial court pronouncements. "I am here to give my FINAL MESSAGE."

Cadence felt the change in the air.
"Something is wrong." She dropped the book she'd been reading; She and Manered had finished with most of the Maresopotemian and Babyloneighian astrological texts and begun scrutinizing classical works. Their study had been progressing quickly though not productively, for while Cadence greatly enjoyed devoting herself to reading like she was a student again they were no closer to understanding the sun's strange movements.
Now Cadence had the sinking feeling that it was too late.

"Hmm?" Manered noticed her expression of deep concern. "Wronger than it has been?"

Cadence tried to keep her royal poise, but the magical agitation she detected from the skies above, even from far away and through the solid stone of the monastery, filled her with a deep and primordial fear. "Yes, brother. Wronger, I worry, than it has ever been." She stood up. "It was just an inkling before, a tickle. Now... I have to go. Princess Celestia..." If what she feared was happening was happening, then what could she even do? "Celestia is not well. I have to go see her."

Before Manered could break his quizzical expression and ask what she meant, a deep reverberation echoed through the foundations of the monastery. "What?! That's our Summer Sun bell!' Manered gasped. He stood up too. "What damn fool though it'd be funny to ring it? One of the initiates is having a laugh!"

Cadence's dread grew. She galloped for the door and almost collided with a monk coming the other way.

"Whah! I- I'm sorry princess! T- The sun!" The monk squeaked. He skirted around the alicorn and ran over to Manered. "The observatory says the sun froze again! A- And it's... doing something!"

Manered realized that the ringing of the monastery bell, shaking the dust from the ceiling with its steady slow tolling, was not a prank. "I see." He nodded to Cadence. "Princess Cadenza, it's not just Celestia who is not well."
He paused. Maybe now was the time to tell Cadence about Twilight Sparkle's research. No, probably not, or not until the moon's involvement was completely proven. "Be safe, princess. Do not risk yourself for us lowly ponies."

Cadence had only a vague idea what he meant by that. "It's going to be fine." Cadence said. She galloped away.

A city of nearly two-hundred-thousand citizens, with many thousand more squatters, beggars, tramps, and villains. What a grand project, and for the combined wills and souls of so many ponies to come together for a common purpose, and to flourish in harmony with one another and with their divinely descended empress. Lo, was not the Mountain looming above them all not a beckoning beacon for the living dream of a united ponykind?

It was all true. More or less.
But Celestia had fallen out of love with that dream, and no longer wished to live it.

Hundreds of eyes, fixed upon her, became thousands. The souls her city came out at the command of the bells now echoing all across Canterlot.
Over the centuries as their sovereign, Celestia had come to understand their patterns. Like a magic all its own, the mortals flowed and thrummed in its magnificent way, curling and contoured to the land and city around them, shaped and reshaping their world. By week, year, and decade the little patterns emerged. For over seven-hundred years Celestia had engrossed herself in their study and facilitation, to let that chorus of color, collectively and individually, express itself to its utmost.

Very poetic, sure. But most poets usually ended up killing themselves, n'est pas?
Why had she even bothered? There was no joy in seeing the ponies live their lives anymore.
She was getting old and stale, living in one place and in one role for so many years. It was unfair to her, and to the ponies. That is why it needed to change.

Celestia had considered sneaking away. The ponies who had for a year been denied her audience would barely noticed they had also been denied her presence. They might worry for a few weeks, then go back to routine, just like when she had begun her vigils atop the watchtower. The patterns of the lives of ponykind did not need their princess to continue on- They did not really care about her, nor she about them.
And yet... standing before the ponies as she had not in nearly a year, seeing the awe and reverence on their faces, was almost enough to break the feeling of estrangement Celestia had built up. She had lingering fondnesses for her ponies that she could not shake away; Nor did she want to completely rid herself of sentimentalities, for even as a creature apart from mortal creatures the ponies often spoke of her as one of their own, and the bonds of fictive kinship were strong in both directions.
... But that Celestia had been made to resemble the ponies was one of the deeper aggravations she would never be able to shake away. They were her masters much more than she was theirs. If there had been no ponies to dominate, the Celestiaan would never have descended to the world, sent by their celestial sires.

Such potent, contradictory thoughts... Sorting through them would take too long, and Celestia had already committed herself to what she felt. That is why she had decided to go before her ponies, and give them most of the truth.
She took a deep breath, readying herself for what she had to say.

"EQUESTRIANS!" Celestia boomed. Her voice echoed across the city, challenging the incessant bells, an alicorn's timbre reserved for the most regal of events. "This is my FINAL MESSAGE to you all. I, your princess, have come before you t-"
The princess did not finish that word before a torrent of black magical energy struck her head from behind. Everything to the right of her mouth was blasted away, and Celestia staggered forward from the unexpected attack, nearly tripping down the stairs of the guild.

The black pony form of Iillor was there in her shadow, panting hard from the exertion of her magical attack. "Never turn your back on a nightmare, asshole." She cackled between breaths. "We weren't done w"
Iillor had stopped- Not cut off, as she had Celestia, but frozen mid enunciation. The ponies on the street were frozen too, gasping, groaning, screaming at the sight of their princess's apparent assassination, perfectly still. Wisps of smoke did not rise and glowing embers did not fall.

Celestia, sighing from the half of her mouth that remained, straightened herself and turned to the nightmare assailant. "Impertinent mare." But Celestia alone moved now, the sun alone watched, and no other could hear or answer. "Did your god put you up to this? No matter. Go home to play with the mortals. Your aspirations to dance with the divine are over."
After a steadying breath, Celestia curled back and backhoof smacked Iillor across the face with all her strength. Frozen as she was, Iillor's body did not realize it had been hit yet.

Still, the damage had been done, both ways. The energy Celestia had gathered to give her grand speech had turned to more frustration and bitterness. Couldn't a mare go out in public and talk without being shot from behind?! Now she would have to talk over the ponies' screaming and crying as well as the endless bells. There was no recovering this situation. It was better not to have tried.
She would just slink away like she had originally planned. As long as she hid, she would never be hurt or bothered ever again.

Bit by bit, Celestia relinquished her hold on the course of time and causality around her. The world resumed its natural course.
For the ponies observing, it appeared for all the world like Celestia had instantaneously moved by a few meters at the same instant that Iillor's upper body had exploded into black mist. As predicted the screaming and crying continued, and a few bold ponies ran forward to see if Celestia and the nightmare were alright.
Celestia rolled her eye and teleported away.

The Sun's attention abated and the sensation of the divine presence lifted. The only proof Celestia had been there were bits of her skin and Iillor's mutilated torso, but those too dissolved into shimmering sparkles and dark mist respectively.
Immediately, the vomiting started. To be bathed in the divine attention of the sun, and then to have that power yanked away by the disinterested god once Celestia left, was an overwhelming disorientation for the already distraught ponies on the high street. Their wails and moans and screams became a miserable chorus that extended to several blocks away from the steps of the guild hall. The Canterloters were left to once again wonder if the brief appearance of their princess was a mass delusion, a ghastly apparition, or an altogether more earnest and horrifying audience by their liege. The bells tolled on.

"What the buck did I just witness?" Blueblood cursed, his natural cynicism letting him recover most quickly from the residual effects of divine grace. He lent a steadying hood to his comrade Aurthora as she swayed and trembled, struggling to keep the much larger mare upright. "Here's hoping we don't get in trouble for any of this..."

Protected under the cafe awning, Sel Lech and Lightdowser had not felt the sun so much. Sel, nauseated, lay his head down on the table and waited for it to pass. The duke however stood up and rushed to his son curled up on the street.
"What the devil has gotten into this city." Lightdowser checked Rusty's vitals and, seeing his son was mostly fine, sat back with a sigh. "Violence and spectacle at the level of madcap nonsense. I was beginning to suspect I was the victim of a vaudevillian orchestration. Now I am sure of it."

"It's not like this every day." Sel Lech murmured.

Lightdowser shook his head. "That may be so, but this is what it will be like tomorrow. I would not presume that mine and the Admiral's arrival has caused anything, but together with this chaos are concomitant of something greater. Perhaps we are being strung along by devils or gods, or we are traveling a path of destruction paved by our own sin. In either case, the only possible action is virtuous action. This dire spectacle, whether instantaneous or staged, is a message to us, or, perchance to me specifically, that passivity will destroy us. I have been dumbly sitting by while fantastical things have been pushing the world along faster than I am meant to see. That is to say, Sir Sabonord, that I must do more than talk. It is not possible to watch the play and still count oneself as an actor. But there I was, talking across the table with you instead of moving."
With a grim frown, he got back up and left his comatose son where he lay. "Look after him." He commanded one of his knights, who were not in much better shape. "I have to abide by the decision to bring him, but the empire needs me more than any colt." He galloped in the direction of the castle as fast as his hooves would take him.

Sel barely lifted his head to watch Duke Lightdowser disappear around a corner. "Wait!" He tried to stand up but his nausea forced him to the street. "These damn ponies and their savior complexes." He whimpered, as much to himself as anypony.

Swooping over the scene a minute later, Cadence did not even stop on her path to the imperial keep. She took in the sight of the collapsed and smoldering hall, and the miserable state of the ponies around it, and just shook her head. Things were not going to get better any time soon.

Teleporting into the midst of her lonesome, dusty living quarters, Celestia sensed she was not alone.
For one, things were not how she had left it. Somepony had rummaged through her bureaus and not closed them all, some of the carpets were fussed, and there was a low fire in the fireplace. She sensed an entity, something skilled enough to mask their magical aura, nearby, who'd apparently enjoyed the fire moments before Celestia arrived. Now the uninvited guest was hiding somewhere close, skulking in the shadows of the parlor it seemed... But still that cloaked aura was strange, the like of which Celestia had felt only a few times before, and always under inauspicious circumstances.

Eyeing the door, Celestia saw the locks and wards were still in place. "You shall have to wait on me a moment, visitor." Celestia said quietly, and only silence answered. "I am injured, having had to put down a nightmare. After I attend to myself, we may deal, if indeed that is what you wish."
She trotted across the threshold into her bedroom, a trail of sparkling blood drops blazing the floor behind her. She passed into her seldom-used boudoir and sat before her largest mirror. With a hiccup of surprise she saw much more of her face was missing than she expected: The nightmare had been very angry it seemed, to damage her so. Celestia gingerly brought a hoof to the missing region, feeling where soft white fur transitioned into the haze of alicorn energy that now filled out her profile. If made her hoof tingle.

Behind her, she sensed the visitor shift position, and approach. Celestia waited until the visitor was at the doorway to the bedroom, ready to defend herself, but the entity stopped, so Celestia could now just see her out of the corner of the mirror.

"Impatient?" Celestia asked.

"No. I've had years. What's a couple minutes longer." The visitor joked.

Celestia's blood froze. She could not breath, she could not move, eyes now locked on the tall shape in the mirror behind her... desperate to see something that disproved what she'd heard.
No.
It could not be.

Confusion and anger nearly overwhelmed the alicorn, and it was all she could do to stay on her cushion, until she allowed herself to breath again. Why now? Why ever? No, no, it simply could not be.

Slowly, agonizingly, Celestia turned in her seat to face the visitor. Her hoof dropped from her face, and now she felt terribly ashamed among all the other emotions blasting her, to be seen so damaged.

The visitor pushed back the hood of her concealing robes. She had a totally unfamiliar head, a cat's, like an abyssinian's head but sleeker and with much larger eyes. But those eyes... Celestia did recognize them, for they were a pony's eyes. And the cat's fanged smirk was much alike a pony's. The feliform creature was, from orange-furred head to orange-furred paws, concealing a pony soul.
And Celestia knew exactly which pony.

The two of them passed the mutual recognition in silence for several minutes, until the dreamer ceased to grin. "Phyte says hello, and other choice things. She's away now. Good riddance." The cat said. After another minute of waiting she spoke again, frustrated. "Actually, I don't have forever. Your little princess in on her way."

Cadence... would understand. "She may see you if you are discreet." Celestia pronounced. With this dreamer it was not a guarantee that her commands would be obeyed.

The dreamer was indeed displeased. "You'd be risking her life even more. I didn't come back to gossip."

"Why DID you come back? Why couldn't you have stayed down there, died down there, and never bothered me or my ponies ever again? The pain you've caused me-" Celestia paused, fighting back years of inner angers. Almost no other pony could make her feel this way, truly eliciting all the feelings that a pony could feel, and survive. "I thought long and hard about chasing you down and executing you. Tell me why I shouldn't do it now?"

The smirk was back. "You did try. I saw you there, on the edge of the forest, dragging the purple filly behind you. She was too young to understand, loudly complaining about the difficulty of the lesson. But it was no lesson, and your eyes were on the horizon, looking, burning, for me." The dreamer loosed the strings of her robe and pulled it open. "Right here, Celly." She fussed the fur over her heart, and tugged at a claw-full of loose skin. "I can still die in this shape, as you know. If you don't do it now you'll never have the chance again."

"Just another traitor I've executed?" Celestia said. It did not sound as firm as she'd wished. Part of her still wished she would blink and the vision would disappear, more illusory torment.
She walked forward, and reached forward with a hoof. It trembled as she came closer, hovering right above that spot on the dreamer's breast.

"Rawr!" The dreamer shouted, making Celestia jumped back. "Ha ha! Got you, Cel-"
She got no further, for time's progress had been strangled.

It was not so strong a control as out on the street, for without the light of the sun Celestia lacked the sway to halt the world completely. The dreamer's mouth oh-so slowly contorted around each of the enunciations, while a hundred kilometers away things were probably moving as normal.
Celestia used the extra time to stare at the feliform, just... numb. The back of her hoof, where she'd smacked Iillor into giblets, ached.

"So much grief. The hurt of betrayal, the rupture of my trust..." Struggling with herself against the destructive urge, she turned her head away, unable to bear the sight any longer.
How pathetic was she. Hardly behavior befitting of a monarch, let alone a alicorn. Celestia had maintained constant, unflappable royal decorum for hundreds of years; Through wars, assassination attempts, and natural disasters she had shown care, kindness, firmness, and imperiousness in the exact right mix and at the exact right times. Such was the grace of a demigod. But nowadays her heart was so brittle. Nowadays...

Celestia released her magical control over the course of causality, but when she looked back at the dreamer, the cat was not where she had been. Instead the dreamer was sitting on the edge of her bed inspecting the wall. WHAT?!

"You were taking too long." The dreamer laughed lightly, but with little joy. A certain melancholy had taken her over. "I knew you couldn't do it. I mean, I'm not ready to die so I'd hardly have visited if I actually thought you would kill me. But still I'm... disappointed somehow. I suppose that even though I'm an older mare now, I never fully matured out of the adolescent reverences I held for you. When I rebelled I expected to be blasted all over the wall or lost into a phantom time forever. But I slipped through your hooves the first time, the second time, then the third time- I though it was just a fluke and my time was still nigh. Oh, I was a reckless and repulsive dreamer for my first years of exile, certain I would soon be dead one way or the other.
"When I defied common sense and continued to live, reality caught up to me. Ha, well, you know, not exactly, since in the Dreamscape everything is its own form of quasi-reality." The dreamer chuckled softly at her own joke. "But I did smarten up. I made strong friends, and became stronger and wiser myself. Yet, when I thought about what I was, who I was, it still came back to you, my rebellion, and my defiance, even if I found new meanings to it."

Celestia said nothing.

"I thought about you too much, I think. Looking at you now, this Celestia really wasn't worth dedicating my life to, worth obsessing over, nor suffering for." The dreamer sighed. "You couldn't kill me, but I can't discern whether that means you've moved on, or that you haven't."

"You think too highly of yourself. I went years without thinking of you." Celestia grunted. "You have been totally replaced in this world, so that just like in the other world you exist as a duplicate, a surplus. I have well moved on. I dwelled on the pain you caused for a while, questioned what I did wrong, but eventually that pain had to be let go. The magic you stole regrew, and so did my ability to trust.” Her doleful masque hardened into determination. “It is already pitiful you have stayed obsessed with me. It is becomes pitifully tragic that the obsession led you to your state, unwanted in both worlds."

The dreamer looked hurt but said nothing for a while. She retied her robe and pulled up her hood. "You wish. I think I had a much happier life there than you have here."

There was the sound of wings flapping and hooves scrambling for purchase on stone from outside the parlor window, and a moment later a concerned voice could be heard. "Celestia, are you in there? Celestia, we have to talk."

The dreamer crossed her arms. "Last chance to get me to leave. If she sees me-"

"Do not presume to order me." Celestia barked. She unlatched the window with her telekinesis, but then immediately retreated back into the boudoir.

Cadence ducked into the room, breathing hard from her hurried flight. She took a second to smooth out her mane and settle her wings before looking around. The absence of the other alicorn, and presence of the sullen feliform in the bedroom was immediately obvious to Cadence, to her great concern. "Oh, um, hello. I... wasn't aware. I don't suppose you are privy to what is happening, lady ambassador?"

"I'm an Ultharian, not an Abyssinian. I have little to say but by the empress's leave." The dreamer shrugged.

"Ultharian? I apologize for not being familiar, but by your accent I assume you to an imperial subject. Uh, regardless, it is nice to meet you." Cadence bowed her head. "Princess Celestia is-"

"Here. I simply needed a moment." Celestia reentered the bedroom. The damage to her head and face were gone, restoring the alicorn's physique to full wholesomeness.

"Princess." Cadence bowed. "Thank goodness you seem okay. Things have been so confused lately. I don't know where to begin." She glanced over to the dreamer, hesitant to speak in front of the stranger. "We can talk about what occurred in the Old Town, right?"

"What do you mean?" Celestia asked.

"Nary ten minutes ago. I was still far away but I unmistakably saw you. I saw the Sun doing something, and then you left." Cadence said, her tone becoming harder, trying to discourage Celestia from lying.

"Mmm, yes, I had an announcement to make. I decided not to make it." Celestia shrugged. "The clarification was needed because of so much else happening in the Old Town. The flattened building surely did not escape your notice. Nor the dozens of deceased ponies, nor the injuring of two Elder Siblings." She said. "My lack of speech was of the least note."

Cadence was silent for a long minute. "Yes, princess, we should talk about that too." She looked to the cat again. "Mis, I must insist you leave. Even if the empress does not mind, I do."

The dreamer hopped up from the bed. She pulled her cowl down lower, that her nod from alicorn to alicorn hid her too-ponylike eyes. "Princess, princess, this isn't goodbye forever. You won't get away before I say my piece." She strode towards the parlor, out of sight. Though the outer chamber door stayed shut, both Cadenza and Celestia felt the cat's strange aura dissipate. She had left the chambers.

Cadence sighed, rubbing her forehead. What a mess. "That was Sunset Shimmer, wasn't it."

"Speak of that one no more, whoever she is. You came to see me, to confront me, and therefore you would best be on with it." Celestia's demeanor turned instantly more hostile.

This would not be an easy conversation. For one, how could Cadence NOT talk about the strange cat, who notwithstanding her likely identity was already an ominous harbinger of grave things from places beyond. Far from ignorant, Cadence knew that the cats of Ulthar did not just stop for tea... But ignore it Cadence must, to get Celestia to talk about the guild hall. If there was a connection there, Cadence would have to figure it out later, because she could not think of approaching the one topic from the other.

But how to begin? Being an immortal alicorn herself, who Celestia would hesitate to punish even from the deepest rage, she had some leeway to be honest and blunt. But if she wanted results, whatever that meant, she also had to be tactful. This could not be only for her own catharsis; She had to speak for the benefit of all the ponies, when nopony else could.
"Celestia, are you willing to let the conversation have consequences?"

Celestia nodded once. "If you can manage, it will."

Hopefully she could. "I am doing what I can. However I am not as old, as grand, or as powerful as you. I am the Equestrians' junior princess, and my responsibilities to them are trivialities to they and I both." Cadence said. "You have many, more important responsibilities. You have the dual crowns that governs both the souls and bodies of ponykind, to protect them from myriad evils, sovereign as god and queen. A pony might survive the neglect of their lord, or of their diety, but without them both the pony is doomed."

"Are you saying that I am neglectful?" Celestia said.

"The best comparison I have is to a dragon. She lurks, thrums, then wakes with great calamity." Cadence said. "This was just a foreshock."

"Be more straightforward, Cadence. You do not think me greedy." Celestia shook her head.

Cadence ruffled her wings, uncertain. "I think you have been overcome by some unknowable desire that has turned you away from your ponies."

Celestia glanced away, contemplating for a moment. "No. No. Never. I am here in spite of the arcane attacks against me. I do not turn away. I am clearheaded, clearsighted. I see the horizon."

What? Celestia seemed to be speaking much more literally than Cadence had meant. "Princess, is somepony attacking you? If it's that cat I swear I'll-"

"When you have a power above others, over others, you will always be under attack." Celestia said firmly. "They are not winning, if it worries you. They are losing more than ever. I am at my zenith. My enemies are at their twilight. There is nothing that they can do against me to divert my strength, my course, or my mind."

"Truly?" Cadence asked.

Celestia strode to the window (slightly cracked open), ignoring Cadence for a few minutes as she watched the streets below. When would she be assaulted by strange visions again? Those vivid scenes of danger and destruction always found her at moments like those. What terrible things, plausible or fantastical, would she see? The visions were never of nice things...
She turned back to Cadence. "This planet is, and will always be, completely under my hoof. What lives does so because I allow it. What moves does so because I have not bothered to stop it. This is not a normative claim, but a factual one. All the threads of history and destiny have converged, woven together, to give me power over all life, every atom, of this planet." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "Does that intimidate you, Cadence?"

Now it was Cadence's turn for pensive silence.

Celestia laughed softly to herself, cracking one eye open, looking down at Cadence expectantly.

"Whenever I would act out or screw up, you would tell me a sovereign must be gracious and dutiful. The older I get the more I appreciate that lesson, and the more I worry about the conflicted mare who gave it to me. You're not well, princess." Cadence finally said.

Celestia nodded. "I could be better." She spoke it not as an admission, but as a sly insinuation, almost a threat.

Again Cadence was wracked with indecision for how to proceed. She had never seen Celestia act this way. "If it were a poor subject acting this way, so manic, so megalomaniacal, I would tell them to go get some rest, to be with family, and to reflect on what is really important in their life."

"What is important to me, has never been the guiding force of my life. I was given to this world to govern others." Celestia said. But this matter-of-fact statement had a tinge to it, which Cadence at last picked up on, that was another expression she had never heard from Celestia: resentment.

Resentment? Cadence had to dwell on that, to puzzle at why the demigod above all would have a reason to resent, well, anything. There were times that being a leader was a stressful and demanding role, but Celestia had taken on challenges before with grace. Cadence had seen, when she was just a fledgeling princess at the edges of the Court, the manner in which the empress adjudicated, ordered, commanded, and governed. It was the memories of that judicious and honorable princess, who ruled not only because she was given by heaven but because she was righteous above all others, which kept the flame of loyalty alive in every pony.
And then to consider... A most wrenching thought... That Celestia resented her duties to her ponies...

"Tell me it is not so. Tell me that it is something else you loath. Like, Shimmer. You are unnerved by her. Say it, please." Cadence muttered out. She wasn't even sure what she was saying, just knowing she had to hear any exculpatory excuse from Celestia to ease her own rising panic. "Or the slavish ponies of the Court, or the bickering ponies of the Council. You resent them and how they've squandered your patience. Or was it Twilight Sparkle? Or was it me?" She pleaded. "It was me. Say it was me. Please, Celestia, say it was me."

The sun princess was stone-faced at Cadence's deterioration. "Calm yourself princess. As your senior I understand what you do not. What you see from the heavens-"

"Are you going to kill us all? Will you take away the sun, or keep it over us, or plunge it into us, to rid yourself of the tiresome world you were born chained to?" Cadence babbled, fidgeting and flapping her wings in distress. Then-
All Cadence saw was a flicker in the air, then she abruptly found herself sitting on one of the big couches in the empress's parlor, with Celestia sitting across from her, serving herself tea.
Cadence almost wretched. "W- What the devil?"

Celestia stared coldly over her teacup. "I ordered you to calm yourself, Cadence. You are going to hurt me or, worse, yourself. I will not be destroying anything today. If I have pride, ego, or resentments, it comes from disparity; They ponies, and us. We are their alicorns, Cadenza. THE alicorns. Without the mortal point of reference we are just the solidified spit of the gods wasting away on a dreamless rock. Are we not, mmm?" The tea set clattered as Celestia shoved it across closer to Cadence with her magic. "I am not so vindictive to want to murder my subjects. I am troubled you would even think such a thing."

Cadence's head swam. She lay her head back and closed her eyes, waiting for her feeling's to subside before she spoke again. She'd let passion get away from her, and said truly vicious things, but did it seem so farfetched? It was incredibly painful she allowed herself to think such horrible things and beleive them plausible. "I- I'm trying to help you." She buried her face in her hooves. She wished Shining Armor were there. Just seeing him would help her keep it together. "Why did you use your powers on me?"

"It's hardly contained to you, Cadence. Time does not play simon says." Cadence droned. "And not just now. At the guild hall I made the whole planet, and one astronomical unit in every direction stand absolutely still. The sun shone so brightly upon me I could have made the states of Dream, the firmament, and the very heavens beyond stop dead." Celestia cracked a thin smile. "Now that would be ego, to dance or sing in the halls of Anima Astral Nacre herself in the creeping chaos of space, whilst her eye is frozen, watching a causal chain that I flout and refuse to obey. I would have been the god at the center of the universe, and all creation, movement, action, and thought would have been emanations of my dance, and flourishes of my song."

"Celestia..." Cadence mumbled pitifully.

"But I dance nor sing. Fa la la! Nay, I do not sing. Hmm, unless needed or asked." Celestia said her smile becoming truly cheery in contrast to Cadence's deepening fear and anxiety. "Cadence, don't be worried! My dear, dear Cadence, I have neglected you and so you've gone off and given yourself a headache. I'm not sure what dreadful things you read in those dusty Babyloneighian and Maredian texts, but they grant no real insight into the sun or me. Those tomes were already a thousand years outdated when I was born, so they are surely useless now. Besides, you know that those are the wrong books for finding out about the sun."

"Enough." Cadence said, barely a whisper.

"Oh, my little pony, did you intend to stay in control of the conversation? And to say what? Yes, I have been secluding myself on that watchtower, which must seem odd. But you have hardly interacted with any but the maids for a decade, until Shining Armor and friends broke you out, god bless them."

"Enough, please. Can't you understand my alicorn language? I said enough." Cadence opened her eyes. She stood up. "I can do nothing to break you out of your impairment right now. I must therefore take my leave."

Celestia shrugged. "Without taking tea?"

"I am not Twilight Sparkle, so I can not stomach it when I have no appetite for it." Cadence trotted to the sturdy doors to the castle keep. "We will talk soon, tonight or tomorrow. This HAS to be solved, princess." Celestia did not reply so Cadence quickly let herself out, resealing the door and listening for the weighty click of the internal latch going back down.
What a mess. Nothing was accomplished, besides that Cadence got the rough outline of what was bothering Celestia; But it really was too rough, with nothing to act upon.
So really all that Cadence had done was make herself feel bad, with Celestia almost seeming to delight at her despair. Why? Why? Heavens tell why?

But Cadence quickly realized that the knights who usually guarded the doors of the princess's chambers were missing, in their place, the robed ultharian cat was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. "A moment please, Princess."

The timing of the cat's presence was unsettling to say the least. Cadence was decent at dream magic, given its proximity to her forte of psychological and emotional magic, but she had never explored so far as to meet an ultharian. And why would she? It was folly, utter folly, reserved for the insane and maniacal, to seek out the dream cats.
This wasn't how she imagined spending her day when she turned down accompanying Shining to the funeral.

"I had a lot to catch up on, but as I've come to hear, so did you. A princess's tower is about as nice a prison as can be found anywhere, yet a prison still." The dreamer carried on. "Knowing what happened, knowing that you obeyed your empress when you had other options open to you... It upsets me that she then goes and disrespects you, uses her powers on you, and lies to you."

Oh, so that was how it was going to be. "Was I supposed to follow your example?" Cadence said icily. She was in no mood after what she'd just been through. "My friend I do not know you by name or nature. Maybe you are Sunset Shimmer, or maybe you are a tricky cat."

The dreamer cat chortled. "Oh ho ho, by the heavens, princess, I would not want to trouble you with more shapeshifter worries! I will be a pony today. That is my nature. This body has a name but I hesitate to burden you with it when I will regain another, though if Celestia wouldn't confirm or deny, I can not speak any further." What a coarse laugh it was, very different and harsher than a pony laugh. "Ah, but down there I was a very tricky cat. I made good friends, and had a good life. Following my example would not have been so much worse for you."

Cadence ground her teeth, intensely bothered by the nettling. Would it have been too much to get some time to think and recompose herself after the argument with Celestia? "I made my choice. A princess does not abandon her ponies."

"Does she not? Well nevertheless..." The dreamer shrugged, plotting her words for maximum viciousness. "Being a princess must seem so easy to you when it only involves an orchestrated victimhood, an orchestrated martyrdom, and a hot minute of luxurious isolation. You are a true leader of ponies, pony." She raised a paw, interrupting Cadence's reply before it was made. "Prove otherwise, I'll repent, openly. Until then I'm a committed Celestiaan partisan. The world became too damn complicated when they added a second princess."

"You're a funny cat. I wish I had all my friends here to laugh with us." Cadence said tersely. Oh how she seethed like she hadn't for years, her self-pity evaporating into anger. Such open disrespect! There were limits to her patience and pride. Even Twilight Sparkle had the sense to be more coy with her barbs! And to think she had once felt sorry for the stupid orange sinner in her exile! "I will laugh because I can prove myself right now, but for want of a gauntlet."

"And want for a pony to throw it." The dreamer quipped, but as she drew in breath to insult again she paused, as if her words had suddenly reminded her of something. She shifted, brushing back her cowl slightly, just enough for Cadence to glimpse the suggestion of her whiskers and lips, and the apologetic smile they bore. "Or rather, princess, you've called my bluff. I conceded to you fully. When the time comes I know you will be there for the ponies. You were Celestia's choice for a reason."

The ability and willingness to pivot between aggression and passivity instantly was the trademark of most infuriating court assholes. That was... comforting for Cadence. No matter what otherworldly lands and seas the dreamer had plied, she was still a trumped-up Canterlot courtier at heart. Some ponies never grew out of being the First Student.
Cadence sighed, and almost blushed. Oh to be a young mare again. She could hardly allow herself to be sucked into a scrap with an outlaw in the top floors of Canterlot Castle. It would disappoint both the ponies and Celestia.
"So, you're a cat now."

The dreamer's grin grew. She cocked her head while she fidgeted with one of her whiskers. "Am I? I lack your powerful alicorn eyes." She paused, as if another little realization came over her. "Princess, I didn't want to see you, but Celestia insisted." Her arms dropped to her sides. "Do you know why?"

"No I don't. You tell me," Cadence huffed.

"Why would I know? Celestia's changed from when I knew her." The cat shrugged. "I'll confess to you, princess, that I don't have all the answers. Not remotely. What I do have is a depth of specialized skill and knowledge that I cultivated, diligently, when I decided to make my return."

"Yeah, welcome back." Cadence deadpanned. "Am I supposed to thank you for sharing your vulnerability? You've caused a heap of trouble and you're going to cause more."

The dreamer's whiskered lip twitched. "I haven't caused any trouble today that you know of. I happened to show up at the same time as the mess in Old Town because I predicted it."

Tilting her head away ever so slightly, Cadence's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You always were an opportunist." Presumptuous little creature! Whatever magical talent the cat had had in a past life, it could not compare to the junior alicorn. It was just a fact. "For your sake, and for the sake of the innocent ponies of this city, I command you to forsake whatever tricks you have aligned against us. You had the right idea the first time, those many years ago, to run away."

"It wasn't that long ago, especially not for an alicorn. Mmm, long enough? But let's not dwell." The dreamer ruminated. She gestured for Cadence to come closer. "Princess I have no tricks I'm playing on you or your princess Celestia. I simply don't care about you that much."

"Then you chose to arrest me here purely for the jollies of bothering me." Cadence tutted.

The dreamer shook her head. "No, I have no wish to upset you therefore I wanted to avoid you. Then, thinking on it, I decided Celestia was right, and I realized that if I cared for your feelings there are a few things I must warn you of. Firstly: Shining Armor is alive and safe. I'm just heading that one off to save you the grief of you slowly discovering his fate."

Shining? What?!? Why would he-
Cadence's eyes snapped open. OH! The guild hall! Of course Shining Armor would find a way into that 'trouble'.

The crash of regret that Cadence was about to feel for abandoning Shining to whatever tribulations he faced was forstalled, as the dreamer lifted a paw and raised two furred caws. "Secondly: Celestia is going to secretly leave Canterlot within the day. Whatever you may want from her, such as answers, concessions, or respect, will have to be got before or as she leaves."

Why would Celestia leave Canterlot? Cadence wondered if the cat was making things up.

A third digit flicked up on the dreamer's lifted paw. "Three: the reason Celestia is leaving is spelled out in the aborted address she was going to deliver to her ponies, from the foot of the ruined hall, itself a monument to ruin; A ruin that will come to be understood by all ponies the way she understands."
The dreamer sighed. "Princess, I will give that speech, in her stead."

Cadence already had a good idea of what it said. She knew it would confirm everything she was suspecting about Celestia's state of mind, which the empress had vehemently denied.

The dreamer cleared her throat and uncrossed her arms, spreading them wide as she began the speech.
"I am the only sun princess you have ever known, who your parents ever knew, who your every forebearer for hundreds of years have known.
"There was a time before me. There was a time before everything. When the first Sun princess came to Equestria, it was Celestia, but it was not I. She was Celestia the first, and since I am not Celestia the last, whence will come a time when I ascend back to the heavens as she did, to be succeeded by another. They Celestiaan, as me but not me, have come and gone at the pleasure of the Sun. At the imperial founding the convention was that your new princess arrived with every Summer Sun, but that convention changed, and so it was that I, the Celestia before you, have raised and lowered that sun tens-of-thousands of times.
"That change was not of my mother Sun's design, nay, but MINE. I deigned to stay upon this planet, upon that throne, far beyond what was originally planned of me. I expanded my ken beyond a year, beyond ten, to hundreds, a ken of time more appropriate for one of the mythic ancient alicorns than an alicorn of the sun. That is to say, my ponies, that I had made a choice to live, to see and sense and rule, when I had been destined by my Sun to be reabsorbed: An apostatic choice that made me not only your princess, but your empress. By making the choice to live I was taking on a commitment that can hardly be overstated- To govern this continent for several unbroken centuries, where the health and prosperity of a species relied upon my attentiveness and energy. I was ready, and I took on that task with the utmost diligence."
The cat's tone dropped, becoming more somber.
"I go now to seek other things. I know not what awaits me. I know not what I seek. Still I must depart, and though I do not promise that this will have the best results for you, I hope that you understand why I have chosen to leave at a time like this.
"Go with god, my little ponies. If we see each other again, I may not be your princess, nor your empress, but I will hope to be your devoted friend. Fare thee well."

It was so outrageous, so impossible. Yet it couched with what Cadence felt was true. Cadence turned away, struggling with her feelings and trying to keep them from showing. Perhaps the best outcome from resentment was abandonment. "Do not lie to me. Anypony can write a hoax speech." She choked out.

"Yes, I am a liar. Most great magicians are, for we must imagine a falsity, a way that the world is not, then bring that lie into reality with magic. That's how I wrote that speech, ten years too early." The cat said. "Our princess wasn't ready for it then. Now, the words and the alicorn have come into alignment, alas to the detriment of everything else on this planet. Even if Celestia had meant to say something else before she was interrupted, once begun it would have been those words which spilled forth. But do not lament Caddie. It was inevitable."

Cadence was silent for a long while. "You say you have no tricks. But there was a whispered phrase, which you love so much, a hidden 'for now'. You want to finish what you started." She tensed in anticipation of the answer or a preemptive attack.

"I'm not going to touch this Celestia, nor you, ever. I promise. She's a pain but she's leaving. What point is there to chasing after alicorns whose absence suites me just fine." The cat laughed. "Were you listening to the speech? She wasn't exactly subtle."

"No, no, away with you and your totally contrived speeches." Cadence hissed. "You came only to vex and tease me, telling me falsities about Shining and the empress. Away or you will have another decade in the dream to look forward to. After all, you promised not to touch me, and I made no such promise to you, traitor."

The cat was not chastised, but merely raised her fourth claw. "Four: Your life will at great risk during the Summer Sun."

Uh oh. Cadence's breath hitched.

The cat continued. "The great cognoscenti of the dreamscape bade me pass certain warnings along to Celestia, that she would take steps such as to protect you. But there is every chance Celestia will not hear me out, nor, frankly, that she would do anything if I did tell her. So telling you now is the best I can do."

Cadence thought she saw an obvious flaw in that story, as if a denizen of the dream wished to send a message up they could have woven it into a mortal's sleeping dream; Only, Celestia had been isolating herself, and mortals could have twisted the message to suit their own purposes. Cadence wished she knew enough dream-lore to guess who those cognoscenti could be. "What danger am I in? Is it from same force that Celestia says is attacking her?"

The cat shrugged apologetically. "Celestia would know, or if she doesn't she will soon. I can't answer."

"Can't, or just won't?" Cadence asked, torn between pleading or sneering.

That remark almost cut through the dreamer's airs of detachment, for she contemplated her answer for several moments, her clawed toes clinking as she drummed them on the floor. "I can't tell you in a way that keeps my return on track. I'd be betraying some friends I care about if I derail everything just to protect you. I'm sorry."

"So Celestia knowing won't derail anything, but me knowing will, but also I can tell Celestia I know and she can save me. Totally sensical." Cadence snarked. "Thanks a ton. Here's hoping your evil plot carries on just fine."

The cat's hands moved to her hips, and her tone became pitying. "Come on. You're an alicorn princess. Either put it together and save yourself or your destruction will be no loss." She sighed and shook her head. "Stay safe Cadenza. If you do, we'll meet again."
She slinked down the long hallway, the alternating vaulted columns and windows basking her in light or plunging her into shadow, until she was halfway down the passage and she simply never emerged back to the light.

What now? Cadence now highly doubted going back to the monastery to keep researching would be remotely useful to anypony- Celestia had said as much, if she could believe. But what else could Cadence do?
A threshold had been crossed. Cadence didn't trust the dreamer, but her words felt true. That meant Celestia was going to leave Canterlot. That meant Shining Armor had been involved with the chaos at the guild hall somehow. That meant Cadence herself was at risk of destruction.
If there was any truth to it, if the dreamer was anything more than a liar and traitor, one thing was clear: Not only was the future not going to get any brighter, it was going to be significantly worse.

But again, what could Cadence do?
"Celestia..." She contemplated turning 180 degree and barging back into Celestia's chambers, and demanding it all: In a single breath, with all her voice, she could FORCE Celestia to tell her the truth, brooking no evasion or deceit, to save her life and possibly Celestia's as well.
But facing those doors again she felt all the shame, pain, and despair she had felt exiting them. Immediately Cadence knew she didn't have the strength to confront the empress again. Cadence had dealt with mortal assholes like the dreamer all the time at the university. But how could she stand up to the judgement and scorn of her fellow alicorn, the empress who raised her up and gave her everything that defined her life now?
What if the dreamer was lying or wrong? What if Celestia stayed in Canterlot and recomposed herself? How could Cadence meet Celestia's gaze when they both knew how Cadence had let her idle worry turn to suspicion turn to bitterness? She'd prove herself even more bitter and ungrateful than Twilight Sparkle. If the rift became public, nopony would side with her, and her name would be said in the same disdainful breath as Sunset Shimmer's. Then she really would have to exile herself.

"There's another option." Cadence said to herself. She'd spied a couple ponies at the guild hall who she knew to be Twilight Velvet's lackeys. There was a chance, small as it was, that the secretive unicorn could tell her what nopony else would.
Could Twilight Velvet save her life?

One by one, the distant bells of the Old Town and Inner city fell silent.

"Is the show over already?" Velvet wondered. At her age and fitness it was hard to keep up a gallop, so she continued at a light trot as she passed along the tree-lined boulevards of the south plateau. She had to trust that her subordinates would handle the rapidly evolving situation in Canterlot while she had her attention elsewhere. "Hmm, hopefully nopony too important died. No use fretting about it now, though."

Around her were the mansions of Canterlot's greatest nobility, petit palaces funded by the owners' estates down in the Canter or further afield which had once filled Velvet with so much envy and resentment. Take one look at the inbred halfwits who actually had political and economic power in Equestria and the whole deception of divinely gifted hierarchy should have been disproven. Yet the institution of aristocracy shambled on, weighing down the edifice of the empire to their mutual destruction. It was not a unique critique, for the simmering revolutionary movements skulking in the Inner City had many of the same hatreds as Velvet; Perhaps in another life, where she had been born a commoner rather than in an impoverished noble family, Twilight Velvet would be the mastermind of a worker and peasant revolution instead.

"Instead of a conniving political operator, the kind of loathsome bastard that high and low alike have been taught to despise." Velvet said to herself, with the silent reminder it was no use fretting about what could not be changed.

Her jaunt terminated at the foot of her destination, where the coarse outer stone walls of the Castle Magoria jutted back into the pateau and forced the circumplateaular ring road to bend in towards the gardens and mansions. Velvet saw that progress on the new castle wall towers had progressed somewhat since the party those months ago. The additions made the modern star fort layout of the outer walls clash less with the majestic heights of the old central keep, and thought the aesthetic contradiction was soothed, the architectural juxtaposition of modern military design and indulgent grandeur struck even the common pony with inexplicable unease.
In these troubled times, was there more to the duke building a fortress in the heart of city than just idiosyncratic fancy? Should the imperial government and princess have allowed such a thing?

Regardless of such political (and aesthetic) questions, the Castle Magoria was bustling. A lot more workers had been hired on to raise the bastion towers, and amongst them Velvet spied the olive-furred court architect whose name escaped her who was lounging in the crenelations while supervising the work.

"Hello there!" Velvet called up to the mare. "Doing well since the groundbreaking party I hope!"

The architect shifted in place to gaze down on Velvet. "Hello, Lady Velvet. Heard from Sparkle lately? How is she doing?"

"I'm afraid we've been out of touch with Twilie. She's busy, I'm busy, etcetera. I'm sure she's fine." Velvet said.

"Oh, that's right. You know, I meant to come see you after your husband's arrest, but things got so difficult with the duke's project I have had no time." She waved toward the nearest bastion tower, then to the laborers fussing with a hoist to bring up its next block. "I misjudged you though. You are not the kind of mare to play defense. You really are Twilight Sparkle's mother."

"Yes I am." Vevlet agreed. With the somber echoes of the bells so recently of Canterlot in their ears, the implication was clear. "My husband is abiding. Things are going to be alright for us, thankfully."

"Good to hear. My work on Castle Magoria will finish eventually, as professionally frustrating as it has been. And since I am still on the outs with the Imperial Council, meaning no frontier fort contracts, I may still come around. That glorified blockhouse called the Chateau la Garde could use some modernizing. And I don't mean modernized like this." She waved to the work scene again. "But a proper reconstruction that can withstand modern cannons and spells." She laughed mirthlessly. "Then the name of Laurel Black would be on the tongues of every pony entering Canterlot."

Ah, that's right! Laurel was her name. "It's not my chateau, Laurel. It's my daughter's, as an investment from the princess. If you are really interested in it as a project, you still might have to get good with the council."

Laurel pursed her lips. "Unless what I have heard is true, and those airships which docked this morning were carrying a Unicornian duke and a Cloudsdale admiral, here to shake things up." She sighed. "There was smoke from the Old Town... and perhaps in due course I will be wanted there."

Velvet shrugged. "Who knows. I wish you a good afternoon, Laurel, but I really must be getting on to see Duke Flux. Good luck with all this."

Pasting under the outer gate, to one of the castle courtyards, Velvet had to weave around stacks of mortar, stone, metal pipe, and glass to approach the central keep. She felt oddly alone now, having gotten used to one of her agents haunting her shadow. Having the self-styled prince Blueblood or the viscountess Aurthora visibly obeying her made Velvet feel grand, and she loved the captive audience to alternatively snipe at or make clever observations to.
"And what do you suppose all this piping is for." Velevet asked her empty shadow, cracking a grin. "Why, on closer inspection it looks like spell-grade steel. Pricy for a bit of plumbing, no? Is dear old Flux putting together magical laboratories in his six new towers?"

With the six thin towers beginning their upward climb, brick by brick, Castle Magoria was taking on the look of a claw reaching out of Canterlot to grasp at the sky. Let it be so.

Velvet continued through the aged inner wall to the inner courtyard, past the dead tree at the foot of the keep, to stand in the threshold. There was nopony waiting for her, which was odd. Usually a servant or courtier would spot and rush to her, eager to convey her to the duke. But the old stone entry of the original Castle Magoria was as quiet and as empty as her hall in the Chateau la Garde.
Velvet dared to hope it meant good things for her.

Larger, taller, and more comfort-oriented than her chataeu, the Castle Magoria had long halls branching off into servant and guards quarters, meeting and dining halls, a coronation room, armories, countless sitting rooms and parlors, and a whole quarter stuffed with art and the duke's knickknacks. Velvet knew every succeeding floor was ever more dedicated to Foaly Flux's fancies, with eclectic book collections, free city avant-garde sculpture, Foal Mountains folk art, and all kinds of narrow and angular things from across deserts and oceans.

Velvet approached the stairwell which led to the duke's private wing. The total lack of servants or maids persisted upward. Velvet could just barely sense the aura of a lone unicorn floors above her. The duke, surely.
"Has something happened? Oh, I hope not." Velvet tried to keep from laughing, for she would soon be in the presence of her in-law the duke, and would need to control her emotions. "Is it more likely that something befell an entire household, or one unlucky stallion?"

Surmounting the stair, Velvet came to the open doors of the duke's private floor. The firefly lanterns had all burned out, and the amount of natural light was inadequate.

"Foaly? Foaly!" Velvet yelled in the direction of the aura she felt, nearby, just a few rooms away.
Oh goodness, what if wasn't Foaly Flux at all? What if the summons was from assassins who had just dispatched the duke, and now lay in wait for her? The last act of the Musician's Guild, stabbing at her from hell's heart!

Cautiously advancing through one parlor and into another, Velvet found that her paranoia was for nothing. It really was just Foaly Flux, half fallen off of a chair, head lolled back, murmuring unformed syllables to himself. Whatever he had used to get himself into his stupor must have been imbibed elsewhere, for it was nowhere to be seen.

"Foaly, are you alright? Have you been poisoned? You can't die on me yet." Velvet nudged him. "Hold on now-" She lifted him into a better sitting position, but he immediately slumped to the side. Sighing, Velvet listened to his heartbeat and cast a few diagnostic spells she could remember.
Flux was fine, physically. He was just tripping. "Good grief. The silly stallion probably threw the evidence out the window." It was a relief he would be fine, in light of how suspicious his death would have been with only Velvet there to be implicated for it.

Leaving the insensate stallion to himself once more, Velvet prowled through his rooms until she found his office. The ink pot with which he'd written the summons to her was still left out on his desk.

"Last chance to say something before I go through you papers, Foaly!" Velvet called back. No answer. So Velvet scooped up everything and began rapidly going through them.
Most of what was there was unimportant. "Ever is that true." Velvet remarked, throwing every would be suitor, scam letter, and Summer Sun well-wishes into the corner of the room, for later palimpsest use.

Velevet paused momentarily, hearing louder sounds from out the window. Was it the servants returning, or somepony else? Depending on who it was, Velvet might have to be ready to meet them with the correct letter in hoof.

That meant the important stuff: letters from back home, ducal Foal and the ancestral home of the Bright Dynasty; from vassals and other nobles; or from Canterlot politicians and buisnessponies. Frustratingly was all mixed up by date, but Velvet went as quickly as she could, glancing down each letter and judging its importance.
Though it was not the most important reason, Velvet needed to know for absolute certain that Foaly Flux was not conspiring against her with any other faction in Canterlot or Equestria. Page after page, Velvet saw only mundane feudal business, squabbles from the knights back in the Foal Mountains, expenses related to Castle Magoria and its expansion, and money being moved around to fund the duke's court in Canterlot and a couple castles he retained in Foal.

"It's a real shame your brothers died or exiled themselves, and left this mess to you, Foaly. You could have had a stipend and only a backwater town in the east to manage, drinking yourself silly for fun rather than from stress." Velvet remarked dryly. "Poor soul. It's not so easy to be highborn when-" The corner of a letter caught her eye, for it had clearly been crunched up and smoothed back out. She drew it out of the stack and tossed the rest of the letters back towards the desk, scattering most of them. "-when personal tragedy haunts you, stalks you, and reveals your blood will not protect you from death."
She held the reason Foaly Flux had called her to the castle.

Less distracted now, Velvet heard the commotion outside growing louder. Carefully tucking away the letter in her dress, she trotted to the plateau-facing window to spy on the noise. A few uniformed pegasi were on the bastions and walls, accosting the workers. Poor Laurel Black had three pegasi surrounding her, shouting and jabbing her. The Wonderbolts.

"What are they doing here?" Velvet wondered. Maybe she wasn't the only pony Foaly had sent a letter to. If so, she'd underestimated him.
Without a servant or guard to escort them in, the Wonderbolts had demanded an audience with the duke from the hapless laborers, and been unable to accept their answers (or so Velvet imagined). One of the pegasi stopped arguing with one of the laborers long enough to look up at the keep, spotting Velvet watching from the window. The pegasus yelled something, and before Velvet knew it a Wonderbolt had zipped up to the level and hovered eye-to-eye with her.

The two mares stared at each other for a while, the pegasus showing impressive flight control by barely moving with each wingbeat.

"No visitors today. We're closed." Velvet said.

The Wonderbolt officer scrutinized Velvet for a few more moments, before gliding back down to the other Wonderbolts. Velvet waited impatiently as the pegasi conferred, until the pegasus flew up to the window again. "Word has it that the lord Duke, Foaly Flux, retained a private choral orchestra. He must surrender the musicians for questioning. Do not defy us."

Velvet could barely contain a shout of excitement. So that smoke from the Old Town really was the Musician's Guild. By the gods' grace, somehow the trap had gone off correctly! It looked like the Wonderbolts were enthusiastically involved in chasing down the stragglers who survived.
Victory after victory. Velvet felt a swell of accomplishment and pride. Another challenge overcome and another foe bested. Phyte had threatened her life, and the life of her family, and now she was ground to dust, along with her family. Nothing could stop her now.

"What a laughable threat." Velvet sneered at the Wonderbolt before her. "There's no musicians here right now. Even if I had them I wouldn't give them to you, because I'd want the satisfaction of destroying them myself. I speak not for the duke, but myself, what I say that threatening me further will earn you and your admiral my enmity rather than my friendship."

The Wonderbolt officer absorbed Velvet's words in silence. "I see. I had not been briefed that the duke kept a lady of standing in his household." The pegasus said, silent for a moment while she connected the dots in her head. "You must be Lady Velvet."

"And lest you forget, you're in Canterlot at my invitation. I will be very disappointed if you misbehave and reflect badly on me." Velvet pursed her lips and shook her head. "Ohh, but is it too late for that? Not in too much trouble, are you?" To the pegasus's shock, Velvet climbed out of the window, leaning herself forward to bring herself eye to eye. "Go get your officers and your admiral. We have a lot to talk about."

The Wonderbolt allowed herself to drift backwards, out of reach of Velvet with open air and a deadly plummet between them. Velvet did not move, did not blink, until the Wonderbolt turned away and flew away, shortly followed by the others on the ground.
Velvet still did not move until the pegasus was a dot in the distance, whereupon she pulled herself back through the window. She nearly collided with the pony now on the other side: Foaly Flux, haggard, eyes wide but fixed on her, working his jaw back and forth in silent contemplation.

"Foaly!" Velvet could not fit all the way back into the room with the stallion so close. "How are you feeling? I wish you the best afternoon I can, under these circumstances."

"Velvet." Foaly Flux nodded slowly, and talked slower. "You left your poor cousin-in-law here all alone in his keep, so lonesome, wasting away. Just dusty, cobwebbed bones, am I." It would have been a playful joke, so typical of him, but the duke's words were stiff and his expression strained. "I thought you had moved on to greener pastures, with the Blackhorn claimant and his fanclub. No need for a skeletonized old jester, aye Velvet?"

What Velvet could see, and what she knew, told her Flux was moments away from buckling under the pain and drinking/drugging himself comatose again. "You're not old, and you're not a jester. You're a proud, respectable lord. That'll last until you really are a skeleton, which gods willing won't be for a while."

"A proud lord, am I? Oh yess, that's right, isn't it. I own one of the most important chunks of rock they ever called a mountain range. Enough for a grand party, for surely. There's a lot to look forward to in life when you're a rich and powerful as me." Flux said, then paused, looking away, thinking in silence for several long minutes.
"The gods had different plans for little 'ol me. If not jester, then tragic hero, minus the heroics. Mmm, but that leaves the article without the subject, nay? Then... what?" He finally stepped back, letting Velvet onto her hooves. "Don't let me suffer anymore. Tell me who I am and what I am to become?"

Pain, yes, but there was also a simmering determination in lord Flux that Velvet hadn't seen in years. Determination, desperation, pride, other things she could not discern. Perhaps for the first time in her life, she had to be careful of the stallion. "I don't know what you mean, Foaly." Velvet said.

Foaly gave her an incredulous stare and shook his head. "I guess I gave the punchline without the set-up. Just me being silly then." He nudged Velvet in the side with a hoof. "We must discuss what's in the letter you took, Twilight Velvet."

The smoke rising from the Old Town had brought a few ponies out to the castle plaza to look for answers, but with many officials either going home after Fancy Pants's funeral or having no idea, the remaining could only shrug.
But once the bells of the city began tolling, more ponies came, crowding more and more of the plaza before the castle doors. The IHG knights, the nervous shift replacements for the veterans Shining Armor had taken to the guild hall, locked ranks to keep the civilians from going any further.
It was when news spread of Celestia's apparent assassination that the situation became very dangerous. The crowd was starting to press in again, getting louder, more restless, and increasingly aggravated. "You imperial dogs! Stop standing between us and our princess!" Somepony shouted, earning approving repetitions from the others. "Give us our princess!"

Positioned between the shield wall the castle door, Prosser could only offer moral support to the novice knights. "Back in the days of classical Clawstantinople, a mob lynched one of their last emperors. They crucified that poor griffin upside down and gradually ripped him apart, dining on him for days until he died. That's to say, good sirs, that I beg you to keep those ponies out."

The steely faced knights looked to one another, gauging if any of them would break and leave the rest exposed.

"Give us out princess! Give us our princess!" The crowd began to chant, pressing forward more aggressively and pushing themselves against the shield wall in a test if they could get through. "It's treason to keep the nation from out princess, and the princess from her nation! We'll punish all of you!"

The delicate situation was at risk of boiling over, and fast. "Well lads, I'm not going to tell you how to do your jobs, but maybe its time to, uh, withdraw." Prosser suggested, but the crowd was pressing so aggressively it was clear no orderly retreat into the castle would be possible. He could just imagine the castle servants and courtiers ogling from up in the keep, praying for dis downfall. Wretches, all!
And for a moment, Prosser thought seriously about dying, imagining all the times in history mobs like this had killed ponies like him. Even when he had been face-to-face with Iillor for the first time, and wondered if she would target him next, Prosser had put his hopes in his own wits and tact. Those skills had preserved him and kept him close to power much longer than he'd had any right to. But the incensed citizens were exactly right to view him as the kind of palace schemer that could usurp power away from the princess, and there was no outwitting a mob once they got their hooves on him, even with genuine confessions of loyalty to the princesses.
"That damn nightmare ended up killing me after all." He hung his head. It was all just desserts for thinking himself oh-so clever, as if he could outsmart death. All he had accomplished is facilitating the pain and suffering of others.

"It's not over, councilor." He felt a steadying wing on his back. Looking to its owner, there stood Cadenza, serene amongst the noise and danger.

"Princess!" Prosser yelped.

"Don't be worried, especially not for me. I had a tough time with Celestia just now. This is trivial by comparison." Cadence said, her smile both kind and confidant. Just the sight of her almost made Prosser cry. There was the princess, the pony, deserving all the good of the world and none of the ills. "Counsel me councilor: Is the empire of Equestria worth it?"

The weighty question landed on Prosser like a sandbag, and caught him so off guard that the fantasy of alicorn salvation immediately evaporated, leaving him once again meters away from an angry mob with and all the burdens of reality. "Princess, is Celestia okay?"

Cadence glanced up, towards Celestia's quarters, as thought to see whether Celestia had immediately returned to her habit. "Her highness is uninjured. I will say that much." She returned her gaze to Prosser. "So?"

"So..." Prosser sighed. From any other pony he would immediately interpret the alicorn's dire question as a trick, an insult or ironic and sarcastic badgering. Spoken from the junior princess's mouth, it was earnest but melancholic. "If there is a better tool than the empire, to protect and instruct ponykind, it has yet to be found. Further, it is unproven that any nations are more worthy of such blessings than the ponies'. Therefore, princess, the answer relies on your imagination and your charity."

Still Cadence was unmoved by his eloquence. "Come now. It was a simple question, councilor, and deserving of a simple answer."

Damn, no weasel-wording out of this one. Prosser's instinct, to rhetorically vacillate, to confuse anypony on his meaning and what side he was even on for even the most obvious and morally clear questions, made him feel pathetic before his princess. Why didn't he have a straightforward answer now? Did he fear that his answer would be wrong and everypony would conclude he was a foolish poser? Yes, that was Prosser's constant fear. Yet on the question of the worthiness of the empire, if the truth were proved one way or another then surely the ponies would have much greater concerns in that moment of clarity and would hardly bother to see Prosser vindicated or contradicted. But he'd know, and the gods who read his heart would know too.
Prosser, after a silent moment staring into the smokey evening sky, matched Cadence's gaze again. "Yes, princess." For in the infinite possibilities of political formulation, some of those forms would cherish Cadenza as much as the empire did, some more, but most less.

Cadence nodded silently. "Thank you." She faced the crowd, and a curl of purple magic circled her horn, the flashed. Some of the nearer civilians yelped or covered their eyes. "These ponies will leave soon. I have suppressed their motivating faith, so that their orphaned anger turns inward." She raised her voice, so she could be heard above the already-fading din. " Since the empress is whole, the day and our duties go on. All will be well. I am sorry." She launched into the air, gaining altitude rapidly and arcing north.

True to the princess's words, the shouting and chants of the crowd died away very quickly, leading to an awkward silence as the IHG knights and the hundreds of citizens stared at one another. Then the crowd started to disperse.

Breathing hard, Sharphoof Lightdowser arrived on the scene, pushing between the stragglers of the crowd to reach the shield wall. "Councilor!" He waved for Prosser's attention. "Councilor, the most spectacular series of events have transpired at the Musician's Guild. Princess Celestia-"

"Princess Celestia is fine. The junior princess said so directly." Prosser said.
Since the plaza was clearing the knights finally dropped their shields, with most of the withdrawing back into the castle, slumped, tired, and frazzled.

Duke Lightdowser was relieved, but still energized. "That's good, very good. I never had any doubt. We witnessed was so much more than simply a scare about the life of the princess. It was..." He stopped to get his breath back. "A signal fire. Unlike the totality of the rest of reality, I can not say in confidence that what I saw was the same as what other ponies saw, or if it were a revelation for me alone. I was much moved, where the ponies around me were sickened." Lightdowser's expression turned dour. "I was meant to see and understand my princess's message. I am very glad she is okay."

"You're, uhh, a very faithful stallion, lord duke." Prosser complimented, but he was hesitant to talk any more.
While Lightdowser seemed like a willful and confident stallion, Prosser also marveled at his foolishness for running so far ahead of the knights guarding him, wearing only his fine embroidered garments and having with no weapon to protect himself with. Was this lord not worried about an assassination? "I can not, in good conscience, say much more, sir, for I am still unsure if we will be collaborators or competitors."

Lightdowser was completely unfazed by the veiled threat. "I am sure there are as many baseless rumors about you as there are about me. You don't feature very prominently in my memories of my last time in Canterlot, Councilor, but I have never heard accusations that you were personally avaricious or ambitious. Unlike many other ponies, I am confident you are loyal to the princesses in your own way."

Prosser blinked. "Okay."

"I would be more cautious around you if I did not see you standing here, between the fickle masses and her highness's sanctum castle. That's why I trust you to have the wit and clarity to understand my purpose here in Canterlot."

Was Lightdowser's demanding Prosser to be subservient, or offering an alliance? "If you want something from me, say it."

An invitation like that, though cautiously offered, clearly delighted Lightdowser. "I think rather that you should want something from me, Councilor. In Lady Velvet's missive to me I could not fail to notice an interesting detail theretofore neglected in the narratives around Sir Fancy Pant's assassination: You were the pony who brought Princess Cadence from her tower and established her in the Imperial Court."

"I..." Prosser was no closer to understand what the duke was getting at. "I think the junior princess is worthy of trust above what she is often given. Just now she used her alicorn magic to disarm that dangerous crowd. She dampened their faith, and for those of them who were incised and angered, defanged their moral." He said, starting to tear up again. "The princess are owed our faith, yet Princess Cadenza willing forwent it for the sake of her humble subjects, in a self-sacrifice we are not owed. Her kindness is magnificent."

Lightdowser hummed in appreciative contemplation. "Ah, it would have been a brilliant trap to identify any of the mob who remained angry. Radical, or secessionist, or Blackhorn loyalist, we could have seen their fury was not righteous- and caught them."

That response deeply disappointed Prosser, and he couldn't help but sight, "Devilishly clever, lord duke.", and yet as he said that he realized he really meant it as a compliment. For was not that kind of pragmatic ruthlessness exactly what he wanted out of a leader, like he had berated Fancy Pants for lacking? Unfortunately the ambitious detractors of the empire were blessed with animal cunning, and the passive allegiance of the midwit masses was insufficient to hold up the firmament (as they might get in their heads to kill the ponies trying to help them).
Canterlot and Equestria needed somepony who knew when to sacrifice a pawn to take a queen, or perhaps rather to prop one up. Perhaps Lightdowser could be that pony. Even if the Unicornian duke was out for himself, he could be the ticket to sustaining the empire. Anything was better than the absolute apathy to governance that Hauseway's clique had displayed. "But rounding up random dissenters is not the balm to this nation's, nor this city's, ills. We are estranged from righteousness and our destiny."

Lightdowser seemed to understand his meaning, partly. "You will be denying me entry to see her highness?" He looked up again, to the princess's corner of the keep. "No, you would not be so bold."

"You can go see Princess Celestia and far be for me to stop you. if she allows your audience, if she listens to you, if she does not dismiss you immediately, then it will not be a waste of your time. However that has not been typical of late." Prosser said.

"I am one of her most important vassals. Have things gone so far?" Lightdowser did not wait for Prosser's confirmatory nod. "Then we will have to find another way, because there is no time to delay. The alicorn's sweeping view of history does not always account for moral imperatives, even after inciting them. Consider me at your mercy, Councilor. I wish to know what should be done, to reverse the ill you've identified."

"Lord Duke, you're speaking all kinds of sense. I'll gladly assist a stallion in need." Prosser beamed.
While the councilor felt nearly ecstatic at prospect of having Sharphoof Lightdowser wrapped around his hoof, he did not stop to consider how easily he let himself be yanked into the duke's camp. The smug aloofness he'd maintained, acting as though he kept above the factional politics, was over. "We must go convene with the junior princess and your comrades. Perhaps we can convince some of these gentlepony knights will join us, to attend to Cadenza and consult with her about the future of Canterlot."

The afternoon sun cast a long shadow across the Canter, a second Mountain that darkly mirrored the first.
How did the wingless ponies stand to live in such conditions, Fleetfoot wondered. In Cloudsdale the districts moved with the season to keep out of each other's shade. Even the lowliest pegasus workers and peasants refused the indignity of having somepony steal their light and breeze. In contrast the Unicorns willingly clustered at the foot of the biggest mountain on the continent, and did not complain when it stole their sun from them.

The first day in Canterlot had been crazy, and Fleetfoot had missed all of it. The Admiral had her on a short leash, and so she hadn't been there when the Wonderbolts had assaulted the Guild Hall. Even Captain Spitfire, who had supposed to be on a different mission, had gotten involved and drawn unicorn blood.
Fleetfoot was conflicted, terrified the show was over and she wouldn't get any excitement or glory, but also wary of actually putting herself in danger- If she got injured somepony else would take her place as the admiral's adjunct.

"The travails of being teacher's pet." Fleetfoot grumbled to herself, leaning on the aft taffrail of the docked Wonderbolt airship. Since Admiral Rain Gnash had retired to her cabins (the admiral was vigorous but tired easily), Fleetfoot had time to herself. The paperwork could be done later.

The creak and clank of new arrivals on deck drew Fleetfoot's attention. It was her squadon-mates who, without her, had been the ponies to follow Captain Spitfire into the guild hall and cause hell. They looked like hell too, most of them having ditched parts of their armor to enjoy the afternoon sun on their fur. "Howdy Fleet." The Wonderbolts looked tired, they looked frazzled, and a few of them looked morose. When they glanced her way, they also looked suspicious.

Assholes. Fleet stepped away from the taffrail and approached her squadron-mates. "What's up. You allowed to talk to me? I heard Cap got really testy with Admiral Gnash during the debrief. I'd thought we'd all be boasting and singing in the mess galley. Something got y'all down?" She was trying much too hard to be comrade-ly when the mood was not suited for it.

"Can't saw we share your good cheer, Fleet." One of the junior Wonderbolts, Blaze, remarked. "Soarin nearly lost a wing and he's out of reach while the unicorns look after him in their hospital. And you saw how toasted Cap got. She's lucky she didn't lose skin." She looked around, absorbing the silent approval of the rest of the squadron. "Not a good start to a campaign."

Fleetfoot pantomimed deep thought as she squinted and cocked her head. "Isn't it though? The admiral seems to think so. You good ponies pulled off a really tremendous victory against those secessionists, terrorists, or whomever they were. An immediate 'Bolts legend, I'm sure of it."

"Not for the reason you think." Somepony said, though Fleetfoot didn't see who. The other pegasi mumbled in soft agreement.

Fleetfoot was tempted to berate her squadron-mates for being such downers, with their moody and borderline defeatist attitudes. After some consideration, she decided it wasn't her job to snap them out of it; It was ultimately Captain Spitfire's responsibility, and if she was lax about it Fleetfoot would just have to have a few words with the admiral. "If you say so B. We've got a job to do here and you'd knocking it out. I'd ask to join the next sortee if I thought I could swing it with the admiral."

"Yeah, then who'd take your shitty job, Fleet. I can't fake a smile near as well as you do." Blaze joked, but by her tone there was a sharpness to her ribbing.

It seemed the squadron was even more tired, or unsettled, with than she'd thought. "Yeah yeah. At ease asshole."
Not much else to be said when nopony wanted to talk to her. Fleetfoot saluted and drifted back toward the taffrail.

But before she got there there was a rush of wind and and the stomp of a hard landing on the deck.
"Hoy! Where's the captain!" It sounded like Streak, one of the wing leaders. He was supposed to be patrolling for Musician's Guild stragglers. "I said where's the captain?"

"Hey, cool it. Cap's recouping."

"No I'm not." Captain Spitfire, limped onto deck.
The Wonderbolts, Fleetfoot included, turned and saluted. Spitfire looked like she'd crash-landed in a charcoal pit: Completely disheveled, lacking all her armor but an ankle guard, bandages around her leg and barrel, her fur still sooty and dirty, the visible skin on her snout and around her eyes inflamed red.
"At ease ponies." Spitfire held up a hoof to forestall Streak's message. "First things first. That means first squadron-" She pulled out small slips of paper from under her wing. "who performed commendably with me today, gets shore leave. You fine ponies are fine soldiers. We followed orders, we did what we had to, and we survived." Her tone dipped, a hint of regret. "I'll be damned if we lose a 'Bolt on my watch."

The squadron accepted their shore leave passes and saluted. "Thanks Cap. Guess that means Soarin will be alright."

Spitfire nodded. "Stay safe, and stick to the docklands and Inner City west. The Old Town isn't going to be too pleased since we just blew up one of their finest architectural monuments. Understood? Good, dismissed."
With the thankful first squadron descending the gangplank to the skydock, Spitfire turned to Streak. "Alright let's hear it."

Streak was taken aback by the captain's damage and dishevelment, but quickly recomposed himself.
"My lady captain, we found her. Twilight Velvet." Streak beckoned to the edge of the deck and pointed across the starboard bow, to the majestic heights of the Castle Magoria projecting out and above the city walls. "She's there, expecting you or the admiral."

Spitfire's brow furrowed. "Twilight Velvet. Bucking hell..." She sounded daunted.

Fleetfoot interrupted with an amused hiss. "Why worry about her, Cap? I thought things'd moved past that character."

Spitfire's troubled thoughts were immediately derailed by Fleetfoot's casual disrespect. "I still have standing orders to establish direct communication with a certain Lady Twilight Velvet. I do not just ignore orders. I can not write myself up a lazy pass whenever I feel like it. One job is over, the next begins. Is that wrong, Mis Fleetfoot?"

Fleetfoot didn't want to get into an argument with the captain, so she straightened herself, eyes forward. "Nay Captain nay, it is not wrong."

"I can't write you a lazy pass either Fleet." Spitfire grunted. "So get your ass in gear and inform the Admiral that I am going to Twilight Velvet's last known location. Convey that message to her too that Velvet wants to see her." She gestured to Streak. "Take point."

"Cap, are you good to fly?" Streak asked, concerned.

That questioned earned him an irritated look from Spitfire. "I could outperform any of you pigeons with a cannonball through my coverts. Take point I said."
The two pegasi launched into the sky and vectored toward the Castle Magoria.

The Old Town was in a state of controlled chaos. The assault on the Musician's Guild and apparent assassination attempt on Celestia had half the population cowering at home and half going out to demand answers. Nopony had any answers, so the masses, burghers, and nobles of the district together had gathered at the taverns, temples, and guild halls to discuss, speculate, and argue. Despite the promise that the Wonderbolts were out looking for miscreants, everypony looked at everypony else with suspicion.

There were not many ponies left on the street. Blueblood and Aurthora sat on the steps of the Black Horn Council hall, at a loss for what to do. Most of their militiaponies had gone home but a few stragglers were sitting nearby debating what they'd seen in hushed tones over a dice game.

"I wanna know why there's no celebration. The guild mistress was a damn menace, not to mention a cloud over our heads. I could about dance in the street knowing a guild mare isn't likely to slit my throat." Blueblood mused. "While we didn't get involved I feel a stir of pride for our role in getting the ball rolling, you know. We've done a great good today, Airy."

Aurthora chortled at Blueblood typical mental gymnastics. "We are habituated to taking credit for the accomplishments of others, but this is a stretch. We had very little role even for tricking that poor Spitfire mare." She grew more serious. "It does not comfort me that we are mere accessories to Lady Velvet's plans. I do not wish to be disposable because I do not wish to be disposed of. Does death not seem to be creeping in? The guild ponies were our neighbors, and no matter their clandestine sins they got along with most of Old Town, but now they are slaughtered. Lady Velvet's son is probably dead too. And only heaven can explain what happened to Princess Celestia. There is just death, confusion, and anti-climax. I do not know what to make of it all, or of our place in it."

The hour was growing long. Blueblood shivered. "Maybe you're right. Being a big picture pony like I am, I miss the trees for the forest."
Their shrouded slave, Molar, emerged from the guild hall with a plate of drinks. "Oh!" Blueblood exclaimed, eagerly taking one. "Tea? You've been ill-taught by Velvet and her demonic maid. Next time, bring some liquor or something."

"Better than nothing." Aurthora said. She paused, giving the earth pony a meaningful look. "Did the burning guild hall bring you any gratification? Whatever pony you were before the guild mistress cut out your throat and rearranged your skin, you have no choice to be what you are now. We are well rid of a cruel tyranny that would do that to ponies."

Molar was, of course, silent.

"No? Maybe you're not even capable of resentment anymore. Or were you, in fact, as devoted to the Guild Mistress as the rest of the patchwork ponies who're burned and buried under the hall? If fortune was a little different, it could have been one of them staring at me, and you butchered by the Wonderbolts. If a pony resents that they are deprived of every liberty, every master must seem monstrous. But again I wonder, can you resent us?" Aurthora speculated. Seeing the line of inquiry was only annoying her friend Blueblood, she patted Moar on the back and pointed him towards the militiaponies. "Be a good lad and take some to our friends."

"They sure need it after the hard day's work." Blueblood snorted. He called over to the others. "Thank the good lady for her generosity, boys."

The militiaponies weren't paying attention to him, but to a new arrival, trotting across the plaza towards them.
The Junior Princess, Amore Cadenza, bejeweled in royal regalia, head high and with determination in her eyes. She stopped at the base of the stairs, which with her height advantage put her level with Blueblood and the others.
"Good afternoon." The princess nodded. "I am looking for Lady Twilight Velvet."

"Join the club." Blueblood sighed, rolling his glass of tea between his hooves.

Aurthora jumped to her hooves, suddenly angry. "What the devil is wrong with you Blueblood? That is our princess. Get your eyes checked." She turned and bowed to Cadence. "Princess! We hearten to see you. If there is anything your loyal subjects can do, please say the word. After what we thought we saw with Princess Celestia-"

"Celestia is not harmed, and as strong as ever." Cadence promised. She glanced to Blueblood wondering what the stallion's issue was. "It has been a long, exhausting day. Still I must see Lady Velvet. It is for the good of the realm."

Blueblood snickered quietly. Aurhora ignored him. "I apologize my princess but we have not seen her all day. I believe she attended Sir Fancy Pant's funeral then went home. But there has been so many things happening I have well lost the plot and she could well have come back into the city to attend to some buisness or another."

"I understand." Cadence nodded. "I will look for her at her daughter's keep then, then her relation Flux's castle. If Lady Velvet comes around, do tell her I must speak to her." She took a step back, but paused. "One last query, though. I also have reason to speak to Illustrious Valor, that provincial mare who has been hanging about in various quarters."

Aurthora flinched. "Yes, well, uh- She has not been with us for some days. Mis Valor has been more erratic and- Ahem, well, we think she might have died in the fight at the guild. No need for condolences, you see, as she was no longer associated with us."

Cadence cocked her head. "Ah. Nevertheless if she did survive, you may also tell her I am looking for her too." She paused, silent for a moment. "And Sir Shining Armor too. I don't mean to burden you but-"

"It's our pleasure, my princess. We'll help you find your missing ponies." Aurthora bowed. "Fly safe."

Cadence bowed back. She cast a last glance toward the shrouded form of Molar before she launched skyward, flying toward off southeast.

"She will never be a princess. I'm shocked she had the guts to trot around Old Town." Blueblood, though a pony of idiosyncratic belief, had absorbed many of the petty hatreds the nobles of Canterlot had towards Amore Cadenza. "Maybe Princess Celestia really is dead if that mare is going around off her leash like this. Next thing you know she'll restablish her court."

Aurthora sighed, shaking her head in disappointment. "That lack of decorum is most unlike you, dear prince. Like it or not she is your alicorn liege; sovereign unlike you. She is owed your respect."

Unmoving, staring off in the distance while his comrade berated him, Blueblood could only sigh again. "I don't want to have that argument with you again Aurthora. If that slave-" He motioned to Molar. "Is permitted to resent his masters, so am I. There was nothing to complain about before they started introducing new alicorns we had to bow to and worship."

"From one to two. A one-hundred percent increase." Aurthora said in mock agreement. "Just be polite. Even lady Velvet has it in her to be polite."

Though tempted to mock back, Blueblood heard the kernel of a question he was actually interested in the answer to. "Are you going to propel Velvet into sovereignty?"

Aurthora had a feeling what was coming. "I wish I could say no. Committing my body and soul to a leader with mortal prejudices and inadequacies is terrifying. Yet, she is a great leader and I find her compelling. She is everything a mare of Canterlot should be, and I am proud to be a part of her design. Wherefore she goes I will follow. She is not a messiah, but if there is salvation to be found it is with her."

Salvation? Wow. There was no persuading her when she didn't bother use euphemism, Blueblood knew. "She won't stop after she ousts her fellow mortals. I don't know where the hell her ambition ends but its not at the limits of this city or even this empire."

"Exactly, Blueblood. Isn't she grand?" Aurthora's expression took on a certain melancholy. "The alicorns were heaven-sent to dominate and lead mortalkind. Until we are ready to rule ourselves, they rule. If we are ready to rule, as embodied in her ladyship..." Aurthora shook her head. "I harbor no delusions about our direction. But the alicorn will remain an alicorn. Divine by origin, noble in all ways, worthy even when not sovereign. That is why I find it distasteful to disrespect her."

"Okay, Aurthora, you made a good argument, so I'm sorry. I'll apologize next time I see the princess." Blueblood lied.
How much of Aurthora's ideology was actually reflected in Velvet's? Somehow their cobbled-together alliance of political brigands was hurtling towards victory, with the offers lacking a clear sense of what they wanted, what they were going to do with power, or how far they were going to go.
It was just power and domination for its own sake, Blueblood felt. And could the ponies be blamed, when a princess did not maintain the legitimizing narratives of her sovereignty, so that the realities of empire was seen in all its nakedness? It had always been about power. It would always be about power; To do whatever you wanted, whenever, to whomever.

Even though Celestia's hoof had turned Iillor into a meter-long splatter on the Old Town street, they were living in the Nightmare's world already. Let the pure id of mortalkind ravage the world.

"Tea's just not doing it for me. Let's go find a tavern with space and get hammered." Blueblood pushed himself to his hooves. "Hoy! You guys and gals coming along?" The militiaponies, who'd been trying to act like they weren't listening to their leaders argue, broke out in affirmative cheers. "Come on then. If we're lucky we'll get in a tussle and crack some heads after all."

The clock was already counting down, and Spitfire hadn't even arrived at the Castle Magoria. Gliding above the city wall, just above the level of the fortified towers, she spied a gaggle of IHG knights trotting behind a pair of ponies, Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser and a short earth pony in the rich robes of an imperial bureaucrat.

"Damn, looks they're heading the same way." Spitfire grumbled. She flew faster despite the protests of her aching body.

Streak's eyes lingered on the duke as they flew overhead, and their eyes briefly met. "That so bad, Cap? I thought he was on our side."

"I cussed him out. Hopefully he's bad with faces, otherwise it'll make things awkward." Spitfire said. "Plus, I've got words with Lady Velvet that're better said in private."

His captain's subtle evasiveness made Streak worried. "Okay, so we are still on the same side?"

Spitfire eyed her subordinate. "How else'd be, Fire Streak?"

At the new pace Spitfire was setting they rapidly came to Castle Magoria. With the sun threatening to set over the Mountain, some of the laborers at the bastions were packing up and leaving. The keep was dark, except for one window half-way up.

"Oh yeah, all the servants got sent home or something. It'll probably just be us. There's your privacy, eh?" Streak said.

"Yup. Good thing you're such a tight-lipped guy." Spitfire agreed sarcastically.

The single lit window was darkened by a figure stepping forward, watching the pegasi. Spitfire knew instantly it must be Twilight Velvet: There was a resemblance to Shining Armor in her face, and indeed she matched by fur and mane the way Velvet was described in the briefing dossiers- which Spitfire was just now realizing must have been written with information supplied by Velvet herself- but more than that was an aura about the mare. Her expression SCREAMED danger. Her eyes were so wide and so bright, burning with an impossible energy (metaphorically) that Spitfire was stopped in place and almost forgot to flap her wings.

"So you know." Spitfire whispered, transfixed by those eyes. She instinctively reached for her sword but realized that in her haste she'd left it on the airship.
Then Velvet stepped back and away from the window, an unspoken invitation.

"Like I said Cap, it's just her in there. I've got your back anyhow." Streak nudged her, sensing her nervousness but apparently not its reason. "And we're allies, 'cuz how else would it be?"

Not reassured at all, Spitfire climbed into the keep through the open window after him.
Velvet was waiting for them. Beside her was an other unicorn, a tall, gaunt unicorn stallion of distinguished age and even more distinguished mustachio. He did not look happy to be there, but held himself up straight anyway: Probably the lord of the castle, the notorious Duke Foaly Flux.

Nopony said anything for a few minutes.
Spitfire, by the candlelight and the rapidly diminishing sunlight streaming in from behind her, could just see Velvet's triumphant grin. Was she falling victim to stress-illusions, mixing up what she'd heard about this mare with the pony right in front of her? Surely no middle-aged unicorn could live up to the terrible things that Phyte and Iillor had said of her.
"That's the second time I've attacked through a window today." Spitfire said breathlessly. How could she stand up to this mare mentally when she didn't even have a weapon? She was tempted to order Streak to give her his. "Lady Twilight Velvet. Lord Flux." She bowed stiffly.

"You're the Wonderbolt captain. Spittlefire, was it?" Velvet laughed softly to herself. "I jest, I jest. We're all good friends here, pegasus. You've done me, and ponykind, a great service for coming to Canterlot. Everything I hear indicates an amazing first showing. My my, you Cloudsdale girls are efficient."

"Yeah, glad to be here. Shame you couldn't meet us at the dock. But I'm here now, you're here now, and soon the other big-wigs'll be here too. This morning I was supposed to be assigned to you on an ongoing basis, furthering coordination between your thugs and ours." Spitfire said slowly. "My Lady Admiral could countermand that tonight, or maybe she doesn't. Either way, your ladyship, I expect we'll be seeing more of each other, hopefully as friends."

Twilight Velvet nodded. "That would be delicious."

Streak was finally picking up on the bizarre energy in the room. "Captain." He whispered by Spitfire's ear. "Something's not right."

"Everything's fine." Spitfire said out loud. She raised a hoof. "Streak, the Admiral's party should be on the way by now. Meet up and guide them in." She tilted her head his way. "Get to it."

Streak, after a moment of hesitation, saluted and vaulted out of the window.

Nothing between them now.
Velvet struck first. "You saw things you weren't supposed to, Captain Spitfire. Talking to Phyte was a big taboo. If Princess Celestia was doing her job you would be assigned to Chitin fighting bugs, until you were quetly disposed of. But Celestia isn't doing her job, which has created so many opportunities for getting away with big taboos." Velvet sauntered forward. She was about Spitfire's height, but the way Velvet tilted her head back and forth kept breaking eye contact in a disorienting way. "You're a smart mare who knows better than act like a silly filly. I can see in your eyes that you haven't told anypony the full truth of what you saw. I don't exactly respect your reason, which is because admitting it makes it real, a you still wish to cling to denial, but that's forgivable. I respect the rank, your nobility, and the effort of your achievements. You stand tall despite your visible injuries. I can tell you and I are going to get along."

Spitfire was frozen, her eyes straight ahead, while the older mare approached. Her mind was racing, replaying everything she'd seen under the guild, barely able to process Velvet's words. This was just a pony, not a monster, she told herself.

"Am I right about you, Captain Spitfire? I'm a fallible mare and I have made errors in judgement before." Velvet said, her voice getting quieter as she got closer, until it was a low purr. "You are going to be my friend, little pony, or are you going to get in my fucking way?"

Spitfire lowered her gaze to the floor, silent for several moments. "Your ladyship-" Her mind screamed for her to escape, but the pain in her limbs seemed to multiply, fixing her in place. Some of what Velvet said made sense to her, some of it did not, but lacking a escape option Spitfire knew she had to avoid committing herself for or against the unicorn. Just like with Phyte, Spitfire had the distinct feeling her soul was on the line. "Lady Velvet, I would be flattered but..." She met Velvet's stare again. So, so bright. "I hear you tell all the ladies that."

Drawing in a breath, Velvet's smile faltered somewhat. "What a dirty rumor, Captain. They only say that because those ladies didn't amount to much. It's all jealousy and spite. I can tell you're not like them, so there is nothing but clear air between us. We need mutual trust." The unicorn took a step back, giving space for Spitfire to mull.

Spitfire maintained the staredown, emboldened by her successful deflection. Yeah... If she trusted this mare, she would be as lost as any of the assholes who bled or burned in the Musician's Guild, and maybe as dead. While Phyte deserved to go down, it was tragic that somehow Twilight Velvet had gained the most from it. What a messed up city. "It'd be nice to believe that, but-" Visions of fire flashed in Spitfire's eyes, and she hesitated. "I hear you treat the boys like that too, Lady Velvet. And that's just not right, because he didn't deserve that. He didn't-" Spitfire, her voice trembling, had to restart. "He didn't need to be down there! What happened to Shining Armor wasn't right."

"I can see where you're coming from now." Velvet shied away slightly at the sudden shout, exaggerating her aversion and throwing the mopey Foaly Flux an apologetic look. "is that all? I will not bother you further. We can wait until everypony else arrives."

Spitfire closer her eyes and nodded. She'd made her stand. If she had to look into those fiery eyes any longer, Spitfire feared she really would end up as Velvet's 'friend'.

Arriving at the foot of Castle Magoria's keep, Prosser waved Duke Lightdowser aside to speak in private. The dozen IHG knight the'd led there waited impatiently by the gate as the earth pony led the duke towards the dead tree at the center of the courtyard.
"Lord Duke, now is the time to decide how you want to proceed."

Sharphoof Lightdowser, looked surprised, then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I must make a choice? If that is really so, then I feel you have led me here under false pretenses, Councilor. You said this is where the junior princess had gone."

"She's not here yet. Soon." Prosser mollified him.

"Then what is there for me to 'decide'? The vizier, the lords, and every pony act in accordance to the alicorns." Lightdowser said with exaggerated sternness.

Prosser let out a tired, disbelieving sigh. "I respect your piety but you don't believe that, or you wouldn't want to be vizier. If governing was unthinking adherence to dogma, then it'd be a job for stupid ponies. Given, plenty of ponies think that it is a job for stupid ponies, and who can blame them." When the duke didn't answer he continued. "Since you're not a dunce whose ego is routed out of them, you have ideals to consider. It led you to Canterlot, and it led you to me."

"Therefore I have something to decide." Lightdowser said.

"No, you made a very dangerous pact with a certain Twilight Velvet, therefore you have something to decide. Because while Lady Cadenza hasn't arrived yet, Velvet has. She is up there, lording over us." Prosser said, trying to convey the urgency and importance with his tone without being overheard by the nearby knights. "I hope you take my meaning."

"I am sorry to disappoint that hope." Said Lightdowser, but his lingering half-lidded stare betrayed that he, in fact, understood perfectly. "There is more to be said, certainly, for trust, justice, and death. However I did not come to Canterlot to be your patsy, or Twilight Velvet's." He scrutinized Prosser for a reaction for another few moments. "That is all I have to say for that at the moment. Perhaps I shall see you inside."
He whistled for the IHG knights to follow again, and they trotted into the keep together.

"Such is your decision." Prosser intoned, before following behind. Velvet would stay free for a little longer.

Fleetfoot saw the windows around the Castle Magoria keep come alive with light, a sign that more ponies were arriving. So an unknown number of ponies were congregating, to reorganize the balance of power in Canterlot.

Admiral Gnash was clearly frustrated with herself for slowing the rest of her group, her Wonderbolt Guards and functionaries who surrounded her flight. "I used to lap the circuit roads and city wall in five minutes. No other IHG pegasus came close. I could circle the plateau and the Mountain in the time it took them to reach Airy Tower. I must be getting old. Never thought it could happen to me."

It's because you eat too much, Fleetfoot thought to herself. "Being a wild and clever leader is what makes an admiral, Admiral."

"Yeah yeah." Gnash grunted.
Slowness notwithstanding, they arrived at the keep just before the sun set completely.
"Fleet, find Captain Spitfire. Get her impression on how we should run this. If you sense danger from the unicorns, bug out immediately." Gnash ordered. "And you get a read on Spitfire too. See-" She paused while they landed on the outer walls. "See how she's doing. The captain has had a difficult day." She gave Streak a sideways glance.

Maybe it was genuine concern for her subordinate, or it was something else. "Aye Admiral. She's had a hard day. I'll judge if these crusty horners have gotten in her head, eh." Fleetfoot saluted.

"Just so. The rest of us will enter through the top of the keep and check every floor down in the case there is an ambush." Gnash gestured with a wing. "If you've gotta get out, escape with the captain and link back with us. Go."

So ordered, Fleetfoot flew to the open window while the other Wonderbolts few to the roof. She could hear voices and laughter, so she she allowed herself to relax a tad.

An IHG knight was waiting for her at the window- Save for his horn he was completely obscured by his gleaming plate armor, reflecting the lantern light with its spotless polish.
"Salute, Wonderbolt." The knight bowed. "Since you don't smell of smoke like your Captain, I'm guessing you missed the fun at the guild hall! Yeah me too."

"Greetings sir. I currently attend to her ladyship Admiral Rain Gnash in an administrative role, so yes, I wasn't there." Fleetfoot said, fighting back the urge to sass the stallion. "Wouldn't say I missed it though."

Hidden though the knight's face was under his sallet helm, the knight's enthusiasm was visibly deflated by Fleetfoot's words. "Ah, yes, well I suppose somepony has to do that stuff. Our comrade Sir Shining Armor-" He stopped, and a sound between a choked sigh and a clearing is throat echoed from the armor. "Missing, presumed martyred, had an 'administrative role', and he was a great soldier and..." He trailed off. Apparently unwilling to say more, he gestured to the next room over, where most of the noise and movement was coming from.

It wasn't until she was halfway into solar that Fleetfoot had the presence to wonder why the Imperial Household Guard was there. Clearly the unicorns were prepared for trouble, if it came.
The duke's private solar was in the process of being rearranged, as IHG knights dragged in tables and chairs and dragged out statues and desks to make room. It didn't look like anypony there was having much fun, but neither did they look afraid or angry. Instead it was a shared anxiousness, for both those whose fortunes were waxing or waining, with everything or nothing to lose, be they prideful or humble (not that any of them were).

Spitfire, near the doorway, spotted Fleetfoot first. "The Admiral is nearly here. I bet she chose some alternative entry, probably the roof or higher floors." She told the other ponies.
The other high occupants, Dukes Flux and Lightdowser, and Twilight Velvet, fell silent.

"Tactical genius worthy of her father." Prosser trotted in behind Fleetfoot balancing a wine bottle on his croup.

Foaly Flux nodded his agreement. "Now now, Gnash is a genius in her own right, Councilor. I had her acquaintance when she was still a Household Guard officer. I know from direct and secondary evidence that she can lead an assault on a liquor cabinet like no other. She was a bold youth and her escapades with my late brother drew the constant ire of her father." He grabbed the bottle from Prosser and began a struggle with its cork.

Duke Lightdowser looked uncomfortable with the topic. "I may not have come to know Lord Rain as well as those of you who lived in Canterlot during his captaincy, but he never anything but earnest praise for his daughter in his conversations with me."

Prosser giggled. "Because he was trying to get her over, Lord Duke."

"And I don't wonder if he wasn't trying to tease a potential suitor." Flux laughed softly. "Now as then, you are both unwed, Sharphoof.

Now Lightdowser was very uncomfortable. "Gentlesirs, why say such things before you have the actio libera in causa excuse by your imminent intoxication?" He snatched the bottle from Foaly and popped it open with his magic. "Lady Gnash is a fine mare, truly a mare worthy of my respect, but-" He sighed, popped the cork off the bottle, and took a swig. "Not the kind of mare who I could love." He took another swig. "My my, how improper of me. I must be parched."

"Bloody hell, wait until somepony brings the glasses." Foaly Flux shook his head. "Oi! Could one of you fine knights get the crystal from the other parlor? Enough for us, and enough for yourselves!"

The casual banter of powerful lords was not for Fleetfoot to hear. She quickly trotted over to Spitfire. "Captain." She saluted. "Status and situation?"

"I'm not sure." Spitfire said.

Was that it? "Captain, the Admiral needs to know what she's getting into. Don't you have something to report?"

Spitfire eased herself into one of the newly-brought-in chairs. "I could say something, but it would be the result of deception and pageantry, just like what brought us to Canterlot in the first place." She leaned forward, whispering into Fleetfoot's ear with a wing raised to obscure her mouth. "It's a fifty-fifty shot that this meeting ends in blood. The reason or the perpetrator, who's to say..." Her eyes gravitated towards Velvet. "Blood must be spilled. The sacrifice at the guild hall was insufficient."

Fleetfoot pulled away, shocked. "Captain-"

"Oh ho, your captain sure can spout some doom and gloom when she's over-imbibed." Velvet circled the table to the Wonderbolts. "Since the Captain and I will be seeing a lot of each other in the coming weeks, perhaps I should take responsibility for her tonight." She waggled her hoof at Spitfire teasingly. "Which means I will MAKE you pace yourself, Captain, else I will have to cut you off. Understand?"

Weird. Too weird. "I-" Fleetfoot stepped past Velvet. "Where are the stairs?"

"Forward and to the left." Flux called after her.

Fleetfoot all but galloped out of the room, nearly knocking over some unsuspecting IHG knights lounging in the adjacent parlor. Heedless, of their indignant shouts, Fleetfoot raced to the stairwell and flew up to the top floors. She nearly bumped into Streak who was on his way down.

"Woah, Fleet. Is everything okay?" Streak asked.

Fleetfoot nodded hastily, and was about to try to squeeze past him when Admiral Gnash came up behind him. The Admiral, seeing Fleetfoot's expression, immediately grabbed for her sword. "Those bastards will pay."

"No! No, it's not-" Fleetfoot took a deep breath. "The Captain is fine, maybe a bit out of it, but fine. You were right, that she has had a difficult day." She shook her head, unable to conjure the right words for confusion she felt. "She might have more to say if you get her away from the unicorns. She's not under duress or anything, still, something is off." She cleared her throat. "About ten IHG down there with them too. It's probably just a show of force, but Captain Spitfire suspects a trap."

Rain Gnash slowly released her grip on her sword and let it drop back into its sheath. "No kidding." She contemplated silently for a few moments. "Should we withdraw back to the airship?"

"We can take on those hornheads no problem! First squadon destroyed a whole building of 'em!" One of the Wonderbolts yelled from further up the stair. That was met with a few affirmatory laughs and cheers.

Fleetfoot nodded. "I'll second that, Admiral. If we signal we're not to be messed with, they won't."

Streak didn't look as certain, but he added his nod as well.

It was settled then. "Not that I was going to listen to you cloud-buggerers if you said no." Rain Gnash chortled. "Wonderbolts don't run!"

When Cadence landed at the city gate, there was still some daylight left. The city guardsponies and the travelers entering the city gasped in surprise at the alicorn in their midst. Hopefully it would be a good portent for them this time.

"The question now, Lady Velvet, is whether you will answer a direct question from your princess, or whether you will lie." Cadence said to herself.
She acknowledged the ponies's reverential yells and prayers with a wave of her wing, then pivoted towards the Chateau la Garde, taking purposeful strides towards the keep doors. Princesses, even adventurous ones who took care of their own buisness, did not take side entrances nor windows.

The maid was already there, smoothing out her frilly dress, then snapping to attention as Cadence drew closer. "Princess Amore Cadenza." She curtsied. "Are you looking for lord and lady of the house? That is not a good idea, princess. Instead I can offer only trifling amusement and hospitality. For this, I deeply apologize."

That couldn't be right because Cadence was already darkly amused. "The lord and lady? Surely you misspeak, as this is a condominium of Princess Celestia and her First Student Twilight Sparkle." She didn't get a lot out of being pedantic, but it was hopefully enough to establish authority, which all her interactions over the day proved she needed.

The maid covered her mouth in polite embarrassment. "Oh, only too correct, my princess." But when she dropped her hoof back to the pavers, a mischievous smile remained. "My princess you are lucky this household is in such good humor. Even for a close close friend of the mistress's family, a smart ass-comment like that will get you punished."

"I beg your pardon?" Cadence cocked her head. Was she really being chided by a maid?

"I know this is a complicated time for all of us, princess" The maid bowed her head. She withdrew into the entry parlor of the Chateau la Garde. "It is thus even for a simple mare like me, bereft of ego and desires. I have no answers for you, as I have none myself. I am standing between you and even greater confusions because my lady is merciful."

Cadence knew the cryptic pablum she was hearing was bait. But what could she do except bite? "The mercy of this earth flows down from heaven, through us, to mortals. They teach that in school." Cadence said. She felt silly quoting scripture but it felt appropriate. "Take me to Twilight Velvet. I absolutely have to talk to her right now. No two ways about it, mis."

"Very well Princess Cadenza. Princess Celestia tried to protect you. Shining Armor tried to protect you. For this is mortal buisness, the devilish realm of ambition and dreams, that you are meant to transcend." The maid said with a nod.

How tiresome, Cadence thought. "What deep thoughts, conjured during the hours of dusting and washing, that you get to badger passers-by with. What a shame the theological college didn't recognize your prodigy." She said, trying to match the level of sass the maid was putting out. It'd been years since her university days and she felt out of practice.

"Thank you my lady. It was actually the Baltimare Divinity School." The maid said flatly. She let Cadence in and shut the door behind them, muting the fawning of the crowds on the darkening street.

There were a few candles lit around the Chateau la Garde's great hall. It had been years since Cadence had been inside, back when Sunset Shimmer was still the First Student. While her recollection was imperfect, she was still absolutely certain that somepony had installed an extra passageway she had never seen before on the far wall, half concealed by a hinged facade of stone. A hidden tunnel under the city walls perhaps?

"We shan't be going down there. I already brought the captive up." The maid said.

Captive?! Cadence scanned the room, and finally noticed an earth pony in a corner of the hall- They were slumped over in their chair, with a full plate of food set on another chair beside. The lantern keeping the chained mare and her meal illuminated had dimmed from the death of its fireflies, but still her long mane and untrimmed hooves told the tale.

"Oh my goodness!" Cadence gasped, rushing over to the mare. "Mis, are you okay?! Can you answer me?" The captive was breathing, and her ear flicked at the noise, but she did not stir at all, her head down, her bodyweight testing the limit of the chains holding her to the chair.
Cadence turned back to the maid. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"That is a heretic, a most perverse sinner, who her ladyship spared death in exchange for guarantees and drudgery from her friends." The maid said. "Do not feel sorry for her, Lady Cadenza. She was a killer, a Star-worshiper, and enemy of her Ladyship."

At last the captive moved. She tilted her head, to be able to eye Cadence and the maid from under her dark grey mane. "I'm nopony's enemy, nopony's friend, nopony's servant or master, any longer. Do not look at me."

Cadence closed her eyes and gradually calmed herself. How great I have to deal with this now in addition to everything else, she lamented. Where was Twilight Velvet why had she been keeping a private prisoner? "Mis, are you okay? How long have you been here?"

The captive let her head droop again, unwilling to answer.

"She has been interned since Fancy Pant's assassination, for which she is partly responsible." The maid chimed in.

"This earth mare-" Cadence draped a wing over the captive. "killed Sir Fancy Pants?" She asked, incredulous.

"No, not at all. She is responsible, albeit accidentally. I t is the least of her crimes, but it is why she was caught." The maid explained, a twinge of irony to her tone. "And it is why we have kept her, in her penance, so she may improve herself."

Cadence was silent as she regarded the haggard mare. "Then you're one of the dead assassin mares." She crouched, trying to catch the captive's eyes again. "I heard Twilight Velvet burned you alive, Mis Octavia."

The captive shuddered, then snapped upright, making the chair (and Cadence) jump. Shivering, every muscle tense, her breathing quickened, she locked eyes with Cadence. "That I was, princess." The earth mare hissed, not hostile, not desperate, but still anxious. "It's nice to see somepony new for a change."

"Now now mis, do not worry yourself with thoughts of release just yet. Lady Cadenza is not going to let you go. That is still Lady Velvet's prerogative." The maid waggled her hoof. "Though, you may take heart that it is not so far off now."

Cadence backed away from the pathetic shaking mare. "I can't believe this. Only Celestia can pass judgement whether a pony deserves this. Actually, nopony deserves this!" She smoothed her mane with a wing, fretting. "Dead mares are turning up far more often than I'm comfortable with today."

Octavia's rapid breaths turned to pained exhalations of laughter. "Yet you look upon me. If I'm dead, look away." She groaned and slouched again, unable to keep herself up.

This was too much. Cadence could only imagine the horrible things Octavia had been through. She had survivors of torture before, pony veterans of the overseas wars or parolees from the Canterlot Castle dungeon. Octavia had not a scratch on her, but... "But why? The senseless destruction of a mare, who stood no trial, and who you say is innocent. Why?"

"No!" Octavia shouted, her voice echoing in the empty dark hall. "I'm not innocent. I was a sinner. I upheld a false god. I did not respect the lives of others. I was a petty and cruel mare." She moaned, a pained confession. "I will tell anypony willingly and openly that I deserved this, deserved to be destroyed, and if I survive I will be a better mare for this trial by ordeal, for the verdict against my life. Don't be upset for me, because I've almost proved that I deserve to live." Octavia stabilized her breathing, and gathered the energy to lift her head again. "I just wish I'd had a little more company. Some water would be nice too. I could dance, with a nice swig of water."

"Yes very well put, Octavia dear. You were down there longer than her Ladyship hoped was necessary. We couldn't risk you being found." The maid sighed, turning back to Cadence. "You see, Lady Cadenza, that I had just finished explaining the destruction of the Musician's Guild to her when you arrived. Her friends and owner from that past life have been wiped away. This mare killed her soul when she pledged herself to a Star but she has nearly built it back."

Cadence could barely pay attention to their words, her mind fixated on the madness of it all. This was beyond the pale. Velvet would have a lot to answer for. Yet, though the scene before her was revolting, she felt totally certain that when confronted Twilight Velvet would give her an excuse that would completely absolve her. "So how does this fit into anything? Why show me this?"

The maid shrugged. "I warned you."

Cadence didn't know what she had been expecting, but it wasn't this. "Yes, I suppose you did warn me." She thought for a moment. "My duty extends to all ponies, all across this empire. I must be mercy for all of them. I can not indulge the needs of any specific pony even if I love them." Cadence was not going to be led around by the snout by these mares. "So behave yourselves. I find this predicament interesting, but not compelling. I did not come looking for this, but rather for Twilight Velvet, to discuss matters of national and imperial importance."

Octavia squeezed her eyes closed. "Absolutely, princess. I'm so sorry for my impertinent distraction."

The maid did not look convinced, but nodded regardless. "Lady Velvet is awaiting you at Castle Magoria. If you wish, I will remand Mis Octavia to your care, to give to Velvet."

"Why would I do that? I would be culpable in keeping a mare from her liberty." Cadence asked.

Both Octavia and the maid snickered softly, Octavia's interspersed with labored gasps, as if what Cadence had just said was absolutely ridiculous.
"Do what you wish, Lady Cadenza." The maid said. "However I judge, and Lady Velvet would probably agree, that nothing you do will have very much effect at all on the ponies. Your actions are for yourself alone, your ego and self-respect, and to realize the mare you wish to be. The ponies will meet their fate regardless. Good evening." With that, the maid bowed and trotted away.

"Excuse me? Hey, we're not done talking!" Cadence blinked, but the figure of the maid disappeared into the shadow, laden hall, until the clop of her hooves disappeared up the stairs deeper in the chateau. "This is almost exactly what I didn't wanted to happen." She sighed, eyeing Octavia.

Octavia tried to sit all the way up, and after a few deep breaths strained with all her might against the chains on her legs and body. She thrashed her head back and forth, hissing at the self-inflicted pain of the bindings digging into her fur, until exhausting herself and slumping forward again.
"Who cares, honestly. Who cares what anypony wants. Wants and whims are bullshit. Its actions that matters. So like she said, do whatever you want."

Cadence wasn't a stranger to such rude words, but it still stung her. "You don't seem as reformed as was let on." She hooked a hoof over the back of the chair and pulled it over, nearly causing it to fall. "What will you do if I release you?"

"Do as instructed: Follow you, princess, to be taken to Lady Velvet." Octavia said.

Though Octavia still appeared totally pathetic and desperate, Cadence detected the slightest hint of a canny smile peeking out from under that messy mane. This was not some pure soul in desperate need of her help and assistance, whose salvation by her hooves would be an unassailable virtue- Cadence felt she had been pinched into another dirty conundrum, where the maid and the captive were in some inexplicable conspiracy against her. "I could turn you over to the IHG or city guard. If they knew you were alive they'd still want you for Fancy Pants's death."

"Sure princess. I'm sure they'll waste their time trying to actually solve a murder nopony wants solved, rather than gear up for their civil war." Octavia rolled her eyes. "What honorable and proper officer is going to humor their princess when the reward is only tedium and annoyance?"

Shining Armor would, Cadence knew. Where had that poor stallion disappeared to? Cadence tried to catch Octavia's eyes again, ready to interrogate her, to ask what she knew that Cadence didn't, or to ask how the situation had changed, but Cadence felt suddenly very silly. The chained mare had been stuck in a hole for over a month and yet she acted more knowledgeable than her alicorn princess?
"Have I been sheltering myself from what's happening?" Cadence asked herself.

"You'd have to ask Lady Velvet." Octavia grunted.

With all the lords arrived and introduced, the assembled ponies that were overflowing in Foaly Flux's quarters collectively agreed it was time to get down to buisness. Their un-nominated, un-elected, conniving conspiracy which, by accident of blood and ambition, had come to see itself as deserving to rule a nation of millions, had convened at last to make their final plan and put it into motion. Yet each silently asked themselves if the alliance, or the conspirators themselves, would survive the week, or even the night.

At the head of the table was Foaly Flux. "Ladies and lords, gentleponies and wellborne all." He bowed his head. "Welcome to my humble home. My servants are on holiday, and my orchestra is indisposed, but I hope you still find this to be a warm and comfortable little tower." He paused for some affirmatory cheers from along the table. "I'm not party to this alliance, and I have long since given up interest in imperial stuff. It's so booring, and what is more the last time I tried to get involved I got my ass kicked! I give you my home as a neutral meeting ground, with an admitted partiality to my delightful in-law, Lady Velvet." He leaned over and pecked Velvet on the cheek. "Cheers, all. To the memory of those we've lost."

Polite clops and murmurs.

Next counter-clockwise was Admiral Rain Gnash and her entourage, the Wonderbolts Fleetfoot and Spitfire. Gnash, hoof curled tightly over a glass of wine, accepted her turn to speak with a grunt. "Unicorns, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't missed you. Lots of ponies, maybe even some in this room, maybe even me, thought the Cloudsdale clique was gone for good. But looking around, and seeing faces who are both strong and friendly, who I can count to be on our side, I think Cloudsdale is back." She raised her glass, and the Wonderbolts at the edges of the room stomped their hooves and threw up a united cheer. The unicorns and IHG knights nodded along, not quite as enthusiastic. "We had a damn good first showing. The rebel conspiracy festering in that guild hall was burnt out, and we earned the welcome of no less than our holy princess on those conquered steps!" Even louder cheering from the Wonderbolts. "So I pass it to the victor of that brilliant campaign, who honored her unit, her city, and her tribe, Captain Spitfire."

Spitfire lifted a hoof, and her Wonderbolts immediately fell silent. Sullen, still out of uniform, she was obviously unhappy to be there. "Thank you Admiral. Thank you Lord Flux for you hospitality tonight, and thank you to Canterlot for your hospitality generally. I worry about how there is to do, and that there will be much to mourn when it's over. To the memory of those we've lost." She leaned back in her chair, signaling her unwillingness to say more.

Polite clops, and soft agreement from around the room.

On the other side of the table was Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser., who had been idly toying with a salt shaker while he waited. Now that it was his turn to speak he stood up and scanned around room, looking every single occupant in the eye. "These are troubled, confused times. Even the sight of my beatified princess, in all her splendor, filled me with the most terrible contortions of awe and anxiety. For to fail her at her time of greatest need would be a dishonor of historic proportions. I knew, seeing Princess Celestia, that I would be remembered, for better or worse. Coming to Canterlot and throwing forward my name for the contest of honor, I had resolved to test everything that I am. Should I be found lacking, in either my own personal skill and vigor, and in my ability to chose worthy friends, I would be destroyed and my name would be trampled into the mud." He nodded sternly. "That was the promise I saw in my princess's expression. This is not about any petty rivalry or grudge. It is about upholding the empire and the alicorns. Evil is real. We shall best it and be blessed, or be bested and be cursed. That is all." He sat back down.

Nopony really knew how to react to the duke's words. Velvet found it more interesting than his spiel at the temple so she cheered.

Beside Lightdowser, Councilor Prosser rose to fill the silence he'd left. "I don't need to fully agree to say that was eloquently put. There's no lack of talent, bravery, or strength here tonight. It's enough to frighten a stodgy councilpony like me." The joke earned a few laughs. "I'm not here to assert any desire of my own, besides that of all Equestria, which is peace, tranquility, and stability. I'll help any pony who I think can deliver that for our ponies. I've had an ego about such things in the past and it's only caused me trouble, so I'm just here to do my job, to provide council. Thank you all, and remember the prayers for peace that are spoken by every Equestrian, in Canterlot and beyond."

A couple ponies nodded but the Wonderbolts and IHG knights looked bored by the appeals to peace, and for the latter who were at least a little familiar with Prosser, doubtful of their sincerity. The remorse of a troublemaker could not be instantly accepted for what it was, even when earnestly offered.

Completing the circumnavigation of the table, only Twilight Velvet was left to speak. This turn was received with silent nervousness and dread by some of the other attendees, and though they remained expressionless and just as calm if scrutinized, the tension in the room nevertheless spiked, despite most of them being unable to explain why.
"Thank you all so much for coming. That is excepting my dear honorary uncle, Duke Flux, who lives here- It would be much more extraordinary if he weren't at hoof, as he is inseparable from his beloved Castle Magoria, who proves her loves through steadfast resiliency, when so much else and so many other ponies are fleeting and tragic." Velvet said, the otherwise comedically strange words seeming grave in her serious tone. "The future of Equestria is here, in this room. I can only echo Duke Lightdowser's sentiment: Victory is pleasing to god, while defeat is sinful in the same way suicide is sinful. That's all for now."

Prosser cut in before anypony could applaud. "Is that all Lady Velvet? I'm sure you have more to say, and less poetically."

Velvet laughed and nodded, leaning forward, holding everypony in suspense as she did not answer for a long minute. Then, sighing, she fell back into her chair again. "Not at all. I am a lady among grandees. I invited everypony here but I am not interested in taking the lead."

"Her ladyship is very demurring now? I hope I didn't misjudge you, though regardless I can appreciate your attempt to get on our good side." Rain Gnash guffawed. "Oh, I think you're a clever mare, Twilight Velvet. I wouldn't have minded you monopolizing the room for a while."

Lightdowser grunted his disapproval. "I would have. We have much buisness to discuss, Admiral." He turned to Foaly Flux. "May I, Duke Flux?"

Flux shrugged. "The room is yours, metaphorically."

Lightdowser eyed the pegasi, gauging if they would object, before clearing his throat and speaking again. "The past, the present, and the future- That is the burden of a fastidious pony who would be lord, not just over themselves, but over others. So, where shall we begin? Like any story, with le naissance."

"I'd rather not start with la naissance, if you'd be so kind. Let's skip to l'incitation." Velvet said softly.

Lightdowser nibbled his lip, slightly peeved. "We surely mean the same thing, my lady, which is that Equestria has been unjustly grasped by weaklings, who inflict bad government on the ponies. It has been this way for years. I was courteous to my predecessor's memory at his funeral, but in truth Fancy Pants failed as a vizier. He let the government, the nobility, and the princess herself degenerate and lose their vigor."

"Is it a vizier's job to invigorate his divine princess?" Rain Gnash asked sarcastically.

"If the job was not necessary, why did the princess create the position? I could just as easily ask why the princess needs guards and a captain." Lightdowser retorted. "The high officers of our nation service the princess to fulfill our racial tutelage, the same as any apprentice craftworkers serves their master, or a squire to their knight. It is by serving the alicorn that we (collectively and individually) learn to rule, so by neglecting the former we would remain ignorant of the latter." He pontificated. "Therefore bad government fails ourselves as much as it fails her."

"And in our degenerated state, so much misery and chaos has been unleashed on Canterlot." Prosser nodded along.

Still Rain Gnash did not seem convinced. "What's your deal, earth pony? Why are you stoking this poetical stuff out of the unicorns?" She nudged Spitfire. "No offense, lord duke, but your arcadian mountain living gives you no perspective on how the world works nowadays. Have you stepped a hoof into Cloudsdale or one of the Free Cities? It's a rough life for a dispossessed peasant, stuffed into a slum, shut out of the guilds and working for a wage." Everypony in the room shivered at the mention of the wretched 'wage'. "And rough living means rough society. They kill each other, and not just the commoners."

"Not here. Not in this city, Princess Celestia's city!" Lightdowser thumped the table. "Once there is stability and firm government, the murders will stop. We will stop it out there-" His lip curled back, barely holding back his disgust. "in the free cities and corrupted metropolis, by both our example and our firm use of state resources. We will stop the bleeding." He nodded to Prosser. "That is why we, the cure to this ill, have been summoned here."

Spitfire mumbled indecipherably under her breath and Rain Gnash snickered, but otherwise let Lightdowser continue.

"It is in that spirit that we must build the narrative of what has occurred with the liquidation of the Musician's Guild. If we desire to be be exemplars of the fight against the corrupt and complacent, to inspire copycats in every municipality in the empire, we therefore must mutually consult on our explanation of what it is that others will be copying." Lightdowser said. "To wit: what happened?"

Velvet raised her hoof. "Allow us Canterloters to explain. The Musician's Guild was the base of an organization of cultic assassins, run as the personal fiefdom of a mare named Phyte. This Guild is completely unknown to most of the population, but an open secret among the highest levels of the imperial court."

Prosser looked mortified by Velvet's admission. "Let's not overstate things, Twilight."

Rain Gnash first looked to Spitfire, who shrugged. "The hell? Cultic assassins? This doesn't match the info we had." She sat up, looking past the others at the table, to the reactions of the IHG knights lounging at the edges of the room. While some of the knights looked shocked, a few others met her gaze with indifference or nods of acknowledgment. "A cult. A death cult..." She rubbed her forehead with a wing, thinking to herself.

Undeterred, Prosser was adamant about putting the cat back into the bag. "Many rumors surrounded the Musician's Guild but there has never been any definitive proof of anything heretical or supernatural."

"Oh buck off." Spitfire rolled her eyes.

"You may dispute the councilor, dame Captain, but do not disrespect him." Lightdowser chided.

"He's disrespecting you by lying to your face. That damn guild was run by a mad witch." Spitfire contended, visibly seething but keeping her tone calm and even. She side-eyed Velvet, and taking note of the omissions about Phyte's supernatural nature. "Her ladyship is telling the truth, mostly."

"I would not be taken in by what what you thought you saw in the fog of war, captain." Prosser's shook his head.

"Insurrectionists, assassins, or 'mad witch', I just wanna know: who cares? " Rain Gnash lifted her head. "Listen, we already did the dirty work, and cleaned out that den of den of iniquity. So I'm not interested in post-hoc justification. Write your history books later. Any excuse is fine by me. The 'Bolts kick ass either way."

Prosser was happy to accept that willful ignorance. "Indeed admiral. After all, there's no narrative that makes you look worse, unless somepony manages to commit it to the history books that the guild hall was actually an orphanage defended by breezies you attacked." That elicited a couple laughs from the audience. "Either a great evil was surprised, or you overcame a fortified position and proved that Hauseway can't protect the city. The latter is a lot easier to sell and understand."

While Spitfire was still seething mad at the agreement to hide the truth, Velvet was merely amused. "Gnash, would you really not want the world to know, or even verify personally, whether your Wonderbolts conquered a supernatural monster?"

Rain Gnash sniffled and shook her head. "Not particularly."

Lightdowser, who had not chimed in, rapped the table. "Then perhaps it is not necessary to dwell. We will rule that the assault was necessary, and acknowledge the role of both the Wonderbolts and the Imperial Household Guard in carrying out the deed." He paused. "An accessory role by the city guard and Canterlot auxiliary groups will also be noted."

"Yeah sure, give credit to the citizen guard pansies." Gnash grunted. "You keeping the minutes of this meeting, councilor?"

Prosser ignored her. "That satisfies me if it satisfies you, Duke Lightdowser. Though before we continue, Sharphoof, could we have a few minutes' break? My glass has run empty."

"Ah, the consequences of my deserted household! I'm so sorry." Foaly Flux cried out. "Yes, let's break for a few minutes. Let me run back to the wine cabinet, my fellows."

Rain Gnash shook her head. "I've had enough." She curled a wing over Spitfire, holding her in place as well. "Don't take too long."

Foaly Flux led Velvet, Prosser, and Lightdowser a few rooms over to his main parlor, still in disarray from his stupor earlier in the evening. "Let me find something good. I let my steward stock me so much swill, which is fine for the average class of guest my parties attract, but hardly a Unicornian lord. Let me see if there's something hidden in the back." He wandered to the other side of the room, a signal he would not listen in unwelcomed.

Prosser spoke first, barely holding an even tone. "Lady Velvet you are being unwise, bordering on stupid. The Musician's Guild is wiped away, so we can close the book on that sordid chapter of history forever. We can forget, forgive, and save ourselves and our descendants the shame of that memory. Are you going to spill the beans on everything the empire has worked hard to forget, just for fun?"

Velvet laughed but gave no answer.

"I had heard rumors and threats about the true nature of the guild during my contest against Fancy Pants. It was difficult to tell from the outside alone whether the Musician's Guild really was so evil." Sharphoof Lightdowser said.

Grinding his teeth, Prosser nodded. "If you actually care to know, then yes, it was quite bad. If you embrace that truth, and glorify yourself and your new regime by its elimination, you'd be simultaneously besmirching the entire imperial government. There were ponies who had to abide the existence of the Musician's Guild that would feel betrayed if you indicted them. You need those apparatchiks to stabilize the nation under your viziership."

Lightdowser sighed. "I start to understand. Institutional momentum paralyzed you" He nudged Velvet. "You were free to act, and to conspire against this guild. A noble deed, to be sure, to step up when others couldn't, but I do not understand you motivation. Why take the risk, Lady Velvet?"

"Phyte threatened my family." Velvet said. "But I don't want you to jump to the wrong conclusion: I didn't force Gnash to settle the score for me. In fact, I suspect Rain Gnash thought she was weakening me by destroying the guild. She may still want to believe that."

"Admiral Gnash was attempting to subvert you?" Lightdowser asked, incredulous. Things sure were complicated in their alliance.

"It is only a suspicion of mine. I would not voice it openly, but I though you might want to know." Velvet said. She put a hoof on Prosser's shoulder, and cocked her head his direction, fixing him with a firm stare. "There's one more little secret, lord duke, about Phyte and the Musician's Guild. Even the castle bureaucrats don't know, except for the councilor here and a couple others."

Prosser trembled, torn between his need to object and the controlling grasp Velvet had laid on him. "Lady Velvet do not ruin our hope for salvation. Please, exercise restraint."

"Councilor, I understand you want to protect me. By censoring the truth, you want to make questions of idealism versus pragmatism vanish. I would be left with only my ideals to pursue." Lightdowser said. "But it is as the young pegasus captain said: You disrespect me by taking away my choice and my agency. That is not being a good councilor to the governor, but a governor in your own right. If I do not have the opportunity to chose, the virtue of idealism withers to nothing.

"Very astute, lord Duke." Velvet answered for Prosser. "And right now, I would wager that ninety-percent of the time you would obey that idealism of yours, and uphold the vision of a virtuous government you were yarning about earlier, all the way to Canterlot Castle. But your ideals have foundational propositions, and the councilor and I happen to know a juicy, foundation-shattering secret."

"You sound like you are trying to threaten me, but you might as well threaten a legion of windigos and nightmares, Lady Velvet. Therefore you must mean merely to humor me." Lightdowser chortled. However Prosser's continued despairing, panicked look convinced the duke that maybe Velvet was being serious. "This is getting ridiculous."

"Same as it ever was. Velvet is going to mess everything up just for fun." Prosser ground his teeth, racing to think of a way to get away from the topic.

Velvet laughed to herself. "Same as I ever have." She paused, as if consider if she was really going to pull the trigger. She leaned in, whispering. "It's a lark, Sharphoof. The guild burned down, and the princess appeared. But didn't you ever stop to consider-"

Prosser abruptly struck her on the side. "Twilight!" He exclaimed. "If withholding a choice from the duke is disrespectful, foisting one on him is dishonorable!" He bowed, his nose nearly touching the floor. "My lord duke, you want to help rule ponykind, but some challenges are still only worthy of the princesses! We are not ready as a nation, or a species, to stand on our own four legs. We both know that! That's why I BEG you to remain ignorant. We just aren't ready."

Lightdowser remained absolutely motionless for several moments, then, glancing away briefly, trotted over to the nearest cabinet. "I have never been to war. The equestrian high nobility, domesticated by the princess, eschewed war and become philosophers and gentleponies. Excepting that madmare Glori Sabonord, we have decided ours and ponykinds prosperity is furthered by everything I described before: Virtue and good governance. But I am not too naive to realize that war still waits for us, a primordial evil, which ever wishes to possess us. So, I imagine I understand what Velvet is hinting at, that a demon of our very nature was lurking beneath the guild hall, but I do not yet know whether we sealed it or unlocked it by the conflagration. Will war beget more war, or have we won peace?" He scooped up the nearest liqueur bottle. "I so dearly hope it is the latter, because it means we are not helpless. Perhaps it is impious to think we're ready to wrest our fate from the alicorns like that. You were right, Councilor, when you accused me of having an ego." He withdrew back into the meeting room.

Prosser beamed. "Nearly, Velvet, nearly." He said, letting out a shaky, relieved laugh. "Maybe my warnings about you have finally gotten through to him."

"Just don't gloat too hard. While you ponies are retreating into metaphor and overwrought poetry, I need nothing but the truth anymore. Have a long think about why that is." Velvet laughed along and patted him on the back. "Run along."

Prosser smiled, nodded, then turned very serious. "Don't be a jackass, Twi. There's more than me between you and your anarchist revolution or whatever nonsense you have cooking, because this empire has a thousand years of history behind it and you are just a former rhetoric teacher. Reflect on the fate of your son, and realize you're only going to end up hurting those you care about." He followed Lightdowser out.

Not that the discussion was over, Foaly Flux wandered back to Velvet, holding a dusty wine bottle. "I'm on pins and needles, Twilight... I'm worried. Am I too weak for this?"

Velvet pulled him closer and kissed him on the forehead. "Life, death, infamy or disgrace, which those ponies are so obsessed with, are meaningless when considering the incomparable, inconceivable enormity of the future. You're the strongest pony I know, who can agree with me on that and still be able to keep your humor. That stuffy councilor thinks I'm baselessly smug. On the contrary, uncle Flux, we have every reason to laugh." She accepted the wine bottle and led him back to the meeting. She pantomimed a toast. "To friends and good health!"

In the hours since Cadence and the Ulthar cat had departed, Celestia had nary moved an inch. Her eyes had wandered to the window- She slowly melted over her magnificent sofa, her body doing nothing to maintain her except to keep her facing that window, that blue and bright sky, and the promises and power carried on brilliant streaks of sun, shining first above, and then below, the patient feathery clouds.
The grand alicorn did not move any longer, did not speak any longer, seemed not even to breath, so any intruder would have imagined her to be a statue but for how her mane still flowed this way then that in the magical currents, curling and tickling her surroundings. That and her eyes... for what was reflected on them was not the world as it was.

Celestia felt herself beyond that window, striding forward on pallid bolts of light, each rising to meet her hooffall, leading her higher along an incorporeal stairway heaven-bound. Celestia knew why she was climbing but was nearly too afraid to admit it to herself. Though she was already miles-high, so far above the limit pegasi could fly, she felt uneasy, as though some threat were following behind her, flanking her on either side, and below, so her only course was ahead and up, to where an even greater danger awaited her.
Then Celestia was there, at the pinnacle, the last step after the stairway of light leading to her a rounded snow-capped mountain peak. The snow gleamed like diamonds in the unobstructed sun, and in a flight of childish fancy Celestia was tempted to grab some up and shower herself, so she could dance among the descending flakes of light.

But Celestia was not alone. Another entity was watching her from the other side of the peak, as large as her but obscured in blinding brilliance, her recently-used path up to even higher heavens fading away. "You." The light-entity's voice was not heard, but felt, like the vibration of a deep bell vibrating along Celestia's whole body. "At last."

"At last." Celestia repeated back, trying to identify something in the white haze before her, to know who or what she was addressing. The luminous entity had a majestic and dreadful aura, and by the mysterious grandeur of their meeting place and that it could pull Celestia's consciousness into the meeting at all, indicated in sum that this was at least a low-level officer of heaven; Perhaps it was an asteroid or comet, or the emissary of a distant white dwarf. Whatever they were, they were trespassing in the Sun's demesne, and presuming to speak to the Sun's vassal directly.
But in the moment there was little shelter in knowing the position or irrelevance of the entity, for it thrummed all the same with incredible power, so Celestia began to worry what damage it could do if it really wished to harm her, remote though her body was. "Hello. Be you friend or foe, I can not welcome you. Your descent is illicit, and you bring danger to yourself and to me by it."

The entity raised a limb, slowly, until its upturned hoof cradled the sky, that as she held it grew a deeper and deeper blue, until the whole world beyond that snow-capped peak was a deep-dark void, and the only point illuminated by the yet-blazing sun was they two entities. The peak, too, was not what it was before, but obsidian black, flattened stone, with curving sides that descended forever down into the depths of space, a tower of infinite proportions.
The entity dropped its hoof back by degrees, so it was reaching towards Celestia, grasping at her.
"You have willfully dismissed our previous warnings. We are coming for you."
The noon-time sun jerked widdershin.

Celestia returned to lucidity in her parlor with a violent start, shattering the sofa underneath her. She teleported onto her hooves, crouching, wings extended, alert against threats from every direction. And for a few moments she swore she saw shapes in every corner of her parlor, hunched and waiting, but waiting for what she could not hazard a guess. But just as quickly as she saw them, the shapes vanished, just another tormenting vision.
Celestia remained tensed for several minutes, slowly drawing her mind down from the heights of panic, and gradually working to parse the lingering visions of the tower and luminous being, and the vibrations of its message which where just then leaving her body.

Twilight had come to Canterlot, the sun having long since set behind the mountain and was then descended below the horizon beyond, tinging the eastern sky in scarlet and orange.
Celestia straightened up and trotted to the window. It was still cracked open from when Cadence had entered there earlier. She paused with a hoof on the sill, listening to the wind and the distant sounds of the tired city for a while, before pushing the window closed.

"At last." Celestia whispered to herself. That brief encounter, laden with mystery, gave Celestia much to think about.
A heavenly being had its sights set on her, not the dispassionate glances of divine attention that could glance against the world, not the accidental fragments of cosmic influence that would scatter to ends of the earth when a divine traveler occasioned to have a roadside picnic nearby, nor the cordial and arms-length dealings that heavenly sovereigns would have with her or her mother Sun. Something very powerful, and potentially very dangerous, had singled her out. "At last, it said." And it seemed very, very likely that this attention was not new, but something ongoing, and which had been ongoing. "Which means there's every possibility that she is who has been sending me visions."

Celestia looked out of the window for a while longer, watching the twilight hues fading, and with them her lifeline to her celestial protector. If there really was an outer god after her, hours of danger were approaching. Then her mind changed.
But perhaps it was time, at last. At last. At last. At last. Things were coming to a head, at last. It was time to stop looking at the southern horizon, stop yearning for far off things. At last. At last it was time for the hoof to follow the gaze.
The world was turning over. The world was becoming something different. Or had it already happened? The new reality, the new zeitgeist, had been waiting so long, too long, to be born. Celestia did not wish to dwell on spurious or needlessly crass analogies of gestation, and yet the turn of the day, the turn of the hour, had driven progress on, so it grew and grew, poised to burst straight out of her, through her, ripping every part of her apart and turning her into so much mulch to fecundate the new world, built over her that would have her as its foundation and still build higher, so its values where no longer her values, cherishing its own accomplishments instead of hers, signifying that the name of Celestia would come to denote something lost or perhaps just different. Perhaps just different...

That was when Celestia remembered that most significant message of that mountain-turned-tower, where the Sun had moved widdershins. The twilight had not begun her danger, but rather ended it. 'Til the Sun rise again.

Celestia turned away from the window. It was time to leave Canterlot, fast. It would be dangerous for her to remain in the sun's city.

"The Hare Moon already. Wow. I was down there longer than I thought." Octavia was trotting jauntily, looking all around her with the fascination of a filly, to Cadence's growing consternation. "Last time I passed these houses, I was going the other way, panicked out of my wits, running as fast as I could. I was running to my doom and I didn't know it. But how could have I known? I didn't understand anything. My eyes were completely clouded with sin. I could have walked into an inferno and not even realized it, and in death I would have been filled with all the evil resentments of my life. Though, I suppose that is exactly what happened to me."

Cadence had lost her reservations about chiding the mare. "Mis Octavia, you have been through more than any pony should bear, but it is not nearly as melodramatic as all that. You were imprisoned yes, but I know what that is like, and it is not death."

"Do you know much about death, alicorn princess?" Octavia asked, her tone innocent but not her eyes.

"Unlike the empress I am exactly as old as I seem. I have outlived as many friends and relatives as any other mare my age." Cadence said. "Death and unlife are not my domain, but I've dreamed enough to tell that you didn't die even a little bit."

"I respect that perspective princess, but death is my domain. That is why I can say, authoritatively, that I died. I mean no disrespect, of course. None at all. But I must stand by my claim." Octavia insisted.

It had been clear from the first that something wasn't quite right with Octavia. Cadence hoped she would not be forever-burdened with watching the mare, as abandoning her would probably lead to somepony getting hurt. "You were in a criminal gang?"

"I was in an evil empire, as an agent of no small repute." Octavia retorted, her voice a subtle mix of proud and ashamed. "At induction I was only given petty bounties on lowlife scum, and by the time of my death I hunted nobles, burghers, and imperials. I had the love of the guild mistress, high priestess of death, who taught me the liturgical language of mortal murder. In that world, I was as a duchess."

There was ample evidence that the earth pony's regret was just for show, but if it was a trick surely Octavia would be trying to sell her trickery better. Under that strange mannerism (sculpted by torture?) maybe Octavia was trying to be sincere.
"That life amounted to very little, considering the way you were laid low by Lord Night Light and Lady Twilight Velvet." Cadence said. "Mis, I do not meet many ponies like you. Even during my freest and most adventurous years at the university, hormonal youngsters were my greatest peril. But you were, are, an agent of genuine evil and chaos."

"Largely true, my princess. My murders were illegal because I did not perform them in your name. I recognized a false sovereign, who whose sway over me was debasing." Octavia agreed. "Nevertheless I think your remark on my novelty rings hollow. Do you not keep company with killers like the imperial guard and the sun princess? Lady Velvet often whispered about her son, his accomplishments, and your mutual affections."

Scandalized and with cheeks burning, Cadence nearly missed the thrust of Octavia's words. What kind of uncouth fantasies had Twilight Velvet been telling her captive audience! Poor Shining Armor did not deserve his mothers machinations. "If you're accusing me of hypocracy, know I would absolutely detest somepony hurting others in my name. I just want ponies to be happy. Me torturing you over past deeds helps nopony. I said before I do not want to help deprive a mare of liberty, even a sinner. That's why I'm not moved by your deprecation either- You'd only impress me, Mis Octavia, if you advance your own penance by reversing the damage you've done. Find victim's graves, find victim's families, and pray for forgiveness." Cadence said.

"Why is that necessary when the nation is personified in you? If you forgive me, the feelings of the other ponies, in all their pettiness, is immaterial." Octavia shook her head. "I will be your weapon, if you wish it. I will be anything you want, I swear."

When Cadence heard those same words from knights and courtiers, they seemed just an insincere. But Octavia's motivations were baffling. Why would the killer, who Velvet had tried reforming into a good little mare, be so adamant about serving the alicorns? "Because of your association with criminals and heretics, you were privy to certain secret mysteries of the Elder Siblings of mortalkind."

"Yes and no, princess. The guild mistress was very private." Octavia apologized. "In fact, while Lady Twilight Velvet interrogated me, it was obvious that she knew much more about Mistress Phyte than I did. Her crepuscular ladyship must have been planning the destruction of the guild and eviction of Mistress Phyte for years."

Cadence felt vindicated in her choice to seek Velvet for her answers. "Yes, Lady Velvet is wise, which is why I have been seeking her out tonight; But not, I should think, as wise as all that. Her ladyship has made quite an impression on you, so I must wonder if she she could have lied and you would have been none the wiser."

"Should I beg you for your wisdom then, my princess?" Octavia asked, subtly teasing. "I mean no disrespect, and speak with the utmost reverence to your divine nature, when I say it was not my impression that you were not in the know." Octavia said. "Are you really totally unfamiliar with your kin, the Stars? I would be embarrassed to have to ask Lady Velvet, since I thought it was the alicorns who were teaching the ponies."

That was damn cheeky. Cadence was going to retort something about decency and propriety, but she thought better of trading snipes with a dead mare.
That thought almost stopped Cadence in place, so she tripped a bit over her own hooves. Glancing back at Octavia, she remained certain that the assassin mare was some bit actor in some orchestration by Twilight Velvet. So why submit to the charade? The mare was dubiously repentant, and the whole rest of the world believed that she was already dead, burned to a crisp by Velvet.

Octavia met her glance, but did not speak, until a moment later she demurred by averting her eyes. "Have you grown tired of me? I am, to all ponykind save a hooffull, mouldering in the grave. It is your right to punish me for my slights against you."

"What is wrong with you? Alicorns don't just execute anypony they don't like. That's never been the dogma." Cadence said sharply. "Mis Octavia, as an appreciator of theater and the preforming arts, I find your composure under stress admirable. Nevertheless, there must surely be limits to the act. If Twilight Velvet intends to harm you, or use you against somepony, will you maintain this housebroken persona?"

Octavia did not flinch from the weighty question. "I am already being used against somepony. My friends fear for me, so have become pawns to that fear. I wish I could say I am not a pawn because I'm fearless, it's not true, because I worry about my friends too, more than my own death. I doubt you'd understand."

Though Cadence felt a flame of resentment for having to acknowledge it, that accusation was true, for Cadence felt instinctually repulsed by the idea of self-sacrifice Octavia was espousing. She was the realization of the hopes of ponykind, and as an alicorn she would toil for the pony's sake, up to a point- She has said as much to Octavia before, how she could not be their collective comfort if she sacrificed herself for any singular pony. "I do understand."

"Because you are the icon ponies are sacrificing themselves to?" Octavia pressed, her question confirmed by Cadence's expression. "Don't let it upset you too much. It will all be over soon."

Cadence was getting annoyed again. She was trying to be nice and the mare was being snippy with her. "For you, perhaps. I am blessed to be above mortality."

Octavia did not answer but with a knowing look.

Once the meeting of the grandees recommenced, it was time to discuss how to out the 'squatters' in Canterlot Castle.

"You can only make so many demonstrations of strength." Prosser was arguing. "The liquidation of the Musician's Guild can only be the high point of a campaign of terror that eventually creates resentment."

Neither Rain Gnash nor Sharphoof Lightdowser seemed too keen on what the councilor was saying. Lightdowser had been staring out the window, while Gnash had answered everything with dismissive snickers. "Councilor the way I see it we will be resented by the weak and the dispossessed either way. The animus of the overthrown will never fade. They have to be crushed, and if it isn't done all at once it has to be done in parts." Gnash waved at Lightdowser with a wing. "And the lord duke would suffer for having dissenters running around. Is the terror of order or the terror of anarchy worse, say?"

Duke Lightdowser barely responded to the appeal to his sensibilities. "I would rather deffer security questions to the captain of the guard. As for the political question, I have not yet gauged how tolerant the nobles of Canterlot will be to us 'securing' our regime."

"Firstly, I have gauged it. The Canterlot nobles, who are very invested in the Estates and hybrid politics, are going to expect your flattery, not your boot. Second, the nobles are not the only stakeholders you need on your side to take or hold the castle." Prosser said. "Your opponents, Hauseway and Seacrest Sabonord, understand this. Usurping them easily is not a foregone conclusion."

Gnash shrugged. "That's why, at the guild hall, we made clear that the not-easy option was us busting in and evicting their asses." Some of the Wonderbolts laughed, but as the night wore on the Wonderbolts and IHG knights had gotten less boisterous and more somber, perhaps reflecting on what they would be asked to do in the coming days, and what they had already done. Or, they were just drunk, sedated on Foaly Flux's generosity.

"If you truly want to attack Canterlot Castle, pitting soldiers loyal to your alliance to those loyal to Hauseway's, you don't need me in the room for that. In fact, you might find me in the opposite room. Like it or not Hauseway was confirmed by the princess, while you were not." Prosser explained coldly. "What if you take control of the castle and Celestia refuses to confirm you? The pageantry of you pretending you received royal approval as you act out the role of IHG captain would greatly amuse me, Admiral."

Gnash tried not act annoyed by the earth pony's contrariety. "Listen, councilor, I see what you're getting at. Like any political dead-ender you are trying to talk me into the course of action that facilitates you acting as the gatekeeper and rainmaker for my prospects. I'm not talking about attacking Canterlot Castle, necessarily. The castle is just one strongpoint in this city."

Spitfire raised her hoof. She looked tired, but was still ready to compliment her admiral's argument. "We've got more armed pegasi than any other armed force in Canterlot, which means we can deploy fast and strike hard anywhere in the city. We've proven our striking power."

Twilight Velvet cut in. "Captain, I think you and the Admiral have been making a mistaken assumption, that the ponies of Canterlot will attribute the entire Musiician's Guild assault to the Wonderbolts alone. You can't rely on that assumption. First, ponies saw Wonderbolts, the Imperial Household Guard, and city guardsponies together. They even saw princess Celestia briefly. Second, most ponies have no idea of the battle lines you have already drawn in your head, between 'friendly' and 'enemy' factions. Third, primary accounts are swirling into rumor and speculation as news spreads across Canterlot, and indeed I myself must judge whether whether you and other ponies have told me is true." Velvet continued. "Convincing Canterlot and the castle of your power is going to require every ally you can get your hooves on, which, I think, is the point Councilor Prosser was making."

"I acknowledge all of that Lady Velvet. Wonderbolts are always just a wing of an operation." Spitfire said, but after a pause her tone was much more pointed. "Though, will I be working with that bright young IHG officer who joined the assault?"

"Just a wing? Don't belittle yourself and our 'Bolts, captain." Rain Gnash said.

"Your captain shows an admirable humility. She really is a credit to her city." Prosser said.

Gnash did not take the compliment kindly. "Listen here you little-"

Sharphoof Lightdowser stood up. "Please excuse me. Continue without me, as I stretch my legs but for a moment." He stepped back from the table and left the room. Nopony followed him.

The noise of the conversation, occasionally rising as the conspirators argued, faded as Lightdowser wandered into the further rooms of the Castle Magoria. His head hurt. It was too late into the night, and he had much drunk more alcohol than he had meant too. Tired, slightly hungry, and increasingly annoyed by the allies he had chosen, Lightdowser wondered if he could sneak nap on one of Flux's lounging couches. He couldn't imagine any productive discussion with Gnash or Velvet that night, when so many considerations had to wait for persuasion and alliance building around Canterlot.

"Princess..." Lightdowser whispered to himself. He was on the other side of the keep from the meeting, in a dusty library. Furnature had been shoved into the various corners of the room, including some old chairs had been stacked by the south-facing window. Lit by the moonlight, Lightdowser worked to pull one of the chairs free, struggling and failing to get a grasp on it with telekinesis. "Oh bother." He swore silently, before giving up and sitting on the ground.
The hills and plains of the Canter, that gentle patchwork of fields, farms, and hedges, appeared as a blue quilt draped over the landscape far below. Lightdowser felt an instant yearning for that provincial landscape, for though it was far different than his Unicornian duchy of terrace farms and mountain castles, it struck him as a place of simplicity and honesty so unlike the city he now found himself confined in. "Princess Celestia, why did I come here? By my hubris I believe I can venerate you properly, princess. Am I clearsighted or weak to doubt myself now?" He burned inside at his suspicions of the dirty truths Velvet had been him teasing with. Lightdowser knew if he ever had to answer for cozying up to such cynical ponies he would kill himself from shame. "Princess, if you saw my heart would you spare me praise, or mockery?"
If he waited a few minutes he could ask one of the alicorns in person, but the prospect of actually facing a princess had Lightdowser uncharacteristically afraid. As a duke he led his life knowing nopony could outright tell him no: They would accommodate him, throw every platitude and compliment at him, to stay in his good graces. The princesses COULD tell him know, and they had. Celestia had passed him over for Fancy Pants, sending young Sharphoof's rising star careening off course, and since then life had served a steady stream of petty humiliations. What if the princesses denied him again? Could he handle that? He had prayed every day for the last decade but it did nothing for his doubts.

Against the backdrop of the distant meeting, and the slight rattling of the window by winds over the plateau, Lightdowser heard somepony's hooves on the stone floor.

"What a hell of a day, huh?" It was a mare's voice, familiar but not one Lightdowser instantly recognized. "Not that you did much. You're just along for the ride."

What? Lightdowser felt his neck tingle, but he interpreted it as impinged pride rather than danger. Had a drunk knight wandered from the meeting hall to bother him? Lightdowser looked over his shoulder and source of the rude voice, but they were at the threshold, away from the moonlight and cloaked in deep shadow. "Our divine Sun lights our faces and weaves our fate. The challenges placed before us are intellectual, spiritual, or martial. I laud your worthy triumph over your martial challenges, but those challenges are not mine." He said.

The mare laughed. "Nice try but that's not what I mean. As funny as it is, imagine you with us charging into the Musician's Guild, I don't expect that out of a leader. But you're still a failure by your own metric; Being passive, getting led around, so failing your 'intellectual challenge'. Even a tourist has to get in the mix of things every once-in-a-while." She paused. "I saw you with the earth pony, the councilor. Didn't he explain everything to you? Keep being a bitch and Twilight Velvet literally eat you, because even though she wasn't at the battle she conquered her challenge."

Lightdowser was beginning to get the strange feeling this wasn't a drunk knight or Wonderbolt. A voice from void, making proclamations of doom... He would almost suspect it was an assassin, taunting him before she struck. "Those are the words of a pony who does not truly respect leadership."

"Yeah that's true. I'll get in gen-u-ine trouble for it one of these days." The mare said. She crept forward, until at the edge of the moonlight. She let the moonbeams bask her face, just long enough for her to smile and wink, before she slipped back again. "We met in the temple. I was giving you a hard time then too."

Oh fuck. It was the black-furred earth pony, Illustrious Valor. "I heard you gave the Admiral a hard time as well. A thug, she called you." Lightdowser fully turned to face her, jaw clenched, fearing the worst. "It nevertheless confused me when you entered the Guild Hall alongside the soldiers. And it certainly confused me when I witnessed you turned to red vapor by our hallowed Princess."

"That's me, ha ha. I deserved that smack being all insubordinate and ingracious." Iillor confirmed jovially. "I was royally pissed off, wasn't thinking, and got pissed off at the royal. Oops. I still can't feel my face."

More than fear, a deep unease settled over Lightdowser. "You are not a normal mare."

A moment's pause. "I'm just a girl looking for an interesting time, and while I'm not exactly normal, I guess, don't expect for me to flash it my power. I'm still as sore as hell and can barely tap my magic." Iillor shrugged. "I don't think you're a stallion impressed by show-offs, displays of brute strength, or magic shows anyway."

Some facts were starting to click into place for Lightdowser. The lurking supernatural mysteries, like the nature of Phyte's death cult and the reason for Princess Celestia's appearance over the guild, began to make slightly more sense. The metaphors Lightdowser comforted himself with, that the pony contest for power was just a reflection of a spiritual and mystic battle where order battled chaos, appeared now to him as material! "By the gods, it was not us mortal lords alone that Twilight Velvet conjured up for her cause. You are a demon!" He took a breath to calm himself. He felt the cold hoof of death press against his back. "Did I displease her so quickly? You must be here to kill me, for she surely knows I would not be reconciled by intimidation."

Iillor giggled. "Nah nah, nothing like that, because Lady Velvet doesn't know I'm here. If she thinks I'm dead she can keep on thinking that. I still like the old gal, but my work for her is over. There's nothing satisfying about her striving anymore. She won."

"Lady Velvet... won?" Lightdowser repeated. "If you are betraying her cause, then tell me your meaning. Is she going to harm the pegasi and me?"

But the duke's sudden eagerness evoked a disappointed coo from Iillor. "Hey, don't get it twisted. I'm not betraying anypony, and I'm definitely not interested in sabotaging Lady Velvet or undoing my own damn work." She approached closer. To Lightdowser's relief she was still fully pony-like. "While I was convalescing in the wind and shadow of the Old Town, smarting from the princess's rebuke, I decided I needed a new mortal striver to shadow, so my mind turned to the noble duke who boldly proclaimed his ambition to the funerary assembly. You're a pony who's going to be fighting for their dream, struggling against a world that doesn't understand or sympathize with their ideals. Basically, I am offering to be your soldier, your catspaw, and your tutor." Her grin, wider, wider, ever wider, so transfixing. The mare, the beast... She was mad, surely mad, and yet- "I will hold no secrets before you, duke, which I have never promised to any other pony so far. I can be anything you wish."

How much did the mare know? Lightdowser figured that if Iillor had survived the princess's attack she had great mystical power, evidently able to conceal and to spy. "You demon, whatever you are, are everything everything the dogmas of the princess warns against, for how your sweet promises of victory will seduce our souls to our destruction." Lightdowser gulped. The mare-shaped thing was not asking him to change though. She said, with convincing conviction, that his cause would become her cause. Was her contrition before Princess Celestia genuine? "What will you do if I refuse you?"

Iillor looked shocked by the question. "I've miscommunicated. This isn't exactly an offer, really, and I'm not asking permission. Never have, never will." She crept closer still, until her face was nearly pressed against his, not smiling any longer. "My god would say your clumsy fretful striving, the offal of mortal angst when confronted by gods' works. I say it's juuust delicious enough. You've dreamt too big, my lord, and have besmitten the nightmare. Can you really refuse? Can you?"

The meeting chamber of the Imperial Council was cold and dark, its lone window too small to let in significant light, and only one firefly lantern for the entire space. The other councilors had taken their lanterns with them, and Seacrest Blackhorn was left alone in the only place they needed him, in the plush chair at the head of the table. It was cold, but Seacrest had ventured out and found coats and pillows in various offices around the castle. He supposed that he could have found another room to sleep in, but he couldn't be sure that somepony wouldn't want to use those other spaces and yell at him. The only place he was absolutely certain he was safe was in the council room, for when anypony else was supposed to be there he was supposed to be there too.

Engrossed in a book, Seacrest didn't notice that he had a visitor until the door latch began to rattle. Wasn't it late in the afternoon for an Imperial Council meeting? Captain Hauseway reliably ran the meetings until the early afternoon only, the routine buisness of administration mostly being left to the other councilors. Hopefully there hadn't been an emergency that would bring all of them back for a midnight meeting.

When the door to the hall swung open, a stranger was on the other side. "You're not one of the councilors. I haven't seen you around the castle at all, actually." Seacrest said. "You look like the pink one."

"I keep out of the way. My name is Celestia. I too am an alicorn, like the 'pink one'." Celestia said. She had to duck her head to pass through the door into the council room. "Bear with my through my confusion, for I was looking for one of the councilors, but have found you instead... living here."

"Well, yes. I am the vizier after all." Seacrest chuckled. He dog-eared his book and set it aside. "Every morning, the councilors bring their buisness up to me, and with due elegance and grace, I sign off on it all. I get to approve all kinds of things important to the nation, and I'm well-advised by some of the smartest ponies in Equestria." He laughed again, more hollowly. "If you believe it, the mistress of the castle always sends her food back uneaten, so the wonderful butler lets me have some. It's a good life, nay, the best life. There's noplace I'd rather be than right here."

"I see." Celestia said.

Seacrest scrutinized the stranger looming in his doorway, fuzzy though her details were in the faintness of the lantern-light. "I'm a pretty important pony, I hear. THE most important, even. If you need something, I could help you." He flexed to make sure his coats were well secure, then circled around the table toward the alicorn, nudging the lantern along the table as he went. "I've gotten everything I wanted in life, to be here, to do what I do... A dream come true. But I had help to be where I am today. Do you have a dream, my lady? I could be the guiding hoof that helps you to where you need to be."

Celestia stared down her nose at the stallion claiming to be her vizier. He clearly had not slept in days, and if he had been eating her food there was every possibility he had been drugged or poisoned incidentally. It had happened before. "That's very kind, sir. All I need right now is an airship."

"Of course, of course." Seacrest sprinted back and grabbed his book, tearing out one of the pages. "I will write out an order for the skydock to prepare one for you!" He hummed to himself as he fetched an ink pot and quill, jotting out a nonsense series of lines across the page. "I'll even give you an escort of imperial knights. I'm sure Captain Hauseway will see you right in that regard." He hesitated before passing the page to Celestia. "Will you be returning? I am almost ashamed to confess I find you very beautiful, even in this pitiful light of mine. You compliment these surroundings almost too well, my lady."

"While I may return, I doubt you will still be here once I do." Celestia said.

Seacrest took the rejection in stride. "Ah, that's often the way of things. Nothing so wonderful as this is destined to last forever." He gave Celestia the page and bowed away. "Have a safe trip."

"Thank you, pony. Die well." Celestia bowed back, then departed the way she came.

The wind was picking up as Cadence and Octavia passed under the outer gate of Castle Magoria.
However, instead of a servant of Duke Flux waiting for them, it was a stallion, with a knight beside him. "Princess Cadenza, it is my deepest honor to finally meet you." The stallion bowed, snout nearly to the grass. "Please forgive this presumption. I am Sharphoof Lightdowser."

Octavia stepped between the alicorn and the stallion, a brick curled under her hoof as a makeshift weapon. "Princess, have you had enough of ponies like this?"

Lightdowser, clearly not expecting to be confronted like that, backed away, until his knight attendant rested a solidifying hoof on his shoulder. Cadence did not like the way that knight, every feature concealed in armor except for grey eyes peering through her visor, reminded her of the Ulthar cat. After another few whispers, Duke Lightdowser stepped back to Octavia. "You presume to speak before her grace? Unless you think your princess has not had her lust for violence satiated, you will step aside."

Octavia, either because of her own doubts or Cadence's silence, stepped aside.

Lightdowser bowed again, and Cadence curtsied. She then took his hoof into her own. "Lord Duke, I remember you. I remember us chattering idly those years ago, when I was just a student and you were an aspirant to the viziership." She said. "We might have even locked eyes earlier today, in the aftermath of her highness Celestia's appearance in the Old Town."

"Shamefully, I did not see you, princess, but I dearly wish I had. There was so much to say, but I do not think any of that matters now." Lightdowser said.

Cadence had extended the necessary courtesies, but didn't really have an interest in engaging with the duke. "Unfortunately not." She shook her head. "I came to look for Lady Twilight Velvet. Is she here?"

That clearly irked Lightdowser. "Well yes, princess, among a few other ponies. We are assembling a coalition who wish to see Canterlot put right. In fact, we assembled here on the knowledge that you would be coming."

The whole world seemed so, so different than it had that morning, which itself was so different from the year before. Cadence hadn't had much time to reflect on what it all meant yet, bouncing from one crazy situation to another. She had been hoping, vainly, that the right pony would finally explain it all to her, tell her whether her life was really in danger, and from that knowledge Cadence would know how to behave or what to do. But so far the monastery, Celestia, the Ulthar cat, and Octavia had disappointed her. "You knew I would be coming?" Cadence asked, begging clarification.

"The Councilpony, Prosser, told us." Lightdowser nodded. The knight whispered something in Lightdowser's ear again, and he whispered something back. "Or rather, told me alone. Councilor Prosser's intentions seem honorable enough, but is suspicious by nature. Or so it seems to me. If it is otherwise, tell me so."

These damn ponies were so infuriatingly duplicitous! Cadence dearly wished Shining were with her. "While he has been kind to me, I'm sure you know that the councilor's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the court or princesses."

"Which is why we are all so eager to speak and submit ourselves to you, princess." Lightdowser said. "Princess, I know you-"

Cadence interrupted him. "My lord, you do not know." Again, while the duke shied away from his princess's rebuke, the knight attending him did not. "While I appreciate you greeting and welcoming me here, and I welcome your due submission, I do not think it is proper to speak alone. I am not your muse, nor you mine, but rather I your princess, and you my subject. We each have our respective duties. You may believe you are fulfilling yours, but I fear you will impede mine should this continue. So please, lead me to your compatriots."

"Of course princess." The Duke sighed. With a nod, he and his knight led the way into the keep.

Spitfire was counting the seconds that Duke Lightdowser was missing, to amuse herself while the oh-so tiring debate around her carried on. She peripherally realized that she was missing good moments to chime in to support what the admiral was saying, but she also didn't care anymore. She was tired, almost too tired to sit up anymore, and as she slowly tuned out all other sounds the metronome of her own heartbeat throbbed louder and louder in her ears. Six-hundred- forty seconds... Six-hundred-fifty seconds...

"Then we're agreed on strategy. We can adjourn." Twilight Velvet's voice yanked Spitfire out of her stupor.

"I am satisfied with the compromises." Prosser said, his tone relaxed. "And about time. Any longer and I might begin to like you ponies." Gnash and Velvet laughed good-naturedly.

"W-Wait a sec." Spitfire sat up groggily. "Duke Lightdowser's been out of the room for about eleven-and-seven-eighths minutes."

Councilor Prosser reached across the table and patted her hoof. "Not to worry, our esteemed duke has been well represented." His face contorted as if he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, there is one more thing. We should revisit the provision for clemency toward future-former officials."

Velvet seemed irritated. "I thought we agreed to but that point of discussion off."

"Who cares. Just stick 'em in prison or exile them." Rain Gnash said.

"As long as we agree to put Countess Plenty Song under the prison." Velvet said as if she was agreeing, but her words drew sharp looks from Gnash. "But as I said, discussion can be put off.

Prosser conceded to the irritation of his allies, putting up a hoof in pantomime surrender. "Well, it is just something to be thinking about, not to decide right now."

Rain Gnash looked like she was going to pursue the point, but preemptively interrupted herself as she stood up. "Indeed not." She murmured. "There's four ponies, from the direction of the stairs. At least one is armed."

Sharphoof Lightdowser led the unexpected procession, followed by one of his knights. "I am sorry to have kept you waiting." Lightdowser bowed. "Gentleponies, her ladyship the junior princess." Cadence entered.

"Princess! Finally, we-" Prosser exclaimed, jumping to his hooves. Then the next pony entered, a grey-coat earth pony mare with a treble clef mark, and he screamed. "AAAAAHH!" Using up all his breath in a flat second, Prosser fainted, bouncing off his chair on the way to the floor.

The clef-marked mare knelt by the collapsed stallion. "He's alright." She said, sighing in relief. She glanced over to Foaly Flux, inviting an order.

"Good heavens. Any of the couches in the next room will do." Flux circled around to the comatose councilor. Aroused from their drunken/tired torpor, a couple of the IHG knights got up to help move Prosser.

Cadence watched silently as the team carrying him passed, then trotted over to his evacuated spot at the table. "Good evening gentleponies. I understand that I was expected." Duke Lightdowser retook his seat, while his knight hovered behind the alicorn.

Still a little shocked from the sudden turn of events, Rain Gnash pushed herself to her hooves, wobbling slightly, and bowed. "Princess, it's my eternal honor to see you again. I, your humble servant, am Rain Gnash, lady, lately of Cloudsdale, and Admiral in the empress's airfleet."

"I remember you when you were a imperial knight. Charmed, Lady Gnash." Cadence nodded.

Exhausted before, Spitfire was now wide-eyed, alert, and a bit panicked. Before her was the princess, yes, but she could also hear orphaned echoes in her head, some of the last words of that unfortunate stallion Shining Armor, "Cadence, princess, save me..." She mouthed along with the words. Damn. How had Shining concienced sacrificing himself when this what he had at home?

"Pardon?" Cadence was staring at Spitfire.

"I- It's an honor, princess." Spitfire sat up in her chair. "I'm the Captain of your grace's Wonderbolts, Spitfire."

Cadence appraised those Wonderbolts, varyingly conscious and at attention after the drinking. "It's been years since I've seen Cloudsdale's finest. At ease." Was it Spitfire's imagination or was there a tinge of sarcasm in the princess's voice.

Unlike all the other ponies in the room, Twilight Velvet seemed strangely aloof, staring at Cadence like she was trying to hurt her with her mind. "Princess Cadence, thank you for being here with us. In chaotic times like these I know there's a lot of demands on your attention."

"Not as many as you might think, since my court was overthrown by Captain Hauseway and his pawn, Seacrest Blackhorn. You will be my means to get back at them." Cadence said. "You have my blessing to take control of Canterlot Castle. After you do, I will confirm you all in your desired positions in the Imperial Council. In return, you will reopen the Imperial Court. My only condition is that there will be no violence, and no retaliation."

It was almost everything the conspirators could have possibly asked for. An alicorn princess was legitimizing their power grab. But it wasn't THE princess.
"The empress could countermand you." Velvet gave voice to that worry. "If you speak up on our side, and then we fail or are ordered to stand down, your political cachet will be tarnished for decades." She leaned forward, a sneer of suspicion forming. "It would look like you made an ill-guided power grab at best, and at worst that you were attempting to usurp Celestia. If you really wanted to reopen the Imperial Court, you could just publicly order Hauseway to do it. If he refuses, he looks like the traitor, not you. Your offer is ill-conceived."

"The princess is indeed generous to us." Duke Lightdowser said.

Rain Gnash gnashed at the back of her hoof, thinking. "Princess, will due respect, Lady Velvet's right. You've got no reason to stick your neck out so far for us. What'd we do to deserve this?"

Spitfire went further. "All we've done since coming to Canterlot is kill some of your subjects and burn down a building. We got the whole city, and even Princess Celestia, riled up.

"None of you should presume to know either Princess Celestia's disposition or what actions she might take." Cadence said, more firmly than before. "What is more, you presume to doubt my motivation and my own assessment of your success."

However the air of concern had spread to Lightdowser as well. "Princess, you spoke of duty, and I thought I understood. Now I see that I am ignorant. Please, princess, explain how this selfless act couches with the fulfillment of your duty."

"I will not." Cadence said with an air of finality. "Are you ponies to be my instruments, or not?" What a grave question, for every grandee knew that rejecting the alicorn would be tantamount to treason and heresy. It would illegal NOT to stick out their neck for the junior princess- and how could Cadenza be anything other than genuine, speaking so candidly in front of the assembled ponies?

The first to voice her concerns, Velvet was the first to come around. "Of course, princess. I was conceited to imagine there was any factor I could voice that you would not have already thought. Sir Hauseway misstepped gravely by adjourning your court and I wholeheartedly support its re-seating."

"I appreciate it, Lady Velvet." Cadence nodded. "Do any of you dissent?"

Still a little perplexed by the sudden turn of events nopony had anything to say, silently acquiescent. It was, after all, exactly what they wanted.

"Very good. You are all dismissed." Cadence stood up. "Lord Flux, see me out please."

Everypony rose from the table, silent and wide-eyed, trying to process things and decide how to feel. Foaly Flux dutifully skirted around the table and led Princess Cadenza and her clef-marked mare the way they came.

"What the buck?" Gnash muttered.

Spitfire's heart was still pounding. "So are we taking orders from the junior princess now or she going to be on the sidelines?"

Wordlessly, Twilight Velvet kicked her chair back against the table and chased after the princess.

Gnash hissed. "Don't just stand there! After her! Don't let Velvet talk to the princess alone."

Spitfire saw most of the Wonderbolts were slow on the uptake, dulled by inebriation- Except Fleetfoot. "Fleet, with me." Brooking no argument or opportunity for the admiral to countermand, Spitfire grabbed Fleetfoot and pulled her along after the unicorns and alicorn.

"Geez!" Fleetfoot wriggled out of Spitfire's grasp. "Uncalled for, Captain!"

"Yeah? Sober little suck-up. I told you to warn the Admiral and you still led her into the trap. Did you say I was crazy or did you just lie? Pshh." Spitfire sneered. Not waiting for an answer, she continued through the darkened rooms to the stairwell.

"Captain Spitfire I protest! I transmitted your concerns to the admiral and she forged on anyway!" Fleetfoot said, trailing. "The Admiral's judgement has proven to be better than yours since it wasn't a trap and we're still alive!"

"You don't get it. I wasn't worried about an ambush. I was saying, CLEARLY saying, that we're getting entangled in a bad situation, and once enmeshed beyond our ability to control we would be bled." Spitfire shouted over her shoulder.

Fleetfoot didn't like being yelled at one bit. "You shouldn't discipline me for mistakes I didn't make, and what's more, you sound like you're contradicting both the admiral and the princess. Please don't get yourself in trouble, captain."

Spitfire was furiously thinking up a reply and nearly bumped into the object of her pursuit: Twilight Velvet, Foaly Flux, Princess Cadenza, and the earth mare had stepped off the stairwell to confer by lantern-light. They all turned to the interloopers, unamused.
"Miss me already, Spitfire? Or are you just looking to get yourself in more trouble." Velvet teased through narrowed eyes and a scowl.

Fleetfoot squeaked in embarrassment.
Spitfire felt similarly, for before her were two terrors, their eyes upon her. The first, Velvet, represented a sinister power Spitfire's ever fiber was telling her to escape. The second, the austere Princess Cadenza, her royal highness who by right Spitfire's agency as a soldier and a pony was completely suborned to. To approach those mares without caution or respect was suicidal. But Spitfire had to. "My deepest apologies. The Admiral bade be ensure your safety. If we're unwelcome-"

Cadence raised a hoof to interrupt. "No, it's fine. In fact, please let both Admiral Gnash and Duke Lightdowser that I wish to see them again. Seems we adjourned prematurely." In a very pegasus-like manner, she motioned to Fleetfoot with her wing. "If you would."

"Y- Yes your grace!" Fleetfoot darted back up the stair without a moment's hesitation. What an admirable subordinate, for the admiral and for the princess, just not for her captain, thought Spitfire.

Before the tension could grow too great, Foaly Flux clucked his tongue and hummed. "So, who's on first? Is it me?" He turned to the clef-marked mare. "Mis Octavia, I am very surprised to see you alive. Not as surprised as poor Councilor Prosser, but surprised enough." He tried to look cheerful but could not. "Unfortunately I don't think I can hire you back to my chamber orchestra. It'd be, you know, a bad look."

"Hang on a sec..." Spitfire was once again keenly aware of her lack of weapon. "She's a mare of the musician's guild isn't she!"

"Yup." Velvet confirmed. "Dame Spitfire, you're owed fair warning that you've again stumbled into a deep mess that will proturb and upset you greatly. If you couldn't handle what you thought you saw at the Musician's Guild, I recommend that you follow your Wonderbolt back up and wait with the others."

What?! What was that supposed to mean?! Sptifire's temper flared. "And let you go behind your ally's back? If you're in league with this mare, a guild mare who you just an hour ago said was a death cult, then how am I supposed to trust-"

"Quiet!" Cadence transfixed Spitfire with a glare, her massive wings spreading to either side. "Your commentary it noted but I do not allow you to be disruptive. Understood?"

The junior princess had, in the popular imagination, a naïve and demurring nature. This alicorn was not matching that. "I-" Spitfire gulped. She decided not to say anything and merely nodded. By the gods, she was so confused and wanted to know what was going on so badly! Hopefully the conspiracy under the conspiracy she was being allowed to witness would answer something, anything.

Candence settled her wings back against her body. "The dead mare may proceed."

Octavia obliged. "Lord Duke, I am guilt not only of duplicity against you and many other ponies who thought me a humble musician, but of the sin of murder, direct and indirect, as agent of and party to the deeds of the Star and the Musician's Guild. In the proceedings of justice I was summarily sentenced to death by Lady Velvet, to reside under her control until such a time that sentence was carried out or I was acquitted." Octavia paused for a moment, eyes closed, as the ponies surrounding her awaited her next words. "My accomplices, to the murder of a city watchpony and many other criminal acts, were Lyra Heartstrings, vizierial agent, and a certain Vinyl, more popularly known as the Red-Eyed Killer. Vinyl was caught and imprisoned alongside me but escaped to Lyra."

"Is all that the truth?" Cadence asked.

"I swear before the alicorns and all the stars and gods, I have told the truth." Octavia affirmed.

Twilight Velvet produced a crinkled envelope. "You can guess what tonight brings, don't you." She asked Octavia.

Octavia eyed the letter wearily. "No less than nights like these has brought so many other ponies, innocent or guilty."

"The same; Inevitably, silently or loudly, mourned surely, with either tears for the tragedy or solemn commiseration of years gone." Velvet passed the envelope to Cadence.

Accepting the envelope, Cadence carefully extracted the letter and began to read. Waiting in silence, but for that constant plateaular wind rattling the windows, the mortals watched Cadence's expression grow more pained, more anguished, as tears welled in her eyes.
Folding the letter back, Cadence cleared her throat a few times before she spoke. "I'm so sorry." She said, voice trembling. "Today has been just awful, hasn't it. So much avoidable death." She gave the letter to Flux, who jammed it into a breast pocket. Cadence took the time to fully recompose herself. "This is why the court MUST reopen."

"Because mortals are killing each other? We were dying before there were alicorns on our planet, during every alicorn reign, and we will be killing and dying for a million years after your species leaves to find other races to subjugate." Octavia said, her lip quivering in a barely contained sneer. "You ponies should think long and hard before you actually hoof power over to this wimp. Are you actually interested in a kingdom of mercy, benevolence, and understanding? Truly, in your hearts, do you long for peace? Then reject Cadenza." Face to face the princess, she pointed an accusing hoof. "She didn't have the bare shred of bravery to kill me herself like she should have. Passing me to Velvet wasn't some gesture of mercy, but a slight against all my victims, and my future victims. There will be no peace while ponies like me are allowed to flourish. You really do live up to Princess Celestia that way."
Octavia then turned to Velvet. "Why tease the princess like this? You know she can't protect you. If you give Cadenza power, she'll let in the next ambitious lord, who is just a little more clever, quick, or vicious than you. She will cast you to the dogs from indecisive mercy, and the cycle will repeat, until the peace you thought you were sustaining will be just another dead letter among an empire of dead letters, fostered by the apathy of its guardians. This is what happens when you prop up weak rulers just because you think they're more 'legitimate'. I hope the revolutionary mobs devour you curs alive." She snorted contemptuously. "Send me to hell already so I may prepare it for you highborn souls."

Cadence bore an expression Spitfire unfortunately recognized, like a little filly seeing and trying to understand a life-defining trauma. The alicorn did not move or even seem to breath, but stared with muted shock at Octavia. Octavia didn't bother to meet the princess's eye again.

"As final words go, there have been worse." Foaly Flux sighed. "Does the princess wishes to extend clemency, or pass the sentence herself? Hmm?" He asked, but despite a few more hums and a slight prod, Cadence remained stone still, statuesque, and even the shimmer of her mane and aureole seemed diminished. "No? Very well. I defer to you, Velvet."

"Get on with it." Octavia growled.

Velvet shrugged. "Okey dokey." Her horn flared with bright white-greenish magic.
Spitfire, as shocked and stupefied as Cadence, was hit with the sudden brightness and yelped, throwing up her hoof and wing to shield her eyes. The sensory assault was redoubled with a loud woosh of magical fire and the radiant heat basking her, that all at once Spitfire saw before her the poor struggling shape of Shining Armor, the rising flame blocking their way to each other, until everything in her vision was consumed. Spitfire screamed.

Unlike Rain Gnash, who was very actively engaged with her Wonderbolts in the next parlor room over, Sharphoof Lightdowser was sitting alone on the floor, Iillor standing behind him as self-appointed bodyguard. The IHG knights had lost their interest and energy in the night's proceedings after Prosser's collapse, so were taking advantage of Foaly Flux's liberality by either napping on the furniture or sinking even deeper with the leftover gin and wine.

Counting the minutes pass until they could go see the junior princess again, Lightdowser contemplated things. "Am I truly the only object of your interest, or am I the vector to get at Cadenza? I will not be an accomplice to such things, Valor."

"Celestia told me to leave Cadence alone and I will. Besides alicorns don't dream, so not that interesting to a girl like me." Iillor said.

"Thus me any my issues serve to amuse you." Lightdowser lamented. "And what issues they are... I hope my retainer knights are not waiting for me in the Old Town. If they have sense, they took Rusty back to the airship, and learned from the pegasi at the skydock that I was here. If they drag Rusty around and keep him awake too long I will be furious."

"How old is your son?" Iillor asked.

"Nine years of age. It is difficult work, caring for a duchy of many thousands of souls and a child at the same time. As a lord I have much that I must delegate." Lightdowser said. He seemed like he wanted to say more about it, but seemingly reconsidered. "For now the nation must come first. The princess comes first."

Iillor yawned and lay on her back, making the armor she wore clank disruptively. "Yeah? I saw you talking with that twerp Sel Sabonord. Did he tell you about his politics?"

Lightdowser graciously accepted the change in topic. "That is not very kind. Sir Sel seems sharp and vigorous, though yes his politics are troubling. He seems to have interpreted something Twilight Velvet had been espousing at some point, and decided that the era of alicorn tutilage should end."

"Oh no, that's not Lady Velvet's position. She thinks the alicorn guardianship is already defunct, or wasn't legitimate in the first place. Velvet has absolutely no desire for anypony to tell her what to do or to think that they control her life, least of all an alicorn. She's got an astonishing ego for a mortal, huh?"

"I don't fully believe you. That claim does not line up with my interaction with Lady Velvet." Lightdowser said.

Iillor sighed. "Okay, I didn't intend to pivot to talking about Velvet. I wanted to know what you thought. I want to know what you think of that ideology, and about alicorn rule in general."

That impertinent line of questioning did not outwardly bother the duke as much as she expected. "Everything under the sun is moved by her provenance, her providence. Even ponies who think they're rebelling they are only doing what they're told."

"Then why would you have any right to be angry at somepony if they sin or do something you don't like? Or is that anger pretend too?" Iillor frowned. What a completely unsatisfying worldview, like would only ever be shared as a joke. And indeed the duke was probably trying to throw her off, but whether or not the duke was a dogmatic believer at heart was not interesting to Iillor. If he needed imagined approval of higher powers as satisfy is internal doubts that was fine: The Nightmare Pretender and Dark Lady were alicorns too.

One of the Wonderbolts peeked into the room. "What was that sound? Did it come form in here?"

Iillor hopped to her hooves and pulled Lightdowser up along with her. "No, a lower floor. Come on, lord Duke. I think we've given Cadence and the Brights enough time."

Magical or not, the violent dragonfire Velvet had cast had scorched the floor and caught the tassels of a nearby carpet aflame.
"Whew." Velvet was tired after the spell, but had the presence to run over and stop out the fire. "I forgot how much energy that took. One less guild mare to deal with."
Octavia was gone.

Nopony else seemed to be happy in the least. Cadence was still frozen, staring into the smoking space Octavia had been a minute prior. Foaly Flux had turned away, her face under a hoof as he cried silently for a pony he'd known and still cared about. Spitfire was... wait, where was Spitfire?

"Oh hell, she fell down the stairs!" Velvet groaned. She leaned over the spiral stair, and saw Spitfire laying on her face halfway down to the next floor. "Captain Spitfire, are you alright?!" Spitfire was still breathing, at least. "Captain, should I get-" A shiver ran through the pegasus, and she lifted her head. "Oh, nevermind. You seem fine."

"I'm really, really not fine. What the buck is wrong with you." Spitfire hissed through clenched teeth. She slid into a sitting position on the stair and rested in a hunch, trying to control her shivers. "You're literally no better than that monstrous Star. She burned your son to death. Not a speck left of him. Don't you have a shred of a conscience in your heart, to not even hesitate to do something like that to another living creature?"

Velvet sighed. "Listen my dear, you can't say I didn't warn you. I personally don't know why you would get a hang-up over Shining Armor, since you shed the blood of dozens of ponies this very day. Your trauma is not remotely useful to me, so its not my problem. So, either be a big girl and get back to your duty of standing impotently at my side, or leave. You have wings, so start flying and you can be half-way to Cloudsdale by dawn. The showdown over Canterlot is only ending one way, and if the time comes and you bitch and moan again I'll just repeat it: 'I warned you'."

Spitfire remained hunched over, thinking. Then, smoothing her mane back, she leapt up, maneuvering masterfully in the cramped stairwell and landing behind Velvet, grabbing her by the neck. "You let your son die, you witch! There's nothing good left in you anymore. If I'm gunna leave this damn city, I'll leave knowing I finished the job, because the Musician's Guild weren't the only death cult that needs to be quashed!"

"Shinning Armor is alive." Cadence said.

Spitfire's eyes flew open, and she was startled long enough for Velvet to pull herself free. "P-Princess?" But Cadence brushed past her, trotting down the stairs and out of the keep.

Velvet sputtered and rubbed her throat, dragging herself away from the Wonderbolt. "That hurt!" She tried to sooth herself with a bottle Flux passed to her. "Ech! That doesn't make it any better, Foaly, you degenerate alcoholic."

"Ladies, please, this is just a misunderstanding, probably. We are all friends here." Flux said. "The princess told us to uphold her earnest hope for peace. What do we stand for if we kill each other tonight?"

Spitfire rubbed her eyes, getting the last aftervisions of fire and murder out of her head. Had she heard Cadenza correctly? No, no, she had seen it, seen Shining's death with her own eyes. That counted for more than a muddled word from the junior princess. No, NO! "This is some bullshit." She limped down the stairs after the princess.

"No need to chase after them." Velvet said. The day had been going so perfectly, though it was far from ruined. She wasn't going to let a grouchy pegasus pull her down.

Flux sat beside her. "This is the world you've made for yourself. Is it really better than what we had?" He sighed, his eyes returning to the scortchmark on his floor.

"To use a tortured analogy, if you're staring at a castle gate, you won't know if there's barbarians on the other side until they burst through, but if you open it and charge out yourself you at least stand a chance of catching them off guard. Trouble would have found me, this dynasty, and this nation eventually." Velvet promised.

"I'd have agreed when I was younger. I'd've welcomed the adventure! I think I'd be a bard, and sing heroic songs and woo the desperate wenches. Now I'm old and decrepit, and I'm not even that old. Buck me, what a wasted life." Flux sighed. "What a waste of life! Why couldn't we be in a golden age, so we could live joyfully with family and friends, rather than at the tail-end of a dying regime? Velvet, I'm both blessed and cursed to have you as my kin... You, Nighty, and your kids are about the only family I have left now." He closed his eyes and tried to breath through tears.

"There there." Velvet lay her head on his shoulder.

Flux sniffled. "How unbecoming of a duke. I don't even have a courtesan to cry on, just my sorceress in-law." He tried clearing his throat but it didn't make it any better. "You'd think I was the one who just got choked."

"Let's forget about the courtesans." Velvet ribbed. "Like you said, we have the princess's peace, and all the ponies of the future to stand up for. Are we up to the fight for the future of ponykind?"

Flux did not hesitate. "We are."

The mutual reminiscences ended just in time, as Duke Lightdowser and his knight were coming down the stairwell.
Lightdowser took in the scene, the two unicorns sitting against a wall drinking, a big burn on the landing, and the princess nowhere in sight. "Is overly-curious to wonder what's transpired here?" Lightdowser tapped his hoof.

Velvet stood up. "Apologies, lord duke. This is the result of some house Bright dynastic issues. It's not my right to share."

Oh? Having just overheard the tail of the conversation with something about courtesans, and Foaly Flux's reputation as a goofball bachelor, Lightdowser could only assume there was some drama about a bastard child, blackmail, or ducal pretender. "I see. Lord Flux, though the ancient thrones of Unicornia and Foal have been foes as often as they have been friends, be at ease that I will proffer my aide to any thing, at any time. Foal Mountain is one of the most prestigious fiefs of the empire and its stability it Equestria's stability. I'm sure Princess Cadenza said the same." He arched a brow. "That is what you discussed, yes?"

"In part." Velvet said.

Flux got up and approached Lightdowser. "I may have to cash in that offer sooner than you expected."

"Please do! I am at your service." Lightdowser nodded. Hearing Rain Gnash and the Wonderbolts coming down the stairs aggravated him. Were the pegasi going to get in the way and ruin the moment?

However Floaly Flux was not put off. "Oh, good, you're here too, Admiral? Gather round."

"Uh, where's the princess? Where's Captain Spitfire." Gnash scraped a bit of ash along the floor. "Was that Spitfire or that earth pony the princess had with her?" She stared at Velvet, lodging a silent accusation.

"Lord Flux is about to explain." Lightdowser nudged the portly pegasus into silence. "Foaly, please, continue."

Flux, through oppressed by his misery, loved to perform. He bowed for the assembled ponies crowded awkwardly on the stairwell landing. "Gentleponies, House Bright is no stranger to tragedy. You will all have heard how, twenty-odd years ago, by brothers, sisters, uncles, and at last my parents succumbed to disease and accidents, once after another. A terrible curse befell my family, threatening to exterminate a lineage, and every day my remaining brother and I dreaded and yearned for death in equal measure. My brother Rosen abandoned me too, and as terror pressed in closer and closer I was absolutely certain I would perish, leaving the duchy to my late brother's twin infant sons, Glitterhoof and Glorymane, who were sure to follow me. Foal Mountain would pass to a distant cousin, and perhaps they would die to the curse too.
"But the deaths stopped. A year passed, then two years, before I began to trust that the curse had extinguished itself and House Bright would be allowed to survive. In that time of terrible solitude, with two infants to care for, I had my dear cousin (howevermuch removed) and his fiancee, Night Light and Twilight Velvet. I do not exaggerate when I say I would not have survived without them. I got stronger, and got other help with the twins, so Nighty and Velvet could return to Canterlot and start their own family. Thus my life, and my dynasty, was left hanging by a thread, with two rambunctious colts growing stronger every day to make that thread sturdy once again."

Night Light produced the envelope with that creased and crumpled letter peaking out, and gave it to Lightdowser.

"You can read it if you want." Foaly sighed. "It's long, and full of condolences. Glitterhoof and Glorymane are dead. By the princess's leave, and with all of you as guarantors, I declare that Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor are to be my heirs."

Chapter 18: Unrequited Goodbye

Author's Note

!!! This chapter is under repair !!!

Sections of this chapter are under revision. It is recommended not to read further until this work is completed, this warning is removed, and repair work moves to the next chapter.

Chapter 18: Unrequited Goodbye

The Previous Month

The wet moss served as a comfortable pillow, so soft against Lyra's head, and so pleasant that she allowed herself to imagine for the first few moments of wakefulness that she was back in Canterlot; that the sounds of birds and insects was an opium-induced haze. Who had she brought home this time, Lyra wondered. Hopefully he or she was cute, and Lyra wouldn't look back on the perfect morning with anything other than nostalgic euphoria.

"Hum dre dee dum." Somepony was singing to themselves.

Lyra’s ears twitched. She was, unfortunately, not in a drugged-out dream, as all the aches of rough living welled up. There was no pleasantness at all, for the slight scent of food reminded her of her ravenous hunger.
Curling upright and trying to look around, Lyra's eyes too-slowly adjusted to the misty forest. Spinal soreness and sensory issues were symptomatic of severe magical exhaustion. Hopefully the olfactory delights were real and not deceptions.

"Hmm hmm... Oh! Lyra, mate! You’re alive! Good shit!" And cheery voice that sounded exactly like Pon-3 was her haywire senses too?

"Oh, damn, that's right." Lyra collapsed back on the moss, releasing a throaty groan. "I agreed to Twilight Velvet's pact." She murmured.

"Hell yes you did! Oh my gods, I was soo fucking happy- Like I can't even explain." Vinyl blabbered like a filly. "And I was such a mess too, cuts and bruises all over me. That old bat in the maid getup had really beat me to hell. When the teleport completed and I knew I was free, I felt better than I had in my entire life." Vinyl's actions could be discerned by the rustle of the damp leaf litter, and the slight crackle and sizzle of whatever she was cooking. "I've had hostile sendoffs before. When Phyte and Celestia exiled me, they admonished me for what had to have been hours, about what an idiot I was and how I was going to everypony elses problem from then on, and if I returned to Equestria they'd cut my legs and breasts off and hang me from a steeple. By comparison, getting smacked around then sent off with a job and some veg is a fun weekend, really."

"Shut up, please. My head hurts." Lyra pleaded. "Just... some water. I could use some water."

"Oh sure!" Vinyl bounded over and helped ease Lyra into a sitting position, then guided a flask to her lips. "Keep your eyes closed a sec. I'm gunna try a hangover spell I remember."

A tingle ran along Lyra's spine and to her ears. When Lyra opened her eyes again the haze had mostly lifted: Crouching over her, smiling softly, the white head, electric blue mane, and smoldering grey eyes of Pon-3/Vinyl Scratch. "Thanks." Lyra nodded, taking the flask herself and letting Vinyl return to cooking.

"Don't worry mate, I won't call it even just yet." Vinyl laughed.

The situation was dour. Lyra had survived her solitary week in the highland glades of the southeast Canter, and her reward was being bound in guildmares' sisterhood to the homicidal freak Pon-3 to enjoy the cold wet mornings with. Lyra could tolerate team missions in the best circumstances and with a group she trusted, but these were bad circumstances and mare she greatly distrusted. What was worse, her mission had not been given a Star's grace, but a conniving and vicious mortal mare's: Twilight Velvet... Twilight Velvet who still had her hooves on Octavia!
"She's alive, right?" Lyra whispered, terrified of the answer.

"You mean Tavie? Oh yeah, no worse for wear than me. Maybe she's a bit more fragile, but I bet that jeeves-ass bitch went easy on her. I'm sure Tavie'll live." Vinyl nodded aggressively.

Invigorated by sudden rage, Lyra pushed herself to her hooves, to limp forward, mud and leaf litter sloughing off her, until she was right behind Vinyl. "Show some fucking respect to your missing 'friend'." She hissed. "You put us, and her, in this whole mess. Not only did you provoke an alicorn's wrath by returning, putting Phyte's word and operation at risk, you directly provoked a Nightmare! At least four ponies are dead because of your recklessness! Even if we survive the next months Octavia and I will be on the run for the rest of our life. That's right, not only have you gotten yourself exiled by being a complete psychopath, but you're done it to us." Lyra punctuated her yelling with a pained, despairing whine. "And poor Octavia. After Pants's murder, she all but begged to go back to the guild hall. It was you she wanted to see, one last time... you, her evil, disappointing friend, who has only ever caused her grief."

Vinyl frowned. "She's caused me grief too."

"Arg!” Lyra snatched a vegetable skewer off the campfire and sat across from Vinyl. "You don't understand because you can only think about yourself."
Lyra allowed a minute of stewing silence as she ripped into the cooked vegetables. Delicious. "Your gratitude to me is heartwarming, I guess. But in case you didn't catch on you're not the pony I wanted OR needed from Twilight Velvet. I wanted Octavia."

Confusion washed over Vinyl’s face, then a flash of anger, then a sad acceptance. She didn't say anything for the remainder of Lyra's breakfast.

Though she'd finally gotten her point through, Lyra hoped she hadn't poisoned the well too badly. She needed this mare. "Thank you for the food and the water. I understand I'm probably not your first choice of comrade either, but we have to make do." She cleared her throat. "Fate has put us in a tough spot, but if we do everything right we can save Octavia and find a life for ourself beyond this mess we're fleeing. There's got to be plenty of countries that still don't have extradition to Equestria."

"I get it. You've had a hard time. Your boss and your stability meant a lot to you. Now they're gone." Vinyl shook her head. "I've never had anything resembling a stable or safe life. Even before my exile I put my life and my friends' lives in danger like a fucking punk, leading us all on our sicko murder sprees. Ponies with normal lives were fodder for us. If you'd successfully gone full civilian I'd probably have hated you. But alas it didn't work out for you." Vinyl ruminated, but she also did not seem especially sad. In fact there was a hint of glee about her manner. The awaited-for 'I'm sorry' would never come. Whatever.

Lyra decided to change topics. "Let's get down to buisness then, from the beginning. Twilight Velvet captured you after the duels at the gatehouse. Did she explain herself?"

"Naw. As soon as we were conscious, she let her goons torture us." Vinyl's jaw set in impotent anger. "They were doing a classic good-jailor-bad routine, with the maid as the heel and Lady Velvet as the face. That frilly froufrou maid bitch... I swear she was getting off on it, taking turns asking us useless questions and beating the snot out of us." She shivered. "She had that boy of hers help her, doing tag-team torture like they do in Griffany. I would have confessed to anything, if they'd actually cared."

"Boy? You mean Shining Armor helped torture you?" Lyra queried.

"No no, I don't mean Velvet's kid. I mean the young stallion who was following the mares around. Sel Lech Sabonord. What a bucking freak, that guy, taking a 'student' approach to our suffering, acting like he was there to learn on the job, and apologizing the whole time. Then when Velvet's come around he'd help her care for us and read to us. Just unnerving." Vinyl scratched her cheek. "If you're trying to teach a virgin power politics, I guess that'd be the lesson plan: How to be violent, how to hurt others, but also how to keep the victim alive so they're useful to you."

That was true to Lyra experience. "That must have been harrowing for you."

"Not the worst, but I usually know if my captor is going to try to kill me at the end or let me go. The ambiguity was its own torture. Velvet kept saying how sorry she was to have to do this to us, and what rotten luck she had to be put in that position. I nearly believed her. Then, the third mare showed up." Vinyl's voice dropped to a whisper. "A little earth pony with black fur- Octavia told me that she's the one who brained Fancy Pants."

"The killer." Lyra felt her stomach drop. No mere pony, but something Lyra hardly even dared to think about: A Nightmare. "What the hell, Vinyl, why didn't you lead with that detail?! It means Velvet really was responsible for Pants's murder."

"Maybe. I don't know. I don't think she was. Because, well..." Vinyl slouched. "There's one other stallion too. The mute one we saw in the guild tunnels."

"One of Phyte's manufactured ponies? WIth Velvet?" Lyra stuttered.

Vinyl nodded. "Yeah. I know the score: Octavia explained the little cottage industry of mutilation Phyte has going on. The mute seems to have his wits despite what Phyte did to him, and he would run Velvet's errands." Vinyl leaned in. "Plus, Velvet was also using dragonfire spells, like Phyte does."

Lyra's brow furrowed. "The dragonfire teleportation is how she captured you, right? That actually complicates the Velvet-Phyte connection, because as far as I know the mistress never managed to harness conjured dragonfire. She's totally reliant on liquid dragonfire and her enchanted birdcages."

"Yup, Velvet was freestyling that shit. She teleported me here totally by herself." Vinyl said.

"Quit cursing. You're giving me a headache." Lyra mumbled. "So, whether or not the Nightmare, Twilight Velvet, and Mistress Phyte were conspiring together all along..." She drummed her skewer against her knee, thinking. "it doesn't mean anything for us. We're still constrained to two choices: Going back to Canterlot and trying to get revenge, or fulfilling Lady Velvet's hit and earning Octavia back."

"Yeah, guess so. I've never made a job better by overthinking it." Vinyl concurred glumly. "Though, you didn't mention that we've got a third option, of doing neither and going our separate ways."

"Because that's NOT an option. You're stuck with me until we get Octavia back or we die." Lyra stood up. The last few minutes of conversation had convinced Lyra that Vinyl could be tolerable company when she wasn't being a gremlin- It was up to Lyra to discover how best to keep the psychotic killer on track and objective-focussed. "I know you will do your part, because you have no say in the matter."

"You think you're the boss?" Vinyl clucked her tongue. "Whatever. Not like I'm going to wrestle you over it. Just means you've got the responsibility of choosing our path. So, what'll it be? We going towards Canterlot or away?"

Lyra's master was dead, but there was no room for complex revenge fantasies in her line of work. Returning to Canterlot was an idiotic notion, for if Velvet and any other conspirators caught wind they'd kill Octavia and probably Lyra's family too. That left only one choice. "Lady Velvet's letter said we'd have to kill two ponies, but it didn't say who. I'm assuming she passed that information to you."

The prospect murder reinvigorated Vinyl. "Oh ho! She sure did, and even told me I'd get my back pay for the Canterlot jobs afterward. Not the worst deal I've been offered."

"Right. Either Velvet must have thought getting Octavia back wasn't enticement enough for you, or she's got a bizarre sense of fairness." Lyra said. "Let's hear it."

Vinyl scratched her chin. "Some noble jerks in the Foal Mountains. Two brothers."

"No kidding." Lyra knew exactly who she was talking about. "Velvet wants some good old fashion inheritance-tampering, We're going to finish the job started back in '78 and wipe out the ancient house of Bright. Gods forgive us."

One Month Later

The mountains of Foal contained the most beautiful landscapes Lyra had ever seen. Every road she'd travelled had, at some point along its laborious series of switchbacks, an overlook that commanded an unparalleled view over the landscape, where the natural features seemed so picturesque as to be painted: Great waterfalls feeding cool clear streams feeding rivers that divided the alpine agricultural fields at the valley floor, forests of stout pines with dark green canopies, caravans of cheerful sheep and goats moving between their pasturelands, idilic pony villages tucked against the cliffs and mountains, and the austere stone castles surmounting the cold peaks.

Unfortunately for Lyra, she was after the ponies inside those impenetrable castles. Since getting Twilight Velvet's mission, Lyra and Vinyl had spent two weeks traveling to get to Foal, then two weeks putting their plan into motion. Splitting up, reconvening, splitting up, comparing notes, sneaking around castle towns and eavesdropping on courtiers... But it finally looked like the effort had come to fruition.

That was why, on a chilly afternoon, at a rustic inn on the main road between the fiefs of Glitterhoof and Glorymane, Lyra and Vinyl approached from opposite directions.
Vinyl arrived first and lounged at the inn's back door, looking out over the cliff they were situated over- Like all Foal trails, the fief road snaked along the edge of a gorge, leaving precious little room for the inn. At least it made waste disposal easy.
Lyra arrived a little later, and after a moment of mutual recognition under their travel disguises, she joined Vinyl at the cliff's edge. "Hey."

"Hey yourself" Vinyl nudged her unicorn comrade. "Sorry, I don't have any hashish left this time or I'd offer you some. I ate it all yesterday."

"Better yesterday than today." Lyra said softly.
The noise of the inn could be heard muted through the solid construction of the alpine-built walls. Lyra's stomach turned to think of them, the paths of their lives innocently leading them to that moment, where they were enjoying themselves in good company on a cold afternoon. Those ponies had loved ones, someone waiting on them or who they were going to see.
Yet cruel fate had imbued Lyra with the power and necessity to hurt those ponies so she could get what she wanted, to see Octavia again. "I'm a little angry you didn't save me any, actually. I'm... more nervous that I thought I'd be. It's been so long since I was a proper guild mare."

"Aww, revert into a little cherry girl?" Vinyl tried to tease Lyra's nose but had her hoof batted away. "Hmph. Now that you mention it, I don't even remember you drawing you sword during the gatehouse tussle. You just slipped away." Though Vinyl could mention it without bitterness, it still deepened Lyra's frown. "It's not like we're expecting a fight today. We can set everything up and slip away, and if necessary I'm fighty enough for the two of us."

"No, I will see this through and make sure it is all done right, to confirm the kill." Lyra said. "Do not worry about me. I'm far from useless. I survived a Nightmare, remember. If you'd kept your shit together maybe you could have been there too and we'd have won. Then we wouldn't be here."

Vinyl clearly didn't know what to make of that remark. "What?"

"Sorry, that was stupid of me to say. My nerves are worse than I thought" Lyra sighed.
It was the guild mare's job to never question orders: The mistress would not have sold a murder if she had not deemed it virtuous or necessary, and a guild mare could not turn down a mission until she found a replacement assassin. Being an independent blade for hire meant shouldering the decision, and therefore the moral burden, of murder. That was no small part of Lyra's decision to be Fancy Pants's agent, as a servant of the empire, because empire was its own justification.
There was no validation when Twilight Velvet was just some mare, and not somepony Lyra would have taken a job from even under normal circumstances. How could Lyra face her victims in the afterlife and explain to them she'd had to kill them for Twilight Velvet? She struggled to conjure a moral formulation that made it okay to sacrifice so many for so few.
"Hey." She nudged Vinyl. "You must have met assassins overseas. What are they like?"

"Oh, yeah, I met plenty. In Sahella, Zebrastan, and Chitin there's secret societies with all mystic practices, kinda like the Musician's Guild but run by zaotars rather than a Star. Around Griffany and the Saddle, the assassins are from the same batches as the soldiery, being mercenaries and expatriates: I swear, if you meet a pony with an Equestrian or Maredian accent around there it's fifty-fifty that they have a body count, as likely to stab you as invite you to a kaffeeklatsch." Vinyl explained. She paused for a moment. "Though, there was news on the wing that a secret society had been founded in Griffany too, run by Black Bell. I never saw any proof of it though." Seeing Lyra's questioning expression Vinyl clarified. "Black Bell is a Star too. Probably one of the better well known by normies, especially in Griffany. They just know her as an ancient witch."

"Then even the griffins are starting to yearn for the exculpatory powers of faith and hierarchy, as a steady refuge of the scoundrel and killer. It really is the same all over the world." Lyra smirked grimly. "The old stereotypes say that nothing can separate the griffin from their deneir, not even god. Especially not god. That Black Bell star has a daunting task ahead of her if she intends to systematize a killer's paradise. If it can be conceptualized as valuable, the griffins will sell it, even murder."

Vinyl shrugged. "I guess. You make it sound amoral but I liked my time in Griffany."

"A broken pony with something to sell, same as all the other expats." Lyra said, attempting a tease which came out much more mean-spirited than she intended.

"I sure was. Those stereotypes you're spouting are true: In Griffany nothing reigns above the almighty gold deneir, dinar, or denero. When contests, contentions, and relationships were tested it all came down the the gold. Griffany's a continent with kings and dukes and republics, but there weren't any nations and borders, because gold was der souverän, and it went where it pleased and dragged armies and refugees behind it. None of the ancient bloodline bullshit matters anymore, just bank credit and cash on hoof. When I see that society, I see the future of all races and lands, everywhere. Specie will conquer the world." Vinyl said with a deep seriousness, but quickly became playful again. "And not to mention griffins breed like crazy so like half the continent is actively killing the other half and the population still rises. It's a scavenger's paradise. I have a lot of good memories of Griffany... Almost slept with a unicorn merc that claimed to be a prince from these very mountains." She chuckled. "Then I, being drunk, puked on him and had to fight off his whole posse to get back to my hideout. That was the life."

There was probably some exaggeration and nostalgic misremembering to Vinyl's account. "It must be a generational thing that my cohort were never as wild as you, Octavia, and Pie were in your time." Lyra said.

"It'd be a shame if the problems matured you all, ya know, prematurely. Everypony deserves a wild phase... as long as they have a responsible figure to reel them in before they go too far and get themselves exiled." Vinyl grinned. "Ever thought about how your younger self would have approached this mission? Me, I'd have said 'buck it' and tried for collateral stabbings, knife massacre like. That's the kind of freak shit that made the Red-Eyed Miller a household name!" Her grin faded. "That'll never be me again. I didn't thunder back into history, but instead got tossed in a cage then kicked out here." She sighed. "One day the ponies will learn to fear that Nightmare, and they'll shriek in terror at her name, and never again mine."

The meandering conversation had gotten to a less uncomfortable place for Lyra. "I have often had the idea that we were in the last of the good times. Fifty years ago, guild mares were dashing rogues, prized courtiers and agents at home in any environment. Nowadays guild mares are cliquish thugs who fall over themselves for the mistress's attention. It's no wonder that in a culture like ours the primeval id, the Nightmare, comes alive to kill." Not strictly actuate to reality, but maybe a more poetic reality. "You saw how mistress Phyte was acting when we left her. With us 'dead' and the Nightmare on the loose, do you think she is going to keep the guild together?" Lyra asked.

Vinyl grew quiet and contemplative, weighing the question for a minute. "Lyra mate, I'm not certain she will keep herself together. The Nightmare wanted her head." She chuckled softly and scratched her chin. "Can you picture Phyte gone? Like... dead, forever? As often as I thought about attacking her I imagined it as my suicide."

The way that Vinyl said that rubbed Lyra the wrong way. "With an attitude like that, it's no wonder things turned out the way they did."

"Octavia said the same thing, the night she ratted me to Phyte. She told me I'd been living in the past my whole life, and that I should find someplace else to call home. I told her to knock it off." Vinyl said.

"How about now? Have you been broken down enough by Phyte and Velvet's successive imprisonings?" Lyra said roughly. "There are a million different places to live a good life. I bet you don't have a death sentence in even half of them. So, do you want to die or do you want to retire? Living in the past with a brain full of revenge fantasies is going to earn you the former."

Vinyl frowned. "What the fuck's it matter to you? Don't want me to die? That's charming, Lyra mate. Can't lie that I haven't gotten good at not dying, to nearly everypony's disappointment. End of the day though, it's my life and I'm going to do what I want with it."

Since Vinyl had been cooperative the past month, despite such bursts of thorniness, Lyra wasn't going to push the point to hard. "Wrong. Right now you have Octavia's life to bear as well. After today, when we earn Octavia's freedom, feel free to destroy yourself. But you've been trying for years, it seems, to no success. Not even returning to Canterlot could destroy you. If hell doesn't want you then try living for once, and see if that doesn't have better outcomes." Lyra fussed with the hem of her robe, avoiding Vinyl's glare. "But alas, it will be your choice."

Vinyl's sourness abated. "You sound like you care."

"I care for Octavia's sake." Lyra shrugged.

"Yeah sure."

A small bird swooped past the mares, landing on the eaves of the inn's back door, then letting out six sharp tweets. It flew up and around out of sight, audibly repeating the six tweets before going off along the valley.

"Blimey, six already." Vinyl said, a bit alarmed. "We're prepared right? Was there something we should've been doing instead of yapping?"

"It's fine, it's fine. As long as they arrive, that's enough." Lyra scooted back from the cliff and stood up. "All that nonsense we were talking about moving on, about maturing, about being better ponies, about transcending the traumas of the past: Chuck it all in the bin. We have to kill and kill mercilessly. We can not hesitate or we will fail and Octavia dies. Doubt and regret may come later but anticipation of it will not deter us. That's the guild mare way."

Vinyl patted her on the shoulder. "Fuck the guild. That's the assassin's way."

"That works too." Lyra surveyed the road again. She saw two parties coming from either direction, right on time:
From the east, six ponies, four knights leading a noble and his servant. Glorymane of House Bright.
From the west, six ponies, four knights leading a noble and his servant. Glitterhoof of House Bright.

"Like they say in Manehattan, time to rock-and-roll." Vinyl smoothed her mane back before pulling up her hood. "Good luck."

"You too." Lyra nodded.
Leaving Vinyl behind the inn with the saddlebags, Lyra circled to the front. The narrow mountain road was squeezed between the inn's frontage and the sheer mountain face, with several carts and wagons taking up the precious space. To maximize the area the inn's upper floors projected past the bottom floor, and a makeshift support column had been set under one of the sagging upper corners. Wasn't it crazy that unicorns had gone out of their way to live like that, Lyra thought?

The inn's front door and windows were all open, giving Lyra an unrestricted peak inside. Like many inns a drinking/dining saloon occupied most of the bottom floor, then half-full with travelers: Rowdy adventurers, braying locals, and intrusive drunks were at all moments clambering over tables and singing and shouting and especially drinking. If there was one thing Lyra had learned the past weeks, it was the unicorns of the Foal Mountains loved to drink. No wonder such an isolated venue could attract so many ponies when it could keep them sodden.

Lyra stood awkwardly for a moment before she thought of something to do, so she pulled out a pipe and very slowly stuffed it with tobacco. "Lousy Vinyl, eating all the hash." She was extremely nervous, keeping her eyes on her task as she heard two groups of six conversing towards her. The two noble parties rounded the last corners and came face to face, at either end of the inn's frontage.
A knight stepped forward from either direction, stopping-nae-colliding right in front of Lyra.

"Hark! The lord Count of the Eastern Marche, Glitterhoof, is come!" The knight coming from along the eastern road pronounced.

"Hark! The lord Count of the Western Marche, Glorymane, is come!" The knight coming from along the western road pronounced.

The two nobleponies stepped forward next. They were so gaudily dressed and manicured it was difficult to even tell their fur color. The two stallions, Glorymane and Glitterhoof, drew close, and after a moment of intense staring began to laugh. After a brief hug they leant on each other and led their whole procession into the inn, laughing at each others jokes.

"Too much to hope they'd shank each other right off" Lyra muttered, her eyes tracking the noblestallions as they passed by her.

Though the knights readily pushed inside, keeping the other guests away from the counts, the servants hung back, hovering near the entrance for a few minutes whispering to one another. They began to brazenly stare at Lyra, refusing to look away when she glanced their way.

"Uh. Yello there." Lyra gave a little wave. "Those marche lords are your masters then?"

"Your master too, pony." One of the servants, the taller one with chestnut fur, retorted. "You're in the demesne of Duke Foaly Flux, and Count Glitterhoof is his heir."

"An heir." The shorter servant, with biege-ish fur, corrected sharply. "Technically this valley is closer to the Western March of Count Glorymane. Do with that knowledge what you will, pony."

The nobles had, thankfully, gone into the inn; Still Lyra needed to confirm that they would stay there. "Wow. I've heard nopony gets to see the Brights. I feel so lucky." She hoped she sounded suitably impressed. "What are they even doing here? Goodness, I never thought I would see a high lord on a mountain path."

"Some things can't be discussed by post." The short servant said.

"So a neutral territory is needed." The chestnut stallion confirmed. He and the other stallion shared a glance. "That the lords can hash out important business."

"Because some day Lord Flux will die, and it's unthinkable that Foal gets divided between the heirs. The patrimony has passed intact through generations going back centuries." Said the short servant.

"There can only be one heir." Concurred the chestnut servant.

What did these servants have to prove? Sycophant mouthpieces surely had better things to do than correct random mares.
"Honestly I don't care about all that. Two donkeys pull the same when switched." Lyra finally finished packing the pipe, and lit it with a meagre spark of magic. "The Bright twins are so interchangeable it's a punchline back in Canterlot, and they only get talked about for their inheritance. Funny that it's the same inside Foal as well." She blew a smoke ring and offered the pipe to the stallions. "Hey, I don't mean offense. A pony's gotta work, and a boss is a boss. Can't think of a pony without both horn and wing that can't be swapped out at the drop of a hat. We don't live in a time of heroes, just crooks. Notoriety is fleeting, and obscurity is eternal."

The servant stallions eyed the pipe wearily, then wordlessly turned away and entered the inn.

"Tough audience." Lyra let out a deep sigh, part relief part anxiety. She peered through the window to see the counts and their entourages had commandeered a corner of the saloon for themselves.

"Psss!" Vinyl was peeking around the side of the inn. "Eyes on?"

"Yup, its the twins for sure. They're in there, closer to the back, left side." Lyra confirmed. "Status?"

"Three sides ticking. We handle the front manually if we have to." Vinyl shook her flank to accentuate the saddlebag and its contents. "We have about ten minutes."

The two nobleponies carousing at the back of the inn were between Octavia and her freedom. They were probably blameless for what was about to happen to them, but at that moment Lyra wanted nothing more than to see them die. "Nine minutes and counting... Enough time to party. Come on."

"You sure about this Lyra?" Vinyl mumbled.

"Absolutely." Lyra said, trying to act resolute.
The two mares straightened up their cloaks and strolled into the inn. The clamor of the visitors had been significantly subdued by the unexpected arrival of the nobles, and they only looked to see if the mares were yet more knights or somesuch. The innkeeper's daughter was engaged with the nobles, but the innkeeper herself was hunched over her own table, watching the scene.
"Hello again." Lyra bowed.

"Eh? You. I though it was you two westerners, skulking around. Still broke charity cases? No hoofouts today. The duke's lovely nephews are here and it's a roll whether they'll pay their tabs." The innkeeper grunted. In reply, Lyra dropped a few bits on the table, which surprised the innkeeper. "..."

"Yeah, that's for the drinks last week. My friend and I found some gigs."

"Well I'll be. I don't hardly count on vagabonds paying up, no offense meant. I hope you fillies didn't go out of your way to bring this." The innkeeper sighed.

"If you have a lyre, harp, or fiddle laying around we can even earn our next drink." Vinyl said.

"Used to have a sitar until some buckhead threw it off into the valley." The innkeeper scraped the bits into her apron pocket. "But I'll tell ya what: You mares are such nice gals I'll give you a couple drinks at cost, which when retroactively applied to your tab means I owe you, roughly, a cider mug each. Sound fair?"

"That is more than fair, mis. Thank you very much." Lyra nodded.
Leaving the innkeeper to her work, Lyra and Vinyl found an open table with an unobstructed view of the nobles and their guards. They hadn't attracted the attention of the other guests, who were also watching the nobles.
"Keeping the time?" She whispered to Vinyl.

"I'm not a bloody pocketwatch, but yeah. Seven minutes." Vinyl nodded.

Lyra leaned back in her chair, chomping at the bit of her pipe and staring at the ceiling, occasionally daring to glance at the noble party. She barely acknowledged the innkeeper returning with the drinks.
The presence of the civilians trebled her anxiety and doubt. What a terrible, terrible plan. Why had this been what they'd resorted to? With a little more wit, and a little more patience, could they have come up with something better? Her imagination tortured her with visions of Octavia, gaunt, chained to a damp dungeon wall.

The visions evaporated back into reality as somepony tapped her on the shoulder. "Heya there." It was a yellow-furred earth stallion with a curly brown mane, tinted glasses hiding his eyes, wearing a traveling cloak over light armor.

The mares faced the stallion. "Uh, hello. Can we help you?" Lyra asked cautiously.

"Oh, no I don't need anything, I just wanted to say hi, make your acquaintance and all that. I heard your Canterlot accents, which that intrigued me enough that I listened in, and I overheard you mention that you could preform music, if you just had some instrument." The stallion said. "Don't get too excited: My instruments aren't here either. But I got to wondering... what would a guild pony be doing in the countryside without their tools?"

Uh oh. Lyra stared at the stallion, trying to decipher his disposition. A local musician/assassin, perhaps? Was this professional courtesy or turf rivalry? "We don't want any trouble. We're just passing through."

The stallion quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah? Those bits you laid down have any blood on them?"

Why was this asshole questioning them? "If you care, it was honest pay for honest work. Earned from a couple days stint in a silver mine near Crystal Pass."

"I could see that being true, but if you came by this way before, you're not exactly 'passing through', are you. You're more hanging out." The stallion clucked his tongue. "I'm not a professor, at least not from an accredited university, but the harsh mistress of dice taught me YOU being here-" He eyed Glorymane and Glitterhoof's table. "At the same time as the powdered wig boys over there, by happy happenstance, is muy pequeno."

Vinyl realized the game was up. "Try anything and I'll make you give birth to your teeth, earth pony." She said quietly.

"Jeez louise, I've never heard that one before." The stallion chortled. He scratched his chin. "Really don't have your instruments? Then you must be reconnoitering. Tisk, you shoulda found disguises, like a monk or nun. Those are my favorites, but this one time I got too into it and was trapped in a convent out west for four months. Lately, I've been a badass sellsword." He flexed. "I've gotten real good at forging bounty warrants, and get to bill client and the sheriff both, hee hee!"

So, a traveling assassin. "You sure like to jabber. That annoys me." Lyra said solemnly. "You aren't welcome if all you are going to do it talk shop."

"Hold on a damn second..." Vinyl scrutinized the sellsword longer. "Lyra, did you see this guy come in with the nobles? He wasn't here before." She tapped the table. "He was trailing one of them."

"What's that prove mis? Oh, you think that maybe just maybe I was hired by somepony to discreetly take care of a brother. Projection, or do you have intel?" The sellsword's smile became a frown. "I've never had a gig with opposing force before."

"Those servants distracted me, just like you got distracted by us. While you were jabbering another killer has been at work, either the innkeeper or her daughter." Lyra said. "Look over there. One of the flagons is of a slightly different design than the others."

The sellsword gasped, leaping to his hooves. "Oh f-"

Lyra pushed him back into his chair. "The count must have noticed too since he hasn't even taken a sip. Actually none of them have. Your paymaster might survive another minute, no thanks to you."

"Not so smooth now. You such a non-threat that the innkeep didn't even offer you a free drink, did she. " Vinyl snickered, taking a big swig of her cider. "Guess what, probably also poisoned."

Lyra eyed her mug wearily, for once happy about her nerves.

The yellow sellsword pursed his lips. "Tricky devil." He stared at the mares for a moment, until his expression softened, clearly making the foolish decision to trust them. "I deserve the tongue-lashing, but underestimating me is a bad idea too. If things got contentious I have more than enough grenades to back you off."

"Uh, beg pardon?" Lyra.

"Oh, yeah, I have a shit-ton of grenades I stole form an imperial armory. The plan was to blow Gl-, my target, and his carriage right off the side of a cliff. But it's been one frustration after another. His party has been on constant high alert, and those beefy plate-armored boys could probably charge through a grenade and run me off, or even through. I'll have to be looking for an opening after the two counts disentangle. Sheesh, tough work eh?" The yellow sellsword laughed awkwardly. "You guild mares clearly know your stuff. If you've got buisness or you're just passing through... Is it too much to ask you let me collect on my contract? It's so damn lucrative and I have debts to settle, you know. Madam dice is a bitch."

Lyra was going to bitch the stallion out, but Vinyl tapped her hoof, pulling her attention.

"About eleven seconds left, Lyra." Vinyl said.

Lyra's eyes flew open. "Some bucking pocket watch you are!" She vaulted over the table and galloped for the door.

Just a little too slow. The rudimentary gunpowder mining charges Lyra had placed around the inn went off, choking the saloon in a blizzard of splinters. At the back of the inn the moonshine and hard liquors spilled and caught light, creating a spreading lake of fire. Overheated liqueur barrels began to squirt at the seams, creating jets that instantly caught alight and spread the flames to the walls and ceiling. In a mere seconds most of the inn was a fiery inferno.
The alarmed sounds of the victims were immediate. The whole building was being cooked.

"Ten damn minutes, was that?! You brain-damaged griffin fucker, I should have let Velvet keep you!" Hacking and wheezing, Lyra crawled out under the smoke, across the mountain road, and sat herself with her back against the mountain face.
Screams of pain and terror emanated from the burning inn. A burning knight, tearing away parts of his armor, toppled out a hole in the shattered wall, where he lay still. A desperate pony on the higher floor, awoken by the blast in a state of undress, climbed through the window, dropped to the path, and galloped away.
The roar of the flame grew louder as rest of the inn's alcohol caught light, and sympathetic explosions from the sellsword's grenades or Vinyl's leftover mining charges blasted more of the lower floor out and made the whole building sag further. Fire-streaked smoke billowed endlessly from every door and window.

Then, Vinyl strolled out of the door. Her cloak had completely burned off, and her mane had been singed short in a few places, but she was otherwise unharmed. "You left your pipe, Lyra, ha ha! I saw it propelled into the innkeep's cranium by that last blast. What a punchline."

A moment later the yellow stallion and one of the servants staggered out, supporting each other, getting only a few steps into clear air before they fell to their stomaches. "Bucking hell." The sellsword wheezed.

Vinyl stood over the poor gasping stallion, wearing the most peculiar expression, before trotting over to Lyra.
"Talk about a job well done, right?" Vinyl said. "We didn't even have to fight the knights."

"You are such an ass!" Lyra wheezed.

On the other side of the inn, a last sympathetic explosion: The flowing rivers of burning alcohol began to pour over into the valley below, and splashed over inn's waste and scat and urine that had been dumped off the side of the cliff for decades, and the ammonia and methane of the septic valley violently and combustibly decomposed. The whole mountain shook, and a few loose boulders rolled down onto the path.
The hellish inn creaked, then the entire section of the cliff it sat on sagged backwards, collapsing in a terrific landslide that fell hundreds of meters down into the valley. More and more of the mountain path fell away into oblivion, advancing and swallowing the closer wagons and carriages, until the erosion stopped just short of the yellow stallion and the servant.

The yellow sellsword rolled into a sitting position, carefully sliding off his broken glasses and revealing his green eyes. He tried to hide his grimace under his hooves. "I'm not actually a gambler, but I sure feel lucky now. How far to the nearest lottery office?" He laughed weakly. "I shoulda known better than think I could contend with psyco guild mares."

The youthful servant (the chestnut-furred lad) had been badly injured, and would have surely perished in the flames if the sellsword hadn't lent his shoulder. He stayed on his side, holding a hoof against a particularly nasty area of splinter-cuts. He seemed doomed to slowly bleed out. "Please, make it quick." He mumbled.

The sell sword rested a hoof on the shivering lad. "Woah, easy now. One of these fine mares will surely fix you up after they work out their imminent spat."

Lyra trembling from slowly fading adrenaline, closed her eyes, listened to the whip of the wind over the valley.
It hadn't gone perfectly, but it had gone. Sitting there, blasted and singed, Lyra was indeed tempted to yell at Vinyl, but when she tried to think of what more to say she realized she had nothing.
Lyra coughed out the last of the smoke in her lunges and got to her hooves. ""What's there to spat about. I got what I wanted, and only had to be slightly blown up for it." She fussed with her mane. "It's at junctures like these that a pony choses to lead a better life, give up their vices, and commit themself to a better world."

Vinyl snickered. "Not you though, right? 'Til that destined day comes and gold conquers all, the wages of power is blood not mercy." Grinning self-satisfied by her own poetic turn of phrase, Vinyl giggled, giddy. "Doesn't this slaughter inflame you Lyra?! This is the PEAK. This is everything a warrior strives for: A total victory won by cunning and strength. We just saved Octavia."

The sellsword was distraught the mares weren't going to help the wounded colt. "If you got what you wanted then you'd have no issue saving this pony too!"

"You're asking us to decrease the death toll? After seeing what we've wrought-" Vinyl twirled in place, the stopped to take in the twilight vista of the beautiful valley, marred by the burning landslide and the dozens of bodies buried underneath. "You'd snatch a life from the history of this moment, because- why? Same as always, tiresome morals and ethics and stuff. Are you a fraud or just stupid, sellsword?"

The sellsword tried to smile. He was afraid. "Mis, Vinyl was it? On second thought, don't worry about us. This was, you know, a terrible accident. The latrine exploded and triggered the landslide. The death of the twin counts was a freak tragedy and nothing else. We never saw you."

"That'd be satisfactory. Usually. But-" Vinyl tapped her hoof on the youthful servant's lacerated leg, eliciting a groan. "This colt is your employer, isn't he. I have a fifty-fifty shot here... Glitterhoof, I presume?"

"Don't touch me." The 'servant' whispered.

"Uh oh." Lyra's heart skipped a beat. She'd been bamboozled by the oldest trick in the book. The two gaudy ponies dressed as the counts had been nothing but decoys. And how couldn't they be? The ominous invitations to a meeting at the isolated inn (to discuss the Foal inherence no less) was obviously a trap, so each brother had taken identical precautions to protect himself from his brother's assassins. Their mistake was underestimating Lyra and Vinyl's acceptance of the massive collateral damage, where the sellsword and innkeep had shied away. "Good catch Vinyl. I wasn't paying enough attention. Which brother is it? I didn't see which 'servant' came with which entourage."

The servant bared his teeth. "You'll never know. N- Not even my seneschal knows me from my doubles." The servant said, his voice gaining volume with his resolve, even as he remained curled up in the dirt. "You can't risk it. Y- You can't risk it."

The sellsword was sweating, as terrified for his own life as the youth's. "Lord that won't work with these girls. They weren't sent to settle the inheritance battle. They came to kill both you and your brother."

The servant tried to turn to face the sellsword, but it was too difficult and painful. "... Then so be it. It's not mercy I'm begging for." He closer his eyes, tears in his eyes. "It was fated. I'll go out the same way as my father and brother."

"Young lord, don't say that. You can live. As long as you swear to feign death, to disappear into obscurity forever, then these mares will let you go!" The sellsword rushed out his words, hovering over the youth, trembling to comfort him with a touch but for the risk of aggravating his severe wounds. "There never was a curse on your family. It was always murder, targeted assassinations like this one, by desperate ponies ordered by evil bastards. It's all for a throne and if you renounce that throne you can live! Please, you can live!"

"Finally you say something worthwhile, after all the irony is blasted away." Lyra huffed, hobbling to Vinyl's side. "Are you just guessing about the 'cursed' fate of the Brights, or do you know something?" With the sellsword still hiding his face it was hard to gauge his reaction. "You surely didn't play a part in it. You're not much older than us, and would've been a colt when the Brights died.

"Colts can be killers too." Vinyl smiled.

The sellsword sat up, a furious look in his eye. "Not normal colts. Not colts that aren't raised up by the Muscian's Guild on a diet of family annihilation, kitten dissection, and foal buggery. This is depraved."

Vinyl laughed. "So you get to do contracts and get to boast later about the cross-dressed and fraud you did, but we can't enjoy a quick and clean bombing? You're just sour grapes that we're the better warriors."

The dying chestnut servant let out a disdainful hiss. "You're not warriors, you're murderers. This isn't a warrior's country, because there's no wars. No chivalry, no honor, no heroic greatness to aspire towards." He lifted his hoof away from his wound. "Sit me up, merc."

"My lord-" The sellsword stammered.

"Sit me up." The count demanded again, and trepidatiously the sellsword obeyed. The count groaned as his blood-sticky flank was peeled from the dirty road. He looked Lyra in the eye. "Cui bono?"

"Lady Twilight Velvet." Lyra said.

"Ohh Aunty Velvet... I haven't seen her in years. She never failed to tell my brother and me how she cared for us after our mother died in labor. My brother sometimes joked we were fetal abductions, but that's not true because Aunty Velvet would have killed us then and there. Damn... I can't believe I get taken out by Twilight Velvet." The count slumped further forward. "It figures. If I had a little more time..." He paused to try to wipe the bloody drool away. "I could've consolidated the duchy and smashed that upstart Twilight dynasty. I would've-" The sellsword caught him before he slumped any further. "Woulda killed every last one of them."

"That's just a bad attitude, mate." Vinyl clucked her tongue.

"As if this is the first time you've helped settle an inheritance battle, Vinyl. You would've tolerated his whining if he was your client." Lyra said.

"But right now he isn't so I won't. There's sinners who buy murder and sinners who sell it, and we're both here." Vinyl said, grinning deviously. "So, noblepony, I'm open for buisness. If you want revenge on Twilight Velvet, my fee is the castle you're about to be too dead to make use of."

Lyra stared at Vinyl. "After all this, you want to go back being other ponies' weapon? You deserve everything bad that happens to you." She kicked at the dusty path. "I don't want to be a tool of the Stars, the government, or anypony else. I especially don't want to kill for them. I'm closed for buisness."
She smoothed out her cloak and flipped up her hood. "I'll be down the path at the rendezvous, if you chose to follow, Vinyl. We've earned Octavia's freedom. Lets be the best ponies we can when she's released to us." She turned and trotted east.

Vinyl followed Lyra with her eyes for a while. "That mare. Tshh." She turned her attention back to the wounded stallions. "Lyra must be rubbing off on me because I feel kinda bad for you little lord. You simply didn't stand a chance against the Red-Eyes killer. Nevertheless your verve and lust for death is admirable. You won't need my services if you survive, because you can go on and seek your own revenge against Twilight Velvet! You can fake your death, go into hiding, and bide your time. Twilight Velvet will let her guard down, and you will strike back. You will reclaim your family lands and bring House Bright back from oblivion. You might even reconnect with me on your quest for revenge and we take Velvet down together! It's a tale for the storybooks, and I'll be a marvelous character. You're pretty lucky you met us, Lord Glitterhoof."

"He's dead." The sellsword said.

"Oh." Vinyl crouched next to the limp chestnut stallion. Indeed the youth had spoken his last.

It was a shame, really, but not worth regretting. All ponies had to die eventually. Vinyl enjoyed her role as an agent of death, and enjoyed being good at it. It was equally tragic that a spunky colt like Glitterhoof had to be snuffed out before he had done anything noteworthy to remember him by, and merciful that he had been saved from base miseries of living and the decrepitude of age. The world would never find out what a future with Gloryhoof and Glittermane still alive would look like, nor what a future with the innkeeper, the innkeeper's daughter, or any of the other dozen guests would look like. Playing with counterfactuals was boring, and no make-believe justified anypony's death. No, what justified their death was their mortality, and nothing more.

"Mission accomplished, for real this time." Vinyl grabbed the dead ponies leg and dragged him to the crumbling edge. "I'm glad I got to know you." She lobbed the body into the valley, to join his brother and comrades and the other innocent souls. "Rest in peace."

The sellsword stared out into the void. "Damn. Not only am I not getting paid, my client will think I caused all of this. I'm ruined."

"Welcome to hell with the rest of us. If it depresses you so bad, the charnel pit is just to your left and down five-hundred meters." Vinyl snorted.

The sellsword lamented. "What the hell is wrong with you guild mares? This gratuitous murder spree-"

"It was only your assumption we were guild mares, you podunk dumbass." Vinyl sassed back. "Are you going to step up?"

The sellsword sighed. "No. I want to live."

"That's the right choice. I have a good feeling about you, since you remind me of my old pal Pinkie in a lot of ways. That joke about getting trapped in a convent would have knocked her dead." Vinyl cleared her throat. "Anyhow, don't breath a word about this. Else, I will find you, and they'll call you Jane Doe during the autopsy. See ya."

"Chao." The sellsword glumly waved goodbye.

The duke's deputies had stood over the ruins of the inn for hours, dreading the letter they would have to pen.
As the news of the assassinations spread, the castle towns locked their gates and the bailiffs closed up the mountain fortresses even tighter. The whole of Foal went on lockdown as militiaponies watched the roads and knights combed the countryside. Everypony knew something terrible had happened despite the silence of the deputies, and the unicorn elders held the silent suspicion that the curse had finally caught up to the twin Bright boys who'd carried the promise of the future.
Was House Bright really doomed to extinction? Surely Foaly Flux could pull it together to find one of his brothers' bastards and legitimize them as heir, or go make an heir of his own. Even recalling Rosen Bright from his exile in Griffany was preferable to an empty throne. Without a Bright, what would become of Foal? Was the oldest unicorn realm in Equestria going to pass into the hooves of some upstart cadet branch, a rival dynasty, or be annexed to the princess's demesne?
But maybe after two decades of neglect, where Duke Foaly Flux had flittered away his life in his swanky Castle Magoria in Canterlot, it was time for new blood. All things had to come to an end, lives yes, and even dynasties. So the deputies began to plot and eye each other with suspicion, suspecting that one of their number would usurp the Duchy of Foal away from the Brights. They argued in hushed tones over whether the letter of condolence should be sent at all, or if they should arrange a grand pantomime of the dead brothers' survival. No consensus was reached, and the decision put off, yet the letter was taken by a secretary and posted by accident.

Thus three days later Foaly Flux learned of his nephews' death in a landslide.

The assembled ponies stared at Flux in disbelief.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Rain Gnash blurted out. "Giving your lands to Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor... Do you have any idea how much power you're giving her?" She pointed past Flux, to Twilight Velvet. "To a rank opportunist, and borderline traitor?!"

"Come on Admiral, I thought we were friends." Velvet smirked.

"I like you just fine when you're a viscountess's regent. I don't think I'd like you when you're mother-regent to a duchy, four counties, and two baronies." Gnash shot back. "You've gotten far being a savvy Canterlot wheeler-dealer. It's a very respectable job you've done to be here talking to us. But you don't deserve to be one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria."

"My lady admiral calm down. I am not being offered, nor do I desire, any endowment from my dear friend Foaly." Velvet said. "This is my son's and my daughter's benefit."

Sharphoof Lightdowser wasn't pleased either. "Firstly, Foaly, my deepest condolences for your departed nephews. Now Lady Velvet, while I do not share Rain's vehemence, there is much to critique about this. The First Student and an Imperial Knight, inheriting landed noble titles, should either have to relinquish their imperial posts to govern their new land directly, or give it to a regent. In the latter case I envision you muscling into the regency even if it is not offered to you, Lady Velvet, as powerful parents have done in the past. I think you take your own power much more seriously than your responsibilities as regent even now when you only have a gatehouse to look after."

"You talk like I'm already dead." Foaly Flux barked, irritated. "Am I?!" He thumped his breast with a hoof. "If I keel over tomorrow, then maybe your rude criticisms of my friend Velvet would have merit. Yes maybe smart ponies like her shouldn't have so much power, but then again maybe dumb ponies shouldn't have power either yet here I am." He sighed. "Times like these remind you death lurks around every corner, but by the gods I hold out vain vain hope that I have more time on this earth. If I live a little longer, like my health suggests I should, then everything changes doesn't it? Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor get a bit older and wiser, and graduate out of imperial service. I know them to be brilliant, virtuous, and active young ponies. They can rise to the challenge of ruling any title I leave for them. Trust me that I will guide them to developing into worthy successors to the Bright legacy. Trust me."

That heartfelt declaration gave Lightdowser and Gnash pause. Gnash tapped her hoof, collecting her thoughts, while Lightdowser stared at the back of her head waiting to see her reaction.
"If you care about the foals so much then adopt them and pull them out of their imperial duties immediately. Give them Glorymane and Glitterhoof's counties to train on." Rain Gnash suggested.

"Twilie and Shiny deserve to pace their own way while they are yet unburdened by leadership. Giving the twins the marcher counties ruined their lives, and is one of my greatest regrets." Flux said. "Are you going to ask me to repeat past mistakes? You ponies are being hysterically paranoid about the capabilities and willingness of my dear Velvet to do harm, and it has made you say foolish things. Frankly I don't appreciate it. I did not ask you for your opinion. I respect you all as peers, but won't tolerate meddling in Bright family affairs, nor Foal ducal affairs. This is my choice."

Lightdowser shook his head. "You are asking us to guarantee the inheritance. Of course we would have something to say about that. I will not put my name to an inheritance contract I don't believe in."

"You don't believe in me? Or you don't believe in Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor?" Flux countered. Clearly Duke Flux was intent on this.

"Foaly, I think you need more time to think. Have your nephews even received funerals? The passion of grief is wearing on me; For you, it must be all-consuming." Lightdowser said. "This tragedy and the new heirs together represent a huge shift in Equestrian politics. Twilight Velvet's children will be centers of power even before they inherit, just like the twins were."

Foaly Flux seemed unimpressed by the obviousness of Lightdowser's words. "Said even as you position yourself to usurp the viziership? I don't believe your objections are on a solid footing and so will not sustain them. Good days and bad days, I have been agonizing over this inheritance. I have been thinking things over very deliberately, for a very long time." He paused, cracking a smile, a conciliatory signal. "There has to be something I can offer that will satisfy you gentleponies. If you can't be convinced, then you can be incentivized. Would you prefer that my holdings go inviolate to only one heir? Or would it mollify you if we keep the inheritance a secret between us, and us alone?"

A secret inheritance? The assembled ponies hesitated, trying to run the mental math on the implications of such a thing. Could some advantage be gained from it?

Velvet watched them with silent smugness. They were very unlucky Prosser had passed out, or he would have blown the whistle on the whole arrangement, and accused her of the twins' murder as well- Rain Gnash seemed to be suspecting it already.

It was not just Rain Gnash thinking it though. Lightdowser was also suspecting her, though not of his own accord. Iillor's comment rung in his head, that Twilight Velvet had already triumphed and gotten everything she strived for. Was the Duchy of Foal her goal? If so it did not appear like she had a signal victory, when Flux seemed to think the inheritance could be challenged. Or, was the Foal inheritance a smokescreen for something greater and more sinister? Twilight Velvet clearly had potential for diabolical behavior, considering her accord with Iillor, so to what heights did her ambition soar?
"No, Lord Flux, you needn't diminish yourself by offering to humiliate yourself or your duchy. The inheritance is your choice, and by feudal priviledge not even the princess can interfere. Foal and Unicornia, your lands and mine, were once enemies in those barbarous days of warlordism before the alicorn came. The empire civilized us, made us our dynasties friends, to the benefit of our ponies and all unicornkind." He turned to his knight and drew her sword out of her scabbard, dipping its tip to Foaly Flux's hoof and bowing his head. "I vow to support Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor's claim to your realm, without condition or umbrage."

Foaly returned the bow. "That is extraordinarily kindly said, Lord Lightdowser. Thank you."

"I'm not so sure unicornkind will celebrate along with you, but what do I know." Rain Gnash grumbled. "I'm not going to be pressured into signing anything. Why, Lord Flux, would you even want my guarantee? You think the grandees of Foal would be happy for Pegasi to enforce the inheritance of some Canterlot brats on them?"

"You think the ponies of Canterlot want the pegasi to enforce a Unicornian duke on them?" Velvet retorted.

"Do you think you're helping your case by taking shots at me, Lady Velvet?" Rain Gnash scowled.

Velvet delighted at Gnash's irritation. "It's not my case. It's my brats', and its Flux's. I'm taking shots at you because its funny, Lady Admiral, and I welcome the shots in return. We're all friends here after all." She laughed. "Do you find it harder to dispense Foaly Flux's patrimony than Princess's Celestia's empire? Perhaps you need my help deciding it after all."

"Velvet you needn't antagonize the good admiral. It is not so charming as all that." Flux sighed, earning an annoyed glare from Velvet. "Do you really think you'll have the time to meddle in your children's inheritances when you're putting so much Canterlot buisness on your plate? Don't you risk vindicating the ponies' concerns?"

Perhaps sensing an opportunity to triangulate between Flux and Velvet, Gnash adopted a conciliatory tone. "We're starting to see eye-to-eye, Foaly. The fact is that the duchy of Foal is going to be an integral axis our regime. We want your successor to be able to collaborate with us and our successors. Your chosen candidate is going to be a lot better for us than a wildcard pouncing on a contested inheritance." She patted Velvet on the shoulder with a wing. "Lady Velvet here has done a fine job for the both of us, giving us an empire and you some heirs. Her reward should be generous, but measured. If she outgrows us then her significant talents might be turned against us."

Velvet did as she'd been asked and stayed silent, her half-lidded gaze flicking between the ponies.

Foaly nodded in approval. "I'm overjoyed to have you onboard, Lady Gnash-"

Rain Gnash interrupted. "But I'm serous about empire and duchy going hoof-in-hoof. I need more time to think about what kind of concessions would be acceptable to both of us. Furthermore I hesitate to sign my name to anything before I'm installed as IHG captain." Gnash said. "I might have a lot of leeway from the Cloudsdale Admiralty, but I might still be countermanded if I commit the Wonderbolts to an adventure in the Foal Mountain. Once I have the imperial knights, none but the princesses can stop me." She seemed oblivious to the thorniness of her last sentance.

"I understand your position, Admiral. I'm sorry that I misunderstood your institutional limitations as personal hesitation." Flux said, and Gnash met the subtle jab stoicly. "I'm happy to wait and eager to listen to what conditions you think are reasonable, to earn your commitment."

Gnash smiled. "D'accord, Lord Duke. This is only the start of our relationship." She shifted her gaze to Velvet. "There's going to be bickering in any family, my lady, when siblings think one is getting something they don't deserve at the expense of all the others."

Velvet kept her silence.

"We all have a lot to think about. Goodnight, Duke Lightdowser, Duke Flux, Lady Velvet." Gnash turned and jaunted up the stairwell without another word, before anypony could stop her.

Fleetfoot lingered for a few moments. She eyed the scorchmark on the floor, then up to the unicorns. "Captain Spitfire said you ponies were trouble."

"Why are you telling me? Am I somepony you should confide in?" Velvet spoke up. "Don't talk behind your officers' back, Wonderbolt, unless you're conspiring with us against them. If you're not, then run along. If you are, come a little closer and plot to make Rain Gnash humble."

Fleetfoot, massively embarrassed, bowed and chased her admiral up the stairs.

Lightdowser was not pleased. "Lady Velvet you're going to be hard to work with if you value your own amusement over expedience and harmony."

Velvet shrugged. "If Gnash can't survive some teasing why should I believe she can survive ruling Canterlot?"

"If you can not show restraint on an issue that will determine the legacy of your entire clan, how could I possibly believe you can show restraint towards the prosperity of other ponies?" Lightdowser countered.
In truth, Lightdowser sympathized much more with Velvet than he let on. Noble diplomacy was grandstanding and veiled threats as often as it was courtly negotiation. Twilight Velvet was within her rights to test how much she could get away with. Like Rain Gnash had said, Velvet was shooting above her station, but that was expected. Lesser nobles had to leap at every opportunity to get land and security for their house, lest impoverishment and commoner ignominy overtake them. Through the castle takeover and Foal inheritance Velvet was setting up her dynasty for generations of prosperity; A success story like that afforded her the right to be sassy sometimes.
Though that was before one considered the nefarious means Velvet seems to have employed. The presence of the Nightmare was testament to her connivance. Could Velvet be trusted with any power over ponies when she used heretical means? At that thought Lightdowser glanced back at Iillor, standing silent and still in her plate armor.
"You forget that Lady Gnash likely feels as much anxiety about your ability to attack her with your militia as you feel from her and her Wonderbolts."

"Good thing we have you, the senior partner of the coalition, to hold us both in check." Velvet said sarcastically.

"Right." Lightdowser grumped. In a world of mortal striving, those in power needed coercive power: Lightdowser was acutely aware he didn't have more than a few knights personally loyal to him (and maybe the Nightmare). If he was going to wield power on par with the other players he would need the friendship of officers and officials, a la IHG- Until such a time he could bring his armies over from Unicornia.
Speaking of, "With your jokes and insinuations I begin to worry whether you plan to cooperate with Admiral Gnash. If you actually DO need to be held in check, that will hurt my ability to reward you for meritorious service to the nation. You're going to be reasonable, right?"

Velvet grunted noncommittally.

Foaly Flux glanced over his shoulder at her. "Velvet, if you're not going to give the good duke a straight answer, then I ask that you leave. I have issues of importance to discuss with him that shouldn't be postponed up by your oh-so-charming playfulness."

"As you wish." Velvet curtsied, as if she were still his courtier, and strolled past Lightdowser to the stairs. She hooked a hoof around Lightdowser's knight and dragger her along. "Let's let the dukes talk then, shall we?"
The mares descended.

"You're not being coerced or compelled in any way, right Flux?" Lightdowser asked.

Foaly Flux let out a belly laugh. "Fuck off." He dragged a table with stationary between them. "Do you love your son? Well of course you do, despite the rumors otherwise. I loved my nephews the same way even though they acted like entitled little bastards the last few years. Gods rest their souls." He let out a short sigh. "And I also And I also love my cousin Night Light's family, and his kids, without reservation or qualification. I wish the world for them and I'd do anything to see them prosper, when the rest of the Bright clan hasn't. It keeps me going to imagine them living happy lives in a happy future. If their joy is my legacy, I can bear uncountable suffering (not that I've had a choice)."

"Suffering is a choice." Lightdowser said.

Foaly Flux unrolled a blank parchment. "Sure. Please, jot out a basic commitment you're making to me. I'll work out the details with a lawyer and bring you something more final to sign."

I, Sharphoof Lightdowser, Duke of Unicornia, do here pledge to Foaly Flux, Lord Bright, Duke of Foal and Count Palatine of Magoria that

Lightdowser set the quill down.
"What would it mean if Twilight Velvet got everything she wished for?"

Flux's breath hitched at the word 'wish' as he realized what Lightdowser was asking. "How should I know. I can only speak for all the self-indulgent extravagances I'd fill my world with if anypony gave me something as fantastical as a wish."

"I doubt Lady Velvet preoccupies herself with fantasy. The future of the coalition may rest on her ladyship's desires, because Twilight Velvet seems much less enthusiastic about Lady Gnash and I being here than it seemed in her summons to Canterlot." Lightdowser insisted. "So I ask you to give what insight her ladyship herself denies us."

Flux pursed his lips. "You want more than I can provide."

Fine. Lightdowser knew it was a longshot. Maybe Flux didn't even know anything; Did he have a clue about the Nightmare, for example? Probably not. "Very well." He raised the quill again.

"Hold it." Flux held the quill away. "I could, should, ask you the same thing, you know."

"You could."

"Don't be dense, buddy. I am."

Lightdowser played along to see if it opened Flux up. "I can not rightly say what I want. Ponies have accused me of being obsessed with my legacy but I don't think that's true. I hope you will see me being genuine when I say that I want the best for Equestria."

"That wasn't your question though." Flux said intently.

Flux closed his eyes, thinking. "It's all a bit childish, isn't it. I regret my question turning into this thought exercise." He thought for a few more moments. "I would wish that everything would become just the way I wanted it, or that I would be given the power to make it thus."

"That's tautological to the very idea of a wish." Flux scolded.

"Then I wish to know right from wrong. TRUE right from wrong. I would want to know if the virtues I hold dear are also virtues, and whether the sins I shun are actually sins." Lightdowser said. "Satisfied?"

"I am, my lord." Flux nodded.

...that I will support his chosen heirs, Lady Twilight Sparkle and Lord Shining Armor, both of Twilight-Bright, in their claims to his properties and fiefs after his perishing. This support will be material and rhetorical, to the extent which secures the heirs' claims, within what Unicornia and its duke can reasonably supply. So signed.

Flux laughed. "This is fun. You feel like an old friend already."

"Glad for it, friend Flux." Lightdowser nodded. "I met Shining Armor but I will need to gauge Twilight Sparkle eventually."

"Hop in your airship and fly to little Ponyville then." Flux joked, but his smile was not quite the good-natured smile he usually bore, but Velvet's twisted half-ironic grin.

A cold northerly wind whipping over the sky dock. Celestia moved unbothered, while the attempted procession of knights and functionaries struggled about her, trying to keep their papers, banners, and lanterns from being blown out of their hooves.

"My princess, It's dangerous to launch like this. The point of sail is not favorable." One of the airship pilots, holding down his cap with a hoof while also trying to keep her pace, explained.

Did something change the air pressures to keep the wind unsuitable, Celestia wondered. "We leave tonight. Where is my ship berthed?" Not waiting for an answer she jumped and spread her wings- large and powerful, those wings caught the wind, and she let it carry her a dozen meters up to where she could see the whole docklands. She spied the royal airship airship in one of the long-term berths, where a few panicked crew and marines were inspecting the neglected vessel's readiness.
Hovering in the wind lift, Celestia conjured up her magic and grabbed the airship. She heaved it, envelope and gondola, up and out of its berth, snapping the moorings and sending the crew flat onto the deck. Now suffering the wind, the mighty airship twisted and shook in Celestia's grasp, but by focus and power her magic dragged the vessel along. She then lowered it into place at last staith at the end of the skydock, where the moorings retied themselves onto the dock cleats.

Satisfied, Celestia folded her wings and dropped hard back onto the dock. "Must I bring you a crane as well? We leave tonight. We must leave tonight." She ordered. "Do not over-supply. We can take the Katabatic on a run all the way to Ponyville."

"Ponyville, your highness?" The pilot queried.

"Ponyville, south-by-southwest, where the Everfree touches the Dneighper. Tell the captain I want every stitch of sail up and all I want hooves on deck. If we don't reach Ponyville before daylight comes the Sun will damn you all. All haste!"

Velvet led Lightdowser's knight down to Castle Magoria's well appointed kitchen. The servants' dismissal had left the area a bit messy, with bits of fruit and dough left around the stations. "His lordship has a bit of a sweet tooth. There's sure to be some of the Maredian candy he brings out at parties, as long as we look in the right place." Velvet said.

"If you think it's okay, m'lady." The knight nodded. "The pantry I'd wager." She took a few steps toward the passage to the pantry, then stopped. "You're not going to lock me in there, are you?"

Velvet snorted. "Am I going to be able to contain you with a door?" She teased one of the straps on the knight's plate armor with her magic. "Or, do I even need a door to contain you?"

The knight shifted on her hooves. "The lord duke still has my sword. It's not sporting to attack an unarmed mare."

"Was it sporting when you killed Barley Bale? I'd rather not turn my back on you." Velvet said.

The knight laughed softly. She gingerly took off her helmet. Her fur rippled, changing her into the familiar black-furred mare Velvet was familiar with. "Barley Bale died face to face with me." Iillor said. "You caught me quick, but I'd hoped you would respect that I don't want to be seen with you anymore. Our partnership is over."

Velvet nodded. "That's to be expected. Phyte is out of the picture so we have nothing more to offer one another. But I was hoping you'd lay low." She said. "Imagine my dismay at seeing you show right back, but pretending to be a stranger. Don't I at least deserve a goodbye and a hoofshake before you jump to my competition? You didn't say goodbye to Octavia either."

"We've all gotten what we deserve." Iillor said. "Me, I pissed off the alicorn empress and got my ass kicked. That's a perfect bow on things: I vanquished the Star, advanced your's and Shining Armor's dreams, and was punished by the alicorn for it. It's a nice little rhyme, and sure to delight the Moon. That poem's finished and the next begins."

"I suppose I'd believe that if you hadn't thereafter decided to latch on to the first dumbass dreamer that you laid eyes on. Sharphoof LIghtdowser?? Come on, you can do better than Sharphoof Lightdowser. That's not starting fresh. That's returning to the scene of the crime. Though, we already knew you can't help yourself in that regard." Velvet scolded.

"True. It would be pretty funny if Lightdowser expects me be his tool to restrain you." Iillor cracked a smile. "Fortunately I think I can bring out his better nature before he actually does something foolish like that. That's why I stuck around Canterlot."

It would be fruitless to directly ask what the Nightmare intended. "Don't overstay your welcome in Canterlot, Mis Valor. Linger long enough and somepony's going to hit you harder than Celestia did. Go out there, where plenty of fresh-faced strivers strive, from Equestria's humble villages to its Free Cities. You could even go abroad, to Griffany and such."

Iillor got the message. "Understand, I'm not going to become you enemy, Lady Velvet. I hate undoing my own work or retracting my steps. Frankly, I see potential in Lightdowser. I can steer him right. I'll keep him safe from you and visa-versa." She said. "I think you'd benefit from letting me have my fun. You act really aloof of Heaven, but you're going to want friends in high places once you start drawing more attention to yourself. Doubt the Sun will chip in a good word, eh."

"If Heaven comes knocking, I'm not asking your ilk for help- Not the Moon, and especially not you." Velvet sneered.

Iillor shrugged. "That's your loss I guess; The Moon is on the come-up. Actually though, I was suggesting something more diplomatic. Nopony could accuse Lightdowser of being your hack, so if he'd be a great character witness. He's vacuously dogmatic, but he can be trained into something more useful, mark my words." As Velvet's scowl only deepened, Iillor was going to have to say something to forestall the lecture the lady was formulating. "You might be thinking I just leached off you, and ran off to give your dream to a more pliable pony. You might think you're as replaceable to me as I am to you."

"So true I'm almost insulted. Actually, I am a little insulted." Velvet joked tersely.

Iillor stood up and popped her helmet back on. "It's not as complicated as all that. I can be a silly mare propelled by her whims and lusts. Haven't I done right by you? Haven't I done right by Shining? I can't let you leave thinking I'm your enemy." The air of tension did not last long. Iillor laughed, tinny through the visor of the helmet. "C'mon. Play along with me, and pretend I'm not here, while I tutor Lightdowser. Then on to the next poem, and the next, to please the Moon. I have become all things to all ponies so that by all means I might save some. See you around, m'lady."
She trotted to the door out of the kitchen back to the great hall.

Velvet followed Iillor with her eyes until she was out of the kitchen. Too-clever villains always had to sprinkle in a bit of truth somewhere amongst the lies. Maybe Iillor really was going to try to 'corrupt' Lightdowser.
"Damn, I forgot to ask about Shale's cursed dagger. Oh well, next time." She cleared her throat. "Back to the world of make-believe." She levitated up one of the apples laying around the kitchen and left with it.

There were diminishing returns in stalking the Nightmare anymore, even if Iillor did have nefarious intentions. There was nothing Velvet could do to observe or hinder Iillor, so Velvet was going to have to play along even if she didn't want to. Hopefully it would work out.

The cool night air greeted Velvet as she emerged into Castle Magoria's courtyard. Velvet glared at the moon with faux irritation. "Come pick up your bratty nightmare. She's throwing around your name." Of course the moon did not answer so Velvet took a bite of the apple and started a stroll around the courtyard.

Spitfire just wasn't sure how to feel anymore. She had started out her pacing along the old Castle Magoria enceinte wall angry, nearly too angry to think, suffering to imagine how some retribution could be satisfactorily gained. While far from an idealist, Spitfire had quickly seen that there was very little to like about the unicorns and, more dishearteningly, that the Princess Cadenza had startlingly disqualifying flaws.
Things were not looking up- despite the air of smug optimism of the nobles, a sense of dread still hung over Spitfire.

Doubling back to continue her zombie pacing, Spitfire spotted two figures, apart but engaged in the same moonspotting: Twilight Velvet was ambling around the castle courtyard, while Cadence was standing on one of the enceinte bastion battlements.
"Well..." Spitfire knew she had the option to bolt back to the airship and avoid confrontation. Perhaps that was even the wiser choice, when Spitfire saw danger menacing from behind every blade of grass.
But the more she slacked off, the more another Wonderbolts would suffer in her place- She drilled that message on her squadron relentlessly. Who but Spitfire could brave a city of deadly unicorns and triumph? "Oh, to hell with this." She lamented.

Spitfire spread her wings to glide over to Twilight Velvet, but the unicorn had spotted her: Velvet fixed her with that unnerving stare, with just a hint of a smile, which instantly dissuaded Spitfire from talking to the older mare.
Deciding to seek her fortune elsewhere, Spitfire pretended she had meant to fly to Cadence all along; which she did, hopping and flying to the enceinte near the alicorn princess.

Cadence politely pretended not to notice for a few moments, seeming to keep to her silent contemplation of the moon, until she faced Cadence. "Hello again. Captain Spitfire, was it?" A slight glitter on her cheeks suggested that she had been crying.

"Yes, princess." Spitfire bowed. "I can only echo my masters to thank you for gracing us tonight. We extend the customary homage, and ask that you reveal any displeasures you have with us, that they may be rectified. We will be perfect for you, princess." She stuttered some of the words of the ritual oath, and hastily straightened to hide how tired she was.

"Perfect?" That words seemed to bother Cadence a lot. "We- Ponies aren't perfect, only dutiful."

"I... I can't argue with that. Look, it's just what we say, princess. Pony imperfection justifies your guardianship over us, and so on." Spitfire said, immediately tiring of pleasantries. "I want to talk about Shining Armor."

Cadence tensed. "Oh."

"Princess, I have an... unreasonable question. Is he really alive? I- I saw him. I saw him burn up." Spitfire began to shiver, and not for the whistling wind over the castle walls. "The creature we fought... or the earth pony fought... said horrific things. Then it killed Sir Armor. Was it all some kind of, like, impossible fabrication? Even the stallion's death?"

Cadence remained silent.

"Princess..." Spitfire knew she should have expected frustration. "The unicorns, especially Twilight Velvet, are into some evil shit. The monster mare, Phyte, said she had dealings with them. Sir Armor recognized it, as did the earth pony." Her voice dipped. "And that earth mare Iillor was herself some kind of freak! Something bad is going on."

Cadence still said nothing.

But Spitfire was determined to make her case. "Please, princess-"

"That's enough." Cadence interrupted harshly.

"W'uah?" Spitfire sputtered, retreating from the upset princess.

"Enough, I said. You shouldn't be telling me those things. You're heaping your issues on me when I..." Cadence trailed off. She let out her breath in a huff. "Your question is indeed unreasonable! Here's one in turn, captain: What made you think I can help you? Wasn't the serial humiliations you saw me endure hint enough that I can barely render help to my own situation?"

It was Spitfire's turn to be silent. She was cowed and embarrassed by the alicorn's admonishing admissions.

"A known deceiver told me Shining Armor was alive, and she told me other, terrible things." Cadence said softly. "I've had to dwell on my own fate as well as his because my life is threatened too. It's possible it's even a pony threat."

"A- A pony threat?" Spitfire paled. "Princess surely you don't mean-" Her mind raced to conjure the appropriate oaths and platitudes to convince the princess of her fidelity.
But Cadence wasn't looking her way: Twilight Twilight, pretending to stroll the courtyard and smell the roses, had captured her gaze.

For the whirlwind of confusion and shock that Cadence had subjected herself to for the last several hours, she felt strangely pleasant inside. A warm sort of peace had settled in her belly- She was not safer, more secure, or any more in command of her own life that earlier. Yet she felt, rightly or wrongly, that she understood the threat, where before it was just vague.

"I shouldn't let myself believe that a mortal mare, no matter how talented, could pose a danger to my life. It took years of Celestia's discipline to unlearn the terrors I had as an orphan filly back in my Riverpony village, to refine me from a pony who had to relate to ponies, into an alicorn who was sovereign over ponies: My body is absolutely sacrosanct, inviolable, and eternal. Celestia promised that I never had to fear pony aggression, pony paranoia, pony lusts, or pony abuse: All those ills were in MY power to inflict on THEM.
"But I do believe. If a predator like Octavia could diagnose my weakness immediately, a creature like Twilight Velvet would have known for decades. I have been weak, and she is hunting me. I am just... weak."

She couldn't deny it to herself. Every attempt Cadence made to take charge of her own life had derailed. Her time at the university had terminated in scandal because she couldn't say no to a pushy lover-boy. She'd let Celestia coop her up in Canterlot Castle for years and years. She'd let Hauseway and Shining shutter her court. Just that day she'd let Celestia blow off her concerns and she'd let the Ulthar cat slink away unimpeded. Cadence's cheeks burned with embarrassment to think that even Velvet's damn maid had maneuvered her into delivering Octavia to her 'execution'.

"I'm not fit to be anybody's ruler. I tell myself that I'm being nice, and I can afford to forgo my desire for the citizenry I love... but I'm just a pushover." Cadence sighed. "Not going to tell me I'm wrong, Captain Spitfire?" She asked, but the tired pegasus merely averted her eyes and muttered an unintelligible excuse. "If Shining were here he would have undeserved praise to repair my ego. He'd try to show me how all my faults are actually strengths in disguise." Cadence huffed. "Has my problem in life been that I love and admire upright ponies like Shining Armor, rather than ruthless ponies like Twilight Velvet? Peace and love are squandered on this world."

Even Cadence's introspective musings were cowardly when shared with a mare that was unfit (in her tired state) to debate or remember or commentate on them. All Cadence was doing, she knew, was venting- Venting about her own powerlessness when that powerlessness was her own choice. Same as it ever was.
How could Cadence change her life from that?

"Left to myself, this is how I am: Not a demigod, just a mopey girl constantly regretting my last choice. I'm worse at being a leader than you, a pegasus. Why did heaven make us that way?" Cadence continued. "I'm sure I can be better, know I can step up to the moment, act how I'm needed. I can be what the ponies expect from me. Because I've done it before... but scorn is all I get in return... and I can bear through scorn for a while, but then I fold back up. I'm just so pathetic."

Cadence closed her eyes. Isolated, painfully alone... her heart screamed out! She needed somepony to help her work through her feelings, and give her even a little bit of validation. But there was nopony, nopony at all, to be there for her.
Where was Shining Armor? Why had fate conspired to make him disappear when she needed him most?! If Shining was there, he would try to comfort her. It would probably be awkward, and a bit silly, but his compassion and earnestness was matched only by his steadfastness.
Cadence hoped Shining Armor was doing alright.

If Shining Armor wasn't around, could the pegasus suffice? Cadence leaned in towards Spitfire. "Captain. You battled alongside Sir Shining Armor, against the Star. Did Sir Armor conduct himself well?"

But Spitfire wasn't saying anything. She was, not unlike her avian brethren, shocked by overstimulation, and too tired to correctly parse what what Cadence was saying anymore. So Spitfire stood there, staring back.

A good pony would let that beaten and exhausted pegasus sleep. A good pony would have seen the vulnerable mare and taken steps to get her into a better place, where she could be safe.
Candace hovered a hoof over Spitfire's shoulder, but she wasn't sure why.

"Why aren't you listening to me? I'm your princess, Spitfire." Cadence whispered, inaudible even to herself. She wondered if Celestia would tolerate a pony disrespecting them so. Then louder, "I'm owed your unceasing fealty, or at the least your attention. You are delinquent. Are you pleased with yourself?"
She let her outstretched hoof rest on Spitfire's shoulder. The pegasus came alive a bit at the touch, shivering, but did not break her stare.

I'm these ponies' god aren't I?, Cadence thought. Yet she only had one devotee. Ponykind did not respect her. The conspirators like Lightdowser and Gnash fawned on her solely to get her approval. The stature of her rank and heritage was thought of like any barony or dukedom, not something as divine as Celestia's.
Ponies were a herd species, and respect in their societies was earned in diverse ways. As a pony, Amore Cadenza had been less than dirt, but she wasn't a pony any longer. She was an alicorn. She was intrinsically above them. And yet...

"I'm the same creature inside, aren't I. I'm still the pauper filly that hides her face, in case the wrong pony thinks it's too beautiful to belong to such a wretched girl. It's no wonder I'm despised by a species like yours: I remind you of the most disposable of your ilk. I'm just weak." Cadence posed to Spitfire. She sighed. "But I CAN be better."
Cadence stood up, her outstretched hoof hooked under Spitfire's shoulder so she pulled the pegasus up with her.
"Wake up, Captain Spitfire. Your princess is addressing you."

Roughly handled, Spitfire gasped, blinking rapidly, fidgeting her best escape attempt. "Princess-" She stuttered.

"Pony." Cadence. "YOUR PRINCESS IS ADDRESSING YOU."
Instinctively almost, little sparks lanced out of from Cadence's horn, emiting throbbing pinkish magic that lit the alicorn's face in a ghoulish chiaroscuro. "I speak; God obliges you to listen! Tell me how Shining Armor did against the Star!"

Struck by Cadence's magic, Spitfire felt simultaneous shocks all along her body- Her body convulsed and her nerves screamed, but Cadence held her in place, kept her staring eye to eye.
Though her eyes were open Spitfire wasn't seeing Cadence's visage- The burning cavern, the spindly for of Phyte, and the helpless stallion in her grasp. 'STAR STAR STAR SHINING SHINING SHINING' rung in her head.
Spitfire tried to scream but only released a wheeze. She tried to pull away but Cadence's hoof wouldn't let her. Pegasus instinct took over, and she batted at Cadence's head with a wing. Surprised, Cadence released Spitfire, who fell against the crenelations.

Cadence just stood there are watched Spitfire hyperventilate for a few minutes. She looked at her hoof, with which she had restrained Spitfire: She had used her strength to control a struggling pony, binding them if fleetingly... a little more force and she would compel them to obey her whim. A weakling couldn't do that.
"I can be better. There will be a time that ponies like you don't just sluggishly stand up when I enter a room. You will you bow your nose to the stone." Cadence tapped her hoof on the cold castle masonry. "You will respect me like you respect Celestia. You will worship me like you worship Celestia." She sighed, forlorn, imagining despondently how Shining Armor would be put off by her trying to act more regal and assertive. "We don't get a say in this."

"Oh, won't we?" Twilight Velvet called up from the courtyard.

Cadence blinked. Her ego antics had drawn unfortunate attention. "Leave me alone please." She said, refusing to face the mare.

Velvet seemed ready to make a challenge of it.. "Will you make me, or trust fate to do so?" She paused a moment, then laughed to herself. "Very well. You clearly want to be alone with Spitfire right now. Have fun." She made to leave.

A chill ran down Cadence's spine. "Wait." She ordered, turning her head Velvet's direction.

Velvte took a few more steps before she stopped. "I'm a petty mare that doesn't like to be told what to do. You want me, or my help? Or my word? It will displease you."

Cadence hesitated, unsure if she could be forceful with the older mare.

Perhaps sensing an opportunity, Velvet upped the ante. "On the other hoof, I won't go unless you let me- Not because it's an alicorn command, but because a pony in need shouldn't be abandoned."

Cadence glanced from Spitfire (recovering slowly) and Velvet. Was an aphorism and a promise enough to prepare her against a predator? "I don't understand what you want from me, Twilight Velvet."

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't have to trick me into coming here, but you did it anyway, just to make me feel bad." Cadence glared down her snout at Velvet. "What has become of you? If I told your noble allies everything you've done, the way you tortured Mis Octavia, they would have asked me to commit you! You've really pushed the line." Cadence said, finding it difficult to sustain her harshness. "Lady Velvet, I'd say you'd being a bad example, but it's actually a good example of how ponies default to excesses; It justifies the alicorn's discipline and mercy to stop that kind of thing."

"First off, you're not Celestia and you can't pull off that imperious inflection. Cut it out." Velvet chided. "Still I'm surprised you didn't like meeting Octavia. If you took the wrong lesson from it, I'm sorry, but apparently you already knew Shining Armor was alive."

Cadence remained silent, not wishing to reveal more about the Ulthar dreamer than she had to.

Velvet continued. "I don't want anypony to feel bad. You're my friend, and I'm overjoyed that we get to be collaborators going forward. If we, gods forbid, had a falling out it would indeed be very distressing for those poor nobles Lightdowser and Gnash and such. They would stress endlessly over whether you or I is more useful to their interests. It's best we stay on good terms, if only for their sake. Right?"

"Right... Lady Velvet, you were always a cutting wit. You've been getting looser with your talk, and I'm not the only mare who has noticed. Did ponies give you too many compliments?" Cadence asked sharply.

"Think my ego is outpacing my abilities, princess?" Velvet asked pointedly.

"I think it's outpacing your good sense. That game with Octavia was pointlessly mean!" Cadence said.

Velvet shook her head. "Pshaw, you've only ever been the target of discipline. You can't tell me anything about what's pointless."

"Lady Velvet-" Cadence cautioned.

"What?" Velvet interrupted sharply.

While Cadence had hoped to use the moment to get Twilight Velvet to behave less provocatively, Velvet was obviously disinterested in being instructed; True to her word she wanted to lay down the law on Cadence, not the other way around, but the pretense of giving advice had not been long sustained. Cadence was struggling. "I'm ponykind's mercy. Shocking acts and dominating attitudes can't reverse our relationship. I am the fated sovereign, you the fated subject."

Velvet got that look in her eye. "I have many profane things to say about fate, princess. You're not fated to rule me, nor is ponykind fated to worship you. A monster unshackled, as frightening as the Nightmare, did 'free will' escape the Sun's prison and begin hunting ponykind once more. Unlike your alicorn predecessors, you have to earn your position in history." Velvet rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I don't think you're cut out for it Caddy. And that's just how I feel."

What? "Lady Velvet-"

"Silver spooned, don't know if you belong to the gods or the ponies... You're a princess-come-lately who thinks she can tell me what to do?" Velvet scoffed. " 'Pointlessly mean', you say! But the abuse you met out, shaking the the bejesus out of a pony just to feel better, is righteous mercy! Don't make me laugh!"

What was Velvet saying? "You can't possibly think you're helping me with this... this flagrant disrespect. Ponykind has a right to see me at my best, so I have to do better and be better." Cadence contended, cheeks flushed. "Unconditional love and mercy has ruined my life, Lady Velvet. I was silly and didn't understand what alicorn tutelage actually meant: Your species has always been immature and a little bit spoiled- Free will never came into it. I can't be a mercy for the nation if I just get abused. You'd just be the latest abuser, Lady Velvet."

"You think ponykind are the immature ones? I take issue. Cadenza dear, you're not force majeure, you're petit-déjeuner." Velvet said.

Though tempted to demand an apology, Cadence soldiered on. "Y- You're being ridiculous. I embody this nation's amity. When a pony feels love, I feel love."

"That's called having empathy, Cadence." Velvet chortled.

Cadence was getting more than aggravated by the nettling. Why was Velvet trying to upset her? "Why don't you come up here and explain what you really think."

A vicious grin broke across Velvet's face. "Truly?" She levitating herself up to the level of the enceinte, delicately stepping up to Cadence. "Princess, what you see is what you get, and what I see is what I'll say."

"You have a twisted view of the world. Don't you even have a shred of humility, to listen to what your princess says and rectify what she finds displeasing?" Cadence asked.

"You don't scare me nearly enough for all that, Cadence." Velvet said. "But first: Everything everything you suspect of me is true."

Uh oh. Hearing those dire words, Cadence hoped she hadn't bitten off more than she could chew. But what could a middle-aged mare do to her, face-to-face, without any of her tricks or allies prepared? "You are my friend's mother, and we've shared years of amiable acquaintance, but I'm not just another pony and shouldn't be treated like one. Don't I deserve to feel good about my purpose, pride in who I am, and to aspire to be the best ruler I can for you ponies? You don't have the right to try to tear me down, or to drown me in bitterness."

"I mostly agree with you. I do think that kindness, mercy, equanimity, and justice are fundamental to having a virtuous and functioning society. I think you're a good pony who deserves happiness." Velvet's grin tightened, a tell that her rant was about reach a crescendo. "But I refused to be ruled by you or anypony else. I don't respect the alicorn axioms behind your ambitions. I won't bear ANY abuse you deign to heap on me, like you've done to mis Spitfire here, because of your stature or heritage. All divine pretensions will shake and shatter in the course of time."

WHAT? Velvet wasn't just against Cadence personally, but the entire concept of the empire? A daring admission, but not the one Cadence was expecting, and she thought she'd misunderstood. "Lady Velvet be careful about what you say." Cadence cautioned, trying to act harshly, but still recalibrating to Velvet's words. "It's not even just my feelings here- You can't say things like that or ponies will think you are spouting heresy."

Velvet glanced toward Spitfire, who had stopped hyperventilating as was slouched against the embrasure. "I am, Cadence."

Cadence blinked.

"I am, in mind, word, and deed, an enemy of the Sun's dogmas. I am a secular and sacral criminal against Celestia's empire." Velvet confirmed. "We can still be friends. Act right and we can even be allies. My first ask is that you don't bully ponies."

"I see." Was all Cadence thought to say as she fought to maintain composure. It really was one outrage after another with this mare. "You don't mean that, Lady Velvet. You're just trying to get under my skin. You wrongly think you can tear me into blabbering bits and be owed a favor when you build me back up-" Her face reddening, Cadence resolved to give as good as she got. "-cooing and soothing like a matronly mare does. I'm not your foal to try pedagogical tricks on, Lady Velvet. I'm supposed to be your sovereign and god! Sompony is going to punish you for this, sooner than you might expect."

"Yeah sure. Might even be Mis Spitfire here who punishes me as soon as she finishes playing dead." Velvet rolled her eyes.

It was too much. Cadence was feeling bad, and couldn't build up a good response. 'You take mercy lightly?', she wanted to say. Only she knew that Velvet had been right, and she could not perform the power and command in her voice that Celestia could.
If Cadence was ever going to build up confidence in her ability to command and rule, ponies like Twilight Velvet were best avoided. "I'm regretting not letting you go."

Spitfire was regretting it too. She'd hoped talking to Cadence would be the less stressful option, but she had been roughhoused and ended up having to listen to Twilight Velvet anyway. The older mare's heretical talk made her stomach churn; but maybe that was the jolt to the nerves Cadence had given her.
"I tried to warn the admiral. I tried to tell her this city wasn't worth it." Spitfire remained slouched against the crenelation. "... But..." She tried to attract Cadence's gaze. "Is we worth it for you, princess?"

"You could kill me where I stand and it wouldn't save the alicorn empire, Mis Spitfire. Not even the entire Cloudsdale fleet could." Velvet grunted, glancing between Spitfire and Cadence. "Pony to pony, Cadence, I've tried to be straightforward with you. The empire you're trying to conform to is doomed, and I have a great interest to make sure the structures of alicorn rule aren't replicated by Celestia's successors. When I hear you spouting off that dogmatic bullshit it upsets me, because I don't want to be your enemy. You're a good girl, and it's be a shame if you died for a discredited ideology or a jealous god."

"You... You would kill me." Cadence said, little tingles of fear dancing down her neck. "You'd kill me... or other ponies who want to preserve Celestia's throne? Her justice?!?"

"I don't think that throne should exist, Cadence. It'll crack, and with leverage I can shatter it." Velvet said. "I have a long, boring, explanation, but in essence the alicorn guardianship over ponykind is a sham." Velvet nudged Spitfire. "You'd benefit from hearing too, I think."

"Respectfully buck off." Spitfire knocked Velvet's hoof away.

"You'd overthrow me for your ideology." Cadence lamented.

"You don't rule anything! That's what I'm trying to get through to you, Cadence, is that you have the option to reject complicity in the alicorn subjugation of ponykind." Velvet shouted, irritated that she was not making her point understood. "You have the chance to BE MORE than the tool through which the Sun dominates this planet, and instead be a mare of her own making." She poked Cadence in the breast with a hoof. "Everything the empire has offered you, I will knock away. Everything Celestia has provided you, I will sweep away. Thus deprived you will willingly repudiate the ponies who willingly suborning themselves to the regressive historical institutions of the empire, and you will implore them to liberate themselves rather than live for the pleasure of the alicorn! Crown yourself not in alicorn glory, but in the righteousness and modesty that befits an empathetic pony who is merciful to her fellow because it is the right thing to do."

"Oh." Cadence said.
Oh indeed. Twilight Velvet was absolutely, positively, confirmed, a seditionist and infidel. It was making Cadence as nausious as Spitfire to try to keep up with Velvet's fantasies.
But Cadence had rapidly come to understand that Velvet really liked to tell lies. The sweeping vision of pony 'liberation' that Velvet was espousing, even if reflecting parts of Velvet's genuine beliefs, could still cloud her intentions. Dwelling on it for a moment, Cadence realized that there was only one important detail she needed to know: Whether Velvet was going to try to hurt her. "How much of this do you really believe?"

"I believe enough." Velvet said. "I'm not all that committed to any particular fantasy. But I really would like you to come around to, or at least be open minded to, my perspective. I can explain as much as you want."

Fantasy...
Cadence was struck that Velvet had repeated her own thoughts back to her, and yet the discussion really was concerning fantasy. They both had fantasy, or perhaps several, fantasies of how the future should be. Cadence wondered if she herself had the freedom to fantasize... to dream... or whether she was committed forever to the strictures and norms of alicorn rulership forever. She was beating herself up over being weak and failing to be the mercy the empire needed of her- But was this an aspiration that she actually wanted for herself, or was this a desire she had been duplicitously tricked into? What did Amore Cadenza want out of her life? How did she define herself outside of her alicorn-ness?
Had the pony inside Cadence been totally destroyed by the alicorn? Would there be anything left if the alicorn was stripped away from her?
Cadence suddenly felt a hollowness in her breast where Velvet had jabbed her. She was... very afraid. Her nerves tempted her to run her hoof through her mane, to nibble her lip, to perform other childish nervous ticks, but she retained most of her composure.

"Lady Velvet-" Cadence had to stop after only a few words to hold her composure. She had been so sure Twilight Velvet posed a risk to her life... But had she (or the Ulthar cat) mis-interpreted the warning from the dream cognoscenti? Was Twilight Velvet instead a risk to her soul?
Casting her mind around desperately, Cadence tried to think of how to protect herself, to throw off or distract Velvet; She, an alicorn, needed to find the right shibboleth against an old mare! It was almost funny, if it wasn't distressing. "I can't betray Princess Celestia. She... She's both my protector and my tutor. I can't defy her."

From brash, to confused, to terrified- Spitfire had seen Velvet break the princess's spirit; she was feeling broken too. The empire was doomed? What could that possibly mean? An immortal sovereign, a rich capital, colonies around the world... how could a state as powerful as Equestria be in danger of collapse?
But after what she'd seen that day... Spitfire was starting to believe. What was real tomorrow was not the same as what was real yesterday. For all Spitfire knew, she would see a mythical monster or be told to trust an outlandish impossibility, and have the world recontextualized all over again. Hell, if Nightmares and Stars were real, could centaurs and quilin be real?

"Oh, right, Celestia." Velvet frowned. The older mare scrutinized Cadence's expression. She tapped her hoof, and after a moment's silence took a few measured steps back, relieving some of the great tension Cadence was feeling. "I understand."

"You do?"

Velvet shrugged. "Maybe. I was born with expectations placed on me too. I won't opine on it, but I understand how anxious defiance or rebellion can be. For an alicorn, adolescent rebellion probably caries divine perils as well." She rubbed her chin. "Well, I'm sorry we can't agree. Hopefully our disagreements won't stymie our other commitments to each other- especially if something dramatic happens."

That was all well and good- For if the Magoria conspiracy went off without a hitch, and both Lightdowser and Gnash were installed to position in Canterlot Castle, they would both get what they want- But why?
Cadence closed her eyes, thinking. "Lady Velvet, I don't think that's true. You're lying to me. Ally, collaborator, cooperator, or conspirator, or anything in between, I foresee you betraying me, and thereby causing me great harm. Dramatic happenings like murder are not uncommon to you."

Velvet's expression soured. "Are you going to make us regret this moment Cadence?" She seemed to already regret giving Cadence breathing room.

"If you are intent on being 'liberated' then how can I survive? You want the power and position to defy hierarchy and coersion from mortal and god alike, so nothing can command you. Anypony could plainly see you intend to rule alone, and to destroy any creature able to challenge you." Cadence said. "Therefore you have to kill me, and Celestia too."

"This is tiring, princess. That nightmare told me she couldn't let me leave thinking I'm her enemy. That's a lot like how I feel right now." Velvet said calmly, but visibly angry. "I am trying to do you a favor. Must I spell everything out for you? I offered to before, now I'm obliged to!"

"You ramble but is it all duplicitous? How can I ever trust a mare that threatens my life!" Cadence raised her voice to match.

"T- That is hogwash! If you actually listen to me-" Velvet halted herself, grinding her teeth and starting again. "You've conjured that threat out of thin air. Why would you think I want to hurt you?"

"I was forewarned." Cadence menaced, raising a hoof as if to strike the mare. "The cognoscenti of the dreamscape told me everything."

The remark didn't just trip Velvet up; It shattered Velvet's composure, and her demeanor instantly changed. "The who What? No..." She stuttered, then laughed in disbelief. She brushed away Cadence's hoof and leaned in, looking for a lie, but Cadence was expressionless. "What do you mean, they told you everything?"

Cadence had the distinct impression that she had just said something much more significant than she had intended. "An intermediary told me my life was at risk." She said, trying to keep her forceful tone yet very much taken aback by Velvet's sudden shift. She thought about making a more forceful accusation but held off out of renewed doubts about the Ulthar dreamer's probity.

"Oh... I... I'm gladdened." Velvet leaned into Cadence's hoof and pushed into a hug. "I wish I'd known, But I ought to have known better.

"What?" Cadence was too confused to even consider returning the odd hug. What the buck was going on?!

"I was being a hypocrite too. You have the soul of a sweet, senseless, naive pony, not an alicorn." She kissed Cadence on the cheek and backed away. "I was rough with you. Honestly I... I've been so in my head about what you are who what you represent, that I let it ruin what should be a meaningful moment, and blinded me to seeing face-to-face the mare you really are."

Cadence was getting whiplash from the churn of emotion she felt. "Lady Velvet I am an alicorn."

"Oh hush." Velvet chuckled.

Okay, okay, okay. Cadence pressed a hoof to her head, sure Velvet's abrupt saccharine kindness was just as much a manipulation as the abuse moments before. Yes, yes, it HAD to be. It was much like Celestia had treated her earlier that day! Somewhere underneath the tactical phrasing and obscuring rhetoric was Velvet's intention, which shaped the instrumentality of her words.
Staring into Velvet's brilliant eyes, Cadence thought she could piece together the truth at last. Twilight Velvet was on the warpath against the alicorns. "Did you mean what you said."

Velvet shrugged with a guilty little smile. "Eh, perhaps. For legal purposes, I was joking."

The secret was out. Twilight Velvet was going to overthrow the empire. What astonishing hubris, what unparalleled ambition, to not only harbor such thoughts, not just to put her plans into motion, but to BRAG to an alicorn about it!
There had to be a hundred capital offenses Velvet had admitted to within the last five minutes. She was brazenly flouting the fundamental laws of the the empire and its dogmas.
"Lady Velvet, I'm not a good enough friend for you to tell me all those things and expect that I keep it to myself. I have to protect myself from you, s- somehow."

"Come on, mis Cadence. You are going to tattle and try to get me in trouble? My dear, I thought you were old enough to have grown out of that kind of behavior." Velvet clucked her tongue. "We should be past this, above this. If the cognoscenti of the dreamscape saw fit to send you a warning, you must be worth keeping alive. You can aspire to be more than a slave to this teetering imperial system." A dark look passed over her. "A smart girl like you should be able to realize this. Ought I sequester you away so you have time to think?"

Cadence took a step back. She feel a great terror as she thought about Octavia, and the methods that Velvet must have gone through to turn the erstwhile assassin compliant.
"C- Captain Spitfire." Cadence was confused why her voice was trembling? Wasn't she dozens of times stronger than the middle-aged mare. "Restrain Twilight Velvet please."

Spitfire remained slumped against the embrasure, inert, eyes darting between the unicorn and the alicorn.

"Dame Spitfire has had a difficult day- I'm partially to blame, as are you. It's alright for her to sit this one out and let the junior princess fight her own war. You stand to win your own peace too, Cadence." Velvet said. "You have an important choice to make, Caddy. It might just be the most important choice in your life."
Velvet jumped up onto the wall embrasure, then onto the merlon, so she was physically higher and looking down on Cadence. The moonlight on her seemed to intensify, signaling her out against the deep dark space of the night sky behind her.
"Rejoice, there's hope for you. Like all ponies you've had the unenviable burden of trying to discover yourself as a person while suffering under the crushing weight of expectations: Pony society, imperial rule, and divine hierarchy impose themselves on us before we're even old enough to recognize ourselves in the mirror. You had it particularly hard, and I'm proud of the mare you've become. You can be a decent mare.
"Or, you can throw it all away."

From the north, a deep tolling bell.

Velvet nodded. "There it is again. Recognize it, princess!" More bells joined, an enlivening chorus. "Hear the alarmed pleas of a forsaken species, trying to reach the ears of their gods, but also warning each other of the reckoning they are do if their prayers are actually heard. There's no good comparison to any other species, but I'd like for you to think of it like the squeak of squirrels while a hawk is passing overhead.
"They're not for you, Cadence. They're not for the moon either. Ponykind has a vestigial race memory of their divine conqueror a thousand years gone, and when they pray they pray to the alicorn empress who looks the part, the Sun alicorn." Velvet's grin twisted to become truly manic. "She's not listening."

It was time. THE time. Cadence had doubted and been proven wrong.
"Celestia is leaving us" Cadence uttered.

"Lo," Velvet pointed out, away from the city, away from the plateau, toward the deep dark skies and the sleeping valley under it. "If you reject ponykind and submit to the system that 'ruined your life', that is your direction! Go to her and confirm your fate as a slave to the alicorn gods and scorn forever the chance to relate to your fellow pony. There flies Celesti-aaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Velvet's words became a startled shriek, as she toppled backwards off the merlon, into the space between the enceinte and the star bastions.

Spitfire, who'd pushed Velvet, leaned over the wall to spy where the unicorn had landed. "Partially to blame? PARTIALLY TO BLAME?! You're entirely to blame you damn witch!" Spitfire growled. "You're such a weasel, Lady Velvet, acting detached from consequences of your actions, as though you're not accountable for anything. You talk like your an agent of history but you're just greedy pyscho! I oughta knock you out!"

Cadence's eyes were still on the dark skies where Velvet had pointed, the rolling chorus of bells growing as more and more of Canterlot took up the alarm. It was really happening.
Empress Celestia, princess of the sun, ruler of Equestria, was abandoning ponykind.

"And I..." Cadence mouthed.
Celestia, oh Celestia.
Cadence pulled Spitfire from the edge with her magic. "Make sure Lady Velvet is okay. Keep her alive until I get back. Understood?"

"Uh, no? What the buck are-" Spitfire's sputtering was interrupted by Cadence launching into the air. The alicorn princess swooped over castle Magoria's out bastion wall, out into the deep dark sky, where an airship could be seen heading south. "Princess! Princess!" Spitfire tried to vault over the embrasure and chase after Cadence, but was uncoordinated in her exhaustion and tripped over it, falling right beside Velvet.

The Regina Libertatis had been one of the largest and fastest airships at its completion, with the hull decorations and luxurious accommodations befitting royal prestige. It's sleek design had inspired the succeeding generations of airship which had come to surpass it, like the sky brigs used by the the Equestrian Trade Company in the east, and the mighty race-built strato-galleons of the Cloudsdale fleet. Though slightly outdated and poorly maintained, Regina Libertatis was still one of the fastest flying vessels in the world.

Not fast enough for Celestia's satisfaction. She stood on the aftercastle, where she could see Canterlot, the Mountain, and the pale moon above them. A lance of Imperial Knights waited around her, warding off anypony from getting too close.

The crew was scurrying around, moving miscellania below decks and pulling up the sails.
"Captain on the deck!" The watch officer bellowed.

A pony's aggravated stomping shook the ship. "What a bloody disgrace. We should be making 15 knots by now." The captain came out swaggering. The middle-aged pegasus was orange with a light blue mane. "Why is that sail not as full as when I went belowdecks?! Heave-ho and get that damn main tightened!" He straightened his uniform and jaunted up the aftercastle stairs to address Celestia. "You grace us princess. This crew is more used to hosting dignitaries and parading than an honest night of sailing, but we're ready to serve. We'll get you to the Ponyville Bend before light, princess."

Celestia tilted her head his way, "Incorrect, Captain Spearhead. We are going too slowly." She said, then returned to watching the night sky.

Captain Spearhead frowned. "Are you sure princess? I set the course myself." But he saw by her stonewalling that Celestia was adamant. He turned to the nearest crewpony and pushed them along. "Your princess needs you to HUSTLE, gentleponies! Run out the studding sails! Run up the foresails. Get the spinnaker NOW! If I don't see a spin out in the next minute you'll have triple watches for a year! Get on it, ye damn breezehounds, on!"

The crew shivered at their captain's bellowing and redoubled their efforts. Soon every mast, boom, and spar was straining. The Regina Libertatis's pearl white sails, light blue in the moonlight, looked like wave-beset oceans for how they rippled in the wind.

One of the ponies in the rigging called down. "Cap we don't have enough pegasi onboard to maintain the moonraker!"

"Then I'll do it myself." Captain Spearhead grunted. He wrestled out of his coat and tossed his cap towards his cabin. He turned to the IHG beside Celestia. "Some of you knights have wings. Are you going to let your princess suffer from lack of sail area?!"

After looking to their princess to see if she would contradict him, the pegasi knights shed their armor and followed the captain to the top of the gas envelope.
The Regina Libertatis was flying fleetly, and though it was difficult to gauge speed it was certainly not less than 60 knots. It was a fantastic pace for the aged vessel, though the shakes and shivers running through the deck made all the airiners fear that it was more than the structure could safely withstand; they shook and shivered with her.

"Good gracious." Captain Spearhead sheltered in the crow's nest. "The katabatic is pushing us right along! You'd have to go stratospheric to find wind faster than this on a weekday's night, and you'd have to have a modern hull to survive it! Fast enough, princess? Haw haw!" The excitement was infectious. The crewponies delighted at their accomplishment.

"No." Celestia whispered to herself, focussing on a small dot coming from the direction of Canterlot. "Not fast enough."

Across the kilometers, beyond the distance that even their alicorn eyes could distinguish shapes, Cadence met Celestia's stare. The junior princess was bearing down on the airship, streaking through the night sky on furious wingbeats, hooves reaching forward for aerodynamic profile. The Regina Libertatis was quick, but she was quicker, much quicker. There were few creatures alive that could outfly Cadence.
Within moments Cadence was upon the airship. She banked around and circled once, eliciting a gasp from the crew in the rigging, Then Cadence banked back towards the aftercastle, and alighted on the taffrail. "Princess!" She yelled.

There was Celestia. "Princess." Celestia bowed her head.

"I thought i wasn't possible. I convinced myself that it was lies, all lies, and there was no way you'd actually do it. No, no, it just wasn't possible, I said to myself!" Cadence said, her eyes wide and her voice frantic. She hopped down and strode forward. "The signs were there, but I still doubted, because if I believed I'd be admitting our flaws and opening myself up to sin!"

"Caddy calm down." Celestia voice was calm and consoling. "I don't understand what has you worked up. Please, tell me what the issue is."

Why had Celestia been treating her this way, Cadence seethed. It was lies and gaslighting nonstop- Cadence firmly felt she didn't deserve it. "We both know what this is. You can't treat me like a filly, telling me white lies or give me instructive deceptions of convenience. You have to give me the full truth! It would be bad enough it you were just manipulating me, but this concerns the ponies of the entire nation."

Celestia frowned, ever so slightly. "What do you know about the nation, Mis Amore?"

What indeed... "I led a mare to her execution today. I gave my blessing to a coup, and I let a mare get away with two murders. Then I assaulted a mare." Cadence reported. "A mix of serious and adolescent activities, sure, but it's everything that's needed from an alicorn. I have been what the ponies need from me, while YOU have not!" Teeth clenched, Cadence began to shiver in losing fight to hold back tears. "You haven't been there for any of us! Where were you when Shining Armor needed you? Where were you when I needed you? Shutting me away in the tower could have been tolerable if only you EVER came to see me, teach me, and tell me what I could do better. Was little Twilight Sparkle SO much more stimulating that she was granted her dreams, while I was given nothing?!"

"You have no dreams, Cadence, because you are an alicorn. You are something more than mortal, but also so much lesser. You do not experience life in all its wonders and horrors, but instead exist as a representation of something, a floating signifier that yet thinks and breaths. You do not 'live' per se. Instead you are a personification, a shibboleth for all the stupid mortals. You existing makes their life easier, but that's about it. Don't get an ego about the horns and wings, Cadence, it's just to mark you out for them." Celestia said. "You are embarrassingly juvenile. How am I supposed to be honest with a creature like you, who does not understand her own nature?"

"I-" Cadence's words stuck in her throat.

"You don't want to be an alicorn princess. You want to be a pony queen, with all the trappings of mortality but given the respect and authority you think you deserve." Celestia continued. "So why didn't you accept Twilight Velvet's offer? Stop pretending you want to be an alicorn? Go let Velvet saw off your horn and wings, pass under her yoke and allow her to glorify herself with your humiliation. It would hurt but then you wouldn't have any responsibility, nothing to answer for."

It was all too much. Heaving on caught breaths, Cadence could only answer the most basic part of Celestia's abuse. "S- She... Twilight Velvet... She wants to kill me! The cat had a message from the dreamscape... that Velvet was going to kill me!"

"Oh... No, Cadence, that warning wasn't about Velvet. It was about me." Celestia blasted Cadence with her magic.

Cadence was struck in the breast and careened backwards, smashing through the taffrail and falling into the deep dark sky.

"Alicorn down." Cadence murmured. "Goodbye Caddy... goodbye." She returned her gaze to the moon. Was it just Celestia's involuntary shivers, or was the moon vibrating, a rhythmic little shake like the sneering laughs of a sinister onlooker?
Cadence turned to the shocked IHG knights behind her. "Must I always take matters into my own hooves? Help adjust those sails. If we do not make it to Ponyville before sunrise all of you will perish."

The bells of Canterlot rolled on for hours, Lightdowser couldn't figure out who was supposed to be listening. He walked the circumplatular road back towards the skydock, Iillor behind him as his sole guard. There was nopony else on the enshadowed city streets- The ponies of Canterlot had responded to the alarm of the bells by shutting themselves away individually in their homes and waiting for somepony else to do something.

"Councilor Prosser promised me that Princess Celestia was okay. What is going on?" Lightdowser wondered.

"Either the councilor and by extension the junior princess were lying, or Celestia is okay." Iillor remarked. "Maybe you don't understand your empress as well as you thought."

Lightdowser scowled. "Quiet that heretical chirping. You are not clever enough to corrupt me." He looked back at Iillor to see what she had to say for herself, but she only answered him with a shrug. "Bah."

"I don't know why you care about Celestia. None of your coup plans factor her in whatsoever. It makes no difference whether she's shut away in her tower or joyriding in the Canter." Iillor continued.

Any pony schooled in equestrian politics knew the right thing to say. "I know where that line of logic leads. It implies the alienation of the princess from the operation of the government. The rulers will see no need to for the princess, but will instead for around the princess. Eventually pony ambition will legally usurp the princess, and then everything holy about our government will be lost." Lightdowser explained. "We are already experiencing the deleterious effects of faithless charlatans being in charge. It will only get worse if the pretense of alicorn wardship is destroyed. The morals of the nation will be destroyed and will will consume ourselves in anarchic hooliganism."

"I understand but I disagree." Iillor said. "I think the pretense is the problem. It's a lie that twists up ponies and makes them behave erratically. It's better for every pony to act for themselves, and rule how they want to, rather than how they think they're expected to."

"That is such prattle coming from a shapeshifter. You exist as a series of lies." Lightdowser scoffed.

"I exist as a series of truths." Iillor retorted.

Lightdowser was not swayed. "Nonsense." He shook his head. "I hope Rusty wasn't woken up by the bells. We have a big day tomorrow."

"Urg..." The first thing Prosser felt on waking up was the throbbing in his skull, the delayed effect of all the drinking. Then he felt the sore spot on his cheek from his collapse. "I- urp- thought I was better than this."
He was still in Castle Magoria. A few IHG knights were passed out on the floor and slumped against the bookcases around the parlor.
"Party's over? Well then... time to head back to the castle."

Getting off the couch, Prosser tried to remember the way back to the stairs. Only one open room had any light as he passed it, where Foaly Flux was sitting reading a book, an old chivalric tale. "Mm?" Flux turned at the sound. "Sleep well councilor?"

"Not really. I had fitful dreams of dead mares. Morbid stuff." Prosser hovered at the door.
Behind Flux, the window offered an unparalleled view of Canterlot. The curve of the city wall along the edge of the plateau holding in dense Inner City, the soaring heights of Canterlot Castle, the elegance of the Old Town, and the mountain above it all.
"The moon has almost set." Prosser approached the window, but had to retreat after the moon on his face proved much brighter than he'd anticipated. "What's that sound? Bells again?"

"Yes. There's whispers out princess has flown the coop." Flux confirmed. "Honestly, my earth pony friend, I don't like you very much. You never come to my parties." He shifted in his chair. "That's why I'm not going to let you down easy. Twilight Velvet is going to assassinate you unless you stop trying to rile up Rain Gnash and Sharphoof Lightdowser. If Princess Celestia really has left, surely you can accommodate her."

"I see." Prosser mumbled. "I should be going then." He took a few steps towards the door. "What happened to the grey mare, Octavia."

"Dead for real this time? Or, maybe not. We might hear her music again." Flux shrugged. "Can you see yourself out? That's a good chap." He returned to his book.

"Be seeing you then." Prosser departed.

Cadence was at the edge of a clear blue stream in the middle of a hilly forest. The ambient light around her was low and the skies were overcast, leaving the air feeling cool in the light wind through the trees.

"Hello? Hello?!" Cadence looked around. She didn't remember how she came to be in such a place. Hadn't she been flying or something? Flying in the night? "Where am I?"

Her surroundings didn't look like the topography of the Canter. If anything it reminded her of her home, in the hinterland headwaters of the Crystal River in north Equestria. But she hadn't been back to the north in years...
The longer she looked the more inconsistencies Cadence felt in her surroundings. It was eerily silent, with the wind lacking and rustle and the stream making no burbling. The low twilight of the forest was completely even, with no shadows being cast; Indeed the cloudy skies also seemed to hold their own strange luminescence with no hint of a Sun.

"Is somepony there?" Cadence didn't know what chance there would be anypony else in the middle of the mysterious forest, so she chose a direction and started galloping. "Please, somepony!"

The longer she ran the more foggy the forest became, so she could barely see the other side of the stream. Cadence's alarm grew as she began to see dark figures on that opposing bank, bipedal shadows that filled the silent air with low mewls as the alicorn passed them by.
Taking a chance, Cadence veered from the course of the stream, delving into the foggy forest. She had to get away, find her way back... back home?

Cadence came upon a clearing in the trees, where the mist was less dense. At the center of the clearing was a small marble plinth supporting a set of stairs- The impossible stairs rose step by step unsupported into the canopy and beyond, disappeared into the cloudy sky.

"This place is a dream?" Cadence wondered. "No, that should be possible! Alicorns can't dream! And yet..."
Cadence approached the plinth and stair. She began to feel sensation where only the impression of sight had led her before, a chill that began at her snout and spread back as she got closer to the stair.

Cadence set a hoof on the plinth and looked up- And then Cadence was in the mysterious forest anymore, nor even on any place that resembled the terrestrial earth, but surrounded by a vast black void atop a circular stone platform, the roof of a vast tower that jutted up from the dark emptiness- And standing just a few hooves away, inscrutable yet clearly looking upon Cadence with curiosity, was a luminous being of energy with the profile of a pony, that from hoof to horn and wingtip to wingtip was the shape of Celestia herself but bleached of feature and detail- And the entity soon made its assessment, and turned away from Cadence disdainfully.

"You are not fit to purpose. Too developed yet too little grown. Love ill compliments the Celestiaan." A voice spoke through Cadence's head. "Time, it seems, gave something to the Celestiaan that necessitated you. This one is yet without time, forsooth: This sacrifice will not suffice. You rule nothing worth having. Begone. Perhaps one day you will be invested again."

Cadence woke up with her spine and the back of her head numb, the cold against the hard floor. When she opened her eyes she saw that alicorn shape again, turned away with great wings spread- The great marble statue of the temple transept depicting Celestia the First, overlooking one of her holy relics. The statuary and the buttressed ceiling above flickered in the light of the hundreds of candles around the temple.

Somewhere above, the temple's great bell was sending vibrations down the building into the foundation. Sitting up and looking around Cadence saw several chaplains watching her, with several more sleeping in the pews.
"Hello." Cadence gave a little wave.

The young chaplains looked absolutely terrified. One of the them ran away into the rectory, and led the older deacon back a few seconds later. The deacon approached Cadence and gave a deep bow. "My princess." She whispered.

"I was just-" Cadence let of a breath she hadn't been holding. "The skies, then a... forest." She had to get her thoughts straight, compose herself, be princessly. "The bells are still going." She sighed. "The alarmed pleas of a forsaken species."

"Princess, are you okay? You were not-" The deacon nervously looked back at the chaplains as if for reassurance. "You were not hale. Some thought you were, well, deceased." She coughed. "The unicorns that brought you threatened us not to send for a chirurgeon."

Murder on the Regina Libertatis- Cadence looked back at the stoney expression of Celestia I, saw again the princess who speared her through the chest, felt again the attack that had knocked her back and out- the heat and force- and how her sternum and ribs had shattered, and the way her body had been blown apart in all the same ways it would have if struck by a cannonball. Killer apathy, alicornicide.
Then to be taken and apparently dumped unceremoniously in the temple, unattended but by bystanders ecclesiastic... Cadence felt a deep, deep humiliation, deeper than anything Twilight Velvet had said to her. She looked the end of the temple, where Fancy Pants's closed coffin still lay in state under the apse, abandoned since events had raced past the funeral: Cadence felt a morbid kinship to the desecrated corpse.

"Nopony knows that I am here? Not even the prelate?" Cadence asked, and the deacon shook her head. "It must remain that way as long as I refuge here. Any pony who wishes me ill is certain not to look for me here."

"I... I suppose that could be done, princess. We can stop services and keep everypony here for as long as you need." The deacon said.

If Cadence was going to resurrect some of her dignity she had to find someplace to stand other than Celestia I's chancel. She levitated the cathedra away from the chancel high altar to set it off to the side of the bema, and trotted over to it. "I will need a bed at least, preferably my own room, a desk and such, but otherwise I would not impose on you ponies."
She took a seat on the cathedra. "Thank you for looking over me while I recuperated. I don't have the energy to talk any more. Let me know when you make my accommodations."

Dismissed by their princess, most of the chaplains wandered off, but the deacon remained. "Princess, are you in danger? Are we in danger?" She asked. "The imperial knights could help-"

"Was I unclear? I am hiding here." Cadence asked sharply. "If you help, you will be more my protector than the IHG. If you can't or won't then I'll leave. Ponykind will be alone." She subtly turned her gaze to the grand altar, where the sub and its manifested princess was depicted in artistic grandure. "Who are you?"

"Your servant, princess. We're all your servants. I just don't understand." The deacon said hurriedly. "I'm sorry. I know its not my place." She cleared her throat. "We will clear as much of the parochial quarters for you as we can right away! You needn't languish here my princess."

"Languish?" Cadence laughed softly. "This is my court." And nopony could deprive her from it, as long as she had loyal listeners. "I said, make my accommodations; but there is no rush. Pondering the divine, as a princess does, is alike done here or there." She held up her hoof to halt the deacon before she ran off. "One question: Who was the unicorn who dumped me here?"

The deacon sighed. "They did not give their name, princess. We were expecting a castle messenger to come and order the bourdon bell silenced, or some such, but they dropped you and fled as soon as we approached, barking their sinister warning not to get assistance."

"Yes, but what did they look or sound like?" Cadence asked. Whoever had dropped her in the temple had meant to send her a message. Interpreting that message depended on who the messenger was.
Were it Sharphoof Lightdowser, he was messaging to lay low until his clique executed the coup and made the castle ready for her.
Were it Twilight Velvet, she was messaging to cloister herself as punishment for going after Celestia, until Velvet saw fit to reach out again.
Were it Shining Armor, he was messaging that she should avert her eyes until Canterlot was cleared out of enemies. That last possibility made Cadence's heart yearn.

"They, princess. Two unicorns, both mares, spry so probably younger. They tried had to stay in the shadows so we didn't see them well, but gamine that spoke had a Canterlot accent. The other one had glasses." The deacon said.

Uh, oh. "You're sure they were unicorns? You're sure they weren't say, bipedal creatures crawling with their arms?" Cadence asked.

"They had horns and hooves, princess." The deacon said, disconcerted from the question.

So the Ulthar-skin dreamer was already blending in. The identity of the 'gamine' was obvious but the second pony, glasses, was frightening to consider. Had Sunset Shimmer found a collaborator or had she brought an ally form the other side?
"Thank you mis. Please tell the carillonneur to stop. Canterlot needs its sleep. Dismissed."
Cadence lay her head against the back of the cathedra and closer her eyes. The plots and schemes of the material world were overlapped with those of other dimensions. Now that Celestia had flown the coop, the predators were pouncing, either to catch their prey in flight, or to raid the undefended roost.

Having her chair overlooking the dark temple was the most dominion Cadence had had in a month, it seemed. It was not much, but for the moment it was hers to enjoy. She wasn't cut out for dominating an empire that wasn't ready to accept her. From what Velvet said, there might not be an empire for long anyway.
Thinking Shining Armor had recovered her had been such a bitter fantasy. When Cadence couldn't save herself all she'd really wished was that somepony she liked was moving with agency- Instead that wretched Sunset Shimmer was on the scene.

After too long the temple bells stopped ringing, and the other bells of Canterlot followed suite. The city could start thinking of things besides Celestia, and if apocalyptic strife was really on the horizon perhaps they would be thinking of everything except Celestia.
There would be no mercy for the condemned species. For the first time Cadence felt a real sorrow for somepony besides herself. She held back tears but only just.

The dousing of the bells had brought Canterlot its witching hour silence. However, the ponies who had much to be anxious over stayed anxious.

While other cloisters might work through the night on their illuminations and study by lamp or candle, the Solar Monastery went totally dark. As dedicated to their god's movements as her inhibitions, the solar monks fastidiously set and rose with the light- But since Cadence's flight back to Canterlot there was no chance Manered could ever relax.

A solar monk would usually bolt up their window at night, but Manered was letting the Moon in. The editions of Classical Histories and Predictions and Prophesies on his desk sat bookmarked and dog-eared, incoherent notes scribbled on some papers nearby. Manered was not feeling well at all. He was pretty sure he knew why the bells of Canterlot had been ringing and it portended terrible things. He wanted to do more than dread the future but nothing came to mind.

Like many of the other endeavors of his youth, Manered had come to dislike politics. The monastic life had made him a true believer that ponies could learn the guidance of the sun by observation and self-reflection, but instead the civilization and sophistication of ponykind's society and government had meant most ponies could only approach the divine through institutions. The divine Sun had given the ponies a holy avatar to worship and be guided by and they had chosen to shut her away in a castle and become the true rulers as intermediators to her revelations.
He had come to despise the byzantine bureaucratic system that most ponies had to navigate to feel the Sun's designs, that the devoted pony. Researching alongside Cadence had reinforced that notion.

He more and more sympathized with traditionalists: The institutions and bureaucracy that had grown up around the Imperial Court over the centuries were thorny vines, both choking the princessly prerogative and keeping the ponies away from their divine sovereign. Feigned sun devotion from the first years of his monastic imprisonment had become genuine, and Manered trusted alicorn guidance over any of the petty viziers that had inserted themselves over time. The trappings of civilization that had necessitated the sophistication of government had really made ponykind so much less sophisticated, so much more venal, and could be well blamed for bringing the empire to the edge. Modernity was incompatible with ponykind's morality and honor.

Trying to find help at the castle from Shining Armor and Princess Cadenza might have been well intentioned, but it had turned out to be a fool's errand. He wasn't that ideologically committed or consistent, but Manered felt to his core that Equestria's salvation couldn't be found in Canterlot.

Chapter 19: Scattered Thoughts

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 20: Good Company

“I don’t think we’re at the cute-ceañera anymore.” Apple Bloom peered over the edge of the tower into the infinite black mist. The tortured wails and tortuous jeers of the ponies above and below them echoed menacingly. “What were we doin before we woke up here?”

“Were we drinking the punch?.” Scootaloo said. “My mom says the punch makes fillies go crazy.”

“Your mom ain’t got the best track record for complete truths.” Apple Bloom snickered.

“Where have I seen one of these before?” Sweetie Belle stared into one of the many roiling faces gracing the malignant form of a Manifestation, hovering passively above her. “It reminds me of Rarity for some reason.”

“Don’t be silly. Rarity don’t look anything like that.” Apple Bloom retreated from the edge to face Sweetie Belle. “She’s only got one face.”

“Not like that stupid!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “Like, Rarity told me something.”

“And sir creepy here reminds you of whatever it was Rarity said?” Scootaloo asked.

“It’s Mis Creepy to you, little foal. Or Lady Creepy, actually.” The Manifestation said.

“She sounds like that pony from Canterlot!” Apple Bloom jumped.

“Lady Sparkle, you mean.” Sweetie Belle corrected. “Wait a minute, now I remember what Rarity said! She said that Lady Sparkle was actually a many-faced, floating, dream-eating, demon!”

Scootaloo scratched her nose, cynically. “Really? Hey, mis creepy! Are you Lady Sparkle?”

“It depends on your point of view.” The manifestation said, having to raise her voice to speak over a particularly loud scream of agony from nearby. “I could understand why Rarity would think so.”

“How could anypony be mistaken for you?” Sweetie Belle asked, confused.

“It must be the voice.” Scootaloo guessed.

“Hey, why ain’t you torturing us like the other ponies round here?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It’s a special circumstance for you guiltless youths.” The manifestation explained, several of her hooves gesturing bizarrely. “Ignorance and naivety are unworthy of my attention. Your emotions are weak, hardly worth feeding off of. I could make you cry should I try, but it would be shallow.”

“Are you calling me weak?” Scootaloo huffed. “Are you calling ME shallow?”

“Goading the atrocity against nature isn’t very prudent.” Sweetie Belle whispered.

“You almost sent me to the dictionary that time, but I used context clues.” Scootaloo snapped back. “Try harder next time.”

“I won’t apologize for being verbose!” Sweetie Belle yelled back.

The manifestation clopped her hooves together in squishy applause. “Well done Mis Belle. That’s a good start on pride and hubris. Practice every day, and you might develop something I could work with.”

“I’m glad somepony appreciate me.” Sweetie Belle shot Scootaloo a glare.

“I don’t think a complement from the floatin monster is a good thing.” Apple Bloom said.

Sweetie Belle looked apologetically between the manifestation and the other fillies. “Well I… I don’t want to play here anymore, mis creepy. Can we go home now?”

“No.” The manifestation said. “You stay until you wake up.”

“Wait a minute, are you sayin we’re asleep right now?” Apple Bloom gasped. “Golly! I always did want to try lucid dreaming!” She scrunched her face in concentration. Nothing happened.

“No. This is not your dream to manipulate. Now sit quietly.”

“Can we please go home? This is so boring!” Scootaloo said.

“Do you think I don’t have better things to do than babysit you?” The manifestation snapped. “Be silent, or I will make another exception to my rule not to corrupt innocents.”

“What do ya mean, another exception?” Apple Bloom cocked her head inquisitively.

"Do you really want a story?" The Manifestation rolled it eyes. "It is a very long story."

"Story!" Apple Bloom squealed.

"Yeah yeah, story!" Scootaloo agreed.

"If it will help, sure." Sweetie Belle sat down on the uncomfortable stone. "Stage is yours, like my sister says.

“Purity is an impossible dream to you ponies, and is something I have only ever had the pleasure of breaking once. Not me personally. I don't really exist. I'm the reflection of your souls onto the teeming mass of Darkness that is the nightmare. Who I speak of is my progenitor, the Nightmare upon the Moon. It is from her these figments of memory arise.
"Two hundred years ago, ponies aboard one of the first oceanic explorers, the Starwatcher, shipwrecked on a tropical island between Equestria and Chitin. The Starwatcher was destroyed, but everypony survived and made themselves a flourishing outpost and village by the same name, isolated from the rest of the world. Ten years later, another pony explorer, the Ivory Prow, passed by the island. It was on it’s way back from the far east, carrying a valuable prize.
“Changeling society in Chitin is much more stable than the vicious swarms you see in Equestria and Sahella. Passion fruit farming has let their population exist in peace with foreigners and other species. The queens live in luxury, and while most of the nation has no centralized authority, there is no strife. However, there are those who would see this serenity disrupted. Outcast and branded heretics, the dark queens still feed off the emotions of living beings, in worship to the Dark Lady. The Ivory Prow had picked up one such queen. They underestimated her power, and within a day of leaving port, she had killed them all.”

“You sure this is the kind of story you should be tellin a child?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Oh please, you fillies were joking and making light of being in the pit of hell.” The manifestation said.

"Did you say somthin about the Dark Lady?" Sweetie Belle asked. "how do you know about her?"

"Some mortals worship her, some divine creatures know her. So great is she that here mere presence would have already done the job in this frail dream and I wouldn't be dawdling with children." The Manifestation grunted, making annoyed motions with its upward-facing legs.“Now where was I? Oh yes…

“The Ivory Prow drifted on the currents, its crew dead, it’s only passenger growing hungrier by the day. The same tides that wrecked the Starwatcher now brought the changeling queen to the quiet isle and village. At first the ponies on the island were ecstatic, believing that their salvation had some. The Ivory Prow ran aground, intact, on another part of the archipelago. The village’s chieftain, who had been the Starwatcher’s captain, was a pony by the name of Illustrious Valor. He went alone to investigate.
“A starving changeling is a cruel thing, especially with the depraved whisperings of the Dark in her ear. She mesmerized Illustrious Valor, and laughed as she forced him to murder every other pony on the island. Once released, Valor’s self-hatred and disgust were enough sustenance to make her the most powerful magician in the hemisphere.
“She returned to Chitin, where she slaughtered thousands. With her pony slave at her side, she nearly toppled the entire continent into anarchy and madness. But it all ended when she had one single moment of weakness. The queen gave birth to a daughter, a disgusting hybrid beast, and Valor used the opportunity to rip her head off. But he spared his daughter, and instead fled with her to Equestria.

“The junior Illustrious Valor was not half as wretched as her mother, but it still made her a vicious thing. She sought out the Dark, and when she found it terror was unleashed on the tiny village of Dneighper Crypts. Just after her fifteenth birthday she was lynched by a mob of ponies seeking retribution for what she'd done.
"But her seeking had given her a hook to dangle from. She was killed, but her soul had already been bound into the great dream of the moon. There she languished for two-hundred years. At times she was a servant of the Nightmare upon the Moon, at others a wandering soul looking for her own answers, but ever was she mindful that she was born for the earth.
“Now, her chapter has reopened. Connected into the moon by an altar of her own making, she has now been freed by someone else. Exciting isn't it? An evil little creature who fancies herself a nightmare has come to play. I can not wait to meet her again. Beutiful depravities can be the only possible result."

"So much of that I didn't get." Apple Bloom saw shivering in unease. "But what I do, I don't like."

"You didn't say it would be a scary story!" Scootaloo agreed with a mewl.

"I wish I we didn't hear that." Sweetie Belle whimpered. "Girls, I think something bad is going to happen."

"How astute!" The manifestation chortled. "As if being amongst a litany of pain did not already tell you that." It paused letting the screams and wails again fill everypony's ears. "Every sin I prey upon only makes us stronger. Very soon, even the Nightmare upon the Moon will be unable to stop us."

"That don't mean nothin to us." Apple Bloom said.

"Y- Yeah! I bet it's all just words meant to sound scary. You're fake." Scootaloo accused unconvincingly.

Sweetie Belle was silent.

"It's very real, and you're a part of it. it's an experiment unimagined by any Dark entity! The nightmare is hardly Twilight Sparkle's alone anymore. It is built up by a whole town! All of Ponyville's dreams, its sins, its Dark, is now bound together for a common purpose!" The Manifestation waved higher towards the infinitely distant top of the tower. "This is the tower that will reach heaven. Then, we can pull down god and gut her of her secrets.
"Celstia thought she could unify ponykind's dreams harmoniously! Well, we're going to see how she stacks up against just one, who has decided to shatter her mold and seize all for herself. And if Twilight Sparkle alone can't do it, then there is ample space within Rarity and Applejack!”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle cringed like they been hit. The three fillies backed into a corner and gripped each other tightly for protection.
"Y- Ya can't!" Apple Bloom pleaded. "Leave ma sister alone!"

"Sorry. She's made her place in the tower herself. She brings herself here, in fact! She suffers willingly, noblly, as if serving her time will free her of us." The Manifestation said mockingly. It turned to face Sweetie Belle. "I see your question before you ask it. Rarity covets this place too, if for a very different reason. She want to conquer the tower, to mount it and make it her own. How FOOLISH. There is no winning here! You do not receive a prize for becoming the most wretched amongst the sinners! It's all very in keeping with her personality."

"G- Girls... This ain't good."
"I wanna leave1"
"This isn't a dream, it's a nightmare!
The clung together. Eyes closed tightly, limbs shaking uncontrollably. They were very, very afraid now.

“I hope this visit has been informative for you little fillies. Your world is just awful, there is no joy for you, except in the misery of others.” The manifestation laughed. “You cry now, with your shallow tears. You are leaving me now, but go with my regards, and know that every time you lay your head down to sleep, I will know.”

There was nothing quite like a hoof to the side to jerk a pony into lucidity. Twilight screamed in pain, and tried to curl into a fetal position. Her effort failed, for she immediately discovered her hooves were bound.

Last time she had been aware of her surroundings had been... She wasn't sure. She vaugely remembered being in the hospital, then going off somewhere in Ponyville to hunt. Some other things, maybe? She didn't have a shred of memory to explain her current, pained situation.

A voice came from above her.
"You must forgive me for that one. I was getting impatient." At that Twilight's eyes shot open. A pair of white hoofs were central in her view. "Waiting for you to wake up might have followed the trope more closely, but then again I really am an amateur to all this."

"Rarity?" Twilight coughed, craning her neck up. "What are you doing?"

Twilight recognized Rarity's workshop furnishings, and the silk tied tight around her legs as some of the finest in stock. It was an unprofessional, but highly fashionable kidnaping.

Rarity leaned down, nose to nose with her captive. "Let's review what I not doing first, shall we darling? I'm not drinking your brains out through a straw. I'm not murdering your sister to send a message. I'm not masquerading as the princess's student, feeding my lies to the entire town."

"I'm glad." Twilight strained. "Those would be unforgivable things to do."

Rarity delivered another kick, though she cringed at Twilight's scream. "You don't get to be snide tonight Twilight! You are in the tower now, and I am the torment that your life has become! You're going to spill your sin all over this floor!"

"Rarity please, I'm sorry about Sweetie Belle! I'm... I know I've caused a lot of pain, but I trying to fix it!" Twilight sobbed. She wished she had the bravery to be more honest. Mostly, she just wanted to run from this. She wanted to get away from what her other half was doing. "Give me more time. I understand if you don't believe me, but I'm close to solving-"

"NO!" Rarity shrieked. "I'm not going back! Not another night, not with Sweetie there!”

"I still don't know what you're talking about!"

"Oh darling, I think you do. There is no hiding anymore! I decided that what you are... Deserves to be destroyed." Rarity leered, about to strike Twilight again, but as Twilight squirmed to try to protect herself, Rarity stopped.
"I was putting together an elaborate plan to poison you but I hesitated." Rarity said. "I told myself I couldn't do this, that I wasn't the type of ruffian who would..." She sighed. "Or who could kill another pony. I went to see Fluttershy. I always seek her opinion on matters like this" Rarity's expression hardened. "But you were already there. You were standing over her comatose form, monologuing about who knows what, your back to me as I entered the room. The moment was opportune. You were distracted, and seeing my friend I lost every shred of reservation I had. I knoew there's no redemption for you. You'll hurt Sweetie Belle or Fluttershy again. There is no other solution."

To punctuate her words, Rarity brought a hoof down into Twilight's stomach. "There's no holding me back now! I'm going to do it! I will kill you!"

"Then do it." Twilight spit a bit of blood. She'd bitten her tongue. "Make it clean, darling."

"I will, and it's more than you deserve." Rarity levitated a scissor from her work table. It was long and sharp, for splitting malleable fabric. "I am doing this. I am going to do this. For Sweetie Belle."

"Get on with it!" Twilight yelled.

Rarity leaned over Twilight, and pressed the scissor against her throat. "I'M DOING IT!"

With the eye contact, the effect of Twilight's = hunting spell was immediate. Rarity stiffened, moaned pitifully, then collapsed atop Twilight. Revealing in the euphoria that followed her spiritual meals, Twilight lay uncomplainingly under her captor.

The silken bindings tore easily by Twilight's augmented strength. She jumped to her hooves, and Rarity rolled off her.

"You did it. You did it." Twilight said, patting the unconscious unicorn in the head. "Foolish little pony. How was that going to work at all? You didn't even bind my horn! You wanted me, didn't you. Yes, I think this was a big cry for attention. Oh Rarity, you could have just asked."

Pulling Rarity with her telekinesis, Twilight moved through the rooms of the dress shop to the bedroom. She dragged Rarity onto the bed, and rearranged the covers over her. She focused, and drew more from Rarity than she should have ever considered.
When she was done, Rarity was hardly breathing. Only a sliver of her magic was intact, and it would take a a day or two until it would even be possible for her to wake up again. Twilight would have to rope somepony into cheking in on her.

“Only dreams.” Twilight whispered into Rarity's ear. “From now, until I fix this.”

Like the first time Twilight had absorbed so much magic from Rarity, the world changed around her. The air became more comfortable, and the room more familiar. Twilight felt as though she were in her own home. The inexplicable desire to create something great stirred within her.

But no, Twilight resolved to stay focused. Feeding off Fluttershy had been an accident, one she resolved never to repeat again. She strained to remember why she had visited the reclusive pegasus, recalling something about a map and the old scrolls from Dneighper Crypt. Past Twilight had thought that something Fluttershy had was critical to her plans. Thinking on it, Twilight was surprised to recall that she even had a plan.
"Yeah... I'm going to fix this. It's not just empty words!" She looked down to Rarity. "It's all be worth it. You're helping me shoulder this burden. Very, very soon, I'm going to be able to pick this mountain of trouble and toss it away. Trust me, Rarity. That's all I wanted."

Twilight turned to leave the bedroom, but a glint of metal caught her eye. It was in a stack of horseshoes, a sparkling specimen. Twilight picked it up, and a feeling like cold air on naked skin needled her.

She recognized it. It was that strange steel blue horseshoe, much larger than a normal pony could wear. But when she thought she recognized it, she didn't mean from Ponyville.
It had been in The History of Pony Metallurgy, the book that started it all: Her curiosity for the Nightmare Pretender, being sent to Ponyville, meeting Nightmare Moon, had all started with a passage from that unassuming book. Feeling it and testing it with her magic, she confirmed the horseshoe in her grasp was of magical cast iron. If it really was the one from her book, it was one of the first examples of it’s kind. It's unnatural blue coloration could be attributed to its first owner.

“Where did you get this?” Twilight asked the sleeping Rarity. A fragment of the ancient armor of Nightmare Moon wasn’t something just anypony had in their shoebox. “I should have realized this before. I could have saved so much pain... But its alright. I've got it now. With this, I can-”
Twilight dropped the horseshoe. The icy bloom in her chest had become intolerable. She kicked it back into the box, and picked that up.
“I promised I would fix everything. I wasn’t lying.” Twilight said. “I’ll save you, your sister, everypony, no matter the cost.”

Twilight galloped out of the room. There was a plan forming in her head, brilliant in it’s subversion of everything her nightmare wanted to accomplish. But to do it, she needed the rest of the nightmarish armor.

The layer Rarity found herself on was like a ring, with its center cut out as if it were an atrium open to the floor below.
It was also choked with a thick fog. Muffled sobs echoed from the other side of the ring,

"Are you going to look for her?" The Manifestation over her shoulder asked.

"No. I can't." Rarity sighed. "I would have to explain all of this. I would have to tell her how close I was to stopping this."

"Oh Rarity, you never were going to stop this." The Manifestation laughed. "If not Fluttershy, then surely you would detour from your climb but for a moment, and climb down to where your sister and her friends are sheltering?"

Rarity closed her eyes. "Sweetie would understand. She would accept what I have to do."

The Manifestation shook its head. "So predictable. Conquering hero, the way ahead is open for you."

So it is, Rarity agreed. She turned away from the fog and began climbing.

Author's Note

Indulge me for a moment if you will, dear reader. I take great inspiration in my descriptions from the writings of F. L. Florid, a post-imperial poet whose childhood was effected by the events of the civil war. One of my favorite prose passages of his is a description of the nightmare, and I would like to share it with you.

'The Nightmare is like a hydra, it's many heads undulating, regenerating twofold. The Nightmare is like the gorgon, for when you stare into it's eyes, the stone cold nature of death seeps into every part of your being. The Nightmare is like Hera and Hades in one, jealous, vengeful, yet patient, calculating, but always hateful. She will never release you. She will take everything from you, and even more. Don't underestimate the Nightmare: It won't be the last mistake you'll ever make, but you'll wish it had been.'

Melodramatic to be sure, but then Florid was a very melodramatic pony. One would think I had murdered his sister for all the commotion he made over ten bits I owed him. I did pay him back with interest, though it was a bit too late for him, as I was the one who payed for his funeral. Melodrama did not draw patrons.

Chapter 21: End of Scene

High atop the outer wall of Canterlot, Shining Armor surveyed the grand valley far below.

To the distant south, almost at the horizon, he saw the green sliver of the Everfree Forest, clouds rolling ominously on it’s western edge. The village of Ponyville was hiding somewhere in between Shining and that forest, and in that village was Twilight Sparkle. Somewhere in between Twilight and Shining was Celestia, running away from the insanity that Canterlot had become. In between Celestia and Shining were hundreds of kilometers of forest and isolated villages, were nopony would even think to look for him if he ran.

To the east was the Unicorn Mountains. Nestled amongst its peaks were the strongholds of a dozen disruptive dynasties with the wealth and power to cause mayhem across the West. He could curling trails of smoke on the southern slope and wondered if it could be an army that was already on the march. He looked past the norther slope to see, hanging just above the snowy mounts, the pegasus city of Cloudsdale, surrounded by a hundred smaller pinprick points. Was Canterlot's navy getting ready for trouble as well?

Shining’s view of the north was blocked by the spiraling keep of Canterlot Castle, but he knew that all that lay beyond were endless tracts of plain and forest. Beyond that was the icy tundra, braced by the impenetrable peaks and vale of the frozen north. That long forsaken continent was once the homeland to ponykind. Now it was empty, laid to waste by windigos for millennia.

And under the last cardinal direction, east, was the Mountain, and the city of Canterlot. Shining felt nothing but revulsion for Canterlot now, for the ponies who would turn the capital of the sun princess into a carnival. He turned to look into the city, and with the sun warming his back he imagined that he was Celestia, deigning to notice the worthless denizens. Even now they were quarreling, presuming to divy up a nation that was not theirs.

He imagined himself burning them all, making them pay for their arrogance and hubris. The flames, purging the filth and grime of a century of complacency, set to an orchestra. Yes, Celestia liked the orchestra. Something haunting, as the city turned red, then black, then collapsed into ash. And he would laugh and laugh, and then turn his back to the foul schemers, and plan a new world to rule.

A hoof pulled on Shining’s shoulder, snapping him back to reality. Without have realized it, Shining had moved right to the edge of the wall, and leaned over. The hoof pulled him back from the sixty hoof drop.

“I told Prosser once that politics wouldn’t matter, because Celestia would rise up from the throne and spear her sunfire through the head of each and every traitor. Paraphrased, of course.” Fancy Pants’s voice was far deeper than it should have been, and would have more appropriately come from a hulking dragon. Then again, it was out of a draconic victim that his new vocal chords had been ripped.

“Does your new body give you telepathy?” Shining nickered as he brushed his shoulder were Fancy Pant’s had grabbed him.

“I still have eyes.” Fancy Pants replied knowingly. “And my brain. It’s not hard to read that expression, were a pony feels a righteous anger inside themselves. Alas, I’ve seen it lead a fool or two to their deaths. It led me to my death.”

“And death give you inscrutable wisdom? Hmm, no, I think you always were a holier-than-thou wiseass.” Shining glared.

“I meant no ofence. I just naturally slipped into an advisory role.” Fancy Pants shied slightly. “It’s one of my talents in life.”

But what about in afterlife? Though he did not say it, Shining Armor thought darkly of the mark gracing Fancy Pants’s flank. Without it, he was just a pegasus corpse, with the head and appendages of a unicorn hanging off like parasites. But with it, Fancy Pants was alive, with a soul and the magic that drives the consciousness of a mortal being. Shining wondered what would happen if he tore off that mark. Would Fancy Pants revert, falling again into the abyssal death of a victim of nightmares?

“Well don’t worry about me endangering myself.” Shining said. “When I said we’re leaving, I meant it.” With that, Shining started towards the nearest tower, and stairs down to the street.

“I will see you at the castle then.” Fancy Pants bowed. When Shining disappeared into the tower, he murmured in hushed tones. “That is, if I can refrain from being a fool.”

Without realizing it, Manered had walking right into a stand off.

Behind him, Admiral Rain Gnash’s Wonderbolts, backed up by city guards, had set up a little camp, as if they were vacationing in the woods. In front of him, in the barricaded entrance to Canterlot Castle, was a selection of fanatics in pilfered IHG armor. In about twenty seconds, right where Manered was standing, there would be a battle.

“This is your last chance!” A blue Wonderbolt Stallion was bellowing. “Let in a negotiator or we will storm the castle!”

“Either be happy talking from there, or wait for the Estates!” A unicorn yelled back from one of the higher floors. “Lord Blackhorn has no time for you winged vermin!”

“These Canterlot types, always hiding behind their peons.” The wonderbolt chuckled.

“Quit your yapping Soarin and rally the mares!” An orange mare in Wonderbolt regalia entered the scene. “You ponies in the square! Clear out!”

The remaining gawkers galloped into the adjoining alleys. Manered glanced back at the castle before scurrying over to the pegasus barracade. Soarin pulled away part of rubbish wall with a nod. “Captain, there's a monk come in here!”

Spitfire was changing into her heavy armor. “Yeah? What do you want, brother?”

Manered shifted from hoof to hoof nervously. “Please, I need to get into the castle! I have an urgent message for Princess Cadence, and they won’t let me in until you back off!”

The Spitfire gave Manered a quizzical look. “Brother, whatever you have for the Junior Princess, I’m sure it can wait. In case you hadn’t noticed, the seat of Equestria has been occupied by a coterie of racists. Once we clear them out and restore order to the city, you can have free reign.”

Manered groaned. “Yes, they’re bigots, but the lawful visier of Equestria let them in! It’s Lord Seacrest’s prerogative to keep ponies out, and until Celestia formally sacks him, you’ll be attacking the legitimate government!”

“Now listen here!” The Spitfire yelled. “I'm not even supposed to be here right now. I'm supposed to be babysitting a ne'er-do-well noblemare and her pack of gits. If only I could bloody find her. But now because my good friend has a problem he asked me to help with, I'm here. Gods damn it if it seemed like I'm doing more work I'm ordered not to do than I'm order to do."

"Sorry Spitfire." Soarin said meekly.

"Buck off. I'm letting the Bolts get into a fight without me anyhow, especially not with this Canterlot trash." She turned back to Manered. "So you see, I want to get this mess cleaned up."

"Before somepony realizes you are not supposed to be here." Manred said glumly.

Spitfire, finished with dressing, began tightening the straps of her barding. “The Admiral would never listen to what I have to say. She has her own agenda, so saving Equestria will have to be done on my personal time. Usually I carry out orders that includes a buckton of senseless violence. Today, it's just for fun. So I’m going to attack Canterlot Castle, be it as it may be occupied by a completely legal militia permissibly allowed in by the legal government, and murder all the racist bastards. Then the negotiator goes in, which was all I was asking for in the first place.”

“Then I see that we are both compelled by forces beyond our control.” Manered sighed. “I can’t wait, unfortunately. I must go. I’m needed elsewhere, and there is a pony I must see.”

The last thing Spitfire had was her helm, which she slipped on. She messed with it for a second, making sure her mane wasn’t tangled underneath. “Hey if you have that message, I can give it to the Junior Princess if I see her.”

Manered's mind swam with possible messages succinct enough to be remembered. Since becoming a monk he had turned his emotions into indulgences he could do without. He was supposed to be a pony of faith, whose only task was to chart the heavens. But in the face of impending doom, all of that felt moot. He'd wanted to pour his heart out to Cadence, ask her if it was okay to be so shaken in his faith and confidence of Celestia. Now he was having to do it though an unreliable messenger.
Tell her that our calculations were wrong, that the sun is deviating from it’s path even further, and that the Summer Sun is imminent. Tell her that the dimming of the sun will soon be noticeable, and panic that could cause would be unparalleled. Tell her that the moon was going off course as well, and was accelerating to unprecedented speeds and threatening a solar eclipse. In so many words, tell her that everything is coming to an end.

“Tell her goodbye for me.” Manered pushed the cowl of his robe over his head, and cantered out of the makeshift camp into an alley.

Moments later, the screams began to start, as the Wonderbolts charged against the barricades. At every floor, the armored pegasi blasted through the windows and began hacking indiscriminately. But before they reached the ground level barricade, it exploded outwards in a swarm of shrapnel. Spitfire dived to the ground as magical fireballs sailed into the camp. The unicorns were putting up a stiff resistance.

Shaking off the dust, Spitfire charged forward. The first fireball directed against her was slow moving, and she easily jumped and glided over it. The second missed, and incinerated a tile right as her hoof left it. The third impacted her squarely on her chest, exploding into a sphere of flames. Howling with anger, Spitfire exited the fireball and collided with the caster at full speed. She rolled over him like so much grass in a field.

Spitfire used the last of her momentum to spin around and buck the next unicorn. The unicorn mare’s chest caved inwards, and she was flung against the side of the castle. The third unicorn tried to retreat into the open door, but Spitfire launched herself into the air, and came back down to the earth a moment later directly onto his back.

“Get in there, you craven bastards!” Spitfire yelled. At her command, the guardsponies charged across the plaza and into the castle. Brothers fought brothers, and no quarter was taken nor any mercy given. So it went for hours in a cloudless afternoon.

The power and passion of a singing voice was well known to the first ponies. The Canterlot Opera House stood on the spot of the first opera in Equestria, where the ancient lords would patronize the greatest singers in the world. What was once an affair for only the rich and powerful was now extended to anypony of at least middling birth. Thousands of ponies packed the hall every evening, and the young hopefuls battled it out against the established greats in a duel of sound, conforming, adapting, or daring against the composition, to the delight of the crowd.

Prosser’s box, though usually it took the name of Celestia’s box, was positioned in the choice location, from where a pony could see and hear the best. It was said that when Laurel Black redesigned the stage, she was personally contacted by Celestia to ensure the box’s primacy. The result was an unparalleled experience, and ponies sometimes claimed that they could hear the conductor’s joints creek.

Tonight was something somber, The King of Cobalt, one of the lesser known masterpieces. The stubborn king’s lands were dying, but instead of migrating, he cursed the skies and led his kingdom into a mountain. Naturally, this did nothing to stop the starvation of his ponies, so Cobalt kept going, deeper and deeper, until he alone remained. He arrived, alone, having survived all of his family and subjects, at a chasm of Tartarus. The old king tried to turn back, but the bones of his kingdom blocked him. He died embracing a wilting seedling, whose roots rejected the ashy wasteland.

“II fully expected you to be sitting there with Twilight Velvet in one hoof, Celestia in the other, and Seacrest Sabonord serving as your hoofrest.” A deep voice sounded from behind Prosser. The intruding pony, covered by a black cloak, took the seat adjacent.

“It would be beyond ironic to display that kind of arrogance at this particular opera.” Prosser chuckled.

““I saw the program guide. The King of Cobalt is not one I have seen before."

"Have you heard of Prince Lector the Proud?” Prosser asked.

“No.” The cloaked pony’s hood shook with his head.

“I thought not.” Prosser condescended. “Have you even heard of the Grand Principality in the Riverland?”

“I have not.”

“You have Lector the Proud to thank for that. King Cobalt was based on Lector, more or less.”

The thunderous voice of the male lead was all around them.

You scoundrel Skies! You scoundrel seas!
The land, forsaken! The earth, obeyed!
My sons and daughters, follow me!
Into darkness, I make my way!

“Tell me more.” The cloaked pony said. “I resolve to take every opportunity to learn.”

“An old friend crawls out of his grave to ask me about history?” Prosser leaned his head against a hoof casually. “As hauntings go, this has to be one of the most boring I’ve ever had the pleasure of receiving.”

Fancy Pants unclasped his cloak and shrugged it off onto the ground. Tucked under his hoof was a flint pistol, and it was cocked. “Regale me.”

“Sheesh. All you had to do was ask politely.” Prosser rolled his eyes. “Ahem. Lector was a warmonger, subjugating one of the largest principalities before Celestia I. Thought he marched gleaming and proud, his own lands suffered. Productivity plummeted and Lector had to buy from allies and clients to feed his armies. They profited, while the duchy spiraled into debt. His children gave their life in his wars, and by the end of it all, Lector was happy to be defeated and killed. That’s the key difference between Lecor and Cobalt. Cobalt is too proud to admit defeat, even when he’d marched directly into tartarus.”

“Yes well in real life, the villains are never so stupid as in fiction.” Fancy Pants set his pistol down. “Not to say that even in the context of the play Cobalt could be described as a villain.”

“No, just an idiot in power. Obviously Lector wasn’t a storybook villain either, just an ambitious screwup. Or are you trying to twist me into arguing against what I myself would wholeheartedly admit?” Prosser smirked.

“If you didn’t want to discuss history, you shouldn’t have brought it up.”

No paradise, my onetime home!
For the promise of great fortune.
Gold silver iron chrome,
new power beyond proportion!

“Your eyes are, how should I put this delicately, very creepy.” Prosser remarked. “Eech.”

Fancy Pants leaned back into the chair. “I wasn’t planning on being solicitous to social company anyway.”

“And your wings! They don't match each other let alone your coat! Didn’t they have any in white?”

“Fresh out, I’m afraid. White’s a rather popular color in Canterlot. They sold out immediately.”

“I must say though, I’m loving the little patch of scale under the chin.” Prosser’s effeminate voice twisted into an exaggerated Los Pegasus accent. “It’s a new and rugged look, that says ‘Watch out World, I’m dangerous.’ ”

“I breath fire too.” Fancy Pants scratched the seam between his original and new skin. “Or so I’m told. I’ll probably pick it up eventually."

The Gods above have judged us ill,
The gods below are calling!
When in our homes we’ve had our fill,
our fat does adventure forestalling.

“I never really understood that stanza.” Prosser said. “I’ve always imagined it’s about how the merchants are so morbidly obese, and all the starving peasants outside eat them for the energy to make the journey.”

“Morbid.” Fancy Pants watched the twirling dancers onstage. “It’s probably a metaphor.”

“Oh forgive my ignorance for the very notion of metaphor is beyond my intelligence.” Prosser said mockingly. “Now that you’re back to tell me these things I’ll never commit such a faux pas again.”

“I’m leaving tonight,” Pants digressed. “with Shining Armor and most of the IHG.”

I shall not say goodbye!
My departure I make terminal!
The assured land in my mind’s eye,
My triumph against nature shall be personal!

“Ooh, they could have hit that one better.” Prosser winced.

“Did you hear me? I leaving.”

“Yeah I heard you. Shining is migrating instead of delving further into the mountain. Now ask me if I care.” Prosser said. “You were already dead, so coming back to life and immediately jiggling off doesn’t change much.”

“Jiggling off?” Fancy Pants sputtered. “I do not jiggle!”

“Not sure if you realized, but your new ass is HUGE!” Prosser exploded into a fit of laughter. “Haa! Ha Ha Ha! I sincerely hope you kept your original, hah, organ configuration, because that’s a mare’s tookus! Ha Ha!”

“I’m really not sure what I expected from this visit.” Fancy Pants sighed. “Some answers maybe.”

“Heh heh! But Pants, you didn’t even ask any questions!” Prosser was laughing into his cushion while fending off dirty looks from other opera attendees in the other boxes.

“I literally die and still it’s too much to expect a little sympathy from you.” Fancy Pants rubbed his forehead to stave off the impending headache. “So, do you know who did this to me?”

“Give me a moment.” Prosser took a deep breath, and let it out with the last of his laughter. “Okay then. Uhm, yeah, Phyte, aka the Mistress.”

“Phyte.” Fancy Pants repeated. “Sir Armor said as much, but he didn’t know who or what she was. Do you?

“You betchya.” Prosser’s accent became painfully rural. “She done been round these parts a long time, I hear says. Near enough a hundred ponies dead by her demands erry year.”

“Nice try, but a provincial pony wouldn’t say demands. Too many syllables.” Fancy Pants remarked.

“The point is, that she’s a parasite, in both the sociological and literal sense.” Prosser reverted to his normal Canterlot flout. “Stand up gal. It’s a real shame I never got to meet her.”

“How do you know all of that?”

“Some of it you hear in the midnight hours. Some from friends of a friend of a friend. Some of it becuase Twilight Velvet told me.”

“Twilight Velvet.” Fancy Pants repeated. “You are kidding, right?”

“What is to be kidding about? Lady Velvet is one of the best conniving bastards I’ve ever seen!” Prosser insisted. “I have come to believe that she is behind every single movement in the whole city. It's magical, how she has transformed us all into her pawns. If she cared to rule us, she would make a wonderful queen. Alas she has crafted us into a cannon, aimed at the heart of the idea of Equestria."

"Shining Armor was sparing on details. I know Princess Celestia departed some hours ago, and I know that the Blackhorn pretender has been abusing my seat of vizier."

"Seacrest did remarkably little of actual importance, considering how loudly the clammer was for him to be installed as vizier." Prosser said. "The thing is I don't think the viziership will exist long enough for Lightdowser to mix things up if he gets in."

“Duke Lightdowser is here?” Fancy Pants frowned. That was an important point Shining Armor hadn't mentioned. Pants may not have liked Sharphoof Lightdowser, but he respected the Duke as one of the finest statesponies in Equestria.

“Twilight Velvet invited him, so you can imagine his presence bodes ill for us all. Thinking about getting in touch after all these years?"

"Should I?"

"He's probably happier thinking you're dead. He gave a pretty nice speech at your funeral.” Prosser shrugged dismissively.

The matted fear,
We soldier onwards.
My darkened steer
as souls grow stronger.

“Now this is the climax of the second act.” Prosser waved out over the stage. “King Cobalt just buried the first pony to die on his little cave pilgrimage. He swears on the grave that he will lead his kingdom to a better place. The ponies are disconcerned, but retain hope and faith. The whole subplot about the worthlessness of faith is something a lot of ponies miss.”

“Who killed me?” Fancy Pants asked.

Prosser leaned forward. “Did Shiny tell you about the wannabe nightmare?”

“Nightmare?” Fancy Pants’s blood ran colder.

“It’s like performing for a child, always repeating what you hear.” Prosser mocked. “Yes, nightmare! You know, ancient soul eating demons, banished from our fair land for millennia. One came back and, unfortunately for you, she’s a psychopath, fairly high-functioning, who gets her jollies by smashing pony heads in. She and Velvet are in some sort of agreement where they kill mostly all of the ponies in Canterlot. Or something like that.”

Fancy Pants was starting to see why Shining Armor wanted to leave so badly.

Prosser continued. “Now mind you, Velvet didn’t want you dead, she just happened to be the best at exploiting that you sized hole in the universe. It’s really too bad that now that you’re back, you have no place here.”

“Indeed I don’t.” Fancy Pants grabbed his pistol and cloak, and rolled to his hooves. He trotted to the door of the booth. "You know all about being ostracized, don't you? How can I keep going when everything seems... Meaningless?"

"Oh come now, just because everything you ever cared about is collapsing around you doesn't mean you should give up." Prosser chided. "After all you'll be happy to know that the values of stability and harmony still live in the hearts of ponies; It's just not showing right now. Keep fighting for honor, justice, equality, Celestia, or whatever you wish. If you stop moving, you're liable to come apart at the seams."

"That was almost sentimental." Fancy Pants smiled weakly.

"I try." Prosser bowed his head.

“Goodbye, Prosser.”

“Until we meet again, whatever-you-name-was.” Prosser chucked and turned back to the play. On the stage, a formation of grizzled ponies followed their king as he forged his way through the darkness towards Tartarus.

See the fire burning brighter!
The tempered blade must be struck!
Our single voice, to harmonious choir!
Skin is blackened, mane uncut!

In the darkest places, can home be found?
Or silvered glass 'com fogged by breath?
Our drive to push through our bounds,
May show us only the home of death!

The meeting hall of the Black Horn Council had been significantly upgraded in the months between Twilight Velvet’s last visit. Blueblood had been making very obvious use of the money pouring in from the passionate and deluded ponies of Canterlot.

Molar on one shoulder, Sel Lech on the other, Velvet beelined for the titular prince’s new office. She burst through, almost knocking Aurthora Airy over with the door.

“Where is Duke Sharphoof?” Velvet demanded.

Blueblood looked up from the documents he was reviewing. He grinned. “Lady Velvet! Seeing you always stirs deep emotion within me.”

“Cut the bull. I ordered you to talk to Lightdowser about the Estates meeting, but I'm hearing that you didn't meet with him! Do you even know where he is?"

"Uh, the opera?" Blueblood shrugged. “I don't know. You can blame a lot of stuff on my but I never received that order. Do you know where he is?"

“Would you believe,” Velvet began to seethe. “he’s left the city, on his way to Ponyville in pursuit of Celestia?”

“Oh... That is really quite bad.” Blueblood laughed, and so did Aurthora Airy.

“Is this a joke to you?” Velvet’s voice was harsh. “All my planning is undercut! The Estates are imminent! Do you know what that means? We need and replacement since you let the choice meat get away!”

“Sorry, I'm laughing so it won't hurt as much when you start beating me." Blueblood wound down from his giggling. "But come on, Lady Velvet, Lightdowser was just a bonus, wasn't he? We already have eligible canidates in the city. You told me that for sure."

"I don't want to hear about the god damned list right now! I want to know why you ignored my message and didn't talk to Lightdowser! If he had heard my suggestion to move forward with the Estates he would have stayed to cement his power! So..." Velvet worked her jaw, more angry than anypony had ever seen her. "Why shouldn't I see to it that the line on your birth certificate that reads 'stallion' isn't erased and changed into 'geldling'?"

"I never received the message I swear!" Blueblood looked to Aurthora Airy. "Tell her! You've been with me since yesterday morning."

"He's right. We haven't seen anything from you all day, Lady Velvet/" Aurthora said humbly. "Who did you send the message with?"

Velvet's teethy grimace faded, replaced by a look of concern and, for a moment, fear. Twilight Velvet had overcome and capitalized on upsets before, so much so that her underlings wondered if she even knew the definition of defeat. But things had changed.
"I gave the massage to IIllor." She whispered. She looked to Sel Lech. "Sel you were there with us. She... She didn't give any indication of anything, did she?"

"No, Lady Velvet. She was acting like she always did." Sel confirmed somberly.

"Has anypony seen her since last night?" Velvet asked the room. Everypony shook their head.

Sel sighed. "Then she could be on that airship with Lightdowser."

"What is she up to." Velvet rubbed her chin. The infectious apprehension was making everypony nervous. "Why would she leave us here, on the even of our critical moment?"

Blueblood shifted uneasily in his seat. "Could she be betraying us?"

"No. Impossible." Velvet shook her head vigorously. "She is fully on our side, even if something is carrying her away from us."

"Could it be that, in her eagerness, she's chasing after Celestia?" Sel offered. "Like a predator detected wounded prey, she's redying to strike."

"She has never given any indication of caring about Celestia. It must by something else." Velvet said bleakly. "But it hardly matters, whatever the case may be. She is lost to us for now, as she pursues some unknown goal. We will have to adapt."
She sighed. "The loss of Sharphoof and Risky Lightdowser more serious."

"So then we go to the other candidates?" Blueblood asked.

"OF course we do! What, do you think we should give up?” Velvet snapped, her frustration leeking into her words. "We have the records. We've poured over them, searching endlessly through the family histories to find the ponies with the highest likelyhoof of being suitable for our needs. All of this was done months and years ago. We know exactially what we need." She let out an angry sigh. "I will admit I was arrogant. I did not bring in back up canidates. With the Lightdowsers off, there are five candidate ponies in Canterlot.

“Then forget about the Lightdowsers!” Blueblood laughed in releif. “I mean, where's the problem? There’s five free ponies for the chopping block, and we only need three, if they're of the right tribe of course.”

“My family.” Velvet said.

“W- What?” Blueblood stuttered.

“Incase you were too stupid to remember, we need ponies with very clear connections to the higher ones. That means direct descent, and that means successive generations of well born interbreeding. We need nobles, but not only that we need the nobles from houses of the most poweful and well connected houses of Equestria." She frowned. "Those who have protected their blood from commoner contamination unwittingly also protected their ancient inheritance from that ancient thing long since gone. We had beautiful plans, that would bring together what we needed. Now...”
With a swipe of her horn, Velvet crushed Blueblood’s desk against the floor. In futile rage she picked up all the scattered quills and papers and threw them into the wall. "Damn it all!" She screamed, smashing the heap of wood with her magic over and over. “Sharphoof Lightdowser! Rain Gnash! Seacrest Blackhorn! Three ponies, three houses, three tribes! Why couldn't I have my easy last coup! All that planning, all that work!”
She slumped and let the magic die off her horn. "We were so close."

Sel made to pat her on the shoulder to reassure her but thought better of it. "It's going to work out, my lady. We can see this through even if it requires sacrifice."

"It allways required sacrifice." Velvet muttered. "But I did not want to be the one making that sacrifice. That was the beauty of the candidate plan. We are down our unicorn."

“My lady, pardon please for my speaking in ignorance, but you said Sharphoof Lightdowser and Seacrest Blackhorn. That's two unicorns...” Aurthora scratched her head. "I don't understand."

Velvet stared at her emptily. "I forgive you Aurthora."

Thereto completely separate from the conversation, Molar attracted Velvet's attention with a rasp.

"Hmm?" Velvet half turned to him. "What is it?"

Molar pantomimed putting a crown on his head, then slitting his own throat.

"No, I'm afraid Vizier Blackhorn will be there too. Not for any real reason other than I want him to be." Velvet said. "Should he be excluded?"

After a moment of thought, Molar shook his head in the negative.

"Yes. You're embracing the spirit of sacrifice as well." Velvet smiled weakly. She turned back to the group. "The descendants of house Bright are the clearest option for a replacement candidate for the Lightdowsers. That means my husband, my childeren, and Foaly Flux. Of those options the clear choice presents itself."

"Aww, crap." Sel Lech hissed. "Flux doesn't deserve this."

"I agree. But it must be done." Velvet agreed dolefully.

Every pony looked depressed. It was like true horror of their plans was just then beginning to settle over them.

"This sucks." Blueblood pouted.

"Loosing Flux looses us Foal, probably forever. There will be no hope of peaceful acquisition. I doubt news of Flux's changes to the succession have even reached Foal yet." Velvet agreed. "If we but had a little more time... I thought the changes to the Summer Sun was fortuitous, when I had everything lines up how I wanted it. Now that I need more time it is a curse. Joyous things like this have a way of turning to ash in your mouth."

"But we have to move forward." Sel said. "Flux was like a father to me, but I know his sacrifice will improve this world for all of us."

"There's no stopping now. The hearts of fair Canterlot are behind us. We will triumph." Aurthora nodded sternly.

"Velvet, you taught that putting meaning in my words is more powerful than the message itself. I learned how to capture ponies' attentions beside you, and even now those commoner zealots I whipped up are in Canterlot Castle are dying for us." Blueblood said, the thankful tone sounding strange off his tongue. "We have to capitalize on this, like we always planned, or their sacrifice will be in vain. And I won't stomach knowing loyal unicorns died for nothing."

Molar tried to rasp something out.

"There's no stopping us now." Velvet agreed. "Within days, we will make this city the beacon for pony triumph over the divine."

Seconds later a little messenger filly darted into the room. She hopped on the broken pile of Blueblood's desk and presented a letter for Velvet. "Message for you sah!" She squeaked.

Velvet wordlessly took the letter and read it over. "Thank you. Tell her to stand by."

The messenger galloped off. Everypony looked to Velvet expectantly.

"That was from Captain Spitfire. The Wonderbolts and city guard just completed clearing Canterlot Castle of Seacrest Blackhorn's militia." She said.

"Then we have to intervene before they hurt Seacrest." Blueblood said.

"They'll do no such thing." Velvet promised. "When Rain Gnash realizes that Lightdowser left her high and dry, she'll clam. She will sit tight with her Wonderbolts until we call for her."

"Hope upon hope our pegasus candidate doesn't go anywhere." Sel agreed. "But that's a pretty long letter to just say that."

"Spitefire mentions that a solar monk tried to get into the castle to speak to Junior Princes Cadenza. That will have been Manered of the Solar Monastery." Velvet passed him the letter. "New developments in the sun's condition I should imagine."

"What? It was just yesterday that the prediction changed!" Aurthora exclaimed.

"Interesting times we live in, aren't they." Velvet said. "We don't have time to talk any longer! Action is what is needed no."
She wheeled to Sel. "Sel, get to the castle immediately. We need your city guard continents to begin gearing up." He galloped off.
"Blueblood, find Seacrest. Inform him that we can't even put the Estates off to the day after tomorrow. It has to be tonight! If he disagrees, convince him that Lightdowser's departure will have his opponents in disarray." With a salute, Blueblood made his exit as well.

"Do yo have a job for me, my lady?" Aurthora bowed her head.

"Make discrete visits to the Fifteen Castles. I don't want any trouble coming from that direction."

"I shall, my lady." Aurthora ducked out.

That left Velvet and Molar alone in the room.

"How does it feel, knowing we are closing in on the promised moment? I want to say it feels exhilarating but right now, I can only feel tired." Velvet sighed. "For me, victory will be a gateway from even more burden and toil. Am I complaining without reason?"

Molar shrugged and choked out the shape of some polysyllables.

"Without the divine, it is true that there is no chance of the elder siblings coming and doing to others what they have done to you." Velvet nodded. "Ponykind's suffering will be in its own hooves again, as it should be. No more gods and demigods. Only the squirming body of millions of mortals, driving their dreams against one another in a test of who will come to the top. No dreams stolen, no dreams manicured into pretty things that don't offend. The Bright World will become the home only to victory or defeat, as it should be."

Molar rasped.

"And I was glad to have shared it with you. l'm proud of my dream. It's a lovely thing, if I do say so myself." Velvet smiled sadly. "Now then, I think it's time we head towards Canterlot Castle. The sun and moon don't wait for us yet."

Chapter 22: Writhe by Night

Spike was shaken awake. At first he thought the pony over him was Rarity, for through half lidded eyes it seemed like the dressmaker’s mannerisms and general aura.

“It all makes perfect sense now! I thought the magic survey I took last month was a waste of time, but now I see that it revealed exactly what I wanted.” Twilight pounded her hoof against the map she had made, sending her cartography supplies into the air. "I'm homing in on it. I'll find the altar, then..."

“Uh what?” Spike rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Twilight, what time is it?"

“Spike, darling, it's only mid-afternoon. Sleeping now is going to mess up your sleep cycle.” Twilight beamed. “Do you remember those curious old scrolls we found in the town hall? The ones that mayor of 'Dneighper Crypt', Solemn?”

“Uh, yeah.” Spike rubbed the rheum from the corners of his eyes. "We asked Applejack about them. It was kinda pointless."

“Desperation has turned that lemon into juice, Spike! I read them more closely, and mercy me if there wasn't a detailed description of the village that stood on this spot two-hundred years ago! It was really interesting, figuring out how things lined up between then and now. Rarity's parents house was in the same place, the Golden Oak was once known as Valor's House, and the spot of Fluttershy's cottage was called the Sanctuary. Cool, right?"

"Is this what you woke me up from my nap for?" Spike grumbled.

"No no no. It's when I went hunting for more clues." Twilight grinned. "I'm just back from Fluttershy's! I was going to ask her what she knew about the spot of her house, but unbelievably, she had this map out on her coffee table when I arrived! Like, a two-hundred year old map with everything I was looking for, right in front of me." She tapped the map in front of her. "And look! It has angles and distances for a point inside the Everfree Forest."

Spike peered over her shoulder. "I don't get it. Why does this matter." He asked. "And would Fluttershy be happy about you writing on her map?"

"Err, probably not, but I can magically reverse my alterations when I'm done." Twilight said."Fluttershy wouldn't mind anyway." She didn't feel the need to mention that Fluttershy was hunted and knocked out, according to Rarity. Twilight couldn't remember what she'd done, just the feelings of triumph that had come with finding the map.
She looked over at the box of horseshoes she'd taken from Rarity's house. It was like fate was delivering her the tools to escape her cured infection. If only she could keep it together a little longer.

"Does that mean you can solve this plague, Twilight?" Spike asked.

"Yes. I'm going to solve the problem so thoroughly, we'll never have to worry about it again." Twilight tapped the map. "Tonight. Right now.

"But Twilight," Spike stood up and skipped to the window. "It's getting dark! A- And you're talking about going into the Everfree!"

"That's right." Twilight nodded. "You've trusted me so far, and look how come I've come to making the problem go away. You can trust me a little farther, Spike."

"I..." Spike balled his claws into fists. "You can't keep telling me lies Twilight!"

"S- Spike!" Twilight gasped.

"You tell me everything except what's really been going on." He accused, tears forming at the edges of his eyes. "If t- this is your fault, you can tell me! I just want to help you Twilight. Please! Please Twilight! I don't want to feel like I can't help you!"

Twilight ground her teeth, paralyzed. What could she say that Spike would accept?

Spike watched her, and she him, in silence. Neither was going to budge, they realized.

"Hurting you is going to break my heart, Spike. But you don't understand the power of the Dark. I must go alone." She stood up. "I'm going to erase nightmare from our Bright World forever. Are you going to let me go?"

Spike bared his nubby teeth. "It does have to be you, Twilight." He said, pleading more than he was demanding. "It doesn't have to be you!"

"I'm sorry, Spike. It's the duty of the well born to protect the commoners. I have had my doubts in moments of weakness, and maybe that's why I'm so determined to do it alone now." She said, looming over him. "I'm not a bad pony. I can be a force for good, despite the means I've had to resort to!"

Spike closed his eyes. His sighed turned into a little sob. "You're a good pony by just being Twilight."

Twilight wished that were true. If she could withdraw into the library and sit out the night, she would. But she could not, and part of her knew that if she did not destroy the nightmare in her head, she would not see the next dawn. "The world won't know that if we die, Spike. If I sit this out, you'll still be able to talk and pretend to love me, but I'll be dead. There will be another creature in my body. I HAVE to do this."

"T-T- Then I'll come with you!" Spike ran to her. "I'm your knight, Twilight! I'll allways-" He doubled over and covered his mouth. "HrrRK!"He belched out a slithering cloud of green fire, which hovered in the air before coalescing into a scroll. The scroll, gravity taking a hold of it, landed on the floor between the two bickering friends.

“That’s Celestia’s seal.” Twilight breathed. "She..." She closed her eyes. "She remembers me. Am I mad to hope its telling me she knows what's happening and has a solution?"

Spike recovered from the transmission and snatched the scroll off the floor. With a worried glance at Twilight took the initiative and retrieved the scroll from the floor. He unrolled it and began to read.

“From her royal highness, Celestia, princess of the sun, empress of Equestria, and blah-di blah-di blah…” He looked up from the scroll. “It literally says, Blah-di blah-di blah.”

“Keep reading.” Twilight urged.

Twilight, do not be alarmed by what I am about to say.

Things have been going wrong in Canterlot. I do not known how much you know of happenings here in the capital, but none of them are good. At length, I have decided to forsake the capital. I know what this represents. I am under no delusions. Our nation is at the edge of chaos.

You see Twilight, A few ponies can turn a million into monsters. They are not even bad ponies, only ambitious and unreasonable. But when conflict stirs in the hearts of a pony, she is driven to unspeakable acts. Canterlot has become the den of conflict between ponies, worldview, and potential futures of Equestria. I have declined to join that fray.

Twilight, I ask that you to set aside whatever feeling you have for me to hear what I have to say next. It’s worthless to say it to you through writing, a clear show of cowardice, but then again most of my actions lately have been driven by a deep, unshakable cowardice. I fear the consequences of taking any action to such a degree than I opted for so long to do anything. Paltry excuse, and surely one that rings hollow. I am not even sure if it is true. I have a difficult time interpreting my own actions.
Despite this, I know you need to know the truth as quickly as I can send it to you.
Twilight, you were right.

There is a supernatural evil lurking in the shadows. What you discovered in the books of prophecy those months ago is only half the truth. The Nightmare trapped in the Moon, who was once my sister, is about to return to Equestria. Already her Dark magic is in Ponyville, seeding the land with its energy. With the help of the wickedness within our own hearts, Nightmare will escape to bring about nighttime eternal.

Do not dispair. You are not alone, Twilight. At the time of me writing this, my airship is five hours from Ponyville. I have called up as many ponies as I could and now bring them for the impending confrontation. Half-a-hundred ponies, ready to fight the nightmares that infest the village will soon be at your side. That is if you join us - I understand if don’t want a part of this. We will be ruthless. It is necessary.

Then with luck, you and I can stop my sister before her second rebellion ever begins. I fear that we will not be so lucky. I feel weak, but gods willing seeing you will rejuvenate me. This fight, critical to the future of not only Equestria but the sun itself, needs us at our best. Pray, Twilight, that we march from this place with a furvor so great we march right back into Canterlot and banish tose whose ambitions harm the harmony of ponykind.

Yet I can not be purely optimistic. As I said I truly am in a bad way at the moment. Apathy and emptiness of heart have worn my connections to magic. I feel I might wither at any moment, and that my pure will to live is the only thing holding me here. This is not inconsequential. I can barely grasp my mother sun anymore. She is slipping out of my control. Sensing my great weakness, she has moved forward the date of the Summer Sun, to give me an opportunity to regenerate. She wants me to participate in the succession, and let a new Celestia take my place.
I will not be taking that opportunity. And while she is well intentioned, I will never be succeeded. I am Celestia, and I live upon this world forevermore. I shall never let my dream leave my home. The consequences of the erratic imminence of the Summer Sun are yet unknown. The even very well may come as battle is joined again Nightmare Moon. Oh, one can imagine a poetic convergence like that will be remembered for eons.

I’m rambling now, but it is because I feel I have so much to tell you. I miss you terribly, Twilight. Every tortured night, and with every premonition, I wish for nothing more than to see you, give you my everlasting confidences. I need to hear your voice, feel your comforting hug. I feel that I will strengthen considerably from that.

I have wronged you immensely, Twilight Sparkle. I swear by everything that I am that I shall not do it again.

Celestia

Spike put the letter down, and looked up to see Twilight staring somewhere a million miles away. The little unicorn was hardly breathing.

“Twilight?” Spike hadn’t understood very much of the letter, but if Twilight’s reaction was anything to go off of, things were very bad. “Twilight, what does this mean for you? I-Is Celestia alright?”

“I’m alarmed.” Twilight said. She took a step away from spike, flash a sorrowful smile, then the room was filled with blinding purple light as she teleported away.

"Twilight!" Spike rushed forward and grasped at empty air. "Come back! Take me with with you!” He to the ground. "TWILIGHT! T- TWILIGHT!"
He flung the front door. "Don't worry! I'm coming!" He ran as fast as his little legs would take him towards the Everfree Forest.

But unbeknownst to Spike, Twilight had not teleported nearly so far as the Forest. She reappeared on the roof of the town hall, where she had a commanding view of the center of Ponyville.
The village was quiet. The fear of the 'plague' that had been giving ponies fevers, nausia, and comas had kept the sensible ponies indoors. There were a coupld vegtable sellers in the little market square.

"Celestia's coming here. She's really coming. The first time in decades she's leaving Canterlot." Twilight muttered. "And when she realizes what I am, she's going to kill me."

Twilight needed every ounce of control she could muster. She needed every tool and scrap of energy to survive Celestia, Nightmare Moon, and the Dark in her head.
That meant so she needed to take every measure to stay conscious. She had to keep the nightmare in her heat satiated, lest it begin controlling her again. The creeping itch of madness was climbing it’s way into Twilight’s mind. Soon she’d find herself stripped of all inhibition, leaping at the first opportunity to hunt. She’d been lucky so far, The nightmare was clever enough to preserve it’s host and that meant it had taken steps to avoid confrontation. How long would it last if the nightmare legitimately feared Celestia’s arrival, as Twilight now did?

A distant peal of thunder rolled through the valley. Twilight looked to the west, where a dark formation of thunderclouds were massing their forces. With the majority of Ponyville’s pegasi under the weather, there was nopony to even delay the impending storm. It would be raining soon.

"I'm going to need to hunt three, maybe four ponies. That will tide me over until noon tomorrow." Twilight wagered. "Nothing too dramatic." She looked to the eastern skies, where the sun was descending towards the mountains. "Celestia will be here in five hours... It will be well dark by then. Just five hours for me to save myself from this nightmare."

But who to choose?

An Hour Earlier.

Applejack hadn't been back to Ponyville since waking up in the hospital and having it explained to her that she'd fell into a coma caused by a mysterious plague. She almost took that claim seriously until the doctor told her that Rarity had suffered the same symptoms.
Applejack had seen very clearly what had made Rarity pass out. She'd been right across the table when Twilight Sparkle had leaned over to Rarity, almost close enough to his the other unicorn, and cast the hunting spell.

That left Applejack with a swirling sea of questions. She'd ended up in the hospital after being found on the road back to the farm, but she knew for sure Twilight was also in the hospital when she'd left. Could Twilight have hunted her from a distance, while also passed out? And how did Twilight end up like that anyway?
It didn't make sense. Applejack would have bared her teeth and chalked it up to unicorn shenanigans, if not for one clear memory: The Tower.

She saw it clearly, every time she closed her eyes. The spire of black stone, in a world of swirling clouds, that welcomed Ponyville's sinners. She saw the faces of the tower's unspeakable denizens, who taunted and jeered at her with other pony's voices. She remember how she'd been wracked by sorrow, her apologies sounding hollow in her own ears, her pleading met only with jeers from the purple manifestations.
She remembered Rarity being there, and what she'd done.

"Hey! Applejack!" A voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"Hmm?" She sat up. She was on the front porch of the Apple farmstead, lounging in a rocking chair.

The pony approaching her was a light yellow earth pony with a magenta-red mane. She had green eyes and a friendly smile. "We've been missing you. You haven't been at the market for a week."

"Heya Rose." Applejack nodded to her fellow vender. "Y'all come out to check on me?"

"Just wanted to make sure you're alive." Rose laughed good-naturedly. "I know you think I trend more to Rarity's crowd, but I was really concerned not to see you there for so long. Is everything alright?"

"Yep." Applejack nodded. "Just fine. Gettin plenty of work done clearin the orchards of winter debris. Gunna be a good harvest come Fall."

"That's good to hear." Rose nodded. "I'm curious why you're not at market though? I mean, you still have stock right?"

"I do."

"Then-"

"Ain't felt up for it. I had that spell in the hospital ya know."

"Oh." Rose blinked. "Yes, the plague. I'm sorry. I assumed you'd be fine since Rarity and Lady Sparkle walked it off as soon as they woke up."

"Guess I ain't as resilient." Applejack muttered.

"Well now I feel terrible for hassling a sick mare." Rose smiled awkwardly. "I should leave you to it."

"You don't have to go." Applejack sat up. "I've got some apple brandy brought up from the cellar if you want some."

Rose peaked a brow, amused that a sick mare would be drinking. "You're kind, but I have to pass. Since I know you're realatively okay, I have to check in on my cousin's kids., since she's been bedridden by the nausia that's been going around."

"I get'chya." Applejack nodded. "See ya."

Rose trotted back up the path to Ponyville. Applejack remained in the old chair, rocking it forward and backwards slowly.

The Tower... Had she seen Rose there, clinging to its stones in desperation like the rest of Ponyville? She couldn't remember. The Tower though, she just counldn't get it out of her head.

She stood up.

Slightly Less than an Hour Later.

Twilight was scanning the streets from her perch atop the town hall, when she heard a hoofstep. She wasn't sure why she heard it so clearly among the strengthening gusts of wind and the rustle of the trees. It came from somewhere behind one of the cottages, so she teleported to a closer roof to get a look.

Applejack was plodding her way towards the west side of Ponyville, looking nervous. Twilight's head squirmed, urging her to take her strength from the earth pony.

She teleported to street level. Applejack reeled in surprise. "Twilight!"

"Lady Twilight, if you please." Twilight bowed. "I haven't seen you in town."

"Been sick." Applejack said.

Twilight was struck by the realization that she'd never hunted Applejack. Why then had she been in the hospital, and why did she faintly remember the taste of the earth pony's dreams?
"You're better now?"

"Had time to recover and think." Applejack said. "I'm here to see you, actually."

"Really?"

"I've been two-faced with you Lady Sparkle. I ain't treated you right." Applejack said. She Twilight around the shoulder and dragged her into the alley between two cottages. Twilight was too surprised to resist, until Applejack had already let her go. "I- I'm a bad pony! I've been unkind, malicious, downright dishonorable!" She kneeled. "Send me back, I'm beggin ya! Let me purified!"

"W-w-What?!" Twilight ogled, clueless to what Applejack was talking about.

"The Tower." Applejack whimpered. "I gotta go back, don't ya see?! I ain't worthy. Punish me again, Twilight!"

There it was again, the same as Rarity had said. The Tower. It couldn't be a fluke.
"You're asking me to hunt you." Twilight realized. That had been when Rarity had spoken of it.

"I'm weak. I'm yer prey." Applejack sobbed. "Hunt me! Steal my stuff! I deserve it." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I'd ask ya to do it in front of everypony, let them see my sufferin, but I know you're a shy pony who'd abhors the spectacle. Just please do it. I don't wanna see this world any longer with my sinful eyes."

"Applejack, do you even know what you're asking of me?" Twilight asked, shaking in anxiety. It felt so odd, having a pony offer herself up. "You're offering me your magic, your dreams, like it's nothing!"

"I don't deserve 'em. Take it all from me and don't give it back 'till I'm a good girl." Applejack mewled. "I ain't decivin ya. I'm a petitioner, asking the only pony who can help me."

"You're mad. You're absolutely mad." Twilight muttered, wide-eyed.
But she couldn't turn an honest supplicant down. She knelt by Applejack and charged her horn. "Last change to back down."

Applejack closed her eyes and began whispering prayers.

"Goodness gracious." Twilight sighed. She cast the spell and relished in the rush of emotion and energy that swept over her.

Applejack crumpled.
The wind before the approaching storm front picked up, tussling the grass and fur. It was promising to be a heck of a night.

"Well god dang. Yer dreams got a mighty fine taste, Applejack." Twilight straightened up. "Got one in me. Two more will do it."
She screamed into the air to attract the attention of somepony to find the comatose Applejack. Then, she teleported away. She knew where the next hunt would come from.

When Rarity work up, she felt disappointment. Not only in her inability exact her revenge on Twilight Sparkle, but for her failure to surmount the tower for yet another go. The visit had been so short! It had been mid-morning when she'd been hunted, and now waking up it was barely evening! Was the Tower getting tired of her?
But she felt close to a breakthrough. Just one more visit, and she would be sitting pretty atop that indomitable spire of black stone.

So when she herd the crackle of dissipating magical energy from outside the room she was in, she was pleased.

"Lady Sparkle, is that you?" She called out.

Twilight's shadow proceded her into the humble workroom. "Yes, and more."
Project garments were strewn about the room, alongside sketches, lengths of ribbon, and spools of thread. Fashion disasters and recent successes were all mixed together in different corners.
"I'm shocked you're awake. I tore enough magic from you to keep you in bed for a week."

"As I deserved." Rarity purred. "It was so unkind of me to harm you how I did. Mere commoner that I am, I would get the death penalty for that in any court in the land."

Twilight sucked in a breath. Rarity was asking strange too? Just perfect. "I'm not blameless myself. My heresy will get me scoured from existance if Celestia ever learns what I've done. But you don't even think to blackmail me."

"Why that would be downright uncouth!" Rarity tittered. "It's the prerogative of we commoners to suffer whatever objectionable things our well born lord saddle us with."

"You should visit a Canterlot coffee house some time, and hear all about the latest theories about class consciousness and sovereignty." Twilight advanced into the middle of the room. "But one thing all the political theorists agree on is the concept of sacrificing for the good of the body civic. Is that what you think your doing? It was your reasoning before: Letting me take from you so I don't hurt others. That didn't stop me."

"And you wonder why I welcome you." Rarity observed. "You must think me neurotic, trying to kill you this morning and beckoning you here in the evening. I shall say I learned the error of my ways."

"So you're going to forgive me for hunting Fluttershy and your sister." Twilight frowned.

"I'm going to look past it. We all make mistakes." Rarity flashed an affable smile. "So let's not dawdle like naive schoolfillies. To the main event."

Twilight could detect absolutely no hostile intent, so she cautiously joined Rarity by the window. "Princess Celestia is coming. She will be here in four hours. That's how long I have to gather as much energy as I can and strike out to the Everfree to solve this problem inside me."

"Good luck with that." Rarity's smile twisted. "There are nasty things in that forest. You are a powerful pony Lady Sparkle, but I don't expect you to survive."

"Then I guess my fight again this cursed fate will have been for nothing." Twilight grunted. "I apreciate you letting me get this done quick. Another fight would have wasted time."

"And I am not yet strong enough to even think about resisting you." Rarity bowed her head. "Go on then. Send me to the tower."

"Hmm." Rumbled in displeasure. "Why is everypony saying that. What does that mean?"

"The tower is where ponykind fight again the shackles that hold them down. It wears the mask of a prison, a curse, but it is actually there to let us strive upward, to reach god and plunder her secrets." Rarity said reverently. "Poetic, isn't-"
She collapsed, as the hunting spell stole her consciousness away. Twilight gently held her shoulder to keep her falling off the chair.

"Let's hope, darling, that this is the last time we resort to this barbarism." Twiight whispered to her. She stepped away from the window and shattering it with a bolt of magic. Somepony would come to investigate and see Rarity. Hopefully they would get her to the hospital before the looming storm front collided with Ponyville.
"One last-"

Twilight words died on her toungue. She felt a pulse in the magical auras around Ponyville like she'd never felt before. it was odd, alien. It didn't belong to any pony, and Twilight dared say it didn't even belong to a mortal.

"My word. Has a Star come to Ponyville to head my work off?" Twilight wondered. Taking a deep breath, she teleported away.

Embers in the deep dark. Two embers, flittering around above a whirlpool. Two and a half, embers, flickering as they endured the painful cold.
Wherever Rainbow Dash went. She was confident she would have Gilda beside her. They were two souls, fighting together against anything that stood in their way.
That is how it had been, how it once was. Now Rainbow Dash was feeling cold. Her friend's jaw was set and stern. They did not laugh together any more. Anything either of them said or didn't say served as another wedge to drive them apart.
Their fated friendship was doomed to end.

They flew slightly ahead of the east-bound storm, gliding on the winds. Below them, the lush Dneighper Valley was cast in stark colors as the run set on the mountains.

"That's Ponyville." The gruff voice of Gilda pierced Rainbow Dash's wandering thoughts. "It's smaller than I imagined."

"Think Mare is waiting for us?"

"We discussed this Dash. There's no chance she's ahead of us. The farthest she could be is the southern deserts."
Gilda was a griffin, large and brown, a hybrid of a lion and an eagle. Her yellow eyes roamed the skies and land unblinkingly.
"But we didn't come all this way just to meet Mare."

"No, we didn't." Rainbow Dash agreed quietly.

They glided lower and lower, to just above the canopy. They passed acres of apple trees, a farmhouse, until they greached the grassy flatland Ponyville was built on. They hovered above the houses for a minute.

"We can at least check around for her." Rainbow Dash said quietly.

"I'm not hanging around. She's not here." Gilda said gruffly.

"But G..." Dash sighed pathetically.

"No putting it off, Dash." They landed in the square around the circular town all. "This is where we agreed to make our decision."

"Y- Yeah." Rainbow Dash could feel herself tearing up. She'd thought she'd prepared herself enough, but there was no preparing for the wave of sorrow that swelled over her. "Time to say goodbye."

Twilight's spell dropped her back on top of the town hall, but it turned out she didn't need the high vantange point. The strange aura she felt was right below her.

"We faced a lot together, and did things that neither of us would have survived doing alone." A squawking voice carried up to Twilight. She crept to the edged and peered over.
Two creatures, a griffin and a teal pegasus mare with a rainbow mane were standing in the square, facing off. The griffin was speaking. "I both grew as individuals. We know the cost of a bit and of a life. It's been hard, and we've always had each other."

"Yeah..." The rainbow pegasus said miserably.

"But how we've grown, we've grown apart. It's nopony's fault, it's just a fact of circumstance. The thing is..." The giffin held up a talon claw. Twilight noticed that there was a strange band around her wrist, made of some shiny metal. She couldn't get a good look because of the angle and distance, but she swore it was in the shape of a winged unicorn. "We're not on the same level anymore. I've grown past my curse, learned it, quenched it, conquered it. I'm not the miserable, suicidal chick who gravitated to you all those years ago. I'm better. I'm more."

"Uh huh." The pegasus said. The longer her griffin companion spoke, the paler the mare became.

"I wanted you to feel the same, Dash. I really did. I wanted you to become a better pony alongside me. But you can't. You won't. You're never going to be able to get past Cloud Creche. It's not your past anymore. It's just you. Your thoughts, your words, your actions, you're always judging them against that moment." The griffin shook her head. "And you're never going to compare."

"It's who I am. I all I am." The pegasus named Dash agreed emptily. She looked to beat to even cry.

"I'm sorry Dash. You're my best friend." The griffin flapped her wings and rose into the air a ways. "I'll be up north, around the Embankment. Come by and hang out some time I guess. But please, find your worth and your pride before you even think about visiting."

"G... That's too far." Dash bit her lip. "I- I still need you, even if its only every so often."

Rage overtook GIlda's expression. "No you listen to me you stupid horse. You've done nothing expect writhe in your own misery and self-hatred for months. Not for a single moment did I think you were doing something to improve yourself. All the time, you fished for complements or words of reassurance from anypony, to smooth over your cracking ego for just a moment. We went on an amazing adventure and through it all you earned... NOTHING." She turned her back on Rainbow. "We ran up against foes more determined than us, more clever than us, and more powerful than us. It made me a better person. You're just the same. You're not entitled to my time, Dash. Find a schoolhouse and work your way up. I'm done being your crutch."

"I..." Dash didn't finish her sentence. She trailed off, and stared up at her friend in silence.

"Goodbye, Rainbow." Gilda sighed. She rose high into the air, above the level of the storm, and raced off to the north.

Dash felt cold. She stood alone, staring into space. She didn't know what to do, or where to go. It was like every skill and tool for living life had fell out, and she was left hollow.

Why live.
She could never redeem herself to the world if she couldn't even keep the interest of her closest friend.
Any good act she could ever commit was meaningless, in the face of the grand, unthinkable tragedy of Cloud Creche. At best, Dash would claw her way up to zero after a lifetime of tortuous effort.

Dash felt less than zero. She felt deep, deep in the negative. The emptiness in her chest felt like it was going to cause her to implode on herself.

"Hello there!" A voice called out to her.

Dash didn't look. She didn't even really hear it.

"Hello? HelloooOoo?" A purple face popped into her vision. "Are you alright?"

"I think..." Dash blinked. She focused on the unknown mare. "I wanna die."

"Oh, that's unfortunate." The mare frowned. "My condolences."

"Save it for when I get it done." Dash said bitterly. "I'm a waste of skin. I'm a murderer! I- I drag everypony around me down. You should just kill me before I hurt you too."

"Do you introduce yourself like that to everypony you meet?" The purple unicorn laughed.
Twilight was as amused as she was horrified. From what snippets she'd caught of the conversation, the griffin was upset mis rainbow pony was stagnating. Rainbow pony's response was, of course, to decide to kill herself. Brilliant.

"Just the ones I'm trying to befriend." Dash took a step forward. "Please, kill me. I know you can do it, with that horn of yours. It's be real easy."

"What the hell is going on today?! Everypony is acting so strange?" The mare exclaimed. "Like, stranger than would be expected in this strange, strange situation!"

"If you don't, I- I- I'll start attacking you, and you'll be forced to kill me!" Dash said, choking on her words. "But please, I don't wanna be in this world anymore where I have to face my victims!"

"Sheesh! You're nuts. You're asking me to kill, which is what you're all bend up about." The unicorn ran a hoof through her hair. "But I've got a good offer for you. I can send you to another world. An amazing one, that everypony want to be sent to."

"Huh?" Dash asked pitifully.

"It s a place of dreams and, so I'm told, becoming a better pony." The mare nodded. "It's called the Tower, and there will be two ponies there already to welcome you."

"The Tower..." Rainbow Dash tried to place that name in her memory. It sounded very familiar. "Y- You don't mean the Tower of the Bard, do you?"

"Who knows, friendo." The unicorn grinned. She took a step forward and lay a comforting hoof on Dash's shoulder. "Now let that singing wind carry you to your rest."

The cold was not just on her skin now. Dash tried to breath, but her whole body was frozen in place. The unicorn mare was staring directly into her eyes, speaking in a near chant while her burning horn competed with the darkness filling Dash’s vision.

Author's Note

For Rainbow Dash and Gilda's tale, look forward to the Bridge chapters. They will be getting releases between the Arcs.

Chapter 23: At the Gala

With a triumphant yell, Spitfire skewered the last hostile unicorn on the point of her sword. The pony slumped against her, and it took Spitfire a moment to get herself disentangled, and her blade withdrawn.
She looked around. There were no more militia unicorns on the floor she was on, at least none that were not wounded and moaning on the floor.

A faint scream echoed from somewhere deeper in the castle. Spitfire was about to pursue it when Soarin cantered in from the adjoining hallway. “You're good, captain?"

"I'm a bit out of breath. I think I have to sit out the next push." Spitfire slid her visor up. "Took a few rattles, but I don't think anypony here had anything that could even dent armor."

"We're about done in the other halls. I think this'll be the last rounded up." Soarin eyed the unicorns laying around them. "Castle staff have been pretty accommodating. I'll let them know these ponies are here."

"Good work all around." Spitfire nodded. She didn't approve of the chaos the Wonderbolts were being ordered to cause. First the at Musician's Guild, now in Canterlot Castle, it was like Rain Gnash was purposefully striking at the unicorn's valued institutions to cause a scene. But why? Wasn't that making it harder for her and Lightdowser to tie down their supporters in the city? Damn politics, Spitfire though. She had been as outraged any pegasus when the Pegasi Clique had been stonewalled those years ago, but it didn't mean that the commoners of Canterlot deserved to be attacked.
"Any new news from the Admiral?"

"Nope." Soarin led her through the halls of the castle to the higher levels. "That message you sent got a response though. It's waiting for you at the entry hall."

"Thanks Soarin. You're taking exceptional risks with me meddling." Spitfire smiled. She wasn't sure if keeping Twilight Velvet appraised was treason in the letter of the law, but Admiral Gnash would be mad as hell if she ever found out.

"I don't like what the Admirals doing to you either. Besides you've made it clear I answer to you, not her."

"Damn strait." Spitfire grunted.

They entered the opulent halls connecting to the throne room. The last set of grand doors between them and the seat of power were open, and surprisingly there was already a Wonderbolt within, waiting for them.

"Well how about it." Spitfire took her helmet off. "The rusty link in the chain of command."

"Captain. I didn't think you were supposed to be here." Fleetfoot hopped off the throne and trotted over to them. She was a teal mare with a wild white mane and tail. Her purple eyes were impetuous. "In fact, I think you're explicitly not."

"I haven't received orders one way or another." Spitfire grinned. "I was just passing by the castle and saw a commotion. And you know me, hot-blooded and ready for a scrap."

"You're supposed to be watching Lady Velvet, but I guess that's all moot right now." Fleetfoot held out a letter with her wing. "This was far you Soarin, but since the captain's here she'd get more from it."

"More orders? Where are we attacking next, the damn cathedral?" Spitfire snatched the letter away and opened it. As she read down it, her grin became a stern frown. "Huh. This isn't good."

"Captain?" Soarin asked.

"Lightdowser left." Spitfire folded the letter up and gave it back to Fleetfoot. "There's news from the Old Town that the meeting of the Equestrian Estates is being moved up."

Soarin's eyes bulged. "That's not good."

"Don't worry." Fleetfoot mollified. "The Admiral has a plan.

"What the hell are we going to do without Lightdowser!" Spitfire scoffed in exasperation. "He's half our political leverage! We can't negotiate for SHIT without him here!"

"Captain, you sound like you don't trust the Admiral." Fleetfoot said.

"All her orders look a bit shabby now that that there was NO BUCKING POINT TO THEM." Spitfire kicked at the ground in frustration. Her armored hoof clinked off the polished marble floor. "We came on too strong. We're going to be lucky if the Estates don't prosecute us without Lightdowser here to protect us. The Admiral needs to realize that we're through with this Canterlot adventure. It's time to leave."

"We're not leaving." Fleetfoot said sternly. "The admiral says stay, and we stay. We didn't come here to leave with our tails between our legs for a second time. This is the triumphal return of the pegasi to the capital. We don't be denied."

"You're spending too much time around Gnash. You're beginning to sound like her." Spitfire winkled her nose. "Whatever. We're going to clean up here. Come back when there's new orders for us."

"I'm going to have to mention your involvement here." Fleetfoot coughed.

"Please do. " Spitfire nodded. "See ya Fleet."
She trotted back out into the hall, and after a moment’s hesitation Soarin followed.

"Man, this is messed up. What are we doing here?" Soarin whispered.

"Dunno. But there's more than meets the eye." Spitfire spilled her helmet back on. "The political shenigans in Cantelot are related to those monsters we saw under the Musician's Guild. You can count on that."

"And that mean..."

"We're being taken for a ride." Spitfire grunted.

They proceeded through the castle to the grand entry hall. A dozen Wonderbolts were standing around, keeping an eye on the wounded militia ponies as castle staff attended to them.

“Report!” Spitfire barked.

“The city guardsponies disappeared deeper into the castle. We're not sure what they're after.” Rapidfire called from beside a hurt unicorn she was bandaging.

“Typical.” Spitfire had readily accepted their help, since they were loosely aligned to Velvet who she was trying to get in good with. Hopefully whatever ulterior motives they had did not come to bite her. “Has their Captain, Sel Sabonord, come by?”

"No ma'am."

Spitfire was about to ask Soarin to go looking for the city guardsponies when one of the castle staff called to her. “Ma’am these ponies want to talk to you!”

Spitfire trotted over to them.“Yeah? What do you want.”

Two stallions. The older blue unicorn was bleeding from a shallow cut across his chest. Unlike any of the other captured unicorns, his hooves were bound to his side. The younger was an orange and blue pegasus in a full set of IHG armor.

“What’s this? Are you two tourists or something?” Spitfire joked. “Then again the last tourist I met turned out to me a real monster.”

“This guy’s a real terror with a sword. Took out about a dozen of the locals and even three of us.” One of the wonderbolts patted the unicorn on the head. "At the same time."

“I didn’t kill anypony, only disarmed them.” The stallion said. “And I would not have done even that if they had not wanted to kill me so badly.”

“And you?” Spitfire asked the pegasus in armor.

“I work here.” He said. “Like, I’m an actual imperial knight. For real.”

“And just what is it you two want?” Spitfire sat down so that she was on their level.

“We’re not with these wackjobs.” The pegasus insisted. “I was on my way to the bathroom when I got tacked. This guy’s a prisoner being forced to fight.”

“A prisoner?” Spitfire looked over the stoic unicorn.

“I was in the dungeon. Hausseway said he’d kill my wife and son if I don’t fight for him.” He said his mouth twisting into an ironic smile. "I'm quite good with a sword, you see.

“Hooooollly shish-kababs.” Soarin breathed. “Threatening a mare and her kid? That’s messed up.”

“I won’t fight you any more.” The blue unicorn bowed his head. “Let me go, please."

“Yeah why don’t I untie you and turn my back to you. I’ll even draw a map of my vital organs for efficient backstabbing.” Spitfire scoffed.

“My story is easily confirmed.” The prisoner insisted. “Hausseway’s reaction when he sees me will tell you everything.”

Spitfire sat back thoughtfully. If the stallion’s story had a modicum of truth, it could potentially bury Hausseway under a storm of controversy. Without their bulldog, Seacrest’s camp would falter irredeemably at the Estates meeting. Not that she cared that much about the politics, but she was pretty ticked off at the idea of forcing an uninvolved pony to fight.
With a fluid motion, Spitfire drew her sword and severed the ropes around the blue unicorn’s limbs. With a pained grunt, he got to his hooves.

“Whatever you were doing in the dungeon is none of my buisness. Just stay out of our way.” Spitfire said.

“You didn’t even ask my name.” The stallion accepted his sword from the attendant’s outstretched hooves. “It’s Night Light, by the way.”

“Hey! What about me!” The still-bound orange pegasus yelled.

“Sir Sentry is well intended I assure you.” Night Light advocated.

“And what will Sir Sentry do if I let him go?” Spitfire asked.

“Go find where Sir Armor and the rest of the IHG went, I guess.” Sentry shrugged. "In case you didn't notice, I'm the last one one the castle."

"Huh." Soarin tapped his chin. "Now that you mention it, it's pretty strange that the Household Guard isn't here. Guess they left when Celestia did."

"Not officially, that's for sure." Sentry said.

"As for Sir Armor, finding him isn't going to be so easy." Spitfire said grimly. "He was with us when we raided the Musician's Guild."

Both Sentry and Night Light looked sickened by those words.

“Btu good luck to you anyway. For the short time I got to knew him, he seemed like an alright stallion. I'd be glad to hear he's still alive.” Spitfire gave room for Sentry to stand up. "Besides, we orange pegasi have to stick together."

"Heh heh, I guess so." Sentry got to his hooves. "I'll, um..." He looked around. "I guess I'll leave then. The last IHG knight, leaving the castle. it's in your hooves now."

"Quit the melodrama and leave." Spitfire narrowed her eyes.

"Eeep! Yes ma'am!" Sentry skittered out of the front door.

"Sheesh." Spitfire sighed. "What was up with him?"

"He had a point, captain. We're like hostile occupiers right now." Soarin pointed out.

"He also said the Household Guard buck off to who knows where. For all intents and purposes, we are the new Household Guard." Spitfire said. A silly grin spread over her face. "And just like that, Gnash's ambition be be the IHG captain is furfilled."

"Mission accomplished." Soarin chuckled.

"Mission bucking accomplished." Spitfire laughed with him.

The novelty of their situation did not amuse them for very long. The reality was, they had barged in and killed locals to get where they were. It was like Spitfire had said: Without Lightdowser to explain away the deed, Canterlot and the Estates would be coming back hard on them.

"Captain, do you think we were set up?" Soarin whispered. "Like, what if those city guardsponies are preparing for a surprise betrayal."

“You rang?” The contingent of guardsponies emerged into the entry hall from a side corridor. Everyone of them was carrying a wood and metal weapon that they’d not had earlier.

“Woah! What are those?!” Soarin gawked at the strange devices.

"Guns." Spitfire observed.

“Wheellock arquebus, especially crafted for the Imperial Guard here in Canterlot.” The guardpony sergeant unslung the hefty firearm and twisted it around for the Wonderbolts to see. “Top of the line, master craftsponyship. They were in the IHG armory.”

“That’s nice.” Spitfire inspected the complex spring-loaded mechanism. "Manehattan manufacture too. Best arsenal in the world." She rubbed her cheek on the smooth wood of the stock. "Damn... That's sexy. Don't imagine I could convince you to part with them."

"Sorry. This is what we are here for." The sergeant shook his head. "The city guard is going to be taking on the role of protecting this castle for the regent, Junior Princess Cadenza."

"Under whose orders?" Spitfire asked.

"Sorry." The sergeant grinned. "I'll let you guess."

"Fair enough then. We're not needed here then." Spitfire turned to the room. "Wonderbolts, cut these sods free and move out!"

“Yes Ma’am!” Soarin and the other Wonderbolts chorussed, cutting their detainees loose.

“You’re letting Seacrest's militia go?” The city guardsponies seemed uncomfortable. “And leaving?”

“Yeah, I am.” Spitfire nodded. "I'm lingering here, presenting myself for reprisal any longer than I have to be. We Wonderbolts can make a mess, but getting stuck into your local politics was accidental." She nudged a newly freed prisoner to his hooves. "As for these guys... I was following orders. I was fun for a while. Now I feel bad."

"Buck off featherhead." The militia unicorn muttered.

"You too buddy." Spitfire snorted. With the Wonderbolts gathering behind her, she trotted for the grand doors out of the castle. "See ya."

They pulled back to the makeshift barricade they had made in the opening assault on the castle and started packing up.

"Oh, captain, that message for you!" Rapidfire produced a small scrap from where she'd tucked it in a seam in her armor.

"Thank you." Spitfire took it. The brief message from Velvet advised her to stand by and not get involved any further.

"I'd take her advice if I were you." Night Light said, peering at the scrap over her shoulder.

"I didn't remember inviting you." Spitfire glared at him.

"You made the mistake of giving my sword back. You won't be able to get rid of me now." He laughed softly. "Dame Spitfire, if you're serious about the safety of your knights, retreat to your airship and stay there until dawn." He pointed to the setting sun. "Ignore your admiral, ignore the sounds you hear outside, ignore the light and fire."

"You unicorns sure are poetic." Spitfire rolled her eyes. "But unfortunatly I'm not the type of pony to keep things half done. I will secure the safety of my Wonderbolts, and yes it will involve some insubordination, but I won't be backing down."

"You tell him, captain!" Soarin cheered her on, then hesitated. "Wait did you say insubordination?"

"Yeah I did. Where's Gnash? I'm going to give her a piece of my mind, denounce this whole thing, and gods willing keep the Bolts from being lynched by angry mobs." Spitfire said resolutely.

"If that's your decision." Night Light hung his head. "Then you will receive no less than the result you strive for."

"Whatever." Spitfire shrugged.

"Last message from the Admiral came from the castle gardens, Captain." Rapidfire reported. "There's been some kind of impromptu gathering."

"The Estates. Conventionally, there is a party before they go into session." Night Light explained.

"Uh, captain..." Soarin pointed back to the castle entrance. The city guardsponies were marching out and around, towards the northern grounds. "I think our friends have plans."

"The hell?" Spitfire swore. She galloped to the barricade. "Yo! Where are you guys going?!" She yelled at the guardsponies.

"Where our orders take us!" The guard sergeant hollered back. "See you there!"

Spitfire puckered her lips. Things were heating up big time. She backed away from the barricade. "Guys, instead of chewing out Gnash, I think we might have to save her."

"Those guns would punch through our armor like it was paper." One of the Wonderbolts exclaimed.

"This is getting bad, captain. This is starting look like a coup or something that we just participated in." Soarin ground his teeth. "But I can't tell who or what we were fighting for!"

"We've been had all right." Spitfire stared into space. "Shining Armor and the IHG had the right idea disappearing. This night is not going to end well."

"Go back to your airship." Night Light urged her. "It is not to late to sit this one out."

"You know, you keep telling me that. What kind of dishonorable scut do you think I am?" Spitfire turned to him, a scowl on her face. "I'm a knight! I come from a family of knights! We don't back down, no matter what. We're Wonderbolts, the best of the best. Isn't that right Bolts?"

"That's Right!" The Wonderbolts echoed.

"We can take anything this city throws at us!" Spitfire thumped her breastplate.

"That's Right!" The Bolts did the same.

"I thought you didn't want to get involved in politics, captain." Soarin said.

"Nobody's going to insult my honor without a schooling." Spitfire eyes Night Light. "And since I don't want to rough up this old man, I'll have to show him another way. Bolts don't shy from charging into danger."

"That's Right! That's Right! That's Riiiiiight!"

"Come on, you weak willed scuts, fall in." Spitfire snapped her helmet back into place. "Let's crash a garden party."

Night Light shook his head and followed them at a respectful distance.

Princess Celestia's Gardens, aka the Imperial Gardens, aka the Royal Gardens, aka the Castle Gardens, were a massive park that stretched all along the northern arc of the outer wall between Canterlot Castle and the Mountain. It nearly as large as the whole Old Town, with ponds, old chapels, groves, and small retreats. Twilight Sparkle's house was situated near one of the larger lakes, at the end of a winding path around the main flower beds. Several other imperial servants and students lived similarly.

In her majesty's state of apathy, the gardens had stayed well maintained, as they were a sign of imperial prestige as much as decorated parlors or golden automata. It was a pleasant, neutral meeting ground for the different cliques and factions of the city. Whenever the Estates met in body, they first held a party to reaffirm their camaraderie as ponies.

Foaly Flux loved the garden. It was so beautiful and fragrant that every woe seemed to melt away. it made him genuinely happy; A rare thing for him.

In the waining evening light, braziers had been brought out to keep it lit while the speakers were still arriving. Flux passed by groups of two and three discussing gossip and the latest events. It was more sober than usual, in light of the circumstances, but near as sober as it should have been. Ceelstia had left and nopony was officially in charge of anything. The bureaucracy was running mostly on autopilot. Nopony really knew what the recent events implied of the Equestrian state, let alone the legislature.

Flux wrote off the general air of nonchalance to the repeatedly proven fact that the Estates was packed with self-important childeren, who treated it more as a social club than a legislative body. Anypony with any real skill was either in the administration or at a noble court. Even those who played maneuver politics on the sidelines of the Estates knew it was a joke, as they complemented or cajoled the speakers into the camp of whatever clique they represented.
To begin with, the whole idea of the Estates were an empty punchline. It was supposed to be a forum for the landed nobles to debate and discuss imperial policy, yet the landed nobles 1, Did not care to be there, as the Empress and Imperial Council could override anything they proposed, 2: Had as much sovereignty in their territory as they wanted anyway, and 3: Had felt sour on the Imperial government since Celestia cracked down after the scandal of Junior Princess Cadenza's near mess with matrimony.
So, the landed nobles hired the 'speakers' to show up for them. Flux had been the only lord to represent himself in the Estates for years. He found it somewhat fun, and living so close it wasn't that much of a bother.

“A most hearty welcome to you, Duke Flux.”

“And a most pleasant, kind, and well intentioned thank you to you, Lady Crust.” Flux chuckled.

“Again I should like to express my heartfelt thanks for lending us your twenty-two piece private orchestra.” Upper Crust was one of the prima donnas of Canterlot’s noble societies. She was a diminutive unicorn, with custard yellow fur and a lilac and white mane. So far, she had not seemed overly smitten by any side in the growing battle for the regime, but that could be attributed by an utter lack of understanding. “When the Musician’s Guild canceled on me I was all manner of broken up about it!”

“I’m overjoyed you managed to pull yourself together.” Flux said with a broad grin. “You know, because you weren't literally in pieces. But the joke is thatAh ha ha, my dad taught me that one.”

“Your father was a wonderful stallion.” Upper Crust said, latching on to the part of the sentence she understood.

“How the old goat survived ten kids I’ll never understand. Then again, so many of us ended up dead, debauched, or debauched then dead, so I guess his legacy didn’t count for much after all.” Flux said, swiping a drink from a nearby server’s trey.

“I met your father once, here in Canterlot Gardens before the Estates of 973 SS.” Upper Crust said cheerily.

“973 wasn’t a good year for my father.” Flux took a sip of his drink. “That’s the year he died, of a congenital spinal disease. His head fell right off his shoulders, I’m told.”

Upper Crust paled. “T- That’s awful!”

“Then of course my wife died too. And then all my brothers perished. And then all my sisters died simultaneously of various things. Yes, that was quite the year.”

Upper Crust had by this point had fallen into dead silence, staring into space. Flux was aloof, and continued to talk. “Various bad things struck the extended family, and that was unfortunate too. But of course that was the year that my favorite cousin Night Light met his darling wife Twilight Velvet, so all in all that was an okay year.”

Finishing off the fluid inside, Flux balanced his glass on Upper Crust’s frozen form. Chuckling to himself, he crossed the gardens to a mixed group of nobles.
Good Evening Duke Flux! You’re certainly looking happy today!” A grey unicorn said. Jet Set was the other half of this party, the official representative of Canterlot in the Estates. The Blackhorn Council and other groups had been clawing at his position for years.

“It’s because I am happy.” Flux said, accepting another drink they offered him. “I’ve been doing a lot of positive thinking lately, and it’s really improved how I feel.”

“Really? With all the shenanigans in town I’m at my last nerve.” A noble said. “The Estates are tomorrow and I have no idea who to throw my support behind.”

"Tommorrow? I thought it was tonight?"

"Nopony's giving a clear answer."

"Do they know?"

“It is almost as though there's nopony in charge. Doesn't that place the impetus on us?” Jet Set harrumphed.

"Yeah, let's hold a meeting to decide when to convene!"

"But when will that meeting me held?"

"Umm..."

Flux snorted. "We could let the vizier schedule the planning meeting for the scheduling of the Estates."

The speakers murmured in agreement. "Excellent idea."

"The main problem" One of them said irritably. "Is there there are no clear answers from the Solar Monastery about when the Summer Sun is! We should cut their funding!"

More agreement. "Hear hear. If they don't have the resources to make accurate predictions they don't deserve public funds."

"Privatize the land. It would make a very nice spot for a villa."

“Uh oh, here comes trouble.” Somepony's whispered warning cut through the discussion.

Blueblood and Aurthora Airy had arrived, leading a gaggle of nobles. Blueblood locked eyes with Flux for a moment, then quickly whispered something to Aurthora.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Flux passed his drink to Jet Set and trotted over to Blueblood.

Blueblood bowed. “Duke Flux, my deepest condolences about your nephews. I could not guess how you must be feeling."

"Feeling? Not sure what that is." Flux chuckled. "Also I'd thank you to keep your voice down. I haven't told anypony yet. I know Velvet told you, but I'd appreciate if word didn't get around."

"Oh." Blueblood blushed. "Apologies my lord."

"Eh, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter." Flux patted him on the back. He glanced at Aurthora. "Hello Lady Airy. Life treating you well?"

"Much better since I stopped hosting a court. I find my days in Canterlot much more fulfilling than lounging about in my castle." Aurthra said. "Speaking of, I was looking for you at Castle Magoria and unfortunately didn't catch you. We didn't expect you to come to the Estates this year."

“Wouldn't miss it.” Flux said.

“Yes... I suppose not.” Blueblood glanced away. “You would be terribly missed.”

“And I would hate to disappoint.” Flux nodded.

“Lady Twilight Velvet would be particularly saddened.”

One of the servers interrupted, passing Flux a note.

"Oh?" Flux opened it up.

It would be my pleasure to receive you on the terrace.

“M’Gentlestallions.” Flux bowed. “M’lady.” He nodded to Aurthora. “It seems I have another socialization engagement queued.”

The terrace was at the very back of the gardens, bumping against the city wall on one side. Here, secluded from the rest of the party, were Seacrest Blackhorn and his entourage. Nearby, Hausseway was playing cards with two of his guards. The silent form of Molar was serving drinks.

“I heard there’s a landed noble in this city who doesn’t want me hanged for a traitor. When I heard that, I was shocked.” Seacrest’s prench accent was amused. “So I wanted to meet him.”

“Tell me who he is, and I’ll hang him right alongside you!” Flux chuckled. “May I?”

“Please do!” Seacrest offered Flux the opposite seat at the table. He shifted in his own seat, scooting forward to be face to face with Flux. “I’ve been learning a lot about politics here in Canterlot. It has been interesting, and difficult for me. I’m told you represent yourself in the Estates.”

“I do.” Flux said. “Every landed lord has a voice here. but most hire locals to do the talking for them. Saves on travel expenses. As if that was ever a concern for us rich bucks, eh?”

“Indeed not.” Seacrest agreed. “Which is why I am confused as to why none of the speakers have committed to backing me. I'm a son of the provinces!"

"So is Lightdowser." Flux pointed out. "Do you think that is a good thing? The speakers don't actually represent the landed lords. They represent themselves. This is not an equestrian institution, really. More of a Canterlot one. And it's hardly an insitution, either. It's a big old party."

"Ah..." Seacrest glanced over to Hauseway, who hid behind his wine glass. "Yes I vaguely remember Lady Velvet saying something like that."

"So like a party, you have to work the room, shake hooves, kiss babies, all that." Flux munched on a cracker off the snack platter. "Everypony here is a big baby though. Kiss them all. But being prench, I guess you wouldn't have a hard time of that."

Seacrest laughed nervously. "I grew up in Prancia-Sabonord, yes."

Hauseway cleared his throat. "Duke Flux, we wan't to know what we can do for you. You're an influential stallion, but even you could use a boon from the sitting vizier."

"What can you do for me?" Flux arched a brow.

"Uh..." Hauseway and Seacrest looked to each other for answers. "We know you received a visit from Lord Lightdowser. Whatever he promised you, we can surpass."

"Sharphoof is an old friend, but as you've noticed, he's not here right now. He was always a shy stallion." Flux chuckled to himself. "Pretend he doesn't exist."

"Not too difficult, I suppose.He was only here for two days." Hauseway smirked. "I wouldn't imagine an upstanding gentlecolt like you would need the validation a court position would entail?

"Or for some select friends, maybe?" Seacrest hummed.

“I think I can see when this is going.” Flux took a sip of his drink. "Lord Seacrest, I'm going to be honest with you, I don't care. I'm not going to participate that much in the Estates. I might not even open my mouth." He snapped up another cracker. "Because I don't care. I don't care about you, or Lightdowser, or the tetchy clique politics. I'm just a stallion with a castle. None of this matters to me." He levitated another glass of wine from a nearby server's tray. "I;m here because I've got nothing better to do."

"That's a totally irresponsible attitude." Hauseway growled. "The Estates are going to decide the future of the Equestrian State, and you treat it as a mere sideshow."

"Don't presume to lecture me, Captain Hauseway. I am liege to hundred of thousands of ponies." Flux chortled. "You, on the other hoof, can't even keep control over your second in command."

Hauseway's face reddened.

"hey, no need to get upset. It's all in good fun." Flux threw back his head and guzzled his drink. "This place has been a real laugh lately. I hear ponies shouting at each other about the goofiest things: Real Unicorn Values, Strong Leadership, Moral Dignity. I could put all that talk together and still not have enough to academically challenge a mad cow."

"The vaunted centrist, who holds himself above we who have the guts to be passionate about our beliefs." Hauseway growled. "You come to point and laugh at us. Fine enough. I will not challenge your comfy feelings of superiority."

"Is there a reason I should be taken in by any of your ideologies? Do I look like the type of pony who gets hard at the chants of 'Get a Horn or Get Out', or like I'd be interested in banning imperial funds from Pegasi or Earth Pony communities?" He arched a brow. "Do I?"

"Um, you are a unicorn." Seacrest said.

"Ahh, buck off." Lightdowser chuckled. He got up. "You'll understand the pointlessness of it all soon enough."

"And you'll soon understand why it matters more than anything else in the world." Hauseway glared. "No princess or empress here now. The only thing between us and destiny is honest effort."

Destiny, huh?" Flux shook his head. "You're going to get a lesson about that as well. See ya, captain." He nodded to Seacrest. "Lord Blackhorn."

Three drinks later and he was staring to see new and interesting colors in the world. The urge to cause some trouble was getting stronger.

"Foaly, drinking alone? For shame." A derogatory, high pitched voice cut through the air. Prosser was wearing a tunic only slightly finer than his usual robe, with an oak tree broach pinned at his shoulder. He was cradling a glass of water in his hoof. "You're usually stuck in there."

"Don't feel like company tonight." Foaly grunted.

"Feeling down?"

"On the contrary, I feel adequate. Haven't felt this good in years." Foaly smiled. "I have a good feeling about tonight."

"If you say so, my lord." Prosser was looking uncustomary somber. "I myself have been on the anxious side since her majesty left."

"As any sane pony would be, and yet..." Flux waved over the ponies in the party around them, grouped off in their twos and threes, laughing and enjoying themselves. "Do you think they have any idea?"

"Not a clue." Prosser assessed.

They stood silently for a while.

"Why did you switch to water? Have a lot to drink already?" Flux asked

"No. I haven't had anything tonight." Prosser admitted.

"I hope you don't regret that decision." Flux laughed to himself.

"Oh trust me, I already have a headache." Prosser scowled. "I mean, look at all these assholes, come together to decide the fate of our empire. With the empress away, there's a feeling in the air that they could get away with anything. If I could see into their heads, I expect I'd see the most vile shades of arrogant, power-hungry, and racist. What awful, awful circumstances has put these ponies in this position of power? Is this the best ponykind is capable of?"

"Is it?"

"In a Sartrean way, I guess it is. What we see is what we get. This..." Prosser pointed at the decedent speakers, drinking and partying. "This is our fate. This is the sum of ponykind's dreams."

"We are disgusting." Flux agreed. "We don't to rule ourselves."

"We deserve to be punished for letting ourselves get this bad." Prosser grit his teeth. "Ponykind needs to be whipped back into shape."

"And it may hurt. A lot. But it's what we need." Flux downed the rest of his drink. That was number seven? He wasn't sure. "If this is what ponykind's dreams lead us to..." He let his gaze wander the terrace, where Hauseway and Seacrest were brooding. "We just don't deserve dreams."

Prosser sighed. "Goodness gracious. What depressive anis we're being. We had our chance. I'm just raw that Lightdowser left."

"Why? Want him here to suffer with us?" Flux laughed. "He does not suffer fools easily. Why do you think he lost the viziership to Fancy Pants? The poor colt has too much wits and not enough patience."

"Yes... But..." Prosser sighed. "If any pony could have possibly kept this night being consumed by Twilight Velvet, it would have been him."

"Maybe, maybe not." Flux shrugged. "It's for the best Sharphoof left."

"Even if it makes ponykind suffer more?" Prosser asked.

"Especially because it does. This night needs a different color colt. I don't know why he left, but..." Flux smiled weakly. Prosser, who had known the stallion for a number of years, had never seen him so close to tears. Rumor had it Foaly hadn't shed a tear for his entire family, but bore it with a smile. "The door been opened for old Foaly Flux. I have a good feeling that it's finally my turn."

After recovering from her shock with Flux, Upper Crust returned to her post as greeter for the gala. The nobles stopped arriving consistently after Blueblood and company came, but Crust stuck around for the latecomers.

The sun was at last consumed by the mountain, and the sky's twilight steaks deepened into purples, blues, and blacks. Darkness settled over the lands around Canterlot too. Proper night began as the moon crested the western horizon and stars winked to life up above.

"Pretty, isn't it?"
Upper Crust gasped, not noticing the middle aged stallion in front of her.

"Lord Night Light?" Upper Crust quirked a brow. "I heard you were in the dungeon!"

"I was until this morning. The Imperial Household Guardsponies let me out before they evacuated. Since then I had an exciting time." Night Light explained. "I was never a very social stallion. Whipping up a racist militia and occupying Canterlot Castle with it was a whole new experience for me. Unfortunately, that band was trampled for nothing, because the Wonderbolts are still bent on causing a scene."

"Lord Light, I don't follow." Upper Crust looked him over, checking for an obvious sign of a head injury.

"I said unfortunately, the Wonderbolts are on their way. They got a bit lost but they'll remember they have wings eventually." Night Light repeated. "Is my wife here yet?"

"Umm, no." Crust blinked. "When you say Wonderbolt, you mean those pegasi barbarians? They're on the way here?"

"Yeah, tell me what you really think." The portly figure of Rain Gnash came trotting up the garden path. She was wearing a too-small black dress that did not complement her green coat well at all. She stopped in front of Night Light. "Huh. I thought you were in the dungeon."

"Common mistake." Night Light smiled. "We've never met, Lady Gnash, but I was a big fan of yours before you left with the clique. Your techniques with half-shell foils was whispered of in hushed tones in the fencing circles."

"I don't do autographs." Gnash grunted. "Especially since I've gone to great lengths to uproot your arrogant wife's influence in this town."

"Ahh, that's very unfortunate. You should have spent these last few days on more productive things." Night Light smiled appologetically.

There was a rustle of wings, and suddenly the air was filled with over a dozen pegasi in heavy armor. The Wonderbolts landed all around the party, making the guests yell and shriek in surprise.

"Okay, what the blazes is going on?" Upper Crust whined.

"I'm lost too." Gnash squinted. "The Bolts are supposed to be holding down Canterlot Castle."

Not two seconds later, and the column of city guardsponies came around the corner. They marched right past Gnash and Crust, but each gave a respectful nod to Night Light as they went by. Their arrival only heightened the chaos in the party, as ponies either froze in panic or started running around.

Night Light adjusted his mane and strode into the clearing. "Showtime, Velvet." He hummed to himself.

"Ah hell.: Rain Gnash cursed, galling after him.

On their side of the party, Prosser and Flux watched the two armed bands make their entrance.

"Interesting." Flux was on his ninth drink.

Prosser looked up at the rising moon. "Isn't this amazing. Like a painting, almost. I don't like it much, but it speaks to some ponies. A performance art piece, that nopony knows they're a part of. Good show, isn't it? Doesn't it draw the hardest laughs in town. It's a hard act to follow."

"Don't hurt yourself stretching for metaphor." Flux ribbed.

"Your right." Prosser nodded. "Plenty of time when the real party starts."

Rain Gnash ran from Wonderbolt to Wonderbolt, trying to find somepony to yell at. "Spitfire! Spitfire where the hell are you! I know your behind this!"

"Over here, Admiral." Spitfire's voice carried from the terrace. Gnash found Spitfire and Soarin standing over the irate Seacrest and Hauseway. "Just making sure there's no trouble from these two."

"So this is what kind of pony you really are, huh Gnash?!" Hauseway spat. "Can't get your way so you throw a coup against the legitimate government? When word gets out you can expect every imperial army in Equestria to come marching back to roast your ass!"

"Merde whore!" Seacrest concurred. "This insurrection won't last an hour. Once Velvet hears of this you'll have the city collapse on you!"

"The admiral has nothing to do with this." Spitfire said. "I'm in charge here."

"W- What?" Seacrest and Hasueway balked.

"God damn it Spitfire you honorless traitor! The admiralty will have both our heads if you don't cool it!" Gnash screamed.

"Admiral, these ponies have to disperse right now." SPitfire pointed back into the clearing. "You see those ponies with guns? Somethings up."

"What? Guns?" Hauseway stood up and looked around. "T-Those are city guards! What's going on here?" He looked back to Rain Gnash. "The hell is you game here, Admiral fatso?!"

"Buck off! I'm restoring discipline in my troops here." Gnash snapped at him. "Spitfire, you've got negative ten seconds to explain what going on here or the next dispatch to Cloudsdale is going with you, tucked under the rope around your wings!"

"Those guards were at the castle with us. They smashed the militia with us and snapped up those guns." Spitfire said.

"Yeah." Soarin nodded. "Then they starting in this direction. If anypony's launching a coup, its them!"

"But the guard take their orders from Captain Sabornord. He's on our side!" Hauseway protested. "Wait a minute... That's Night Light down there! T- T- T- That's Night Light with them!"

"Huh?" Spitfire's eyes followed his hoof to where he was pointing. The blue stallion from the castle was talking with Jet Set and the guard sergeant. "That's Night Light? Twilight Velvet's husband." The color drained from her face. "Oh buck."

Night Light noticed their gawking and waved to them. "I'm very sorry for misleading you, Captain Spitfire. You really should have waited on your airship." He genuflected. "Sadly your a part of this night now, and you get to see it through like everypony else."

The city guards had unslung their guns, and taken aim. Each Wonderbolt now had a loaded arquebus inches from their head. At the garden’s entrance, more guardsponies were marching in.

Night Light strode up to the terrace. "Hello Captain Hauseway, Seacrest. Nice, clear night. Full moon too. I couldn't imagine a night prettier than this." He smiled thinly. "It's the kind of night when lovers stroll through the garden and lay on the grass."

"Velvet." Rain Gnash murmured. "Is she on her way or meeting us later?"

Night Light just smiled.

“If I understand the situation correctly,” Spitfire said impassively. “I think we’re all about to die.”

Chapter 25: Converge

“Thats right! Move it!” The city guards wasted no time in stripping everypony at the party of their weapons, or anything that could be used as one. Even more guards arrived, until there was a gun and two spears pointed at every guest, and twice that for every Wonderbolt.

Night Light held back several ponies as they tried to slip out of the garden, until the guardsponies pulled them away. The entire population of the gala, minus Blueblood and Aurthora, was shoved into a line where all the gunners could see them.

“Where’s Duke Flux?” Night Light scanned the quivering detainees for his cousin.

Blueblood bit his lip. “I don’t see him. Did he get away?”

Night Light annoyed glare could have shattered the mountain if it hadn’t been absorbed by Blueblood's density. “I spend a month in the dungeon, and spring this in a day. How can you loose track of a pony in less than thirty seconds?"

"You're more talkative than usual my lord." Blueblood noticed.

"Blueblood." Night Light frowned. "Please find Duke Flux, or you're going in the line."

Taking the hint, Blueblood quickly backed away. “Uh, Lady Airy, we should see if we could find the duke.” He scuttled off, the towering Aurthora and a hooffull of guards following.

Night Light sighed. "It not that the line is a bad place to be." He explained halfheartedly to the terrified ponies in said line. "It's just that you're easier to keep track of this way.

The more egotistical of the bunch were less than thrilled. Rain Gnash was flipping between trying to melt Night Light’s brain will her stare and hyperventilating, her teeth grinding loud enough to make all the adjacent ponies tremble. Seacrest was staring into space vacantly. Hausseway was the most vocal.
“Who let you out of the dungeon, Night Light? I’ll hang him! When I say somepony’s going to rot down there for all eternity I mean it!”

Night Light eyed the other party guests. He didn't really want make a scene with Hauseway but there wasn't anything better to do until Sel Lech arrived. "I'm not sure how closely you've been paying attention to the regiment who it is your primary responsibility to lead, but the Household guard abandoned Canterlot Castle over eight hours ago. They let me out."

“Incompetents! I- I’ll have every one of them courtmartialed!” Hausseway foamed.

Night Light was amused. Was he the first pony telling Hauseway about the IHG leaving? One would have thought a detail like that would be important for the ruling regime.

“Courtmartialed... I think it’s far more likely that we’ll all be shot and dumped off the Mountain.” Spitfire shrugged. Her misjudgment of Velvet's intentions were eating her. Dirty politics were one thing, but a straight up coup had not even crossed her mind. She felt stupid, but then again many of the ponies in the line were likely feeling the same.

"Please don't spread panic Captain Spitfire. This is a legal action. Nopony will come to harm." Night Light said.

“Then what is this? Is it for our safety? Buck off!” Hausseway roared to nopony in particular, but he fixed his attention on city guardsponies surrounding him. “Come on you pissants! Just shoot me already! Get it buckin over with!”

"Don't shoot him please." Night Light said calmly.

The sound of more armored hoofsteps came from the path into the clearing. Sel Lech Sabornord a few guards approached, leading a gagged and blindfolded earth pony in brown monk's robes.
“Lord Night Light! It's good to see you!" Sel Lech grinned. "I was terrified the dungeon was going to age you unrecognisablely."

"It was not too unpleasant, but still not an experience I would like to repeat. It was very boring." Night Light bowed. "Who is that with you?

"Hmm?" Sel turned to the blindfolded earth pony. "Oh. This is the monk that was working with Princes Cadenza for a while, Manered. He was found in the Musician's Guild under-catacombs."

"Hmm." Night Light rubbed his chin. Manered shifted nervously, hearing what was said but unable to see for the blindfold..

Murmurs rippled down the line of detainees as they took the scene in.
"That's the monk that was trying to get into the castle." Soarin whispered to Spitfire. "What could he have been doing in the layer of that Phyte creature?"

"There's so much we're missing it's not even funny." Spitfire grunted.

"No I understand completely! More traitors for the noose!” Hausseway, finding a single target for his fury, yelled hoarsely. "Sabornord you dog, you swore to protect the city and the Empire! You'll burn for this!"

Sel grimaced. "The heart of that oath was to protect ponykind. That's what I'm doing." He nodded to all the Speakers. "Please understand, this is a chaotic time in our nation's history. We'd never do anything that history would look back on poorly. We're here to keep order and protect us."

Hauseway sneered. "Told ya they'd say this is for our safety."

"But it is." Sel Lech said solemnly. He pulled the gag out of Manred's mouth. "Brother, why were you under the Musician's Guild?"

Manered hesitated, still blindfolded, shivering and unsure. "I- I was looking for Lady Phyte, or a dragonfire cage, or something to try to get any kind of message to Cadenza or Celestia."

"Okay, message to Celestia." Sel extracted the essence of what the brother said for the crowd.

"Y- Yes, yes! She has to know what's happening. O- Or anypony who can act. I- It's..." Manered ran his tongue over his teeth nervously. "It's getting worse all the time! The Moon’s path will eclipse the Sun right as the Summer Sun occurs!”

Everypony in the garden gasped, save for Sel Lech and the stoic Spitfire. “And this is happening…” Sel Lech led.

“Tommorow! Imminently! There's no telling. Everything is so unstable!” Manered wobbled blindly trying to adress the crowd he heard. “Please, we have to take precautiouns! Even the monks can't predict w-” His sentence turned into muffled emphatic utterances as Sel Lech refitted the gag. He pushed the monk back, who fell over into the grass.

"So you have to understand that there can be ZERO delay." Sel Lech turned back to the Speakers. "There must be a decisive vote to give executive powers to a regent, immediately. The current vizier and IHG captain are not up to the task.

“Then this is a coup.” Hausseway said. “Am I right hot-shot? You’re young and think you can do anything, right? The most powerful ponies left in Canterlot, and you just waltz in with guns and plant the flag, eh? You slimy bastard! Canterlot won't forget this!”

"I'm just huring things along, my fellow captain." Sel said, almost like he regretted having to do it. "It would be unfitting if Canterlot fell to anarchy while the Estates were still here drinking."

“Two faced, double crossing MMrph!” Hausseway ran forward but was grabbed by the city guards. Sel Lech picked up a dinner napkin and made another gag out of it. The irate Hauseway continued to yell into the cloth, as he was shoved back into the line.
"You're bothering the Speakers, Captain Hauseway. It's extremely important they use every moment to dwell on who they will empower.This is not a coup. This is legislative expedience."

“Of course you’re not going to kill us.” Rain Gnash, now that Hauseway was mostly silent, picked up the slack. She spoke confidently, bordering on her usual arrogance, but was clearly very wary of the guns. “Without hostages, you’ll have no negotiating power when Celestia and Duke Lightdowser return with an army.”

"An army to brought against who? Me? As soon as this is over the guard and I are returning to protecting the city." Sel frowned. "Besides I doubt that anything short of putting a leper on her throne could stir Her Highness Celestia to any kind of denouncement. If Lord Lightdowser wants to march on Canterlot with an army, he will be the traitor not us.

“This is bucking ridiculous.” Rain Gnash hissed. "Has our princess become nothing more than a figurehead?!"

The absurdity of the question lingered in the air. A couple ponies laughed.

“Our princess needs a regent in this desperate hour.” Sel Lech said, pointing into the nighttime sky. “Did this monk not just say that our heavenly guides are rampant?” Manered tried to interrupt, his cloth gag preventing him. "With our princess so unfit to lead... Perhaps it is time to have a pony to fill that decisive position that Princess Celestia should be.Thus the need for a regent, without delay!"

There was more clamor from the crowd. The Speakers mumbled and whispered, reflecting on the bold truth Sel Lech was proposing.
Sel Lech waited for them to fall silent. “So you see, this is so important I can not let Estates remain out of session any longer. Please understand, Equestria's fate is in your hooves now.”

The Speakers in the group each witnessed a slight change in their expression. An inexplicable buzz at the back of their mind, tempting them with the possibility of immense power. Once upon a time when Celestia had been active in politics, the Estates had been little more than a formality. When Celestia had taken ill, the Estates had seemed like it would have been about exploiting as much as possible in the time until Celestia returned. If Celestia was gone from the picture, the possibilities were endless.

Rain Gnash, Spitfire, and Hauseway saw this happening and cringed. The Speakers were taken in my Sel Lech's selfless urgings.

“This is all so unexpected, yet so interesting.” Jet Set hummed. “Please tell us Captain, could we be electing a new Empress, or perhaps even an Emperor?” The other speakers eagerly inquired similarly, seeming to forget how each one of them had a loaded weapon pointed at their head.

Sel Lech nodded agreeably. “It’s up to you modest mares and stallions of the Estates to decide. Power has devolved to you.”

Prosser chose this time to speak up. “This is all excellent, but would it be too much to ask that the guns get put up, now that we all agree? Not to make a big deal of it, but the implied threat of death is uncomfortable."

Sel Laughed. Not in amusement or mirth, but a rather flat laugh that lasted just a little too long. Everypony not lost in a power fantasy daydream noticed, and read the uncomfortable look that flash on Sel Lech’s face. Then they looked around Sel, to the determined and angry expressions marring the city guardsponies. They were not letting their aim drop, despite how tiring keeping the guns up must have been. No, they were not even letting them waver. Each guardspony but all their ferocious drive into keeping that gun level with a Speaker's head.
To the collective horror of Hausseway’s and Gnash’s groups, it became unspokenly apparent that Sel Lech had less control over his soldiers than he should like to admit.

"Maybe we really are going to die." Soarin squeaked.

Spitfire saw that Night Light retained his look of cool observation. The old stallion was calm. "Let's wait and see."

"Let's not do anything rash." Rain Gnash agreed.

Sel Lech smiled unevenly.

The tension was entirely lost on the speakers.
“The guns don't matter as long as we can get on with important business. All haste! Let’s gallop to the castle!” Jet Set took a step forward, but was pushed back in line by one of the guardponies. He stumbled, confused. “Uh, Captain Sabornord, if you could please...”

“Sergeant, please escort the speakers to the throne room. The Estates will meet in body there as is traditional.” Sel Lech ordered. “I’ll be following shortly after I’ve had a word with our Cloudsdale friends.”

“Yeah, we'll be getting down to buisness in the throne room then.” The guard sergeant nodded to his squad, and the speakers were pushed out of the line. "It's been cleared for the occasion."

"I'm glad to hear it. Just... keep a lid on things until the right time." Seacrest bit his lip. "Can I rely on the city guard, in its new role is vanguard of Canterlot's defense?"

"Aye!" The guardsponies chorussed. They roughly shepherded the Speakers out of the garden clearing in the direction of Canterlot Castle.

The garden’s population was reduced to Hausseway, Rain Gnash and her dozen Wonderbolts, Seacrest and Molar beside him, and Prosser, and opposite them were Sel Lech, Night Light, and the bound and gagged Manered. A hooffull of guards remained behind too, watching the entrances to the garden.

"That's a pot about to blow." Sel whispered to Night Light. "We've been feeding the City Guard anti-Speaker rhetoric to get them to accept this move."

"It won't do any good if the guard murder the Speakers." Night Light sucked in a breath. "Has Velvet told you what the contingency if we loose control of them?"

"I can guess." Sel grimaced. he cleared his throat and turned back to Gnash, Hauseway, and the rest. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

“Hold up. I'd prefer to be on the other side.” Prosser jumped to his hooves. He trotted around to stand beside Night Light guardspony’s side. “Ok, you can shoot them now.”

"Nopony is getting shot." Night Light promised.

“I hope you're not going to keep us here all night. Kill us, or whatever, but don't keep us waiting.” Spitfire said.

“We assure you, this night will end with your freedom.” Sel said.

“With a qualification.” Night Light continued. “You Wonderbolts decided to intervene instead of going back to your airship as I suggested. While your intentions were noble, you have still involved yourself in this, and things will have to unwind themselves naturally."

"Yeah, sure. Probably the only reason we're not in a dungeon getting shackled to a wall is that Velvet has a use for us.” Rain Gnash hissed.

“Astute.” Night Light smiled. "We somehow came this far without my wife being invoked."

"In all fairness, Velvet has been known to chain ponies to a dungeon wall even if they are of use." Prosser pointed out.

"Hush now, Councilor. Her ladyship has been very busy checking the plans against the changing situation. I actually here in her stead." Sel Lech said.

"I bet she's not too busy to be there when the Estates vote, so she receives the executive powers." Rain Gnash growled.

"Lady Velvet is already in the throne room, so she could hardly miss it. You'' be there too, representing the Pegasi Clique, right Admiral Gnash?" Sel Lech turned to Hauseway and Seacrest. "Do not be too disappointed that your clumsy grasp at power isn't amounting to anything. We'd really like for you to attend too."

Hauseway glared, while Seacrest still did not rouse from his blank stare.

"You gotten me so exited, Sabonord." Gnash deadpanned. "But you've got a ways to go before you can talk like your idol Velvet."

"Uhh..." Seacrest blinked.

"Joking." Gnash grunted. "Let's get trotting already! If there one think I like less than the idea of having Velvet gloat over me, its standing around any longer in this god damn dress."

“Patience, admiral.” Night Light consoled her. “If I know Velvet, our transportation arrangement is soon to come for us.”

“I have a feeling I’m not going to like this part.” Spitfire whistled.

The grass of the garden began radiating purple light. Sel Lech, Night Light, and the guardsponies took a moment to plant themselves squarely on the ground.

“I hope nopony ate too many hors d’oeuvres.” Sel Lech said. And the purple was diluted by swirling green magic.

Flame propelled out of the ground like a sprinkler, submerging everypony in the garden in intense green. The ones who hadn’t braced themselves screamed in more panic than anguish. To their senses, it was as though they were being swallowed up by the mouth of hell.

It was a very dark night in Canterlot's outer city, where the townhouses and packed buildings gave way to stately manors and gardens. The moon had so far only barely risen above the horizon, and the only illumination on the path out from the inner city to the outer were the infrequent torches. There were no ponies on the street, save Flash Sentry. He enjoyed the clatter of his hooves on the cobblestone avenue in isolation.

"Sure is quiet." He said to himself.

He passed without drama to the sparse edge of the plateau, to the darkened shadow of the outer wall. Up ahead he saw the blocky shape of the Chateau la Garde and the city gatehouse. There were enshadowed figures hoving around the road. They spotted Flash immediately and galloped up to him.

“Stop right there! Don’t go any farther!” A gruff stallion demanded.
Not that they were closer, Flash Sentry could identify them as Imperial Household Guardsponies.

“Hey hey hey, it’s me!” Flash posed nonthreatening.

“Is that Sentry?” The younger of the guards asked the other.

“Yeah it’s me!” Flash approached. “I heard you guys flew the coop, but I got left behind. Seriously I got caught up in a battle, and been looking all over." He took a steadying breath. "So what's up? What's going on?"

“Why do you want to know. Are you here to stop us?” Another guard emerged from the shadow on Flash’s left, his sword drawn.

“No, geeze. I'm just trying to join up with you guys, get a bit of information, you know.” Flash said. “Should I be trying to stop you, by myself?”

The two guardsponies considered this briefly before they closed in on Flash. “Captain Hauseway didn't send you?"

"The captain hasn't bothered to check on me in months, same as you guy." Flash protested. "Why am I getting grilled on this? Am I not in with the rest of you just because I carry messages instead of guarding statues? I sensing some real hostility here."

The other knights stared at him.

"Okay, yeah, I'm a little awkward." Flash fidgeted. "I never bought into the cult of personality around Sir Shining Armor that you guys have."

"Sir Armor is a great leader."One of the knights scowled.

The other agreed. "His honor is above reproach."

It always had seemed to Flash that Shining Armor liked galavanting around in politics and investigations, like some kind of inquisitor, more than he did the martial discipline of an Imperial Knight. Still, with Hauseway totally negligent, Sir Armor's leadership had been more than adequate.
"Sure. Um, where is he? Can I talk to him?"

“He’s in the Chateau."

Flash took another look at the looming Chateau la Garde. it was lit from inside, and shadows moved through the light behind every curtained window. The entire IHG was in there. "Okay, so can I see him please?"

The other knights were cautious, but relented to the request. "Please follow us.”

“Great.” Flash surrendered his swords and let them lead him up to the gatehouse door. As they got closer, he noticed that IGH ponies were stationed out along the wall and on the lawn. They weren't going to let anypony sneak up on them. "We're expecting trouble, huh."

“We’re not part of the royal guard anymore. Not sure what we’re going to become, but whatever it is we want Shining Armor as our captain.” His lead escort said.

“Or our grandmaster should we decide to form some pseudo-religious knightly order or something like that.” The other contributed. “Or chieftain if we abscond to the woods and go tribal.”

“I get the idea. Clearly we're in an uncertain mind about our future.” Flash said. The large entrance hall to Chateau la Garde had been converted into something akin to a refugee camp. The IHG with families had camped out here and there, with others gathering and packaging food and supplies at the opposite corner. "But it just strikes me as an, umm, overreaction, you know. Sure things suck, but you're actually going to abandon Canterlot because of it? That's on the level of a colt who runs away from home because he didn't get his way.

"The situation is more complicated than you understand, Sir Sentry. The drama in the castle is the tip of the iceberg. You'll understand one you speak to Captain Armor." The lead knight said.

“You can see how serious we are. It has been stressful, yes, contemplating and actually gearing up to leave." The other knight admitted. "But that's all we can do."

“Sure. I'll keep an open mind when I'm talking to 'Captain' Armor." Flash counted over a hundred ponies in the great hall, most families and children, organizing and packing the belonging they'd brought. It was one big staging ground for an exodus. Passing up the stiars into the living quarters, he spied dozens more knights appropriating various things from the rooms. “But personally I think it’s poor form to be looting.”

Neither of the knights said anything to that.

"Like, isn't this Lady Twilight Sparkle's castle? As in, Sir Armor's sister? Somehow I don’t think she’ll thank you.” Shining Armor’s younger sister was pretty well known to most of the Household Guard, though around the time Flash had joined she stopped attending royal events with Princess Celestia. Still, Twilight Jr’s appointment to Élève Premier had caused some stir in the IHG barracks for a few days. Last Flash heard she was in the south on royal business.
"Come on, talk to me. What's going on. We could have been there to prevent the fighting at the castle. Now we're ransaking, and... I just don't get it."

"Captain Armor will explain." The lead knight said.

The three pony convoy climbed the stiars to chateau’s top floor. Between the stair's landing and the door into the library and study, a burley knight stood guard.

"Got one to see Armor." The lead knight explained.

The knight on guard pushed the door open to let them through.

There were three ponies in the library. Shining Armor was at the big desk at the room's center, engrossed in whatever he was reading. A unicorn in a concealing robe sat in the corner shuffling through papers. A dainty maid observed them silently.

“Captain, Sir Sentry tried to breach or perimeter.” The lead knight announced. “We apprehended him for questioning.”

“I was just trying to find you guys.” Flash protested.

Shining Armor looked up from what he was reading. “Leave him here, I’ll get to him in a moment.” Then he looked back to the page.

The two escorts bowed and retreated from the library, closing the door behind them.
It was silent except for the sound of paper being shuffled. The firefly lamps provided an even weaker light than the candles in the rest of the castle, and Flash could barely see the full volume of the records stored there. It was stuffy and smelled of parchment and paper.

"Hi, um, hello. Sir Armor I don't think I was even under your command since I was a messenger, but we've met plenty of times at the barracks." Flash said nervously. "I came to see what's up."

Shining seemed not to notice he'd said anything.

"Err, sir?" Flash fidgeted. "Am I in trouble?"

“Not beyond any of the rest of us.” Shining said, glancing up at Flash while he pulled out another pile of parchments. “I fought to protect this city. I really did. If I had known what I was up against, I don't think I would have bothered. This chaos we're hurtling towards, it's fate. There couldn't have been any other result."

Flash blinked.

"Imagine a grandmaster chess player. They can run a dozen matches at the same time and one every singe one. We are that outclassed here. The forced brought to bear on us are immense to the point of inevitability." Shining continued. "It's tiring to even consider. It makes me feel... empty inside. There was never any hope."

The concealed unicorn in the corner snorted. "Stop abusing the point and show the boy some evidence, Armor." By his voice he was a middle-aged stallion. It was familiar to Flash, and he thought he might have heard it around the castle.

"This absurd archive, for one. Some of it are gate records, but an overwhelming amount were written one pony in the span of two months." Shining waved around the room, and Flash's eyes followed. There had to be at least a ten-thousand scrolls and books, stacked and piled above head heigh on every wall. Even if a pony wrote non-stop for a year they could not have accomplished that much. "Seems impossible, right? Seems like I'm telling you a lie, right?" He grimaced. "Such is the reality defying power of my dear mother, Twilight Velvet."

"A veritable force of nature." The robed unicorn concurred.

Shining held out two pages, identical except for the hoofwriting style. “Some of it is mundane, just transcriptions and copying. Hundreds of pages of entry and exit lists, transcribed word for word. A completely pointless job, with no use so far as we can tell.”
He opened one of the desk’s drawers and retrieved a folder. “And this. Biographies of almost a thousand ponies, commoners mostly, filled with all the boring details of their uninteresting lives. Did you know, for example…” Shining picked a random sheet. “That mis Crown Daisy ‘On the 14th, attended her weekly worship at the uptown temple, but was thirteen minutes later than usual?’ It's... I can't even grasp it. it's omnipotence, in all it's banality, put to paper.”

Shining tossed the folder in frustration. It fell to the floor and spilled out it’s contents.

“Just one pony’s worth of this stuff would be obsessive. I wouldn’t know how to feel about that, but my mother’s always been an eccentric kind of pony. But a thousand’s worth? It’s mind boggling, impossible! Some of these were started before I was born, and filled out up to last week. A couple folders were started before she was born! Some aren’t even in Equestrian, and my mother only speaks Equestrian!”
Shining threw up his hooves in surrender. “When you deal with mythic supernaturalities I guess you have to expect the inexplicable.”

"A power to rival the alicorns." The unicorn in the corner mused. "How were we mere mortals meant to compete? Never should have bothered. Then I would still be alive."

"Umm..." Flash Sentry gnawed his lip nervously. "I really wouldn't know anything about this stuff. I was just trying to link up."

"And now you're here." Shining nodded.

"So what are you, umm, I mean we, doing?" Flash asked. "Is this a revolt?"

Shining laughed. “Revolt? You make it sound so daring and dangerous. What we’re doing is running away, like playground foals who realize the swing-set being hoarded by university delinquents.”

"I made the foal comparison too." Flash laughed half-heartedly. "I don't get it. We're the Imperial Household Guard. A little bit of unrest shouldn't be able to move us."

"As I've shown, we're not just facing unrest." Shining said gravely. "If we were to stay, a foe akin to god herself would come crashing dow on us."

"That's got to be overdramatizing it." Flash snorted.

"Maybe. God stays in heaven. My mother did not." Shining leaned back in his chair. "Are you going to stay in Canterlot, Sir Sentry."

Flash's expression conteorted into one of confusion, uncertainty, and fear. "I’ve lived in Canterlot my whole life. It's my home. Sure, she's never completely accepted me for being a pegasus, but I love her gardens, beautiful architecture, and kind ponies. I- I don't want to have to abandon my home because of the action of a rotten few." He sighed. "I've been telling myself that for years, against all kinds of racism and bigotry. Pegasi are the whipping boy of the big-wig nobles. They don't care that I came from a knightly house, or that I served my princess in the Imperial Army loyally. I'll always be a sneaky, suspicious pegasus."

"Good news for you, Twilight Velvet's world probably won't have many distinctions for class or tribe in it." Shining smirked. "Bad news, we're not likely to survive to see it if we stay. The future she wants requires sacrifice."

"Yours does too, captain." Flash noted. "I passed a lot of ponies on the way up here who were dropping their lives to follow you. What did you say to them, to get them to do that?"

Shining looked uncertain. "Loyalty."

"To Princess Celestia?"

“To the idea of Celestia. The reality is flawed.” Shining sighed. “We took oaths, but the princess we swore ourselves to is gone. Not just from Canterlot, but from our world. Our princess abandoned us to this cruel fate, to the monsters she knew were here. So now I’m not sure what to be loyal to."
Shining grabbed the next book on the desk and started leafing through it. "For better or for worse, the other knights have felt their loyalty breaking as well. We gave our lives in service, for nothing. For some reason, they value my opinion above their own fidelity." He chuckled. "Together we will run away. At best I’d say we’re being pragmatists, fleeing the killer and letting her work her knife into Equestria’s heart. At worst, we're craven for not destroying ourselves trying to stop my mother. I've seen what the monsters under Canterlot look like though, and I know that we couldn't even dent her or her plans..”

Flash shivered. "You're in charge sir. When all other duties are moot... It's my duty to follow you."

"Be glad to have you." Shining smiled.

The concealed unicorn stood up and trotted to the desk. “If you're free, Captain Armor, I’ve found something quite interesting.” He pushed back his cowl, revealing a white unicorn head stitched to the body of a blue pegasus.

“Wh- Wh- What? Vizier Fancy Pants?! You died!” Flash recoiled.

“Yes, very painfully.” Fancy Pants replied dryly. He dropped a scroll on Shining’s desk.

"Don't worry about it." Shining said.
He quickly unrolled the scroll, his eyes flashing across the lines of text. “So what have you brought me... Another gatehouse record, dated six months ago… Seacrest Sabonord and company?”

Fancy Pants nodded. “That’s right. Seacrest arrived four months before he introduced himself to your mother.”

Shining read on. “Members of Party: Scratchy- Bard, unicorn, mare. Beach Strider- Theatrical actor, unicorn pony, stallion. Bluster- Stage manager, pegasus, mare. Seacrest Sabonord- Singer, earth pony, stallion.” Shining Armor looked up from the scroll, perplexed. “What?”

“Just a little bit further.” Fancy Pants encouraged.

Shining complied. “ ‘When questioned about their business in Canterlot, the group said that they had been traveling together for convenience. Skratchy and Bluster claimed personal reasons, while Seacrest Sabonord and Beach Strider claimed that they were visiting the Musician’s Guild for lessons.’ … I don’t think this is the same Seacrest at all.”

“Somepony’s been very clever.” Fancy Pants said. “I haven’t figured out who yet.”

Canterlot Castle’s throne room felt very lonely with only one pony in it. Velvet lounged on the steps up to the throne, imagining how things were going in the Royal Garden. At the very edge of her magical senses she could feel the auras of those assembled ponies milling around, their assorted passions roiling amongst each other.

"Here I am, all by myself. It feels strange." She looked over her shoulder at the simple gold throne. In the meager light of the firefly lanterns, it cast a long shadow on the wall behind it, embellished with banners and gold flourishing. "When was the last time the sun princess sat in court here? Two months? How would those in attendance have reacted if they knew it was the last time?"

She stood up and strode to one of the enormous stained glass windows. By the backlight of the moonlight, it depicted a scene from one of the Celestianist dogmatic texts, a scene of the princess reigning over some ceremony or something.

"When was the last time I talk to her highness? Goodness, it must have been... hmm... Eight years ago, at least." Velvet ruminated. "It was at an imperial function, if I recall. She was not very happy to be there."

It was time to bring things together.

She faced the hall and summoned her magic to her horn. Purple light filled every corner of the room. As she poured her energy and concentration into the spell, Velvet's magic it tool on a greenish pallor.

A point of light popped into existance in the center of the hall. It lingered for a moment, then expanded to a gushing portal of rainbow magic. A dozen ponies were flung from the fire before it vanished.
Gnash and Hauseway's companies were looking nauseated and disoriented. Night Light, Molar, and Sel Lech shook it off more easily, having expected it.

Velvet was left slightly breathless from the magical. "Hello."

"Hello." Night Light gave her a peck on the cheek. "How have things been?"

"There were twists and turns along the way but we have worked them out." Velvet smiled back. "How was the dungeon?"

"Comfortable enough. Very booring though." Night Light shrugged. "Foaly went missing. Blueblood and Aurthora are looking for him."

"Amazing." Velvet rolled her eyes. "It's going to be a miserable time if we can't find Foaly and have to use you or me."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Night Light agreed.

Mostly recovered from the disorientation, Spitfire stood up. "That was the same kind of magic that Phyte used."

"Magical dragonfire. I assure you its a feat of spellcrafting to replicate its effects with pure magic alone." Twilight Velvet confirmed.

Spitfire helped the other Wonderbolts up. "Then Shining Armor is still alive, huh?"

"Indeed. I should say he is far safer than you are." Velvet laughed. "Ahem. Welcome, everypony! I'm so glad you agreed to join us here, at the end of weakness."

"Oh buck off!" Gnash staggered to her hooves. "You don't have to sugarcoat your power grab. I'm not offended. I'm really not."

"I already had the power. I didn't need to grab it from anypony. All of this is just pulling back the veil from what I already had. It for your benefit." Velvet said.

"Our benefit, huh? I bet." Gnash snorted. "You could have teleported us straight into a dungeon, yet here we are. For some reason I don't believe you. This doesn't have the air of a fait accompli, or you'd be on that throne instead of in front of it."

"My my, Admiral Gnash, leave some guesses for everypony else." Velvet admonished. "Yes, there is some work left to do. Canterlot Castle and the city below are effectively in my hooves. The princess has departed, the Imperial Council is unlikely to ever reconvene, and the Estates can easily enough to prodded into doing what I want. Only, what I want is not something that can be done with pony consensus."

"Are you going to kill us?" Hauseway demanded.

"Oh no. As the admiral realized, I need all of your cooperation. Nor would I really like to kill any of you. Truely, you are all ponies who have the grit and determination to chase after your dreams, even if they are rather infantile at times." Velvet chuckled. "Except you, Prosser. You have grit equal to a muddy hole in the road."

"You do know how to flatter, my lady." Prosser bowed.

"Maybe throw a little this way, ehh Lady Velvet?" Gnash arched a brow. "Because I'm wondering what the hell you want, and how the hell you plan on getting it from us."

"Yeah! And there's like-" Hauseway did a quick recount of the number of ponies in the room. "A dozen of us, and only three of you! Four counting Prosser."

"Last time you tried attacking me, it ended with your snout getting broken." Velvet said. "But otherwise I welcome you to try. Any of you, actually. Come." She waved Night Light and Sel Lech to step away. "Nopony to get between us. Come at me, and kill me."

Everypony looked around nervously.

"What, nopony here is going to call out my empty boasting? What are you afraid of? I'm just an old mare." Velvet grinned. "You ponies have lived all your lives under the rule of alicorn princess Celestia. You should know how a superior being looks and smells, their bearing, their eyes and smile. Am I any of those things?"

Spitfire and Soarin exchanged glances. "You're not, umm, a creature like Phyte or Iillor?" Spitfire asked

"As pony as the day I was born. What you see before you is what a mortal can achieve on their own. Is it intimidating? Perhaps you find yourself lacking." Velvet said. "I am evidence of the grandeur of a pony who wields the power of their dreams. This is a power I can extend to you, and indeed all of ponykind.

"That has to be the most motivational speech thing I have ever heard." Gnash snorted

"We don't need your heretic magic." Hauseway denounced. "The greatness of Equestria has always been the unity the ponies to Celestia's will."

"That's rich coming from an amoral bullshitter!" Gnash guffawed.

"I earned this position!" Hauseway shouted back.

Gnash snickered. "You don't really think you're some kind of pony of merit, do you Hauseway? Oh ho ho, get a load of this joker!"

"I'm a real knight, not what passes for a knight among you pegasi." Hauseway pointed accusingly. "I was made IHG captain in a clear rejection of pegasus infiltration of Canterlot. I stand by that rejection." Hauseway turned to Velvet. "Whatever regime you make, you have to keep her kind out!"

"My kind?!" Gnash hissed through her teeth. "How about you look at me and say that again."

"Maybe I will!" Hauseway reached for his sword but realized he had been relieved of it at the garden party.

Spitfire leaned over and whispered in Gnash's ear. "We'll back you up if he starts fighting dirty."

"Thanks for the offer." Gnash ripped her dress off. "But I'm not gunna need it!" She launched herself at Hauseway.

"EEP!" Hauseway tried to dodge away but took her charge in the side, sending him skating across the smooth marble floor. "Velvet stop this rampaging animal!"

"You're a devious snot, but you're nothing without your friends!" Gnash chased after him. Fortunately for him, she tired out quickly, and came to a stop just short of breathing hard. "Eh. You're not even worth it."

"I can only imagine the fun you must have been having when Duke Lightdowser was still here." Night Light commented.

"The Duke was professional, actually. If he were here we would have been saved a lot of stress. He would have understood the importance of our work." Velvet said. "But he left to chase Celestia. I do wonder if he really believed in her, and what she represents. Not like us reprobates, he truly wanted to be vizier for the sake of the princess's ideals."

"The princess's ideals have been long absent from Equestria." Night Light watched Gnash and Hauseway continue to hurt abuse at each other. "Bringing them back would require a miracle beyond what we are capable of."

"So we do the easier thing, and take control for ourselves." Velvet smiled.
The last few days were being replayed in the throne room right in front of her: Gnash and Hauseway arguing. Seacrest looking dazed and confused, the Wonderbolts not really sure what to do, Prosser looking smug but being otherwise useless in the corner, Velvet and company watching.
She cleared her throat. "Admiral, don't abuse the poor captain. Isn't it really me you're angry at?"

Gnash looked over her shoulder. "I already said I'm not offended."

"You aren't the kind of mare to get offended. You get mad, and use that anger to push yourself. Only, it appears that you are angry and pursuing retribution against the wrong pony." Velvet said. "Why did you discount me as a threat, Admiral?"

Gnash twisted her mouth around, as she debated internally about what to say.

Velvet turned her attention to the Wonderbolts. "Who ordered you to attack the Musician's Guild?"

"I gave that order, obviously." Gnash cut in, irritated that Velvet would try to address the Wonderbolts without her.

"Who ordered you?" Velvet asked.

"What?"

"Had you even heard the name of Phyte before Lightdowser told you about her operation?" Velvet asked prettily. "And do you think he had ever heard of it, before I alerted him?"

Gnash's eyes bulged.

"Don't blame him. He thought he was doing the right thing. You thought the same. In fact, that is the core of conflict, isn't it? Two ponies at cross purposes, both thinking they are doing the right thing." Velvet grinned. "The thesis of Equestria is to steal ponies' ability to make that conflict real. My thesis is to steal the ability of ponykind to have those dissenting thoughts."

"You're looney." Gnash muttered.

"I am the least deluded pony here. All of you are under the impression that things can continue the way they were without Celestia. That is false. It would start out fine, but soon you'd discover that there was no reason to keep your unruly ambitions in check when the big girl up top isn't an immensely powerful alicorn. Indeed, that would be difficult even for me. So you see, for order to be maintained, everypony must be on the same page. There will be no conflict between ponies, because there will be no conflict between their dreams."

"Your way to academic for me, Velvet." Gnash scowled, but her anger and confusion were not convincing. "The unicorns might go for ideology, but we pegasi are more practical."

"How is this for practice: Institutional tribalism erased, forever." Velvet searched Gnash for a reaction. "The pegasi will be able to work on equal footing in the bureaucracy and army."

"The unicorn supremacist movement was a joke before you organized it!" Hauseway accused.

"That is very true. That sure shook things up, didn't it." Velvet chuckled. "I won't make excuses for that. I pulled a lot of this city's dirty, hateful underbelly into the limelight.I gave them a voice and legitimacy."

"What are we going to do to fix our mistake?" Night Light wondered aloud.

"Stop the opportunists who latched onto the movement I suppose." Velvet said. "Indeed that is one of the efforts I would like everypony here to cooperate on me with. You all have your specialities, your peculiarities, and your unique perspectives. There's no reason to fight against one another."

"Because you want us all to be fighting for you." Spitfire frowned.

"That's the gist of it." Velvet confirmed. "For you consideration, the perfection of our society on my terms."

Nopony spoke for a while.

Gnash shuffled over to Spitfire. "You spent the most time with her. Can she be trusted?" Gnash whispered.

"She's not honest by any stretch, but she probably won't betray you." Spitfire whispered back. "She, uhh, operates more with witty words and double-meaning."

"Would she give Cloudsdale and the pegasi protection and representation?" Gnash clarified the question.

"If she has a reasonable expectation we'd be helping her goals, yes. If not, she'd probably divide and conquer until she moulds a faction she could use." Spitfire said. "Look at Sel Lech Sabonord over there. See how he glances in her direction every few seconds? That's the kind of loyalty she's interested in."

"Like a puppy waiting for its master to give it orders." Gnash mumbled. "That'll be tough."

"Admiral, are you seriously considering this?" Soarin asked.

"Let Lady Velvet have somepony else to be her puppy." Fleetfoot agreed. "Don't denigrate yourself for this Admiral."

Who would take my place? You?" Gnash scowled. "What kind of pegasus would I be if I let my followers suffer on my behalf. This is my responsibility."

"We could turn Velvet down." Spitfire said.

"She not going let us go. At best she would keep us under house arrest while she negotiates with Cloudsdale. No, I have to accept, while she is offering partnership." Gnash resolved.

Meanwhile Hauseway had recovered his nerve and trotted over to Seacrest. Seacrest continued to stare at an indeterminate point infinitely far away. "Lord Blackhorn, are you alright?"

Seacrest blinked. "I'm not sure, captain."

"Well make up you mind quick. You need to talk to Twilight Velvet and get us a favorable withdrawal form this situation." Hauseway urged. "She was you advisor for a while. She'll listen to you."

"Captain Hauseway, we should make a deal. I won't be able to convince her." Seacrest apologized.

"You're not even going to try?"

"She listened to me before because I was saying exactly what she wanted to hear. There is no chance of that right now." Seacrest hung his head. "Please accept this."

Hauseway balked "Accept Velvet's uncontested domination? No chance!I care about the ponies of Canterlot and I will not betray them like that."

"I may not have been here as long as you, but in these few months I've grown to care about Canterlot too. I have friends now." Seacrest mewled. "You can't keep them safe by letting Lady Velvet crust you. Please, Hauseway."

Hauseway scowled. "I don't like it. I really don't like it. You're the vizier, Seacrest, and I'm the IHG captain. We're supposed to be the ones in charge here, not her. It's not right."

Seacrest was looking more and more desperate. "Please. You don't understand what we're facing."

"And I don't care. This is on principle." Hauseway drew in a long breath. "Lord Seacrest, do what you must, and I will stand behind you."

"That's..."Seacrest looked to be on the verge of crying. "At least pretend to accept her. For your own sake!"

"No." Hauseway said firmly.

"Then you're purring the burdon of keeping you safe on me, and that's not fair."

"I'll say it again. I don't care." Hauseway spoke loudly enough for Velvet to hear him. "I'm a knight, and I don't bend for thugs like you, Velvet."

"You unicorns fetishize the idea of a knight more than you know what being a knight is actually about." Rain Gnash broke off from the Wonderbolt crowd and trotted to the edge of the stairs. "it's not the letter of some code of conduct or honor. It's the spirit of duty and sacrifice for the sake of your fellow pony." She bowed her head. "I will cooperate with you, Lady Velvet."

"I'm glad to hear that." Velvet bowed back. She turned to the recalcitrant unicorns. "This is your chance to have your agenda represented in my work, Captain Hauseway. Are you sure you want to turn me down."

Hauseway turned up his nose. "Lord Seacrest's decision is my decision."

Reluctantly, Seacrest stepped away from Hauseway and aproached the dais. "Lady Velvet, a word please."

"Certainly." Velvet descended the stairs to his level. Every eye was on them. "So, here we are."

"This has gone far longer and farther than I expected. It's frightening, actually. The last weeks, sitting as a vizier, I could smile and laugh on the outside, but I was just petrified on the inside. It felt wrong. None of this belonged to me." He smiled weakly. "I'm... glad for it to end."

"In another life, maybe you wouldn't have chosen an act that would end this way for you. You had an amazing run of it." Velvet smiled back. "So, going to stay in character for the last, climactic scenes?"

"Not sure if I could break it if I tried." Seacrest cleared his throat. "Seacrest Blackhorn, affable dunce, who bumbles his way through life with a little help from friends. Along the way he joins racist mobs, political committees, and even leads the government for a little while. It makes a great story." He bit his lip. "Only..." He cast a mournful glance to Molar, sitting off to the side. The mute earth pony noticed him and stared back. "His name deserves better than this. I... I really bucked it all up."

"Don't worry about that now. It's too late for you to do anything but accept the end of Seacrest's story." Velvet took a step back. "And that means accepting what you have to do for me, and for ponykind."

"That's a vizier's duty. Whatever you need from us." Seacrest bowed.

"Amazing. We're all friends now." Gnash snorted.

"At ta ta, not so fast. Like all agreements of merit, we must seal this with something stronger than words." Velvet climbed the stairs again, to her commanding position above the crowd. "Before I can welcome you all to my world, I need you to hear what I have to say about the true nature of this world. For you see, I have learned of a way for ponykind to escape its own beastly nature..."

Shining Armor and Fancy Pants were still in Chateau la Garde mulling over things when another imperial guardspony poked her head into the library.

“Captain, we caught another pony at the perimeter.” She said. "He wants to see you."

“He?” Shining sighed. "Yeah, sure. Show him up."

The knight ducked out to fetch the visitor. Shining sunk back in his chair, sullen.

"Expecting her to come see you?" Fancy Pants querried

"Not sure which 'her' you mean, sir." Shining grunted.

"The little mare you told me about. Iillor."

"Oh, her." Shining frowned. "Maybe. Not really. She got what she wanted from me, so like most mares she let me drop."

"You sound upset."

"No I'm not upset. In fact I pretty much had her figured out, if you'll believe it. There was just something about her..." Shining shrugged. "I don't know. I learned a while ago that I should be wary of mares actively seeking out my company."

"That's cynical." Flux said. "It's not because of the drama between your sister and Princess Cadenza, is it?"

"A little, yeah." Shining admitted.

The library door creaked open. Foaly Flux trotted in. "Heyo. Wow, this place is cluttered."

Shining jumped out from behind the desk, tripping over books and sliding on scrolls as he galloped over to him. “Uncle Flux?! What are you doing here?” He asked, bewildered.

“Social call.” Flux shrugged. “I do hope I'm not imposing, but I just thought I’d pop in before I confront your mother, in what will certainly be my death.”

“Uh what?” Shining’s brow rippled.

“It’ll be fitting in a way, eh?” Flux’s eyes unfocused, as he looked off to a poetic horizon. “Me, and the mare responsible for the death of my family and house, at the end of it all. My story will be fini, but a new one will open. They always do. Death begets the opportunity for more life.”

“The death of your house? Uncle, what are you talking about?” Shining asked.

“Hmm?” Flux fell out of his reverie. “Oh, nothing. Just the ramblings of an old stallion.”

“Uncle you’re barely fifty, and nopony’s going to kill you. Especially not my mother, she's mad, but she loves you.” Shining insisted.

“My dear Shiny, I die so you and Nightie can be safe. I know I'm not the trustable type, but in this instance, maybe you'll make an exception.” Flux spoke casually, almost cordially. “And you might want this. I sure won't be needing it.” He pulled a little notebook from a create in his suite.

Shining took the notebook in his magic. Flipping it around, he read the cover. Notes, IV

“Thanks for having us Shiny. Ta ta!” Flux turned to make for the exit.

“Wait, wait!” Shining jumped in front of him. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I know for certain you don’t have to do this. I’m leaving Canterlot, maybe forever, and so could you. You have your lands in the Foal Mountains. Run away.”

Flux put a hoof on Shining’s shoulder. “That would be a great plan, if I were unwilling to make the sacrifice. Only, there has to be a unicorn canidate. Twilight Velvet will have her way. So umm... This is my way of protecting you, Shiney. It's not very glorious, but it's what I have to do." Flux gently pushed Shining aside. "I don't know what the future is going to be like, but I have a feeling there's going to be opportunities for scummy, dishonorable sorts. I go, knowing you'll be there to stop them. Give my best to Twilie. Hugs and kisses forever. Bye bye, bye bye.” Moments later, he was gone.

“What a sick game.” Shining sighed, too exhausted to cry.

"You could stop him, order the knights to restrain him." Fancy Pants pointed out.

"No I..." Shining put Flux's journal aside. "I won't impose my will on him like that. He's his own stallion, and I'm my own."

"So you let him go to die." Fancy Pants shook his head. "These are tough decisions. I feel as though I don't have the mental fortitude to make them anymore. Who would I be deciding for? Not the princess, or her ponies. Just myself."

"Would you sacrifice yourself for another pony's life?" Shining asked.

"it would certainly be noble of me to say something to the effect of yes, citing how I am not truly alive, but..." Pants trotted back into the corner and picked up another book. "There is a part of me that wants to tell you that I have died enough, and I'm unwilling to do it again. Ponykind can be left to its suffering."

"I don't judge." Shining said. "I'm starting to feel the same way."

“By the end of tonight, we will have complete political control over Canterlot. The way to accomplish that is through the nobles, and the way to the nobles is through the Estates and Speakers."
Velvet explained. She had descended to the bottom stair up to the throne dais, so she was a mere head above everypony else. Her audiance, Hauseway, Seacrest, Gnash, and the Wonderbolts, were paying varying amounts of attention to her stern orders.
"They will be here very soon. One-hundred-thirty-seven nobles, all of them suffering from a collective delusion of importance. Some of them might actually want to do the right things and keep Equestria safe. Most of them are power-hungry. Tonight is when we will ever so gently remind them that their delusions are just that, and they will never control our nation.
When the speakers arrive, they will be curious about what we spoke about. You don't have to tell them much. Tell them you are demurring to the calls for a vote for a new, decisive head of state. I’ll give them a brief summary of the weight their actions will have. After all, they will be choosing the equivalent of a new empress. A once in a millennium event, truly. This night is a convergence of events, like stars aligning, that only heightens its importance."

"Question." Prosser held up a hoof. "Is it actually important?"

"You're soon to find out." Velvet smiled mischeviously. "Like our friend Manered said..." She waved to the still-gagged and blindfolded monk, laying silent in a dark corner of the throne room. "Heaven, like our princess, has abandoned its familiar patterns. We're in the deep end now. We have to learn how to swim quickly."

"That hardly answered his question." Gnash pointed out.

"I'll say this much: The divine world above, a universe very distinct from ours to the point of incomparableness, has ways and patterns that predict events here. We can reject divine rulership, while still acknowledging its power." Velvet said. "In fact it will be impossible to achieve our goals without that recognition. It will be a very, very dark night tonight. So dark that Ponies will not help but believe that Celestia is really dead. For just a moment, they will let their imaginations cary them into heretical territory."

"You don't have much faith in ponykind." Spitfire observed.

"That is, unfortunately, the prompts to all of this. One-hundred-thirty-seven ponies, pursuing one-hundred-thirty-seven different dreams, will lead to unsalvageable consequences." Night Light said.

"Consequences like what?" Spitfire asked.

"Pray the night does come and go without you knowing." Velvet said.

Spitfire pursed her lips. "It just sounds melodramatic to me."

Ignoring her, Velvet continued. "You see that throne behind me? I'm warning you now, don't get any ideas. When the Estates vote to decide the new head of state, all of you must adamantly refuse to be in the running. If pressed, you should only say that you and I are forming an action committee to make the transition painless, and being a part of the election would be a conflict of interest."

"Hold up. You're not going to manipulate the Estates into electing you?" Gnash arched a brow.

"Correct." Velvet nodded.

The audience wasn't sure what to make of it. The Wonderbolts whispered amongst one another, while Hauseway and Seacrest exchanged upset and confused looks.
"Admiral, something is going on here beyond a power grab." Spitfire insisted. "We really have no idea what we saw under the Musician's Guild, but I think this is connected."

"So you have no idea. Okay, thanks captain." Gnash retorted. "Velvet might have some clever idea of her plans but I'm pretty sure letting another pony swipe her opportunity for untouchable authority is a damn stupid move."

"I have given this plan far more thought and meditation than you, Admiral Gnash. You will trust me, and what is more you will obey me in this. That is what you agreed to when you subordinated yourself to my dream." Velvet said patronizingly. "You're a millitary officer. You understand the concept of obedience, don't you?"

"Do you?" Gnash shot back.

"Greatly. I have known what it feels like to obey unquestioningly in the face of a power greater than I understand. It's like a warm light on your face. When you serve a good cause, it makes you feel good." Velvet said. "That's how I imagine the first followers of Celestia and her sister felt. Equestria is one singular act of obedience, expression by millions of ponies. It really is sad that she no longer has a dream worth feeling good about, or one worth obeying. It would have made the neutering of our dreams, if not completely worth it, at least tolerable. Alas no."

"You keep saying neutering. Neutering dreams." Hauseway said, visibly disgusted.

"Dreams give birth to powerful and terrible acts, don't them." Velvet laughed. "The neutered dream can not truly create. it can only express itself it superficial, petty ways, before eventually withering."

"You talk a lot of crap, Lady Velvet." Rain Gnash shook her head. "I hope you get that we don't go for your esoteric ramblings, and neither will the landed nobles. If you can't stop going off on weird philosophical tangents every two seconds, your planning won't count for shit. Get me?"

Velvet surprisingly looked perturbed by what Gnash said. "You aren't getting anything from my explanations?"

"Yeah, your explanations quote-unquote are too thick for me. I said it before, you're too academic for me." Gnash grunted. "Which, if I recall, that is actually your background isn't it. You were a language professor. It shows. You communicate well I'll give you that."

"Glad to see you've done your research. Why you chose to reveal that now is unclear." Velvet regained her composure. "Deride me though you might, I studied the relationship between audience and speaker to perfection. I know when and how to speak."

"More empty academics."

"You're clever, Rain Gnash, but you have no discretion. Haven't my academics already won this battle? You are wasting your breath and making yourself look silly in front of your soldiers. In fact, why are you even letting me speak? You should be interrupting me, shouting me down. Your insubordination is half-hearted at best."

"I- Insubordination?!" Gnash puffed her cheeks out.

"You would make as miserable a politician as you would an IHG captain, for as you've delighted in pointing out we unicorns care less about the decorum of honor. Our understanding of authority is so much less legalistic, and really boils down to this rule: Whoever has the guts to say they are important, are. Then all the important ponies get together and dish it out." Velvet gestured around the room. "Welcome to a unicorn conclave. You lost. In the old days of warlordism, that meant I'd eat your soul. Now, I just point out what a fool you are. Do a bit of studying on the art of controlling ponies, Rain Gnash, and perhaps you would be less trivially easy to manipulate."

Gnash winced from the caustic abuse. "Bitch." She muttered to herself. "Warriors don't read books."

Velvet sneered in triumph. "Read this, Rain Gnash. Send your Wonderbolts away. From hereon, it will be just you."

"W-What?!" Gnash cringed. "This was never part of the deal!"

"No, the Wonderbolts have been here long enough to serve their purpose. You've all heard what I have to say. You know my message to Equestria. You're going to take it out of here." Velvet's gaze roamed from Wonderbolt to Wonderbolt, lingering particularly on Spitfire. "So even if this grant experiment failed, there will be a memory of the truth out there, for another intrepid dreamer to discover."

Spitfire felt a chill run up her spine. Something told her Velvet wouldn't fail. "You're letting us go, so we can go back to Canterlot and denounce you? You're putting a lot of weight on the Admiral's value of a hostage."

"Way to crush me, captain." Gnash mumbled.

"I couldn't care less what you say. I just care about what's in your head. Do you think you'll ever be able to forget this?" Velvet laughed. "You won't have to have been here to know. You've seen and heard enough to piece it together."

"You really are nuts." Spitfire shifted her gaze to Night Light. "is this what you intended for us?"

"I told you to go back to your airship. I can't protect you from the memories now." Night Light said. "Good luck Captain Spitfire. Do not blame yourself. You did what you thought was right."

"I..." Spitfire averted her eyes. "Bolts don't take a hit sitting down."

A couple of the Wonderbolts came back with an unenthusiastic "That's right".

"And we've been known to charge into a suicidal situation or two. But..." She tried to wet her dry throat. "But we're still pegasi, still ponies, and sometimes even we get scared."

Velvet stomped in approval of the little speech. "Moving. If you don't want to leave, my invitation to fight is still open."

Spitfire shook her head. "Only if my admiral orders me."

Gnash emitted a little whine of despair. "Oh buck off Spitfire. Always kicking me from below." She closed her eyes. "Get out of here. I've had enough of you."

"Thank you, Admiral." Spitifire saluted stiffly. "See you back in Cloudsdale."
She turned her back and marched for the opposite end of the throne room, pulling Soarin along behind her. "If I see you hesitating I'll punch you." She whispered to him.

"Please, if I even look back, knock me out." Soarin shivered.

The other wonderbolts looked from her to Rain Gnash, who after a moment, nodded. The rest of the wonderbolts filed out, save one.
"I’m staying with the Admiral.” Fleetfoot declared.

“Get out of here, you brown-nosing dolt.” Rain Gnash growled. “I’m already dead, but I’ll give them a hell of a headache. Leave knowing that.”

Fleetfoot solidified her salute. “It’s my duty to give them a headache with you.”

Rain Gnash covered her face with a hoof. Her reply was weak. “You’re giving me a headache already. See, it’s started on my eyes. Stupid eyes, watering with every bit of pain.”

“Touching.” Velvet said flatly. "But as we're getting closer to the climax, I have to show out everypony who doesn't belong. Be warned miss, that you're taking on an immense burden by staying."

"I sacrifice for Cloudsdale." Fleetfoot said.

"Grand. Hope you dont' regret it. Not excuse me..." Velvet hopped down to the ground level and pushed past everypony else. She wrapped her telekinetic grasp around Manered’s, tail and dragged him behind her towards the throne room's enerance. The blinfolded monk squaled as he desperately tried to find purchase on the smooth marble floor. "I have to show the other unneeded guest out, before we begin in earnest. It will only be a moment."

Once in the connecting hallway, she pushed Manred against the wall and magically sliced through his bindings. She let him pull his own blindfold off.

“Well well brother, Manered isn’t it? I will admit I had you marked for death for your association with Phyte, but I forgave you on account of your acquaintance with my children.”

“If you know so much, you must know Phyte and I were only just acquainted, and never politically or professionally.” Manered whimpered.

"Really? She told me you were one of her son's closest friends, before he was exiled." Velvet said innocently.

"I... Yes. Yes, I was a close friend of LP before he was exiled. Vinyl too, though I'd already been forced into the monastery by the time she disappeared." Manered said dourly. "So yes, I knew Phyte pretty well. I know she's not enterally a pony."

"A Star, one of the elder siblings of mortalkind. Yes, she was very much not entirely pony." Velvet nodded. "And you were okay with that."

"What was I supposed to do, try to stop her more evil acts? What could any one pony do against her?" Manered sighed. "If anypony will have thought out methods of getting one over such a powerful mare, it would be you, Lady Velvet."

"I did, and I executed the plan. Her nest is abandoned isn't it?" Velvet snickered. "And another monster that prays of ponykind's dreams is gone, for now."

"You talk so much about dreams. Dreams are inherently Dark you know. It is not for us to pretend upon destiny and fate." Manered sagged.
“You dress it up, but what you sold the ponies in there is heresy. You forsake the sun that has guided us for a millennium."

"Do I?" Velvet cleared her throat. "OH CELESTIAAA, COME OUT AND PLAAAYYYYYY!!!" She bellowed down the hallway, doubtlessly spooking the retreating Wonderbolt company and any staff still hanging around.
Velvet perked her ears up. "And what's that? Is that the response coming now?" She waited for a minute. "Nothing. The sun's castle is enpty of its sovereign. She abandoned us."

"This is a test of faith an-"

"Oh shut up." Velvet rolled her eyes. She pulled Manered to his hooves. "Don't lecture me about theology. I've talked to more gods than you could count. I bask in the presence of god and her love. Nopony loves god more than me. I love her more than I love myself. I just don't want her making decisions for me."

"Then you're faithless. Faith is submission to the divine." Manred intoned.

"I have plenty of faith in myself. Does that means I submit to myself?" Velvet pondered. "Oh, whatever. Get out of here. Get out of Canterlot. You can't do any good here."

"Yes... I won't be able to find the sun I'm searching for here anymore."

“You’ll find my son at the gatehouse. Send him my regards.”

“Sir Armor?” Manered stretched his sore limbs. “Why would you send me to him?”

“Because you plus him equals two thirds of the sanity left in this city. The last third will follow you as soon as I let her. Now, GO!”

Manered smoothed out the creases in his robe and went quickly on his way down the hall, trying to ignore Velvet's stare eating into him from behind.

Velvet was already considering the other aura nearby, from a pony that should have known better.
"You want to speak to me, Captain Spitfire?"

Spitfire dropped down from her enshadowed perch over a tapestry hook. "You have everything planned out exactly, plotting each and every pony’s course for them.” She said. “I don’t know what I should do, but whatever it is I’d like it to be something that breaks the path you’ve laid out for me. I won't be your tool. You've fooled and used me enough.”

“Captain, have you ever laid in bed with too much energy to fall asleep? Your mind keeps torturing you with the desire to get up and do something, anything to alleviate a profound sense of uselessness when you're not active? No, just me?" Velvet laughed quietly to herself. “Whole months I spent doing nothing but pushing little game tokens around, thinking about conversations and all the possible outcomes of every possible string of words. As my dream has come alight inside me, I've become less of a pony and more of a tabulation machine, running the odds, finding optimal paths, metaphorically of course. My body and mind has adapted to become what it needs to be. That is the result of an unbreakable desire to see the dream fulfilled. So trust me Mis Spitfire, I’ve calculated the possibilities, and there’s nothing you can do to surprise me. You're an apostle for my message."

"There's lots of things I could do to thwart you." Spitifre glared. "I won't be your messenger if I kill myself."

"Oh my. You die. Joke is on me then isn't it." Velvet rolled her eyes. "Now who is being melodramatic? You ponies resist me and for what? So you can throw yourself into the inevitable chaos that will come in Celestia's absence? Besides, Spitfire, is killing yourself really the way to reclaiming lost honor?"

The mention of honor froze Spitfire, and she stared into Velvet’s certain face with an equal amount of uncertainty. Velvet laughed heartily, and stared into Spitfire right back.

"What do you want out of life, Spitfire? Do you see this being your last hurrah?"

"I want what any girl wants. Some fame in the Bolts, a few scars to remember my here time by, and eventually a colt I can kick around." Spitfire said soberly. "All pretty selfish stuff. I don't get off on high-minded philosophy."

"Get off? You're confused. All of this, it's not something I enjoy. I am sacrificing as much as everyone else." Velvet said. "I had to let my husband linger in a dungeon for a month. Now, I have to drive my son away. All through this I've estranged my friends and let this city that I love suffer through my plans. It hasn't always been easy to stomach."

"You could just... not." Spitfire said.

Velvet shook her head. "Not really an option for me."

“Heyoo. Sorry I'm late!” A stallion's voice echoed from the other side of the hall.

Foaly Flux, resplendent in a full set of black lacquered armor, held a mighty black steel sword before him. A few city guardsponies were following at a safe distance, but halted once they saw Velvet.

“Foaly! So good to see you! I thought maybe you missed my invitation, and ” Velvet trotted towards her well-armed friend. "I see you brought the Blackhorn Armor. That saves me some effort going and getting it."

Foaly dropped his sword point. “You sent an invitation?” He smiled jovially. “Aw Velvet, here I thought you left me off the mailing list on purpose!”

Spitfire eyed the guardsponies and wondered if her opportunity to go free had passed. “Do you even know what you're getting in to?"

Flux bobbed his head from side to side. “I do. We are going to try make this world a better place."

"We are, not just try." Velvet corrected.

"I won't pull my punches. You are a little bit egotistical." Flux grunted.

Velvet out a hoof over Flux's shoulder and led him towards the throne room. "Part and parcel of being the best."

“Absolutely! Centuries of neglect in the trophy vault did nothing to improve the smell of this old Blackhorn armor. And I think it’s be better on some other pony anyway.”

As Velvet passed, she whispered into Spitfire’s ear. “In case you hadn't noticed, none of the city guards have their arquebuses loaded. They don't know how to.”

Velvet slammed the heavy throne room doors behind her. What further things she and her company needed to discuss before the Speakers arrived, it was no longer intended for her ears.

"Well then..." Spitfire sighed. "I guess Fleet and the admiral will have to make their own luck now."
Spitfire turned ever so slowly towards the guardsponies at the other end of the hall. She could, she supposed, catch up with the Wonderbolts and lead them back to intercept the Speakers before they arrived in the throne room. If their guns really weren't loaded, the city guardsponies leading them would be no problem. Only... Spitfire really didn't care. “I don't want trouble.”

"You featherheads ruined the Musician's Guild. We owe you one for that." One of the guardsponies barked. "Since Lady Velvet is done with you, your gunna pay!" They leveled their guns at her.

They sure were acting confident for ponies without working weapons. Maybe they thought they could intimidate Spitfire into begging for her life. Unfortunately for them the Wonderbolt captain was pissed, and wouldn't have cared if they were loaded or not. "I don't need my sword to fight you, ya hornhead gobs." She charged them.

It has been somewhere around one month since I came to Canterlot. The passage of time is unclear in Phyte's catacombs. I don't know the date. I will soon though.

I’m going to have an owner tomorrow, a noble lady named Twilight Velvet. Lady Phyte tells me she resides in the gatehouse of the city. Interesting. There was nopony living in that castle those months ago when I first passed through.
Thinking about it, I did not have a chance to look around and really enjoy the city. I regret that. Unfortunately with my new body there are many things I will never be able to enjoy.

Anyway, my release from Phyte's care signifies a kind of graduation, and hereafter I will be a proper agent of the Musician's Guild. That was what I always wanted, wasn't it? But I don't have a beautiful voice anymore. When I try to speak unnatural magical flame jets out of my nostrils. Yet Phyte tells me I am more useful, and more perfect this way.
I will never have the applause at a recital to look forward to, and that is a shame. I can only hope I can find some kind of furfillment doing what I can for Phyte and this Lady Velvet character.

And finally that brings me to you, my new notebook. Lady Phyte gave you to me. Unfortunately I don’t think she’ll let me have my old belongings back, not even the scraps I had in the first days as a thing. All my old journals, and the scraps I used in my cage, are lost to me. I’ll mourn them when Phyte can’t see me. If she suspects I’m thinking about my past, she may well start cutting at me again, rearranging to pattern of skin on my hide. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I’m not very happy with the current configuration of my left shoulder.

How should I address you, diary? I will not call you dear, as we are not that well acquainted yet, but all the same you are the receptacle of what is left of my heart. I will call you friend, then.

Formalities aside there was astonishing happenings today.

To preface, Phyte released me so could see Lady Twilight Velvet. On my way out I saw one of the mares I traveled with, Scratchy, being led to Phyte by two other mares. I remember how she told me that she wished to her studies as a bard independently of the Musician's Guild, but clearly the guild took issue. She tried to talk to me, as if I were a stranger. Fair, since I am not the same pony as I was a month ago.

Then the second jolt came when I arrived at Lady Twilight Velvet's little castle. Another traveling companion, Beach Strider, was in her hall, looking and standing tall and proud. I was struck dumber than usual. I wondered, how was a farmer’s son allowed in the home of a powerful noble?
Then I heard what Lady Velvet called him. Seacrest.

It took me a moment before I understood. Beach Strider had taken my name, my station place, and even used all the stories I told him about my childhood to create a persona. He was arrogant and rude, which was such a strange look for a kind pony like him. It seems he underwent some manner of change as well. At first I thought it could have been a game from Phyte, but no, Beach Strider has become me. He is the new Seacrest Blackhorn.

Bizarre isn't it? Here in my new room in the castle, writing this, I have trouble believing it.

Of course Strider didn't recognize me. I do not know how much Phyte told Lady Velvet about my past, but her ladyship thought it appropriate to give me over to 'Seacrest'. I did not come with a name, so he dubbed me Molar. Very fortunate then I told him about Molar: That old dog was always my favorite friend in the lonely times at my cousin’s keep.
It's oddly appropriate. I'm a dog. A persona in the shape of my old self is to be my master.

What is more, Beach Strider was not at all coy about the Sabonord-Blackhorn connection. I always went by Sabonord to keep attention away, because whenever a Blackhorn like me returns to Canterlot it inevitably ends with somepony's death, usually the Blackhorn. That stallion has gall beyond anything I could comprehend. He really does not understand what he is getting himself in to.

So in essence, I am a like a nanny to this sniveling jerk pretending to be me. Out of all the possible tasks I could have been assigned, I find this the least objectionable. Still Lady Velvet said she would inform me of the full scope of my duties tomorrow. I think she knows about Strider, but it shouldn’t be possible for her to know about me. Lady Phyte said that nopony knew about me, and while she likes to dance around the truth I know she believed that.

I talked to Velvet. She knows about me, and much else besides. I do not think she has good intentions.

As a traveling speaker I learned a lot of stories. I learned a new one today. Velvet told me about old gods, about the sun and moon, and creatures of entropy or thievery or war or conquest. She told me about the ancient alicorns that came to our planet eons ago, and how those incomprehensible gods became a part of our world. She told me about two of the greatest ancient alicorns: Wintertide and Astral Nacre.

More pertinent to her interests, Lady Velvet told me about the fall of the alicorns, how their hubris destroyed their entire continent.
Those most powerful of gods, destroyed so utterly to be less even than a pony. She called it ironic, but I do not understand how exactly.

It was not easy for me to express my confusion articulately. Lady Velvet is very perceptive and saw that I was lost as to her intentions of telling me all of that. She assured me that I would have a role, as glorious as it will be fitting.

I have never heard words so ominous. Diary, my friend, I think death is waiting for me at the end of this.

I also got to spend more time with 'Seacrest'. Is it sad to think that he plays the part of noble scion better than I? I may yet wither, but he acts and creates a history of my name. Lady Velvet is capitalizing hard on the Blackhorn name, to assert herself over a band of unicorn supremacists. Oh how those racists would cringe to know that Seacrest was born an earth pony, son of a pegasus. They give me such acidic looks.
I hope I do not get too embarrassed with what he and Lady Velvet do with my name.

Velvet introduced me to a distant cousin, Sel Lech Sabonord. Unlike Countess Glori and all the Sabornords I grew up with he actually seems well adjusted if lacking in self-esteem. Sel Lech does not know who I was yet, so for now I am a curiosity. Eventually, hopefully, we could be friends.

Chapter 26: The Esoteric and Apocryphal

Celestia stood at the prow of her airship as it sailed through the evening skies.

Despite multiple assurances from the navigator that it was a straight shot from Canterlot to Ponyville, a thunderous ball of dark cldouds had rolled up the Dneighper River valley and covered the land. It was like a wall, menacing Celestia and her airship from going any further.

The princess counted the flashes of lightning from deeper in the storm. Was someone or something trying to stop her?

"This is a strong craft, but that's quite the storm." The airship captain, a middle aged pegasus mare, trotted up to the bow. "We could enter, but we'd need to take it slow with a pegasus van." The pegasus vanguard would mitigate some but not all of the wind around the ship. It was understood that it would still be very difficult going: Airships were notoriously vulnerable in storms.

"Do it." Celestia nodded.

"As you will commander." The captain bowed, then turned to bellow at the crew. "Get those sails reefed! Helmspony, take us in!"

Like a trepidatious filly getting into cold water, the regal airship slowly approached the roiling bank of dark clouds. The wind got stronger, buffeting them around, though fascinatingly Celestia's mane was unaffected by the gusts.
Right at the edge of the storm, the wind became too strong, canceling out their forward progress.

"Pegasi launch!" The captain ordered.
A squadron of pegasi jumped from the rigging and took up positions just in advance of the airship. Just by their presence the wind began to diverge around them, giving the ship easier passage.

Then, like a acorn being dropped into a deep dark ocean, the airship penetrated the storm.

For the first few seconds it was only cold and dark, punctuated by flashes of lightening from deeper in the clouds. Then, they hit rain. It was a torrential downpour, instantly soaking everypony.

Quite the struggle, Celestia thought to herself. What was it for? Why was she doing this, when she could simply have flown to Ponyville?
She didn't have any answers for herself. Whenever she tried to dwell on it, a muted feeling of numbness in her chest was all that could be drawn out.

They descended to a lower altitude, where the leafy canopy of an apple orchard could barely be seen through dark and rain. Celestia thought back to the last time she had been in the area, when Ponyville had been known by a different, more sinister-sounding name. There had been no apple trees, rather the valley had been blanketed in verdant forest, save for a little patch of houses.

And soon, houses could be seen, as the airship swooped over the outskirts of Ponyville. The pegasi vanguard guided them to an open field, wide and flat enough to land on.

The captain came running up to the bow again. "Commander, our landing block was broken in the wind. We need time to put on another."

"Take your time, but be wary of the cost." Celestia nodded.
The captain galloped off and Celestia was left to her own thoughts again.

It was so close now, so overwhelming. The sleepy village below was overflowing with fear, paranoia, and nightmares. It was impossible to distinguish anypony through the thick miasmatic haze of evil, but Celestia held out hope. Hope that Twilight was fine, alert, and ready to fend off the Dark.

Ready to fight. Celestia sighed. It was wrong. None of it should have happened. How had it even come to this?
If she had been more honest with herself, she would have acknowledged that the situation had only become so dire due to her own negligence. But Celestia firmly, unshakably believed it was not her fault. Whose then?

Celestia had had the entire trip to contemplate things. She had been grasping at answers, only have them slip away.

She thought about the yellow mare, cloaked in black, in her chambers. Celestia heard that arrogant voice, deriding her for being afraid of her own dreams.
Yes... The mare had been right. All the things that made Celestia life worth living had been cracking over the centuries. The dream of Equestria was broken beyond the ability to heal. Celestia only had one thing she could believe in, and that was the foolish wish that she could find fulfillment in the presence of a minuscule mortal that she inexplicably cared for.

"Twilight..." Celestia whispered into the wind. "What would you say to my silliness?"

The empress thought back to the very first time she met Twilight.
It had been a beautiful day, and the skies over Canterlot were streaked with feathery clouds. Celestia didn't remember the schedule the day, but she had been spending that morning in the park around the Unicorn School, talking to students and teachers. Back then she'd been active in Canterlot society, especially with the Unicorn School and the University.
She felt it before she saw or heard it. A ripple of magic, distant but deafening, Something significant happened in the direction of Cloudsdale. It was a few moments of silence, as all the students and teachers around Celestia felt it too. Nopony was sure what was happening.

But who felt it strongest, and who did realize what was happening, was soon revealed. For as a strange cascade of rainbow color filled the skies above, the whole Unicorn School was rocked by what seemed to be a nearby detonation. Everypony began to scream and run around.
Celestia remembered calmly rising to her hooves, but then everything got hazy. She remembered a ball of light or... not quite light... where the lecture hall tower had stood. Time seemed to slow down as she approached the ball of light, for whatever thing had created it was competing with the sun's own imposition of causality and continuity.
What fantastic power, Celestia had marveled. She had been too busy admiring the magic to really wonder what was causing it.
Stepping into the sphere of light, the shockwave bubble contracted and the chunks of stone and earth flew back into position, as she literally stepped back in time. She was in the threshold of the lecture room, watching a little purple filly in the throes of agony. She looked out the window, where the rainbow light from the direction of Cloudsdale was spreading in their direction. Apparently the little filly had reacted very, very badly to whatever had caused the rainbow magic.
Then the blast of magic, blooming off the filly's horn to engulf the room. When it faded, Celestia was seeing a few seconds previous again.

Celestia wasn't too sure how time was flowing outside the explosion, but it seemed it had been snarled around the filly. She took a step closer.
The little filly couldn't have been older than 6, maybe 7. She didn't have her mark yet. Standing off to the side were two familiar faces: Twilight Velvet and Night Light. They looked concerned, but practically serene compared to the panicking school admittance officers watching from the seats.

Celestia nodded, things coming together for her. She had vaguely remembered Twilight Velvet and Night Light's auspicious marriage happening, though she hadn't attended. She'd also remembered news of the lucky couple having a colt, then a filly a few years later.

"Hello." Celestia knelt by the convulsing filly. Can you hear me? You're not alone."

The filly, shaking under the uncontrollable power of the magic, whimpered something unintelligable.

"Is this your first time taking an entrance test?" Celestia asked softly.

The filly made an 'uh huh' sound.

"You're pretty scared right now, and that's natural, but you have to get your magic under control." Celestia said. "Take a deep breath. Can you do that for me?"

She filly shook her head in the negative. Her horn was burning brighter, and the rainbow light outside the window was getting brighter. There was going to be another explosion.

"Why not?" Celestia asked.

"T- The..." The filly whimpered. "The screams..." She finally took her head of her hooves. The fur of her cheeks was damp with tears.

It was not lightly that Celestia intruded on other ponies' minds, but it was likely everypony in the room was going to become completely detached from causality unless she calmed the filly down somehow. So she gently reached out with a hoof and held the filly's head.
She saw hundreds of desperate faces, young pegasi, lost and confused, caught up in a maelstrom of rainbow color. They looked to each other, then to the older ponies watching over them, as the rainbow light gradually erased their bodies. Then they all began to scream, utterly terrified, as they realized what was happening.
Celestia withdrew her shaking hoof. A sonic rainboom had just consumed the Cloud Creche, and the little purple filly was like a lightening rod for the anguished echos rippling out from the event.

"Don't be scared." Celestia comforted as best she could think to, but as she had never been that personable or maternal with anypony it felt awkward. "They're not going to hurt you. They were afraid, but they're at peace now."

The filly buried her head in her hooves again. "No they're not."

Celestia didn't remember how the conversation went from there, but it lasted a long time, through several repetitions of that snarled segment of time, until little Twilight Sparkle finally calmed down enough. The exhausted filly let Celestia pick her up as the Sun's light finally reasserted itself and the bubble of magic dissolved.
Unfortunately the examination tower was still blasted apart. Celestia, Twilight Sparkle's parents, and the admittance officers. reappeared in a crater in the ground.

"You're a very powerful filly, but that means you will be placed under more careful scrutiny and pressure here." Celestia passed Twilight back to her confused and dazed parents. "But succeed, and Equestria will have a place for you. It is for the talented to rise above the circumstances of their birth based on their merit."

Twilight had passed out, but as soon as they realized what was going on Velvet and Night Light began profusely thanking and apologizing to Celestia. Celestia hadn't been listening. She was feeling a joy, and a kind of satisfaction she could not explain. Twilight Sparkle was abhorrently powerful, and in Celestia's experience that only produced bad ponies, who invariably destroyed themselves delving too deep into the secrets of pony and divine nature. But maybe, having caught on right at the beginning, she could stear that power in a good way, and forge a good pony.
That had been her hope at the time, her dream.

Had she betrayed that dream, by sending Twilight away to Ponyville? Was Twilight ready?
Or had that one-sided covenant been broken when she let Twilight leave for the University?

Most importantly, was it all broken past her ability to repair?

Because in Twilight, Celestia saw something. The answers, to a lifelong fear so deep within pony psychology that it had taken years before Celestia understood what it was. She was not, after all, born to understand ponykind, merely lead them.
Yet understanding the fear inside her didn’t help, or perhaps even made it worse. Was it unbecoming of a Princess to fear the inevitable, common, overwhelming fact?

Fear of death haunted Celestia like a shadow.

On the longest day of the year, many centuries ago, Celestia opened her eyes for the first time. She awoke fully formed in the body of the sun princess, able to speak, able to walk and think, but devoid of memories, personality, maturity. She awoke in a castle, the ruler of an empire.

The first months were torture, learning what the world was while leading a nation. The diminutive normal ponies told her about the succession, about the lineage of Celestias who came in with one Summer Sun and left with the next. The mother sun did not want her daughters staying over long, they joked.
Child in an empress's body, Celestia had struggled to feel out the world around her. Immediately she felt the presence of the sun in her mind, guiding her gentely but firmly. The ponies under her were less patient, patronizing as they followed her to make sure her explorations did not cause any gaffes for the regime. “Oh these Celestias.” They laughed. “Always so funny to see them learn.”

Like many ponies in emotional adolescence, Celestia took issue with the ridicule. She did not like to be compared to the previous Celestia. The lords protested, citing all the work they’d had to cover while this new Celestia found her bearings, same as every year. But this Celestia was not placated. Indeed she was very annoyed, and was unfamiliar with the unquantifiable power under her control.
So, her first experience with death was that of her own fiery holocaust which consumed Canterlot castle, purging the offending advisors. For the first few minutes she had laughed childishly at making the bothersome ponies go away, which slowly devoled into wall-shattering sobs at the profound loneliness she had just caused for herself.

Equestria at large was not sure what happened. When things began to fell into place the ponies were angry, but patient. Though this Celestia might have offended them, it would only be a year before she left and Celestia took her place. A new regency was established for the last few months before Celestia could begin taking care of herself.

Only, Celestia had been overcome by a most bizarre affliction. In her tantrum where she’d murdered hundreds of ponies she couldn’t have understood the consequences of her actions. A month later she wandered her way into a sick house, and bore witness to the stages of decay and death that mortality inflicted upon ponykind. It was then that the horror of her murderous act, of her solar fire burning away the flesh and fat of her screaming advisors, dawned on her. It frightened her immensely. It frightened her more than anything had any right to frighten a nigh-immortal god alicorn. It could, the Celestia standing on the prow of her airship could admit in reflection, be called obsession.

But the ponies around the young Celestia spoke about death as a necessary nuisance, cynical bureaucrats that they were. They comforted Celestia that the closest she would come to death was the succession, where she would return to her mother sun to make way for the next Celestia.
But death for normal ponies, as the princess learned, was finality. Awful, awful finality. She couldn't help but wonder if she too would be embraced by that finality.

So a year later when her time came to rise back to her mother in the skies above, Celestia flew into the air past what anypony could see, hovered for a moment, returned back to the podium. That was the only 'succession' she was going to offer ponykind or her mother.
On official documents, the number ticked up.

She did so for the next nine hundred years. nearly a hundred sucessions that ponies thought took place was the same Celestia putting on a show.
The alicorn ponies knew as Celestia the 179th was not, in fact, the 179th, but the 99th.

As the years wore on the started alternating years she pretended to succeed, then let the gaps grow to five and ten years. The documented term of Celestia the 178th lasted thirty years. The term of Celestia the 179th had lasted two hundred.

At first, longevity was unimaginably pleasing for Celestia. She read and explored, teaching herself more than the previous 97 Celestias combined. She rediscovered ancient history. She flew over the oceans, and learned the ways of the griffins and zebras. She found aged and terrible things in the heart of the Mountain, relics from Celestia I. Truly, save that great progenitor, first of the sun princesses, this Celestia was the greatest of them all.

But eight-hundred years was a long time. The Celestia was getting tired of fear, tired of fighting off death. Tired, the key word, began to define so much of the last century. Life, the greatest and most defiant fight against death, began to seem pointless and repetitive. Every pony innovation and every pony discovery in exploration bounced off her. Living had lost it’s color.

And then two interesting somethings happened that fought against the creeping apathy.

In the far north, in a village on the crystal river, a pink pegasus unlocked the magical power of emotion and love. By some marvelous accident she underwent a transformation into an alicorn. When meditating on the immense question that provoked, Celestia could only draw a certain unclear message from the formless thoughts of her mother sun: BEHOLD THE LOVE OF THE GODS.
Celestia suddenly had an adopted niece. Routine at the castle was immediately broken, and the sun princess’s heart recovered a bit of it’s energy each day.

Inevitabely, other creatures were intereegued by the new alicorn, and Celestia’s encountered in those devious magician's, the Stars. Phyte, lounging as she did under Canterlot, was not hard to find and conquer again. However it came to light that the other Stars were getting up to odd and intriguing things

Prismia was languishing somewhere near Crystal Crossing, with the much more dangerous Shale. The others had dispersed of died over the centuries. The most treacherous of them all, the fallen alicorn Astral Nacre, disappeared without a trace. For the first time in decades, fresh ideas coursed through Celestia’s brain.

Then the afore-thought encounter with Twilight Sparkle.

It took time for Celestia’s mind to reawaken, but as the life seeped back into her she created a plan.
Ideas, dreams, and ponies could die. Celestia could not, would not. If progress and the attainment of a great dream required sacrifice, Celestia could think of no great offering than the htousand year old dream of Equestria itself. Yes, the Equestria was her sacrifice for the furthering of the most compelling of all mortalkind's desires.

"This rain, has made me thoughtful, hasn't it." Celestia whispered to herself. She felt cold, a very rare feeling for her. Fate willing she would never have to feel cold again once she had her hooves around Twilight Sparkle.

Elsewhere, in another space, less powerful ponies were sacrificing things far more dear to them for the attainment of their dreams.
Chasmic tears were forming in the fabric of the dreamscape. On the top of the eternally tall tower, the three corrupted ponies and the Nightmare stared at each other in silence. They awaited their escape back into the waking world, where the fulfillment of their twisted agendas was just beyond grasp.
Soon, they agreed with haughty, tired, and angry glances. They thought they were ready to do what nightmares did. it was very quiet not that the manifestations were gone.

After a while the silence, one of them spoke.
“Why a tower?” The coal coated earth pony nightmare with the withed apple mark asked.

"The pegasus understands." The ponylike figure of the dream said, it's featureless body shifting to face the nightmare Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, do explain.” The smooth black unicorn nightmare with the blue diamonds said. “I know you’d love to spell it out us simple pon-, nightmares.”

The figure shook its head. "No."

"Arrogant little thing, aren't you." The nightmare of Rarity scoffed.

"He/she/it is hinting at me, you know." The nightmare or Rainbow Dash said.

"Yes but I want to hear it from her." Rarity pouted.

"You won't." The figure assured.

Rainbow Dash cut in. "My friend... former friend..." She paused. "The griffin I heard the story from left out details."

"Don't feel bad about that. You already know you're not explaining for their sake." The Dark figure said, amused. "You do it for you own sense of worth. Explain however you want."

"Um, alright then." Dash cleared her throat, slightly emboldened. "We are on the Tower of the Bard."

"Is that supposed to mean something to us?" The nightmare of Applejack arched a brow.

“It is from the mythology of the Bard, a pony tribe in northern Sahella. It says all the world was unified in one species and herd, industrious and powerful. But there was something they knew was missing. So they built a tower into the sky, tall enough to wave at the sun as she passed by. The gods were displeased by this, and destroyed the tower and the city the Bard had built under it. Destroyed by the god powers, ponies transformed into monsters, resolving into the griffins, zebras, hippogryphs, and camels, and other species.”

"That was more correct than I expected from you." The figure praised.

“It all sounds like Xenophobic garbage. What difference is there between me and any other creature. None, save that I am more powerful and beautiful.” Rarity said disdainfully.

“Xenophobic? Even mistranslated as the pegasus made it, you should have been able to pick out the theme.” The figure said mockingly, shaking its head back and forth.

“When I get out of here we’ll see who condescends to who!” Rarity shot up, glaring fiercely. Rainbow and Applejack warily got to their hooves too.

"Don't get upset. It will sour the parting. Which..."

As if to pierce the tension, the black streak of color the black void of the sky sky ripped wider. Splashes of space began to evaporate from existence as the dreamscape cried out. It was ready to disburse its guests back into their own bodies.

“Say hello to Celestia for me.” A teethy gaping smile clacked along the Dark figure's face.
As Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash's conciousness of the tower faded, they saw more and more eyes open up around them, in the sky, on the floor, and on every inch of the the figure's body. “And tell the princess I will be there soon.”

But other creatures, more malevolent still than even a nightmare, were waiting.

Unlike her slow and gradual fade, Twilight’s reintroduction to consciousness was sudden and brutal. With a sharp crack, the nightmare magic of the armor pieces dumped her on rough hewn cobblestone.

“Urghh.” Twilight groaned, letting the rain sizzle on her scorched horn. As she shifted to her hooves she noticed right away that the steel blue artifacts had attached to her during transit. The horseshoe had found its way to her right forehoof, and the oversized cuirass was now buckled around her chest. She was now wearing the oversized nightmare armor, and it fit about as comically well as a filly trying on their parent's clothes. Twilight kept it on since it didn't hinder her movement too much.

To be walking the Everfree Castle in an uncontrolled storm, this time in real life and not just in a dream. The place seemed so much more haunting to Twilight, seeing it through her own eyes. The scale of the ruins, collapsed buttresses like cracked ribs poking into the sky, had never fully translated. Twilight shivered, and it was not because of the rain.
Standing there for real felt... chilling. It was like she was trespassing on the sacred ground of a Dark heaven. It didn't really make sense, and Twilight preffered it that way.

"I'm here to save myself, not to delve into secrets." Twilight told herself.

Something the dream had communicated well was the castle layout, and Twilight could tell instantly where she was. She took a step forward, then another, took a breath, then broke into a trot. She negotiated the familiar halls and courtyards she had never been in before, until she was at the threshold of the throne room.
It was real. The lost throne, that had graced her dream with a private and elusive sort of wisdom, was available to any and all who searched for it. And indeed, something had. There was an interloper.

"Hello?" Twilight called out at barely above a whisper, droned out by the rain. "Who's there?"

Muttering, chanting, buzzing. It was difficult to tell what the sound was over the rain. A dark figure rose and fell over the altar at the head of the room, making ritualistic gestures that filled Twilight’s mind with unwelcome thoughts. It was like something out of one of the lethal tomes from Canterlot that she had read.

Stepping slowly around the model solar system at the throne room’s entrance, Twilight approached in full sight of the creature. It stopped moving, twisted its head around, and watched Twilight carefully. When she came within twenty hooves of the raised thrones, the nightmare armor Twilight wore dug into her consciousness with icy teeth, getting excited by the proximity to the other pieces sealed into the altar.

“You're not who I was expecting. Who?” Twilight asked the creature.

“Chrysalis.” The thing answered, it’s voice smooth and feminine but definitely not pony. It had an almost vibrational quality. Somehow it remained dark and indistinct despite the radiant glow of the altar it stood over. “I bring darkness. This is my altar. Do you like it?”

"You made it?" Twilight asked. The creature did not sound entirely sane.

"It's mine." The thing said with more insistence.

“Are you a nightmare?”

“A nightmare? Ha ha ha!” The thing who called herself Chrysalis chuckled. “The ignorant may call me that, but I am not a nightmare.”

This Chrysalis claimed to be something dangerous enough to be equated to a nightmare, and that gave Twilight pause. But what was it? “Come out where I can see you.” She demanded.

“That goes against me nature, I’m sad to say. I don’t like to be seen.” Chrysalis scoffed.

“Shy?” Twilight asked. The pain in Twilight’s head was growing. The armor was getting impatient to be reunited.

“Oh no, not as such.” A slight flutter was heard as Chrysalis moved around the altar. “I don’t want to scare you.”

“I doubt too many things could scare me anymore.” Twilight fought the uncertainly she felt begin to creep into her. She hadn't come looking for a fight. “You’re none of them.”

“Ha haa.” Chrysalis buzzed. “I’m all of them.”

Twilight’s eyes, adjusted to the darkness of the room, were blinded by the column of magic that encapsulated the creature before her. At first she thought it was dragon fire, but this green flame translated it’s caster’s shape, not it’s location.
When the air cleared, Nightmare Moon was looking down at Twilight with seething rage.

Twilight teleported backwards out of strike range, though it was unusually difficult this time. Nightmare’s scowl broke, and she chuckled. “Understand me now?”

Twilight dropped the barrier spell she’d been preparing. “A changeling. You’re a changeling.”

“As I said,” Chrysalis wearing the form of Nightmare Moon repeated. “I’m all that you fear.”

“Oh, you must have my mistaken for somepony else then.” Twilight cleared her throat. “How do you know what Nightmare Moon looks like though? That's just like her.”

“That's..." Chrysalis's face contorted in confusions. "How do you know? And why aren't you afraid.”

“You’re so full of it.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Now please get out of the way. You're in the way and I don't want to fight you.”

“Why would you want to fight me? Do you think knowing what I am disarms my magic?” Chrysalis sounded amused, but her expression became strained. "You want to destroy my altar, don't you. I won't allow it."

“I need to access it. I won't destroy it if I don't have to.” Twilight eyed the altar in question, glowing a faint blue. “Come on. You're not really going to try to stop me. I can hardly feel your aura. I bet you're nearly dead from hunger.”

“You're dismissing me. I don't like that. I’m more than just a changeling, Twilight. I don’t scare you because we’ve only just met. I’m being nice, ha ha.” Hearing Nightmare Moon’s manic laugh every night for a month, Twilight found the malicious giggle the face now expressed very creepy.

“You know my name huh. You've been in Ponyville.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Did you put the the horseshoe in Rarity's house?"

“Who? What horseshoe?” Chrysalis asked sourly. “Don't try to confuse me! Of course I was in Ponyville, every once and a while. Mostly to make sure nopony was coming back for my altar."

"Oh come on. Do you even know who made it?” Twilight growled, taking a step forward. “You don't belong here, and you have no idea what it's for.”

“Of course I know what it is!" Chrysalis was getting properly angry. "Communion with the Dark Lady. Can't you see how it glows? Her ladyship's presence is so close. I..." Her charade visage wavered, and she glanced back at the altar several times. "You can't have it. I know how much you want it, but you can't. No no no, this is my for my dream only."

"We can work something out-"

"You thought you were being clever, sending your little pet dragon in ahead of you. Thought you could distract me and sneak by my unnoticed. No chance. I can make you fear in ways other than just showing you a nightmare.” Chrysalis's visage of Nightmare Moon was engulfed by green flame. The new shape the changeling assumed was of much smaller stature.

“No no no.” Twilight whispered, eyes widening. “What have you done to Spike?!”

Spike’s voice was perfectly imitated and twisted into an arrogant yawn. “He's resting all comfortable somewhere in the castle. I did you a favor, plucking him out of the rainy Everfree, all alone and lost. Your irresponsible, aren't you Twilight.”

“Let him go.” Twilight struggled to keep the pain and anger out of her voice.

“If you leave and promise to never come back, I'll release him after a few days. I won't touch a scale on his head. That's fair, right. Hmm... Almost too fair. You leave that with me too.” Chrysalis pointed to the armor on Twilight chest. “With that, I'll hear the Dark Lady even clearer! Oh oh, that makes me giddy."

“That's not going to happen.” Twilight said, barely keeping herself together. If it didn't mean certain death, she would leave, but as it was the nightmare was going to overwhelm her in less than a day. Then there was the problem of Celestia's imminent arrival. All of that was worth suffering to get Spike back. Only... Twilight had to believe she could save both herself and Spike. If she gave up hope the nightmare could consume her all the sooner. "I can't leave without seeing that altar, nor with Spike in my hooves."

“The noblepony is making empty threats methinks. Leave while your baby still gets his life. But if you fight me…” The visage ofSpike drew a clawed finger across his throat. “Shhhiiiich! I will put him in the same grave as I put you.”

“I’ll.. I…” Twilight took a deep breath. “I have a confession to make. I was lying earlier too.” Twilight’s face was changing. Her sorrowful sulk turned into a barred grimace. Her ears laid back, reducing her profile. As fury overwhelmed her the blackness of her pupils grew out until her eyes were as dark as her hate. “I DO want to fight you.”

Since Twilight and the fillies had left, Dorctor Horse was left in the hospital with not much to do. His three patients, Rarity, Applejack, and the unknown blue pegasus, were still laying inertly in their beds. He wished the nurse Redheart would get over her ailment soon so he wasn't the only pony doing shifts.

"Good good is this boring." He yawned, shifting position in his padded chair. It had to be getting close to ten or eleven, and the rain outside sounded like it was not going to let up any time soon. "I'm gunna call it a night."

He stood up, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that Rarity's horn was sparking and glowing faintly.

"Huh?" He frowned. Strange magical discharge was so-far an unseen symptom of the plague. He trotted over to Rarity and listened at her barrel with his stethoscope.

To his shock her heartbeat was strong and extreemely fast. He wouldn't have expected that from a pony after a sprint race.
He yanked his stethoscope away from sleeping pony's barrel. After a second of confusion, he lay his head against her side, confirming what he'd heard.

“That can’t be right! That’s way too fast!”

Faster and faster Rarity’s heart raced. Almost hard enough to shake her body in its bindings. The soft glow from the room's firefly lantern began to dim, as the little bugs fell dead to the bottom of the jar.
Then, her heartbeat began to slow, back to what was normal for a sleeping pony.

“That can't be healthy.” Doctor Horse nibbled his bottom lip.

Rarity’s eyes fluttered.

"I'm profusely sorry about how long it's taking. Things weren't well maintained and... I have no excuses. " The airship captain bowed. "But we should be putting down within moments."

Celestia declined to say anything. She wasn't even listening. The dark aura hanging over Ponyville was beginning to recede, and she couldn't guess what that could mean.

The captain looked up from her prostrated position. "Commander?" When a response was still not forthcoming she raised her voice to be heard over the rain. "Princess?"

"If we are going to land... Do so immediately." Celestia glanced down at the captain. "We're about to hit some turbu-"

A shockwave slammed into the airship, sweeping every pony and every thing off the deck. The hull twisted, and the masts shattered under the torsion. The perforated balloon was partially carried away as the shockwave rolled over the hills. Within moments the prow had disintegrated into splinters. Ponies and timber came crashing down. The hard landing folded the upper decks of the airship into the lower ones, crushing anypony remaining inside.

From a hundred meters away at the edge of Ponyville, three darkened figures twice as tall as a normal pony shared satisfied looks before turning their back and galloping in the direction of the Everfree forest.

Celestia was tossed fifty hooves’ lengths away from the wreckage. The shreds of her dress did nothing to protect the dozens of cuts and bruises on her skin from the violent rain. Very slowly though, the red was washed away and replaced by white skin and fur as Celestia’s magic healed her.

The princess rolled herself upright. The rain-soaked field was alive with the pained screams of the surviving crew of the airship. But that was not her her concern. The shockwave had been laced with darkness and magic. The nightmare in Ponyville was starting to manifest physically. Pushing herself of the ground, Celestia flew above the storm clouds and circled around Ponyville, trying to get a read on the auras of the Dark creatures somewhere below. She wondered for a moment why it was so dark, even above the oppressive weather. She looked into the sky.
There was no sun, and there was no moon. Only stars, twinkling dimly but intensely. But one in particular the brightest.
In the reflection of Celestia’s eye, it grew so large and dazzling that it personated a second sun, and burned greater still. Then it collapsed, consuming blackness wrenching apart the stars around it. The sky was marred by fallen stars.

The blinked, and the strange vision ended. Celestia was still on the grass, dirty and surrounded by the dead and dying.

"This rain really has made me thoughtful." She rolled into a sitting position. For real this time, she jumped into the air and hovered over the town.
Three blips of malignant energy, like sunken pits that her magic could not feel, who moved quickly south and east into the Everfree Forest. Now that the nightmare aura had faded, Celestia was much more concerned what she did not feel.

Twilight was not in Ponyville.

Casting about desperately, Celestia brushed against a pulse of energy emanating from somewhere deep within the Everfree. It was recognizable, but barely so. Twilight must have been using a tremendous amount of magic to be able to be felt so far away. The only optimitic thought

Sweeping her wings powerfully, Celestia danced along the cloudtops behind the trio of nightmares. Still flagging from the exertion of healing herself she knew she wouldn’t be able to catch them, but she wouldn’t be be far behind them arriving at the Everfree Castle.

If she had been thinking clearly, Twilight would have been more reluctant to use her repeater of heating and electrical spells, massively boosted into attacks, for they were as dangerous to herself as to Chrysalis. The jets of fire she summoned turned the relentless rain into superheated steam, and the arcs of electricity arced randomly and almost burned her own tail.
But Twilight did not care that much. Aggravated beyond logic, she cast randomly into the steam, hoping to tag the changeling. It was exhilarating and empowering using so much magic, letting her destructive instinct run wild. The nightare in the back of her mind urged her on.

As soon as the assault began Chyrysalis jumped away and transformed again. With the incredible agility of her new zebra form, she careened and somersaulted over Twilight’s spells, but made no attacks of her own. In the low visibility Twilight sent out spells blindly in the direction of the changeling's feint aura, but there was no real chance of getting a solid hit. Occasionally Twilight would hear a grunt or squeal when she got close with her lightning or steam, but Chrysalis was enterally silent otherwise.

“Now I know how Nightmare Moon felt when she was hunting me.” Twilight grumbled. The entire throne room was steamy now, with the rain very slowly washing it away.

“Was Moon dying inside, eaten gradually by the corruption inside her heart and mind?” Chrysalis’s mocking question echoed off the stone. “Would you ever have won by just waiting? Because I will. The light is gone from your eyes, and very soon it will be gone from your soul. I won’t have to lay a single hoof on you. Hee hehe hee!"

“You’re making it very easy for you to justify killing you.” Twilight howled, charging her horn. With short bursts of kinetic magic she cleared the area around her of steam.

Chrysalis buzzed delightedly from somewhere in the shadows. “Aww, you sound so cute saying that. Death, like a petite little mare like you has any idea what that entails. I'll show you though."

“I’m medically trained. I’ve seen death, the dying, the living.” Twilight began to advance on where she thought her adversary might be. “I’ve seen one convert into the other.”

“But changing one back…” Chrysalis’s tone turned contemplative. “That is a right reserved to the gods. It's something I yearn to earn, by listening closely to the Dark Lady's voice.”

Twilight snorted. “Isn't it great that I get saddled with the haunting nightmares, spending every night with Nightmare Moon, when you were so much closer and much more willing."

“Y- You idiot! You mock the Dark Lady by comparing her to the petty alicorn pretender!” Twilight dodged a chunk of rock that sailed out from her right. She responded with a bolt of lightening into the shadows. Again she dazed herself with the crashing thunder, but Twilight saw movement in the brief light.
Chrysalis continued. "Infuriatingly ignorantly little pony. You disrespect the Dark Lady with your existance. I'm going to enjoy torturing your pet dragon to death."

Twilight's blood boiled. "Keep digging that hole for yourself."

"You should be on your knees begging that I may reuse your worthless hide after I kill you. Who knows, I may give your corpse over to Master, once he is returned to us."

“Master?” Twilight licked her lips. A proper noun, not a title... Twilight remembered Nightmare Moon mentioning something by that name. "You're lucky he's not here or I'd have to discipline him too."

“You squeak like a filly when you say that! Just darling.” Chrysalis voice echoed from behind her. “If I had known how amusing you ponies were I would have taking one of you sooner, for amusement. Then again your stupidity is annoying enough I will be happy to leave this place.”

"Show yourself and I'll alleviate you of the annoyance.” Twilight mumbled.
She took a calming breath. Chrysalis was toying with her, but not from a position of strength. It was clear that the changeling didn't have the power to face her flat out. If she could she would, because under the mocking and madness, Twilight could tell Chrysalis was desperate. She kept moving positions, but was sticking close to the altar.

With a clearer head, Twilight saw change of tactics was necessary. As long as Chrysalis kept her angry and off balance Twilight would never win.
She used fire and electricity as a medium of attack, but that was not her talent. Magic was her talent, and the lethal tomes had told her about death in terms of magic. If Twilight wanted to cause death, there were ways. Oh yes, there were ways.

“Except... I don't have to see you” Twilight closed her eyes. “If only I focus a little harder...”

Like when Celestia had first taught her, Twilight felt the magic of the world. As the ebb of energy passed through her, she read the places it had been and the forms it had taken. With far greater clarity and detail than her vision, the world around her drew itself in her mind.

At the far end of the room, slinking behind the cracked stub of the sun throne, was a spindly insectoid monster. The black and teal chitin outlined a shape not unlike an emaciated alicorn, but for the serrated horn, asperous legs, and perforated translucent wings. Membranes hung off her in the places a mane and tail would have been, gouged and torn.

Destroying this thing would be a mercy.

"Tell me Twilight, does your current murderous compulsions feel normal? You're a sick little pony." Chrysalis's voice was not coming from the direction she was in at all. The clever bug was using magic to project her voice. "Don't you care about what is right, Twilight. Let me save the rest of the herd from you. It's the right thing to do."

Twilight reopened her eyes. Her head was hurting more than ever before, but grim concentration drove her now. "The best debaters say stick to one strong argument instead of weakening your point with multiple weak arguments." Under her magical will, the remaining steam cleared away. “There’s no hiding anymore, changeling. I've got your pattern. Give me an honest honor duel, like we do in Canterlot."

“Revealed, am I. But alas, not so fast. I can see in your eyes, little Twilight, that the Dark is too much for your little pony mind.” Chrysalis buzzed. She was still in zebra form, but as she approached the center of the room green magic reshaped her into her propper changeling queen shape. “You don’t need to stay with ponies, Twilight. They are devious, deceitful creatures. Let the nightmare change you, join you to the Dark Lady's will.” Chrysalis cocked her head. “I feel a certain connection to you. Kinship maybe. Can you feel it?”

Twilight widened her stance, battle ready. “Buck off. The connection I am about to feel is your innards around my hoof. And that’s no lie. Get ready.”

Twilight’s movement’s were fast. In a flash of magic, she teleported above Chrysalis and in the same moment scoured the stone beneath her with fire. Chrysalis barely avoided the flames by propelling herself forward with her wings.

Turning quickly, Chrysalis sent a lance of green magic into the air towards Twilight. Twilight teleported again, onto one of the surviving columns at the edge of the room. With the advantage of hight, she waited for Chrysalis to make the next move.

“Being a changeling queen is a right earned through the blood of the competition. It is a right I have. I obey only the gods now.” Chrysalis walked the length of the throne room, eyeing Twilight cautiously. “You're a powerful whelp, with no experience.”

“I agree. You’re my first practice target.” Twilight followed up her words with a barrage of kinetic spells. The most that missed punched out chunks of the wall behind Chrysalis. The one that hit flattened the changeling to the ground. Chrysalis, groaned, tried to move, then slumped.
“Gotchya.” Twilight cackled.

After several seconds of no movement, Twilight teleported to the altar. It glowed with a hazy blue light tempting her. Twilight reached out to touch it.
That proved to be a mistake, as the nightmare armor pieces assaulted her mind with renewed vigor. Twilight seized then collapsed, her every thought preoccupied by the tremendous pain and pressure exerted against her being.

"Oh shhhh-" She strained to move her jaw. Her head was a battleground between her own thoughts, her nightmare, and the armor. Every thought was torn away, shredded in the mental mealstrom. "GgGgGHhhhhh." She fought with all her might to keep conscious.

“I should have mentioned that changelings dislike this kind of direct confrontation. Cloak and dagger has always been our style. You fell for the oldest trick in the book.” Chrysalis was above her now. "But why does it reach out to you, and not me? Yes I feel..." The changeling pressed her chitinous head to the cold metal of the cuirass. "The dream is calling to you, repeating your name. It wants you to bring you closer to her. How... infuriating."

Struggling somewhat, the insectoid queen lifted Twilight with her green magic and placed her atop the altar. The cuirass dug into Twilight’s skin, yearning for unification with it’s other fragments beneath her. Her teeth were clenched so hard they threatened to shatter. The pain was unreal, omnipresent and she was losing conscious fast.

A flash of green, and Chrysalis had returned to form of an indistinct haze that she had been when Twilight first entered the castle “The cloak.” A sickening snap echoed through the room. Chrysalis levitated a cracked and jagged piece of chitin, a part of her back that had caved under Twilight kinetic spell. “The dagger."
Chrysalis paused, admiring Twilight's agony. "I'm jealous. I'm very jealous.

It is a shame that I’ll have to sacrifice you now. I really did like you.”

She drew the dangerously sharp shard up, ready to strike.

“That’s enough now darling.” A smooth, lubricous voice washed over the room at the volume of a whisper.

Twilight could barely manage to sense new arrivals in the throne room. They were dark and terrible things, powerful yes, but conflicted.

“You… nightmare... wherefore have you come here, and how?!” Chrysalis, immensely confused, stepped between the altar and the newcomers. "W- What kind of trickery is this."

“I've kicked a lot of changeling flank, and that was before.” A quick and haughty voice said.

“We are something more now.” Finished a measured manehattan accent. "It's not for you that we were elevated."

Chrysalis digested those words. “Could it be that the Dark Lady has sent you to me. H- Has she finally answered my prayers!”

“Do excuse us darling, but we don’t know you.” The smooth voice said. “I doubt the Dark Lady does either.”

“W- What? I’ve listened to her for months, protected her altar!” Chrysalis yelled. “I deserve, nay, I DEMAND her attention!”

A slight hiss from the altar under her was the only indication anything changed, but at the same time, everything was felt different. The horrible pain was gone. Gasping for air, Twilight let a dribble of magic sooth her frayed nerves. To her confusion, the battle in her head had ceased.
She opened her eyes. She now was laying on a small pile of rubble, the grainy stone that had once been the altar. Attached to Twilight’s hooves were three steel blue horseshoes, completing the set. An ornamental helm of the same effulgent metal rested on the ground nose to nose with her. The form and scrolling designs etched into the blue metal were distinctly late-classical. It was beautiful, in a way Twilight couldn't have described with ten years and a thesaurus. She wanted to embrace it, fawn over it. It was, in a word divinely made.

“You were the one all along, connected my dreams to the moon.” Twilight whispered to the helmet. "I almost forgive you, but I can't while my soul is still in jeopardy. First thing first though..."
She turned to face the confrontation brewing in the center of the throne room. She saw the new arrivals. Three massive ponies, their coats and manes shades of black and grey, faced off against the defiant form of Chrysalis. They really were nightmares incarnated, as Chrysalis has said.

The one speaking was a towering unicorn. “You don’t sacrifice others to gain the dark lady’s favor. You sacrifice yourself.”

“Down yourself in your sin.” The earth pony agreed.

“You toss yourself to the dogs.” The pegasus approved.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Chrysalis screeched. “I spread corruption across Chitin for a century, in solitary worship of the darkness! One soul is a pittance for the millions I’ve brought into misery. The Dark Lady surely understands that!"

Together at last, Nightmare Moon’s armor was calm, apathetic to Twilight’s soul it had so voraciously attacked only moments before. If anything it seemed to be giving back, as Twilight felt rejuvenation and relief like she’d only felt after hunting a pony. She felt brooding, invisible yet massive at the same time. She clicked her teeth to make sure they hadn’t transformed into fangs like she imagined. Nightmare Moon’s soul power felt lethal in her hooves. She picked the helm up, flipped it around, and slid it over her head.
Thoughts surged through her head, telling her she deserved the power she felt, and how her anger and wrath were forces of her own justice. It was not arrogance to exercise that power, just respect for what fate and skill had delivered to her.
Twilight vowed to the armor to keep an open mind.

“Actually… I do know who you are.” The grayscale pegasus stepped around her larger compatriots. “Chrysalis. We met, on a foggy morning in Neighjing. Do you remember the fight?”

Twilight looked from nightmare to nightmare. Her stomach churned in a battle between guilty queasiness and the combative nightmare energies coursing through her. The corrupted ponies were unmistakable. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. It was not hard to find the common thread.

“I remember.” Dash was smiling. “The whole city was at the gates of the viceroy's compound. He told us mercenaries to fight them off while he fled. That sorry sod got himself stabbed in the back. But when the changelings overran us, they weren’t out for blood or treasures, but that little amulet Gilda stole.” Dash stared intensely at the queen. “It was because of you. You wanted the amulet.”

“You have the amulet? Do you have any idea…” Chrysalis seemed at a loss. “Please you must give it to me. With the Dark Lady’s power and the amulet I can release Master from it’s curse!”

Rarity chuckled. “Are you daft? The Dark Lady doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about any of us. Heaven isn't going to come to you, changeling. You have to reach for it. Honestly, you call yourself a Dark creature? Ours is not a philosophy of charity. You stole the alter, but all you have did was sit on it! For shame. For shame."

“I- I have earned her attention a hundred times over!” Chrysalis yelled.

“Apparently not” Dash teased.

“I was uncompromising, in the name of the darkness! I... It..." Chrysalis started stuttering and babbeling, her eyes darting around the room. "I-
It’s time darkness payed me back. I was… uncompromising.”

Applejack threw a snide look to her comrades. “Payback is coming, friend. Accept it in peace.”

Chrysalis was confused.
“What ar- Kkhhaaaa!”
The queen’s rattling scream whistled through the sudden blockage in her neck. She clawed at were her throat had been, eyes wide with terror but no way to express it.

Twilight took a step back, her horn sliding out of Chrysalis with the grating of chitin on ivory lubricated by the changeling’s blood. What gore had stuck was washed by the rain.

Chrysalis fell forward, her newest hole spilling her life out, diluting the rainwater pools on the throne room floor. Facedown she gargled into the ground, her lungs struggling for their last breaths. For a long minute she fought to stay alive, writhing weakly. She managed to turned her head enough to look back at her executioner, eyes pleading for mercy.

"This is for Spike. Goodbye."
Taking pity, Twilight crushed her heart with her magic. Chrysalis’s body ended it’s convulsions to rest in dilapidation.

The rain pattered on.

Twilight breathed slowly. The crumpled changeling queen had looked pathetic in life, and death did her no favors. Her horn still tingled from the feeling of the stab, cracking chitin and tearing flesh, punching all the way through to the other side. While Twilight’s emotions refused to register anything, she knew that visceral kill would never be forgotten. But on another level she felt satisfied, for all that hate had been vindicated.
But the longer she looked, the more that satisfaction washed out of her. Twilight had acted on impulse, and on anger. Spike's captor, and possibly his murderer, was dead. Her truest friend was lost, while she herself was loosing herself to the nightmare more every moment. There was no way, Twilight thought, that she would get out of this alive and sane, not with three nightmares staring her down. There was no way she’d get to say goodbye.

"I don't know if I have enough time to contact Nightmare Moon and learn the ritual." Twilight mumbled to herself. "Why didn't I do it while the Changeling and the nightmares were distracted? Stupid... I've sealed my own fate haven't I..."

“Lady Sparkle. You're looking just amazing in that armor. A bit oversized though.” The nightmare of Rarity acted like the execution moments before had never happened. “The nightmare has drawn us to you.”

Silent, Twilight took a step back for every step the nightmares took forward.

“The nightmare thinks you have the right tools to learn heaven's secrets. All very esoteric stuff. I'm not sure why she hasn't consumed you yet, honestly.” Rarity continued, letting a little acid in her words. "What makes you so special, hmm? Why do you get to break the rules and still take all the rewards? That changeling was right to be frustrated with you."

Backed up to where the altar had stood, Twilight stopped retreating. The nightmares kept their distance.

“You must know what the nightmare wants from you, sharing headspace with it and all. It's not too much, is it?"

"No, I don't get a clear message. I wouldn't even believe it was sentient, if you weren't telling me so." Twilight said quietly. "It's a beast, amoral and hungry. It just wants me to eat and kill."

Rarity puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "No no, It wants you to actualize the tower. It needs you to reach up into heaven and tear out its secrets."

"They don't teach that in school." Twilight replied coldly.

"Then ask your friend on the Moon." Rarity said.

“I've been the nightmare's tool long enough. If I'm going to die I can at least make you you are to be its, and my, last victims." Twilight frowned. "I'll fight you if I have to."

“You want to fight more?” Rarity purred. “Though your actions towards your friends has been less than friendly, surely you wouldn’t fight us.”

"You can't deny this is your fault we're like this." Applejack concurred.

"If you didn't want to deal with us, you should have just killed us." Dash agreed. "If you're gunna hurt a mare, do it so bad they can't hurt you back."

“It was the nightmare that drove me to it all in the first place!” Twilight’s yell was bolstered by the cold rage Moon’s armor stirred within her. “Do I look like the kind of pony who is happy doing this, causing suffering? Think I came to Ponyville wanting it to end like this?!"

Rarity pursed her lips. "You look the part right now."

Twilight felt a chill, and a tingle on her horn like the changeling blood hadn't fully washed away.

"If you didn't have the guts for this, you wouldn't have made it this far." Rarity went on. "This nightmarish affair has entranced you, hasn't it?"

"I don't have to answer that." Twilight hissed. "I'm the victim here."

"Did you enjoy killing that changeling?" Applejack asked.

"Did you enjoy how a dream tasted?" Dash nodded.

"Or even now, as you bear that nightmare alicorn's armor, you can't help but feel comfortable in the presence of the Dark." Rarity grinned. "You like it. Admit it, you like what the Dark has given you."

"It stuffs my head with feelings I can't control. Good feelings, that I wouldn't mind feeling again. All the same, it's going to kill me if I let it." Twilight grimaced. "You talk about my nightmare like its some high-minded dreamer. It's not. It wants my body and soul. Once it has me, it will turn on you and destroy you."

The ponies-turned-nightmares were given pause.

Twilight feeling more confident that the nightmares would not attack her, took a few steps forward. She looked up at them, shielding her eyes from the rain with a hoof. "You came here ready to coerce me, didn't you. Now you're having second thoughts about acting out my nightmare's urges."

"It would be unwise to underestimate it." Rarity rumbled. "You haven't seen her dream. You haven't seen the Tower. She won't be undone by our petty treachery."

"She really is something else entirely. A pony apart." Applejack said.

"Nightmares are nothing more than parasitic dreams. Like what I'm talking to, you're not really the ponies I knew. You're muddied reflections of them." Twilight narrowed her eyes. "I don't even need magic to tell how haphazardly converted. The nightmare didn't eat you. It was slapped on you like a coat of paint."

Rarity shook her head. "Don't mistake us, Twilight. We are the way we are because this is the form she had us take."

Twilight's brow knotted. That went against everything Nightmare Moon had told her about the nightmare. Nightmares ate the dreamers and used their bodies, like it was trying to do to her! The facts she had built her plans on were being stripped away. "Then when I talk, I am talking at least in part to the pony underneath. Why? You should be dead."

"You should be too. I wouldn't question it. By this point, we are both in a mess greater than we can understand." Rarity said. Twilight detected a hint of reverence in her tone.

"I reject that notion." Twilight scowled. "From the very beginning this has been a game of information. The more I tear into the secrets of the nature and mechanics of the nightmare, the closer I've gotten to finding the perfect cure. I'm close, really close. There's only one thing in the way and its you."

"How?" Applejack asked.

"You're going to try to stop me." Twilight hissed.

"Well... Our actual purpose is unclear." Rarity hesitated. "What the nightmare wants from you is something known only to you and her."

"And I've been saying that's not true! It's not sapient! It doesn't want anything, besides in an animalistic sense." Twilight said exasperated. "It's a parasite, gods damn it. Any intelligence it has comes from me! My dream!"

The three nightmares turned stone-faced. They glanced between each other.
"That means..." Dash mumbled.

"Yeah, don't act surprised. Anything you nightmares want is an extension of the pony underneath." Twilight grumbled.

"No not that." Applejack grimaced. "Your dream... Your dream is what the nightmare has been building in."

"And the Tower is your dream. Twilight Sparkle has been the one all along." Rarity licked her teeth, a distant look in her eyes. "I don't understand. The Dark is... The nightmare is..."

"You're talking nonsense." Twilight shook her head. "But as long as you're having this identity crisis, are you going to let me reach out to Nightmare Moon and put an end to this horrible night?"

The sullen nightmares had no answer.

"So you're just going to soak up this rain while I work? Fine by me." Twilight turned her back on them.

"Wait." Rainbow Dash coughed. "We will cooperate."

"Cooperate." Applejack nodded along. "Like the dark figure said."

"It's staring to make sense." Rarity agreed with her fellows. "We have to help you Twilight Sparkle. However there are some inescapable truths, and something we need from you in return."

"Once I figure it out for myself turning you three back should be no problem." Twilight consoled.

"Something more immediate." Applejack said gravely. "Because as we've been talking, something has been coming this way."

"And if there's no quick and easy solution to this, we need your help." Dash said.

"Get to the point!" Twilight barked. Negotiating with the nightmares was going to take more time than fighting them would have! They lobbed the talking stick around the room like it was a council meeting!

"As we awoke in Ponyville, in this form, there was an airship hovering over the village. We attacked it, and left." Rarity said evasively, like she was afraid of Twilight's punishment. "We had no way of knowing. She was hiding her aura."

Twilight's heart sank as she realized who they were talking about. "All you did was alert her to your presence."

"Yup." Dash sighed. "It's why you need your help. With that armor, you might just have enough power to help us survive against Princess Celestia."

"Even if I didn't feel guilty for putting you in the situation, I would stand by you." Twilight sighed, closing her eyes. The armor around her was feeling colder and colder. Fate had it out for her. Every possible impediment to salvation was hurtling her way.

How had it come to this? Twilight had naively thought she could have cured herself by the time Celestia arrived, so she could present her pretty face and play ignorant about the Dark happenings in Ponyville. With Celestia heading her way, there was no chance she wan't going to be caught red-hoofed. The punishment for her heresy would be swift and brutal.
Could she resist the princess? Could she even withstand a single disappointed look, before her heart gave out and she presented herself prostrated and crying to her highness's justice? Not that it would save any of them them from the fire. Nothing on the Bright World could stand up to an alicorn.

"Because once the princess realizes what I've done, everypony in Ponyville is dead anyway." Twilight said softly. She was equally horrible and equally tainted to the nightmares standing before her. How ironic that months battling against the nightmare would end with them struggling alongside her against her revered princess. "I hope you're able to stand up to her more than you did to me. If not get ready, ready to see powers beyond our mortal comprehension."

Chapter 27: Fiat Equo

Sel Lech wasn't sure how he was doing what he was doing. From those first days when he promised Twilight Velvet he was willing to do anything for her, to the confusing afternoons in the Old Town making plans, to now that he was a guard Captain. It was a steady slide into acts and plans any sane pony would revile.

When the city guardsponies came marching into the throne room, eager and cocksure, Sel still didn't feel it was too late to go back. But it was getting to that point, where he would no longer be able to tell himself that the worst was yet to come and thus potentially avoidable.

"How do those guns feel?" He asked. "Heavy? Powerful?"

"Pretty good." The city guardsponies murmured in agreement. "But when do we get to use them. We want to weed out those worthless louses, the Speakers."

"Soon. Every moment we're getting closer to a better Canterlot." Sel promised. "Look around the room. Lady Velvet has preformed a miraculous feat, and attracted the factions to our side."

Rain Gnash and Hauseway, the object of Sel Lech's presentation, stared silently on their side of the dais.

"We're united in common purpose." Sel continued. You have no idea how happy I am to be a part of this, and I hope you all are too."

"That's all very good and well, but we'd like some, how you say, action." The guard sergeant chuckled. "We've marched those prissy nobles all the way here from the garden. They're just outside the door, like dopey fawns. They don't even know what's comin to them." His smile hardened. "Come on captain, let us bring them in here, one at a time, and pay them back for their years of lording over us."

Shouts of agreement came from the back of the guardspony ranks.

"You don't have to worry. We aren't going to renege on you." Sel bowed his head. "Everypony is going to face justice today."
At the foot of the throne, Twilight Velvet's assembled ponies drew their swords.
Sel smiled thinly. "I'm sorry. There's no place in Canterlot for your hatred. It can only damage the collective dream."

"Captain?" The guardsponies shifted in confusion.

"This will be difficult for me." Sel drew his own sword. "I've never hurt a pony worse than calling them a bad name. I'll try not to make it last to long. I'll really try."

Now it was too late to go back.
The slaughter began.

“Spare me! I beg of you!” The guardspony was no threat: Disarmed, ribs cracked and tendons sliced. But after several seconds of exploring the helpless pony’s pleading eyes, Night Light twirled his sword around and beheaded him all the same.

“Pace yourself my lord.” Sel Lech called from where he was locked in his own duel. Sel was smaller than the guard, but seemed to be moving quickly enough to negate the force his opponent struck with.

Night Light made to help Sel, but the young captain waved him off. “Help the admiral.”

Acceding to that logic, Night Light turned away. Up towards the throne, Rain Gnash and Hausseway were tearing through the guardsponies who had run to the back of the room to try to get their arquebuses working. Gnash might have been a chunky pony, but she was still a professional swordspony from her time as an IHG knight. Her swordpoint zipped through the air, nicking off limbs and piecing into organs, Hausseway was on the back hoof though, the wound Night Light had caused him months past hurting his already poor swordsponyship.

Night Light spared a glance to his wife as he moved. She was at the end of the throne room by the door, her telekinesis choking the guard sergeant. She waved him around like a doll while she eulogized. The nobleponies of the Estates on the other side of the door could probably hear her meaningless chanting.
For her prey act like she wanted, she needed them to be in a substantial amount of fear.

If a pony looked out from the northernmost castle tower, they would have a good view of the side of the side of the central keep. At the top the angle was slightly too high to see into through the glass windows of the throne room, but if arcs of magic or dead ponies were falling off it’s sides, it would be clearly visible.

“My gods, what is happening over there?” Cadence hadn’t been able to look away from the small battle.
She had been fretting from the privacy and security of her private quarters , which encompassed the tower, ever since the Imperial Household Guard disappeared from their posts earlier in the day. Nopony had any news about Shining Armor. Then the castle staff began filtering away, terrified that they may get caught up in the political drama.
She had happened to notice the line of nobles being led from the gardens into the castle. She wasn't sure what was happening. Were the Estates being convened already? It was days too soon, and with Celestia gone...
She hadn't had time enough to draw a conclusion before ripples in the aura out of the throne room reached her. She detected pain, shock, agony, and death.

“This is mad. Completely mad.” She was hyperventilating slightly. “Where is Shining Armor? He could... Oh goodness!" She whimpered. "Why did Celestia leave us to this? What's happening?"

The door to the stairwell creaked open behind Cadence. She whipped around to confront the intruder.
Councilor Prosser leaned against the doorframe, a conflicted look in his eyes.

Cadence rushed up to him. “Councilor! Some crazy ponies are in the throne room, killing all the guards!”

“Yes... I've just come from there. Made some parting excuses, some little promises, and the like.” Prosser said.

“And there’s no royal guards anywhere!” Cadence continued. “I know it’s foalish, but I’m too afraid to leave the tower. We need to get help!”

“There’s nothing to-”

“Or maybe I could fly! Yes yes! I could fly fast and they might not catch me! I’ll go to Cloudsdale, get help there and-”

Prosser leaned forward and gave a quick kiss on Cadence's cheek. Shocked, the junior princess jumped back.

“What… Councilor?” She put a hoof to where she’d been pecked, and stared up at him.

“Princess, I'm very, very sorry for that.” Most unnervingly, the unflappably facetious Prosser was nervous. "There's no certainty that this night won't end with all of us dead."

“C- councilor...” Cadence stuttered. She glanced over her shoulder to where the battle in the throne room continued. “What are you talking about?”

Prosser hung his head. “Princess, can't an alicorn like you feel what's about to come? We are coming apart. Each one of us, splitting like a bulb to let a horrendous and depraved flower bloom." He gulped. "She's going to come after you, once she's done down there. I can't let that happen to you. The dream of Equestria can wilt but you must go on."

Cadence felt a chill rising up her spine. “H- Have her way with me? Councilor, p- please tell me what that means.”

“That thing inside Velvet. I... I hesitate to call it a dream. It's more than that. It's more like you, and I've felt it.” Prosser confessed. “I truly did believe that the natures of alicorn and pony were incompatible! I really did. But Velvet is proving to me how profoundly ignorant I really am."
He giggled, manic. "Is it a god? I don't know! The others in that room certainly have come to believe so. A diety they can touch, a replacement for Celestia even. Oh merciful ava, it's going to kill us."

Cadence watched him fall to the floor with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

The earth pony crawled along the ground, groveling. “Astral Nacre! Astral Nacre! There was a god above gods they call by that name! Oh... I don't understand Velvet... Was she an alicorn once, or stole the dream from one? Or is she some fell beast older than Equestria. Or is she... is she..." He twitched. "Most frightening of all, is she a pony who made that dream herself? Oh lament that it is even possible that ponies with that much strength could exist among us! We're doomed. How can society exist when there are those who can obliterate whole cities at a whim."
He looked up at Cadence, begging for her to understand. "You can't fight her. Celestia might have been able to, but she's left us to Velvet. We're hers now. This is a... twilight city." He crawled forward along the ground, and Cadence backed away. "I believed in the dream of Equestria! It was everything to me! What nourishment could Velvet's dream province me in comparison, twisted and evil as it it? How am I supposed to surive in a city that had bought into her madness? How? HOW?!"

Cadence had backed herself against the window, but Prosser was nearly to her now. His eyes were wide, desperate. “I’m old to you, I know. Almost twice your age. When I came to Canterlot I thought I could be the young cynic forever, but only Celestia has youth everlasting. It’s terrible to admit… but I… I...”

Prosser nearly choked as he spoke. “I like you. And I like Twilight Sparkle too. I want to help you because of the way I feel about you. That's a wretched thing I know. Celestia save me, I've fought on the side of virtue for too long not to realize that I have the soul of a sinful pony. I owed this nation for having a place for me, but it's beyond my ability to save. I tried. Please, I tried. I could only save you and Twilight Sparkle."

Struggling to back away further, Cadence caught Prosser’s shoulder with her hoof. He winced and let her go. “Twilight was next! If Velvet didn’t furfill Astral Nacre, Twilight would be the next to bear that accursed dream. A- And you! The dream necessitates your destruction, to remove the other alicorns from this world! I begged, and I gave her my life’s service in exchange for yours. Princess, Princess! Please forgive me! Please forgive my submission to evil!"

But Cadence was gone. Out through the window of the tower, and into the night sky of Canterlot. Fighting for altitude for the first minutes, she rested on a thermal and let it carry her north. She was shaking, Prosser’s words replaying in her head. She let them, for there was enough time on her journey to sort out her thoughts. Away from Canterlot she would go, and back to her home hundreds of kilometers away, a quaint village on the Crystal River.
Away from Canterlot, away from her home of so many years she flew. She wept, not only for herself, but for ponykind. She was too weak to stand up for the responsibility Celestia had placed in her. The world was going to ache for lack of love, the love of the gods.

“And let there be no mistake, this must be all or nothing.” Velvet intoned. Back and forth before Celestia’s golden throne she stalked, addressing her audience of the noble Speakers. “If one of you wavers, or one of you falters, Equestria will collapse and we will have lost our way. Doom for our nation will follow.”

Like party streamers and balloons, the fresh corpses of the city guards hung here and there: On chandeliers, draped over buttresses, nailed to the pillars with their own weapons. The Speakers seemed horrified and sickened to be made to sit under the grotesque arrangement, but a mix of fear and eagerness held them in place. They still wanted their emperor; It would be unreasonable to back out now.

It was a challenge by Velvet. She challenged them to be anything other than disgusting mockeries of ponykind, to be decent enough to challenge her and the senseless slaughter. But they said and did nothing, waiting for the call of power to reach them. Velvet knew she was vindicated then.

“This commitment I ask of you is only an extension of what I ask of myself. With Celestia gone, who else but you will look after the empire? It is your responsibility to keep the landed aristocracy in line, to uphold our traditional right, and protect the commoners. Understanding this, surely you can see why you need to take the oath before you elect a new empress.” The voice of Twilight Velvet captivated their ambitions and twisted them perfectly. "An oath to a new idea, and a new Equestria. Ponykind will determine its own fate."

“That sounds reasonable to me.” Jet Set nodded to his fellow speakers. “Besides, I looks like you have your former detractors behind this. That clears away a good deal of indecision.”

Rain Gnash, Foaly Flux, Seacrest Blackhorn, and Molar stood to each side of the throne behind Velvet. Hausseway and Fleetfootwere guarding the door.

“Once certain truths were explained to them, they were more than willing to accept this arrangement.” Velvet explained.

Jet Set pursed his lips. “Certain truths? Nothing you haven't told us I hope.”

"No, of course not." Velvet shook her head with a smile. "Everything has been made available to you, this way or that."
A last chance, for the Speakers to look around, to second-guess themselves, to realize what the horrendous and grotesque corpse decorations let on about the mare above them.

"You're a good pony, Lady Velvet." Jet Set bowed his head. "We certainly are glad to have you here."

“Then it's time, isn't it.” Velvet grinned. "However, this new era dawns with something of an ironic move. This oath I mentioned, it's in an older tongue. One with more meaning."

"Another language?" The Speakers muttered amongst themselves.

Velvet shrugged. "The language spoken in Equestria before ponies migrated here. You see, it has a grammatical nuances that cant be captured in Equestrian. For oaths, there is no better language." She motioned to Rain Gnash and Hauseway. "Sometimes we say things with veiled meanings. Sometimes we lie. That's not possible in the old tongue."

"A language without lies?" One of the Speakers by Jet Set chuckled. "Now I see what ponies say when they accuse you being ever the academic."

"Do me the honor of listening. You don't have to repeat the words, but please hold them in your head. That will be enough." Velvet turned to one of the northward-facing stained glass windows. The moon's pale light filtered through the color glass panels. "And here the irony is taken to its peak. We swear by gods both distant and powerful that we shall never accept their kind dominating us again." She lifted her hoof, swiping it through the gentle moonbeams. "Bear your heart to heaven, gentleponies."

The room was gravely silent as Velvet began to chant.
Her utterances were low, guttural, twists of the tongue that produced bizarre sounds like should not have come from a pony. To every pony in the room it evoked immages for an expanse of blue, purple, and black. On the harder consenants, flashes of light and churning movements broke the abyssal stillness.
“Eie n’ soru’y’oun soru’y’us Celestiaan. Set ker jot sor. Celest don’y’fef, eie asp reth q.”
Then it was over.

All the candles in the throne room went out. The moonlight permeated the room, settling like frost on everypony's fur.

Night Light broke the silence. His voice trembled from strain. "Velvet... There's a god come to watch us... But it's not Astral Nacre."

Velvet's somber visage cracked. She slowly turned back to the assembled nobles, a mad grin on her face. "Yes." She breathed. "Astral is patient, for now our holy sun has come to watch us put an end to her dream. Her version of fate made you what you are. A new dream, a new fate..." She curtsied. "We can't escape even in this darkest of nights. Goodbye, friends, ponies, my fellow mortals. The watchword of this twisting night is sacrifice."

The throne room filled with yellow light, not for any magical reason, but because behind Velvet the sun was rising above the horizon.

Awakeness in sleep. Twilight had felt the sensation enough to recognize it. She was in a dream. How or why she had no idea.

Her bed was one of dust, a small depression in a cratered and craggy grey landscape. The sky offered no light to the ground, but was alive with a million tiny pinpricks of stars. Dominating the horizon was a grand blue ball, the Equestrian planet.

In a shower of silver-blue magic, the lithe form of Nightmare Moon reconstituted at Twilight’s side.

“It would be a beautiful sight if I didn’t have to suffer it every day.” Moon said wistfully. “The same held true a thousand years ago, when I looked longingly up at my dear Luna, and wished that all the world could revel in her light. Honestly I’m not sure I care for her powdery highlands any more.”

“What am I doing here?” Twilight hazily asked. She experimented moving her body. Was she really there? It wasn't clear.

“Distressing and depressing me, and my hopes of escape.” Nightmare Moon said. “A battlefield is not the best place to go unconscious.”

“A battlefield…”

A Minute Earlier

“Why would you agree to fight with us if there's no hope. If that's true we should run away.” Rarity was saying. “There is no reason to stay here.”

Twilight shook her head. “I have the whole armor, which I can use to reach out to Nightmare Moon, but I have to do it from here."

“Damn you Twilight! Do you want to get us killed?” Applejack exclaimed.

“If I fight Princess Celestia, then...” Twilight let out a breath. “It's only so I can extend my life long enough to explain that the ponies of Ponyville are not culpable in this. I mean, that's all I can try to do."

Dash grunted. “Think you can take the heat off us as well?”

“You can run if you want to, and I wouldn't blame you.” Twilight said.

“She's calling us out.” Rarity ran a hoof through her flowing black mane. “Not a minute ago you were solid in your dedication to keeping yourself alive, and now you are resigned to death."

"And the difference is Princess Celestia. Maybe you don't, or can't understand what she is." Twilight shot back. Was this how she was spending her last minutes, trading potshots with a nightmare creature? "She is an alicorn. THE alicorn. You should be afraid. She's won't." She stopped mind sentence, a jolt running up her spine. The nightmare ponies may have been more attuned to the Light and Dark, but there was no mistaking the aura she detected soaring over the forest towards them. The princess the sun. "She's here."

The nightmares turned the direction she was looking. The collapsed roof exposed the roiling clouds in the sky above. They were completely exposed.

"Can't see her." Dash squinted. "Damn rain."

"She's still a kilometer off." Twilight tried to keep her breathing even. Her heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. "Eight hundred meters."

A wind blew through the ruined throne room, making ripples on the puddles of rainwater.

"Five hundred meters. There's no way she can't feel us now." Twilight gulped. "Three hundred. She's right on the other side of the chasm."

"I'm gunna piss myself." Dash squeaked.

"Hold it together." Applejack said sternly. "We haven't even seen her yet."

"She's stopped." Rarity shivered. "I can... I can feel her watching us."

“UNHOLY NIGHTMARES, THE HOUR OF YOUR RUINATION IS ATTAINED!” The rolling boom of the voice above was only matched by the groan of the forest under that audio assault.

Twilight's limbs felt weak. "I- I- I- S- Sorry." She stuttered.

"I refuse to die like this!" Rarity around and shook Twilight. "Get a grip! You can survive this night! With all your will, and the power of that armor, you can win! Believe this!"

Twilight desperate mewls dissolved into little sobs. "H- How! This awful night... How am I meant to fight it!"

"We fight against fate with every ounce of our being!" Rarity was yelling into her face. "That's what being a pony is about. That's what the Dark is about! We fight, and we strive! No matter what!"

“Urg.” Twilight cradled her head in her hooves. “My head. It hurts so much, like I'm scrambled. What happened to me?”

Nightmare Moon clicked her tongue in a pessimistic appraisal. “As of this moment nightmare has a hold of your body. Your mind, forced out of it’s home, has taken refuge in my armor. Just as I manifested in my dreams as a ghost of sorts, so you now appear in mine.”

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut until the pain behind them decided to tolerable levels. “How did this happen? I was doing so well. I fought with all my might, but still... I lost. Fate won.”

“Don't despair. It is still your body. You can take it back if the Nightmare's grasp it threatened, such as if by a certain Dark ritual, or a blow from a sister of mine.” Nightmare Moon mused.

A sweep of air was all the warning the trio of nightmare ponies had. Dash jumped away just as the white hooves of the ambusher rocketed downwards, but not far enough to avoid the shower of rock flakes that exploded out from the collision site. Nor was she quick enough to dodge Celestia’s hind leg, that was kicked out at her immediately after touchdown. Dash was sent spinning away, howling in pain.

Immediately, the sun princess’s attention was taken by the two other nightmares jabbing towards her with intent to perforate. Celestia conjured a small magical buckler, which absorbed the punches by shattering extraordinarily.

Her counterattack, a sweep of her horn which pierced the air with ethereal bolts, was generally avoided by Rarity and Applejack. A light spell by Rarity failed to distract Celestia long enough for Applejack’s buck, which landed squarely on her flank, to do more than slide her along the slick ground.

Celestia’s response, a flurry of magical arrows, overwhelmed Rarity’s novice attempt at a shield, sending her running behind a column.

“Son of a whore!” Dash was reeling from Celestia’s earlier kick, her shoulder grossly misaligned with it’s socket. But within moments, the joint dissolved and reformed anew, as perfect as the shadowy magic could make it. She picked herself off the ground and charged back in.

Dash’s reintroduction to the fight caught Celestia off guard. Forced to turn to face the flanking attack, Celestia was unable to do more than slow Applejack’s rushing headbut. Celestia tumbled, but changed the direction of her momentum with a wingbeat. Taking to the air, she circled the throne room at a hundred hooves’ distance, occasionally creating another imprecise arrow volley.

“Lady Sparkle it’s now or never! Pull yourself together and die like you mean it!” Rarity yelled from behind her cover. White bolts of magic tore out a chunk of rock above her. "TWILIGHT!"

Twilight, eyes hardly focussed, watched the princess circling around them.
She was here. Celestia was really here. Like the first sight of land after months at sea, Twilight felt overwhelming relief and sorrow at the same time. Celestia’s movement, determined and steeled face, her hooves and magic moving with deadly intent, all were seen, and understood. There would be no mercy for nightmares.

Fear. Fear of death and the cessation of being. As soon as Celestia finished with the other three, she would turn to Twilight. Perhaps saddened or disgusted, she would end Twilight life to clean the world of the latest intrusion of the nightmare. It would take little more than a single hoof, the lightest touch, and the thing that had been Twilight Sparkle would be erased.

"I'm going to die." Twilight got closer to hyperventilating with every breath. The edges of her mouth frothed. "I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die..."

Twilight, you don't have what it takes, do you. What a shame. You are wonderful specimen, truly. Given more time, you could have been the one to carry our dream forward. It could have been you who took a hold of god and tore out her secrets.

Would you like me take over? Would you like the story to go on?

It's not so big a thing.

“I don't understand. Non of it makes sense, based on the rules you established.” Twilight mourned. “The nightmare, that has taken over my body, was too much for me. I should have know I’d never win against her. She is, after all, me but more.”

“It's not out of the question our darkness will consume Celestia and Equestria.” Nightmare Moon didn’t seem very interested in alleviating Twilight’s guilt. "Congratulations. That's an amazing acomplishment.

“Celestia’s more than a match for the nightmare, even if they act in concert.” Twilight sighed. “Which means my body dies. Rarity, Applejack, and that pegasus Dash too. I've led us all to destruction.”

“If the rules are changing, then pursue to know why.” Moon said. “The nightmare wants your collusion, your collaboration even. Ask yourself why it does not destroy you. What does it gain by your survival that it does not by devouring you."

"I don't know."

"Consider that it left those three ponies intact."

"I have! You think I haven't been thinking about this?" Twilight said gruffly. "Among the million other things that were on my mind. Yeah, I considered that. It told me nothing. It's all pointless. I'm dead anyway. I'm a... an orphaned soul, here on the moon with you." Twilight rubbed her temple. "The nightmare played me like a fiddle. My fear overwhelmed me, and it took control."

"As I said, do not surrender. There is hope. That armor yet connects your body to the moon." Nightmare Moon said.

Twilight wasn't so optimistic. In fact, she just felt empty and tired. She had been galloping and teleporting around since mid afternoon, gotten into a fight, killed a changeling, all under the unrelenting rain. That was enough strain to last a pony a lifetime. it was no wonder she froze up. Her mind had no more bravado and willpower to throw forth.
She looked over the featureless grey expanse of the moon. She remembered the things Nightmare Moon told her about living there, about yearning to return to the earth. She could understand that sentiment, yet there was a beauty to the stark landscape as well. If she had to spend eternity there, it would certainly lend itself to a contemplative existance.
“I’m still a pony, aren’t I?”

“I should say so. You have retained your dream, and isn't that what makes the pony” Nightmare Moon rumbled.

“The dream makes the pony." Twilight agreed. "I... I saw the dreamer in you, Moon, the pony underneith. That first night the nightmare was driving me, I spoke to a kind, worried creature. She talked me out of my madness and helped me last until now."

“We all have moments of weakness.” Moon gazed at the blue orb of Equestria.

“I won’t pretend that sometimes I miss the grass, or the way light reflects of dew on the leaves of the trees.”

“You're kinda like those Rarity and Applejack. There is a pony painted over in nightmare tones. When I speak to you, I speak to her. And that makes me feel happy.” Twilight smiled. "Not that I don't appreciate you, oh Nightmare of the Moon, but everything I like about you is something you took from her."

“The Dark is a mysterious thing.” Moon grunted.

“It's an aspect of magic, of making a different fate than what the sun creates for us.” Twilight pressed, shifting closer to the alicorn. “There are roles laid out for us. As a nightmare, yours is to consume, to destroy, to parasitize from the dreams of ponykind. You did that to me, to that dream we shared of the throne room. But somehow you began to tolerate me, talk with me, confess even.”

“What do you want?” Nightmare Moon barked. “Do you want me to say it? Would that make you feel better, for me to say that I valued your company; That I would be saddened by your death; That when we conversed, I felt not as though we were one and one, but two? Does that give you satisfaction, Twilight Sparkle, that you’ve worn away at the skin and sinew of my breast enough to expose my heart?”

“I”m happy, Moon. But it’s because I’m happy for you.” Twilight smiled weakly. “The nightmare is the antithesis of ponykind. To destroy her, we must embrace our commonality, and our bond as ponies.”

“Please don’t continue, you’ll upset my stomach.” Nightmare Moon almost smiled back, but looked away again. “But now I see, you begin to understand. Ponykind is not a tribe or species, it is a state of being. The dream rests on a fragile bed above a well or horror. When that state of being is broken, many unpleasant things begin to see through the cracks. Two ponies form an impermeable barrier. One and one ponies are stepped around, twisted and wrapped within the seeping feelers of the malign.”

“Say friendship.” Twilight teased. “Can you say it?”

“Said the pony who refers to ‘acquaintances’ “ Nightmare shot back, and Twilight cringed in embarrassment. “You may well have more to learn than I. Save for one particular dragon, that is.”

Twilight’s ears shot up. “Do you mean… Spike! What do you know?” She asked urgently.

“Your friend is alive. As he was moved close to the altar, I felt is presanse. Strongly did he feel certain things, above them all a profound fworry for you, Twilight. You would be disappointing him to fail now.”

“That horrible thing, Chrysalis.” Twilight hissed. “Why didn't you tell me about her if you could detect what happens around the altar?”

"That sense is only a recent thing, sinse your dream disconnected from the altar. That was perhaps two hours ago?" Nightmare Moon paused, as if she was concentrating on something far away. “But before that moment, there was a surge of power like even an alicorn would fear, from somewhere on your side of the dream link. The nightmare has been playing havoc with your dream, Twilight. I fear it has been made into a tool, or weapon, or worse.

“Rarity and the other nightmare ponies kept talking about a Tower.” Twilight digested Moon’s words. Her pulse quickened. "It wouldn't have to do with the ritual, would it?"

“Possibly." Moon shrugged. "Are you familiar with the structure of your own dream?"

"I, um..." Twilight bit her lip. "No. Celestia warned me against it."

"Now why would that be." Nightmare arched a brow. "My sister knew, I bet. Nothing would have bother her more, than to see a pony with a dream with the potential to do something. Something like destroy her." She grinned sinisterly. "Oh delightful, delightful. Twilight Sparkle, could it be that this is not a deviation from the path of your life, but the ultimate purpose of your existance? A dream, a promised dream, the likes of which can only be imagined!"

Twilight was starting feel uneasy. "I don't get what you're saying."

"Because you're in denial. Ha hA! Oh Twilight, you should be overjoyed!" Nightmare laughed.

“Overjoyed that I'm going to spend the rest of my existance here with you?” Twilight replied testily. She really didn't understand what Moon was saying. She refused to understand.

"You aren't going to die, Twilight. Not really. The dream makes the pony, and your dream is in the process of being fulfilled right now. A dream to do something great." Nightmare snaked her head around Twilight so they were eye to eye. "Is this why I have grown infatuated with you? Yes, it must be. The same reason the nightmare moves you but does not destroy you. Twilight..."

Twilight's wide eyes wobbled, while her mind tried in vain to shut out the truth. What did it mean?

"Your dream is the EMBODYMENT of what it is to be Dark. The nightmare can no more destroy you than it can itself. Its all part and parcel to what has been inside you from your first breaths. Ohh..." Moon churred. "Do not be sad Twilight, this is a wonderful thing. Forget unearthing the Stars' ritual, its all there. Your dream is a tool of accession."

Twilight pulled herself away. "That's not true. You don't know what you're talking about." She said harshly, tearing up. "Why are you lying?"

Nightmare Moon stared at her in silence. "Hmmm." She dialed back her enthusiasm. "Apologies. Sometimes it is easy to forget you are still a vulnerable little pony. You clearly aren't ready for the truth."

"Whatever." Twilight closed her eyes. "You think you're grooming me towards something don't you. You have to be more honest with me if our relationship is going to work into the unforseen future."

"The power of your ability to delude yourself is impressive." Moon wrinkled her nose. "Keep an open mind, Twilight. I have a feeling it will be a skill beyond all others in the fight to keep you alive."

"And sane?" Twilight questioned.

Moon gave her a sidelong smile. "Remains to be seen."

A shiver rippled across Twilight’s fur as her nervous system was hijacked by the dark parasite within her mind. The nightmare slowly tested her motion, getting used to physical form once more. The armor of Nightmare Moon menaced as having another nightmare so close, so with a little bounce Twilight shook it all off.

“To breath, to blink, to feel the cold rain...” It moaned, twisting Twilight's voice to perverse inflection. "This is a pony."

She turned her attention to her surroundings, where the sun princess shot barrage after barrage of light at the cowering nightmares.

"Hmm..." It looked up at Celestia, silhouetted again the the dark grey skies. "So begins a marvellous fight."
With a motion of Twilight's hoof, the nightmare dispelled the latest wave of Celestia's magical arrows. “Harken to me, my progeny!" She shouted down the length of the throne room.

Applejack and Rarity peeked over their cover. They saw Twilight Sparkle, a black fog radiating off her, and grimaced. “That’s not good.” Applejack noted sourly. "Chances of returning to normal are dropping fast."

Rainbow Dash scurried from her cover to the other two. “Philosophize later!” The pegasus chirped before jumping behind the next collapsed column.

“So you are going to ignore me. Brave.” A mad smile like that of the horrific manifestations blossomed on Twilight's face face, and she languidly took a step down off the rubble of the altar. Another volley of arrows from Celestia evaporated with another hoof wave. "So fickle. You would throw yourselves behind Twilight, but not me."

“No hard feelings?" Rarity smiled prettily from behind her shelter behind a ruined wall. "Truce, until our existential threat has passed.”

"Existentially threatening for you perhaps." The nightmare of Twilight chuckled.

Celestia had been thrown off by feeling of her barrages disappearing unanticipated, but when she slowed to feel out the castle a chilling change stopped her dead. Twilight’s magic had disappeared. Not dwindled, or spilled like if she had perished, but disappeared. It was as if a great darkness had planted a drain and drawn all traces of her student from the world.

The great darkness, of the other hoof, had become very, very obvious. Consuming, treacherous, inescapable.
The urge of self-preservation screamed at her to run away. But she had sacrificed so much, everything in fact, to be there. She would see the night through. The death of the dream of Equestria had to be honored with a moment of meaning, didn't it?

Celestia settled on on of the ribs of the rotting structure and scanned the throne room below for the source of the aura.
"Ah! There's Twilight!" She squealed with joy when she saw the little unicorn standing at the front of the throne room. "She's... wait."
Right behind Twilight was a jumbled pile of armor that Celestia immediately recognized. "What is she..." Twilight looked up at her. Their eyes locked.

"Celestia!" The nightmare of Twilight lolled her tongue out. "I quiver to see you. You make me happy. You-"

The world faded. Celestia was no longer above the throne room, or even in the physical world. Her coat was dry and all exaustion was gone.

On a trackless white plain, a brightly burning star lit all the world in inescapable brightness. In the depths of the stellar lamp, Celestia felt a familiar, haunting presence. The presence that spoke not of things that were, but of things to come. It’s voice, as sharp and as smooth, and as high and as low as her own commended the princess’s attention. It was melodious, but etherial. It was not meant to be heard, but understood.

‘Celestia. You abandoned the dream.’

Celestia lifted her head to that infinate sun. It filled her with warmth to see it, but also fear. She did not want to be there.
"It took you this long to realize?!" She shouted into the featureless white sky. "The dream was dead before I awoke! Not eight-hundred, not five-hundred, not one year ago! Your dream is stillborn."

‘Many things have come to define you over your centuries, my Celestia. Pessimistic is one of them. Are you not disappointed in yourself that you can not be the leader ponykind and Equestria needs.’

“To hell with your Equestria!” Celestia hissed. “You send me premonitions, you send me messages, and I reject it all. I am, I am..." She clenched her jaw. "I dream of things beyond what you dictate for me! I'm a dreamer, a pony! I want to live!"

The sun disintegrated into powder, swirling and blowing along the plain, coalescing and gathering before Celestia. It took on the vague shape of an alicorn like her, hazy and unformed. It's voice emanated from a point inside its form.
“Such is the mistake of not fulfilling the succession, Celestia. It would hurt any mother to tell her daughter that she is a mistake, but you are. You are not meant to exist like you are."

"Damn you." Celestia averted her gaze. "You don't understand anything. You can't even grasp the concept of a mother."

"I can not." The hazy alicorn-esk figure agreed. "Is that a failing? You act as though I am lesser for not sympathising with pony ideas."

"It is." Celestia growled. "You won't ever know what compassion and love is."

"My love is why Equestria exists at all. My love sustained it for a millennium. Your negligence to translate that love has left brought the hoof of mortalkind back to its own throat, where it was when I sent you over a thousand years ago."

"Not me, the first Celestia." Celestia said through bared teeth. "You can't tell the difference between us, but I know. I'm very conscious of it. I won't let myself be succeeded. Not now, not ever. I won't do it!"

"You do realize that if you don't leave now, you are dooming the world." The thing said. "Truly, you will be hurting me and yourself far more than you know."

"Call it youthful rebellion." Celestia sneered. "I've had enough of your guidance."

"How very Dark of you." The thing noted. "So be it my daughter. Our relationship was worthwhile, while it lasted. You cry that I do not distinguish enough between your iterations. Fine. I will make Celestia the Hundredth memorable." It uttered a sound somewhere between a shreik of laughter and the peal of a resonant bell. "It is to be war between us, my daughter. You have ruined my empire, all that I care and love. The same shall be your fate.
"Do what you will. You may die, Twilight may die, the planet may die. The paths you take will lead you to exactly what you deserve."

The physical world washed back into Celestia’s vision and other senses. The infinite pure space was gone. God wanted to see her no longer.

Other divine things could not have been happier though, as the nightmare creature below her laughed and laughed.

“In the elder languages, they call you Celestiaan. I like it. It always felt like Celestia had a syllable missing.” Twilight's body said, but Celestia knew it was not her student behind those words. “You know, we thought about you every day. We genuinely missed you. It warms this heart.”

“You have no heart, foul nightmare.” Celestia forced herself to face the visage of her possessed student. Celestia had thought she had come to accept that the ponies around her would come and go, but not for Twilight, not for the innocent and brilliant Twilight. Death had no right to take that promise for the future away from her.

Her mother sun must have lathed Twilight for stealing Celestia's attentions away from Equestria. She had not said it. but the undercurrent was there. Had this fate been wrought by the jealous god, Celestia wondered? Or was that divine ire pointed at Celestia alone?
It was all so unfair, Celestia thought. She knew had robbed Twilight of any choice in the matter. Perhaps Twilight wouldn’t want to be with her, didn't want to be the one for whom Celestia sacrificed all of Equestria. It was the same notion Celestia had been considering on the airship. What if, heaven forbid, Celestia asked Twilight? But NO, what if Twilight refused? Celestia didn't know what she would do with herself if Twilight rejected her. Twilight had to accept. She had to, had to, HAD TO.
Perhaps sending her away had been Celestia’s first unconscious recognition and rejection of her tyranny regarding Twilight. Perhaps it was a trick of her unconscious, or just conscience.

None of that seemed to matter now. The arrogant sneer of that enemy nightmare now hung on Twilight’s face.

“The first time we fought a thousand years ago, when this castle was still intact, you gave a great speech about the error of my ways. The years have stunted your manners.” Twilight chuckled. Rarity and Applejack cautiously moved closer.

Celestia made sure to keep tabs on Dash loitering behind her. It would be foolish to let herself be flanked again. “This castle and this land were already long dead by the time Celestia the first fought Nightmare Moon. Nothing could have saved Everfree from the seeds of suffering and torment planted by the siege.”

“I rather like this new Everfree though. It’s very lush.” Twilight said.

“Forces of evil never relinquish chances for growth.” Celestia said. “They must be trimmed back.”

“Oh Celestia, I find it hard to believe you would trim back your favorite mortal.” Twilight flaunted herself, the inky black mist seeping from her eyes and mouth concealing her curves. “Come to me. This will be quick."

"I-" Celestia paused. She could no longer bare the sight so she closed her eyes. What could she do? Indecision gripped her. It hurt, to do so much for nothing. Twilight could not be lost to her!
"... Nay." She breathed. "The light of justice will burn you out of this world."

"Yes, yes!" Twilight said exultantly. "Bright out every everything! If I can't survive it, I don't deserve to live!"

Those mocking words made Celestia wonder if she was only playing into some larger plan, but she forced herself to ignore it. Rushing rashly as she was, she had to believe the force against her was equally dashed off.
She faced the west and braced herself. She concentrated, trying to summon up more magic than she had in years. With the full force of her mind, she pulled at her sun, fighting to lift it above the horizon. It resisted her like it never had before, trying to hold it’s place. Celestia refused to accept that, and she poured every ounce of her energy into the cosmic match of tug-of-war.
"You're mine to use to illuminate this world." She said between gasps. "Not the other way around!"

After a long tense moment a sliver of sunlight flowed along the cloudtops, seeping muted gold and orange into the black and grey castle. The sun was dawning at midnight.

"Gosh. When Twilight said we didn't understand what we were up against, I think she was right." Rainbow Dash hugged the ground harder. "If I run, what would you guys do?"

Rarity bit her lip, glancing to the eminently confident nigthtmare of Twilight, staring boldly up to the sun princess. "We shall see this through, in Darkness or brillient Light."

"You're too poetic for your own good." Applejack griped.

The higher the sun rose, the more its light filtered down through the clouds and transformed the ruined throne room from a harbor of darkness into a normal space, and the more the nightmare ponies looked out of place.
Above them in defiance of the cold rain, flame rippled and cracked across Celestia’s skin. “Yes. I agree. This will be quickly indeed.”

In the blossoming light, the mist around Twilight faded. The perverse smile shifted to a cordial one, and the blackness in her eyes seemed only illusory. Indeed she looked as pure and lucid as any day Celestia had seen her in Canterlot. "Don't you think this is an overreaction, Princess Celestia? You haven't tried a normal attack on me. Shouldn't that be the starting point?" She cocked her head. "Nice job raising the sun though. Always so stunning."

"I used mercy when last I face the nightmare. I shall have to burn you down through the roots tonight" Celestia tilted her head back to eye the sun. "Ah but it is night no longer. My Summer Sun is here, the longest day."

"You've cheated the world out of its longest night. That won't do." Twilight chided. "And is not the Summer Sun the day of change, renewal?"

"Things will change." Celestia promised gravely.

“So you think you can do it?” Twilight's body asked. “An alicorn like you should have no issue killing me. Destroy this body utterly, so that the very stars cower at your might. End the existence of Twilight. That's what this show of force is about, right?” She twisted her head to expose her neck. "Aren't you still the one who protects your ponies from the Dark?"

"You talk too much." Celestia iridescent mane shifted into spectral yellows as she gathered power for her aggress. “Forgive me, Twilight.” She whispered.

A thousand miles away on the moon, Twilight felt a twinge pulse through her nerves.
"eeshh." She grimaced. "Something is happening. I'm getting phantom pains."

"Concentrate on it." Nightmare Moon urged her, while comforting her with a wing on her shoulder. "See if you can draw out the thought. Get an insight into what the nightmare intends."

Twilight did not have much choice in the matter. Strange sensations felt like pinpricks on her dreaming body, and stranger still were the unwelcome images forcing them into her mind. Indistinct color and shapes danced meaningless dances, hinting at concepts Twilight knew, but never thought to put together. She saw fleeting images of ponies, magical patterns, and unknown symbols.

I know you're watching. Hope you enjoy.

Twilight jerked in shock. What was THAT though? The nightmare knew she was receiving its thoughts?

"S- She's sending me a message." Twilight muttered between shivers. "I- I think it's a s- spell pattern."

She saw three ponies, one of each tribe, standing facing each other. Another pony loomed over them. Strange light danced and raced around them, turning a different color as it passed by the three ponies, then joined all those colors together in the middle.
Twilight could guess what it was, the only thing it made sense to be. The ritual, the only one worth talking about.

"Moon, m- my nightmare has figured out the ritual!" She gasped.

"Of course it has." Moon sighed. "Sure is the nature of its, your, dream."

"NO, Moon, she might cast it or something!" Twilight tried to panic but was hobbled by the continuing visions. She twitched and jolted around as she tried to convince Moon to get serious. "If she uses it she's going to destroy my body!"

"There is no chance she has enough magical power. Even the twelve Stars could not cast it, and they were the each one of them more powerful than you. No offense." Moon said.

She she spoke, the lunar skyscape shimmered, signaling something fantastic.
From behind the earth, a blinding light peeked out. Happy with its entrance, the sun rocketed through the heavens, disappearing somewhere behind the moon's curvature. Up above on the Bright World, it was clear day had dawned despite the moon's presence.

"That is not good." Moon bared her teeth. "Celestia must be truly desperate if she is ordering around her mother sun like this."

"This is mad." Twilight clutched the sides of her head. "There's two celestial bodies in the sky? H- How can that be?"

Nightmare took a deep breath, turned to Twilight, and snarled like a feral beast. "How DARE you irritate me so with your whining! Have you lost your conviction to live? Insufferable little pony, I did not pull you into the moon's great dream to hear you DEFILE it with your defeatism."

Twilight, scared and surprised, blinked.

"Twilight, what use is a pony who freezes at the first sign of adversity? None! Thankfully I know you are not that pony." Nightmare stared her in eye, and though her tone was scathing her deep look betrayed an earnest concern totally at odds with the rest of the nightmare alicorn. "You stood up to me. You stood up to that changeling. You stood up to those nightmare three. What has you so concerned that you falter now?"

"Celestia." Twilight admitted. "She is trying to kill me and it, well, hurts my soul. She used to be everything I cared about. She still is in a lot of ways. Now she hates me."

"Such is the fate of the pony who gains too much power. She becomes polarizing, forcing all to either love or hate her." Moon said with a sniff. "But within them is the power to bring peace and stability to those they care about."

"Yeah whatever." Twilight pulled out of Moon's grip and threw her a dirty look. "You made your point. Give me time to figure out what the nightmare is planning with the ritual."

"Accession, obviously." Moon smiled, coyly glad to see Twilight angry at her.

But something nagged at Twilight. “From the snippets I felt, the ritual seems incomplete. It has the framework, and a beautiful one at that, but its devoid of operation or power patterns.”

“You felt the nightmare's thought clear enough to discern that?” Moon Waited for Twilight to nod. “I can only describe what little I know from the Stars. Its name, ritual, is not deception. It is involved, painstaking, spiritual even.”

"Celestia once told me faith can either be mystical or ritualistic, deeply personal or structured by rules." Twilight mused. "But this spell ritual is all rule, no substance. It's missing vital parts to it."

"Then the thought you received is incomplete, perhaps only the instruction manual so to say." Nightmare Moon speculated.

"The missing parts, the operation and power, are on a per case basis." Twilight sucked in her bottom lip. "With how much everypony harps on about dreams, it is not hard to guess what the operation pattern is informed by."

"A dream of accession, a spell of accession." Moon agreed breathlessly. Twilight was figuring it out.

'And the power..." Twilight sighed. "Tell me about how the Stars used it again.

“After my battle with Celestia in the Everfree Castle, she brought to bear against me an immensely powerful magic that banished me onto the Moon. The radiating energy from that act was enough to fuel the Star's ritual, completing their blasphemous transformations.”

“An immensely powerful magic. Hmmm. The ritual needs a power like only an alicorn can wield.” Twilight contemplated with deepening sternness. “Moon. I'm not the kind of pony who beleives in deep, obscure conspiracies, but it can't be an accident Princess Celestia has come now. She is exactly what the nightmare wanted." She frowned, thinking about the sun that had only a minute ago been shifted back into the sky above Equestria. She tried to focus in on the nightmare's thoughts again, tried to tempt out a meaning, and received only impulses of raw glee that made her head spin. Her eyes shot open. "Moon! We have to warn Celestia!"

"Impossible. We can no more reach out to my sister than a foal can walk on the ceiling." Moon dismissed.

Twilight stomped her hoof in the grey dust in frustration. "But its a trap, again! Her power is going to be used for the ritual!"

Velvet and her supporters closed in around the crowd of Speakers.

At first, everypony only felt it. It was like a high-pitched whine, inaudible, that made their ears tingle. Moment to moment, it pitched down into a gutteral churn, like straining gears or a pained leviathan, until with a harsh snap, it ended. Then, a jolt. Something was happening. All eyes were drawn to the south.

Celestia, they mouthed in unison.

In witness by everypony in Equestria, a shaft of gilded sunlight bisected the sky, connecting a forested land to the sun for a brief instant. The afterimage lingered, rejecting all doubters that what was seen was anything but a divine act. It was a few seconds before the fiery ray dissipated enterally. In those moments, the throne room was lit up like the inside of a kildescope, with the stained glass refracting the blinding light in marvelous hues and patterns.

“Brilliant isn't it. That's the power of an alicorn. To compete, mortalkind must force ourselves ever high. Willing gods or no, we will create a pony to match the power of the divine.” Velvet purred, rejoicing in the Speaker's terror. "Let's not let this parting go overlong. Goodbye." She motioned to the ponies by her side. "Kill them."

It was like a needle, so infinitely brief, bright, and tall, bringing the light of the sun down to the the chosen ponies of the earth. By the time the three nightmare ponies raised their hooves to shielded their eyes, it had already passed. After all, more than the briefest of moments and the sun's power would have set the air and earth alight.

From her perch on the ruins roof, Celestia let released a strained breath. As soon as she released her concentration the sun jerked out of her control. Still, the task she had needed it for was over. The touch of the sun lance was enough to evaporate the toughest beasts. Twilight's body was surely destroyed.

But what shoudl have happened was not what Celestia saw.

Wretched black miasma ripped through the air with uncontrolled madness. At the center of it, the body of Twilight hung unscathed by the lance of solar energy. A new darkness issued forth from her mouth, and wretched evil seeped from her eyes.

"OH SHI-" Applejack tried to jump away but a tendril of the obscene magic grabbed her hindhoof and yanked her into the air. So too with Rarity and Rainbow Dash, and the three of them were moved in a circle around Twilight.

The magic weaved through the psyche of those three creatures, three tribes, drawing them together like fish into a net. Dreams splashed across their consciousness, forcing them to see, to understand and interpret by the pony magic still resting within their heart. Dreams of bones pulling themselves free of their flesh, rebelling from life and declaring themselves to grim death, never-ending existence, subsisting off the blood of others. Dreams of a new power, rising from the ossein of the innocent and hopeful, staining her world in lightless obsidian death.

Celestia fought to stay upright as waves of Dark energy slapped into her. Twilight’s nightmare hadn’t just survived her attack, it had absorbed it. The profane ritual whipped up the wind, blowing the rain back up at her. Why did the spell feel like Twilight's magic? Celestia could not tear her eyes away from the roiling core of it, where her poor student was being ripped apart and reshaped over and over.
"This magic is... "

She recognized it somehow. The racial memory of Celestia I, the banisher of Nightmare Moon, told her that this was the Stars' ritual. Apotheosis. Accession. Becoming more. That was its purpose.

She bared her teeth, holding back a sob. She had to force herself to be dispassionate: There would be no clean euthanasia for Twilight Sparkle. Hit by hit, Celestia would have to tear her apart to put the nightmare down.
But such power! Celestia could not fear for Twilight's fate any soul, because she would soon be fighting for her own life. "Once more I face the nightmare, become as a god."

Chapter 28: Meet the New Gods, Same as the Old Gods

The howl of wind and groan of wood was getting louder by the minute. What a storm, Sharphoof Lightdowser thought, the likes of which heaven would only ever send as a challenge for a pony seeking their destiny.

“My lord, if we get any closer to that storm we’ll be torn apart.” His airship captain said nervously.

Lightdowser paced around the deck, eyeing everything the crew was doing and forcing the much shorter captain to scurry to keep up with him. He didn't know the first thing about airships but he hoped his presence would inspire the airsailors to do their best. “Did Celestia’s captain tell her the same thing I wonder?”

“Celestia’s ship is far sturdier than this one, my lord.” The captain admitted. "And she probably had pegasi to steady the storm.

Lightdowser scowled at the black clouds ahead. "I come all this way to be denied at the last stretch. Isn't this so familiar."

"My lord..." The captain tugged at his collar nervously. "The storm will pass."

"But in how long? Will the chance have slipped away?" Lightdowser asked nopony in particular. "I left Canterlot for this. What the empress is chasing is worthy of my desire as well."

The captain sighed. "Should I take us in then?" He asked in trepidation.

Lightdowser eyed him, as if judging him craven.

"I- Is that a yes my lord?" The captain coughed. Why were the best paying nobles always the strangest?

"Haruph." Lightdowser turned away. "Hold us to a safe distance."

"Yes my lord." The captain breathed a sigh of relief.

Sweeping away from the side, Lightdowser made for his cabin at the rear of the ship. He looked up at the sun, arisen in midnight, and thought about how it must feel to hold that kind of power under his hoof. Did it feel any different from acting a levitation spell, or was it more like ordering a loyal retainer into an impossible battle?

He slipped inside the cabin, where one of his knights was waiting for him. "The way is blocked then."
Mis Lead Lock, his senior seneschal, was a deep grey unicorn with a silvery mane. Her narrow blue eyes gave her the look of being constantly peering at something far away. Age had begun to introduce more streaks of grey to her mane and tale, which she usually hid behind the visor of her helmet. Indeed she was a pony used to conflict, but she had traded that to be her lord's glorified secretary.

"Our princess eludes us." Lightdowser's voice remained even as he trotted to the desk shoved into the corner of the tight space. He pulled a bottle from a drawer and took a small sip. "Hmm, I do like this Canter honey ale you bought in the capital. Quality lubricant for more defeats to come, shoved one after another down my throat."

"You punish yourself too much Sharphoof." Lead Lock shifted on her hooves. "This nation will not be improved by resigning yourself to defeat."

"Yes I know." Lightdowser bit. "I get capricious when faced with hard walls like this."

"Then why do you try anything?" Lead Lock chuckled.

"Why indeed." Lightdowser put the ale back in his desk. "You have something to tell me, or where you loitering in my cabin for the villainous fun of it?"

"Ahem, yes. Illustrious Valor has been acting strangely." Lead Lock reported.

The black earth pony had been immediately thrown in the airship's small brig once they had cast off from Canterlot. Lightdowser did not want Velvet's agent walking freely, even if she had been the one to suggest going after Celestia.

"A cry for attention." Lightdowser rolled his eyes.

"More interesting that that."

“I will hold you to that claim. I suppose since we’re not going anywhere anyway, I might as well see her.” Sharphoof grumbled, following her down into the the hold. The airship creaked around them. At the front of the musty and dark space, where the creaks of the ship were amplified tenfold, was a cell. The black earth pony mare was pouting.

“This dress was brand new. Now look at it!” She held up a torn and tattered lace skirt. "Who's going to pay for a new dress."

“You weren't wearing a dress when you came onboard." Lightdowser said.

"Zero sum dress." Lead Lock grunted.

Rolling his eyes, Sharphoof trotted to the front bars of the cell. “I still can offer apologies on the dress, but you understand I was pressed for time when we left Canterlot.”

“And now we aren't moving. Something to do with the wiping wind I hear through the hull, a storm maybe?” Valor smirked. “Kinda a case of hurry up and wait, hmm?”

"This inactivity is the price of haste. Better to be here for an hour than arriving an hour from now." Sharphoof sat down facing her. They two stared at each other sizing, judging the opponent's pose and expression. "So Mis Valor-"

"Call me Iillor, please."

"Very well, Iillor then." Lightdowser let a slim smile display his amusement. "Let us not cloud this discussion with deceit. To begin with I must know if this was all a ploy to draw me away from Canterlot?"

"Nah. I just wanted somepony to take me south." Iillor said. "No real reason for getting you to take me, other than you were open to being convinced."

"Impertinent commoner! My lord, let me throw her off the ship." Lead Lock growled.

"I'm in this cell to humor you mis." Iilor said cooly.

"Patience Lock, there's more talking yet to do." Lightdowser glanced back at his knight.

"Then I'm killing her. She's a spy anyway." Lead Lock continuing to stare at Iillor, like a rabid cougar. "You know I won't stand uppity commoners my lord."

"Geeze. Is killing anypony who bothers you something you mountain unicorns do often?" Iillor arched a brow.

"I'm from Vanhoover. In those wild forests, the commoners treat their protectors with respect. If they don't it is at their own peril." Lead Lock said proudly. "Once we're on firm ground I'll show you what I mean, mudpony."

"Something to look forward to." Iillor leaned back on the cell's dirty cot, a silly smile spreading over her face. "And you, lord duke? Duel a lot?"

"I've not the time nor the willingness. Such things are best left to whose who live by the sword." Lightdowser settled into a more comfortable position. "I win most of my battles by being one of the most important dukes in Equestria. With that kind of station, all to few stand against me."

"I don't like winning. It sets a bad precedent. I'm fantastically happy half-assing my way through this world." Iillor yawned. "Really, nothing gets me off like failing."

"The mark of a pony who is afraid to judge herself against others." Lightdowser narrowed his gaze. "Do you make no account of yourself?"

"I have no deep ties to this world. I have the liberty of picking and choosing who I am responsible to." Iiilor said. "I have no place in your system or lords, ladies, and serfs."

Lightdowser digested this. "Society rejected you, and you reject it."

"I am fundamentally outside society's ability to understand." Iillor countered.

Lightdowser rose to his hooves. "May I come in?"

"In the cell? Well sure." Iillor smirked. "I'm already on the cot, after all."

Lightdowser's frown deepened. "Lock, your sword please."

Lead Lock grinned as she held out her modest arming sword, which Lord Lightdowser took in his magic. He unlocked and stepped into the cell, to stand over the reposed earth pony. "Do you think the world will celebrate your conviction to your arrogance?"

Iillor scoffed. "You're kidding right? Are you trying to draw me into a philosophical argument?"

"Forgive me. In my mind, I must be substituting you for Lady Velvet." Lightdowser grunted.
He whipped down the sword, cutting straight through Iillor's torso and the cot underneath to embed in the wood of the hull.

Iillor looked down at the enormous gash in her side. Her organs and tissues reconnected themselves and her black hide knitted back together, much to Lead Lock's shock and Lightdowser's stern amusement. "That hurt you know." She sounded offended.

"So it is true." Lightdowser yanked the arming sword out and tossed it behind him. "And earth pony who can do magic like never seen."

"Technically correct." Iillor shrugged.

"Fascinating." Lightdowser knelt by the earth pony and rubbed his hoof over the rehealed flesh. "What a find you are. However did Lady Velvet get so lucky?"

"Dunno."

"What is more, how did she keep you?" Lightdowser straitened up. "Lady Velvet attracted quite the odd ensemble of ponies to her. In common, they shared only an abstract desire to improve the world. How did you fit in among such a cast?"

"Because I liked her." Iillor shrugged.

Lightdowser snorted in mild amusement. "More simple than I expected, and more forthright."

"I'm not complicated. If you're looking for a broad with depth, you should have ignored me and stayed in Canterlot. Lady Velvet would have shown you sights like you couldn't even understand."

"As tempting as that sounds, Celestia's goals appeal to me more." Lightdowser shook his head.

"For what, the sake of their simplicity? Boy, you have no idea what you're messing with." Iillor chuckled. "And no, before you ask, I don't know for sure either. Again, if you wanted that deeper understanding you're craving you should have stuck with Lady Velvet."

Lightdowser stepped out of the cell, but he did not close it behind him. His brow was subtly knitted betraying his deep thought. he focussed on Iillor, but she was not the object of his thoughts. "Clearly..." He said after a while. "I am to be constrained by ignorance. So be it. I do not need more information to act on my dream. However I would wish that my son not be so constrained."

"Say that again more strait forward." Iillor arched a brow.

The duke hesitated before he spoke. “I need a tutor for my son, Risky.”

“Uhhh, is it still me you[re talking to? The last time I saw the inside of a classroom it was because I killed the mayor. Don't ask how those two things are connected.” Iillor rolled into a sitting position.

"I would not ask you to cover any math or rhetoric clearly. I ask you to share your understanding of magic with him." Sharphoof said.

“I got that. But it's pretty obvious I'm not teacher material.” Iilor clarified. "As you can see, I'm kinda a jackass."

“My distaste at your character is slightly overcome by my optimism. And… possibly by my curiosity as well.” Sharphoof admitted. "Show me more."

"You mean like this?" Iillor dissolved into black mist and reappeared on the other side of the bars of the cell. "Or like this?" A gleaming horn of black ivory coalesced on her head. "Or something as simple as this?" Lead Lock's fallen arming sword hovered up to her cushioned by a cloud of darkness.

"My lord, I get the feeling we're being played for a fool by a Pan or an Eris." Lead Lock muttered.

"I'm not a god by any stretch. Heck I'm not even an elder sibling. I just..." Iillor shimmied her shoulders as she sought the right words. "Uh... Yeah I don't like this kind of self reflection. Can we get back to talking about teaching and stuff?"

"Mis, I would be content maintaining a separation between us." Sharphoof said. "Indeed I would hardly care if you continued pursuing Lady Velvet's goals so long as they do not harm us."

"Are you offering any pay?"

"Taking you south should be pay enough." Lead Lock said forcefully, trying to reassert herself in the fact of Iillor's strangeness.

"Nah, I told you to leave, and that saved your lives. That makes us even right now." Iillor argued. "I'm not going to ask for much, just some leeway when it comes to what we find with Celestia. It'll all depend."

"I loath making open ended promises." Lord Lightdowser frowned. "You must be reasonable with your demands, Mis Iillor."

"Yeah yeah! I'm feeling this. I'm going to be a teacher!" Iillor giggled. "Hey if you do me a little favor I'll start right bucking now. Tell me I'm pretty."

"Sharphoof!" Lead Lock exclaimed aghast.

"Calm down Lock. I’m long since divorced, and it does no harm.” Lightdowser turned away and trotted for the stairs back up to the main deck. “You are actually very pretty, for an earth pony.” With that he climbed out of the hold.

Iillor was grinning like a guilty filly. Lead Lock was not nearly so amused. "And again I clean up the messes my lord makes." She glared angrily.

"Don't be jealous. Thirty is a bit on the old side for me. Divorcee with a kid, nah." Iillor kept her goofy smile. "He is cute though. Did you ever meet Shining Armor while you were in Canterlot? That's more my type."

"Debased mare, I'm not going to gossip with you." Lead Lock's nose twitched in displeasure. "You're capable of understanding yes?"

"Yeah." Iillor sighed, slightly disappointed that was all the rise she was going to get out of the knight.

"Then right this way m'lady." Lead Lock started on the way to the middecks.

Iillor followed close behind. "Call me Iillor, not m'lady. I renounced all ties with the monarchy quite a long time ago."

"What kinds of ties were those?" Lead Lock asked, vacantly curious.

"The more revealing answer would be 'what kind of monarchy' " Iillor joked. "It wasn't one anypony should bother to know about."

"Sure." Lead Lock grunted.

They arrived at one of the larger middeck cabins. The airship's rocking had diminished and the wind was somewhat quieter, as it had backed off the storm.

"So, right in here?" Iillor asked.

"If you harm Master Risky, it doesn't matter what you are, I'm still killing you." Lead Lock bared her teeth. "You got that?"

"See if I don't beat you to it." Iillor winked, then ducked into the little room.

Risky Sharphoof was reading a sizeable book at the single seat table by the room’s round window. He glanced up only long enough to see who his visitor was. "Hello." His voice was a higher pitched version of his father's. "Are you my tutor?"

"Woah, Velvet said you were small for your age, but you're like tiny." Iilor appraised.

Risky just stared at her.

"Eeeh, bit of a sore spot? Sorry." Iillor giggled nervously. She didn't want to hurt the colt's feelings. "To answer your question, yes, I'm supposed to be your tutor. Never thought I'd be saying that this morning."

Carefull, slowly, Risky closed his book. "You're a friend of Lady Velvet too? I met her when my father met with her in Canterlot. She's the pony who invited him."

"Yup. Me and Velvet were working together."

"With magic? What were you working on?"

"Aren't you the nosey one?" Iillor teased. Risky looked mortified. "I was joking." She quickly said.

Risky slowly unwound from his anxious seize. "Oh. Mis Lock tells me jokes sometimes. My daddy doesn't usually like foreigners, but he likes her."

"Foreigner? I can't place her accent."

Confusion flashed across Risky's face. "Huh? Oh... She's from Talltail. Sorry. A lot of ponies at the castle call anypony not from the mountain foreigners."

"Ah yeah. She did mention something like that." Iillor nodded. "You must not get many visitors to the mountains then."

"Nuh uh. My daddy owns Evening Keep. The commoner ponies call in Evenin Kee. Commoner ponies have lots of funny names for things. It's way high up, but not like Canterlot. It's in a crag surrounded by mountains. Noponies visit, or leave."

"Sounds lonely."

"Yes. It is." Risky had a very distant look in his eye. "I don't think anypony likes it there. Mis Lock wasn't born in the mountains but even though she lived with us for years, she can't be at home there. The commoner ponies don't really like it, mostly because of my daddy is really mean sometimes. I'm... I don't like it either. My daddy is the only pony who isn't lonely. I think he talks to the mountains, and they're his friends."

"Huh." Iillor grunted. "He talks to the mountains? And to think I wrote the guy off as just another sociopath politician."

If Risky cared that his father was being spoken ill of, he buried it under his sullen frown. "Um, what is your name Mis?"

"Illustrious Valor, but my friends call me Iillor."

"Wow. If I had a name like Illustrious Valor, I'd say it all the time. Much better name than 'Risky' ."

Iillor shrugged. "Don't knock yourself, Risky's nice. But yeah, 'Illustrious Valor does have a grandness, an epicness, that makes it cool. But it fit my father better than me. I guess you could be happy you're not Sharphoof Junior."

A wry smile threatened to show on Risky's face. "My daddy is fine. I think you're projecting."

Iillor was taken aback for several seconds, before shifting to a lighthearted scowl. "That's cheeky, sir. I'm surprised a little colt like you can throw around words like projecting."

"It may not be my super special talent, but Mis Lock says I have a gift for understanding ponies. I'm… usually not good with ponies though, like talking with them, or doing anything." Risky nibbled his lip. "I make my tutors upset at me. My daddy probably didn't tell you that."

"Hey, it's pretty hard to upset me."

"Then you'll show me?" Risky said, hesitation covering a barely contained excitement.

"Show you what?" Iillor teased.

"The magic. That's what you're going to teach me, right?" Risky said. "Daddy's really worried I'll never learn any magic. That's why I've had lots of teachers, and why they all get mad at me. But you're like me!"

"An earth pony, you mean." Iillor's smile flattened. "You say that like its bad."

Risky pouted. "I mean... It is when I wanna do magic."

Iillor plopped down on Risky's tiny bed as she explained. "I don't do unicorn magic. That takes concentration, talent, and spells. I don't have the attention span for any of that, and kinda missing other things too." She pointed to her head, and lack of horn. "What I do need nothing like that stuff. A simpleton could do it. I just takes understanding."

"Understanding of what?"

Iillor voice was low, conspiratorial. "An understanding that should come quite easily for you. It's everything that separates you from ponykind, and it’s power is the crack between. Just know what makes you imperfect, and embrace it. Know your failings, and use them to twist the failings in the world around you."

And at the heart of ponykind's dreams, the weight of their sin was indeed crushing down on them, harder and harder, until legs failed and spines shattered. And those who resigned themselves to the death of the dream reveled in the suffering, for the death of the old was not only expected, but necessary for their new paradigm.
Death. Death. Sel Lech's hooves were stained with blood, and though it burned he pushed himself to bathe in it more. It was what he expected from himself. He slowly slid his sword back in its sheath, waiting for the throbbing behind his temple to subside, and looked around.

The floor of Celestia’s throne room was so appallingly covered with blood that it was the dry areas that stood out starkly. The bodies of the noble speakers were piled against the walls high enough that one of the glass windows had cracked from their weight. Not even in the most horrendous of nightmare could the remaining ponies have imagined a slaughter like they had just committed.

Twilight Velvet strode around, using her magic to create dry patches or cover them up. Gradually, a pattern was emerging, a bizarre and twisting ring of lines that hurt to look at.
"Yes. Very nice." She nodded. "Evocative, isn't it Seacrest?"

Seacrest sat slumped on the first step up to the throne dais, his eyes vacant. "Lady Velvet... How does it work?" He murmured to the ground. "How can you expect peace, when you've sent so many souls away with this as their last sight?"

"When the cost of peace is too great, there is war. When the cost of war is too great, there is peace. When to cost is too much, one can chose at whim." Velvet put the finishing touches on her arcane etching, and with a grin of grim satisfaction, turned to face the throne. How perfect it all looked: A court of the mutilated, overseen by the throne forsaken by its empress. There could not have been a more fitting artwork to commemorate ponykind's re-nascence, a bloody liberation from the tranquil but oppressive womb of alicorn domination. They would be fetal no longer.
"Tell me honestly, do you think any of these ponies deserved to exist in the new world?" She asked the room. "They were thieves. I did not, could not, respect their existance. They did not strive for the sake of a dream, but instead for a depraved and animalistic sense of power over their fellow pony. They were like... covetous infants. You can not reason with them, for their minds are just too undeveloped to understand you in any meaning full way." Her grim smile stiffened. "We refuse to let their ideology poison the new world. They have been strangled in the cradle."

The room had no answer for her. Not a peep. The mutinous sun shone murkily through the now blood-spattered glass, reminding them that there was still a world out there. Maybe that world did not reflect Twilight Velvet's retelling of it. Maybe it did. None of them had the courage to check for themselves.
Not Sel Lech, Foaly Flux, Molar, Hauseway, Rain Gnash, Fleetfoot, or Seacrest.
For Night Light, standing by Velvet's side, his was a bravery not to check. For perhaps everything they'd done was for nothing, should the cosmos not turn like they required.

"What ruthlessness." Rain Gnash could barely control her throat. "How could god let us do this? Isn't she watching, guiding us?"

"Said the mare who ordered the Wonderbolts to attack striking factory workers. Did god guide you to that decision? Does our covenant with her necessitate union-busting. Oh Gnash, you should know better than anypony here that what we're doing is just and necessary." Velvet strode towards the throne, taking careful steps over the pattern she had made in the blood. "Here at the end of her suzerainty over Equestria, it becomes less about whether god will let us, and more if she will anything to stop us. Presently, signs point towards no."

"But Velvet..." Hauseway was trembling. "We've tolerated this because we made ourselves trust that your dream was one worth realizing. H- How can we sustain that? How!" He cradled his head, smearing blood across it. "This is a nightmare. These ponies... I knew them. They were my friends! What have I done..."

Velvet slowly climbed the stairs up to the throne. With her magic she grabbed Seacrest by the collar and dragged him with with her. She set the limp stallion on the throne. "Did you not feel these reservations when we were disemboweling the city guard? You're weak, captain."

Night Light was a few steps behind her. In his magic he carried the black lacquered Blackhorn Armor, it's straps loosened and dangling like a mishapen jellyfish ready to wrap itself around its prey.
Night Light gripped Seacrest head as she forced the armor onto the prince's body. "The ancient lords of Canterlot used to wear this armor, even before they had the name of Blackhorn. They called it the Black Lord, not only for its color but for its soul."

"It does not matter that you don't share that Blackhorn blood. The armor will allow you to play prince all the same. Just as you always wanted." Velvet snugged the straps, making them tight. "Can you feel its heartbeat, hear its whisper? No... The Black Lord died long ago, and this is its hollowed carapace alone. But even the shell of what it was, it can do amazing things."

"What is this theater?" Fleetfoot muttered, watching the affair. She glanced over to Foaly Flux, the late arrival, who had brought the armor with him. "Admiral, what's going on?"

"Velvet's put somepony on the throne, and I highly doubt its Seacrest." Gnash said. She looked into the empty eyes of shocked faces on the bodies with intact heads. "Is this the price of usurpation? Could none of this have been accomplished without the sacrifice of these ponies?"

"The sacrifice is ours too. We've stained our souls black." Fleetfoot said. "I'm starting to wish I fled with Spitfire."

"And I'm starting to wish I fled with Lightdowser." Gnash mumbled. "But at the same time, maybe we belong it this pit of psychopaths."

At the other side of the room, Molar was carrying the last few bodies and shoving them on the pile. His robe was soaked to the knee withe blood on the floor, and more on his back from the hauling.

Foaly Flux watched silently. He didn't really care about the operatics at the head of the room. "What a final act, huh?"

Molar shrugged the last body onto the pile, then turned to face Foaly. He was inexpressive besides a small frown.

"Any of these sods could have been me, them I. Doesn't it make one wonder why some of us are alive and some of us aren't?" Foaly asked. "Some ponies go out early for their obvious dumbass-ery, arrogance, or hubris. I'll shed a single lonely tear for that lot. Can't count the number of times I tried to join their ranks."

Molar continued to stare in silence.

"I'm too old to act like a young fool anymore. I'm left alive. Alive and wondering. How did death pass me by, when it swung so low to collect everypony around me?" Foaly's voice dropped to a chocked whisper. "My parents, brothers, and sisters. Only a few days ago, my nephews too. Now..." He gestured around the room. "Was joining this inexorable force called death the only way to lift the pain in my chest? Why isn't it working yet? Why do I still feel so empty?"
He shook his head. "Do you think I'm depressed?"

Molar shrugged.

"I have no sense of fulfillment. I've done some goofy things back in the day. But how acidly I hate myself when I think back on them and laugh. I have nopony to laugh with. They're gone. All gone. Meanwhile my blood stays bound up in this body, yearning to get spattered against some dirty cobblestone, to no avail."
He looked back to Rain Gnash. "Is it fitting that its come back to blood now? Blood of the wellborn nobles, an inch thick underhoof. The blood of the princess, running too thin in our hearts. And ours... Our strange blood..." He looked at his own hoof, like he was examining the vessels and coursing blood under the skin. "How did you feel when you learned? I felt weird in my own skin, more than usual. I don't even have a shape or name to attach to the space thing that met my maw of how many generations back. Just an idea... The idea of the other." He looked up to Molar again. "You came to Canterlot to look for change. Got it in spade didn't you. How does it feel to be so unponylike? Does it match our unponylike blood?"

Molar had no answer.

"Ooch, I don't suppose it matter much. The blood is going to get out soon." Foaly licked his lips. "And the other will too. Here's hoping, my mute friend, there's a smidge of overlap between us going and her coming, so for a blink we can see a sight of god. Maybe it will make hell the more comfortable."

Did they detect that their time was running out? The words came fast and passionate; Last, desperate exclamations into the strange midnight, an affirmation of existance.
“If this all falls apart... I can at least be satisfied I got rid of these pissant speakers.” Hausseway muttered to himself. He spit at the ground. “No, they weren’t my friends. No... Buck them. I’m glad they’re dead. The Estates stuck their noses into everything, interrupting royal guard business all the time.”

Sel Lech continued to wipe along his sword with a cloth. Though the blade itself had been returned to a pristine shine, the stain he tried to wipe away was of a psychological nature.
“I never had the pleasure of their interference. Then again I’ve only had the captaincy for half a month.” Sel said, mind distant. “But like Lady Velvet was saying, are they who you are really angry at?”

“Don’t presume to know me, Sabonord.” Hauseway stuck his nose up. “You’re time in Lady Velvet’s circle is not going to stack well against my experience and acumen. If you want to keep your place in the future administration, I suggest you be more humble.”

“As you say sir.” Sel said noncommittally.

“Didn’t you grow up jumping from court to court, begging for scraps to survive on?” Hausseway arched a brow.

“Something like that.” Sel said. In the eyes of a high and mighty noble a well-to-do courtier might as well be a starving dog, even a courtier with a noble ancestry.

“Didn’t you hate them, resent them for being so much better off than you?” Hausseway grinned. “Did cutting these presumptuous lords make you happy?”

“I don’t hate anyone.” Sel said, flipping his sword over to inspect the other side. “I’d get jealous, sure, but at the end of each day I saw that despite the castles and money, they were a pony just like me with their own troubles and concerns. Now they have no concerns. I never had to deal with ponies wanting me dead before I met Lady Velvet.”

“Don’t be grim.” Hausseway chuckled in an uneven, uncertain way, like it was what he thought was expected of him. “With Lady Velvet we’re going to get everything we want and need. No more barganing. I should be happy, ha ha... Happy, yes.”

Sel flipped his sword over again. His face in the reflection was splattered with blood and guts, his mane and fur dirty with flakes of bone and tissue. He made an experimental effort to wipe it away, and just spread it further. What god could sanction this? With his worship, would the night grow darker or brighter?
“Happiness and hope will keep you alive, Captain.” He muttered under his breath. He wasn’t sure if he spoke of Hausseway, or himself.

“I’m starting to collect the pieces of the story.” Rain Gnash was whispering, her eyes following Velvet’s motions as she made the Blackhorn armor snug over Seacrest’s body. “Fleetfoot, the math behind all this is starting to make sense.”

“Not to me.” Fleetfoot whimpered. “If you’ve figured out why we did this, are you going to let me know?”

“I wouldn’t because its too uncomfortable, you think?” Gnash turned her sharp eyes back to her Wonderbolt. “I... I might not. Absolute fact and truth has brought us here. But I can’t believe Equestria has all been a lie to this point. If everything is a lie, how do we communicate meaningfully? The only way to advance would be to erase any medium that can support lies. And that means... It’s as Lady Velvet says: We can’t let more than one dream guide ponykind.”

“Then this project is to make the dream real?” Fleetfoot frowned.

“To manifest it. To elevate it. To... bring it into the real world of ponykind.” Gnash worked out the logical thread in her mind. “Fleetfoot this does not bode well. I’m begining to worry less about Cloudsdale’s representation, and more its survival.”

And the late arrivals. The doors of the throne room creaked open.
“HelloOOoo?! Anypony here? Canterlot's streets are as quiet as the grave and abandoned as my love life. And the castle too? Where is everypony?” Blueblood rounded the corner and stalked agitatedly into the throne room, Aurthora Airy a step behind. As their faces twisted into revulsion manifest, it was clear they were not expecting the veritable dadaist gorehouse the the hall had become.
“Oh lord and ladies above...” Blueblood gasped for air. “Y- you’ve killed the Speakers! You killed them all!”

“Not quite. Duke Flux is still with us.” Velvet made the last adjustments to Seacrest’s armor, then turned towards the room at large. “A shame you were missing, but all in all you didn’t mess too much Blueblood, Aurthora. Actually I should say you’re timing was great.”

Blueblood’s trembling gaze flicked from Velvet to Flux. The duke shrugged. “But my lady...” Blueblood took a reluctant step forward. “These were my friends, my allies! Why, Aurthra and I are now the only ponies of the Black Horn Council left!”

“You didn’t have us out on the goose chase so you could dispose of them without us interfering, did you?” Aurthra asked bluntly. The large mare was holding herself together better than Blueblood but was clearly also severely shaken. “My lady, this feels like a severe betrayal of our trust.”

Velvet nodded. “I understand. Have you anything else to say?”

Blueblood shivered. “This is very upsetting Lady Velvet. I... I lodge my strong objections to this act.”

“Noted.” Velvet looked around the room. “Is that all?”

Blueblood and Aurthra looked at each other, then back up to the throne. “Um, yes, my lady.” Blueblood whimpered. “We will take our places now.” They shuffled to the side of the room and waited awkwardly for further orders.

“With that, we’re all here.” Night Light said, looking to Velvet. “Any reason to delay?”

“Just a one.” Velvet said. “The ingredients are gathered. We can start the show once we pull in the full audience.”
With a flourish she whipped her dress off, revealing the dagger strapped around her barrel. Sel Lech and Molar recognized it, but to the others it was a shocking and odd sight: A serrated and cruel blade, designed to maximum inflict pain.

“That dagger has teeth!” Rain Gnash squinted. “The reports said the city guard captain Barley Bale died to a toothed knife.”

“This blade was made for killing ponies. It drew sustenance from their souls and passed it along to its owner. It’s a cruel thing, with a cruel creator.” Velvet nodded to Night Light, who drew the dagger out with a hoof and passed it to hers.
“The gods are here, the nobles are here, so who are we missing?” She tapped her hoof in a show of deep thought. “Ah hah, big sister is missing! How can we forget our good old elder siblings.”

“Elder siblings...” Hauseway looked out of it. His eyes kept darting to the dagger, like he was wondering if it really was the one that had killed Barley Bale. It was far to late to stop Plenty Song getting framed, but his pensive look betrayed that he was debating if getting a hold of that horrible blade could undue some of the fallout from that episode. “Elder siblings?” Finally he looked Velvet in the eye. “You’re an only child Lady Velvet.”

“I mean montalkind’s elder siblings. Abusive and callous family, they are. They forgot their roots and sulk in this worlds deepest recesses.” Velvet’s brow creased. “They need to straighten up, even if that means dragging them upright and slapping them a few times.” She twirled the dagger around with her hoof. “Would you like to do the honors, Captain Hauseway?”

“I what?” Hauseway blanched. He blinked rapidly, wondering if Velvet was reading his thoughts.

“Calm, captain. I was just asking a question.” Velvet placated. “We won’t have to endure this much longer. This is literally the second to last step, an embellishment. It’s not necessary, but it would make me feel better.”

“I- If you say so my lady.” Hauseway mumbled, climbing the first few steps up to her. “This would not be so, umm, unpleasant if we knew the way ahead.”

“I understand how you feel.” Velvet nodded. “It’s alright. Captain, for a thousand years ponykind has been blind. Because of the intolerable blindness of the sun hanging over us, we could not see the deep sky overhead, and thus were blind to heaven, the gods, and the path forward. Ironic, isn’t it. Being ruled by an alicorn made us unable to recognize what the divine even is.”
She held out the dagger for Hauseway to take. “But there are those who have lived with eyes unclouded, but refused to help their fellow up. Don’t you think greed and arrogance like that needs to be punished?”

Hauseway stared at the dagger. Had Velvet personally driven it into Barley Bale’s flesh, or had she ordered an underling to do the deed. He’d never been stabbed before. He wondered how it felt.

“Isn’t it your job to punish evildoers, Hauseway? You catch a thief, you lop off their nose.” Velvet leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “Rapists, murderer, and frauds all meet the final humility of death. But not the Stars. They deserve to be confronted at every turn for their crimes. Don’t you agree? Won’t you help?”

“I can’t watch this. I’ll come back after.” Night Light let out a gravely sigh. He cantered down the stairs and trotted the length of the throne room to the exit. Foaly Flux followed his nephew with his eyes, then after a second followed him out, the strange sword he’d brought with him tucked under his armpit.

“I...” Hauseway let out a shaky sigh, looking Velvet in the eye. His better senses were telling him to run out after Night Light and big the pony to protect him from Velvet.
But for what? Did he have any future to look forward to if he turned his back on Velvet. What he heard in her ideals, of rigid control over the masses, appealed to him. Hold his head the right way, spout the right ideological keywords, and a there would be a seat at the table for him.
But Velvet’s eyes... they terrified him on a fundamental level. He could see deep things, colliding universes, burning things... “Lady Velvet. I can trust you, right?”

“With everything, for everything. Since the moment at the gatehouse when you tried to kill me.” Velvet smirked. “It’s no big thing, picking up a little stylet. No big thing, Captain Hauseway. Good luck.”

“Yes... Right as always, my lady. Why even hesitated heh heh... It’s for the sake of ponykind.” The captain chuckled nervously.He lit his horn. “Thank you, lady-”
As soon as his magic touched the wicked knife, Hausseway’s eyes whited out and his mouth dropped open. He staggered, moaning emptily for a moment, until the magic from his horn changed from the cherry red of his eyes and mane to a depthless pink like scoured skin.

“The shit is going on?” Rain Gnash and Fleetfoot recoiled. Behind them, Sel Lech had his eyes averted.

“Eeeuuuurrrgh... Canterlot again... Velveeet.” Hausseway’s mouth moved, and a foreign voice sounded out from it. “Velvet.” He said again, clearer, but much different from his normal cadence. Something else was speaking through him. “You’ve been sending for me a lot the past month.And another stallion too? Pah. The mares are much more comfortable to work through.”

“Take comfort this is the last update, Shale.” Velvet laughed.

“Then the tribute will stop coming in.”

“Afraid so. Enjoy this one. He’s the last you’ll get.” Velvet confirmed. “In fact, how about you throw me something. Some compensation for having Phyte driven out of Canterlot perhaps? This wasn’t supposed to be a one sided relationship after all.”

The room was tense and confused. The two pegasi were aghast and unsure what was happening. Sel Lech, Blueblood, and Aurthora were shifting uncomfortably; They knew Velvet had been using the sacrifice dagger, most notably with Barley Bale, but had never seen it before.

“Don’t get uppity, pony. I have given you plenty of information and spell equations. Besides this is hardly the time. Are you aware what’s happening in the sky?”

“Fully.” Velvet grunted. “I’ve had a hoof in causing it.”

“Don’t joke. This is grave. Whatever magical happenings have pushed the sun pack into the sky is sending ripples all over Equestria. They are obvious even here where I am.” Hausseway’s possessed body, controlled by Shale, said. “Give me the truth, pony.”

“You deride me, call me a pony like I’m meant to be ashamed of it. I tell you I would have to be far more caustic to call you Star. Soulless, dreamless monstrosity.” Velvet sneered.

Hauseway’s face twisted up. “You pulled me here just to insult me? What are you planning, Velvet?”

“That’s Lady Velvet to you. Even Star must abide by honorifics. You wouldn’t call our Princess just ‘Celestia’, would you?” Velvet said grandiosely. “And truly in this moment, one could see that I deserve it more than she.”

“What?” Shale twisted Hausseway’s neck unnaturally to take full scope of the desecrated space. “Dooo these eyes deceive me, or is this Canterlot Castle? Ho, in the stories I read of this vaunted space, the stacks of mutilated bodies never featured prominently.” His eyes refocused on Velvet. “ENOUGH. Tell me what has happened here!”

“You agreed give your patronage because I would shake things up between Phyte and Celestia. I’ve done that and more. This whole nation is going to have its relationship with their princess changed forever.” Velvet intoned. “Now I think it’s your turn to uphold your end of the bargain. Shale, you’re going to help me with my interpretation of the Star’s ritual. I’m going to upend this nation.”

A shiver passed through the room at that word, ritual. Simply hearing it felt like getting blasted with moist, dank air, that bogged the senses and repulsed the mind. The ritual. Who could say it and not feel like they had committed a grave sacrilege?

“You’ve been using me.” Shale deduced. Hausseway’s pupilless gaze was supremely unpleasant to look at. “Is this to be where you preform it? You arrogant mare. You really think you can control the ritual alone?”

“Alone? There are seven ponies here, and numbers are the inborn strength of mortalkind. In unison, we’re a match for any alicorn.” Velvet raised her hoof, grasping at something intangible.
“A princess, an empress, a sun to look up to... Those are all symbols for faithless ponies! You can’t have faith in what’s comfortable and convenient. Faith is submission to something so powerful you can not even dare presume to grasp its power.” She lowed her hoof, a look harder than steel overtaking her. “That’s how, with the ponies behind me, I will build a dream big enough for all ponykind to have no choice but to have faith in! No more empty liturgy and phony mysticism! I’m going to build god right here!”

“I’ve torn down god’s secrets, and ponies will do it again some day. But not you.” Shale growled angrily.

“If not me, my dream will be inherited. Ponykind’s destiny can be put off, maybe for a decade or two, but not forever.” Velvet sneered.

“What’s happened to Hauseway?” Gnash breathed. She loathed the captain, but destroying him in such a way was beyond her most cruel desires. “Fleetfoot, grab one of the arquebuses.”
The Wonderbolt obliged, pulling the weapon from the hooves of a nearby gruadspony’s corpse. Blueblood and Aurthora took guns for themselves as well.

“Then why have you even brought me here? What fool brings her enemy home just to rant at them?” Shale compelled Hauseway’s body to stamp its hooves. Velvet wondered if the Star on the other side of the connection was making the same gesture. “Are you going to sweet talk me, or lambast me, to sway me to your side?”

“Hmm, nothing so diplomatic. I brought you here to revel in how pitiful you are. It’s been a thousand years since you last dreamed, Star. You don’t understand a single thing.” Velvet laughed disdainfully. “It’s amusing to think that your grasp at eternity a millennium ago, the greatest stride mortalkind has ever taken, robbed you of all ability to strive for further and grander things.
“That was always the real dilemma. I could preform the ritual at any time and loose my mortality and become one of the elder siblings of mortalkind. Yes, that was always the easy part. But then would I be better than a soulless Star, selling out her species for power? No, I must create a beackon that all can look to, intrinsically understand, and accept. The dream must take on a life of its own.”

Shale scoffed, somewhere between amusement and horrified disbelief. One would think that living for a thousand years would take the edge of such a surprise, but the Star’s reaction betrayed that she knew Velvet’s was not the garden variety megalomania.
“You are something else..”

“I’m better than you.” Velvet grinned.

“Something that gives you the right to be the one to control the mortals? The Stars have known for a thousand years that the mass of mortalkind fosters the best conditions for its own advancement. The strong and smart rise. The weak will be devoured.”

“I know the kind of depraved creatures who talk like that.” Velvet’s gloating visage became as stern as steel. “They’re the talking point of the cushy and privileged who’ve never known how deep mortal suffering can be. ‘Why lift your hoof in anger when you can’t use it to beat your foe down into the earth? Why dare kiss in you’re unwilling to throw yourself into the deepest passions?’ BULLSHIT. You’re kind are who I’m setting out to destroy with this dream. Ye gods, ye Stars, ye inbred noble wanks! I’m going to destroy you all.”
Eyes alight, Velvet slowly climbed her way back up the dais to stand beside the throne. Shale craned Hauseway’s possessed body up to look at her. “My dream runs in my blood, and I’m going to share it with ponykind. The weak will become strong. The strong will strive for everything the limp Celestiaan empire has denied them. I won’t be restrained like you Stars were. I’m going to build a heaven right here.”

The possessed Hausseway began to tremble, in Shale’s fury or fear it was hard to tell. The croaking voice did not make it clearer. “Your actions are going to attract beings capable of far deeper hate than I, Twilight Velvet. Eventual failure of your project is inevitable.”

“Oh doing I know. I was originally panning to give this speech to Celestia, but she’s seen fit to galavant in the south. But look, I have her mother in the audience.” Velvet nodded towards the window, and the bleary-hour sun outside. “I’ve said this time and again: I respect the gods, just not their right to rule over us. In fact, one could say that I have a patron in the stars, who helped birth this whole plan within my mind.”

“What is she saying?” Rain Gnash was growing more confused by Velvet and Shale’s shop talk the longer it went on.

The throne room door swung open, and Night Light came a trotting up the hall again, Flux a few steps behind. Lord Light paused by Gnash, so she noticed that Flux's strange sword he was balancing against his shoulder.
“She’s saying she’s a little dizzy right now. After this she’s going to go lie down.” He shifted on his hooves, letting the sword slip off its shoulders to hold out it front of him like a fencing foil. “Twilight, please, there are limits to vanity. You’ve drawn this out long enough.”

Hauseway’s head twisted around unnaturally. “That sword!” Then back to Velvet, or rather the pony on the throne behind Velvet. Seacrest, pinned to the seat by the weight on the Blackhorn armor, stared fearfully back at her. “And that is the Black Lord! Why...” Then back to the sword again.
His whited out eyes swept the throne room again, as Shale took in details she had not payed attention to before. “Ahh, this is no coven of heretics who you’ve brought together for your ritual.” She gestured wildly with the dagger. “You’re all pawns, can you not see?! This pony is using you because of your blood!”

“And you're a pawn of fate, Star scum.” Velvet scoffed. "Just shoot her."

To his credit Blueblood was the first to react. He raised the arquebus he'd pilfered and pulled the trigger, but the arquebus only sputtered briefly. He started fiddling with it furiously to get it to work. “What? Gods damn it!”

“This isn't over Velvet, unless you die!” Shale howled. “May your plans, your dreams, and your god all rot!” She took a firmer hold of her sacrificial dagger, and lashed out at the ponies around her. Velvet pulled them away forcefully, leaving only herself in Shale/Hausseway’s range.

They circled, and Velvet spoke. “You know the name of my god, Shale. Oh you know it so intimately. How it tastes and smells. Dare you say it wish me?" She purred. "Anima, Astral Nacre."

Astral Nacre. The well enough learned could instantly translate the name, but that little stymied the uncontrollable chill that followed the very thought of it. What class of thing could have such a name? It felt so horrible, so unquestionable, that one could not help but wonder if the name flowed from the meaning or the other way around.

Shale's fury only deepened. "To say that name with anything but the deepest contempt is a sin I will punish mortally!"

"Astral once told you that the elder ones don’t simply die. They fade, disperse, and spread out over everything we touch. It is the curse of having the blood of the gods. It would be impossible to reform her, so thin is she. So I create her anew, and this time it shall be done properly.” Velvet continued to mock, her words light, yet crushingly impactful. "She's the dream, you see. A god, born of and born for the united soul of mortalkind. A god to carry it forward, and defend it against heaven.

“...” Shale's eye bulged. "You're mad. You're mad! Velvet do not tell me this is actually what you believe. Do NOT trifle with Astral .

“Astral yearns to return from ignominious oblivion.” Velvet said. "Come on now Shale. Aren't you happy? You and Astral were real pals in the old days."

Hauseway's body tensed up the launched forward, striking back and forth with the sacrifice dagger. Velvet danced backwards, then behind the throne, as the possessed pony advanced. Seacrest on the throne screamed and tried to curl up to avoid the reckless blade, but Shale was too focussed on Velvet to pay him heed.
Velvet skittered all the way around the throne until Shale was higher on the stairs. The purple mare steady back down towards her husband while Shale advanced on her.

“I’ve had a MILLENNIUM of thinking about what I would have said to Astral if she still walked among us. I screamed at the sky. I burned her in effigy.” Unable to contain Shale’s fury, Hausseway’s body was beginning to shake under the magical pressure. “It all came back to remembering what I thought we had, what she threw away in her blind luuust, blind nostalgia, for power. She used us. We Stars are cursed, because of her!”

“So doesn't it seem that fighting for the benefit of ponykind will be penitence for her?” Velvet’s mouth drew into a smirk. “If ever you want to meet her in person again, for old times sake, come on down to Canterlot. Our door will be open, even for Stars.”

“WWWRRRRRAAAA!!” Shale galloped down the stairs, slashed madly back and forth with her dagger. The possessed stallion proved unaffected by Velvet’s magical retaliation, so she had to turn and run to keep out of the path of the blade.

"No ma'am." Night Light interposed himself between the mares. With a sharp clang he met the dagger with the sword, knocking it back but not out of Hauseway's magical grip. "Time for you to leave, Mis Shale."

"You'll die pony!" The dagger flew around like a stick on the end of a rope, and Night Light was hard pressed to keep it away from his face. Shale was ferocious and single minded, determined to get at the mare behind him.

"Velvet was wrong to taunt you, now calm down." Night Light grunted in strain. His sword was a blur, trying to block the rapid thrusts and swipes with adequately. But Shale was speeding up, and the sacrifice dagger was coming closer and closer to his face. Soon he was backing too, step by step. Were the other ponies were too astounded or terrified to lift a hoof? He could not spare a second to check. "Leave that pony. Leave!"

"Astral will never live again, especially not as a tool of ponykind!" Shale screeched.

As was sure to happen sooner or later in the inch-deep blood, Night Light slipped. He landed hard on his barrel, knocking the wind out of him. Shale howled in delight: There was nothing between her and Velvet. Hauseawy's body wound up again and jumped.

Night Light rolled onto his back and thrust up. Like a campfire skewer through a tomato, his sword effortlessly pierced Hauseway's chest below the left shoulder, making the possessed pony convulse in mid jump and collapse into one of the corpse piles.

"Velvet! Velvet! Don't do it!" The Star screamed deafeningly. Hauseway's body strained against the agony of the sword in its side, managing to get into a sitting position. "You ponies, you must stop her! Stop her! Don't let her build her alicorn! She mustn't revive Astral Nacre. Please! PLEASE!"

In the next moment, a shot from Aurthora’s arquebus blew away an unpleasant majority of Hausseway’s face. Shale’s magic faded, and a dagger and a body joined the others in the pile.

Drip drip drip of blood from every surface. Night Light's hard breathing. Velvet's arrogant giggle. Those were the only sounds.
What hell. What utter hell. And they all wanted to to be there.

“Congratulations, my lady. Another Star tussled.” Sel Lech's tone was indecipherable. He helped Night Light to his hooves. "Was it worth it?"

"Don't ask that." Night Light sighed, wringing the blood from his mane. "Sel... decide for yourself."

Sel Lech glanced over to the last Captain Hauseway, laying on a bed of the dead Speakers and city guards, many of which he'd helped dispatch. The captain was going to get ground up in Velvet's machinations eventually. Did he deserve it?
Sel swallowed his bile. He had to believe yes. Otherwise, madness.

“Somepony could have told me the guns were sabotaged.” Blueblood mewled.

“Not telling you things was working perfectly up to now, and it still is.” Velvet brushed herself off. “Ahh, that felt great. That ass Shale will be feeling the sting of that humilition for years.”

"Humiliation?" Rain Gnash uttered. "Humiliation?! Lady Velvet, you're dream represents an escape from that kind of petty politics."

"And that... that thing, it was very adamant about stopping your plan." Fleetfoot agreed. "Not just angry, but desperate."

"Who is Astral Nacre? Who was Shale? What was the point?" Gnash pressed. "Come on Velvet, what the buck is going on?! I thought I understood but you're not following your own plan!"

"Shale is a Star." Velvet informed, stepping around to the base of the dais again.

Gnash hissed in frustration. "I got that from context. What's she matter? What's she do?! Just talk to me!"

“Shale was resistant to magical obliteration. I don’t believe you are.” Velvet returned acidly, mostly ignoring the admiral as she began to reorient the symbols on the ground that had been upset in the altercation.

“You... you’re not even going to pretend to be friendly anymore I see.” Rain Gnash sucked in a breath. She looked around, very aware at being at once outnumbered and outclassed. Sel Lech, Blueblood, and Aurthora were all looking at her.
“Velvet, this isn't even the end, is it. My blood has to be spilled to.”

“I won’t challenge your intelligence by lying to you further.” Velvet glanced up at the pegasi. "All the ideology you've heard so far, I truly do believe that. With all my heart, I know that mortalkind deserves to rule its own destiny, and that unity under one dream is the only way to accomplish that.
"But as you've been putting together yourself, there is a paradox inherent in that. The very same power that gives the unified dream its strength, bestows a certain kind of divinity. For deep, deep in the Dreamscape lies force of inapproachable Will, a god like we can not possibly understand. Distilled down to its bare essence, dreams are Dark, and the Dark is divine in its own way."

"Shale said you're going to make another alicorn." Gnash swallowed.

"It's a process: Blood sacrifice, magic ciphering, draining the energy from your living body.” Velvet nudged her mane out of her eyes. "Steel your souls, everypony. We begin now. The ritual will make you more."

Before anypony could react, a surge of light coursed off her horn, a fire to challenge the sun. Everypony in the room was gripped by her telekenisis, non resisted. Things were ariving at their conclusion. There was no avoiding the results of their actions.
Velvet's magic dragged them all to their designated position. Molar, Foaly Flux, and Rain Gnash went the extremes of the blood circle on the floor, Seacrest still pinned to the throne, and Velvet floated herself into the center. Night Light, Sel, and Fleetfoot were pushed to the back of the room, to watch helplessly as it ritual occurred. Celestia’s sun in the windows wasn’t enough to break the fastidious cold starting to emanate from every corner of the room. In every heart, the presence of a blooming evil let itself be known.
A sound like song began to fill the air.

Concurrently a different pony was also singing along. The timber rose and fell in indescribable ways, resonating fearfully. Yet for all its beauty if one were to close their eyes and listen, it would evoke mental images of grinding metal heard under a deep and churning ocean. But focus on the harmony, de-emphasize the melody, it sounded like nothing more than a bell. In time to the thrums of magic whirling around the Everfree Castle throne room, the piercing clang rolled forth.
Celestia thought of the bells of Canterlot, and how they had rung out the night of Fancy Pant's murder. What did it mean that only one bell was warranted now.

“Nightmare Moon was a powerful vessel, but utterly lacking in many ways. She was headstrong, too proud, too easily led astray by her vendettas. She had no deep convictions despite claims otherwise. She was not suited for this.”

Celestia shielded her eyes from the black nova of energy tearing the air apart. Twilight was in there somewhere, though what still remained as Twilight was becoming frightfully little.

The nightmare’s voiceless words surged from the storm and surrounded the princess's mind, ravishing her with fear and dread. It sounded so similar to her student.
"The idea of Twilight Sparkle however, is truly perfect. A little mare, powerful but so unsure of herself and her place in the world. With the Dark, she can be refined to a razor edge. She was a dangerous dreamer wasn't she. You recognized it too but punished her for it instead of celebrating it."

Twilight, Celestia mouthed. She felt an urge to shout back into the magical maelstrom, some half-hearted defense of her actions or insult, but had not the energy or will for it. She just wanted to cry or run away.
But she held herself in place. She had to be strong and face the fear, or Twilight would be utterly lost.

“Celestia, did you come here because like me you beleive ponykind has lost what has made it special? Virtues, lost. Their integrity, their honor and loyalty, and their magic has atrophied. Ponies no longer respect each other, no longer love each other. They have lost their veneration for their gods, for you.” The voice taunted. "We can change that. Oh yes, can we ever."

Something large collided with Celestia, knocking her off her hooves. It was the unconscious form of the nightmare pegasus, tossed with enough force to render the nightmare pony unconscious. Celestia regained her footing quickly enough to see the other two pushed out of the raging magical typhoon as well.

Then everything was calm.

The rain had ended, and a giant hole in the clouds above had been formed just large enough to hold the castle ruin. The errant sun had dipped to just high enough in the sky to release it’s rays on the tops of the crumbled towers.

And before Celestia, her foe.
The nightmare had completed it’s apotheosis. Like a wrinkled shawl, a sheet of pure black shaded and obscured her face. The rest of it’s body, no larger than Twilight’s, was uncovered with it’s coat of midnight purple. It rippled like waves on a pond and undulated like a rat down the gullet of a snake. It’s wings, tail, and even limbs were as nebulous as mist at times, but as defined and horrendously sharp as scythes at others. The only proof anything besides oblivion existed under it’s shawl was a long horn and a dozen predatory eyes, arranged like the teeth in smile of a dragon.

In the shadow of this blasphemous parody of an alicorn, lying crumpled on the wet stone floor, was Twilight Sparkle’s body. Celestia could not tell if she was still breathing, but the nightmare’s emergence from her had not been pretty, leaving her as broken as the cocoon of a butterfly.

The shadowy thing stretched, its 'limbs' elongating unnaturally. It's many eyes swirled around to take everything in anew. "Ah. I exist. This is a good day. A grand day. I did not even begin to understand. Feeling existance through Twilight did so understand how this feels. Life... Is nice. "

Ceelstia's throat tightened. She felt bile threatening to escape.

"That was an impressive attack with the sunbeam. Good try." The blasphemous thing said. “I doubted you had it in you. Although, it may be that you attacked not in spite of, but BECAUSE of Twilight. You found the willpower to destroy her so utterly, when other ponies would have gotten a mild squashing. For perhaps the first time, you made the hard choice, to relieve Twilight of her suffering. I congratulate you. How do you feel after that, princess?

"Y- You..." Celestia swallowed and tried again. Was this a joke? “What are you?"

"You really wouldn't understand. I'm more familiar to mortals, you see. You have to lack something before you can understand the yearning for more." The nightmarish thing ran a hoof through its etherial mane, making eddies in the shadowy haze. "No matter where you are, or who you are, a mortal will feel an insatiable drive to push onward. That's the side effect of having a dream, or maybe its the raison d'être. We had this discussion with Nightmare Moon, and these three little ponies two." The creature cocked its head. "Do you dream, Celestia? Can you understand what we are?"

Celestia took a deep breath. "You vaguely have a head, body, legs, and a tail." She let out the breath and resolved into a stern mask. "I see what you are."

"A mare at the top of her tower."

"A thing that should not exist." Celestia corrected harshly.

"That's not nice! That's saying Twilight shouldn't exist!" The nightmare hovered backwards on its cushion of shadow. It leaned down to Twilight limp body, its hoof a hears breadth from touching its former host. "Maybe that's what you actually believe, but I doubt it."

"Get your hooves away from her. You have hurt her enough.” Celestia growled, finally able to tear her eyes away from the mutilated form of her student to face the nightmare again. “You want to fight me!"

“Yes.” The nightmare said simply, straightening up. “I don’t have to though. I’ve already won. Not just this foray either, but the war. You can't recover, but by all means attack me if it makes you feel better. Then we can talk like we used to.”

The nightmare's curt, informative style was Twilight to a tee. It's tone was childlike. Celestia ached with the recognition. She felt like she was swimming in a fog. She didn't know where to turn, where to look. "I..."

"Do you want to kill me? S- Should I want to kill you?" The nightmare asked, genuinely puzzled. Gradually though, it's many trembling eyes narrowed in contempt. "Twilight was terrified of what you would think of us. She fretted, thinking you would execute her without a second thought. Your thoughts... I can feel the truth behind her fears."

Celestia stared at her.

The nightmare nickered in displeasure. "You would deny me life. If I leave you alive you're going to try to stop me. I'll never be able to sleep without worrying you'll try to kill me."

"Twilight... was ill. You're just a monster." Celestia confirmed coldly.

The nightmare tutted, flapping its misty wings in aggravation. "Twilight was one thing: Right about you!" It churred. "There can be no coexistence between us. One of our lives necessarily precludes the other. Therefore I have to destroy you to protect my own life."

“You may try. You may even succeed. But my sun will still stand in the sky, burning away your corruption.” Celestia could see that the three weaker nightmares beginning to stir. Stalling for time wasn’t going to save her.

“That's true. That’s a problem I’m going to have to remedy, if I want to live.” The doleful nightmare sighed. “The greatest inconvenience of Moon’s disobedience is that her moon cannot be made to block the sun. She is untouchably distant, safe. The same cannot be be said of you.”

“Was this your plan then? Manifest into my world, corrupt my ponies, and bemoan the hardships of the path of evil?” Celestia was having a harder and harder time keeping herself upright. Nothing felt right. Nothing made sense. The place at the back of her mind where she'd always found the comforting presence of her mother sun was inflamed. Thoughts of death and thoughts of struggle collided together over and over in her head.

“Princess, I am not the manifestation of the nightmare. I am the realization. All the petty and palsied nightmares who came before would have affrighted themselves with my memory. That Moon came close to defeating you forever, and I can seal your extinction.”

“You admitted you can't kill the sun.” Celestia countered.

The black trio of unwitting nightmares were getting up, looking exhausted and confused.
"My head..." Dash groaned. "I'm gunna puke."
"So that's the ritual." Rarity squeezed her eyes closed. "How wonderful, how awful."
"My head's scrambled." Applejack's posh Manehattanite accent was slipping back into country drawl. "The things I saw..."

"Hey ho, you survived? Color me surprised." The realized nightmare said. "I wasn't holding back at all. The nightmare infection must have insulated you against the erosion of your psyches."

"Don't except thanks." Rarity retreated towards Celestia, a clear indication of who she feared more. The other two followed suite.

"I don't expect anything, really, except for you to stay out of the way." The nightmare's many eyes trembled in annoyance. "I won't molest you further, out of respect for Twilight, but don't try to fight unless it's death you want." The monster had gone from innocent and childlike to murderous in no time at all.

"If you really respect Twilight you would end yourself." Celestia shot. Were the three nightmare ponies on her side? Odd, but the princess wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Such hypocrisy. You are making me angry, when by all rights it should be you who is angry.” The realized nightmare tisked. "I'm going to make you break, princess. If I hurt you enough even the sun will feel it."

“That doesn’t sound ominous at all.” Dash whispered.

"You can't drive away the sun without killing the entire world. She belongs here, you do not." Celestia said. With a shiver she continued. "If you want my life I can give you that, if you swear to go no farther."

The nightmare slowly spread her wings and the room darkened.
"Look at this from my point of view, princess. If I were purely rational, I would have much more to gain from a sunless, dying planet than one full of life. When all is dead, there's nopony who can hurt you. Surely you came to the same conclusion at some point. If you wanted to stay alive so bad, you should have followed through on that thought. Certainly if Twilight never existed you wouldn't be in this predicament."

"Silence!" Celestia demanded hoarsely, eyes flying open. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

“Do you, my princess?! Light is vision. Light is the affirmation, the proof and vindication of existence, and Destiny! Can it really be that all those things can only come from the sun? NO! There's inner light too, but I won't predent to understand it. That's somepony else's dream. Twilight dream, my dream, is just Dark." The nightmare said gravely. "In the Dark you can’t been seen or distinguished. When all ponies are atrophied and powerless, the world resolves into Dark, into Will. It is the natural conclusion of all things, that darkness will overcome and smother us. The within that mire the ones with the Will and the dream to be more rise to the top." The monster pointed an accusing hoof at Celestia. "By all rights this world should be in the midst of such turmoil right now! The souls of ponykind are so weak, empty of dreams, and their inner Light is ingrown and malformed. The cause of this, and the reason this sick state of affairs has persist so long, is you, Celestia! You and your sun have kept it alive artificially! This world is long past due its time in the Dark."

Celestia did not flinch from the condemnation. "At this point, such a think would destroy mortalkind. You don't deny a sick pony their medicine."

"Ponies can't think for themselves! The accept empty words in their hearts instead of letting their dreams flourish. The world has grown addicted to your sun!" The nightmare spit.

"Take an addict of their vice and it will kill them." Rarity spoke out.

"Addicts can be weaned. It's not my place to improve this world though. I'm not a high-minded firebrand. I'm just explaining all the reasons the princess here is a hypocrite." The nightmare sneered, which for its formless face was conveyed by hissing sounds and forming strange patterns from its eyes. "Why do I have to adapt to your world, Celestia? When I'm stronger, younger, more powerful, you should be adapting to mine."

“That's why nightmares will never win! The sun won't leave but neither will your wretched kind adapt! All you do is twist ponies into your own image.” By the end of her sentence, Celestia voice had lost it’s volume, the energy to yell failing her. "W- Who are you? Who am I fighting against?

The nightmare’s smile, that brutally curving scythe of eyes, sharpened in a beam of sadistic glee. “I'm just a pony who wants to live in this world."

"You're no pony." Celestia said with venom. Maybe she did want this fight, for the honor of her fallen student. If she could just muster up the energy. "You're not Twilight!"

"She and I would both agree, I'm her and more. We want to live. That's all I fight for. Its adaptation or death is fine, so long as this world is fit to live in.” She ignited her horn, throwing purple light to every corner of the throne room. "Come, Celestia... The life of your world is on the line!"

The mutilation of Twilight Sparkle’s body had translated foully into Nightmare Moon’s lunar dream scape. The dark princess hovered over the agonized unicorn with a semblance of concern, struggling to conceive of how a healing spell could be adapted through a dream.

“She- she’s tearing me apart!” Twilight yelled through gritted teeth. “Damn it all, it’s like I’m giving birth through my skull!”

“That’s a fair comparison to what is actually happening to you. The ritual isn’t very pretty.” Moon said.

“Not helping.” Twilight moaned, beating the sides of her head with her hooves. It didn't amount to much other than an odd sensation: She was in a dream with unclear rules.

“Then, um… Perhaps you could divorce your mind from your body further, clear away the sensory inputs.” Nightmare offered.

“Sure I’ll BUCKING SEPARATE MY BODY AND SOUL!” Screamed Twilight. “That’s something I learned in school anyway!”

Nightmare huffed. “You get awfully sarcastic when you’re in existential pain.”

“Buck- urg, buck, you, Moon.”

Moon wrinkled her nose. The alicorn was genuinely trying to sympathize. “Yes, yes, but maybe if you, hmm..." She gestured. "If you moved your consciousness, yes, more fully into this dream?”

"W- What?"

"I'm alive here, well past the obliteration of my body, because I let my conscious mind free of the dead body." Moon explained. "You could do the same. "

Twilight grunted in pained exasperation. "Give up my b- body?" A shiver ran through her. As long as she was feeling the pain and the agony of her body down on the earth, it reaffirmed her connection to it, her ownership. If she surrendered that, she would be conceding everything to her nightmare. "I- I couldn't. She'd win."

"She? You give your enemy that much?" Moon grimaced. "You trouble me with your illogical romanticization, Twilight. If you don't give up your body you'll die."

"Y- Yeah? I'm troubling you?" Twilight dropped one of her hooves from her head so she could glare up at the taller mare. "Don't talk about thinks you know nothing about, Moon." Her voice was unexpectedly sharp. "You've been an orphan for a thousand years. You're blind to my pride! I have pride as a mortal, and having a body is obviously part of that."

"And you are ignorant, willfully I might add, to the true nature of your dream. Your pride is at odds with your fate." Moon retorted. "Because the nightmare seized upon your dream of accention, you have to either surrender everything you were, or copy her path in the hopes of usurping her."

"Gibberish. Nonsense. What you're telling me has less meaning than random jumbles of words." Twilight closed her eyes again and rode out the waves of existential pain flowing up and down her nerves. When she focussed on it, she could almost feel the way her physical body was moving its limbs and weaving its magic. There was a very odd sensation on her back as well, like a phantom limb. "And what if I did give up my body? That wouldn't kill me? Not like there's a soulless but pristine bodies just laying around for me to rent.”

“Think about your nightmare. She inhabited your body alongside you.”

Between waves of anguish, Twilight deciphered Moon’s meaning. “Are you suggesting…”

“Yes. And if I have your consent, I could try to do it.” Nightmare Moon nodded. "Twilight. Please understand. If you remain in contact with the nightmare much longer it, or she, will kill you with the pain. Before we can begin to plan a counterattack, you have to be lucid and objective." The alicorn straightened up, resolute. "My heart is with you Twilight Sparkle! I've lost the world too. I know the pain of loosing my home and everything that brought me joy. I we are to make a return you have to survive! Twilight! Please trust me Twilight!"

Twilight whimpered. What if this all was all an elaborate trick to get her out of her body, so that the nightmare could dominate it uncontested. What if Moon proved to be worse, or in league with the nightmare, and would exact unspeakable torture on Twilight once she was taken.
All of these silly excuses for hesitation evaporated when the next onslaught of pain hit her. The fear of death was real.
“J- J- Just e- end it!”

The world around Twilight shimmered imperceptibly. Immediately, she felt the pain fall away, and the grey lunar world around her brightened considerably. But at the same time, it was very, very dark, cast in shadow. The feel of the place had changed from distorted to startlingly real, and Twilight received the impression she was no longer in a dream.

With a start, she realized that her consciousness was devoid of form or representation now. Her dreaming body had turned into a ghastly shade, like a haunting ghost. The shift into physicality had taken away everything that wasn’t real, and so Twilight simply existed as a point of consciousness on the surface of that vast stellar body. The Moon was juncture between dream and reality, and she was a struggling dreamer given respite. Indeed, there was a subtle feeling of comfort about her surroundings, as though this was a safe place.

She looked up. Nightmare Moon had kept her shape, in the spectral space it had held in Twilight’s dreams. The transparent princess panted from the exertion of moving a soul undamaged across thousands of kilometers.
But she'd done it. Twilight was on the moon now, not just dreaming of it.

“I have overcome the other's tenacious grasp on you, and tied you here.” Nightmare Moon boasted halfheartedly. “The principle is not unlike dreamwalking, a power I exercised when I was at my prime. Only on a much larger scale, and in reverse. It's not the first time I have used it that way. Another pony long ago..." Moon slumped a bit. "Never mind. How do you feel."

Twilight looked back at Equestria, and the slow progress of the sun’s light across it’s continents. For the foreseeable future, that Bright world had been lost to her.

“This is it huh.” Twilight whispered. “I've lost my dream to the other. For the rest of my life, I’ll exist only as a dream inside the moon princess.”

“I’m very sorry Twilight.” Nightmare Moon was unsure how much physical contact would be appropriate in offering comfort, but resolved to wrap a hoof protectively around Twilight. “The nightmare has damned us both to an eternal prison.”

They sat there, unmoving, for a very long time.

“Even without the nightmare within you weakened, I can feel your heart coming through.” Twilight said.

Nightmare closed her eyes and lay her head against Twilight. “I was wondering why everything felt to sore. I’m losing what made me powerful, what made me more.”

“Yeah, but what made me more declared total independence from me, took my body in the divorce, and I feel better than I ever did with her.” Twilight joked weakly.
In truth, she felt as though there was a gaping hole in her gut, through which the wind of eternity whistled as it passed. Everything she had ever done was gone. She was effectively dead. Her nightmare, the other, had taken her place.

More time without speech passed.

“It’s going to be a problem, now that my chance at escape has been pulled away. You were my chance.” Nightmare Moon said. “The army I was gathering, a host of ten-thousand moon denizens, is not just going to disperse. It takes power and force to keep so many in line, and only with the promise of a return to Equestria did I ever have a chance at managing them.”

“What could the do to you? You’re the moon.” Twilight asked.

“They trust me. Why, I do not know. If I spurned them, would they be angered? At the worst they could destroy my castles and start killing each other. It would hurt, but I would survive.” Nightmare mused. “Or they will wait expectantly, until they starve. I must tell them of my failure. I’d lose their respect and trust for a few generations, and my authority over my own surface would diminish. Eventually though, they will come back to me.”

“If they trust you, you could disperse them diplomatically.” Twilight proposed.

“I don’t have anything to bribe them with.”

“Not bribe, just an apology.”

Moon scoffed. “I would rather have my every temple defaced than apologize to them. They are mine forever. Fleeting anger would change nothing about my control over them.”

“It’s just a thought.” Twilight said, and went silent. There was still pride and arrogance in Nightmare Moon, but softened. How did it feel to have total control over another being, as Moon did over the moon denizens? She could not imagine a situation where she could find out in a moral way. Having absolute power rang in Twilight's mind as depriving others of power.
Was that so bad? She was in her current situation from a lack of power, of control over herself and others. Rarity, Applejack, and that pegasus Dash for one. They'd distracted her and gotten in her way! Spike too, in a different way. Her caring for him made her vulnerable. If Twilight could redo everything she mused she would immediately take every measure to make sure nopony could ever keep her from living peacefully. "Like Chrysalis..." She mumbled to herself.

"Pardon." Moon arched her neck around to look at Twilight.

"Nothing." Twilight said. "Just thinking."
She would not be resigned to idle thought alone: Twilight’s newfound tranquility let her focus on plans of escape. There was no way she was going to let the events down below pass without her. She had to be there for Spike and Celestia! She had to protect them from what she knew her nightmare was capable of. Being alive and possibly releasing Moon were important too.
Approaching the question of escape was not easy: Twilight wasn't sure where to even begin. She was on another world, with little clue to its workings. Plus the window of opportunity at the nightmare’s transformation had slammed shut, and there was little chance another would open. Whatever could be done had to be able to be executed with her nightmare able to resist her fully.

While she mulled, the edges of Twilight’s consciousness explored her new home. Kilometer after kilometer of indescript expenses, marred by craters, plateaus, rifts, and mountains. Here and there other consciousness brushed against her, tickling somewhat. Small and isolated villages of the moon’s native inhabitants, all immured by nightmares like the three nightmare ponies. In several spots the terrain had been twisted into unnatural spiraling towers, the basework for castles and fortifications as large as several Canterlots.

Finally, after when felt like days of searching, Twilight felt a little part of Nightmare Moon distant from the rest of her. The armor, those blue horseshoes, cuirass, and helm, containing the smallest sliver of Moon’s soul.

“I’ve never been a… whatever I am.” Twilight broke the silence. “What are the rules. How do I operate.”

“I mentioned another pony guest. The mare Illustrious Valor was unusually gifted in the ways of the Dark, and came to the moon two hundred years ago. She had opened a channel to the heavens through some artifact, and when she was killed she arrived here. I did not interact with her much. She was just another inhabitant.” Nightmare Moon said. “Based on how Valor was bounded, you may move however you could conceive yourself moving. I must warn you against anything overtly hostile.”

“I can’t just tear a small part of the moon away from you?” Twilight joked.

“I very much doubt you could succeed, even without me actively resisting you.” Moon was more amused than irascible. “I couldn’t even guess how you would do such a thing.”

Twilight pursed her lips as she pieced together a plan. "One of the first nights we were pulled together, you asked me if I'd seen a pony with black fur."

"Impeccable memory, Twilight."

"You were asking about Illustrious Valor." Twilight closed one eye. "She escaped the moon shortly before we met."

"I stopped feeling her consciousness. She either died or left. The only direction off is not the earth though." Moon pointed towards the infinite starscape all around them. "I consider her escape to to the earth unlikely. I asked just in case."

"I think she did get to the earth." Twilight asserted. "And I think that because the altar was meant to be a conduit to you! The changeling, Chrysalis, knew it was reaching out towards heaven, but didn't know it wasn't reaching for her 'Dark Lady', whoever that is."

Moon's expression darkened at the mention of 'Dark Lady'. "Go on."

“Let's assume the altar was made to connect dreamers together, like it did us. Suppose before it found you up there, it found Illustrious Valor. Valor got connected to somepony down on the earth!"

"Who?"

"The altar's creator? A passing creature? Her ancient dead body? Who knows." Twilight shook her head. "And it hardly matters anyway. The point is Illustrious Valor escaped through the magic in that altar. AND, that altar was nothing more than your armor and some fancy binding magic. The armor by itself would act almost the same.”

Nightmare Moon could see where Twilight was going. “Illustrious Valor was three parts nightmare to one part pony. Even with that going for her, I doubt she manifested without a vessel of some manner.”

“And so my question about tearing a part of you away.” Twilight said.

“What?” Moon scowled in confusion. “Do you mean… My armor?”

“Exactly.” Twilight said, though with a hint of caution. She didn't want to offend Moon. “There’s a little spell I know to do it as well, with the magic I retained here. If I could guide your magic to help me I... Ahem, well, I need your permission and help.”

It was a long time before Nightmare spoke again.

“Do you know what that armor is?” She asked.

“I read a book about how it represents one of the best classical uses of magic in ironworking. Then, while I was touching it, it felt like it had a mind of its own.” Twilight said. “So, I have no idea.”

“How significant would you guess it is, that it holds a part of my soul inside of it? A little or a lot? Your book was not wrong. That set was forged through magic, my magic. I put my heart and soul into it, and I mean that very literally.” Nightmare stared wistfully at Equestria as if she could see the armor of which she spoke. “I wasn’t a nightmare then, just a young mare committed to a war on her sister, to take her deserved place in the hearts of ponykind. Sometimes I think that if there’s anything of my old self left, it’s in that ancient plate.”

Twilight shook her head. “There is so much of you that remained, and it’s not in some old armor. She’s right here.” She placed a hoof on Moon’s breast.

The dark alicorn was as close to tears as Twilight had ever seen. Her hesitance was forgotten as she embraced Twilight. “I didn’t want to be the monster Twilight. I didn’t want to fall into darkness.” She sighed. "Could I even have dared to back away from the precipice I drove myself to? No, I don't think it could have ended any other way, unless I fought harder and won. This...." She ruffled the black fur of her neck. "Is the logical conclusion of what I was."

“It’s ok, Moon. I don’t think you're a monster. It's not kind of magic you use, but the content of your soul and the vitue of your actions.” Twilight whispered softly. “You will remember who you once were. You will remember your name. After that, nothing in all the universe could keep you imprisoned here.”

Nightmare shuddered. “I- I think you’re right. Sometimes I think death is the only way to make me cleansed of darkness. It's not as true as I thought.” She pulled away gently. “I will be resolute. If I am a new mare, then the terms of my imprisonment would not apply."

"Metaphorically speaking." Twilight agreed.

"There are many many metaphors for freedom. I think of a bird in flight, with all the world below her and only heaven above. Amusingly, that could well describe us right now.” Moon faced Twilight again. “Freedom. It’s close. So close. Twilight, what kind of spell will let you take possession of my armor?”

“It’s complicated.” Twilight averted her eyes. It was not going to be pleasant to explain. “I trusted you with my soul. I hope you can trust me with yours. If I have your permiss-"

“You have it.” Nightmare interrupted.

“It’s, um, not that simple.” Twilight sighed. “I should explained to you what this spell is. I learned it because the of the nightmare's urges.”

Nightmare Moon sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s that kind of spell then.”

“A torture spell, meant to break off pieces of the victim’s mind until they go insane.” Twilight said quietly. “It was in a book I read while in a nightmare fugue. It's just... Thinking about it, I think my nightmare was using the spell on me when she took control. It could have been she was trying to separate me from her, before you just took me out of my body." Twilight shook her head. "Not sure what to make of that."

"Ignore her motive unless you want to confront uncomfortable truths, Twilight." Moon said wearily. "Just tell me more about the spell."

"Uh... You saw how I was screaming, right? I can promise you, pain cannot even begin to describe it.” Twilight laughed nervously. "There's no elegant way of doing it. It's breaking a piece off of you, and you'll feel it like loosing a leg or your horn."

“I’ve hurt you before Twilight.” Moon said. “I made you die in horrible way in the altar dream. It’s time for me to have my just desserts.”

“Don’t go along with me out of any feelings of guilt or pity!” Twilight commanded. “I want to know if you mean this.”

Moon closed her eyes. “That armor represents so much to me, Twilight. But in a way, I think I have outgrown it. It’s time for you to have it, and not for any reason other than because I want you to have it. It’s my gift, because you deserve this.”

Twilight nodded, moving away from Moon. She called up what magic she could and found it was immediately augmented by more from Moon. She started to prepare the spell. Timing was critical, for she need to be entirely within the armor before the severing finished. Calling on Moon’s magic would be increasingly difficult as the alicorn’s torment grew.

"I wish I'd payed more attention in metal magic class." Twilight joked, running over the spell pattern in her head before she committed.

"Not amusing, Twilight." Moon grunted, screwing her eyes closed.

"Hee hee, yeah... I always pay attention in class." Twilight cleared her throat and began focussing her magic.
A month ago, what would she have thought of the many lines she was now crossing. Cavorting with Dark creatures and confessing them friends. Murdering another living creature like Chrysalis. Now using a forbidden torture spell to purposefully break another pony's mind.
Was it all forgivable given the circumstance, or should she have just accepted death to keep herself clean of those sins.
“I’m starting now.” She whispered to Moon. "Please forgive me."

Moon smiled, talking to herself. “Freedom is close. Just think of Equestria. I think… of… Equestria. A bird... in flight.”

Forbidden spells, death, evil, but not for a selfish reason. That was the way others justified their own sins.
A year ago it was, in the cold months of a evening's waining light, Velvet and Night Light had walked the path through the Royal Gardens by the lake, their hooves crunching in the thin snow. More was falling around them, lightly, like a shimmering shower of shooting stars.

"It's unconscionable." Night Light said under his breath. A scarf around his neck was a break from his usual nakedness. "You're projected death tolls are completely unreasonable!"

"You don't change the world without a few deaths, Night Light." Twilight Velvet, though she wore a thicker dress than usual, was still pressing her body against her husband's for warmth. "In the long term, think about how many ponies we're saving from pointless, empty lives under this vapid regime. Better dead than dreamless."

"And it just so happens your ambition is the one that deserves to be the one to which all ponies will aspire." Night Light said flatly. "I don't know Velvet... If I'm being honest with you, this rings in my ear as another half-thought-out plan to give you an excuse to throw some magic around. If you want to throw down that much, join the army."

"Noble ladies do not join armies, Night Light." Velvet huffed. "Besides, this time it's different."

Night Light restrained the urge to roll his eyes. He focussed on the lone swan in the lake as it grazed the water. "How?"

"Because I hear her again."

Night Light stopped in his tracks. "A- Astral? You hear Astral?"

Velvet hummed an affirmation. "Not loud, but loud enough."

Night Light stood still as his mind raced. Only in the darkest hours of the night was his wife's strange 'other' ever mentioned. He could attest it was not a figment of her imagination, or schizophrenia, or anything else: He'd pressed his head against her side once and heard twisted things that were not meant to be heard, and that he wished he could forget. His wife was a cursed mare from a cursed lineage, but they loved each other and he would do anything to make her happy.
"And..." He said in a low tone. "Does Astral share your altruistic ideals?"

"Unclear." Velvet said. "But it doesn't matter what she wants. She can't stop us from making the world a better place in the process of recreating her."

"But what comes after?" Night Light asked.

Velvet gave him a last nuzzle then pulled away. "Let's not stop in one place. My hooves get cold." She turned and continued along the lakeside path.

"Velvet." Night Light followed her, raising his voice. "What comes afterwards? Do you think you can create an alicorn with no consequences?"

"What do the consequences matter if my intentions are pure." Velvet laughed. "If we run around worrying about every single consequence we would get no work done. No, Night Light, we have to believe that with a firm heart and purity of our ideals, the world we want will come to pass. We will have to accept the consequences as they come."

Night Light shook his head. Part of him wanted to go home, now that the walk was soured with Velvet's politics talk, but he could not well leave her walking alone in the snow. So he followed. "I hope you're right. Just maybe, an alicorn borne out of the dreams of ponykind will be a god worth worshiping."

It was time to test the purity of their ideals, and their strength against the bitter consequences.

As the ritual spell drew more and more of her magic, Twilight Velvet’s eyes began radiating blinding white light. Purple ribbons arced off her horn and wrapped around her four victims. She was lifted slowly off the ground, the blood and viscera around her caught in weightlessness as well.

The weaving magical tendrils, as spectral and brilliant as Celestia’s mane, encircled the ritual pattern on the floor. Around Foaly Flux, encasing his body and plunging into his mouth. Through Rain Gnash, binding her wings and streaming through her eyes. About Molar, pulling at his hooves and piercing into his ears. Towards Seacrest, infusing into the black armor which held him against the throne, and diffusing into his body.

Arcane, blasphemous words poured from Velvet’s mouth, coursing through the magic and into the four ponies around her. Against their every desire and sane thought, they answered back, the magic of them warping the ritual by their peculiarities.

Moment by moment, the tortured frames of Flux, Molar, and Gnash dwindled. Velvet hacked at their souls, using the power they inherited through blood to empower the spell. Death reached out at them, and Velvet repeatedly beat him away, keeping her prey alive to power that transcendent essay.

Seacrest received the unbounded magic with writhing terror, every passing second abusing him with more energy. Behind his eyes, in the very structure of his soul, Velvet was crafting the monstrosity, the great and vaunted god, which his poor mind was even now being consumed by. He felt simultaneously filled to the brim and a withered husk.

Velvet blazing eyes surpassed the sun, brightening hundredfold. The ponies around her not transfixed by the abominable ritual, shied away to protect their sight. Even though their eyelids and sheltering hooves, the unclean light burned at their retinas. But eventually, the light died away.

Hearing and sight returned. Everypony braced themselves and opened their eyes, preying for strength to assess the aftermath.

The bore witness. Foaly Flux was completely gone, and every trace of him evaporated with him. He was the lucky one.
Only parts of Molar’s pathwork body seemed to have been used up, leaving chunks of him standing. Everything original to his body, it seemed, was gone, but it was several seconds before the lifeless corpse, slightly less than half intact, succumbed to gravity.
Rain Gnash was by some miracle still alive. Her right leg and left forehoof, her right wing, half of her left wings, a good deal of her torso fat and muscle, her ears, her left eye, and most of her muzzle was gone. But still, the rapid rise and fall of her chest drew Fleetfoot to her side.

“Admiral! Can you hear me?” Fleetfoot cried. She knelt in the blood but did not dare touch Rain for how much skin was missing. "Rain Gnash! Please, answer me!"

Night Light attention was on his wife. She floated softly back to the ground, struggling to regulate her breathing. As soon as she touched down, she collapsed. But a pair of hooves interposed themselves between her and the ground.

“I have you.” Night Light whispered. “You're safe. You survived.”

“Did I do it?” Velvet whispered weakly back. “Is she there?”

Night Light cradled his wife gently as he raised his eyes to see what had become of Seacrest.

The thing on the throne stared back, unblinking.

It would take an infinite amount of wishful thinking to call it an alicorn, or even a pony. It’s proportions bordered on the obscene, looking for all the world like a pile of bones bound in sinew and given life. It’s legs alone were twice Night Light’s height, and at the top of it’s horn the creature could have looked down at three Celestias. It’s snout, like the rest of it, was long and sharp, with no sign of a mouth. Two pure black orbs and two slender swiveling ears were the only indication it was alive, and not just a meat statue.

“You... did something.” Night Light told Velvet.

A bubbling feeling, but like a lack of breath or squeezing pressure, made itself felt in everypony's throat. It was accompanied by a soundless thought, unwelcome and unnatural, that could be understood without voice.
"Something wonderful." The thought proclaimed.

Night Light froze, his eyes focussed on the thing on the throne. By the reaction of the other ponies around him, they felt it as well.

“Astral.” Velvet breathed. "Let me see her."

"Velvet... Be very careful." Night Light slowly helped his wife to her hooves. "We have no idea what it is."

The thing on the throne squirmed, making those still able to walk scramble backwards. The red flesh wobbled, then separated, reforming until it had the outline of Celestia resting daintily on her seat. But it was still a mass of red muscle and beige tendon, and the alicorn-like shape only reinforced that. It's head jerked around, taking in the room with its beady black eyes.

"Astral." Velvet cleared her throat. Even if she were not several meters lower on the stairs, she would have had to crane her neck to look at the thing she'd created. "Say your name Astral."

The meat thing focussed its attention on her, both its ears swiveling forward.

"Say something again. Come on." Velvet coxed the thing to come closer. "Can't sit up there all day."

The thing's flesh contorted, and the shape that corresponded to its front hoof raised up. With a slow motion it imitated Velvet's gesturing.

"Good gods Velvet. We're manufactured a mare, but its a idiot." Night Light sighed anxiously, rubbing his scraggly chin. Was this the end result of so much carnage? There had to be more. "Please get it to do something before I throw myself out a window."

Velvet didn't bother lambasting her husband for his rudeness. She climbed up the stair until she was standing right below the throne. The creature leaned back so it didn't have to look down on her as much. "Few dreams are important enough to have a name. You're special little thing though. You're a fundamentally divine thought, so strong you can come to life." Velvet said. "So say your name. Say Astral."

The thing sifted its flesh around, becoming more proportional to Velvet's body, but still easily quadruple her size. Still it had a mess of thin flesh tendrils in the place of its mane and tail. It stood up on the throne. "Aaaaaa-" The uncomfortable mental intrusion surged into everypony's head again. "A- Astral."

"Very good!" Velvet beamed. "Astral Nacre."

"Astral Nacre." Through its mental communication, the sinewy thing's emotions were communicated perfectly. It was in awe, it was afraid, but more of all it felt hungry. It was a dog hoping to get a treat from Velvet, or perhaps a fledgling squawking so its mother would regurgitate it a meal. "Astral Nacre."

"Bravo." Velvet stomped her hooves, a smile spreading on her face. "You can do better than that though. I don't raise slackers. There's about a century of memory swimming around in that head of yours. Communicate abstractly, Astral Nacre."

The thing she called Astral Nacre did not blink. Not at all.

"You can read my mind, can't you Astral? You were up there for a while so surely you have some familiarity." Velvet's smile grew. "So say what I'm thinking right now. Easy language practice. Worry about the meaning later.

The unwelcome voice started out slow. ”My mother Velvet has brought a new life into this world for the third time.” As it went on, it added the intonations, the emphasis, and the pauses where they were lacking, until the words being spoken into everypony's heads was like a facsimile of a pony voice. It was mostly feminine, and much like Velvet's voice, but different too. It was hauntingly melodic, and hummed on the vowels.
“I'm Astral Nacre. I am more perfect than I have ever been. Everything, the waiting, the apprehension, the pain, has been worth it for this moment. ”

Then the thing called Astral stepped down from the throne and turned a full circle displaying its body for the ponies below her, a revolting sight. It was like watching a flayed pony.

“Ho gods, its awful. Is it a mare?” Sel Lech let his thought escape him. “Oh Celestia, it’s looking at me!”

Astral was indeed looking at him. It took a purposeful step forward, but apparently ignorant of stairs, tumbled off the dais and rolled all the way down in a flurry of limbs and fleshy tendrils until it splashed into the bloody floor pool.
"Uwww." Its unspoken voice uttered a facsimile of a grunt of pain.

Velvet chuckled and shook her head. "Maybe I shouldn't be having children at my age. Old mares beget misdeveloped foals."

"I hope you're laughing to ease the pain and not because you find this funny." Night Light said.

"Relax. You're worrying about nothing." Velvet consoled him. The eyed the throne. There wasn't much remaining of Seacrest expect a bloody smear on the cushion. The Blackhorn Armor had been tossed away into the corner during the transformation, so Velvet scooped it up and folded it neatly. "Things could have gone much worse. I gave us a half chance of being exploded by either the alicorn or the ritual."

One pony not feeling better about the situation was Fleetfoot. She was whimpering and pleading over Rain Gnash, the latter still bleeding terribly from her missing parts. "oh no oh no." The Wonderbolt tore at her hair in panic. "She needs help! Please!"

"Rain Gnash survived." Velvet arched a brow. "But what's this?"

The 'this' in this case was the Astral thing, picking itself up. The alicorn was focussed on Gnash and Fleetfoot, and once on its hooves it stalked towards them. The place where it'd lain and at every hoofstep, the blood pool was gone, absorbed into the monster.

"Oh great." Night Light massaged his temple. "It's going to eat them."

"Let's get a closer look." Velvet grabbed his shoulder.

Velvet and Night Light descended to ground level. Sel galloped up to them. "My Lady, is it under your control?" He asked nervously.

"Nope. Isn't this exciting?!" Velvet was giddy. "Come on. Closer!"

Fleetfoot's whimpers trailed off as she noticed the huge creature casting a shadow over her and her admiral. She stared, uncomprehending. "W- w- What?"

Astral Nacre shifted shape again, returning to alicorn-like proportions. Her inexpressive beady eyes betrayed nothing, but the little head motions showed how she went from looking at Fleetfoot, to Gnash, then back to Fleet.
"Hhhhgggggg" It's thoughts gurgled.

Fleetfoot hunched herself over Gnash protectively. Her eyes were desperate, begging the other three ponies in the room to intervene.

"Hggg Hggg heeEEeehhh!" Astral made strange sounds like a machine straining against itself, or how Velvet assessed, a stutterer trying to force out a word. "Hee hghhEEEeee!"
It took a step closer to Fleet, close enough to kick the pegasus.

"Use your words, Astral." Velvet urged her creation. "Use your mind, not mine now. Create the meaning, then the words to convey it!"

After a tense moment of silence, Astral lowered her head a bit. Her fleshy mane of tendrils cascaded around her elongated face like a mop. "Heeh." She said at Fleetfoot again. "Hee haaa hiii hiii hIE hie hie hi."

"Just say hello, Astral." Velvet giggled.

"Hello." Astral mimicked. "Hello. Hello." It lifted its head and lowered it again, like some manner of animal signal. "Hello, Fleetfoot. Hello, Rain Gnash."

"Buck me, it can talk." Sel Lech said. Velvet just smiled triumphantly.

"Hello, Fleetfoot. You... need... my help?" Astral was taking the words slow again. "You need my help? I can help you."

Fleetfoot shrank away from Astral. "Please, don't hurt her!"

“Don’t worry.” Astral soothed, calming words at odds with the invasive nature of her speech. “I want to help.”

“D- Don’t let h- her die.” Fleetfoot managed to say.

“I am... I'm a god of life, not death. Of course I’ll save her!” Astral bobbed her head up and down.
Magic didn’t so much coalesce at her horn as ooze form it, snaking out to Gnash’s body. The unconscious pegasus moaned in pain as magical fire cauterized her wounds. After it was over her breathing slowed to an even pant.

“You… I don’t... Could you heal her?” Fleetfoot asked pitifully.

“ ... Regrow her? Don't know.... More to learn... before that.... Like this.” Astral flicked her tendril tail around, seeming enjoying the way it slapped again her own flesh from the momentum. The moment's amusement over, she refocussed on Fleetfoot. "She's lost parts of her."

Fleetfoot opened her mouth put struggled with the words. "Y- yeah."

"I think... I know where they went. Somewhere here." Astral's leg curved up like a noddle and probed the muscle of her own torso. "I can't give them back. I..." Astral cocked her head. "You want her alive, a lot?"

"Y- Yes!" Fleetfoot said. "Please save her! The Admiral was trying to do the right thing a- and-" She sniffled. "It's my duty to save her. I should have stopped her! B- But she was trying to do what was right for us. I- I-"

"Hmm... No more talking." Astral commanded. Her horn began to ooze magic again.

Fleetfoot began to scream in pain. Then a moment later, both she and Rain Gnash disappeared in a flash of light.

"What happened?" Night Light blinked.

"Oh, uh..." Astral clumsily walked over to Velvet. “I tried to help Rain Gnash. Then I sent them back to Cloudsdale, I think.”

Blueblood and Aurthora, who had been happy to stay at the back of the room, slowly approached. "Lady Velvet, you really did it." Blueblood said. "It look weird, but it's an alicorn. No mistaking it."

"Are you talking about me?" Astral twisted her head around to assess the two unicorns. "I'm a what?"

"An alicorn. A god." Aurthora said. "You called yourself one too. A god of life, you said. You're a divine entity!"

The form Astral's body undulated slightly, her way of fidgeting in discomfort. "I said that?" She looked back at Velvet. "I'm a... A god?"

"Hey, don't worry about it. Doesn't much matter what you are, as long as you're happy with what you are. But I'm just putting it out there that calling you a god serves my agenda well." Velvet said with a smirk.

Astral undulated more. "I... I am a god then?"

"Don't let it go to your head." Night Light said flatly. "Welcome to the Bright World your majesty. I hope you're ready for life as the object of somepony else's hopes and dreams, because it will get old quick."

"Oh hush." Velvet admonished playfully. "Let's enjoy the moment."

The moment, steeped with cruel intentions draped by the facade of selflessness. Among the hundreds of bodies piled high in the throne room were the late Jet Set, Hausseway, and Molar. Seacrest and Foaly Flux had vanished from the world, their entireties consumed by the god Velvet created.
Velvet's ritual was the end of the Empire of Equestria. The new Equestria of Velvet was one with a fleshy monstrosity on its banner, which had been birthed from sheer force of will and the sacrificing of others. It was a gluttonous, overwhelmingly powerful, and ignorant thing, whose first moments were met with empty encouragement and resigned mockery.
It was horrendous. It was at once the best and worst ponykind had to offer.

But what Velvet was searching for in the eyes of her creation, any semblance of pony compassion or joy, was absent. It could think and act like a pony did, but Velvet could not feel the heart of another being. A stab of anxiety struck her heart: Hadn't she manufactured the alicorn with nothing but the flesh and magic of ponykind? Why did her Astral less of a pony that Celestia?
"How do you feel?" She asked.

Astral's soulless pinprick eyes shifted to her. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Velvet narrowed her eyes. "There's nothing you want, or want to do?"

"And as a god... What am I supposed to do?" Astral Nacre asked.

"Command us mortals." Blueblood proposed.

”Commands? So... I don’t know. I command, err whatever it is that mortals do. Eat breakfast, perhaps? Pursue dental hygiene? Sorry, really, but I don't want to. Yeah, I don't really want to be bogged down with all that.” Astral took a step back. "I want to leave. Does that mean I command you to let me leave?" She turned away and, with a pulse of magic, Astral shattered one of the room's monumental stained glass windows. In the midnight sun, the cascade of glass was like a winter afternoon's shimmering snowfall, seen from beside a lake. A lukewarm breeze rushed into the throne room, making tiny ripples on the remaining shallow pools of blood.
"I won't go farther than the city walls. I have to learn some things. Bye- bye." With a sound like rope rubbing against itself, Astral's wings unfurled. They were spindly constructions of muscle of bone, abjectly un-aerodynamic. But with a few flaps, Astral proved alicorn magic made up for that. She lept out the window, and soared into the air on her impossible wings. Out, over Canterlot she flew, before descending like a vulture into the maze of the Inner City.

“I did it. Should I have?” Velvet clenched her jaw. She leaned again her husband, letting him take some of her weight. The exhaustion of so long awake, and the exertion of the ritual were catching up to her. Ignored for hours, the stink of death in her nose was begining to sting. “Night Light... There's a chance history doesn't view this moment fondly. Am... Am I wrong to wonder, did we did the right thing?”

Night Light accepted Velvet, holding her close. “Is the voice bothering you anymore?”

Velvet sighed. “N- No.”

Night Light cooed. “Then everything is going to be fine.”

Chapter 29: Twilight for the Empress

Discarded and unattended, Nightmare Moon’s armor lay silently where Twilight's nightmare had tossed them. They'd suffered a thousand years in the soil of the Everfree in a mass grave, they could survive a little abuse and neglect.

When the nightmare completed her apotheosis and tore a hole in the clouds above, the armor was the first things in the castle to dry off in the eerie sunlight. All through the nightmare's speech, and her conversation with Celestia, they waited patiently. They heard the nightmare’s final threat, and still did not stir.

~~~

Much like Celestia had, Twilight's nightmare preferred to fight at a distance with magic. With a peal of laughter it sent out a beam of blackened energy, an instantaneous flash of seething darkness, that sent Celestia and the three nightmare ponies scrambling for cover.
"Yeah yeah! This is what it feels like to be alive! Stretch your wings, run your mouth, let the magic fly!" The nightmare sang, reveling at the fear she was causing the others. “I have been thinking about a name. I’m so far beyond the mundane nightmares, I deserve distinction.” To emphasize her point she threw another magic beam in Applejack's general direction, keeping the pony pinned behind a pillar. "Come on, throw out your suggestions. I think I want it to have the word ‘Spark’ in there somewhere, as an homage to our dearly departed Twilight Sparkle. Plus the poetry of it: Spark of life, spark of genius, spark of rebellion. Yes yes! I love a good spark! It's an initiation into something marvelous."

Letting her aim wander intentionally, the nightmare peppered the back of the throne room with stone shattering pulses of beam magic. Celestia, too regal to take shelter, hoped around the edge of the hall while stopping here and there to countered with attack of her own. Celestia's magic crackled harmlessly against the shields the nightmare conjured.

From their cover, Applejack and Rarity tried pelting the nightmare with debris, but discovered it had no effect beyond making them a target.

"Cut that crap out! You're just making her mad!" Dash shouted to her compatriots over the cacophonous sound of a spell exchange between alicorn and ascended nightmare.

"Pshh, and I thought facing Celestia was going to be impossible." Rarity rubbed her eyes.

The longer the spell duel lasted the louder it got, not only for the crash of the spells against each other's shields, but for the nightmare's eager laughter. It was more than in the mind now, but a tangible sound brought to life the the sheer amount of magic in the air.
But the atmosphere was far from joyous. The glow of the nightmare’s horn somehow stole light instead of radiating it, the sheer brightness, hiding it’s multitude of luminescent thin eyes.

But after a minute the barrages abated. The sound and light died away and the nightmare ponies peeked over their cover.
The nightmare was pacing back and forth at the head of the throne room, chuckling to herself. Celestia, closer to the entry hall and the weird model solar system, was standing in place, breathing hard.

"Good one, good one." The nightmare nodded. "I still want a that input on a name, princess. Don't leave me drifting here."

Ceelstia slowed her breathing to an even pant. "Please cease your muttering." She said softly.

“Naturally, references to my nightmare heritage must feature, but I cringe at just throwing it out there. ‘Nightmare Spark’. Euch. It’s forced, predictable.” Making use of her complete weightlessness, the Dark creature lifted further off the ground, but stayed just below the steadily drooping ray of sunlight peering over the clouds. At the new angle she had a bead on Rarity and Applejack ponies, and so forced them out of their hiding spots with a hail of stinging magic darts. “ ‘Dour Spark’, or ‘Bleak Spark’ are good, but they just don’t convey the emotion, the PASSION, I want them to. I need a name that will peel the cartilage from your bones just by mention.”

“How about ‘Sour Spark’!” Dash peeked around her cover long enough to shout.

“That makes me sound like a fruit candy.” The nightmare said while blasting away at Dash’s position, forcing the pegasus to flee while dodging lethal oblivion.

“ ‘Foul Spark’ would suit you nicely.” Rarity said. She'd run jumped out of the throne room entirely and was shouting in from a window.

“Close, but that word makes me feel unclean, like I didn't bathe properly. Was that your intention? Very clever, little Rarity.” The nightmare shuddered. Instead of determining Rarity’s exact location, the she opted to summon a torrent of fire in the mare's general direction. The castle was damp enough to stop any permanent damage, though it did throw up a big cloud of steam.
"Come on girls, it's like you're not talking this seriously."

Celestia took advantage of the distractions of the nightmare ponies to stalk through the steam and shadow, until she'd worked her way behind the nightmare. With a silent hiss she let loose an attack at full power. A storm of magical arrows perforated through the creature's smokey fur or dissipated against its bones, but within moments it reformed. Apparently with the element of surprise counted for nothing.

"Oh that's cheeky, princess." The nightmare whirled around and drenched the area in spell lightning as Celestia pulled back. "Do you have a suggestion, Celestia? Something haunting, that will wake you up in a sweat thinking about it. Name me something that won't sound out of place what mentioned among the likes of you, Twilight, and Moon."

“You're an arrogant cur. A challenging fight be sure, but your name will not deserves to be spoken in the same breath as mine." Celestia mused darkly. She took shelter behind the broken remnant of her old throne. "Good name for you. I weep even thinking of it. The Forlorn Spark."

“OOOooooh!” The nightmare shuddered in ecstatic bliss. “I like that one, princess! Forlorn Spark. It just works, on so many levels! Reminds me of that time you forsook poor Twilight here, sealing her doom amongst none who cared about her. Forlorn, lost! Left to the wolves!” She chuckled. "And to the nightmares."

Celestia shouldn’t have let the taunt get to her, should have pushed away emotion a to a point where it wouldn't register in this already overwhelming battle. But the princess’s clarity of mind was fading, and so it went.
“I did not abandon her.” Celestia growled. Though her body must have been far beyond too exhausted to do so, her heart was charged with indignant rage.

“I can’t even fathom what you were trying to accomplish! Were you saving yourself from her, or her from you? Honestly I think that would be an amazing matchup." The nightmare, who was already beginning to think of itself as 'Forlorn Spark' said.

"I trusted Twilight. Implicitly." The internal drum's beat, rippled through Celestia. She stood at full height once again, but the nightmare, floating carelessly above her, pressed further.

"We did did terrible things to her, Celestia. She suffered like nopony else ever has, except maybe your sister. Funny how that works, with everypony you've ever cared about succumbing to this curse. Maybe you just bring out the worst in ponies." Forlorn Spark shook her head in mock disappointment. "Alas, the only one who cares about you anymore, the only one who is here for you, is me. Little Forlorn Spark, Twilight's only child.”

“YOU DISGUST ME!” Celestia batted aside her concealing cover, a collapsed marble column, like it was no more than a ball of yarn. “DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK OF HER THAT WAY AGAIN!”

“But it’s true!” Forlorn Spark cooed, touching down in the stone floor. “I’m all that’s left of her. Really I am! And I'm proud of that. She was a good pony. But I'm her and more. Isn't that the dream of every parent, to have their prodigy go on to greater things.”

“You are the spawn of Tartarus, and I will squish you!” Celestia rapidly advanced on the adversary she was blindly affixed on.

“Twilight was your student. Maybe… Maybe it’s just natural progress that I’m your equal, or perhaps your master! What do you think about that theory Celestia?”

Celestia’s first hoof swipe carried all of her momentum straight through the air Forlorn Spark had teleported out of an instant before. The nightmare reapeared in the same place immediately after Celestia had passed, and bucked the alicorn forward into the castle wall.
A large portion collapsed, raining marble slabs and aged mortar down around them.

“Come on now, old mare! Throw everything you have! Show me why your figh! Is it for Twilight’s honor? Laughable, ha ha! You don't understand one thing about her, hee hee heee!” Forlorn Spark laughed maniacally. “Hah, all the same I will take your abuse, and I will thank you for it. Twilight thanked you so often, didn’t she? She loved you once, and you have her the cold shoulder. Hah! The sun princess was far too frosty!” She tilted her head up, a subtle taunt. "Would you have killed our darling Twilight if she'd gotten uppity or rebellious? Show me how you'd have done it! Squish this little pony! HEE hEE!"

Celestia, with a combination of magic and precise bucks, batted the falling debris at her adversary. Forlorn’s shield appeared in time to stop them, but Celestia charged forward again and punched her hoof straight through the bariier. Bits of the shattered spell bespeckled Forlorn’s shadowy face, and Celestia’s strike snapped it back with a gruesome pop.
"Quit talking about Twilight! I'll kill you!" Celestia roared. Her next hit took Forlorn on her exposed neck, shattering her spine across the room. "I'll kill you!"

For all its savagry Celestia's attack was not nearly enough. Forlorn’s hoof swung blindly around the right at her, and Celestia ducked under. The princess similarly dodged Forlorns left hoof, but this time grabbed it with her magic. She used the nightmare’s momentum against her, and threw Forlorn full across the room into another wall.

"Ahh ahhh..." Celestia gasped for breath. She eyed her opponent. "Barbarian."

“\Celestia, why are you out of breath.You can do better than that!” The haunting voice rung out melodically. Forlorn Spark floated upright, her dislocated leg and sickeningly contorted head popping back into position. Her neck reformed after that. “Poor showing, honestly. I know you can do better than that! Twilight may have resented how you treated her but she respected you as a tallented magician. I mean, the sun beam you opened with was amazing, but everything after that's just pathetic. Tiss tiss, I feel disappointed. " She nickered. "Are you weak, Celestia? Not just tired, no, but genuinely weak? Is there something... weighing you down?"

The celestial retort came not as words but as another hail of stone debris. Forlorn Spark let the heavy missiles bounce off her shield once again, clearly bracing for a repeat of Celestia’s strike. Her distraction meant that she was oblivious to the stone wall behind her fracturing and collapsing until she the falling stone had buried her.

“I actually think you’re doing quite well, Princess!” Rarity called out to Celestia from her hiding place, and Dash and Applejack sounded their agreement.

“And when I am done with her, you can expect this divine mercy as well.” Celestia said darkly. She was beginning to calm down from her enraged high, tiredness welling up once again. She had the power to fight this last time, but too much exertion would cause amounts of permanent damage. Celestia’ felt her organs withering, their functions barely maintained by force of will.
"You will accept punishment quietly." She warned the nightmare ponies. "Or, I will annihilate you now."

A battle the princess was loosing much quicker than the one with the Forlorn Spark was the one inside Celestia’s mind. The overwhelming, world encompassing anger that had empowered Celestia was a lavish fuel for Dark impulses. With every word Forlorn spoke, more evil intentions seeped into Celestia’s heart, threatening to turn her away from everything that mattered, and into a world of ceaseless hate and black intentions. Gone was trepidation, moaning, crying. She wanted to fight and kill!
But she could not be free of fear. Fear ruled the fury: Its darkness gripped at Celestia's heart, telling her she would die and her death would be unimportant and insignificant. It knew how to play her, in an entirely different way than Forlorn Spark was. The end result was the same: Celestia was unraveling.

"So much storm and thunder, and this is what I get?!" Celestia barked at the wall she'd send crashing down on Forlorn Spark. She danced from hoof to hoof, trying to relieve waves of itchiness spreading through her muscles. "Don't keep an old mare waiting."

“Immph rrrleeh dnd shhe diss wrkkng phhr eh.” Forlorn’s voice was muffled by the tonnes of rubble atop her. Vaporous tar emitted from between the cracks, rebuilding the nightmare in the open. “I mean look at me. You can't put a dent in me. Know why? Because I stand for an ideal, and I refuse to let you hurt me."

"Buck off!" Dash booed from the sidelines. "I hate that ideology crap! I was sick of it months ago in Chitin!"

"You mis understand me. I guess I'm too poetic for you." Forlorn Spark laughed. "Seriously though, if you actually want me dead you should change tactics. Pugilism Is a hobby, but no way to annihilate an enemy."

"Come over here!" Celestia had enough of the mouthy nightmare's talking.

"Ohh fine. Pugilism it is then." Forlorn rolled her dozen eyes.
As quick as a dart she dashed forward and struck out with a hoof. Celestia dodged and pushed the hoof away, but didn't have a window before the nightmare's horn was stabbing at her face. The princess threw herself to the side and the nightmare's horn sliced through her etherial mane. Now facing away from Forlorn, Celestia bucked behind herself but didn't connect.

Like a black zephyr, Forlorn Spark darted away then back in, lashing out with hoof and horn again. Celestia was able to parry the horn too this time, but still was too slow to get a strike in. Forlorn glided along the ground, away and counterclockwise, then dashed in again, repeating the pattern several times as she circled.
Finally Celestia anticipated the opened hoof strike well enough to throw Forlorn horizontally. With a roar the white alicorn cut up with the free hoof, smashing into the nightmare's ribcage. Forlorn, undeterred to the hoof in her guts, threw her hoof back and smacked Celestia across the face with the force of a runaway wagon. The crown, which had miraculously stayed atop the empress's head to that point, went flying into a tuft of weeds growing out of the floor.

"I can hurt you more." Celestia promised. She pulled back her hoof and struck in the same place. With many of the bones broken from the first hit, Celestia's hoof went all the way to Forlorn's spine and shattered it out her back. leaning back on her haunches Ceelstia repeated with her other foreleg. Like a praying mantis, the princess had both front legs jammed through Forlorn Spark's body.

Forlorn twisted her head around to admire the mutilation. "That's just excessive!"

Before the nightmare could get another quip off, Celestia pushed with her hind legs, lifting Forlorn up with the intention of slamming her down. But Celestia's move was as excessive as it was unstable, and Forlorn needed only to twist her body a little bit to throw Celestia onto her side. Indeed the twisted motion pushed Celestia into the fall harder, and with both hooves trapped in the nightmare's body she couldn't brace herself. The princess smacked into the ground face first.

Forlorn's body dissolved and reappeared above the fallen princess. "Very nice! Again! Imagine Twilight on her last legs, barely clinging to life. Beat the light out of her. Relish to see it fade!"

Caught up in her mockery, Forlorn didn't notice Celestia pulling her hindlegs up. With as much force as she could muster from the disadvantaged angle, Celestia bucked out, catching Forlorn straight on the chest area. The nightmare did not move an inch. Forlorn looked at the hooves, grinned her eye-y grin, and reformed with a hoof wrapped around them. With a whoop, the nightmare pulled Celestia by the legs and launched her into the fallen wall. The princess bounced off the pile of old stone with a pained grunt.
Forlorn was on top of Celestia before she could move, tramping and bouncing on her while screaming childishly. Celestia took three kicked to the head before she forced the nightmare back with a burst of magic. Shrieking like a demon, Forlorn Spark bounced off the walls and ceiling then launched herself back in. Celestia was getting weary of Forlorn's agile movements and was ready for her: The princess tried to meet the nightmare with her horn, and though she succeeded in driving her horn into Forlorn's chest the nightmare's momentum caused them both to go tumbling back against the rubble pile.

They jumped to their hooves.
"You seem to be having a hard time killing me." Celestia's breath steamed into the damp air.

"And you're getting angry. You're letting your Light shine out! You're proving you can exist without your sun." Forlorn cooed, rubbing the black ichor seeping from her many wounds into her fur. "I wonder if you'll not begin to agree with me about changing this world to fit our existence."

Celestia glared."If you don't like it here, why don't you leave?"

"And why don't you leave? You're clearly not accomplishing anything."

"You unnatural beast. Every moment my remorse wains. I will avenge Twilight on you a thousandfold!" Celestia roared. Points of light began to wink in and out of existance in her etherial hair, like little embers. "Your blood will properly sanctify this, her mausoleum!"

"The irony stinks sky high. YouIf you can't recognize your part in her fate, then there's no more reason to talk to you." Forlorn rolled her shoulders, stretching for the next bout. "Sorry princess. Next break we take to chat will be when you're too weak to stand. Change my pitch up baby, because this'll be a critical beatdown."

Forlorn very deliberately advanced, her shadowy wings spread wide, her eyes blinking out of sequence to make sure not a millisecond passed that she was not watching Celestia. Celestia swayed on her hooves as she waited, patient despite her racing heart, analyzing all the possible options.

"You ready princess?"

With a sweep of her wings, Forlorn Spark threw herself forward. Celestia hesitated for a moment too long and absorbed the hit on her chest; She stumbled backwards but stood fast.
In a mix of gold and deep violet light, the two combatants called upon their magic. Howling with each cast, Forlorn let fly lanced of magic. The purple beams boomed as they splashed against Celestia's shield and sizzled as the speckles of liquid energy landed in the puddles around them.

Celestia's counterattack was swift. With every strike against her shield she pushed it outwards, then began conjuring a sword behind it. Finally succumbing to abuse the magic shield shattered, and Celestia thrust out with the sword. Forlorn had the blink of an eye to react, and she refashioned the beam she was charging into an axe. A ear-piercing whine marked the two magical weapons meeting. Celestia's sword of light was batted away like it was nothing.

"Is this the strength of your world, princess?" Forlorn laughed, tugging the axe out of the floor and swinging it around. It's shadowy afterimage cleaved the air. "We're almost there, but not quite. I'll understand it soon."

"You talk too damn much!" Celestia pulled the magic sword up to eye level and narrowed her gait to a fencing stance. A flurry of blazing strikes ripped through the air. Forlorn presented the flat of the axe, and the hefty construct blocked some but not all of Celestia's stabs. With the sword ripping into the showy cowl of her head, Forlorn conjured another axe over herself.
As the purple weapon came swinging down, Celestia threw all her magic into a shield. The impact crackled with energy. The shield held. But Forlorn's first axe came in from the side and Celestia had nothing to block it with. It hit her at her spine right behind her shoulder, amputating her left wing at the base. The momentum carried through and sent Celestia spinning into the intact wall at the head of the throne room.

"Whewy. I'm feeling it. I'm reeeely feeling it." Forlorn moaned. She leaned over a puddle and admired the portions of her face Celestia's sword had destroyed. "The struggle against adversity, a fight to survive... THIS is what it means to be alive."

Celestia rolled to her stomach. The gouge on her side went straight down to her spine, and the vertebra were dented as well. Through her gasps and shivers the tissue healed itself, save the gushing stump of her wing. "Why won't you die?!"

"How haven't you learned yet? I turn my pain into my victory." Forlorn picked up Celestia's wing and lobbed it back to the alicorn. "Ho, if I had been fully mortal I'd have died ten times over. Luckily I'm not, so I didn't." She watched Celestia reattach it. "Are you going to get up again?"

Celestia's eye drooped. The darkness inside herself, anger, fear, loss, pride, wanted to get out so badly. If she embraced that forbidden power, maybe she could fight to a stalemate, or possible even win. Afterwards though, there would be no place for her in the world. The sun, already so disappointed, would reject her, for Dark had no place among light. Any status she would hold among mortalkind would be built on deceit.
She couldn't give up. Not for the sake of any 'world', like Forlorn said, but for the sake of her own soul.
And Twilight's honor.

She expelled a deep breath, stood up, and charged again.

The Canterlot Library had a wonderful selection of exotic books, whole branches filled with manuscripts and tomes from Griffany, Sahella, and Zebrastan. Curiously absent was anything from the land of the hippogryphs, Maredia. Isolationist beyond reason, the hippogryphs shunned trading with their nearby griffin cousins and especially with ponies and zebras.

Twilight knew from various other sources that hippogryphs were the first to make illuminated manuscripts, and had a long tradition of exquisite wall painting. Indeed, the most famous Maredian artworks to make it to Equestria was a striking miniature of two snakes eating each other by the tail, A cutaway showing all light and creation residing inside one snake, and a grey land of shadow and ghosts residing in the other. Scholars speculated that this was connected with hippogryph religion, divine evil integrated with living fire locked in a battle between life and death.

Twilight’s new theory was that the artist had experienced, just as she had, a journey to the moon and back. The grey colorless emptiness of Nightmare Moon gave way, in a consuming and writhing sorcery, to a world whose color was bleached white . She could only wish that moving between those worlds was as easy and painless as eating her own tail.

Nightmare Moon’s armor rattled for a moment or two, but otherwise gave no indication that anything happened. There had been a change in ownership, for through anguish and magic Twilight had severed this part of Moon from the rest, taking it as her personal soul prison.

Just as Nightmare had manifested as a translucent ghost in the altar dream, a visage of Twilight filled out the armor, levitating the helm and cuirass to a standing position.

“I wonder what it would feel like if somepony put me on.” Twilight mused, experimenting with movement. It was strange to say the least. She could feel the armor's surface like skin: The mugginess of the warm air, the rough stone under the shoes, the tickle of a sunbeam on the cuirass. It was unnerving to have the familiar heave of her own breath, or tension of muscle, but she figured she could get used to it.
Yes indeed, the nightmare armor was extensions of her consciousness as much as her body had been. She was a little metal mare, for the moment.

Something passed through Twilight’s wraith parts, dispelling her for long enough that helm crashed to the ground. Picking her head back up, she turned to investigate the cause.

Celestia and the darkest, foulest nightmare Twilight had ever seen were locked in mortal combat. The midnight purple beast weathered each of Celestia’s stone shattering punches easily, and seemed to move twice as quickly in reprisal. Twilight’s teacher and mentor was losing badly.

One, two, three jabs, Forlorn Spark blocked the fourth and retorted with a headbut. Celestia lurched back, but deflected Forlorn’s charge upwards by rolling onto her back, and threw the nightmare into the air. Forlorn recovered mid air, and floated idly as her horn cast blasphemous curses at Celestia’s exposed stomach. Celestia’s roll was almost too slow, but a fast shield saved her life long enough for the force of the spell to slam her back into the ground.
Forlorn returned to the ground as well, planting her hooves on Celestia hard enough to splinter the engraved stone beneath. She reared up to repeat that assault when Celestia bucked her squarely. A chunk of rock almost made contact with Forlorn’s head at the same time, but she intercepted it with her own rock while she recovered her poise.

For a brief second, the two ponies hesitated to gauge the next move, and Celestia looked around the room.

When Twilight had feared Celestia, it was out of an infinitely complicated brew of emotions.
She feared what Celestia would do to her when she saw the nightmare within her, and what she had done under that nightmare’s influence.
She feared what Celestia would think when she was her conversing with Rarity and the other nightmare ponies, what she would think of that blasfemy, how she would react to learning they were Twilight's fault.
She feared the infamy that would evermore be associated with her name, when Celestia told the next pupil about the peril of falling to nightmares.
She feared Celestia’s disappointment, her ultimate failure to satisfy and impress her teacher’s constant desire for her to progress responsably, the failure to vindicate Celestia in her decision to choose Twilight over every other pony in Equestria, making Twilight pupil, then apprentice, then eleve premier.

Probably most of all, she feared what she would do to Celestia. Twilight knew she could do things, powerful terrible things, that could give the sun princess pause. But more than that they would give Celestia pause, not because of their power, but because she was Twilight, and Celestia had trusted her. The promise Twilight had made in the shattered tower of the unicorn school, the promise of self-control and responsibility, would be broken.
At the very moment that the nightmare took her for the last time, Twilight had seen in all play out in her head. She’d foreseen the nightmare using her body to tear Celestia apart, while Celestia let it happen, not understanding, afraid not for herself, but for Twilight.

And in the moment that Celestia glanced away from Forlorn Spark, and saw her ghost watching this final battle, Twilight had fear return to her. She could have been resigned to an eternity on the moon, or in Nightmare Moon’s dream as the dark alicorn returned to Equestria in grand style. She would have learned of Celestia’s fate, win or loose, long after the fact. The prospect of bearing witness now, at what was going to be Celestia’s last moments alive, seized Twilight’s heart with petrifying despair.

And Celestia, staring back at the pale specter of Twilight, felt an ember of hope kindle within her breast. It reminded her that this sordid nightmare horror battling her wasn't Twilight, only a vile shadow. The real Twilight, the Twilight she'd secretly cherished for more than a decade, had not been consumed by nightmares, remaining true to who she was even through the death of her body.

It seemed like hours that they just watched each other, one with fear for the future, and one with hope. The interruption took the form of Forlorn Spark striking Celestia across the face, sending the princess reeling.

“Oh Celestia, there might not be much left of you when we get through this.” Forlorn tittered. “Not that it matters that much what happens to your body. I’m mostly interested in seeing that sun of yours. Come on then! Bring her out! Little Twilight always did love the warming sunlight!”

When Twilight’s eyes tracked Celestia’s fall, she saw a rise of purple at the edge of the raised tier for the thrones. The remnants of her physical body was looking far worse than she’d hoped, looking like a sloppy surgeon had performed heart surgery through the back and forgotten to sew her back up. With a stomach-wrenching wave of nausea, Twilight realized her missing parts were what the nightmare fighting Celestia was made up of. Even if she knew how, there would be no going back to that mortal vessel.

A scream from behind her pulled Twilight back to the battle. Celestia had taken another hit, her distraction letting Forlorn Spark clip her wing with a beam of her magic. The affected part charred and withered under the profane power: Forlorn wasn't holding back now, and every spell carried the pure essence of the Dark.

If she didn't help, Twilight would be willfully committing her teacher to the worst fates imaginable. The beating would go on until Celestia was dead or worse: The nightmare could overwhelm Celestia and trap her within her own mind, then use her body for even further evils.
But that fear, an all consuming anxiety and feeling of worthlessness, held Twilight back. She strained to move, but the nagging part of her mind screamed and bound her in place.

What Twilight couldn't have realized was that Celestia was at peace with herself now.
“You shall have it your way then.” Celestia solemnly said to the nightmare looming over her.
She closed her eyes, and every pony in the room could feel the bridging connection as she reached out to her mother star once more. Forlorn let it happen, her manic eyes mimicking an ever-widening smile.

She found herself on that plain of white again, were the featureless waste stretched to infinity in all directions. The figure of light was already there, laying peaceably under the radiant sun.

“Coming here was the wrong decision, in every way.” The figure's tone was flat but had all the emphasis of a biting jeer. “You have jeopardized not only yourself, but me as well.”

“I’m not here to fight you again.” Celestia said softly.

The figure rolled to its hooves. “You would even consider fighting me? My poor child, you're most certainly are given to the most abject of stupidities.”

“But I still need the use of my sun.”

“YOU OVERSTEP YOUR BOUNDS, CELESTIA.” The figure pushed herself into Celestia’s face. The entity's hazy boundaries felt like numb static on Celestia's skin. “You have been too long away from this place, forgotten propriety, forgotten the truth of things! You are hardly even a sun princess anymore! You are a delinquent!”

Celestia bowed her head slightly. “And yet, here I am.”

“You poor thing. Perhaps I should not abuse one as handicapped as you.” The figure slinked back down to her resting spot. “I expect too much of you, for what you are. Yes... You prove quite clearly the folly of philandering in physicality. You would provoke doubts about the point of seeking to guide mortals.”

“If you were even capable of doubt.” Celestia quipped.

“Am I meant to be chastened by that?”

"If you were mortal."

"Were there being more great and glorious than I, I would thank them that I am not mortal." The figure said. "Do you remember when you shared that sentiment? What happened, Celestia? What has led you to this foolishness?"

Celestia sighed. How long ago was it that she dreamed of spending the rest of her (hopefully unending) life in detached luxury, letting the administrators and bureaucrats run Equestria in her name. That empire... had it ever been hers? The ideals it had been ruled by where not her own, but those of her mother sun: To guide every pony to their destiny in a harmonious and gentle way. She felt very little connection to it despite being the pony to steward it for nigh on eight-hundred years. She'd invested no blood, no sweat, and no faith in Equestria. It was there when she came, and was it really her fault it was dead for her departure?

What did Celestia believe? Did she have anything to believe in besides the vain preservation of her own life?
She darkly mused how being locked in a death battle and abused by a creature who hated her most in the world was a near second.

But there was... The ponies she cared about.
Celestia cared for Cadence and Twilight. She would not hesitate to suffer for them. In fact, looking into the heart of her mother sun, she dared to suppose that she had killed Equestria for them: In a land free of restrictions on the dreams of ponykind, those two could flourish like they so righteously deserved.

If evil proliferated as a result, so be it.

“I harbor no ill will towards you. You are what you are, as I am who I am. However, certain things must be done.” Celestia said plainly. “I would not rejoice to see you hurt by my action. Therefore I must accept any alternative to the nightmare attacking you, with me as a means."

“You want my cooperation.” The figure crossed its hooves. "Why do I sense duplicity from you, Celestia?"

"I don't know." Celestia lied.

"You are tempting fate then. You want to let forth the power of the sun with none of the responsibility that comes with it." The figure said, danger in her words. "If I were paranoid, I might think you put yourself in this situation to extract concessions from me."

"I'm a delinquent, but that doesn't mean you can insult me with an accusation like that." Celestia growled.

"Very well then." The figure uncrossed her hooves and held one out. "You are still my daughter. Withholding my power from you is no way to act."

"Was that an apology?" Celestia smiled weakly.

"As close as you shall get from me." The figure said. "Face her then, this presumptuous nightmare. But be very careful, Celestia. You are in her rhythm now."

Celestia took the outstretched hoof. "Don't worry." She whispered. "This is a game we Celestias have played before."

Though she remained standing stone still, eyes closed, a renewed vigor and life flowed into Celestia. Her mane and tail shone more brightly and lapped more energetically at the castle around her.

“I can feel it.” Forlorn Spark cackled, overjoyed. “The real princess is coming out to play!"

Twilight could feel it too. And if her many years of tutelage under Celestia had taught her anything, it was that the static that now charged their air was a prelude to trouble. Big trouble.

Nightmare Moon had never lost a limb, or even had one go so numb she lost all sensation, but she guessed that felt something like she did now. Twilight had not been overstating the pain of having her soul divided.

For an indeterminate amount of time after she lay within the moon, letting the agony subside into the vague numbness that she was used to.
It felt like there was a hole in her chest. She never really thought about how much of her was one thing or another: Her soul, her moon dream, her armor, her moon denizens... The being that thought of herself as Nightmare Moon was a composite of these things.
She tried to grasp what part of herself she had lost with the armor.

"That silly filly." She manifested herself on the surface again, just so she could stare wistfully up to the Earth again. "If I had known how it would feel I would not have let her do that to me. Oh well. I should have known better."

Perhaps it was her senses deceiving her, but she imagined she was a twinkling light shining out from the mass of clouds covering the southern half of Equestria.
Then, on the side of the moon facing the sun, she felt an unexpected jolt. A pulse of energy, a kind of psychic letter-in-a-bottle, struck her surface. Gathering the willpower to do anything other than be equal parts miserable and proud of herself, Moon opened her mind to the message.

It was not from Twilight like she had been expecting, though on reconsideration Moon wasn't sure Twilight knew how to send psychic messages, considering it was an alicorn discipline. Indeed it was from the second to last pony she’d ever spoken to, a thousand years past.

In the living memory of the civilizations of Equestria, no alicorn had ever used their full power. As could be expected, letting loose so much divine power in the physical world had detrimental effects for both the world and alicorn. There were a few folk tales and rumors, started by theologians who liked to read between the lines of the dogmatic texts, that Celestia I maybe did: That great and powerful alicorn to whom all the successor Celestias were candles to a bonfire, had used the unadulterated power of her stellar mother only once to defeat a great demon. A very ambiguous tale, likely not grounded in reality.
The divine, by its very nature, was not meant to exist in the Bright World. Once upon a time, there had been no sun, no stars, and no moon to shine onto that solitary planet. Go forward a hundred-thousand years, and the divine broke the rules of exclusion with casual ease, with every mote of light that struck the earth.
What was one more time, Celestia thought. The world could survive breaking the rules a little more.

The most noticeable difference she felt upon returning to consciousness was her heart, distractedly loud inside her ears. Their beat was slow, almost surly in it’s delivery. By an odd compulsion Celestia found herself timing her breaths to that cardiac rhythm.
And then there was the power: the power of the sun. Though her mother had withheld her basic connection with the deep connection to the sun's pool, usually a comforting warmth that gave her no more or less than she needed, what now affected Celestia was like a liquid hearth, pushing more and more heat to every extremity. The fire and energy, not burning her up, but burning with her.

The nightmare pacing before her was quick with her quip. “I can taste it in the air! I see it in your eyes! And I smell something. Is it… An actual challenge?" She laughed, dancing weightlessly on the tips of her hooves. "Yes yes yes! You've found your conviction at last! I want to know, princess, how your hate feels. Let it drive your hooves. Drive them into me again and keep them until I've burned inside out!"

Celestias objectives presented themselves such: Destroy the abomination that was Forlorn Spark, use her remaining time in Equestria setting her affairs in order, and die. In that order, preferably.

Like a clockwork watch, the sun ratcheted into it’s noontime position.

The nightmare ponies (Celestia forgot they were there; They weren't doing much) darted for cover. Forlorn Spark, who bathed in the stellar rays with indifference bordering on impetuousness. Usually a Dark creature would be devastatingly crippled in the purifying light of the sun, but Forlorn didn't care. Forlorn wanted to fight in the sun.

So Celestia let loose a sunbeam again.
Once more the sound of a pure stream of nuclear fire millions of times hotter than anything which could conceivably exist in Equestria, even at an atom’s thickness, was nothing short of world shattering. Like a lightning strike, it was there one moment and gone the next, though unlike a lightning strike the trail of flame into the sky lingered for seconds after.

Celestia bore the shockwave, though she saw that specter-Twilight and the nightmare ponies were bowled over by the hot front of pressure. Celestia noted the necessity of caution, lest she re-vaporize her former student.

Forlorn Spark’s missing head reformed from the amorphous cloud Celestia’s lance had converted it to. Her twenty slender eyes blinked experimentally, glancing back at the pony-sized crater that had marked the concluding point of the lance.
“Oooh, fantastic shot! I wasn't prepared for that at all.”

The time it took to talk was time not spent dodging the follow up. Deafening thrum after thrum rolled across the forest and valley, scrambling or dispersing storm cloud formations across the Dneighper river valley. A dozen of the solar beams rained down with a singular target. Each lance had the brightness of a star, connecting the million kilometers distant sun with Celestia’s foe.
Ponies on coast of Equestria looked up and trembled at the wrath of their god, a midnight sun bringing down unrelenting power. Creatures in Griffany could not fail to notice flashes of light on the horizon. The bugs of Chitin and emus of Horsestralia continued to wonder why the sun had darted away

And again and again, Forlorn Spark reformed. Fire, even that of a nuclear nature, could never pin down the aspect of smoke. Celestia did not care; She only wanted to give a convincing effort to satisfy her burning hatred.

Finally it Celestia ceased her relentless bombardment, and let the suspended dust and ash clear away. She'd completely lost track of where Forlorn was and had sent the last few lances into an empty corner.

It took a few minutes to regain her hearing. The first thing she heard was her own steady breathing. The second was her own thoughts, released from the grip of adrenaline and passion.
Damn, Celestia thought. She had never felt so alive. No wonder Forlorn Spark was as giddy as a filly. That monster let her wild mind carry her to undreamed of ecstasies of violent indigence.

The third thing Celestia heard washed the good feelings right out of her.
“Mother! I’m glad you’re here to see this!”

Celestia froze in place, and the methodical beat of her heart was impelled. Celestia had hoped that the nightmare’s single-mindedness would keep her occupied; A false assumption, for Forlorn had noticed Twilight.

With a powerful sweep of her wings, Celestia blew the dust away so she could see. Forlorn Spark was grinding Twilight’s armor pieces into the ground with her hoof, something clearly causing the specter a great deal of pain.

“I missed you so much, you couldn’t even believe! Did you see the fight? Wasn’t I brilliant? Are you proud of me mother?” Forlorn spoke with such excitement, such enthusiasm, Celestia feared that it was genuine. “I’m a big girl now! And strong too! MOTHER! Tell me I’m pretty! All the other mothers love their daughters, why can’t you?”

Celestia was horrifying. Forlorn's eyes eyes, wobbling and desperate, showed the first hint of weakness she had let so far. Could it be, far beyond Celestia's willingness to understand, that the nightmare's rambling about Twilight wasn't just said to be unnerving?
What was Forlorn? Nightmares did not call there hosts their 'mothers'. What did being an 'ascended' nightmare entail?

Celestia grit her teeth and shook her head. It didn't matter what Forlorn was. The monster had said herself that they were mutual enemies, unable to exist in the same world.

"You must forgive me again, Twilight" She thought. Celestia prayed that it’s millennium of survival so far spoke well of the nightmare armor’s ability to survive her next attack.
Celestia reached out to direct her sun lance, and found her mind entangled in a sullied plane of repellent fury. Startled, Celestia tried to pull away, but she was far too entrenched in the sun now.

Her mother sun had let her bumble into a moment of weakness, and was trying to take control.

The silken magical strands weaved their way downwards from heaven, wrapping around Celestia at many points. The pure spring of energy the sun had provided Celestia turned into an inky red well, bubbling into her heart, rendering her powerless against the spectral noose. The bindings tightened, jerking her upwards. Celestia struggled to breath, and failed when she was completely lifted off her hooves.
The treachery of it! Celestia would have been outraged if she was not so terrified. Her mother was actively acting against her now. She writhed, to no avail. The sun was going to punish her, with no care for precipace the world was on.

"W-Wh-" Celestia tried to choke out a plea to the sun.

“Oop, almost forgot about our princess. I’ll be right back mother!” Forlorn Sparkperked at the sounds behind her. She kicked Twilight’s bits away, and turned dangling princess. “I'm sorry for neglecting you, but you didn't need to go and leave. I just got so excited with Twilie here.” The thing’s formless face leaned into her, it’s eyes rippling in imitation of a kiss. Forlorn was loving to see Celestia suffer. "What a pinch, huh? As it turns out, the sun isn't so great for you either. Real shame, considering you've just started respecting yourself enough to put up an honest fight." Forlorn reached a shadowy hoof out, teasing the solar shackles binding Celestia. "What did you do to make her hate you more than me? Is she sad? Angry? Pshh, mothers. Fickle things. Beautiful, but fickle.”

"GGg-" Celestia tried to beg for help, but the tendril around her throat was too tight.

Twilight struggled futilely to reassemble the armor and stand up. Her pieces had been scattered too far from each other, and Forlorn’s abuse had drained her too much to act. She was aware but helpless as her mentor had the life squeezed out of her.
What had she been expecting, coming back from the Moon? Yet another blunder, serving only to divide Celestia attention.

A cool east breeze blew over the castle. It was not sickening or malignant like a nightmare, but clear and stiff, a cathartic breath from beyond the world. The ponies and nightmares could feel the change, and looked around in confusion. Celestia, lacking for air and energy, feeling the life draining away from her, raised her heaving lips into a knowing smile.

At a deliberate and ominous pace, the Moon rose above the horizon, and settled herself occluding her cosmic sister. Blocked by the eclipse, the meddlesome influence of the sun was ended.
Celestia fell to the ground, gasping for breath for what must have been the fourth time in an hour. She rolled on her back and stared up at the grey moon overhead, as everypony else was doing.

The Moon wanted to return as a force upon the Bright World, after a thousand years of languishing.

Chapter 30: The Children of Heaven

“Fa la la la laaaa, laaa, laaa, la la la laaaaaa” A cheery serenade sprang unwelcomed to Sel Lech‘s lips. “La la la la lah, laaa, la la la la laaaaa” It was likely the association by location; The Royal Gardens were usually such a happy place, alive with music and ponies enjoying themselves.
Trying to shake away the jovial earworm, Sel planted his shovel into the soft ground once again.

Three-fourths of the bodies had been buried already, covering about the same proportion of the garden’s function lawn. The grounds were still littered with spoiling trash from the Estates party earlier in the evening, competing with the corpses for the attention of the flies, and now the pristine green carpet was scarred by the evenly spaced graves and excess soil.

Sel stop and regulate his breath before he vomited again, or started panicking. The mess of graves, the sun’s idly watchful eye, everything was reminding him of his doubt and guilt.
His conceit had driven him to horrible things. What he had wanted was difficult to grasp, even to himself. Recognition? Respect? He didn't think of himself of the kind of restless colt who wandered the streets looking for trouble, but it was starting to feel he'd done just that. A misguided sense of adventure had led him to the horror he was in now.

But like he remembered Velvet once saying, it was worst of all to sit in idleness. Cruelty and splendor were far more preferable to letting one's soul wither in unproductive pursuits, she'd said. He didn't quite remember the context, but he thought it might have been when Lady Velvet was talking about her son. Sel couldn't speculate what an upstanding knight like Shining Armor would be doing at that moment. Not burying bodies, probably.

"Where would I rather be thought?" Sel leaned on the shovel. "Hmmm... Can't say." He straightened up and got to digging the graves again. "Pshh, what does it even matter." The thought that had followed him all night returned: He couldn't turn back now.

At least nothing had started to smell too badly yet, though why cremation had been discounted Sel could not guess. Perhaps individual burial would be a last show of respect. They'd been killed for their behaviors and values, but they had worth as fellow ponies. Another time, they could have helped instead of being fodder for Velvet's program.

He heard distant shouting coming from the Old Town.

Merciful gods willing, it wasn't Velvet's alicorn causing trouble. Sel Lech didn't want to fathom what 'Astral Nacre' was up to.
In the hazy minutes after it had flown out of the throne room, everypony wandered away to either go looking for it or to look after their own affairs.
Velvet and Night Light had silently gone to make some plans for securing their hold over the city. With the whole Imperial Council, the Estates, the cliques, the Musician's Guild, and the city guard dead, plus the Imperial Household Guard gone, there was literally nopony in the city with the organization to oppose Velvet's coterie.
Aurthora Airy had galloped back to her castle. It was easy to forget that the massive mare was a viscountess, with how willingly she subordinated herself to Lady Velvet or Blueblood. Her responsibility was to gather the ponies of her personal retinue, the Black Horn Council militias that had survived the Wonderbolts', and other commoners to form a new policing force. With continuity of security, there could be implied continuity of leadership.

So Sel was left to deal with the clean-up. That suited him fine. He needed a mindless task for a while, and especially one that entailed no risk of running across Astral Nacre.

He heard another scream, closer.

“Fa, la la la laaaa.” He cought himself singing again. A stress reaction, Sel Lech speculated, the little tune in his head being just a repetitive mental exercise to keep him from dwelling on the horror of the situation. “Fa, la la la laaaa.”

And then there was the question of wider Equestria.

Nopony knew what the deal with Celestia was. The empress was obviously still alive, proved not minutes previous by the thunderous bombardment the sun had cast into the Everfree Forest. Sel thought at first that the annihilatory solar lances were intended for him, Celestia’s punishment for his betrayal of ponykind. But no, when the light passed and Sel opened his eyes, it seemed as though Celestia had more immediate problems in the south. Though he hated himself for it, Sel wished that whatever that threat was would win, so Canterlot would be spared a sun princess’s wrath.

Even then instantaneous death by nuclear fire would the easiest way out. When Velvet had massacred the Estates, she had severed the capital connections of the empire. The ploy had always been that the alicorn Velvet created would be strong and whilly enough to take the place of the regime; After all, Velvet had always described the entity in her dream in only the most cunningly cruel terms. But Astral Nacre was looking anything but.
It was no secret that the empire was weak, and when news of the Canterlot coup spread the landed aristocracy would have their pretext to rebel. If they believed they stood to gain by it, some of the lords would try for imdependance. Velvet’s nonsensical dream of an empire under her abominable creation was probably dead, and Equestria would still fracture.

Some lords maybe would stay loyal to Celestia or Celestia’s memory, whichever the case may be, and attack Canterlot in the name of restoration. If they didn't get allies, Canterlot would fall, and Sel had little doubt as to how it would end for him and his fellow traitors. Duke Lightdowser’s army and the Cloudsdale airfleet were the closest, and there was no doubt of their enmity to this revolt.

Sel looked over his shoulder, to the dim skies over the city, trying to catch a glimpse of Astral over the city. Whatever she was mentally and physically, Astral Nacre was still a divine creature. If there was going to be any reprieve from the coming storm, it would ironically come from the mare it had been created for.

“Fa, la, la, la, la la la la laaaaaaaa.” The grave was deep enough now. Sel grabbed the nearest cadaver by the hoof and dragged her to square hole. Sel recognized her vaguely as the speaker for the countess of Crystal River Run, but did not know her by name. Into the grave she fell, landing slightly askew, but she wasn’t complaining. Sel began filling the hole back in.

The second shovelful of dirt hadn’t reached the bottom of the grave when the whole world went dark. He gasped and spun around, but the attack he feared wasn't there.

"Sel, what the hell is going on up there?" Came an exasperated grumble from nearby.
Blueblood, who had climbed inside the pit he had been digging, peered over the edge and glared at Sel, as if it were his fault.

"Why's your first reaction to blame me." Sel snorted. "You should be looking to the sun."

They both directed their gaze to the sky. The moon, with it’s ever-present cratered alicorn profile, had drifted between the sun and the planet.

“Woah... Somepony turned out the lights.” Sel observed. “I wonder if Astral Nacre had anything to do with it.”

The lunar surface flickered and danced like somepony had blown on the candle light illuminating it. Without any fanfare or further effect, the Mare in the Moon disappeared.

“Would Astral Nacre release the moon demon?” By the waver in his voice it seemed Blueblood was genuinely afraid.

“That’s just an old pony’s tale. There’s no mare in the moon.” Sel said more for his own benefit than for Blueblood’s. “It’s just the eclipse, bending the light and hiding the craters.”

“I heard that Lady Velvet’s daughter, Lady Sparkle, found out something some terrible secret about it.” Blueblood continued. “And that’s why Celestia sent her south!”

Sel rolled his eyes, but inside he was more afraid than Blueblood. He’d heard the rumor, and what was more he’d overheard Prosser’s rants to Velvet about Celestia's Dark foil, the nightmare. He had mostly discounted the connection as implausible, but now the denial was shredded under cruel and terrifying evidence. As a stallion of some education, he knew that the last eclipse had been in the war of the Nightmare Pretender. Something terrible was happening in Equestria. Something that made the murder of hundreds of ponies to summon an unhinged ancient god look like milk spilled into a tsunami.

"We should keep digging." He mumbled to Blueblood.

The moon’s ambush of the sun had been soundless and quick, but now a deep and throaty rumble permeated up from the core of the planet. The eclipse became even darker, and the sky reached almost total lightlessness save for the stars and the muted moon. It took a moment for Sel Lech to realize what was different. The sun’s corona had faded from behind the moon.

Blueblood climbed out of the hole and threw down his shovel. "I don't like this one bit! I'm going to find Velvet and ask er what-"

The sun reappeared, right in front of the moon. Light coursed through the sky like dye in water. Then the moon moved back in front of the sun. Then the sun came forward again. It was like the two celestial bodies were playing leapfrog with each other!

“At least it will be a quick death.” Sel whimpered. With each swap, they were getting larger in the sky. Those incandescent worlds of light were slowly descending to Equestria. “And I won’t have to finish burying these bodies.”

Mis Lead Lock and Iillor staggered onto the deck at the same time that the last blast of hot air passed over the Lightdowser airship. The whole mass of the floating vessel was wrenched up and down by the pressure wave, carrying ponies and loose tonnage with it. The masts groaned in raucous protest but kept the balloon restrained. Celestia’s sun lances stopped falling, and the wind settled.

Duke Lightdowser was at the prow barking orders. “Hoist in those sheets captain! The that last blast blew the storm away!"

"My lord, are you sure." The captain asked tentatively. “What’s our destination?”

“We stage at Ponyville, before we move into the forest. The sun pointed our way, after all.” Lightdowser turned to Lead Lock. “Is Risky secured?”

“He was a bit jostled but I’ve got him in bed with a book.” Lead Lock assured. “Is moving closer wise, my lord? What if there are more blasts?”

“We weathered the last ten, we’ll weather those too.” Lightdowser said firmly. "Why are we not at flank speed yet! Our princess is waiting for us!"

The crew hurriedly rigged for full speed, and the airship began to stir into motion. Clumps of dark clouds were all that remained from the mighty storm, and the helmspony skillfully weaved around the surviving formations.

Once the the last hill transitioned to the grassy fields, the airship began to descend. The village of Ponyville looked sinister in the eerie light and shadow of the midnight sun.

“There's a crash of the port bow.” Iillor leaned off the left-side railing, gesturing to the wreckage of Celestia’s airship.

“Mis Lock, get your knights up here! You will investigate that crash! Captain, take us down at the edge of town!” Lightdowser bellowed. Once he was satisfied his orders were being followed he joined Iillor at the railing. “I’m surprised you know your port and starboard, Mis Iillor.”

“My father was a sailor.” Iillor shrugged. “He used the lingo all the time. Really got on my nerves too.”

Lightdowser hummed broodingly. “My father cursed like a sailor, though he never stepped a hoof past his landlocked borders. However much he loved pushing ponies to their limit, the stallion loved his comfort zone.”

Some clouds had survived over Ponyville, and although there was no rain the village a choking mist was rolling in from the direction of the forest, which diluted the sunlight into a mere glow. The airship decelerated as it dropped, and it’s touchdown on the western extreme of Ponyville was as gentle, though the rumble of hooves jumping off the deck to the grass was not. Lead Lock and the knights immediately galloped back towards the crash, Iillor in tow, while the Duke and the sailors tied the ship down.

“Quite the mess.” She observed. Bits of wood and plaster were scattered from the edge of town to the foothills, though all the hovels seemed intact. Iillor realized that one of the buildings, what she had assumed was a two-story warehouse, had once been taller at some point, so completely had it’s roof been obliterated.
She broke off from the group and cantered into the ruined hospital building.

The lower floors had not gone completely unscathed. The apparent detonation of the top floors had cracked every wall and foundation, and Iillor hesitated slightly before committing to entering. The windows had been shattered and everything within several hoof length into the dark rooms was soaked by the rain. The ground was littered with broken glass and dead fireflies. Passing through the halls Iillor saw that a nurse was still feverishly working to put patients back on beds and clear sharp instruments from where they’d fallen. Other ponies curled up in darkened corners, quailing while they waited for the panic to pass.

"Hey, you ponies alright?" She asked. She didn't get an answer so she shrugged and continued on.

The stairwell that would have once emerged onto the third floor instead opened out to the misty air. The walls and roof seemed to have been blown away by a tremendous amount of energy. Iillor could almost taste the anguish of the Dark magic every surface had been scoured with. A very powerful Dark creature, or maybe several smaller ones, had been born there. That explained what Celestia had been firing her solar lances at.

"Quite the stew of emotions in the air. Lots of hatred, loathing, fear..." She licked her lips. "And if I'm not mistaken, a waft of dream magic."

Somepony had succumbed to darkness and been transformed into a nightmare. Judging by the number of ponies seeking treatment downstairs, the whole town was feeling the effects, speaking to a months-long infestation.

The hazy village air became even darker, the sun’s glow dying. Without needing to see the lunar phenomenon Iillor could feel the change. The loud lamentations of the airship crew in the plain nearby confirmed it. The moon was rising.

“How did Nightmare Moon her head out of her plot long enough to manage an eclipse?” Iillor stared into the mist in the moon’s general direction. “Though I suppose she’s had to step it up, what with all the new competition.”

She nearly tripped on the limp form of a pony on her way back to the stairs. He was a unicorn with a brown caramel coat, his mark, a graph, visible under the torn remains of his lab coat. His brown mane had been tangled by the blast and subsequent rain.

Iillor’s collision with the stallion seemed to have roused him. “Urg, my poor non-ambulatory head… Hwuh… What happened?”

“You somehow survived the rage of a berserk nightmare, probably a patient of yours.” Iillor helped the doctor to his hooves.

“Patient?” The doctor struggled against the pain to prop hold himself upright. “Rarity… and Applejack… and that pegasus mare. The fillies…” He looked horror-struck at his realization. “The fillies went after Twilight! And Rarity and Applejack went after their sisters!”

“Twilight Sparkle?” Iillor whistled. She desperately wanted to meet the pony she'd heard so much about in Canterlot. She roughly grabbed Doctor Horse by his shoulders. “Where did they go? Where is Sparkle?”

The doctor pointed east over shrouded Ponyville, to the Everfree.

The Everfree, where Celestia’s lance had touched down. Adages about birds and stones flashed through Iillor’s head. Nightmare Moon, Celestia, and Twilight junior had converged at the same place as a new host of powerful nightmares. When the predators fight, it’s wonderful opportunity for a jackal or vulture, Iillor brooded.
She didn’t know who the other mares were, but Twilight seemed right in the middle of the nightmares here in Ponyville. The elder Twilight had done an amazing job beheading the Canterlot aristocracy, and it was not impossible that Sparkle could do the same to her alicorn princess.

“Stay here, doctor.” Iillor shoved the stallion back to the ground. “This is going to be a dark night. Get some rest and see to your other patient.”

But when she made to trot away Doctor Horse held onto her ankle. “Please, could you find the other ponies who were here? Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?”

The name Pinkie Pie rang a bell, but Iillor had no intention of splitting her attention. “Yeah sure.” She lied.

Exiting the hospital, Iillor found Duke Lightdowser berating his sailors for panicking about the eclipse. Lead Lock and the knights were returned from the wreckage of Celestia airship, a total loss judging by their moroseness.

Iillor trotted to the Duke’s side. “Yo. Lady Twilight Sparkle is in the Everfree forest. There's pretty much no doubt that's where you'll find Princess Celestia too.”

Lightdowser frowned deeply. “Lady Sparkle would never be foolish enough to go into that forest after Princess Celestia unless she had great concern for the empress’s well being. We need to make all haste after them. But this eclypse complicates things. I know not what to make of it.”

In Iillor’s opinion is was more likely that Celestia had gone after Twilight and not the other way around. But the Duke was right to guess that the situation was dire. She wondered how long it would take him to deduce that a nightmare was the cause.
"Yeah I don't know either. Eclipses don't happen very often."

“The last time, the moon gained its mare. Now it appears to have lost it.” Lightdowser directed everypony back to the airship. “The Mare in the Moon has disappeared, and it won’t take that demon very long to reach the empress.”

Iillor blinked. "Excuse me for a minute." She galloped away from the town, to clear the edge of the slow-moving mist. Looking up to the sky she was able to corroborate the duke’s words. The millennium old engraving, exhibition of Nightmare Moon’s imprisonment, was gone. “Ah buck. She found a way out. That old bag is going to make my life hell.” She sighed.

If Iillor had to guess, whoever had summoned her at the altar in the Everfree Castle had finally managed to summon Nightmare Moon. The altar, its crude design obviously the work of a rank amateur, could have possible been able to let the Dark alicorn through, if operated by a skilled enough pony, The question was, had it been Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, or some other pony.

Lost in thought, she didn't realize the change in the light from the sun vanishing until it had reappeared in front of the moon.
“Ow, my bloody eyes!” Iillor recoiled from the blinding rays. She retreated into the fog, but the light continued to make her skin itch. The sun was angry, its rays violent. "I can pretty well guess it wasn't Princess Celestia who let Moon out."

The light washing over the land had returned with a sinister feel to it. That in an of itself was shocking. The sun never lost control. Even during the War of the Nightmare Pretender, Celestia I and her sun had kept to their divinely ordained patterns, even while Celestia's sister and the moon had not.

"The sun and the moon, both gone mental."
Clearly, something bigger than even Velvet had anticipated was going down in the Everfree probably smack-dab in the center of the Everfree Castle, the throne room. Things had a habit of congregating in that auspicious place.

Clucking her tongue, Iillor galloped back to the airship. The Duke and Lead Lock were calmly debating over conflicting opinion over what to do, while the other knights and crew were panicking around them.
“Hey ho ponies, there's bad news." Iillor cut in. "I'd strongly suggest staying here for the time being."

"On what grounds?" Lead Lock narrowed her gaze, then looked back to Lightdowser. "My lord, she doesn't have any idea what she's talking about."

"Reign in, Lock." Lighdowser held up his hoof. "Mis Iillor, please explain what is going on."

"She's right, I have no idea. Not a clue." Iillor shook her head. "And I'm just saying, but I've learned a decent amount of stuff when it comes to this divine buisness. So the stuff I don't know... well... That's what you have to be concerned about."

Lightdowser slouched. "That argument would not pass muster if these were normal circumstances, Mis Iillor. But these aren't normal circumstances." He nodded to Lead Lock. "Get these ponies back in the ship and get them calmed down. We will be riding out this tumultuous night." He sighed. "And so, the chase must be deferred. Her highness will have to survive without us, though perhaps it is best that way."
With that said, he climbed back up the plank to the airship and disappeared into the cabins.

Lead Lock shot Iillor a dirty look. "Stay out of the way, Mis. I'll be very irritated if I continue to have to work around you."

"I'll go hand out with Risky. He's more my speed." Iillor joked. "Besides, if I wanted to get caught up inn some action, I'd already be galloping to the Everfree Forest. Usually I'm the quickest to run to my death, but lucky I don't feel like it today."

Lead Lock rolled her eyes. "Sure. Lucky. Were it not that we are all moving towards our death, only at different paces. If not for certain death, I think, mortalkind would pursue much more tranquil lives."

By the light of the moon, shadows from every corner of the Everfree Castle coalesced into a writhing ball of pure night. After a moment it split apart, half becoming the mane and half becoming the tail. In between them was a blue alicorn, lips pulled back to reveal sharp predator’s teeth shaped into a smile.

“Welcome back to the night, Equestria.” Nightmare Moon took a deep breath of the humid air. “I know you’ve missed me.”

For a moment she just enjoyed existance, how it felt to wiggle her nose, her eyes drying out, and how the light breeze made her fur rustle.
She shed a single tear. "Oh its beautiful. Being alive was vastly understated." She laughed, blinking back further tears. "Thank you Celestia. Thank you."

"Umm, pardon me ma'am." A mare with a manehattan accent said. Moon spun around to confront the speaker, and saw a lanky nightmare earthy pony peaking over a collapsed pillar. "You should watch out."

"No, pardon me." Moon hopped up on the pillar so she could leer down at the awestruck nightmare pony. "You must be one of the ponies Twilight infected, Applejack. I bid you help then. I am something of an ancestor to the Dark nightmare within you."

"That's great and all, but do you think you can do something about Celestia?!" Came a question from another nearby pile of rubble. A pegasus and an unicorn had also poked their heads out, Rarity and Rainbow Dash by Moon's recollection of whatTwilight had told her. Dash had been the one who'd spoken. "And maybe Forlorn Spark while you're at it?"

"Or really anypony who wants to kill us, the world, everything." Applejack said. "Which, honestly, we don't know if you're on that list."

To punctuate the point, a bolt of black energy whizzed by Nighmare Moon's head and hit a tree growing near the chasm, plasting it apart like it was porcelain.
At the head of the throne room Celestia was locked in a deadly wrestling match with what was likely the newer nightmare alicorn. It was at times a cloud of purple smoke, whisking around the sun princess before resolving into a pony again and striking.

"My sister..." Moon whispered to herself.

Celestia looked like a savage warrior queen, exuding an aura of power and danger, bearing a sneer of hatred. Lightning crackled off her hooves as she jumped and bucked at the nightmare.
And the nightmare, well... It was enough to say that Moon was found a more compelling danger in the thing calling Forlorn Spark. It's aura reeked of magic not found on the Bright World. Twilight dream had reached deep, deep into the heavens to procure that creature. Yet at the same time, that power was drying its damnedest to keep to a pony size, shape, and movement. Moon could only think to describe it as a shadow puppet, mimicked movements on a curtain.

And behind the two clashing divines, the ghostly form of Twilight Sparkle was also beckoning Moon forward.
“Moon!” Twilight cried out. “You have to stop them!”

Moon stared at the scene, listening to the grunts and screams as princess and abominable nightmare traded blows and spells, and occasional quips from Forlorn. The enraged princess Celestia was holding her own, despite the high moon.

"Are you going to do something?" Rarity asked pointedly. "Twilight's relying on you. We're relying on you!"

"Presume such an informal tine with me again and i will strangulate you with your own tongue." Moon snapped. "My actions, I do of my own accord."

"Moody much." Dash said under her breath.

Despite her obstinance Nightmare Moon knew she had to act.
She let out a soft whistle as she let out all her breath. She closed her eyes and let the magic of the world flow into her. In her mind, the world lit up in vivacious color, the magical tides sweeping through everything like a second vision. Breathing in, she let that magic seep into her and snarl around her horn, burning its way into the physical world with deep blue light.
It would have felt even better if Celestia and Forlorn's battle not made a mess of the natural auras of the forest.

Fooling around enjoying to poetry of magic was fine but time was dwindling. Moon called up her Dark magic and dissolved into a shadow. She reappeared at the head of the throne room right by Twilight. The sounds of the battle were much closer and louder. Moon's fur stood on end.

"Please Moon, they're going to kill each other!" Twilight pleaded. "Princess Celestia has been communing with the sun but something went wrong! I don't know what's happening!"

"What do you mean, something went wrong." Moon jerked her head around to scrutinize Celestia.
Celestia was poetry in motion. Every movement, every shift in her weight, it all flowed together like water. She would duck a buck from Forlorn, then seamlessly use her momentum to send the nightmare spinning. If Forlorn Spark hadn't had the resilience of a steel beam she would have been shattered a dozen times over by Celestia's skill.
But Moon did not let herself be deceived into thinking Celestia had the upper hand. Nay, she well recognized the look on her sister's face. It was the same one she'd seen on another Celestia, a thousand years prior, in that very same spot. Celestia I, tired and desperate, ragged from mourning for her Everfree Principality, had fought her in that same way.
"Celestia!" Moon shouted into the din of the duel. "Was it you who released me, or was it your mother?"

If Celestia heard her she gave no indication.

"It doesn't matter who released you. You have to subdue the nightmare!" Twilight said. "It wants to destroy the world!"

“I don’t think I do. I foresee myself waiting and facing the weakened survivor.”

“What?” Twilight shivered. She tried to grab Moon's shoulder, which only resulted in her phantom hoof being dispelled while the nightmare armor bounced off. “No, please! This needs to stop!”

“They really don’t. Equestria is only big enough for one of us.” Moon put her hoof to the cuirass and pushed Twilight back a few paces. “I gave you that armor as a sign of my trust and gratitude, now you have to trust me. Give me this victory.”

A scream then a loud crash echoed through the ruins. Celestia had caught Forlorn Spark and thrown her clear across the room into the model solar system.
Forlorn rolled to the other side, using the model as cover again Celestia's spells, then launched the heafty thing back at Celestia. It landed in the rubble of the altar, coming dangerously close to making paste of what remained of Twilight's body.

“Do you think they are so focussed they haven't noticed me, or they're just ignoring me?” Moon chuckled.

Twilight hadn’t heard that last remark. “How can you be so calm? Without both of them, I can’t return to my body! Please, Moon, I’ll never ask anything of you again.”

“Twilight, part of being friends is asking for favors, but this is one I can’t fulfill.” The alicorn had become impatient and harsh, and punctuated her words by flying to the roof of the castle where she icily stared down at the continuing brawl.

Twilight felt betrayed, but saw the enmity ran deep in Nightmare Moon’s heart. Forlorn Spark had been Twilight's nemesis for all of a bare month, all but an hour of which she'd had no name to hate, and Twilight still had to struggle to wish anything less than complete annihilation on her.

Rarity, Applejack, and Dash were fleeing as the fight migrated towards them, yelping whenever a spell or rock come close to hitting them.
"This can't go on forever." Applejack said, looking between Twilight and Moon. "What's the plan here?"

"Her ladyship is hedging her bets." Twilight said through gridded teeth. "It's up to us."

"Surely you can't be serious." Rarity deadpanned. "You get into this mess and your can't even get us out?"

"Hey I said it's up to us!" Twilight snapped.

"That's barely a solution." Dash snickered.

“Please don’t mistake this as hostility darling, but we’re none too eager to get between those two.” Rarity agreed.

Applejack was overtly nervous. “To be frank, I don’t want to die. I just want to leave.”

“FINE! THEN LEAVE!” Twilight shouted in Applejack face. “All of you can leave! I knew you were lying when you said you hated what you’ve become! Go be nightmares somewhere else!”

“Nightmare a harsh word.” Rarity articulated deliberately, like she was more refined than such an unpleasant concept.

“Very harsh.” Twilight agreed. “The old stories say how they eat ponies whole, and decimate entire villages in their blind and corrupt emotion. After tonight there will be a new story, about how they can be cowards too!”

“Discretion is the better part of valor.” Applejack said.

“I’ll show you valor.” Twilight seethed. “I’ll be so valorous you petty mares will do nothing but cry over my grave for weeks!”

Twilight turned heel and dashed directly into the fray.

Moon went wide eyed. Was Twilight trying to get herself killed? "Sparkle!"

Forlorn Spark chose that moment for an all out offensive, repeatedly percussing Celestia’s shields with thrown objects and crackling spells. Celestia could only keep the barrier up by sacrificing all of her energy, so much so that she had to prop herself against the wall.

Twilight leapt at Forlorn, though her momentum was negligible considering the sum of all the armor parts was barely that of a foal. Still, Forlorn was surprised and confused, and she let up her attack.
"Twilight?" Her shadowy body went hazy then reformed facing her accoster. "What is it? Can't you see, I've almost found the answer!"

But Forlorn's distraction was Celestia's chance, and the alicorn cought the nightmare in a gout of magical fire.Twilight jumped clear of the fire and waited for Celestia to cease her attack. But Celestia continued to pour out orange-red flames from her horn, and Forlorn was increasingly unable to reform herself.

“Princess, stop!” Twilight shouted. “I need her alive!”

Celestia was too focussed to hear her student’s cries. She wanted to destroy Forlorn Spark, and nothing would distract her until that task was done. Celestia poured all her frustration, fear, and pain into her work, letting the spellfire burn at a searing power no sane mare would attempt. The stone around them began to ignite.

“Celestia!” Twilight implored. Her phantom was immune to fire but the nightmare armor began to glow red hot.

Forlorn tried raising a wing to protect herself but that was burned away in moments. She tried to stand but her legs dissolved to ash. Every time her eyes reformed they were charred away. Her every roiling surface recoiled from the fire, and she could not escape.
"G- Good one Celestia." Her trembling voice could be barely heard over the billowing flame.

Twilight sighed pitifully, letting out all the doubts and fears that had hindered her. She charged, and collided with Celestia with barely enough force to wind the sun alicorn.

Celestia cringed, her concentration broken. The spell died off her horn and the spellfire dwindled.
"Ohh..." She took a deep breath. She felt good. Letting out all those feeling had made her more powerful than she had been in centuries, and that was without her sun. "I'm beginning to see it, Spark: A world to live in for my own sake."

"For your own purposes, yes." Echoed the charred blob of Forlorn Spark on the floor. She waited for her eyes to opened again so she could glare arrogantly. "But that's barely a start! Eight-hundred years in this world and you're still like a child to it!"

Celestia looked from Forlorn to Nightmare Moon, waiting patiently at the head of the room.
The moon princess looked like a statue, half-in half-out of the silvery moonlight. Her blue eyes glowed unblinkingly, and her etherial mane and tail lapped around her like midnight waves on a deep sea. It was strange, seeing the Dark alicorn without the nightmare armor: The picture Celestia had kept in her head had always been of Moon in armor.
"We're all children, Spark." Celestia said coldly.

There was a moment of stillness.

"Hello there." Moon said.

"Greetings." Celestia returned.

"Celestia, were you the one who released me?" Moon gave her sister a sidelong look.

"My mother's become estranged to me. Would I truly create more problems for myself?" Celestia gestured to Forlorn Spark.

"Maybe. We love making things difficult for ourselves. We can't get enough of our own suffering." Moon laughed emptily. "Same reason we love not to learn from our mistake, and love to make ponies angry at us."

"Be careful not to overuse that word, 'love'." Celestia bared her teeth. "You were sister to some other Celestia, a thousand years gone. I spare no feelings for you."

"Not of friendship certainly." Moon said. "But what of kinship?"

"Sometimes, good ponies have to shed the blood of their family." Celestia said.

"Yes, so you've proved with that one." Moon motioned to Forlorn, who had recovered enough to sit up a bit.
Spark perked up at the mention, which only served to infuriate Celestia more.

"Hello, Nightmare of the Moon. We've talked before when I was still in Twilight." Forlorn's eyes make their smile. "Thank you for coming."

"We share the Dark, but I'm not your friend." Moon growled. "You hurt Twilight. That's all the reason we need to fight."

"I'm fine fighting for my right to live. Will you dance with Celestia and I?" Forlorn asked.

"That depends on her highness." Moon cocked a brow in Celestia's direction.

"After a thousand years, and you come back to taunt me. I have enough of that in my life already." Celestia said darkly.

"I came to fight for a pony. So did you. So did that nightmare." Moon said. "You by degrees you've forgotten. No, I'd say that nightmare tried her hardest to make you forget! And you were willing accomplice to her ploy! She flouted her intention openly, and you lost it entirely. Pitiful."

"I will show you pitiful." Celestia grabbed Forlorn by the head with her magic and dashed it against the ground, but her unblinking stare was fixed on Moon. "I want to see what I can do."

"Don't mistake your frothing emotion for personality, Celestia! Have you grown at all as a pony, over the long course of your life? No hobbies, no loves, nothing besides passing amusements. Even the duties of government can't hold your interest for long." Moon continued. "As Twilight was explaining all this to me, I was concerned. I thought you were ill. I couldn't understand. But now I understand, after seeing your like this. You're a hollow pony, Celestia!"

Celestia narrowed her eyes. "Twilight... What gives you the right to talk about Twilight." She let Forlorn go. "What gives you the right to know Twilight!"

"Because you forgot her. She was really only a fleeting dalliance to you." Moon accused. "Love her and leave her, that's your way. You came here to put a tidy end to the relationship."

"You have no IDEA what you're talking about." Celestia trembled in anger. Her mane began to spark and glow, like a thundercloud about to burst. "But I see what's happening here. You nightmare have corrupted her. You thought to turn her against me."

"You don't have much else going on. You only had one vulnerability." Moon's eyes wandered to Twilight.
The former unicorn was standing to the side of Celestia, struggling to stay collected.
"And to your credit you tried to push it away. Sadly, you have nothing else to you."

Forlorn joined in the mockery. "I tried to tease some deeper meaning out of you, princess. But you're empty without her. Nothing to aspire to, nothing to idolize..." She laughed, a sound like excited crows. "Oh its so sad! You were made to be a vessel for your mother's ideal for this world. I can tell you want to become something more than that. You want to be your own mare. But you have no dream to build upon!"

"It's small wonder you chose to obsess over a pony whose dream is so strong." Moon concluded.

Silence reigned.

"I can prove you wrong." Celestia said quietly. "If you'd like, watch and see the power of a mare who has the will to change the world."

"Not through empire." Nightmare Moon said.

"Not by divine right." Forlorn cooed.

"But by the force of my life, as a pony in this world." Celestia's eyes flew open. "I hope you're paying attention Twilight! This is how your mentor will purge this world of nightmare."

Moon threw a look to Forlorn, who shrugged. Satisfied the duel would not be interrupted, the nightmare alicorn stepped down from the dais to face Celestia.

Twilight watched in terrified silence. "I- If you're all fighting because of what I did, then you should stop! I don't want you to fight!"

"This is more important than what you want, Twilight." Moon said, stalking towards her sister with her head held high. "This is about what you represent!"

Twilight was trying to formulate an objection about how she didn't want to represent anything besides herself, but it was forgotten as the alicorns spread their wings, signaling the beginning of their duel.

"Twilight and I have had long discussions about how the world has turned in my absence." Moon said. "She would have a good teacher."

"I should think the turning of the world is one the few things you could see without needing it told to you." Celestia took a steadying breath and summoned her magic to her horn.

"I hear they call you empress now. That's too pretentious for my tastes." Moon charged her magic too. "Which means I'm not so much of the Nightmare Pretender anymore. More the Nightmare Assassin."

"You would have to kill me first."

Celestia's magic shot out first, a solid bolt aimed strait at Moon's head. Moon's magic filled the room as she teleported sideways. Celestia corrected her aim for her next shot, but Moon teleported forward through the bolt. With the motion of her whole body Moon spun around and smashed her hoof into Celestia's forehead.

"Nyah-!" Celestia's head snapped back, to stare into the deep dark sky. Behind the moon, the sun's corona burned shown out like a halo.

"And for good measure" Moon bucked Celestia's chest, throwing her onto her haunches. The princess slouched, her head down, and did not move.

"Very well done." Forlorn clopped her hooves together. "I hope that hurts as much when you do that to me."

"What is wrong with you ponies?!" Twilight rushed between Moon and Celestia. "Stop this! This isn't how ponies solve their differences!"

"We're not ponies, Twilight." Moon stared down her nose at the little phantom. "Is there a pony in the room, or the entire forest?" They looked around. The trio of nightmare ponies, Forlorn Spark, Nightmare Moon, Celestia, and Twilight. Chrysalis's corpse was lying in a puddle of its own blood, as was Twilight's body. Spike was somewhere in the castle. "Twilight, like it or not, your life has become intertwined with the divine. Pony morality doesn't apply here."

"How about decency?!" Twilight shouted. "You're a good mare at heart, Moon. When we talk about history and philosophy you get this look in your eyes that tells me I'm talking to the real you! Yes, the heavenly cosmos has idea what civilization and mercy is, but I don't give a damn about heaven! I really don't!" She clung defensively to Celestia's side. "I only ever wanted to be a pony."

"Isn't she a lovely contradiction. The lady with a dream that makes gods, content with this mediocre planet." Forlorn laughed. "I love that about her. I hope I can be half as happy, romping around this world."

"Twilight, you understand that your nature is in fundamental contradiction to the plans Celestia upheld as empress. Why would you defend her?" Moon demanded.

"Because she's my friend!" Twilight shouted. "Is violence the way you want to solve your issues? FINE! Who has a gripe with me? I know you do." She pointed at Rarity. "Get over here and kill me!"

Rarity stared back, her flat emotionless mask betrayed by her fidgeting. "You should calm down Lady Sparkle."

"No? I wonder why." Twilight shifted her glare to Rainbow Dash, then Applejack. "Either of you?"

"I'm not against socking you one when you get better." Dash admitted. "But kill you? I... No. That's, um..." She sighed. "I could only do that to myself."

"All of you are being dramatic." Applejack said.

"Dramatic?" Twilight hissed. "They want to kill Celestia! Girls, she's our princess! She's been our sun for all our lives! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Move out of the way Twilight. I want to talk to my sister." Nightmare Moon said sternly.

"You won already. You're free." Twilight said, pleading. "If you don't leave now you're only going to invite more suffering."

Moon sighed and nudged her ethereal mane away from her eyes. "You're emotional, hysterical. I don't want to get forceful with you. Step aside."

"You're the emotional one." Forlorn Spark said. Now that Celestia was flagging Forlorn was eager to get a rise from Moon. "Poor Twilight hasn't even gotten her body back. Weren't you going to kill me to accomplish that?"

"Move, Twilight!" Moon demanded, getting heated. "I don't enjoy see you and Celestia at the same time. It makes me uncomfortable enough to see you in my armor."

"I make you uncomfortable then? You should have told me on the moon. I could have stayed there while you escaped." Twilight said acidly. "What an idiot I am for not expecting this betrayal."

"Twilight..." Moon ground her teeth in frustration. "I thought you knew that if I escaped..." She took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again she was stern and resolute. "It was always going to end in suffering for mortalkind, Twilight."

Celestia held her head to the ground, her eyes closed, surrendering to the mercy of the luminous figure standing over her.

"Do you know why I tried to take control?" The figure asked.

"To make me desperate?" Celestia said. It was hard to put on a deferential air with how angry she was feeling. She wanted to launch at her mother's manifestation and tear it apart. But that would fail. It was a useless gesture in the dreamscape anyway.

"You are a problem child. To be of any use you have to learn discipline and restraint." The figure said. "But unlike other mothers I have the option to replace you. Succession, Celestia, has been the reliable means to keeping the Celestia line stable and happy."

Celestia said nothing to that. It was unfathomable to discuss her own death.

"Did you release your sister?" The figure asked, changing subjects.

"No. Did you?" Celestia asked.

"I will not countenance another entity using my power while I am distracted. If you are lying about this, I will have to destroy you." The figure said gravely, which Celestia interpreted as a 'no'. "You have understand, Celestia, I have already lost. When you left Canterlot you let our work fall to ruin. That city is fallen to a Dark Force. The nightmares only add to that issue. Hereon, my concerns turn to what can be done to make the next Equestria. Do you think I should let you aide me with that?"

"Buck off." Celestia lifted her head. She was finished being submissive. "Either kill me or give me what I came for. Either way, I do not plan to stay for your lectures."

"You came for power." The figure said, in a somewhat mocking tone. "So you can go back and defend your dear Twilight Sparkle. You show conviction. What did that pony do to inspire that devotion?"

"Not be you." Celestia scowled.

Celestia’s whole body spasmed, her muscles twisting and tensing in waves down her body. She collapsed, screaming as she clenched her head in her hooves.
Twilight jumped away in surprise, while the nightmares waited to see what would happen.

"Priciness Celestia! Princess!" Twilight squealed.

Then, the sun moved in front of the moon.
Acrimonious tendrils of light radiated from the sky and the princess. Though she saw that it was the same solar power that had attacked Celestia before, Twilight could see Celestia fighting back this time: Like two rival infernos, power washed back and forth in the air, lights so familiar to the warm magic she was familiar with as Celestia’s, but filled with hatred and evil intent.

"Woe." Twilight closed her eyes. If she could cry she would have been. "Celestia... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I led you to this..."

There was a crack in the air, and Celestia's body jerked upright. Her eyes slid open, glowing white. "Time to stop this, friends." She croaked.

"That damn fool sister of mine!" Moon screamed. Deep blue magic collected around her horn, and a moment later the Moon moved back in front of the sun.

"Brave try." Celestia waved her horn and the sun took the front again. “But I've been given five minutes to clear you out of this world. After that, its is the time for the next Celestia.” The words said the name ‘Celestia’ with a incomparable disgust, the sun pulsing with furious anger as she spoke them.

"I don't like this turn." Forlorn Spark's eyes swirled around uneasily. "We're moving away from the true Celestia."

"Steady, nightmare." Moon, teeth bared, withdrew one step at a time, not taking her eyes off Celestia for a moment.

"Am I to understand that to be a request for help? I accept that dance." Forlorn grinned. "But her highness wants none of us for now."

Twilight watched, aghast, as Celestia advanced to her, mechanically, like a drugged pony. “Twilight, are you ready to save this world?"

"P- Please..." Twilight shook feverishly. "I don't want any of you to fight."

"Don't worry, my little pony. I won't do anything you wouldn't agree to." Celestia's whited eyes, emotionless and unponylike, said contrary. "But when the ego is stripped away, and the soul is laid bare to heaven, only the gods will be sate you."

"What does that even mean?!" Twilight blinked. "Celestia, I... I'm sorry I..." Celestia turned away and faced the two nightmare divines, Nightmare Moon and Forlorn Spark. Desperate to stop more fighting, Twilight grabbed on Celestia's leg. "Please! I made a mistake! I made several mistakes! I just want to fix them!"

"Don't worry mother." Forlorn Spark stretched her legs and flapped her wings. "Behind that esoteric prattle, the princess was just telling you to have faith."

"And to have faith is to surrender to god." Moon nodded.

With unexpected quickness Celestia grabbed the nightmare helm and brought it to her face. Twilight screamed, as she was within an inch of the burning alicorn.
Moon and Forlorn yelped and rushed forward, but stopped when Celestia lifted a a hoof.

"Don't move or I will crush her." Celestia warned, the light in her eyes becoming blinding. The embers in her mane were become small gouts of fire that waved up and down the etherial hairs. The princess was burning alive. "Remember a thousand years ago Moon? You had tens of thousands of ponies on your side of the castle wall, and I let them die. Somehow I think you will not return the favor."

"I was going to let those ponies die either way. Its just negotiating tactics." Moon whispered, unable to control her little jolts and shivers. "Let Twilight go."

A strange, lopsided smile spread over Celestia's face. She squeezed the nightmare helm making Twilight scream in pain. "Lady Spark, I can see why you had so much fun with her." She lifted Twilight up, to dangle helplessly in her grasp. "To imagine we missed out on years of this kind of fun, Twilight."

Twilight blinked away the swirls of color and haze of pain. "Princess..." She swiped with her phantom hoof, caped off with the steel horseshoe. It grazed Celestia's neck, only ruffling the fur. "You're not... my princess!"

“Can you see the future in my eyes, Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia, or whatever was speaking through her, asked with pained force. “Celestia will see you do terrible things. Fires, yes. You will start so many fires in this world. Equestria will burn, starting with the Everfree. I blamed Celestia before, for letting this happen. But now... I see how at fault you mortals are. Why do I bother with you creatures."

"Guh, like my nightmare said, if you don't like it, leave!" Twilight swiped again up Celestia grabbed the horseshoe between the pinions of her wing and pulled it away. To Twilight it felt like her arm was ripped off, as that part of her phantom faded away.

"You're not looking, Twilight." Celestia smacked the nightmare helm into her forehead. Twilight was eye to eye with the blinding light. "This world wants to throw off the divine, all by the work of one two mares, a mother and daughter. Ah, but my daughter's complacence helped too. This night has seen more daughters created to ape the divine. It is a fantastic duel, between the mortal urges to cling to its mother's leg, and to fling itself into a reckless unknown." Her goofy smile became savage. "What's this ringing in Celestia's ears? Why is her heart pounding? How can she be this excited just to be close to you?"

“Let me go!” Twilight screamed. Yes, she could see the future, behind the hellish eyes of the sun demon. She saw a swirling clouds of Light and Dark falling over a landscape, fire, then ash. She saw herself, first with a smile, then a blank look, then a smile again with a sword in her hoof. A shadow stalked over her, and she and the shadow moved in different ways, but yet as one. Blood began to fill Twilight vision. She tried to grab her own face, maybe to somehow stop the blood from pouring out of her eyes. She saw horrible things, inflicted by and against her in equal measure. "AAaahahahah! Let! Me! GO!

"When you get to the future, greet it kindly, like a friend you knew one but long forgot. You have been warned, Twilight Sparkle." Celestia intoned. “Thus same choice to you as Celestia had: Preserve yourself or preserve your world.”

“This has gone on long enough!” With a sweep of her wings, Nightmare Moon jumped down to the rubble-strewn throne room floor. “Celestia, or whoever you may be, you will desist! If you have a problem with this world, take it up with me, for it is now my world.”

“To be honest, my Dark friend, you do not concern me.” Celestia said, leveling her gaze on the other alicorn. “My message has been delivered. This body will die soon.”

“I said, put Twilight down,” Moon demanded, murder in her movements. “and face me.”

Celestia tossed the nightmare helm to aside, and turned to fully face Moon. “Nightmare, if you insist on making a quarrel of this, I will have no choice but to oblige you, and spare Celestia the worry”

“Fie to you, you wicked, jealous god! How much has the Bright World suffered because of your arrogance?!” Moon sent shadows streaming along every surface her astral mane and tail touched.

“Time for us to die, darling niece.” Celestia said calmly. She looked so helpless, skin pulled tightly over a decaying soul. She looked like a hunk of charcoal thrown left in the firepit, dwindling dying heat, serving only to put out ash.
But in their momentary contact Twilight had detected what Moon could not: This creature still had the power of the sun, and no qualm about using it. In fact, there had been no sign of any emotion in that vast, nebulous entity. It really was just light playing through smoke, yet on an incomparable scale.

"Moon!" The nightmare armor was too far apart for Twilight to manifest. "Moon, run away!"

Willfully or otherwise, Moon didn't hear her.

With a final roar, NIghtmare Moon teleported to Celestia, reared up and about to stomp down on her sister's head and neck.

Then nothing happened.
As in, literally nothing. Everypony was motionless, no sound. Their motion, their emotion, their place in space... It was all static.

Twilight would have blinking if she could have, trying to get rid of whatever afterimage frozen in her sight. But nay, the world around her seemed to be just frozen.
"W- What?!" She tried to move on of the armor parts, just to reassure herself she wasn't also frozen, and was able to scrape it along the ground a bit.

Somepony else was also moving though. Celestia, humming to herself, stepped back from Moon's mid-air attack. "How quickly they forget." She said, a hint of condescension in eerie resonance.

"H- Have I been taken to a dream?" Twilight wondered. "What happened to them?!"

"If you had your body you would notice how hot it has become, or how difficult it is to breath." Celestia droned. "That is because the air is not convecting."

"Not convecting?" Twilight repeated. "But that's impossible... Air convects all the time! Even in static systems, there is some-"

"What about a time out of time, Twilight Sparkle? A time that doesn't exist?" Celestia trotted to the model solar system, knocked off its pedestal and laying on the floor. She grabbed one of the five smaller orbs, the size of a pony's head and solid stone, and snapped it off the stand. "This is the power of a being that dictates the course of causality." She motioned up to the sun with her snout. "Light streams down to heat your matter, jolts and moves your constituent atoms in random but predictable ways. This is how I guide you mortals. This is the true power of the DESTINY I lay out for your kind."

Twilight watched helplessly as Celestia trotted back to Moon. She played with the stone orb, showing off its weight. "But then I..."

Celestia flared her wing out, showing off the blue steel horseshoe she'd pinned between her pinion feathers. "In the Phantom Time, there is only one agency: That of its creator. You move because I will it, Twilight Sparkle. Everything does. When, or if, I ever loose patience with this planet, I can... Stop the show."

Twilight's mind was a frothing sea of conflict. This being speaking through Celestia was undoubtably that of the divine sun above. The sun, who all ponykind cherished and in return was guided by, was known in dogma to have unapproachable benevolence and infinite intelligence. Ponykind surrendered its sovereignty to her daughter, Celestia, because it was the sun's great guidance that provided the peace and harmony of mortalkind. Celestia had never talked with Twilight about her mother, beyond laconic quips about the difficulty of raising the sun, and certainly never anything to make Twilight doubt the Celestianist dogmas.

But what Twilight was looking at now was so at odds with that idea! It was evil! There was no other way of putting it! Looking at that creature made her feel stick to the stomach, in a metaphorical way, and made her deeply upset to reflect on a life of casual worship. Was this the being that had heard her prayers in moments of weakness? What kind of heinous designs did it have for her life?!
They said a pony shouldn't guess into god's plans.

"I do this out of love, Twilight Sparkle. The love of a god is too complex for you to understand." Celestia turned back to Moon. "You can not prove to me that mortalkind could survive in a world without Light."

"Please!" Said so often already, Twilight could not think to say anything else. What else could she, a fundamentally weak creature caught in this divine clash, do? Only beg. "Let Moon go! Let Celestia go! W- We all just want to live!"

Time resumed.

Celestia used the stone orb like a club. Time might have been released from the sun's grasp, but Twilight saw its arc in slow-motion. Moon viscous cry of victory became a wail of confusion as she realized her prey moved positions. She looked up, locked eyes with Celestia, and was the orb coming down on her.
Twilight swore that in the last moment, Nightmare Moon tried to look her way.

The spherical stone smashed into Moon’s unprotected temple, redirecting the alicorn’s momentum with a sickening crunch. Moon spun away and bounded off the wall. She hit the ground and stayed down.

“Celestia never foresaw your death in her premonitions. One wonders of its implications.” Celestia hobbled to where Moon had collapsed. The Dark alicorn's forehead was caved in, and her ragged breathing was not improving as her magic slowly healed the normally fatal trauma. The one eye she could open was fixed on her sister, daring her to follow through. “It must not change very much. A thousand years of waiting, and you die in the first little fight.” She raised the makeshift club high over her head. “Fortunate. Nopony will ever know you existed at all. Their Destiny will go on.”

Moon tried to say something but it was swallowed by her pained gasps.

Twilight, unable to turn away while the armor pieces were separate, closed her eyes. But she couldn’t block out the sound, and the anguished waves of magic Moon radiated through the castle. The tortuous execution lasted a minute, before Celestia dropped her bloodied stone to the rubble-strewn floor.

“Do you hate me?” Celestia asked the empty castle. “Are you ready to kill, now that you have hate in your heart too? Can you kill nations? Or will you let yourself die and save Equestria?”

Twilight did hate. "Isn't it a self fulfilling prophesy if you drive me to do what you fortell?" She could not have but more hate in her words if she'd said them between bites of that loathsome god's neck. But then she would be hurting Celestia too. And she had no mouth still. "You don't play by your own rules!"

“Well what is it? Do you want to live or die?” The thing speaking through Celestia had no intention of considering Twilight's accusations. She picked up the different parts of the nightmare armor in her magic and piled them together. "You can make the choice right here. I will help you fulfill it."

"Go to hell." Twilight refused to manifest phantom body, remaining in a pile. She refused to give the murderer in front of her any more.

“Not choosing is not a choice. Previous of the old Celestias used to say. The twenty-seventh.” Celestia said. "Consider, I can pull a choice from you. Forget what you think torture is Twilight."

"You do this out of love." Twilight said bitterly. "I say do it! The more time you waste with me is time you're not hurting the other ponies of this world!"

"Don't worry. We can have our experience in a Phantom Time. Will it not be beautiful? No movement on the entire planet, except for you, and me beside you, searching for your answer together."

"Ehh! Buck you!" Twilight spat.

"I observe a pattern. Celestia said that before she surrendered her body to me." The god said.

"Stop." From the other side of the room, a whispered word cut through the shouting. Forlorn Spark, crouched over Nightmare Moon's body, had something so say. "I'll chose for her."

"By what right?"

"Right? Oh ho ho, let's not get into rights and duties here. That is a philosophical discussion for another time. Let's just say, I do what I want. Let her stop me. Let any of these ponies stop me." Forlorn stood up, her multi-eyed gaze sliding from Moon, to the sheltering nightmare ponies, to Celestia. Twilight could not help but feel that she was ignored purposefully. Her nightmare 'daughter' did not want to face her. "Arbitrary conquest has been tonight's theme. I'm just following along."

"You started this." Celestia's glowing eyes betrayed no emotion. "Make no mistake, Twilight's dream would not have let to this great of a disaster without your efforts, nightmare."

"Why thank you." Forlorn bowed stiffly. The Dark creature's movements spoke to strain, her tone of voice to barely repressed pain. "I'm a learner see. I'm still exploring how ponies or their elder siblings should act."

"You're no pony." Celestia stepped around the armor pile and stepped to Forlorn. With how quickly Celestia's body was burning up under her mother's power, she starting to look as skeletal as the smaller nightmare.

"Ah, but... If I were, I would be a good one." Forlorn grinned, but somehow with how her many eyes quivered it did not look convincing.

"Enough tomfoolery. You have something to say about Twilight Sparkle's fate?" Celestia demanded.

Black magic coalesced at Forlorn Spark's horn, and it seemed for a moment that she would cast an attack, but then her shadowy wings roiled for a moment, finally dispersing. Her proportions shifted to become less like an alicorn's and more like a pony's, or more specifically, Twilight's. "I'm a proud pony. I won't bow."

"Enough talking." Celestia said. Her eyes began to glow brighter than before, until it seemed that there was a second sun in the castle, filling the air with her presence.
Twilight didn’t know what happened next. The world was filled with light and sound too terrible to describe. She felt the foul consciousness that had snared Celestia fade, or rather withdraw. Then, a tremendous outpouring of energy. For a moment Twilight thought another solar beam had come down.

Then slowly, the presence of Forlorn Spark faded from Twilight senses as well. She had the sudden feeling of being alone, and while all her recent company had been nothing short of horrific, it made her feel very empty.

Twilight cautiously reassembled the armor and manifested her phantom form. It was dark in the throne room. There was no spell in the air, so it took a moment for Twilight to detect the reason.

The sun was gone from the sky. Not just hidden behind the moon, or behind the horizon but gone. She could feel it in the air, like something was missing that she'd never known was there in the first place. The moon was still there, emotionlessly looking down upon the body of it’s princess.
"Oh..." She stood up and dragged herself towards where Celestia and Forlorn had been standing. "What's become of this world..."

"Over here darling!" Oh great, Rarity. Twilight followed the voice to the head of the room, at the rubble of the altar. The trio of nightmare ponies were standing over the prone forms of Celestia and Twilight.
Wait... And Twilight?

Twilight walked over to them. It was very silent: After the sudden transition the nighttime bugs hadn't realized it was their hour yet. The clink of the metal horseshoes felt deafening. "so... We're alive."

"Using broad definitions, yes." Applejack eyed Twilight. "No offense."

"Wait a sec..." Dash narrowed her eyes. She looked between the ghostly Twilight filling out the middle of the armor, and the one laying on the ground. "You're not..."

"Uhh!' A sharp inhalation from Celestia made them all jump back.

"She's alive too!" Rarity stuttered. "Is it going to be the princess or, err, the other one?!"

"T- The other left..." Twilight didn’t try to stop the tears. “W- We can’t let Celestia see what she did to Moon.”

“Let her see? She’s the one who did it!” Dash said.

“No that wasn’t Celestia!” Twilight snapped, mind burning with the sun god's promises, her message of doom. “Not my Celestia!”

“Well, what do you propose.” Applejack asked taking in the scene of carnage.

“Take Celestia to Ponyville. I... Leave me while I-.”

Another moan from Celestia cut off the conversation. Twilight rushed to her empress’s side. “Princess? Are you awake? Princess!”

"Errmmm..." Celestia's voice was very weak. “Twilight.” She murmured. “Were you hurt... defending me?”

Defending her from Moon. It seemed Celestia hadn’t felt anything while the sun was guiding her body.

“I didn’t want anypony to die.” Twilight held herself back from touching Celestia, guilt streaming down her cheeks. “Please I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

Celestia raised her head off the ground, and saw the little purple body beside her. She looked from phantom Twilight to her unicorn-shaped vessel.
"This is..." She fell silent.

"N-Not me obviously." Twilight tried to explain. "I don't know how it happened. There was a lot of energy."

“There is a soul inside there.” Celestia ran a hoof through the purple mane. Twilight mimicked the motion on herself, grinding the horseshoe against the helmet. “Not a pony. It is hard to tell.”

"Spark." Twilight drooped.
If the sun had meant to rebuild Twilight's body, she had done it in a cruel way. Forlorn Spark had stayed alive through the transformation. Like a resilient ember, she sat in the heart of the little purple unicorn spread on the floor.

Celestia was just as conflicted. "She does not surrender her life easily." She admitted softly.

“Don’t worry about that princess. You need to get to a hospital.” Twilight said quickly. She needed to get Celestia away from the castle as quickly as possible. “We’re going to take you to the one in Ponyville.”

“About that…” Rarity trailed off.

“Twilight, no. This is not a fate doctors can reverse.” Celestia said, coughing dryly. “My skin feels tight, and every little movement burns to heaven and back. I fear I will not be moving from this place for the rest of my life."

“Princess, please. You’re not going to die.” Twilight said emphatically. Please, she begged the universe, give me this one mercy.

“She kinda is.” Dash pointed out.

“Princess, dont' do anything rash.” Twilight said. The horrible visions that she’d seen in the eyes of the sun demon danced across her vision. Prophecies of war and suffering across all of Equestria, of hate. “We need you.”

“You need me, you mean.” Celestia shook her head. “But that’s not true.”

“You can't... Princess Celestia, please! Don’t leave me again!” Twilight implored.

“I’m sorry, Twilight.” Celestia dragged herself closer to Twilight’s body. “I promise this will be the last time I wrong you. If I had more energy, this farewell would be longer, but alas.”

“NO!” Twilight interposed herself, but Celestia held her away with her magic. “Celestia! YOU CAN'T GO! CELSTIAAAA!”

“Remember me this way.” Celestia said over her shoulder, then faced the task at hoof. She didn’t need to be so close to the prone pony, but it seemed right. She lifted Twilight's body with her hooves and pressed her cheek against its breast.

Twilight watched helplessly. How much watching, how much helplessness.
Celestia’s eyes glowed gold for a brief second, and then closed forever. Her body slumped over Twilight’s, their manes tangling together. The world became a little darker in that moment, for both the sky and earth had lost their sun.

“Celestia, I-” Twilight quivered, sinking to the floor. “Please. I love you.”

In the silver moonlight, the silent castle took on a tranquil air. The dust and ash had settled, and the burning rubble and sun-scorched stone settled and cooled. The Everfree Forest, unusually so alive with the sounds of monsters and terrifying animals, was quiet in vigil of the sun princess.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack nudged Rarity. Rarity shoved them back, but relented after a few insistent motions. She sighed. "We're sorry for your loss, Lady Sparkle."

“The nightmare and Princess Celestia are dead, just like you wanted. Go live your un-life, and never bother me again.” Twilight sniffled. "Lucky you, you got Nightmare Moon too."

"Don't be harsh my lady. we're on your side." Rarity knelt by Celestia to make absolutely sure the alicorn was dead and wouldn't wake up to kill them. "After all, the amount of trajety in your life has made hating you difficult."

“Buck off.” Twilight mumbled, unable to muster the least iota of emotion.

“Twilight, I’m truly sorry for you.” Applejack said. “This is a sad day for ponykind. I didn’t know the empress as well as you, I but could tell she wouldn’t want you to mourn her.”

“SHE DOESN’T GET A SAY ANYMORE!” Twilight screamed into her hooves in powerless frustration. They let her cry, until she felt so empty that the phantom tears stopped coming. “W-W- Why did this happen? *snif* Why did-.. Why did everypony have to die? How could my sins be so great... TO CAUSE THIS?!”

“Your sin? Concieted isn't it, to think you could cause this by yourself. It’s not your fault. That ruffian that killed Moon was lying, Twilight. It’s not your fault.” Rarity consoled.

Twilight gouged at Rarity with her ragged stare. “You don't understand. It’s my fault Celestia was here. It’s my fault Moon was here. It’s my fault my nightmare was here. E- Everypony is dead, because of me! Everypony will die in the war, and- I’m to blame. I thought I was at peace with the idea of my death... Oh god, I was READY to die so many times, and I failed! I’m- I’m alive. I have my body back. Everypony dies, but everything is just peachy for Twilight.”

“Don’t do this to yourself. These ponies wanted you to live.” Rainbow Dash demanded. Though is was counter to everything her nightmare-enraptured heart commanded, she didn’t want Twilight to suffer anymore. The little noble seemed, for how long Dash had known her, to be more misguided than evil. “Listen, I'm not the best pony to speak on this. I've been throwing myself at death for a few months. Every time, it was my best friend who pulled me back. I- I guess...” Dash shifted uncomfortably. "You have to live. That's what the ponies you respected wanted. Even if you don't respect yourself, you have to respect them!"

“S- Selfish bastards.” Twilight sniffed. “Why doesn’t anypony care what I want.”

"You don't kill a mare because their feeling sad. You get them help." Applejack joined in the somber comforting. "I won't pretend to understand with dream buisness, but I understand its supposed to be a good thing. It's supposed to be celebrated. It happened that your friends had a disagreement about what it means."

"Have some class, Applejack." Rarity chided. "These ponies were divine! don't speak of them so flippantly."

"And how about you have a little respect." Dash snapped at Rarity. "Gods or whatever, they're mattered to Twilight! Even freak face whats-her-name nightmare, in a weird family way."

Twilight lifted her head from the floor. The gesture felt so empty without the weight of her head, or tired muscles, or sweat and dirt in her fur. "If I go on living, do you think I can make the world a better place?"

Rainbow Dash and Applejack nodded. Rarity averted her eyes.

"Yeah well..." Twilight slammed her head against the ground as hard as she could. The helmet bounced off with a metaling ring. Besides stab of pain and chipping the stone floor, there was no damage. "I think the only creatures in the world able to destroy the nightmare armor are dead now. I may not be able to die even if I tried."

"Oh cut this morbid talk." Applejack huffed. "You aren't going to move into you're own body? Celestia's last act was making that possible!"

"I didn't ask that from her." Twilight protested.

"Since you couldn't stop her, you just have to deal with it." Dash said. "Like the nightmare said. It's a night of arbitrary conquests."

"If you're going to repeat everything that windbag Spark said, I'm going to leave." Rarity said.

"Rarity, don't you care about Twilight?" Applejack asked.

Rarity assumed an offended expression. "I respect Lady Sparkle's-"

"SHUT UP!" Twilight shouted. "All of you!"

The nightmare ponies were silent, either abashed or insulted.

"I'm going to do it." Twilight said. "Right now before I lose my nerve. I have to make Celestia's sacrifice mean something."
She reached out to her body, and prepared the same spell that had bound her to the armor. She stopped short of it’s completion.

“I can’t.”

Applejack frowned. “I’m not going to let you refuse-”

“NO, I meant I’m not able too.” Twilight was beginning to panic. “There’s still a pony inside me, err, her!”

“Forlorn Spark?” Rarity asked cautiously.

“No, it’s really a pony.” Twilight slowly backed away, the horror filling her eyes. “It’s a complete pony! I- I- I- t’s me! I feel myself in there!”

Celestia could have said that she’d jumped between more planes of consciousness and existence in the previous month than all of her eight hundred years previous, and be right. Between her prophetic visions, slipping in and out of the deeper Dreamscape, and the dreams of that vast white plain under the sun, Celestia was almost comfortable in those altered states of consciousness.
However, with her body dying and the dream being of such a foreign nature, the transition into the dream within Twilight's body was difficult and queazy. The world fell away, and a hazy world of grey surrounded Celestia.

The atmosphere of the dream was strange, welcoming even. It was eerily familiar, like a beloved melody with it’s notes slightly out of key.

"Twilight..." Celestia floated through the haze, searching for something, but she was not sure what.

Then, Celestia was in a dark room. She lay on a bed far too small for her.
She sat up, pushing the covers aside. It was a haunting inversion of her premonitions.

But there was another entity in the room with her.
“Good evening, Celestiaan.” The voice was distinctly Twilight’s, not even the half throated imitation Forlorn Spark spoke with.

“Evening? I have only just woken up.” Celestia lit up her horn to see who she was addressing.

"But the sun is setting." The thing chuckled.

The floating mass of flesh was an even greater bastardization of Twilight’s form that Forlorn Spark had been. Manic faces watched her eagerly, licking their lips and flailing their legs with a variety of insinuations. Oddly the bloated monstrosity still only had one purple horn.

“I'm tickled. This dream is for gods to come out of, not come in to.” The manifestation gurgled. “Still, if you have sin, you are welcomed here. We do not discriminate.”

“You are the true face of the nightmare plaguing Twilight.” Celestia addressed the creature.

"Not by half." The manifestation's faces quivered.

"Then I have no time for you." Celestia pushed the manifestation aside, and breached the wall behind it with a bolt of magic.
The universe around her resolved into a deep red abyss, its only solid structure an infinite tiered tower of black obsidian. Celestia stood at the precipice, her cell inset into the monolithic rise. “Hmm. The Tower.”

The sickly manifestation floated to her side. “The Dark Lady is waiting for you, at the top.”

Celestia craned her neck to peer at the infinite height of the tower. “How do I get there?”

The many faces smiled viciously. “Think ill thoughts.”

"Pardon?" Celestia arched a brow.

"Send out a thought that's impossible to miss, and impossible to mistake."

Celestia unintentionally thought of her moment in the white plainscape, facing the manifestation of her mother. She thought of her own failure to stop her mother from possessing her body. She dared not think of the horror everypony had faced at the hooves of the sun's wrath.
Did I run away from the consequences, she asked herself. Then again wasn't that the story of her whole life?
"Is feeling guilty enough?" She asked the manifestation.

The manifestation smiled at her knowingly.

The reality of the dreamscape warped around them. She and the manifestation were at the oblate peak of the Tower.

Forlorn Spark was different in the dreamscape then she was in the real world: Her extremities were solid rather than volatile smoke, and although she still had her dozens of eyes, she distinctly had a snout and mouth. A long purple mane cascaded around her head and shoulders.
It resembled Twilight just enough that the wings and appalling face greatly troubled Celestia.

Forlorn staring intensely off the side of her monolith, didn't bother to turn to greet Celestia. “Welcome to the Tower." Her voice was like Twilight's, but more mature.

"The Tower of the Bard." The manifestation echoed.

"Mortals came together to build the Tower." Forlorn continued. "When it was destroyed, they dispersed. Am I to destroy the tower now? My play at heaven failed spectacularly, just like what happened to the ancient Bard."

“The Tower of the Bard never actually existed.” Celestia took measured steps forward. “It’s only a story.”

“Hmm.” Forlorn’s head twisted around to face Celestia well in advance of the rest of her, contorting her neck impossibly. “Will I tell ponies the same about you, Celestia? About me? Pshh, I’m so badly embarrassed that I'm getting angry. All I really want to do right now is erase you from existence.”

“You are too late for that too.” Celestia let herself smile slightly. “My body is already dead. My consciousness will dissolve with yours.”

“You’re trapped in here with me?” Forlorn laughed. “Oh my dear Princess Celestia! I knew you loved me! You’re going to make me regret killing you.”

With a swing of Forlorn's horn, charring black pulses of energy surged out of the ether. The beams of magic washed off Celestia ineffectually. Forlorn arched a brow in surprise, taking her powerlessness in stride. "I expected that to work."

"As would I. It must be that you do not truly wish to kill me."

“Oh really? How could that be true? Why wouldn't I want you dead, unless you had something I couldn't get from anypony else?" Forlorn cooed. "You're alicorn, the greatest of the great others, and one of the oldest creatures on the earth. I'm just one of mortalkind's elder sibling. You think I'm that presumptuous?"

"Yes." Celestia said.

"Ho! Too right! I'm very presumptuous. It is prime amongst my natures. How can it not be, given that I was born out of that ultimate presumption, the mortal desire to become more." Forlorn fanned her wings in display, then shook them back and forth like a peacock. "And I did. I'm more than mortal. But I fear that you might be the only pony who could appreciate me in all my glory. Wouldn't it scare you if there was only one pony who could understand you for who you really are?"

Celestia glared at the Dark creature.

"Hee hee hee! Do you want me to lie?" Forlorn giggled.

"I want you to go away forever before you cause more damage to Ponykind." Celestia said harshly. "I have had to give up much to take you this far. Equestria may feel the cold of an end to a great era of peace, but stopping you prevented a much larger catastrophe."

"Catastrophe. Oh please Celestia, what could a humble pony who just wants to live a quiet life do to be classified a catastrophe? Yes, I was being very melodramatic earlier, ranting about world-changing revolutions and whatnot. I still stand by some of that."

"The nation was threatened enough by three ponies you corrupted."

“Four ponies.”

“Twilight has been separated from you. She will not be harried by the Dark any longer, especially after I destroy you.” Celestia challenged.

“But she was. Without her none of this could have happened. I'll let you accept some credit, and I'll take some too, but Twilight is NOT blameless.” Forlorn tutted. “It could happen again.”

Celestia couldn’t deny that. “Twilight will learn from her mistakes.”

“I think she proved what path she takes once she’s beyond your reach. You left her twice now! Do you think a third loss will be the breaking point? How easily could something else rebirth Dark thoughts within her?” Knowing she had hit Celestia’s weak point, Forlorn pressed. “Without you, how will Equestria face another one of me every five months? She's a powerful pony, princess. So are her progeny.”

“I…” Celestia squeezed her eyes shut. She was confronted with the question she had avoided asking herself since entering the Everfree. Things could not simply return to normal for Twilight. Celestia knew that even the most vigorous pony couldn’t sustain that amount of physical and mental abuse and stay sane. She herself had almost cracked at the mere prospect of Twilight’s fall.

“Consider, it is out of a desire to please you that she pushed herself to be so skilled. What will she be pushed by now? Vengeance? Hate? Apathy? I don’t see that going so well for Equestria.” Forlorn lorded over Celestia now that she had the upperhoof. “Think back to how you treated her. Would you wish that on all of ponykind? How deliciously ironic, that the pony you cared for is the one you wronged the most. Imagine what a terror she’ll be with you out of the picture, in imitation of YOU.”

“I did fail her.” Celestia shakily admitted. “Greatly, I wish I had taken her down a different path. I should have reciprocated, told her that I approved of her progress, of her advances. I should have guided her better, but I can not do that over.”

“That’s right. No do-overs.” Forlorn chuckled. “And with me it’s as if you failed two Twilights.”

“You are not Twilight.” Though as Celestia said this, a peculiar idea popped into her head.

Forlorn Spark replied out of reflex. “I am Twilight, and more.”

“As you are so fond of telling ponies.” Celestia let a challenging tone creep into her voice. “But I wonder if you really know what you are anymore.”

“Do you know what the nightmare is, Celestia? You could call it a parasite, but I prefer the more poetic descriptor. We are a fragment of the primordial pony, the first sinner. Many thousands of years ago the ancient alicorn of Dark, Astral Nacre, destroyed her own race and let knowledge of god spill out over the Bright World. Your kind used to be the buffer between ponies and heaven, not the bridge. I've searched long and deep, but I can't discover for certain if ponykind could dream before that event. That question separated me being confident that the nightmare and mortalkind are the same, or merely wishful."

"And?"

"And thus, I am the fully realized nightmare. A dispossessed dreamer coming into the world in a fusion of the divine and mortal."

“And hence the Tower of the Bard. Unity for mortalkind, and a symbol of the challenge to the perfection of the gods. And should you stretch it, unity between you and Twilight.” Celestia blandly observed. “It is too bad your story is utter rubbish.”

“Rubbish? What do you mean Celestiaan?” The manifestation behind her was as taken aback as a corpuscular mimicry of pony wretchedness could be.

“Explain.” Forlorn demanded similarly.

“All of you are laboring under the impression that the ancient alicorns were the Bright World's protectors. You have bought into the popular conception of them as high-minded, unknowable paragons. I ask, do I look like that to you?" Celestia narrowed her eyes. "Even creatures without dreams can be petty. If you experienced my mother, you know that."

“What, then, is the nightmare?” Forlorn was hesitant. She had no evidence to dismiss what Celestia was saying.

“I will give you some credit, for the nightmare is at once the more derisive and unifying corruption I have ever witnessed. But it is not divine, just a parasite born of a suffering being’s mind. There is no one ‘nightmare’ born from your ‘dark lady’, Anima Astral Nacre. But pain blossoms from the breasts of mortal and god in similar ways. The way it infects or corrupts is not any more mysterious than how a sad creature rubs off on those with whom they interact. They aren't separate beings. The nightmares are only reflections of the dark places in a pony’s mind.”

“That... may be true for most nightmares. But not for me!” Forlorn was struggling adjust to Celestia’s revelations. “I performed the ritual, and created a new life in myself.”

“Who told you about that ritual, hmm? This dream is a thing of symbolic power not intellectual power. Now let's flip the irony , and witness that while you and Twilight could recreate the ritual, you completely missed its meaning." Celestia pressed. “You may know the ritual was an effort to mimic divine power using different media. But let the question be posed, how do you think the ritual works? Instead of a heavenly harmonic, the Stars' ritual is a magical harmonic: The magic of the three pony tribes, woven together into something cohesive.
"But it is a flawed work. The pony magic is not meant to be neatly slotted against another's. There are... rough edged you could say. The ritual does not make a beautiful harmony, but a cacophony that works on brute force alone. It is, in a word, abominable." Celestia nodded with finality. "Hence the elder siblings.”

“No it worked! Look at me! Can’t you see that I exist?” Forlorn smashed her hoof into the tower, cratering the stone. “I live and breath just as much as you! No, more than you! I surpassed you in every way and nothing you say to me can confuse that truth!”

Celestia shook her head. “You are a very sad creature, Forlorn Spark. You don’t belong anywhere anymore. You are too real to retreat to the dark corners of the mind anymore, but too feeble to be your own pony.”

“I'm a pony but... But I’m not. No, I'm not a pony!” Forlorn insisted, her many eyes blinking furiously. “I’m something more!”

“Are you a nightmare?”

“NO! NOT ANYMORE!” Forlorn’s horn bloomed with bubbling purple energy, and the idle manifestation dissolved into foul black fog. “The nightmares don’t deserve me. I am a transcendent being.”

" 'Look at me kill, look at me shout! Being stuborn means I win!' " Celestia mimicked Forlorn. "You are a child, Forlorn Spark, and I do not say that because you were born an hour ago."

"Excuse me for being flustered! I don't recall you being coherent and level headed in the throne room." Forlorn snarled. "I went so far in so short a time. The wax wings melted off oh so easily."

"A fitting analogy. The dreaming body we are in has had its wings clipped, so to speak." Celestia frowned evenly. "A simple unicorn, with none of your pretensions to heaven."

Moody though she remained, most of Forlorn's aggression drained away. She wandered to the lip of the tower again, to stare out into the void.
"Too cruel, Celestiaan. Give Twilight something to remember this night by. Wings won't work without pegasus magic, but they would be pretty."

"You are obsessed with the idea of being a pony, yet you want to be more than pony. What are you after?"

"Life. Security. Other, less tangible desires." Forlorn shrugged. "You can take me by my word. Everything I said in the throne room was true."

"Happiness?" Celestia asked.

"Probably."

"Ah, but that is one thing more easily taken as a pony."

“What?” Forlorn coughed.

Celestia wasn't sure what she was doing. She had a feeling that with a bit of talking, she would have her way.
“I was Equestria's god-empress. I could not have been more distant from the ponies under be if I were across the oceans in Griffany. Aloof, untouchable, and most of all, so bored of it all. It is clear all your accusations about my conduct with Twilight flow from that distance.” Celestia spoke softly. As she looked into Forlorn’s purple eyes she almost forgot it wasn’t Twilight. “I was cut loose from everything that brings us together. Life was so rigid and so stale without optimism or integrity. I lost the joy of life, and now I lost Equestria. I am heartbroken to see my student emulating me, erecting barriers between herself and others, and herself and me.”

Forlorn was silent for a very, very long time. She looked into the murky abyss around the tower, searching for something.

"The voices of the gods are a perfect tone in unified harmony. They are universes onto themselves, songs of life and death." The Dark pony said at last. "One woudl think it is impossible to recreate such a song is an imperfect, dirty place like the Bright World."

"Don't believe the children's fables, Forlorn Spark. The cosmos is a much less welcoming place than here." Celestia said.

"But the songs! The POWER of them. That is what this is about. This Tower," Forlorn tapped her hoof to the floor. "is a song. It is not pretty, no not in the least. But we sang it well, Twilight and I, out of the sacrifice of the energy of the ponies of Ponyville."

"You have a point to arrive at, I hope."

"I was expecting you to call it out before I did, Celestiaan. I'm talking about a perfect magical harmony." Forlorn said. "If, against all odds, Twilight and I could create this tower, then I have to believe it's possible. Imagine mortals with magic so complementary that their harmony matches the power of the gods!"

"The Stars tried and failed at that goal."

"But we are so much more intelligent than them!" Forlorn smiled. "It would be difficult, and it would not being without significant pain, but the mortal soul is maleable enough to allow it. I see what you were saying, Celetiaan! Working together, mortalkind can TEAR DOWN THE GODS AND TAKE THEIR SECRETS!" Forlorn jumped to her hooves hooping and hollering." The Tower was only the first step! We have to go farther."

"You will calm yourself." Celestia demanded, though she was intrigued. "Do not forget I came here to kill you."

"You sly dog! You really did!" Forlorn batted Celestia's mane playfully with her wing. "I get what you were trying to do, and I'll admit I'm entirely sold on the idea. Wax wings turn to bronze, Celestiaan. This setback is going to be turned into an oppertunity."

"My word. Cease the prose and tell what you mean." Celestia pushed Forlorn back.

"Hee hee, you're mad that you've been spending more time with me than with the pony you really want." Forlorn's dozens of eyes blinked in succession. Then she closed them, one by one, until only her two centermost-eyes were still wide and trembling.
Celestia felt a chill come over her. Forlorn looked nearly identical to Twilight.

"What are you offering, Forlorn Spark? Say it clearly, with no chance of misunderstanding."

"We both want something, Celestiaan, don't you see? To peer into the mystery of harmony, I need to be a pony. To attone for your crushing guilt, you need a pony to fawn over." Forlorn gestured to herself. "I am already ninety percent Twilight Sparkle. If it 'accidentally' happens that the pony I end up being is a recreation of your dear Twilight, none could blame you."

The longer Celestia looked, the harder her heartbeat pulsed in her ear. Twilight... She was so close to being her Twilight...
"Y- You're asking me to betray the Twilight out there, waiting for me to kill you." Celestia breathed. She felt like a crushing weight was pushing in on her from every direction. "Y- You think I'd throw away the real Twilight... FOR AN IMITATION?!"

"If you alter me, I WILL be the real Twilight." Forlorn whispered sensually. "Turn me into the pony you dreamed of, princess. You've lost the pony you loved..." She came hock to hock to Celestia and rubbed her throat along the alicorn's fuzzy neck.
"But her daughter is offering herself to you. She's ready to become what Twilight Sparkle was always meant to be. hmmmm" She purred.

Twilight.... Twilight.... Celstia knew she shouldn't let herself be seduce so easily. "I lost her. I failed her." Her eyes lost focus.

There was no guarantee that the Twilight out there would stay on the virtuous path. Forlorn had agonizingly listed all the reasons the poor mare was doomed to a miserable, aimless life without her mentor.

"I can have my Twilight..." Celestia gargled. "I can have her right here."

Author's Note

Here concludes Act One, except for the Epilogue. Very dark times were ahead for Equestria, dear readers.

Epilogue 1: Ponyville Midnight

The childhood of a little noble girl in Canterlot.
She was shy, introverted. She always hid in her room when her mother hosted parties, and she always found a nook to seclude herself when they were attending others'. She found little pleasure in frolicking with fillies her age. But her whole life changed when she saw her princess for the first time, rising to the sky in an awesome display of the power of magic.

'That could stay.'

Childhood had faded with that little girl’s obsession.
She discovered reading as a way to learn magic, and that blossomed into a love of it’s own. Before she even understood the power of knowledge, the filly engrossed herself in any book she could find. If it regarded magic, that was good, but the passion for learning matched her fascination with the arcane. Always in her mind was that majestic scene, the princess and sun ascending heavenbound.

'Some alterations needed.'

But something changed the filly’s life’s course. Across Equestria in Cloudsdale, the Cloud Creche was destroyed in a vibrant apocalypse of rainbow energy. The little filly taking a magical exam felt the pain and suffering that blast had caused, and echoed it. In a lurid display of power, she lost control, and tore apart her surrounding with unbridled magic. Her accident destroyed the examination tower of the Unicorn School. But the princess were there to stop her. That regal alicorn, tall and proud, gave the filly a chance as long as she promised to control herself.

'Dramatic changes needed. Many memories are predicated on this one.'

Life returned to learning.
But this time it was with the princess. It was gradual, interactive, but steady. The filly learned about magic, and was able to use more and more of her magic without hurting anypony. With the help of her mentor, the filly learned to use spells beyond most unicorns. Her princess never let her emotions show, and the filly always pushed herself harder, yearning for a sign of approval. The princess still flew in her dreams, but it was less and less.

'Difficult to improve, but necessary.'

The filly was no longer a filly.
Mares move beyond their youth. And though she was still so young, it was time for the mare to press against boundries. The princess did not agree with this, so she severed herself from the princess. Her new realm was at the university. Without the princess to teach her, the mare taught herself once more. At the university she rediscovered why her childhood had been one of loneliness. She clashed with the other ponies, and one in particular drew her ire. Frustrated with a struggle magic would not solve, the mare shoved herself back into the realm of knowledge.

'Some alterations needed.'

Celestia took a step back from the process. She had to contrive a way that she and Twilight remained on good terms despite Twilight's departure. This was the critical divergence between Twilight she had, and the one she needed.

Good things must come to an end because all things must come to an end.
The mare found a prophecy, and that ran her against her princess mentor. The princess must have not liked what the mare had become, for she sent her away to prove herself. She met any ponies in her new realm, and her attempts to find a home among them were chafed by her innate distaste for other ponies. Alone, the mare fought the enemy. The mare failed, and the world was cast into darkness.

'Significant alteration needed. Many memories about meeting Moon would have to go altogether.'

Is this what she thought of me, Celestia thought. Twilight conception of her princess were unflatteringly brutal. "I won't let that happen again. I'm going to fix this."

Rotten apples have cuts somewhere.
The nightmare fed on the self-doubt and self-pity of that mare. The nightmare ate into her heart, driving her to do terrible things, and feasted on the guilt. When the mare began to fear the princess, it was enough for the nightmare, and she became something greater than either of them. One and one did not equal two, or one and one, but simply one.

'All of that must go. No parts of the nightmare must remain. '

At any moment, Celestia could have done what she'd entered the dream to do: Destroy Forlorn Spark, the dream, and herself. Instead she perused through the cascade memories, surgically changing the little motes of experience as she deemed necessary.
She would fix all the problems she’d made before, and craft a new Twilight. Her qualms faded through the meticulous nature of the work. It was the desire of all ponies to create something more perfect than themselves.

If there had been another consciousness in the head of Twilight’s body besides the insane nightmare creature and the desperation maddened alicorn, maybe somepony would have pointed out the wrongness of Celestia’s actions. What she was doing to Spark and Twilight was beyond unethical.
The memories didn't belong to Forlorn Spark. They were not hers to sign away. It was Twilight’s story, but she was not there to defend her right to her own memories. Celestia’s only companion while she tore out and rewrote a pony’s life was her echo, repeating to her the mumbling madness she uttered as she worked. She had come to kill Forlorn Spark. She was doing so. By this act she would also be setting her affairs in order.

An unknown amount of time passed. It could have been as long as a month or as short as a second, there was no real way of telling.
"Is it done?"

The consciousness Celestia had crafted was nearly identical to Twilight Sparkle. If the real Twilight had been treated slightly differently by Celestia, and made a few different decisions as a result, the thing Celestia had made would have been the result.

They were in a black void, they two. Only creator, and created.
Like a doll, the new pony sat patiently for its master to move it.

"I..." Celestia caressed her Twilight's cheek. "I've done it. I've really done it. I reclaimed you from the nightmare."

The new Twilight lifted its head. It didn't say or do anything, but stare blankly.

"I- Is it really time for me to die?" Celestia asked the pony. "I was never meant to be in the dreamscape. Being here can only harm you now." She clenched her jaw. "Twilight, give me a sign I should stay. I beg you."

Out of the void, a bright light to shine. Celestia sheltered her face from the unexpected brightness with her wing. "W- What?" Once adjusted, she looked up to see what was happening.

The sun was above them, watching.

"Mother?!" Celestia stood up, to jumped between Twilight and the light. "MOTHER!"
A god in a dream. A star in a dream. It was impossible, just impossible! It had to be a mistake! It had to be a trick of the Dreamscape!

The new Twilight rose to her hooves. The dream around them began to take shape, becoming a floor, gaining its joins and creases, then its rough texture. It was black obsidian.
They were again atop of the Tower of the Bard, with an infinite miasma of grey around them. Twilight Sparkle idly wandered to the edge and sat down. The little dreamer stared off into the emptiness, uninterested in the sun's light or Celestia's shouting.

Celestia was desperate and confused. Her confidence and satisfaction had been yanked away in an instant. "This is my sign?" She sunk to the ground. The cool stone of the Tower felt so good on her belly. "I am to try again, force my change? Or am I to give up?"
She closed her eyes. Despite the sun being directly overhead her mental connection to her mother was still severed. "Am I to die?" Perhaps the stone was too cold. The sun was not enough to keep her warm. "Death, death... Is it time to die or no?"

A feeling like an electric shock ran through Twilight’s head, jolting her awake. She felt the adrenalin of waking up from a terrifying dream, but she could not remember what it had been.
She consentrated with all her might, trying to grasp on elusive visions from the dream. A pony... A bright light... And above all else a great amount of hate and fear. Despite her best effort the memories slipped away, and Twilight was left feeling empty.

But where was she. She felt a bed underneath and covers over her. Upon opening her eyes she found it to be very dark, but she immediately recognized room from Ponyville’s hospital, but in nighttime. The atmosphere was much changed from the last time she had been there: The windows to her room were shattered, and every surface was in shadow. Not from inside or outside did any light come.

The hospital? Memories were slow in returning to her. She could hardly remember anything from the last week. Why would she be in the hospital?

Twilight cast a magical light. To her surprise spell came out differently than normal, her magic a much darker purple than what she remembered. The simple light spell was much brighter than she’d intended too, but on second cast she used a minimum of magic to fill the room with a gentle glow.

There were two other ponies in the room.

Both of their coats were perfectly black, and allowed them to hide in the lightless room easily.
One was sitting by Twilight’s bed. She was an earth pony mare with pale green eyes, whose mark was a grey cloud. The other Twilight was not quite sure of. It seemed to exist only as an apparition at the corner of her eye. It was a much larger creature, tall but lean.

“You’re awake.” The earth pony by her bed smiled warmly. “We were afraid you weren’t going to make.”

“Uwwhh." Twilight's throat was dry and hoarse. She swallowed and tried again. "What happened.” She let her light spell dwindle, so it only lit her and the earth pony. The other visitor persisted as a phantom in her peripherals, and it seemed the earth pony could not see it at all.

“That's quite the question. We found you at the edge of the forest after the sun came back.” The earth pony said. “For what happened in the forest? We have no clue. Nopony went in while it was still night.”

The forest, the Everfree. Nightmare Moon, Celestia, nightmares. These words flashed through Twilight’s head.

“I- It’s coming to me.” She rubbed her temple.

“Amnesia?” The mare said with more amusement than concern.

“No, it’s just hazy.” Twilight said. Twilight, bravery, Rarity, Applejack, protection, Celestia, sacrifice. It was like flipping through a picture book, and each page was a blast of a pure concept. Twilight feared what kind of magic would damage her memories so badly. “I think there was a... a fight.”

“Uh huh. What else.” The mare encouraged.

“I…” Nightmare, Nightmare Moon, nightmare, Nightmare Moon. These words beat themselves into Twilight’s mind. She tilted her head slightly to try to see the invisible pony.

Nightmare, Nightmare Moon.
It was lithe alicorn, clothed in a black cape and steel blue cuirass and helmet. It’s horn shimmered with waves of purple magic, and once Twilight knew what to search for she could feel the cloaking spell distinctly. The alicorn didn’t want anypony to know she was watching. Twilight was entirely unsure how she could see her though such a powerful cloaking spell unassisted.

Twilight remembered bits and pieces of her interactions with Nightmare Moon. She remembered there being dreams, her and Moon bound to the nightmare altar. Dreams, Celestia, flight, friends. Was the fight she remembered with Nightmare Moon? Twilight wasn’t as sure, but she recalled the mare with something akin to optimism. Twilight didn’t expect any hostility from her, but she decided to err on the side of caution. She would not tell the earth pony.

“Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said slowly. “the nightmare pretender, the Mare in the Moon. She was there, in real life.”

“And she fought Celestia?”

“Did I say Celestia was there? I...” Twilight sighed, actually unsure of her words in the face of overwhelming insanity.

“Oh, no, I just assumed she was since you were there.” The mare said.

Celestia, mentor, princess, friend, Ponyville, make some friends. Twilight nearly blacked out from the force of the message. Afraid she was the victim of a psychic attack, Twilight reexamined Nightmare Moon’s spell, but it was benign. The alicorn really was just watching, scrutinizing Twilight.

“I don’t know if they fought. I don’t know what happened.” Twilight said truthfully. “A- Are the villagers ok? Is Rarity or Applejack here?”

“The mares who went after their sisters?” The earth pony hummed. “I’m afraid I don’t know.”

Applejack, Rarity, friends, Rarity, Applejack, protection. Twilight barely restrained a scream. It must be insanity, she reasoned, trembling at the prospect.
‘Whatever happened in the Everfree made me crazy.’ She almost told the black mare, but she held back. Something was impelling her forward, telling her to succeed. ‘Succeed at what?’, Twilight dourly wondered.

“Who are the ‘we’, you keep talking about?” Twilight asked. “And who are you?”

“I’m Iillor. I’m a tourist, magic tutor, and a friend of your mother.” Iillor gave a small curtsy. “I’m here with Sharphoof Lightdowser, Duke of Eastern Unicornia.”

For some reason Twilight was having a difficult time remembering who Duke LIghtdowser was, even though she had spent weeks reading about Equestria’s nobility and feudal lords one year while on a history binge. When she concentrated, more words hammered at her mind. Celestia, magic, friends, elements.

Twilight covered herself with the hospital blanket. It was useless. “I need some time alone.” She whispered.

“Hey, I completely understand.” Iillor stood up and backed towards the door. “When you’re feeling better and need to talk about it, I’ll be there.” She closed the door behind her.

There was still one other pony in the room. Nightmare Moon was still watching, unmoving. Twilight tried to focus on her, but the cloaking spell made it impossible for her to know exactly where the alicorn was. Twilight let her light spell fade completely.

“Hi.” Twilight whispered into the dark.

The dark refused to answer back.

“I’m ready to talk to you.” Twilight continued.

A click of the door’s bolt sliding into place froze Twilight’s blood cold. She became acutely aware of the slight scrape Moon’s horseshoes made on the damp tile floor, as the invisible nightmare trod around the bed and positioned herself between Twilight and the open window. Then after a moment of silence, she could hear Moon’s breathing, almost a deep growl, and saw the vapor where her cold breath passed the edge of the cloaking spell.

“I’m not ready to talk to you though.” Moon’s voice was low and gravelly. “But I won’t stop you.”

Twilight was afraid she’d misjudged Moon’s attitude towards her. She could have destroyed Twilight a dozen times over if she had wanted, but she seemed somewhere between caution and fear. That almost made Twilight more nervous than if she was hostile outright.

“I remember you. But not everything. Only bits and pieces.” Twilight said. “Everything feels like that right now. Just bits and pieces.”

"Are you improving?"

"I don't know. I hope I will."

“Do you know what you are?” Moon question sounded almost like an accusation. Without any facial cues Twilight was afraid that Moon was moments away from attacking her. Then again the true answer was completely unambiguous in Twilight’s mind, and the only thing she could do was tell the truth.

“I'm Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

But Moon just let out a long sigh. “I suppose you are. And…” She paused. “What do you want?”

Why would that be a supposition? What was Moon’s purpose is being here? Why would anypony care what I want? These questions raced through Twilight’s head. Twilight, bravery, friends, protection.
"Gah! Damn voices!" Twilight clutched at her head.

"Are you alright?" Moon asked.

"F- Fine! I'm fine." Twilight took a deep breath. “Can I… see you?”

She heard the sound of a sharp intake of breath. Moon took a long time to answer.

“Twilight, I have to be kept secret. Nopony in Ponyville, or anywhere else can know I’m alive. I will... Reveal myself, eventually.” Moon’s hushed tone was urgent. “Do you understand?

“I do.” Twilight whispered, though she didn't. Nightmare Moon was boisterous and proud, not one to slink around.

The shape of the alicorn was outlined in purple magic as the spell ended it’s effect, but had not entirely dispersed. Like the covering being pulled off a statue, the haze lifted, and Twilight could see Moon clearly.

The way her black fur and lustrous mane where raggedly frazzled, Moon reminded Twilight of a hyena. Her slumped posture, pointed teeth, and narrowed eyes bolstered the resemblance. She looked a bit different physically than what Twilight remembered: Her mane was more silky and a shade lighter in color, and her horn was even longer.

But in a most hideous fashion, it seemed as though the steel blue helm and cuirass were sunken into Moon’s flesh. The ornamental horseshoes too, had replaced some of the fur and keratin of her hoof. The black cape with a white crescent moon covered her wings, flank, and mark. It was tied at the base of her neck, not fused to her like the armor. Self-improvment, magic, friends, Celestia.

“Satisfied?” Moon asked, disappearing under the cloaking spell.

“No.” Twilight shook her head. “What happened to you? What happened in the forest?" Everfree, friends, bravery.

Moon sighed again. “I can’t tell you, not yet. I will when it’s the right time. Do you trust me?”

“Do you trust me?” Twilight shot back.

“No. I do not.” Twilight imagined the alicorn shaking her head, slowly and sadly. Silence permeated the room, until Nightmare Moon gave her parting speech. “I’ll... keep in touch.”

Twilight felt a small surge in magic before it died away entirely, and for a moment she thought she had accidentally cast a spell, so familiar was the aura to her own. But no, when Twilight looked and listened again she was alone in her room. The magic had been Nightmare Moon teleporting away.

Twilight was left to her thoughts, disjointed and nonsensical. Sleep found her and, over the rest of the night, soothed the fissures and wounds in the borrowed memories inside her head.

Four Days After The Summer Sun
Midnight ticked over.
Five Days After The Summer Sun

Bridge Prologue 1: Accursed Journey Outset

Three Months before the Summer Sun

It was the eve of many dawning horrors in Equestria. In Canterlot, Vizier Fancy Pants was soon to meet the bludgeon of the murderous Iillor, while in Ponyville Twilight Sparkle was laying her head down for what was soon to be the first of many nightmares.
It was a full moon. The dark profile of the Mare in the Moon glared starkly on the luminescent grey of night's harbinger. From Vanhoover to Manehattan, the span of the whole Equestrian continent, the cloudless skies let everypony see her, and for her to watch back; Only in dreams did it rain. Nothing protected the ponies below from the unbridled light of the stars above.

Baltimare, or 'The Free City of Baltimare' as its full title went, was a compact settlement on the alluvial plain of the Crystal River, where it emptied into the broad and shallow Horseshoe Bay. Baltimare was a close third among the prosperous eastern earth pony cities, its economy thriving from its position on river and sea.

Even at night the procession of commerce proceeded apace. The Baltimare docklands burned with the light of hundreds of lanterns to guide ship to mooring, and dock-walloper to warehouse. Goods and creatures of every exotic variety jaunted along the quay, eagerly heading to, or unsteadily returning from, their chosen vices. The grim eyes of bat-winged ponies, predators by vocation more than nature, watched the waterfront flurry of clashing light and shadow from the rooftops, prowling for disorderly conduct, that they could correct unlawful violence with lawful violence.

A pony looking for a quiet life would hate for Baltimare, but the raucous nighttime also had its beautiful angles. In the middle distance, past the dark roofs of Baltimare's residential and workshop districts, the high city walls and stately city hall could be seen as glimpsed mostly as shadow profiles before the sea of stars in the sky. In the harbor a forest of masts bobbed in the swells, like the pikes of a phalanx on the march. And it would be difficult to deny that lonely sailors found a certain beauty in the myriad mortal pleasures that enraptured and captivated them: Sex, drugs, drink, camaraderie.

That last pleasure could be the most dangerous for a lonesome sailor.
Gilda the griffin was one such sailor.

Gilda stood a head taller than most of the ponies beside her, with an eagle’s head of white feathers and a lion’s bronze body. Each of her wings could cast a shadow over an earth pony, and her long leonine tail ever whipped back and forth to smart anypony who drew too close. Her face seemed perpetually twisted into either a sneer or a smirk, as her eagle-like eyes shifted from pony to pony around her. As the supple moonlight guided her ship into port, she clutched the taffrail with impatience, sinking her razor claws into the sturdy wood.

"Golly gosh, the moon sure is bright tonight." The helmspony remarked to the pilot. "Back in my hometown, we had folk stories about living shadows that came out haunting ponies on nights like these."

"Only haunters in the dark 'round Baltimare are you lot. And the prostitutes." The pilot grunted. She deftly steered the cumbersome barque around breakwaters and sandbanks, into the inner harbor. "Douse already! The rowboats will take over."

Gilda stepped back from the rail. No time for dreaming when it was time to work. "Hey! You heard her!" She shouted down to the middle deck. "Furl the fore and main!" The sailors sprang into action, pulling the sails down.
As promised several rowboats and pegasi threw up ropes and began pulling the barque to a spot on a dock. The ship helmspony ran over to begin shouting down at the intrepid rowers, haggling a price for their service.
Gilda remained on the aftercastle with the pilot as they glided closer to the dock. "Nice little system you ponies have here. Quickest turn around in Equestria, nearly. I'm sure the captain would compliment you if he was awake." Gilda said with a slick smile. "Too bad it means we get miserably short shore leave."

"Uh huh." The pilot said, bored. "You don't look like you're carrying a purse, watch."

"The helm has your pay." Gilda's little smile faded, flicking a wing in the helmspony's direction. It was a lie; Gilda did have the pay, but wasn't interested in the hassle. The ship quartermaster had died on the voyage and the other officers like Gilda had been given the responsibilities, much to her chagrin.

When her ship reached a reasonable distance from the mooring, Gilda bounded off and helped tie it down. She was about to leave for the dockland when she heard somepony clearing her throat behind her.
The captain had emerged from the cabin, looking annoyed. He sauntered down the gangplank, standing on its raised edge to be eye-to-eye with Gilda. "I told you to notify me when we enter the channel. I really don't want to have to stick a bosun with you just to remind you of things, Mis Dash."

"Oh." Gilda clacked her beak. "Sorry, sir. I completely forgot, with having to keep a constant eye on things. That pilot was damn shifty."

"Not the worst excuse I've ever heard." Captain Pleiades was an old pegasus stallion, his blueish fur greying around his snout and eyes. He was usually easy going, unless anything went wrong which was often. "Any sign of customs yet?"

Gilda shook her head.

"Good." Pleiades grinned. The gangplank was already pulled out, and the crew had already started moving cargo up to the deck. "We can be out before dawn." He passed her a small coin pouch.

Gilda blinked in surprise, but accepted the pouch. Wasn't he angry at her? "It's my watch, sir."

The captain's stern frown morphed into a softer, if somewhat sarcastic, expression. "I will take it from here and oversee offloading and outfitting. You never take leave, Mis GIlda, never except for when we call at Baltimare." Pleiades nodded towards the city. "You've got something here you actually care about, yeah?"

Gilda glanced away. She was going to flout her responsibilities but now that she was being paid to do so she felt guilty. Then, after giving it a moment's thought, she felt a bit indignant: Maybe the captain had something he was trying to hide or keep away from her. "Yes sir, something like that."

"I know its none of my buisness." Pleiades shrugged. "Loosen up, but keep an eye out. I'll let the second section and Luite out for leave too, and I don't want them in any trouble."

"Uh, If you say so captain." Gilda saluted.

"I do. See you later." Pleiades saluted back, then galloped over to direct the unicorns levitating the cargo around.

With the captain taking charge, there was not much to do without getting in the way. Except- "Hey, hey." Gilda waved down the pilot, standing off to the side looking pissed. "There was a mix-up, sorry. Here's the pay."

"Griffins and their gold." The pilot rolled her eyes. "I was going to rat you assholes out to the harbormaster. Tug my chain again and I won't hesitate."

Gilda dug into the bag the captain had given her and passed the pilot an extra coin. "Get yourself a drink, take a couple other boats if you want, but be back to take us out before dawn."

The pilot inspected the coin, then gave it back. "Whatever, bird. I stay sober on the job."

"Thanks for understanding." Gilda bowed away and headed down the quay, toward the burning lights of the city waterside.

Gilda walked slowly to give herself some time to think, letting stevedores and sailors brush past her in the twilight along the busy quay. The crowds of drunk sailors, thieves, and disreputable mares, of wagons full of cargo heading every which way, and of weary enforcers of various stripe, thinned away the further she went. She went along past the dark and imposing edifices of the Equestrian Oceanic Company office and the Imperial Naval Yards, past the river harbor, to the edge of the workers' district.
Gilda's destination was a narrow stairway into a cellar, hiding a tavern. Despite its low profile a congregation of ponies and sailors hung out at the entrance, smoking and throwing dice- They paid Gilda no mind as she descended into the hazy establishment.
It was thankfully quiet. Most patrons were, like Gilda, trying to get away from the raucous docklands.

Gilda scanned the tables for a moment before she saw the bartender waving her over.
"Oi, bird. Are you Gilda? Your friend stepped out for a bit. The booth over there is hers." The mare pointed to the back of the tavern.

Nodding and heading to the empty booth, Gilda was thankful she had time to sort out her thoughts before she had to be social; even when it was somepony she'd been yearning to see for months, or perhaps especially if it was.
Gilda had been signed to Captain Pleiades's crew for over two years, and it was clear that the old pegasus still didn't completely trust her. It was very discouraging, and Gilda had was under no delusions that sailor work was sustainable for her in the long term. Maybe it was time to quit. Could a creature like her stand to live in peace in a place like Baltimare?

“Hey G!” Gilda heard a familiar somepony. She shot back upright, searching for the source of the voice.
Her coat and wings were a light blue, her eyes were red, and her messy mane was a whole spectrum of color. The pegasus mare had her hoof curled around a flatcap and a drink mug. She pushed her mane away from her face and laughed. "Good to see you."

“Dash!" The griffin beamed. She felt her whole body relax, the stress and salt of a month on the ocean evaporating. "Good to see you too."

Rainbow Dash eased back into her spot across from Gilda. "I was just gunna be gone a minute but there were no purveyors nearby, y'know." Her goofy smile melted into something more genuine. "Sister it's been tough. I hate wondering when you'll be back, G. I've been practically living here the last few nights." Dash took a healthy sip from her mug. "Screw this town."

"You can tell me all about your troubles, in a little while." Gilda picked up Rainbow Dash's mug and sniffed it, clacking her beak in discomfort at how it stung her nostrils. "Would you rather have a fun night together, or would you rather get cup-shotten and forget that you ever saw me tonight?"

Dash laughed shallowly, cordial but a little annoyed. "I'm pretty damn stimulated, G. I had a sugar bowl on my lunch break, and some elfdock about five minutes ago. I'm WIRED." She cackled. "I would have saved you some if it worked on griffins. I'm ready to go no matter what we do tonight. They'll have to carry back to your shitty boat."

"You might say that Dash, but I'll give you a handicap and still out-dance you." Gilda snickered back. She knocked back Dash's drink, immediately having to clasp her own beak shut to keep from hacking it back up. "Mmm!" She pounded the table with her own claw. "Gah! Good god damn, how are you alive drinking that swill for multiple nights in a row?" She sputtered.

"I survived off worse when I still had apprentice pay." Dash snickered. "C'mon! This town won't know what hit 'em!"

"Till it's too late." Gilda agreed.

It was past midnight. Off in Canterlot, the alarm bells extolled the hunt for Fancy Pants's killer, while in Ponyville Twilight Sparkle was ensorcelled by the nightmare.
Baltimare's turn for tragedy was yet approaching.

"The cloud scheduler has it out for me. The factor let 'm get away with all kinds of bullshit! It's so corrupt!" Dash griped drunkenly, kicking at every piece of garbage they passed along the dim waterfront.

Gilda was less drunk, but her head was feeling very strange (stuffy, with a feeling like distant trumpets in a mist were bleating at her) from eating caramelized red ants she'd bought from their last stop. "She's jealous. Can't trust earth ponies. Though Unicorns are even worse. And pegasi are even worse, heh heh." She guided Dash away from the edge of the quay. "But don't go thinking I'm biased toward other creatures. They're all shit too."

"mm, Life is about making the best of bad situations. The most bad situation of them all is life." Dash mumbled, her anger sublimated to subdued aggravation. "I've been surviving in Baltimare, but its just surviving." She sighed. "Y'know, the guild system wasn't perfect, but it had rules. Being stuck as an apprentice weatherpony sucked, but I was about to make the, um, understudy qualifications. I could have made master weatherpony in two years. But, NOW, now its all public-private partnership bureaucratic bullshit! We don't even get the minimum hours like the government-run factories in Canterlot or Manehattan or Cloudsdale." Dash worked herself up again as she vented. "If I had anywhere else that I could see you regularly, I'd leave. I'd leave tonight. Tonight! Buck Baltimare. That's right, fuck Baltimare!" She yelled, attracting judgmental looks from others along the quay. "Buck, I need another drink. Something neat, no chaser."

Gilda clacked her beak, wondering if she had the guts to ask Dash some important questions. "Are you just venting, or are you inviting advice?"

"If you're going to jabber then it should be to, you know, echo me." Dash scoffed. "Yeah, help me tear this place down, verbally."

"Pipe down, especially if you actually want to cause mischief." Gilda said coolly. Even among the bright fur of the Equestrians, Rainbow Dash's chromatic coloration caught attention; It was a small irony that Gilda, so often annoyed at ponies' gaudiness, had the brashest and most colorful of them all as a friend.

"I DO actually want mischief." Dash said back sassily. "I get so pissed sometimes I want to evaporate the whole factory."

"That's the kind of thing you keep to yourself, or at least say quietly." Gilda clucked her tongue, glancing around to see if they were drawing any prying eyes. She didn't want any trouble from the law; Captain Pleiades would leave without her if she got detained and didn't make the cast-off.

"I'm their best weatherpony and they treat me like shit. When it was because of seniority, I could kinda understand it. Now, it's just-" Dash thrashed her head around in unrestrained agitation. "They're reducing us to slaves, taking all our job protection and privileges. There's even rumors they'll completely dissolve the master weatherpony's association, because its cheaper to bring in podunk cloud-kickers from the Riverpony lands! I'm-" She let out a shriek. "So fucking pissed!"

Gilda felt disappointed that Dash would be so reckless with her out-loud thoughts; but then again she knew equines were given to extreme outbursts. She tried to look after her poor, enthusiastic friend, but it was hard to guide and protect when they spent months away from each other. "Calm down Dash."

Rainbow Dash threw Gilda a glare. "You weren't mom-ing me while I was boozing and you were huffing ants. So, don't mom me now. I only ever cut loose when you visit, you know. I bottle up, yeah, because all these other ponies are useless stiffs. I don't wanna have to bottle up around you too, G."

Gilda scratched under her beak, deciding how discreetly she should say what she was thinking. "You've been nothing but bottles up, D."

"Cut that out. Makes me sound... I don't like it." Dash grumbled.

"Okay, you're not that bad." Gilda snickered. She draped her wing back over Rainbow Dash and steered them toward the allies leading deeper into the city. "Let's find a nice place to dry out and get some water. There's this nice park with a well I remember."

"Not so nice at night." Dash mumbled.

"Whatever, it had a nice bench or something." Gilda led them through a break in the blocks of warehouses, navigating with her half-remembered mental map of Baltimare.
Some minutes later, in the middle of a dark alley, Gilda stopped. "Hey, how do you feel."

"Really, I'm a bit pissed at you." Dash said. She looked around the dirty alley. "Yup, pretty little park, eh."

Gilda maneuvered around to in front of her pegasus friend. Standing a head above the mare, Gilda took subtile advantage of her height and leaned over Dash, protective and controlling.
"Dash, you wear your heart on your sleeve, and I admire that. But we've all got problems."

"I've already said I'll bottle up if I have to-"

Gilda interrupted. "Let's cause some damage, Dash. We should tear it up like the good old days."

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened. "I, we, left that kinda things back in Cloudsdale, G. We agreed." Her voice betrayed her trepidation, but also her temptation.

"Where's the weather station now?" Gilda asked.

Dash averted her eyes, remaining silent, fidgeting like she knew if she spoke she would talk herself into going along with Gilda.

"Come on, Dash. On a night like this, nobody could possibly place you at the scene. Besides, I'm your alibi." Gilda pressed closer. "Haven't you thought about letting those soft-headed functionaries what you think of their 'reforms'? Tonight is the night, Rainbow Dash."

Dash licked her lips, glancing towards the sky. "The weather station... about 300 meters altitude, over the south gate. But there's nothing but tools in there anymore. The new managers have their own cloud, at 400 meters, over the city hall."

Gilda clacked her beak in satisfaction. "Any private security?"

"No. And the watch activity is completely on the waterfront and canals at night." Dash said.

For ponies unfamiliar with griffins, the avian face appeared tragically unsuited to facial emotion, beak eternally downturned. Those more familiar knew all the ways that griffins expressed their angers and delights in ways lips could not replication.
And Gilda was delighted. "Alright Dash. You lead, like old times."

Gulping back all reservations, Dash flew up to the height of the rooftops, alighting on a chimney while she scanned the dark sky. "There." She confirmed to herself- It was a small cloud hovering above the city, around a kilometer away.

Gilda landed on a roof nearby. "I always forget how short these earth pony cities are." She remarked to herself.

Rainbow Dash wordlessly launched into the night, closing the distance to the isolated cloud rapidly. A squat square building, the magic-constrained condensation construction of the pegasi that made water vapor solid if not sturdy, sat on top of the small cumulous drift.

By the time Gilda caught up, Dash had kicked a hole into the wall. "Last chance to back out and still be able to claim it was an accident." Gilda goaded.

Undeterred, Dash ducked into the building. "If I don't get caught I don't need an excuse.."
With a purposeful flap of Rainbow Dash's wings, much of the floor and walls of the room were evaporated.

There was a rustle and the crash of broken glass from an adjacent room. "Ehh?" The muffled voice of a stallion could be heard. There was more rustling.

Rainbow Dash, mortified, froze in place. Gilda rushed past her to the door adjoining to where the voice had come, peering through- A pegasus was lying on the floor, moaning into the soft floor.

"It's some drunk jackass." Gilda chuckled.

"Too drunk to fly? The cloud is dissipating a lot quicker than I thought it would." Dash peaked around Gilda. "Oh crap, that's the factor. My boss's boss. He-" She cut herself off as she felt the cloud under her hoof become more yielding, letting her sink to her ankles. "Oh buck."

The whole cumulous and structure atop was silently disappearing around them. "Think we should save him?" Gilda asked. She could look between her legs and see the spires of the city hall through the thinning floor.

"O- Of course you should! And I should get the hell out of here before he recognizes me! R.D.V. at the park!" Dash bleated. She launched through ingress hole, but her wing sweep only sped up the cloud dissipation.

"T'sh." Gilda sauntered over to the drunk pegasus. The pitiful drunk disgusted her, but his helpless vulnerability... Gilda felt a quake in her heart, imagining closing a talon around his head, imagining pecking his heart out like a mythical bird of prey. The violent fantasy was so entrancing she almost didn't notice him falling through the floor. "Uh oh."
Mid air rescue was a specialist art, but though untrained Gilda was a skilled flier. She dove through the cloud, rapidly overtaking the tumbling pegasus and hooking a leg around his barrel. Her huge wings snapped open, decelerating them into a gentle glide that carried them down to the roof of the city hall.

"H'wuaa, wss." The drunk protested, struggling weakly in Gilda's grasp.
Quills, scrolls, and other pieces of office equipment began to rain down around them. Ponies on the street level began to shout in alarm.

Gilda held on to the pegasus for a few seconds longer than necessary, relishing the sensation of his body heat, before dropping him into a crease in the roof. "Guess what buddy. They're going to find your gin bottles in the debris." She laughed.
Gilda cleared her throat. "Help, help." She said, testing out her deepest, most masculine voice. Then, cupping a talon by her beak, "Help!" She yelled toward the growing crowd of ponies who had been enjoying the night air, now trying to understand the situation. "Help me!"
Satisfied somepony had heard her, Gilda clambered up to the reverse slope of the roof and dropped down into an alley.

While not inconceivable that somepony had seen Rainbow Dash and Gilda silhouetted against the night sky, the evidence of the sodden weather factor being responsible for the cloud office dissipating would be much more compelling. Though there was chance the factor had heard and would remember Dash's voice...
Gilda stopped laughing to herself as she weight the possibility of Dash being identified. The factor would be seen as casting blame, right? Still, wouldn't it be safer to silence him and stop any chance of him bearing such witness? It was probably to late to go back and make it seem like he had died in the fall.

Gilda was still dwelling on whether she had made the right choice when she reached the park. It was very dark in there, with little lantern light nor moonlight penetrating the barrier of foliage. Rainbow Dash was on a bench, watching a couple on kiss by the fountain. "Yo. Your boss's boss is going to be sobering up in a cell, with nopony any the wiser. Ten-outa-ten." Gilda snickered.

Dash did not look amused. "That could have gone really badly. I messed up."

"The only mistake was underestimating your strength. You aired out that building in one flap, D. Walls can't contain you." Gilda clapped her friend on the shoulder. "Are you going to make that mistake again? Are you going to underestimate yourself again? If not, then there's nothing to regret."

"I don't feel regret just-" Dash rubbed her forehead with the back of a hoof. "Why didn't I do that earlier? It was so damn easy." She said roughly. "I took their abuse for so long any never did anything back." She looked Gilda in the eyes. "I feel like I'm on fire, Gilda. I feel like I want to burn the whole city down."

"That's... probably going to be harder than busting one cloud house." Gilda said. "If you feel better, that's good enough for me, but we probably should not jump from avenging petty disagreements to mass atrocity."

"You think I'm petty?" Dash asked.

"I- I-" Gilda stuttered. She DID think Dash was petty.

Dash hopped off the bench. "I'm just kidding." She stretched. "Bolting out of there, afraid, I flew faster than I have in a while. Not tonight, but next time you're in port, we should race, you know, if we're still living out things like we did back in Cloudsdale."

"Yeah." Gilda agreed. She noticed Dash kept looking back at the snogging couple. "C'mon, let's go back to the waterfront. We deserve something after that little adventure."

With Rainbow in higher spirits, the stroll along the quay was much more pleasant this time. They revisited the proprietor again and Gilda got another bag of red ants, while Dash bought a cider.
"Heym ho, above those crystal waters, A knight takes up the flag. So sad for her daughter, But even sadder for the clan." Dash sing-songed, taking sips of sider between verses. "Hey, ho, hey falcons! Fly above the mountains, forests and valleys. Ring those holy bells that beckons, my little plains grey-eye."

"That song bucking sucks." Gilda remarked, popping another ant in her mouth.

"This yokel at work sings it. He's from the north, like around Crystal Falls. I think it sounds better in the original language, Prancian or something." Dash protested.

"So why don't you sing it in Prancian." Gilda prodded.

Dash rolled her eyes. "Because I don't speak it dumbass. If I tried to do it phonetically it'd sound even worse."

"You live in a multicultural city and you don't learn even a single other language. Typical equestrian." Gilda downed the rest of the ants, not caring that she spilled some, and threw the leaf wrapping into the water. "You might have heard this one before." She cleared her throat. "Oh, how is it possible that you can leave me! I love you with all my heart, believe that please! You have my soul stolen so wholly, that I love no one else but you solely!" She grinned. "The next part doesn't translate so well. It's about being a Gull griff instead of a falcon or hawk."

"That wasn't any better. Translate that yourself with your fancy education? Do you get to use it a lot as fourth watch on a leaky trading tub?" Dash shot back.

Gilda didn't bother to point out that West Griffonian was her native language; Dash knew and was making fun of her. "I have plenty of stimulating conversations with the captain. He's a learned stallion."

"From what you told me it sounds more like he's a trumped-up smuggler that pretends to be a above-board merchant trader." Dash said.

"It's complicated okay, but that doesn't mean anything about how much he knows or how smart he is." Gilda said. "This world is full of dumbasses, and he's not one of them."
Gilda was about to say more when she spotted somepony familiar: A foam-grey earth pony, wearing a dirty bandana and a ragged jacket, holding a wooden drinking mug, sitting on the quay in front of them. "Speaking of dumbasses..." Head light from the ants, Gilda was feeling indiscreet, and the throb in her heart pushed her to fulfill the violent fantasies she had differed at the city hall.

"Uh, speaking of what, G?" Dash glanced back to see her friend fixated on the earth pony. "Uh, what's up?"

"Another officer on the Seapony’s Pride. Third mate." Gilda clacked her beak in agitation.

The earth pony did not look at the two approaching figures. "I know that sound anywhere." He grunted, nursing his mug. "It's your watch, Mis Gilda. You should be on deck, but instead you let Captain Pleiades take over from you. It's not that hard to load and unload cargo when its arranged in advance. Even you can do it. So why did you let the captain waste his time overseeing a job you should be doing?"

"Don't know. Why's you head lodged in your intestines." Gilda leaned over the pony's shoulder.

The earth pony looked up at Gilda, then down to Rainbow Dash. "Hello lov-ely lady. You can call me Luite, gentlepony officer on Seapony’s Pride, chartered vessel of her highness's merchant marine." He waved his bandana at her as though doffing a cap. "Don't tell me you keep this brute as company."

"She does, actually." Gilda grunted.

"I do, actually." Rainbow Dash confirmed.

Luite squinted as though he was doing math in his head. "You don't look like whore so you mean actually, actually. Damn Mis Gilda. I wouldn't have guessed you had it in you." He sipped from his mug. "I'm piecing together why the captain took the watch."

Gilda tensed. "Is that the way you talk to a 'lovely lady', you damn mongrel? Apologize to her."

Luite's sly smile flattened. "Mis Gilda, sweet Mis Gilda, I fucking outrank you. You can boss around a helm or boatswain, but not me."

"I don't boss around-"

"And that's your issue, Mis Gilda. You have a pathetically light touch with the ratings, but are a damn hothead about your superiors. Superiors like me." Luite stood up. "You should be apologizing to me."

Since the stallion still only came up to her beak, Gilda could effectively glare down on Luite, unblinking. "After you give yours."

Luite took another sip. "Mmmm." He faced Dash. "My lady, I never even got your name, and yet I'm torn up about my careless words. I said something I shouldn't have. I'm sorry, my lady-"

"Rainbow Dash." Dash said.

Luite arched a brow. "My lady Rainbow Dash. So, so sorry." He scratched his chin. "Ever lived on the west coast? Your name is familiar kinda."

Dash was stone-faced.

"Well, fine." Gilda coughed into her claw and cleared her throat. "In your capacity of third mate you merit more respect than I gave you, sir. Sorry."

Luite looked tempted to argue but just shrugged. "Fine, whatever. You can leave me alone now. Or actually-" He nodded toward Dash. "You can show me where you bought that cider. It smells something lovely and this swill-" He dropped the mug and watched it break, his drink foaming at his hooves. "Was piss."

"How about you quit talking to my friend. I don't think she appreciates it." Gilda stepped between the ponies.

"How about you get out of my space, Mis Gilda. I have a pistol and I'm slightly tipsy. Don't get in my way again." Luite sighed.

Gilda stood stock-still. "Why you little-"

"Sir, it's no trouble. In fact, you can have my cider." Dash stepped around Gilda and offered her bottle. "The glass is nice and everything."

"That it is, my lady." Luite accepted the bottle with a bow. "But now I have to buy you a new one. Please, I insist you show me where you got it." He glanced to Gilda. "You should lead the way, fourth mate."

Silently, Gilda began walking up the quay, then led them into the alleys.

"You're very kind, sir. Too kind." Dash laughed hollowly. What was going on? Had she heard right, that the stallion had a gun?

"Is it this right way? You sure, Mis Gilda?" Luite regarded the alleys they crossed through with skepticism.

"It's a stall at this park with a fountain. Maybe you've been there." Gilda said.

"Maybe I have." Luite nudged Rainbow Dash. "Is that where it is, hon?"

"Yes, we got my drink and Gilda's ants from the park." Dash lied. What was happening? Dash was getting anxious.

That anxiety skyrocketed as Gilda began to slow her pace, making little calming motions. "Dash, that couple we saw earlier... Don't make any sudden moves, but they've been following us for half-an-hour. They're closing in behind us." She said in a desperate hiss. "Slow and steady."

"The fuck?!" Luite spun around, yanking a flintlock out of his jacket and aiming it down the alley at any would be stalker jumper- If there had been one.
Before he knew it, he felt pain. Gilda had knocked Dash aside and grappled Luite, closing a claw around his muzzle, hooking her other front leg around his neck, and biting down on his ankle with her beak. With a muffled shriek Luite dropped his gun and bucked wildly, but Gilda only secured herself tighter with a hindleg around his waste, where with the paw lodged against the bottom of his ribcage she began to squeeze and wrestle the stallion to the dirty ground.

Dash looked on from the garbage pile she'd fallen into, horrified.

Satisfied she had control of the stallion's head with the muzzle-claw grasp, Gilda used her other claw to knock the gun away out. Releasing her beak from Luite's leg, she laughed in manic aggravation at his attempt to beat her off of him. Gilda could feel his heart race, and so did hers. "My good sir, I think it'd be-hoove you to apologize to me, actually. Ha ha!" She nipped him, making Luite thrash all the harder not just at the pain but at the prospect of being pecked to death. "Are you going to help me out Dash?" But seeing her friend's distress, Gilda knew she had to see this one out alone. "Okay Dash. Close your eyes."

Rainbow Dash did more than that, shoving her face into the garbage and pushing her ears flat with her hooves. That didn't keep her from sensing the carnage unfolding a meter away, nor seeing the plaintive, desperate afterimage of Luite's eyes, as he had begun to realize that this was not the first time Dash had seen Gilda's claws around a pony's neck. She tried imagining anything else but the vision remained.
Dash began to smell blood, and the vibration in the air and ground stopped.

Next think she knew, Gilda was gently guiding Rainbow Dash into a sitting position. Panting, shaking a bit but less than Dash, Gilda sat beside her friend in the garbage as she caught her breath. "Whew! Damn! He talked big, didn't he. Bet he felt like a big boy with the mouse in his pocket. Dumbass didn't even have his flint cocked, and thought he could bring a gun-" She held up a shaky blood-soaked talon. "To a knife fight."

Slowly regaining her own breath, Dash felt despair wash over her. "What, the fuck. G..." She took a calming breath. "I think even dumbasses would know better than to leave a body around, visibly mutilated by a griffin, when he'd been walking down the waterfront five minutes earlier with a griffin he'd been in an argument with. I'd think that."

"Yeah that's a fair point." Gilda sniffled. She rested for a few more seconds and stood up. "The fake out with the couple was pretty hot though, right?"

"I get that you're high on ants, but you've just RUINED us. As in, this could be it, forever. You committed murder, Gilda. This is, like, impossible to spin."

Gilda was slightly thrown off by Dash's persistent worry. "Dash, why do you think he was pulling us into a dark part of town? You have no idea what this stallion is, was, capable of. A degenerate male with a gun, could have killed or raped us both."

"You led us this way, away from the crowds. You wanted to kill him." Dash accused.

Gilda took a moment to smooth out some ruffled feathers as she thought. "Well... didn't you Dash? He called you a whore."

"He said something close, yeah, but I don't kill everypony-" Dash stood up. "Kill everypony that makes me feel bad. That is deranged, and it always has been."

"But you did strike at them. You busted that cloud, destroyed property that wasn't yours, illegally, because it made you feel better, or you thought it was justified, or whatever. You wanted them to hurt, like you were hurting, because that made your hurts hurt less. Isn't burning down a city deranged?" Gilda shot back. "You heard what this asshole said to me. If he didn't kill me tonight, it would be tomorrow night, when I'm alone in my bunk, or the night after that. Why would I ever suffer to let a creature that hates me so much, who disrespects me so much, retain power over me? A jackass like him doesn't deserve to be over me, and while I can't unilaterally demote him, I can unilaterally kill him."

"No you can't. You needed me." Dash said.

Gilda strangely found she couldn't find the words to refute that. "Whatever." She glanced back at the gruesome remains. "Well, his ass is mostly intact so if we can't completely cover him in the garbage that's the best quarter to stick out."

Dash scoffed, exasperated. "You're not going to, you know..."

Slowly, with deliberate eroticism, Gilda sniffed at the blood on her talons. "Tangy." But seeing Dash shiver more, Gilda let her claw droop and played it off as a joke. "No. I didn't do it because I'm hungry. I'm not high either. I told you, this was basically self defense. He was probably a freaky rapist so there's no telling the kinds of parasites and diseases in him. And he definitely had scurvy or anemia or something. It's, you know, distasteful." She sighed. "So you going to help me move him or what?"

Half-an-hour later, Gilda and Rainbow Dash had made it back to the park. The snogging couple were gone, leaving them alone in the dark space. Convenient, Gilda thought, as she bathed herself in the fountain.

After the panic had cleared, Rainbow Dash felt... she wasn't sure how she felt. It felt so much like old times back in Cloudsdale, two young troublemakers on days-long benders, getting in fights and menacing the nimbus neighborhoods. Except she was now a grown mare with a job, and there was a dead body. "What are we going to do, G?"

"Eh, I have about an hour before I have to get back to the ship. We could get some food." Gilda hummed, splashing her face with the fountain water.

That kind of nonchalance bordered on reckless. Unpredictable consequences were sure to come, in days or weeks, that would find and ruin their lives, Dash was sure.
"Hobos piss in there." Dash said, her annoyance with Gilda manifesting as a sullen tone.

"Smelling like I peed myself is easier to explain than blood." Gilda said.

"Of course I know that, but I'm trying to make you feel bad about your life choices." Dash huffed.

"Don't get me started on my regrets and I won't get you started on yours, sister." Gilda said.

"Yeah... I guess that's fair." Dash laid her head back, trying to see the stars through the park canopy. "I never asked you how things were going with you. Earlier, I was bitching relentlessly. You didn't shut me down; You helped me get even. I did nothing in return, not even listen."

"Hey, you've got it a lot tougher here than I do out on the high seas." Gilda said.

"Apparently not when you've got hater rapists on your ship." Dash retorted. "Are things really fine? Because, you know, if I'd suspected even a little you were going to maul Luite I wouldn't have gotten so shook up."

"I get into arguments, but I'm watch officer at the dead of night so the crewponies fall in line or risk waking up the captain. They'd rather obey." Gilda shrugged, carefully preening down her leg feathers to wash the last of the blood splatter off of herself. "I think I'm going to get promoted to quartermaster."

"Not third mate?" Dash nettled. "Don't tell me you got rid of your quartermaster too."

Gilda did not even think to be defensive about the accusation. She just shook her head. "No she got ill, and fever took her. I've already been carrying those duties. Captain Pleiades keeps costs low and that includes hiring costs. Officers all come up from the ratings."

"But you're not, like, in danger for you life. Not anymore, right?" Dash asked.

"I am free and clear." Gilda confirmed.

Dash let out a long sigh. She was ready to believe that Gilda had not killed Luite to profit off of it. The alternative was that Gilda had taken him seriously as a threat to their lives. Maybe he really had been planning to hurt them.

"Actually, I do have one problem." Gilda said. She hopped out of the fountain and joined Dash on the bench. "I miss you. I just... I worry about you in these long stretches where we don't see each other, while I'm out there and you're back here."

"Adorable." Dash snorted.

"It's not. I get concerned because, well, every time I see you you're worse. Is busting one cloud going to save your state of mind? You're drinking more and talking less. Doesn't make me happy." Gilda said. "I wish I could do more for you."

"Woah, G, I'm perfectly sane. I'm not always sober but what's that hurt. I don't need saving." Dash wrinkled her nose.

Gilda nudged Dash, trying to get the mare to look her in the eye. "Are you going to let yourself languish in Baltimare forever? Unless you think you solved your job trouble with that cathartic vandalism, weather work is only going to get tougher and less rewarding."

"The office politics sucks but I never said it wasn't rewarding. I'm the best they have up there. I can stop or soften the squalls that nopony else can. When I fly the whole continent gets good weather." Dash said.

"Are you ever going to get the recognition you deserve though? Do you have advancement opportunity? No?" Gilda pressed. "Then either you let tonight be the limit of your pride and you abide, you keep attacking and force them to terms, or you look for something better."

"Keep attacking? Like, keep vandalizing and destroying weather factory property?" Dash idly messed with a curl of her mane. "I... can't. The anxieties and nightmares, having to look over my shoulder... This is not the life I wanted when we agreed I'd settle down in Baltimare."

It was dawning on Gilda that Dash was not going to let go of her hang-up about Luite. "So?"

"So?" Dash echoed.

"Are you going to leave? Look for opportunities in another Free City? Or go back to Cloudsdale?" Gilda asked. "Or you could become a vagabond weatherpony, traveling the country. Our traveling days were the best we ever had, because if anypony gives you some BS, you just kick their ass and leave town." She grinned.

Dash didn't say anything.

"Or something else. Anything else. A better life anywhere in Equestria. I just-" Gilda sighed. "If I let you drink yourself to death in a dead-end cloud-kicking job I'd never forgive myself. Hell, I'd kill myself too. So, you have to promise you'll improve yourself and this situation, Dash. Please."

Dash kept staring up into the sky.

"Yo, Dash." Gilda nudged the mare.

"What if Luite really was innocent, and was going to buy me a drink? What if his flintlock wasn't loaded." Dash pondered. "How would that make you feel?"

"Dash, don't do this to yourself." Gilda grunted.

"And did you really catch Hailstrom's fall? Am I going to hear about my factor being splattered over the city hall clocktower tomorrow?" Dash gave Gilda a knowing look. "You want to save me so bad you aren't thinking about your own issues."

"Okay, sure, I'll let you deflect." Gilda curled a wing around the mare, pulling her a little closer. "I'll be upfront and honest. Things aren't perfect, but when have they ever been? I feel..." She paused, as though remembering something. "I feel the past catching up with me." She dug her talons into the bench slightly. "Not in the real world, but in my dreams. It's nothing to do with us, you know, in the Cloudsdale days. But even older stuff from before we met."

"Okay." Dash said.

The muted response made Gilda worry. "Hey, it's got me stressed but it's nothing to worried about." Gilda insisted. "There's nothing threatening my life anymore."

Dash hopped off the bench. "Don't wig out. I get it. It's been a while since I had any nightmares. I think it's because life has stressed me enough. But you're life's been okay, but your brain refuses to accept that, so it throws all sorts of frightening things at you. I hear it happens to ponies who get back from the colonial wars.

"Griffins don't suffer from that kind of prey psychology. I said it was nothing to worry about." Gilda lingered for a moment longer, then followed Dash. "You, though-" She laughed at herself. "You're right, I do want to save you."

"I love that for you but I kinda wonder if I should save myself, and you yourself." Dash shook her head.

"Hey!" Gilda grabbed at Dash, catching her hindleg. "You're not taking me seriously!"

"Gilda, that hurts!" Dash squirmed, trying not to fall over.

Gilda immediately let go, and discovered that she'd dug her talons in a little too hard. Rainbow had shallow cuts around her knee. "Oh I... Dash I'm so sorry." She stared at the film of blood on her claw. "After I just bucking washed."

"It's fine." Dash whispered, eyes distant. "I know you just want what's best for me."
They were both silent, and the sounds of the nighttime city, of the din of the distant waterfront, filled the air between them.

Gilda slowly, slowly, brought the talon closer, her eyes fixated on the blood. She licked it. "You taste great, Dash." She let the claw drop, and ground the talon into the grass to wipe the blood off. "You think I can only drag you to the past. That's not true. It's so not true." Gilda said. "Join me on the ship. The Seapony's Pride is under-crewed, and there's zero chance of finding new ratings tonight."

Dash squirmed. "I know we talked about the possibility last year. I still don't know how it could work."

"At that time there were few openings and plenty of unemployed sailors. Now your lack of experience doesn't matter. Sure, you might not get full pay for the first few months, but if I get promoted I can support you easily; Not just with rations but with the crew. You're twice as capable as any of the pegasi we have. I'm certain Captain Pleiades will take a shine to you too."

Dash took in Gilda's rambling with pensive agitation. "You weren't kidding. You want me to quit Baltimare."

"I do. You were saying the same thing earlier." Gilda said.

"I was, probably still am, inebriated. Don't listen to me." Dash fidgeted.

Gilda shrugged. "Okay Dash, okay. You win." She looked off to a point in the sky, pretending to contemplate something. "I'm running low on time anyway. The Seapony's Pride will be leaving soon. I need to shift into work mode, you know."
Gilda was nearly knocked onto her hindquarters by Rainbow Dash biffing her on her shoulder with a wing. "Hey!"

"You don't have to manipulate me. I didn't say I wasn't, you know, interested at all. I just need a few minutes to convince myself " Dash growled. "I've been so chained into the weatherpony routine. I let my sense of adventure atrophy. I..." She bared a toothy, flat smile. "Actually actually, I dreamed about this day. Well, this night. I can't wait to leave. I only wish I could torch this whole town, this whole country, before I leave."

Gilda tried to hide her joy but couldn't. "We still have a few minutes before cast off."

"Shut the hell up and lead me to the waterfront." Dash rolled her eyes.

"Don't you have some belongings to get from the barracks, or saved money?" Gilda asked.

"Yeah but, like, it's really not much. If I leave it maybe the factory will think I died and not look around for me. There's less of a chance my name comes up in connection to the stuff we did tonight." Dash said.

Gilda couldn't fault that logic. If it made Dash feel better, then a couple bits and bobs could be spared. "Excellent point. Let's get on then."

From out of the east, clouds had crept over the full moon, plunging the Baltimare waterfront in inky blackness. The lanterns and torches still shining made little clearings of existance in a land of darkness. It was late, and even indecent ponies had begun to stagger home or go back to their ship. Those who had nowhere to go sheltered in place.
Unless the weatherponies were on their game, storms would be breaking over the continent by noon.

Urging his unicorns on, Pleiades counted and marked the last few crates to be loaded. So close to being done, the worry about being caught grew. "Leave the rest against the forecastle. We'll drop it in the hold later." He checked his pocket watch. "If the sun comes up and we're still here I'm going to get the bullwhip, gentleponies! Chop chop!"

Dash slowed down as she approached the gangplank, her nerves acting up. What was she going to say? What if she got recognized in a bad way?

Pleiades noticed the nervous looking pegasus haunting his dock frontage. "Hey, you." He leaned over the balustrade taffrail, waving a wing at her. "You need something, pal? I you're looking for the stuff, I already sold it, so tough luck."

Rainbow Dash kicked at the ground. "Uhh-"

Gilda stepped in front of her. "She's with me, captain."

"With you? So you're drawing out your goodbye, hmm? Don't let it get in the way." Pleiades chortled. He checked his watch again. "You're just in time Mis Gilda. I'll keep the con as we navigate out but you can take over from the pilot. We have a few ponies still coming in, but we are casting off imminently."

"Thanks captain, glad you waited for me. But..." Gilda flew flew up and perched on the rail. "I'd like to bring my friend on. She can cloud bust, she can scout, and I can teach her anything she needs to be taught."

Pleiades stared at the pegasus, incredulous. "Huh." He looked back to Rainbow Dash. "Completely unsatisfied with the ladies at the other ports, Mis Gilda? I sympathize, but this is buisness." He waved Dash over with a wing. "Come on up mis."

Dash joined Gilda on the rail. "Hi." After sharing an encouraging look with Gilda she hopped down to the deck. "I'm Rainbow Dash, sir."

Pleiades looked Dash over, eyes lingering particularly on her wings. "Mis Gilda seems to think you can fly."

"I can, sir." Dash nodded.

"That's good. But this isn't a line of work that ponies get into because it's easy or lucrative. Ponies aren't retiring after single trips of holds full of gold and spices these days. We do bulk commodities. We do low risk trips. When insurance is due, we move a little bit of duty-free, if you know what I mean." Pleiades said. "Are you okay with that?"

"Yes sir." Dash nodded.

"We do six-hour watches. We run light so you'd have one officer per watch right now. My first mate, Torer, is first watch. I handle second watch. Third mate Luite, unless he jumped ship tonight, is third. Mis Gilda here is fourth watch." Pleiades looked like he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, Gilda, do you want to stay on the watch or do you want quartermaster? After thinking it over I was considering putting Walnut on."

"What does Torer and Luite think?" Gilda asked.

Pleiades scoffed. "Torer is asleep but you know she'll agree so why even ask? Luite might bitch but none of his pet bosuns are officer material. I want your thoughts, unless, inexplicabl,y you don't want the responsibility?"

"Wal is a good kid. He'd be great on fourth, or even third watch." Gilda said with a little bow.

Pleiades nodded. "Excellent. I hope we can keep you on quartermaster. The more we can fill from the bottom at the cheaper ports around Sahella and Zebrastan, the better. We'll be talking about this kind of thing a lot, with your new responsibilities." He nodded towards the hatch. "Starting now, stowage and gangplank discipline is all you- Double check we're fit out for the leg to Clawstantinople. Keep the fourth tonight like we agreed, but start getting Walnut up to speed."

"Aye captain." Gilda saluted. She leaned to Dash's ear. "Stay lose, D. We've done it."

Watching Gilda disappear below decks, Pleiades looked Dash over one more time. "Mis Gilda touted your cloud busting, so I'm guessing you're a weatherpony."

"The best." Dash said, a hint of pride in her voice.

"That's good except you don't exactly look made for heaving sheets and anchor chains. Understandable. Neither was I. This puts me in a dilemma about where to place you since I'm ship shape on topmares and mastmares." Pleiades hummed to himself, thinking. "It would be tremendously bad taste if I couldn't enlist you. Mis Gilda may, in all seriousness, kill me. Ha ha ha! Say, you've known her longer, so do you think Mis Gilda would chose you, or me?"

What the hell kind of power play was this guy trying with a question like that? "Gilda thinks pretty highly of you." Dash said, head cocked slightly. "But I'm pretty sure she'd do like you said and kill you. No offense, sir."

"Ah ha ha, yes, I thought so." Pleiades laughed. "Are you a good pony, Mis Dash? Are you a pony of principles? Faith?"

"Yes sir." Dash lied.

That seemed to satisfy Pleiades. "Of course, of course. Yes, well, you can come on as scout, quartermaster's mate, and topmare. The quartermaster and second mate will arrange your billet and watch section." His grin flattered. "Unless my third mate turns up you'll be coming to me for the purse. If you do a good job that is. Good to meet you Mis Dash, but get on already. I have a cast off to organize."

"Aye aye." Dash saluted.

A Few Days Later

Seven days out from Baltimare, and the Seapony’s Pride was making good time for Griffany. The endless ocean, from horizon to horizon, had struck Rainbow with a melancholy she could not explain, but also a profound sense of relief. The cares and worries of the old world were falling away. The weight of her life there, which had built and built until it felt like it was crushing her, lifted.
She couldn't be more thankful to Gilda for negotiating her acceptance onto the crew. To do their harsh timetable, Captain Pleiades could not afford to wait for missing crew members. It was at the last moment, offhand, that Gilda had mentioned bringing Dash on. If the captain suspected anything, he didn't say anything. Sailors disappeared into bars and whorehouses all the time.

But life on the open seas was not sunshine and rainbows, as Rainbow very quickly discovered.
Most prominently, her stomach disagreed violently with the swelling seas. It had made her so ill that most days she flew just above the carrack. Captain Pleiades, being a wiry pegasus himself, let Rainbow fly as long as her duties on the ship were fulfilled. Gilda accommodated her friend, and picked up slick since she had only modest task herself.

Rainbow also flew to avoid the rest of the crew of the Seapony’s Pride. Furtive they were not, and they made their displeasure at her presence known. The captain's pet giriffin had been getting away with too much, and to them Dash was culpable. Dash did not deal well with the taunts and insults, especially since Gilda had warned her against starting a fight.

At night, Rainbow had taken to sharing Gilda’s roost on the crow's nest. When the weather was clear they were treated to a beautiful and star-speckled sky. They were far away from the ponies on the deck or in the rigging, but the downside was that the most gentle sway got translated into violent rocking in the nest. Thankfully, Rainbow was a sound sleeper.

Sleep she did. The guilt and nightmares of Equestria did not follow her.

By two weeks, Rainbow was able to stand on the deck all day without becoming ill. Whether she wanted to, with hostile ponies surrounding her was another question, but she now was able to complete all her responsibilities. Gilda began to instruct Rainbow in swordfighting with a cutlass, in case trouble found them in Griffin waters.

"Gilda!" One of the sailors yelled from the rigging. "When are you going to do your damn job?!"

"Has the tack changed? Has the wind changed?" Gilda sneered back at him. "No? Then stop bothering me!"

A couple of moans and jeers came back at her from the rigging, but they died off quickly.

"Am I keeping you from something G?" Dash asked.

"Nah. fourth watch Quartermaster is never a very taxing job, especially in Spring seas." Gilda shrugged. "Unless these assholes cause trouble."

"Okay..." Dash scooped up her dropped cutlass with a wing. "Um again?"

"Of course again! Here's what you did wrong that time..."

The halfway mark point of the voyage found the Seapony’s Pride in doldrums. The long periods of inactivity left Rainbow time to fly again, this time with Gilda. Once in a while, the captain joined them, and Rainbow found him to be more than just a hardass sailor.

Captain Pleiades was a colt in his mid fifties, a gaunt and salty pegasus. His mane, tail, and eyes were a speckled white, his mark a circle of tiny stars. His coat had been a deep blue, but was now bleached to a cyan near to Rainbow’s.

At a young age, Pleides had followed the pegasus tradition of striking out on his own. He’d had found his way to Los Pegasus, and joined the Western Fleet of the Imperial Navy. He’d served as a navigator for twenty-five years. He’d fought changeling pirates at the height of their power in the South Seas War, navigated through the perilous veils of mist separating Sahella Ocean from Zebrastan Sea, and had borne witness to the EOC invasions of Hornzhou and Manegalore.

The Seapony’s Pride was an old ship that had been in Pleiades’s fleet, but it was retired near the same time he was. It took the sum of his earnings in the navy as well as a number of loans for Pleiades to buy the Seapony, but he’d earned it back quickly as an independent merchant in the eastern oceans. He was not business savvy, but compensated with record-breaking runs and a good reputation.

Rainbow leaned a respectable amount about oceanic weather patterns from the old sailor. By the time the winds picked up again, she’d taken on a new job helping the ship’s navigator with meteorological considerations.

Week four found the Seapony’s Pride entering passing the outlying archipelagos of Griffany. They were not islands so much as enormous pillars, spires of black rock topped with vegetation. They reminded Rainbow of the mountainous mesas under Cloudsdale. Here too, it seemed, the mesas were inhabited. Griffins watched the intruding ship pass from high atop their roosts.

“The islanders think they’re so much better than the mainlander griffins.” Gilda explained over a lunch of slightly stale biscuits in the crow’s nest. “They think the mainlanders have been polluted by pony culture and ideology. So they absolutely hate the pony traders. Luckily they don't want to pick a fight today.”

Rainbow had slung up a small hammock, and was laid back in it. “Are the mainlanders the same or different from the highlanders you told me about last week?”

“Highlanders are a variety of mainlander.” Gilda took a bite out of her biscuit. “If you’ll indulge me, I think you’d find griffin history fascinating. But I’ll warn you Dash, I like to talk, and this happens to be a subject I know a lot about.”

Dash shrugged. “I couldn't stop you if I wanted to. You love to show off your education.”

Gilda threw her friend a sour look, but launched into a lecture anyway. “Mainlanders are a pretty diverse group, but can be divided based on where they live. The highlanders, or Falcons, are the griffins who still live up in the mountains, divided into clans and following the ancient ways. They’re kinda like the islanders out here, but way more confrontational.”

“Reminds me of the highland unicorns who live in Foal.” Rainbow noted.

"Pshh, I guess. Comparing pony and griffin cultures doesn't alway's mean they line up one to one. Ponies care a lot more about pride and honor. Griffins, even chiefs and nobles, care about money." Gilda rubbed her talons like she was rubbing coins against each other. "A thousand years of unity has changed pony cultures in many ways. You'd have to ask a sociologist about more details on that."

"I thought you were telling me about griffins, not ponies." Dash said slyly.

"You brought it up." Gilda stuck out her tongue.
"Back on topic, every region of Griffany has a unique culture. Where we're headed, Clawstantinople, is inhabited by the southerners, sometimes called Terns. Not many know this but the Tern originally lived way in the east, but migrated to west coast during the fall of Roan. That was a thousand years ago but they're still not well regarded in Western Griffany." Gilda chuckled. "I have to admit, Terns get on my nerves too, but they've been getting pretty rich off of trade with Equestria these last few years."

"They must be doing something right, since that's where we're headed." Dash nodded.

"Clawstantinople's prosperity's as much a fluke of geography as anything else, but the Terns do keep it safe from corsairs and the constant EOC-GOC trade wars." Gilda agreed.
“Since I’ve mentioned trade war I suppose the coastals, or Egrets, are next. The Egrets are a very strange bunch, and this is coming from a half-Egret. They are almost like the unicorns: Dabble in magic, avoid open hostility, but still hold themselves superior to everyone else."

"And you said comparisons to ponies were wrong." Dash said.

"I said they were hit-or-miss, you bothersome pony."

"Fine, continue."

"I don't need your permission." Gilda squawked in mock anger.
"Anyhow... The Egrets. I'll tell you, I never came away from a conversation with an Egret upset, but always uncertain. They live in the coastal plains alongside the Prench and the colonial ponies up in Trottingham, but their base of power is Anterpwren in the lowlands. The Griffin Oceanic Company operates from there, so this ship steers well clear of those seas.”

“GOC doesn’t like independent traders.” Rainbow surmised.

“Not so much, no.” Gilda confirmed. “They have a habit of funding privateers and seizing ships that anchor in their ports.”

“Wow. So who else is there?”

“A bit further east of the Egrets are the Kestrels, or midlanders. They’re a bit of a hybrid of Falcon and Egret culture, industrious and aggressive. They have evolved past clans, but are still divided into a hundred little kingdoms and states in the forests where they live. The Gull islanders sometimes trade with the Kestrels because they give proper respect to a griffin’s privacy. You know, my dad was a Kestrel."

"So you're, like, half Egret you said. That means your mom's an Egret? I remember you telling me she wasn't around much." Dash said, but her levity drained away when she saw how much discomfort her question caused Gilda. "I, uh, shouldn't have asked."

"Sorry for bringing it up. I get too comfortable around you that I forget my own triggers. I'll just remind you that the creature that called me her daughter was not my mother. We can leave that discussion at that." Gilda cleared her throat. "Okay, let's stop going on tangents. Talking about griffins; I'm still keeping your attention here, right? You get everything so far?"

"Yup." Dash lied.

“Great. Second to last. The eastern border of Griffin civilization are the Grouse, a friendly if isolated bunch. They’re a bit backwards, but it’s mostly because no traders venture that far inland. Many moose and deer migrated that way when the Kestrels started asserting themselves more over the midland, so the eastern reaches is diverse second only to the Egret lands. The Grouse don’t have much of a centralized society, just a bunch of villages in the hills.
“Now I saved the worst for last-”

“Worse how?” Rainbow interrupted to ask.

“Worst to explain.” Gilda snorted. “The situation in the far east in hard to explain to a pony because you haven’t had the same kind of turmoil that we have. When the ponies of Equestria first arrived hundreds of years ago, all the griffins lived like the Gulls and the Falcons-”

“Remind me who those were again.” Rainbow said.

Gilda scowled. “Gulls are islanders, Falcons are highlanders.” She resumed her story. “We were disorganized and standoffish bunch. The Prench and Frisian ponies started trading across the oceans and we weren’t, meaning they started accruing wealth and we started losing ground. At their height, the Prench were even a force to match Equestria.
“But then some of us got wise, set aside the petty squabbles, and found the value in ties with ponykind. Garl the Martin, the Eagle of Boseburg, crushed Prance at the zenith of their power and founded the first griffin nation. Within a generation, a hundred years of occupation was reversed. Garl’s griffins were the ancestors of the Egrets, the first of the ‘new griffins’."

"So you're a 'new griffin'." Dash teased.

"If I'm not wearing a kilt and screaming in some indecipherable accent, I'm a 'new griffin'." Gilda confirmed with a sassy stroke down her body. "My ancestors were among the first to descend from the mountains with Garl. Some griffins love stroking themselves off talking about their glorious highland ancestry, but-"

"Yeah, like you don't have things you're overly proud of."

"Are you going to let me finish the damn narrative or not? The point I was trying to make, is that the question of old versus new is still very fresh in our minds. The clans were, for the most part, meritocracies. Power went to the strongest and fastest chieftain, who could lead the clan to victory. But the new griffins needed constancy and central authority to lead them through the change, and the monarchies were born. In some places, particularly former Prench lands, griffins even adopted pony-style feudalism.
“But the wars for survival are over, and the need for a king or queen has passed. Griffins want a return to meritocracy, but the new nobility is unwilling to give it. Anterpwren shook off their queen a couple decades ago, but the nobles still share power with the merchants of the GOC. Clawstantinople actually started as a republic, but the Terns have always been a progressive bunch, probably a reaction to their ostracization."

"It might be rude to say but I've noticed Griffins have trouble talking there problems out." Dash said.

"When both sides think they have more to gain from violence, there will be violence. And, in the far east, it has come to that. The far eastern reaches never felt the effects of Prench expansionism, and never faced the threats that pushed the western griffins to evolve. The land is barren, and population centers scarce, unified in disunity for most of history. However, they still felt the change in their brethren indirectly.
“The far east is almost like a dumping ground for society's undesirables. The monarchist exiled the republicans there, and so too did the republicans to the monarchists. Slowly, the exiles have been gathering power, forming two distinct camps. The western griffin kings have been sending troops and advisors to their potential allies out in the wastes, and so have the GOC. Unwilling to fight each other directly, the nations of Griffany are spending the blood of the impoverished far-easterners.”

Gilda concluded her grand treatise, and looked to Rainbow expecting questions.

"Wow Gilda. You've always been so good at explaining things. You'd make a good professor!" Dash said. It was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic.

Gilda's expression darkened. "No Dash, I don't think so. Professors, universities, it's all the way knowledge gets controlled and kept out of our hooves. Er, or talons. I have zero interest in talking about this stuff with anyone other than you."

"Um, okay." Dash pursed her lips.

Gilda sighed. "I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Third time you've said that."

"Don't be a pain. This information will be useful to you. Have any questions, concerns, comments?" Gilda asked. "Because you know, I just love showing off my education. Makes me feel smart. Tell me how smart I am Dash."

Dash tried to think of the think most likely to get a reaction. “Could you start over? I kinda stopped paying attention after that part about the Gulls.”

"Don't tempt me." Gilda settled down in her hammock.

Dash laughed to herself. "Yeah, you'd do it." Her dopey smile last a few more minutes, as she stared into the blue sky. "Hey G, thanks for taking me with you. I know I'm not the easiest pony to deal with."

"Yeah no prob. You're my friend." Gilda yawned.

Dash smiled. "Not going to admit you're not the easiest griffin to deal with?"

"Nope I'm perfect." Gilda cackled.

"No thanks to yourself. You were designed that way." Dash snorted.

"Hey, hey, too far. Let me joke about my past, and you about yours. I think that'll be better." Gilda said. "Keep an eye out. We should be nearing the mainland."

Rainbow Dash was the first to spot the mainland, a sliver of black on a horizon of blue. The Seapony’s Pride immediately veered south-by-southwest. Too far south was an inconvenience, with the slight possibility of corsairs. Too far north was a dangerous risk, full of privateers and GOC gunboats.

The remaining days to Clawstantinople were the most eventful. Rainbow began seeing more and more ships in the seas around them. Most were merchant ships, smaller cogs or caravels. Every so often, a warship the same size or greater than the Seapony was seen, patrolling the trade lanes.

Gilda’s fighting lessons had stopped, but Rainbow (incorrectly) felt like she was a match for any earth pony or zebra at least: Flying circumvented a lot of the hazard of ship to ship combat. Magic even moreso.

"Hey Gilda, why aren't there any unicorns in the crew?" Dash asked.

"You mean, why is everypony but us an earthpony of zebra?" Gilda chuckled. "It's all about cultural affinities, I guess. Seafaring isn't as socially accepted in unicorn culture. For pegasi, I think it has more to do with us being in the Eastern Sea. There's a lot more pegasi on Equestria's west coast, so more pegasi sail in the West Sea."

"And the zebras?" Dash asked. "I mean there's hardly any zebras in Equestria. Like, I don't think I've ever seen one!"

"Just because this is an equestrian ship, it doesn't mean it is a purely equestrian crew. We stop in at Shahellan ports all the time, and there's some pretty great zebra sailors in Talzgiers and Mare Kesh."

"Okay. Why no griffins?"

Gilda scratched her head in diluted apprehension. "Most griffins, uh, just don't like ponies that much. They stick to themselves and crew on griffin owned ships. What can I say." She shrugged. "We're a little bit prejudiced, even the 'new griffins'."

"After I spent all those years yelling at ponies for excluding you, you know I understand that animals can be nasty to each other." Dash nodded solemnly.

"It'd be my privilege of getting run out of town with you again, Dash." Gilda grinned. "But, uh, maybe not for a couple years. This job's still paying steadily."

Within a day they were in sight of their destination.

Rainbow had seen much of what Equestria had to offer. She had been born and raised in the great pegasus city of Cloudsdale, a metropolis high in the clouds. She’d seen Canterlot, the Foal Mountains, Filly Delphia, and Baltimare. Clawstantinople was somehow a mix of all these cities.

Beak Bay, the great sea separating southern Griffany from northern Sahella, met the East Ocean on it’s western corner at the hundred kilometer wide Marble Strait. On the Griffany side of the strait was the waterway’s namesake, the Marble Mountain, and the city of Clawstantinople. But Rainbow could not distinguish them, for Clawstantinople was the Marble Mountain.

This was not the gleaming white of Canterlot’s halls, but a streaked orange-red, that rose above the ocean like a massive pyre. Most of the city had been carved into the rock itself, creating dozens of unbroken rings of buildings. The bottom of the mountain touched the water, and was ringed by docks were boats bobbed like little toys. Nearer to the pinnacle the rings got taller, until the top hundred feet of the mountain were a single enormous basilica.

Tethered at various points were something Rainbow had missed since leaving Cloudsdale: Airships. Most of the griffin airships were diminutive, probably able to hold ten passengers or an equivalent amount of cargo at most. But this was the largest airship Rainbow had ever seen! It’s carriage alone was the size of a galleon, and the balloon matched the basilica for length.

"Woah." Dash gawked. "That thing's bigger than Clousdale's Stratus District!"

“I bet you can’t guess who owns that monstrosity.” Gilda taunted Rainbow.

“It must be the princess of the city, right?” Rainbow guessed.

“Clawstantinople is a republic, remember?”

“Uh, a rich trader?”

“Most of the traders and merchants who operate here actually live in north Griffany, where the markets are.”

Rainbow exhausted her short list of ideas. “I dunno. Who?”

Gilda grinned. “A mercenary company. The Princes of Equestria.”

Rainbow was at once impressed and annoyed. “It should have counted when I guessed princess.”

“Ha! These mercenaries are no royalty. They’re ruthless murderers, willing to do inflict whatever their employer desires, for as long as the money keeps coming. Mercenaries like them are particularly popular with the GOC.”

“Then what are they doing here?” Rainbow pointed to the airship.

“The Princes of Equestria are under contract to protect the city. The Clawstantinople contract is incredibly lucrative, and has made the Princes enough bits to buy that thing. Most mercenaries aren’t, they’re just regular griffins and ponies who fight as a job. But the Princes…” Gilda shuddered. "Err, it's a little embarrassing but I looked all this up thinking I might join up with them. I decided against it in a soberer hour."

Dash frowned. Gilda was thinking about joining a murderer troupe? "G, you're getting better about controlling your urges right? How are you feeling?"

Gilda's smile vanished. "We went over this in Baltimare. Everything's fine for a few more weeks at least."

"You sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. If you're worried because of the whole mercenary thing, don't be." Gilda insisted gruffly. "Like I said, I decided against it, after I'd had some time."

"And a meal I bet."

"So what if I did indulge a little. You know I can't help it." Gilda clacked her beak in irritation. "Dash, why do you do this to me? You know I get uncomfortable talking about this."

"That excuse is starting to wear on me. Maybe I'm uncomfortable with you partaking."

"Gods help me woman, I'm doing my best. It's an iterative process." Gilda smoothed her crest back. She sighed. "You're right though. Geeze... Sorry for snapping. You're here to steer me right, huh Dash?"

"Always, Gilda." Still, out of the corner of her eye, Dash couldn't help but admire the magnificent airship. It sickened her to think it, but she could understand somepony becoming a murderer to get to fly around in that thing.
“It’s still something to strive for.” She said to herself. "Celestia willing, accomplished by different means."

Bridge Chapter 1: The Claws Come Out

Two Months Before the Summer Sun

The Seapony’s Pride moored on the eastern side of Clawstantinople, among the other medium sized merchant vessels. The red granite docklands was bustling with griffins and equines of all shapes, sizes, and colors, loading and offloading the wealth of five continents. Above the docklands on the next highest tier, griffins in finery watched with idle interest at the commerce below.

"What a cool place." Dash breathed. She craning her neck up to admire the tallest segments of the city high above her- The towers and domes of the basilica were like spears aiming to pierce the clouds. The mighty airship they'd seen on the way in was moored almost directly above them now. Painted in building-sized letters across the balloon, was its name: Hawkwood.
"Inspiring... If for the wrong reasons." Dash whispered to herself. "Hey G, how many times have you been to this city?"

"Dunno. Three or so times a year, times five years..." GIlda said. "Never for very long though."

"Alright you slackers." Pleiades butted in on their conversation. He held a letter out to GIlda. "Mis GIlda, I hope I can rely on your wings again. Take this up the Marble Mountain to you-know-who. Mis Dash, keep her company."

Gilda accepted the letter and tucked it under her wing. "Aye aye, captain."

Pleiades trotted away to yell at the crew unloading the cargo.

"What's that?" Dash nodded to the letter.

"Don't worry about it. Just a little chore I have to do since I'm usually the only one here who can fly." Gilda assuaged. "We can check out the city's hot-spots on the way."

Descending from the Seapony, the duo weaved their way clockwise along the crowded docklands, until they arrived at the bustling waterfront markets. Hundreds of stalls with exotic goods on display, attended by hawkers of all species called out to them, extolling the superiority of their wares.

"Wow. Reminds me of Filly Delphia." Dash admired the ornate trinkets.

"Eastern markets are like this. Busy and a little chaotic." Gilda nodded. "Take a look around but keep an eye out for thieves.

"I don't have much on me." Dash shrugged. "But enough for a memento."

Glass lockets, gold pins, bone and ivory crafts, ornamental daggers with intricate engravings, flasks made of strange and unknown alloys that glinted iridescently in the sun. "Neat." Dash breathed.

She was ogling an ostentatious pair of boots when Gilda called her over to another stall.

Gilda held up partially opened package of meat. “Take a look at this.”

Dash looked. It was meat, lightly salted and smeared on one side with an unidentifiable spice.

“Now tell me this isn’t pony meat.” Gilda said.

Dash looked again. Meat was meat as far as she was concerned. “Gilda I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She shrugged. "Kinda gross."

Gilda pointed to the vender at the stall accusingly. “This idiot tells me this is antelope imported from Sahella.” She licked of the package of meat, and spat. “As if I couldn’t tell it was pony, and very fresh at that.”

The vender griffin squawked something indignantly. Dash understand zero of the griffin languages, including the local Tern dialect. Gilda squawked back harshly, and the two started arguing.

“Gilda, what did you want me here for?” Dash asked irritatedly. "You know I don't like to get involved in this kind of thing."

Gilda broke off from her argument though the vender continued to yell. “Pony meat has been outlawed in Clawstantinople for years.”

“And you’re going to offer me up to this butcher?” Dash asked.

“No, I just- Watch you back, you know. It may be my curse, but its some griffin's pleasure.” Gilda disdainfully tossed the meat slab back onto the vendor's counter. She followed Dash away from the stall. “Don't go down any dark alleys without me."

"K." Dash mumbled.

"Just trying to look out for you. This is your fist time out of Equestria an all." Gilda smiled. "Were you still looking for a necklace or something?”

Rainbow nodded sheepishly. “Captain Pleiades told me earlier that the best silversmiths in Griffany lived here. I wanted to see if I could find something nice, you know, to spend my first pay on.”

“If you humor me for a minute so I can deliver the captain's letter, I'll show you to a whole street of the best jewelry shops on earth. Real cheap too. I got a nice set of talon rings there." Gilda led Dash out of the market. "But I had to give them up to somepony for a favor I owed him."

"Somepony on the crew?" Dash queried.

Gilda smiled thinly. "Not anymore."

The duo took to the skies, circling around the Marble Mountain as they wound up to the higher levels of Clawstantinople.

"How many creatures live here?" Dash asked.

"Hundred-thousand. Somewhere thereabout." Gilda said. "So around the same size as Cloudsdale."

"..." The mention of Cloudsdale dampened Dash's mood.
Gilda began explaining more about the city but Dash stopped listening, preferring to admire it herself. Mansions, villas, gardens, and palaces were carved right out of the Marble Mountain. What would it be like to be an aristocrat living in such luxury? Dash had only ever known the modest life, even when she lived with her family in Cloudsdale. Her place had only degraded through the years as she and Gilda roamed across Equestria, until she'd settled for the humble weatherpony job in Baltmare.

GIlda leveled off at the altitude of the skydocks. They weaved between the moored airships until they arrived at the stern fin of the Hawkwood.
It was huge! It took over a minute to fly from stern to prow. What a magnificent work of art. Oh, how it hurt Dash's soul to know it was owned by killers.

"G, where are we going?" She asked.

"Right down there."

A whole section of the skydock around the ramp of the Hawkwood had been sectioned off. The area was guarded by rugged ponies with nasty looking weapons. They eyed Gilda and Dash as they descended towards them.

"That's close enough." One of the ponies, an older unicorn stallion ordered. Dash had to stifle a laugh. He looked fabulously flamboyant, with fur dyed in black and crimson stripes over his body. Still the lighter pinkish hues of his coat and the blue of his mane showed through in places. He was in a noble’s frilly finery, a vest and coat, with a yellow sun embroidered on each pocket. A small iron laurel rested on his head. "What's you buisness here mis?"

"Yo. Just got in from the Balitmare run. My captain has an arrangement with the Princes for a reduced harbor fee." Gilda produced the letter Pleiades had given her.

"Ah, that's right. I thought I recognized you, from the..." The stallion leaned over the edge of the skydock, inspecting the ships moored far blow. "Seapony's Pride. Yes yes, I see you over in slip ten. Very nice." He took the letter and folded into his coat. "We'll see that you're accounted for."

"Gilda, what's going on." Dash whispered. She did not like the way the ponies, with their wide empty stares, were looking at her. Not to mention they were armed to the nines.

"Don't worry about it." Gilda hissed at her. "I'll tell you later."

"Gilda..."

"And I'll suppose you're off the Seapony too, yes?" The stallion asked Dash. "We don't get many pegasi on this side of the ocean."

"I-" Dash was transfixed by his eyes, wild yellow orbs that refused to blink. "Yeah. Fist trip." She giggled nervously.

"No kidding. Hope you keep it up. Your tribe are sadly unrepresented in the merchant marine." The stallion grinned. "Where are you from? East Coast? Foal?"

"Err..." She looked to GIlda for help but Gilda was making unclear gestures at her. "Cloudsdale."

"Really? Would you believe our captain is from Cloudsdale? Oh I bet she would love to meet you!" The stallion laughed. "Say, how about you come meet her."

Gilda leaned over to whisper in Rainbow's ear. "Refuse. You've got to refuse!"

"She's just a few layers down." The stallion continued. "The best place to cut loose in all of Clawstantinople. Where pleasures of all kind can be found. Come on..." He held out his hoof. "It'll be a fun time."

Dash stood stock still, confused and afraid. Her eyes kept slipping down to the stallion's waist, where a razor sharp rapier clattered with every movement. She saw it in his smile, and in his eyes, and in the way he postured himself: He was a casual killer.
It was about what she envisioned when Gilda had described the Princes of Equestria, but somehow much worse in the flesh. There was no curse that drove that pony to his murderous work, he simply enjoyed it.

"Dash!" Gilda whispered urgently.

"Please, mis, I insist." The stallion stepped forward, and suddenly Dash's hoof was being held by his. "The captain pines for the company of her fellow Cloudsdalians. I'll even pay for the drinks."

Dash tried to pull her hoof away, and mercifully the stallion let her. "Um, thank you sir." She mumbled, eyes darting around. "I..." She swallowed, but her throat was completely dry. Maybe a drink was what she wanted. "I don't know how long I could stay. My friend promised to show me the city. Some jewelers..."

"Oh yes the jewlers here are unparalleled. Much better than any in Equestria, save perhaps the masters in Manehattan jewelers." The stallion nodded. He turned back to the rest of his group. "Who's after me on duty?!" He yelled.

"Mac, but she's with the captain!" One of the mercenaries yelled back.

"The captain will be mad if I leave you alone." The stallion rubbed his chin. "Haa, you can handle yourselves. Better ask forgivingness than permission, and especially when the captain's drunk." He turned back to Dash. "Right this way mis. I know the untrafficked paths down the Mountain." He eyed Gilda. "Like to come?"

Gilda's face was steely. "Love to." She said evenly.

The stallion snorted. "Glad to have you. By the way, I'm the Red Black Prince, at your service. Everypony calls me Red, and that works. If you hear somepony call me otherwise I politely ask you to forget it." Red led them down the skydock, glancing back at them every so often. "I can tell we'll get along fine."

Contrary to the Red Black Prince's claim, it took nearly half an hour to follow the winding way down the Mountain by hoof and claw. The whole time Gilda threw little glares at Dash, and Dash tried to ignore them. She tried to tell herself it was fine, just a quick drink and meeting a fellow pegasus. There was nothing to worry about.

"The only downside of living off the side of this rock is the lack of foliage. The best kept gardens here are little more than clumps of moss." Red was saying, more to himself than the girls. "Ah, but the griffins of Griffany do love their rocks. On the barren peaks, the harsh spires protruding from the salty sea, and on bald mountains overlooking the forests. Kick over a rock, and your apt to find a griffin there." He cast a glance towards GIlda. "Where are you from, chick? I can't place your accent."

"All over." Gilda grunted.

"Ah yes, the griffin abroad. For how much the Gulls, Terns, and Kestrels all loath each other, they distrust the rootless griffin more." Red teased. "For you have no rock to perch on."

"I won't argue the point, though I'll tell you I did grow up on a rock and it was the worst time of my life." Gilda said.

Shortly thereafter they arrived. Nestled between an empty forum and a boarding house was a nondescript door. "He's the place." Red pushed open the door to let the girls pass through.

The room beyond was packed with ponies. Dash was ill at ease, for every one of them carried a weapon, ranging from hefty swords to flint pistols.

“Three ciders!” Red called as she strode up to the bar. The griffin barkeep eyed Gilda suspiciously but obliged.

“I’m not so sure about this place.” Dash said nervously.

“Relax.” Gilda said quietly and a bit harshly. "You got us into this, after all."

"Here you are." Red levitated the mugs of cider to them, which Gilda took in her claw and Dash with her wing. "Hang out here for a while, and I'll be back with the captain." He pushed his way deeper into the bar.

"Maybe we should bail." Dash took an anxious gulp from her cider. So many weapons. So much potential for death. How? Why? For what reason would someone gather so much death in one place?

"Cool it Dash. There's not going to be any trouble." Gilda took a deep breath. "And we can't leave because Red knows we're off the Seapony's Pride. He's not going to be okay with getting ditched."

"K." Dash mumbled. She tried to take another sip but her wing felt too fatigued to lift her mug any.
Her heart was pounding, and underneath the deafening chatter of the crowd around her she began to hear a sound: The wails and cries, as if at a distance. Her eyes went unfocussed, until the ponies moving around her seemed to slide like indistinct shadows.
"G, I'm not feeling so hot." She whimpered.

Gilda clacked her beak in concern. "Why what is it?" She scooted up to Dash. "Having an attack or something?"

"G... I feel it again." Dash was trembling, her voice weak. She stared into a point far beneath the ground. "The wind in my mane..."

Gilda slapped the bar countertop. "YO! I need a water of here!"

The bartender shouted something back at her, lost in the din, but slid a glass of water in her direction anyway.

"Don't let me get blown away G." Dash pressed her head into Gilda's feathered breast, as her legs threatened to give way. "D- Don't let them get blow away!"

Gilda splashed the water into her friend's face. Dash reeled back and fell on her rump, but after a moment her eyes refocussed themselves and her breathing returned to normal.

"Better?" Gilda asked.

"It's... It's been a while." Dash pushed herself to all four hooves. She wiped her face with the back of her hoof and waited for her breath to slow down. "I thought I was through with incidents."

"You need to get a handle on your stress." GIlda gave Dash her cider back. "You've been relying on booze to numb yourself for too long Dash. You've got to get over your problems sooner or later."

"Yeah, you're one to talk." Dash sighed, taking a drink and letting it calm her shaking.

"I'm working on it. It's an iterative process." Gilda huffed. But like Dash, she could put any conviction behind the jab.

"Ah, this is the mare you were talking about?" A female voice sounded from behind them, clear through the chaos.

Dash and Gilda turned to face the new arrival.
She was a slim pegasus, Her coat was a neon teal and her mane and tail were an electric yellow and orange. Her wings partially covered her mark, a lightning bolt and three stars. Her vest, made from the wrinkled skin of some animal, had a dozen straps holding a variety of knives and small guns. Her most striking feature were her scars: One formed a thin discolored line running from one cheek to the other, over the tip of her nose. Another smaller scar across her brow barely missed her wide orange eyes.

"Yup." Red, standing beside the teal mare, nodded.

"Well she's sure a cutie." The mare shoved a few ponies out of the way so she could lean against the bar nonchalantly. “I’m Lightning Dust.”

“Hello, Mis Dust.” Dash squeaked.

"I hear you're from Cloudsdale! Too good! Sisters from the featherhead capital of Equestria are few and far between in this neck of the woods." Lightning Dust grinned.
Dash was astounded by the mare. She couldn't have been much older than she or Gilda, yet she was the captain of the most infamous band of mercenaries in Griffany. What guided a pony down that path?

"Um, yeah." Dash said demurely. "I'm new here."

"You're in luck then, 'New Here'. It's a good time for Griffany! Peace, prosperity, and no work for most of these curs." Lightning Dust cast a disdainful eye around the room. "Speaking of work..." She twisted around to face Red. "Why aren't you back on watch on the Hawkwood?"

"It's Mac's turn. I've been up there for hours." Red gulped from his cider. "Are you going to make me go back? I've been been fending off outraged Terns all day asking me why we're skimming off the harbor fees."

"Ehh, buck the Terns." Lightning Spat. "MAC! MAC GET OVER HERE!" She yelled towards the back of the tavern. "Anyhow..." She turned back to Rainbow Dash. "You've got pretty wings. Practice much?"

"Not as much as I'd like to." Dash shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like it when ponies talked about her wings. Not that it was a pegasus taboo, but it never failed to dredge up painful memories. "There's not a lot of time on a ship, but my captain's a pegasus too, so he gives me and my friend flying time."

"Now that's a sweet deal." Lightning looked up at Gilda. "Hey."

"Hey." Gilda nodded back.

Lightning Dust squinted at Gilda and rubbed her chin. "Do I know you from somewhere? You seem familiar."

"Unlikely but not impossible. I've been in port before." Gilda said.

"Hmm. Maybe. Your color and accent remind me of a griffin I met in Anterpwren, years ago." Lightning Dust hummed. "Ah whatever. I'm slushed but I can't tell griffins apart when I'm sober either! My brains taken up by the faces of the dead." Lightning Dust smiled lasciviously. "Of you though, I'm just jealous! Never met a mare so cute. How'd you catch her?"

Back Gilda and Dash blushed a deep crimson. "Sorry." Gilda said from behind her mug. "I'm not looking to share."

"GIlda!" Dash squeaked.

"Ha ha, I love it, I love it!" Lightning Dust chuckled. "I'm just admiring anyhow. Been too long..." Her smile thinned. "How old are you. Twenty? Look old enough to remember the Clou-"

"Aye! Captain!" A squawking voice interrupted Lightning. "We weren'tta tall sure which Mac ya wanted, so we both came."
Two creatures came forward. One was a short griffin female dressed in an ill-fitting white waistcoat, with a blue cloth coat hanging off her shoulders. The other was an enormous earth pony stallion, cherry of coat with an orange mane, wearing a jacket like Lightning Dust, but with little links of chainmail woven into parts of it. The stallion had a claymore fitted to his side and a long musket on his back.

"Mac!" Lightning wheeled on the two of them. "Red says you're supposed to be on watch with the Hawkwood!"

The griffin snorted in exasperation. "Firstilly cap, still don't know which Mac ya callin out. Second, Red's fulla shite."

"Eyyup." The stallion agreed with his smaller comrade.

Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. "You, Mac." She jabbed the griffin in the chest. "If I want Macintosh, I'll call Macintosh." She eyed the stallion. "And you, don't enable her."

The stallion closed on eye and stared down at his captain skeptically. "I ain't."

"Oh whatever." Lightning Dust sigh-growled. She swiped a drink off the bar counter. "Stick with being a sailor, 'New Here'. Getting in a company means you rub shoulders with dips like these." She gestured back towards Red Black and the two Macs. "And they're the best I have!"

"Condolences." Gilda snarked.

Rainbow hesitated, then took the plunge on the question that had been eating at her since she'd heard of the Princes of Equestria. "How do you do it?"

"Eh?" Lightning arched a brow.

"You know." Dash whispered, almost inaudible in the noise. "K-Kill ponies."

Lightning Dust blinked, then glanced away, then around the room. "Well gee. Not much to it really. You just hurt them until they're dead. Not very complicated."

"I think she means morally, captain." Red clarified.

"Ah, morally. Answer isn't much different. You just do it, you know." Lightning tisked. "Why do you ask? Want to try sometime?"

"No!" Dash yelled, then clasped her hooves over her mouth.

"OH? Why so passionate? Are you sure you don't want to try?" Lighting Dust grinned, scooting forward slowly, licking her lips.

"Captain, canna see she ain't buyin." Mac the griffin said apprehensively. "Let's not cause trouble fer tha lass."

"I agree. This is taking the joke too far captain." Red reached out but Lightning Dush pushed him away.

"You pussies. Can't you see the spark in her eyes? This one's a natural born killer. She hasn't learned to hide it yet." Lighning grinned madly. "We're inheritors of the great Cloudsdale tradition of the citizen army. Every pony, a perfectly sculpted soldier and capable warrior. Can you feel it in your wings? In your bones?"

Rainbow Dash wilted away, retreating to Gilda. "That's not true! I'm not a killer at all. I- I don't want to feel it."

"I was saying it before but got cut off, about how you're about the right age for Cloud Creche." Lightning Dust said. Her face contorted into a grotesque mask of awe and absolute horror. "Yes! I see the pain, the horror in your eyes! You remember it. You lived through it, didn't you! Oh what it must have been like, to be amongst those hundreds of screaming fillies and colts as unbelievable power cascaded amongst them!"

Gilda pushed Dash back and put herself between the two pegasi. "Back off asshole." She growled at Lightning Dust.

"My sister was there, you know." Lightning continued. "Little sis went off to the Cloud Creche to be raised and educated like every day. Out over the valley, the pleasant little colony where tikes ran wild. Do you remember it? What a pretty place it was. But then-" Lightning smashed her cup against the table, shattering it. The whole room went silent. "Kaboom! Catastrophe! A weather phenomenon like nopony had ever seen, smack dab in the middle of Cloud Creche."
Lightning grinned. "There was no sign of my sis. Not a scrap. Like she never existed. Sitting there at the bottom of the valley, looking into a sky filled with ash, I remembered my purpose as a Cloudsdalian. I was ready to cause some pain. But the fleet didn't want me, something about being 'too unstable', so I came here and gutted some griffins. Ha haa!" She laughed. "So tell me what you saw, sister! What did you see in those billions of flecks of ash?"

Rainbow was torn between tears of guilt and silent crying now. The self-loathing that her time with Gilda had smothered was welling up within her once again. She felt the urge to say something, anything, in her defense or sorrow. Gilda was giving her a panicked look that showed she knew exactly what her friend was going to do.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She whimpered silently into her wing. "Please forgive me."

Gilda tried wrapping a wing around her to hurriedly usher her from the tavern. “We really need to go Dash. You’re inebriated, and not on booze.” She hissed.

Lightning Dust bashed a hoof against the table, driving the splinters of her cup everywhere. "How 'bout you stop right there, griffin. I want to hear what my Cloudsdale sister has to say." She growled, rubbing a wing on one of the guns hanging off her jacket. “You aren't going to interrupt again.”

Dash looked around the shadowy tavern. The scene had the attention of everypony in the room, half of whom had their hooves on their weapons. Death... So much death... She could almost hear the wind again.

“What did you see in the ash?” Lightning Dust asked again, almost reverently. “What was it like to be there?”

Like dying, Rainbow thought.
“I didn’t know your sister but now I’ll never be able to forget." Her voice gradually gained volume as she gathered strength. She nudged Gilda back and stood up on her own four hooves. "Around me, under me, over me. I saw them. What was left of them, after what I did. I'm sorry. I can only be sorry. I didn't know what the Rainboom would do."

Dust shifted on her seat. "What... What are you talking about?" She asked, a thin scowl of confusion marring her expression.

“Dash they’ll kill me too! Just run.” Gilda hissed to Dash. "Get out! Get out!"

The Red Black Prince was the first pony in the room to catch on. "Holy Shit." He breathed. "The Cloud Creche catastrophe was caused by a pony?! How is that even possible?"

"Rosen you mean..." Lightning Dust looked from Red Black to Rainbow Dash. Expressions of confusion all around the room sharpened as they made the connection. "She... did it?"

Dash shakily turned around. Death, death, death, it was all around her. If she wanted to let herself suffer for her sin, it would soon awaken to her. But Gilda was right: She could not martyr herself when it would hurt her friend too. "I'm sorry, Lightning Dust. I really am." She said quietly. “I didn't mean to." She galloped out of the tavern alongside Gilda. The confused mercenaries around them did nothing but watch.

But their confusion would not last forever. The sound behind Dash was akin to a volcano erupting. With Gilda hot on her hooves, Dash leapt into the air and beelined to the Seapony’s Pride. They rushed, rushed away from abundant death.
The wind screamed in her ear as they flew at breakneck speed. Dash could hardly contain her tears.

Captain Pleiades was still on the deck guiding the offloading when Dash and Gilda touched down, panting heavily. He looked up at them disapprovingly.

We clicked his tongue. “Did you delivered that lett-"

“They’re going to kill us!” Gilda squawked.

“Wait wait wait, who did you upset this time?” Pleiades demanded. "Mis Dash why are you crying?"

“The Princes of Equestria are bloody irate!” Gilda pointed up the mountain, to the swarm of ponies flooding out of the tavern, yelling and shouting.

“What. The. BUCK! What are you doing here! Why are you bringing the Princes down on me?!” Pleiades pushed Gilda back. “Run! Get off my ship and get away from here!”

The other sailors began to yell as well, and under their verbal assault Gilda and Rainbow Dash scampered off the ship into the busy docklands.

“Shit oh shit oh shit! This is really bad. We need to find a place to hunker down.” Gilda muttered nervously, pulling Dash through the crowd. “The Seapony’s Pride leaves tomorrow morning, and we can slip onboard before anypony realizes it.”

“Gilda please. It’s me they want.” Dash got her voice under control. “- Just leave without me. Let them take me. I deserve it. Let me die, Gilda. It hurts too much.”

"Not in a million years, Dash. You'll survive, and I'll survive, and together we'll overcome our curses." Gilda promised gravely. "There's some tucked away places here in the lower levels we can spend the night. Good thing we didn't spend our bits I guess."

Dash remained silent.

They turned off the waterfront and went into the deeper recesses of the lower levels. The labyrinthine maze of stairs, marble overhangs, and damp shacks would make any kind of pursuit impossible. Deeper still they went, until the light of the sun was no longer visible. Lines of old firefly lanterns illuminated the paths around the thick stone columns supporting the entire mountain above. The buildings seemed strange, almost grotesque, for the limits of the light. Some were squat, while others were columns in their own right as they connected floor of the cavernous space to the roof. There was no sound but the buzz of the lanterns and the drip of water from the ceiling.

"Never been here before. It's like a cavern." Gilda whispered. She glanced back at Rainbow Dash. "How you feeling?"

"Fine. Weird." Dash said quietly. "That mare, Lightning Dust... is she my fault? Did I create her? How may damaged ponies like her are out there because of Cloud Creche."

"We can talk about it later." Gilda said sharply, then continued more softly. "At least you're not begging for death anymore. I promise you if that psycho mercenary had caught us, we'd have been begging for the rest of our short lives."

Dash mumbled her agreement. "Thanks G, I just... I..." She sniffled. "Let's not count chickens yet."

"Too right." Gilda agreed, leading the way deeper into the dark.

The alleys were sparse with griffins, but those that were there watched Dash and Gilda warily. The overhang was a place to hide for all kinds of reasons.

"Hmm, this looks like a decent place to stay." Gilda finally came to a stop.
By the wavering light of a firefly lantern, a sign on the door of a large tenement could be read, 'Gore's Inn', and just below that 'Vacancy'.

"Dash..." Gilda paused. "I wanna have a real talk here... What you did with that asshat Lightning Dust was incredibly stupid. I see what you were trying with that stunt. You want to personally prove your regret, to atone or something. That's not the way to deal with your burden."

"I thought I was through suffering, but I don't think it'll ever be over for me. As soon as I had that panic attack we should have left. I can't deal with it the same you do." Dash mumbled. "Which is not at all."

"It's an iterative process god damn it." Gilda cursed. "Listen, I'm just telling you, This is not the right time to show your vulnerable side Rainbow. I did warn you that in this business you either fight or you die. What do you think you're doing right now: Fighting or dying?”

"Dunno." Rainbow Dash shrugged weakly. "G, I need to have a serious think about it all, but you keep telling me that we'll sort it out later."

Gilda sighed. "What do you think you'll find if you do some deep introspection? The answer to all your questions? Or more pain? Dash, you have to accept what you are, either from pride or self-forgiveness."

Dash shivered. "From... pride? No. Never from pride. I'll never turn into a mare like Lightning Dust."

"Well, that's the best I'll get from you for now. No more stunts. From hereon, let's keep our secrets proper secret. Okay Dash?" Gilda smiled. "Don't go around confessing to being a murderer. Even in the company of mercenaries, it's not a dick you should be waving around. Please tell me you understand this."

"I said I'm sorry." Dash said sharply. "I can deal with this in a healthy way. I... I have to keep it from bursting out of me."

"Fine. I'm sorry too. We should rest, let ourselves calm down, think about this rationally. Ready?"

Rainbow nodded reluctantly, so Gilda led the way into the shoddy inn.

The entryway to the inn was occupied by an earth pony and several griffins reading in the corners. The space was narrow and cramped, and the aged wood ceiling looked like it would give at any moment. Gilda squawked something to the innkeeper behind his desk.

“Don’t even try speaking Tern. Speak pony.” The innkeeper said in fragmented Equestrian. “You speak Tern very bad.”

The other guests chortled and Gilda blushed. “Uh okay. Two rooms please.”

“How long you need?” The innkeeper pulled out a ledger and began to scribble into it.

“We don’t know yet.” Gilda said.

“No job for you?” The innkeeper mused. “There is many job in Clawstantinople. Like her.” He pointed to the pony guest lounging in a divan. “She give job.”

“Thank you but employment isn’t the big concern right now.” Gilda said, sliding the golden coins over the desk and taking the room keys.

Dash, waiting while that exchange was taking place, eyed the earth pony. She was a middle-aged mare, with pale beige fur and a candy pink mane. She wore a pristine red coat, with the letters EOC embroidered into each pocket. The beige mare looked up from her newspaper and noticed Dash staring. "Is there a problem mis?" She said with mild suspicion. She had a clear Equestrian accent.

"Nuh uh." Dash shook her head. "Just noticing you're not a mercenary."

"Rather strange observation." The mare grunted. "Don't be too insulted by it." She went back to reading her newspaper.

"Come on Dash." Gilda nudged her. "I've got the key. Let's retire for the day, and see if we can't find respite from our trouble tomorrow."

Dash followed her up the stairs behind the front desk. "If it ever ends for us."

By the light of the dawning sun, Rainbow and Gilda crept back along the waterfront to the Seapony’s Pride. The market stalls and the skies above the city were empty, but some of the sailors had woken for an early departure. Pleiades was on the dock checking over the manifest while the crew were preparing to set off.

“Captain, we’re sorry about the trouble but we’re ready to go.” Gilda approached the stallion.

“You’re still alive?” Pleiades snorted. “Mis Gilda, do you know how embarrassing it was to have mercenary thugs riffling through my ship? I thought I'd had the end of having guns pointed at my face when I left the navy."

"Captain, I'm sorry we-"

"Gilda, no quartermaster is the trouble you've caused me. You can only be lucky you haven't incurred any financial damages, besides the glass I broke in my helpless frustration." Pleiades berated her. "You better hope the Princes of Equestria didn't put a goon on surveillance, or we're about two seconds away from having a spiky ball of pony rage rolling this direction.

"I'm sorry captain."

"I'm honestly impressed you could make them this angry." Pleiades pressed the bridge of his nose with his hoof. "But you know, you did deliver the harbor fee, as the Red Black Prince mentioned as he was going through my things. You've been with me for a while, Gilda, and you've been loyal. I really like you, Mis Gilda, which is why I'm throwing you a line here."

"You mean we're not fired?" Gilda gasped.

"Well, you see..." Pleiades laughed nervously. "You see your survival is a bit inconvenient, because I already hired your replacement.”

“What? You have to keep us on! We’re still on contract!” Gilda squawked. “We’ve got to get out of Clawstantinople! Are you gunna let us die?”

“The Princes tore up both copies of the contract when they were turning this ship over. I've not the time to piece it back together."

"Then just let us on! We'll work for free!" GIlda pleaded. "You can't leave us here, captain!"

"I'm not. I'm not." Pleiades promised. "Though you wouldn't have realized it because of your absence, the manifest is changing. We're going to Trottingham with a special cargo."

"..." Gilda now realized why Pleiades couldn't take them. Trottingham was still well within the Princes of Equestria's reach. If anypony there saw him transporting them and reported it back to Lightning Dust, Pleiades would be in the Prince's ill graces forever. Might as well never enter a Griffany port again, for the risk he'd be running.

"I'll put you in touch with the new client. He's been in Clawstantinople for a while, and I have asked him if he has any way of helping you." Pleiades said.

Gilda hung her head. "That's all I can ask, captain. I've put you in a lot of risk already."

“Is there some problem, Captain Pleiades?” A griffin’s head peered out from a window of the aft cabins. He had a curious accent that Gilda could not place.

“No problem.” Pleiades called back. “This is Mis Gilda, who I mentioned to you before.”

“Who’s that?” Gilda demanded. “Is that the griffin you’re replacing me with?”

“Yes yes. Gilda. You did mention her.” The newcomer pulled his head back into the cabin, and a moment later he emerged onto the deck.
He was not, to Dash and Gilda’s great surprise, a griffin, but a hippogryph. He was nearly a head taller than Gilda, with a muscled black pony body and a white feathered head. He wore a simple grey frock, embroidered with red at the edges, and carried no weapons. “Captain, you did not mention the pony.”

Pleiades pursed his lips. “She is much more novice.”

“Very well then captain, I’m going to make sure these mares are safe before we leave.” The hippogryph nodded. "I will be back soon enough."

“Yeah, sure.” Pleiades waved him away. “Don’t take too long. Or do. It's your purse.”

With a last glance at her former employer, Gilda followed the hippogryph with Dash in tow. “Uhh, so I'm not to clear on who you are.”

“It is an unconventional role.” The hippogryph led them past the dockside market towards the more crowded eastern city. “I have chartered the ship's current cargo, and also joined to take your place. My apologies, mis. I did not mean to replace you, but circumstances being what they are it was necessary.”

"Yeah whatever." GIlda grunted. The hippogryph didn't look like the type rich enough to hire an entire ship for a haul to Trottingham.

“Who are you?” Dash asked.

“Neraash Maar, in my native tongue. Eversnake, in equestrian.” The hippogryph bowed his head in renewed greeting.

“The captain said you'd been here a while, but I've never seen your kind around before.” Gilda noted. “What do you do?”

“An exile. I have been living in Clawstantinople for almost a year.” Eversnake said. “It is a long and stressful tale. The priesthood of Maredia accused me of using forbidden magic, and I had to flee for my life. Now I represent some acquaintances of mine, and it is on their behalf I am hiring the Seapony's Pride. Eventually I hope to make it to Equestria, where the magic I study is more accepted."

Rounding a corner, they spied a trio of mercenaries walking down the street. Thankfully they were facing away from them. Eversnake led the girls further, through an alley, and into a small nook which opened into a modest courtyard restaurant.

“As a way of expressing my condolence for stealing your job, I shall give you this meal. This is one of my favorite places to dine in the city.” He tossed a coin bag to a nearby server. “Give these ladies whatever they want.” He commanded.

“Hey, thank you for this. You didn’t have to but you did.” Gilda kicked back at a table. “But I think we can take it from here.”

“Umm, do you think you could stay for a while?” Dash asked quietly.

“I would loath to bother the captain too much with my absence, but as he said, it is my purse he lounges on.” Eversnake smiled mischievously. “Or rather my acquaintance's. I'm of more modest means myself. Were I more coy, perhaps I would say my wealth is spiritual. I shall sit with you, yes, but I am not hungry." He sat down, and waited silently as Gilda and Dash ordered their meals, eyes closed as if in a meditative trance.

“Sir Eversnake, what is your homeland like?” Dash asked, bordering on flirty. Perhaps it was the stress, the magnificent pony body, or that he was the friendliest face for leagues and leagues, but she was finding the hippogryph somewhat attractive.

“Many mountains.” Eversnake said. “Some are lush with forests and others are as dry as the desert. It has many different types of creatures: The arabian ponies in the west, griffins in the north, and zebras to the east. We used to welcome them as friends, but the Fire Priesthood has constricted their access to our nation.”

“They don’t sound very nice.” Dash hummed.

“Fear rules them.” He said sadly. “Like the Griffany of the past, we Gryphs are divided into clans and cities with fierce loyalty to their own. There used to be a prince who unified them, but he was exiled just as I was. The fire priests feared that he would strip them of their power in his bid to centralize Maredia, and threatened an uprising if he did not leave. As for their accusations against me, that stemmed from my studies in pyromancy and Equestrian-style Dark magic. They rightly believed that I would undercut their monopoly on the fire, and break their control over my people.”

The food arrived, a hay sandwich for Dash and lightly cooked partridge for Gilda. They both cast thankful glances at Eversnake again.

"When you say 'equestrian-style Dark magic', what are you referring to." Gilda asked. "Equestrians don't do Dark magic."

"I mean to say dream magic." Eversnake explained.

Gilda was silent for a minute. "What makes it Equestrian? There are other groups that study dreams."

"True, but they are all derivatives of the Equestrian school of dream magic. Griffin and Zebra dream magicians, as few as they are, have their root in the Equestrian tradition." Eversnake said. "Even those of Godswing."

Gilda cringed, nearly dropping her fork. "Neat." She said tensely. She hadn't expected him to know what Godswing was.

Between bites of her food, Dash spoke up next. "Sho, who are thee fire priests?"

“To answer that would be to delve deeply in my people’s religion and cosmology. Are you sure you want to hear all that?” Eversnake questioned. “I’d hope I could spare you the tedium.”

“Nah, go ahead. We love history stuff.”

Gilda was tempted to call out Dash's lie, but she was slightly curious herself. “I know a little already.”

“Admirable is he or she who seeks knowledge for its own sake.” Eversnake nodded. “If I recall the pony religion correctly, you believe that the Light and the divine are one, manifested as your Sun Princess Celestia. I’m not too familiar with the Griffin religion, but I know they view the divine as either good or bad depending on which god you speak of. We Gryph believe something quite different from that, because of how we confronted theodicy.
“All of existence, according to the fire worshippers, is divided into two world, the divine and the mortal. The divine is Dark, masked in shadows and filled with evil creatures. The mortal world is illuminated by the Fires of the Gryph and the sun, which hold the divine and Dark at bay.
“Neverminding what that belief says about the Gryph social psychology, the Fires has led to a measure of distrust between us and you. Zealous Gryph have a dislike of those they believe have betrayed the mortal world by worshiping the divine, and believe that ponies in particular are misled by Celestia, foremost agent of the divine. Ponies and griffins in turn take our godlessness as disrespect or idiocy."

“Wow.” Dash had paused mid meal to listen to Eversnake. “That’s cool, but sad at the same time.”

“You don’t have to pretend you understood what he was talking about.” Gilda ribbed her friend.

“S-Shut up!” Dash blushed violently.

Eversnake continued. “Conventional forms of magic are believed to be the work of the Dark gods. Pyromancy and other light manipulation besides fire and sunlight is regarded as heresy. Those rules weren’t observed that closely before the fire priests took control. They cut off the Gryph from the outside world to ‘spare us from the corrupting influences’ of ponykind and their magic."

"Then how'd you even get access to the material you learned from?" Gilda asked.

"My friend, who I now work for. He has been working within the system for a very long time and knows how to circumvent it. I was not nearly so graceful." Eversnake clacked his beak and hooved the ground in remembered anxiety. "I am not a rebel just for my amusement. How painful it is, to have a lie ripped away from your eyes. Twice I felt it: Once while studying magic, and the second when my casual heresy was discovered and I abandoned my nation."

Gilda sighed. "I know exactly what you mean. When you discover the aberrance, the abhorrence of what you thought was normal... It's the most awful feeling in the world."

"You loose your ability to trust others." Dash echoed.

They sat in silence for a long moment, trading uneasy glances.

Eversnake cleared his throat. “Ladies, I’m afraid you’ve kept me here longer than I’d have liked by exploiting my talkativeness, but I must be going.” He got to his hooves. “I would be remiss to force Captain Pleiades to wait on me any longer.”

“Buck him.” Gilda said dismissively.

“I’m afraid I’m…” Eversnake paused briefly. “otherwise accounted for."

"Whatever you say dude." GIlda stood up. "Thanks for the meal."

"Maybe we'll see you again." Rainbow Dash smiled.

"Perhaps." Eversnake bowed. "Until next time, Mis Gilda.”

He exited the concealed courtyard at a trot after exchanging a whisper with the waiter griffin. Dash watched him go while Gilda sat back to down to finish her partridge.

“Why didn’t he say goodbye to me?” She pouted.

“I don’t think he knew your name.” Gilda said. “He heard mine from Pleiades.”

“Oh.” Dash frowned. “When I get rich and famous how will he have any idea who I am?”

Gilda arched an eyebrow. “You seriously got the hots for that guy? Gryph, more like grifter. A meal is nice sure, but it doesn't help us at all! We're still stuck in this city with the armies of hell out looking for us.”

“He was nice!” Dash protested.

“And he was probably full of crap. He stole our job, Dash! We would be out of here if the Seapony wasn't chartered for Trottingham!” Gilda yelled back. “Shit! We’ve got nothing, and no way out of the city!" She slumped, stabbing at the partridge with her claws angrily "Maybe we should just start flying south. The north coast of Sahella isn't too far. Just eighty kilometers or so.”

The sounds of a commotion in the adjacent alley reached them, and Gilda and Rainbow Dash jumped up in alarm. Raspy voices with equestrian accents tickled their ears.

“The Princes. Maybe we should go back to the inn.” Rainbow proposed nervously.

“Let’s.” Gilda agreed.

Although the streets were filled with Princes scanning the crowds, they made it back to their dingy inn without incident.
On their way back up to her room, Dash was intercepted by the earth pony from the day before, who was exiting her own room.

"Hello again." The beige mare nodded.

"Hey." Dash waved awkwardly.

"You and your friend, would you happen to be looking for work?" The mare asked.

"Umm, maybe." Dash really wasn't sure what the plans was, and that was because there was no plan. They'd stay in the inn until the bits ran out, then who knew. "What are you looking for?"

"As it would happen, mercenaries. Or somepony with mercenary tendencies. I need a couple of good sports with no connection at all to the EOC." She tapped the letters embroidered into her coat. "And I can tell you're not EOC spies."

"How can you tell that?" Dash asked. She didn't remember what an EOC was, though she did remembered GIlda mentioning it.

"You and your friend stand out too much. The charter would bring in some normal height earth ponies with inoffensive coloration and uninteresting stories." The mare said. "You're a bloody rainbow, shifty, clearly in dire straits, and your friend is a griffin."

"Are you making a pitch here or something?" Rainbow scoffed. "Because I'm not getting it."

"Dash, what are you doing out here?" Gilda peeked her head out of the door. "Who are you?" She directed at the mare.

"I'm an officer in the Equestrian Oceanic Charter, the EOC, looking for some extra hires. Nothing complicated, just sturdy souls who can follow orders." The mare said.

Gilda stepped out into the hall and approached wearily. "The EOC, huh? The EOC never docks in Clawstantinople."

"I'm not involved in the Charter's trading division. Currently I answer to the Board of Investments. I won't bore you with company politics."

"G, maybe she can get us out of here." Dash said eagerly.

"We'd find a crew willing to take us eventually. We don't need to jump at the first opportunity we see." GIlda warned. She turned back to the mare. "And why are you propositioning us? Why not grab some rough-and-tumble toms off the street. They'll do anything for money."

The mare laughed. "Maybe because I like your look, mis. And maybe I noticed you getting up early, and admire that."

“I only get up early if it means survival, revenge, or a payday.” Gilda snickered. “And I’m going back to bed anyway.”

“Fair, fair.” The mare bowed. “But please, consider my offer. I'm not being stingy here. It's only a question of if you can handle a weapon or not."

"You bet I can." Gilda held up a claw. "I'll keep you in mind mis."

"Magistrate Mare." The mare bowed. "Memorable and descriptive, no?"

"Yeah sure. We'll see each other again." Gilda ushered Dash back into their room.

It was almost evening when Rainbow Dash awoke from her daze. Her room was small and cramped. She feared that the scratchy mattress would tear her skin if she moved too much, so she lay stock still, ruminating on feelings she had been repressing for weeks.

Death was following her. The cloud over her life in Cloudsdale had followed her no matter where she went in Equestria, so was it much of a surprise it had come to Griffany too? Her sin would not be forgotten, REFUSED to be forgotten, until it had its way with her.

Dash thought of Lightning Dust. Another victim, added to her ever growing list. Lightning Dust's sister, unnamed and unknown, too.
She thought of that ash, and how thick it had been in the air. They had been little colts and fillies, her classmates at Cloud Creche. Now they were dead, vaporized by an explosion of pure magic.

It had been an innocent game, a race. Rainbow Dash, in the height of arrogance and hubris, had decided to show off something she’d read in a fairy tale. It was an ancient and destructive technique, the Sonic Rainboom.

Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. The explosion had been uncontrolled, and ripped apart the floating playground known as the Cloud Creche, that housed hundred of young ponies in Cloudsdale aged six to thirteen. Hundreds of foals, their caretakers, and the surrounding cloud neighborhoods were gone in an instant.

The ash... Rainbow had landed on the valley floor, her feelings of triumph at her feat fading fast, overtaken by confusion and horror. Where had the Cloud Creshe gone? What was the ash falling around her? It hurt to breath. It got in her eyes.

She never heard what other ponies described hearing: A cacophony of screams both physical and metal, spread on a wave of coruscating color. Not a single pony in Equestria failed to notice the event, as the rainbow magic spread through the skies of the land. Nopony, except Rainbow Dash.

When Cloudsdale’s ruling council, the Admiralty, had unraveled the accident, they had repressed all information of the disaster. No child could be expected to stand trial for centuple homicide, they had concurred. More importantly the admiralty refused feed the headline of condemning a filly for what was being assumed to be the fault of their negligence. Weapons test, everypony was whispering.
Thus the explosion had been dubbed a freak weather phenomenon. Let history remember that this was no one pony’s fault, the official release stated. The public assumed the Admiralty was covering up their own mistake, when in fact the lie was protecting a young and confused filly.

The weight of the truth caught up with Dash quickly. It did not take long to piece together what she'd done, despite how hard the ponies in her life attempted to hide it from her.
Her friends were dead. Her caretakers were dead. Bystanders were dead. The families of the victims, like Lightning Dust, had no closure and no answers.

Death... Death... Death... Rainbow Dash understood that she'd erased them. They were gone, and she was to blame.
She screamed, begging her family to acknowledge the crime. She pleaded for the punishment she knew she deserved. Everypony around her laughed at her tears, pretending nothing had happened, pretending she was trying to get attention as fillies did. They assured her it had been nopony’s fault, that she was imagining her part in the catastrophe.
By themselves, they were uneasy with her. What horror it filled them with, to see the young filly torn by such powerful feelings of guilt and self-loathing. They didn't want to deal with it. They wanted to pretend everything was alright.

When Rainbow Dash couldn’t bare to see the faces of the ponies of Cloudsdale any longer, warped by either forced cheerfulness or pain. It was her doing. There was no joy that was not false, and it was her doing. So she ran. She stole her family’s savings, and payed the young griffin adventurer Gilda to take her far away. The duo had become friends like that, wandering aimlessly across Equestria for a year, swiping food and seeing sights. It had taken them to Baltimare, and then a kind of life began.

Rainbow knew she was a coward, constantly running away from the hurt and the pain. Telling Lightning Dust had been a crap way to redeem herself, but she had to believe it was a step in the right direction. It was not okay to pretend any longer. One day Rainbow would return home, and find a way to make everything up to her family and Cloudsdale.

A scream sounded out from outside the room, quickly silenced. Dash shot up in panic. It hadn’t sounded like Gilda. The scream came again, louder. Dash burst out of her room into the hall at the same time as Gilda.

"You heard it to!" Dash whispered urgently.

“That sounded like that magistrate chick.” Gilda said.

The innkeeper rushed up the stairs into the guest halls. “No worry please! Is only a dog outside! Back to sleep!”

Gilda shoved him aside as Rainbow dashed down the stairs. She landed on the first floor in time to see a pair of griffins dragging Magistrate Mare out of the inn.
She stopped at the threshold. What was she doing? Was it her place to be a hero? Her heart was pounding and she was feeling impulses driving her both forward and backwards.

“I’m right behind you.” Gilda reassured her quietly.

"Right." Dash nodded, making the leap into the dark street.

They caught up to the kidnappers in an alley a block away from the inn. Dash hadn’t brought her sword with her, so she tucked a rock into her hoof.

“Hey!” She barked. “Why don’t you pick on somepony your own size!”

The two griffins turned, dropping Magistrate Mare unceremoniously. They were monsters among bird-felines, two heads taller than Gilda. One of them squawked something in the Tern language, and they both laughed malevolently. Gilda yelled something back, drawing her sword. Dash fell into a battle ready pose.
A third griffin appeared from behind the other two. It was the meat vendor from the market who Gilda had had the spat with. Rainbow was getting a good idea what was going on, and it made her angry.

"No more death today!" She yelled hoarsely.

Dash hurled her stone with all her might. It smacked against the butcher’s shoulder, and his oversized knife fell from his talon. Dash and Gilda both charged forward, engaging a henchgriffin each. Gilda stuck her sword deep in her opponent's breast, while Dash found herself in a wrestling match with a much larger creature with ruthless talons. A headbut sent the brute back, and Dash leaped for where the butcher’s knife had fallen. It was gone.

Dash looked up to see Magistrate Mare hacking away at the butcher with his own knife, cutting him into slivers. Behind her, Gilda sliced the throat of the dazed henchgriffin.

“Deary me.” Magistrate Mare groaned, tossing away the knife. “That certainly was... unpleasant and messy.”

Mare’s grisly work had splattered blood all across her face and coat. Gilda had streaks of blood covering her from where her sword had flung it. Dash’s cheek and flank was bleeding from claw scrapes.

Gilda wiped her sword off on the furry hindquarters of one of the dead griffins. “Not sure what you were trying to accomplish Dash, but I think there might have been some death today."

"Whatever." Dash mumbled.

"Come on Dash, you've seen this all before." Gilda snorted. She turned to Magistrate Mare. "How'd this happen?"

"The bastards pulled me out of my room. They probably have a deal with the innkeeper."

"Maybe they heard you were looking for burley types, ehh?" Gilda clacked her beak in amusement. She still felt giddy, smelling the blood in the air, feeling its slippery viscosity between her talons. "In any case it means I'm not done yet."
She sauntered out of the alley in the direction of the inn.

Magistrate Mare wiped her bow, very much still shaken by the whole ordeal. “You two are brutal." She said, eyeing the whole scene. "Though I wish that one of them survived so I could ask who sent them."

"I wouldn't worry about it." Dash sighed. Echoing from further in the dark, she heard the shrieks of fear as Gilda went about her hateful work. "But my friend and I are going to have to be leaving the city pretty soon. We've gone and upset two clans of goons now."

"And I'll thank you for that latter one." Magistrate Mare bowed her head. "How does my earlier offer sound now?"

"Mis, you don't even know our names." Dash arched a brow.

"That can be easily rectified." Magistrate Mare got to her hooves. "Tell me mis, who should the very generous signing bonus be made out to? Once we are safe, of course."

Rainbow Dash averted her eyes. Was she a mercenary now, selling death for money? There was some solace in that the final blow was always left to Gilda. "My name is Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale. My companion's name is Gilda."

"Gilda doesn't have a family name?"

"She does. She doesn't use it." Dash said tersely. "Hope you don't mind but we'd like to get going as soon as possible."

“I understand perfectly. My ship is in the western slips.” Magistrate Mare said. “Fetch your amie Gilda, and we can get there while it is still dark. I have had enough of this place.”

"Me too." Dash agreed. "It's a very pretty city on the outside though."

"That it is."

Bridge Chapter 2: Anchored

Two months before the Summer Sun.

Sahella was known to some as the birthplace of mortal civilization, for lost within the trackless depths of the desert was the weathered ruins of the city of the Bard. Once, it was said, the Bard had been so knowledgeable and prosperous that their tower scraped heaven. Whether by societal collapse or, as fable said, divine attack the city and tower of the Bard were felled. The modern Bard wandered the desert interior while their more sensible inheritors built their civilizations on the hospitable coast.

"Reminds me of Equestria's southern frontier. Lots of shrub and sand." Rainbow Dash said. The waterfront was braced by grassy dunes, and a few kilometers beyond that the land rose into formidable sandstone mountains around which flirty clouds coalesced, emphasizing the separation of the interior and coastal plains. "Remember dodge, Gilda? Neat little place. Out in the middle of nowhere like this."

But Dash needn't have concerned herself with far away places. Her duty lay with keeping an eye out for trouble nearby.
Anadolu was a small port village straddling the coastal dunes, insignificant to the point that only the most detailed maps of the region noted it at all. It had a dock that stuck out into the bay like a finger, where a single ship was tied: The sleek Flier Kyte, Magistrate Mare's command, had stopped at Anadolu for buisness.

“Gods alive, I’m hungry.” Gilda gasped. “Magistrate Are you sure I can’t pop down to the kitchen for a bite.”

“Yes, I'm sure.” Magistrate Mare said. “Be a good girl and be patient.”

“I've never stuck with a job where I felt abused by the boss. Makes for a bad work environment." Gilda ribbed good-naturedly. "Come on, I'll bring you up a snack too."

"You sure are mouthy for a griffin." Mare said.
She stood with her two accompanying guards on the forecastle, fanning herself with a little fan. The ship's crew was lounging in whatever shade they could find.
"If you didn't talk so much, perhaps you wouldn't be so hungry."

"Sweating under this Sahellan sun is much more draining than any talking." Gilda retorted. "Could we wait for the VIP we're picking up somewhere cooler? In your cabin, hmm?"

"Mis Gilda, shut it. That's an order." Mare said. The heat was irritating her.

The warm waters of Beak Bay sea lapped playfully against the Flier Kyte. While slightly smaller than the Seapony’s Pride, the Kyte was a much newer vessel, and faster as well. That suited Rainbow Dash just fine, when it wasn’t parked.

“Did we get here early? What’s taking the VIP so long?" Dash was the least effected by the heat, though she was getting impatient. She blew at errant strands of hair that had escaped the confining headband she wore. "Should we go look for him?”

“My mission schedule places them in this village since last month. They're here unless something is majorly wrong.” Magistrate Mare informed. "It's our job to wait patiently. They know we're here."

Dash frowned. "I know but..."

“Dash, we've already put hundreds of kilometers between us and Clawstantinople. Stop fretting.” Gilda comforted her friend. “The Princes of Equestria have no idea where we went.”

“I know, I know, but it’s not that. I just get fidgety whenever it’s flat wind.” Rainbow frowned, looking up at the limp swalowtail pennant on the Kyte’s Foremast. “Makes me feel dirty for some reason. Makes me want to fly.”

“Try to restrain yourself Mis Dash. The Sahellan tribesponies have a historical enmity with the griffins, so flying around might insult them. Or maybe not. I’m an administrator not a sociologist.” Magistrate Mare said.

“Bigots. I why would anypony hate me without knowing the first thing about me?” Gilda grumbled. “I don’t need to go down below, do I?”

“So you can get food without us? ” Mare laughed curtly. “Hmh, but honestly I don’t give a damn about tribal feuds. Too many creatures guide themselves by such archaic rules. Honor, justice, and fairness are aged concepts. We live in a world where commodities and their monetary exchange guide all. Don't insult anypony because EOC interests and alliances here would be hurt, which hurts commerce. But I trust you not to rise to any taunts or temptations."

Gilda arched a brow, amused by Mare's rambling, but agreed with a simple. "Thanks."

An arid bluff past the sandy shoreline obscured most of Anadolu village. Rainbow counted several dozen fisherpony’s huts and a hooffull of dingy-sized boats pulled up on the shoreline.
After a few minutes, a group of ponies was crested the bluff on their way down to the pier.

Mare shaded her eyes with her fan to get a better look at a group of ponies coming down the dock. “Speaking of alliances, here comes company.”

A tetrad of ponies, stout roans who clearly lived lives of labor, were suffering under the weight of the burden they were carrying: A square wooden crate the size of two stacked coffins. They wordlessly shoved it over the lip on the deck of the Kyte.

"Uh, what's this?" Rainbow asked. The laborers ignored her and started back up the dock.

"I was told our VIP's was going to have some big luggage. This must be it." Mare said in a bored tone. "Hey you louts! Get that into the hold!"

Some of the sailors lurched from their sun-scorched malaise and started moving it to the hoist. Once it was strapped up they opened the hatch and lowered it belowdecks. Gilda's tail flicked around, tempted to add her own orders like she would have as a quartermaster, but she reminded herself she was a mercenary now. It was not her place to get involved with the ship anymore.
“Sadly, it’s not lunch.” Gilda observed. She wasn't too curious what was in the crate, even if it was unmarked and betrayed nothing about its contents. “We're taking it to Chitin?”

“Yes. And there is a somepony else coming along.” Mare’s tone soured. “I think it’s this village’s chief.”

“She’s our VIP?” Dash propped herself on the stout wooden railing to get a better look.

“Do you really think the EOC would send ME for a tribespony? Of course not.” Magistrate Mare said curtly, but she didn't look so sure. “Get down, keep quiet, and let me do the talking.”

The approaching pony was, as Mare had observed, a chieftess or important elder. She was proceeded by three tribespony guards, swaddled in white cotton robes with loose fitting wraps on their snouts, and deadly looking scimitars at their sides. The chieftess herself wore the same, except hers was fancifully colored with peacock feathers and gems woven into the headdress.

“Aslema, daast’qha’i.” Magistrate Mare called down to them as the entourage came into conversational range.

"What language is that?" Dash asked.

"No idea." Mare said under her breath. "But it's how they greeted me last time I was in a Sahellan port."

The lead guard stepped forward and called up to them. “Melika wishes a tour of your ship, equestriaan!” His equestrian was mildly accented.

“Melika wants what? Melika knows this ship is chartered to another, right.” Mare looked annoyed. “There is nopony here to give a tour.”

“Your guest is still in the village getting ready. Time enough you have to give Melika a tour.” The guard insisted, unsubtly nudging his scimitar. “Do not give Melika reason to take insult.”

Mare dug her hoof into her face, muttering. “Celestia almighty... Fine!” She waved Rainbow and Gilda closer. “You two show this Melika whatever she wants to see, ok?”

Rainbow vaulted over the railing onto the dock, while Gilda elected to take the long way around. Melika and the lead guard followed them onto the deck of the Kyte, and into the aft cabins. The other three stayed put, watching the ship with suspicion.

"The Magistrate doesn't seem too happy about this." Dash whispered to Gilda.

"She's worried these backwater dirt ponies will break something." Gilda whispered back, glancing back at their guests. "You lead. Mare said they don't like griffins."

"Sure." Louder, Dash adressed the tribesponies. "This way." She pushed open one of the doors. “Here's some rooms. They probably have those in your village.” She joked, unappreciated by the unamused faces of Melika and her translator. “Um, just the magistrate and us up here, with that extra one for the VIP. There’s no captain, mostly because Magistrate Mare thinks she can do it herself. Between you and me, she isn’t very good at it.”

“Dash.” Gilda said in warning. "They don't need to hear our life story."

“Heh, sorry.” Rainbow backpedaled. “The rooms…”

“They’re not very big.” Gilda droned, eyeing Dash and the two tribesponies in equal measure. “Alas, the limitations of living on a ship. It’s difficult to get fresh meat too. I’m sure you sympathize.”

The translator communicated the essentials of their presentation to the chieftess. Rainbow led the way to the next lowest deck.

“This is where the useless trash who call themselves sailors spend the time they’re not toiling in service of the Equestrian Oceanic Charter.” Gilda waved over the cramped bunks and hammocks. “They’re the most miserable dregs willing to accept shite pay, and we keep finding stashes of rotten rum.”

“Come on Gilda, they’re not that bad.” Dash appealed. “And by the way Rum is made by fermentation, not decomposition.”

“I suppose you learned that at the bottom of one of the many bottles you ‘confiscated’.” Gilda shot back. “Maybe you’ll find forgiveness there as well.”

“Hey now…” Dash’s face was turning pale.

Gilda leaned to her friend, regret over her words momentarily showing. “I didn’t meant it like that.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Let’s just shuffle these stick kickers off and I’ll make it up to you.”

Dash, blushing, nodded appreciatively. Gilda turned back to the stairs to show off the next deck, in the dank underbelly of the ship.

“Behold, the cargo decks. The magistrate said the Kyte was designed to run a possible GOC blockade of Trottingham, and it was hauling seafood up the Equestrian coast before it was assigned to the Magistrate.” Dash waved the dark and dank wooden labyrinth. “It still smells like fish.”

“Ships are referred to as ‘she’, not ‘it’.” Gilda corrected.

“I know that already, G.” Dash prissed her lips. “I’m trying cut down on confusion for our guests. I’d have to use the name every time to say which ‘she’ I was talking about.”

“My bad, please continue.” Gilda rolled her eyes.

Dash recomposed herself. “Well, um, not much else to say. As you can see, it’s empty right now, except for that crate.” She pointed to the large box that had just been loaded, it’s equestrian origin betrayed by it’s pine construction. “You'd have a better idea what's in there than us."
Dash twirled around, looking for anything else to comment on. "Mmm, yeah, not much other than that. That big hatch connects to the top deck, and that other hatch also connects to the crew quarters.”

Gilda cut in. "Unless they'd like to see the galley."

"The galley is what you call the kitchen on a boat." Dash informed.

“Does that interest you?” Gilda chuckled morosely, tapping her sharpened claws against the wooden floor. She had just thought of a wonderful use for the guests. “Or I could show you the inside of my little room. We can waste time until the VIP arrives.”

"Gilda..." Dash frowned. Was Gilda really doing this?

"What? I'm just showing some hospitality." Gilda croaked out.
Something had set her senses on fire! She could taste the supple flesh from a meter away despite the pungent stench of fish. She HAD to get her claws in something and she didn't know why. "Slip away with me for just a minute. The other guards can wait longer."

‘Please not now’ Dash urgently mouthed, and Gilda glared back, clacking her beak noisily.

“A tour of the kitchens is unnecessary. Melika is not hungry.” The translator frowned, looking between the three females.

Gilda nodded in appreciation of a well fed prey. “What I would do that I should be so lucky.” She turned to her friend. “Dash, don’t back out on me now. I-” She twitched. "I don't know what's gotten into me! I've gotta have it!"

“I thought you were going to make it up to me, not make it worse.” Dash said.

“I was wrong, ok. I’m not perfect, and I have needs.” Gilda hissed.

“You know I hate disagreeing with you like this, but it’s not do or die.” Dash emphasized. “This isn’t a tramp.”

“I don’t eat tramps, and it’s never do or die. It is always deliberate and to my standards.” Gilda put her talon on her sword hilt. “If these mudponies have a problem with me, I’ll vindicate them.”

Dash tried to find the right words, but they were elusive. She struggled with her response. “You’re going to cause an incident.”

“Hypocrite.” Gilda looked as if she had something else to day, but instead she turned and jaunted up the stairs to the top deck.

Everypony’s eyes followed Gilda’s departure. Dash held in her sigh until the griffin’s pawsteps were gone.

Melika, who Dash had not even noticed being armed, reholstered a miniature pistol in the folds of her robe. “I see you have a thing for bad girls.” She said in clear equestrian.

Rainbow Dash fixed the mare with a pejorative scowl. “Nice gun. Equestrian make. And your accent is... Vanhoover? So, let me guess, you’re the VIP.” She eyed the stallion beside her. “And who are you? The real chief?”

“Spot-on, though I think I rate about MIP: Moderately Important Pony. Posing as a queen was just a bit of fun Maluka thought up.” The mare pulled off her elaborate headdress and passed it to the pony apparently named Maluka, who donned it immediately. She had a beige coat, a iterative grayscale shock for a mane, and daring violet eyes. She'd hidden a pair of wings under the robes as well, but Dash was not as reassured as usual to see a fellow pegasus. “Fair warning to you, I'll go along with any old shenanigans. But getting eaten was always an adventure I shied off from.”

“Lucky I’m payed to keep you from that.” Dash softened her serious tone with a slight apologetic smile. She felt so embarrassed she thought her spine might snap. “Please forgive Gilda, she wasn’t really going to eat you.”

“A hungry griffin is one of the most uninhibitedly amoral and reckless creatures I’ve ever seen. Your friend must value you quite a bit if she lets you reign her in.” Maluka interjected, lips twisted in amusement. “I thank you. It would trouble me if Doqhtar Do was eaten.”

“Stop complementing my employee, or she’ll get off on how much you’re stroking her ego.” Magistrate Mare stepped carefully down the steep stairs. She’d snapped her paper fan in half, probably when she had deduced who’d she so dismissively let on board. “Greeting Mis Do. Usually we'd go about with some formality, but I'm a little itched right now."

"Heh heh, I'm sorry for deceiving you." Do said. "I've heard good things about you Magistrate."

That softened Mare's scowl. "That's slightly reassuring, even if I question that pony's motivation for saying so." She cleared her throat. "I'd like an explanation now that you've had your fun. I passed Mis GIlda on the way down and she looked very upset."

“I’m allowed certain liberties with you, since I am your client. One of those liberties is privacy.” Mis Do shrugged off her borrowed robes and passed it to the tribespony. “Suffice it to say I needed to come onboard without certain ponies in Anadolu knowing.”

“You could have just smuggled yourself in the box. Have it your way then. Who am I to argue with the client.” Mare muttered. "If you have personal effects, now is the time to bring them aboard." After a glance at Dash, she retreating back up the stairs. She was heard moments later braying at her sailors to weigh anchor and hoist sails.

“That is my signal to disembark.” Maluka bowed to Do. “Until the next time, Doqhtar, and good luck on your mission."

"I can't thank you enough Maluka. Next time we meet hopefully I'll have more time to stay and enjoy your village. Farewell until then." Do bowed back.

"Godsspeed.” The tribespony galloped back up the stairs, and a second later Dash heard the clatter of hooves on the dock.

Dash was left in the cargo deck with her their jouney's charge, Do and her large crate. The former was inspecting the latter for any damage.

Dash crept forward nervously. “So your name is Do? Err, Mis Do I mean. I would have thought you were a noble. The EOC is sending a whole ship for you after all.”

“The EOC only cares about money, and avenues by which to attain money.” Do said over her shoulder. “I offered the right thing to the right mare, and now they've set me up. It's a little strange to think that I get to follow my dream because it's been abstracted to the idea of profits in some honcho's stack of investments, but if that the only way than so be it."

"I'm probably not the right mare to talk to about that." Dash glanced away. "All I've heard is that we're going to Chitin with you to find something."

"And I think that's all you need to know. I don't mean to be rude but that's just how it's going to have to be." Satisfied that her box was intact, Do straitened up. Besides her wings, she had also been hiding a sash tied around her midriff, which bore her holstered flintlock pistol. “But considering how long we’ll be on this tub together, maybe we will get to know each other better. Your name was Dash, right?”

“Rainbow Dash, from Cloudsdale.” Dash nodded. "I'm a mare chasing a life of adventure!"

"Oh really?" Do smirked. "You aren't here because of the money like the rest of the EOC?"

"Uhh, the money's nice too I guess. Gilda and I are mercenaries, kinda." Dash coughed.

"Ahh, so your carnivorous feathered friend's name is Gilda." Do stepped around Dash and trotted for the stair up. Dash followed a few steps behind. "That sounds like it would be exciting, going to sleep every night wondering if you'd have all your limbs in the morning."

"That's going to far. Gilda isn't like that, so you should be more polite talking about her." Dash's brow furrowed. "She's a good and loyal friend. Get to know her and you'll feel the same."

“Hmm, like I said it's a long trip, we'll see.” They reached the cabins, and Do paused at the threshold of her new room. “It’s not my place to tell you how to live your life, but be careful with her. She might be abashed for a while after she hears she threatened to eat the MIP, but Maluka’s little insight was dead-on. Hungry griffins are dangerous griffins, and your friend is a hungry one.” She closed the door halfway. “Don’t bother to fetch me for dinner. I’ll be talking it in here.”

Dash stood in the hall for a while, wondering if she should shoulder her way into Do's room to argue the point more, or perhaps barge into Gilda's to see if she was alright. In the end she wandered out on the deck.

It was busy as Magistrate Mare berated her sailors into action. Dash climbed up from the mid-deck to forecastle, so she could return to the spot she had lounged earlier.
"My life feels out of control." She mumbled to the waved. The Kyte was slowly pulling away from the jetty in the lax breeze, and Maluka and his guards were watching from halfway back to the village. Once it was comfortably in deep water, the course was set East. "But maybe this is what adventure is: A barely controlled fall."

She fell silent as she continued contemplating her life, her friend’s alternating empathy and appetite, and the mystery of Do and her box.

In her idle wandering gaze, Dash saw an incongruous sight on the bluff above the beach. Two large figures, each an effigy of red cloth with only hooves, wings and beak protruding , were watching the Flyer Kyte’s ponderous departure. They figures watched for a minute longer then withdrew behind the dunes.
Dash had a good guess that it was against these ominous figures that Mis Do’s ruse of covert departure had been directed.

Bridge Chapter 3: Back in the Saddle

Seven Weeks Before the Summer Sun.

The eastern waters of Beak Bay were a mix of colors from many rivers and lands, eventually resolving into a deep blue hue. The farther east one went the less signs of civilization one saw: Fewer ships on the waves, fewer towns on the coast, and less too see from the crows nest. Past a certain point, Gilda saw no signs at all.

"Sure is lonely out here." She said,

"Yeah I thought we'd see more ships." Rainbow Dash was in a hammock she'd put up, just like the one she'd had on the Seapony's Pride. "Aren't we heading to a choke point?"

"Magistrate Mare said most of the traffic hugs the north shore of Beak Bay. It's more populated so better trading opportunities." Gilda explained. "This stretch of the Sahella coast is very arid. It's just nomads like the Bard living there."

"Even nomads have things to tade though." Dash said.

"Yes and they do it with the cities on the western coast, not up here."

"Makes sense. Cities are always in one place." Dash smiled. "Except pegasus cities. Back in ancient times Cloudsdale migrated eighty kilometers a day, never letting our enemies come close."

"I should learn cloud- crafting some time. Seems like it would be a neat skill to have." GIlda mused. "But then again Griffins don't exactly have the right magic for it, otherwise it would be more common."

"Shame." Dash said.

"Yeah, shame."

There was a tension in the lul that followed. It had been five days but they hadn't talked about what had happened when they'd brought on Do. Gilda had spent every day either in her room or in the crows nest to avoid the beige pegasus, but Dash had been hanging out suspiciously closely to the places Do lounged.

"Did you notice a huge bird landing on the deck yesterday evening?" Dash asked. " I heard the third-watch quartermaster talking about it."

"Could it have been an albatross?" Gilda queried. "They sometimes get used as messenger birds. They're not fast, but they're reliable."

"I dunno. I just heard it was big."

"If it was an albatross, it will mean Magistrate Mare is keeping in touch with somepony." Gilda mused. "I don't know what that means for us."

"Why would that mean anything for us?"

"Because she might be reeling in more details about what went on in Clawstantinople. She strikes me as that nosey type." Gilda sat up a bit. "What I don't get is why she was worried about EOC spies, but now she's mum on that front. Seems she would be more open to Do claiming she was spied on. We should keep an eye on both of them."

Dash shifted in the hammock. "Why Do?"

"Because she's odd too. We don't know what she's hiding. Aren't you curious what's in the crate down in the hold?"

"I'm curious why it made you go out of control." Dash said pointedly.

There it was. Gilda clacked her beak to let her irritation be known. "I told you I don't know. I don't even know if it was the crate or just coincidence. I felt fine after I sat down for a while."

"And that's a poor explanation. That's never happened to you before and it would be a good idea to find out why. You don't want it happening again, do you?"

Gilda looked away. "Whatever. It was probably just the heat."

The conversation was over, so Dash rolled out of the hammock and hopped off the crow's nest. She glided down to the deck and trotted to the forecastle. Do was there, scanning the horizon.
Gilda watched impassively. Hopefully the two pegasi didn't get too friendly.

A few days later

At its most south-eastern extreme Beak Bay narrowed into a narrow strait known as the Saddle. The saddle formed a narrow separation between the continent of Sahella from the sub-continent of Saddle Arabia, and connected Beak Bay to the Hars Gulf between Saddle Arabia and Zebrastan. The Kyte would be therefore be sailing through the Saddle and emerge on Zebrastan's western coast, and skip the many-thousand kilometer journey around Sahella’s southern cape.

From the crows nest Gilda could see the mountains flanking the alluvial strait. The sandstone rises were quite formidable, their unwelcome nature underlined by a total lack of trees: The space settlements made their living off fishing and grazing the thin coastal plain.
"Hard living. Windy too." Gilda noted how the mountains funneled the air through the Saddle strait. "Reminds me of... Hmm, never mind."

Gilda could also see Rainbow Dash and Mis Do on the forecastle, chatting as they had started doing every day. Magistrate Mare and Gilda had alternated questioning Dash about their discussions, but Dash had only been willing to say that they spoke of nothing of consequence.

That had made Gilda suspicious, and perhaps for the first time, not without reason. Do's eccentricity was on display any of the rare times she emerged from her cabin: Whether she was shooting her little pistol at fish and clouds, whispering with Dash about apparently uproariously funny things, or going off alone to the cargo hold.

In truth, Gilda was a little jealous that Dash was spending time flying and talking with Do rather than her. Without Dash to amuse her at any given moment she was feeling the pangs of blood hunger more often, and the irritation that went with it. It was especially bad when she thought about the crate, which made her think if some psychosomatic response was associating curiosity with hunger. Her messed up mind had worked in stranger ways before.

So Gilda had tried engaging with Magistrate Mare, perhaps in a strange attempt to make Dash jealous, but mostly to occupy herself. But that had not gone well. Mare was stiff, sarcastic, and worse of all strictly procedural. She acted like a hard-ass captain and a humor-deaf bureaucrat both, and it drove Gilda nuts.

So Gilda lounged in the crow's nest.
"Oh buck this." She rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up. "It's too boring up here. Maybe Mare will let me borrow a book or something.

The griffin languidly unfurled her wings and glided down to the aft of the ship. She was stopped by a joyous cry behind her.

“Hey G!” Dash galloped over from the forecastle. Past her, Gidla could see Mis Do occasionally glancing their direction.

“Hey.” Gilda ventured. “You uh… need something?”

“Need something? Psh, nah!” Dash chuckled. “Unless I need you to take that stick out of your plot! Bwaaah ha ha ha!” She burst out laughing, sending flecks of spittle flying.

“Funny.” Gilda deadpanned. “Anything else?”

Dash’s laughter died down, and her joviality was smothered by the look of irritation impatience her friend was giving her. “I just...” She looked back towards Do. “Listen, Do wanted to let you know there were no hard feelings, incase you’re avoiding her.”

“Then why doesn’t she come down here and say so herself?” GIlda challenged. “Would it tarnish her image if she socialized with a griffin?

Dash sighed. “G, you know that’s not fair. She’s no bigot. She talked about how she spent months among the sahellan pony tribes.”

“Operating word there is pony.” Gilda sat on her haunches and crossed her taloned forelegs defensively. “Whatever you two got going on, I don’t want. Got it? I'm fine not being a part of her life.”

“Got it. Talk later huh?” Dash hung her head, letting her friend get away.

"Probably. It's a small ship."
Gilda turned away and entered the hall to the cabins, slamming the door behind her. She stared at the far wall while she tried to collect her thoughts before continuing. She didn’t want to hurt Dash’s feelings, and socializing with Do would be a distraction from other things buzzing in her head. Still, Gilda had a bad feeling about the beige pegasus adventurer, and certainly didn’t want any interaction herself.

She was about to pass into her cabin when she heard a whistle from the room next door. “A moment of your time, Mis Gilda.”

"Not in the mood." Gilda shouted back.

"Don't care. Get in here."

Gilda stifled a groan and ducked into Magistrate Mare’s office. “Yeah?” She replied testily.

“Take a seat please.” Magistrate was working through a pile of paperwork, progress reports, pay filings, and correspondence that had just come in on EOC messenger albatross from the Roan Branch. Her makeshift workstation lacked a second chair but there was a small lip on the sill that Gilda found a perch on. “How are you feeling?”

“A bit hungry.” Gilda shrugged.

“Have you been keeping an eye on things?”

“As much as usual.” Gilda watched the smooth blue water out of the window.

“Or maybe more.” Mare mused. “Without Mis Dash talking up half your view, that is.”

“What are you getting at.” Gilda clenched her claw in anger. She was just irritated enough to hit the magistrate for that insult, but she restrained herself.

“I just want to talk to candidly for a while. Holding oneself back from impropriety all the time can ruin a pony’s conversational sense. And just maybe, I know everypony feels a little lonely from time to time.” Mare glanced up from her work, and winked. “Or everygriffin.”

“Are you coming onto me?” Gilda was caught off guard. “Have you been drinking?”

“Mis Gilda, that is an indecent thing to accuse your superior of.” Mare snorted, leaning back in her chair. “But no, the ship’s surgeon needs the rest of the alcohol for medical emergencies. This proposal is given lucidly.”

“We’re speaking candidly then?” Gilda asked. Mare had never acted so casually before, so maybe she was actually looking for friendly conversation.

“Honestly too, I hope.” The magistrate cracked a smile.

“Why? Why would you want to talk to me?” Gilda asked rhetorically. “Is is because you’ve estranged yourself to the sailors with your abuse? Am I your last choice?”

The magistrate paused in thought. “For a griffin, you seem unusually self-deprecating. Have you done something you’re not proud of?”

“No!” Gilda blustered. “I’m a mare of no regrets!”

“Mare?” The magistrate's tone lifted in curiosity. “Tell me, how long have you lived among ponies, Mis Gilda?”

Gilda was very glad for the digression. “Since I was old enough to fly, though I’d hesitate to call what I did living. I drifted until I met Dash.”

“What did you do before you drifted? It's not hard to tell you had an excellent education.”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Gilda said evasively.

“Ahh, that would be a topic too sharp and, mmm, biting, even in intimate quarters.” Mare shook her head sadly, though she cracked a sly smile. “And when I am in such a talkative mood too. It would be a shame if I had to compel you.”

“What was that?” Gilda wasn’t sure she’d heard right.

“Oh? Nevermind.” Mare paused, as if in thought. “Perhaps you’d be more comfortable if I contributed first.”

“I’m pretty sure I don’t want to share, but you can go ahead if that’s what you want.” Gilda cautiously agreed.

“Ponies love to talk about themselves. I should think you would have picked up on that.” Mare shuffled her completed work to the side and started on the next set. “I was born on a farm in the south of Equestria, near one of the villages on the Dnieghper. Ponyville, it’s called.”

“Ponyville. Nice. By comparison the name Mare isn't so startlingly truistic.”

“My parents weren’t the most creative. Very nice though, typical country folks. Shame I had to leave them. I moved to Filly Delphia for an education, a most lively place that produces productive ponies. The city university produces the finest administrators in the Empire. I was valedictorian in my graduating year.” Mare half-boasted. “I was a hot commodity, and it went to my head. The EOC offered me the vice-directorship of south-Sahella branch not thirty seconds after I gave my speech. I told them it was full director or nothing.”

“Let me guess. They compromised and made you magistrate?” Gilda rolled her eyes.

“Um, no. They withdrew all their offers and told me I could start at the bottom like everypony else.” Mare smiled in sympathetic embarrassment of her younger self. “I learned an important lesson in humiliation and the value of hard work.”

“Which you’re now going to convey to me.”

“Not quite. I was going to tell you how, through perseverance and the burning drive that only wounded pride can give, I ruthlessly blackmailed the ponies who’d jipped me. I was hastily appointed magistrate and shipped overseas. They couldn’t keep me anywhere near Equestria anymore with how much dirt I had on file. The point is, I recognize how something as flighty as words can translate into real power.”

“I didn’t take you for the type of pony to stoop to blackmail. I’m not sure if that makes me like you worse, or better.” Gilda snickered. “But it doesn’t make for a good bedtime story moral.”

“Why are you pecking at my story for a moral, Mis Gilda?” Mare’s smile faded.

“I’m not, I just…” Gilda looked back to the ocean. “Sometimes I like hearing about other people lives, especially when they’re, you know, good. I like history, because the creatures of the past are made out to be so noble and just. Chivalry, you know."

"What history have you been reading?" Mare chortled.

"Histories about good kings and queens doing what's right." Gilda said. "Hell if I don't know morality is sometimes a luxury. Luxuries have a cost. Therefore you'd think those with power and money nowadays, the traders... " She sighed. “I don’t know what I was hoping. Hrmph. I sound like a real retard trying to explain myself.”

“Don't be so hard on yourself. It's not that hard to puzzle your reasoning! You want to believe success and goodness can go hoof-in-hoof.” Mare flashed a brief, almost lecherous grin. “It’s a common thing with the ones like us. We hope upon hope that at some point, we can come back from what we’ve done. I don’t see we two coming to the light, but then again, one of us is farther than the other. We have our villain's pair: Blackmail,” She pointed to herself. “and Murder.” She pointed at Gilda.

Gilda dug her talon into the wood slightly. So the nosy bureaucrat had uncovered her secret! Or maybe Dash fessed up, or Do, or something else. She refused to face the magistrate. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said, trying to muddy the tension out of her voice.

“Don’t you? I thought you would understand what has me so happy.” Mare rolled and put away her scrolls. “We all have vices, Mis Gilda. But sinners have to be discreet, and not get caught up. Only truly disgusting creatures define themselves by their vices. You're not one of those disgusting creatures, Mis Gilda. You're a strange one, but I believe you have a good heart. That's why I'm offering to protect you from your shadow, for a price."

Blackmail. Of course. Gilda entertained the idea of ripping apart the bureaucrat and flying for the coast. "Listen here you smug bint-"

A sound from the hallway cut through the threat, the cheery laughter of Dash and Do. The Magistrate gave Gilda a stern but sly look. “How good are you at keeping quiet, Mis Gilda?

“I uh-”

The door was pushed open. Before Mis Do set a second hoof inside, Magistrate Mare had pushed away from her chair and intercepted her.

“They must not knock in among the Sahellan tribes you lived amongst. It's very rude to barge in!” Mare blocked Do’s view of the inside of the study.

“No, they blow great ivory horns every time they enter or leave their tents.” Do retorted. “May I come in?”

“I... don’t see why not.” Mare grumbled, she looked back over her shoulder to see Gilda’s tail disappearing under the desk. She backed away from the door and returned to her seat. Gilda’s tail tickled her legs as it flicked. “Do you need something, Mis Do?”

Do lazily cantered to the same windowsill Gilda had lain on looked out at the blue waters of Beak Bay. “I thought I should let you know that we need to moor at Stirrup Port.”

"Stirrup? What the hell for?! Don't you want to get to Chitin?" Mare stamped her hoof. A muffled curse came from beneath the table, which she hastily covered with a cough; Griffins’ tails are more sensitive than ponies’.

"I couldn't tell you earlier, and I'm sorry about that. There are spies everywhere." Do looked over her shoulder to the open door, as if there might be a spy there at that very moment. "There is another piece of cargo of great importance to my expedition, a crate to identical dimensions to the one I came aboard with. It might be waiting for us in Stirrup."

Mare nearly snapped her quill hearing that. "MIGHT BE?! And YOU expect me to-" She took a deep breath. " You're not stupid. You're know you're putting me in a difficult position. Are you sure about this?"

"You want me to repeat myself?" Do smirked smugly.

Mare rubbed at her eye therapeutically. "No I heard you. It's within your rights as a client of the EOC to go behind my back like this, but let it be known that I strongly object to this deception."

"Duly noted, and I’m glad you understand." Do feigned apology. “I wouldn't do this unless I really did fear the people chasing me.”

"And you do not tell me who they are despite of, or because of this fear?" Mare asked rhetorically. "Very well Mis Do. It's your money."

Do flashed a lopsided grin. "Not yet, it isn't." She let herself out, laughing into the air.

"What does that mean? Hey!" Mare yelled after her. "I will find out what you’re hiding from me! Eventually!" But Do was laughing to hard to hear her.

"The gall..." Mare muttered. "That filly is starting to upset me. I don't like having secrets kept from me."

Gilda poked her head out from under the desk. "It's not the flagrant disrespect she's showing you? If somepony acted that way to me I'd tear their throat out." She cocked her head. "In fact that's what I did to a stallion just last month."

"Spare me. I'm not suddenly your therapist." Mare pulled back from the desk and began pacing the room. "Now that I know your secret you're like a solved game: A bore. With Do however, her client privileges prove tricky..."

"Jeez you're rude." Gilda crawled from the hiding spot and stretched her wings. "You'll find I'm a lot more complex than you think, and you're a lot less smart than you think you are."

That prod nettled Mare just right. "Oh really?" She growled, stopping dead in her tracks."

"It made less sense before you told me about your blackmail of the EOC. Seems now the EOC is getting you back." Gilda said. "Why would Do estrange you unless she didn't trust you, and why wouldn't she trust you unless somepony told her something. Maybe you should start wondering why you were given this expedition, Magistrate."

"Those bastards... They must be out of their minds if they think they can do this to me." Mare turned contemplative.

Gilda retook her windowsill perch. “Are we still being candid? Because I'd tell you I want to know what's in that crate. Then we can see if it matches the manifest the EOC gave you."

Mare looked up. "The EOC didn't give me a manifest. Not a detailed one anyhow. The dimensions they provided were also speculative."

Gilda blinked. "They didn't know what she was bringing aboard either.

Mare trotted back to her desk and sunk in her chair. "So... We will have to operate on the assumption nopony has told anypony else the truth, and they all have something to hide. Do may be a spy, or chased by spies, who knows. The EOC may be setting us up or sending us purposefully into danger."

"That's a lot of talk of 'we' and 'us' from a mare who was threatening to blackmail me three minutes ago." Gilda clacked her beak.

Mare smiled. "I know you don't have any money, so what else am I supposed to ask for?"

“I go above and beyond my job as a mercenary, and we clear the slate.” Gilda proposed. “When we get to Stirrup, I dig up what Do is hiding. I find that second crate and familiarize myself with its contents. That will go a long way towards find Do out."

"Perhaps." Mare tapped her chin with her hoof. "Your, ahem, indiscretions will be difficult to forget Mis GIlda, but I'll make an honest effort if you pilot us out of this confusing quandary."

Gilda felt her heart soar. From in the pit to on top in no time at all! "And I want you to destroy whatever records you used. Deal?”

“Deal.” Mare offered her hoof, and Gilda shook it curtly. “This could work, Mis Gilda. Come out successful and out we will dig deeper. We can wring the bastards!”

“Stop using that 'we'. I just finding that crate. This is a one-time thing.” Gilda said firmly. “I'm hired to be a mercenary not a special investigator or whatever.”

“Simply said, Mis Gilda, I hold leverage over you at this moment. Even if you hold up your end, it may take longer than forecasted to hold up my end. If that happens to be the case, then you might try doing more favors to hurry the process along. Now…”
Mare leaned past Gilda, scooping up a few documents. “If you'll excuse me, I have to send this off and tell the helmspony of our brief stop by Stirrup. Good day."

Gilda watched her leave, and briefly considered trashing the study in a violent and temperamental outburst of frustration. But she decided instead to sigh deeply, and complete her journey to her cabin. She restrained the urge to scream, instead throwing herself into her bunk. She lay there, nursing an impotent anger.

Damn that Mare, she seethed. Was there no privacy in the world anymore? She would play along, for the other choice was to let her secret get out and ruin her forever. Or kill Mare.

She drifted off, and began thinking about grand riches and treasures of Chitin, and about Dash. Dash was a good friend, she sleepily confirmed to herself. Dash would never tell. If only she could have more Dash.

Reqheh Besurje, or Stirrup in the equestrian tongue, was the largest of the trading ports clinging to the thin coastal plain of the Saddle. The yellow sandstone mountains were topped with yellowed homes of the moderately wealthy, which petered out the closer to the water one got. The wood and reed homes and warehouses that that replaced them on the waterfront spilled over into the harbor, where they floated at the mercy of the tides.

Stirrup had been a thriving city in previous eras, monopolizing trade through the Saddle between from Griffany and Sahella to Maredia, Zebrastan, and Chitin. The rise of the two largest transoceanic trading companies, the Griffin Oceanic Company and the Equestrian Charter Company, had created routes that bypassed the chokehold Stirrup had over the Saddle Strait. Without the constant influx of money it was used to, Stirrup decayed under the weight of decadence and vagrancy. Now it was only notable for the refugees passing in both directions, fleeing to Griffany from Maredia, or to Saddle Arabia from Sahella.

Gilda emerged from the cabins just in time to hear the end of an argument between Magistrate Mare and Mis Do. The Flyer Kyte laid anchor halfway into the broad strait, and Do was not happy about that.

"No and no again, ma'am. I'm not taking the ship any closer. For one the wind becomes screwy close to the coastal mountains and I don't want us driven into shoals. There's no chance the natives are going to give us a pilot, seeing as they hate the EOC." Mare said, half-heartedly feigning contriteness. "You will have to go on your own."

Do stared for a while, but at last shrugged. "Ah well. I'm no stranger to doing things by myself. Only, by crate is too heavy to bring back by myself."

"We have a wench. If you find some good ponies to help you load it on a dinghy, we can life it aboard." Mare said.

"All planned out." Do twisted her nose. "I'll go in a few minutes."

"I'll come!" Rainbow Dash, back from an aerial patrol, landed right beside the two mares. "If I'd be of some help, I mean."

"Of course you'd be of some help, Dash." Do nodded. "Like the saying goes two pegasi is always better than one."

"are always better" Gilda corrected under her breath. She waited for Do to wander off to pursue some preparation to move out of the shadows and approach Dash.

“Hey.” Gilda ventured.

“Hey G.” Dash smiled earnestly. “Are you coming with us to Stirrup. Probably not huh, since been avoiding Daring like the feather flu.”

Daring, Daring Do. The beige pegsus's name was revealed. "Do I have a reason to talk to her? I won't lie, you're right I'm avoiding her. I'm just up here for some fresh air." She smiled. "And to talk to you. Because I could say you've been avoiding me!"

“Aww. I thought you hated me for some reason.” Dash smiled back.

"I've been annoyed, but never hate." Gilda promised. "I know you too well to ever, ever hate you."

Dash blinked. "Heavy stuff, G. It's too early for that kind of talk."

"Heh, sorry..." Gilda's grin turned sheepish. "I guess I've been letting my mind take me places. Not always a good thing huh." She cleared her throat. "If, um, Mid Do is around I'd like to talk with her a second. Like you said the other day, if she's not going to hold my, umm, transgressions against me, we can be friendly."

“Thats the spirit!” Dash cheered. “I’ll go get her! If you come with us there'll be plenty of time to chat.”

“Sounds good.” Gilda agreed, so Rainbow jaunted back into the cabins in search of Daring Do.

Magistrate Mare slinked out from behind the mast. “Are you planning something, Mis Gilda?" She asked darkly.

"Snooping as usual, I see." Gilda scowled. "For your information I am just trying to make my friend happy."

"Ahh! Not a bad idea." Mare nodded. "f things go sour, you make sure Mis Dash is on our side.”

“There you go, getting ahead of yourself again.” Gilda smoothed her crest back to calm her rising anxiety. She didn’t like juggling lies, especially to Rainbow. They may have had their disagreements, but the cornerstone of their friendship was their honesty with each other. “How about you let me do this task to completion before you start riding my tail?”

"Hmm, how about no."

"How about shove off then." Gilda hissed. "You're stressing me out. It might not come naturally to you but I'm asking you to trust me to do this my way."

Mare's nose wrinkled, but she relented. “Fine then. Don’t forget, that the quicker you satisfy me, the more quickly I may forget.” Mare’s ear swiveled to approaching voices. She trotted away to the forecastle.

“Good morning Miss Gilda! I hear you’re dropping the tough girl act.” Gilda heard Do call to her. That immediately set her fur on end. The swaggering pegasus made Rainbow look like a paragon of modesty. The way Dash acted around Do, like a demure filly, having eyes only for her newfound idle, infuriated Gilda.

“How am I supposed to respond to an accusation like that?” GIlda glared, but she softened it to a forced smile. “I'm just offering to join you for this little outing.”

“Very good!” Do cantered to the side of the ship and vaulted over into the partly-lowered dingy. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go girlies!”

“Right behind you!” Dash jubilantly flapped her way there. “Come on, G!”

“Yeah, I'll sit in the mid-” Gilda took a step forward.

But Do stepped between them, interjecting. “You know, I think someone should scout ahead.”

"What?"

“You know, fly on over to the dock and check things out. Any takers? Gilda?” Do quirked her brow. "Wouldn't you rather fly than row?"

“Uh” Gilda stammered. “I guess…”

“That’s the spirit.” Do’s cheery praise rang in Gilda’s ears as condescension. The griffin dug her claws into the wooden deck angrily. Without another word, she launched herself skyward, raising a cloud of splinters behind her.

Before she realized it, she was high in the air, nearing the wispy cirrus clouds kept back from the mountains by the air currents.
Behind her to the west, she could see nothing but the arid plain of Sahella, separated from the Mountains of Eastern Saddle Arabia by the strait. Though she could not see over the sandstone mountains ahead of her to the east, Gilda knew that the Arabians’ Desert occupied the inland. There were thousands of kilometers of open land, where nobody could find her.
"What am I thinking..." She muttered into the wind. "How will I be able to stand myself if I let an uppity featherhead drive me off. I've eaten ponies for less."

How fleeting her interaction with Rainbow had been. Gilda yelled angry curses at the cloudsas she glided down to Stirrup.
She was convinced that Daring Do was the one who told Magistrate Mare. They would keep her in a state of perpetual blackmail, compelling her to do their dirty work.
They would pay in the worst way Gilda knew. Ideas of evil from cloudy memories swirled in her head. Spurred on by the wind, Gilda thought of another windy place she once lived, and all the gloriously hideous things done there. Torture, humiliation, mutilation, and of course the raucous maws and claws of devouring.

Gilda was so caught up in her revenge fantasy, she almost didn’t realize that she was over the city. To say that buisness was slow would have been giving the rotting line of docks too much credit. There were many craft of varying sizes, but there was a total air of inactivity, as though the entire harbor was sleeping despite it being the middle of the day. In fact, Gilda only saw a dozen ponies, and griffins, sitting back in abject surrender to the noontime heat. There was no movement.
"Are they all... nah."

The meeting point was not immediately obvious, but with how few living creatures could be seen it was unmissable. Gilda’s eagle eyes picked out a pony about her size leaning against a crate at the end of one of the longer jetties. The crate had the exact same dimensions as the one in the Flyer Kyte's hold, though made of pale eastern wood rather than ruddy Sahellan wood. Gilda beelined for the duo, crate and pony.

The stallion waited until Gilda landed to bother moving. He was an earth pony, sporting a white coat with grey discolorations that matched his mane and tail. His accent reminded Gilda of the drawn out twang of the mountain minotaurs of eastern Griffany. “You are from that ship out there, yes? Is Daring Do with you?”

Gilda smoothed back the feathers that had been disrupted during her frantic flight. “Mis Do is on her way right now. You’re the caretaker of this little box?”

“Notta small box, and I’m notta care taker. So, that’s no to both questions. My name is Hyle, the Philosophizer.” The pony bowed deeply.

“Pleased to meet you Hyle, I’m Gilda.” Gilda offered her talon in greeting, but the earth pony ignored it. “Uh, okay… You’re a philosopher?

“Of a sort. I serve in the court of Gausytages, Shay of Hars.” Hyle explained. “I act as representative on his behalf, to deliver this cargo to Mis Do.”

Gilda assumed that a ‘shay’ was a kind of ruler. Like she had with the Andoulu chieftain, Daring Do was working with the natives to get her cargo. “Cool, cool. Like I said she’s on her way.”

“Yes, yes, you did say.” Hyle nodded. “Does she bring more others, yes?”

“Just Dash, erm, her bodyguard.” Gilda was getting on odd vibe from the white earth pony. “Will we need more? How heavy is the box?”

“Not heavy, yes! Me and my partner could carry it, no problem at all.” Hyle laughed.

Gilda laughed along with him, but as she did so she was looking for any signs of trouble. Something wasn’t right; She could feel it. “So if you’re a philosopher for some bigshot lord, why are you delivering a box?” Gilda arched a brow. “Does the Shay often send you with his parcels?”

“No, yes? Difficult to explain.” Hyle bit his lip. “It is not from him. It is not his, no, not his at all!”

“It’s not a stolen heirloom, is it? Or a priceless royal pet? A Hars treasure? Is the box itself the treasure? What’s in it?” Gilda grinned, preying on the pony’s nervousness to provoke their natural reaction to predators. “Comeon, tell me! What’s in the box?”

“It is not for you to know. Now where is Do?” Hyle was sweating, eyes darting around to avoid Gilda’s gaze. "Oh this is not easy. This is not an easy message and I will not say it twice."

“Let me be clearer buddy. You're going to tell me right now what's in that box, or Do's never going to know you existed!” GIlda suddenly roared, flaring her wings out.

“EeeEE! Please! This is not easy for me either! I, err, well, I will tell you.” Hyle stuttered, backing away. He brought a handkerchief up to dap the sweat off his forehead. “Yes, yes, I will tell you…”

The wiz of the bullet past Gilda’s ear was followed milliseconds later by the crack of the gun that'd shot it echoing down the docks.

“Son of a whore!” Gilda dove behind a nearby stack of barrels, and Hyle did the same behind the coffin-sized crate. “Gods damn it, I knew something was fishy!”

Hyle was weeping, covering his head with his hooves as if it could protect him from a bullet.

“Come on, you flake! Pull yourself together! Is this a set-up or are we ambushed? Who's attacking us?” Gilda yelled.

“W- W- Why w- would I know?” Hyle sobbed. “Yes?”

Gilda clearly saw the earth pony didn't have the mental fortitude to be bait for an ambush. “Okay then, tell me where there’ll likely to be. You’ve been in this city longer than I have.” She clacked her beak in extreme agitation. Being shot at was never fun, not made any better by having a whining baby by her side. What was worse, the docks were too exposed to make a run for it. As soon as she left the cover of the barrels she’d be a target.

"I don't know!"

“Then here’s what I have to do. I’m going to peek around and see where the shooter is.” Gilda explained to Hyle, though it was unclear if he was listening.

She pressed herself against the ground, and steeled herself for the gun’s retort. She leaned out, scanned the roofs and alleys quickly, and ducked back.

“Nothing.” She hissed. The docks transitioned into clustered sandstone houses abruptly, and no sign of life could been see anywhere. Though she wasn't dwelling on it Gilda was starting to notice Stirrup was nearly abandoned. “Okay, Hyle, I’m coming over to you.”

“I will look out for you then.” Hyle, who seemed to have composed again, pulled out his handkerchief again. He held it tightly to his forehead as he peered up over the edge of the crate.

“Not really necessary, but okay.” Gilda took a deep breath, danced in place for a moment to wind herself up, and jumped from her spot.

The bullet tore apart the dock under her, sending up a cloud of splinters. Gilda collided with Hyle, his solid earth pony body arresting her momentum.

“Whew. That bastard sure is quick on the trigger.” Gilda gripped, pulling herself off the philosopher. “Or maybe he’s been scoping this place out for a while.”

“Mayhaps if we, say, charge him, he will panic and miss. Yes...” Hyle suggested.

“Without knowing his roost? That’d be bloody suicide. But hey, if you want to run out into the open, that’s fine by me.” Gilda was about to say more, but she stopped herself. The sniper was totally ignoring Hyle so far. That was odd...
“He’s sure got it out for me.” She said warily, watching Hyle out of the corner of her eye. “If somebody doesn’t want Do to get what in the box, they're giving themselves away shooting at me.”

“You are the, well, larger target, yes.” Hyle wrung his handkerchief nervously.

They waited for a few moments. The wind was starting to pick up. Gilda holding her claw against the side of the crate, formulated her plan.

“You know, I think your idea to rush him has merit.” Gilda smiled. “I’ll even go first.”

“Good, yes.” Hyle dabbed at his cheek. “Just give me a moment to prepare before-”

Gilda grabbed the earth pony by the neck and tossed him over the box, between her and the city. He'd not even hit the ground when the sniper’s shot punched through his foreleg, missing Gilda’s head by a hair’s breadth.

“AAAAAHH! YOU GRIFFIN PSOL! AAAAHH!” The philosopher screamed, rolling on the dock and holding his limp leg in disbelief. He tried to get to his hooves.

“OH! Damn!” Gilda jumped back. She’d been fairly sure Hyle was a rat, but he wasn’t much of anything besides dead now.

Her surprise was cut short by a second shot that caught Hyle square in the chest. He fell backwards limply, crashing right through the crate. Gilda saw a glint of something shiny from a rooftop partway up the mountain slope.

“Gotcha bitch!” She vaulted over Hyle’s body and dashed up the dock. Twelve seconds later, the interval between the two shots that’s hit Hyle, she sprung into the air, completely throwing off the next shot that bit into the dock below her.

Her speed in the air far exceeded that on the ground. She saw the glint of metal again and swooped up. She could clearly see the sniper now, jumping between the flat roofs in an effort to get away. It looked like another earth pony in a short cape, clutching a long-barreled musket in the crook of his foreleg.

The wind picked up even more, racing into Stirrup and the mountains from the strait. The sudden gusts only propelled Gilda faster, and within seconds she was above the fleeing sniper.

She dove at the him, talons and claws bared. But as her shadow fell across the sprinting pony, he released the clasp of his cape. Gilda swerved to avoid the fabric cape as it was blown up in the breeze, but lost her aerodynamic balance as the wind gusted to absurd strength. She tumbled down into the sandstone alleyways, coming to rest on her back in the dirt. She lay there for a moment listening the shriek of wind whistling overhead.

“Did a bucking monsoon roll into town?” She picked herself back up. The sky was still clear but the wind was like a an angry demon.

A cry of panic sounded down the alley. Gilda turned and saw none other than the sniper pony falling from the adjacent roof, apparently as helpless in the wind as Gilda was. He bounced off an awning and landed a dozen meters down the alley.

“AH HA!” GIlda pounced while he was still recovering, batting the long musket out of his hooves and pressing him into the dirty cobble. “What now bucker!”

The earth pony was not passive. He used his armored hoof to bat Gilda claw away as he scooted back. His eyes darted around for his gun until he saw it was much closer to Gilda than him.
"Aye, not bad bird, not bad." He had a singsong, north-islander twang. He tugged a knife from his bandoleer. "I'll tell ya, this'll be the easy part for ya. It's been a day since one got this close and I'm out of practice." He took the knife in his mouth and crouched low.

The stallion leaped forward and slashed the air. Gilda ducked under and attempted a leg sweep, but she was no acrobat, and she tripped over herself and landed on her back. The earth pony stallion slashed at her again but Gilda rolled just enough that the blade bounced of her vest at the shoulder clasp. Now that he was close Gilda socked him in the jaw to send the knife the way of the gun, then used her hindleg to knee him in the groin. The stallion was quicker than she expected though and jumped backward, so he only took the knee in the chest. Still it winded him, and that gave Gilda the moment to hop up.

"The only reason you still have your lower jaw is because I need answers." Gilda pointed a razor sharp talon at him. "Start explaining yourself!"

"When somepony's paid to make silence, make a more convincing offer." The stallion nursed his cheek where she'd struck him. "Like they say back home: Show some steel if ya want my breath."

He took the initiative again, apparently emboldened by Gilda's show of weakness of not killing him. He struck out with a hoof and Gilda dodged appropriately, but the motion also carried him back to his knife. Scooping it up he charged at her.
Gilda took a slow breath. Things seemed to slow down.
She was a big creature in close confines. There should have been no getting past her but the little northerner was proving worth his salt. She couldn't exploit her flight because of the outrageous winds above them. And that knife...

She let out the breath. The sniper was barreling down at her with the knife in his maw. She swung wide with the flat of her claw, driving her palm into the blade to rip it from him mouth and throw him past her like a bull after a matador. He stumbled, landing on his stomach right by his gun.
Gilda ripped the knife out of her claw in a spray of blood then jumped after the pony. She seized him by the shoulder and flipped him against the alley wall, then dragged him onto his back. While he was still disoriented she stomped on his right hindleg with all her weight, ensuring he wouldn't be kicking her off again.

"How's this for an offer!" She crowed triumphantly. With time to examine him she found the sniper was a rose colored little stallion with a new-growth green mane. He refused to speak, so Gilda dug her talons into his skin until he yelped. “Come off it, bud. Don’t think I won’t tear you apart, so start explaining yourself!”

“Explain myself? Heh!” The sniper snickered. “Foal in daycare, I am?”

“Buckin smartass, huh?” GIlda jerked his up and slammed him back down into the ground, then twice more. “Who sent you?”

The sniper was grimacing from the pain, but still managed a smirk. “Wasn’t sent nowhere, was I. Was here first, m’lady.”

“And now, you aren’t going anywhere.” Gilda slashed at his fore leg with an open talon, cutting five lacerations across it’s length. “Now sir, what do you know?!” She kicked both his wounded legs.

“EERG! You right twit! Who pissed in your breakfast?” The sniper bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed. “Gunna skin me are ya?"

"Don't tempt me, mudpony." Gilda chortled darkly.

"Piss." The earth pony swore. He propped himself up with his undamage foreleg. "I’m just the gun, yaknow? I'll flip I swear. Just let me live. It was that ass Hyle and that grave-robber Do that broke from the script!”

“Ah ha! Now we're getting somewhere.” GIlda said, circling around to where she’d thrown the gun.

“You saw the box’s empty. But it wasn't always. Me’n Hyle had the real sarcophagus, and we were ready eager to sell it to Do. Then last week, these hippogryphs rollin inna town, wreck the docks, cart off with most everypony in town! Everybody’s left were workin with ‘em, co-operating. Didn’t wanna die.”

“Hippogryphs?” Gilda blinked in confusion. Hyppogryphs could be cruel creatures, but they had never been known to do something as brutal as enslave entire towns. “Were they pirates?”

“Nah, worse. Inquisitors. Scary lookin mothers with no mercy bout them. They were here to fetch the sarcophagus, least that’s their claim to everypony. She said to Hyle and I that she’d forgive if we’d tempt Do in with the empty box then blast her. Their leader, she was, a damn big gryph witha glass eye that’s got a mind of it’s own.” The sniper shuddered, chilled by the very memory of the mare. “But when Hyle left, she told me to off’m and let Do go. That'd scare Do off ever tryin ta get her hooves on another sarcophagus.”

“A most fascinating tale.” Gilda scratched her chin. "Tell me about the sarcophagus."

The earth pony shrugged weakly. "Honest nothin. Hyle did the dealin, I was the muscle. We secret trifles betwixt Stirrup and Maredia all the time. Little things mostly. Except this time the Gausytages the Shay of Hars and some secret hyppogryph contacts were involved. I swear I dunno anythin about them, that was pure Hyle. The inquisitor mighta put me down if I had known."

"Well my good pony, I appreciate your honesty, even if it did have to be drawn out of you." Gilda had a lot to think about. A secret sarcophagus, conspiracy, hippogryphs, and their religious enforcers the Inquisitors to boot. The sniper before her just a jackass caught in the wrong place at the wrong moment.
She picked up the long musket and admired it’s fine craftsponyship. Only it wasn’t quite musket, not any kind of firearm she’d ever seen. As far as she could tell, the breach was hinged, allowing for quick reloading. “I’ll tell you what… How about I take this, and we forget this ever happened.”

“Not inna position to complain now am I?” The sniper looked like she's struck him again. His eyes followed the gun as Gilda inspected it. “My life’s worth about half that gun. Please take care of her.”

"Oh I will, Sir." Gilda, now that had calmed down, realized she should do something about her stabbed-through claw. She inspected it, but it wasn't bleeding at all, nor did it really hurt, yet she could articulate it perfectly. Lucky the stab hadn't severed any tendons. She tore a scrap off the sniper's cape and wrapped it around the cut just in case. "And the name?"

"Pip." The sniper tipped a nonexistent hat, smiling sadly.

"No the gun."

"What kind of silly eejit names their gun. To here she was My Gun. Now, she's Your Gun." Pip scoffed. "If yer ever round Trottingham way ask for me. I'd love ta see you again and pay this back. Bring her, and mayhapse her name will change again."

"I've never met an pony like you Pip. Next time will be even more fun. Good luck with finding help before you bleed out. Ta ta now.” Gilda took to the sky, immensely pleased with the outcome of the day’s events. Further boosting her spirits, the freak wind had died away altogether.

She intercepted Dash and Do in the dingy just as they were arriving in the outer harbor, several piers over from where the smashed crate and Hyle’s body were still laying.

“Heya girls, I’ve got bad news.” Gilda informed. “I looked everywhere. The locals say your contact skipped town about a week ago, when some guys they called 'Inquisitors' came looking for him. They wouldn't tell me much else.”

Do stared vacantly into the sky for several long moments. “Huh. Inquisitors? That’s too bad.” She said carefully. Judging by her expression part of her disappointment was that Gilda had picked off part of her secret. “I guess this stop was pointless. Magistrate Mare is never going to let me hear the end of it.”

“Not going to have a look for yourself?" Gilda queried.

"No. I have to go back to the ship. I have some things to think about." Do said. "Dash, you can go ahead and I'll row back myself."

"No I'll stay and help." Dash said, she turned to Gilda. "Meet you back on the ship then G. Hey..." She squinted. "Is that a gun on your back?"

"Maybe?" Gilda grinned. "You two go on ahead, and I’ll catch up. I want to explore the local flavor a it more."
With that she took off for the highest parts of Stirrup, leaving Do and Dash to row back to the Kyte.

Stirrup was already a ghost town. Nopony would be suspicious if Hyle’s body wasn’t found, nor the few stragglers the gryphs had left behind. More corpses in a graveyard city.

Bridge Chapter 4: Coming in to Coltcutta

Six Weeks Before the Summer Sun

The sun was hot and the air was damp, but the Maredian Sea between Zebrastan and Saddle Arabia was calm in spring. The Flyer Kyte chased the sun east, gliding through flat seas. Life was, for the moment, uneventful.

Rainbow Dash was napping peacefully on the mermare figurehead of the Kyte, dreaming about playing leapfrog with a pair of red fillies, when a deafening crack jolted her awake. She slipped off her narrow perch, almost hitting the smooth waters below before she remembered her wings and flapped back up to the level of the top deck.

Gilda was leaning over the forecastle, taking aim with her fancy new breachload arquebus. She shifted from one talon to the other, testing how it felt from each side, before squeezing the trigger and releasing the spring-loaded flint arm to strike the powder pan. The gun let off another shot with a mighty roar, and Gilda was nearly thrown on her back as it bucked upward in recoil.

Rainbow waited for the ringing in her ears to pass. “Do you have to test that thing now? You know it’s my designated naptime.”

“The wind is totally dead, and everypony else is in their bunks.” GIlda flicked a thumb in the direction of the stair belowdecks. For most of the pony crew, the tropical sun was intolerable, even when clad in protective clothes. Doubly so without a breeze. “This is the only time I can be up and test here without the sailors complaining.”

“But do you really need to? Seems like it's working fine to me.” Dash asked skeptically.

"Nopony complained when Do was practicing with her little pea-shooter."

"Because it was half as loud." Dash said. "Can't you wait?"

“Well, would you wait to try out a new flying trick you thought of?” Gilda shot back.

“No…” Dash admitted. “I mean, well… You know, I haven’t thought of any new tricks in a while. I’ve been in a funk since Clawstantinople.”

Gilda stepped away from the side, slotting the gun in a makeshift strap she'd made that rested on her back. “Okay, I'll bite Dash. You'd rather talk about your feelings."

Dash blushed. "N- No! I didn't mean to-"

"No please." Gilda bowed deferentially. "Tell me about your funk. Is it really nothing me or your new friend Do could help with?”

“It’s like, I don’t know.” Dash shook her head. “There’s always a little doubt pulling me away. I'm hardly up in the sky anymore. In Baltimare I was the fastest weathermare up there, and I always had time to test a move. Since we left it's been a new sky every day and..." She sighed. "Is it the air? Something doesn't feel right."

"Hey, I hear you. I didn't do well when I left home for the first time either." Gilda nodded, popping open the gun's powder tray and scraping off the residue. "At first I was dizzy, then I was seeing things. I was sick to my stomach for days. Heh, maybe it was something I ate."

"That's when you made your little snack rules, huh?" Rainbow teased weakly.

"N- No! You don't know what you're talking about." Gilda blushed angrily. She smacked the powder pan closed. "Don't you ever shut up about that?!"

"Sorry, sorry." Dash stared at the deck, tracing the grain of the wood with her eyes. "Why's this a touchy subject now? We were joking about it before."

"Humph." Gilda flicked another small lead ball down the barrel. "Gosh who know. Maybe I, seeing how amazingly it went when you decided to face your past, decided to have a go."

That struck Dash silent. Gilda felt a little guilty about the bluster, but it was less every time, ever with Dash.

"Yeah, and you know where that line of thought leads us." Gilda hoisted the gun up and took aim again. "Whatever crap you had to go through in Cloudsdale, you better believe Godswing is a thousand times worse. So basically, I'm done thinking about the past. Forever, hopefully. A new continent, a new life..."
She squeezed the trigger, and the arquebus blasted back with a mighty retort. The shot hit the water a hundred meters away with a modest splash.
"Forget why things the way they are. They just are. Crucifying ourselves over mistakes is getting us nowhere."

Dash was apprehensive about that idea. "But G, we have to learn from our mistakes."

"Gods willing there's going to be enough future for us to learn from. The past can die because I'm not afraid of it anymore. I will not run. I have the confidence to face the future head on." Gilda reaffirmed, harsher. She half-turned to Dash, gesturing with the gun. "You disagree? You'd rather live in your sad, pathetic past?

"G, I... I can't talk to you when your like this. I've got to go." Dash said dejectedly. "I'll see you, umm, later."

"See ya." Gilda nodded, already reloading for another shot. Dash retreated to the door to the cabins, and with a last glance, went below decks.

Gilda blew the residue out of the powder pan again. She felt like everything around her was going to hell, but there was something therapeutic about the repetitive task. Eventually, she hoped, she could reload it as fast as the earth pony sniper she'd taken it from. It was a beautiful device and it deserved her devotion and respect, but being accurate could only come with time.

She reached down for her powder horn, but it wasn't where she left it. Confused, she turned and found herself face-to-face with a grinning Daring Do.

"Good morning, Mis Gilda." Do said.

"It's past noon." Gilda eyed the powder horn that Do had clutched in her hoof. "Can I have that back?"

Do ignored her and leaned on the railing casually. "I was strolling by and happened to hear something quite odd. I was hoping you could clarify for me."

"Was it my new gun?" Gilda snarked.

"No, not quite." Do laughed emptily. "Did you, and please correct me if I'm wrong here, mention Godswing?"

Gilda leveled her arquebus and aimed it at Do's temple. "No." She said coldly. "I don't think I ever did mention it."

"You sure do love threatening death on ponies, or is it just on me?" Do laughed at the gesture. "Mis Gilda, please, let's be friendly here."

"You're getting a bit too tired to stay out in the heat, I'd say." Gilda scowled, ushering Do back with the gun. "You had better go inside before you get a heat stroke."

"I'm a bit out of your distance, aren't I? Wouldn't your talons do better in this situation?" Do rolled her eyes. "Come on, I just want to talk. You might have some answers to a question I've had for a while.

"Is it, 'what's a lead ball smashing through my skull and scrambling my brains feel like?' Because if so, I might have an answer all right." Gilda teased her claw against the trigger.

"Bloody griffins." Do sighed in exasperation. "Come on, you didn't load the damn thing! Just hear me out. It's not every day that somepony escapes Godswing and the School of the Black Bell."

"There's a reason for that." Gilda lowered her arquebus, but snatched back her powder horn. She went back to her reloading ritual. "Perhaps your eavesdropping also heard me say that Godswing is about the worst place on earth. Whatever treasure you think you might find there, FORGET IT. The endless screams that woke me every night of my childhood weren't ones of joy."

"Really?!" Do gasped. Her shock turned to glee and she launched into a battery of questions. "But, can you tell me about the island itself? How many live there? How many disciples of the School of the Black Bell are there? What about the Graffina? How about the Ossuary? Have they really brought back ponies from the dead?"

Gilda strained to ignore her, slowly measuring out gunpowder into the breach of the gun.

"Fine fine fine." Do placated. "I can understand I might me a touchy subject. But the knowledge! Oh, I just want to know! Rumors swirl the academic world! Ponies say they're just the visible surface of a huge network. Is that true?"

Gilda continued in silence.

"Well, um... Some other time then, please?" Do trotted back towards the cabins. "Oh psha! You can't evade me forever. Eventually, I will like to hear about that mysterious place. I will!"

Gilda slowly turned to face the jabbering mare. "Kindly, buck off!"

Do scrunched her nose and opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. She completed her withdrawal into the cabins.

"I guess you really are a grave robber." Gilda grumbled, alone again. She wished the wind could come back and push the curious thoughts away from all the ponies. The last time a nosy pony had been so prying about her past, he'd ended up dead on the Baltimare waterfront.

The wind picked up early the next day and drove the Flyer Kyte east across the Maredian Sea to the western coast of Zebrastan. Through the telescope Gilda could see verdant jungle broken up by coastal villages constructed of red stone, and small dhows plowing the waters closer to the shore. Showing a great curiosity for the history of the place, Gilda snuck an older atlas from Magistrate Mare's cabin and read over it.

The great subcontinent was known by many names, for within its borders were thousands of races and languages. Only its most northerly extremes, those in contact with Mardia and Hars, were actually ruled by zebra lords, descendants of nomad lords from Sahella. Still the hippogryphs named the entire land after them, Zebrastan, and so the word of that place and its name travelled to Griffany and on to Equestria.

The individual histories of the hundreds of sultanates, shahdoms, and rajs bored Gilda, but the narrative of near total integration between the different populations of zebras, oxen, water buffalo, elephants, and ponies intrigued her. It was strange to consider, contradicting the Griffin and Equestrian tradition of the tribe-state and their histories of tribal conflict.
Grifins were relatively new to the continent, with a flotilla from Anterpwren arriving for the first time in 901 SS in search spice and riches. The lords of Zebrastan had welcomed the foreigners at first and all the others who came after, for their lands were as welcoming as one could find anywhere. But slowly the griffins of the GOC and the ponies of the EOC were chipping away at native sovereignty. The trade treaties were becoming more unequal every year, and the supposed visitors were impeding on the privileges of the kings more and more.

When she was tired of reading Gilda handed the book back to Mare, earning a confused and irritated look from the magistrate.

It took three days to round the southern tip of the Zebrastani subcontinent. Gilda took another book out of Magistrate Mare's office, one of charts and maps, and counted off the larger harbors as they passed them.
The ports were each as populous as Clawstantinople, with magnificent sandstone palaces surrounded by tracts of tiny houses and markets, and with hundreds of ships of many nations floating just offshore. Newer fortresses and trading houses, marring the cities like a scar, were the districts of the trading companies.
As huge as the cities were, they were still drowned out by the population of the countryside: Zebrastan was so populous that even small parcels of territory had the population of whole griffin kingdoms. That, more than anything else, was why the foreign powers were able to encroach, for centralizing power was an impossible undertaking. Local lords were too numerous and powerful to reign in, so said local lords found it easy and convenient to make treaties with the outsiders rather than their regional hegemony.

It was all so fascinating. How easy would it be to gather a small army and carve out a little empire for oneself in those populous jungles. The Princes of Equestria and other mercenaries were wasting their time fighting griffin wars when they could be real princes in Zebrastan.
As fun as it was to wonder, Gilda had to return those charts too. Mare mare grumbling indistinct threats if she tried to steal a book again, so Gilda promised to ask next time, and only steal it after Mare turned the request down. Mare did not find that funny.

After rounding the southern tip, the Flyer Kyte turned north-east, weaving through the tropical archipelagos of the Sunbasker Isles. The sandy shoals took longer than expected to navigate, a fact much lamented by Dash and Magistrate Mare, but Do and Gilda enjoyed the fleeting window into so-called paradise. The hot days were getting even longer, and Gilda's accuracy with the intricate arquebus improved.

After a few more days hugging Zebrastan's east coast on their way northeast, the Kyte turned due north. They had a strait shot to their next stop, so they made full sail to arrive before nightfall.

At long last the Flyer Kyte arrived Coltcutta, the largest city of all Zebrastan. It sat on an island at the mouth of the River Grana, overlooking the vast marshy estuary. To approach the city at all, ships had to weave through a network of canals cut into the swamp, which linked the inner lagoon to the sea. All the while the Kyte was observed by fortifications hidden on the soggy strips of land around them among the mangroves.

But soon the canal widened into Coltcutta's lagoon, and the city and dockland lay before them in all its splendor. They anchored in the middle of the water body, sufficiently out of the way of the cargo galleons entering and exiting the jetties.
The crew took the dinghies ashore for their long-awaited shore leave.

However Gilda and Dash stayed aboard, under order of Magistrate Mare.

"This bucking sucks." Gilda moaned, eyeing the departing crew. The gun strapped to her back had become a permanent part of her getup. "It's going to get dark soon. We've been cheated."

"I was going to get a souvenir." Dash said longingly. "I never did get a chance in Clawstantinople, or Sahella, or Stirrup!"

"Quit your bitching ladies. This isn't a vacation." Magistrate Mare scowled. She looked severely annoyed. "As private contractors, the minimum hours of shore leave the EOC mandates is not extended to you. Not like you do any real work anyway!"

"Hey! We saved your bucking life, and beside, we're protecting the VIP!" Gilda snapped.

"I hired you, and you do what I say." Mare growled. "I tell you to stay, and you stay. If I happen to decide a VIP needs protecting, it is only with my issuing words that you do so. Got it?"

Gilda ground her beak. Mare still had the dirt on her, and without a satisfying trade there was little chance of the devious bureaucrat 'forgetting'. She bowed her head in surrender. "Yeah, I got it."

"Speaking of VIP, where is Daring?" Dash wondered.

"Probably in the hold, caressing her little sarcophagus." Gilda remarked sourly.

"Her what?" Mare and Dash asked simultaneously.

"Uhh..." Gilda stuttered. She had reported to Mare that she'd learned nothing of Do's plans in Stirrup. She would be mum about the sarcophagus until she saw advantage in it. "Her, uh, socks, and umm... guys. Socks and Guys. It's a risque leaflet I saw her flipping through the other day."

"How lewd." Magistrate Mare struggled to suppress a laugh. Dash looked upset that Gilda would share something like that.

"Good, you're all here." Do emerged from the cabins behind them. "I was afraid I might have to drag you from your cabins, half drunk. Uh, why are you all looking at me like that."

Mare laughed. "Oh nothing, just sharing a joke with the mares."

"Humph. Maybe you are drunk." Do rolled her eyes.

"What do you take me for? Somepony who looses sight of the world's color so easily? Ha, not while I have subordinates to boss around." Mare snorted. "Ahem, so, do you need something? So far as I remember you haven't scheduled any staff meetings for today."

"No, no scheduling! Somepony might find out." Do shook her head. "What we discuss can only be said in the strictest secrecy!"

Mare's face lit up in anticipation, but Gilda felt her ornery annoyance turn to dread. If Do said the wrong thing, her complicity in keeping the truth to herself would be exposed.

"Have you finally decided to come clean?" Mare queried innocently. "Because I would rather hear it from you than some snooping miscreant."

"That is a rather loaded question." Do glared, glancing over at Dash. "if you have an accusation, spit it out."

"Accusations? Mis Do, please oh please, do you take me for a prosecutor? I'm just a mare with curiosities." Mare nickered, bearing a predator's gloating grin.

"You've found something on her, you nosy bag." Gilda laughed under her breath.

"Have I. The dubious nature of Mis Do's finances has become known to me. I had to call in quite a few favors to extract that little tidbit from the EOC Investments Board. As I understand it the Chairpony Council was unaware when they approved your expedition, as the Planning Board told them that you would be covering most expenses. Yet you were clearly unable to do so, considering the poor state of your family lands and their continued need to borrow money to pay salaries. From whence that money that funded this trip actually came, I have not been able to determine." Mare said in even, advancing tone that, interspersed with little chuckled that belied the danger only the menacing glint in her eye revealed.
"All this to learn one thing: Your indebted to somepony. That makes you very dangerous to me, Mis Do."

Do's face by this point had scrunched so much she looked like she was eating a lemon. "You don't understand."

"I wasn't planning on forcing your hoof on the matter. I could decide differently though. See all those gunboats at the docks? They are EOC enforcement craft, and this is an EOC port. There are plenty of sailors in town who would do a shady task for a magistrate for a bit of silver."

"What kind of shady task?" Do bristled.

"The kind that gets you talking," Mare said, throwing a look at Gilda. "and may or may not end your involvement in this expedition."

"MY expedition!" Do yelled. "It was MY research and MY planning that put this together! I won't let anypony, not you and not the EOC, take it from me!"

Gilda and Dash exchanged uneasy looks. Mare was putting on a show, and putting them in a corner as much as Do. If they refused to carry out her orders Mare made it clear Coltcutta was brimming with EOC lackeys to replace them.

"Then why don't you go ahead and say what you came to say, and I will decide if you are still of value to us." Mare cooed.

Do stewed silently for a moment, then turned back towards the cabins. "Then let's go see it."

Mare eagerly followed, but Gilda and Dash lagged a bit behind with Dash. "This has to be the most drama of any ship I've ever served on."

"We're not going to fight her, are we?" Dash whispered fearfully.

Gilda was feverishly trying to think of a way to twist the developing situation to her benefit, but so far as she could predict it could only get worse. Worst case scenario, both Mare and Do would have to die. "I don't know."

They descended into the bowels of the ship, oddly silent without the laughing and groaning of the crew. The creak of the boards and the quiet slap of waves against the hull were all that could be heard besides the clop of hooves.
Gilda kept an eye on Do's little pistol, still at her waist. If the pegasus decided to try something, it would be in the cramped confines of the passageways.

"You'll understand soon." Do promised.

They filed into the cargo deck undisturbed, making a small semicircle around the large cargo crate. Do fetched a crowbar from the corner and stuck it into the side.

"As I said before, this can only be shared in the strictest secrecy. Finding this has been the goal of years of work. Ponies on my expeditions have died, and I've been spied on attacked, and undercut the whole way. All for this." Do said solemnly. "I know I can't force you to, but please consider the forces who want to take this for themselves."

She leaned into the crowbar, cracking off the top of the crate. The sides came off in short order.

It was a sarcophagus, chiseled from solid brown rock, fabulously ornate in its design and embellishment. Onto its sides were etched detailed reliefs of exultant masses praying to a massive winged creature, and the many blessing the creature provided. On each corner were facsimiles of three figures, twelve in total, whose place of prominence might imply a saintly stature if not for the hideous faces that staring unblinkingly outwards. The lid of the sarcophagus was inlaid with an outline of the interred, but it was worn much more than the rest and it was nearly impossible to determine its features. However from the sheer size of the tomb it must have been at least the size of a hippogryph or changeling lord.

"How delightfully exotic." Magistrate Mare appraised. "What's inside?"

"A body, obviously." Do retorted, gesturing to the outline on the lid.

"Yes but whose?" Mare asked annoyedly.

Do frowned. "That's not something you want to find out. In case you can't tell, somepony went through a lot of effort to make this look passably hypogryphic. The design is heavily reminiscent of the Fires of the Gryph and this Bard copy was made as a devoted imitation. Whoever is in there wanted to be buried like a god, or close enough to fool somepony looking for an original Fire of the Gryph."

"It's kinda creepy." Dash agreed. The bizarre eyes of the twelve hideous figures seemed to follow her as she circled the sarcophagus. "And you pulled this out of Sahella?"

"I'm sure you've heard of the legends of the nomadic Bard that speak of the tower, and the lost empire that built it. From some thousands of historic texts, I pulled out a name corresponding to an Oasis in the deep desert: Al Myriadochtar. Roughly translated, daughter of the Myriad." Do summerized. "The Bard have forbidden the oasis to outsiders, on pain of death. To get past them I pretended to be the Andoulu queen, a farce aided by the chief you met, Maluka. Getting the sarcophagus out was a harrowing and epic adventure in and of itself, but we successfully made it back to Andoulu where you picked me up."

"And how exactly will this unlock fabulous riches in Chitin?" Gilda asked. If the sniper in Stirrup had been telling the truth there were more sarcophagi like it, and Do was searching for them.

"I can't tell you yet." Do replied, and she was quick to interrupt another threat from Mare. "Listen, I know you don't really believe me but I need to be able to trust you. So I will tell you this: It was the EOC Subsidiary Relations Chairpony, Emerald Rose, who provided the subsidy money to this expedition under my name."

"EMERALD BUCKING ROSE!" Magistrate Mare screeched, making everypony jump. "You've made a deal with Emerald 'Butcher' Rose!?!"

"I did, yes." Do stated matter-of-factly. "I'm a scholar, and I don't care about profits. I promised Mis Rose all monetization rights on what I find in Chitin. Right before I left for Sahella, she approached me again, and promised to bankroll my family if I agreed to certain stipulations, keeping the truth from you being one of them."

Mare stared into the floor trying to compose herself.

"She recommended you to the Chairpony Council for this expedition." Do continued. "EOC politics don't interest me, Mis Mare, and so I have decided that you and I working together will further our goals more than that secrecy. I've told you because you forced it from me, but now I can only hope it advances us to my goal."

"But what does Chairpony Rose want?!"

"If I had to guess, Mis Rose expects this expedition to ruin you." Do shrugged.

"Ruin me how?" Mare demanded.

"By making a fool of yourself like this. She knew you wouldn't accept the rather covert nature of this expedition forever." Do shrugged. "She's waiting in the wing looking for an excuse to replace you, or at least that is what I understood."

"Over my dead body." Mare growled.

"Maybe that's the idea." Do began reassembling the crate around the sarcophagus. "Far more likely than disgracing you, I should think, she's expecting you to die."

Mare gnawed her lip. "It's war then. How many on the board know about this, I wonder..." She took a step forward. "If you don't want to muck in EOC politics that suits me fine, but you WILL let me know ANYTHING that endangers this mission. I have to start accounting for Rose, and that means you have to too."

Gilda and Rainbow Dash stayed around until the two began plotting their future strategy. Because Do had said nothing about the other sarcophagi, everything she'd supposedly admitted was suspect in Gilda's view. Even though Gilda only had the sniper's word to go on, she was more willing to believe that Do was obscuring the truth about the outside threat, rather than it actually being an overly ambitious EOC bureaucrat 'Rose'. But, Mare believed Do.

What there was no doubt of was that the new alliance with Magistrate Mare couldn't have been more than superficial. Do needed Mare to get off her back and nothing more, and Mare herself would be far more committed to preserving her reputation than furthering Do's goals.
Gilda's concerns rested on what more frivolous information might pass between them, the little secrets as social lubrication, particularly concerning one griffin's heritage and eating habits.

"That was kinda scary." Dash said once they were back in her cabin.

"What part?" Gilda asked.

"Well I thought we'd have to throw her off the boat or something. I don't know if I could have done that." Dash sighed. "Having friends is hard."

Gilda looked out the window at the murky lagoon and the populous city of Coltcutta. She thought about telling Dash about her troubles, and she knew if she did Dash would pull out every stop to help her. Yet she couldn't quite bring herself to share.
Dash was so many things she was not: Trusting where she was cynical, outgoing not from a false and deceptive nature but genuine love of camaraderie, naive but also so brave when it was something that really mattered to her.
Yes, Gilda agreed, having friends was hard.

"Who do you think Emerald Rose is?" Dash asked, interrupting Gilda's musing.

"I'd bet she's related to the Roses of the Manehattan merchant-banker houses, which would make her just another greedy buisnessmare." Guilda speculated. "But a broad with a moniker like 'Butcher' isn't somepony I'd want to have looming behind the scenes."

"What do you think that means?" Dash wondered worriedly.

Inwardly, Gilda saw a possible third way if she made a deal with Rose, who might help to dispose of Mare and keep Daring Do in line, if there was any truth to Do's admittance. Outwardly, Gilda shrugged. "Magistrate Mare has a reason to be paranoid. I predict a new task soon for us."

Us, she said. For Gilda, whose own deepening paranoia saw her seeing enemies in every face and murder in every glint of light, it was a heartfelt admission of friendship.
"Stay hardy, Dash. I predict things are going to get more interesting from here, and that's not really a good things."

Some kilometers north of theFlyer Kyte, deep in the slums of Coltcutta, a group of sailors were exiting a tavern. One of them, an earth pony, was separated from the group. Swooning drunk, he wandered the crowded streets until the day grew late, and the shadows crept up the walls and slowly the locals retreated into their homes for the night.

The sailor was hopelessly lost in the twisting and deserted streets. Now and then he heard laughter or yelling in unknown languages, or the yowl of cats, but for the most part he was all alone. He sat on the stoop of one of the ramshackle stone tenements, letting the waves of nausea pass over him until he was partially sober again.

"Good evenings. Hello!" A squawking stranger's voice said from above him.

"Huh?" The sailor looked up. The stranger was a hippogryph, shrouded in a loose red robe. She was tall for a hippogryph, and that was even when she leaned on her gnarled walking stick. In his lush imagination she must have been an unparalleled beauty under her obscuring robe. "Uh... Hi!"

"You wear ship workers' dress, and smell the ocean's salt spray." The gryph appraised. Her strange accent was one the sailor had never heard before. "Do you know of the ship known as Flyer Kyte?"

"Know her? Course I do!" The sailor exclaimed. "I'm her best knotspony! Not a knot on her worth naught if not knotted by me."

"Fortunate, fortunate! I have been asking much after her. Fortune to have founf one of you at last." The gryph stepped closer, and her hot breath washed over the sailor. It smelled vaguely of copper. "I do so much want to see that one, and she named Daring Do who rides her."

"Woah, phrasing." The sailor giggled drunkenly. He stood up after a few attempts. "You want to see the ship? Uh... Not sure that's aloud. Ask the magistrate I guess..." He trailed off, lips puckering. "She's a jerk though."

"Mmm, it need not be official. Just a small visit." The hippogryph insisted, grinding her walking stick into the dirty pavers. "You would be rewarded. Even if you were to provide simple opportunity, say, with distraction, it would be long enough. In and out, as you say."

"Hee hee, in and out." The sailor drooled. He sobered slightly from a brief upwelling of professionalism. "But, uh, like I, no can do. We're on a mission, and no visitors, even pretty ladies like you. I might loose my job!"

"Oh but we do want very much." The gryph's left eye began to glow a deep red, casting a sinister light over the whole street. Her normal eye stared with a fierce intensity, but the left was so confusing, so otherworldly, that the sailor's fear and panic were overwhelmed by confusion. "Would you show we when WE ask very, very nicely?"

"I can't." the sailor protested weakly. The warping and waving of the red eye was hypnotic, and he felt his lucidity drain away.

The hippogryph stepped closer, so that the sailor could feel the heat off her face. "Let Xaron sing you to your sleep."

"But I..." He collapsed in a dead slumber.

"Drink and mental depressants make your resistance so much softer. Silly silly silly ponies. Is life so bleak you poison your minds? Kak! It make our working so much easier!" The hyppogryph prodded the sailor with her stick to confirm his inability to resist. "Do not be between we and the prey, also. I want to see the Flyer Kyte and Do, and I will see it. Min'nevisee, Ava Xaron?"

She sat down and rolled the inert stallion into her lap, and pried his right eye open with her hooves. His dilated eye stared back up at her, hardly showing the turmoil in his dreams her red magic inflicted.

"You will not need that. I have a good replacement." She remarked, and unfurled her wings from under her robe. Between each feather was a shard of metal, each razor thin, that glinted wickedly in the red light. From the depth of her robe she pulled a stone sphere, the same size of a pony's eye.
"Careful sleep now. You will not want to awake when I do this part." She whispered, slowly lowering her veil of blades on his helpless face.

Bridge Chapter 5: Sight of the Stone Eye

Five Weeks before the Summer Sun

It was early morning, and the rosy sun was just beginning to peek from behind the thick jungle that ringed the Coltcutta lagoon. It’s reflection wavered hypnotizingly across the surface of the brackish waters drawing Gilda’s eyes West, toward the world she knew intimately. Lies, deceit, anger, and murder had all followed her from Griffany. Was it the world, or was it her? Was there anywhere in the world that knew true serenity?

“Hey GIlda!” Dash’s high pitch call came, startling her.

Gilda craned her head to look at her approaching friend. “Yeah?”

“I just wanted to see… What were you looking at?” Dash shaded her eyes from the sun with a hoof and scanned the horizon.

“Nothing, nothing.” Gilda coughed, pushing away from the railing. “Everypony ready to go?”

“Just waiting on you.” Dash said.

“You know I hate to be a slowpoke.” Gilda faked a laugh. Nothing felt quite right, like she was living out a farce. Every breath, step, and word was unfulfilling. But she'd never felt guilty over a lie before, so what was making her feel that way? It unnerved her. "Do you feel good about this Dash? Confident?"

"Come on G, don't start calling me out when we haven't even started the day." Dash looked somewhere between hurt and amused. "I feel fine. You?"

"Fine."

"Awesome. I was afraid for a sec I'd have to take the lead." Dash teased, leading her down the forecastle to the middeck. Magistrate Mare was overseeing the trickle of sailors returning from their gracious overnight shore leave in Coltcutta, while Daring Do was leaning against the mast polishing her tiny derringer pistol.

“Tally everypony else as they arrive. If all hooves are not accounted for, send me a message by gull, and we will bring them back with us.” Mare was instructing the quartermaster. “Both Mis Gilda and Mis Dash will be accompanying me, so it will be up to you to maintain order. If things get rowdy, satiate them with that rum we’ve just brought aboard.”

The quartermaster's face lit up.

“Every drop missing will come out of your pay. Don’t doubt I’ll check.” Mare supplemented hostility. “I will be back before sundown. Everypony is to rest up and be ready to set sail by then. Are we clear? Good!”

“Is it just me or is she getting harder with the crew every day.” Dash joked to Gilda.

“Seems that way.” Gilda agreed. Who would miss the despicable magistrate if she just disappeared one day? Eh, it was too early in the morning to be contemplating murder yet.

“Alright ladies, we have a long day ahead of us.” Done addressing the crew, Mare rounded to Dash and Gilda, ushering them onto the recently vacated dinghy, She then turned to Do. “Anytime this year, Mis.”

Do tucked her pistol into an inside pocket of her tunic before clambering into the little boat with Dash and Gilda. Mare was right behind her. “Boy, this brings back memories. This one time, I was stuck in an escape boat like this with a starving griffin for five months.” Do said,

“You liar. When you told me that story, you said five days.” Dash giggled.

“Did I say that? I meant five weeks.” Dash arched a brow, baiting for a laugh. “Five years?

“Tell me about it in the memoir.” Gilda said snidely. She pulled the oars from under her seat and passed one to Dash.

Sunrise was evidently not early enough to get into the city easily. Coltcutta’s waterfront was choked with local fishing boats coming back from a night out on the ocean, and the jetties were now filled with the fishers hawking their catch.

It was a more numerous and varied crowd than Gilda or Dash had ever seen. Thousands of equines, griffins, zebras, buffalo, cows, and simians bustled endlessly up and down the docks, conducting their business with an eager enthusiasm. Just looking at so many creatures in one place, bumping and elbowing past each other, gave Dash anxiety.

“There’s protection and anonymity in groups.” GIlda told her. “Today, it will be important NOT to make a scene. You get me?”

“Subtly is my middle name. Heh heh.” Dash laughed nervously.

They guided the dinghy past the docks to a less cluttered stretch of waterfront, further down the lagoon. Imposing warships sporting hundreds of cannon ports guarded the entrance to the EOC district.
Within the confines of their allotted zone, the EOC had created a city within a city, with high walls lined with cannons, and tall equestrian-style buildings looming over squalid slums beyond its borders. The maharaja of Coltcutta had ceded the most worthless part of his city to the Equestrians, and they had transformed it into a monument to their imperialism.

Magistrate Mare was the only one of the four who had been to there before, and directed Dash and Gilda to row them around to the side of the main cargo jetties, out of sight in the shadow of one of the warehouses. She bade them stay near the boat while she went to talk to somepony within the walls.

“I don’t like places like this.” Do mused, taking in the sight of the frigates anchored around them. “Look at those behemoths, haringers of exploitation and destruction with messages made on the wings of cannon balls. You know, I left home to get away from stale equestrian culture. I wanted to see the world and her diversity.”

“Well, you’re not far away.” Gilda nodded towards the low roar of business at the fishing docks.

“If ponies like Mare had their way, everything would be like this fortress. No commerce if it’s not orderly, no local fishing without a dispensation from the EOC. All the vibrant clothes would be replaced by dull linens.”

“That’s a bit unfair. Mare’s weird, but I don’t think she’d want that.” Dash protested.

“She’s a businessmare, not an conqueror. If it wouldn’t benefit her personally, she wouldn’t care.” Gilda agreed.

Mare came back five minutes later carrying a labelless bottle, containing a glowing and swirling green liquid.

“That’s not your usual swill.” Gilda observed.

“Nope something more exotic. It’s much harder to get it here than in equestria but I have my sources.”

The stuff was churning such that Gilda wouldn’t have been surprised if it combusted on contact with air. “I thought you were going dry, Magistrate.”

“Don’t think about it.” Mare growled, as she slipped the bottle into the space under one of the dinghy’s seats. “Do your jobs and don’t get distracted.”

“Yes, my lady.” Gilda said in her best impression of a stiff noble accent. With Dash at her side she strutted up towards the fortress gate, leaving Mare and Do to work out the intricacies of their assigned tasks.

“I’m starting to have second thoughts.” Dash whispered once they were alone. “Does it really have to be us who goes to the palace?”

“Yes, because we’re noponies; Forgettable and unimportant. If Emerald Rose has agents in the city, they will be watching for Mare or Do, not us. That’s the logic anyway.” Gilda whispered back. They were nearing the entrance to the fortress, staffed by two uniformed earth pony guards armed with muskets. “Hey there gals.”

“Hey yourself.” The guard mare on the right said. “What’s your business?”

“Collecting pay for the crew of the Flyer Kyte.” Gilda replied. She pulled a slip of paper from her pocket and held it out. “Here’s my orders from my captain.”

The guard didn’t seem interested in the orders. “Flyer Kyte, eh? Ain’t that the ship that made the transoceanic from Manehattan to Trottingham in under week?”

“I think it is, yeah.” The other guard agreed, her eyes roaming over the duo. “That’s a nice gun you got there.”

“Huh? This thing?” Gilda reached over her shoulder and grabbed pulled her long-barreled arquebus out of it’s straps. “Yeah, I got it in Stirrup. A Trottingham forged custom, fourteen point five. Can use pellet too." She snapped open the breach. "You won't see these in armories for another twenty years."

The left guard whistled. "Bet it barks like a bitch. That's some craftsponyship."

Gilda felt a glow of pride. "One of a kind. A stallion almost blew my head off at a hundred meters with it, but I’m not near that good with her, yet.”

“You told me you bought it at a pawner’s stall.” Dash whispered, suspicious.

“Shut the buck up Dash!” Gilda hissed back.

The right guard blinked. “What was that now?”

“Nothing. My mate here’s getting ancy.” Gilda put her gun back in its place on her back. “Mind if we go through?”

“Sure.” The guard on the left shrugged. “Don’t be causing any trouble for the merchants now, ya hear.”

“Yup.” Gilda waved, pulling Dash through the gate. As quickly as she could without anypony watching, she dragged her pegasus friend into a darkened corner.

“What the buck was that?!” Dash demanded, incised.

“I was gunna ask the same thing! I was socializing! That’s what ponies do!” Gilda matched her tone. “What I wanna know is why you’re trying to sabotage us by contradicting me!”

“You lied. I KNEW your story about what went down in Stirrup didn’t match up!”

Gilda rolled her claw nervously. She she could let Dash know part of the truth. “Dash, listen, please. Can I trust you?”

That caught Dash by surprise. Her hostility evaporated, replaced by caution. “Yes. Why?”

“No, no.” GIlda shook her head. “I mean, can I trust you absolutely, and whatever I’ll say will never be heard by anypony else. No matter what.”

“G, I thought we already had that going.” Dash spoke uneasily.

Gilda pulled Dash closer. “Daring Do was going to buy another sarcophagus in Stirrup. The Inquisitors from Maredia who got there first and slaughtered everypony.”

Dash pulled herself out of Gilda grip. She was shocked, disbelieving. “W- What?”

“You know that hippogryph we met in Clawstantinople? He practiced pyromancy, which is illegal to most Maredians. Maredia has a whole list of outlawed practices like that.” Gilda said. “And the gryphs who enforce the religious laws are the inquisitors.”

“They’re not just in Maredia?”

“Apparently bucking not.” GIlda grunted. “Whatever’s in the sarcophagi is dangerous or holy or both, and it’s enough to have the inquisitors leave their home territory to hunt it down. They killed an entire city, Dash, so you better believe massacring a ship full of bystanders isn’t going to make them lose any sleep.”

Dash fell into a sitting position. “Do said-”

“She was lying, both to you and to Mare. We are all in serious danger.” Gilda said. “I’m sorry Dash, I know you really liked her.”

Dash stared into the sky, mute.

The two of them loitering in the shadows was beginning to draw the attention of patrolling guards, so Gilda dragged Dash to her hooves and led her to their destination at the treasury. It was small compared to the warehouses surrounding it, and the entrance was virtually empty. The only other ponies in the building seemed to be the staff.

“Hello there. This is the treasury, right?” Gilda approached one of the desks. “I’m here on behalf of my captain to get the crew’s salary.”

The bored looking clerk accepted the paper slip Gilda offered and looking it over. “Flyer Kyte. I don’t recall having such a ship transferred to us.”

“The Kyte is on special assignment, on orders of the Planning Board.” Gilda reported truthfully.

“The bloody Planning Board! With how many special assignments they are slinging about it will be a miracle if we can survive the next resupply.” The clerk grumbled as she began filling out paperwork. “Go wait over there. We’ll have your disbursement in a few minutes.”

Gilda obliged, retreating to a bench. “That was easy.”

Dash was still in a slump, trying to reconcile her thoughts.

Gilda watched the clerk complete and file the paperwork, then go bustling to the back of the treasury where the vault was. After a few words with her supervisor and a guard, she disappeared into the vault.

“How much money do you think trade from this place nets? Whole convoys full of gold, ivory, dyes, spices, and goods go between here and Equestria. It must be millions of bits!” Gilda wondered.

“Billions, even.” Dash broke her silence to say.

The clerk came out of the vault with an enormous canvas bag. Gilda had to guess it was two feet across, and bulging with the bits it contained.

“I’m sure you ladies know better than to take any.” The clerk dropped the bag at Dash’s hooves. “Wage theft is a crime punishable by death within EOC treaty ports.”

“Worry not ma’am. We are consummate professionals.” Gilda helped Dash shoulder the bag of bits, before giving the clerk a shallow bow. “Have a wonderful day.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The clerk waved them off.

Once they were outside the treasury, Gilda noticed how hard Dash was sweating. “It can’t have been that easy. Gilda, I’m scared. Everypony thinks we're in danger. What with the inquisitors and Rose, what are we going to do?”

“Take a deep breath, that was the easy part.” Gilda quipped. “The hard part is going to be navigating the seedy filth of Coltcutta with a thousand bits.”

At the same time, several buildings over, Magistrate Mare and Daring Do were entering the EOC messenger station. Compared to the mighty stone edifices, the wood tower looked like a shack. It was by design, Mare knew, for it was within unassuming places like this did the most important cogs of the EOC dwelt.
The service room was filthy, with piles of letters heaped up to the ceiling and feathers and dust choking the air.

“My gods, Mare. Where have you brought us.” Do coughed out a downy feather she’d breathed in.

“Don’t make too much noise. Courier technicians are flighty creatures.” Mare joked.

“Did somepony call for a courier technician?” A white pegasus with a brown mane popped her head out from behind the counter. She wore a flimsy visor over eyes, ostensibly to protect her from the feeble light peeking from between the boards of the walls.

“Ah ha. You must be...” Mare glanced at the dirty shift sheet on the wall behind the counter. “Apodis.”

“Yup!” Apodis beamed. “What can I do for you, mis?”

“Mis Do here, a very important client of the EOC, is looking for a letter that passed through here a month ago.” Mare explained. “I assume this message post retains copies of all letters?”

“Just as the hoofbook orders, ma’am. My transcriber’s off in the city today, but I can show you around.” Apodis nodded eagerly. “Uh, just so I’m clear is this an official visit or…”

Mare grinned. “On the downlow, you understand.”

“Understood my friend, understood.” Apodis smiled back. "Usual fees apply."

Do was nonplussed. “The EOC retained copies of all letters? That seems unethical.”

“All of them that aren’t protected by obscuring spells and the like.” Mare said. “Control of communication is the vessel that sustains the monopoly over overseas trade.”

“Monopoly! Yeah!” Apois giggled ecstatically. “Now then Mis Do, why don’t we go hunting for that letter!”
She ushered them to a side door into a back room. Within were thousands of pigeon holes, some containing stacks of letters, some containing actual pigeons. A surly looking albatross roosted in a cabinet designed for large packages.

Do was even more appalled, but Mare didn’t skip a beat. “We are looking for letter from the EOC Subsidiary Relations Chairpony, Emerald Rose.”

“Emerald Rose. Ooh, you know I met her once, when I was in training in Python’s Landing. It’s her eyes. They’re all green except for the pupil. I think I might have seen a couple of her letters round here.” Apodis scratched her chin with the back of her hoof. “She uses red and green ink in all her dispatches.”

“Dispatches?” Mare scowled. “She’s not in Baltimare?”

“I don’t rightly remember. Just her funky inks stood out to me.” Apodis began rifling through the stacks, looking for letters from the right timeframe. “Maybe you could look through those folders over there. I think some might of wandered off over there.”

Mare joined her, being very careful not to step on any of the birds.

Within several minutes, they had set aside a small pile of letters, all addressed to or from Emerald Rose, EOC SR Chairpony.

Do hesitated. “This is wrong…”

“Would you be happier getting to Chitin, fetching the treasure, and getting shanghorned and press ganged, never to be heard of again? The EOC higher ups are bastards, and if they think they can screw you without getting burned, they will.” Mare said, looking up from the stack she was sorting through. “Butcher Rose especially. She’s a notorious red-collar, making her enemies disappear in the paperwork.”

“Well I think you’re being paranoid.” Do huffed, picking up the first of the letters. “Look. Most of these addressed to Horsestralia anyway.”

“Really?” Mare said, looking up from the stack she was sorting through. “That's curious. Horsestralia is it’s a GOC stronghold. But of anypony, I suppose she makes the most sense. As SR chairpony, she handles the EOC affiliated networks.”

“The EOC and GOC haven’t been in a war in years though.” Do scowled. “I thought they respected each other's zone of control.”

“They realized open war is bad for business. Proxy wars have become more in vogue, and so wheelers and dealers like Butcher Rose get more power.” Mare said. “For example, she might be developing client companies in Horestralia because she plans to usurp the GOC monopoly there. Then she consolidates the clients into a full EOC branch, takes a percentage, gets a new ally on the Board, and garners no risk to herself. Sure, the GOC might retaliate against the EOC in Chitin or Sahella, but that’s hardly her problem.”

“That’s utterly disgusting.” Do clucked her tongue. “Is that the kind of thing they teach in the buisness universities?”

“No. It’s something you have to learn for yourself.” Mare returned her attention to the letters.

Do sighed. All she wanted was an adventure, not drama like she could find at home. She pushed away most of the letter stack until she came upon a much shorter letter. “Hmm? This is interesting.”

“What?”

“This letter is dated the day before yesterday.”

“Then read it.” Mare scowled.

From,
Emerald Rose, EOC SR Chairpony
[REDACTED]
[REDACTED], [REDACTED]

To,
Sapphire Rose,
Counting House One
Yeezhaw, Chitin

There have been unforeseen complications. The GOC is tightening their grip, and our plan is at risk of discovery. We move now.

Rendezvous with the doctor and the mercenaries in Macaw. You know what to do.

Sincerely, Emerald Rose

“Mercenaries.” Do said aloud.

“Say what?” Mare looked up.

“This letter, addressed to a certain Sapphire Rose, mentions mercenaries in Macaw.” Do passed her the letter. “It’s a bit cryptic.”

“Not cryptic, just lacking context.” Mare corrected, earning an annoyed look from Do. She scanned the letter, thinking back to her study in Filly Delphia where she learned the names of almost every pony of importance in the Free Cities.. “I’ve never heard of Sapphire Rose. It might be a code name, or a distant relative working for Emerald. The mentions of mercenaries is very concerning though. Luckily for us, we’re not going anywhere near Macaw. That’s GOC territory, fine for strategists like Emerald to play around in, but not us.”

“If you say so.” Do shrugged. The next letter she looked at was from a few weeks earlier. “Huh, the mystery thickens! This one’s from yet another Rose, this time Iron Rose.”

“Iron Rose?” Mare repeated. “I definitely know of her. She is a cousin of Emerald’s, if I recall correctly, and a member of the Manehattan Great Council. House Rose has most of it’s roots in Manehattan, with members in various smaller enterprises and guilds. Iron Rose is what you could call the family matriarch. May I see that please?”

“So there’s two, maybe three of the Rose family sending letters to Chitin.” Do passed her the letter. “What do you think that means?”

“Don’t know. House Rose isn’t a monolith. Most ponies assumed Emerald was breaking away from her family’s control when she entered EOC service.” Mare took the letter and unfolded it. “But sometimes in business, family are the only ponies you can trust. Hmm, there really could be a plot ahoof.”

“Ooh, planning an insurrection boss?” Apodis peered over her shoulder. “It’s been a while since we’ve had one of those!”

“Uh, no. Just looking for peace of mind.” Do answered. “Isn’t that right, magistrate?”

But Mare did not answer, busily reading down the letter. When she finished a half-minute later, she looked much less pleased. “You’ll want to read this.” She said, passing the letter back to Do.

From,
Iron Rose, Lady Councillor
Palace of the Doge
Manehattan, Equestria

To,
Caballeron, BS, MS, Phd
[REDACTED]
Buzjing, Chitin

Payment has been received. Thusly, allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your new post as the first EOC viceroy of Inner Chitin, doctor. If I were a mare of the company like my cousin, I would be celebrating this momentous advance of equestrian interests.
The first batch of mercenaries from Horsestralia will be arriving at Macaw within the week. Their payment and orders have been routed through affiliates, so if things go wrong our name will not be found anywhere. The GOC factor and garrison of Macaw have already been paid off, so you may expect to enter and leave with your new army unmolested. If on your way north you were to perturb any other GOC treaty zones, we would naturally not object. Do exercise restraint. If you raze the entire nation, there will be no one to trade with.

However, to not directly re-enter Buzjing. My analysis concludes that the [REDACTED] will renege on the agreement, and attempt to kill you as soon as she has the mercenaries. To forestall this, my cousin has created an simple plan.
I refer you to our earlier correspondence [8-2-1000] where we discussed the logistics of protecting future excavations in the Chitin hinterland. In specific, I mentioned an expedition being outfitted to enter the mythical tomb complex of Xcero Mountain. That expedition, lead by Do (look back to letter [13-3-1000] for a full dossier), is now sailing and is reported to have passed through the Saddle Strait as of yesterday evening.
The arrival of the mercenaries and Do’s expedition line up nicely. You will have to tempt the [REDACTED] out of Buzjing with the promise of treasure from the excavation. Ambush and slaughter her. The conquest of the interior will go much more smoothly with her out of the way.

House Rose thanks you your solicitude, but urges you not to forget your obligations. We do not necessarily expect you to petition for EOC overlordship immediately after you carve out your new realm, but do not take too long.
The flow of goods and wealth is more important than any one pony. If you betray us, do not doubt for a second that we will not send another army, flying the banner of some other ambitious creature. Do not forget how replaceable you are.

Iron Rose

Mare waited until Do was finished reading to remark. “Now that’s what I call a plot. A nice, thick, plot.”

“When I applied for this expedition, that bastard Caballeron tried to undercut it with a bid for his own. I thought Emerald Rose’s patronage would put a stop to him, but I guess I’m the fool here.” Do sighed.

“We both are. I was conceited to think a big-picture mare like Butcher Rose would stoop to squish me.” Mare admitted. “No treasure could compare to sustained exploitation, and they plan to put the heart of Chitin under their hoof.”

“Bad luck all around.” Apodis remarked. “Boy am I glad I’m just a courier technician, and not you.”

“At least we know they won’t be killing us as soon as we get off the boat.” Mare began shoveling the rest of the letters into her saddle bag for later reading. “They will let us trek up to the mountains, find the treasure, attract the attention of the locals, and then kill us.”

“We’re so screwed.” Do buried her head in her hooves. “There’s not even anywhere I can hide. Not with the sarcophagus.”

Mare pursed her lips, filing away that admittance for later. “Let’s get going. We can ponder our doom later.” She turned to Apodis. "Thank you mis. Your fee." She produced a sack of bits.

"Thank you ma'am." Apodis accepted the little sack, the helped them get all the letters into their bags. “Hey, if you’re ever in the neighborhood of Hornzhou, give a holler to my cousin Pleiades at the message office there. She’d love to meet you two.”

“Will do. Au revoir.” Mare bowed. As soon as they were out of the building she turned to Do. “We need to return to the Flyer Kyte immediately. If Gilda and Mis Dash are discovered buying political favors with EOC money, we will want to seem aloof.”

“You’d leave them here?” Do gasped.

“Only as a last resort. If we are caught with somepony else’s letter our plausible deniability goes out the window.”

“Damn it.” Do squeezed her eyes shut. “Why does surviving in this world force you to be a bad pony?”

“Oh, we can survive just fine. If I wanted I could go back to Ponyville and scratch dirt for a living like my ancestors. Excelling and standing out… Well, that’s where lines get blurred.” Magistrate Mare said. “Hurry up now, this is a loitering-free zone. “

“This was a really bad idea.” Dash said, her eyes darting between Gilda and the path ahead. “I mean like really bad.”

“Sush!” Gilda said. “Talking like that isn’t going to help.”

"Eeee. I'm just really nervous." Dash whimpered. "Can we go back to Coltcutta?"

"I've been in worse cities than this. They say crime and disease kills a thousand creatures in Mare Kesh a day." Gilda comforted her with a wing pat. "This place can't be that bad."

Zebrastani cities had not always been so dangerous before the EOC had established themselves, but they had also been much smaller. The explosion of demand from the oceanic trade had changed the face of the countryside: Subsistence farms had been seized by the local lords and chieftains and turned into exports farms. Small settlements declined, and hundreds of thousands were forced to find new lives in the cities.

Employment had not kept up with the uncontrolled urban population growth, and crime ran rampant in the poorer quarters. The Coltcutta maharaja had made sweeps of the slums to oust the extortionists and racketeers as a show of force for the EOC, but that only pushed the criminals into the shadows. Gangs of thugs prowled amongst the poor, and murders were so rampant that even with numerous daily immigrants from the countryside population growth had become stagnant.

Gilda and Dash were traveling down the streets, drawing the curious eyes of the inhabitants. They were the poorest of the poor, forced to live in squalid and overcrowded conditions. They were looking hungrily upon the two transgressors and the foreign wealth they carried. Their destination could be seen over the tops of the shorter buildings around them: The red sandstone palace of the maharaja.
Dash looked from creature to creature, trying to look intimidating, but with the heavy bag on her shoulders she felt like she just looked tired. The inhabitants of the slum were a mix of all species, mostly ponies and chital with a few watchful elephants and water buffalo in their solitary corners. They had little in the way of clothes, tattered rags for the most part, although Dash noticed that almost everyone wore at least a small amount of gold jewelry.

They came to a market square that was much more crowded than the streets. Dash looked longingly at the tables strewn with bobbles, knowing they had no time for her to buy a memento.
But one of the other shoppers looked back at her. He was covered in a loose crimson robe that stood out for how untattered and unwrinkled it was. As Dash and Gilda passed to the far edge of the market the robed figure began after them.

“Big guy at our six, Gilda.” Dash whispered, avoiding taking a second glance back at the pursuer.

“Could it be a hippogryph?” Gilda asked.

“Maybe. I didn’t get a good look at him but I’m pretty sure I saw a beak and wings under his robe.”

“Red robe?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.” Gilda swore. Hippogryphs didn’t wear red lightly, being one of the colors that recalled holy fire. “Good chance it’s an inquisitor.”

Dash squeaked. “Really?”

“Probably. It was a matter of time.”

“What should we do?”

If they got in a fight on the street, it was highly likely random people would join in or try to take the bits. And if Dash ran ahead with the bits, Gilda had no faith in her ability to stand up to an inquisitor. “We’ve got to lose him. We could hide in the alleyways.”

“Let’s do it now then!” Dash nodded. They immediately turned off onto an enshadowed alley and broke into a gallop.

They delved into the maze of filthy passageways cut through the dilapidated slum. There was scarcely anyone to be seen, with only the occasional pony or zebra.
Dash stopped momentarily when they came upon an emaciated earth pony face down on a heap of garbage.
“There’s no time!” Gilda hissed, glancing backward to check for their pursuer. After staring for another second or two, Dash tore her eyes away from the dying pony and followed.

The alley deposited them in a sunken and damp street flanked by abandoned merchant warehouses. It was reasonably wide with the only occupant slumped against a wall in a daze. The trash was piled even higher than anywhere else in the slum, reaching almost head height.

“An old canal, turned into a dumping spot. We’re standing on five meters of garbage.” Gilda guessed. “I wonder, did the merchants move away or did the canal get filled up first?”

“Kindof a useless question, especially since we have ‘no time’.” Dash rolled her eyes. She took the lead.

At a much slower canter, they followed the path of the old canal, as it twisted and branched on it’s way towards the center of the city. The amount of new garbage tapered off, but the dilapidated rows of warehouses continued. The dull roar of the city echoed over the rooftops, close but out of reach.

“We should be getting close to the palace.” GIlda said. With taller buildings around them was difficult to get glimpses the red sandstone castle. “This might even be the last turn.”

The level of the ground abruptly dipped into a makeshift ditch, where a constant stream of filth flowed. On the other side, two unicorns, two earth ponies and an ox stood barring Dash and Gilda’s way. They were scarred, stoic, and besides from the ox all carried weapons. Gilda spied a spiked club, and two broad-bladed swords with a serrated edge. The thugs had probably jumped a guard or two to get them.

The pony in front of the group was a blue unicorn mare whose mane had been mostly shorn off. “Word gethss around. I athume you didn’th mean to inthult me by trathpathhing in my therithory, tho I will leth you go withh only a tholl.” She spoke with a sahellan accent, further exaggerated by the paralysis of the left side of her mouth.

Dash let the bag of bits slip off her shoulder, then used her wing to draw her cutlass and pass it to her mouth. Gilda unstrapped her arquebus and popped open the breach to double check that it was loaded before snapping it shut.
“I conscientiously object to your tariff.” Gilda said cooly. “We’re more free-trade gals.”

The boss unicorn growled and raised her weapon, a dagger with a pommel embellished by teeth of various species. “You wanth to tetht me, birdy? You’ll pay a theeper price than juthst gold, I warn you.”

Gilda saw the thugs all shift their attention to her. Clearly they saw her as the bigger threat, despite her lacking a close-quarters weapon since she’d left her own cutlass on the Kyte. She wasn’t objecting; If they focused on her it would mean less trouble for Dash. So, she did what came naturally and talked herself up. “I already said we’re not going to pay. If you don’t disband this illegal blockade we’re going to break it! And fair warning, I have famously quick claws that have had more than one foolish filly see pink.”

Dash gasped at the innuendo and a few of the thugs (the ones that understood equestrian) chortled. The boss unicorn turned red in embarrassment and anger. “You’re athking for it! Tanthhridu, dhavah!!”
The thugs charged.

Before one second had elapsed, Gilda raised the arquebus and pointed it at one of the earth ponies. The pony saw the gun pointed at him and panicked, throwing himself to the ground. The unicorn behind him tripped over the unexpected obstacle, and they both tumbled into the ditch.

Before the second second had elapsed, the two ponies and the ox still going had jumped over the ditch. Gilda, trying to make a decision of who to shoot, heard Dash cry out in panic. Another pony, a pegasus, had jumped down in between them with a brick tied to a stick. Dash ducked under the improvised bludgeon, and kicked the pegasus’s hooves out from under him. Gilda wasted precious time making sure her friend was holding her own.

Before the third second, the thugs, had closed to within a three meters of Gilda. She was still indecisive, doubtful if shooting the leader would scatter the others, and doubly doubtful that any bullet would stop the massive ox bearing down on her. The two ponies thugs raised their blades, which slowed them down slightly. The ox bared his teeth menacingly, showing off his rotten collection of molars. She heard Dash land a slash on the pegasus with her cutlass, but the indignant cry indicated it was far from lethal.

Before the fourth second was half completed, Gilda had snapped the arquebus up to her chin and taken aim at the ox’s face. She took a deep breath, let it all out, and pulled the trigger. The hammer slammed down and the gun roared. The bullet shattered through the ox’s savage smile, something that would have caused him immense pain if it had not continued through his head and ripped open his skull, killing him instantly.

At five seconds, the blue unicorn and her remaining earth pony reached Gilda. She flipped the arquebus around and swung it by the barrel, smacking the earth pony with the solid wood stock. The unicorn spun and bucked the gun from Gilda’s talons.

Gilda jumped backward, out of the reach of the dagger the blue unicorn carried. She saw Dash, finally gathering the poise to beat her opponent, bucking the pegasus into a wall where he slumped into unconsciousness. “You okay?”

“Just fine.” Dash picked her cutlass off the ground. “More than I can say for this whore after we’re through with her!”

“Keep a cool head Dash. You don’t so great when your emotions get away from you.” Gilda warned.

“Keep talking, punk-athhes.” The blue unicorn reminded them she was there. Unfortunately, she was now between Gilda and the bag of bits. “Every breath you wathte is one I could have enjoyed affter I kill you!”

“Let’s not put the cart before the horse.” Gilda shot. “You could still walk away from this alive.”

“Buck you!” The unicorn swept her dagger sidewise, forcing GIlda on the defensive.

Gilda danced back a few steps then counterattacked with a talon punch, knocking the dagger out of the unicorn’s grasp. The unicorn somersaulted backwards and caught the little blade out of the air with her mouth.

“Woah, that’s pretty good.” Gilda conceded, cautiously advancing.

With a sweep of her wings Gilda pushed herself into the air. Against ground dwellers, the move always caused a half-second of confusion or disorientation.
The unicorn apparently knew the move. She flipped her dagger around and threw it in the air. Gilda instinctively clasped her wings together, sending her back to the ground and giving the unicorn enough time to turn and tackle Rainbow Dash.

“Dash!” Gilda picked herself up and jumped into the fray. She tore a talon along the unicorn’s back.

The unicorn howled in pain and disengaged, kicking Dash back and retreating a dozen steps. She’d managed to wrest away Dash’s cutlass, but blood was beginning to seep into her fur from a trio of gashes near her whither. “Buckerthh! Thhith ithint over!”

“It is unless you can un-kill you stupid friends! It’s two against one.” Gilda helped Dash to her hooves. The rainbow pegasus was looking worse for wear from the two brawls. “Well, one on one, but do you think you can take a griffin by yourself? You see this body? It was specifically designed to eat dirt-draggers like you!”

“Afraid, birdy?” The unicorn spat.

“Just you wait, you mangrove-seed dolphin-fin palm-eating trash gullet.” Dash pushed GIlda out of the way, less menacing without her cutlass but intensely angry. “I’ll compact you even with the ground like the rest of the garbage!”

“Dash, you’re hurt. You need to rest before you hurt yourself.” Gilda sighed. “I’ll deal with this twerp.”

“You don’t think I can do it?” Dash narrowed her eyes. “You don’t think I can do my job?”

“Dash give me some credit. This isn’t the time for this.”

“G, I’ve been playing second fiddle for- HEY!! COME BACK HERE!”

The blue unicorn had dropped the cutlass and run, galloping full tilt the way Gilda and Dash had come. She disappeared around the corner, leaving her dead and unconscious underlings.

“How about that.” Gilda hummed. She picked her arquebus off the ground and reholstering it on her back. “They say discretion is the better part of valor.”

Dash sucked her bottom lip in, looking supremely disappointed. “You should have let me at her.”

Gilda wasn’t sure if Dash was angrier than warranted, or she herself was too calm. “Dash, what do you plan to do after this little adventure we find ourselves wrapped up in?”

“Uh, what?” Dash was surprised by the question.

“I’m just asking if you want to make a life of killing ponies.”

“Isn’t that you dragged me out of Baltimare for?” Dash challenged, still aggravated. She was not as quick to come off the high of violence as Gilda was. “And isn’t that how you kicked that night off? With a bloody murder?

Gilda felt an uncustomary pang of regret. She hadn't been completely honest with Dash about the circumstances of that killing on the Baltimare docks, and that had been the seed of many other lies. But she really had wanted to improve Dash’s life by taking her away from Equestria and her self-destructive tendencies. “I want to help you Dash, and maybe I don’t understand my logic from moment to moment, but I just… Look, being happy about killing isn’t healthy. I’ve been there. It’s not great.”

“Great shmate. I want epic purpose! I’m sick and tired of being dead weight. I need a damn purpose! I need to be able to do what's needed!" She looked around, frustrated. "I don't know if I am, G. Yet. I'm a buckup but I can get better."

"By killing."

"Yes by killing!” Dash spat back. “Look at these degenerates! Wouldn’t the world be better if we killed them here and now? If I didn’t, I’d be in the wrong. And I can do it! I can be that pony who improves the world.”

Gilda looked over the remaining thugs. The pegasus Dash had knocked down was cradling a broken leg. One of the two ponies who’d collided and fallen in the ditch was knocked unconscious, and the other was tending to him. “Be generous in victory, Dash."

"Don't tell you don't believe killing some ponies can improve the world, G. You don't believe that." Dash stretched to get out the tension of the fight. "That's the reason to win. So the winner can do good things."

Gilda groaned. "You're not thinking strait. This would be cold-blooded murder. Our grace period of self-defense is over." She gestured to the dead ox, most of whose head was outside rather than inside his skull. "You know I hate to be preachy, but don’t be too hasty to commit your maiden murder. It sounds cliche, but life’s different afterwards.”

Dash’s brow knitted in anger. “The buck are you talking about? I’ve killed HUNDREDS.”

Gilda’s mouth went dry. “I- I didn’t mean to say… Cloud Creche hardly counts.”

“Hardly counts” Dash mimed, like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“It was, um...” Gilda was regretting her words and actions. There would be no graceful dismount for the line she was walking. “Cheating. Magic is cheating.”

Dash was obviously not at all impressed by the pseudo-apology. “Buck you Gilda.” She fetched her cutlass and tucked it in her belt. “I let you jerk me around before, but I’m going to expect a real apology before I forgive you this time.”

Gilda stood in place, her logic and emotion detached from her surroundings. She watched Dash go to injured earth pony, a brown mare with lime hair.

“Hey! Can you understand me chestnut?” Dash pulled the mare’s head back by her mane. “Do you want to live? Well?”

“Merra naama N- Namibdochtar haii.” The earth pony cried out, trying to pull herself away with her uninjured leg. “Mujhi mata maru, sakisli dayku!”

“I asked for a yes or no, not a poem.” Dash growled, kicking her unconscious with a hoof to the back of her head. She went from pony to pony, knocking out the ones still awake, then dragging them into a dry corner away from the deceased.

“Foreign names are so stupid. What the buck does Namibdochtar mean? Not like Rainbow Dash. You get the whole package there: I’m a rainbow pony who goes fast. That’s all I am.” Dash said, a coarse rumble in her words. Was she angry at Gilda, or the thugs, or at herself, Gilda couldn’t tell. All of the above, most likely. “Whatever. Who cares. Everypony here will be speaking equestrian in a couple years anyway.”

“Thank you for listening and not killing them.” Gilda said softly.

“Yeah yeah.” Dash grunted. “My purity remains intact for another day.” She took the lead again, leaving the bag of bits for Gilda to pick up.

Gilda sighed deeply. What should have been a feeling of triumph over the thugs had been stolen away by Dash’s melodrama! Why couldn’t the silly mare see things her way for once.
She shouldered the canvas bit bag and cantered to catch up with Dash, stepping carefully around casualties: Two unconscious earth pony, one unconscious pegasus, one dead unicorn, and one dead ox. Gilda couldn’t help herself to feel disappointment that none of them looked like very good snacks.

After ten minutes of twists and turns, the filled canal stopped abruptly. At the end was a rotted wood cargo crane and a dilapidated warehouse, whose entrance appeared to have been barricaded and cleared several times.

“Looks like we’re finally getting somewhere. We must be within spitting distance of the city center.” Gilda could smell the faint aroma of spice from a nearby market place. “When this was still a working canal, you could probably make a delivery by water within a block of anywhere in the city.”

“Might have made delivering a bag of gold easier.” Dash said, somewhat coldly as she was obviously still very angry with Gilda. “We’re going to have to go through this building.”

She led them into the warehouse. It was a tall stone building, somehow still standing with all the wood rotted out. It was entirely empty, with only dust particulates to block the shaft of light filtering down from holes in the roof.

“No homeless roosting here, like you’d see in a griffin derelict. The guards must sweep the area regularly and shepherd them back to the slums.” Gilda noted. “They got to keep up appearances for the EOC I guess.”

“You guess.” Dash said. “But you don’t know. You just make stuff up.”

"Why do I other talking when you're like this." Gilda muttered.

The warehouse's exit had not been boarded up, with a simple lock holding the heavy oak doors closed. The key was already in place. The center of the city would be right on the other side.

“This is convenient.” Gilda smiled, turning the key until the mechanism clicked. “We will be at the palace in no time!”

The door swung outwards.
On the other side of the threshold was a saffron hippogryph in a flowing red robe, who strode through the now open door as if she’d been waiting for it to be unlocked. She was huge; Gilda did not even come up to her shoulder. She held a gnarled walking stick, brandishing it like a club. Her left eye, wide and trembling, flicked between Dash and Gilda. Her wild head of brown feathers covered her right eye but Gilda could still tell it was artificial.
It was like the sniper in Stirrup had said. Beware the gryph with the glass eye.

“Hello hello there.” The massive gryph had the squawking pitch and cadence of a maredian with a limited knowledge of the equestrian tongue. “Finally good, it is. I catch up at you, hee hee.”

“BOOK IT!” Gilda dropped the bag of bits and ran. She jumped and weaved around the warehouse's structural columns, trying to interrupt line of sight. Had her sights on the back door, but two ponies stepped into the threshold, blocking her way.

Gilda skidded to a stop and jumped behind a column. She pulled out out her gun and stuck it in the open where the ponies would see. “Get out of our way or I’ll blow your heads off!”

“You’re in a hurry, but your friend’s knot going anywhere.” The first pony said. “Why knot stay, talk a while?”

“Thtay, lithen.” The other pony said. “Tharon only wanth to talk.”

“What?” Gilda clacked her beak in confusion. She recognized those voices, spoken so mechanically and emotionlessly. She peeked out from behind her cover.
The blue unicorn thug and a sailor she recognized from the Flyer Kyte were standing side by side. In the place of each of their right eyes were stone spheres carved with symbols. In the case of the blue unicorn thug, blood was still oozing out of her socket from the fresh surgery.

“H- Hwa?” Gilda staggered backwards, trying to comprehend the utter nonsense. “What are you?!”

She had seen such things before, long ago in a memory she thought she’d forgotten. She was in a castle, surrounded by black banners and shriveled crows in cloaks. Wind and storm whipped around the black spires of rock. Waves crashed against the cliffs and sent up sprays of salt. 'Aren't they marvelous, Gilda?' 'Yes, mother'
Grey spheres, dozens of them, all lined up in the heads of the ponies who bore them. They blinked in unison, flesh eyelids sliding over stone eyes. She could hear the caw of the griffin behind her, who maintained a tight grip on young Gilda’s shoulder. ‘Isn’t it amazing what a fusion of new and old magic can create?’. To which Gilda had replied ‘Yes mother’.

Memories from the past, of her childhood on the island of Godswing, flashed before Gilda’s vision. She felt too nauseated to stand, and the column was too slick with blood to hold her.
Whose blood is this, she asked herself as she fell face first in the ever deepening pool. “Why is this happening to me!” She gargled pitifully.

“Pleath underthand.” She heard from the blue mare, standing over her.

“All Xaron wants is to talk.” Said the other pony.

Xaron… Gilda was trying to place that familiar name in her swirling and churning recollection before the hot red ocean swallowed her up.

Bridge Epilogue 1: A Thousand of Years ago in Chitin

[ This chapter borrows its subject and course from Liber Furi, the second century history anthology collected by the Roan magistrate Trottica Whinnus, which incorporated tales from earlier histories by other authors. The one laid forth here, Book Four, is taken from an unknown first century minotaur work, and is by far the most esoteric and mysterious. A great majority of the book section only exists in languages for which we have no translations.
I have translated its dry language into the narrative style, but can do nothing for the missing segments. It remains compelling despite. ]

4.1.1

Above the rainforests and marshes of coast rose the tails of the grey mountains of Chitin, high, imposing, practically unscalable. Following the rivers through the verdant valleys inland, the mountains rose even higher, forming impassible saw ridges that serrated the clouds. If one stopped in one of the little changeling villages and asked the elders the right questions they would show you the start of narrow paths carved into the mountain faces, winding up to hidden fortresses or monasteries, abandoned by the changeling lords since the waining of the pre-classical age.

Above the ancient walled city of Doehui, gate of the rivers of the South, were the high two plateaus that bounded the city on two sides: On the left flank was the rise that the forbidden citadel of Wingshan was built into, on the right was a much more sinister ruin whose name was erased from the memories of the land.[1]

"Mmm, isn't this place interesting." An old earth pony trotted through the ancient rock paths leading deeper into Wingshan. His gnarled walking stick got caught on the occasional weed clinging tenaciously to the curiously decay-resistant buildings. Furniture, metal crafts, and the bones of the inhabitants had all rotted away, but the stone barracks and bunkers remained wholly intact. Some sorcery had been weaved into the place's construction. "I could move in tomorrow. Oh, but what does an old horse like me need with all this room?"[2]

The path guided him to the highest point of of Wingshan, the central keep carved into the granite peak in the center of the plateau. The massive stone gate was slightly ajar, letting a sliver of outside light into the inky darkness.

"Hello?" The earth pony used his stick to push the massive door open a it farther. A pair of glowing green eyes stared out of the black at him. "Hi there. Is this the meeting place? Have I got the wrong address?"

The owner of the green eyes stuck its head out of the door, letting itself be revealed by the light. It was the insectoid head of a changeling- Not the iridescent grass-green of the Doehui changelings down in the valley, but jet black like it had been crafted out of the shadows themselves. "Poh-nee." It hissed.[3]

"Well observed my good 'ling." The old pony took a cautious step back. "My name is Clink Quartz, and I'm here on behalf of-"

The changeling raised its hoof, threw its gaze briefly to the silent ruins behind Clink Quartz, then withdrew form the doorway.

"Hey. Hey hey." Clink Quartz hobbled after the lack changeling, plunging into the enshadowed keep. "Is this the meeting spot or not? I'd like an answer please!"[4]

The changeling buzzed and gibbered something unintelligible, but lit its jagged black horn so its pale green magic filled the stone hallway for a length. It led Clink Quartz from one hallway to another to another, each jutting off at a strange angle from the other. It must have been the light or the cramped confines, but the floor seemed to being slanted up and down at the same time.
At about the time Clink Quartz was starting to wonder if he had made a mistake following the lack changeling, he began to hear the distant piping of music. The airy whistle of an aulos flute, the rap of a hoof drum, and the chime of little bells echoed from somewhere deep below or perhaps high above him. Then there was the sound of jovial laughter and applause.[5]

The corridor straightened, the abruptly joined met other hallways at another big stone door, the sister of the one on the face of the mountain-keep. The music was coming from the other side of the door.

"This must be the place, hmm?" Clink Quartz waited to the changeling to resume the lead but the bug was unwilling or unable to go any farther. It drew back from the stone door, let the magic fade from its horn, and retreated into the darkness.
"Ah... That's how it is then."[6]

But he felt the fear as well. The music and laughter beyond the stone door was not as saccharinely welcoming as he would have hoped, nay. It sounded sadistic, lascivious, cruel. It was the kind of laughter one would hear from a bad master at their servant's misfortune.

"Her ladyship bade me not go this far just for me to loose my spine now." Clink Quartz tucked his walking stuck under his leg and pushed the door open with his shoulder.[7]

The music and laughter stopped. By the time Clink Quartz had gotten the door fully open, every eye in the room had had time to pull from the entertainment to affix on him.

The stone room was circular, with a sunken pit twenty hooves across ringed by tall stone chairs. In the center of the room was a bonfire: The stench of burning fur dissuaded Clink's curiosity from wondering about the fire's fuel.

A raspy female voice bade him forward. "Come to the light." It said, the grittiness of it like sandpaper on pumice.[8]

Clink Quartz shivered but obeyed. The walked into the center of the room where the fire's light reached.
He looked around to the dozen or so stone thrones, and the forms atop them. They were changelings, as black as night, with blue and green eyes staring intently at him. They were large, larger than any changeling Clink had seen on his journey through Chitin.
"Holy sun, The Dark Queens." He choked.[9]

"Black Queens." The queen that had spoken before corrected him. "There are ochre queens and umber queens, and they are dark, but they are not us. We are us." The changeling was an ancient creature, as not only was it much larger even than the other queens, but its membranous mane of green was longer and more ratty. These creatures reveled in their own decrepitude: Their armor was dinged, their bodies riddled with holes, their followers clustered at the base of their thrones were mutilated in all manner of ways.
"How do you know of our conclave, pony?"[10]

Clink swallowed his panic and spoke up. "My mistress sent me to find you. She knew when and where you were to be found." He was starting to feel woozy. "Are you the conclave president?"

"I ask the questions, pony. Who is you mistress?" The elder queen demanded. "No pony mare has even come before us and left. Is there a traitor?" With that last question she hissed something out in her language and looked around at the other queens. They shouted various things back and it was a few minutes before there was silence again.[11]

"My mistress is the Princess of the Everfree Principality and Harbinger of the Sun, Celestia." Clink said, trying to put some grandiose emphasis on the alicorn's name, but his surroundings were getting to him, and he couldn't muster the air for it.

"Ah, the Celestiaan, yes. We see we misunderstood. She is not thought of as a mare to us." The elder queen shifted in her throne. "Why has she sent you here, to our sacred gathering? Are you to be a slave to us?"

"Uh..." Clink thought of a way to politely decline that question. "My lady, I am here to appeal, on Princess Celestia's behalf, for the amulet of the Ancient Alicorns to be released to her."[12]

The room exploded into shouts and screeches. The queens buzzed loudly in irritation as their followers stomped and howled as though they were intending to tear Clink or each other apart.

"You think you can get to it?! Your princess thinks you can get to it? Without the keys?! What arrogance!" The elder queen shouted above the din at Clink.[13]

Clink held his head up. "I do not undertake this task in arrogance or conceit, but out of faith that my sovereign princess has charged

[ The only remaining copies of the text that include the rest of the first chapter and the middle nine chapters are in languages yet untranslated and unknown in origin. We resume where we have translations]

4.9.36

Clink stepped down from the base of the tower, into soft pearl sands that smelled most strangely, and faced two ponies awaiting him a distance away. An equine there of all places, when he had not seen any for nearly a year since passing through Sahella.

One was male, the other was female. They were wrapped in white linen rags stained yellow with age. Their flowing red eyes followed Clink as he neared them, and up close they proved to be a match for an alicorn in height.

"Mortal." The male said, voice dripping with contempt.

"Dreamer." The female said, in a somewhat motherly way.

"Why have you come into this realm unprepared in mind, body, and spirit." The male asked. [37]

"I have come for the amulet of the Ancient Alicorns." Clink Quartz said, hoof over his heart. "Faith in my princess's command protected me down your impossible tower."

"It is not our tower anymore." The female said.

"Faith may have protect you there, but this realm has no place for your faith. In this realm old things in the notches in the mountains eat faith, and things beyond that too." The male said. "Go back whence you came, and be glad for your life. There is nothing for you here mortal."

"Awaken, dreamer." The female urged.[38]

"Not until I have claimed the amulet of the Ancient Alicorns for my princess. I have no keys for you, but that matters not." Clink walked forward, passing between the wrapped ponies, but under those guardians' stares he was petrified, then dissolved away.
The guardians of that realm knew there was no place for him even for a moment, for he lacked the right mind, and the wrong mind is a beacon for things that eat faith, hope, souls, and dreamers. The guardians wished none of those terrible things to notice their realm and crawl in from beyond its imperious borders where mountains and waterfalls mark the edge of dreams.[39]

Author's Note

This is the concluding chapter of the first Bridge arc. Act Two will proceed hereafter, then the second Bridge arc.

An Intermezzo: Others Seek the East

Four Days before the Summer Sun.

Unlike the other two of the ‘Big Three’ of Earth Pony Free cities, Manehattan and Baltimare, the Aurian Republic of Filly Delphia, or Filly Delphia for short, was inland off the coast by a matter of several kilometers. The city was strikingly beautiful, a planned city gracing the foothills with its classicist and georgian monuments winged by idyllic freeholder farms. A broad causeway descended into the coastal plain across a marshy flatland, until it reached Filly Delphia's port.
The causeway was busy with carriages and wagons at all hours of the day and night. Little markets on reclaimed mounds had sprung up at irregular intervals catering to the travelers’ needs.

Lyra noticed the cello because of the gleam off the well-waxed belly. The instrument was leaning against a crate full of colorful knick-knacks in one of the market stalls, in plain view from the causeway. As soon as she saw the beautiful finish and taunt catgut strings, so out of place in the general poverty of the roadside market, Lyra knew it would be hard to pull Octavia away once. Unfortunately, she thought to distract her a second too late.

“Do my eyes deceive me?” Octavia threw back her hood and quickly trotted to the stall. As close as they were to the coast, the heavier parts of the market stall had begun to sink into the reclaimed soil, and Octavia grabbed and cradled the cello to save it from the moisture. “Oh my Celestia, how I missed this feeling.” She ran a hoof along the side. “This is better crafted than I would have thought. Is this Griffin pine?”

The crone lounging at the back of the stall swiveled her good eye to appraise the potential customer. “That’s ‘cause it’s tha reel good ones I buys! Tha stallon I gots that from says to me it’s special, but I says to you it’s cheap.”

Lyra suppressed a groan trotted to the causeway’s edge. Vinyl, who was slinking behind a ways, arrived several seconds later.
“Octavia, don't get attached to the idea of having that instrument. We don't have much money left and we have we need for buying passage.” Lyra reminded Octavia. “We've gone this far with no stopping and no distractions.”

“Yes yes.” Octavia agreed. “It’s just going to be for a moment. Just... Please give me a second.” She found the bow in the pile of knick-knacks and spent a moment feeling to it’s weight. "This doesn't belong here. It belongs with a pony who would care about it."

Lyra could see that the pony she called a friend was getting more infatuated with the idea of buying the instrument every second. "Octavia, come away from there. We need to get to Python Landing."

“I don't know. She looks good with an instrument in her hooves again.” Vinyl said amicably.

“You’re not helping.” Lyra mouthed. Here she was, building up the anticipation for her first trip overseas, and her accompaniment was determined to derail it. It's like they didn't want to fulfill Lady Velvet's contract.
She stepped up to Octavia. "Please put the cello down."

"You might be fine staying away from what you love, from all those years working for Fancy Pants, but my heart yearn and my hooves ache." Octavia murmured to the cello. "I will go mad, I swear."

"No, you won't. You're a smart pony and you don't need that cello." Lyra repeated.

“What’re it be, pretty laydies?” The crone behind the stall coughed.

“You stop talking, you’re doing it wrong.” Lyra snapped, then turned back to Octavia. “Please, we're so close to being out of this place. What will it take for you to get back on the road?"

They arrived at the border of Filly Delphia's port, known locally as Python’s Landing, a half-hour later. Octavia’s extra burden jutted obtusely off her back, unprotected without it’s case excepting the makeshift binding, which Lyra would not shied from admitting she had made slightly too tight. Octavia was going to have to do penance for burdening them with her selfishness.

Doing the mental math for their remaining bits, Lyra led the trio past the warehouses and merchant houses to the waterfront, to where hundreds of ships in a variety of sizes were resting in various stages of loading and offloading. They now had far too little for accommodations for them all on a passenger ship, but Lyra calculated that two births on one of the smaller and slower cogs might be in their budget. It was going to be some hard bargaining.

"Vinyl, did you ever crew a vessel during your exile?" Lyra asked.

"Nah, I allways had enough bits to go comfortably most of the time." Vinyl shook her head. "You know bits wouldn't be an issue if we slowed it down a touch. There's a Musician's Guild liason back in Filly Delphia that could hook us up with a gig. We get us some money, buy passage in a week or whatever."

"There's no time. None at all." Lyra scowled. "We need to leave Equestria before Lady Velvet's plans kick off, because there will be no leave afterwards."

"I'm sure." Vinyl twisted her nose in disapproval. “Octavia mate, do you want a hoof with that?”

Octavia shook her head. “I will manage.”

“ ‘I will manage’ is all I’ve heard from you over the last month of mountains and hills! Is everything magically better now that you've got a fat hunk of wood on your back? You feel whole now? Huh?” Vinyl grumbled spitefully. “You've been nothing but silence and angry stares since we left Foal. Why don’t you ever tell me what you really feel?”

Octavia paused for a moment to shift how the cello sat on her shoulders. “It would scare you.”

"She's Phytes daughter. You really think your wuss feelings can scare her?" Lyra said sarcastically. She saw the group was starting to fray, but she was not only fine by welcoming of it. Some frustration might push the mares to get the job done.

As they wove further into Python Landing, Lyra was reminded her of Canterlot. The streets were cobbled with smoothed out limestone, as were some of the poorer structures. Yet beside them were merchant houses and insurances offices built of marble from Foal. The wooden docks were an eclectic mix of foreign woods and mountain pines, a mix of many colors. It spoke of ingenuity patching desperation, and wealth lording over it all. Not so different from Canterlot indeed.

"All these ships are out of our price range." Lyra scanned the slips of regal trade vessels and dedicated passenger sloops. "Let's see what's away the main section of the dockland.

Having passed the EOC docks and the largest slips, Lyra was begging to see options with the independent merchants. Based on the goods they were unloading, barrels of salt, amber, stands of tropical woods, and packages of spices, most of them ranged in the southern seas, between Clawstantinople and the Sahellan cape.

“Not many going to Trottingham.” Lyra mused sourly.

“That’s because of privateers.” A luxurious accent responded.

Lyra faced the speaker and came face to face with the biggest creature on the docks, who had somehow thereto escaped her prying gaze. The hippogryph was tall, if not particularly muscular, wearing a weathered red trimmed robe.

“Wha ho!” Vinyl gasped. “A gryph! Last time I saw one of you I was nine-tenths dead and on my way to drinking that last ten percent.”

“I am not sure what to take from that.” The hippogryph arched a brow. “Good things?”

“Very good.” Vinyl wagged her tail.

“I’m very sorry!” Octavia pushed aside her lewd friend, face in a furious blush, nearly falling over with the momentum of the teetering Cello. “She comes on strong, I know. I’m sure she didn’t mean any offense!”

“Hmm Hmm!” The hippogryph laughed an exotic laugh. “Flirtation is not offensive to me or my people. I’m charmed that we could be well regarded by ponies.”

“You were saying about privateers?” Lyra queried, all business.

“Was I?” The hippogryph smiled. “I am not a sailor, but I have just come from that direction. The seas are rife with dangerous scum, and other, more distressing flags. I would not go in the direction of Griffany any time soon."

"We have no choice." Lyra grunted. "Did the ship you came in on have open berths for a reasonable price?"

"I am afraid it will not be going East. It will be drifting to Chitin after heading in the direction of Baltimare." The gryph apologized. "The captain was not eager to stay after dropping me off."

“Thanks for nothing then.” Lyra trotted past him.

“Little nothings are my pleasure.” The gryph bowed letting her by.

Octavia, blush intensifying, followed. Vinyl lagger behind again, smiling dreamily at the gryph.

After they had gone further down the dock, Vinyl began giggling to herself. "Oh man, I'm getting excited girls. I forgot how much I miss being abroad."

"And we're not going to get the chance if you dilly dally." Lyra muttered.

"I'm going to dread this trip if you act like that with every non-pony." Octavia scolded Vinyl halfheartedly.

Vinyl laughed. "When we get to Trottingham I have to show you the varied wonders of the foreign boys."

"You mares are forgetting our purpose. Let me remind you." Lyra hissed. "This is a mission of fate, not adventure. One knife is destined to meet one mare's gut. Fantasize about your next toy AFTER."

"Jerk." Vinyl pouted. "How about, if we're so pressed for time, we split up and look. I bet I could haggle for a better price without you two dark clouds hanging over me."

"That's a terrible idea." Lyra scrunched her nose. Still, on that side of the dockland alone there were almost fifty merchant vessels moored, and more coming in. Finding just the right one for there needs would be a time-consuming process. "But fine. Don't get into trouble though. And Octavia, be careful with that cello. We already payed for it, don’t want it broken now.”
She continued up the docks, towards to the trailing edges were those avoiding attention lurked.

After several rejections, the most unpleasant of which came from an ornery pegasus captain named Pleiades, Lyra was nearing the edge of Python’s Landing. She was now surrounded by patched together fishing dinghies and seemingly abandoned cogs curiously low in the water. The guards, a rotation of Filly Delphian urban guard, could not have been more disinterested in cracking down on smugglers, it seemed.

"Can't even find hospitality with the dregs." She said to herself.
Would she be accepted back in Canterlot when the job was done? She imagined arriving at the main gate, marble walls rising high above her, and Twilight Velvet atop them, welcoming her with a grim smile. Lyra would have a patron and a job again, which is all she really wanted. Fancy Pants or Twilight Velvet, it didn't matter.

Lyra was about to check on Vinyl and Octavia when a child’s squeaky voice, heavily accented, called out to her. “Hey mis! You looking for something?” The source was a tiny beige earth colt, a miniature grey sailor’s jacket not concealing his lack of a mark.

“I don’t do drugs.” Lyra replied curtly. “Nor am I looking to start. Try again in about a week, when I’ve lost all direction and loose myself to hedonism to keep away the creeping and inevitable realities of this cruel world.”

The colt’s nose scrunched. “No, mis! I meaning you to pickup?

Lyra tried to decipher the question. "Listen, kid, I'm looking for a boat."

"We've got a boat! We've got the stuff!" The colt jumped up and down. "Come on this way! This way!" He scampered up the jetty.

"Geez." Lyra followed him, an eye open to possible danger.

The colt stopped in front of a sloop so short Lyra hadn’t seen previously. It was a misshapen, truncated ship that looked like a normal sloop had been divided into thirds then had the first and last third fused. 'Junior', the faded name on the prow said, beside a amateur stenciling of a child profile, perhaps the little colt beside her. Lyra imagined the odd ship had been moored among the dregs out of the captain's sheer embarrassment to be seen with it. "Uh huh. That's a boat alright."

A stallion's head peeked over the odd sloop's banister. "Land's sake Pip! That's not our contact either!"

Lyra arched a brow. "Looking for somepony?"

"No mis, just teaching the colt colors. I asked him to find a blue mare, and he hasn't gotten his head around it yet." The hiding stallion said.

"I'm somewhat blue." Lyra said.

"Not blue enough. Thank you, goodbye mis." The stallion hissed.

Lyra, annoyed but a little curious, looked around and confirmed there was nopony else on the jetty, or even anywhere close besides a few drunks by the warehouses. "I'm open to dealings. What's your thing?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." The stallion said innocently.

"Come on. What are you selling? Contraband? Are you pony smuggling? I'm going to have to guess unless you tell me." Lyra eyed the sunken and dilapidated wrecks taking up the rest of the slots on the jetty. "You're not out here for the aesthetic. "

The stallion contemplated for a while. "I'm buying, actually. Know a couple ponies looking for a way out of town?"

"I know some ponies who fit that exact description." Lyra nodded.

"Then buck who I was looking for. Go get your ponies and bring them here so I can... Assess the goods." The stallion rumbled.

"I'll be back." Lyra nodded. She scooped up the excitable little colt with a hoof and held him like she would a small dog. "I'm taking your little friend so you don't get the idea to leave without us."

"Don't handle Pip too roughly. He's a delicate boy." The stallion laughed coarsely. "Don't take too long. My original friend might come along."

During her brief search for her companions the odd sloop had been partially rigged, and Lyra continued to be unimpressed by the dodgy little two-mast, forty-hoof ship. It’s slender masts and boom were like nothing she had ever seen before, though since the sum of her nautical knowledge was the result of watching barges plow the Dneighper, she was willing to let personal opinion go for a moment.
"Yeah, like I said, It's dodgy."

“Holy buck that looks awesome!” Vinyl giggled like a schoolfilly. “It’s so sleek and short! What’s the specs?”

A lanky earthpony, the stallion who had been hiding before, dropped out of the rigging and jumped down to the jetty. He was a rugged charmer, his every detail uncared for and yet curiously alluring. He was beige like his younger friend, and his long mane and tail, bleached white in the sun and salt, were braided into locks.

“Fifteen tonnes laden, fifteen hoof beam, five hoof hold, accommodations for five.” He said proudly. His accent was less pronounced than his son’s, though with a dash of feisty south-sun-islander intonation. "I'm glad you like her."

Lyra quirked a brow. "A big stallion like you was hiding from a delicate filly like me? For shame sir."

"I prefer to talk my way out of compromise situations, but seeing three stunning mares looking for help, I see I've talked my way into one." The stallion flashed a smile. "I go by H. Become my friend and perhaps I'll go by something else."

“Keep talking like that and you won't go by anything at all.” Lyra said flatly. Smugglers, who the captain so obviously was, often used code names. H had do be the least imaginative one in the world. “We need passage to Trottingham. Are you going in that direction.”

“Trottingham! Yes! It's the lad's home, and I'm always looking for an excuse to go back. Come along and you'll find yourself in style and comfort.” Captain H smiled. “When I have special guests like you, I avoid all the storms, so you will have plenty of time to sun or look at the stars. Luxurious, eh? While I can well run Junior by myself, I'll throw in food any time you help out.”

"Not unreasonable." Lyra nodded. “Allow me a moment to confer with my associates.” Octavia and Vinyl leaned in.

“He doesn’t strike me at all as a horrible murder-rapist, and I know that type pretty well.” Was Vinyl’s ringing endorsement. “And I’ve seen worse sights on the seas than that fine stallion. It’s a damn sexy boat too.”

“Ship.” Lyra corrected. “Octavia, your thoughts?”

“I have nothing to contribute.” Octavia bowed her head.

"If he tries anything we can easily overpower him." Lyra said. "But that doesn't mean we can't scrutinize his motives. He seems too happy about having three extra burdons on his ship."

"Maybe he likes female company?" Vinyl fluttered her lashes.

Lyra scowled. "Give the flirting a rest already. It won't help you if he decides to sail us into a corsair harbor and sell us to slavers. I want some serious discussion here."

Octavia and Vinyl stares at her.

"Fine." Lyra grumbled. "It's up to me then." She turned back to Captain H and cleared her throat. “We don't have a lot of bits but we can pay you reasonably, and throw in some effort when we can.”

“I'd be glad to have you. Work the right way, and I'll be paying you.” H said, winking.

Lyra was unimpressed by the sleaze, but she could nearly feel the heat coming off of Vinyl’s, and to a lesser extent Octavia’s, cheeks.

“It’s a deal then. We already have everything with us.” Lyra stuck out her hoof.

“Exelenté! Then it’s time we got going!” H took Lyra’s hoof and pulled her onto Junior. “There is nothing left for me here either! Quickly now please, let’s get onboard.”

No sooner were their hooves off the dock than H and Pip untied the sheets and hoisted up the sails. At what struck Lyra as a dangerous speed, the sloop darted out of the slip and into the busy harbor.

“Make yourselves comfortable wherever girls!” H was battling against the wheel, tearing his ship across the water at vicious angles, missing dozens of opportunities to slam into unsuspecting galleons and carracks at anchor.

“This is exciting already!” Vinyl slipped across the deck, jumping out of the way of tumbling rope coils and unsecured crates. “Reminds me of this one time in Manegalore!”

Finally they escaped the majority of the traffic in blue water, and H locked in a heading due East. “Mark it Pip!”

“Three minutes sah!” P squeaked.

“Not a personal record, but damn fine all the same. Those port authority hacks only saw a blur!” H chuckled, appraising his guest’s seasickness with mild amusement. “I hope you feel better ladies! I wouldn’t want you to have to buy meals multiple times.”

Prologue 2: Second Verse

In the dark, the forest seemed an endless maze. The watery, silver moonlight barely reached through the canopy, and the underbrush swallowed the rest, so that it seemed at times one was trapped under the surface of a black ocean.
Miles of forest were hard going for even the most resilient of ponies. The Everfree Forest, the graveyard of two princesses, a principality, and an empire. The bones of ponies and nightmares had nourished the plants in twisted and malignant ways, and at times they seemed to possess a mind of their own, beckoning hauntingly to passers by with twisted limbs, tearing at their clothes and fur when not being watched. Even more cunningly, they masked the fearsome predators who made the shadows their home. Dwindling in the rest of Equestria, vicious chimeric beasts prowled in the endless twilight of the forest unimpeded.

The Everfree Forest must have been feeling playful and generous to let one cross through, or perhaps particularly devious.

For a trio of fillies, the journey through the rain, itself thunderous as it beat and tore through the layers of obscuring leafy canopies, was almost deadly exhausting. With wordless determination they pushed through the deepening mud and around the vines and sharp litter whipping in the wind. Every half-hour or so, the little unicorn at the lead would stop and consider a landmark she remembered, a particularly gnarled tree or small moss-covered stone ruin, before pushing on. The pegasus would try striking up a conversation on occasion, then trail off when she was only replied to with silence. The earth pony sneered and kicked at the plants in the way, daring them to try and stop them.

Sound and light more terrifying than any lightning unified the sky and earth for a brief, blinding moment. The shockwaves bowled them over, but they persisted while the storm overhead did not. The sun rose, was eclipsed, reappeared, disappeared, raced the moon towards the earth. The fillies were not intimidated, not the least reason being that they did not understand the fatal cosmic game.
After a lul, while the sun yet lingered, the cloudless heavens let loose dozens more of the awful lances of light down on their destination. They pushed out from the trees into a cleared, to see unobstructed how that lance of came down into the crownless skull of the decrepit Everfree Castle, like a guiding finger pointing them to destiny.
The three fillies worked their way around the dry chasmic riverbed, catching glances and hearing echoes of the brutal fight through the growing cracks in the decrepit castle. This is what they had come for, for reasons they could not fully articulate. They'd come to remind the forces that'd wronged them that they were alive, ready and willing to stand up where their sisters had failed. Ponykind's natural sense of justice, undiluted by fear, antipathy, or politics, shown through of the three fillies.

The threshold of the throne room greeted them with the last, most vicious vision. The translucent ghost of Twilight Sparkle recoiled from her inert physical twin, turning and begging Celestia’s lifeless body for answers with wide confused eyes. The stricken ex-pony faced the wall, leaned her head against the abused stones, but did not cry. The world be damned if it tricked a single tear more from her.
Not that she could. She was mist, the suggestion of a pony drawn in between metal.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were fixated on the distorted and perverted forms of their sisters, unable to move under the weight of the scene.

“Oh man, girls!” Scootaloo pointed to the slumped white alicorn “That’s the princess! Like, Princess Celestia! Lady Twilight killed the princess! That’s why the sun disappeared.”

“Keep it down.” Apple Bloom murmured. Despite her sister’s unnatural height and abyssal coloration, the pony now consoling Twilight was clearly Applejack. “Why’s she doing her fancy accent? That’s weird.”

“What’s weird is Mis Twilight’s a ghost, kinda.” Scootaloo whined in fear.

“Will our sisters help us?” Sweetie Belle wondered. She’d seen nightmares in storybooks before, villainous and absolutely evil creatures. Only in the stories, the princess won. “What if they’re on her side?”

“They’re your sisters. They wouldn’t eat us, would they?” Scootaloo cowered at the thought. “Oh, this is sooo bad.”

“Are you still feeling brave Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle watched her sister and the other two nightmares guide Twilight to Nightmare Moon’s brutalized body. It was a horrible sight, for a pony to be so battered and destroyed. It was unmistakably dead. Rarity hovered over the black and red body, hunching sullenly. It reminded Sweetie of Rarity hunched over her books or little rituals, though now pony and sacrament were much more horrible. "I'm not feeling brave. Not at all."

“What was our plan anyway?” Scootaloo asked, subdued. “How could we do better than the princess?”

“We’ve gotta try.” Apple Bloom said firmly. “There’s no way I’m loosin' another sibling.”

“Let’s wait please. I’m...” Sweetie paused, chewing her lip in reservation. “I’m not ready.”
She said a little prayer to herself like Rarity had thought, though now that she thought about it the lady her prayers usually flew to was lying dead on the rubble.

"When all else fails, run in screaming." Scootaloo gulped.

Standing in a semicircle around Moon, the nightmare ponies were discussing in tones just shy of arguing. The pegasus nightmare repeatedly pointed to Twilight’s body, while Applejack and Rarity seemed to insist on Moon’s and Celestia’s respectively. The translucent shade Twilight did not contribute, her ghostly eyes focussing on something very far away, while she whispered to herself.

“Ya got a good idea Scootaloo. We'll charge 'em.” Apple Bloom said. “When they ain't payin attention.”

“If we stop Twilight Sparkle, are we sure that will fix everything?.” Sweetie Belle asked. “Apple Bloom, I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”

“Apple Bloom is right. This is for Ponyville.” Scootaloo, though terrified, stood resolute with Apple Bloom. “Sparkle will go back and turn more ponies into nightmares. Even if your sisters can’t be helped-”

“Don’t talk like that. We’re gunna save then.” Apple Bloom stomped.

Finally Twilight Sparkle roused from her malaise. The metal horseshoes dragged along the ground as she approached the nightmare ponies. She pointing up into the night sky, where the moon flew alone, and to the horizon. Whatever she had said, the other three mares stopped their arguing. The three mares listened for some minutes as Twilight explained something, but her voice was so weak as to be inaudible to the hiding fillies.
After several more minutes of consideration, everypony was in silent agreement, and gave Twilight some space.
Purple magic ignited and swirled around Twilight’s incorporeal horn. Nightmare Moon’s body was pulled up into a standing position, and the foals had full view of the totality of the injuries inflicted upon her.

“I think I’m gunna be sick.” Scootaloo retreated away from the threshold to throw up in the hall.

Twilight’s ghostly body shimmered and dispelled, as the six pieces of armor expanded in different directions. They slowly floated to their corresponding positions on the black alicorn cadaver, and with another burst of magic snuggled against her. The body jerked forward, stedying itself on its hooves, as a feint purple light emanated from its bloody eye-sockets. It seemed that by moving the armor around, Twilight puppeted Nightmare Moon’s body in a jerkily unlifelike way.

“We need to get closer.” Apple Bloom said, and without warning she skittered out from the cover of the doorway and moved to the next closest pile of rubble. Eyes wide with apprehension, Sweetie Belle bounded out after her.

Twilight’s voice was emitted from the air. “...and you have to be lucid. I can’t get the necessary energy by hunting you without my nightmare bolstering me. Not entirely, at least. I learned a good amount of dream magic, but there is a dangerous margin of ignorance here. You should know what you're getting into.” The black alicorn corpse shifted, trying to face the mares

“Then how?” The nightmarish visage of Rarity asked, rolling a pebble under her hoof nervously. “Darling, that demon could only do it with Celestia providing her ray of sunshine, and that will not be happening again. Where will the magical energy come from?”

“The Moon.” Nightmare Moon’s hoof, guided by the steel blue horseshoe that bound it, pointed skyward. “Once I begin to take control of her I should be able to draw from it.”

“Is the moon like a battery or something?” Dash asked.

“Um, not quite. It is a gate, but it does have some small sources of magic on it.” Twilight was obviously reluctant to disclose this. “There's a lot of them, but I’d lose some energy over the distance. A lot of energy, actually, focussed through the moon.”

“Them? They’re alive?” Applejack asked. Hearing the voice without the familiar accent made Apple Bloom quiver.

“They are monsters, of a sort.” Twilight was quick to say. “A whole civilization of lunar creatures, engulfed by Dark magic for a thousand years. The moon denizens, I think Nightmare Moon called them.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about this.” Rarity kicked her pebble away. “We should wait, and recover our power. There may be somepony who could help us. We need to rest after... after this.”

“Who could help us, Rarity? Who is left in Equestria who can understand any of what’s happened to us?” Twilight sighed, and the corpse shivered. “Who knows how long I can exist like this! I'm on a timer and if we hesitate, it may be too late for me. And that means it is too late for you. I told you the risks, but if we're going to do this, it should be now.”

“I feel very strongly that we should wait,” Rarity began. “but I trust you to do what’s right for us.”

Sickness subsided, Scootaloo scrambled to join the other fillies behind the rubble pile. They shared a last hug, and prepared themselves.

“I can’t thank you enough.”Twilight sounded emotional. “To go through this torture again, when you should never have had to once.”

"Yes." Applejack's gaze slid to Rarity, like she was not quite sold on the nightmare unicorn's motivations. "I agree. We do this."

The last nightmare, the pegasus, nodded her accession. "If it's the first step of reversing what's happened to us... I should feel what I'm feeling. It's..." She lifted her head, to stare solidly at the dead alicorn. "You're going to make this up to us, Twilight Sparkle. Go back on this, and I'm going to indulge every scream for pain and death I'm feeling in me."

"You are all more understand than I would have been. What happened to us, I am-" Twilight drew off. The mares were looking at her impatiently. It was not the time for words anymore. "Form a square, girls. I'm going to start casting.

The alicorn corpse bowed its head, and Twilight harnessed what magic she could. The armor glowed bright purple, and a buzz filled the air.
It was hard to describe at first, but as Twilight's concentration grew, the chaos resolved into a distant, ungraspable melody, pulling one's attention to a place both far away and uncomfortably close, perhaps even overlapping. For Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who had suffered the same thing less than two hours earlier by Forlorn Spark, all they could do was brace themselves for the experience.

The corpses mouth fell open, and a sound like a scream broke into the delicate melody. Tendrils of magic, sparkling blindingly with shapes and colors, surged out of its black horn, entering the ears of the three mares. Crypic magic, indecipherable knowledge, nonsensical chaos bound the cursed ponies together, surging back and forth in a revolting call and response. The nightmare ponies' enthralled minds, try as they might to reject the chaos, applied their personal magic to decipher and provide to the spell. Out of three interpretations of the melody, there came forth a harmony.

For Twilight, a mere soul at that point, the sudden jolt was a match for any pain that night. There was no time to admire the otherworldly beauty of the ritual, for all attention was on bearing its upkeep and torture. it felt like a smith was welding her essence to the corpse her shade overlapped with.
With a jolt, Twilight's consciousness was plugged in to Moon’s body. Under the progressing dictate of the spell it became an extension of her just like a natural body. It was half numbed and clammy, and half burning with pain as nerves reignited. Layer by layer, she sewed the components of her own consciousness to the corresponding parts of the body’s brain. What parts were too damaged, she repaired. Twilight was faced with the additional struggle of taking as little energy as she could from her willing victims, stretching the magical power they provided as far as it would go to reconstruct herself and Moon.

It was like time was reversing for the black body. It writhed and screamed, but crushed limbs reformed, bright purple eyes arose from the bloody viscera, disjointed wing bones went back into sockets and began to agitatedly flap. It had all the pain and wonder of birth.

I can't destroy it, Apple Bloom admitted to herself. But seeing her sister, willingly though she suffered, renewed Bloom's resolution. "Now, gals. We gotta make a stand.” Apple Bloom set her jaw and tried to ignore the tortuous pain her sister was in, setting her sights on Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight tried to keep the skin and fur intact, but in the magical crucible flesh blew away like sand in the wind, scattering and reforming along her muscles. Bones and sinew and muscle were exposed long enough to spasm before Twilight reallocated flesh to it’s protection.

But Twilight needed more magic for the last part of a living being, and try as she might to reach out, Twilight could not grasp the surface of the moon with her magic in the slightest. It was almost like it was slippery, rejecting her control like a soapy bubble to a stream of water. Something was defending it against her.

'I have to...'

the alicorn corpse sunk to its knees, its skin beginning to dissolve again. Desperately starved for energy, Twilight could not face the choice of aborting the ritual spell. She felt the body, its furtive heartbeat, the blood just begining to run again. She was bringing two ponies back to life, and she only had a little farther to go, if only she had more to take! If she continued as she was, Rarity, Applejack and Dash would be reduced to lifeless husks, and it still might not be enough. She had no idea if the half completed spell would dwindle if cut off, or react violently.

Seeing the alicorn fall to its knees, the fillies decided their moment. “Now.” They vaulted over the rock chunks, and charged eyes closed, screaming shrilly.

Suddenly there were more to take. To Twilight’s panicking mind they registered only as more energy, or perhaps new foci for the progressing spell. They were three in number, two of them very alike to Rarity and Applejack, and the third not unsimilar to Dash.
Desperation had driven Twilight this far, and it reigned over her decision making once again. She shifted her draw to the three new ponies, and split the load of the magical draining among all six. Bolstered, the spell wrapped itself up cleanly and rapidly.

The sound and buzz in the air died, as did the whipping magical wind. Things faded back to the somber quiet of moonlight night.

The black body collapsed to earth. The pain receptors along Twilight’s side lit up, alerting her to their functionality. She breathed, in first, taking in a lungful of dust, but it did not set her coughing. She opened her mouth and tasted the dust: Dust flavored.
'I'm alive. I came back. The princesses have died and I came back'

Her muscles refused to release their tension, so Twilight waited. Like an awakening dreamer, she tried to hold on to the feelings from during the ritual, but they refused to stay. Her new ears, recovering from the ringing brought on by the roar of the spell, were introduced to the world by the high-pitched screams of a filly.
The grip of eternal night was still too bright for Twilight’s young eyes, but when she finally managed to open them she was met with a terrible scene.

Four ponies were unconscious, the strain of the magical drain knocking them out. Applejack and Dash made sense to Twilight, but the sight of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sent Twilight mind into a tailspin of confusion.

One pony was screaming at the last. Sweetie Belle, shaking and heaving with sobs of horror and fear, was pushed against Rarity. The unicorn, who had once been white with an illustrious and elegantly styled purple mane but now whose visage was black and velvet, was not moving, and not breathing,

Author's Note

Act 2 is off to a frightful start. As you may have gathered, it is chronologically before the epilogue of Act 1. But this is where I warn my readership that this act is, from start to finish, a story about horror. The Eternal Night was, for how relatively brief it was, a dark and terrible turning point in the history of the world.

Chapter 31: Little Bit of Sunshine

Five days after the Summer Sun

When the morning came, and trying to go back to sleep failed, Twilight sat up. There was the chirping of birds and muted chatter of ponies through the window, and Twilight wondered why a nurse hadn't come to check in on her at all. Despite just waking up, she felt tired, mentally but not physically. Her sleep had been restless as well as dreamless.
Dreams… Twilight felt an indescribable wave of apprehension whenever pass over her. There had been a whole night that had happened that she’d forgotten. Forgotten, had faded, or worse.

She rolled out of bed and trotted to the broken window. The sun was shining in the sky without a cloud in sight. That stuck Twilight as distinctly wrong, though she couldn’t quite grasp why. Again it was a vague feeling, like something out of a dream, something that she should have remembered. But why would there not be a sun?

Twilight hobbled into the hospital hallway. It looked like there had been an earthquake with how everything in every room was off its shelf and strewn all over the floor. There were no other ponies. The lobby was a total loss, and Twilight had to dance around broken glass to make it out the empty doorframe.

“Heya! How are you feeling?”
Twilight craned her neck to look above her, to the black earth pony from the night before, Iillor, standing on the cracked slab of what had been the top floor.

“Well enough good.” Twilight called back. “I remember more. Not much, but some.”

“That’s good.” Iillor wound up, and jumped off the roof like a cat. Also like a cat, she landed deftly on the earth without so much as a wince from her fall. “What can you and can't you remember?"

"My fillyhood and life in Canterlot is cleared up. At least... mostly cleared up." Twilight's brow furrowed. "Everything from my time in Ponyville is less clear, or missing. It's strange." She held her tongue on the concern somepony had been tampering with her memory.

"Do you remember anything from the forest yet?”

“That part is hardest of all. I have impressions: Light blurs, Dark blurs, and a lot of, um, anxiety. Fear, much fear.” Twilight sighed. “It something I probably won’t be happy remembering.”

“Are you saying you're trying not to remember?”

“I…” Twilight hesitated. “Mis Iillor, do you believe that some things that we shouldn’t know?”

"Maybe that’s true of some ponies, Lady Twilight, but that's because many commoners are going to be farmers or craftsponies forever and it would just be a distraction. Someponies have a duty to know as much as possible, because they're the ones that make decisions.”

Twilight cocked her head. "Are you a pony that makes decisions?"

"Not important ones." Iillor laughed. "But then again intrepidness is its own reward."

“I guess that sounds right.” Twilight said. It sounded like something Celestia would say. The princess was always urging her to pursue more magic.

“Sure. Now that you’re up and about Duke Lightdowser will want to see you. He has a lot of questions, and a lot he's given up to get them answered.” Iillor shook her head. “Yesterday I told him you were still knocked out.”

“Why were you lying to the duke?” Twilight asked.

“He can be a very forceful pony. I didn’t want him shaking you up while you’re still gathering yourself.” Iillor offered. “Though actually he’s not in Ponyville right now. He got impatient, and this morning he took some knights into the forest to find the the battle site.”

Twilight thought about her many nights of discourse and strife with Nightmare Moon, inside her dreams. That had been in a castle, Everfree Castle. She could vaguely recall details about it’s real world counterpart.

“They should have waited. I think I might have found the direct way to where they're going.” Twilight said.

“Maybe, but Duke Lightdowser is happier being lost in a forest than sitting around waiting. He took enough supplies for a week so I think he's prepared for some meandering.” Iillor said with a shrug.

Visions danced through Twilights periphories, causing her to gasp in fear before she realized it wan't real. She saw statues of Nightmare Moon, dressed in her gleaming armor and reared up to smite her enemies, and many-eyes creatures scampering around in its shadow. The Nightmare Moon in real life was not quite like that anymore.

“Why is it daytime?” Twilight felt stupid for asking, but the detail stood out to her.

Iillor surprised Twilight by considering the question for a moment. “Everypony has guesses, but basically we don't know. The week of night left us thinking that with Princess Celestia missing it was going to be dark forever. Then suddenly the sun rose and went back to its normal schedule, with some randomness. That was a day before we found you."

Another vision, much more demanding, of the sun being eclipsed by an ascendant moon. Twilight tensed. She knew what was coming. Right before her she saw her princess, battered and exhausted, unable to call upon her star’s power. The enemy, a dark mass of nightmarish energy, lorded over her, laughing maniacally.
Twilight stumbled forward, landing on the grass next to Celestia. The alicorn looked so helpless. 'Princess', she whispered, following her mentor's pittiful gaze up towards the black beast. It was hazy, indescribable. Maybe it was Nightmare Moon but it was hard to tell.

When Twilight blinked the vision was gone. Iillor was looking at her curiously.

Twilight cleared her throat with some difficultly. "Princess Celestia is missing?"

“Her airship crashed in the fields outside Ponyville, and she went into the forest. Other than that, we know nothing.” Iillor sadly confirmed. “One of the duke’s ponies, Mis Lock, will be back soon from Unicornia. Maybe they’ve heard something we haven’t.”

"Okay." Twilight swollowed. Her heart quivering she accepted that she should not get her hopes up. The mighty empress who had cared for her and returned her love and adoration for a decade was gone, Twilight just knew. Whatever the eclipse and the night had been, it had killed Celestia.

“I’m going to go for a walk.” Twilight said quietly.

Iillor perked up. “Mind if I come? I’ve got nopony to talk too since my ward Risky’s got his nose stuck in a book again.”

“Sure.” Twilight said after a second's hesitation. She felt she would rather be alone, but at the same time she wondered if she were still in danger. "I hope you don't mind if I don't talk much. I have to go over my clearer memories." She frowned. "I have to remember what happened..."

The night of the Summer Sun

Twilight would not have left the physical world so soon after escaping from her brief time on the moon if she didn't have to. Indeed the realm she found herself in reminded her of the moon's stark greyness, but with a murky atmosphere that choked the endless forest. Great slate trees, trunks ten hooves around and disappearing into the mist above, was like nothing that existed or could exist in the physical world. The thick roots twisted and tangled across the forest floor, forming little rills among the leaf litter.
Twilight felt oppressed by the weight of the mundane fog. It was not muggy, but pressing, like a blanket wrapping around her. So not at all like the moon, Twilight had to concede. The only thing it had in common was that homogeneous grey.

Rarity was somewhere out there in that realm, among the trees. Twilight just prayed it was not too late.
Pray to who? Twilight blinked at the question to herself. She... She didn't have a princess to pray to. Her situation hadn't quite set in yet, and Twilight was happy for that: She had to work before reality caught up with her.

"Time to get trotting then." Twilight said to herself. She retained her form as a little purple unicorn in the Forest, so after a calming breath she picked a direction went.

Talking in the forest felt unclean, and unnatural, as if it would break an infinite peace that had reign over it. Even the crunch of her hoofs in the leaf litter frightened her a bit every time. Twilight searched quickly but thoroughly, moving between the fat trunks of petrified pine and oak. Every now and then a distant howl reached Twilight, and she stopped until the echoes died away.

The amount of time it took her was unclear, and ultimately meaningless. She found Rarity slumped against a tree trunk, moving neither forward or backward. The unicorn's customary curls had adopted some of the Forest's pallor, and she was looking off into the forest, so motionless that for a moment Twilight thought she was already dead. But the crincle of the leaves made her ear twitch, and soon her eyes followed.

"Twilight?" Rarity's voice peaked in uncertainty.

“Rarity.” Twilight whispered, stepping closer. “Rarity, I’m here to save you.”

Rarity didn’t move from her reposed position, but she reached out and poked Twilight's ankle “Twilight? You're alive... But back to how you were. How? Did the ritual fail?”

Twilight gave the surrounding forest a quick glance before sitting beside Rarity. "How are you feeling? Not too cold?"

"Forget the cold. You're back to normal. And..." Rarity rubbed her own cheek and inspected her white body. "And I'm back to normal. Well done Twilight. I almost didn't think it was possible but you-"

"Rarity." Twilight interrupted. "Yes, the ritual worked. But I'm not back to normal, far from it. I look like this because this is a dream."

Rarity froze. "A dream."

"To posit it in a way you immediately understand. This is a different realm, just the dreamscape is a different realm" Twilight said. "Like the dreamscape, our soul decides how we manifest here."

Rarity was silent, looking for more explanation.

"Out in the physical world, the ritual did indeed fuse me to Nightmare Moon's body. My soul is the same though, so I'm me here." Twilight ran a hoof along the ground, and up the side of the tree trunk. "And you... I'm sorry, Rarity. I..." She swallowed. "Look, if I opened myself to everything I was feeling right now I'd collapse. Selfish as it is, its all I can say right now. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Rarity asked quietly. "For the Tower? For the nightmare? There is a time to apologize, and I appreciate that you feel regr-"

“You died.” Twilight interrupted forcefully, but dropped back down to a whisper. “The ritual killed you as it completed.”

Rarity turned away, returning inspecting the grey panorama while she contemplated.
Twilight, dedicated to thinking about anything but her guilt for a moment, ran a hoof through her hair, which had somehow tangled into pink and purple knots in her short dash through the forest. She waited for the outburst but it never came
"Rarity?"

"Dead." Rarity laughed to herself. "Good job Twilight Sparkle. My future was already gone, but now so is my life. And this place..." She nodded towards the endless trees and mist. "Is what comes after."

"The Forest is a transitional plain-"

"Enough, Twilight. I accepted the risks, but I should have known things were always going to go the worst possible way." Rarity was slowly working her way into a fury. "Good job Twilight. Every roll of the die I took with you ended with me losing, What a journey."

"It was a fluke. I'm sorry."

"As you said." Rarity grunted. "Why are you here, Twilight? You want to give me that explanation and a heartfelt farewell? I'm sorry darling but I have nothing to say to you. This relationship between us, dire drama that it has been, is going to end as pettily as it began. Send Sweetie Belle along to my parents and burn my belongings."

"This attitude I'm getting from you is not becoming Rarity." Twilight frowned, feeling stung more than she thought she deserved. "I'm here to save you."

“From death."

"Yes."

Rarity pursed her lips. "Marvelous, darling. I get to rely on you once again. My existence is, ONCE AGAIN, in Twilight Sparkle's hooves. I-' She clenched her teeth, as tears began to form at the corner of her eyes. Her voice began to waver. "I have the grand privilege of being this noblemare's necromantic experiment.

“Necromancy is a fairly established, if taboo science." Twilight corrected. "Think of it more as a procedure than an experiment."

"Oh, yes, that comforts me greatly.” Rarity let out a shakey breath. "You will save me, and all my anger will become invalid."

"That's not what I-"

"No no, Twilight, think no more of your transgressions. You're making up for it and so it all evens out." Rarity said with force sweetness. "Just tell me what to do to receive your salvation."

Twilight rubbed her forehead. "Rarity..."

"You said you're sorry and everything is better now." Rarity smiled wide. "Or it will be, won't it. Do you want to tell me about your 'procedure' or skip right to it?"

Twilight liked her lips. Rarity's mask of banal contentment was about as unnerving as anything could be, but she swallowed her doubt and started the explanation.
“This place, the Forest, is like a road between the physical world and some other place. It's hard to explain, but the Dreamscape, the Forest, and further places are all part of the same phenomenon. Dreams, magic, energy, souls... They move around in the universe, sometimes interacting with the physical world and sometimes not. It something we don't understand well, partially because its frowned upon, and partially because its dangerous to a pony and everypony around them." She frowned. "How dangerous is the force that can ruin lives and ensnare ponies based on pure thought. I hope nopony after us ever has to delve into the Dreamscape.

Rarity, shocking to Twilight, was paying close attention. "Is it all real?"

"It's not a place that exists. It's inherently non-physical. What we're experiencing right now is..." Twilight chose her words carefully. "An interplay of invisible, spaceless forces." She blinked, throat tightening as she remembered something. "Princess Celestia used to call them slices of the same phenomenon, ‘different interpretations’ of the physical world.“

“I choose to interpret myself as still alive.” Rarity said.

Twilight laughed at the absurdity of it, but when thought begot creation, it wasn't all that farfetched. Rarity’s humor, deceptive though it may have been, was making this easier. Or maybe Rarity was being genuine. Twilight was not in a state to work it out, and it still tore at her being here and knowing it was her fault, again, that a pony had died.

“I guess that choice is why you’re still here, and not what beyond the Forest. I... ” Twilight squeezed her eyes closed. “I hoped I would find Princess Celestia here, and Nightmare Moon if I dared. But I couldn't have tried without the new body, and enough time had passed that..." She sighed miserably. "But they're alicorns. Mortal concepts like death treat them differently. I'm kidding myself that I could have ressurected souls as powerful as theres even if they were here."

“Maybe they went back to their places in the sky."

The forest had no sun or moon, but that didn’t stop Twilight from reflexively searching the grey mist for them.
"I don't know how ponykind moves beyond this. The sun was gone. The consequences... How do you begin to guess! T- They're alicorns! Death isn't supposed to have meaning to them!" Twilight sunk to the ground, hissing into her hooves. "IT'S WRONG! IT CAN'T BE REAL!" She looked to Rarity, desperation in her eyes. "Please tell me this isn't happening. I'm not really here. Everything since I arrived in Ponyville is a delusion, a dream!"

Rarity swallowed awkwardly. "Twilight-"

"How is it that we survived, and they died? It doesn't- Look, it's flipped around! This must be death. Where their souls went, that's true life. Being left here on the earth is death." Twilight whined. "I can't understand. Everything we were ver tought-"

"Twilight." Rarity said firmly.

Twilight jumped like a filly caught.

Rarity pushed herself to her hooves. "I know you might think my forgiveness is disingenuous, but it isn't. You're as much a victim as I am, a product of things beyond our control. What did you call them? Invisible, spaceless forces? Sometimes, that is just what life is."

Twilight closed her eyes. "You don't have to comfort me Rarity."

“I do Twilight. The mare you cared about most left you with only her memory."

"She left more than that. She left a body and a troubled legacy." Twilight snorted, agonized with herself for thinking that way.

"Listen to me, stop it.” Rarity recaptured Twilight’s attention. “I’m sorry too.”

This world was reminding Twilight of the moon a lot now. She remembered the confession Nightmare Moon shared with her. Just like then, ruinous hate was bleeding out of them. But that void where the hate had been ached, and Twilight felt like she would do anything to fill it again, even if it was with more hate. How must Rarity have been feeling?

“You’re not a bad pony Rarity.” Twilight said. “I forced you to resort to terrible things.

“You didn’t. It was that wretched nightmare.” Rarity sighed. “I can’t even understand how that villain took hold of you.”

“Rarity, you shouldn’t worry, my problems-”

“Your problems are my concerns, Twilight.” Rarity pushed herself up into a sitting position. She looked earnestly to Twilight, trying to catch the other’s evasive glance. “I was jealous and envious before. Now I want to understand you, and maybe I can try to improve myself instead of just resenting you.”

“You don’t want to be like me.” Twilight was on the back hoof. She’d come here to save Rarity, and now Rarity was drilling into her aching heart. She both did and didn't want to talk about it. Twilight had to face the truth gradually or she'd start screaming again. "Princess Celestia..."

“Take your time darling.” Rarity lent a supportive hoof.

Twilight was burning and wailing inside.
“It wasn’t a sudden thing.” Twilight started, her voice wavering. “You were watching what Princess Celestia and that monster said to each other. The nightmare, Forlorn Spark... You saw what it was. It was like me. Me but more. More passionate, more unabashed, more honest."
Twilight gave a short, pained laugh. "She gave voice to everything I felt about Princess Celestia but was too cowardly to admit to myself and others. The resentment, humiliation, and fear I pushed way down in myself came out of her as those... vitriolic jeers."
Twilight relived what she'd seen and felt. The murderous, gleeful, lascivious bend to the nightmare beast's words and movement made her gut wrench even from memory.
"Rarity, Nightmare Moon taught me not to fear her, the Dark, or the nightmare. I forgot not to be afraid of myself, and the nightmare swallowed that part of me whole."

"Stop Twilight. You are back to blaming yourself. Applejack and I feared you too, and that played directly into the nightmare's plans." Rarity said. "You and the princess, Twilight. If you wish to be honest with yourself, start with you and the princess.

"Yes, well... That is a story. Princess Celestia and I had big disagreements, but I never forgave her for how she dropped me like I was old meat. I retained court title and a place on the council, but every ouce of trust she and I shared dried up." Twilight sniffled. "A goddess, honest, generous, willing and ready to support you through every kind of trouble. That is what Princess Celestia was. But when I wanted to explore the world outside her orbit, the love goes missing. I try to give her a hug and she starts lecturing me on proper formality and..." Twilight sighed. "Yes, all I ever wanted to do was please her. She was a mare worth pleasing."

"That has led to this." Rarity whispered.

"Princess Celestia sent me here, after all. "

Rarity’s eyes widened in understanding. “That is right. You came to Ponyville on her orders.” There was something off about her tone Twilight didn't catch.

“I didn't hide that. it is funny though, that you might almost forget that with everything going on. But there is more.” Twilight tensed, anticipating rejection. “The day before I left Canterlot, Princess Celestia and I argued about Nightmare Moon.”

“You knew... from the beginning.” The words stuck in Rarity’s throat.

“It was just a dumb prophesy! But it mentioned Nightmare Moon and I wanted to know more. How in heaven did it happen that Princess Celestia sent me to the village on the edge of the Everfree, the FIRST PLACE her creeping influence would be felt? Did the princess know even before I did? It can't be a coincidence. But if it isn't and the princess sent me here because she knew of Moon's return, was dying part of her plan?" Twilight asked herself. "But on that day, when I asked her directly, Princess Celestia dodged me and enacted imperial court bullshit! I don't understand! I just-"
Twilight sighed. "Did I say the wrong thing? Is all this, two dead alicorns and four cursed mares, my fault or her oversight? How do I begin to understand the question, let alone the answer? None of it feels real." She cradled her head again. "Gods take pity. I know I'll never really know. I just have to find a way to live without asking myself every minute."

“My… My goodness. You must have been burning up inside, thinking about all that.” Rarity added a second hoof to the first, pulling Twilight into a hug. “I had no idea. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling now.”

Twilight let a hiss of air out through her clenched teeth. Telling Rarity hadn’t been cathartic really, but Rarity’s acceptance made her more confident of disclosing to everypony else.
“Don’t feel too sorry for me. You’re still dead.”

Rarity released her hug and looked sheepishly around the forest. Before Twilight had come it had a certain familiarity to her, like it was where she needed to stay. Now it felt alien and foul. “I suppose that’s true. How do we go about fixing that?”

Twilight flipped back into lecture mode. “After a soul leaves the body when a pony dies, the body undergoes a metaphysical change and becomes unable to house another even if it’s fully intact. We don't fully understand why but it has something to do with how Destiny guides us. To ressurect a departed pony, we have to trick the body into letting you take control again by using a bound proxy object. It’s a pretty basic necromantic procedure, not unlike how I used the armor to bind myself into Nightmare Moon's body." She grinned sheepishly. "Which I haven't had time to fully inspect yet. I chased you in here right after the ritual ended."

Rarity arched a brow. "Are you bragging about the body you acquired through killing me?"

Twilight blushed. "Only making the comperison. There was nothing else to say, other than I am going to use the binding procedure on you. It is low risk and fairly stable."

“But I’m not going to be the same.” Rarity sniffed.

“Much more the same than me.” Twilight quickly said. “Not much time has passed, so your nervous and organ systems will still work. You might not notice any difference at all, most of the time. You might feel weird around the object I use to bind you, protective maybe, but that’ll be about it.”

“I’ll still be a nightmare.” Rarity whispered to herself.

Not necessarily, Twilight felt like retorting. The nightmare was going to be physically distanced from Rarity’s soul, and Twilight had no idea what that would cause. But she didn’t want to jinx it, so she said nothing. "We will cross that bridge later."

Rarity accepted that. “You have done this before, right?”

“You see…” Twilight had wanted to avoid this question. “I, um, no. I haven’t.” Seeing the spectrum of apprehension and fear flash over Rarity’s face, Twilight quickly followed up. “But I’ve studied extensively. Though I never summoned or bound a soul, I’ve been here in the Forest several times during my studies. The first time was towards the end of my studies with Celestia, with her guiding me. We watched some other souls pass through, but never interacted with any.”

“Other dead ponies?” Rarity leaned around the tree to see if she could spy any ghostly others.

“The souls of ponies aren’t not much different from ponies just walking around in the world. I mean, look at us. Basically, we’re the avatars of our soul here (a poorly understood concept itself), and anyone else here would manifest similarly. The dead have all the same qualities they did in life, with the unfortunate addition of completely lacking fear of death.” Twilight set her jaw. “This Forest can be deadly to trespassers. It’s one of the reasons necromancy is so taboo, and even illegal in most of Equestria. Celestia was there to protect me but it’s very, very dangerous to novices.”

“Are you safe right now?” Rarity asked.

“It’s quiet right here. I’m not sure what it is but I’m not attracting the usual crowd.” Twilight waved into the mist. “Populated places like Canterlot have a lot transitioning ponies. They can be very insistent in wanting to be summoned back to the real world, like a fake second chance at life. Other times they can be violent, trying to take over the necromancer’s mind and body. Other places have a lot of lost souls. Like here, under the Everfree Forest. They haven’t bothered me, but I can hear them all around us. I was afraid they’d swarm me, and I’d never find you. I think that they can’t tell I’m alive, because of how half of me is still inside Moon’s armor. Interesting, right?

Rarity listened carefully, even listening for the lost souls Twilight mentioned. It the last words, a morbid thought pecked at her. “Twilight could it be that you don't attract them because you're dead too?”

“The thought had crossed my mind. When I was in the armor, I was really only a hair’s breadth from being dead. One reason why I was so hasty to do the ritual was that I was afraid of loosing grasp of the armor and becoming a lost soul. When that happened, the soul loses its sanity, self-image, and manifestation. They’re masses of soul without any guidance, totally feral. If I lost my grip on reality, I suppose I could have gone mad and be imagining all this.”

“Well you aren’t mad, but are you dead?”

“The spell to come here is a certain type of fake death. I’m not sure if I could tell the difference.” Twilight arched a brow in amusement. “So let’s suppose I failed the ritual, and just imagined the circumstances of my arrival here. The necromancy maybe could remove you from the Forest, but without anypony out there to attach your soul to a binding object, you’d become a spooky ghost.”

“A ghost?” Rarity looked horrified.

“A spooky ghost.” Twilight smiled. “A perfect addition to the castle ensemble of night’s horrors.”

“You could have just said there was no chance.” Rarity was feeling a bit better if Twilight was confident enough to joke and even more for sharing it with her. “Let us do it already.”

“If a soul rejects the necromancer, this would be a fight where I try to contain you. Then when I return to the world, I’d tie the soul to a binding. That’s how I remember it at least.” Twilight rolled to her hooves, feeling much better. “Since I assume you don’t plan to fight me while I’m binding you, you just need to think happy thoughts.”

“Happy thought?” Rarity felt rather than saw the tendrils of Twilight’s magic begin pulling her out of the forest, between the spaces in reality. “Will that help you?”

Twilight eased her concentration before weaving the spell in earnest. “It’ll make Sweetie Belle feel better.”

Day

“Do you remember anything yet?”

For all the support she was giving her, Twilight was starting to feel a bit annoyed at Iillor’s frequent inquests.
“If I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

They were walking along the edge of Applejack’s farm, straddling the line between the meadows and overgrown orchards. They would be at the river soon, and have to walk along it nearly to Ponyville to get to the crossing point of the stone bridge.

“One of my acquaintances lives there.” Twilight pointed to the weather vane visible over the apple-laden canopy. The rest of the farmhouse was obscured. “Applejack.”

“Acquaintance? That’s a funny thing to call your friends.” Iillor joked.

Twilight wondered why she had said what she had. It had just seemed natural. For a brief moment of conversation, being distant and noncommittal about ponies had become Twilight’s paradigm.
Twilight thought of herself as an affectionate pony, but she couldn’t think of a single pony in Canterlot who’d call her a friend. Besides Princess Celestia, of course, who had always been supportive and caring towards Twilight.

“Yeah it is.” Twilight laughed along. Silently, she wondered again if she was going crazy.
In the back of her mind thoughts were starting to bubble, of whispered screams of unwanted thought.

Night

A burning tingle at the tips of Applejack’s ears roused her from unconsciousness. She felt weak, but not ill or queasy. She got up and surveyed the scene.

In her last moment of lucidity, Applejack had felt the exquisite experience of the ritual using her mind for its purposes, very much a facsimile of grinding her brain on a quern-stone, salting it, and stuffing it back in her head. Applejack steadied herself for several minutes, just trying to put the bright bursts of afterimage color out of her mind. Then she remembered the fillies.
The three fillies, jumping up and charging at Twilight, only to be caught in the devouring grasp of the magic. Shehad only to open her eyes to see and be infinitely grateful that all three of them were intact and unharmed. Sweetie Belle was even nestled against Rarity, though her face was wet from tears.

"They followed us." Applejack said to herself, to discover to her disappointment it was still the deep clip of her nightmare form. A surge of anger flowed through her, telling her to destroy something precious, but she suppressed the thought with some effort.

Applejack looked around more. At the other end of the room, Celestia and Twilight’s body still lay side by side, the later breathing slowly and the former not at all. While Rarity had been quick to commit to killing Celestia once fallen into the nightmare, Applejack maintained a respect for her princess. It saddened her immensely to see the alicorn body neglected as it was.
Again a Dark urging came, telling her to desecrate the body, to molest it, to bite it. Applejack shivered with disgust at herself and turned away.

Speaking of alicorn bodies, Nightmare Moon’s body lay on the floor, nose to nose with a sleeping Rarity. Applejack took a step closer to inspect the black alicorn in more detail when she noticed a thread of wispy purple magic spun around her horn, betraying a spellcasting.

"Isn't that something." Applejack murmured. "Twilight is in there. She did it."
And her instinct demanded crush the body before it awoke and had a chance to resist.

Applejack lay her attention lastly on what had awoken her. The sun, her alarm clock for a decade, was missing from the sky. Gentle moonbeams now frolicked among the ruins. It would have to do.
Good morning, Applejack thought. She smiled whistfully. Everything was calm, and for the first time in about a month, Applejack let herself be optimistic.

“Good morning.” A grave voice said by her ear. Applejack jumped forward and twisted around, to face the bright purple eyes staring at her. Bright eyes.

Twilight's eyes. It's eyes were a dilated slit, teal speckled with purple, somewhere between a cat's and a reptile's. They rested on a sleek black face, on a sleek black body, on sleek black limbs. Applejack thought sleek, and while the thing was slender, its fur stuck up in places like it was perpetually aggravated. It's black coloration was, in very particular angles of the moonlight, revealed to be a very very dark purple. Its mane and tail were shorn short, but seemed to be lighter shades of purple, but still very dark.
The black alicorn stood up after a few attempts: Twilight was clearly unused to guiding a creature of it’s size, and held her limbs and head at odd angles. Her wings hung off her sides limply, dragging on the floor.

With her nightmarish body, Applejack had been a head above Twilight’s unicorn body. Nightmare Moon had been even taller than Rarity, and it was now only Twilight’s bad posture that kept Applejack from having to look up when talking to her.

“Twilight?" Applejack whispered, more than a little intimidated by how beastly the alicorn was.

“Applejack? Feeling okay? Look, we did it.” Applejack hadn’t heard Moon speak for very long before Celestia had seemlingly killed her, but Twilight’s new voice was a hybrid of her own and that smooth ice the night alicorn had used, but then that ice was cracked and crushed. In a word, it was very rough, like the spell hadn’t healed her throat properly.
Twilight moved around, making the elegant alicorn form look gangly. “This perspective... Ooh, this feels even weirder than when I was a ghost. Everything is stretched out. I’m going to need some time to get used to this.”

“Twilight, Twilight, take things slow. Sit down for a minute.” Applejack suggested, afraid Twilight would fall over. "The worst is over Twilight."

“Oh, well, actually I have to do this one thing.” Twilight coughed. She started moving up the hall, tripping over herself as she went. “I can talk while I work.”

Applejack trotted after Twilight, observing how she moved through the halls examining every detail. The mare had just been deprived of her own body then taken another! What was so important she could not take a short time to recouperate?!
“What's wrong? Was there a problem with the ritual?"

“No. I'm alive. I'm a pony again. I have a body to store energy in again. Thank you for that, by the way.” Twilight passed by a row of rusting armor, not finding whatever she was searching for. “It’ll take some time to restore all my functionality, and even then I might never have as much power as I did before.”

"This is just a stopgap measure, right?" Applejack asked. "That body, the ritual... You are going to find a way to get your body back."

Twilight didn't say anything to that.

Applejack continued. "You can't use that body forever. It's an alicorn's. It's a demon alicorn's. How can you return to society like that?"

"I don't know what my future has in store, Applejack. I'm not taking this lightly." Twilight said over her shoulder, voice dipping to somber tones. "Nightmare Moon was a pony I respected and loved. I don't take her image lightly, even if her body would have meant nothing to her after her death."

"Sure." Applejack had thought it was insane when Twilight proposed it, and thought it was insane now. There was something blasphemous about ponies taking the image of an alicorn, perhaps even more blasphemous that Forlorn Spark's play at divinity. Speaking of... "Are you feeling alright? You went through a lot."

"I'm fine." Twilight took one of the branching hallways. Up ahead was a ruined central foyer. “It almost didn't succeed. My plan to tap into the moon didn't work. Something up there deflected me. I don't think it was the moon denizens, but something else."

“Something on the moon? Could it be Nightmare Moon is still alive?” Applejack followed a step behind.

“Or something like her. She and her moon were unified. I’d be no surprise if a small part of her survived.” Twilight agreed quietly. "I half wonder if it is best she is not alive. She was a good mare at heart but so troubled... I feel she would have made life difficult for ponykind." Twilight's lips drew back as she realized the irony of saying such things while she was wearing Moon's skin. "I hope she's okay. I wish she's okay. Princess Celestia too. But my optimism doesn't change what I have to do to keep us alive.

Applejack thought that sounded very foreboding.

They exited the hallway they emerged in a partially collapsed ballroom. Twilight looked around uncertainly.
“Applejack, I need your help with something.” Twilight asked.

“Shoot.” Applejack drawled.

“It's Rarity." Twilight said hesitantly. "Is there something around here she would find pretty, or appealing?"

“I don't know about that.” Applejack mused. “Everything here is old, and a little bit decrepit.”

“Suppose that time was of the essence, and you had to choose a gift for her.” Twilight pressed. “Something small enough to carry.”

Applejack cast an eye along the far wall. “Those tapestries, maybe. She’d love to have one of those.”

Twilight teleported the length of the room to where the tapestries were. Twilight herself looked dazed by the magic and slipped onto her flank. "oof. I..." She grunted. "I'm not used to this body."

"Are you alright?" Applejack called over to her, trotting over.

"Don't worry about me." Twilight stood up. She scanned the tapestries, running a shaky hoof along the slightly frayed edge of a moderately sized blue tapestry, embroidered with a moon. "Would she like this one?"

"Twilight, you've probably taked more with Rarity in the months you have been here than I have in years." Applejack scrunched her nose. "What is this about?"

"Salvation." The room was further illuminated by the flash of Twilight horn sending magic into the aged fabric. Purple and cyan light weaved in and out of it for several seconds in the air, and lasted for another dozen as they faded into the threads.

"I don't get it."

Twilight stared at the tapestry for several moments, intently studying something Applejack couldn’t see. “Oh thank goodness! The spell was a success! She’s completely intact, and should have full range with her body. Mortus has been averted.” She hummed. “With a couple protection spells she could last for a century or two. I did it. I did it.”

“Twilight, what the hay are you on about!” The prissy Manehattanite accent was slipping, and the rural twang came out.

“Things are getting complicated.” Twilight gave half a laugh. “Maybe when there is more time we can examine how the nightmare metamorphosed you, Rarity, and that pegasus Dash. How does life, death, and dreams affect the pony body?" Twilight posed. "What are the implications that I could take this body? Could I take another or has the ritual sealed me, so to speak, to this one? Could I resurrect Moon to this body if I leave it? I don't know, but I want to. I need to."

“I appreciate what you're going through, but you're not being clear.” Applejack growled, a surge of aggravation going through her. “I ain’t above hitting royalty you know. Just to knock you on kilter, ya know.”

The 'royalty' threat confused Twilight for a brief moment. “Sorry. Things are already so confusing you don't need me adding to them. I suppose I could phrase it this way:” She took the tapestry off the wall gently with her magic and began rolling it up. “This is Rarity now.”

Day

Ponyville as a village was built entirely on the north bank of the Dneighper River. For what reason the stone bridge had been built, when there were few reasons of going to the south bank, was a mystery. Indeed there was little of anything other than tall grass, bunches of oaks of pines, and the Everfree Forest. Perhaps at some point, the ponies there had more reason to traffic to things across the river.
But there was one place worth visiting, especially in Twilight's mind. She pushed through the high grass towards a spot she vaguely remembered being east-ish of the stone bridge.

“Where are we going?” Iillor asked.

“Fluttershy lives nearby.” Twilight said. “I want to talk to her before we head back into town. I have a feeling she knows something.”

“Fluttershy.” Iillor recognized the name. “What makes you think she knows what you were up to?"

Twilight frowned. "Not me specifically... I just... I have a feeling."

Iillor hid her scowl behind some tall grass. Twilight was proving to be a much more fickle source of information than she'd hoped. The mare had DOUBTLESSLY encountered Nightmare Moon or some other dark force, but was not leading her any closer to communing with them.
Iillor decided to be patient. Yes, she would be patient to a fault.

“What other mares might know something? Somepony mentioned some ponies named Rarity and Applejack. Do you know where they might be?” Iillor asked Twilight.

“Rarity and Applejack? Um...” Twilight scowled in thought. "I... I'm not sure... Are they missing or something?

“Nopony has seen them, but I don't think anypony has said they're in danger either. Nevermind I guess.” Iillor said.

"You're not wrong that they're important but I just don't know where they could be." Twilight shook her head. "Maybe Fluttershy will know."

They exited the tall grass, and jumped over a small stream to a gravel path into a hummock. The trees were alive with birdsong and the chirping of insects, as sure a sign as any that the caretaker was home.
And speaking of home, built into the largest of the oaks of the hummock was a house. Twilight wondered if the same architect who built the Golden Oak had been responsible for this hermitage. Probably not, since the tree library seemed much older.

“Somepony should build a path out here.” Iillor complained.

“I agree. I think I put that as part of the plan.” Twilight brushed the hitchhikers off her fur.

“What plan is that?” Iillor asked.

Twilight froze mid action. The words had just spilled out of her, but she wasn't sure now. What plan included a path to Fluttershy’s little cabin? A street plan? No... A renovation plan. She plied her memory, trying to remember what the plans was for. "The... Summer Sun. I think." She said, unsure.

"What about the Summer Sun?" Iillor asked.

“Tisk, I don't know. Nevermind.” Twilight shook her head. She would think on it more when she was alone.
She trotted up to Fluttershy’s door, casting out a little with her magic to see if Fluttershy was home. Strangely, the inside of the house was stopping her was mired in turbulent magic like one saw in the Everfree, keeping her from sensing anything.
Twilight knocked gently; The pegasus would hear her however loud she was.

After half a minute the door cracked open. “Twilight?” Fluttershy’s dainty voice squeaked. "Um, hi." Fluttershy looked subdued and reluctant, wings folded tight, hunched over, her eyes darting around like she was trying to avoid meeting eyes with Twilight. “What brings you out here?”

“Gee, hard to guess. There was an eclipse. Princess Celestia is missing, and we fear the worst. Rarity and Applejack are missing too. Things are, well, pretty bad.” Twilight pressed against the door slightly. “I came to see if you’re ok. We have a lot to talk about.”

“Um, now is not a good time.” Fluttershy tried to shut the door but Twilight’s hoof blocked her.

“Not a good time? Fluttershy, I just woke up from a week-long coma! My memories are shot and something happened to me in the Everfree that I have no idea about. If you're problems are bigger than that, let me know." She hated to pry, but Twilight had the feeling part of the truth was being withheld from her. "I'm not being sarcastic. If there's a problem, I can help."

“Nothing. It’s just not a good time.” Fluttershy insisted.

Twilight blinked. She felt a tug on her heart, drawing her towards something inside the house. “Look, I don't recall everything yet, but we were fairly friendly with each other. What are you shutting me out for?” Twilight asked.

“I- It’s not a good time, for you!” Fluttershy’s yell was about the volume of Twilight talking voice, but it surprised her enough for the door to slam shut. “Come back later!” The pegasus said through the door. "Just leave, please!"

Twilight pursed her lips, tempted to knock again. She felt weird and dissatisfied, not just because of Fluttershy, but because that strange pull. After several seconds, she realized what she was feeling was like what she’d felt in the hospital with Nightmare Moon.
“Hmm...”
She stared at the door for a moment, but shaking off the feeling she trotted back down the path to where Iillor was waiting.

“I don't know, but from here it didn't look like you got what you came for.” Iillor remarked flatly.

“She didn't want me there obviously." Twilight grunted. "I don't want to be rude and presumptuous, especially before all my memories come back to me."

"You're a noble. Your mother would knock the door open and get the answers she needed." Iillor snorted.

Twilight's shook her head. "That's not how Princess Celestia taught me."

"This is partially for the princess's sake, isn't it?" Iillor said. "Go and ask again."

Twilight frowned slightly. "Go and ask again, my lady."

Iillor laughed to herself.

Twilight trotted back down through the hummock, Iillor right behind, to make their way back through the tall grass towards Ponyville.
From the windows of the cottage behind them, a pair of turquoise and a pair of purple-speckled-teal eyes followed their progress. 'What do we remember, Twilight? What happened that night?'

Author's Note

My oldest remaining memories are of shenanigans with my friends in the streets of Canterlot, playing little games and harassing the stray cats. One of those angry tabbies always fought back, and every time I went home to mother with a scratched cheek. I never learned. One day I think I killed that old cat, though I can't quite remember.

Chapter 32: Ruminations

Night

Flying low to the ground at high speeds was a dangerous feat for only the most experience fliers, so dangerous was it. Keeping in formation at the same time exponentially more so.

The V formation of Wonderbolts hugged the bald hills north of Canterlot, heading eastward. They had been flying for a day nonstop, keeping low to the ground to avoid risk of interception. The knights weren’t sure what they should be fearing, but Spitfire knew, and the risk of the flight was nothing in comparison to the horror that gripped Canterlot. If the monster Velvet was set on creating could fly, there was no way in hell Spitfire was ever going to let it know where they were. The moonlight, broken by infrequent cloud cover, was most likely to reveal the pegasi if they were high in the air.
The Wonderbolts had been confused and resistant to leaving Admiral Rain Gnash and Fleetfoot, but they had seen Spitfire's understated terror under her stern orders. Gnash's airship would be coming along behind them at its own speed, but the Wonderbolts would not wait; They had to get away as fast as possible before Velvet decided she would rather they die than live.

The landscape underneath them was a dour sight by the light of the moon. The treeless hills were devoid of permanent settlements, but here and there the glow of a campfire betrayed the location of a nomad camp. The Don hills were part of the Principality of Canterlot, but Celestia had never bothered to assert herself on the earth pony tribes who grazed there. Dons from the far north occasionally passed through the barrens on their way to Canterlot to trade, but they preferred to patronize the villages along the Crystal River to the East. A lawless wasteland... Nopony in their right mind wanted to be there, except for ponies on the run.

The Wonderbolts had been able to see Cloudsdale for several hours already, the angular cloudbuildings minuscule blips above the northern slope of the Unicorn Range. At their breakneck pace, Spitfire calculated they would arrive before sunrise. Then she remembered that the sun was gone, and the moon’s position was arbitrary. There would be no daybreak. The moon above watched on, her light dancing over the hills.

A quarter turn around the globe, in the center of the eastern seas, the moonlight hit the churlish water more sidelong, skimming the waves and bouncing up in an dazzling distortion of the grey orb.

Vinyl had spent many nights looking at the moon, from a makeshift the camp or from the window of a barn she was sheltering in. Anywhere she went in the world, the moon was there to watch her. It never felt as menacing as it did then. There was something very lonesome about being on a boat in an endless sea, even if other ponies were right beside you.

“The world is a weird place.” She said to herself. "But at the same time, its the most normal place there is."

“Hmm?” Octavia looked up from tuning her cello. Vinyl was back in a hammock strung between the mast and forecastle banister. “What do you mean?”

“We know the world is round. I’ve been around it a few times myself.” Vinyl said, and gestured over the side of the ship, to the horizon where the calm seas met the twinkling night sky. “But the sun doesn’t seem to care that its supposed to be orbiting us. Sometimes, it is noon everywhere, and sometimes, its just gone.”

“The sun is gone, Vinyl.” Lyra was at the edge of the ship's deck, kicking her hindlegs into open air while leaned back and holding herself in a sitting position with her forehooves. It wasn't a natural pose for a quadruped, more like the seated position of an ape. "It should have been sunrise five hours ago."

"But like, it can't be gone forever. This is just a gag. A prank." Vinyl said with a hint of roughness.
They had been watching when the sun and moon had played their oddly compelling and horrifying game in the cosmos overhead. It had been like helplessly watching one of two predators bear down on you.

"The princess always regulated the sun's movement. It was supposed to be constant and predictable." Octavia said. She drew her bow across the cello’s A string experimentally, inducting a shrill sound..She winced and fiddled with the tuning peg some more. "Do you really think the princess would do this? A prank, you say, against the world..." She sighed.

"The alternative is mad and stupid. If the sun was really gone we would be dead." Vinyl rolled her eyes. "We're still alive. The alternative, even if its silly, is the only possible choice that our princess is pulling one over on us."

Lyra effected a shrug. "If that's really what you think."

“What's that supposed to mean?” Vinyl scowled

“Some ponies say the sun moves itself.” Octavia moved on to tuning D string. "It disappearing could be just random."

"So it just happened to have disappeared now, after a thousand year-" Vinyl blinked. "Hmm... It's getting close to the Summer Sun isn't it? Maybe what we saw WAS the thousandth Summer Sun. Like, wasn't there a big war during the first Summer Sun?"

"I don't get your point." Octavia said.

"Maybe the princess or the sun acts weird every thousand years. I mean, I wasn't in Canterlot long but I still heard talk about the princess acting abnormal." Vinyl said.

“You two are missing the point. It's gone, and I bet one of the Twilights is to blame.” Lyra said.

“What?” Vinyl and Octavia’s asked in unison.

Lyra twisted around to face them. “Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s student, or protegee, or something like that. The nature of their relationship was never very clear. That's Twilight one. The other you'll be more familiar with."

“Twilight Velvet.” Octavia grimaced. Vinyl too looked upset, but had a distant glint in her eye.

"I think Twilight Velvet finally executed whatever mischief she was up to in Canterlot." Lyra continued waving towards the moon. "I think she wasn't just assassinating random nobles. She went after Princess Celestia. This situation is the result."

"You're just guessing though." Vinyl said.

"Of course I'm just guessing. Not bloody much else we can do." Lyra said. "Unless you want to turn around and go back to Equestria?"

"Not doing that!" A call from the other side of the deck said; Captain 'H', standing at the helm despite the motionlessness of the seas, with the little colt Pip at his side. "Trust me lassies, we're halfway there and right on time, despite this malaise of air."

"I was speaking in hypothetical!" Lyra called back. She continued, more careful of her volume so the stallion didn't overhead. "Point is, Vinyl, that our sunless situation is a pony engineered cataclysm."

"I'll withhold judgement." Vinyl said.

"How does the other Twilight, Sparkle, come into this?" Octavia asked.

Lyra shrugged again. "I don't know. I just thought about her while thinking about Celestia. Her name naturally came up while I was pulling up dirt on Velvet. She's her daughter, you see. Some court maneuvering between Sparkle and Sir Pants prompted his spate with Velvet. At least I think that is how it went down."

"Velvet's daughter? Pudgy unicorn, around my height, purple?" Vinyl asked.

"I have no idea but that sounds about right." Lyra said.

"Well I met her. She was a frequenter of a coffee parlor I hung out at. You know the Fluyt? Nice little place." Vinyl said. "Anyway, I recognized her while I was trying to get hired by Velvet, then met her later."

Lyra quirked a brow. "Yeah? What was she like?"

"A real humorless nag if I remember. I was trying to get under her tail and she was just not getting it." Vinyl chuckled, but stopped when she caught angry looks from Octavia. "Hey, this was before I showed up at the guild."

"I just think it is unprofessional and reckless to even dare meet with family of a client. But to try to sleep with them? You are a class of your own." Octavia shook her head. "Was that a thing you did while abroad?"

Vinyl didn't answer.

“I found out Lady Sparkle and I were in the Unicorn School at the same time, actually. We never met of course, being she was a noblemare. My family could barely afford to put me in one class, about fine telekinetic coordination. I used it for my lyre.” Lyra returned her gaze to the seas. “I wonder if we could find a lyre in Trottingham.”

Octavia was happy enough for the digression. “Is there a big musical scene in Trottingham, Vinyl?” She asked the resident travel expert.

“What?” Vinyl took a moment to remember her surrounding. “Uh, Trottingham. There’s a bit of an avant-garde scene there, but nothing worth remembering.”

Octavia paused her tuning to appraise her friend’s distraction. “What were you thinking about?”

The pause Vinyl spent deciding whether to lie or not was obvious to the other two. “Well…”

“Come on.” Octavia insisted. “No more secrets between us.”

Vinyl sighed. “Well its... Talking about Velvet, it made me think about what we're doing.” A flash of pain washed over the mares' faces, as they both remembered the time they spent in the tiny dungeon of Chateau la Garde. “Velvet abused me. But for some reason you've been taking it for granted that I'm doing her bidding.

Octavia took note of Vinyl’s selfish phrasing. "You were the one pushing for this, Vinyl. It was your contract originally. We are in this situation largely as a consequence of your relationship to her."

Vinyl's lip twitched. "Tell me you aren't blaming me for all this."

“I don't want to argue. I am simply pointing out the obvious.” Octavia lowered her tone, slightly threateningly.

“Then you'd be open to talking about it.” Vinyl tried to sit up in the hammock so she could face down Octavia. “Where are you going after this? Do you plan to stay in Trottingham or come back to Equestria with me?"

"That would depend. I have no great desire to continue doing Twilight Velvet's work but we still do not know if she has a way of killing us remotely."

"We don't know if she's completely forgotten about us. Making off-the-wall guesses about her is pointless. I'm asking what you want to do."

Octavia set her new cello aside carefully before crossing her legs angrily. “Tell me Vinyl, have you had enough of being a murderous vagabond? Or do you simply love it so much that you are happy to go right back to it after sampling sophisticated Canterlot after so long away? You slob! You don't care at all what Lyra and I had ripped away from us!"

"Sophisticated Canterlot? Poor music students like you live in trash in dear 'sophisticated Canterlot'! The Guild let you stew in the filth while raking in the dough! That's no way to exist." Vinyl yelled back, teeth bared. "There's nobility to how I lived, wandering the world, doing what I wanted. I didn't listen to anypony and I took contracts I wanted. The Musicians Guild was supposed to be protecting us, but it was just our pimp! Where was the Guild when I was thrown out of Canterlot the first time! Where was it when we were being tortured by Velvet!"

"If you want to compare us to prostitutes them so be it, but don't pretend CHOICE is the greatest luxury we can celebrate." Octavia hissed. "We are artists, Vinyl! And I don't mean killing. I mean this." She clasped her hoof around the neck of the cello. "And lyres like Lyra said. And the Avant Garde scene and being a poor student. Guild work was ALWAYS a means to an end, not the end itself. You forgetting that is why Phyte didn't protect you."

Vinyl, whatever anger she was feeling, stayed silent. She lay back in the hammock and stewed in her feelings. Octavia, unsatisfied even though she'd gotten the last word, went back to tuning her cello.

Lyra scooted back from the edge and got to her hooves. "I'm going down below."

Neither of the two other mares responded, but there was a tension where they waited for the other to offer to go down too.

Passing back towards the cabins, Lyra caught Captain H's eye. "Any sea change coming?"

The captain shrugged and the colt Pip squeaked in the negative. "Nay, Mis Lyra. This moon has battered the ocean flat and calm. The only change in sea or speed would be if you mares whittled oars."

"Mmm, not likely I think." Lyra said. "Let me know if anything changes so I can be up here to pull in the ropes."

"Sheets, Mis Lyra. They're called sheets." Captain H corrected with a gruff laugh.

Lyra ducked into the cabins but was immediately stopped by a hoof on her shoulder. It was Octavia, looking unsure.
"Hey, Lyra..."

"I don't have a place in you and Vinyl's arguments. Clearly you and her have been going at it for decades."

"Okay, well, I don't have to hear what you think of her and I. You should still think about what we're doing. Vinyl isn't completely wrong to wonder why we are following through with Velvet's orders."

Lyra led Octavia back to the little cabin the mares shared. On Captain H's insistence they had taken one of the ship's officer quarters instead of the deck quarters. There was something down below he didn't want them to see.
Lyra lay in a hammock while Octavia sat the little bed.

"Go on." Lyra said.

"I know you did what you had to to get me released. I wonder if I was worth the cost, but I think if you hadn't killed the brothers Bright, Velvet would have found ponies who would." Octavia continued. "But you never seem reluctant or wary when talking about this job she has given us."

"I seem nothing at all. I'm controlling my emotions." Lyra said flatly. "Which you should be too. This work doesn't need sentimentality. It's an extension of politics, and like politics it has to be rational."

"Really Lyra. You of all ponies is telling me politics and its deadly extensions is rational? Does rationality cause revolutions? Not the successful ones." Octavia said, then sighed. "What am I going on about? I don't need you to concede some point, just show a smile or frown. Tell me why you are going through with this job?"

Lyra pondered that silently. "Maybe I won't."

"You won't? Lyra you ar-"

Lyra interrupted. “When we reach Trottingham I’m going to meet this Nightingale Bright mare, and if I don’t like her I’m going to gut her. If I like her, I’ll leave, and hide in Griffany for the rest of my life.”

"I... Well..." Octavia blinked. "You aren't worried about Velvet's retribution?"

"No. I was never afraid of that. I was only afraid of being lost." Lyra said. What the beam of moonlight through the slim porthole illuminated wandered as the ship slowly bobbed back and forth. "If Nightingale Bright is a pony that deserves to be killed, then Lady Velvet will have shown she can keep me from being lost. If Nightingale Bright doesn't deserve death, then I guess I will have to throw myself to the currents and rely on myself," Then after a second added. "for once in my life."

"I, well, think that is strange way to look at the situation." Octavia said, by her expression quite unconvinced of Lyra's words. "You are on the opposite end of the spectrum from Vinyl, clearly. Your freedom means little to you."

"Freedom to do what? Freedom to starve and die? Equestria has been tumbling into the abyss for a century. A pony's toil means nothing to the merchants and workshops anymore. The countryside swells with excess population and serf are being thrown off the land they were tied to in favor of cheap labor. The cities get dozens of new arrivals every day, each more desperate, each willing to work for less and less." Lyra scowled. "Ponies feel no responsibility to each other anymore. We're all just competing for resources that are being closed off to us. Weak ponies like you and me have to find somepony who needs us and hang on for dear life."

"Begging your pardon Lyra but where in hell did you come up with ideas like that." Octavia's eyes widened. "Did Fancy Pants tell you this?"

"No, I came up with it myself, standing in his shadow. I'm not taking Vinyl's side but 'sophisticated Canterlot' is just for nobles and fat merchants." Lyra said. "And I was happy for Fancy Pants to pay me to pit them against each other. The thing is, with Lady Velvet here, she'll pay me to kill them." She smiled sternly. "Here's hoping."

"And how did this never come up while we were in Canterlot?"

"It's in retrospect that I realized most of it. I've had a lot of time to think."

“That’s… Fair, I suppose.” Octavia was sobered by Lyra’s words. They were more resentful than she'd ever heard the unicorn be. She acknowledged that all of it was true, but the mares were out of Equestria now and Lyra didn't have to continue to live by its rules if she didn't want to. But still, every thought of Twilight Velvet sent a chill down Octavia’s spine. "I would suppose then you have a scale to judge Nightingale Bright on, once we meet her."

"We will see." Lyra hummed. "It's almost not right of me to make the choice, if one outcome means giving up my freedom to choose."

"You are being so extreme. I don't understand it." Octavia sighed. She did understand a little. Her sorrow for having to leave Canterlot was manifesting differently for her two companions: A desire to rebel in Vinyl and a desire to obey for Lyra. Or something like that.
Octavia wished she had one of Phyte's birdcages so she could know how the too-long night was being received in Equestria.
“What do you think was happening in Canterlot? That dance between the sun and moon must have caused a stir." Octavia ventured into small talk.

Lyra shifted in the hammock. “I don't know. I said before I thought the sun was gone. I think that because I think the princess is gone."

"That is possible."

"You weren’t that big into politics, were you?” Lyra asked softly.

“Not really.” Octavia admitted. “I’ve done one or two political killings, and that was the sum of my contribution to the issue.”

“Do you remember what Fancy Pants was trying to tell us the night he was killed?”

“I’m sorry, but no. My memories of that night are preoccupied on different events.”

“Understandable.” Lyra gave a small nod. “He talked about rebels and seditious ponies. Specifically Lady Velvet. He thought she was plotting against the throne.”

“The throne? Really?” Octavia believed she couldn’t be shocked at the breadth of that mare’s ambition, but was proven wrong. “I thought she was just after her cousin-in-law’s duchy.”

“Who knows. The point is that Fancy Pants thought the princess was in danger, from Velvet and other ponies. Without him, who knows what happened." Lyra let out a short sigh. "It hurts to be so out of the loop. Here we are, sitting on a motionless sea a thousand kilometers from anything, ignorant. I don't even have an instrument."

"Plenty of time to think and develop your ideas more." Octavia said, even though she had her reservations about what cruel places Lyra's mind would create out of her simmering anger and boredom.

“There is nothing to be done until the sun rises." Lyra grunted. Closing her eyes. "Go play your cello, Octavia. Nothing is going to be changing for us for a while."

It was shocking how much had changed in Canterlot of the course of a few hours.

Blueblood couldn't remember what the heady hours after Velvet had summoned her alicorn out of blood and flesh. He recalled digging graves with Sel Lech, then returning to the throne room. There was some heated talk with Lady Velvet and yelling before he staggered out, dazed by the whole ordeal. He woke up outside his townhouse, his servants asking if he was okay, and he had lied and said yes. He'd gone to his study and sat in silence until Velvet's next orders came by way of her little messenger filly.
He soberly opened the folded letter and read it a few times.

Rendezvous with Lady Airy at the Canterlot Castle Plaza and proceed to the Old Town Opera House. Lord Light will be there to meet you.

Blueblood donned his coat and proceeded through the dark and silent streets back to the castle. His pocket watch told him it had been about six hours since the apotheosis in the throne room. He looked up at the moon and it didn't offer any contradictory evidence. The blood in the castle would be getting cold by then.

He trotted along the main causeway towards the castle. Everything seemed so dark and lonesome with the ponies staying in their homes with their lanterns dimmed. There was a sense of dread over the city that was impossible to ignore.
Arriving at the broad plaza at Canterlot Castle's front entrance, Blueblood had to climb over some residual wreckage from the Wonderbolt's confrontation with the Black Horn militia. Funny how that had been barely twelve hours ago, when it felt like weeks.

"Hail, Lord Blueblood." A voice called to him. Aurthora Airy was standing in in the center of the plaza with several of her personal guard and about twenty humbly-dressed commoners. "You received Lady Velvet's letter?"

"Yes." Blueblood cleared his throat, glancing around evasively. "Have you been here since the... the incident?"

"Busy. But think nothing of it, as you were surely strained by the grave digging. Look, Lady Velvet had me gather some ponies." Aurthora gestured to the commoners, who bowed or doffed their caps. "Black Horn members and supporters of yours."

"Cheers, chaps." Blueblood nodded. "You decided to step up in Canterlot's hour of need."

"For Canterlot!" The ponies chanted.

Simpletons, Blueblood thought.

"More of my knights are fetching the arquebuses from the throne room." Aurthora said, smile dipping. "Hopefully the mechanisms will not be too gummed from the mess up there."

"Indeed." Blueblood agreed.

Several minutes of waiting in the chill air and the knights emerged from the castle, pulling several carts full of recovered arquebuses.
Blueblood picked one up. "Look here ponies. A .58 rifled Manehatten Armory. I shoot with something similar to this." He turned it around and showed the lock. "Just because these don't have a match like you're used to doesn't mean it works magically. The previous users didn't realize that. This is a fragile gun and you must keep it clean." As he said this a glob of red goo dripped off the stock. Smiling, Blueblood tapped the wheel. "You have to wind this wheel to tense an internal spring. Otherwise you have the same pan and packing as a matchlock."

The commoners oohed and aahed over the fancy gun. Most of them were at least passingly familiar with matchlocks from compulsory service in the city guard.

"Lady Aurthora, will you pass around the wheel wrenches and powder? Ah, I see you all already have your powder and balls. Then, ahem-" Blueblood cleared his throat. "Form up into lines or something and follow me." He nodded to Lady Aurthora. "Off to the next task?"

"Indeed my lord." Aurthora bowed her head, her knights gathering around her. "We will be going to the city guard barracks to make sure no trouble comes from that quarter."

Blueblood bowed back and began the march up the streets of the Old Town, towards the Opera House. The commoners tried to march in mimicry of soldiers as best they could but it was an effort as shabby as their clothing, by Blueblood's judgement.

By the light of the full moon the two-dozen ponies turned onto the main street right by the Opera House. Some ponies were defying the oppressive night to investigate some occurrence. Night Light and Sel Lech were on the scene already to convince them to stay back.

"Lord Light, Lord Sabonord." Blueblood waved to them. "I came as fast as I could!"

Night Light cast an unimpressed eye over the rag-tag group Blueblood brought with him. “That you’re not out of breath indicates otherwise."

Blueblood snorted. The whole affair with Velvet so far had given him a smidgen of tolerance when it came to humor. “My lord, now that Seacrest is dead, would it be too much to ask to be addressed as ‘prince’ again? I deserve as much for my efforts, no?" He laughed. "Princes do not overexert themselves.”

“Just don’t get so big of a head you try to get the monster to bow to you.” Sel Lech said wryly. “Lady Velvet is in there with it now.”

Blueblood blinked. "The... monster?"

"The alicorn, or alicorn-esk entity." Night Light said in a low tone. "Lest you forget she is called Astral Nacre."

Blueblood laughed nervously. "My lords.... Think me not a craven, but should I be taking these colts in there to see it?"

"Blueblood, there has been all kinds of excitements while you were away." Sel Lech said, tiredness creeping into his voice. "The guns aren't going to work on the monster, sure, but they're not for her anyhow."

"Quoi?"

“You’ll see.” Sel sighed. “Go on Lord Light. I’ll keep things smoothed over out here.”

Night Light nodded and lead Blueblood and his troupe into the opera house. The magnificent entrance was darker even than the night-embraced streets, all the candles burnt down to a stump. The gently sloping ramps into the lower seating was in surprising disrepair, the carpets torn and marble chipped, like they had born an unusually large load.

“What did Captain Sabonord mean?” Blueblood whispered. "I am not big on surprises, my lord. That scene in the throne room gave me conniptions."

Night Light gave him a long look. “The past hours, we have been attempting to calm the alicorn down."

"A- Attempting?!"

"It is not berserk, or insane. Or, it may be insane, but not in such a way that is manic." Night Light explained. "The alicorn is misbehaving.”

That didn’t bode well at all. Blueblood gulped. Sometimes he wished he had fled Canterlot and Twilight Velvet when he had the chance. Now he was long since committed, just waiting to see if everything would end horribly, or miraculously okay.

They passed through the inner doors.
The voluminous concert hall of the opera house was, to Blueblood’s surprise, occupied by many other ponies already. He didn't focus on that though. On the stage was a large thin figure, alicorn sized, dressed in a black and white costume. The costume was discernibly theatric even across the room, pilfered from an actor’s wardrobe. The entity under the costume turned to face Blueblood and the other new arrivals.

A sense of dread filled the ranks.
“That’s kinda spooky.” One of Blueblood’s militia noted weakly.

"Stand firm ponies." Blueblood choked out, following Night Light closer.

The other ponies in the room became apperent to him now, milling in the first rows of seats. There were nearly fifty of them, soundless, aimless, unheeding of anything other than their own movement. It was too dark in the seating to tell exactially what was wrong with them, but something was wrong with them.

Suddenly Velvet was beside him.
Her Ladyship was looking very grave. She had on a wimple white dress, not unlike those her daughter often wore, but with a purple trim around the neck. A small pewter brooch in the shape of an oak was pinned at her breast.
"About time." She said. She glanced back to the commoners, who were in varying states of loosing their composure. "Keep an eye on the pony next to you. Mind that they to not begin acting strangely." She announced to the miltia.

"Another parent. Is it..." An indescribable female voice pieced Blueblood's mind, making him freeze in fear.
The alicorn-sized figure on the stage had a candle lifted to its face. Over its head was a black habit and coif like a solar abbess would wear, but it was far too small for the alicorn's massive head , so she’d torn up other articles and wrapped it around the exposed parts. Over her long snout, she had a birdlike mask of a plague doctor, so that with the uncovered sinuous wings she resembled a giant horned thestral.
Blueblood gagged seeing the raw, skinless exposes flesh the ensemble did not cover. He did not regret passing out in the throne room if it'd meant not seeing the horror before him. But when the beady eyes behind the mask turned to him, he was too terrified to make a peep.
"Blueblood. Humph. Unsuitable." The alicorn looked away again.

"Mercy me." Blueblood said, breathless. "Lady Velvet I must protest. T- This is not the place for me."

"Hmm, not you either. Unfortunate." Velvet was thoughtful. "My Astral Nacre has been behaving erratically. Very frustrating, having to split my attention trying to keep tabs on her while we are securing the city."

"Frustrating. Yes. That is a way to put it." Blueblood munched his bottom lip. "Since I am not the answer to this problem as I usually am, I beg your leave."

"Wait until spoken to." Velvet snapped.
She cleared her throat and turned towards the stage. "Astral!" She shouted in a shrill voice.

"Oh?" Astral Nacre turned to the called. This time, Blueblood noticed how every one of the fifty ponies in the front rows turned their head with Astral. They had the looks of ponies possessed, their eyes vacent and lifeless, but reflecting the flickering light like cats'. But even worse, they seemed to be in in various stages of decay, like unearthed corpses.

"Oh goodness." Blueblood retched.

Velvet snorted in amusement. “Her highness seems to be taking her role as god of life too literally. I had to burn down Old Town Hospital on North Mane Street an hour ago, after Astral dropped in and abducted all the patients and bystanders and dragged them here. Based on their current state of disrepair, I think she has been experimenting on them.

Blueblood didn’t want to know, yet he asked anyway. “Experimenting?”

Velvet nodded. “Look on the stage behind her. She was cutting off their limbs and trying to heal them back. When they succumb to death they rise again, as those things.” The waved over the vacant-eyed living dead. “She is either very good or very poor at necromancy, depending on what she was trying to achieve.”

“And now she... asking for somepony?” Blueblood pondered tentatively. “Lady Velvet, is it that your alicorn is constructing cripples because of her failure to heal Rain Gnash.”

Velvet’s face lit up with comprehension. “That is a very plausible theory for a dullard like you Prince Blueblood.”

Blueblood was too pleased by the acknowledgement of his prince title to register the denegration.

"Perhaps mentioning Rain Gnash to her will let me get closer." Velvet continued.

“Did you ask her?” Night Light spoke up.

Velvet shook her head. "Those thralls begin to growl at me when I approach, and Astral Nacre herself begins to bristle. She is like a territorial animal."

"Ahh, I get it now my lady. I was wondering about the arquebuses." Blueblood smirked. He faced the militiaponies. “Form ranks please! Present!”

Once the militaponies noticed that they were the ones the prince was speaking to, they brought up their looted arquebuses and pointed into the crowd of soulless zombies.

“Don’t hit my alicorn or I really will kill you.” Velvet warned Blueblood, and his followers by extension.

“Fire!”

The opera house, a building designed to reflect the sound of the actors to all the audience, became deafeningly loud from the dozen reports that roared and echoed across the hall. Splintering wood and cracking marble was heard nanoseconds later, along with the moans and gasps from the former ponies that the lead balls had actually found.

The air was thick with smoke until Velvet cleared it with a magical gust. In the newly vacated air, Astral Nacre glared indignantly. Her unnatural eyes were still visible between the coif and beak, staring right at Blueblood.

“What are you here for ? I don't need you! Away!” The mental screech said.

Blueblood faltered momentarily, then with instint kicking in he dropped into a prostrate position. “Forgiveness please, your highness! I was simply giving you the twenty-five gun salute customary for our nation’s royalty.”

Astral Nacre shook her head back and forth, shaking odd bits of fabric off herself. "That does not sound convincing."

"Ah- Yes... I-" Blueblood faltered. "It is usually a measly twnety-one-"

A fleshy tendril shot out of the darkness and snatched an arquebus from the hooves of one of the militia ponies, then receded back to Astral. She passed it to her telekenesis, to flip around and observe. “These beasts are very loud, don’t you think?” She pulled back the flint mechanism, pointed the barrel at Blueblood, and depressed the trigger. Without any powered in the pan, a click was the only response.
"Blueblood. Blueblood. Blueblood. Is your blood blue, Blueblood?" She singsonged.

"Your highness, he's hardly worth paying attention to." Velvet stepped forward, stepping around the perforated zombies and approaching the stage. "Neither are guns, slaves, and opera houses. Alicorns have better things to do."

“Have they?” Astral asked, fluttering her featherless wings. “Is there something wrong?”

“Nothing is the matter. Not yet. However it would behove us to begin moving in certain directions.” Velvet explained. “Highness, you have responsibilities to fulfill. The populace needs to see you to believe you, there and there is much to prepare you besides."

Astral cocked her head. “What?”

Night LIght stepped forward. “Astral Nacre, you're indulging in unnecessary things while the city and ponies need you. We ask you come away from here and cooperate with us."

Astral clicked her tongue thoughtfully. “You want to put me on a throne to sit on all? All year?” Her mane under her coif began to thrash. "I can do more than be a figurehead. Look at my work here. Can’t you see the progress I’m making? Can’t you?!”

She telekinetically dragged one of her zombies to Velvet. It had been a very ill pony even before the monster had gotten it’s hooves on her, and now it’s face had degraded to the point of gender ambiguity. It’s ears had been cut of and resewn several times, and it’s front and back legs had been switched up. Still, it looked vacantly at Astral Nacre through green eyes, as if awaiting it’s permission to die.

Blueblood was dry heaving. “Oh, dear.” He gagged. “Lady Velvet, please, gain control over your disgusting spawn.”

"Oh goodness." Sel Lech chose this time to trot in off the street, but forgot what he'd come for when he was the mutilated pony. “And I thought poor Molar was messed up.”

“It’s a very good effort, Astral.” Velvet had to subtly deaden her nerves temporarily with magic to keep from becoming ill herself. “But not what you were born to do. Her highness's skills would be put to more use from the castle.”

Astral shoved the zombie away to give herself space to pace the length of the aisle. “Twilight, you told me and I remember, how very special I am. I'm not like the other mares. You said that over and over. I'm a lifebringer. I'm the answer to the tyranny of the gods. I remember that."

Velvet's expression was indecipherable. "I was telling myself those things. You were just eavesdropping."

This viably frustrated the alicorn, as she began to bob her head back and forth more aggressively. "But Twilight you told me, and I remember! We talked about this at length! We made plans, conferred, decided our decisions. Didn't you hear that? Can't you see that? Could I be any more of a god than I am now?" Astral quivered. "Twilight... Look how close to perfection they are...” Her eyes came alight, and her voice dipped into a rage. “You're not going to pull me away for asinine reasons, Twilight Velvet. I know who I am because you told me."

Velvet glanced around the room, building her rebuttal. Night Light, Sel Lech, Blueblood, and the militia ponies looked to her expectant and fearful.

But Velvet didn't say anything.
Astral Nacre stood over her, waiting for the response.

"Lady Velvet." Sel Lech dared to say at a whisper. "Lady Velvet?"

Slowly, Velvet turned to one of the zombies, gargling vacantly in Astral's shadow. She made a little motion and tried to get it to look at her, but it shambled back, limping on a leg that had been shot.

"So this is what I created." She said to herself quietly. "A queen who can not recognize her own purpose."

"Don't be tricky, Twilight. I'm doing what we agreed I should. This is who I am." Astral said.

"This is who..." Velvet trailed off. She looked into Astral's eyes, trying to find something in the beady little orbs, surrounded by raw flesh and a beaked mask.
Whatever she was going to say, she broke it off. Velvet turned away and trotted up the aisle to the back of the theater hall, to the grand entry hall.

Everypony else backed away several steps from Astral. The alicorn was looking between them intently, perhaps trying to find another pony to talk at in its hierophant's absence.

Sel Lech spoke up. “You have, ahhh... had problems creating perfection. It could be, your highness, if you want a perfect product, you must have perfect materials.” He giggled, nervously and dismissively. "Don't blame us ponies for being so lousy. Heh heh, please."

Astral blinked in uncertainty. “Are my materials imperfect?” She turned suddenly, jumping towards the herd of zombies with a sweep of her fleshy wings. She pressed one to the floor and examined it, then kicked it aside and picked up another with her magic, trying to find answers it its limp squirming.
“Is there a flaw in Velvet's philosophy? Can we not create everything we need from what we have on this world?" She paused, then continued at a grow.. "What does that make me?"

Blueblood cleared his throat. "Don't be embarrassed that you can not repeat the majesty of your manifestation. Lady Velvet worked for years to bring you to us-"

"Cruel. Is that the word I should be using? What Velvet did was CRUEL." Astral hissed, making everypony jump. "How can you conscience it?"

"Er, your highness, we-"

"To manifest a perfect being in a world DEFINED by its imperfection is abject cruelty. Simply unforgivable." Astral retreated back to the stage, the wrappings trailing behind her. "Now I see that I can not even spread my perfection. I should be furious. I should want to kill Velvet for this treachery, if she did not wholeheartedly believe the lie."

Night Light, brow furrowed, considered arguing the point. Instead he sighed softly. "How painful for we ponies who have wrestled with our status for all our lives, generation after generation."

Astral shivered in annoyance. "Don't patronize me. Away all of you."

The militia were happy to scramble back to the entry hall. Night Light and Sel look measured strides, keeping an eye on Astral as she was watching them.

Velvet was sitting near the door out to the street, looking into space. Night Light trotted over to her. There was a moment of silence between them.

"You didn't need us." He said. "You are a mare so powerful her hypothetical postulations take on literal life of their own. Don't doubt yourself Twilight."

"Ah, I am supposed to be proud that my monument to ponykind's accomplishments has decided it wants very little to do with ponykind. I see, and am glad to be corrected." Velvet muttered acidly to the floor. "Ponykind will remain without its queen, its proof that its okay to be a pony. We will continue to limp in ignorance under the hoof of arrogant gods."

"Twilight, if creating a god out of ponies was supposed to give ponykind its guiding light..." Night Light sighed. "You must have known this was doomed to fail. What you created has immediately forgotten what it is like to be a pony. It was inevitable that it did."

Twilight Velvet rubbed her chin, sitting up slightly. "That is what I would think... if I didn't see a glimmer of hope in her." She looked up at Night Light. "She can be recovered for our purposes. I have to believe there is a spark of ponykind in her. We have to grasp it and let it swell until it becomes everything she is. Thoughts of divinity, thoughts of purpose... I was focussed to hard on esoteric principals when I envisioned her. I should have been thinking more about what it is to be us, a pony."

"You can't take her back. You can't un-name her Astral Nacre. If you didn't want her to be a god you should not have named her after one." Night Light said, somewhat pointedly. "Velvet, you are our queen. You are the guiding light these ponies need and want. Ponykind doesn't need to be god to understand its worth. We can understand our value with you."

Velvet stood up. She had a severe look in her eye. "How touching." She grunted. "Do you emulate me? Do you want to be me? Are you going to worship me, Night Light?" She pushed her husband aside lightly with a hoof, addressing all the ponies in the room. "Are all of you going to worship me?"

Once more there was silence, strained silence.

"Lady Velvet, isn't how we serve you indistinguishable to worship?" Sel Lech asked.

"Kill yourself, right now." Velvet demanded.

"Uh?!" Sel blinked.

"You HESITATE! You allow yourself time to think about the order. You give yourself time to process that its a bad order made to prove a point. That's not worship!" Velvet berated, as much to the room as Sel. But through her frustrated yelling was a hint of desperation. "Do you love me?! Do you need me?! Has anyone said please to me without my horn to their throat?"
Her lip trembled, until she looked away with a dismissive scoff. "Pissant ponies. You're all hopeless."

She trotted away, up the staircase up to the second floor of the Opera House. The clack of her hooves on marble and carpet died away slowly.

"Excellent. Grand." Sel Lech slumped. He glanced to Night Light. "Anything to add, sir?"

Night Light shook his head. "Don't lose hope, ponies. If you look up at the moon and feel weak, remember what you are." He laid a hoof on is breast. "A pon who wants to have their destiny in their own hooves. It was never going to be easy, or fast, but-"

"Sir." Blueblood interrupted. "We know." he licked his lips. "It's only... Is she going to stay with us?"

"She..." Night Light was going to ask for clarification, but looking into the eyes of the ponies he found he did not need it.
Twilight Velvet. They still believed in Twilight Velvet. "Of course she is. Count on her, me, us all. We will tame this city and this alicorn soon enough."

...

One of the commoners lifted a hoof. "Uh, does this mean we stop stop harassing earth ponies and pegasi on the streets? I'm uh..." She looked around tentatively. "I'm okay with that."

Some of the other militia ponies murmured their agreement, but some sour looks from Blueblood silenced them.

"You make that determination for yourselves, until we form official policy. This is a new age." Night Light said. he levitated one of the guns and pressed it into the hooves of the pony who had dropped it. "We aren't playing discourse politics anymore. Let dialogue die. Go, show force on the street and keep any rival authority from cropping up. Even after we have our queen, power will grow from guns and swords."

Twilight Sparkle and Applejack sat on either side of a small campfire, established at the edge of the ruins and forest.
It would be an almost ironic statement to make. To observe the pair, neither was even close to the ponies who would normally go by those names. The black alicorn, haggard and monstrous, sat away from the fire doing mental planning for her path ahead. The earth pony, almost as large but twisted into a dark reflection of herself. lay near the fire, contemplative, making sure the fillies or passed out nightmare ponies didn't roll into it.

The moon watched them carefully, its light strong through the canopy and cracked walls.

"So..." Applejack cleared her throat. "What are you now?"

Twilight opened her blue, predator eyes. "I feel like a refugee. My refuge is very fine, but it is not supposed to last. That body in the throne room... That's mine."

Applejack winced at the notion, particularly since Twilight had gently advised against moving her living body and Celestia's corpse to the campfire, as if punishing them for their transgressions against her. But she didn't want to change the subject. "Right now, are you still Viscountess Sparkle, first student? Or are you a princess?"

"I am not a princess." Twilight scoffed.

"Are you a viscountess, or does that body in the throne room have your titles?"

Twilight blinked, then scowled deeply. "I was a noble lady the day I was born and I will be until I die, Mis Applejack. As for the titles, there are legal systems that decide such things, and I would probably lose to that body, as it looks me and I do not."

"Is it you?" Applejack asked. "Or are you you?"

"I don't like what you're asking. Are you still Applejack? You sure don't look like her. You might not even have the same brain patterns as 'Applejack'. What would I have to change about you until you stopped being Applejack? " Twilight said. "Let's cut the arguing off at the pass. You are Applejack. Nopony should dispute that. However, you are Applejack, and more."

"So are you Twilight and more?"

"I am." Twilight said.

"And that body. Is that Twilight and less? Twilight and nothing?"

"We might not know for a long time. I can't tell the extent of what Princess Celestia did to it, save that it feels like me in there." The black alicorn shivered. "It's like looking into a mirror. It shouldn't be possible. It is a more perfect reflection than that shapeshifter could ever manage."

"If you say so." Applejack shrugged. She felt a tingle race up her spine and evil thoughts sprang to her tongue. "There's a solution to your quandary."

"I can't kill it." Twilight said quietly.

"Why not?"

"Because its an innocent being, I think. Because its Princess Celestia's last act and creation." Twilight leaned forward. "Because its me."

"You might be making a mistake, especially if you want to return to normal. There is a solution right in front of your face."

Twilight shook her head. "There are other solutions out there. I'm sure of it. Princess Celestia sat on the secret of Nightmare Moon, the alicorns, and the Dark for thousands of years. There has to be more out there I can find to explain what's happened. After that, I can start rebuilding my life. After that I find ways to repair what losing Celestia will do to the country." She sighed. "I hope."

"Sounds like a lot for one pony."

"Nothing like what I have faced so far. Two alicorns died as their secret unfurled. There aren't any more to sacrifice."

"You sure?" Applejack arched a brow. "Looked in a mirror lately?"

Twilight's mood darkened again. "I said that I have, yes. I saw what I saw and what I didn't see too. Don't think I don't realize what my appearance implies. If I go back to normal I'll bury this body, and then the memories of the suffering that's happened here. I'm not an alicorn."

"I more meant the moon princess. Ponies used to think Celestia and Cadenza were the last alicorns, but another one shows up. Could more be hiding?"

Twilight thought about this for a moment. "If there are... I'm not going to let them cause this much suffering. Even if I have to block their way. Even if I must fight them."

Some hours later Applejack returned from the edge of the forest with some logs and kindling to revive the fire. Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

"Twilight?" Applejack asked herself. Her ear twitched at a shuffle from deeper in the ruin. The black alicorn emerging from the shadow made her fear flutter with fear for a second. "Hey. What do you have there?"

Twilight carried a familiar bundle of dark blue fabric. "The tapestry I bound to Rarity." She said, trotting over to the aforementioned unicorn. Seeing Rarity, a juxtaposition of sleeping innocence and nightmarish beauty, and knowing she was 'dead' filled Applejack with conflicted feelings. She felt no pony deserved to lose their sister, perhaps more than no pony deserved to die. "I need to make sure she's stable before I leave."

"Leave?" Applejack dropped the wood by the fire and began rebuilding it. "Going looking for 'answers'?"

"You don't need to say it like that." Twilight said dourly. "The more I think about it, the more I'm sure there's assuredly an answer for all this out there. It's how I'm going to return us all to normal."

Applejack poked at the fire. "You can't stomach the idea that this is meaningless?" Se tilted her head back to look at the deep dark sky past the moon. "You think those stars care that we're sad? You could run away from it all, ya know."

Twilight stood over Rarity for a moment, horn glowing. When she was sure everything was okay, she stepped back. "I refuse to subscribe to that nightmare nihilism. Even you don't really think its pointless, even with your corruption. You care about your sister, don't you?"

Applejack felt a surge of anger. She ground her teeth a bit. "You better stay away from her, Twilight. Lay a hoof on her and Spike-" She interrupted herself as a surge of guilt washed over her. "I- I'm sorry. I wasn't thinkin. Spike-"

"I'm not afraid for Spike, wherever he may be." Twilight said evenly, expression betraying nothing. "The changeling hiding him only means he won't be here to see what's happened to us."

Applejack sighed and rubbed her eyes. So, the pretense to nihilism hadn't lasted long after all. Twilight was right: She cared about family, honesty, and safety, more than nightmarish flashes of hatred could take away. "How am I gunna survive this night if my first reaction is to threaten somepony's family? Please, before you go, just tell me how to deal with this."

"I don't know. Be honest I guess, not with me necessarily, but with yourself. The nightmare isn't alone up there." Twilight said. "Ask yourself what led you here? What does the nightmare want from all of us?"

Applejack sighed. "To dominate."

"The nightmare is, I think, more than a parasite. It is what the Dark makes of ponies." Twilight shifted on her hooves. "It's about taking from others. In a metaphysical sense its... Like a hole that consumes and lashes out at the same time."

"Sounds like a spoiled filly." Applejack grunted.

"Sounds like an animal." Twilight countered.
She picked up the folded blue tapestry and unfurled it, letting the meters of cloth unfold to reveal the blue crescent moon, a match to the mark emblazoned on the dark alicorn's flank. "But even animals care about family. The nightmare thinks it can dominate what we care about and control us that way."

"Shameful that its almost working on me." Applejack said dourly.

"But we're more than animals. Even if the world around us is savage, it was purposeful moves that led us here."

Applejack shook her head. "Now its my turn to school you, Twilight. You know there's no point to what happened here. It was just chance by what you admit is a savage world. It doesn't care about you."

"But it cares about your weakness." Twilight gripped the tapestry tighter, her brow furrowing. She looked around to the sleeping nightmare ponies and fillies. "Are you too weak to keep them safe?"

"Don't talk to me like that. I won't fail anymore against my nightmare." Applejack said simply. "I promise."

Twilight and Applejack stared at each other for a few moments, until with a small motion Twilight draped the tapestry over her back. It was large enough go from her wither and drape off her flank like a cape. Twilight tied its ends around her neck. "You won't be able to kill Rarity as long as I have this. Keep that in mind."

"I will." Applejack returned to poking at the fire.

Twilight stepped out of the light of the fire. After a few moments, she teleported away.

Time passed, but the moon never changed its position. If one watched long enough, it seemed perhaps to sway back and forth in the sky over a period of hours. Did it want something?

"Hello?" Applejack called to the moon.

"Ergg..." A groan from across the fire came.
The nightmare pegasus, Dash, had awoken. She fluttered her wings and sat up. She looked around, between Applejack, the fire, and the other ponies. "I passed out..."

Applejack waited to see if the pegasus would be violent. She certainly felt the urge herself.

"Hmm." Dash scanned the darkness of the trees and the ruins. "Twilight. Did she die?"

"No. Her ritual worked. She successfully moved herself into Nightmare Moon's body." Applejack said. "It's a right sight, a little mare's mind in a princess's body. It's not right."

"And where did the princess go?"

Applejack knew she was joking but let herself be annoyed anyway. “Twilight’s not a princess.”

Dash smirked. “Okay wiseass, where’d the princess body go, which happens to be piloted by Twilight?”

“To find something. I figure she’s going for a library, either Ponyville’s or Canterlot’s.”

Dash scooted closer to the fire. It was getting colder. "How long ago? Think I could catch up to her?"

"Probably not. She has her senses back and she's teleporting around. She probably wants to be alone now anyway."

Dash scowled. "You let her just leave? What are you, an idiot?! She has the body of an alicorn, which she got with our help, and ran away! We're never going to see her again, until possibly she comes back and kills us."

"If you thought she would do that, why did you agree to helping us with the ritual?"

"Because if she managed to turn us back to normal it means we wouldn't be a threat, and therefore safe from her." Dash said, as though it should have been obvious. "You fool. You should have knocked her out until one of us woke up."

Applejack shrugged nonchalantly. "I think you should tone it down. She's not going to betray us."

"What makes you say that?" Dash demanded.

"She's still a pony." Applejack said. "A pony wracked by guilt. It won't occur to her not to help us."

Dash scrunched her nose. "I don't buy it. Though..." She eyed Applejack. "Guilt controls ponies in funny ways."

Applejack's eyes flashed with anger. "You better keep your trap shut, mis."

"Hey, relax, its just from what I remember from the Tower." Dash assuaged. "Hints, feelings, nothing else. I wasn't even sure if they were yours or Rarity's until you got defensive about them."

Applejack bared her teeth. "I said shut your trap."

Dash, feeling smug, settled down silently. She lay down and set her head on her folded hooves, just staring into the fire.
But Applejack remained fuming, quelling urges to get up and hit the mare. She didn't like that Dash had her figured out.

Guilt. Applejack's heart throbbed as she tried to push the heavy thoughts out of her head. Her brother so long ago now, then Rarity, and now her sister... She couldn't deal with the fact that she didn't have enough self control. How long before her pig-headedness not just turned a pony against her, but got them killed? If she chose to believe everythhing that had happened was at least partially her fault, she had the blood of two princesses on her hooves, and whatever limbo state Rarity and Twilight were in.

She clenched her teeth and stood up.

Dash looked up. "Yeah?"

"I'm gunna punch you." Applejack said, her accent slipping in. "Get up."

Dash smirked. "I saw this coming from a mile away. You get mad easy and then those hooves see use." She cocked her head. "Go ahead and stomp me to death. You wouldn't have to worry about me anymore then."

"I have a right mind to." Applejack snarled. "Git. Up."

"Come on coward. Afraid of getting my brain in your fur?"

Applejack kicked with her foreleg, not hard, but Dash still jumped like a cat and zipped up atop the nearby ruins. "Coward!" Applejack shouted up to her.

"Like you aren't afraid! You're a chickenshit that hides behind violence!" Dash barked. "I've been in tough situations before. Tougher than this, almost."

"And what, you plan to hang around here and tough this out?" Applejack said. "Or do you want to die? I saw you on that Tower as well. Yeah, Maybe I've got problems, and maybe I lash out. Better than rolling over! At least I don't want to die, because my fear and anger protects ponies I love!"

"You're deluded. The ponies who died here could have beat you into the dust if they'd wanted or cared to." Dash scoffed. "Get over yourself. Forget your self-righteousness, and go sit down. You got your punch in."

Applejack stood still for a few moments, eyes locked with Dash, but ultimately turned away and trotted back to her place by the fire. "Tshh. I wasted it. I shoulda hit harder."

"Hey, you're getting some things right." Dash grinned. She hopped down to the ground. "We're all on the same page. That was one thing that nightmare on the Tower got right."

"You pegasi... Always trouble and attitude." Applejack muttered. "I dealt with plenty of you in Manehattan, aprentancing with the Orange Family. When it came to deal y'all could never stop looking for a way out at the last minute. Makes me angry just thinking about it. Bad faith dealers, the lot."

"Hey I'm with you on hating Manehattanites, because honestly, buck Manehattan." Dash said. "But if you want me to gyp you you'll have to get me drinking first."

"Yeah whatever." Applejack mumbled. "You know, I didn't let anypony get in my way, so I know its not personal in buisness. I've had plenty of ponies say my name in anger after I undercut them or poach their buyers. Heck, I've made some of my closest friends despise me over petty stuff like that. Heh heh..." She laughed mirthlessly. "I'll tell you, I was a model Manehattanite. I didn't let anypony stand in my way. I cut myself off from my emotions, and took no guff or disrespect."

"I can see that last part remains true." Dash remarked.

Applejack blinked. She had almost forgotten Dash was listening. "Y- Yeah. I'm a proud pony. Leaving that life behind was difficult. I treated ponies in my life here badly because I was treating them like other merchants and not like family. I... I made some mistakes. I was... reckless with my feelings."
Just thinking about it, she was beginning to feel that flame again, the self-directed anger that she could only let out through destructive means. But she needed to keep it in. Glancing to the sleeping foals gave her time to take a breath, and focus her attention on something before the hatred overcame her mind.

"That's rough." Dash said, somewhere between sympathetic and disinterested.

“What’d you do?” Applejack asked.

“Uh, what?” Dash didn’t understand.

“To get your burden, your deathwish. You seem like a smart pony, but you end up in Ponyville alone?” Applejack asked.

Dash flicked her tail. She stared into the fire. "I wasn't alone. Or, I thought I wasn't."

"How did it go wrong?"

"Lots of things."

"What did you do?"

“Killed things. Ponies, griffins, and changelings. It was my job.”

The changeling Chrysalis’s awful death at Twilight’s hooves had been the first death Applejack had seen, beyond what was a part of farm life. She guessed it was Rarity’s as well. This pegasus was apparently a league above them when it came to the weight of that particular sin.

"You've killed... multiple creatures?"

Dash shrugged, poking the fire with a stick. “It's not very special, unless you think about it. When I was a filly I caused an accident that killed and hurt a lot of ponies. Ever since then, I've been living a borrowed life. Somepony should have put me down, way back when I didn't understand and couldn't resist." Dash cleared her dry throat. "Letting me live has caused a lot of trouble for good creatures, but I'm not sure I regret being alive anymore, but I sure am getting tired of it. Is that good? Is that bad?"

"I couldn't say." Applejack said softly. “What is killing like?”

"It's just a motion, or lack of motion, heh. But you can get obsessed with it in different ways. I was afraid of it. For a long time I couldn't strike in anger when I needed to because I was terrified of crossing the boundary. Eventually, a month ago and far away, I did cross that line, and I just snapped. I didn't even understand what I was doing half the time because of how hard my mind was pushing me not to think about it." Dash shrugged. "But my friend... She reveled in death. She began to love it more than she loved anything, even me. But she was made for it, so I don't blame her... Still..." Dash licked her lips. "It was almost fun, in its own way, swashbuckling across the east. Me drugged out of my mind, and her bathing in blood. You just don't think about it, you know. To stay sane you don't think about what you're doing."
Dash quickly reacted to Applejack’s horrified expression. "What we did was justified. Kinda. Bad creatures with intentions worse than ours were after us. We were the good guys by comparison."

"By comparison." Applejack repeated back, sharper. "Did you hurt innocents?"

Dash looked away. "I don't know. I don't remember." She looked back up. "But I can tell you that we fought a changeling queen. Yes, the dead one in the throne room."

"Is that how you recognized each other?" Applejack brooded over the obscene coincidence. "Was she and you both drawn here perhaps? By the altar?"

"Who knows. In Chitin, we were both after the same thing: A magic amulet thing that dates back to ancient ponykind. My side beat hers and we thrashed her hive. I thought she was dead, but I guess she came here." Dash said. "Me and my friend were supposed to meet a pony here, but by the time we got here..." Dash made a face. "There's a lot I don't remember. There's no use talking about it anymore."

"Whatever you'd like." Applejack said. The pegasus would have to chose when to reveal more, when she was more comfortable. Funny though, that she was now treating Dash as Twilight treated her. "Where's your friend or that amulet?"

"Same place: Not here. My friend got tired of my weakness and ditched me. She might come back for me." Dash smirked. "I want to know what she'd say now. If I worked towards it, I could become more powerful than her, and then who'd be laughing!"

"Your friend is more powerful than a nightmare?" Applejack arched a brow. "Humph, I doubt she was talking about physical strength anyhow."

Dash's suddenly angry look made Applejack fear she'd hit too close to the mark with that quip. But after a moment the pegasus calmed down. "I was weak. After what happened in the East, I just didn't know anything anymore: Who I was, what I was doing, what my future would be. At least I had her, I thought. Of course, she ditched me in Ponyville."
Dash cracked a smile. "I was at my lowest. It was starting to storm. I turned around and Twilight Sparkle was there watching me."

“Twilight? What?” Applejack wasn’t sure she had heard correctly.

“Yup. She gave me a helping hoof to get me off the ground, told me she’d be a friend, and then she hit me with a spell. Poof, I was at the Tower, staring up to infinity. After that point, I was a bit conflicted. I could either scream so hard I get an aneurysm and put myself out of my misery, or accept the evil I had become and let the nightmare consume my mind. You see what choice I made. What a coward I've been. I just want this to end but I can't manage to pull the trigger on myself."

Applejack sighed. “Stop talking like that."

"Eh?"

"Like you want to die. Maybe you do. But you know what? You haven't yet! That means your will to live is stronger." Applejack said with a scowl. '"Don't call it cowardice! Don't call it foolishness! Nopony's life can be thrown away so easily."

Dash looked at her like she was crazy. "Yes they can. I've done it."

Applejack clucked her tongue, ready to keep arguing, but just ended up sighing. What did she care if the silly pegasus went and rotted?

Sel Lech found himself in one of the least pleasant situations he could imagine: Trotting beside Blueblood through the streets of the Old Town.

"Naturally, these commoner fillies are just swooning for your attention. They'll do anything for you." Blueblood was explaining. "You have to be careful though. Those fillies hide daggers in their bonnet and I have been held at the point more than once when one of them misunderstood my flattery."

"I don't think calling them dirty peasant swine counts as flattery." Sel said flatly.

"Oh come off it lad. You think I'm unkind with the ladies? No ho no, I'm a model of chivalry." Blueblood chuckled. "Yes, I have been known to be honest regarding a mare's looks, but should I lie?"

Sel gave the prince a sidelong look. "Yes, Blueblood. You should lie. It's called being decent."

The streets of the Old Town ran into the castle gardens on their north side. Sel, Blueblood, and the two militiaponies with them found themselves on the little walking path around the garden lake. Sel found his eyes drawn to the other side, where he'd buried the mutilated remains of the Estates speakers and the city guard.

Blueblood cleared his throat awkwardly. "Let's double back and patrol around the guild hall again."

"Righto." Sel led the way back into town.

Over the course of an hour they wound their way to the southern edge of the Old Town, into the Inner City. The usual worrying sounds of that unfortunate place could still be heard despite the paralyzing night, though much quieter. The ponies peered out their windows with curiosity and concern.

"So... Sir Sel... What are your feelings on our situation, with the beast and all that?" Blueblood asked quietly.

"I think it's a true shame Lady Velvet has been vexed. I don't believe even she foresaw how, ahem, strange her creation would be. And the night..." He gestured to the moon. "Is something even stranger."

"But those ponies the alicorn changed, you saw how they were abused, yet still alive! A bullet in the head didn't phase them." Blueblood bit his lip. "It was an artless version of our late sod Molar: A manipulation of flesh into something utterly unponylike! I tell you young Sel, terror overcomes me to think of myself ending up that way."

"You did an admirable job in the face of that terror." Sel grunted.

They emerged into a plaza in front of a dilapidated temple. Several tramps and other commoners were huddled on the steps of the temple, discussing something fitfully.

"Hey." Sel Lech trotted over to them. "Is there a problem?"

The commoners, startled by the new voice, spun around to face him. They took in his city guard's captain uniform and froze, conflicted between their distaste for callous authority and their problem. "I- It's a monster, sir!" One of them said. "It took Jans!"

Sel frowned. Astral had apparently come to the Inner City too. "Can you describe it?"

"It wasn't a monster. It was a mare." One of the other ponies said. "A young unicorn. I got a look at her face. She appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Jans in her magic, and disappeared!"

What? Sel saw most of the other commoners nodding in agreement.

"A mare?" Blueblood said incredulously.

"With orange hair. She had this big cloak on. We tried to push her away from Jans but she threw us back with our magic like it was nothing." Another said. He looked at Sel accusingly. "Where are the city guard? I haven't seen a patrol pony on the streets all night!"

"I don't know if you've noticed, mis, but it's been night for nigh five hours past when the sun should have risen." Sel said. "The city guard is in their barracks and homes, pending review of their behavior as an institution. A guard contingent attempted a revolt and killed the Estates speakers."

The commoner crowd looked between each other, confused and uncertain.

Sel continued. "Which is why volunteers and guard reservists are patrolling right now to keep the peace. I warn you now, go to your homes to prevent trouble. We're cracking down on ponies who would take advantage of the crisis."

"Most of us are homeless sir." A pony said. "And its getting colder... What are we supposed to do?"

Blueblood adopted the expression like he was about to say something thoughtlessly offensive, so Sel cut in. "The Canterlot Castle is empty while we investigate the revolt. You may shelter in the ground floor.

"Sel!" Blueblood exclaimed. "You're going to let these dirty tramps in the castle?"

"They let you in." Sel snarked, then turned back to the crowd. "I warn you though, stay incognito and stay on the ground floor. I can not say what would happen to you if you are caught." His frown deepened. "Now disperse. You don't want to be caught out if the orange mare or worse gets a hold of you."

"T- Thank you sir!" The commoners said, withdrawing from Sel and dispersing quickly before he rethought his generosity.

"Sir Sel." Blueblood growled. "You just invited vagabonds into the masters house. You should know better."

"If they stay on the street they will fall prey to Astral or other devils."

"Good!"

"Have a heart you fool. Do you actually think the cruel fate you fear is fitting for innocent commoners, poor though they may be?"

Blueblood pretended to think about it. "Actually yes. I do."

"Then think of it this way: When word spreads, all the troublemaking homeless will congregate at the palace. With them all in one place, we can keep an eye on them and keep them out of trouble."

Blueblood hummed. "That is a fair idea indeed. Should we head there now with a few clubs?"

Sel narrowed his gaze. "Listen here, Lord Blueblood. If you head to the castle intending to cause trouble before this bitter night is over, you shall have trouble with me." He poked Blueblood in the chest with his hoof. "You have never given a damn about commoners and it's better for them that it stays that way. Do you think Lady Velvet's work is just for the sake of the nobles or ideology? It's about helping all ponykind, including, and perhaps especially, the vulnerable."

"They are going to freeze and starve no matter what. What has changed that I should start caring about the paupers' wellbeing, when they refuse to stop being poor?" Blueblood gestured to the pair militia ponies watching them silently. "They should take initiative and join us like our decent friends here have."

Sel frowned deeply. "You have no idea what repeated failure and abuse does to a pony and their sense of motivation and trust."

"I suppose I don't." Blueblood sniffed.

"Then broadly, we can agree that you will leave the populace to me. I'm the guard captain here, not you. When a inbred old blood crosses our path, then you may speak. That has, after all, been your preferred company!" Sel turned away and waved for the militiaponies to follow him.

Blueblood blinked, but was soon on Sel's heels again. He said nothing, but there was a clear look in Blueblood's eye, like if he ever had the opportunity he would seize one of the arquebuses and turn it on the young noble.

The fire was beginning to die again. Without the movement of the sun or a watch, Applejack had to guess that it had been about an hour since Rainbow Dash awoke. The pegasus had wandered off out of boredom and come back a few times already, and was starting to look like she would go again.

"Hey." Applejack said. "Could you get some wood? Has to be dry, from low branches."

Dash rose silently and stole out towards the forest. She returned with some branches, wet from the rain, and a sharp rock. She set them down by the fire.

"No offense sugar, but this is the opposite of what I said."

"Watch and learn." Dash picked up the rock, set a branch on its end, and split it in half with a swift strike. Then she halved the halves, until she had a bundle of dry shivers. She began placing them on the fire.

"Well I'll be." Applejack watched Dash repeat the process. "As indecent as it is to say, I was at peace with the idea of you laying around and not contributing."

Dash set the rock down. "Yeah?" She looked around. "Planning on keeping everypony else alive?"

Applejack blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I'm asking what we do about the others. Rarity, and that sleeping purple pony in the throne room. Should we kill 'em?"

"You can't just kill ponies in their sleep! Rarity is a sister and a daughter. She doesn't deserve death." Applejack said. By what Twilight said said, Rarity did die. Applejack wasn't sure how that worked so she would just as soon operate as though Rarity was a normal nightmare pony, and not an un-dead one. Though, by what vicious urges kept bubbling up to her mind, even that was not so gentle.

Dash didn't look content either. "And Twilight's body, and the thing that lives inside it?"

“No.” Applejack grimaced. “That’s awful. Twilight said it ain’t a nightmare any more. She can’t threaten us, so there’s no reason. I’ll defend myself, but I'm not gunna start killing sleeping ponies.” She cleared her throat. "Besides its Twilight's call. It's her body."

"Is it?" Dash posed. "Huh, you've already talked to her about it, haven't you. She must have told you what she thinks happened to Forlorn."

"Well... no, she didn't." Applejack admitted.

Dash nodded. "But you suspect she knows, and she's hiding the truth."

"Don't put words in my mouth. I don't suspect anything."

"Think about it then. The 'ascended nightmare' disappears and a pony takes its place? She was kicking Celestia's ass, taking nuclear fire on the face like nothing, and then..." Dash clopped her hooves together, making Applejack jump. "Poof! Whatever Twilight and Celestia did, its maybe more dangerous than we can understand."

"I hear you say 'maybe' and I wave off your exaggeration."

"Do you have a better explanation cowpoke?" Dash challenged. "What happened to Forlorn Spark, and why are there now two twilights?"

Applejack sighed. "So you think something strange happened."

"I'm not saying it like that, no, I'm saying some real bullshit went down." Dash grunted. "And that purple body hides the secret. We will never know, unless we put a bit of pressure on Twilight."

"Says the mare who cowered from a little nudge?" Applejack said. "You need to cool it. You're raring to fight with Twilight when we're not recovered from the last fight. Actually, threatening Rarity tells me you're looking for anykind of fight at all."

"You're a tough mare." Dash remarked.

"And I'm not your friend. You won't get me to do your violence, Mis Dash. If you want to hurt somepony do it yourself. Or not at all."

Dash stretched her legs and laid her head down. "I'll work my way around to it. There is going to be another fight eventually, no doubt about it... You're going to want to punch me again eventually, and next time you won't want to stop." She eyed Rarity. "And you're going to realize the same about her too. And Twilight."

Applejack stared over the fire in silence. Finally she shook her head. "You're not going to get a rise out of me, Mis Dash."

"I don't want to, but I know you won't withstand it for long. I hear it too." Dash tapped the side of her head. "The urge, eh?"

Applejack scowled. "I already had this conversation, much more in depth, with Twilight."

"But you know she doesn't really understand. She had a nightmare queen, while we suffer with nightmare proles. Her 'curse' was about unintelligible ideology, ours with service to it."

Applejack was silent to that point.

"Now Forlorn is dead. What's the prole nightmare in you say now, huh? Because I hear hard, unfortunate truth. You, me, Rarity, Twilight... We're above the entire world right now. The alicorns, Forlorn Spark, they're dead and we're alive." Dash laughed. "You have a chance, for once in your miserable life, to be on top. You have the strength to finally punch down on a world that mistreated you. The world turned upside-down! Come on Applejack, that world is so close, and all you have to do is get through us. I'm not the only one telling you to act on it."

"You know you're toeing the same line as the nightmare, and you'll still say it?"

Dash grunted noncommittally. "I'm just putting words to a feeling, cowpoke." She frowned a bit. "Like I said, I'm working up to it."

Applejack scoffed softly. "You're clutching at irony because you're disappointed in reality."

"Well, find a reality where I'm not a bucking murderer, and I'll be cheerfully optimistic about it." Dash's lip curled. "If you don't like what I'm saying, listen to your nightmare and kill me."

Applejack declined to talk to the pegasus any more. " 'All for ourselves, and nothing for others.' " She recited the Manehattan saying to herself. " 'In every age of the world, it's been the vile maxim of the masters of ponykind.' " She sighed. She did somewhat want to fight Dash, if only to make her shut up.

The campfire snapped, starling both ponies. They stared at each other for a long while, before Dash began to snicker. "This is too rich. We're two scared girls acting tough."

"Speak for yourself." Applejack grumbled, but she agreed fully.

There was another crackle from the fire, and this time Applejack realized the sound was not coming from the fire. Rarity's sleeping body was beginning to glow with a deep purple light, black smoke coming off her fur.
Applejack and Dash both jumped up.

"W- What's happening? What do we do?!" Dash babbled.

"Dang it! Go get Twilight! Maybe she's still in Ponyville!" Applejack exclaimed. She took a step closed to Rarity. "No wait... Hold on a tick!"

Rarity was completely encapsulated in the black smoke, turning her prone profile into a hazy smudge on the cracked stone. There was an etherial hum in the air.
Suddenly, the smoke evaporated away

"Huh." Dash blinked. "She's back to normal."

Applejack could confirm, the prone pony on the ground was now a pony, un-transformed, the Rarity that had walked the streets of Ponyville. "How about that. How about that." She rubbed her chin. The nightmare curse could be dispelled, it seemed. Only, Applejack prayed she didn't have to die like Rarity or Twilight had.

A distant bell was ringing. A quick, sharp bell.
Twilight recognized it as the kind of little watch bell that airships used to signal time. She shifted on her hooves, rustling the brushes she was crouched in. She had just emerged from the Everfree and was now across the river from Ponyville, next to the stone bridge, but concealing her considerable frame in the long grass and shrubs.

"Who are these ponies?" She asked herself.
Unicorns, adorned from horn to hoof in steel plate armor, were patrolling the streets of Ponyville. They moved cautiously, silently, inspecting every shadowy corner of the village. Either they were looking for something, or they were very concerned about somepony getting past without their knowing. Either way, with their heavy armor they were expecting trouble, which was not an illogical expectation considering the unending night.
"By their colors... Unicornia?" Twilight speculated to herself. She was surprised how good her dark vision was with her new eyes. She could almost distinguish the dynastic sigil. She had only meant to be in Ponyville a moment to make sure everything was okay and check over certain reading material, but she had to know more about the mysterious visitors.

When she was confident that none of the strange knights were looking her way, she silently teleported across the river behind one of the cottages. She peeked around the corner, watching the knights stop near the stone bridge.

"Still nothing." One of the knights said, his voice tinny through his helmet.

His companion pusher her visor up. "How many places can a little noblemare go?" She said, annoyed. "The forest?"

"That's what that witch-mare thinks." The first knight said. "Lord Lightdowser wants to go in."

"I hope me doesn't expect me to volunteer to go with him. Twilight Sparkle and some boondocks villagers aren't worth my hide." The second knight snorted. She pushed her visor back down. "Let's look along the river. Gods willing we find the bodies washed up on the bank."

"Oh..." Twilight watched them make their way south along the river. "A certain Lord Lightdowser is looking for me, Rarity, and Applejack." She teleported onto the roof of the cottage. Besides the duo heading away from her, there were no other knights in sight. The bell earlier had called most of them away.
Twilight wound up and jumped across to the adjacent cottage's roof, tearing up clumps of thatch with her hooves. She guessed the ponies below were not too pleased with the noise she was making. She went roof by roof, casting detection spells periodically, until she was on the north side of the village.
Her stomach lurched: Ponyville's small hospital was blown apart, everything above the first floor completely gone. In the fields beyond that was strewn the wreckage of an airship, and by the pearl white paint on the splintered hull planks, Twilight guessed it was Celestia's personal airship.

"Oh, yeah..." Twilight remembered the letter Celestia had sent her, alerting of her approach to Ponyville. "I guess that answers where her retinue stayed while she was in the forest."

Several more fields over, Twilight finally saw the source of the ringing bell she had heard earlier: Another airship, this one intact. Property of the Lord Lightdowser, she presumed. Knights were establishing a camp around the airship's landing site; If Twilight wanted to know more about the ponies looking for her, that was where she would have to investigate.

But after a minute of thought, she decided that it was not truly a problem worth getting sidetracked by.
"If they see me or enter the forest, then I will have to confront them. Otherwise, they can knock themselves out." Twilight muttered to herself.

She tugged at the cape on her back. There was an off-putting kind of warmth about the thing, and every time she spoke it exuded an aura back at her, like a sleeping animal objecting to an interloper. Rarity might wake up soon.
Rarity... Twilight had not been lying when she admitted her inexperience with necromancy and binding, but she was extensive versed in the magical theory behind it. Yet in Rarity's case, the interaction of soul, body, nightmare, and other forces was just too complex to speculate about. Twilight just knew keeping the binding safe from damage, so as to preserve Rarity's soul, would be her responsibility forever. Forever, past when (if) she ever found a cure to the nightmarish and returned to her natural form. The idea of forever was daunting, perhaps more daunting even than death.

Some myths said that before mortality was invented, the gods would hide in objects and see how much abuse they would take before they were destroyed. Twilight wasn't sure if that was allegorical to necromancy or something else...

Twilight jumped down from the rooftops, her landing on the disheveled pavers creating sharp clinks from her metal horseshoes. She skulked toward the Golden Oak, looking around at the silent village. The storm had disturbed and damaged some of the cottages, but nothing too bad: Had the ponyvillians not been hiding in their homes most of it would have been fixed already.
Could the sense of fear and paranoia she detected in the air be fixed too? She tasted distrust and thoughtless anger. The Ponyvillians were afraid of the prolonged night. Here and there, surprisingly, she detected expectant caution, as though some of the villagers were waiting for something to come of the night.

Twilight arrived at the Golden Oak. Some of its branches had been twisted by the storm but otherwise nothing seemed amiss. It was calm, subdued.

"I'm glad Rarity and Applejack didn't come and break everything." Twilight said to herself.
She passed through the unlocked front door, having to bow her head not to hit it on the top of the frame, and closed it behind her.

It was dark and still in the main room. Silver moonbeams pierced through the upper windows. Twilight zapped a candle into life and levitated to herself.

"What do I look for when I want to know the answers to everything?" Twilight asked herself. "What book in a backwoods library tells me of the deepest secrets of all time?"

The answer, of course, was none of them. Twilight went through every book twice over, but there was absolutely nothing about alicorns, and more upsettingly, no spell that would help her find Spike.
Twilight slumped, falling into the couch and rubbing her nose with the back of her hoof. Her horseshoe clinked off her helmet.

"I have to go to Canterlot then." Twilight said to herself, sighing.
What was going on in Canterlot? She could only guess about what political madness was going on in Celestia's absence, but hopefully Fancy Pants and Shining Armor, as well as other responsible imperial officials, had keep things under control. If she arived and told them of Celestia's demise, it would throw things into anarchy. If she went to Canterlot with the intention of telling the truth, she would have to lay a lot of groundwork first.
"So I... I have to lie this time. I have to hurry, for Spike's sake."

She ambled up the stairs to the bedroom. She pulled a little clasp out of the closet and secured the tapestry more securely around her neck.
She turned to the mirror, gasping despite herself. The creature looking back at her was terrifying and beautiful. Twilight leaned forward locking eyes with the black monster on the other side of the silvered glass.

"My eyes..." Twilight pulled her eyelids back and admired the cyan deepness of her slitted eyes. "My mane..." She passed a hoof through the vibrant blue hair, streaked with subtle purple, that cascaded around her head. "It was much more alive when it was Nightmare Moon's..." There was no better proof that she was just a parasite in Moon's body, it was that. She could never compare with the alicorns.

She was almost tempted to stand in front of the mirror all night, combing down the countless tufts of fur that stood up in defiance of the black smoothness of her coat. Nightmare Moon deserved to be witnessed as flawless as possible.

"Moon... Why did you die and I got to live?" Twilight fought back tears, remembering the black figure she had sat beside on the grey lunar expanses.

Sighing deeply, Twilight stepped back from the mirror, and almost tripped over a little stack of books didn't expect to be there.
"Huh?" She blinked.
It was Foaly Flux's package from the week before, spell books of ghastly torture and destruction.

Twilight felt the urge to kick out in revulsion, wishing she could unread those wretched tomes and the cruel things in them. But she stopped herself. The books were ostensibly from the imperial library, if she was going that way she should take them back home.

"Goodness gracious." Twilight slumped to the floor and sat against her bed. "I wish I had time to sleep..." Her eyes began to droop.

Flashes of fire danced across her mind. She saw the arrogance of a smiling white alicorn. 'Time', it cackled softly, beckoning Twilight forward. 'If you follow your Destiny, you shall have all the time in THE WORLD'.

Twilight opened her eyes. Moonlight from the window behind her over the bed let streaming moonlight course over her, declaring her in profile on the bedroom floor. For the first time that night, Twilight wondered if it wasn't so bad that it was not the sun that had decided to hang eternal over Equestria.

"Enough stalling." Twilight growled to herself, getting up. "Time to head to Canterlot, and whatever's waiting for me there. Time to go home." She pulled a saddlebag out of her closet. It didn't fit around her barrel well, but it did fit. In fact she could fit two of the unicorn sized saddlebags on, and have just enough room for all the books she wanted to take.
As she began putting the tomes in the bag, she flipped one open idly.

"huh" Her eyes roamed over the detailed graphics of ponies with their chest cavities opened, labels pointing to the various organs and how much pain prodding them caused. One image reminded her of what her body had looked like after Forlorn Spark had erupted out of it.
She shivered, yet chuckled despite herself. "Geez, I'm developing a bit of gallows humor." She put the book in the pack, to pick up and open the next one. This one had page of spells about causing fatal air bubbles in a victim's blood. "Oh this is just awful." Her revulsion came back, so she packed all the rest of the books without comment, save the last. "Wait... What is this? Elements of Harmony? Strange name... I thought I saw a copy of this downstairs." She looked at the tome's spine. "Volume III of VI, Joy and Laughter. Weird."

She didn't know why, but Twilight was struck by the notion of leaving the book in Ponyville. She trotted back to the main room, scanning by candlelight for where she remembered seeing another copy of Elements of Harmony.

"Drat. What organizational system did I have reference material in?" She asked herself. "It wouldn't be under E, would it?"

It was under E. Twilight read down the spine. Volume II of VI, Loyalty and Devotion. Twilight pulled a book out to make room for volume III by volume II. It pleased yet rankled her to have an incomplete set.

"Elements of Harmony... Hmph. When I get you together I promise to read you." Twilight smiled tightly.

She looked down at the book she'd had to remove to make the room. Elemental (as in basic) Travel Magic. Twilight almost laughed out loud at the ridiculous parenthetical. Travel magic though, sounded extremely pertinent and useful.

She opened up to one of the first pages. “..." She blinked. Less than ten seconds it had surprised her with something she had never seen before. "Cloud Walking Spell? ... What?!"

High above the navigation cloud Spitfire and her Wonderbolts rested on, Cloudsdale loomed.

The lowest levels of the city, the Stratus District, was Cloudsdale’s equivalent to a harbor. Trade airships and the city’s active fleet docked there, overseen by the cloudborn warehouses and the Cloudsdale Admiralty. Silent now in the dark, the airships bobbed silently under the moonlight overseen by nightwatches.
Above that was the Cumulus District, the abode of the well-to-do. Pleasant craftspony shops and the local branch of the Artist and Musician’s Guild also shared this tier. Little pinpoints of light from street lamps and windows made the district look like an illuminated hearth tree .
Higher still was the Cirrus District, home to the great Cloudsdale Weather Factory. While the massive climate creation facility dominated the level, other factories had recently sprung up as well to sooth the city’s thirst for manufactured goods, something that was imported in great amounts. Even at night, the great cloud-forges and manufactories churned, albeit at a reduced rate, in optimistic expectation of the sun returning and trade resuming.
And lastly the Nimbus District, the largest both vertically and horizontally, wound from the highest to lowest parts of the city, like the branch connecting the leaves. Most of Cloudsdale’s population lived here, a life more luxurious than peasants or commoners in most Equestrian cities, but one not without its hardships. Cloudhomes were packed both vertically and horizontally, and streets were always shifting around making navigation difficult. The district was dark, unlit, like a shawl around the city trying to ignore the night.

Spitfire searched the dark Nimbus district, but it was too far and too dark to pick anything out. Her family home had been parked somewhere in Nimbus when the Wonderbolts had left for Canterlot, but there was no assurance it was there still.

Cloudsdale... What a town, thought Spitfire. It was her home, but she felt more irked by the city's problems every day.
Cloudsdale was in the grip of a deepening recession. Imported food from the Dneighper and Crystal River Valleys had undercut local production to the point that the unproductive local farms were no longer competitive. The city’s poor, used to seasonal work in the farms, was suddenly without a needed source of income. Everything spiraled downhill from there, as ponies moved to greener pastures and merchants and shopkeepers lost their clientele. The only thing keeping the city alive was the airship base, and the slowly growing manufacturing sector.
With desperation and despondence came extremism. Cloudsdale was a hive of Anarchists and radicals, which the ruling body of the city and Imperial Fleet both, the Admiralty, used as an excuse to crush the new worker-rights movements. Strikes, riots, and sabotage where not uncommon. Airfleet Naval Intelligence, Equestria's best spy agency, became a tool against agitators and dissidents. Cloudsdale, pegasi kind's shining beacon in the sky, was a fearful place with fire bombs on one side and batons on the other.

Spitfire curled her hoof. How many protests had she been involved in breaking up? It seemed like that was the Airfleet did more than anything recently. In a way, facing a real and awful threat like a demon was a welcome break.
She clenched her teeth. No... It was okay to revile both.

"Captain! Somepony's coming!" One of the Wonderbolts cried out, pointing up to the city.

Spitfire was expecting a pilot or courier to update them or usher them into the city, but instead a grey-uniformed intelligence agent and a gendarme landed on the navigation cloud.
"Captain Spitfire." The agent didn't need to ask for identities. "We appreciate you waiting while the Admiralty reviews everything. Your information has been helpful."

"No problem pal." Spitfire said icily. "If little written testimonies help that much, let us come up and give our depositions in person."

The agent laughed at the non-joke. "You don't need me to tell you things have been precarious."

"You're right, I don't."

"Right now, Cloudsdale doesn't need ponies coming in, spouting off wild nonsense about coups, rituals, and monsters." The agent continued. "Before you enter the city, you are going to have to understand that."

"Nonsense?! You have no idea what you're dealing with!" Spitfire shouted. "Go knock on the door of Canterlot Castle if you don't believe me."

The agent reached into his uniform and pulled out a letter. "Don't get your pinions in a twist. We have corroborating witnesses." The agent's smile tightened, as he pulled the letter back just as Spitfire reached for it. "Which, while it keeps this squadron out of a court for false statements, does raise serious questions about your leadership and this 'elite' unit's effectiveness." He held out the letter again, letting Spitfire take it. "Welcome back to Cloudsdale, Captain."

"Bite me." Spitfire snarled. The Wonderbolts watched the agent and the gendarme launch off the cloud, to lazily fly up to shrouded Clousdale. "Bucking naval intelligence bunch of motherbuckers." She muttered.
Spitfire unfolded the letter tensely. She hadn’t gotten past the first line before she crunched it slightly with a jolt of surprise.

"Captain?" Soarin ventured.

"Rain Gnash and Fleet. They're alive." Spitfire said. "Alive, in the city, and ready to see us."

There were no windows in the dark, cluttered Chateau la Garde library, but Shining Armor could feel the churning in the skies above Canterlot by the sounds and emotion echoing up from the ponies below. There was awe, panic, and despondence.

"We need to finish here." He said quietly. "If we fail to set out for too much longer, I might as well march up to Canterlot Castle and throw myself at my mothers hooves."

"If you need to calm the knights, I will continue." Fancy Pants grunted, looking up from the records he was reading.

Shining Armor pushed back from the writing desk and stood up. Looking around the library, he saw the stack of books, notes, and records they had gone through. There were quite possibly a years worth of sordid reading in the cramped library, and they had gone through so little. What secrets hid among the rest? If there was a clear, succinct answer to Twilight Velvet's pathology and decisions, it was hidden among the mountain of paper and binding.

"No. No continuing. Wrap it up here." Shining said gravely. "We have to leave now."

Fancy Pants blinked in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"That monk Manered confirmed for me that we either leave now, or never." Shining said, pointing to the monk resting silently in the corner. "The knights's fear is valid. More than valid. A few more minutes of preparation is far outweighed by the danger."

Manered perked up at his mention. " Have you sirs finally decided to stop ignoring the signs..." He said with an air of desperation. "and leave while you still can?"

Fancy Pants was skeptical however. "You are being paranoid. Lad Velvet has shown no interest in stopping us."

"But her creation might." Manered said. "Do you wish to die again, Sir Pants?"

Fancy Pants drew his mustached lips into a tight frown. "It... would be wrong of me to risk ponies' lives for my assumptions." He set the records down. "You may have to comfort me, Sir Armor. Every anxiety is welling up in my for the thought of leaving my beloved Canterlot, yet I know it must be done."

Shining Armor nibbled his lip. He didn't want to admit to himself that he felt the same way. If he had an sense the IHG should be in the hills already, far away from the madness of Velvet and whatever was going on in the throne room.
He let out a soft sigh, cleared his throat, and assumed a commanding demeanor. "Then smother your anxiety, sir, in adherence to obligation. I order you to go downstairs and announce our IMMEDIATE departure. Any supplies and ponies unready are left behind."

Fancy Pants blinked. "Left behind?"

"They may gallop, if they wish to catch up." Shining said. "You two, Brother Manered. Get thee downstairs and onto a wagon."

Manered silently obeyed, tucking a few scrolls and darting into the stairwell. Fancy Pants, after a few seconds of consideration, followed.
A minute later, a great ruckus carried up from the outside. The knights of the guard had been given the order, and amongst eagerness, relief, and stress, they rushed to make ready.

Shining Armor stood amongst the dark library. He pondered destroying the room, and erasing the sordid secrets of his family and their project. Ponykind would be better for the complete obliteration of the real legacy of the House Twilight.

"I... I can't. I can't" Shining berated himself. "This is part of me."
He looked around, trying to find his mothers dainty maid. She was where she had been for the last hours, by a sconce, watching silently. Shining struggled to remember the young maids name, and ultimately could not. "I can't destroy it. My heritage will never be forgotten, no matter what I do."

"Such is the nature of blood." The young maid said quietly.

"Will I ever need this place again?" Shining asked. He realized how idiotic it was to ask such a question. "Will ponykind need it? "

"That would depend on yours, and ponykind's, path." The maid said. She gestured subtly to the saddlebag placed against the side of the desk. "You're a panicked animal right now. Your path is nowhere but away."

Shining felt stung by the assessment. "is there somewhere else I should be going?"

"No, sir. Many ponies achieve success by indulging their inner animal."

Now Shining was starting to feel patronized and stupid. What could a humble commoner, whose rapport came from serving to Velvet's mundane needs, tell him about true needs and meanings.
"Yes... Well I suppose manipulating those indulgences is a method of a successful pony." Despite his better judgement he trotted to the saddle bag and picked it up. It was bulging with books that he did not remember filling it with. "And perhaps, When I come back, I shall be doing more of that."

"Perhaps, sir." The maid bowed.

Shining smiled lopsidedly. "And mommy will love me again." He trotted to the stairwell. "Say farewell to my father for me."

Within minutes, the churning of gears echoed through Chateau la Garde as Canterlot's main gate opened. Ponies, knights, their families, and others charged out of the city as if mad or in a race, to escape the moon rising behind them. Shining Armor, ushering his newfound followers through paused before he himself passed through the gate. He looked back, to Canterlot Castle silhouetted behind that looming grey orb, and saw an alicorn-sized figure dart into the sky.
His heart sinking, Shining too passed through the gate. It slammed down behind him, shaking the whole plateau. He felt eyes on his back as he went, as if judged for his cowardly flight: The moon, the monster, and the maid watched and laughed as Shining Armor drove those faithful to Celestia's legacy south.

...

Shining's eyes opened. He felt the wagon bounce and jiggle underneath him on the uneven road.
"Hey." He said scratchily. He cleared his throat and tried again. "HEY. Things still good up there?"

The ponies pulling the wagon shouted back affirmatives, so Shining sat up and looked around. He had chosen to rest on one of the near hundreds of wagons, most covered but his not, that were winding along the narrow mountain road southward.
Wagon trains were a relatively new phenomenon in Equestrian History, appearing only within the last few decades of the slow expansion south by settler ponies. Mutual assistance and mutual defense while they pushed forward towards a new frontier, too often not making it there.
Not making it there was a wracking concern for the ponies of this train, even if the there was no idea of destination or threat. Of fear, there was plenty. Shining's eyes gravitated up to the moon. It had risen and not come down, truly becoming the ceaseless watcher that his anxious mind in Canterlot had seen it as. 'Truly', in a metaphorical sense. While its presence was unnerving, Shining had no reason to believe that it was, in literal fact, scrutinizing the slow progress of the wagon train for some unknowable reason. Then again, he could not entirely disprove it.

Shining jumped off the wagon and trotted to the knights who had generously given him their wagon to rest on. For hours he had run from the front to the back of the train, checking up on everypony, reassuring the panicked or worried, and checking the way ahead. As the distance from Canterlot increased, Shining's twisting fear of being destroyed had decreased, but exhaustion and a kind of mounting horror of the utter depravity the ponies of the train increased. There was a kind of absurdity to the notion of a wagon trail within sight of Canterlot, or in fact stemming from the great city itself. Yet Shining Armor had drove the ponies onward, taking as much as they could carry with them in a bid to escape the insanity his old world had become, until he began stumbling over his own hooves and Fancy Pants ushered him onto a wagon to rest.

The number of IGH knights that had come with him: 180

The number of family that those ponies had brought with them: Roughly 400

The number of Canterlot Castle staff and other hangers-on that had joined Shining: 31

The number of pegasi named Flash Sentry, monks named Manered, and unicorns named Fancy Pants: 3

The number of Shining Armors: 1

The number of Mi Amore Cadenzas: 0

That last statistic had Shining in a melancholic mood. More than the apprehension and uncertainty that should have come with decided an entirely new destiny, he was angry at himself for abandoning a pony he cared about, leaving her to Twilight Velvet and her machinations.
It was an irking revelation to himself, that he had begun to think of her that way, not as mother, just ‘Twilight Velvet’. Shining wasn’t sure if he could trust anypony anymore or if anypony could trust him, if he had severed a deep familial relationship so badly. Had he been wrong to turn his back on his mother? Had she put him in an impossible position?
Perhaps it was for the best that Cadence had been left behind. The son of a creature like Twilight Velvet wasn't a safe bet.

Shining sighed, depressed at his own ruminations. Despite his doubts in himself he had ponies who relied on him, so they cared about him from a certain perspective. So he pushed down his reservations and began trotting the narrow space between the wagons and the precipice of the mountain road, beyond which was a hundred-hoof fall into the forested foothills.

The lack of sun made some things difficult to see, but kept the air cool. A cold winds on the feathery wings of clouds banks rolled from the south and west, refreshing for the cart-pullers but uncomfortable for everypony else. The moon's light pierced through the soft clouds like a foglight through mist.

Shining came up on one of the first wagons, where Fancy Pants was sitting cross-legged at the back of the bed, reading through a scroll.

"For shame sir, that you rest when mares and fillies walk." Shining chided playfully.

Fancy Pants looked up. "Ah, Sir Shining. Glad to see you up. You looked so wearied I thought it would be the next summer sun before you rose again." He smiled. "As for me, I make no excuses, expect perhaps that this atrophied leg came from an old mare or leper. It aches terribly after a while."

"When we reach civilization we will see about getting you a new one." Shining said.

"I hope so sir. I prided myself on my athleticism." Fancy Pants said.

Shining slipped past that wagon, to the very front of the train. Manered was walking beside the ponies yoked to the lead wagon, talking with them. The monk noticed Shining and stiffened. "Sir Armor."

"Hello." Shining said, matching his pace.

"Glad to see you well." Manered dipped his head.

"We haven't had much time to talk."

"That is true sir." Manered said evasively. "Would you like to? Now that being proactive has failed and the worst has some to pass, I would doubt the amount a noble knight would have to say to one such as I."

Shining pursed his lips. "You act as though you expect me to be angry with you."

"Shouldn't you be? You charged me with the task of explaining the sun's deviations. I failed in that regard." Manered said. "I wallow in ignorance. None of this makes sense to a pony of faith."

"Was this avoidable?"

Manered shrugged. "I don't know that either. But clearly I had my eyes turned to heaven, when I should have looked among ponies for the cause. It may not have been the Lady Velvet, but I suspect it was a mortal force."

"A mortal force? How can you be sure?"

Manered's lip curled. "The bolts of sunfire, striking down on something south, the direction Princess Celestia went. At first, just the one. Seeing it, it resonated to me like an executioners axe coming down." He grimaced. "But what our princess expected to squash persisted, past a whole salvo of fiery bolts. I fear it prowls still, while the princess lies defeated."

"I think every pony worries for the princess, considering." Shining motioned to the moon. "But I..."
He licked his lips. He was not ready to say he didn't care about Celestia, for despite her abandoning her responsibilities in Canterlot she was still his liege, worthy of a modicum of respect. Wasn't she? Wasn't she?
"I... hope she did not suffer." He cleared his throat. "Pardon me brother. I have to check on supplies."

Manered bowed his head again. "Sir."

Shining hesitated though. "Brother... Was Cadenza at Canterlot Castle? Was she safe."

Manered nibbled his lip, then sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't know what became of her. I don't think Lady Velvet got a hold of her, nor cared to. I wanted to help her, but-"

"That's enough thank you." Shining grunted. He stepped to the side of the path and let the wagon move past him.
He stayed there for a while, watching the train of wagons pass endlessly by. The IHG knights nodded and hailed him, while the commoners in their midst thanked him for his help. Was he really helping anypony, taking them away from their homes and comforts in Canterlot? How bad could the horrors his mother conjured really be for the average pony? Was he doing this for their sake, or were they doing it for his?

"Howdy sir!" A voice cut into his inner thoughts. Shining's gaze slid to Flash Sentry, the dopey junior pegasus knight. "Doing well?"

"Implacable, like all great leaders." Shining deadpanned.

"Glad to here it sir. This really is an amazing thing we're doing. Like pioneers, or the first migrants to Equestria!" Sentry giggled. "Oh, I almost forgot!" He turned around, so Shining could clearly see the saddlebag the pegasus carried was the same one from the library of Chateau la Garde. "When you went to rest I picked this up. I didn't read any of them I swear."

"That's..." Shining levitated the saddlebag to himself. The nondescript tomes packed inside menaced inexplicably in the moonlight. Shining felt the urge to heave the pack off the path down to the foothills, and let the bears have their pickings of the prime reading. "That's, um, very kind of you."

"Happy to help sir!" Flash Sentry saluted and resumed trotting alongside a wagon, quickly carried down the path.

Shining spent another minute of standing on the side of the path, holding on to the saddlebag.
It didn't matter what he thought, it occurred to him. As a leader, he was a proxy for his knights' thoughts and desires. Their journey was his journey.
He seated the bag on his back held his head up. He had ponies to help.

But during this bit of dramatic posing he caught a burst of purple light out of the very corner of his eye. He turned to look but realized it was much farther than it had seemed. At a distance of several kilometers, something was illuminating the tops of a cloudbank at regular intervals. The tiny bursts of light were progressing quickly north, towards Canterlot.

"A... navigation spell on an airship?" Shining wondered. It was going from the south, so he briefly humored the idea it was Celestia's airship. "No, it had a yellow light." With mixed feelings, he turned away and began on his walk.

How could he have even guessed, in his wildest imagination, that the light was his sister Twilight Sparkle, teleporting between clouds in the unkept sky.

Chapter 33: Heir to the Empire

Velvet sat in a box seat above the stage, watching half-lidded as her creation Astral made indecipherable speechs to the empty opera house. Her mutilated ponies, zombielike lobotomites, has dispersed to all corners of the room, to stand, lie, and listen. Listen for what, Velvet could not guess.

She considered the consequences of destroying Astral. Though she had been borne out of pony flesh, Velvet knew there was a new purpose to the flesh of the alicorn. It was animated, more like the strange undulations of deep sea invertebrates than a pony. At times, Astral seemed to flow more than she did stride, her component tendrils seeping from one part of the body to another like the roiling of waves: It stayed in the same place, more or, less, but bobbed around in a way that moved the form of the whole.

Or maybe, Velvet thought to herself, she was writing poetry where there was none, and the unsightly think on stage was just as much an unsubtle monster as it appeared to be. Velvet imagined all the other forms the creation could have taken, if only she had tried harder or been in a different frame of mind while weaving the ritual. What confluence of thought and internal wretchedness had pulled this particular horrible thing from Velvet's head and made it real?
Alas, Velvet doubted there was any force on the planet short of the Stars that could kill her Astral Nacre, and the Stars were unlikely to talk to her after she spited Shale and tried to kill Phyte.

Lost in her day-dreaming, Velvet nearly missed a new behavior from the alicorn below.
Astral was alert like a perturbed hound. She was standing stock strait, her head angled up and to the side, her nub-like ears swiveled forward. She did not move not even her tendril-ly mane, usually so animated.

Velvet rose from her head and leaned over the side of the box. "Astral?" She said. "Astral! What is it?"

"Hush. There's a wingbeat coming this way." Astral's head twitched incrementally sideways, tracking something. "Twilight... Twilight I hear a flier unlike you, unlike me." She began mumbling.

"Eh?" Velvet frowned. "What does that mean, Astral?"

Instead of answering, Astral began to move. She hoped off the stage and stalked up the aisles, pushing aside her zombies and bursting into the entry hall.

"Uh oh." Velvet's eyes widened. She galloped from the box to the stairwell, arriving at the entry hall herself in time to see Astral kicking Night Light into a wall and trotting up to the doors to the night outside.
"Astral Nacre! Explain yourself!" Velvet shouted.

Astral swiveled her head. "Materials, Twilight. The boy Sel accused your race of being imperfect material, impossible to use in acts of great creation. I agreed with him." She turned away, to track again the thing beyond Velvet's perception. "There's perfection out there. It flies this way, Twilight. I must meet it."

With that, she kicked open the door and launched into the sky.

"Hmm." Velvet looked over to Night Light, who was pulling himself to his hooves. "I don't know what this means but it is better than her just hanging around here forever."

"I was fine with her staying put." Night Light hacked. He took a few deep breaths and made sure his ribs were still in place. "But what you say, goes, Velvet."

Velvet arched her brow. "Does it? GO GET SEL AND BLUEBLOOD!" She suddenly erupted into shouting, pushing him towards the door. "She's heading towards the castle! Meet me there with enough ponies to capture whatever it is she's after!" Velvet frowned. "And keep Astral from eating it. This could be our chance to get out of this funk!"

"Yes dear, thank you." Night Light nodded, limping as fast as he could out the door.

Sel Lech sat back in the chair he'd pulled from one of the tables cafes, crossing his hind legs and resting his forehooves in his lap. The little plaza he was in, at the edge of the Old Town, was surrounded by restaurants, closed now in the night, with a fountain in the center. Blueblood and the militia ponies were sitting by the fountain chatting.

Sel really didn't know what anypony saw in Blueblood. He was at best a persuasive, arrogant huckster. He took every opportunity to show his cowardly side. Seacrest Blackhorn was dead, and all of the Black Horn Council save Blueblood and Aurthora Airy had been hacked to pieces. Sel would never outright say he wished Blueblood had gotten the sword too, but he wouldn't have been against it, since his use as a race-baiter and provocateur had run its course.
Sel saw Blueblood and the militiaponies laughing about something. Perhaps Sel didn't give the common pony enough credit; They could be bigoted all on their own. It ran against conventional noble logic, but commoners had just as much right to arriving at prejudice as well born ponies. It was infantilizing to assume otherwise.

"Cutting down the nobles was supposed to clear the way." Sel glared into the ground. "This... This goes against the idea of ponykind's shared destiny. We didn't finish the job."
His eyes roamed back to Blueblood. A bigot of tribe and class. Why didn't the commoners reject him? They seemed to be invested into his awful worldview. Perhaps... (Sel shivered) Perhaps the ritual in the throne room produced the unfortunate form of Astral Nacre because there was still corruption among ponykind, which kept them from embracing Velvet's dream. Sel dwelled on that though, expression turning severe. "There are more ponies to kill. Then will it all get better? Just let this nightmare be over, with a little spilt blood."

"SEL! BLUEBLOOD!" Night Light burst onto the scene, emerging from a street with a contingent of militiaponies. "Astral is in motion! Rendezvous at Canterlot Castle!"

Blueblood jumped up like a cat. "What?"

"The Castle! Go!" Night Light waved him forward. "Sel? Sel, get up!" The older pony galloped over to Sel, still in his chair. "Something has Astral Nacre in a tizzy. Velvet wants us to intervene."

Sel rocked forward. "Lord Light, I've been thinking. We're not doing this right. I believe in Lady Velvet's vision, but what if she's not the best pony to implement our goals? There's vital changes we need to make."

Night Light was confused. "Sel, please clarify for me. Are you asking me to go against my wife?"

"Well no, just doing things stickily to her orders have led us here. Is this where we want to be?" Sel said. "You and I, Lord Light, could double check things, you know. Maybe even trim unnecessary officers."

Night Light, consternation marring his expression, sighed. He shifted his body and smacked Sel across the face violently, knocking him clear out of the seat.

Sel lay on the cold pavers, head throbbing and vision blurred. Tears welled in his eyes, but not from the pain.

"Sel..." Night Light crouched next to the prone colt. "So, the god we summoned isn't what you expected. You're conflicted. You're confused. I am too, Sel. But I won't five you if you give up hope or shirk your duties! If the sacrifices we've made mattered to you, follow orders. You earned that uniform." He grabbed said uniform, hauling Sel to his hooves, though he was determined to remain limp in his grasp. "Now you have to make it mean something. Go to the castle and keep the peace, like a guard captain is meant to."

Night Light shoved Sel forward. Sel stumbled forward a few steps but remained on his hooves. Sel lifted his head, his face burning from pain and embarrassment. Mercifully the militia ponies had gone with Blueblood, so they were not there so see his shame. He just had to face the judgement of his instructor. "Lord Light..." He gasped through his constricted throat. "Ponies... we can't-"

"If you think Astral Nacre is a failure, then good. She's not all we hoped for. Does that mean we did something wrong? of Course not! Sometimes our greatest efforts still end in failure." Night Light said, part stern part sympathetic. "Twilight Velvet thinks our new god can be turned into something beautiful, and therefore so do I. It's not up to us to doubt. Worship her, Sel. I won't tolerate faithlessness."

"I..." Sel gulped.
If he was going to obey Night Light's orders, he needed to change the way he'd been rationalizing their work. If Astral Nacre wasn't worthy, then there could be no apotheosis of ponykind. But if Velvet could make Astral worthy, then that more than justified Velvet taking and holding on to power, even political power. Velvet was the shepherd to lead ponies and gods both.
It was all so surreal. The work was supposed to be done after Astral was created. Now it was looking like they were in it for the long haul.

Sel knew thanking Night Light from the lesson would only earn more rebuke, so he wordlessly turned and galloped in the direction of Canterlot Castle.

With Astral Nacre's departure, Velvet was alone in the opera house- Or at least alone with Astral's mutilated and mindless victims. Trotting towards the stage, Velvet saw the zombies had become passive in the alicorn's absence, standing or laying here and there, motionless. Those still able to move did so poorly, tripping over seats and colliding with walls.
Moving closer to one of the unfortunate ponies, Velvet saw her earlier assumptions about them were wrong: Astral had not attacked them out of pure sadism, for it seemed that despite their deteriorated condition the morbid creations were in no pain. Nor was Astral so insane that the work she had done was shoddy. No, it seemed just the opposite, for despite being horribly rearranged, the ponies still functioned. Velvet looked over the pathetic creatures and saw signs of improvement here and there from pony to pony, cleaner grafts and better aligned reconstructed limbs, but still no improvement in sapience. Still, Velvet had to hand it to her: Astral Nacre matched body parts by color much better than Phyte had.

"Attempts to create pony perfection. The whole thing is dripping with irony." Velvet poked one of the zombies to test its flesh. Seemed healthy. "Ponies and alicorns kill and butcher one another, in idealistic attempts to 'perfect' the other, and therefore themselves. Pony can't mutilate pony, and alicorn can't mutilate alicorn. Only by changing the other can they seek after the beautiful."

Velvet hopped up onto the stage. She wanted to see what Astral had been so protective of before she ran off. Velvet pulled back the stage curtain.
There were several bloodied hospital beds, likely stolen at the same time as the patients. Beside them were two stone slabs, covered in etched symbols and with blood that had long since dried. Velvet inspected the slabs but could decipher neither the symbols nor guess where it had come from. Very odd.

Astral Nacre had also made little gatherings of objects in piles across the stage. Broken glass, flakes of iron, golden rings, and crumpled pieces of paper all had their own sizable piles. The glass could have come from anywhere, but they still enticed Velvet with how they caught the candlelight. The iron flakes were probably from one of the artisan blacksmiths in the old town, a waste product from any number of reductive processes. The gold rings, which seemed to be wedding bands based on their etchings, had likely been pulled off the zombified ponies. A gutted dictionary leaning against a lectern told Velvet where the crumpled paper had come from.

And then there were the piles of organs: Things which Astral, in her infinite wisdom, had deemed unnecessary. Brain lobes of varying sizes, one or both kidneys still attached together, coils of arterial linings, a lung, a digestive tract, a heart or two, and many many sets of genitals. With a sickened glance at the zombies, Velvet confirmed their source. It seemed Astral Nacre wasn’t quite sure what she believed to be the perfect pony form, but it certainly didn’t include genitals.

“Interesting.” Velvet picked up on of the brain lobes. The pineal gland, she guessed. She tossed it back with the rest.

Backing away from the gore pile, Velvet almost fell into a hole in the stage floor. "Hmm?" The hole most certainly had not been there before, or productions of My Trottingham Cousin would end with most of the cast plummeting into it. She peered into the abyssal crack, some fives hooves diameter, and saw how it cut through the floor, then foundations, then the rock of the Canterlot Plateau, past where the light could illuminate. However Velvet thought she might have caught a fleeting indication of a moving light down in the dark, at least a hundreds of hooves deep, like a lantern or torch.

“Theres a pony down there.” Velvet said to herself. “Hello there! Can you hear me?" She yelled into the hole. Save for her echo, there was no response.

Pulling back from the hole, Velvet glanced around for anything that she might use to pull up what could have been a stranded pony. The stage’s pulley system, used for flying props across a scene, was sitting untouched off to the side. The corresponding harness, to attach the actors to the pulleys, was draped over a ponyquin in the corner. Thankfully none of the equipment had been damaged by Astral Nacre's madness.

"As much as I'd like to explore a mysterious, unknown hole, I think that's a job for somepony younger." Velvet rubbed her chin. "Not much else to do here then. I'd better catch up with Night Light."

She retreated from the chasm, cleared her mind, and teleported away in a column of green and purple fire.

High above Canterlot, on a cloud bank fracturing on the Mountain, Twilight Sparkle surveyed the plateau below her. Something was wrong, even more than could be expected from the absence of the the empress. Something was seriously, seriously wrong in her hometown.

A strong east wind was beginning to clear away the cloud cover so Twilight was soon to lose her perch. She jumped from the cloud onto the rocky slope of the Mountain. The upper slopes were nearly vertical, but she found the alicorn body dexterous enough to maintain its footing. She dispelled the taxing cloud-walking spell.
Like a mountain goat, she began hopping her way down the mountain. Cover of darkness and camouflage among the dark rock keep her from being seen, not that it looked like any sentries were posted.

Desperately hoping nopony was watching in the city, Twilight risked the brief flash of light from her teleportation spell to make it onto the city wall. She reappeared where the wall merged into the slope of the mountain, and her fear that the guards were waiting to ambush her proved false. There was nopony to be seen or felt.
"Highly unusual." Twilight said to herself. Now that she was closer to the city she could see one or two patrols, clearly not the usually city guard, hanging around the public places. Like in Ponyville, all the civilians were holed up in their homes.

Twilight cautiously stalked along the city wall, making the great clockwise arc around the circumference of the city. Still there were no guards, not even in the watchtowers. Finally she reached the tower that connected the wall to Canterlot Castle. The castle was partially built into the wall, or rather the wall grew out of the castle, but a single arching bridge joined a tower with the central keep to better restrict access in.
Twilight paused on the bridge, the smaller towers and wings of the castle beneath her. The wind was really starting to pick up, and the tapestry tied around her neck began to flutter. The aura around the castle felt... cold, unwelcoming. All the bustle and life that ponies gave the castle was absent. Even when the ponies of the imperial court had their disagreements, a wind of energy and eagerness pervaded the halls.
Death. Twilight detected the miasma of death. Pulling her cape close around her, she crossed the bridge and entered the keep.

The halls and annexes of Canterlot Castle could be dark even in the liveliest of times, as there was only so much candles and torches could do for the voluminous spaces and high ceilings. As Twilght walked the black rooms, lit only by moonlight through the windows, her fear grew. Something bad had happened. She could feel a few ponies milling near the bottom floors, but other than that the castle was completely abandoned. Fancy Pants, Prosser, Shining Armor, Cadence, all absent.

"Focus Twilight." Twilight rubbed her eyes. "You're just here to find a spell. Worrying about Canterlot can come after I go back and find Spike."

Gritting her teeth, Twilight trotted quickly through the keep to arrive at the library. Unexpectedly, it was as warm and well lit as ever. The crone librarian, an aura so faint Twilight hadn't noticed it, was haunched at the front desk reading over inventories by candlelight
Twilight thought she could sneak past the old mare, but as soon as she stepped out of the shadow a terse tutting met her ears.

“New visitors?” The librarian peered over her desk with broad spectacles. “You have to sign in, you know.”

Twilight shifted uneasily. The librarian seemed completely unconcerned that an enormous, haggard, black and purple alicorn was sneaking around Canterlot Castle; Perhaps her glasses prescription were not strong enough. "Um, yes. I know."

"Step forward please." As Twilight knew well from many discussions with the old crone, the cataloging and good treatment of books was likely the only thing keeping the frail librarian alive. Still, she had a wealth of knowledge about obscure parchment-making techniques that had captivated a filly Twilight on her trips to the library for new material.

“I’m not checking anything out.” Twilight was trying her hardest to keep her new and gravelly voice pleasant. “I’m looking for a spellbook.”

“That’s what that ruffian Foaly Flux said, and now half the forbidden magic collection is missing.” The librarian scowled. Twilight was tempted to plop her saddlebag full of said books on the desk while making a joke, but decided it could wait. There were more important things than timely book return. Or were there?

“Fine.” Twilight leaned the desk and levitated a pen to the list “It’s not like anypony reads over this thing anyway.”

“I read it!” The librarian bristled, looking at the newest signature on her logbook. Her eyes twinkled in surprise. “Twilight Sparkle? Oh! Lady Twilight I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.”

“Must be my new manecut.” Twilight wondered if it would be better to come up with a pseudonym. Flicker, perhaps? Or Dusk Lantern? She'd workshop it. "As I said, I'm looking for a spellbook."

"Could you be more specific Lady Sparkle?" The librarian pushed her spectacles farther up her nose.

Twilight fidgeted with her cape, something fast becoming something of a nervous habit for her. “A tracking spell. One that specializes with dragons? I want to cheat at hide and seek with Spike.”

The librarian didn't care to notice the excuse, instead pulling out a resister and flipping through it. “Didn’t you some in here showing off a tracking spell just the other week? Why couldn’t you use that one?” She hummed.

“That was two years ago, and I need something specialized towards dragons because Spike would appear as ‘reptile’ with Jazmane the Hat’s tracking spell. That’s not very much use in the Everfree Forest.”

“Playing hide and seek in a place as unpleasant as the Everfree? I must say Lady Twilight, I’m surprised at this uncharacteristic adventurousness. However, something does come to mind.” The librarian paused above a particular entry in the register. “Able Airy had a set of cataloging spells, one for each phylum. Might that help?”

Twilight shrugged. “That would be a good place to start.”

“Aisle twelve.” The librarian stood up and pointed into the maze of bookshelves. Twilight gave a shallow curtsy and cantered up the rows to the twelfth.

The same cold wind that was coursing through Canterlot had been buffeting Cloudsdale for hours, whistling down from the slopes of the Unicorn Mountains and around the cloud homes. Airships at the skydock creaked and groaned, their taut mooring lines insufficient to keep them from rolling with the eddies in the breeze.
Spitfire and the Wonderbolts landed in the center of the Stratus District, in a plaza wedged between the looming white edifices. They quickly sheltered among the columns of one of the buildings, then ducked inside.

Although it claimed to be ‘royal’, the Cloudsdale Royal Hospital had never treated a princess. It was a relatively modern building, floating halfway up the Stratus District within a convenient range of the airship mooring base, and not too far from the Weather Factory, the two places injuries were most likely to be inflicted. Tempered by daily maiming, delimbings, electrocutions, rainbow deluges, and merciless beatings, the staff of the Cloudsdale Royal were prepared for every occasion.
Thus when Rain Gnash, screaming in pain and terror, appeared in the entrance a burst of magic, not a second was wasted on confusion or questions.

Spitfire was guided to the hospital's top floor, to a wing set aside for Cloudsdale's social elite. She alone went into the room she was pointed to, the rest of the Wonderbolts waiting in the hall.
Spitfire had had a few hours of rest, and not even had the opportunity to bath since the flight from Canterlot. She was tired and she ached. When she saw Rain Gnash , those petty pains felt inconsequential.

“Capchain Spiffire. It’s pout chime you chode up.” Padding and gauze around what remained of Gnash’s muzzle stymied her enunciation. “Shadly mosh of me’sh shtill misshing.”
The majority of the admiral's body was covered in bandages, with her wings and torso enterally encased. The admiral’s enormous bed took half the space of the room, which dwarfed even her greater than average size. However the straps holding her remaining limbs in position kept her from enjoying it.

“Reporting as ordered, ma’am.” Spitfire whispered with quiet dismay.

“Thash goot.” Gnash said. “Don’ch waiss kime wiff me, capchain. Chalk oo Fweetfwuut.”

“Of course, Admiral.” Spitfire nodded sadly. “You, umm, don't need anything, do you?"

Rain Gnash rolled her eyes, the only part of her she was able to move freely. There was something strange about that, Spitfire thought. The eyes were an especially vunerable and vauable part of a warrior. Among the ancient pegasi, victims were often blinded as a symbolic display of power. Rain Gnash's eyes were intact; She was undefeated. "Wfen I need a nursh, I'll cawl for er, Spiffire." The admiral said.

"Yes ma'am. Those savages. We’ll make them pay for what they did.” Spitfire promised.

“No! NO!” Gnash rattled her trussing violently, trying to get closer to Spitfire. “Shtay away! Whashever you do, shtay away fwom Cancerlot!”

A nurse rushed in to try to calm Rain Gnash’s trashing. “You need to leave.” She said over her shoulder. “Any excitement and the scarring will reopen.”

Gnash’s frantic gaze following her, Spitfire ducked out of the room.
"Geeze." She gingerly closed the door.

"That bad?" Soarin asked.

"She's going to live, but..." Spitfire sighed.

"But they tore her up." Fleetfoot nudged past the other wonderbolts. "You made it, captain."
The teal wonderbolt was, wrapped in a hospital gown. She had no outward injuries, but her eyes had trouble focussing on anypony. Despite the relative warmness of the hall, Fleetfoot could not stop shivering.

“Fleet! I'm glad to see you're alive." Spitfire said.

Fleetfoot smiled. "I'm fine. They made me wear the gown."

"I can’t believe they let you and the Admiral live.” Soarin tentatively pulled Fleetfoot into a small hug.

“It won’t be so good if she gets infected. You can't see it under the bandages but she's missing a lot of skin.” Fleetfoot said solemnly. “Admiral Gnash... Well you saw what she looked like. I..." She shook her head. "I don't know where to start explaining. That monster tried to fix her. Didn't really work."

Spitfire assumed she meant Twilight Velvet. “It's okay Fleet. Can you tell us what happened? How did you get here before us?”

“Magic, to both answers.” Fleetfoot’s attention grew distant, her breathing quickening. “It's... almost impossible to describe. Lady Velvet tore them apart with a... a horrible spell. It wasn't a spell meant to be used by ponies."

"Tore them apart? Who?"

"Everpony. Twilight Velvet had already turned the Speakers of the Estates into so much chum. The throne room was filled to our ankles with blood." Fleet moaned. "Lady Velvet started explaining her motivation but I couldn't understand what she was talking about. Admiral Gnash did, and even accepted her logic! Gods, it was awful. They cast a spell..." She cleared her throat. "It took five ponies. Velvet herself, Seacrest Blackhorn, Lord Flux, Admiral Gnash, and that robed servant pony. The spell ate all of them except Velvet. At the end of it, the only thing left was... death and awe."

Spitfire and Soarin exchanged worried looks.

"The child of the spell was a creation out of Lady Velvet's dreams. Oh, but what pony has dreams so terrible! It wasn’t a pony, and, it wasn’t a god. It... It took the shape of an alicorn.” Her breath became ragged. “It didn’t even talk! It just thought words, and they appeared in our heads!”

“It wasn’t a god.” Spitfire repeated. Had making a god been Velvet's intention in the first place? “If it's not a god, then we can fight it. If we plan well we can go back and take Velvet down a peg.”

“NO!” Fleetfoot had the same crazed look that Gnash had. “Stay away from Astral Nacre. She's not a god, but something worse! Please captain, Canterlot isn’t worth it.”

“What about payback? What about retribution for all the ponies Velvet killed?” Spitfire shot back. She felt her cheeks burning at the idea she had run away from Canterlot for nothing. If she'd stayed and fought, clear of the fear that had gripped her, so much pain could have been averted. “We can’t let them get away with that!”

Fleetfoot shook her head fretfully. “Captain please listen to me. During that ritual Admiral Gnash got closer to that monstrosity than anypony should ever have too. She saw horrible horrible things, Spitfire. Depravity and madness like we couldn’t understand! It’ll take more than just ponies to stop the monster.”

“We could understand? Fleetfoot what are you talking about?” Spitfire was getting unnerved. “How do you know all that?”

“We didn’t get away unscathed.” Fleetfoot said quietly. “That demon touched us, and she…” Fleetfoot twitched, and her eyes snapped shut. "I tried to help and..."

Spitfire was definitely getting the impression something invisible to the eye was irking Fleetfoot. "What happened? Did they... Torture you?"

"No. No." Fleetfoot gulped. "It tried to heal Admiral Gnash. I offered my life in exchange for hers. I should have known better." She reopened her eyes. A pale white light oozed from out of her pupils, and the pegasus’s voice was no longer her own. "We both lost vital part of ourselves, taken by the monster. If I was to survive, certain things had to be shared. Including our souls.”

Spitfire ran a nervous tongue along her teeth, feeling the effect of frantic days without brushing. She stared into the white eyes, just like Phyte’s thrall under the Musician's Guild had possessed. The death of normalcy was spreading beyond Canterlot. She spat the stale saliva on the hospital floor.
"Fleet... It doesn't control you, does it?"

"No. It's just Rain and Fleetfoot. Here. When we close our eyes, we see from the eyes of the other. A thought begins in one head and ends on the tongue of the other." Fleetfoot blinked and the light faded somewhat. "It's a wretched way to exist." She choked out. "We've lost our privacy. I'm a freak."

Spitfire found it hard to breath. "Fleet, listen to me. Staying behind like you did was a noble thing, but you were just one pony."

"Captain." Fleetfoot lurched forward, pressing her face into Spitfire's. "We order you to STAY AWAY from Canterlot. You're a real bastard but you don't deserve this fate. Promise me you won't lead the Wonderbolts back to Canterlot."

Spitfire, hair raised, backed into the wall. She felt a mix of sympathetic fear and anger for the insubordination Fleetfoot was showing her. Only... It was Gnash speaking through Fleet.
"Are afraid of what I'll do in Canterlot."

"Do? No. You'll die." Fleetfoot pronounced solemnly. "Or worse."

The dread she had experienced running from Canterlot washed back over Spitfire. Having cycled through three emotions in as many minutes, it was all she could do to open her mouth for a last "Buck all this.” She pushed past Fleetfoot and Soarin and made for the window at the end of the hall. "I'm going home." She slid the window open jumped and flew out into the windy night sky.

"Damn." Soarin rubbed his chin with the back of his hoof. "Fleet, the captain is tring to help you. She wants to fight for you."

"She should be thinking of yourselves now, not us." Fleetfoot said. "Go home. Wait out the night. Don't let yourselves be sucked back into the coming whirlwind."

Soarin stared at his comrade. Fleetfoot using Gnash's little mannerisms seriously unsettled him. The other Wonderbolts had retreated to a safe distance, regarding her with looks of fear or concern.
"Well Fleet... Admiral... Are you going to order like you did Captain Spitfire?"

Before Fleetfoot could speak, the door to Gnash's room opened and the nurse scurried out. "You ponies keep it down." She said before trotting up the hall.

Soarin peeked into the room. Rain Gnash was passed out, her ragged breathing u even.

"We're never going to dream again." Fleetfoor said, her voice becoming less her own. "It's what I get for wagering my l life on somepony else's mad ambition. I only regret that Fleetfoot has had to suffer as well. It will be... interesting to so what happens. I may still die. Who knows what will happen to her if I do. Will it be better or worse if I go on living?"

“Admiral, I-.”

“I’m not going to mince words. Look in the room again: I'm a bucking mess. I’ll never walk or fly again. If I’m lucky my father or the Admiralty will hire a pony to wheel me around.” Fleetfoot shook her head, her modulated voice wavering. “What will they say about me then? The number of ‘whale’ comments alone would put the Cloud Creche to shame for sheer immaturity. I will be known forever as the cripple admiral, whose looks were improved by the burns and scars. No, maybe it’s better if I die, to say nothing of the burden I'm placing on Fleetfoot.”

“I…” Soarin was undercut by how resolute she sounded. "Ma'am, have you asked Fleet."

The light in Fleetfoot's eyes faded again, and in a clear voice she softly spoke. "I willingly chose this. You would too, Soarin. We both made oaths to Cloudsdale and our superiors."

"But-" Soarin's eyes were drawn to the open window Spitfire had gone out. "It's..." Despite the tense situation he laughed. "It's going to be a pain talking to you, when we can't tell which mare if listening.

Fleetfoot’s eyes lost their glow completely, and she staggered under the disorientation of her sudden return to lucidity. “Uhh, Soarin. I need to rest." She slumped against the wall. She poked herself in the cheek weakly, as if testing the flesh. "Soarin... If we go mad..." She drifted into unconsciousness.

Soarin and the other Wonderbolts shared worried looks.

“Yeesh, the chain of command just got complicated.” Rapidfire remarked.

Soarin sighed. “Barracks gossip will never be the same.”

Sel Lech arrived at the plaza at the foot of Canterlot Castle right as Twilight Velvet appeared in a burst of magic. Blueblood, a dozen militia ponies, and Aurthora Airy were already on the scene.

"What's going on?" Blueblood demanded.

Velvet was distracted enough not to reprimand him. "Astral Nacre left the Opera House, heading in this direction, and has likely already entered the castle. She is after somepony, or something." She pointed to the great entryway to the castle, the gate slightly ajar. "If you encounter Astral, or her prey, stay at a safe distance."
Her eyes swiveled to Sel Lech. "Captain Sabonord, I need a word with you."

Blueblood and Aurthora led a column of militia ponies each into the castle, the former unenthused and the latter resolute. Sel nervously approached Velvet bowing his head.
"Lady Velvet, I'm sorry about my behavior in the Opera House. I have been troubled by confusion." He whispered. "I worry that I may lose sight of our goal. I've let personal animosity get in my way."

Velvet arched a brow. "You mean Blueblood? Is he being a jackass? If he's bothering you that badly just shoot him." She arched a brow. "Well?"

Sel licked his lips. "Um, no ma'am. I- I... I agree with your reasons for keeping him on. He was a valuable ally in misleading the estates."

"He was. It does prompt questions about his further usefulness."Velvet shrugged. "But on to what I need from you. Sel, you must check on something for me so as not to let the others know."

Sel blinked. "My lady?"

"You know the catacombs under the Musician's Guild? Surely you do, since you swept them with the city guard after the Wonderbolts did the dirty work of purging them." Velvet motioned to the ground, and the tunnels somewhere beneath their hooves. "That was only one, isolated section of a larger network of tunnels. If you remember your history, Canterlot began as a crystal mining outpost, and there are countless passages we don't know about." She gripped his shoulder. "And other, deeper, darker things are down there too. Go back to the Opera House, and make sure nopony comes out of the hole in the stage." She smiled devilishly. "And also keep anypony from going in. Understand, Sel?"

Sel almost asked for clarification, but bit back his curiosity. It was his duty to follow orders. If he did not understand her meaning from what she had said, it was his fault. "Yes, Lady Velvet." He said sternly. "They won't get past me."

"Good lad." Velvet smiled.

"But-" Sel looked past Velvet, to the castle. The homeless ponies he had directed to shelter there were now stuck between Astral and Blueblood, a worse predicament than where they'd begun. "I... I won't hesitate when it comes time, my lady."

"I'm glad for you Sel. When it comes time, I hope you are work as hard for your desires as you've worked for mine." Velvet nodded. She shooed him back in the direction of the old town, while she herself turned to the castle. "Good luck captain."

“And someponies keep breaking the front door to the castle down, so with all the rain we’ve been having it’s been very humid in here. I can almost hear my books screaming, the poor dears.”

Twilight let the librarian talk as she read through the spellbooks she’d set aside. Able Airy, ancient ancestor to the Viscountess of Draftkel Castle, Aurthora Airy, had been a natural scientist and magical theorist of moderate fame from the early imperial era. Most of the spells Twilight found herself reading through were clever adaptations of the magic of other species for unicorn magicians, not unlike the cloudwalking spell she had found in the Ponyville library. Several were critiques on the amniomorphic spell by Starswirl, changing the spell so it slowed rather than hastened embryonic development in ungulates. Fascinating. Heterodoxical, but fascinating.

“Who keeps breaking the doors down?” Twilight asked, as she flipped through pages with practiced speed so as to reduce the amount of wasted time to a minimum.

“All those pretentious aristocrats and their thugs, no offence to your ladyship. After Fancy Pants died, Captain Hausseway was marching his guards through here every day like he owned the place.”

“Wait, wait, what?” Twilight skipped several beats, pausing from her reading. “Fancy Pants is dead?”

“Oh yes, I suppose you weren’t here for that whole debacle.” The librarian mused darkly. “Yes, some assassin mares did it, though the only name I heard in connection to it was Scratch.”

“Skratchy.” Twilight uttered. The mare from the coffee shop the day she'd left for Ponyville: Twilight remember her well, with the blue mane and white coat. Twilight remembered joking with her about the coincidental similarity of her name to the infamous psycho murderer of a decade past, Vinyl Scratch. Coincidence not. "Debacle indeed. I'll have to catch up with the political news. When I have time, I mean." Though after reading a few more lines from the spellbook she looked up again. "I suppose Captain Hauseway is in charge now?"

The librarian looked sympathetically pitying. “The issue at hoof, Lady Twilight, is more important. Ask later, and of somepony closer to the center."

Twilight obliged, but the growing sense of dread was proving distracting. Had Fancy Pant's death led to the aweful aura that now pervaded the castle?

Several books and hundreds of spells later, Twilight what she was looking for.
“Ah ha! Able’s Spell for Reptilian Differentiation!” Twilight read through it several times. “That’s exactly what I’ll need to find Spike!” It was not complicated, so Twilight quickly committed it to memory.

“Excellent, my lady. Why don’t you cast it a few times to test it before you leave?” The librarian proposed.

“Heh, I don’t think there are many reptiles in Canterlot Castle, despite what the conspiracy theorists may believe.” Twilight joked. “But there's another version for mammals. That should be a sufficient test.”

Twilight charged and released the spell. Blobs of color began to dance across her vision. With a range of several hundred hooflengths, she could see the outline of ponies even through walls and across floors. She could also see the many rats and mice living in the cracks in the stone, and the cats stalking them. Twilight glanced around, taking in the sight. The upper levels of the keep was as deserted as it had seemed. Besides the librarian and herself, there were only two ponies in the upper sections of the castle. There was quite a few ponies mingling in the lower levels by the enterance but Twilight ignored them.

Twilight let the spell dwindle. "Canterlot Castle is empty. “Where are all the councilors?”

The librarian wrinkled her nose. "Lady Twilight, there are better ponies to ask."

"Yes... But I have to know before I go back to the Everfree. Why is the castle abandoned? Where are the ponies that are supposed to be running the empire?"

"Dead, mostly."

Twilight almost shouted an objection. "Dead? What? Was it a coup? A revolution?"

“It’s difficult to say.” The librarian struggled to keep her emotion in check. “More than anything it was a massacre. You wanted to know about Captain Hausseway? He’s under the royal gardens, along with hundreds of other ponies. The Speakers of the Estates have, one and all, been killed.”

Twilight's blood ran cold. She had expected a certain amount of chaos in Celestia's absence, but this was beyond the pale. It was beyond comprehension! Such a brutal political purge was literally unprecedented. "Who? Who did this?”

“I- I-” The librarian faltered, and erupted into silent tears. “It’s just so terrible. The provisional leadership is still investigating. All the castle staff were tossed out. Nopony knows where the next meal is coming from. I'm luck to havve the key to the castle larder or I'd hardly last the night.”

"This is so bucked." Twilight stood up. Out of curtesy she quickly reshelved the books. "Thank you mis. I'm sorry for what's happened."

"Good luck with hide and seek." The librarian said despondently. "Until next time, Lady Sparkle."

Twilight galloped out of the library, but paused in the dark hallway. An unfamiliar fright was creeping up her spine. It did not take a powerful force like Nightmare Moon or Forlorn Spark to kill a lot of normal ponies, but it did take an incalculably cruel one.
Twilight's instincts were screaming at her to run away, as if danger was pressing in on her.

She cast Able’s tracking spell to check that her route out of the castle was clear of ponies, but she noticed a discrepancy between the last time she had looked. In the throne room was a very small outline labeled as a pony, a unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus simultaneously, that had not been there before. That impossibility exploited Twilight’s greatest weakness, curiosity.
With a precision gained from a decade living in those halls, Twilight teleported directly to the throne room.

It was like something taken from a horrendous nightmare. Although the corpses had been moved, the marble floor was heavily stained with dried pools of blood. The walls, windows, and even parts of the ceiling was similarly painted. In the fleeting light of Twilight’s horn the entire scene resembled the insides of some great animal. At the head of the throne room the normally golden throne was charred black by some horrible magic.

Twilight willed herself not to collapse under the sheer horror of the grotesque exhibition. She was beginning to understand the librarian’s panic. "Goodness gracious." She muttered, trotting towards the throne.
The aura of death was strong, making Twilight's horn tingle unpleasantly. The murders that had taken place here were not senseless, but rather in the service of a spell. Twilight had a creeping suspicion she knew what spell it was.

She stopped at the foot of the stairs up to the throne dais. The tracking spell was telling her the strange pony reading was by the throne, but there was nothing there. Twilight nudged the throne with her magic, and part of the back dissolved into ash. Twilight was aghast. Celestia’s imperial cathedra, charred and cracked from the profane magic, was beginning to resemble the ruined throne of Everfree Castle. Would the rest of the castle inevitably become a ruin too, lost to history.

As Twilight was considering this, she noticed that just to the right of the throne was a pile of folded clothing.
It was armor, not clothing, as Twilight discovered when she picked up the black lacquered breastplate. It was emblazoned with a simple triangle inset within a circle, a stylized mountain or unicorn horn Twilight speculated. Laying by the armor was a large sword with a black hilt with the same emblem. It unsettled Twilight for reasons she could not explain; It didn’t seem that outwardly special to Twilight, although it was of an exotic material and design.
"This thing was used in the ritual. As a focus point perhaps?" She rotated it again. "No, it was being worn. Worn by..."

The erroneous pony signature coming from within the armor. For whatever reason the aura of the armor had the indicators of a pegasus, earth pony, and unicorn.

"Could it be... That's how an alicorn registers with this spell?" Turning it over, Twilight found bits of dry flesh and blue fur stuck to the inside. “Eech!” Disgusted, Twilight dropped the breastplate. The armor and the associated sword were interesting curios, but with further study Twilight would uncover more about why it registered as it did: If she was correct, and the ritual had been used here, it could reveal something about the nature of alicorns. Not that Twilight needed more armor, as she already had a set of nightmare armor permanently burned onto her flesh.
"I'll take these with me just in case then." Adjusting the knot on her cape, Twilight prepared to teleport out of the city.

A bright flash illuminated the wall: Something was directly behind her. Wheeling around, Twilight scanned the throne room’s entrance for anything amiss. Another flash of light, once again directly behind her. Twilight spun and saw a pony swathed in a black cloak by the throne, grabbing the living armor set.

“Hey!” She yelled, charged her horn. “Put that down!”

The pony looked at Twilight for a moment, the tip of her yellow nose and the ends of her wavy red hair visible from under the shadow of the cloak.
“Heya Princess.” It was a youngish mare’s voice, bitingly sarcastic. “You're here early. Celestia sure didn't present much issue, huh.”

Twilight froze. She recognized that voice. It had been years, more than ten years in fact. "Wha... Lady Shimmer?"

"Peace out." In a flash of orange magic, the yellow mare disappeared with the armor.

Twilight was stunned. No. No it couldn't have been. It was completely impossible in a literal sense.
Fumbling forward, Twilight tried to detect where the mare's teleportation spell had taken her. Alas, it was disrupted by something.

"I..." Twilight gulped. She had hesitated and the mare had disappeared with most of the armor. She kicked in frustration, striking the throne and reducing more of it to dust. "Shit! Damn! Why are there so many distractions!" She'd just come to learn the detection spell (mission accomplished), and the city kept throwing things her way.

"hhhhhh" From the very depths of the castle, or perhaps Twilight's fitful imagination, an indescribable whisper came.

Twilight yipped. Another?! Fate and fortune were just messing with her now!

"hhhHHhhHHhhh" The whisper said again, clearer and stronger. That voice, and the feeling that came with hearing it, struck her with its alienness.

"Who's there!" She shouted across the throne room. She could feel a presence looming, as powerful as Forlorn Spark with none of the recognizable qualities. It was outside Twilight's frame of reference. Very soon, Twilight would have her answer about the result of the ritual preformed at the throne.
She knew she could, and probably should, run. She had the tracking spell. She didn't need to stay and see the thing coming for her, or chase after the cloaked yellow mare. Canterlot's problems could remain its own. She had enough to deal with.

Gripped by fear, Twilight grabbed the black-hilted long sword from by the crumbled throne. She held it in front of her defensively.

"hhHHhhhhhi'm coming to get you." An enormous shadow darkened the threshold. "have a look at you. Wow." It wheezed, yes the voice was not audible, but mental. It spilled forward into the throne room. "Do you want to see me? I want you to see me. Describe me to the keepers of heaven when you arrive there."

"Who am I to deny you." Twilight said at a choked whisper. "Gods show themselves as they please."

"Ah Geez." Blueblood prodded the lump flesh stuck to the walls of the ground floor halls. He brought his lantern closer. "it's like she chewed them and spit them out."

Aurthora Airy pinched her nose. "Terrible. Who were these ponies? I though we had cleared everypony out already?" She cast an eye over the makeshift encampment the late ponies had made in the passageways. "These ponies were... camping out?"

One of the militiaponies approached them. "Sir, Lady Velvet wants you."

Bluebblood's feeling of smug victory evaporated. "I see. Lady Aurthora, hold down things here."

He followed the militiapony to another corridor. In one of the small naves attached to a larger meeting hall was a private chapel. There were small statues, stylized depictions of Celestia and the sun, now splattered with blood. Twilight Velvet was observing the display by candlelight.

"My Lady." Blueblood was never at ease around Velvet, but something felt particularly off now.

"The organs, Blueblood. I can't seem to find them." Velvet said at a whisper, her eyes roaming the gruesome display. "Look around. Maybe they rolled under that chair over there."

Blueblood wrinkled his nose, but bent down to peer under the mentioned chair. It was dark. The dark was then all-consuming as Velvet kicked Blueblood in the rump. Blueblood squealed, his head jammed in between the legs.

"Prince... What a word, prince." He felt Velvet kneel beside him. "The princess is dead. One thinks a prince would step into the spotlight. Oh, but Canterlot tried for a brief, spectacular moment, to celebrate a singular prince. A Blackhorn prince. Poor Seacrest, embodiment of all the pompous, patronizing presumptiveness of Canterlot nobility. What happened to him? My Canterlot killed his Canterlot."

Blueblood opened his mouth to offer the first excuse that came to mind. "L- Lady Velvet, let me up I beg you. You know I'm been on your side!"

"Blueblood, what do you know about my Canterlot? Yes, you have been working with us to make it a reality, but how much do you understand it meaning, truly?" She whispered. "What Canterlot do you belong to? The one that is dying or the one that is killing?"

Blueblood whined in displeasure. "My lady I don't understand the choices I have."
He felt a telekinetic field close around his hoof and dragged him into the center of the room. His relief was short lived as Velvet lifted then dropped the chair onto his head.
"Ow! Shit! you broke my nose!" Blueblood held his hoof up to defend against further attack. "W- Why did you do that?"

Velvet laughed. "You pathetic dip. When are you going to fight back? From the first second I showed up at the Black Horn Council, you showed your neck. Why do you go around calling yourself prince when you don't fight? Princes are defenders of their followers." Her lips pulled up in a sneer. "You helped me kill your followers, your Canterlot."

Bluelood closed his eyes and waited for it to pass.

"Nearly a hundred nobles died. That can mean many things, Blueblood. If I tell the city they died by commoner hooves, over a thousand years of tradition and institution will be instantly demystified. That will be it for the old Canterlot of princess and nobles. Then, it will be up to the ponies with a voice to tell ponykind what kind of Canterlot will take its place, yet reconcile the way that the old was brought down." She grabbed one of the statues and levitated it closer, bearing it like a bat. "That will be hard work, Blueblood. Since your usefulness as pied-piper for the imbecilic Speakers is over, you are going to have to find new work for yourself, and a new moniker that won't paint a target on yourself in the new Canterlot."

"M- My Lady, I- I'll do anything You ask! I'm a willing servant and will be to the end!" Blueblood stuttered. "Please, does it matter what I act like and why?" He rolled onto his stomach and pressed his head into the floor. "I- If you order me to, I will give it all up in a second! I swear, I follow every word, every letter."

Velvet's expression sunk into one of contempt. "Blueblood, shut up. I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about the ponykind and the future. See this is the problem with you. You're blind to the meaning behind it all. However, that may be your greatest strength too. You see ponies doing things, and want your hoof in their buisness, but don't understand the reasons they do what they do."
She used the statue to nudge his head up to look at the bloody statuary and iconography.
"Why do you think Astral did that?"

"I..." Blueblood croaked. "I don't know. T- To disrespect Celestia? Spreading some peasant blood on her altar would be what I would do if I wanted to spite the princess."

Velvet tisked. "A perfectly... obvious response. See, that's not peasant blood anymore. It's blood touched by her. Its semi-divine now, like those ponies in the opera house. Perhaps not literally, but in her imagination. She has painted over Celestia with her color. I don't myself know what that symbolizes."

Blueblood sighed plaintively. "Replacing her?"

"Perhaps. ut isn't that strange for an alicorn that is more obsessed with her own proclivities than being the leader I need her to be?" Velvet posed. "But I digress. Blueblood, you need to be thinking about replacement. How do we replace the mysticism that kept the old regime in power, with a syystem that keeps us in power? Astral has not given us immediate answers. Blueblood, I want you to fight back against your imminent obsolescence."

She licked her lips, weighed the weight of the statue in her hooves, and brought it down full force on Blueblood's hindleg. She stuffed her hoof in his mouth to stifle his scream.

"Astral is upstairs, closing in on whatever has caught her attention. Go upstairs and find Her." She ordered him. "Get her to fix that broken nose and fractured leg." She chuckled. "And then you can be semi-divine too, hmm?

"Lady Velvet please!" Blueblood blubbered. "W- What have I done to deserve this?"

Velvet shrugged. "Quit your naval-gazing Blueblood and find a reason to call yourself prince." She wiped her hoof through the blood on the wall. "Ponykind need our answers. Not these ones of course, since you let them die." Her gaze sharpened. "Have I made myself clear?"

"Not really." Blueblood dragged himself out of the room, back into the dark hallway. "S- Somepony help me up please! We need to start searching the upper levels!"

Velvet turned back to the nave. "Time..." She licked her lips. "Time is not on our side. Sooner or later, heaven's avengers will come and punish us for what we've done, and pain these same walls with my blood." She licked the blood off her hoof. "What the hell am I doing."

She sighed. With a spark off her horn, the silk hangings were set alight. The fire quickly spread to the wooden paneling and canvas paintings that decorated the walls.
Velvet took a step back from the nave. Unsatisfied, she launched another spell into the small space. The whole floor rocked at the spell detonated in a blast of fire and smoke. Granite splinters showered into the hallway.

"What the hell am I doing." Velvet grit her teeth, as she stalked her way towards the nearest staircase.

Sel stared for many long minutes down the inexplicable chasm that had opened in the stage of the opera house. He'd sworn he'd seen a light at the bottom, a sign of a pony or some other entity that had gone down before he'd arrived.

Sel was conflicted. Lady Velvet had ordered him to keep anypony from passing. If somepony was already down there however, they could disrupt Velvet's plans.

"Have I already failed?" He asked himself.
He looked around, noticing the same harness and pulley system that Velvet had.
"Rats." He nibbled his lip, resigning himself to his decision.

After a few abortive starts, Sel finally got the stage pulleys into the optimal settings to lower him down the foreboding hole. He put himself into the harness and tested how it slowly spooled out. It would slowly lower him to the bottom of the chasm, where he would search the immediate surroundings and find the pony he had seen.

After taking a deep breath, Sel leaned over the hole and let the harness take his weight. As expected, the pulley system slowly fed out rope and let him drop. He felt a surge of anxiety as he fell past the lip of the hole. The light of the opera house quickly became distant as he descended into the chasm. All around him was smooth rock, like a lava tube.

The pulley ran out of line ten hooves from the bottom.

“I’m already beginning to regret this.” Sel squirmed against the harness. “Ah, shoot, I regretted this from the beginning.”

Being almost a complete novice in telekinesis, it took him several minutes of unproductive flailing to release the harness straps, dropping him the remaining distance to the ground. He landed with an *uff*.

The space was indeed reminding Sel of the catacombs under the Musician's Guild. It was certainly every bit as dark and claustrophobic.
There was only one passage, which dwindled into a black infinity deeper into the Mountain. Craning his head upwards, Sel saw the pinprick of light from the candles at the top of the hole.

“I hope Lady Velvet sends a pony after me eventually.” Sel checked over his firefly lantern for any cracks. “Otherwise I may be down here a while.”

He set off down the lightless tunnel, in search of the pony that may or may not have been a figment of his imagination. Not unlike the eternal night up on the surface, time and its passage became difficult to track in the darkness.

“This would be a pretty bad time for an earthquake. Tra la, la la la.” Sel whistled. The same tune as in the garden, burying all the ponies. Sel was having vivid flashes of being buried himself.

Without warning, the tunnel opened up to a cavernous space far larger than should have been possible to exist under Canterlot’s plateau. Sel guessed he was now deep within the Mountain, for he could see neither the roof or the far wall of the voluminous cavity.
"Wow. This is really something." Sel gulped. The vast space felt impossible, and he kept expecting to see stars when he looked upward. He felt very small.

He took a few steps forward. The light of his lantern climbed up the legs of monolithic statues that loomed large between him and further into the cavern. They were huge, like no style Sel had ever seen before, but essentially ponylike in shape. They guarded against any further progression into the black, a forest of stone among a world of rock.

The bizarreness of the situation was already beginning to wear on Sel. He retreated back to the wall of the cavern, letting the huge statues go unseen in the dark.

"I- I should go back." He gulped. "It's going to be impossible to find somepony in this place. For all he knew, the cavern could be the width of the Mountain itself, miles and miles.

Yet there was another light in the seemingly infinite dark, a few hundred hooves to his right. There was a torch sconce attached to the cavern wall, casting some light on a cluster of objects.
Trotting over to the setup, Sel took note that the torch had been lit very recently. The objects surrounding it appeared to be set up like a laboratory or operating room.

"Hmm." Sel trotted through the 'lab'. He recognized many of the objects. He picked up a rusting circular birdcage from beside a desk. "Phyte."

Most of the equipment looked like it hadn’t been touched in some time, whereas others had been recently moved. The chemistry apparatuses and aged reference books were covered in a thin layer of dust and cobwebs. A row of stone slabs holding desiccated bodies was pushed against the cavern wall, though imprints in the dust betrayed the absence of several more.
Sel moved closer to the slabs. They had the same carved markings as the slabs Astral had inexplicably moved into the opera house. Sel suspected that this is where they had come from. How had Astral know the way into the forgotten gloom, Sel did not know. There was more going on with the alicorn than anypony understood. Unless Astral hadn’t been the one to open up the chasm...

“Lady Velvet would be quite interested to see what all this stuff is.” Sel picked up and inspected a beaker. "Maybe we can learn more about Astral and-

A flurry of movement darted at the edge of the light. Started, Sel dropped the beaker and it shattered against the cavern floor.

“Who’s there!” Sel advanced against the darkness with the lantern. He reached for his sword but discovered to his horror it had come out of the scabbard when he'd fallen from the harness. He grabbed a shard of the beaker and held it menacingly. “Show yourself!”

The clip of hooves on the stone echoed from Sel’s right, in the opposite direction of the tunnel back to the opera house. It seemed Sel's vision had not lied, and somepony had made it down into the tunnels.
Taking a deep breath, Sel gave chase, hoping his quarry didn’t have anything more dangerous than a fragment of glass.

It was several heads taller than Nightmare Moon, but rail thin at every point along it’s body. It’s twig-like limbs were entirely composed of undulating muscle and sinew, save for the horn and the bones protruding at its hooves and wings. It’s face was long and sharp, lacking in features except for beady eyes and the small slits of it’s nose. The white robes it had been wearing were shredded by what had been a very hasty gallop.

It looked like an unearthed corpse. Twilight's imagined she was seeing how Celestia would look after not too long.

“We will want to get to know each other. I know it.” Twilight was used to voices in her head, but the entity before her was an unpleasantness on a level she’d never before experienced. “You're more than the others. I can see it. I can smell it. You're something above them." The thing undulated violently, its head bobbing back and forth as it assessed Twilight. "I think you're going to be perfect. PERFECT. PERFECT."

“What in the hell are you?” Twilight backed away, holding the sword out in front of her..

“A life-maker.” The abomination cooed. Tendrils of flesh began to unwind from its hooves and race along the ground like creeper vines, following the grooves in the floor towards Twilight. All the blood caking the floor and walls began to moisten and bubble.

"Y- You don't belong in this world." Twilight uttered. "You shouldn't exist. Natural law should let you exist."

"I can make amazing things out of you. You are..." The entity paused, stopping its strange bobbing. "Beautiful. Let me turn you into a god. Let me take you apart and transform your perfect materials into a perfect craft."

Before Twilight could react, she was under attack.
At first it was purely mental in nature: Like an insane scream, a psychic wail battered against the inside of Twilight's skull. She fought back disorientation long enough to cast a counter-pattern, but that was when the magical attacks came. The entity, rolling like a snake, sent a wave of green magic through the air. Twilight was almost sliced in half by the magical wave before she thought to drop to the ground. She heard the crackle of the energy against the floor and columns. She jumped up and back just in time to avoid another such attack that sliced into the floor. Then another psychic attack, sending Twilight reeling as she clutched her head.

Twilight couldn't felt her body go limp. Head head was a mess of color and pain from the brutal psychic assault the entity had subjected her to. It could project thoughts through its aura for devastating effect, implying a totally different kind of brain organization. Twilight had no opportunity to marvel at this as her agony continued.

Suddenly though, the attack stopped.
Twilight pulled herself off the ground and retreated behind a column. The entity had stopped moving completely, besides the seemingly reflective writing of its component tendrils.

“Hold on! We don’t have to fight!” Twilight yelled, breathing. “We can talk this through.”

“Can we? I doubt we would both be satisfied.” The abomination said. "I want to have your flesh and blood. Others do not givve me theirs willingly."

“And neither will I, but we can discuss alternatives.” Twilight said. She held the sword close. If she rushed the creature, she might be able to get a few swipes in before the mental attack resumed. Only she didn't know how tough its sinew was. "Why do you want me?"

"Because you are an alicorn." The thing said. "Your body is beautiful."
Twilight felt the agonizing mental static returning. She could not pin down why, but she suspected the entity was not doing it fully on purpose.

"Back away, to the doors." Twilight demanded. "I have a sword!"

"Yes I saw." The entity said. For some reason it obeyed Twilight's order, retreating to the entrance. Its tendrils began to thrash more wildly. "Ponies have been haranguing me with comparisons with the alicorn Celestia. She was very white I am told, but you are very dark. I never heard of there being another alicorn."

"They didn't know about me." Twilight said.

"Would you like for them to before I disassemble you?"

The clinical, almost naively hopeful of the entity's words and intentions was terrifying in its own way. Twilight doubted the entity really understood the ponies it had killed. "Do they know about you?" Twilight swallowed her fear. She had to be in the advantageous position if she was going to be able to negotiate with the thing. That meant, unfortunately, violence. "Will they help me?

"Help you?"

Twilight charged her horn and dove into the middle of the room. She sent a purple lance of magic in the entity's general direction as she charged forward, sword primed to strike. Her magic caught the abomination in the leg, sending the limb flying away in a spray of silvery ichor. The suddenly off-balance entity fell forward but caught itself with its prehensile wing.
Twilight, galloping forward with all her speed, collided with the monster, driving the sword through its head and sending them both tumbling into the hallway. Twilight was dazed for several second, then lit her horn to see in the darkened corridor. The entity was pinned to the floor like a butterfly display by the sword through its head. It's beady black eye twitched.

"Like like you. I really like you." It said. It's severed limb completely unraveled and snaked along the ground back into its body. Its stump pushed new flesh to regenerate the leg.

"Oh.. Oh no." Twilight crawled to a safe distance from the thing. She hadn't meant to hurt it so badly, though that didn't seem to matter. "You're... impossible." She cast a probing arc of magic at the thing. The flesh only grew back again. "How could the ritual create something like you? What are you?

“I am Astral Nacre.” It said simply. Astral saw the look of shock pass over Twilight’s face. “You’ve heard of me? You must be quite the exceptional mare, then. I can make you more exceptional.”

"More exceptional..." Twilight heard the nightmare mantra, endlessly, repeated, play in her mind again. Twilight and more. Become more. More than you were. "No. I can't let you exist."

The thing name Astral Nacre lurched upright.

“NO!” Twilight preempted Astral with a flurry of powerful kinetic spells. “NO!” The unprepared abomination caught them on her exposed body, and great chunks were torn from her neck and chest. Astral was thrown against the wall, and she came to rest in a jumbled heap.

Twilight looked at the gore splattered scene she’d just created, utterly horrified. She had lost control, just like with Chrysalis. "I... Oh my god." She dry heaved, retreating to the wall.
Control, she pleaded with herself, exercise restraint and control. "... sorry ..."

“Beautiful and powerful. I didn't land a hit on you before, and now you have taken me to task.” Astral staggered to her hooves. She grasped the splattered flesh from the wall behind her and shoved in the holes where they belonged. “Who are you?"

"I have been practicing recently.” Twilight whispered.

"I should like to hear more some time." Astral's body shivered as it fully reformed into its normal shape. "I see I can not convince you of my view of things, nor overpower you. I'm disappointed."

“Did you kill castle staff?” Twilight charged her horn again, but held back. “Did you kill the speakers?”

Astral seemed almost flustered. “I haven’t killed anypony! I make life, not death. Twilight, tell her!”

Twilight was beyond confused that the abomination knew and used her name, or that she would be telling herself something. "What?"

"Tell Twilight. Tell Twilight it is bad to kill ponies." Astral repeated. "Tell Twilight. Tell Twilight."

Twilight Sparkle felt her eyes go unfocussed. 'tell Twilight' It echoed through her head.
"Twilight... Twilight Velvet?" She looked over her shoulder to the blood-strewn throne room. "Ask... Twilight... Velvet?"
The color in the room seemed to fade. Twilight couldn't hear anything over her own heartbeat.

"H- Hey!" A new voice called from the other side of the hallway. "Astral Nacre! Help me please!"

The two alicorns, turned to look. Blueblood, helped along by ponies with guns, hobbled towards them.

"..." Twilight followed the stallion with his eyes. "Blueblood."

The militiaponies, seeing one more alicorn than they were prepared for, hesitated. They shared looks, raised, and pointed their arquebuses directionally at Twilight.
Blueblood was unfazed. He limped between Astral and Twilight, glancing between them. Blood was coagulated on his nose and chin. "Uh, Astral... And you... My leg is broken."

Twilight could do nothing but stare. It felt so surreal. She wondered when she had fallen asleep because she had to be in a dream. When had things become too ridiculous to believe? Had it come when Celestia died or earlier. Thinking back, there was so much about the last months that seemed impossible. Perhaps everything since the first time she woke up in the Everfree Castle throne room was part of an unending dream.

Blueblood shied away from the dark alicorn's intense stare. He slid towards Astral. "Um, can you fix my leg without, you know, eating me?"

"I'll do it." Twilight whispered. Se dipped her head, the militiaponies' gun's following her, to tap her long horn on Blueblood nose. His nose sparkled briefly with purple magic, as did his leg. He yelped in pain as the bones came back together.

Astral watched Twilight work her magic, vibrating with interest.

Twilight stood up strait. "You." She addressed Blueblood. "Who desecrated the throne room? Who created this monster?"

"HEY! Lower those guns!" An order echoed down the hallway.
The militiaponies immediately obeyed, yielding to the new interlooper.
Twilight Velvet trotted up to the dark alicorn. She patted Blueblood on the shoulder, then pushed him out of the way. Grinning she assessed the unfamiliar alicorn.

Twilight Sparkle said nothing. Astral Nacre looked between the two Twilights expectantly.

"An alicorn. Look at those wings... wow. Look at that horn! You look like you've just stepped out of a painting." Twilight Velvet laughed. "Or just stepped off the moon. Amazing... A Celestiaan."

Twilight took a shallow breath. "Are you responsible for this?"

The older Twilight smiled. "Twilight Velvet at your service. Welcome back to Canterlot, princess."

Sel trotted through the dark of the impossible cavern. It was impossible for the pony he was chasing not to have seen him, with the lantern on his waist being a sole light source in a world of darkness. He didn't know how the pony was navigating, or if they were just running aimlessly deeper into the black.
He heard the sound of hoofsteps he was fallowing sharply fall off. Moving more cautiously, he encountered the wall of the cavern again. There was a small tunnel, smaller than the one that led back to the opera house. The pony had gone in.

"It this back in the direction of Canterlot? I can't tell." Sel mumbled. "Shoot. I'm never going to find my way back. I'm going to die in this place."

He ducked into the tunnel. It was much shorter than the one to the opera house, and it wasn’t very long before it reached its terminus. It opened up into another cavern, this one about the size size and shape as Phyte’s lair under the Musician’s Guild, illuminated by dim lanterns. Instead of birdcages and scrolls, this space resembled a printing house. Strange machines, odd assemblies of metal and gears, were lined up around the edge of the space. The machines were completely foreign to Sel, and he could not even begin to guess what their glass and copper composition could do.

Sel stayed hidden behind the threshold, wary of potential trouble. The pony he was chasing could only have ended up there.

A flash of yellow light erupted from between the machines, and for a brief moment Sel could see the outline of the pony he’d been chasing. She was a slightly shorter than average with straight, shoulder length hair. Nothing could be discerned beyond that. When the light faded there was a second pony beside her, a taller mare wearing a cloak and carrying a bulky saddlebag.

“You’re here. Good timing.” The taller mare had a voice Sel almost recognized. “I was afraid you would wander off. I don’t know what I’d do if you got lost or kidnapped.”

The other mare’s response was rushed and urgent. “Somepony is in the Arcanum! I think they saw me!"

"What?! You saw another pony in here?" The first mare said.

"I was following up on Phyte's disappearance. I was trying to find out how much the ponies on the surface had taken, but one of them might have seen me, and I think they followed me back here!”

“Don’t panic, just tell me what it looked like. Was it an alicorn?” The taller mare quickly began unpacking her bags, though Sel couldn’t see it’s contents.

“I don't know. I don't know what most alicorns look like. It wasn't like Agana.”

“Most aren't like Agana, no, but how big was it compared to a pony?”

“I- I- I don’t know, you all look the same to me!” The smaller mare was on the edge of hysteria. “Oh goodness, what if they find us? I’m scared, Sunset!”

Sel’s eye widened. Sunset. The name and voice connected in is mind. He dared to lean out further to try to see a face. Lady Sunset, another scion of Canterlot petty nobility... Sel had memories of frolicking with the daughters of house Sunfall in their modest garden, and the little yellow filly he was sweet on before she went away to Celestia’s unicorn school. Sunset... The Traitor. Welcome back to Canterlot, he thought to himself.

“Twilight, you’re panicking! Just calm- Twilight, just calm- Urg, okay, okay!” Sunset groaned. “We’ll pull back and wait until this dies down."

"Okay..."

"Worried? How about we, um, use code names. How does that strike you?" Sunset posed. "Look here. I have the Blackhorn armor, so we are ahead of schedule. We pull back, and finish tuning the projector in one cycle.”

"... Alright Sunset."

"Good. Hold on."

Another flash of light illuminated the room and both the mares disappeared.
Sel waited a minute before he risked uncovering his lantern. He strolled around the small room, but besides the massive metal machines, there were two new objects.
The Blackhorn armor, folded neatly and placed on the ground, and an oversized golden horseshoe, probably Celestia’s, wedged into one of the apertures of the machine.

"Sunset Shimmer, what are you up to." Sel whispered. It had been a long time, but saying her name made his heart tremor a bit. "Do I have to kill you to serve Lady Velvet?"

Sel reached out to pick up the oversized horseshoe, then after a moment’s hesitation, drew his hoof back. His thoughts were a storm of confusion and indecision, but after several minutes he resolved to head back to the surface.

"Buck." He swore to himself. "I... I should have spoken up. Maybe if Lady Velvet and Sunset talk, they can talk out problems before there's an escelation to violence." But as he said this he didn't really believe it was possible. Two headstrong mares, especially ones like Velvet and Sunset, could only lead to a clash.

Then there was one the baffling detail that made Sel doubt his own ears: Sunset addressing the other pony as Twilight. What did that mean? Was Twilight Sparkle back in Canterlot, helping the Traitor?
After a minute of teeth-grinding, Sel decided Twilight Velvet, and certainly Astral Nacre, didn’t need to know about Sunset. At least, not until it became pertinent.

“Yes, some of us know about you. I learned about your kind from one of her late highness's councilors, Prosser. To others, inheritors of the old traditions such as my family, you come down through the ages as legends and racial memories." Twilight Velvet said gravely. "I imagined us meeting many times. It has turned out somewhat, well, awkward."

Twilight Sparkle just continue to stare.

"You look different than I imagined. Then again, I have had only decayed books and convoluted dreams to go off of." Velvet ran her hoof through the dark alicorn's mane, then traced the seam between the skin of her breast and the fused-on cuirass. "Fascinating.

“Twilight Velvet... Mother...” Twilight whispered. She looked into her mother’s eyes, and saw a perverted glee that frightened her.

Velvet didn’t hear her. “There is so much to say. I hope you forgive me if I jumble my words a bit. I'm almost overwhelmed."

Twilight didn't believe a word of that, and that was almost the most upsetting thing of all. Her mother seemed to be taking alicorns, murder, and violence in stride.
She looked to Blueblood. "You broke his leg."

"He's been a naughty boy that hasn't accepted that he needs to adapt to survive. That, and he needed reminding that even though the nobles and rank and file call him prince, they call me master." Velvet said. "Anything to add, Blueblood."

Blueblood cleared his throat and tried to speak up despite an obvious reluctance. "I am sorry for failing you, my lady. I, um, let this black alicorn heal me instead of seeking it from Astral Nacre as you ordered."

Twilight was shocked to see a pony with a reputation for arrogance like Blueblood totally subservient to Velvet. "You set him up..." She blinked, looking between Velvet and Blueblood. "You're showing off how much control you have over your subordinates."

"Wow, calling me out." Velvet laughed. "I can tell I'm going to like you. I hope you stay. Please forgive my Astral’s hostility. She doesn’t quite understand her place in the world yet.”

Astral Nacre was stunned to be spoken of in that way. “My dear Twilight that’s not a very nice-”

“SILENCE!” Velvet interrupted with magic enhanced volume, shaking the throne room and the rest of the castle. “You and I will be having a very long talk about etiquette and propriety after this! Lesson one, YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME, WITHOUT QUESTION!”

Astral's beady eyes quivered. "Listen to you?"

"Do you think I can't punish you if you don't listen to me?" Velvet said icily. "Act better, or I will have to treat you like another uppity officer who needs to be brought in line, talented, yet insubordinate."

"I- Insubordinate?! I am- I..." Astral went silent. Her whole body roiled with agitation. She looked at Twilight Sparkle. "Brought... Brought in line..."

Despite herself Twilight felt a spark of satisfaction to see the monstrous entity humiliated. It was a huge risk, yet Velvet seemed to have cowed Astral. Astral and Velvet both understood some unspoken fact that Twilight did not see yet.

Velvet held her hoof out to the black alicorn. "Now who is calling out who? Do you think I set that up?" She chuckled. "Just as I did not quite expect you, you did not expect me. You're trying to hide your surprise."

"I am faced with many mysteries." Twilight said.

"Do you want answers? Stick around. See what we have here before you decide to challenge us or leave us." Velvet nodded to her outstretched hoof. "Canterlot hospitality is famous across Equestria."

Twilight had the feeling she was going to be in a very bad way, no matter if her mother’s civility was genuine or a trap. The level of disconnect she was feeling, casting suspicion on her own mother, was starting to give her a headache.

Twilight had to decide now what kind of character she was going to play. Her instinct to be vague about her identity was looking like the correct one, for the truth about herself, while just another impossibility among many in Canterlot, would only cause more trouble: The relationship between Velvet and Astral Nacre had to be balanced. If Twilight got too close to Velvet she had the feeling she would really set Astral off. Once the indefatigable monster stopped playing around, all Canterlot was at risk.

So if Twilight could not be honest, who could she be? What was the right character to mitigate the violence and horror hanging over the city?
Twilight bit back a rush of feelings. She was moving the body of Nightmare Moon. Was that who she needed to be? No. No. Twilight could not bring herself to claim that identity. She did not deserve to have her actions attached to Nightmare Moon's name.

"Please let me disabuse you of certain delusions you may be operating under." She purred. "I'm not the pony you think I am."

“You are not Nightmare Moon?” Velvet didn’t seem sure if she should be pleased or not over that news.

“I-” The crisis brewing in Twilight’s mind was coming to the fore. Her conversation with Applejack mouldered unpleasantly: Who did the idea of Twilight Sparkle belong to. Did it belong to the pony talking through Nightmare Moon's body, or the pony asleep in Everfree Castle. Both? Neither?
It felt painful to admit, but Twilight felt it almost dishonest to continue to be Twilight Sparkle. Like Forlorn Spark, she was what Twilight had been, but something more. Not the twisted and corrupting Spark, but more mature; Older, different. She was the idea that had grown out of Twilight Sparkle, but she was not Twilight. Perhaps, if she returned to being like she had been before, she could be Twilight Sparkle again.

What was in a name? Twilight had always acknowledged that there was something intrinsically powerful about a name, and she’d always loved the sound and symmetry of her own. Thinking of her own name over and over tickled her: It was just a collection of sounds, but it was the idea behind the name that made it important.

"The Nightmare of the Moon that came before died. I have replaced her."

"Interesting." Velvet said, eyes narrowing. "Where did you come from?"

"Her thoughts." That was not untrue. The nightmare curse that had turned Twilight into what she was now had come from Nightmare Moon. "I was a different consciousness, just as the Nightmare of the Moon was once different, then become Nightmare. We shared our curse, and our ambitions. When she died against Celestia, her body became mine."

"Ah... I hoped for a moment you would say you began life as a pony." Velvet said, her scrutinous gaze going over every detail again, trying to pick out anything amiss. "And what, pray tell, is your name?"

Twilight swallowed the enormous apprehension she felt. What was in a name?

Who was she? A life, a former dreamer. But this lived within something else. They were the twin parts of her. Twin twilights.
Nay, twin darknesses. The mind within, the body without... They were both in shadow. Her soul was dark in the shadow of the past, the future, and what was yet to come. Her body was a lie, a sin, a blasphemy, and the visage of a nightmare. It was just pretentious to make her want to vomit.

She pulled her lips back in a slim smile. She felt morbidly clever, for though she'd born a name, the old felt like it was dying a little.
"Call me Anceps-nox. Ancepanox."

Chapter 34: Ad astra per alas fideles

It was night.
Ancepanox was born of the night. She did not exist before it, and now she did. Ideas were born from the minds of ponies all the time. How was an identity, the idea of the individual, different?

Night

In somber procession, the party Canterlot Castle. Velvet led the way, followed by Blueblood, followed by the alicorns, with the militiaponies taking up the rear. Ancepanox, the dark alicorn, could feel the stares on the back of her head. What did these commoners think of the whole situation? Did they trust Velvet so much that they were willing to look past the horrible existance of Astral Nacre? Did ponies give up their devotion to Celestia so eagerly?

Now that she was walking the streets of Canterlot, the silence and loneliness was palpable. She had always viewed the busy, noisy urban life with muted disdain, but now she was longing for it. Her hometown felt hollow.

"Canterlot is the heart of pony civilization. Hundreds of thousands live here." Velvet said, as if she was to thank for its status.

"Your citizens are afraid to come out." The one called Ancepanox said. "They fear the night and the things that lie within it."

"Everypony fears what they do not understand. I hope I can alleviate their fears eventually." Velvet said. "Almost all ponykind's woes can be alleviated that way."

They soon arrived in the shadow of the Castle Magoria, passing through the two rings of fortifications into the keep. The smaller towers protruding up from the six outer bastions, which had been so much stone and scaffolding when Twilight had left for Ponyville, jutted up, incomplete and jagged.

"Where is the original owner?" Ancepanox asked.

"That is presumptuous of you." Velvet shot.

Ancepanox said softly. "I was trying to suggest you would have finished it. Then again, its incomplete grandeur suggests overreaching ambition."

They entered the keep. It was exactly how Ancepanox remembered it, the drab stone halls decorated with old tapestries of the Bright family and newer curiosities that Foaly Flux liked. The servants of guards Flux was obligated to keep around watched from the shadows.
But what had happened to Flux?

The eyes of Flux’s twenty-two piece private orchestra were immediately upon Ancepanox as she entered Castle Magoria’s dining hall. They filled a specially constructed gallery built into the east wall of the long mess, their hooves pressed patiently against their instruments waiting for the signal to play.
Ancepanox wondered what they had been told, to now be acting on Velvet's command. What had any of these disparate ponies, Blueblood, the militiaponies, or the commoners, been told to now bend before Twilight Velvet like reeds in the wind. Was it because all the ponies that tried to resist had broke before that wind?

Velvet whispered something to her little messenger filly, who then darted out of the room. "Even in the dark, governance goes on." She explained.

Ancepanox growled impatiently. "While true, it does not make for the best hospitality, unless you would like to include me."

"Perhaps later." Velvet said. "We shan't be long now. A few more guests are are yet to come."

"A few?" Ancepanox said, her voice peaking in curiosity. "One would think the despot of Canterlot would dine with all the burghers, nobles, and alderponies of the city. Why would you not take me before them?"

Velvet only laughed a little, like she would at a child's humor.

"I only mean to say that if you want to keep me from revealing myself, you should keep me well stimulated." Ancepanox grinned, not to widely she hoped. Playing the devious god without coming off as unhinged was more tricky than she thought. She had to keep Velvet's interest.
"Do not fret. Here he comes now." Velvet said.

As promised, Night Light stepped through the threshold as she spoke. He saw Ancepanox and froze. "..."

"Hello there." Ancepanox smiled.

Night Light looked to Velvet, judging the situation by her expression. "This is unexpected." He bowed his head a little. "Welcome to Canterlot, princess."

As he approached Ancepanox saw he had picked up the black sword from the throne room. She gathered Night Light was his wife's agent.
Right behind Night Light came Aurthora Airy, the big-bodied viscountess of one of the fifteen towers of Canterlot. She observed the new alicorn with mute interest, then went to stand by Blueblood.

"We're all here." Velvet nodded. "They can make their introductions later."
She pulled out a chair for her guest at the focus of the oval dining table and took the seat adjacent. Everypony joined them, save Astral, who lingered in the corner for a minute fore oozing into a chair at the head of the table.
Velvet motioned at the private orchestra and they began playing soft baroque canons. "Everything comfortable, Lady Ancepanox?"

"These chairs were not made for ponies our size." Anxepanox said. "Aside from that, I won't let you evade telling me who's castle this is."

Velvet nodded. "This is one of my other daughter’s castles. Recently inherited I’m afraid, and the poor girl hasn’t heard.

She has now, Ancepanox thought. "Recently inherited?"

"From her great uncle. He was a good friend of the family. He didn't survive the coming of this night. Very great shame, and we plan to hold a memorial as soon as the sun come back."

Ancepanox had suspected as much. The acceptance of the morose nature of the world had numbed her sufficiently that the news of Foaly Flux’s demise was met by her with little more than a twitch. She searched Velvet's eyes for a sign that she had been the one to kill Flux, but saw nothing. “My condolences to her and you. It is a very nice castle.”

“It’s nothing worth being envious over, Lady Ancepanox.” Velvet laughed, and Ancepanox could barely restrain herself from bristling at the implication. "I jest. Yes, but hopefully there will be no need for castles and fortifications in the future, or anything else that divide ponykind."

Astral Nacre spoke up for the first time since her humiliation at Canterlot Castle, making everypony cringe at her psychic squeal. "Twi- Velvet, tell her more about Lord Flux. I'm sure she would like to hear more about him."

Velvet narrowed her gaze. "You can wait your turn to talk about whatever you please, Astral.

"Yes but I think Lady Ancepanox has a great interest in him. You can tell too." Astral insisted. She pointed to Ancepanox. "He was a very clever pony. I like to think I interrupted that from him."

“Inherited?” Ancepanox asked politely. “What is the nature of Astral Nacre's heritage, Lady Twilight Velvet? How does Lord Flux relate to her, and her to you for that matter?"

Velvet scowled, disliking that Astral and Ancepanox were stringing her along. She shared a glance with Night Light then turned to stare disapprovingly at the slouching mass of Astral. "As you can see of my Astral, she is not a normal pony. Indeed you may know more about the method of her creation than I."

"Yes of course the 'inheritance' was a magical one." Ancepanox leaned on the table. "I want to know how, when, and for the god's sake WHY you conceived of her?"
Her shout hushed the orchestra. She continued. "You're clearly a brilliant mare Lady Velvet, but you'd never be able to pass your creation off as the real Anima Astral Nacre."

“The real one.” Velvet said darkly. “What do you know about that?”

“The Nightmare of the Moon told me of her.” Twilight was hesitant to go too far. Call out Velvet's misdeeds too much, and things could turn sour. She squeezed her cape tightly for comfort. “The real Astral is a force of nature, literally, vast and mindless. What you've summoned is a cheap imitation driven insane by its own existance.”

“YOU PLEBEIAN NIGHTMARE!” Astral jerked to her hooves, knocking the table upwards. She lowered her head like a serpent, weaving it side to side in preparation of an attack. Twilight remained stoic. “You dare call me insane?! You're not even sentient. You're just a parasite writ large!”

“Astral calm down!” Velvet commended, eyes flashing with anger. “Our guest is just misinformed.

“I will be calm, maybe, but I will not forget until you are made to apologize, Lady Ancepanox.” Astral seated herself once more, her horn’s oozing magic pulling the table’s settings back into their positions.

Ancepanox turned her nose up, at the very precise angle of fifteen degrees. “Should I apologize for ignorance why I am not provided an opportunity to choose the truth?" She looked to Velvet. "If I'm misinformed, tell me how."

"That sounds like something Celestia would say." Velvet said.

"I wouldn't know." Ancepanox quickly said. It was indeed something Celestia had said, and Ancepanox thoughtlessly let slip. She didn't expect Velvet to catch it. "It was something Nightmare Moon said to me once. Must be an alicorn saying."

Velvet gave a little shrug. "As to correcting the misinformation, I-"

Another stallion stepped into the dining room. He was young, wearing a smudged and dirty city guard officer's uniform. He gulped upon seeing Ancepanox, but quickly stepped around to Velvet.
"Lady Velvet we have to talk." He whispered urgently.

"Not now Sel." Velvet chided him sharply. "Sit down and apologize to our guest."

"Guest?" Sel hesitated. He blinked, taking in Ancepanox's visage more completely, and she his. "O- Oh! Terribly sorry! I just assumed..." He shut his mouth and darted to the nearest seat, doing his best to look small.
Sel Lech Sabornord. Twilight Sparkle had met him once or twice at parties. He was a no-name courtier, who nopony in their right mind would give that uniform to.

Before Velvet had the opportunity to use the interruption to change the topic of conversation, Ancepanox resolved that polite or impolite, she had to get the full picture. She would not let Velvet control the way she explained Astral. Ancepanox had to stay on the offensive, or accept that she would learn nothing.
She dragged her chair a bit along the floor making everypony jump. "One quick question, Lady Velvet."

“You have only just arrived.” Velvet nodded slightly. “Go on. Ask any question and I'd be happy to answer it."

“It’s just that I’m not terribly clear on this city’s hierarchy.” Ancepanox let her gaze wander over the motley crew of ponies. A courtier turned guard captain, a narcissistic lobbyist turned suck-up, and a malicious husband-and-wife team, a viscountess, and that monstrous demon alicorn: The ruling coterie of Canterlot had somehow become even more outlandish than when it was ruled by the manifestation of the sun.
"Where did you fit into Celestia's court. Oh, but is it presumptuous to assume you were? This was her city after all, and I would think that her closest advisors would rule in her departure."

“It is presumptuous, and purposefully naive. What earnest servant of Celestia would tolerate Astral?” Velvet asked.

“Canterlot was Celestia’s domain, was it not?” Ancepanox asked.

“It’s mine now.” Astral spat vehemently.

“Silence, you!” Velvet slammed her hoof into the table. “This is not your city because so far you have REFUSED to pony up! You may claim to be anything more than a brat when you take responsibility for the ponies under you, and don’t just murder them!”

“How DARE you.” Astral did not rise, but the tendons and muscles of her frame slipped and squirmed with palpable tension and fury. Her pinpoint eyes, pure black, widened. “Don't you know I am a god? What kind of god tolerates abuse like yours!”

“I am your mother. I am your creator.” Velvets’ chair was kicked back to the wall as she stalked towards Astral. “Yes, I created you, Astral Nacre. Every bit of you. None of it existed before I thought it up. I suffered you for thirty years inside me! Your birth was hard, and so far I’ve only gotten lip or tantrums as thanks. Push me harder, and I will dedicate myself to finding a way to undo you." She bared her teeth in savage anger. "If you want to avoid that, behave, or kill me right now."

The intense outburst was not what Astral was expecting, and it was after several seconds of intermittent blinking that she slowly pushed her own chair away and got to her hooves. Her psychic voice wavered. “I will be in my room, if anypony needs me.” Everypony save Velvet tried their hardest not to to watch her trot to the exit.

“I am very sorry, Lady Ancepanox." Velvet returned to her seat, daintily returning her napkin to her lap, and smoothing it out several times. "There you have is your correction to misinformation too. My Astral Nacre is a thought come to life, but she is a thought of great and virtuous things, despite the impression she gives. When a dream is too great for one pony, it takes on a life of its own, and when that dream transcends the limits of our very mortality, it becomes divine. I thought a divine thought, and then turned it into reality."

"A dream of what?"

"A dream of apotheosis for ponykind, through abandonment of fear and ignorance.."

Ancepanox scoffed. "That seems like cheating! Meta-referential thought patterns like that should not be able to translate into magical pattern. That would be like willing a cake into existance by arranging the ingredients to spell out 'cake'."

"Yet I did it. I must have broken the rules." Velvet winked. "Ha ha. One might think that is why I have problems with her now. I broke the rules and reality is bending to punish me."

"Seems unlikely." Ancepanox said.

"True. Astral has been something of a trouble child, but nothing too bad. You must be firm with them, I’m sure you know.”

Do I ever know, Ancepanox thought. “I wouldn’t, I’m afraid. I don’t have any of my own.” She said sarcastically. It sickened her to consider if it was even possible anymore grotesque magic she'd had to preform to take body she now resided in. Could alicorns even have children?

Velvet paused in thought, and maybe even doubt as though she worried she’d given offense. “I suppose not. We don't know much about your kind."

"My kind of what?" Ancepanox asked.

"Nightmares. You are a nightmare, aren't you? That is the impression I got from what you said." Velvet said. "But also as an alicorn, you are a mystery. Yes this is not the place to examine such things, but I am overwhelmed by curiosity."

"Wait until you're not overwhelmed and try again." Ancepanox grunted.
A servant entered with a tray of drinks. Ancepanox telekinetically grabbed the whole water pitched and began drinking from it: With everything going on she'd been neglecting her hydration.

Velvet took a crystal goblet of some thin swill for herself. "You seem very aware of our world, Lady Ancepanox. Yet nightmares have been absent for many hundreds of years. The ancient stories tell us you exist in great swarms, with a powerful progenitor commanding his or her children."

"One needn't have seen the world to be aware of it. For your second point, I can tell you that the relationship between nightmare progenitor and nightmarish progeny is often hostile. You could say that vindicates your point about being stern, but nightmares hardly think of their ilk as family." Ancepanox said. "You wouldn't create one willingly, unless absolutely necessary. Progeny can be allies, means to an end, but once the bigger threat is gone they are inevitable competitors."
Ancepanox was mostly bullshitting, but everything she said made sense deep down. The ponies that Twilight's nightmare had corrupted, Rarity, Applejack, or Dash, had shown no loyalty to her, and certainly no hint of familial affection was felt between them. It was a cynical, power-dependent relationship.
But at the same time, Twilight and Forlorn Spark had felt something in each other. Twilight had not been sure, as though the horrendous nightmarish creature had been overjoyed to taunt and hurt her, its appeals to its mother felt more real than mere mocking. It was demented, Ancepanox had to admit, but she had felt a link to Forlorn, as one of her thoughts come to life.

A thought come to life. Ancepanox looked over to Astral Nacre's empty seat.
And she thought.
And she dreaded to consider that the dream that Velvet had used to create Astral had existed in Twilight Sparkle; to consider that the nightmare did not destroy her, nor leave her a complete slave, because of that dream.

Twilight considered that, and pushed it to the back of her mind.

"The Nightmare of the Moon and I had a special relationship. We were allies, friends even. This was only possible because our relationship was unrelated to the nightmare." Ancepanox told Velvet. "I won't elaborate more than that. Nightmare Moon's death still upsets me to discuss."

"I understand." Velvet hummed. “But how did Nightmare Moon come to be in that position?”

"What do you mean? I told you, Celestia killed her.”

"No, why was she in Equestria?" Velvet asked. She shifted forward, tone turning accusatory. "Who let her out?

Ancepanox genuinely didn't know, but admitting that would be bad. "She released herself."

Velvet shook her head aggressively. "Impossible. It had to have been a Star. If you were there, you would know which one. Was it Phyte? That bastard slipped through my grasp! Shale? Or perhaps one of the others came back to meet their long lost ally? Come on, don't act like you don't know!"

Velvet seemed irritated about the point. Ancepanox hadn't given the issue much thought, but there might have been more to it that she'd thought. Nightmare Moon had come down from the moon after Twilight, but what was different before and after Twilight's brief lunar stay?

Velvet let the silence hang for several moments before she leaned back into her seat. "Fine. If you want to keep the Star from me, that is your prerogative. If you would like a better, productive relationship with Canterlot, I would suggest doing away with the Star and giving me proof. They are the only ones who can truly threaten an alicorn."
She motioned to the orchestra and they started back up with the baroque canons.

“Your ladyship likes music?” Velvet asked.

“Yes, very pretty.” Ancepanox said. Velvet, it seemed was done talking, and would neither give nor accept any information until Ancepanox agreed about the Stars.

Ancepanox looked at Sel Lech who, for having a mussed mane and smelling like a dank catacomb, was looking cute trying to shelter himself from attention. Ancepanox assumed it was her monstrous visage, and felt the pit into a self-loathing melancholy forming in her gut. She would never have anypony’s love every again, would she. Hiding what she was feeling inside, she nodded her approval nonetheless. “Hi. Ancepanox.”

“Ah... Hi. Sel Sabonord” Sel Lech squeaked. “W- Welcome to Canterlot.”

“You look like a pony who knows some answers. Let's start with one your lady evaded. Who is in charge of this city?!” Twilight shifted her tone to authoritative, demanding. With her rhaspy voice it came like a bark, raked over coals.

“Velvet!” Sel immediately replied. “I mean, Lady Velvet, the..." He wavered. "I don't know her title. Um, Queen Regent!”

“What's that uniform for?”

"Guard captain.

"Who do you guard? Your friend Blueblood seems to be the one withe the troops." Ancepanox nodded to the mentioned stallion. Blueblood beamed.

“I- Well... I'm not really a soldier.” Sel quivered. “I just do her ladyship's tasks.”

“Who do you guard?” Twilight repeated louder, more piercingly.

“Velvet!” Sel said again, quaking.

“Why Velvet?” Twilight asked, gaze narrowing. "Or let me put it this way: You lived your whole life under an alicorn, Celestia. Why have you given that up for Velvet, a mundane pony." She grinned. "Now that I'm here you're spoiled for choice. Astral Nacre, or me. We could make lovely alicorn rulers, don't you think?"

“Uh..” Sel looked pleadingly at Velvet, but she was looking mirthful at his fretfulness. “T- There's things more important than that."

"Like what?"

"Her plans."

"You know what her plans are?" Ancepanox looked to Velvet. "No... No you don't. This mare never tells anypony her plans. You're an agent, a dogsbody who does her tasks."

Sel rubbed his eyes and tried again. "Her... her dreams. They're worth following."

"But Sabornord, there is a way to follow her dreams without having to deal with the devious, abusive mare that contains them." Ancepanox pressed. "I don't just mean Astral Nacre. I mean taking that dream for yourself. Take it, embrace it, and march forward with it through your own presence of mind. That is, if I'm not mistaken, the very thesis of her dream: Becoming more than a pony through self-actualization."

"That's enough." Velvet cut in. The older mare looked annoyed, but oddly pleased at the same time. "You are a sharp mare, Lady Ancepanox. You have made a deconstruction of my thesis in minutes, that the nobles and deviants of Canterlot couldn't give me in months."

"And still you've accrued an impressive host of talent."

Velvet pursed her lips, taking a small and measured bite of Twilight’s bait. “I only help them reach their full potential."

"Indeed. I say talent..." Ancepanox looked between Blueblood, Aurthora, and Sel Lech. "But I mean tools. These ponies, and the ponies with guns waiting outside, they're just the survivors. They got behind you, know how to keep their head down. They can take your beatings in stride. Why? It's not because of your charisma bending them to it, or the power of your dream drawing them in with its brilliance." Ancepanox took another swig of water. "You killed all the rest."

Velvet broke into her evil smile again. "Not all of them. One went into exile."

"I saw the throne room, in Celestia's Castle. Your doing, I assume?" Ancepanox asked rhetorically. "How much of it was purging opponents, and how much of its was just for fun? You didn't even give them the chance to come around to you. You just massacred them."

"No castle staff were harmed." Velvet said, sharply. "There were elements in Canterlot that would NEVER have fit in after I took control. The aristocratic's congress, the Estates, had to go. The City's more militant guard would have taken the opportunity to press for more rights, so they had to be purged too."

"Sounds like murder." Ancepanox growled.

"Sounds like safeguarding the dream. How can ponies overcome their fear if they go around worrying about things like rights?! Ponykind will become more grand and powerful, in body and spirit, but not if I allow them to get distracted." Velvet hissed. "Nobles, commoner, it doesn't matter. If their end goal is just about improving conditions in Equestria, I won't hesitate to end them. It's not murder." She laughed humorlessly. "It's euthanasia. Dogs will get put down."

All the time that Ancepanox had been asking herself how her mother had lost all sense of morality to commit such horrible acts, she should have asked herself how she had become so blinded by zeal. Twilight Sparkle had always thought of her mother as an eccentric, changeable socialite. But Velvet had been lying in wait, holding onto a dream she thought was more important than any of the frivolous, petty things going on around her. She held on, by what Velvet said, for forty years, becoming more and more angry with the ignorant ponies around her. When she finally did start making her dream a reality, it came forth as a violent rending wind.
That was why Astral Nacre, the manifestation of that dream, was so horrible. It was no more and no less than the mind of her creator.

Ancepanox put down the water pitcher so she could commit to the staring contest with Velvet. "You must really want to kill me then."

"Once I know your intentions, I can decide." Velvet said.

"I have no intentions right now." Ancepanox replied. "All the things you seem to care about, I don't."

"You have morals, or at least you would invoke them to call me a murderer. And do not pretend that the last time a Celestiaan came to our planet, it eventually decided to start the Empire of Equestria." Velvet waved to the city behind her. "Whatever origin you have, you're an alicorn. Alicorns have needs. Nightmares have needs. What you do to fulfill those needs may take your path into mine."

Ancepanox really did not want to go down the topic any farther. There was implications of conflict and death that made her stomach churn. She did not ever want to be in a position where she would have to commit violence again. She had been hopeful on the way to Canterlot that peace would persist in Celestia's absence, but that hope seemed impossible. Velvet was on the path that would lead her to kill again. Other ponies would see her and do the same.
Equestria... Equestria was truly lost. The spirit of harmonious prosperity was over. The big tent was going to split, and ponies would fight for what they wanted.

"Civil war." Ancepanox breathed.

"Excuse me?" Velvet said.

Ancepanox frowned sadly. "You are going to cause a civil war. I hope you realize how many hundreds of thousands of ponies you will have to get through to take full control of Equestria."

"That's what Astral Nacre is for." Velvet chuckled. "As for civil war, yes, I am going to break this empire down. Many will suffer. That isn't my fault. Blame Celestia for leaving the city and getting herself killed."

"Have you anypony you care about? Think about what war will do to them? The strain, the death, the agony... You're condemning them all to misery." Ancepanox accused.

"Blame Celestia." Velvet repeated. "And yes, I have ponies I care about! I'm doing this for them. I won't let them live in a broken world ruled by vanities any longer! After I'm through, this world will give them every joy, every pleasure, every respite. A pinch of civil war seems very worth it then, doesn't it?"

Ancepanox sighed. It was time to reveal something she hoped would put Velvet off balance. If she wore Velvet's confidence even a little bit, she could ensure that peace lasted just a little longer, to give ponykind time to prepare.
"No. I know it would devistate Twilight."

"I prefer to go by Velvet." Velvet harrumphed.

"I meant Twilight Sparkle." Ancepanox said.

Velvet was silent for a minute. Night Light shifted uncomfortably, begging Velvet with his eyes to respond.
"Who told you about her? Celestia?"

"She was there." Ancepanox said. "That is who Celestia went south for, but you already knew that. It was just coincidence that Celestia arrived just as Nightmare Moon returned."

"Coincidence? That's a lie." Velvet accused.

"Regardless, we all came together there, in the Everfree Forest. Celestia and Nightmare Moon died. Twilight and I survived." Ancepanox said. "I left Twilight to grieve, and now I'm here."

Velvet's lip twitched. "I should kill you right now to keep you frmo every being a threat to her."

"I could say the same." Ancepanox laughed disdainfully. "The little mare is nearly broken from the pain! Losing her princess has hurt her more than you could understand. She and I are kindred, both having lost our mentor! She and I have much more in common than she and you."

"You whelp. My daughter has powers beyond anypony in this room. If you think you can toy with her emotions you'll soon find yourself burned to the ground." Velvet seethed. "I trust her to find her own way. She will overcome this, and the war to come. I look forward to when she comes back and helps me truly complete the dream."

Ancepanox considered retorting, but that would be too cruel. Yes Velvet was an evil pony, but she still cared about her children.
Am I still your child, Anceanox wondered. Would you still embrace me? Would you love Twilight if she rejected your plans for the future?
Ancepanox was again reminded that to almost everypony, the comatose Twilight Sparkle in Everfree Castle was the real one, while she was the fake.

"You put a lot of trust in your daughter." Ancepanox said dourly.

“Ponies change all the time.” Night Light said his first words of the night, barely loud enough to hear over the soft music. “Twilie has only ever changed for the better. She learns better than any of the rest of us. She will pull through, stronger than ever.”

Don’t you know it father, Ancepanox thought. Yes, she was battered, and yes, she was all but imprisoned a mutilated corpse, but she was stronger. Changed for the better thought? No.
“You know, you're right.” Twilight’s try at an amicable smile sent a visible shiver down her father's spine. “I hope you realize I don't mean her any harm. She is a good pony from what I have seen from her. She tried to preserve Celestia's life, and while that briefly made her my enemy, she is not anymore."
Playing the character of a nightmare, and consequently having to criticize Celestia, made Ancepanox's head ache. It was blasphemous to speak of her dead princess like that.
"Enough talk! When is the meal?”

“Now, should you wish it.” Velvet clapped her hooves, and a the servant began bringing out platters.

“Should Astral be here?” Blueblood asked with a hint of sarcasm. “You know she loves to eat."

“Shut it you.” Velvet spat.

The first meal with her new mouth, and it was every bit as awkward as Twilight imagined it would be. It was very hard to avoid biting her lips with her long predatory canines. The salad got caught often, and it was then that Twilight discovered the abnormal length of her snake-like tongue. Every moment was a new surprise it seemed.

Blueblood seemed to be the only one with sufficient disregard for etiquette to talk while eating. “What was Nightmare Moon like?” He asked, spitting mouthfulls of vegetables.

“I was her confidant.” Twilight said between bites. “She was open and considerate with me. She had a great intelligence for pony's minds, but was not without her temper. ”

"How did you get her body?" Blueblood followed up. "Like, necromancy?"

"I bet a Star did it." Velvet said. "That's why you're protecting her, isn't it. She put you in that body."

Ancepanox decided to cut Velvet off at the pass, and reveal more than she'd been asked. “I've been happy to give you ample credit, Lady Velvet. You should give me some too. I preformed the ritual myself.” Twilight looked around the table. “Yes, you know the one. It created Astral, just as it created this wretched mare you see before you. Fit the words together now, Lady Velvet.” She released a choppy sigh. “This Star aided her escape. I'm the Star you're looking for."

Velvet slowly, deliberately, took another bite of her salad. "Don't mock me. Alicorns and Stars are fundamentally different."

"You don't know as much as you think you know." Ancepanox laughed softly. She realized that there was a fearful chance that Velvet would conclude she was not an alicorn, and put the peaces together from there. She thought and thought, and came up with what she hoped was a plausible explanation. "It is true that an alicorn can not preform the ritual, but they can provide the power and pattern if they have mortal help."

"Twilie." Velvet gave a lour. "You enlisted my daughter-"

"She did it voluntarily, she she was not hurt in any way." Ancepanox promised. "She wanted to help, and to stop the suffering. I owe her everything."

"Clear away your lies, and I glimpse a very sour sight." Velvet said harshly. "You tricked daughter into empower one of the creatures responsible for her princess's death. Then you moralize to me about preventing conflict? Utter scoundrel."

Crisis averted, Ancepanox thought. Better to think that than suspect her true identity. "I should have known better than try to slip that one past you." She grinned, trying to imitate Velvet's, the look of a mare who didn't care about the pain she caused. "What does that change between us, now that we know what the other has done?”

“Nothing, or everything.” Velvet wadded up the napkin on her lap and dropped it on the table, her eyes watching a far away place. “I doubt I could destroy you, however much I wanted to.” She looked at the food on Ancepanox's plate. "You should have been a spasming mess by now. Hallucinogenic neurotoxin."

Very lucky that it was neurotoxin, since Ancepanox mind wasn't effected by her nervous system, and not a necrotizing poison or other kind. "Try a stronger dose next time. I'm a big mare." She said patronizingly.

"Whoever you are, and whatever you want, your relationship with my daughter is going to be the sticking point." Velvet said solemnly. "Mistreat her, and I very well may abandoned everything I've worked for here, for any chance to destroy you."

While that claim drew everypony else's worried looks, Ancepanox shrugged. "I have no reason to hurt her, and several to help her. I have no agenda that targets her. You're concerned you'll hurt her and projecting on me."

Velvet was silent for a while. "Bring her to Canterlot. She's safest here."

"I will not rob her of choice." Ancepanox held up a black hoof. “This body killed Celestia. In a way Twilight Sparkle has become my responsibility.” Her internal struggle was as much against her conscience as with finding the right words. “If she’s conflicted, I will help her back to ponykind. Not mine, or your worlds, but one of her own making. You are her mother,” Twilight set her jaw, fangs shining. “but, I will not let you manipulate her. She will be her own mare now, by the drives and hopes of her own mind, no matter if they be cruel or kind.”

Velvet clapped her hooves, and the twenty-two piece orchestra wound down, until the dining hall was silent save for Twilight’s harsh breathing.

“Lady Ancepanox, honesty is unbecoming of you.” Velvet’s face was expressionless. “Yet, I detect we share a common goal, even if our interpretations differ. I will create the best possible world for Twilight, where she is a queen and every pleasure and luxury she deserves falls at her hooves. That is what I do for her. But you think that giving her a choice is a kindness, and that free will can give her a happy life, or even the happiest life.”

Another clap, and the servant began to clear the food away. Velvet continued looked into Ancepanox's purple-flecked cyan eyes for several mute minutes. Then in a puff of magic and green fire, glasses of red wine appeared at every seat. Velvet raised hers.

“You and I, Lady Ancepanox, can live and let live. Let us have peace between us, for Twilight's ”

“For Twilight’s sake.” Twilight took a sip from the glass, and felt the icy stab of her deceit and the unpleasant burn of Velvet’s ambition passing through her at once. “I never knew my mother, but I hope she was just like you.”

“Don't insult me.” Velvet frowned. “The mother is something you can’t understand until you experience it’s full range, both giving and receiving. For some ponies, it is a part of their life. For me, it is my life.” She put the glass down delicately. "Once my dream is fulfilled, I'll be a mother to all ponykind."

"Once I have several nightmare progeny, I will come back for lesions." Ancepanox had another sip of wine. Twilight Sparkle had hated alcohol, but Ancepanox was finding the taste and texture very bearable. Reflecting on it, no amount of drink would ever get her drunk, so she downed the whole glass in a single gulp. "We don't fit into your dream, eh? What do parasites matter to apotheosized ponies?"

"More than you might think." Velvet said. "Goodness, all this talking has me parched."

Ancepanox reluctantly took the offered bait. "What do you mean, 'more than you might think' ?"

"Ambition, apotheosis, and dreams are all very closely related to the Dark, I'm sure you know." Velvet said. "Some ponies even think that dreams are another species of nightmare, parasitic thoughts that ride and compel us."

"That's drivel." Ancepanox shook her head. "Dreams are integral to a pony. Ideas of dream and soul are interchangeable."

"So then it may be the soul, the very being of a pony, that is parasitic." Velvet said. "Let me tell a story.

“My mother was a powerful mare, much more so than me. She was a great beast, a bully who got everything she wanted. A temptress and charming snake, an emotional terrorist to those who knew her. However, she was such a small thinker. Yes, she was never much into politics, but she craved the high societies. She had an eye on every pony in the city, and sometimes a hoof or two. Personal control over others was what she desired, and what she got. Like every other matriarch of house Twilight, she wanted a filly to call her own, and so she got it. Suffice it to say my father didn’t survive the ordeal.

“She was mercifully absent during my childhood, foisting me on one court or another. The lords I warded under were happy with the arrangement, wrapped around her hoof so tightly they thought they deserved every bit of abuse she heaped upon them. My mother probably intended to marry me off to some powerful duke, so that she could use that brag and lord over her peers. It wasn't even social climbing she wanted, just bragging. I was barely a mare when I met Night Light at a minor court. But I knew I’d never get my mother’s approval. Night Light was too earnest, and too kind for her. She couldn’t understand anything other than that personal power over ponies, through fear and dependency.

“It was a cloudy Saturday, and she and I were hunting in the forests with a coltfriend of hers. I was working up the nerve to confront her, so that I could know for certain if she would let me marry Night Light. She was always talkative, but for the carriage ride there, she talked about nothing but this mare, this Mistress, with whom she had recently made a close acquaintance. Apparently, my mother had hooked Mistress up with a certain colt she desired, and so my mother was given something in return. She said she would show me during the hunt. The hunt began, and like always we split up. But I sought her out, for I had decided it was finally time to face her to demand independance. She was seeking me out too, for a far more nefarious purpose.”

Velvet took a deep breath, not in apprehension of the memory, but savoring it. “She ambushed me. The Mistress, who I later discovered to be Phyte, had given her a spell, that she wanted to use to cleanse me of everything she didn’t like, my pride and ego, my willingness to fight back. She wanted to make me an empty shell Why she wanted to do it, I will never know. Maybe she saw me as a threat somehow. Maybe she needed a braindead mare for her latest petty scheme. Alas I survived her ambush. But she was a big mare, and her strike on my head sent me spinning like a top. Ah..." Velvet paused. "I got up and I zapped everything above the eyes free of her. I remember how she looked at me, as she contemplated living the rest of her life without most of her brain. Then she slowly fell forward, like a falling leaf. I remember thinking it was very beautiful, the most graceful she had every been.

"And then I heard it... A voice. My mother's strike had broken my skull, and I was about to die of a hemorrhage. But the voice was there for me. She was calm where I was not, facing the reality with a calculation my pain-addled mind was lacking. She spoke the pattern and I cast it, healing my wound I should have lacked the knowledge and power to fix. With silence rejoining me, I found and put down the coltfriend and carriage ponies, and made the long walk back to Canterlot.

"The voice came back, every so often. She was so much better than me. My thoughts and reactions were like teen poetry next to hers, and so often it seemed that her’s were the right ones, the just and appropriate choices. It said little thing, little hints about what to do, and when I listened, I got the impression it was pleased. After a while I understood, for the actions it guided me to were like reflections of my mother. It drove me to take control of my life, aggressively if needed, and I listened and internalized the lesson.

"Have you caught on? The voice was not madness. Not mental madness, anyway. It belong to my mother and after her passing it belonged to me: A connection to things beyond our world. After deep consideration, I had a name for it. Anima Astral Nacre, the great cosmic entity. Was it Astral herself, broadcasting her voice to be from high in heaven? Was it merely a reflection, or memory, or even dream of her? I don't know. Perhaps my mother knew, but I killed her.

“Sometimes it took was tortuous to try to listen and understand her. I wonder if I wasn't enough for her. I wanted to follow her guidance, but pain and delirium still pounded through me like she was displeased. Slowly, inexorably, my meditation on her fleeting ideas produced a dream, my dream. It had always been there of course, but I came to know and understand it only then.

“That was when the voice faded, forever, and I knew I had succeeded. Astral Nacre, insofar as she existed inside me, was never actually a sentient being with agency. She was a dream that wanted herself to be known. Yet she was my dream the whole time. It makes me wonder if I was even really alive before I killed my mother and inherited the dream, or if I was just an empty vessel, waiting for purpose... You can see now where decades of planning have brought me: To the fulfillment of purpose. Not just personal purpose, but family purpose."

The aghast stares of the rest of the dinner party seemed to fill Velvet with new strength. “I brought the dream to life, and I will see it through. I will rise to every occasion, not out of vanity, but because I have to. I will whip my Astral Nacre into shape. Even if it kill me! Even if it kills every last pony on this planet.”

She swiped her wine glass off the table. “To mothers!” She announced, and threw back the red liquid in a single toss. She crushed it her magic, then turned her burning gaze on Ancepenox. "And to parasites!"

"This has been quite the revelation." Ancepanox said simply. "I must take my leave now. I will depart Canterlot soon, but I will not forget what I learned here."

"Very good." Velvet nodded. "Enjoy this endless night, Lady Ancepanox. It is the time when ordered things turn to anarchy and great things crumble." She stood up, and all her officers did likewise. "Come back when you have more to talk about."

"You will see me when I am more. Until then, Lady Velvet. Sirs, ladies."
Ancepanox got up, reminding everypony how the dark alicorn towered over them all. She strode out of the dining hall, and when she was just out of sight, disappeared in a crackle of magic.

Velvet slowly turned back to her officers. They were watching her waiting, trying to see if anything had changed. "I hope you enjoyed the meal. Now get out there and force this city into submission." She growled. "Out! Now!"

Sel, Blueblood, and Aurthra quickly made their exit. Night Light picked up the Blackhorn Sword from where he'd set it and followed them as far as the threshold. "You're doing well, Velvet. There are things at Chateau la Garde I must see to." With that he left.

Velvet sat back down.
She now had two alicorns to juggle, and neither seemed willing to be pitted against the other for her purposes.
She clapped her hooves and the orchestra started back up.

In the higher floors of the castle, Astral Nacre sulked the halls angrily.
She thought she'd know Velvet. She thought Velvet was her friend and follower. Why was Twilight Velvet now turning on her, contempt in her eyes and in her words? Why did she mock, calling Astral her daughter, not as a term of endearment, but condescending, implicative of superiority?

"It's the new alicorn." Astral rumbled. "Velvet thinks she can surpass me, be a better god for ponykind than me. She's wrong. She's WRONG."

Was Velvet so blind to not realize what she had brought forth in Astral? Astral Nacre was an agent of perfection, and it was her purpose to make ponykind better. But Velvet rejected her for doing her work, when she herself set her to the task! Being denied her purpose, the theogenesis of ponykind, was beginning to fray her nerves.

"They should be cooperating with me, not shaming me. Did they summon me here just to laugh at me?!" Astral ground her head against the stone wall in nervous frustration. "It doesn't matter what they think or do. No no no. I can work by myself. I don't need her approval."

She pulled away from the wall, leaving a pink smear. In a vacant tizzy, she wandered up the stairs onto the roof of the castle. The watchpony on duty there shrank away from the unexpected visitor and escaped down the stairs.
Astral was not a romantic pony, and the sight of the slumbering city beneath her only made her angrier. Astral imagined the mass of ponykind as chunks of unrefined metal. She'd scoured the populace, to find the good material worth refining among the heap and found NOTHING of value. They were all worthless to her!

"Pah! Twilight seems to think the potential of multiple ponies is greater than the sum of them individually. Zero times a hundred is still zero! Collective purpose is a rot!" She brooded.

In her analogy, attempting to make something beautiful or even vaguely useful out of the useless ponies was doomed to failure. However...

"Ah! If only I could get these hooves around that alicorn. Then I'll know. With an alicorn's flesh I could create something wonderful." Astral growled. "This world is tarnished. I KNOW I can make it glitter and shine! I just need... more perfect materials... Ponykind can't become perfect on their own. They need a touch of alicorn blood."

While in reality, alicorns were just the same protein, sugar, and fat cobbled together like any pony, they were so high above the the mortals metaphysically.
So it was oddly fitting for Astral's analogy that Ancepanox was part flesh, part metal. That ugly black armor welded to her skin was like a decleration of her purpose: She would be melted and poured, hammered out, moulded into casts, and from that cast ponykind could be made perfect.

But Velvet couldn’t understand any of that, and it was beginning to make Astral angry.
“I bet she is down there, laughing at me with that nightmare!” She dug her hooves into the floor, gouging chips of the stone.

What did she need to do? What could be done to capture her mother’s attention? Was it power? Yes, Astral brooded, Velvet respected power, and magical power above all else. The feats of pure strength: Teleporting the garden party, massacring the city guard, creating Astral. Velvet knew what power felt like, and knew how to wield it. Ancepanox too, for the dark alicorn had proven very skilled magically.

"But I gave it all I got, and I still could not overcome Ancepanox." Astral griped, her tendrils waving in the breeze. "I will have to become mire skilled, therefore. I will have to learn how to counter her. Bleh! Even if it means sullying my hooves in the much like a mortal. Bleh! Bleh! "

She saw a flash of light. Focussing down on the disturbance, Astral saw Ancepanox striding along the great city walls, that odd black cape of hers flagging in the wind. The dark alicorn was heading back to Canterlot Castle, by the look of things.

"Show me what you care about, Celestiaan." Astral leaned over the ramparts, spreading her wings. "So I can care about it too."

Sel Lech waited in the corridor of Castle Magoria, waiting until he saw his fellow officers and Night Light make their way out of the castle and into the city. Then he waited several more minutes, until he heard the twenty-two piece private orchestra start up again.
He took a deep breath and re-entered the dining hall.

Velvet, leaning back in her seat, looked like she'd been expecting him.
"Lady Velvet." He bowed. "I owe you an explanation. I should still be in the Opera House as you directed."

"You went in." Velvet said. It was not a question.

"Well, yes. I saw a pony at the bottom of the hole and went to stop them." Sel said. "I realize it was a tenuous interpretation of your orders, and I may have seen things you did not want me to."

Velvet looked disinterested. "Did you stop the pony you saw?"

"Um, no, no ma'am." Sel admitted nervously. The punishment he had been expecting was not forthcoming. "There was a vast space under there. I think it goes under the whole of the Mountain. Phyte's lab was there."

"Yes I know." Velvet said, with a hint of impatience. "That place you found, that vacuous cavern, is not for ponies, Sel. It's meant for gods and seekers after gods. What we do here is make our own gods. Understand?"

Sel effected a nod. He didn't understand. "Yes my lady. Should I continue to guard it or..."

"It doesn't matter. The pony you saw down there is able to teleport, I suspect. We couldn't catch them if we tried." Velvet grunted. "Now off you go. There's a long hard night of injustice to get to."

Sel sighed, half in relief, half in anxiety. "Yes my lady."

Velvet held up her hoof. "And Sel, one more thing. The destitute ponies you invited into Canterlot Castle. They all died. Don't let that get you down though. Despite the outcome your intentions were admirable." Her gaze turned severe. "But if you wanted to go around pretending to be a champion of the vulnerable, bloody well see it through. Real change matters, not your good intentions. Be mindful that all ponykind's ills will be gone if our dream succeeds, but if you can't wait for that..." She rolled her hoof dismissively. "You're a loyal pony Sel, but don't fail again. it reflects badly on us."

Sel hung his head. "Yes, my lady. I- I shall be going now."
He slunk from the room trying not to cry. Making decisions was too painful. He had wanted to to good on his own initiative but had failed on both accounts.
He would have to think long and hard if thinking for himself was best in the long run.

The view off the northern wall of Canterlot was usually a beautiful one, where a pony could see the verdant forests that hugged the foothills of the mountain, and the empty plains and hills beyond into a flat infinity that ended thousands of kilometers north at the mountains.
To Prosser, it was dark and it was light. The moonlight was insufficient sometimes for his weakening eyes, but he saw the campfire, hundreds of them, within a day’s trot of Canterlot.

“Ponies come to visit. What a shame we are not in any shape to host guests." Prosser muttered. "Only one noble would be coming this way from the north: Gori Sabonord, the pretentious wench. Still to be so close, she would have had to have left before this endless night. Did Seacrest summon her? Was he planning a coup against Velvet? Curious."

Over the wind and the sound of his own voice, Prosser heard a metal clink against the stone of the city wall ramparts. Somepony was coming to see him. He turned his head a bit to spy the newcomer out of his peripherals: They were a large creature. Astral Nacre, he presumed.

"It was only a matter of time." He said without turning. “Please be merciful. I may not let it show, but I’m afraid of heights. Please don’t throw me off the wall.”

A gravely cackle met his ears. “Expecting a reaper, councilor? I know you’re not afraid of heights, you just want a quick way out. So typical.”

That was not the voice he was expecting, and so Prosser faced the creature. It towered over him, it’s black cape and wavy hair rippling in the wind. It’s eyes, cyan and purple-specled slits, affixed him with a sad amusement.

“The Nightmare Pretender.” He felt the tolling bells in his chest beating down in revere of his imminent demise. “You got Celestia then. I guessed as much, considering all of this.” He waved over the valley, and the lack of the sun’s warming rays. “This world will die without her. I go a bit sooner.”

“Conceited fool. You are having delusions of grandeur again.” That cackle, familiar to Prosser in a twisted, indescribable way, like a lost friend had eaten the glass of a fractured handmirror. “I’m not here for you. I am just walking along this wall, and you are in my way.”

The smile of gleaming white teeth was not, as Prosser expected, barred or gnashing. Nay, she was smirking, lording over him with an emotional victory. What purpose was it? It was not intended to cause terror, not like a nightmare. Prosser knew that smirk well, for he had worn it every day of his life. The Nightmare Pretender wanted to feel better about herself.

Prosser allowed himself the barest of smiles. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but the view was just so captivating." He looked past her. "Just come from the castle? A bit dead lately in there."

”Yes. I have had a look through. I met the new management, and she is not too unreasonable." The nightmare said. "Or perhaps I should say she and I came to an understanding." She looked down at the earth stallion. "What about you, little pony? Are you so eager to leave this city now you invite every passing pony to throw you from the wall?"

"Something like that." Prosser smiled a bit.

“I know. I came to take in this view too.” The Nightmare Pretender looked over the valley, her reptilian eyes gravitated, naturally, to the source of light and heat. “What are those fires down there?”

“Campfires. About four-hundred ponies, by my estimation, are heading this way." Prosser said. "I believe they stoped within sight of the city so we would see them and send a somepony to negotiate."

"Negotiate about what? Wages?" The nightmare said sarcastically.

"No, I think it's an invasion force, to raid or capture the city.” Prosser intoned. "Normally no mount of ponies would be able to capture Canterlot, but the imperial guard had toodled off south."

"That seems implausible. This was a unified empire not fifty hours ago. Nopony could rally an army and invade in that time." The nightmare pointed out. "Somepony predicted this chaos, and moved to take advantage of it?"

"Something tells me they were tipped off." Prosser said. "Don't worry about find out the connection. He died most brutally already, though I can't say he deserved it. Desperation is as desperation does."

"I see. One of massacre victims." The Nightmare Pretender hummed to herself. "Chaos is happening sooner than I thought. Lady Velvet's destruction of pony harmony began months ago."

"Don't put all the blame on her." Prosser said quietly. "The institutions and ponies who were supposed to uphold harmony failed, badly. We more or less willingly handed over the reigns to her." He coughed. "Somepony will eventually come along and punish us, to make sure virtuous ponies never ceed ground to evil again."

"You really are a conceited fool. You think you were virtuous?" The nightmare laughed mockingly. "You're not worth the bother to punish. If you wish to die so much, ask me forthrightly. Or perhaps find a criminal willing to stab you for the bits in your pocket."

Prosser was confused. "Wait... What are you here for?"

The nightmare wrapped her cape more closely about herself. “To harass miserable fools like you." She hopped up onto a merlon. "I came to the city for a spell Just one spell! I had it my hooves within the first hour here, but the knots of mystery here have kept me enraptured."
She sighed. "I will show these 'invaders' off. They need to be told that the collapse of the empire is no excuse to hurt their fellow pony. Then I'm off, for now. The name is Ancepanox, by the way."

"Anxiously awaiting your return already, my lady." Prosser curtsied.

In a peal of magic thunder, the nightmare alicorn disappeared. Prosser leaned over the wall but could not see where in the valley far below she had reappeared.

He thought for a second the renewed hoofsteps on the wall behind him was the nightmare, playing a trick on him. “Wow, you work very quickly. Is it over?” He drawled.

So when he was assaulted with a vile psychic voice in his head, he almost toppled off the wall in shock.
"Nay, it's not yet begun." Astral Nacre growled, scanning the valley with beady eyes until she saw a tiny purple flash. "There she goes. She is a curious one. I will emulate.
In a grind of rubbing sinew and knock of boney wings, she jumped off the city wall and began the glide down to the imminent battle.

Chapter 35: An Unsleeping Restless

“That filly has an unnatural obsession with fire.” Teacher’s voice. They didn’t know Twilight was listening, through the thin door of the classroom. They expected her to wait in the hall like a good filly, but Twilight was too curious for that: She had to know what they were saying, especially if it was about her.

“It reminds her of things.” Father’s calm and strong voice, always exactly the volume in needed to be. “Magic, the sun, Princess Celestia, you name it. All her little passions. She loves fire. She thinks it’s cute.”

“Cute, Lord Light?” Teacher was angry. “Candle lights and gentle sunbeams are cute. Your daughter was making firestorms and burning her classmate's manes off!” Twilight was getting that feeling again, not fear but close, like worry, anxiety. She was afraid she would be forced to leave the Unicorn School and that her learning would end.

“Firestorms? That has to be an exaggeration mis.” Now father sounded concerned, and Twilight became really worried. “She just doesn’t understand-”

“She refused to stop!” Teacher was insatiable. “Lord Light your daughter was purposefully tormenting the other fillies and colts, lording over them with fire!”

“Lording over them with fire?” Now father just sounded amused now. “Mis Professor, have you read any texts on ancient hippoology lately? Descent of Ponykind, perhaps? She is a filly, not a cave dweller.”

“I know what I saw.” Twilight imagined Teacher crossing her hooves indignantly, like she always did when challenged. “Maybe the empress would be more concerned than you.”

“There’s no need for that.” Father’s voice was soothing, like when he read bedtime stories to Twilight. “I will talk to her. She will have an apology in the morning, to you and her fellow students.”

“Hmm.” Teacher’s upturned nose didn’t have to be seen to be perceived.

Twilight quickly and quietly retreated from the door before Father passed through, and found a particle of dust to study nonchalantly.

Father closed the door behind him. He regarded Twilight for a moment, then bent down to her level, like any time it was serious. “Twilie, I know you were listening. I want to know what happened.”

Twilight pursed her lips, but let the anxiety of being discovered pass. Father always deserved the truth, and it was wrong of her to be dishonest to him. “Mis Teacher is right. I used the firestorm spell.”

“Did Celestia teach you that one?” Father asked, patient.

“No. It's in the books for next year. It's supposed to be for cooking. Everypony was practicing the little candle-lighting spell Teacher taught us. I just wanted to show I knew a better spell already.” Twilight remembered their faces, so proud of themselves.

“What is fire?” Father asked.

“A chemical reaction.” Twilight recited precisely, with a hint of pride.

“You read that out of your book, but do you know what a chemical reaction is?” Father asked, softer.

“No.” Twilight admitted. Father could always see right through her.

“And that’s ok, Twilight. Learning that kind of thing takes time.” Father stroked her hair. “And I can tell you had more reason than just showing off to cast a firestorm. Can you tell me why?

"I..." Twilight pouted. “The other fillies were laughing because I melted my candle.” Twilight’s face contorted in a fillies remembered embarrassment. “So what if I melted mine up because I was using the better spell? Those big dummies! They didn’t know anything!” Twilight flailed her limbs, but Father rested a hoof on her gently and she stopped.

“What else.” He encouraged.

“I wanted to teach them.” Twilight had a icy glint in her eye. “They didn’t know what hotter meant, or what faster meant. I made all their candles melt more mine with the firestorm. Those dummies didn’t understand! All they did was cry! Mis Teacher didn’t understand either. She doesn’t know a lot of things. I don’t think that’s good if she’s a teacher.”

“No, it’s not good, but Mis Teacher knows more than you want to admit.” Father became abruptly stern. “Did you know you did a bad thing, Twilight.”

“No.” Twilight was confused. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what you did wrong, hmm?” Father tapped his hoof like he did when he gave something a lot of thought. “Do you like to be scared, Twilight?”

“No, I hate it!” Twilight spat.

“That’s reasonable.” Father nodded. “Do you think other fillies like to be scared?”

“I don’t know.” Twilight was beginning to realize her crimes. “No.”

“You scared them, and though she hides it under her attitude, Mis Teacher was scared as well.” Father smiled, still stern. “Do you know why?”

Twilight shook her head. “Why?”

Father’s soft reply was-

Father’s

Fa Fa fa fa a

a a a

Twilight blinked.

“Your superiority!” Father leaned in, eyes burning with pride for his daughter, the one who could terrify all the other fillies and colts. “You’re better than them! Better than some grown ups! They can’t understand, Twilight, and so they fear you! What do you do to ponies like that?”

Twilight jumped to her hooves, and cracked at the empty air with experimental jets of red flame. It was practice for what she would unleash: What the teacher had so accurately described as torment. A filly’s face could not have been more defiled by a smile than it was with the domineering and hungry look of Twilight. “I will own them!”

Twilight felt a sudden rush of vertigo. Her whole snout was suddenly very painful. She tried to yelp but got a mouthful of dirt. A combination of the virtigo and being lifted into the air almost made her vomit, until she opened her eyes and saw Ponyville's blue skies above her. Iillor leened over her, brushing the dirt off her coat.

Day

“Maybe you shouldn’t be up and about yet.” Iillor sounded concerned. She kept a hoof on Twilight to steady her.
They were just on the other side of the stone bridge into Ponyville, on the way back from Fluttershy's. It was getting into the afternoon, the wind-rustled grass and insects providing plenty flavor to the silence.

Twilight waited until she wasn't on the verge of throwing up. “I’m fine. A bit woozy, but fine.” Twilight struggled against the pain both on and within her head. “What happened?”

“You tripped.” Iillor looked back over the dirt path. “Or fell, I guess, or passed out. Are you hurt?”

Twilight shook her head. “I remembered something else, or at least I think...” She started walking again so Iillor didn’t see the fear and doubt working it’s way onto her face. “It’s just been concepts before, but I saw something.” She whispered. "But it didn't make sense. It's like a memory that I didn't have. Or... I don't think I had." She fell silent.

Iillor's voice peaked in curiosity. "Remebered something? Something from the forest?

"No. it was from years ago." Twilight shook her head. "Which is why I'm so weirded out." SHe sighed. "Nevermind. It's just my memory playing tricks on me."

"Sure." Iillor smiled. "Lead the way."

“Thanks." Twilight said. “I’d like to make one more detour before we get to the library, if that’s okay. I'd like to stop by the bakery.”

Iillor, curious but wary enough to press further, followed in silence. Twilight and Twilight alone had emerged from the Everfree forest. Iillor was not always a patient mare, but something told her that taking her time would be better once the little noble mare finally led her to the Nightmare of the Moon.

Night

The scrubby hills north of Canterlot, bald save for knee high brushes, made for imperfect terrain for hiding. Astral Nacre was doing an admirable job though, having uprooted some of the vegetation and jabbed it into the sinew of her back for camouflage . She crept in the dark, looked like tree whose trunk was made of meat.
Astral watched with impatient darting orbs Ancepanox's creeping through the night. The dark alicorn was suppressing her aura and her noise, but Astral hunted by sight. The scant moonlight was enough for her, and so too Ancepeanox, for the nightmare saw her approach from a ways away.

"It's you." Ancepanox said with some disgust. "What the hell is that in your back?"

"Camouflage. I saw you attempting to sneak and I emulated."

"Hell yeah you're attempting to sneak. Camouflage is actually a complex system. Sticking a few branches in your gunt isn't camouflage." Ancepanox railed. "And why would you even care to copy me?"

"To learn why you do it." Astral said simply. "And with that, puzzle at how it gives you power."

Ancepanox didn't know what she expected, but not Astral revealing everything up front."Purpose doesn't equal power you know. If being more convinced of something made you stronger, we'd be ruled by psychopaths rather than just sociopaths." Her brief joy at the joke faded when she saw Astral didn't react or even get it. "Whatever. Go away."

"No, I shan't." Astral bobbed her head. "I wish to continue observing you."

"I don't want to comit violence against you. Really I don't, and I'll apologize for hurting you in the throne room." Ancepanox scowled. "But if you ruin my attempt at diplomacy with these 'invaders' I will bury you so far into the earth it will take ten-thousand generations to uncover you."

Astral cocked her head. "I believe you could do it. You are skilled." But she didn't move.

"Oh whatever." The dark alicorn huffed. "Stay out of my way." She stood up and ran towards the encampment.

Astral watched her go, but the nightmare alicorn abandoned subtlety and approached the camp upright and in full view.

“What is she doing, giving away the element of surprise?” Astral asked the bramble she’d tucked into the strands of her neck. “Is she actually going to talk to them? How pointless. Why, I should say she is adorably playful, that she does not simply assert her will over them. ”

“Qui a crié?” A stallion’s voice carried over the hill. “Entendez-vous cette bruit?”

“Une fois oui et non! Je ne sais pas quelle direction.” The reply was muffled and slightly echoing, from a mare in armor. “Dans ma tête, je me sens comme ce.”

It appeared that a patrol from the camp had heard the alicorns arguing. Astral crouched, wondering what she should do.

She could feel the approaching ponies' aura, so pathetic and flawed compared to her own. She yearned to correct all the mistakes nature had made making the mortals. Alas, Ancepanox was the more promising materiel, but that didn't mean she couldn't mess with the inferior option while she waited.
With a grin, Astral began creeping through the short grass, imagining all the ways she was to indulge herself.

The sentries at the edge of the encampment spotted Ancepanox as she approached, but she didn’t care if they raised the alarm. She didn’t want to fight them, only talk to the pony in charge. If it came to a confrontation she could teleport away and try again later. She would not, as Prosser had urged her, take any kind of violent action against these so-called invaders. Until they took violent actions against Canterlot, she would give them the benefit of the doubt. The imperial values of harmony were not so easily forgotten. She was sure of it.
That simple offering, the belief that ponies were good unless proven otherwise, was something Twilight swore never to give up. Nightmare Moon, embittered by a thousand years of imprisonment, truly believed that evil and corruption were intrinsic to ponykind. She had thought that friendship was made despite pony nature, not because of it. Ancepanox would not be that way, she vowed to herself.

Still, Twilight was even now choosing a conflict over saving Spike. Every moment that she was not moving southward to Ponyville and the Everfree was another moment her closest friend was at risk. Part of Twilight recognized that she was finding distractions, like dinner with her mother and confronting these invaders, because she was afraid. Ancepanox was afraid of how Spike would react to a stunted monstrosity who claimed to be his caretaker. The fake Twilight catatonic in the Everfree throne room was far more likely to reunite with him. The very possibility of that wounded Anceapnox in a way she could hardly bare, so she pushed it away with distraction. She wasn't ready to accept change yet.

Ancepanox forced those thoughts from her mind before she was overwhelmed again. She’d started the task ahead and she would see it through, distraction or no. As the popular Canterlot adage went, ‘Let’s all do what we agree on before we do what we don’t’.

It had been difficult to tell how many ponies there were in the camp from the wall, even with eyes as sensitive to light as hers. From the ground Ancepanox was just taller than the tents, and estimated a hundred tents. That meant one company of a hundred lances, but there were nearly seven-hundred ponies at her cursory extrapolation. The only region in Equestria that had seven ponies to a lance was Prancia-Sabonord, a prench enclave in the hills and forests on the northern slopes of Foal. The sentries’ alarm cries moments later were in prench, confirming her deduction.
So why would a northern noble march south? They would indeed have had to set out before the night began to be on Canterlot's doorstep. Why? Were they, as Prosser alluded to, tipped off to the coming chaos?

As she waited for the army to send a response to her appearance, she inspected the ring of wagons forming a primitive wall around the camp. The they had come well stocked with food and clothing, indicative of a lord with wealth. There were no trees in the plain but the army was prepared, with several of its supply wagons carrying coal for its fires instead of food.
That was quite the fire hazard, she noted to herself.

The ripple of alarms traveled quickly through the camp, but it took nearly half-an-hour for a messenger to be sent. Archers waited behind the wagon barricade, with some knights and pages behind them trying to get a look at the nightmare interloper.
The messenger approached her slowly, on alert for signs of hostility. She was very hesitant to get near the large, unfamiliar alicorn.

“Greeting, from Countess Glori of Sabonord.” The messenger bowed, her accent making Twilight’s comprehension difficult. “You are welcomed to parlay with her ladyship, or if your intentions are mal, let us know.” She said the last part with some nervousness.

“I accept Lady Glori’s offer to meet.” Ancepanox bowed slightly, and she followed the messenger back towards the camp.

The wagon barricade was pulled apart and they entered under the curious, fearful eyes of the soldiers. Most of them were knights, this being a lord’s personal host. They wore a mix of steel armor and woven fabric padding, and were armed with swords. The retainers and servants were armed with bows or dodgy spears, and protected only by their own fur or tunics.
The air was thick with coal smoke from the campfires, and here and there Ancepanox saw meals abandoned from when the alarm interrupted them.

Count Glori’s rest was at the center of the camp, in a tent no larger than the other, if slightly more colorful. Sitting crosslegged between Ancepanox and the flap was a grey earth pony, a voulge and a broadsword at his side. His head was encased in a silver decorative helmet that turned his visage into that of a wolf, growling perpetually.

“A guarddog. How clever. Does he bark?” Ancepanox regarded the earth pony.
She wished for a moment that the helm fused to her body was as ferocious, or at least as beautiful. Nightmare Moon’s crafsponyship was exquisitely made, but lacked both form and function. It was an expression of herself in the moment of her rebellion: naive, dark, single-purposed. Twilight wondered what statement the usurper princess was making with such a creation, a criticisms of her own place in her world. But it no longer contained part of Moon, and Twilight couldn’t guess weather her new path, naive, dark, single-purposed, was being subtly guided by the armor or a case of convergent situations.

The earth pony in the wolf helm looked up at her. His eyes stared out from the sneering maw. He was not afraid like the others. He's attention roamed over her armor, like he was mimicking her thoughts for himself.
"No." He finally said in a low voice distorted by the helm. "I do not bark. I have been trained not to."

“My ladyship awaits.” The messenger interrupted. The pony with the wolf helm waved Ancepanox into the tent. She had to bow her head to enter through it’s small flap, and the wolf-headed earth pony stepped in after, blocking her exit. Made to fit seven ponies and their equipment, it was somehow cramped for the three.

Glori Sabonord a lean and gaunt unicorn, her coat a very pale cyan, her short hair silvery. Her eyes were sullen and inexpressive and her lips were unnaturally tinted, giving her the look of a vulture. Her mark, five red vertical lines, featured prominently on her simple white garb. From a cushion on the ground she greeted Ancepanox with scrutiny.

“You are entirely different than what I expected.” Glori spoke with a singsong voice, heavily accented by prancian intonation. “Neither regal, nor feral, but somewhere in between.”

“Unkind words for when the same applies you.” Ancepanox frowned in measured displeasure. “You Sabonords have a reputation for decadence.”

“Constant luxury is venom to a warrior's mind.” Glori’s eyes took in every detail of her malformed guest, seeming to compare them against her preconception. “If you want a slovenly glutton you would have to fly to my keep in Prancia and meet my wife.”

“That I am here would seem to show that I do not want a glutton. I am here for you, countess.” Ancepanox said simply.

“It pleases me to hear a creature like you say that. It is more than Celestia has ever done for me.” Glori chuckled, shaking her head in amusement. “I might enjoy this meeting, even though I lack your name.” She offered the other cushion on the floor.

“I am Ancepanox.” Ancepanox accepted the offer and sat, adjusting her cape so it kept her mark concealed. The wolf-head pony stayed at the tent flap, leaning on his two oversized weapons. Glori wasn’t armed, but being surrounded was making Ancepanox apprehensive. Old customs gave her certain protections as an invited guest, but despite that she could do little to lift her worry. “Student, squire, confessor. Heir to Nightmare Moon.”

Glori chirped in surprise. “Really? You aren’t Nightmare Moon? I have only just learned that she was more than a myth,” She pointed out of the tent into the perpetual night. “and now I hear she has an heir too! How many of you nightmares are there? Should I be making a list."

Ancepanox scowled. “if you wish to, but I would tell you to contain your fascination, countess. Concern yourself with me, not others, as I am alive where Moon is not.”

“Nightmare Moon is dead already?” Glori hummed. “Then you creatures can be killed. Do you bleed? Do yo bleed out?”

The open morbidity only added to Ancepanox’s unease. She kicked herself for giving away. “Do you think you are as powerful as Celestia? It took her and more to defeat Nightmare Moon, and I was her end.”

“And I thank you for that. But Nightmare Moon is dead and you still introduce yourself as her heir. If that is the case, why do you not call yourself her inheritor?” Glori asked. “Are you hiding something?”

“It is my nature to hide things, and my right.” Ancepanox was reminded of Chrysalis. She wondered if the meeting would conclude in a changeling-style sneak attack, either by her or Glori. “I am a cautious mare, Countess, and yet I walked into your camp alone. What does that say for how large of a threat I consider you to be?” There was a not-so-concealed warning in her tone. "I don't desire to fight you. I came to talk and you are threatening me."

“Oh, I want to be civil with you, my lady, but there is something about you…” Glori laugh, a shrill sound compared to her speaking voice, brought to mind visions of canaries being tortured. “For I am cautious as well, and I would never invite a pony into my tent who I was not certain I could kill myself.”

“Do you fancy yourself a god-killer then?” Ancepanox, who was feeling vindicated in her paranoia, looked over her shoulder at the stoic wolf-pony. “Or does this one do the heavy lifting?”

“Ripple Wreath is the apprentice.” Glori smiled. “I am the master. As third in line to my father’s county I was committed to a disciplined life from a young age. I trained in Griffany among mercenaries and warlords. Nopony I have ever met could best me.”

Ripple Wreath was a name Twilight actually recognized. He was the heir of a county in the Riverpony lands, son of Lord Ripple Reads. House Ripple’s hold was squarely between Canterlot’s mountain and Foal, mildly famous for their martial prowess. Twilight’s family had visited the area before on their way to her Uncle Flux’s land in Foal. Glori’s words must have been more than just boast if Ripple Wreath was training under her.

Twilight thought about her father. He was soft spoken, but despite years out of the sport he still held notoriety in the Canterlot dueling circles. Shining Armor had been under tremendous pressure as a squire to uphold his father’s legacy. Ancepanox wondered what Twilight Sparkle would have become if she had felt such external pressures, instead of only imagining them all.

“Third in line, and you got the county.” Ancepanox shook her head. “Not by mere circumstance."

Glori laughed again. "Go on then! Say the soft part loud."

"My condolences for the fate of those before you in the succession.”

“Very good! You understand what terrible things ponies do for crowns!” Glori jumped up. "The mares like me who harbor no fear, and pursue their goals single-mindedly frighten the weak. They call me crazy because I do not adhere to their culture of polite jockeying, compromise, and discourse."

"That was not my impression of Equestria's noble culture." Ancepanox deadpanned.

"You, whoever you are, are immured in their passivity. They let life come to them. They wait for circumstance to turn their way instead of CREATING the circumstances they pursue."

As Glori spoke, Ancepanox was reminded of Velvet. "Sure. Right."

Glori's stare became wild. "Pah! Do you dismiss me as I do, because you discover yourself humbled before me? Are you intimidated by a mare who does anything it takes to get what she wants?"

Ancepanox thought of some very choice words for the mare, but held back. "Why are you here, Lady Glori? You've had your whole life to come tell everypony what you think of them, but you chose now."

Glori ignored the question, continuing with her saved up words. “A crown is a heavy burden! I let everypony I loved know that, but they ignored me, and thus had to pay the price. They could not bear the burden, where I can.”

“Countess, answer me.”

“Having lived like a commoner, I know what the little ponies suffer. I think all of us know, but we simply do not care. We think the crown gives us the right to ignore the ponies under us. What my fellow lords do not realize is that power should compel you to pay more attention, so you can see what they are scheming.” Ancepanox noted Glori’s explicit avoidance of the word ‘peer’. The gaunt unicorn’s brazen lack of tact was quite unlike any other noble she could recall. “I am not a god fearing mare, because I fear nothing at all. I have won every fight before now.”

“Your ramblings do not interest me, countess! Give me an answer, now.” Ancepanox growled. “What your intentions are at Canterlot?”

“Family business.” Was Glori’s curt reply. The countess was shifting forward on her cushion, getting minutely closer to the mare across from her.

“Countess, give me a strait answer or I'll be angry.” Ancepanox drew back her lips just enough to show her fangs. “If you refuse to answer we will be forced into less pleasant circumstances.”

“Then finally this charade will be over!” Glori laughed. "Both of us will be pleased, for only in violence is truth found!"

She stood up. Ancepanox jumped to her hooves, alert, but the countess just trotted around her to the tent’s flap. Her guard Ripple Wreath followed her out close at heel.
A confused and wary Ancepanox followed her. She was very ready to call her visit over and teleport away. She'd failed to come to a consensus with Glori. Glori refused to be persuaded away from violence, and only an intervention twenty years past could have changed that.
How? Why? How had a mare growing up in Equestria have denied equestrian harmony so completely? This was not a damaged mare like Velvet, right?

Ancepanox followed them out of the tent, and was greeted by a sea of ponies surrounding her. They was completely surrounded by Glori’s army.

“Look up at Canterlot! It is a city plunged into darkness, and I speak of more than simply the loss of our sun.” Glori pointed to the plateau city high above them. “No torches on the walls nor lights in the Castle. Were ponies really so quick to forsake Celestia’s capital after her death or was something else at work?”

"You tell me. You seem to have abandoned Canterlot long ago." Ancepanox quipped.

"As it abandoned me." Glori nodded. "Now it abandoned itself? Too rich!"

“That it is I who is here asking you your business should tell you enough about what has transpired in Canterlot.” Ancepanox said. "They are still watching, Lady Glori. And asking."

Glori tilted her head slightly, a hawkish almost-grin maligning her face. “Don't make me laugh. Are you trying to imply that you are in charge of Canterlot now?"

"Some ponies lead from the front."

"Ponies like me! Not ponies like you." Glori chuckled. "Besides, Lady Ancepanox, I already know what happened."

Ancepanox scowled. Prosser's implication of a Canterlot connection seemed all but confirmed now. "Doubtful."

"HA! That is what I said! But I came anyway, to see with my own eyes what a certain velvet lady has done for a crown!”

Things suddenly started to derail in Twilight’s mind. Not only did Glori know that conditions in Canterlot were bad, but she knew Velvet had been personally involved? Velevet seemed very proud of herself that nopony in the leadership saw her coming until she began the massacres! Were messages getting out since night fell, or was the leak from Velvet's inner circle?
“An unfounded assumption.”

“Unfounded, you say! My cousin’s letters are the foundation of my words!” Prompted by Glori’s words, her messenger pulled a chest full of letters from the tent. Glori pulled a selection to herself by magic. “Since you seem to know about the Sabonords, you will quiver to hear of the Blackhorns! Yes my Seacrest left my keep a year ago, but since then he pestered my incessantly with letters of his travels. Since they stopped arriving I took notice. And how grave I find the contents.

Blackhorn. Seacrest Blackhorn. Hadn't Velvet or one of her captains mentioned a Seacrest?
Ancepanox took the stack of letters and read through them while Glori watched expectantly.

The first few letters were penned beautifully and in large script, but the last were small and scrawled, as if a completely different pony had written them. Here and there little doodles graced the margins, and at first they were of flowers, mountains, trees and birds, giving way to haunting portraits of recognizable ponies: Sel Lech Sobonord, Twilight Velvet, Captain Hausseway, Celestia and many other ponies Ancepanox didn’t recognize. One was a skeletal looking mare with a long and concealing mane, another of a lean stallion with a roadmap of stitches across his face.

"I don't have time to read these." Anepanox passed them back. "And if I did it would be no use. You have clearly interpreted what you want from them already."

“How nice of you to ask. Celestia was a poxy whore, but at least she stayed out of our buisness.” Glori spat. “The frontier won't tolerate a Canterlot that wants to rescind our rights and independence as the heirs of Equestria's lords of old; We reject centralization, with arms and armor!"

"Centralization?" Ancepanox quirked a brow.

"My cousin's murderer, Twilight Velvet, conspires to turn Equestria into a unitary state. She killed my Seacrest to keep that fact hidden, but it was too late. I have led this march from Prancia to the shadow of Canterlot, if there was still a sun to cast one. I did it to protect our rights, and prove once and for all that action triumphs over passivity.”

"You could not have it more wrong. Lady Velvet couldn't care less about what you do on the frontier. Nopony does. You're fighting against a strawpony.” Ancepanox was struggling to keep carrying herself confidently. She could be attacked suddenly from any number of directions and overwhelmed! The prospect of a fight terrified her, yet on a certain perverse level, absolutely thrilled her. She was facing a raw challenge, on tongue or by hoof.

"Yes, continue to spin your lies. The only truth I heard from you was that you are not Nightmare Moon!” Glori waved to the moon. “It was brave of you to face me, but I am calling your bluff. Your conspiracy ends here, Astral Nacre.”

There it is, Twilight thought glumly, it wouldn’t be a fulfilling day in Equestria without an epic misunderstanding.
“As fantastical as it sounds, Astral is a different alicorn. I could understand her being behind your cousin’s death. I swear to you I wish to protect innocent ponies, not persecute them.” Ancepanox offered informatively. “You have the totally wrong idea.”

"Who decides the definition of innocent?! Have you sought to punished those responsible for my cousin's murder? Your eyes say no!” Glori squawked. “I'll squeeze the stolen blood out of you and see what you really look like under there!"

Things were quickly spiraling from implied insults to outright threats of murder. "You think I chose to look like this?! Why?” Ancepanox waved over her face and body, haggard and torn with ancient steel-blue armor burned in. “Why, if I could appear otherwise? I look like this because it's who I am, not because I think it will give me some legitimacy or advantage."

"Then leave, coward." Glori growled.

Ancepanox averted her gaze for a second. Who was she? What did her form represent? What did 'I look like this because it's who I am' entail? She looked at her armored hoof. She was encased in metal, designed for violence. Nightmare Moon had designed the armor for aggression, but it didn't have to mean that forever. There were noble causes that needed to be defended from those who would destroy them. Ancepanox, through apprehension and fear, knew she could do good by ponykind. The only question was if Velvet and her operation was anything worth defending.
She looked back to Glori. "No." She said sternly. "I won't let you take vengeance. Leave Canterlot, and take your lust for violence with you."

The seven hundred knights and retainers, filling every space not occupied by a tent, drew their weapons, a deafening sound. Glori waved them down, but still they rested for the fatal signal.

“You won't let me. You won't let me.” Glori chuckled. “Do you hear that? She will not let me!” A resounding laugh from the camp. “We are brought against each other for our ambitions, but the reasons do not matter. Astral or Ancepanox, whichever you are, will not let me. I will let me! Heh heh heh ha ha! Oh little lady, you will try.”

Without the guilty there to take responsibility, Anceapnox was going to bear the burden of her mother’s sins. Glori and the Seacrest she spoke of deserved justice it was true, for Twilight Velvet had committed the greatest atrocity in pony memory. But Ancepanox ironically could keep the intended purpose of that atrocity from being fulfilled by protecting Velvet. Equestrian harmony had to be upheld, even if it meant protecting the guilty.

“Do not throw your life away for a dead pony! I am sorry for your loss but you will be sorrier if you allow Seacrest’s death to drive you to conflict with me or anypony else. Go home. Don’t do anything you will regret!” Ancepanox said aloud, to herself more than to Glori.

“No time for regrets, only action. Seacrest was an annoying and moping poet, and I was glad when he left my keep. But he was family! Only I may shake the portraits loose from the walls of house Sabonord! You owe me his death.” Glori said, unclasping her cape and donning a simple breastplate. “I hope I cause whoever loves you to mourn as much as I have. That is, not much. Accept having your memory forgotten, alicorn."

"That wouldn't be so bad." Ancepanox grunted.

Glori accepted a voulge cleaver Ripple Wreath offered her. She levitated from her tent a hoplon shield, featuring the five red lines of her mark, and strapped it to her lower foreleg. Crouching slightly, she held the voulge in a hoof in combination with her magic while mostly behind the protection of the shield. It seemed she was not the kind of duelist Ancepanox had been thinking of, equipped more like a gladiatorial fighter.

The crowd pulled back, letting a circle form. Ripple Wreath backed away from his countess, so Twilight and Glori were alone, facing each other, in the ring of packed ponies. Bloody spectacle was inevitable.

"Are you suicidal?" Ancepanox said, her extreme nervousness slipping into her voice. This was it. "Are you actually going to face down an alicorn?"

Glori closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “Nopony intervene.” Her eyes snapped open, full of morbid glee. “For I do not fear fake ponies and blasphemers! Defend yourself, monster!”

A wind was rushing down the Mountain into Canterlot, and the cold was starting to bite. Ponies hadn’t come to terms with the extended night yet, closing themselves off; Most of the shops Night Light passed were closed, and the few ponies he saw were the militiaponies on patrol. Fortunately a clothier at the edge of the district was open, and he stopped in and purchased a scarf. The elderly shopkeep had tried to refuse Night Light’s payment, saying it was his pleasure to provide comfort to his liege. Night Light looked at the old stallion, wondering what kinds of rumors were circulating among the commoners. He almost resorted to threats before the stallion acquiesced and took his bits.
Night Light was fine enough with titles and such, but the idea of actually being somepony’s lord made him very uncomfortable. He’d told Velvet early that he wanted nothing to do with the political side of things. Besides, the end of their endeavor would make rank and class obsolete.

He made with moderate haste to Chateau la Garde. The area around the grand gatehouse was a big mess thanks to the IHG using it as a staging ground for their departure. Several nearby houses were looted, and much of the chaeau itself too.
On the way through the castle’s lowest hall Night Light passed Sel Lech Sabonord.

“Good evening Captain Sabonord.” Night Light bowed. "I apologize for slapping you, truly. In my distress I was carried away.

“Yeah. Don't worry about it, my lord.” Sel said meekly. “I was not acting as I should. I deserve a hit or two every so often for wearing this undeserved uniform.”

Night Light smiled warmly. Sel, unlike so many of the ponies in Canterlot, was genuinely modest. “Most ponies go through their whole lives only playing at things. You’ve done more than they ever will. You don’t need to be so hard on yourself.”

“I’ll let you call me captain if you let me call you Prince Light. Is that a fair trade?” Sel ribbed.

“Touchė.” Night Light chuckled. “I hope you believe me, Sel, that I can be there if you have any problems."

Sel glanced away for a moment. "Has Lady Velvet told you about the catacombs and cavern under the city?"

Night Light's smile flattened. "She hasn't, so hold off on whatever you have to tell me until I ask her."

"Of course, sir." Sel nodded. "Only, please keep an eye out for unexpected danger."

"Danger? Now that's different Sel. If you think there's danger you should be telling Velvet right now." Night Light urged.

"I- I don't know for sure. Lady Velvet knows anyway, I think." Sel said evasively.

Night Light shrugged.

The door at the end of the room creaked open and there was a rush of little hooves as the filly messenger ran up to the two stallions. She pushed a letter into Night Light's hooves and ran off.

"From Velvet." Night Light noted as he unfolded and read it. "She is on the way here to look at her records." He read further. "Ancepanox entered Canterlot Castle but the sentries didn't see her come out. Patrols confirm she is no longer there. She must have gone back for what she was after in the first place." He nudged the Blackhorn Sword strapped to his back. "The Blackhorn armor was missing earlier. She may have taken it."

Sel gulped. He'd seen Sunset Shimmer down in the caverns with the armor. "Maybe, sir."

"You received quite the grilling at dinner. How did the experience find you?" Night Light asked. "Form an opinion about our nightmarish guest?

Sel frowned. “Err, Lady Ancepanox was no more ugly than Astral, and a good deal more clever. I think she's dangerous, but not towards us, which is nice.”

Night Light assumed a look more grave than Sel had ever seen him on, mor so even than during the massacre of the Estates. “Clever thought she may be, she is a landless lady with every incentive to take what is not hers. My daughter earned the title of Viscountess through meritorious service to the empress, and I am disgusted at the prospect of a presumptuous creature laying claim, be they alicorn or not. Then, there is the obvious threat she poses to us, to my daughter, and Equestria. Did it occur to any of us that she is behind the unending night? If she holds Equestria's fate in her hooves like that, there is little we could do save submit. A grim prospect."

"I agree with your concerns my lord, but I-" Sel sighed. "I think she's nice. Call me naive, but I believe her when she says she doesn't want to destroy anypony."

"If that's true it doesn't make her any less an existential threat to us." Night Light warned.

"How so?"

“It is the same situations as with our fake Seacrest. Ponies flock to icons. It is the same reason we need Astral Nacre: More than her potential as a weapon is her potential as a focus for ponykind's submission to their betters, just as Celestia was. "

“My lord, forgive me, but is there any coherence to Lady Velvet’s plan apropos Astral? Why did she, and we, make her?” Seacrest challenged.

"You heard her same as I. Astral Nacre is the manifestation of ponykind's ability to ascend to greater things."

"Um yeah... So is it ironic or what that she's being an asshole? This isn't what we expected." Sel said. “We saw how off her stride Lady Velvet was in the opera house, and all of us were troubled by it. Yes, you slapped my hesitation to act away, but that does not remove the question. Is our plan bust if Astral is utterly impossible to control? My lord, I’m terrified of what could happened to us if Lady Velvet isn’t able to keep this up anymore.”

Night Light looked very cross for a moment, but it melted away into tiredness. “Go about your business, Captain Seacrest. Next time please keep your opinions about my wife to yourself.”

Sel winced. "Yes, my lord." He kept his head down as Night Light passed his towards the stairs.

Night Light, continued up through the Chateau, observing the damage the Imperial Knights had wrought in their brief stay. The rooms were turned inside out, with a good deal of the lighter furnishings taken. He reached the top floor and stepped into the library, the most disarrayed room of them all.

“Look at this mess. I raised Shining better than this.” Twilight Velvet was picking up the scattered scrolls and reorganizing them. “The silly boy forgot to burn the evidence.”

Night Light was momentarily surprised by her presence. "Velvet, you should not be teleporting until your magic is more stable."

Velvet ignored him.

"Velvet..." Night Light took a step forward, stepping in some unexpected wetness. Puzzled, he looked down. The faint candlelight reflected off the red river of blood that could be followed back to the maid, hunched in the corner with her neck slit. "Oh goodness gracious Velvet!"

"What? She'll come back." Velvet shot, still scooping up scattered pages. "I ordered her to make sure Shining didn't leave the city without saying goodbye. The girl had the audacity to say it would have been bad for his mental health."

"I'm glad you brought up mental health, because this is getting out of control." Night Light said, strained. "Your slip in the opera house has everypony concerned. And yes, I know you're concerned too, but breaking Blueblood's leg was the wrong way of proving your confidence to yourself. It came off as more unhinged, more desperate. Now this!"

Velvet nodded, brows raised. "Uh huh. Now this."

"You need time to recuperate. You haven't had a minute of sleep since the ritual." He rubbed his eye and sighed. "Ancepanox left the city, and Astral is mercifully laying low. Now is the perfect time to rest. Please, nopony wants you to kill the next pony you blow up on."

"Eh, somepony would." Velvet took one of the collected piles of paper and took it to her writing desk. "Come take a look at these, Night Light."

"Velvet, please don't ignore me."

"I'm not. I'm telling you to come take a look at these." Velvet said, sharper.

Torn between indulging her so she would be more amenable, or not yielding to her stubbornness, Night Light trotted over to her.

"I came to check on something very interesting. Look at the names on those lists. I wrote those five months ago. And that list next to it was from last year." Velvet said.

"You wrote these names?" Night Light looked at the lists of ponies' names, which had basic information and further reading notated, but saw nothing special.

"You know how I get, with the little fugues. I don't understand the things I write sometimes." Velvet grinned. "And when I look at them after, I see I've written a nearly encyclopedic account of these ponies I've never met."

This was all old news to Night Light. "Is something different?"

"I'm probably never going to go through another fugue since getting Astral out of my head." Velvet said. "But yes, something is different. I finally made the connection between all the ponies on the lists I've been writing. They just died."

"Just died? What do you mean?"

“Dissected, stitched back up, and now shambling around the Opera House. Astral didn’t target random ponies.” Velvet flipped through several folders and took out the longer profiles for Night Light’s benefit. “All these ponies, regurgitated out of my mind onto this paper, were all admitted to the Old Town Hospital yesterday for various inexplicable aches and pains. They were all in one place for Astral to scoop them up and mutilate."

"You mean to say-"

"The mutilated ponies in the opera house. They're all here."

“Gods almighty... It is as though they were predestined to die.” Night Light shuttered. “Velvet, this has wide implications. Astral Nacre isn't acting like she is because we failed somehow. This was always going to happen." His eyes widened. "Velvet... Could it be... These ponies were brought together by you? Through sheer force of will, destiny was altered to bring these ponies to the point where Astral would meet them?

Velvet laughed knowingly. "Yes, Night Light, the dream. We now have our first conclusive evidence. We did it, Night Light. We fought against fate and won. We asserted our own causality on this world."

"I- I know this is what we were working towards and I'm still overwhelmed." Night Light fell to his haunches. "Years of singular, unwavering determination, to change the course of reality..."

"The facts are still obfuscated. We don't know the mechanism for sure." Velvet said darkly. "I hold that Astral Nacre is the key. Until ponykind's dreams are unified, an alicorn is still the only power that can permanently resist the sun's destiny."

"We will have to see what happens when the sun comes up to tell if it is permanent for certain." Night Light said. "Until then... it has to be buisness as usual."

"Yes it does."

"We can't let anypony know we succeeded. Even a hint that we are changing destiny and we will be disemboweled before we truly know how to control it." Night Light grumbled deeply. "Ponies may loose their hope in Celestia, but it will take longer to sever their trust in destiny. It will take a decade before even a plurality of ponies becomes disenchanted with the system that has guided them for ten-thousand years."

"Since we don't have that long, let's aim for figuring out how to control it sooner and just force them to change their minds." Velvet grinned toothily. "I'll be dreaming about that day while I work. One dream, Night Light, for all ponykind. It's not so farfetched now."

"I'm happy, Velvet. But, uh, I prompted buisness as usual because there are other issues to talk about."

"Like how wonderful it feels to be back on track. We never should have doubted ourselves, Night Light."

“Okay Velvet.” Night Light said flatly. He took a moment to shift his mind away from the esoteric and into the practical.
“Ahem. Controlling Canterlot comes with issues, and I was served a folder of them on the way here. First item, the city nobility, spearheaded by Lady Upper Crust, are demanding more answers about the massacre. News leaked out and the cover story of attempted City Guard coup is not satisfying them.”

“Blueblood is tasked with their plication. If he can’t convince them that it was a failed coup by Hauseeway I will actually kill him this time. Or not. He has that ragtag militia of his playing at being police. If they round up a few of the louder dissenters, that would be satisfactory.” Velvet was briefly reading over the contents of each letter before levitating them to different corners of the library, rebuilding her organization system after Shining Armor's mess. “There is an argument to be made about finishing what we started and purging the whole aristocracy. Only, I suspect then will be nopony else to act as scapegoats to the commoners. It's good to keep a scapegoat in pocket to keep revolutionary sentiment down; Revolutionaries are a much, much smarter opponent than the nobles.”

“Revolutionary sentiment among the city guard wasn't uncommon. We have killed ones we knew about in the throne. Lady Airy might be able to scare up some of their surviving comrades, imprison them, and tease a confession. The would scare the hell out of the nobles and get them to back off their demands." Night Light suggested. "No need to start purging the nobles until they are out of utility."

“Aurthora is smarter than most give her credit for. She'll do it.” Velvet nodded. “Tell her to find some revolutionaries for us to hold. But get some nobles too, on whatever excuse. With little suggestions of offering either side amnesty, we will keep both sides engaged with us."

"Very good Velvet."

"Next item.”

“Anceapnox. You got the same report as I, of her going back to the Castle. She was after something.”

“Obviously she wasn’t just sightseeing. There are some dangerous books and artifacts in the castle, but we found her in the throne room, not in the library or vaults.” Velvet said. “If Prosser is still hanging around that area I will question him when he inevitably comes crawling here looking for work. That nosey twerp could not have missed an alicorn. Then again he let Cadence get away.”

“Looking into what she has deprived us of is more important than Ancepanox herself. I think that was the last we will see of her.” Night Light remarked.

“She seemed nervous, but not insincere. The happenings in the South has affected her strongly. Did you notice how much she doted on every mention of Twilie? The girl is traumatized.”

“Girl, Velvet?”

“Yes, filly even! That scarred body is hiding a scared and overcompensating child. It would be hilarious were it not sad.” Velvet laughed heartily. “Ha ha! Did you see how much she wanted to be taken seriously? She is terrified, rightly, of not being able to fill Nightmare Moon's roll. Alas, if we could have gotten to her before she built up that persona, and turned her innocence into some real depravity."

Night Light grimaced at his wife’s cruel words. Velvet had a way of making him feel bad for ponies he disliked. He understood she was only speaking figuratively, or so he liked to think. "One alicorn is enough for us to deal with, Velvet."

“Agreed. Still, as long as little Lady Ancepanox doesn’t get herself killed, she may prove to be a powerful ally. As long as her conflicting feelings last, of course. Gods forbid, she gets the wherewithal to realize what a threat we are to her.” Velvet shrugged. “Next item.”

Night Light thought Anceapnox deserved more discussion, but dropped it. “Um, our ponies scouting the farming villages in Canter and the foothills are receiving mixed responses. Most have agreed to continue selling food in the city. There are a few manors owned by the Speakers we purged. We will have to draw together a force and take those at some point.

"At some point. We have the grain reserves to avoid food rationing." Velvet said.

A sudden low roar filled the library, as a plume of green fire deposited a new scroll on the floor.

“What in the hell? A dragonfire message? Who still has access to dragonfire?” Velvet squinted. “If it’s Phyte or Shale sending hate-mail I might just call back those assassin mares from Trottingham for a new assignment!”

“Velvet, leave this to me. You need rest and I mean it” Night Light picked up the letter and unrolled it. “It’s from Prosser. Speak of the devil. He wants to talk. I will go talk to him whilst you-”

“No, I'd like to know where that scoundrel got dragonfire. I accept his request." Velvet ignited her horn, calling forth swirling magenta corrupted by streaks of green. Moments later a new inferno unceremoniously dropped Prosser onto the stone floor.

"Velvet..." Night Light sighed.

“Ack ack, oh my lady, please,” Prosser coughed, patting down the etherial green flames from his robe. “That can’t be good for either of our health!”

“It’s assuredly not. Phyte killed dozens of ponies trying to create fake dragonfire.” Velvet’s smoothed out the parts of her mane that had curled by her magical exertion. “In adaptation to their natural gluttony, a dragon’s soul is in it’s throat. Their magical fire is a byproduct of how hot they burn inside."

"Respectfully, my Lady, that's folk knowledge and you know better." Prosser got to his hooves. "Thank you for the quick response to my letter."

“Stuff it. Where did you get dragonfire?"

"I had some saved up."

Velvet glared, not content with the explanation but accepting it for the moment. "What do you want, councilor?”

“Oh, I want nothing, your esteemed highness. Well, I want you to know there's an army parked in the northern foothills.” Prosser reported. "Less an army, more a host. Roundabout a thousand ponies, give or take."

"It's Glori Sabornord." Night Light grunted.

Prosser blinked. "How did you know?"

“Because she's late. She was supposed to get here before night fell and die in the purge.” Velvet contemplated. “ I underestimated the magnitude of her apathy. Molar's letters were exactly tailored to draw her here. Glori would have made an excellent part of the ritual, having the blood of the elder ones. Her delay cost Foaly Flux his life. This is very upsetting.” Velvet grimaced. “I feel compelled to erase her from existance for this. If she comes but a bit closer the canons of Castle Magoria will be upon her.”

“Dealing with her quietly would be one thing, but bombarding her with cannons isn't exactly subtle. It may estrange some potential allies among the lords. Should we not wait?" Night Light questioned.

“Nopony cares about Glori. She’s just a violent sociopath.” Velvet scoffed.

"Yes, my lady, but she is a skilled warrior. Whatever path she means to attack you by, it would avoid your strength and play to hers. She would never allow herself to enter the sights of the guns." Prosser cautioned. "You should send an envoy."

"I'd rather not." Velvet remarked.
She stared at Prosser for a minute, assessing him in silence. "is there something you're not telling me, councilor."

"Yes, my lady. I encountered the other alicorn, the nightmare" Prosser said. "I wanted to know the marching orders regards her."

"Marching orders? Shove off! You'll heard official policy when the rest of the city does!" Velvet scoffed. "You're on the outside now Prosser. Be happy with that or you'll be a problem."

"Ahem, well, I understand." Prosser nodded nervously. "That's all then, illustrious one.”

“Then be gone with you.” Velvet cast another blaze of green dragonfire to teleport him away. She prompted Night Light with an impatient look. “There. Now I'll rest."
She got up and trotted to the stair. "Take care of everything won't you."

"Good night Velvet." Night Light bowed to her.
Alone in the library, she cast a long glance to the stack of lists on the writing desk. The thought had crossed his mind that she had lied to make him feel better. If he wanted to check the veracity of Velvet's claims about the predestined deaths, now was the time.
But he trusted her.
He made for the stairs too. "See you later, mis." He nodded to the dead maid in the corner.

Day

"It will take a while before we fully understand the evils that unfolded during the Eternal Night." Iillor was saying. "Innumerous that would have been the scandle of the century passed compleately unnoticed. In the darkest dark, all things of foul things flurish."

"Uh huh." Twilight replied flatly. She wasn't really listening. She was more focussed on the task ahead.

They arrived at the edge of the market square, then passed to the adjacent street. Ponyville's bakery, a circular cottage with faded pink paint. The door was locked and the blinds were pulled.

“Mis Pie? Are you in there?” Twilight knocked on the bakery door. She was still a bit hurt from Fluttershy’s rejection and desperate to know if all her acquaintances... no, friends, felt the same way now. Maybe they knew something she didn't.
“Pinkie! Pinkie Pie please come to the door.”

Before she could knock again the bakery window to Twilight and Iillor’s right swung open. “I heard the magic word!” Pinkie Pie beamed for a moment, then turned serious. “But I’m still a little disappointed in you Twilight. You’ve got, like, a quazillion sorrys to say.”

“Disappointed? Sorrys? Pinkie I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Twilight struggled to remember anything about her interactions with Pinkie that could have offended the bubbly mare.

“The attack, mis slipped-my-mind.” Pinkie supplied chidingly. “Gosh, I didn’t know being a big meanie is so casual to you that you’d forget.”

“What attack?” Twilight was even more confused. “Are you talking about the explosion at the hospital? I thought... Did I cause that? Oh no… Did I panic and get somepony hurt?" She sighed. "Great. Who knows how much of my time before the Everfree are just gone from my mind.”

Pinkie frowned more deeply. “The Everfree? The hospital? I don’t know what Rarity said, I’m not talking about…” Pinkie trailed off, and a look of revelation came over her face. After a moment of overt concentration all traces of ire left the pink earth pony’s face, replaced with a wide smile. “You silly billy Twilight! What were you doing in the Everfree? There’s scary stuff in there!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but inside she was actually a little bit touched that Pinkie would be angry at her for risking her life. “I know, and it was probably the scary stuff that’s done this to me. As soon as I remember more of our time together I’ll be back so we can talk.”

“Dissociative and lacunar amnesia.” Pinkie assessed, then after a hiccup she jerked back into a smile. “I mean, I’m really sorry for that Twilight, but we shouldn’t be so sad-pants about the past! Come back anytime, and we can make NEW memories!”

“Thanks Pinkie! It means a lot to me. Really.” On the edge of tearing up, Twilight stepped away from the bakery. With mock formality she bowed. “I shall see you later then, Mis Pie.”

“See ya! Would totally love to be ya!” Pinkie pulled back from the window and slammed it closed. She immediately slid the blinds back down.

“What a nice friend.” Iillor appraised sarcastically. “I hope next time you can spare an introduction.”

“Watch your tone. Pinkie Pie might be annoyed at me, but she probably has a good reason. Who knows. There probably was something I did that I forgot." Twilight rubbed her forehead. "It can not be understated how much this hurts, that I might have done something bad but not know it."

"Some ponies would give anything to forget the bad things they've done." Iillor said. "And isn't it selfish to whine about forgetting, and not the ponies you may have hurt? Your pink friend for example."

Twilight's expression drooped. "Yes, it is selfish of me. This whole thing is selfish, actually. I've been dragging you around, taking advantage of your kindness. I should just go home now."

Iillor held up a hoof. “Hey it’s fine. Everything at your pace, not mine. I’m not the one with brain damage, eh?” They both laughed modestly and resumed their trot towards the Golden Oak. “I just look forward to seeing what everypony knows.”

Night

As Glori charged forward, voulge held high in anticipation of a hacking strike, Twilight once again reevaluated life.

What was it that turned ponies from good to bad? Did ponies always have the capacity of good and bad within them? Was there a real, objective difference, or was it all a matter of perspective?

One. It remained, and Twilight hoped that it would remain forever, as the number of ponies she had murdered. One murder. Chrysalis, her throat pierced and her heart crushed, was still crumpled in the Everfree Castle throne room for all Twilight knew. That act, the willful annihilation of a sentient being’s life force, had continued to be a topic Twilight had avoided facing. Now with Glori bearing down on her, she had milliseconds to decide what she would become.

Had that been an evil thing to do? Was it worse to ignore it or dwell on the act?

Murder and death had flowed smoothly off Ancepanox’s lips in her conversations with Twilight Velvet and Glori. She BOASTED about killing Celestia, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It really sickened Twilight, in retrospect. She didn't want the persona Ancepanox to be an eager murderer because even if it was for pretend it normalized violence to her. Twilight believed thoroughly that harmony and virtue could exist even for an inherently Dark entity like a nightmare.

If Twilight was going to maintain the persona there were some real kinks to work out. Was it just a persona, or somepony she would not mind being? To that point, Twilight still lacked the answer. In a way the new identity of Ancepanox supposed to be like a casting off of old sins, to define her new body however she chose, yet she found herself constantly invoking her real past.
Then there were other stick issues too, about the kind of pony Ancepanox was supposed to be. For example, if Ancepanox wanted to be a friend to ponykind why had she killed Celestia? What had her roll been during the original War of the Nightmare Pretender? Had she killed ponies back then? Was the the kind of pony that would kill in self defense?

If there was a moment to decide the rest of her life, it was right then, as the blade was swinging down at her. She could see her reflection on its immaculately polished edge: Her dark, dark blue fur. Her blue steel armor. Her horn and wings.

She didn't see a creature that would run away, out of some misplaced fear of crossing a moral boundary. Nor was it afraid of itself, and whatever taint it might carry. No, the alicorn was what it was. It didn't need to explain itself beyond that. If it could not disarm the situation peacefully that was okay. There was one way an alicorn responded to an open challenge: Domination. Time to start thinking like an alicorn and dominate instead of waft in the wind.

That was something both Celestia and Nightmare Moon would have agreed on, right?

Ancepanox blinked, and Glori was now within moments of reaching her, already putting her momentum into bringing down the voulge. The only physical weapons Ancepanox had was her hooves and her horn, and now that it was a long alicorn horn she envisioned the brutal effect of it piercing through the shield into Glori’s chest.
How would killing her second pony feel? She pushed away emotion as best she could and planned her actions for the next seconds: How she would deflect Glori’s attack into the ground, and assault the unicorn while she was recovering, hopefully to separate her from the cleaver.
"Then the coup-de-gras." Ancepanox whispered to herself.

To the crowd, it looked for a bare moment that the dark alicorn was going to take the swinging blade on her helmet. At the last moment, with startling speed, Ancepanox jumped sideways, knocking over some too-close onlookers. Glori adjusted her aim, but still drove her voulge directly into the ground. Taking precious moments to pry her weapon from the earth, Glori was barely prepared for Ancepanox flanking and bucking at her. Taking the buck on the edge of her hoplon, she used the propulsion to spin her whole self around, swinging the voulge in a low arc. Ancepanox dodged again, trampling a tent.

"Yes! I had high hopes for you!" Glori called out, then repeated in Prench. The crowd's shouts rose to a deafening pitch. "Let's kill each other! Let's kill everypony!"

Glori really was unhinged, yet her ponies somehow loved her. How could ponies celebrate a leader that flouted the Equestrian values of harmony? What did she have to offer? Ancepanox could not even pick out what the crowd was shouting. There eyes were wild, their faces contorted into the most horrible displays of bloodlust and rage. They were hardly even ponies. It was like the braying of cattle, whose noise drilled at Ancepanox's sanity.

Glori aproached more slowly the second time. Ancepanox shot a small bolt of magic that bounced and fizzled off her hoplon shield. She shot a second one at Glori's voulge, but the countess was quick to block that one too.
"I've been fighting unicorns my whole life! I know all the magic tricks!" Glori shouted over the crowd.

You're not dealing with a unicorn, Ancepanox thought.
She put as much energy as she could into an encapsulating magical shield around Glori. The countess’s surprise was long enough for Twilight to focus herself.

The furious unicorn mare slashed at the shield for several seconds. The shield began to disintegrate before Ancepanox poured more magic into it.
"You want to play this game? We can see who collapses from exhaustion first!" Glori yelled.

“You will leave Canterlot empty hooved. Go back home and forget revenge. Swear to me this and I will let you go.” Ancepanox was very overburdened by the spell she was maintaining, and every remaining iota of her energy was put to keeping it from showing. “Anything less, and I'll crush you.”

Glori pressed her face into the shield. "I think I was wrong about you, alicorn. You can fight, but prowess without purpose is still weakness."

"I have purpose." Ancepanox was having an impossible time finding her voice in the uproar around ehr. "I'm protecting ponykind."

"WE DON'T WANT YOUR CODDLING!" Glori pulled a small dagger from her belt and jammed it against the encapsulating shield with all her might. The thin blade pierced through but stopped at the hilt, stopping just short of Ancepanox's eye. "I'd gut Twilight Velvet any day, but we both agree the gods can GO TO HELL!"

Ancepanox was thinking of the right right response when she felt a pircing pain in her side. She yelped and jerked away, turning to look at the offender: One of the Sabonord knight, a lanky stallion in leather armor, had stuck his saber in her ribs. Ancepanox looked from the saber to the pony in disbelief, then tried to yank the offending blade away with her magic. Red washed over her vision from the pain of the saber scraping against her ribs. The knight’s hoof was caught in the guard, and he was pulled off his hooves as Twilight lifted it into the air.
She again looked down at the bleeding wound in her barrel, and up to the dangling earth pony knight.

There was terror in his eyes, and Twilight could see her snarling reflection within them. She once again felt the sinking feeling of remembering what horror she now resembled. The perpetual and hideous scars were only a score of hours old, but anypony would have mistaken them from a year’s worth of battle and bloodshed. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't she look how she wanted? Why couldn't she who she wanted to be? What a cruel twist of fate, that had made her resemble the very monstrosity she had lost everything defeating, and made the monster resemble her.
Seeing herself so, a distorted reflection of an already warped beast, cut to Twilight’s core. She trembled in anger at the world, and felt an abrupt lightness as the great weight of her reservations fell from her limbs. Destruction overtook distraction.

“How dareyou.” Ancepanox said icily. “How dare you even think of hurting me, your superior in every way.”

He was the ultimate example of unwilling, but Ancepanox would not let that top her. She let all the air out of her lunges, and as she breathed in she used her magic to wrench the pony’s soul from his body. Not just parts of his magic or his dreams, like she had done to the ponies of Ponyville while hunting under the nightmare’s influence; It was his living spirit she took. It felt like hunting but so much more satisfying, as Ancepanox tore him from his body and smothered his resistance. Like a wolf she tore his soul apart and consumed it, relishing in the agony of his last sentient moment.

The influx of energy and emotion was overwhelming. She screamed. The fear and dread of the knight’s last moments died on Ancepanox’s tongue, and she tasted his broader personality: Bravery, competitiveness, chivalry, and a streak of petty opportunism. She felt bold and powerful, and for the first time since being in her new body, she stood up straight. Just like the ancient unicorn warlords, she had executed the poor knight by devouring every part of him, the sum of a life. Nothing had ever compared to the euphoria Ancepanox felt course along her nerves and through her blood. She was rejuvenated, more alive than she'd thought possible. She screamed again.

The knight’s body hung limply in her grasp, an empty vessel. After a few seconds, all nervous activity stopped, and the heart stopped beating. Twilight had made her second kill and it felt good. She understood why he and every other knight had devolved themselves into braying mongrels intent on blood. It was fun.

“Thus begins your penance, in hell. Say hello to Celestia for me.” Ancepanox pulled the saber violently from the ex-knight’s hoof and tossed the body aside. She knew she could fight the world now, and if her energy ran out she would just eat another pony’s soul.

Somewhere along the line she had dropped her shield around Glori, and yet the Countess was rooted in place, a look of fascination from witnessing one of her sworn knights being devoured.
“Fascinating. I thought Seacrest was speaking literally when he wrote he feared he would be eaten.” Glori’s singsong voice was almost mournful. Almost. “Good show, Lady Ancepanox. Good show.”

“I'm getting tired of your voice. I am the heir to the moon, and you are lunch.” Ancepanox was emboldened and impetuous from the knight’s power, but more than that she was spurred to vicious pride by the Dark. She experimentally eviscerated the air in front of her with the stolen sword, two swings and a stab, the consumed knight’s favorite style. “I’ve given you every opportunity to curtail my wrath. I'm going to rip your horn off, Glori. Your knights will watch me do it and cheer me on. Then I'll eat you, in every sense of the word.”

The wrathful alicorn’s horn glowed a brighter violet, and she charged forward. Glori crouched to the ground, shield in front but voulge held to the side, though she was clearly planning to switch them to skewer the charging monster. Ancepanox let loose a powerful kinetic blast that knocked Glori back and her shield wide, and slashed downwards with the sabre. Somehow she only managed to sever the binding of the shield, and Glori vaulted away, pulling her voulge back to herself a moment later. Ancepanox could only manage to slice the air, as Glori was quick and composed even when on the back hoof. Ancepanox paused her reckless attack to let Glori withdrew to the far side of the circle.

“Fight fair!” The countess shouted, catching her breath.

“You arrogant cur. You set no restrictions on me.” Ancepanox grinned, tasting blood. She picked up Glori’s shield and launched away over the camp like a discus. She charged her horn again, eyeing her opponent's possible escape routes. “This is not a duel at all. This is an extermination.” She let loose more bolts of magic, a torrent that cut into the crowd around them. The eager shouts became yells of panic from that quarter, while the others got even louder, taking glee in the visceral plight of their comrades. The whole place had lost their minds.

Glori expertly weaved the voulge in the air, batting Ancepanox's next bolts of purple magic, again into the crowd. The blade started to glow hot and deform, so the gladiator countess tossed her weapon aside. Dodging more arcane bolts like an acrobat, she caught a broadsword Ripple Wreath tossed into the ring.

Ancepanox was supremely impressed by Glori’s skill. She had assumed that without the shield Glori would have been completely open to spells, but now it seemed Ancepanox would need to use sorcery that didn’t manifest or need to make contact. Indeed none of Glori’s knights were in a position to ward her. Ancepanox’s imagination came alive with the possibilities: burning, electrocution, heart crushing, cranial translocation. But somehow, that didn't seem sporting, or like Glori had accused, fair: The alicorn wanted to toy with the countess and make her burn from humiliation before she literally burned. Ancepanox wanted to crush Glori into the dirt, so the countess would hear the crack of her own bones as a different kind of darkness filled her, and then she would see the error of her violent ways.

Cought up in her own thoughts, the alicorn was almost caught by Glori’s wide sword swing. Gripping the overlarge broadsword in her mouth, the countess had closed the distance between them very quickly. Retreating just out of reach of each enfuried sweep, Ancepanox hit the edge of the ring again, trampling over the knights who didn’t get out of the way in time. She abruptly turned her retreat into an advance, barreling over Glori and rolling into the center of the ring. She turned and reared up to stomp Glori, but the countess had already jumped to her hooves and grabbed a kite shield from one of the nearby knights. The stomp bounced Glori back a few paces. Grinning, Ancepanox stomped again, nearly bending the kite shield into a right angle with her body weight. Glori had to drop it and just avoided having her leg twisted off by the next stomp. The countess made a poke at the dark alicorn with her sword but had to back out of range to avoid the larger mare's horn.

"Now I know you're really taking me seriously! You've stopped talking!" Ancepanox laughed.

"Now I'll never shut you up." Glori grunted, struggling to keep deep even breaths. "Same with Celestia, you think you have what everypony wants to hear."

"Must be an alicorn thing." Ancepanox brushed the dust off her cape. It had been dirtied by a spray of blood from her shoulder and frayed in places from its contact with the ground. Poor Rarity would have a fit to see the shape her binding was in. “You're starting to bore me. I'm starting to want Celestia back. At least she has passion beyond villing.”

“You'll see my passion!” Glori cried hoarsely dashed forward again, this time wound back for a stab.

“STOP! STOP! A- ARRET!” A stallion’s urgent cry brought Ancepanox and Glori out of their martial trances. A knight in battered armor shoved his way through the other knights and between the opposing ladies.

Glori was breathing hard, eyes wide with anger. “Expliquez le sens de cette explosion!” She pointed her broadsword accusingly at the knight’s throat, and his comrades and fellow knights backed away in apprehension.

Ancepanox took the break to stretch. The hubbub died down. At the levied commoners dragged the ringside wounded away.

“My Lady! There is an imminent attack!” The panting knight said, pointing at the far edge of the camp. “From the city! It ambushed the scouts! A- Alicorn

“Alicorn? Un alicorn plus? Ce pas... Elle doit être le Astral vrai! Je ai été dupé par cette fausse déesse! Mes capitaines, mener vos soldats à l'intrus, et la tuez!” Glori set her jaw and took a moment to compose herself. She turned to Ancepanox. “The real Astral Nacre has come to face me and I haven’t even finished off the first of you alicorn scum. Anceapnox, you had better find your peace before I set upon you without holding back!”

Around them, the knight captains set about executing their lady’s orders, rallying their lances to face the intrusion. Some of them, apparently those started to crack under the noise and chaos, had moved off to the side with the wounded, huddling.

"Come on. This is your excuse to walk away, countess." Ancepanox goaded. She was tempted to vaporize Glori while she was distracted, she had to admit.
But something didn't seem right. Why was Astral causing trouble now? She leaned over the battered knight. "Tell your countess what the intruder looked like. Convince her not to keep up her fight with me."

"Well I-" The knight shivered oddly. "My lady I don't dare discourage a fight. You can keep testing her."

"Hein?" Glori blinked. She nudged the knight. "Explique-la."

The knight stared into the air. "She is-"

"En Prancais, sot!"

Ancepanox gave a little laugh. "I understand Prench, Glori. but I don't think he does."

The knight backed away from them both. The renewed shouting was starting to draw attention back to them from the crowd. "She... She... She's in league with Ancepanox!" He suddenly shouted, louder than she should have been able with his exhaustion moments before. "The intruder is in league with Ancepanox. We have to kill them both. Everypony attack Anceapnox.

“Your infiltration skills need work, as does your fake accent. Parlez vous prancais? Je ne sais pas!” Ancepanox rolled her eyes. “Go home Astral!”

“What is this?” Glori demanded. “Explain! Dîtez-moi l’implication, Sieur Piétineur!”

"Attack her! Come on, attack her!" The knight stomped in frustration. Everypony stared at him, silent. "Bugger. You're a bastard, Ancepanox. You won't indulge me even a little?"

"If you want a brawl to erupt, start it yourself." Ancepanox huffed.

“Then I can't watch or take notes. Urgh, I flubbed it anyway.” The knight sighed, his voice weakening, until it was barely a rasp. Yet in everypony's mind, a distant whine became an indescribably melodious voice. “My fault for being impatient. But the show-”
His words ended with his face breaking apart. In a single horrifying moment, his body tore open, like a rope unwinding into strands. Out of the quivering knot of flesh, Astral Nacre’s hulking form reformed. She shook her body, and like water off a dog the bits of the knight’s clothing and armor were released from her sinewed stock. She tossed her head, and her lace-like tendrils uncurled. "the show goes on."

“Qu'est-ce que buck!” Glori swore. She retreated to Ripple Wreath’s side. Wreath's wolf-helm clattered as he pulled up his own sword. “What the hells is that! What is going on anymore!”

"The show." Astral spread her wings. Her tendrils lanced out from her head and tail, constricting the nearest knights. "You stopped, I'm picking it up." The few ponies she'd trapped had a second to contemplate their fate. With a deafening psychic shreak she clamped down, the air was filled with sickening crunches. Blood sprayed like a fountain.

The camp turned to total chaos.

"Good show too!" Ancepanox nibbled her lip in excitement as ponies fled in blind terror in every direction. Was this too far? Was this beyond what should have been possible for a sane pony to accept? Ancepanox didn't think so. These ponies had wanted gratuitous violence, and they would receive it.
Ancepanox chose the largest concentration of fleeing knights, climbing and trampling over their tents and each other to get away. She saw how they were even willing to run through their campfires, and it gave her an idea.
"Just like the good old days of magic kindergarden!" She giggled. At the wave of her horn came a firestorm.

Twilight, Ancepanox would teach them, and in reparation for their instruction she would own them. True domination.

“I warned you countess. They cannot say I didn’t warn you!” Ancepanox laughed malevolently. Behind her, Astral stopped her constrictions to observe. “You should have feared the gods, Glori. At the very least, you should have shown some respect."

Author's Note

Deepest apologies to any Prench readers. Is it indulgent to show my grammar-school linguistic skill. Perhaps. I promise I'm no hoity aristocrat who marches out Prench in an effort to sound learned and cultured, as I have avenues aplenty to demonstrate either.

Tell me dear reader, does a compendium of chronological events interest you at all? I discussed with some of my handlers at the Manechester Review and they thought it interesting, but ill-fitted for their paper's medium. I may look into making an index of places, ideas, and events, and solicit it to one of the local journals. I do get your letters, so write in if you have opinions on the matter.

Chapter 36: Guise of Sanctity

Glori, to her credit, remained resolute until Ancepanox was nearly upon her. At the last second she dove backwards, braving the spreading fire rather than the grinning black alicorn. Losing a bead on her intended target, Ancepanox collided with Ripple Wreath, sending him tumbling after Glori. The countess looked back at her apprentice, hesitated for a moment, and galloped away as fast as she could.
Wreath tried to get up, but an armored hoof to the side of his wolf helmet sent him sprawling, unconscious.

...

A throbbing head and the smell of ash greeted Ripple Wreath when he awoke. The world around him was silent and dark, and it took him several moments to realize that the slats in his visor had been crumpled by the force of Ancepanox’s buck. Struggling with the ache of his limbs, he sat upright and pushed off the snarling bascinet.

Wreath was an average pony, if a bit effeminate looking. His short pink mane was in sharp contrast to his grey coat that blended with his bed of ash. His red eyes often gave ponies a fright when seen through the helmet, when otherwise the softness of his features often made him the target of ridicule. His mark, a broken circle of holly hedges, was still slightly scorched by the fire he’d been pushed through.

His eyes watered from the smoke in the air as he looked around. The camp around him was flattened and razed, columns of acrid smoke still wafting off the burning tents and coal carts. There were no screams, nor any sound at all except for the rustle of torn tents and ripped banners. In the night and the smoke, it was difficult to tell if any of the crumpled forms he saw were alive or dead.

It was only when he heard the subtle crunch of ash behind him did he realize that one of the alicorns was still there. By the time he turned to face her it was too late. Purple magic closed around his head and Ripple Wreath was pulled into the air.

“You’re alive,” Ancepanox observed. Her fur and hair were further blackened by soot and ash, and there was a strange distance in her eyes. “Contrary to my expectations.” She prodded him in the side with a hoof. "Tougher than you look."

“You-” Wreath coughed out the ash in his lungs.

“Go on.” Ancepanox hummed. "Say what you want to say."

“My- my helmet.” Wreath could not see the crumpled wolf head below him, but knew the alicorn holding him could. “She does the talking.”

“It was very beautiful. It still is, somewhat, if you past its flaws.” Ancepanox lifted and inspected the silver helm, letting her grip on Wreath slacken. “Your name was Ripple Wreath, right? I know of your family. The wolf motif was passed down from one of your ancestors.”

Ripple Wreath tried to nod in the affirmative, and though his head was still in Ancepanox’s vice-like magic it seemed the message got through.

“They say Lady Ripple Wake, the riverpony wolf, was devoted servant to Celestia in her time. Courage in numbers, says the wolf’s philosophy.” Ancepanox dropped the helm unceremoniously, and refocused her attention on Wreath. “You are alone now, sir knight. But so am I."

"No, neither of us are alone." Wreath coughed.

Ancepanox chuckled, relaxing her grasp. "I suppose not. Sir, can you show courage at a time like this?"

Wreath didn't understand what she meant. “May- May I ask you a question?” Wreath squirmed in Astral’s grasp, expecting the death blow at any moment.

“A very brave request. Good.” Ancepanox nodded. “Ask away, sir.”

“You killed everypony?”

“Every-pony. Two words, a designation of size: infinite, and a designation of species: pony. I did not kill everypony.” Droned Ancepanox. “One-hundred-forty-four knights and soldiers are dead by my hooves.”
She dropped Wreath and he fell flat on his back. “That's a lot. That's more than some villages. That's more than some ponies meet in their entire life. Isn't that... quite something." She shook the ash off her cape. "A day ago, I would have cried to contemplate killing one. I expect it won't be long now before the horror of what I've done catches up to me. Not yet though. At the same time, I earnestly do not wish to have it be one-hundred-forty-five.”

Daring to look around, Wreath saw more clearly how badly mutilated the bodies he was were. He had to look away before he vomited. "Their faces." He said at a whisper.

“I know. They're looking at me." Ancepanox stepped back, giving Wreath his space. "Their eyes are following me. Odd. I didn't intend for that." She let out a contrite sigh. “I did not need to kill them. The army was scattered and disorganized, and Astral would have gladly chased them back to Prancia herself. I could have returned to Ponyville, saved my friend, receded from the world. And yet here I am, talking to you. I feel I have to, as though I'm obligated to explain myself. Odd. Very odd.”

Wreath mind forbade him from coming to terms with his situation. He just wanted to be anywhere else. Anywhere but under the hoof of a malevolent creature that had just killed hundreds of his compatriots.
“Please don't kill me.” Was all eh could think to say. "I- I don't want to look like them. Please don't kill me."

Brow furrowed, Ancepanox cleared the ground around her and sat. “I won't.”

Wreath shakily looked up from the ground. "T- Thank you."

"Is not murdering somepony really an act worthy of thanks?"

“I was sworn to Lady Sabonord. Her enemies were mine. It is within your rights to kill me.” Wreath explained quietly.

“Rights? What damn stupid pony says that I have that right? Celestia? Pshaw!” Ancepanox scoffed. “I killed her! What are her rights now? We can redefine what situation gives us what rights. Perhaps enemies will have the right only to forgive and be forgiven."

“Lady Glori was not-”

“I let Glori go.” Ancepanox gestured to the north, towards Prancia. “I have never seen a unicorn run so fast." Her impish smile faded. "If ponykind is to redefine itself away from accepting violence and murder, ponies like her would need to be purged. Somehow, I allowed myself to destroy a hundred others, but not she who most deserved it. Ah... but maybe I shouldn't stray into thoughts of deserving or not deserving death. Murder for pleasure is less of a moral quandary."

Wreath rubbed his eyes, feeling mixed emotions at his mentor's survival. "Why did you let her go?"

"Truth be told, I don't know. To keep a hold of myself? To stop my slide ? One explanation is as good as the other."

“Your slide?”

Ancepanox sighed deeply. “I'm cursed. I fear I have some kind of nightmare inside me that welled up and swallowed up my mind. Fire can flicker and fade, but Dark only grows stronger with time. My curse will always be there, surging forth whenever I’m weak. I thought I was through with it. I... I really did think I got away.” She chuckled morosely. “I should have known better. The Dark, that disgusting ooze that threatens to fill my veins, will never be purged.”

“My lady I do not understand. Why do you mean?” Wreath questioned.

“You can't blame me for what I've done. It was the nightmare curse. ” Ancepanox said pointedly. “You let me talk, and don't make me upset, and it won't overwhelm me again.”

Wreath blinked. “A- Are you joking with me?”

“The nightmare turns good ponies in to the worst perversions of their minds. Do you think any sane pony could do what I just did?” Ancepanox was suddenly angry, then, after a contorted expression of realization, calmed. "Actually, ponies could do what I did. Glori, could have. From what I saw of her she was a coherent, sane, and evil pony. Fully evil. Yes... Ponies can do foul things. They’re fickle and disgusting! In your time of need, they WILL abandon you. Glori left you and every other pony here to die at my hooves! I begin to understand what Nightmare Moon taught me: No two ponies think of themselves as gods and clash over petty things!” She let out a long sigh. “I did ask you to show courage. Good job.”

The alicorn before Wreath was trying to be amenable, he could tell, but there were many hangups about her. Firstly the way she moved reminded him at every moment like a feral dog about to tear him apart; Indeed she was more wolf than he was. Then there was her odd apology, couched in her insistence that she was blameless. He was not sure she was all there, mentally, and was not convinced she would stand by her promise to let him live. "Thank you, my lady."

Ancepanox shook her head. “These are selfish tears, pay no heed. I am simply sad by what I am becoming: A monster.”

“You let me live.” Wreath reminded. “You let Glori go.”

“Don’t thank me yet. And as for Glori, she did not get off so easy. Heh heh heh. I already killed anything she could dare to care about: Her pride, her host, and…”Ancepanox laid a hoof across her snout, as if no wipe away the tears, but instead fell into a dark snicker. “her apprentice.”

Wreath was confused at first. "Pardon, my lady?"

Ancepanox glanced away. "I said, Glori isn't getting off easy when I've killed her apprentice."

Wreath's blood ran cold. "I won't beg, but spare me please and I will-”

“One-hundred-forty-four, killed, consumed, devoured. I cannot even begin to describe how good they felt, how alive their souls made me feel.” The black alicorn shivered. "Do you know where we are? Did you mind register the inconsistencies?"

Wreath tried to look around again.

Ancepanox lit her horn up, and shoved Wreath onto his back. As he sunk into the ash, he felt the bloom of alien magic in this hear. “I wasn’t sure what to expect in your dream. I'm new to them. What causes dream to imitate life?" She licked her lips. "Out there, you're as limp as rope, but in here you're lucid. The mind retreats on itself, but I won't let you get away. Sorry to say I need you here, under my hoof, and struggling. Well, I don't need you struggling, but that makes it more interesting." Her horn blazed with magic.

Wreath could feel inside him now, like snakes writhing inside his head, and screamed. “No! NOOO! Make it stop!” The presence began trashing, hungrily feeding on his fear and mournful sadness. It was going to devour him.

“This is exquisite. What a terrible shame this moment was shared under such unfortunate circumstances.” Ancepanox watched him, as he spasmed and dry heaved, suffering the effects of his mind being overtaken by her magic. “If you haven’t caught on, you're dream. You took a hit on the head. On the one hoof, you're lucky you weren't up and running while I had my blood up. On the other hoof you could not be roused. There was irreparable damage to your brain and spinal cord.”
She paced around him slowly. “I don’t know enough healing magic to save you, Sir Wreath. However, there was a force within me that would secure your hold over life more tenaciously than any other. I speak of course of the nightmare, who upon nesting in a pony, will protect its host against all but the fatalist of wounds.” She stopped pacing to watch him for a moment. “I’m sorry, but this was the only option, this or death.”

The dreamscape they were in began to crack, sections of the sky and earth falling away as Wreath lost the ability to care about the illusion. The hills and camp dissolved into ash, until all that was left was Wreath, his alicorn tormentor, and the encroaching nightmares reaching out for him at the corners of his vision. Horrible things, warped and perverted pony forms, shifting and changing like smoke as they clawed at him.

Wreath received invasive visions of what his eyes had seen while he had laid limp in the waking world. He could feel now the snap and crunch his bones had made as Ancepanox had trampled him. Then she’d quickly moved on to begin the wholesale slaughter of Glori’s camp.
He remembered lying in the dirt, consciousness ebbing, as hundreds of other ponies were cut down around him. The dark he’d felt then was very different from what he was feeling now, numb while this was cold, patient while this was voracious. He was spared the spreading fires, but was slowly covered by drifting ash before the black alicorn rediscovered him.
“P- p- please kill me.” Wreath whimpered.

“I could. I’m feeling much better now that some of the pressure has been relieved. I could sanitize you like a tissue I sneezed into, burn down the asylum to make the insanity just go away.” Ancepanox smiled sadly. “But truly, I want you to live. You will not be truly transformed, only tainted as I was. Be pure and you can still like a normal and fulfilling life. I said courage would spare you, and this is what I meant.”

“I- I- I-”

“Again, I’m sorry, but there’s not much left to say. Good night, sir Wreath.”

Ancepanox was forced out of the dream back into her waiting body. With a shudder she reasserted control over the flesh fused to her steel armor. The body blinked away the dryness that had settled over its eyes in her absence.

Ancepanox looked down at the inert body of Ripple Wreath. Nightmare Moon had said that her own nightmare had been weakened by corrupting Twilight Sparkle, and now Ancepanox understood exactly what she had meant. She felt cleansed, purged of the vile feelings and acerbic thoughts. Was it the same?

The camp was as it was in Wreath’s dream, burnt and ashen. The only difference was Astral Nacre, prowling at the opposite end of the camp, pulling inert ponies to one of the smoldering bonfires doting the landscape.
When the monstrous alicorn saw that Ancepanox had returned to the realm of the living, she abandoned that task and galloped over.

“That’s close enough.” Ancepanox raised her saber defensively.

Astral stopped a safe distance away, the tendrils of her mane thrashing in excitement. "Don't be a stranger. We were back to back just an hour ago, tearing this place apart."

"That doesn't change anything. Peace has returned. It's time to save ponies instead of hurt them, and fight monsters instead of embrace them."

"... Am I to gather you are denouncing the act you just participated in? And act sanctimonious at the same time?" Astral fidgeted. "I saw the look in your eyes, because I was watching carefully. You loved it."

Ancepanox scowled. "That was the nightmare, not me."

"Really? Or do you say that for other reasons besides fact. I don't judge. I'm only here to observe and learn, and thus I learn that a measure of lying is healthy for those who must make weighty decisions."

"Go away." Ancepanox bit.

"Lady Ancepanox, do you really believe that absolute mania I saw out of you, as we pushed these souls into the ash, was all the nightmare and none of you?" Astral teased. "Are you that weak of mind?"

"You won't provoke me."

"No?"

"No." Ancepanox said resolutely. She looked over the burning ash pile that had been Glori's camp. More crematory bonfires had been lit during her time in the dream. "I won't have you gawk over me any longer. If I can't force you to leave, then I must then not be a spectacle."

"You are set on misunderstanding me, my Lady. I yearn to learn from your actions. No hostility intended."

"Not a hard misunderstanding to make, considering what a monster you are. Your words in the throne room would convince a pony you were trying to rend them." Ancepanox scowled. "Because that was what you were trying to do."

“Why would you assume that? I’ve been nothing courteous, after that initial misunderstanding.” Astral defended. “For the duration of your trance I left you and that pony there unmolested.”

“Because you were too busy killing.” Ancepanox accused. Though they were at the edge of her telekinetic reach, she managed to draw in the bodies Astral had been dragging. They were mangled, the flesh cut nearly to ribbons by magical lacerations. “Look at this gratuitous carnage! I don’t have to make assumptions about you. You lie, but don’t even try to hide the truth. I’d say you were stupid, but it is far more likely that you just don’t care.”

Astral weathered the abuse with surprising composure, though perhaps it was the featurelessness of her face that muted the visible effect of the stinging words. She did not however like Ancepanox hanging the mutilated body in her face, and she batted it aside with a wing. “My lady, you did that."

"Again you lie." Ancepanox stuck her nose up.

"Ah, I admit I don't know which of us did this." Astral sniffed the corpse. "My lady, why should I care about these ponies? You wish me not to lie, but the only way to profess I care is if I lie! You are already at odds with me. Best I watch you from a distance than twist myself up to try to please you."

Ancepanox let the corpse fall to the ground. "Good. Glad we've puzzled that out. Now, unless it's to say goodbye, there is nothing I want to hear from you."

"What if, you talk, and I listen?"

"Fine. If it will shut you up." Ancepanox turned back to Ripple Wreath. “Hum, hum. As far as I can tell, you can think only for death and destruction. While I shamefully partook of destruction..." She checked Wreath vital signs. He was breathing slowly, though the movement behind his eyelids was feverish. "I'm going to work to make it better."

Astral held her hoof up.

Ancepanox sighed. "Make it quick."

Astral wasn't taking the hint. "You are making things better by reviving these pitiful ponies?"

"Yes."

"You care too much about mortals, my Lady. You fuss about killing them, or letting them live, when really it doesn't matter either way. I thought an enlightened creature like you would realize them.” Astral strutted around to get a better look at what Ancepanox was doing with Wreath. “How now? Put that down so I can talk to you.”

“And I told you to shut up or go away.” Ancepanox pressed her head against Wreath’s chest, listening to the wild fluctuations of his heartbeat. Ignoring him to chat with Astral had almost cost her patient his life. “Tell me, how would you feel if I considered this pony my equal?”

Astral psychically-vocalized in an approximation of a snort. “It is evident you are misguided. It bares repeating.”

“Misguided. Very on point there.” Ancepanox stood back up. "Not in the way you imagine though."

“Explain what you are doing. Give insight into your misguided-ness.” Astral pestered. She nudged Wreath with a hoof. “Some magic is at work here." Her voice dipped into a agitated growl. "Ancepanox, what are your intentions with this pony?"

"I have been trying to explain. You must not be observing as closely as you thought." Anceapnox sniffed.

"You have been rambling about life! What am I to understand?!" Astral said. "No, nay, this is not life. You are changing this pony."

"Watch this." Ancepanox bowed down, until her nose was almost touching Ripple Wreath’s. She exhaled, and a wire of blue magic escaped into the air. It wound through the air to Wreath, squirming through the gaps in his teeth and forcing itself down his throat. The two alicorn’s listened to the crick and crack of his vertebra repairing. "Is this life?"

Astral's beady eyes twitched. "That was... dream magic?"

“Yup, that's what they call it. He was going to die. It was a long shot, but the accelerated healing of the nightmare curse has saved him.” Ancepanox noted. She picked up the wolf helm and tucked it against Wreath leg. “Taking notes?”

“No! You are trying my patience, my lady! What are you trying to prove?” Astral pushed Wreath slightly with her hoof again. "Are you teasing me?"

"No."

"You actually care about this pony? You actually give them them consideration? You have never met them before!"

“If there is one thing I would actually like to teach you, it would be empathy.” Ancepanox said sharply, but every time she glanced to Wreath her expression softened. "Let me in on a little secret, Astral Nacre. I am more pony than alicorn, mentally. Their suffering is mine, and I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for what happened here. This pony... Well, I shared my curse with him. But I don't really know what to think about any of this anymore. I'm fairly lost." She laughed emptily. "What have I done? It's not my fault. It can't be my fault. I'm here, and I can't change that. Or... I think I'm here. I see things around me, but how much of this is real? What madness all this is. What madness. I'm just drifting forward..."

Astral just looked at her.

Ancepanox trudged away, sending up little eddies of ash at her hooffall. "Is somepony doing this to me? What's making me feel this way. It's got to be the nightmare..." She looked down at Wreath. "If it's not, what did I just do to him? If not... what's wrong with me?"

Astral continued to watch mutely.

"I wasn't supposed to be this, do this... any of this. I should have gone back by now. Why did I come here? Did I really think- What did I think I was going to accomplish?" Ancepanox scooped up a hooffull of ash and rubbed it on her face. She accidentally inhaled some and wheezed. Her eyes began to water. "This is so messed up. This is so, so messed up. I just killed ponies. HUNDREDS OF PONIES. A- A- And it was easy. SO easy. And... it felt so good." She laugh-cried. "Destiny really was setting me up for more torture by letting me live."

Astral mimicked by dusting herself with some ash but could not guess the significance of it. "I don't get you."

"Yeah, you wouldn't... I told you to FUCK OFF!" Ancepanox wheeled around and screamed at the monsterous alicorn, tears streaming from her ash-reddened eyes. "I’m not pretending right now! You disgusting overgrown bicep!” Acepanox spit in disgust. “You’re trash! You’re awful! How did Celestia not foresee your coming as she did the nightmare's? But I don’t blame her. Who would have guessed that you could take pure schizophrenia and extrude it into the shape of an alicorn princess? Not Celestia, because on some level she believed everypony was capable of good. You are a villain! You disgust me! You're not even trying to show consternation for what happened here!”

“That is a rather mean thing to say, Lady Ancepanox.” Astral cocked her head.

“Go away! Kill yourself! Get out of my sight and out of this world!" Ancepanox screeched.

"Are you upset by me? My lady, why? It seems that there are many things you have a gripe with many things, and I am one of them. But I am getting all the abuse. That is unfair." Astral's beady eyes stared unblinkingly. "Just because Lady Velvet was venting at me does not give you license to."

"Oh yeah? You big baby! You think you're a god but you squawk and roll over when somepony actually confronts you.""

Astral's tendrils thrashed in agitation but her voice was still calm. "You think me unreasonable, but you should free yourself of emotion before you so accuse me. There were problems in this world before me. There will, it agonizes me to suggest it, be problems for some time yet."

Ancepanox's jaw trembled, and she pulled away. "Tshh. I'm talking to a brick wall... doing it just to make myself feel better. And yes, I'm venting my problems, pointlessly. It's helpless frustration. It used to be light here in Equestria... But I think this night was looming under the surface the whole time. Not literal night, but Dark. Corruption. Things weren't alright. Things aren't alright. You... You're just a manifestation of them. Equestria failed Twilight Velvet, I think. You're the result." She sighed. "And everything you do... It's just the insane playfulness of the child of Equestria. You are a reach for 'perfection', but perverted, misplaced, misaligned. Yeah. That's what a child of Equestria would hope for."

"Should I be insulted?" Astral asked.

"If you want to be. Equestria failed me too. I'm sure there's plenty of names you could call me. Murderer, for one." Anceapnox sighed. "It's too much to dare comprehend. The problems with Equestia I'd always ignored, there before I existed, monumental, impossible to confront. How do you deal with that?"

"You don't because it is unimportant. I still don't understand why you care for ponies and their contrivanced idea of 'Equestria'." Astral said.

"It means something to them. It meant something... It doesn't matter. You don't matter. I don't matter." Anceapnox struggled for words. "Do dreams matter? I destroyed so many of them here tonight... BUCK! I yearn for mindless mania instead of this, this, hole in my chest. Shit." She let out a rattling sigh. "Spike… what am I going to tell spike?"

"Spike?" Astral querried.

"Nothing. Never mind." Ancepanox said. "You're actually right. I'm too emotional right now. This isn't how Nightmare Moon or Celestia would act. I'm going to get an even head now. Right now. No more mania. No more malaise. I'm going to start taking things rationally." She squeezed her eyes shut, full face cringing, then relaxed. “I’m calm. I’m calm.”

"You are calm." Astral nodded.

"I am. No more antagonism or irritation. This is a happy place." Ancepanox said. "To function, ponies have to pretend away the problems of the world. Just you and me here now. Oh and Sir Wreath here, but ignore him."

"Okay."

"Everything I said before, pretend that never happened. We're starting fresh." Ancepanox cleared her throat. "Hello. It's nice to meet you."

"What did you and Lady Velvet say after I left?" Astral asked.

"You're not good at this 'starting fresh' thing."

"Please answer the question."

Ancepanox shrugged. "Random, pointless talk. Yes we talked about you, but nothing very specific."

Astral's beady eyes did not betray if she believed at all what the other alicorn was claiming. "Do you like Lady Velvet?"

"I don't see myself challenging her anytime soon, though I don't approve of her actions. Her agenda of fracturing the empire could only lead to more slaughter But neither of us are fans of your work. She may be vicious, but you're feral."

"Because neither of you understand."

"Au contraire, you yourself admitted you need me to show or teach you. Show you what? How to be an alicorn?" Ancepanox's stroked her chin. "You're not so far gone... Perhaps you can be made to be a better creature."

"I am as good as I can be barring a few very small things I have yet to learn." Astral huffed.

“Do you not understand me? You want to learn, I want to shape you behavior.” Ancepanox snorted. “Unless, you don't think you'd profit by a continued relationship. Indeed I think any partnership I make with you will probably accelerate the destruction of ponykind.”

"Is that... A joke? Ah, I think it is!" Astral couldn’t smile, but the tissue around her eyes jiggled in humor. “Ha! It is a funny joke! He he! You are so strange, Lady Ancepanox. You go from hating me to wishing cooperation. Contradiction, juxtaposition. Funny!"

“I'm not joking. I'm offering you a partnership.”

“Say it as serious as you like my lady. I won't take the bait.” Astral’s mane of snake-like tendrils undulated slowly as she shifted her sitting position. “I am quite new to jokes. Begin another and I will laugh-”

“You just don’t take a hint, do you.”Ancepanox sighed. At least Astral was being civil. "Listen, you've been saying you want to learn something, so why don't you be a little less vague so I don't have to keep guessing. What do you want to learn?"

Astral clopped her hooves, imagining she was hearing the lead-up to a joke. "I don't know. Tell me."

Anceapnox pinched her nose. "Listen, you utter moron, TELL ME WHY HAVE YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING ME."

Astral was silent for a while. “I want to learn how to be powerful with magic, as is becoming of a god.”

“Magic kindergarten is every day at eight, in Canterlot Castle north wing. Have your mother pack you a lunch.” Ancepanox shot.

“I considered that.” Astral was hesitating for the first time Ancepanox had seen. “You may have realized I lack control as well.”

“That’s a vast understatement.” Ancepanox agreed.

“I know I can get dangerous at times, and you are likely the best sorcerer alive now that Celestia is dead... What other teacher could handle a student who can do this.” Astral’s horn oozed magic, and she released it into the air as a crackling wave of energy, like she’d used in the throne room. The spell was unpatterned and tempestuous, dissipating in the air as a rain of lightning .“I can’t control it. I recognize that I destroy everypony I touch. It is not out of concern for others I ask, but for my own path to greater perfection. My dear lady, I need your help.”

Perhaps it was the sudden show of respect, or the unexpected logic of Astral’s proposal, but Ancepanox found herself considering the proposal. The beast may not have been so blind as she seemed, and if Ancepanox somehow could minimize the damage Astral caused, things would work out for the better.

What was far more likely was that Astral was lying. The monster obviously didn’t care, maybe even couldn’t care, about the lives of ponies. What meaning did control and boundaries have to a mare who didn’t recognize a pony’s right to live ‘imperfectly’ ?

“How do I square that against the fact you want to destroy me?” Ancepanox asked cautiously.

Astral’s tone returned to confidence. She knew what she was offering. “I find you beautiful but so misled. I attacked you out of ignorance. More time to together may warm me to your flaws."

"Uh huh. Likewise." Anceapnox squinted. "Just for the record, is there any magic you think you could do better than me, that I could learn from you?"

Anceapnox weaved her head about in thought. "Since my manifestation I have been drawn to the manipulation of pony flesh."

Ancepanox's heart skipped a beat. She wondered hopefully, Could it really be? “Body manipulation?"

“Do you have somepony you want changed? If I become talented enough, I will act at your direction. I swear it.” Astral said. “I am a god of life, after all.”

The possibilities of such a power swam over Ancepanox’s mind: Casting away Nightmare Moon’s body and rebecombing Twilight Sparkle, returning the alicorn body to the pristine beauty, or creating something new as a synthesis of the purity that Twilight Sparkle had been and the experience Ancepanox had and would have. It was more than she could have ever realistically hoped for.
“You introduced yourself by trying to kill me, and just helped me in the massacre of two-hundred ponies. You disgust me, and you yearn for my flesh. We are both immense dangers to Equestria, to each other, and to ourselves.” Ancepanox listed. “I was the same way with my first teacher.”

“You seem sympathetic to my explanation that all the hostility against you was a misunderstanding, no?” Astral laughed impishly. “Other 'bad' behavior can be redirected.”

“Perhaps, Lady Nacre. If we both approach each other in good faith I think we can travel down this road of self-discovery and improvement together.” Ancepanox was feeling on the back hoof, but she knew she had bargaining power so long as she exploited it. “Let me ask forthrightly if you be anything other than a liar and villain, if I asked it of you?”

“If that’s what it takes, I promise myself to you. Student to Master, supplanting all my other obligations!” Astral swore. “It’s what’s necessary to be more perfect”

"Do you forsee any situation you change your behavior without being asked?"

Astral was tellingly silent to that question.

“Uh huh.” Ancepanox licked her lips. “There are rules and qualifications.”

“As with any relationship.” Astral nodded.

“Don’t get comfortable with that word, student.” Ancepanox assumed a condescending tone. “First, I unfortunately have to return to using that most crass of farewells, as the circomstances require: Buck off."

"Excuse me?" Astral stood up, her tendrils thrashing angrily at the affront.

"I can't do anything for you before this infernal night is over. I promise I am not abandoning the pact we just made, but there are creatures in dire situations whom I am obligated to help." Ancepanox explained. "Thus I leave you for now, but I will return with greater understanding and control."

"No! Take me with you!" Astral chittered. "I- I have to learn now!"

"Calm down. You’ll have a homework assignment while I’m gone, and a note to take home to mommy.”

“O- Oh. Will it help me? I’m ready to learn!” Astral leaned forward. While she was still Anceapnox's match for height, her new posture was decidedly subservient, twisting to look up at the nightmare alicorn with her beady eyes.

“It will be a test in self control responsibility, and respect!” It was customary for students in the Canterlot Unicorn school to receive pets, to show they had the attention span to commit to its wellbeing. Spike had been both a blessing and a curse for Twilight, for while he had been the dearest companion she’d had, dragons, as needy sentient beings, required much more care than owls and cats. Twilight recognized that Celestia had put that burden on her to test if she could endure the full weight of her lessons. Every second she wasted with Astral was a betrayal of that responsibility.
“Ripple Wreath is your ward now! Keep him alive, help him to adjust to his new life as an abomination, take him for walks and keep him fed. Do that to my satisfaction, and I will teach you all that I know.”

“My dear lady, you can’t really mean that! Don't make me!” Astral looked panickedly between Ancepanox and the limp earth pony knight in the ash between them. “I wouldn’t know where to start! I'm not the right god to dwell on a lowly pony!”

“So learn it. I’m going to save Spike. See you later, Lady Astral.“
Looking up at the sky, Ancepanox silently thanked fortune that no wind had dispersed the smoke of the coal and corpse fires. There was an unbroken trail of grey halfway to the Dneighper, where it would be easy to find stray cumulous clouds. She cast the cloudwalking and teleportation spells in quick succession, leaving Astral’s torrent of whining far behind.

The fleeting moonlight of the endless night was having an unusual effect on the monsters of the Everfree. All around the castle ruins Applejack could hear the howls, screeches, and roars of timberwolves and manticores and other unnamable chimeric oddities. The more ponylike of the forest’s horrors, the two nightmare afflicted, remained wide awake while Rarity and the fillies slept.

"How long's it been now? Ten hours since Twilight left? Feels longer." Applejack muttered to herself, roaming through the shadow at the forest's edge. "I hope nothing bad's happened to her. She's a capable mare, but it's a very dark night... and I don't know how much longer we can just wait around."

Applejack walked the edge of the crescent ravine that blocked the castle’s eastern approach. It was thirty hooves across, but far far deeper, it’s bottom concealed by mist and darkness. The rickety rope bridge, which somepony had installed to cross it, had been torn apart in the storm and solar blasts.
Applejack kicked a rock over the edge, and after several seconds she heard an echoing splash. The rain had flooded the ravine, but she had no way to get to it.

"We've run out of puddles to drink from in the castle. We need that water... Darn."

Dash was lounging against one of the intact buttresses of the castle near the throne room, looking contemplatively into a distant horizon. She had grown more and more inert over the hours, until she wasn't moving or saying anything at all unprompted.
She heard the vegitative crunch of Applejack's approach and shifted to face her. "Hey." She said simply.

“Hey. How're you feeling?" Applejack asked.

"Getting a stomach ache from the grass. Good otherwise." Dash reported.

"You got a minute?”

“I dunno. I’d have to check my schedule.” Dash picked up a piece of bark and stared at it intensely before tossing it away. “Looks like I’m open for the next bajillion years.”

“Ya don’t have’ta be mean about it.” Applejack grumbled, leading Dash back towards the ravine.

“I’m just pissed off. I've got nothing to think about but the future.” Dash sighed. “The future I don't have.”

“Y’all’re angry at Rarity, or me?” Applejack assessed.

“Bucking good for her! No, she’s, like, whatever! ” Dash floundered. “It’s just, I’m stronger than I was, but I can’t do anything as Rainbow Dash anymore. I’ll be Dash, the nightmare. I’ve lost the awesomeness.”

“Twilight and Rarity proved the curse can be undone. We just have’ta wait, and like y’all said, we’ve got nothin but time.” Applejack said.

“And where's Twilight's gone? I told you, you shouldn't have trusted her so easy.” Dash grumbled. “I about ready to bolt. I'm sick of snacking on grass.”

“Do what you want, Mis Dash, but clearly you've stuck around this long because you think you have something to gain by it.” They reached the ravine. “Listen, as long as you’re here do you figure you could help us out? Rarity and the fillies need water.”

Dash looked skyward briefly. “If there were rainclouds I’d be able to use them, but since that storm the sky’s have been clear as far as your village.”

Applejack passed Dash an ancient bowl she had found in the dilapidated castle kitchens. “Down in the ravine, I mean. Can you fly down there and scoop some up?”

Dash nodded. “Sure, fine. Be back in a flash.”

The dark blue pegasus nightmare flapped into the air and descended into the chasm. She disappeared into the mist, the sound of the flap of her wings dwindling into silence.

Applejack waited patiently, but began to feel nervous after a minute of stillness. “Mis Dash?” She called down into the ravine. “Dash! Is everything okay down there?” Still nothing. "This isn't funny! You listenin to me?!"

A filly’s scream sounded out from the castle. Applejack whirled around looking for signs of danger. She saw no monsters, but the screams kept coming, louder this time.

“Dash! You get up here!” Applejack called out, but with no response she galloped back to where she’d left the three fillies.

She reached the alcove as the fillies were scrambling out, tripping over each other in their fearful haste. They took one look at Applejack and stopped dead, still wailing in terror. Applejack raced past them to face what had woken them.

The black alicorn was standing over the pile of ash that had been the campfire, looking tired. Since Applejack had last seen her, Twilight had gained enough control over her wings to keep them from dragging. She had found a sabre somewhere, and tucked it in the loop of her cape.
“Holding down the fort, Mis Applejack?” The alicorn asked.

“Well ‘nough, I suppose.” Applejack took a deep breath to slow her racing heart. “You’ve been gone a while. Didn’t find what y’all were looking for in Ponyville?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I had to search farther afield, in Canterlot. Where’s that pegasus, Dash? I will need her help.”

“Out by that ravine.” Applejack said. “Why? What’s the problem?””

"Long story. I have to go deeper into the forest and need a pegasus's help." Trotting out to the ravine, Twilight almost tripped over the cowering fillies. They had fallen silent, but were obviously still terrified.
“Oh, yes. You three…:”

Scootaloo was hiding under her hooves, eyes squeezed closed. Applejack was glancing between Applejack and the alicorn in confusion. Sweetie Belle had her eyes locked on Twilight.

The alicorn crouched. “I never properly apologized for feeding off you last week at the cuteceañera. That was wrong of me. And earlier tonight, when I used you in my blasphemous ritual, that was my bad too.” She lowered her gaze. "There's a lot I've done wrong. I can't fix it by just appologizing. I might not ever be able to fix what I've done..." She trailed off into silence.

The fillies responded by burying their head further in their hooves.

Twilight nibbled her lip. “Listen, I can understand that you’re scared. This is a stressful situation and we need to all be on the same page. Sweetie Belle."

Sweetie Belle blinked.

“Sweetie, I’m sorry. I don’t know if I would have had the will to bring Rarity back to life, if not for your crying. I’m sorry I led your sister down a path of darkness.” The sincerity Twilight felt helped to wash away some of tension she’d built up in Canterlot. She offered a weak smile. “Your sister too Apple Bloom, but I’m still working on her.” She paused at Scootaloo. “Um, I don’t know your name, but you have my sincerest apologies as well.”

Applejack interjected anxiously. “Twilight... Nice sentiment, but you ain't helpin the situation. Take a step back."

“Well... I... ” Twilight cleared her throat, straightened up, and stepping around the fillies. She resumed her trot to the ravine, and Applejack followed her. “Um, when we have time I need to talk to you about some things, like my name. And where is Rarity?”

“You didn't see her? I thought she was sleepin by the fillies. I dunno where she coulda gone off to.” Applejack scratched her head. “Ya know she un-nightmared, right?”

“It makes sense. Her soul is quarantined in her body, away from her soul.” Twilight nudged her black cape with her wing. “This is the first proven cure to the nightmare. Now we just have to find a way to replicate the results without having to kill the subject.”

“Wait, y’all aren’t cured?” Applejack asked with concern and confusion.

“Like I said, we can talk when we have time.” They reached the ravine, and Twilight leaned precariously over its edge. “Dash! Mis Dash! Hmmm... Applejack, what is she doing down there?”

“She went down to get water. Now I think she's just sulking.”

“No, something’s wrong.” Twilight mumbled to herself. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she could feel it. It was very difficult to detect Dash’s aura.“You stay here, I’ll check it out.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.” Applejack drawled.

Making sure that the cloudwalking spell was dispelled, Twilight teleported halfway down the chasm. She punctured the mist and landed solidly on her hooves in ankle high water.
Immediately, her mind was nearly overwhelmed by conflicting auras. With her in the ravine were two forces: One of intense darkness, a nightmare-like hole her magic could not touch. One of blinding yet intangible and unseen light, flooding the world around her in oppressive amounts of power.

“Mis Dash!” Twilight yelled, slugging though the pitch blackness. “Mis Dash, where are-”

Her hoof collided with something soft. Remembering to use her own magic, Twilight cast as much light as she could, which still only illuminated a hoof’s length in the very dense mist. It was Dash, face up in the water. The pegasus had probably been overcome by the unexpected energies that permeated the crack.

Grabbing a hold of Dash, Twilight teleported back up to Applejack. The earth pony reeled from the flash, but was at Dash’s side as soon as she saw.

“Yeesh. What’s happening down there?”

“I don’t know. Magic, wild and untamed.” Twilight panted. She took a moment to restore order to her mind, almost in shock from the dualistic chaos she’d left. “A magical convergence point of some kind, but larger than I've ever heard of one being. And, it was nearly impossible to detect because of opposed energies existing in balance... just fascinating! I wish I had time to study it." She cleared her throat. "I think the center of the Everfree is down there.”

“The castle is the center of the Everfree.” Applejack corrected.

Twilight contemplated that. “And the center of the center is down that hole. I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s important.”

“Twilight, have you been letting yourself get sidetracked?” Applejack asked. " Thought you were looking for a way to find Spike."

Twilight froze in place. "Among other things." She said, strained. "It's why I have to go into the forest. It's why I needed Dash. I found a tracking spell, and all the way back here it was taunting me of promises of a dragon. He's out there, Applejack, somewhere in the mire."

"Are you gunna let yourself get distracted any longer?!" Applejack, injecting a bit of aggression in her question. "Magic anomalies don't come before family, Twi!

“No of course not.” Twilight half chuckled, half sobbed. “Oh Applejack,I- I should have taken you with me. Maybe If you'd been there I wouldn't have-”

"Wouldn't have what?"

Twilight gulped, eyes darting away. "Wouldn't have gotten so distracted."

“That’s just the kind of pony you are sugercube. Stop piling things on your plate.” Applejack urged. “Dash is out of commission. Just go get him, right now.”

Twilight danced from hoof to hoof in anxiety. “See, that’s what a nightmare would do. They rush into things blindly, fueled by emotion. My emotions might be well intentioned, by there are strong, and they get twisted so, so easily. I had a plan, and it required Dash. Don’t you understand that I need to wait for her? I need somepony to watch me.”

“No, you don’t.” Applejack repeated emphatically. “When family’s involved, ya gotta do what feels right. Twilight, I’m speaking from experience here. I used to try to justify myself by sayin it was gunna be the best thing for us in the long run, but it cost me my brother. Twilight, if you take any longer you might well lose Spike.”

“But at least let me check on Forlorn-”

Applejack stamped her hoof. “No buts now! Just go!”

Twilight glanced towards the Everfree Castle, then, seeming to to make up her mind she teleported across the ravine and galloped along it southward. Applejack watched her until she disappeared into the treeline, the returned to checking over Dash.
She sighed deeply. She heard the feint whispering of the fillies behind her. "Why did the ponies around me have to turn out so weird? Huh. I'm gettin to think it's the world that's weird, and we ponies're just catching up."

Chapter 37: Almost Homefront

Deep inside the Mountain of Canterlot was the cavernous expanse known to some as the Vacuous Arcanum, the most ambitious excavation ponykind had ever endeavored on and completed. It went the entire width and length of the mighty Mountain, and stretched up towards its peak. Chasms and catacombs split off and down into the roots of the earth, so that in cross-section the monolithic peak would seem hollow.
Such Dark things lurked within, relics of lost eras, before there were Celestiaan to keep ponies safe. Some with eyes, some with wings and legs, and some with legs, all equally terrifying. Their command, forgotten but mindlessly obeyed, to protect the mysteries even Celestia dared not contemplate. It was evil down there, in those deepest depths. Pain and hatred had stewed for a thousand years, blacker than the depths of space. Who knew what treasure and horror sat waiting for rediscovery..

The most recent and most meager of the Arcanum's secrets, at the very edge of its enveloping darkness, was Phyte’s secret lab.
A ball of Twilight Velvet’s green and purple dragonfire manifested in the air, and ofter a moment of smoldering dumped out Prosser. In his tumble he knocked over one of the racks of books.

Aurthora Airy peered over the table of alchemical devices laid out before her. “Back already?"

“Lady Velvet was very impatient, and I just never got around to telling her about our predicament.” Prosser jumped to his hooves and quickly brushed himself off. “I doubt she would sympathize even if I had told her.”

“Then how are we going to get back to the surface? You used the last of the dragonfire we found to send her that letter!” Aurthora looked cross. "I am not getting in another birdcage, even the one that sent us here. There is no telling where it could send us!"

“Did you say that was the last of the dragonfire?” Prosser looked over the empty green phials on the ground, which still held a faint heat from the former contents. “Oh dear, I was having so much fun burning things I must have lost track.”

“Councilor, you have trapped us here!” Aurthora groaned. “How selfish of you, when Canterlot is in such need of us!”

“Worry not, my lady. We’ll get out.” Prosser consoled sarcastically. “Ye olde fashion’d way I suppos’d.”

“Councilor…”

“This long forgotten tomb can’t possibly be that hard to navigate. We just need to give it our all, and everything will work out in the end.” Prosser waved away her concerns. “Still, we might as well see what the Mistress had stashed, hidden away from even her little musicians.”

“I don’t disagree about that,” Aurthora explained. “I simply think that we should remember how very alone we’ve become here.”

“You simply have to broaden your definition of company.” Prosser glanced at the withered corpses on the nearby examination tables, but decided they were fine where they were. “I understand your concern, my lady, but remember that I’m me, and mysteries unravel themselves for my very shadow.”

“I fear for the time you meet your match.” Aurthora said, going back to inspecting the equipment Phyte had abandoned.

“I would so fear too, but my match flew north.” Prosser’s smirk almost cracked, but he pushed away any emotion by busying himself. He pushed aside the chemical phials and emptied flasks of dragonfire, and joined Aurthora in investigation of the devices.

It seemed Phyte’s experimentation into the nature of life and death had become more sophisticated over the centuries since convening of the Stars, relying less on necromancy and more on physiology. Prosser inspected the articles laid out before him: There were multiple hoof-sketched diagrams of the bodily systems of each pony tribe, made undoubtedly with living references. In another binder, Prosser found where she had tried replicating interesting injuries on multiple ponies, and comparing how they healed, then repeated the process until they died.

“The Mistress was a sickening mare. It is a shame we could not bring her to justice.” Aurthora said. “Thankfully the hive of her villainy in the form of the Musician's Guild has been purged.”

“Right you are.” Prosser agreed, picking up and toying with various torture devices. “Never more will that sweet music be brought forth.”

Aurthora, disturbed by his words, wrinkled her nose. “Councilor, sometimes it is hard to tell if you really are a amoral bedlamite, or simply act that way for amusement.”

“Don’t worry my lady. An smarmy as I may be, nopony is as antagonized by the this than I.” Prosser tittered, opening up another cabinet of the butcher’s tools. There was a small shelf of strange machines with glass dials and bronze probes like Prosser had never seen before. The machine bore symbols of a sun motif that differed slightly from Celestia’s imprinted besides little stars that reminded him highly of Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark. Moving on, he went through dozens of drawers with sophisticated torture tools, bizarre segmented skewers and serrated hoof drills, and most horrifyingly of all, meat tenderizers. It seemed Phyte had been doing more with her sharp teeth than just smiling.

"No matter how many times we told her, that mare refused to stop being bad." Phyte mumbled, idly spinning the mechanism of one of the drills.

Loud clatter from behind them echoed through the immense cave. Aurthora whirled around to face the intruder while Prosser jumped beneath a table.

It was Sel Lech Sabonord, at the edge of their light. He was looking slack jawed, his struggle to understand the presence of the other two evident on his brow. A set of hiking equipment lay at his feet where he’d dropped it.
“What are you guys doing here?”

“Oh.” Aurthora relaxed. “Captain Sabonord, this is a relief most welcome.”

“No, really. What are you doing here?” Sel trotted over to them.

“Is that a formal inquiry, Sir?” Prosser peered out from beneath the table. “As an official of the realm, I’m not obliged to tell you anything unless you have the proper authorization.”

“It is a long story. The councilor and I were taking inventory of the material you seized from the Musician’s Guild, stored in Castle Magoria.” Aurthora explained. “We decided to test one of the magical birdcages. Unfortunately, embarrassingly, we decided to test ourselves. We should have known better. It led here, apparently.”

“That was completely stupid of you. That cage could have killed you!” Sel said frankly. “Do you have any idea where this is?”

“The Vacuous Arcanum.” Prosser offered, getting to his hooves once more.

Sel scoffed. “No, it’s- Wait... What?”

“Forget I said anything.” Prosser coughed. “Please, explain it to us.”

“Well…” Sel was hesitant. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious their story seemed. Still, he obliged. “We are under Canterlot, and maybe even inside the Mountain. It’s about half-an-hour’s trot to the chasm Astral punched under the Opera House.”

“I told you we could walk it.” Prosser smirked at Aurthora.

The viscountess weathered the councilor’s smug satisfaction. “This is a big place to be so close without anypony knowing.” She looked into the dark emptiness past the limit of the torches’ light. The very edge of one of the monolithic statues was the only visible proof that the cavernous hollow wasn’t empty.

“Phyte and Astral knew.” Prosser pointed out.

“And other ponies.” Sel immediately regretted his words. He had sworn to himself that nopony could know about Lady Sunset’s return to Canterlot until he had at least spoken to her, which was the very reason he had returned. His disposition shifted to extremely nervous.

“What other ponies?” Aurthora asked.

“Probably Celestia. Heh, the old bat was old enough to have been there when it was made.” Prosser chuckled.

“So Captain, you must have found this place when Lady Velvet told you to investigate the Opera House, but why did you not tell her?” Aurthora was showing her curious side now that she was away from Blueblood. “And why are you back now?”

“Maybe she already knows. I'm back for... reasons.” Sel elucidated.

“Reasons.” Prosser repeated snidely. “Oh boy, I love reasons.”

“If it is something private we will give you deserved privacy.” Aurthora bowed. “But it astounds that anypony could have personal business in a place such as this.”

“No. I’m…” Sel thought furiously. “Assessing a security risk. I suspect that a, um, rogue group might be staging themselves from one of the tunnels branching off of this main cavern.”

Aurthora frowned deeply. “Then this is a serious matter indeed. I’m coming with you.”

“You really shouldn’t.” Sel protested.

“I stand by Lady Velvet for the same reason I stood by Blueblood: I want to lead and protect my hometown.” Aurthora insisted. “Let us fight these rogues together!”

Sel bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood. He wanted so badly to speak to Sunset, when he knew it was very likely that her ambitions were of a nefarious nature. If the pony she’d had with her was really Twilight Sparkle, like he had thought he’d heard, the mares deserved an opportunity to reveal themselves or get away before they inevitably came to Velvet’s attention.
Once Velvet knew, all bets were off.

“I guess.” He sighed. “Just stay behind me, and don’t attack anypony unless they attack first.”

“I shall abide by your constraints, Captain.” Aurthora nodded. She pulled her shortsword and scabbard from where she’d set them during her investigations and affixed its belt around her barrel. “Let us go then.”

“Uh, see you later Councilor.” Sel gave a curt wave to Prosser before he and Aurthora cantered further into the mountain, in search of the possibility of danger.

The deeper in a pony went, the more they would realize why the Everfree Forest had gone uncolonized for a thousand years. If the harsh jungle of the fringe wasn't enough, packed as it was with harsh plants and animals, the depths of the forest proved wholly unsuited to even meager pony subsistence, or indeed, survival.

As Twilight walked further in the Everfree, the dense forest floor began to dip. The shaded leaf-litter began to squish underfoot, and soon she was trudging through mud under a sparse canopy. The forest open up into a bleak brown bog, dotted with hammocks of gnarled and dead trees. Out of the shadows of gnarled roots and rotted trees, animal eyes of all types followed the alicorn's progress.

Twilight paused to cast Able Airy’s categorization spell again. Her vision of the world darkened, but lit up with glowing aura denoting reptiles. There were thousands of them before her, but a particular gold aura, bearing the tag of ‘dragon’, stood out several kilometers deeper south.

“Spike couldn’t have wandered this far himself. And I don't see that changling going to so much effort to hide him this far away from the castle.” Twilight mused darkly. Somepony beside Chrysalis had moved Spike away, either during the battle in the throne room, or while Twilight was getting the spell from Canterlot. “Either way it’s bad.”

There was a slight mist rising off the muddy water, and with the cloudwalking spell Twilight could avoid a wet trudge. She could have teleported, but did not want to risk drawing unwanted attention to herself; She had no idea what creatures the mire hid.

The bog was almost as noisy as the forest, the croaking frogs and insects constantly reminding Twilight of her heightened hearing. The pale moonlight reflected distortedly off the still and stagnant water, and every once in a while Twilight thought she saw ripples emanating from the hammocks she passed.

Refreshing the categorization spell. Twilight followed the tag to a raised bank, a tangled island of gnarled trees and twisted vines. In the shadow it looked as final and solid as any castle wall. Or perhaps Twilight could see an actual castle wall, or at least part of one, for it appeared that the thicket held an ancient watchtower from from the same era as the Everfree Castle. The spell told Twilight that Spike lay within that tower.

“Spike!” Twilight called. “Can you hear me?”

The bog responded by growing quieter, the amphibians and insects shying from Twilight’s intrusion. Twilight burned away the darkness of the thicket with light from her horn and then, after a moment of consideration, began casting jets of fire into dry vegetation. The vines curled and evaporated and the trees disintegrated into ash. Twilight pressed forward into the island behind her path of destruction; Spike had tough scales and would feel no more of the fire than a tickle.

The mound of filth-stained marble Twilight had seen was not a watchtower like she had thought, but the walls of a cistern-like structure sunk into the island. Infuriatingly for Twilight, Spike’s golden tag had moved, placing him some ten meters below her and the ground.

“How the hell would anything under the water table be kept from flooding?” Twilight wondered. Then again, the tapestries and books in the Everfree Castle had remained mostly untouched by a thousand years of total neglect. There must have been some subtle magic at work.

Twilight jumped down to the bottom the the cistern. A hole, roughly a pony’s length in diameter, was bored into it’s center. A stone cover, engraved with small suns and moons, had been pushed to the side. A redundant barricade, a rusted grate in the dark hole, had been pried apart, and the surrounding stone had been recently scratched and cracked by something sharp. The creature that was getting away with Spike was strong.

“Spike! Can you hear me!” Twilight called down the hole. She cast a flare of magical light down the well, but it dissipated before it found the bottom.

Twilight pulled out her sabre, took a deep breath for courage, and jumped into the hole.

As soon as Twilight was out of the moonlight she was assaulted by the same conflicting magical auras as were in the chasm by the castle: Powerful forces of Dark and Light, the light blooming and pushing at her with overwhelming energy, and the dark sucking and consuming so as to pull everything it touched into its void. Twilight lost all coordination in her limbs, and she hit the bottom of the hole in something of a splat, rolling down a pile of bones from animals who’d fallen into the same deathtrap.

Using the last of her stored magic, Twilight tried to cast a magical shield around herself. Though the Light threatened to smother her spell and the Dark worked to subvert it, she managed to complete the cast and seal herself away from them, giving her a moment to reassert control over her rebellious body.

That is when she saw it. Like the first time she saw the nightmare altar it was like something out of a dream. It was a granite pyre, a single chiseled stone piece embellished with radiantly burning gemstones. In the abject darkness Twilight would have had an impossible time judging it’s size, if not for Spike curled around the base of the stone fire’s brazzer, as if gleaming warmth from the dead rock.

Twilight began to crawl through the miasma of magic to the base of the pyre, encompassing Spike with the protective ward. By the faint light of the false flame she could see no marks on him. He was shivering, but to Twilight’s joy, otherwise unharmed.

Her eyes adjusted to the penetrating darkness. The hole around them was something like an antechamber, a voluminous room of the same stone as the structure above. Perhaps the top was not so much of a cistern as an entrance to the underground section. The builder had assumed any visitors could fly.

Her gaze once again wandered to the pyre statute, so garish and ostentatious, but also subtle compelling, resounding in Twilight’s mind as something of great importance. Magic, she reasoned, as it was sitting in veritable pool of uncontrolled energy. Perhaps it was even the source, for the peculiar heat it radiated equated partially to the overwhelming positive magic she had felt on entering.

The longer she looked, the more the pyre looked like a mirage or illusion, with the sculpted flames writhing and fluttering like a real fire. She could almost hear the crack and pop of the fake charred logs in the fake brazzer. She felt a certain distress or urgency whenever she blinked, as though the pyre was demanding her perpetual and unbroken attention. In return, it promised heat and comfort, an alien affection that could burn those that came too near. Perhaps that was why thousands of creatures had martyred themselves in the dark pit. Perhaps that was why Spike had been drawn to it from kilometers away, and had been driven to claw apart stone and iron to reach it.

Whatever the pyre was, it was not something to be taken lightly. When Twilight had time, if Twilight had time, the secrets of the forsaken artifact could be investigated, outside of the dark and leaching pit in which it resided.

Feeling strong enough to stand upright again, Twilight got to her hooves and put Spike on her back. She prepared a teleportation spell. “Let’s get out of here.”

To Twilight immense shock, something answered her from the pitch blackness. “Come back soon.”

Overcome by surprise and panic, Twilight let lose her spell. Twilight and her small passenger disappeared in a flash of purple. With the magical barrier gone with them, the thick darkness flooded into the vacated space.

They reappeared at the base of one of the Everfree Castle’s walls. The rush of adrenalin gave Twilight the energy to gallop to the campfire where Applejack, the unconscious Dash, and the fillies were. The fillies scurried away in fear again, but Applejack jumped up to aid the alicorn.

Twilight remained standing just long enough to blurt out “I found Spike” before collapsing from the cumulative effect of fifty hours of unbroken activity, adrenaline crash, and magical, mental, and physical exhaustion.

A bit earlier

Experiencing the natural reaction of any willful stuborn creature being told what to do, Astral Nacre prepared an indignant tirade against Ancepanox’s dictates. The pure insolence that the black alicorn must have had, to abuse the generosity and offered friendship of a god, passed into near insanity. But Ancepanox teleported away, and Astral was left screaming into the air.

She stopped her tantrum just short of trampling the pony underhoof: the unconscious Ripple Wreath. Astral felt the impulse to renege on her promise to Ancepanox, and simply destroy the young knight. He was helpless, sleeping in the ash clinging tightly to his ornate wolf helmet, but Astral, though impulsive, knew that she would be throwing out a great opportunity if she failed Ancepanox.

Astral needed magic if she was to truly take her place at the top of the world. But that beautiful and devious Ancepanox was too clever to rush into an agreement. It was Astral who would bear the upfront cost, as it were, in being burdened with Wreath. Ancepanox had marked her territory, spreading her filth curse onto him and foisting him to Astral.

It was as though the black alicorn in the field had been different mare from the one in Canterlot. In the throne room and at the feast, it had been obvious that Ancepanox had been out of her depth, alone and unprepared in a potentially hostile city. Velvet and her retainers were uncertain, and Astral was beginning to realize Velvet had hosted the young alicorn mostly to spur jealousy from her goddess daughter.
The pony who had unleashed her wrath on Glori was a nightmare in many definitions of the word, and Astral had relished seeing the resulting extermination. Ancepanox had moved and acted in just the right ways to stir fear and panic in the camp, and as the clash intensified Astral had seen the black alicorn battling a dozen knights and defeating them, one by one: Using the sabre to slice their flesh, crushing them with magic, mixing their blood and bile within them with her horn, getting close and consuming their souls, OH! The variety of that depraved massacre had elated Astral and formed within her mind a certain kinship with the nightmare viscountess.
Then Ancepanox had gone back to her uncertain, timid mode. Bah!

Ancepanox had clearly felt that Astral’s aid in that slaughter was not kindness enough to clear the air of the misunderstanding in the throne room. In fact, Astral had become positively furious at how liberal Ancepanox had been with her disrespect. She was still feeling the sting of the words, the accusations and implications, a welt on her pride she would have to bear if she wanted Ancepanox’s help.

What was more, Astral would have to bear Ancepanox’s abuse because the nightmare alicorn had been powerful. It was like something she remembered Foaly Flux saying once. “It’s the prerogative every pony to take what he or she can.“ Everypony had the right to mistreat anypony that could not stop them. By that point of view, it was an incredible grace that Ancepanox only bothered Astral and did not torment as many ponies as Astral had, considering that the black alicorn outmatched the god of life.

Yes, the display of power against Glori had clarified the true nature. Ancepanox had every ounce of dark purpose as she’d claimed, maybe even more, for when she had truly unleashed herself against the camp her savagery had been incredible. Ripple Wreath was the only once she’d show mercy to, if the curse she’d laid upon him could be considered anything better than death.

Astral had not been wholly faking the self-reflection and regret about her brutal nature. Her little creations in the opera house had suffered and were suffering. She was not so blind to think it was entirely the fault of the materials. If only she could be more powerful, something great could be made from the mundane. Not anything perfect, like what Velvet thought ponies could achieve, but at least something passable, at least something that would not scream for hours on end before going braindead.

The beginning on the path to that end, as dictated by Ancepanox, was the miserable Ripple Wreath. Astral had not the first clue to entering ponies’ minds and dreams, like Ancepanox had, so she could only guess as the existential torture the young knight must have been experiencing.

“Get up.” Astral demanded. “It is a long flight back to Canterlot.”

Wreath did not stir, and it came to Astral’s mind that he should be woken up before he was gotten up. Are you proud of me yet mother, Astral grumpily thought.

She leaned down to the earth pony and nudged him with her nose, or at least where a nose would be on the snout of a pony not comprised of writhing sinew. Just by touching him she felt a chill, like a cold breeze blowing over her heart. The Dark magic inside him was still ravenous, despite Ancepanox feeding it with the souls of Wreath’s former comrades.

Fed up with it all, Astral whispered into Wreath’s ear. “Listen to me you ingrate nightmare. If you don’t relax your hold on your host I will stomp his head so far into the ash you will be praising Celestia once you wake up in Tartarus.”

It was a lame and impotent threat she knew, but the effect was no less for it. Ripple Wreath began to stir, trying to curl up to protect himself from the world.

“That’s not going to work son, so get your flank up!” Astral bellowed.

With military precision, which was to say hasty scrambling, Wreath got to his hooves. He tripped over his wolf helm and became tangled up in the ropes of one of the collapsed tents. Back in the thick ash, Wreath resigned himself to a chewing-out. “My apologies mother, I submit myself to your puni-” The realities of his situation came rushing back. He slowly raised his head to look at Astral. “Oh buck, this isn’t home.”

“Greetings, sir knight. I am Astral Nacre, the god of life. Viscountess Ancepanox has given me wardship over you.” Astral spoke clearly and authoritatively, like Velvet would have done. “For an undetermined time, you are my responsibility.”

Wreath’s wide eyes turned unfocused. “Oh gods... Ant sepax… She did something to me. I could feel them in my head! I can’t explain it…”

“Lady Ancepanox.” Astral corrected. “And I can explain it, metaphorically. She wadded up all the emotion her curse was feeding off of and shoved up way up in you, twice. Before that she also infected you with said curse, so that it would keep you from dying from the wounds she herself dealt you. She is now, in a word, your progenitor.”

"My... progenitor?" Ripple Wreath sat up. "This feels so surreal." He rubbed his head. "I am... infected."

"Oh hush. You should be glad an alicorn took notice of you." Astral was getting impatient with the lad.

“My thoughts are not fully my own. Cursed I am then, truly. My world is lost to me. I am part of yours hers, and yours.” Wreath mournfully breathed, and descended into whispered mutters. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry...”

“Don’t be so melodramatic!” Astral dragged Wreath to his hooves. “You and I are bound, but if you wish to make this more tolerable, simply act with me how you did with that mare knight, Glori Sabonord.”

“And you will treat me like Glori did?” Wreath questioned. “Will you train with me? Will you teach me language and strategy? Will you keep me by your side, even when it is inconvenient? Will you inspire me to be loyal to you, and then in your only display of weakness, forsake me to alien monsters who puke their corrupting filth all over me?” Tears formed at the edges of his eyes.

“Perhaps the lattermost of that list.” Astral mused. “But not while you’re my ward. You are, for reasons beyond credulity, valuable to me. Now, are you going to follow me back to Canterlot by your own volition, or will I have to force you?”

“I shouldn’t be sad. The sooner I accept that this is my lot in life, the less miserable I will be.” Wreath bent down and scooped up his wolf helmet. He brushed off the ash and stared at it’s crumpled visor. “Or maybe I'll wake up soon. In fact, it is much more likely this is a fantastic dream than a skinless thing is telling me she is in charge of me."

"Impious scamp! I'm a god!" Astral Nacre barked. "Believe it or no, but obey me all the same!"

Wreath scowled slightly, like he was getting tired of being demeaned. "I’m not dead, so there will be more chances for me.”

“Oh sure, opportunities will abound, as soon as you shut up so that we can be going.” Astral said. “Now, where do you belong?”

Wreath donned his wolf helmet, and hung his head as he trotted around to Astral’s side, assuming the subservient position of two steps behind. If there had been a sun in the sky he would have been in her shadow.

“Very good, lad. I may grow to enjoy this.” Astral praised. “Let us to Canterlot then.”

The unlit nature of the underground labyrinth only served to heighten Sel Lech’s anxiety about his situation. There was a strange claustrophobia about it, for even when the walls and ceiling of the Arcanum were far away, the darkness was close, pressing in, hanging over Sel and Aurthora.

"This way." He whispered, motioning to the hole cut into the smooth dark stone.

"How do you know?" Aurthora asked.

Sel didn't answer.

They entered the tight passageway, creeping along in silence. Their breaths, hoofsteps, and the crackle of the torch were the only sounds.

Sel wondered how Sunset Shimmer would react to being confronted. The lady had always been a talented magician, and Sel could only guess that her decade in exile had only strengthened her powers. With Aurthora with him it would be more difficult to convince her of his non-hostile intent. He wished he’d thought of a better excuse and gone without the lumbering viscountess.

Aurthora’s sword clinked again against her side, a sound that echoed in both directions along the passage.
"Sorry captain." She adjusted her belt. "This is much more anxious than I thought.

Sel really knew very little about the mare, despite her always being in the background of dealings with Blueblood. “Why did you have your sword with you if you and the councilor were just going through Phyte’s things?” Sel asked.

“If it did not make Prince Blueblood nervous, I would always wear my sword.” Aurthora drew the gleaming iron blade slightly out of it’s scabbard to show it off. “I have the martial tradition of my house to uphold. The ponies of house Airy were once the greatest spellcasters in the western marches, vassals of house Highmoon. As a young mare I thought I would naturally be as strong in magic as most other mares in my family. However destiny saw fit to bless me in other ways, so that I may serve Canterlot with my sword.”

“Highmoon? I've never heard of them. I thought immediate houses ruled the western marches.” Sel wondered aloud.

“House Highmoon is extinct, and history is not kind to memories.” Aurthora sighed. “They were once a very powerful lineage of lords in the northernmost peaks of Unicornia, but an alliance was formed to the end of their annihilation, and their demise was total. Celestia stood idly by, as their castles were burned and their sons and daughters slaughtered. My predecessors of house Airy took the viscounty and castle of Draftkel here in Canterlot, which had once belonged to the Highmoons.”

“That’s… terrible."

"Reading history, one sees similar stories repeated throughout the ages, and the unification of Equestria changes very little in that regard. Learning the fate of the Highmoons was one of the first things that made me doubt the system Celestia presided over." Aurthora agreed. "Her harmony and peace can be so easily disrupted by her momentary apathy."

"Indeed Lady Aurthora. Yet I’m afraid that the impending civil war could bring more extinctions like that.” Sel shuddered. “I’m particularly afraid of ours.”

“Worry not, young captain.” Aurthora consoled. “Once these terrorists in this mountain are dealt with Lady Velvet’s position will be secure. We shall not perish whilst our actions are pure.”

They were nearing the point that the passage opened out into the cavern Sel had seen the odd machines in. Sel came to the pailing realization that he hadn’t brought a weapon. He was surprised Aurthora hadn’t called him out for that fumble earlier.
Not that it would matter very much if Lady Sunset decided to kill them.

“Could you cast a little light please?” Sel asked. He wasn’t good enough to cast it himself.

“Do you want to give up the element of surprise?” Aurthora scowled.

“Well, not necessarily…”

“Because I would prefer a straight fight as well.” Aurthora drew her sword fully. “These traitors will pay for their plots against Canterlot.”

Sel’s eyes widened in apprehension. “Uh, my lady remember not to do anything rash.”

“It would be rash to hesitate.” Aurthora replied deftly. She turned and charged into the cavern. “FOR CANTERLOT!”

Sel dashed after her, expecting to hear the whine of magic and the crunch of Aurthora’s bones. But when he stumbled into the large subterranean room, he saw that it was entirely empty. There were no ponies besides Aurthora and himself, and the bronze and glass machines had been moved too.

“It’s gone.” He gnawed on his already torn lip.

"Unfortunate." Aurthora sheathed her sword. She took the torch from Sel and circled the room with it.
The only evidence that there had ever been anything there were many large imprints in the dust, and two sets of slightly differing hoofprints.
"Captain, what did you see exactly, that is now gone?"

Sel rubbed his cheek vacantly. "Hard to explain. They were magical machines."

"Would you be able to describe them to somepony more knowledgeable, somepony from the university perhaps."

"Never mind it my lady. I have missed my window of opportunity." Sel cleared his throat, trotting back to the passageway. "The next time we encounter the outlaw will be at a time and place of her choosing."

Author's Note

Some of my readership in the academic world have been sending me letters asking how I will address the coming events in the context of the large number of other works about the Nightmare Declaration and the Traitor's Advent. Indeed, the numerous accounts about the events of those climactic turning points contradict each other and often contradict themselves. Several of my friends at MU have expressed their doubts that I could convey the complexities meaningfully without expanding it to an act within itself.

I will confess hear that I have always had a place in my heart for the Hateful Monomyth, by Sir Bronze Pen. Many years ago Pen was a student of mine, a diligent and patient stallion. His wholehearted fascination with different equestrian and griffanic creation stories has visibly rubbed off on me, and drove him to explore the Equestrian Civil War historiography in that context, as was popular among midcentury poets. You shall see in the next chapters how I dote on his interpretation, as that infamous Ancepanox as the tragic hero, rather than the villain that so many historians blatantly paint her as.

Chapter 38: The Last Step Before the Plummet

On the eastern fringe of the Everfree Castle ruins, was a place half consumed by the encroaching forest: A cold graveyard, build over a few small rises in the land, sat silent and still in the shadow of the abandoned keep. Monolithic monuments surrounded by smaller tombstones alike were worn away by the elements, with only the barest traces of the engraved text and images surviving. Scattered headstones worn down to mere nubs presented a tripping hazard to anypony not paying attention. Around the old stone were brambly vines forming the vanguard of the shadowy treeline, while at the fringe saplings had begun to consume the graves.
Yes, Everfree Castle had stood long against the devouring forest, but the forest was pushing in nontheless

Walking among the graves Rarity saw statues of ponies, mostly earth ponies, decorating the top of the larger mausoleums. Their features were gone, but still they stood proudly as they had in life, holding quills, scrolls, and weapons in service to Celestia and her sister. One or two of them were bowed over, or even fully kowtow, in submission to their alicorn overlords. There were a few non-ponies among the depicted, including a hippogryph so worn that could barely be distinguished from the pegasi, save what remained of its crest.

Rarity soon arrived at the largest tomb, a veritable sepulcher the size of a small house, plain and devoid of all decoration. Rarity could tell it had once had a statue like the others, but it had been broken off at the base, with only rough spots where the hooves had been. Somepony important was, or was once planned to be, entombed there.

Rarity heard the crunch of a heavy hooffall on crisp grass, and the slightly belabored breathing of a large creature behind her. The ragged form of the black alicorn pulled up alongside her to face the massive tomb.
“Applejack told me I could find you somewhere in the castle.” The alicorn said. “I know you wanted to experience the glory and grandeur of a great court. We’re a thousand years too late for this place. There is nothing great here anymore, only death.”

Rarity hadn’t seen what Twilight’s ritual had created out of Nightmare Moon's body, but managed to remain calm and keep down the vomit she felt rising in her throat. Twilight’s fur was slightly matted, and rough in specific patches, like something had corroded it. Her mane and tail had grown unevenly from their previous length, mostly at shoulder length but a few wispy hairs brushed at her ankles.

“Darling, you look... awful.” Rarity said.

“Playing around in places of intense magical concentration is murder on the mane.” Twilight barely managed a wry smile before lapsing back into a deep frown. “You look good.”

“I feel odd. Every movement feels unsatisfying like it didn’t do quite what I wanted.” Rarity’s eyes were drawn to the tapestry that sat on Twilight back like a cape. "Is that..."

Twilight nodded.

Rarity sighed. “Just by laying eyes on it, I can tell what it is. That’s the, how did you call it? The binding. It’s beautiful, Twilight. You selected excellently.”

Twilight was humbled. “Applejack helped. I cast as many wards, protection, and preservation spells as I can remember, and when I have access to a library I’ll add more. The silk is maredian, I think, but it was woven locally by the- NO! Don’t touch it!”

Rarity yanked away the hoof she hadn’t even realized she’d been reaching out with. She looked between her hoof and the tapestry. “I…”

Twilight stared at her critically for a few moments. “Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I just..." She leaned forward. "I'm not sure of the risks yet. The nightmare might still rest within you, starved without the soul and dream of a pony to sustain it, but waiting."

“No, that can’t be!” Rarity yelped despondently. “Twilight, can we never be free of this curse?”

“Don’t worry. We can, and we will.” Twilight said solemnly. “Right now, everywhere I look it seems there are only more questions, and nopony has the answers. I’ll find the power to get those answers, and find the truths that made this world how it is. Then we can undo this horrible night.”

“Twilight, I… I don’t want you to follow this quest to your destruction. If it might hurt you maybe you shouldn’t look. A month ago, I would have eagerly desired the answers to those mysteries, but that was a month ago.” Rarity picked over her words. “Now I would tell you that there are some things that we shouldn’t know. There are darker horrors in the world than I ever thought possible.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Twilight abruptly drew back. “I’ve suffered too much just to let my answers escape me. I need to know why I’ve been made into this. You of all ponies should sympathize.”

“Well yes we have all suffered darling.” Rarity tried to offer a comforting hoof but Twilight backed away further.

“Then why don’t you share my anger?” Twilight questioned. “Would you and Applejack be happy if your little corner of the world stayed the same after all of this? Well guess what, Applejack’s not reverted from her nightmare, and you’re still undead!”

Again Rarity’s eyes were once drawn to the tapestry tied into a cape hanging over Twilight’s wings and flank. Again she felt a temptation deep inside that drove her to want to reach out and touch it, but Twilight’s suspicious glare kept her back.

“Dead or not, I do not let anything overcome me. Neither will Applejack. She seems perfectly sane, for being a nightmare” Rarity affirmed. “Do I throw common sense to the wind because of it? No, of course not!”

“It won’t be long before Applejack and Dash starts to feel some dark hunger. Their minds might deteriorate. I don't know if the aberration that let me coexist with the nightmare extends to them.” Twilight warned. “Will Ponyville be willing to satiate her, or will they try kill her? What will they do to you if they learn you were the same?”

“Don’t ask those terrible things. They’re of no import.” Rarity paused. “You have no guarantee that you’ll find their curse among the madness.”

“I asked if they would kill Applejack. Is that so much of a stretch?”

“Applejack would defend herself. She has her sister to think of, and so do I.”

Twilight sighed, her bellicose tone abating. “Yes, and I suppose you two would do anything to keep them safe. And not only safe, but sane. They need a normal childhood in Ponyville.”

Rarity could see Twilight was thinking of Spike. “That’s exactly righ-”

Twilight interrupted her. “But you see, I don’t think anywhere in Equestria will remain ‘normal’ after what has happened here. Celestia is dead, and if it hadn’t become apparent yet, she isn’t coming back this time. Equestria is about to become the worse it has ever been, and there is nothing anypony can do to stop it. Except possibly me. It's not vanity, it's the truth."

“If ponies remain true to that the empire will stand firm.” Rarity wasn’t sure she believed that, but it was comforting to say. “Princess Celestia has her legacy.”

Twilight pointed at the massive unmarked tomb before them. “This chunk of marble was Celestia’s legacy once. This whole castle, nay, the whole forest, was! Celestia the First, the mightiest pony that ever was. She lost her entire principality and her entire world, along with her sister.” Twilight pointed north, in the general direction of Canterlot. “Then she conquered Equestria to make herself feel better. This tomb, larger than all the others and yet remarkably plain, which would have been hers, was left forgotten. The empire was her new gravestone.” She chuckled, half turning to Rarity. “I bet that first and greatest titan of ponykind was so happy when she felt herself die, wishing for rest beside her sister. How could she have known she would be reincarnated? Celestia the Second, the Celestia the Third... so on and so on.”

Rarity was beginning to feel very uneasy. Not only because of Twilight’s strange behaviour, but because the tapestry continued to tease her with an incomprehensible allure. She shook off the haze and answered Twilight. “How could have anypony foreseen what happened here?”

“Anypony with eyes. It was obvious. It was inevitable.” Twilight bit. “Celestia could have, and she could have avoided everything. If she’d been but a little more watchful, and a little more trusting!”

“Are you going to decry your princess before her own grave, when she is not even in it yet?” Rarity arched a brow. “Twilight, history has repeated itself. Celestia moved on a thousand years ago, and so should you.”

Twilight scoffed. “Celestia took out her anger and frustration on the free lords of Equestria. Like she always did, she channeled her emotion in her work, as if ignoring the past would simply make the pain go away. And you know what? It did. Nightmare Moon simply disappeared from history, and a hundred generations of Celestias lived with no knowledge of the sister they once had.”

“I’m not asking you to ignore what you’re feeling, just don’t revel in it.” Rarity defended. “We need to move on.”

“Buck you ‘I need to move on!’ ” Twilight glared. “Remind me who it was who nurtured a grudge with Applejack over a colt.”

“T- That was different.” Rarity faltered.

Twilight rolled her eyes.“Mig Blackintosh, or whatever his name was, has forgotten about you Rarity. Do you think I will ever forget this?”

Rarity grimaced, and held back the immediate urge to launch herself at Twilight. “Can’t you see what happening to you?”

Twilight ignored her, continuing snarkily. “Was it because there was sooo much more of a lasting impact of him leaving? I’m sure that the angst he feels could topple nations! I’m sure that wherever he is, unforgivable atrocities follow!”

“Nothing is unforgivable.” Rarity said.

“So long as there is somepony to forgive you.” Twilight, shockingly, smiled. “Celestia could have forgiven her sister, but with her last moments she decided to ruin the rest of my life. Nightmare Moon could have forgiven Celestia, but instead she let hate drive her to her death. My two mentors didn’t forgive, and I didn’t really expect it anyway.”

Something about the way Twilight was now calling Nightmare Moon her mentor sent a chill through Rarity. “What has gotten into you, Twilight? Has your time in that body gone to your head?"

"Whether or not I had this body, my actions would have remained the same."

Rarity gulped at the ominous nature of that declaration. "What did you do, Twilight?” She asked softly.

Twilight stared into the distance as she formulated her answer. “Something unforgivable. Many unforgivable somethings, in fact.” She began to sniffle.

“I- I don't want to know. But how could this happen?” This time Twilight let Rarity hug her, as the little unicorn descended into saddened whispers. She ran a calming hoof through the larger pony’s overgrown mane. “You were the best of us four! We lent you our energy so you could take that body and make a new start! Oh! If you can’t, who can?”

Though she had done everything to cover it, the compassion she was receiving was exactly what Twilight had been craving. It felt better to know that somepony would listen to her and always tell her it would be okay. Nopony had ever done that for her, not Celestia and not her mother. She leaned into the hug, letting herself be vulnerable for the first moment in a long while.

Rarity’s hoof strayed further down Twilight’s back, until, inevitably, it brushed against the tapestry. Unseen by both ponies, an arc of black energy formed between the two, and Rarity shook with a sudden agitation and strain she felt blossom through her body. She felt different, but familiar; She felt more.
She pulled away, and the longer she looked at Twilight, the angrier she felt, until a furious scowl broke over her face. “I died for you, and this is how you repay me?”

“We all make mistakes.” Twilight averted her eyes, unaware of the change overcoming the unicorn. It was easy ranting against Celestia when she was gone, but Rarity was there. Celestia was unavailable to forgive, and even though she had abused her, Twilight yearned for Rarity’s forgiveness. “That’s why I need answers, so I can make everything right.”

“You tricked me.” Rarity was shaking with anger, or perhaps it was inner conflict as something within her hijacked her senses and emotions again. “You just want to rub it in now, how great and powerful you are. You’re living every filly’s dream, a worthy mare who became a princess. You’re the big hero, aren’t you Twilight?”

“Rarity please stop.” Twilight asked. “I’m not a princess. I know I’m a fake and I want to fix it.”

“YOU HAD THE CHANCE!” Rarity screamed. “Forlorn Spark was just laying there, available for that ritual! Why did I have to die so that she could live? So that you could steal Nightmare Moon’s body?”

“Celestia left me no choice...” Twilight was now feeling enormously guilty about shifting responsibility to her princess. “She sacrificed herself to change her. I wouldn’t undo that.”

“Celestia did the world a service.” Rarity glared. “The world needs another Twilight Sparkle considering how badly this one bucked up.”

Those words hit Twilight like a punch to the gut. She knew she had made mistakes, big mistakes, but it had not sunk in that she really had passed a point of no return. The entire world would have been better off if she simply hadn’t existed at all. The self-directed loathing and anger returned to her tenfold.
“You said nothing is unforgivable.” She pleaded. “Please, I’ll take whatever punishment, if you’ll forgive me.”

“The rest of your life will be neverending punishment what what you’ve done.” Rarity spoke with near-religious conviction. “Equestria would be better if you were gone."

Twilight's heart throbbed. "It would... It would."

"Next time you leave, you had better never come back.”

Tears began streaming from Twilight eyes. “I- I- I know. You will take care of Spike, won’t you?”

Rarity’s glare was icy. “Better than you ever did.”

Twilight turned, unable to face Rarity any more. An impatient cough pulled her back. “Leave that with me.” Rarity demanded, pointing to the tapestry.

Unthinkingly Twilight untied her makeshift cape and let it fall to the ground. Without another word, Twilight slinked away, melting into the deep shadow of the forest of tombstones. Rarity watched her go for a moment, then cast a look at the tomb again, particularly at the broken base of it’s missing statue.
A sinister smile, imperceptibly thin, almost betrayed how proud of herself Rarity was. But she stifled the malevolent delight, when ponies could still be watching, and acted out a sad sigh. Then she too left the graveyard, cantering back towards the castle dragging the tapestry behind her with her magic. Maybe Twilight really would stay away, but even if she didn't Rarity had a while to work unmolested.

Astral Nacre and Ripple Wreath were nearing the underside of Canterlot’s plateau. They had begun to pass through tilled farmlands, probably tended by pegasus out of the city above. The dirt was less rocky than the hills to the north, though Wreath’s exhaustion was making it hard for him not to to stumble over every divot and bump.

“Pick your hooves up.” Astal demanded. “Did they teach you to parade like that is Prancia or the Riverpony Lands? Urg, how embarrassing you are!”

With his grandmother’s beautiful wolf-helmet adorning him, Wreath could only work his jaw angrily at Astral’s abuse. Indeed his fear had faded and his annoyance at being ordered around with every passing moment. He was fine taking order from ponies who deserved his obedience, but the creature watching him was merely abusive and petty.
He tried not to let her detect his feelings, by instead directing his anger at Glori for abandoning him, but he understood how terrifying it must have been, seeing two monsters bear down on her after declaring their lust for her blood. It was just that Glori had never for a moment seemed like the type of mare to be frightened by anything in the world. Wreath had seen her face off against a hundred opponents in the gladiator’s ring, and not a once did she back down. She always won tournaments because the demure equestrian knights didn’t know how to respond to a mare who would fight horn and hoof after being disarmed or mostly incapacitated.

He then tried to be angry at Ancepanox, with slightly more success. The black Lady had been almost cordial until Glori started being belligerent, but Wreath wondered if that hadn’t been a part of her act to distract them from Astral Nacre. If the misunderstanding had been genuine, then Ancepanox could have almost been forgiven on the grounds of self-defense, if she hadn’t gone on to murdered hundreds of terrified ponies.
Ancepanox reminded Wreath of his parents somewhat, a reasonable pony until you trod on her hoof, or got in her way, or disrespected her. If she ever came back to save him from Astral, he wondered if he could stand to look at the creature who’d tainted him. He could feel a phantom pain in his neck where the curse she placed on him waited, gnawing at him with a voracious impatience.

Wreath stopped for a moment to slide his helmet off. Astral slowed her trot as well. “What’s the matter now?” She barked.

“I have something to ask, if I may.” Wreath’s saddle bags had been in Glori’s tent when it had burned, but he spotted a potato sack on one of the gates they passed and grabbed it. “Did you kill Lady Glori's cousin, Seacrest Sabonord?”

“If you wanted a straightforward answer I would say yes. Then I would laugh in your face for being so daft. Who else but me?” Astral waited until Wreath had finished securing his helmet in the sack before continuing. “But the pony you knew as Seacrest was dead months before I was born.”

Seacrest’s letters had touched on the ritual that would create an alicorn. After reading that, Glori hadn’t been subtle about her intention to take such a ritual for her own use. She saw no irony in seeking to ascend to the level of Celestia, a pony she loathed as much as anything could possibly be loathed. If she’d known that blasphemous magic would make something like Astral, perhaps she wouldn’t have been so quick to march on Canterlot.

“Who killed him then?” Wreath fell back in as they resumed their trot.

“It was suicide, or at least he thought of it that way.” Astral said with a touch of melancholy. “He was never happy with being the soft type, with how often Glori ridiculed him for his poetry and song. He was a stain on the Blackhorn lineage, she’d say. Weren’t you there?”

The way Astral was looking at him now was exactly how the demure Seacrest would look at Glori during one of her abusive tirades. Wreath was never so embarrassed to be by her side as when she picked on her pitiful cousin.

“I was there.” Wreath whispered. “But how did you know?”

“Scatted memories, chunks of thought... My inheritance. Bits of Foaly Flux and Seacrest are still swimming around in my head. Less from Rain Gnash. Unlike the others, she was unwilling to go, unwilling to spend her life to manifest a god. I do wonder if her stubornness is to blame for my problems.” Astral looked to the west, where Cloudsdale hovered just off the northern slopes of the Unicorn Range. “When I get stronger I can complete us, Lady Gnash.”

“ Did Seacrest really want to die though?” Wreath never thought that Seacrest would be driven to that. But what could he have done? Glori would have ridden him ragged for months for showing weakness.

Astral seemed annoyed that her narcissistic introspection was being ignored, but answered nonetheless. “He submitted himself to the Mistress Phyte, a specialist in death. As I said, he thought of this as the death of his old self. Only, he came out wrong, another failure of her quest for a replacement child. Seacrest wanted to be a part of that ideal, wanted to be wanted, but he went to the wrong mare. He failed at his first suicide. My lady mother Twilight Velvet helped him, and he is now gone.”

“That’s horrible.” Wreath shuddered. It was much, much worse than he’d thought. Astral and Ancepanox must have been steps to his repentance, for the crime he had been complacent in.

“It is what it is.” Astral shrugged, turning back to the path ahead. “Keep up now! When we get to the Mountain’s base we will be taking a short flight, but if you make me carry you a second sooner, I’ll feed you nothing but lepers for a week!”

Ripple Wreath didn't know what that meant and he didn't want to know, so he stayed close behind him, backshift bag bouncing on his side.

Nowhere else in the Everfree Castle was the unnatural nature nature of the ruins more evident than in the voluminous library. The whole space, was miraculously intact and unspoiled, despite the gaping holes in the roof and partially collapsed wall. Not a book was spoiled and no vegetation had begun to infest it like the rest of the castle.
Rarity passed bookshelf after bookshelf as she slowly made her way through the Everfree Castle’s. A smile came to her face when she contemplated how that book-happy Twilight Sparkle would react when she saw the great collection, or how sad she would become in being denied it.

However, the mysteries of magic and ages past did not appeal to Rarity, not when she had a much greater matter on her mind. The arcane and esoteric were better left to the self-absorbed scholars.
It was time to stop skulking in the shadows and make the move she had been planning since just before Twilight Sparkle's arrival in Ponyville. It was time to stop pussyfooting around, and fulfiled her most dearly held plans.

She carefully scanned the floor and walls for signs that anything had been disturbed since the last time she had been there, four months previous, or any other overt signs of meddling. Everything was in it’s proper place, so she quickly proceeded to one particular alcove, hidden from view from every angle save a small gap behind one of the bookcases.

At the center of the hidden alcove was a statue, a solid stone affair as tall as a pony, though it’s subject was much more so. It was an alicorn, though most every detail had been worn away by caressing hooves. The ridged crown sitting above her ears, just out of reach for most ponies, had remained mostly pristine, but a pony with a keen eye would have made out her face, looking downward at any ponies prostrate before her. It was the statue missing from the great tomb in the cemetery.

Miscellaneous tokens and offerings were laid out around the statue. Wilted blue flowers and small pouches of coins were at the center, newly placed since Rarity had last visited. Fluttershy’s customary offering of a knitted devotional image was missing, which was forgivable since Twilight had taken the poor pegasus’s map of the Everfree. It seemed that another of the devout had put an extra flower in her stead. Rarity saw the offering she’s made the last time she’d been there, a lock of her hair bound in a ribbon.
She pushed all of that aside set down her a new, most glorious offering: A lock of Celestia’s hair she had just cut, from the corpse in the throne room.

That liturgy observed, Rarity cantered to the back of the alcove, where a white saddlebag was waiting for her. She daintily extricated a black bound book emblazoned with her own blue diamond mark with her pale blue magic. She filled the vacated space in the bag with the black moon tapestry, carefully folded. Next, she pulled out a quill and a stopped-up ink bottle. She arrayed those before her as she settled down on her haunches.

Opening the book to the middle and read over the last few lines of her last entry, made just before she met Twilight Sparkle. Rarity could read out the the anger and frustration of her past self, and towards the end of the paragraph the great resignation with which she had left. The poor mare had been so distraught she’d left her book by the shrine. Rarity chuckled disdainfully at how weak her past self had acted.

She flipped to the next barren page and dipped the quill in the ink while she decided on her words. So much had happened in the last days, it nearly overwhelmed Rarity to consider it all. She decided to start with the greatest event first, and her memory flashed to the great battle in the throne room, and the ponies who had been lost.

Dear Diary,

Tonight I met my Empress. Seeing her stirred up feelings of devotion and faith I have not felt since I was a child hearing my mother’s stories. Her great ladyship died making a sacrifice, and I remembered what my mission in this life was. Her message will once again flow from my lips, so that everypony can remember what they feel when they hear her name.
Oh dear, I’m getting carried away aren’t I! I simply feel the need to get all of this onto paper, before I forget even a single detail! Her mane, most radiant, and her demeanor, so determined! Though I had the pleasure of her company only for a short time I will never forget her ever again.
I desire so much to be like her, divine and powerful. It is a desire most dear...

But first things first! Where was I? Oh, yes. She died.
Then, Twilight Sparkle assumed control of her body...

Hanging on for dear life was something Ripple Wreath was used to.
His younger siblings had been incredibly rambunctious with insatiable appetites for action. Wreath, though his temperament was entirely counter to theirs, had been expected to manage and discipline them in the absence of his father. Castle life in general was hectic, as was the regimen of a knight in training. Despite claims to the contrary, Wreath knew it was his general passivity among a lineage of go-getters that had led to his being sent to the infamous Glori Sabonord.
Glori had a compulsion to take the spotlight, the drive to do anything she wanted, and the energy to back it up. All Wreath could ever do was tag along as she pursued intrigue or adventure when everypony around them wanted domestic peace. Taking her army to Canterlot was simply the latest adventure of hers, and the first one that had blown up spectacularly in her face.

But flying was bringing out of him a whole new fear. Astral Nacre soared on her impossible bare wings, holding Wreath beneath her with her hooves. They spiraled upwards away from the valley floor to the plateau of Canterlot.

“Oh gods, please spare me!” Wreath screamed into the whipping wind, futilely he knew, since if there were gods they clearly hated his guts.

“Spare me your terror.” Astral’s mental communication was unimpeded by the air rushing around them. “Even if I dropped you, you would not die because of your curse.”

Through Wreath’s mind flashed the mental image of him splatting against the ground, and a pony of black shadow oozing out of his broken skin and piecing him back together before reentering through his eyes. “Please don’t.”

“I wouldn’t.” Astral consoled. “Though it would be very amusing.”

It took several minutes of accent before they were level with the plateau, and a few seconds longer to rise above the city’s tall walls. Canterlot in the eternal night was a sight to behold, with a hundred thousand ponies trying to accommodate the necessities of life to the persistent nighttime. The flares of unicorn horns sparked across the inner city and torches lining the larger streets formed a spider web away from Canterlot Castle.

Wreath would have been awestruck if he were not so nauseated, and to his alarm Astral continued to climb.

“Where are we going?” He mewled.

“My room, of course.” Astral said.

She banked right, skirting the parapets of one of the watchtowers, to Wreath’s screaming horror, before going up to be level with the middle windows of the Castle Magoria. The great fortification was largely dark, but the lord’s personal rooms were still lit for the benefit of Canterlot’s newest royal family.

Tucking her wings in, Astral swooped through an open window landing gracefully in the ducal quarters. Wreath scrambled away from her as quickly as he could, sucking in shallow breaths. “Never again!”

“Yes again. And again and again and again.” Astral cackled. “You’re my ward, my dear. You will learn tolerance or else you will have an unpleasant time with me.”

“Pshh WHAT!” Wreath seethed, the last of his patience breaking. “I’m the master of tolerance! I have been more than reasonable considering what I’ve been through! I should be a wreck right now, and I’m not because I’m tolerant and I’m adaptable. You alicorns want to act like your bullshit is normal, but it’s not!” His eyes narrowed to slits, and there was a palpable weight to his shadow around him. Astral could feel the dark energy welling in his heart. "Tolerance is something for you to learn, not I."

Astral cocked her head. “Pride is so becoming of you, my dear. And you look like a real darling when you are mad.”

Wreath blushed furiously, his self-conscious embarrassment washing out his anger. “H- Hey now-” He retreated a few steps. "I didn't mean to yell. It- It was the curse!"

“I still have to punish you.” Astral giggled, encompassing Wreath in her magic. “You’re in time out.” She shoved him into a oversized birdcage placed against her wall. "Oh ho! Being a guardian is more fun than I thought. When I give you back to Lady Ancepanox, I will find a new... Wait..." She did a double take for what she had only just noticed. “Where… Who put all this stuff in my room?”
The duke’s quarters were stuffed from wall to wall with boxes and birdcages, all smelling faintly of mildew and smoke. In fact, that Astral had not disturbed any of the large piles during her landing was an amazing accident.

“Somepony nailed something to the door.” Wreath meekly said.

Astral scanned the door with her beady eyes to confirm that somepony had indeed left a note. “Shut up, you’re in time out.” She barked as she pulled the note to herself. It was short, in a meticulous and elegant pen.

Your most gracious, Lady Astral

My severest apologies for the inconvenience, but the duke’s former quarters are going to be used for storage while the loot contraband from Phyte’s lair and the Musician’s Guild is sorted. In the meantime, we mirror our lady's ask that you spend more time in the throne room.
Don’t shoot the messenger.

Sincerely,
Prosser Aurthora Airy

“Those bastards.” Astral swore. “A whole city to pile their trash, and they put it here?! I see what they are trying to do. They want me to lose my cool and lose face! I can’t go anywhere without somepony trying to trip me up! Conniving, devious ponies. Jealous, envious-”

“I’m sure whatever you’re getting worked up over is an honest misunderstanding.” Wreath offered.

“Quiet you!” Astral ratted his cage with her magic, but was shocked to feel a new aura push away hers. There was a pop, and when Astral looked up from the letter, green light was fading from the corner where a birdcage had held Wreath a moment earlier.
Her brow quivered, and the castle rattled with her plaintive wail. “MOTHER!!”

In the time since Twilight had come back with Spike, a few hours at least, Applejack had been occupied with what could loosely been called housekeeping. The little roofless annex where she’d made the campfire had become a makeshift camp of sorts, with the fillies taking up their own corner where they could avoid the nightmarish adults. Applejack had almost finished arranging some of the rubble into a ring around the fire, and had made a pile of sticks and logs for extra fuel for when it was needed.

Twilight had rested precious little after her collapse, then run off again. She looked worse and worse every time Applejack saw her, returning from Canterlot, then returning from the deep forest, and the earth pony was beginning to fear that the former unicorn would push herself too far. With the same thought, she felt an aggressive drive to exploit Twilight’s weakness, and like the other dark urges had to suppress it with some effort.

Spike, on the other hoof and entirely contrary to her expectation, was perfectly okay. It was well known that spending a night in the Everfree would spell death for most ponies with all the deadly beasts therein. Applejack was beginning to believe that sinister reputation existed for a different reason, and if the recent events were any indication it was because of the hold the nightmare’s magic had over the forest. The little dragon was still passed out despite Applejack's gentle efforts to rouse him, more magic at work.

“Oh my stars!” She heard from the entryway. Rarity was there, hoof over her mouth in restrained shock. She guessed Twilight must have asked her to visit Spike.

“Hey. You're looking well. He’s alright too.” Applejack said. “Twilight cast a spell so he could sleep better.”

But it wasn’t Spike that Rarity was looking at. Her eyes were fixated on Dash, who was still unconscious from her experience in the chasm.

“Have you been taking care of everything all by yourself? Oh darling, it was so irresponsible to leave that to you while I explored.” Rarity checked Dash up and down, making sure she was okay. “I got so distracted with thinking about poor Twilight that I entirely forgot about dealing with you!”

“You were talkin with Twilight?” Applejack returned to tending to Spike, settling him by where the fillies had been. The fillies themselves hadn’t come back from their fright from Twilight. Applejack had hoped Rarity could keep them close to her, if they would fear her less now that she had returned to normal. "Where's she gone now? She passed out for a minute but I think she needs to rest longer."

“No chance of that. She was very distraught when I talked to her. I fear for her health and sanity.” Rarity sighed. “She thinks she did something unforgivable.”

“Unforgivable?” Applejack repeated. She had a bad feeling about what Rarity was saying. “Twilight would never. That ain’t her.”

“I similarly expressed my shock, but she was inconsolable.” Rarity cover her face with a hoof to hide her tears, her lip quivering. “I fear she may never return.”

Applejack sucked in a breath of cold air as she looked back down at Spike. The fillies still had their sisters to explain the change and tragedy that had happened, but Spike would be bereaved of his closest friend when he needed her most. "Dang."

“But I wonder, why would she run away from us?” Rarity questioned. “Is she worried about hurting us, or is she afraid of what we would think of her?” She gave Applejack a worried look. “You told her you forgave her, right?”

“Well…” Applejack was starting to feel the stab of guilt.

“Oh dear.” Rarity gasped. “I hope she didn’t run away because she thought you hated her! You don’t, right?”

“Of course I forgive her, even if I didn't outright tell her... but I don’t really know what to make of this.” Applejack admitted gloomily. “What unforgivable thing did she do? If she could turn you back to normal- And did she tell you how she did that? I'm real confused.”

“You’ve clearly misunderstood the situation, darling.” Rarity said, a hint of condescension seeping into her tone. “Lady Sparkle is more immured in a nightmare's influence than we are. The body of Nightmare Moon was the source of all this, no? If we had let it lie, the nightmare in all of us would have withered. But by taking that body, she kept us trapped by our curse."

"That... That don't follow. The source was Nightmare Moon itself, not the body." Applejack made a face. "You're guessing."

"Consider that Twilight had much, much more contact with Nightmare Moon than either of us know. Neither of us know what her true motivations are at this point. She may be, like you, a mare torn between pony and nightmare." Rarity threw Applejack a sidelong glance. "Are you ravaged down by emotions of guilt and anger? She is also. Are you overwhelmed before the future hurtling towards you? She is also."

Applejack looked back, unblinkingly. “Yeah, and? We work that stuff out.”

“Work it out? HA, you are a silly pony. The Dark washes over us. Guilt, guilt, guilty! Oh, you're just so disgustingly guilty all the time!” Rarity laughed. “That featherhead Dash too, has a guiding sin. Work it out... You make me laugh!”

“Rarity, why’re you talkin like that?”

“I know myself, Applejack! I know me!” Rarity ignored her, the menace in her voice growing. “I hated Twilight! Oh, how I wanted to kill her for hurting me, and hurting Sweetie Belle! But then I died, and I talked to her. I realized what was wrong.” She hung her head. “We were both victims of circumstance, and each other’s hubris.”

“Each other’s?” Applejack said, with growing concern. She felt like a child, weakly asking questions after Rarity's bold declarations. She was beginning to dread the odd look in the unicorn's eye. Was something wrong with Rarity? She was supposed to be cured, no?

“When I woke up it was natural for me to assume that when I forgave Twilight, I had also let go of the root of my nightmare. And yet...” Rarity tilted cocked her head and flash a sharp grin. “Applejack, my body is still rife with darkness..”

“You mean...” Applejack drew in a sharp breath, backing away. She glanced down at Spike, unsure if she could protect him. “Say it ain’t so.”

“It is. I was simply separated from my sin, literally. The distance was keeping my soul clean of the effect of the Dark. Now the distractions are over, and my way is lost no longer. I know my purpose and so I will accept my blessings again.” Rarity lifted the tapestry out of her saddlebag by magic and brought it between her and Applejack. “I remember what I feel now. I feel it with such strength I could overcome Celestia herself. I am driven by purpose.” Black smoke began to curl around body, herelding changes that Applejack had seen in reverse hours earlier. Rarity bared her teeth in a savage snarl,already beginning curve into fangs. “My purpose is to HATE YOU!”

“Rarity, don’t do it! Listen, we don't gotta live cursed lives!” Applejack pleaded.

Rarity was starting to glow darkly, the longer she grasped the tapestry, but she kept it at a hoof's length, drawing out her own suffering. "I'll crush this world like I was born to do."

Applejack jumped to try to stop Rarity, but was too slow getting to her. Rarity embraced the black moon tapestry to her breast. Like a softly spoken whisper, blackness encompassed her, then the entire annex and everypony there.

Splish splash, splish, splash. Each hoofstep through the stagnant marsh broke the silence with its aquatic crackling. Twilight was racked by waves of mental numbness and static, as her inner dissonance battled against her consciousness.

Rarity hated her. The pony she thought she connected with hated her guts!
What reprieve could there possibly be for a cursed mare like Twilight in the world. Hate, only hate… Oh how much she'd talked and boasted in Canterlot, but it was window-dressing for an empty, pointless heart. Why had she killed? Why had she lied? Why had she existed? Twilight had done many actions, but they were empty gestures. She'd done nothing. Been nothing. Just a hole.

Better off never living at all.

She felt nothing, only a weightlessness like she was something cast adrift, not expected to be found again. She floated there for an indecipherable eternity, unwilling to comprehend the sheer blank that surrounded her.

Then ground rose to meet her, slowly laying her upon itself. It looked like soft grass, and yet felt like cold stone against her as she got up.

Twilight heard whispers: Distant, powerful, and resonant taunts. They rolled through the empty plain of her world like a shockwave, rusting the grass and sending a tingle up her spine.
This was not the waking world anymore.

“You’re weak. So, so weak.” The curling whispers derided, pitying more than malevolent.

The emptiness was encapsulating, blocking Twilight’s vision further than a hoof’s length. She could see nothing of her surroundings, and still she felt it was filled with things invisible to her. There were flecks of light and dark around her, but it did not come from the sun or moon. It was magical Light, and Magical Dark, mixing and interplaying in that void, conflict incarnate nettling her with pain and no pleasure.

The ominous whisper came again. “You trifled with Dark things. You were a fool to think you would not be overcome.”

Twilight started walking in one direction, than another. The shape of the ground was static, but she felt how it changed to silken grass and then to wet mud under her hoof.

Everywhere she heard the sound like slithering snakes, and yet spoken so deeply, that whisper teasing her onwards. It demanded her attention, though it spoke with no urgency at all.

“Feeble pony, cursed one, truly forsaken and forlorn. Weakling though you are, I recognize you. I have your answers, young viscountess.”

Answers. Twilight need answers, more than anything.
Twilight broke into a gallop, jerking her head around to catch a glimpse of the elusive heckler. She thought she saw figures in the mist, passing shadows of regal alicorns of gold and blue, the shocked face of a dying changeling queen, tortured profiles of knights and soldiers losing their souls, and a tangled mass of flesh laughing and crying as it butchered and reformed its victims. She could almost feel them, passing her by a hair’s breadth every time she tried to catch them.

“You are lost in your own land and in your own mind. I sympathize. I offer my help.”

Like a lighthouse beacon, a beam of light passed through the viscous air. From the direction it came, a faint red glow could be seen. Twilight immediately turned and galloped towards it. The ground underhoof began to rise, sloping into a hill at whose top was the light. Twilight felt invisible things brush against her as she mounted the slope.

“Parts of yourself would wish you follow blindly, deprived of the truth you covet. You have let them stop you before, but will you now?”

The invisible things began to lash and tear at Twilight’s hooves, causing her to stumble and fall. They scratched at her face and body, and when she managed to get back up her limbs had become uncoordinated and weak. A great weight pressed against her mind, and stymied her resolve to press onwards. The slope of the hill seemed insurmountable now.

“You can not be so pitiful if you want truth, young viscountess. Fight. Fight and persist.”

Just as she was about to collapse, Twilight broke through the tangle holding her back. She fell to her stomach, and the sensation of falling came again, this time much stronger. Her eyes watering to clear away the corrosive fog from her vision. She was at the top of the hill, in a small circle of clear air. Everything around her was tinted red by what was at the center: The eye of the storm, a hole in the hill descending into a swirling abyss of black tar and red fire.

Twilight knew what was happening now. She tried to speak, but first had to cough out what black fog she had breathed in. “I’m in the real world, on that cistern in the bog. I’m only seeing it wrong.”

“You were always seeing it wrong. Perhaps this is closer to the truth.”
The voice came forth from the pit, Twilight’s altered view of the hole into the antechamber where she’d found Spike.
“You are too feeble to be fully Dark, young viscountess. Like Forlorn Spark, you need the Light of destiny to provide reprieve from your failings. The question is, can you go back to it?”

“I have nothing else.” Twilight could feel a squirming mass within her, from her heart to the pit of her stomach. The accursed Dark curse within her was agitated, in fear or anticipation she did not know, and she did not care.

“Know that beyond this point, you will have to give up what you were in the light alone. You may even have to give up your name.”

That name didn’t belong to her anymore anyway. “I give it willingly.”

“Then truth awaits.” The voice invited.

The forsaken pony looked back over her shoulder, but knew that her fractured mind would be unable to see the Everfree Castle. It didn’t exist to her anymore.
She walked to the abyssal pit of light and dark, and leaned forward. She plummeted downwards, piercing the veil of fire and tar with only hoofsteps and a wisp of smoke to show she was ever there.

Chapter 39: The Prospects Ahead

Dash was awoken by a snapping sound. She was immediately fully alert, jumping to her hooves in a swift nothing. But she saw no trouble, and in fact she saw nothing at all for the intense darkness around her. There was an indescribable mist hanging in the air, like silk covering every surface until it was all rendered pitch black.
What was going on, she wondered. The last thing she remembered was flying into the chasm for water. Was she still in the chasm? There was no light upwards either.

“Hello?” She called out, but all she heard were her muted echoes.

The snapping sound that had awoken her came again, but this time Dash identified it as the dying crackles of the charred wood. She was in the little annex, but the embers of the firepit not four hooflengths from her was invisible for the consuming dark mist. It was cold, but not damp; in fact it seemed to pull the moisture from Dash’s skin and breath, so that her throat became dry within seconds. Dash had the unspeakable awareness that the mist would take more of her if it could.

“Applejack!” She yelled, moving in different directions until she bumped into to a wall. “Where are you?”

“M- Mis Dash?” Came a filly’s frightened plea. If Dash had known any of the three fillies she would have identified it as the voice of Applejack’s sister Apple Bloom.

Dash jacked in the direction she’d heard the filly in. “Hey! Who is that? And what’s going on around here? Is the world ending?”

“R- R- Rarity turned back into a nightmare!” A squeaky sob replied, Sweetie Belle.

“She took my sister back to the big room where y’all fought!” Apple Bloom and the sound of tiny hooves on stone came closer, until they collided with Dash’s leg. The nightmare pegasus was suddenly aware of how chilly it was, and how cold the poor fillies felt against her.

"I knew the good times wouldn't last. This is... not good. So not good.” Dash gnawed at her lip. She was out of it for for just a moment and everything went back to hell. “Did Sparkle have a hoof in this?”

“Mis Twilight was here and then she left to find Spike, and then he came back to talk to Mis Rarity!” Said voice of the little orange pegasus filly Dash did not recall the name of. “I think she was the one who made her go crazy again!”

“Mis Twilight ain’t that crazy. She wouldn’t wanna put Spike in danger.” Apple Bloom then squeaked with realization. “Oh no y’all, Spike’s still around here somewhere!”

“We haven’t seen Mis Twilight in a while. She must have been really scared and ran away” Sweetie Belle wailed. “Or- Or maybe Rarity ate her!”

“She would have been way fatter if she did.” Scootaloo countered. “She just chickened out!”

"All of you be quiet! I'm trying to think... If you think Twilight buggered off, then that's what we should be doing too.” Dash shivered. She was tempted to cut and run, leaving the fillies in the pestilent fog, but another part of her suggested she sate her growing hunger with them. Though she was able to ignore those compulsions, Dash was starting to feel empathetic to the cravings for pony flesh Gilda had felt.
“You fillies stay here, I’m going to clear away this fog so we can find this Spike guy.” She grumbled.

“You can do that?” Sweetie Belle asked, probably wide eyed in the dark.

“I used to be a top weatherpony, the best on the East Coast.” Dash bragged, then hesitated. “But I haven’t jockeyed with mist this thick in quite a while.”

“You could carry us out of here.” Apple Bloom appealed. “For sure Mis Twilight will come back for Spike.”

"She might or might not." Scootaloo said.

“I’ll... try my way first.” Dash decided. “You three stay here, I’ll be right back.”

She crept to where she guessed the center of the roofless annex was, and unfurled her wings. She tried to flap, but the air was nearly impossible for the magic pervading it. But slowly Dash rose, until she was clear of the oppressive fog.

Up above it all she could see that entire castle was filled obscured by the fog, two stories deep at least, though it rose the highest around the throne room. It tapered off quickly away from the ruins, bleeding off mostly into the southwestern chasm.

Interestingly, the Moon was shining brighter than before, although Dash did not notice.

“Let’s see what you’ve got.” Dash challenged, and she began pushing air down with strong sweeps from her wings. The fog began boiling underneath her, but did not disperse.

Suddenly the black mist coalesced, forming a writhing mass of tendrils that struck out at Dash. Within half a second they had latched onto her hooves while other, sharper coils whipped at her wings, trying to restrain them. Her scream of surprise was quickly squelched, for dozens more tendrils reached out for her and engulfed her head in a tight wrap.
After half a minute Dash stopped struggling, and the corporeal shadows bound her wings. The malignant nightmare behind the tendrils wasted no time in pulling her back down into the fog in the direction of the throne room.

The largest of the dragonfire birdcages in Phyte’s makeshift lab was still on it’s side where it had fallen, its wire frame slightly bent, its hinged door fallen open. The device was none the wiser to it’s off-kilter orientation, and dutifully ignited when it’s mate in Castle Magoria sent a message its way.
Ripple Wreath was not so much deposited in as launched from the cage, the magical spill-off of his integration being blocked on one side by the ground. He was in the air just long enough to scream at the peak of his arc before falling back to the under-earth. He crashed into the lab table, smashing everything breakable into shards and splinters and completing the scattering of the equipment started by Prosser.

“Ohh.” Wreath groaned, unable to move for fear of digging any glass further into his back. “The gods despise me.”

A peach colored earth pony leaned into the feint torchlight.
“Well you're not doing a particularly good job keeping in the graces of the mortal powers either.” Prosser regarded the new arrival. "Hi there. Did Lady Velvet send you? I know I am not supposed to be working-"

“Please help me.” Wreath whimpered.

“Oh fine.” Prosser rolled his eyes, extending a hoof to the stranded knight. “I am usually much more stern with the new ones, to assert dominance and all that. But you look lost and confused, and I’m feeling a measure of sympathy." He pulled his hoof away as he bowed, his girlish sing-song voice imitating a Canterlot aristocrat. "Prosser, ex-councilor."

“Charmed.” Wreath grumbled, taking Prosser’s hoof when he offered it again, pulling himself of the ground and to his hooves. "Where am I?" He looked back at the birdcage he'd been teleported through. "I thought I was in a tower."

Prosser stepped back to give Wreath space as he brushed himself clean of splinters and broken glass. "Your tabard... Those are Prancian colors."

Ripple Wreath averted his eyes. "Colors not many earth ponies wear, I know."

"I'm more noting that you must have come from the camp in the northern foothills." Prosser said with weary caution. "I don't want to assume your intentions..." He trailed off as he scrutinized Wreath's empty stare. "Ah. Am I to guess you're disheveled state and arrival here has much to do with the, ahem, welcoming committee?"

Wreath sighed, his pent up frustration turning to . "Look, my fellow, this whole thing is going to take time for me to come to terms with, and I have no desire to talk with a stranger about it." He turned away, trying to find out something about his surroundings. Unfortunately the little circle of light around the laboratory promised to ways back to anything resembling safe respite. "And I still don't know where I am..."

Prosser followed behind him, eyeing with interest how the cuts on Wreath's legs from the glass began to fade back into his fur. "You've had a close encounter with an alicorn, haven't you. Since you aren’t a unrecognizably mutilated eunuch, it was not Astral Nacre."

"Please tell me how to get out of here." Wreath asked.

"The Nightmare of the Moon got a hold of you. What did she do?" Prosser pressed. "Come on friend, I can give you a hoof if you tell me what happened."

“I, uhh…” Wreath’s hope that the company of another normal pony would offer him respite from the madness was waning. He wasn’t sure how much to disclose. “I have to go.”

“Go where? If you wait for a few minutes my friends will return.” Prosser grinned. “Then we’ll have a fun time going back to the surface together.”

“No I think I’ll chance it.” Wreath flashed his best smile. “Nice meeting you, bye.” He shuffled around the broken table and galloped into the obscuring darkness of the cavern, disappearing between the massive statues at the edge of the light. Soon the clop of his hooves died out as well, consumed by the dark.

Prosser looked down to the birdcage, at first wondering if an alicorn would fit in it to follow her flighty plaything. Then it occurred to him that Wreath was heading in the exact opposite direction of the exit.

He considered informing the knight of his mistake before he lost himself in the uncharted subterran. “Should I… Nah.” He went back to what he had been doing before the interruption: arranging the desiccated corpses Phyte had left into funny poses.

After tearing through Castle Magoria and it’s grounds in search of Twilight Velvet, Astral Nacre had the idea to ask somepony where her mother could be found. She found one of Lady Airy’s guard patrolling the castle grounds who, rightfully terrified, confessed that Lady Velvet was in the Chateau la Garde.

Astral released him and started making her way south to the gatehouse.

Twilight Velvet's ear swiveled, detecting somepony new stepping out of the stairwell onto the roof of the gatehouse. Her ladyship had set up a temporary workstation there in the fresh air, overlooking the Canterlot fringes on one side and the road down from the city's plateau on the other.

"I'm back, my lady." The soft voice of her young maid said, as the mare approached from behind.

Velvet waved her closer. "Did you learn you lesson?"

The maid was silent.

"Okay, yes, I know your punishment was less about your misbehavior than it was my frustration." Velvet sighed. "You can handle my anger better than most ponies though."

"Yes, my lady." The maid bowed. "Anything you need of me, ma'am?"

"No. But if you see my husband, don't tell him I'm up here." Velvet grinned. "I'm being a bit naughty, working when I'm supposed to be resting."

"Yes ma'am." The maid bowed again.

Velvet pulled her lips back a bit. "Actually, there is one thing." She squeezed her eyes closed and ignited her horn. A pair of binoculars appeared in a flash of light, and she released her breath. "Look westward for me. My eyes have begun to lose far focus this night."

Dutifully, the maid trotted forward and grabbed the binoculars. She stepped over to the edge of the roof and scanned the horizon to the west with the binoculars. "It is hard to see in the dark, my lady." She reported. "And there is smoke coming off the valley floor."

"Look to Cloudsdale." Velvet said.

The maid obliged. At first the young mare wasn't sure what she was seeing: darkened blobs hanging just above the horizon. They were airships.
"My lady, there is a fleet coming this way. "

"So noted." Velvet tapped her chin. "Now look to the southern flank of the Unicornia, just as it opens up into the valley."

The maid did this to, and saw a haze of light that after she focused the lenses more resolved into hundreds of distant pinpricks. A whole patch of the foothills of the Unicorn Mountains was lit up by campfires.
"My lady, there appears to be an army gathering."

"Interesting." Velvet yawned. "Next time you see Night Light, please tell him both those things."

The maid returned to Velvet's side, giving back the binoculars. "Yes, my lady." She silently wished Velvet would be more direct about her orders. "Anything else to tell his lordship?"

"He's smart enough to realize a Cloudsdale fleet implies a blockade, and that means stunted deliveries from the valley." Velvet hummed. "Oh, but he should know Lady Airy finished her orders regarding the city guard and the accused revolutionaries within them. He should further know she failed to select any nobles to hold hostage. Tell him to put Sel Lech on the case, since he is somewhat of a class traitor anyway."

"Is putting Captain Sabonord in proximity to the alleged revolutionaries wise, my lady?" The maid asked demurely.

"I hold no resentment for commoners who have the bravery to improve their lot. Not even those that would violently expropriate my belongings from me if they could. At least they know things have to change. They could be better allies than the nobles that want the status quo. But, political necessities being what they are, the new regime will have to maintain neutrality for now." Velvet mused. "Sel is too cowardly really sympathize with revolutionaries. He wants change to be handed down to him."

"Yes, my lady."

"You don't need to tell Night Light all that. Sel Lech may not even be available for assignment right now, depending on whether or not he returned to the underground Arcanum. In fact he may well die down there, considering he is likely to encounter a monster or ancient madness, or some such. Ah well." Velvet shrugged. "Oh, one more thing. That smoke you saw coming from the valley floor, where was it coming from?"

"Apologies my lady, it was behind the plateau." The maid said.

"So, north."

"Yes."

Velvet grinned. "Some mischievous creatures have set something on fire. Good." She guestured to the stairs. "Off you go then. Keep an eye out. There's been a few reports of abductions and thefts by mysterious teleporting yellow unicorns."

"I will try, my lady." The maid bowed her head and back away, turning to trott down the stairs.

Velvet, alone once more, rubbed her forehead to ease the growing headaches she was experiencing.
Was it magical, physical, or mental causes that was plaguing her with pain? Velvet cursed her own weakness. There was so much to do, little problems all across the city to stomp down. There was precious little at her disposal to confront the threats bearing down on Canterlot, by air and land. If she could wrangle Astral Nacre, so many issues would disappear...

"I must find a way to have some leverage over her." Velvet mulled. "How can I gain control over something she cares about? Hmph. Create an alicorn, and it responds to the same control methods as ponies. Makes me wonder."

Sel and Aurthora galloped back to Prosser and the lab from the side cavern, disregarding their previous stealth in light of an absent enemy. They arrived at the edge of the lab to see that something had smashed apart one of the tables. There was glass and some blood on the cold stone ground.

“Councilor?” Aurthora called out, not hiding her concern. “Councilor are you here?”

“Hello. I’m just fine, no need to worry.” Prosser peered out from behind one of the stone slabs. “Oh, did the mess have you worried? Freckles here decided to throw a tantrum.” He propped up one of the pony corpses, but pushed it too far causing its stitched-on head to fall off.

“Councilor, please. Exercise some restraint.” Sel gagged.

Unconcerned by Prosser’s antics, Aurthora began investigating, picking over the broken equipment until her eyes rested on the disturbed birdcage. “Somepony else came through.”

Sel sucked in a breath, eyes wide. “Councilor, did you see who it was? Was it a mare? Or two mares? Which way did they come from? Where did they go?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about, Captain.” Prosser vaulted over the slab and jogged over to the debris. He grabbed a severed pony tail from the drying rack. Holding it with his mouth, he began using it as a makeshift broom to sweep up the glass. He continued talking around the bits of dried flesh. “Ash hue can shee, I’mm tze only won here.”

Sel gagged again.
Aurthora narrowed his eyes. "Councilor..."

Sel recovered his stomach and interjected. "Knowing him he did this just to bother us."

"Two mares, you said? Are they the rogues you're looking for?" Aurthora asked somewhat sharply.

"Two mares, both outlaws?" Prosser asked. "Now you have my attention sir."

Sel was getting nervous and angry. "Sir, ma'am, I'm trying to do my duty. If I can't do it here I must look elsewhere. You two can manage here alone, right?”

“We were doing mostly fine before, so I imagine so.” Aurthora grunted. “I am sorry we did not find your terrorists.”

“Well, um, keep an eye out.” Sel nodded to her stiffly, then to Prosser. He trotted out into the dark towards the passageway connecting to the Opera House.

Out of the enormous cavern, back in the claustrophobic stone corridor, Sel let out a depressed sigh. He'd really not accomplished much, besides make Lady Aurthora suspicious of him. Sunset Shimmer and her mysterious friend where still at large.
Sel had advanced several hundred hooves down the tight corridor when he heard a deep rumbling from behind him. Distracted as he was by his own thoughts, he did not pay it much attention. If he had, he would have described it as somewhere between a gravely roar and a deep, anguished yowl; An angry monster hungry for blood and souls.

But he did not hear it, and left his comrades to their plight.
Not that he could have done much.

“Good evening sleepyhead.”

Seeing a fanged cheshire smile as first thing upon awakening ranked amongst the worst experiences Dash had yet been through. Doubly so when the nightmare form of Rarity opened her mouth slightly and began salivating, her decorum forgotten in savage amusement.

“Ahh, BUCK!” Dash swore, trying in vain to move her aching wings. She was apparently bound in the same manner as Applejack was across the room, trussed and tethered by looted fabric pulled tightly and tied in thick knots. Luckily for her she was right-side up, unlike the unfortunate nightmare earth pony. “What the hell gives Rarity? I thought you had gone normal!”

“ ‘Thought’ being the operating descriptor, darling. I was never the kind of mare to let things go so easily.” Rarity chuckled. “I had all of Ponyville fooled for years, so I think one particularly long night is a piddling challenge at best for a mare such as I.”

“What are you talking about?” Dash demanded, then asked again. “Applejack, what is she talking about?”

Applejack was breathing hard, as result of both her bindings and suspended state. The was pain in her voice despite her efforts to keep it out, but more emotional hurt than physical. “She’s talkin about the Nightmare, or Dark Lady, or some other names ‘swell. Before you woke up she was explainin how her family’s been worshiping Nightmare Moon since forever. I don’t know if it’s true or she’s just makin it up.”

“Oh it is very true.” Rarity said smugly. “My ancestor Solemn was the first to settle on the edge of this sacred forest, where she gathered all the other faithful of Celestia’s Empire. Dnieghper Crypt was a place of peace and solitude, where the Dark Lady could watch over us. Celestia knew that oppressing us would only make us stronger so she gave us autonomy as a Free City. We lived our lives away from the bigotry of you sun worshipers."

She turned to Applejack.
“And then you came, you APPLES.” She spat. “Our corner of the world was transformed into a nexus of heathenry, as more and more outsiders arrived to steal from the faithful. Paradise was lost for generations, and the faithful had to hide. By the time I was born my family were the only ones left, all the others having moved East to Baltimare. I grew up unable to speak or worship my goddess. I grew up in constant fear.
“I wanted to change that. I wanted to restore my family and my brethren. My chance was your tragedy. It was when you left, Applejack, leaving your pliable brother all alone to manage the affairs of the most respected farm in the valley.” Applejack’s growing horror was Rarity’s growing glee. “Yes, I plied him, and I showed him what Ponyville was always meant to be. He grew deeply, passionately, and irreversibly in love with the Dark Lady. He was my tool to spread her name to others in secret, and soon an exclusive circle was made. It was only a matter of time before enough of Ponyville had joined us that we could stop hiding, and practice in peace.”

She stared at Applejack in contempt. “But then you came back, and ruined everything! Macintosh suddenly had two important mares in his life, and that was one too many. He thought he was betraying you by going behind your back with the circle and associating with me. Your abuse only heightened his guilt, until it was just too much for him. He wanted nothing to do with either of us. He cut all ties and our circle collapsed; Many were there only because Mac was. He left Ponyville with only his unwavering devotion to our Dark Lady.

“And do you know why I know this, Applejack? Because your brother confided in me, trusted me! Every word that he wanted to say to you, but swallowed to protect you, he told to me! I was his best friend in the entire world! And what were you, that he gave up everything we had for? An ungrateful, castigating, WORM!” Rarity was almost crying in pure hatred. “You should have stayed in Manehattan, Applejack, because I am about to unleash on you what I have been dreaming about for the past five years!”

Deep deep in the Everfree, a pony fell.
An outside observer would have seen the black alicorn topple headfirst into the shrouded antechamber, rolling down the pile of bone to rest at the base of the strange stone pyre.

But to the clouded senses and mind of the pony who was once known as Twilight Sparkle, she was plummeting through a hurricane of light and smoke.

The voice was still there, pressing at her with a tangibility that words should not have had. “Welcome, young viscountess, to my home. It is in a deplorable state right now. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Who are you?” She could not find a point to focus on, so she let the wind whipping by her take her words.

“You have seen me once before, and I still am no more than that modest lump of rock you beheld.” The voice said.
The alluring pyre, the source of the light magic in the antechamber. She had suspected that there was more to it than just being an artifact, but to think that it housed a fully formed consciousness was- Well, actually, it was not that surprising, considering that the black alicorn was herself soul bound in a set of blue steel armor.
The voice continued. “Now I must ask you the same thing. It is not that I do not know what you are, but I wish to know how to address you.”

The black alicorn was irritated by the pedantic question, but she had no real choice but to ponder it. She was not Twilight Sparkle, and she wasn’t even sure she wanted to be Twilight Sparkle. She was, as sickening as it was to admit every time, something more. The persona she had created, Ancepanox, was not the most appropriate or comfortable if she was going to be confronting this existential dilemma, but it was all she had.

“It... doesn’t matter. It’s all up in the air anyway.” She deflected. “Now how about you end this dream!”

“I am sad to say the fault lies with you, for this is as real as I can make it. I can naught other than talk. It is up to your ailing mind to interpret my presence.”
At this a thousand trees like stone pillars rose about Ancepanox, or rather she seemed to fall into their midst. Great watchful eyes as large as ponies, wretched void orbs with points of red, inset into black vines that wrapped and undulated around the pillars, watched her downward progress with occasional interest. It reminded her of Astral Nacre: A thing that should not exist.
“If you were asked why you willingly entered the abode of a beast whose aura reeks of temptation and domination, and whose home is overflowing with the manifest anguish and hatred of an ancient army, how would you explain yourself?”

“Are you a beast?” Ancepanox asked.

“No. I simply mean to convey my abominable nature, as my abstract existence is not something palatable to most sane creatures. Perhaps ‘dreadful thing’ would have been sufficiently descriptive.” The voice replied, the abounding eyes unblinking. “Now, young viscountess, please answer my question.”

Why had she come here? The black alicorn was starting to wonder herself, for her surroundings were so contrary to the connotations of knowledge, of formal instruction and scholarly learning. She was not as dismayed as she should have been by the agitated and otherworldly images she was falling though, but impatient bordering on disapointed.

“You promised me answers. I need answers.” There was a demand layered in her explanation.

“I did make that promise, circumstances being as they were. Your perceptions are being fought for by your components: The soul of a student, the armor of a traitor, the body of a monster, and the blood of a villain. Your perceptions are merging and morphing, until your worldview surpasses the dreamscape for sheer distance from reality. Psychic and psychological dissonance. Simply put, young viscountess, you are going mad.” The voice diagnosed gravely. “If you were pristine, I would have appealed to you in a way that better hid my obvious desperation and haste. If you had been able to tell that I need you more than you need me, you would have bargained and set conditions. Alas…”

The infinity that Ancepanox fell through finally ended. She collided violently with the ground, though the complete lack of pain betrayed that it was another trick of her mind.
She was at the root of the world she had fallen through, in a forest of stone pillars that reached endlessly upward, disappearing at a point high in the blank sky. The twisting vines ran up and between them, bearing the fruit of the lidless eyes, which exhibited no emotion and no feeling, only letting her know that she was observed.

“I share with you a certain abhorrence for ignorance. Your ignorance is particularly troubling. I was quite smitten by you the first time, but I doubted you would ever willingly come back by your self.” The voice explained. “For nearly a thousand years I have retained my solitude and my silence. Surrounded as I am by the pooling hatred of the damned, most mortal creatures would die before reaching me. My call would be a siren’s song, tempting heros to their demise.”

“You tricked me here with false promises.” Ancepanox spun, trying to find the right eye speak to. “You want to kill me too?”

“If you listened you would hear I mean the exact opposite for you, young viscountess. I need you.” The voice purred. “But if you wanted to spite me, and now we talk on pure speculation, how would you do it?”

Ancepanox, her senses warped and twisted, had not the first idea where to strike to destroy the entity behind the monstrous visions of vines and eyes. “When I’ve had enough of manipulators like you, as plentiful as you are, I would have no choice but to follow through with me threats to kill myself and deprive you the satisfaction.”

“Yes, you do threaten self-slaughter boringly often.” The eyes began looking to each other, speculating on the alicorn's resolve. “Maybe the prideful traitor part of you means it, but she will be in the minority tonight. The student craves knowledge I promise no matter the cost. The monster will always fight to survive. The villain will accept my demands while hatching overwhelming reprisal. You will never die so long as you exist like you do. You are defending yourself from harm even now, using your magic for protection the five minute you have been in my abode.”

Ancepanox knew she was in the antechamber, and yet she was not feeling the hostile effects of the magic that had been there, nor was she trying to use her magic. But like breathing manually, the moment she tried it she felt the shield around her, cast from her own horn. Something was running her body in the corners of her awareness, hiding from scrutiny.

“It’s the nightmare, not submerged and opposing agencies. Just that damned nightmare.” She explained to herself, pushing from her mind the ludicrous explanation the voice provided. The nightmare was something she could explain. “It doesn’t want me to die or it’d lose its host.”

“I seem to have misconveyed my message.” The voice sighed. “The components within you are facets, converging into a single consciousness. I am elaborating what you know already, that you are no longer only Twilight Sparkle.” Then it quickly added. “Nor is it the nightmare. You have not a trace of a nightmare in you. It is another Dark thing… Now, please stop arguing with me young viscountess, and let me explain.”

“Fine.” The black alicorn cautiously agreed. Under ideal circumstances she would take her time to contemplate, test, and adapt the voice’s assertion, but there was no time. Though she was not expressing it, the feeling of finally learning again was immensely gratifying. She could not help herself to ask another question. “Why do you need me?”

“You can endure the overwhelming energies of my home, which are known to you so juvenilely as Light and Dark, when they would dissolve and pulverize any other mortal in alternation. You have a tallant. A…” The voice paused. “Dare I say mutation? An intrinsic command over the fundamental aspects, so that their most concentrated they can only mat your fur.”

The black alicorn rumbled. “That doesn’t sound very flattering.”

“Forgive me for being oblivious to the courtly parlance, but what I mean to say is that you are able to withstand these surroundings when any other seeker of knowledge would die. Going forward into the dangerous new world, your power is a vital necessity to certain tasks I need executed. I mean that not as empty laudation, but as a statement of fact.”

“You presume much, but that much is true.” Ancepanox conceded, then immediately retorted with a question. “I can not help but notice you seem to know far more about me than I of you.”

“Oh, didn’t I introduce myself? I am Myriadess, the Scarlet Flame. Or I was.” The countless eyes flashed with flickering red light, a faded insight into the forceful magic the stone pyre radiated. It was old, far older than Celestia and her sister, older than the most ancient of the tomes in the Canterlot libraries. What Ancepanox could feel was indescribably primal, as though the bizarre red eyes around her had seen the birth of creation. “I am the last surviving child of Wintertide, the Fair Flame. Perhaps you have heard of him.”

Could it be true? However fantastical, Ancepanox had the taste of knowledge now, and she hungered for anything the creature Myriadess could tell her. “How did you end up here?”

“Let us do one question at a time. I never finished telling you what I need.” Myriadess assuaged. “When Celestia and her sister moved me here, more than a thousand years ago, I conveyed to them a prophecy. I was an oracle at the time you see, one of the Flames of the Gryph in old Maredia. They severed my connection to the others, but I had already known their fate for a long time.”
The stone pyre, richly decorated and carved with care, now made sense. The hippogryphs had created it to house one of their gods, though they reviled referring to the ancient augurs as such. The royal pony sisters had apparently plundered one of the Flames, and moved it to their principality in what had become the Everfree.
“I told them that their doom would be of their own creation, as it always is. I told them that their lives and deaths would be scarred by treachery. I told them that they would not be the concluding perpetrators of the cycles of change, as they had hoped.
“Lastly, I told them they their demise would accompany a magnificent convergence, where all the loose ends of the preceding eras would be brought together and ended. I told them that their only redemption would be death, and their successors would either save or damn the world.” Myriadess intoned. “Can you see where I’m going with this, and with you?”

Ancepanox sat in silence for several moments. “Successors? Plural?”

Myriadess grumbled, either tiring of the questions or hoping Ancepanox wouldn’t point that out. “There is a choice for you to make, young viscountess. Though you will not understand why until I have yielded the pertinent insight, the many opposing forces will only allow you to don the mantle of one of them, if at all. This will not be a choice to be take lightly, and I will not let you make it unless you allow me to imbue the totality of my knowledge.” Myriadess warned. “Do you wish to turn back?”

The black alicorn rolled her eyes. “Don’t waste my time. Shut up and start teaching.”

“Oh how you bluster! You are a wounded animal in heart and soul, of that there is no doubt. You are weak and cornered by fate, making a show of your teeth. But we will change that!” A deep laugh shook the world. The warped vines clenched tighter around their stone trestles, and the countless red eyes intensified their stare. “Prepare you mind, young viscountess; You have managed to make me anxious with anticipation. This oracle will provide her revelations.”

“That’s all I could ask for.” The black alicorn snorted, as the world around her was overcome by red light.

If her senses had reflected reality, she would have seen herself sprawled at the base of the stone pyre. She would have felt the oppressive magic bear her weight before pulling her upwards and laying her atop it’s uneven red-jeweled surface, transforming the image into that of an active funeral, with her own self as the departed, subject of cremation and mourning. She would have nearly tasted the aura of the primal entity housed in the stone, as it flooded her metal and flesh with the promised enlightenment.

A Truth Comes to Light: Myriadess

The flash of white that filled Ancepanox’s vision was followed by an intense, ethereal emptiness, and she was once again overwhelmed by the feeling of falling. However it was not so much of a physical feeling than a mental one, like her mind was slipping through the cracks of the world. The feeling of disconnect was so intense that for a moment she believed Myriadess had killed her, but eventually things came into fleeting focus.

She was in a world of soft light and color, detached from any sensation but one of, ironically enough, detachment. She recognized the realm by description.

"This place... This is the Dreamscape, but..."

Celestia had explained the Deeper Dreamscape with poetic accuracy in her lessons.
All around Ancepanox's point of conciousness were motes of glowing thought, floating slowly. Most of them she looked at filled her with alien sensations of animalistic hunger, fear, or anger, surely the dreams of the monsters of the Everfree. In the far distance she saw more familiar minds belonging to the Ponyvillians, apprehensive for the most part, troubled by worry for the future.
Nearer than them was a spreading mass of black, tangling and twisting around the sinners’ minds, and reaching out for four innocent minds. Ancepanox was saddened to see that the hold the nightmare had on Applejack and Dash extended past the physical world, though she made a grave mistake by not paying closer attention and seeing that it was a unicorn with a heart full of hate from which that black intent was spreading.

If she was more single-minded in her search for knowledge she needn't have looked so far afield, for it was clear Myriadess had intended her to look at the dreamers closest to her. One was supremely exotic, a raging ball of red fire barely contained by twisting black vines. The other was her own, a soft purple glow, which regarded her with the same prying curiosity that she applied to it.

“Welcome to the realm of absolute abstraction. In practice, the dreams are infinitely close together, with no room between them. Seeing the space between them is very difficult for most creatures, though the sufficiently powerful can use it to various ends. You know that, surely.” The voice of Myriadess was a momentary string of word and concept linking her mote to Ancepanox’s. It was an odd thing to see from an outside perspective, the two flecks of dream connecting. Ancepanox had the revelation that Astral Nacre and other psychic creatures communicated the same way.

“That's my... my dream?" Ancepanox wondered.

"It is the shell of one, the 'housing' if you will. If you had a dream, that is where it would be." Myriadess explained.

Perhaps it was the absurdity and sureallness of it all, but Ancepanox took a while to process and respond that claim. "What?"

"You lack a dream, viscountess. It was taken from you."

"I- I have a dream. Of course I have a dream." Ancepanox objected. "Who could have taken-" She stopped. "Forlorn Spark."

"Indeed. The dream you lived your life with now belongs to another. As they wear your body, so too your soul. They are you, viscountess, more than you are you." Myriadess said solemnly. "What you have is a placeholder. Mortals can not survive without dreams, but they do not form spontaneously. They are deep expressions of concepts greater than even the pony who bears them."

"And how, praytell, did I get a 'placeholder' dream." Anceapnox demanded.

"I do not know. One of the Celestiaan sisters could have given it to you, to stave off the insanity a dreamless mortal descends into. I doubt you fashioned it yourself but I do not deny the possibility."

"Great load of wisdom you're providing so far. Good job." Ancepanox said sarcastically. She observed how brillient the mote of Myriadess was a rose fire imprisoned in the bristling bush. Alicorns and greater being didn't have dreams, allegedly. Myriadess's intrusion into the Dreamscape was temporary, while all the mortal dreams around them would float eternal. "Are we here just for this?"

“A more cynical pony might accuse me of showing off by bringing you here. Yet I have no reason to brag; I know that as soon as one takes a broader look I am just a soul in a lavish box.” Myriadess brooded. “We can continue as soon as you are willing.”

“Continue to where?” Ancepanox wasn’t even sure how to move in the recondite domain.

“To shallower water, as it were.” Myriadess elaborated. “I have always held that there is nary a better place for a learn than within your own mind.”

How did somepony enter their own mind? Wasn’t that where they always were? Ancepanox was feeling a bit sour based on the initial encounter with Myriadess, but nothing dealbreaking. "You want me to go into my own dream? My 'temporary' dream?"

"I do. Do you not wish to understand it better?"

Ancepanox did. By calling upon the same patterns of magic that would have let her enter a pony’s dream from the physical world, she slipped back through the cracks in the dreamscape's meta-reality.

It was a strange place that Ancepanox now found herself immersed in, familiar yet unfamiliar. It was best described as a
cathedral library, a million books with everything she had ever thought or seen. It reminded her most of Twilight Sparkle’s old tower at Canterlot Castle, though with many more floors opening into an atrium down it’s center. Ancepanox could see all the way to the pinnacle ceiling of the structure a marvelous glass dome, the ceiling around which was painted, most curiously, with the imagery of two snakes consuming each others tail.

However she was not alone in the grand library. In fact she was surrounded by ponies, mostly in the image of Twilight Sparkle, each wearing a different color or style of garment, engaged in scholarly pursuits and going about their business reading or moving the tomes of her life’s events. Some of them, she noticed, were maligned by darker fur on some or all of their bodies, a fact none of the others seemed to notice.

At the corners of the the grand cathedral were ominous specters of black alicorns, some mirror images of Ancepanox, some without the familiar blue steel armor, and some made of black smoke with a dozen eyes. They were reading and transcribing as well, though with much less enthusiasm, preferring to wander up and down the aisles and fly between floors or watching silently what everypony else was doing. While the little Twilights were not bothered by the ghastly visions of Moon, Forlorn Spark, and her twisted self, the alicorns seemed to actively avoid the Twilights with the darker fur. It was a society to itself, reflecting something about the dream Ancepanox could not begin to guess.

“To find a pony’s mind to be a library is less common than you might imagine.” A growing patch of heat and light bloomed next to Ancepanox, becoming a floating tangle of vines the size of a pony’s head, holding up a burning red eye. Myriadess’s voice was less echoing and slightly more feminine than had been perceived in the antechamber or in the Deeper Dreamscape. “It seems to be linked to what they value in life. I have seen memories growing strong in a field in the mind of a farmer, and a never ending opera of life in the mind of a performer. Celestia’s dream was a empty, sunlit plain, her past the pale ground below her and her future streaming down from the heavenly sun. Her sister’s was cloudy even a century before her rebellion when I felt it, a grey planet sprouting black towers of her knowledge.”

"Do you know what my original dream was?" Ancepanox asked.

"No."

Then what good are you, Ancpeanox wondered in a flash of annoyance. "Does this place still connect to me? Are these my memories?” Ancepanox observed at the cathedral around her for a while. It was so clearly a reflection of Twilight Sparkle in some fashion.

“Yes and no. ” The black vines flailed around the space in a sweeping gesture. “The Dreamscape is the realm most directly linked to the mental energies of the physical world. They affect each other to a great degree, and that is why sleeping ponies walk it in their dreams. Some ponies think that this realm, at it’s deepest and most pure, was the start of all sentience in the world.”
The burning eye could see Ancepanox had become impatient. “Oh, but you already know all of this. The benefits of one of the finest educations in the world, I suppose.”

“I’ve been here so often over the last few months I might as well buy real estate here.” Ancepanox joked emptilly. “It’s gotten to be an effortless transition.”

“But this is no mere dream, young viscountess. This is the dream for you, an insight and a window to the soul, temporary though one may label it, it still acts as your consciousness's footprint in this realm.” Myriadess said. “It is obvious there are discrepancies, however. With how rarely you have been dreaming of late it has not fully adjusted to represent who you are.”

“I have to physically sleep to connect to this place? Are you sure?” Ancepanox questioned, dodging the scholar Twilights as they trotted by, oblivious to everything except their work. “How does that all work?"

“Such a place exists for every creature that can sleep in the way mortals do, resting their minds, opening them for the energies of the dreamscape connect with their magical soul. In waking the connection is not severed fully, and in magical circumstances swell to match that of sleep."

Some of that was old news to Ancepanox, and some of it was new. "When alicorns sleep they don't open their minds? That's why they don't have dreams?"

The red eye did it’s best to nod in the affirmative. "The dreamscape reaches out to the dreamer. The relationship of the alicorn to the dreamscape can not be easily explained. Put simplistically, your statement is correct. For example I do not dream, nor can I affect dreams any way except by what the dreamer perceives of me. You saw that I am cut off from this realm. Through communication with you, I change this scene by proxy.”

"Listen, I have all day. I want that nitty gritty detail." Ancpeanox pressed. "What is it about alicorns that keep them from dreaming? And why did Celestia and her sister break that rule?"

Myriadess was still and silent for a long while. "The soul of an alicorn is already made of energies similar to the dreamscape. What is a gift to mortals is inherent to alicorns, simply part of their consciousness."

"But I could say dreams are inherent to ponies, mortals. How is it different?"

Myriadess was getting more reluctant to explore this topic. "As your experience has proven, mortals can lose and change their dream in traumatic moments. That can not occur to an alicorn. It would destroy or decay them awfully. The things a dream is, specific aspiration, purpose, and drive, can be removed from mortals but not alicorns."

"Decay them... destroy them..." Ancpeanox trotted in a little circle as she thought this over. “I think I understand.”

SHe took advantage of the lull to scrutinize her guide in more detail. She had thought that the vines around the burning eye of Myriadess were a part of her form, but with closer attention she saw that assumption was wrong. The red eye was in visible agony, pierced and torn by the thorns of it’s brambly prison. She wondered if the vision she’d seen in the antechamber, the innumerable eyes born aloft by the vines, wasn’t more a scene of a torture, each eye being held up like a fresh heart torn from a victim.

“You have a grave look about you.” Myriadess appraised.

“I'm just thinking.” Ancepanox shook away the gruesome mental digression. “Let’s get on with it. Tell me everything.”

“Very well. Allow me to regale you with the storied mythology of my kind. Listen very well, young viscountess. I fear that I may only make this elucidation once…

The First Cycle: The First Giver

In the beginning of the world, there were two entities fundamentally opposed.
Calling them entities would misrepresent them. They were concepts, but more than that. They were absolutes, everything.

There was that which came to be known as the Giver. He was a creature who possessed all the energy in this primeval world, in all it’s forms. He thought all possible thoughts, and he dreamed all possible dreams. All magic and potential for being existed within him. He was comprised of two smaller, forces: Will and Destiny. He was a god in the truest sense of the word, though he had only one follower to lord over.

For there was the Have-not. He was form, base matter, and nothing else, utterly inert, but existing in his own way. He had no will, and he had no destiny, for those were both possessed within the Giver. The Have-not existed, but did nothing else. He did not live, nor did he have a soul. Though he was everything physical, he was empty.

The Giver saw the plight of his fellow entity. Possessing within himself all possible dispositions towards Have-not, Giver was momentarily driven by generosity, and he decided to give up part of his essence. His his generous side, championed by more altruistic and empathetic force of Destiny, volunteered to be the one given to the unfortunate Have-not, along with every positive and good aspect Giver could think of. He wanted Have-not to be truly uplifted.

Before I go on there is something you must understand, young viscountess. The fundamental forces were not aligned as they were before this moment. All things existed within Giver, complementary with or negating each other. Will and Destiny were devoid of attachment to aspects of emotion or function. The forces were pure.

But when Giver bundled up his gift to Have-not, leaving himself with Will and the aspects that wanted to stay, a great change occurred. The aspects of jealousy, pride, and arrogance, among others, overwhelmed Giver without their foils. With the gift still in his outstretched palm, Giver wanted it all back.
But within the Giver and within the gift there were aspects who did not want to go back. The more Giver tried to force it, the closer he crushed the forces and the aspects together, until they were fused within himself and the aborted gift.

The Light was formed within the gift. It held within itself the force of Destiny, and such aspects as authority, truth, and giving. Unable to take back what was once his, Giver threw away the gift in anger, and the Light spilled out into the unformed world. Have-not was ambivalent; He had no faculties to be anything but.

The Dark was forged within the desperate Giver. Bound by the force of Will, Dark held within itself the aspects individuality, progress, evolution, and taking, and so many other, less pleasant things. Enraged by his inability to take back the light and return to perfection, Giver decided to curse the world with the wretched Darkness that bloomed within him. He made a second gift, placed within it the Dark. Then, having given away everything that he was, he dissolved into nothing.
Thus ended the first cycle of the world.

The Second Cycle: Commencement of the Gods.

The energies of Light and Dark were spilled over the empty world.

From the Light there came a magnificent, radiant being, nearly as divine as the Giver. This infant consciousness was everything the Giver had wanted for Have-not, but he lacked form. His name, as he is known to ponykind, was Wintertide the Pale Flame.

Wintertide was born into a world that he believed contained only himself and the idle, soulless Have-not, so he created company for himself: Countless children, made of pure Light as he was, to enjoy existance with. I was likely among them, in some form. Wintertide ruled absolutely over the force of Destiny and the associated aspects. He knew not of the opposite energy of Dark, that had fallen beside him. He had no way of even comprehending it.

Something came forth from the Dark too, you see, a creature too horrible to comprehend, never having ever known the touch of the Light but still possessing a godly power. Anima Astral Nacre, the Black Flame, so mired in Dark was compelled by the force of Will she was born from, and created a race of underlings to match Wintertide. She could feel nothing but the darkest intention for the children of the Light. She was incapable of doing otherwise.

The inevitable first conflict between them was almost comically psychotic. The children of Light and Dark were sordid fragments with only the barest sanity needed to function. What was bravery without recklessness, or justice without punishment? Astral Nacre’s single minded assaults against her foe destroyed them both.

The war destroyed not only the gods. The Have-not was fractured and scattered across the world, polluting the emptiness of the space with the emptiness of his soulless form. Matter and energy were now loose in the cosmos.

The Thousand Cycles

However the primeval souls could not be kept unformed. Lord Wintertide and his children were reborn, and so too was Astral Nacre and hers. Every time they regained their power, they repeated the same mistakes they had before; They had no other choice. Again and again, the gods of Light and Dark slaughtered each other, too evenly matched for there to be a victor. I do not remember this time very well, for unlike Wintertide or Astral the memories of we children decayed every cycle. The pain, however, I recall very well.

Without our realising, something mystical was happening with each passing cycle of destruction. Every time the lifeblood of the gods was spilled, and they returned to unformed and unconscious Light and Dark, a slight mixing occurred. The children of Light were tainted gradually by Dark, and the children of Dark were stained by Light. We changed, filling out as consciousness, becoming less neurotic, but also less pure.

Over a thousand iterations this mixing also extended to the world around us. Our energy diluted and diffused into the world’s form, giving it magic, heat, life and soul. Every cycle, when more energy was spilled, more was absorbed into the the universe. The earth came more and more alive.
Form, in turn, started seeping more and more into us gods. We gained form at the same rate that we gave the world Light and Dark, Destiny and Will. We became solid, able to harm each other at both the physical and magical levels.

The Ancient Alicorns

At the beginning of the thousandth cycle, the distinctions had been thoroughly muddied, but not quite erased. Astral Nacre was not as mindlessly hateful and vicious, and Wintertide was not so naive. They realized that if they let the conflict consume them again they would lose their supremacy over the world, and that was a detail they were both able to appreciate. A truce was forged, and to solidify the new agreement Wintertide and Astral were wed.

Wintertide and Astral faced a new paradigm: A world dominated by form. They had not noticed how creatures had grown and evolved. They had not even noticed the genesis of the planets, the cosmos, or the Sun and Moon, so focused had they been on the war. So with a new promise of tomorrow, they set out to tame their universe.
Energy, ebbing, flowing passing through the plane world of matter, had forged a new type of entity: Life. Plants, animals, microbes, titans… Opening our eyes to this reality was a shock. In our determination to annihilate each other, we gods had lost a certain measure of our uniqueness in the universe.

The physical bodies of the gods had grown in varying and odd ways by their gradual formation. Wintertide and Astral set out to tame they bizarre menagerie that their prodigy had become, and so they learned to manipulate form, and designed an archetype for themselves.

The ancient alicorns were not how you understand the idea of an alicorn today. The number of eyes, wings, tentacles, and even heads varied greatly from one to the other. As long as it had at least four legs, or in some occasions three legs and pseudopod, it was perfect as far as Wintertide and Astral were concerned. I personally was a bat-winged lion with a burning red mane but the head of a snail, with a hundred red eye-stocks.

The new race of gods were a far cry from the omnipotence of the Giver, but we were still superior to the other creatures of the world. The zebras, griffins, ponies, and hippogryphs were all struggling to begin their civilizations, and from time to time we visited them. For the large part, we stayed within our small but great nation. Most of us were content to exist without threat of destruction. It was a largely uneventful, but mercifully peaceful, existence.

End of the Ancient Alicorns

Anima Astral Nacre, however, was not happy with the constraints of her existance. She desired nothing more than to return to absolute divinity now that she had the faculties to enjoy it. Nor was she happy for having to compromise with Wintertide, for she coveted power over others. Outwardly she acted civilly, but inwardly she dreamed of resuming her crusade against Light despite that it pervaded within her as well. She started looking for opportunities to attain her goals.

Anima Astral Nacre somehow invoked a great entity of deceit and treachery. It was a powerful Dark creature that had been born separate from the races of gods, which we called demons to distinguish them from our own. With him, she created a master plan to destroy her husband and the children of Light.

She presented a ritual, by which the gods would give up their power in mimicry of the Giver, and in so doing transcend back to godhood. The deceit of this plan was immediately apparent to some, but enough fell for the ruse that Astral would have easily overpowered the rest.

But the new divine power went wild, defying Anima Astral Nacre's intentions for it. The power she rough raged, tearing apart Astral's demon ally, then blew apart the refuge of the alicorns. All the children of Light and Dark tried to confront and subdue the maelstrom, but all where destroyed. Abruptly then, after uncountable time at war, and eons again at peace, the Ancient Alicorns were no more.

The Interregnum

With the ravaging of the ancient alicorns, the calamitous power Astral had created was calmed somewhat, sealed up by an amalgamate of our corpses. Since it was formed from both Light and Dark, and both the children of Light and Dark had died to seal it away, the divine energy assumed a position of balance between the two. This power, this force, was in essence a realization of total harmony. It has been called such throughout history. Harmony.
This Harmony was a shockingly new, for never had anything possessed Light and Dark in equal peace since the Giver. Wintertide and Anima Astral Nacre agreed that the new harmonious power had to be hidden, lest the world realize that they had been made obsolete, an amusing fear considering they faced their demise. Secretly Astral was pleased that she had succeeded in recreating true divinity.

Alas we race of gods was all but dead. Those that had not been tricked into giving up their power to Astral’s ruse were now bereft of their alicorn forms. We had grown dependent on physicality to continue to manifest ourselves in the world, and with our bodies destroyed our souls began to fade into static. Our hegemony was over.

Here I came into some noteworthiness. I fled our ruined nation of ghosts, searching for anybody who could help me before oblivion overtook my orphaned soul. I wandered into the fledgling hippogryph civilization, who I had visited several times before, and there I found a mortal willing to create a vessel for me.
Prince Cadmirzan, lord of Mardia, welcomed me as a friend and committed the resources of his principality to construct a new vessel for me. The result of many iterations and experiments was a platinum orb of unrivaled perfection, painted with the ichor of crushed roses, that housed my consciousness perfectly.

As a condition of this gift, Cadmirzan asked that I lend him a part of my power until his death. He hid me inside his sarcophagus, so that I would be let free when it was opened for his burial. Little did I know that I had been tricked, and Cadmirzan had already made identical covenants with my siblings, the other orphan children of Light. He had a whole temple full of sarcophagi and platinum orbs.
When Cadmirzan attempted to harness all of our magic simultaneously, the power overwhelmed Cadmirzan and his body was burned to cinders, turning him into a lich. Reviled for his despicable transformation, he was overthrown by his court. The maredians discovered their old rulers secret, and instead of freeing us they extended our imprisonment.
The Fires of the Gryph, they called us, hundreds of us entombed in as many exquisite sarcophagi. My father Wintertide, listless in his defeat, was lured by our aura. He was too faded to resist their trap, and was bound as we were to serve as a figurehead for the new theocratic regime. Our collective fire spurred a fire within the race of the hippogryphs, granting them unnatural magical aptitude and control of pyromancy.

And so we languished for centuries. Despite our near deific status, the hippogryphs prefered to worship the shells that imprisoned us rather than face the more pitiful reality of our existence. Some of us were embittered, and my father Wintertide in particular began to court dark thoughts. I remained upbeat, willing to give advice and wisdom to hippogryphs I found intriguing, if only to stave off encroaching madness.

My brothers-and-sisters-in-law, the children of Dark, fared far worse than we children of Light. A great many perished in the shell of our old home or in the wild places of the earth, unwilling to seek help from others. Not all were so blinded by pride, and they found refuge among isolated tribes in dark corners of the earth. Wherever mortals had discovered the ability to smelt pure platinum, a Dark One could be found. Their vessels were never as fine as the ones Cadmirzan created for the Fires of the Gryph, and over the eons the children of Dark diffused into their followers.

The more clever and powerful of the Dark Ones realized that there was another way for them. Hunting was not something unfamiliar to the alicorns, and indeed it was a sport to some of the more sinister of us to chase down and consume the souls of mortals.
Astral Nacre, the Black Flame, found that the hunt allowed her bodiless soul to live indefinitely. She and two of her children, the infamous savages Wuleai and Ankou, roamed the world as specters devouring whomever they wished. At some point, they began to experiment, and reversed the spell to force their souls on others. They could take over vessels of flesh, becoming parasitic dreams within the races of sentient mortals. The Dark is linked with the Dreamscape, and the Dreamscape holds the mysteries of mortal consciousness. You know what it is like to have a Dark One try to steal your body through your dreams. In a way too, Anima Astral Nacre and her twin sons became the first nightmares.

Years passed, and Anima Astral Nacre began her next project. Astral used that nightmare power possess the most gifted dragon smith in the world, named Sojourn. Sojourn was a stunted creature, lacking in the might of his kin, but marvelously clever. He lived away from the others, in the cave systems under the Smokey Mountain. I do not know if he welcomed Astral into his heart to further his power, or if she conquered him, but in either case Astral had control enough to used him to craft great vessels for her twin sons to inhabit.

Out of the Dark child we called Wuleai, a purveyor of destructive conflict, Astral and Sojourn crafted tools of war that would brand his will onto any who used it. Made in the style of the east, it was lacquered lamellar armor and a broad sword, painted black.
She gave the tools as a gift to a unicorn tribe in Equestria, and Wuleai gave them the power to forge a new dynasty. They named themselves in his honor as Blackhorns, and named him their eternal prince, the Black Lord. Over the generations Wuleai’s soul faded, but his madness remained within the ponies of that line.

Out of the Dark child we called Ankou, patron of deadly despair, Astral and Sojourn forged an amulet of deceptive theavery. Platinum, ruby diamond, and chrome it was made of, hammered and shaped into Astral’s profile: an alicorn.
It granted the wearer incredible Dark power at the cost of the progressive decay of the soul and mind. If exposed too long, the wearer of this Alicorn’s Amulet would be entirely consumed by it. Initially Astral intended the amulet for the hippogryphs, to provide them an idol to turn them away from the Fires of the Gryph. However it was misplaced, and did not resurface until centuries later in Chitin. Spurred by Ankou and the Alicorn Amulet, great empires rose and fell, until the amulet was lost in the depths of a ruined city, or even deeper still into the evil pits mortals built for themselves

For her own vessel, Astral strained the limits of Sojourn’s ability. Through him she constructed a masterful new body that could bear the burden of her soul. It was a replica of a unicorn pony, the mechanical made in the image of the flesh. That synthetic mortal came to be known as the Dark Lady.
The three vessels complete, Astral Nacre planned her next moves. She kept Sojourn as her thrall and tasked him to forge an even more perfect body, something to return to her the grandeur and power she enjoyed as an alicorn. But the machine would not be ready for many generations, so Astral wandered off with the Platinum God, and joined the society of the ancient Equestrians.

Oh Astral. I did care for her dearly during the time she was wed to my father Wintertide. Indelibly clever, undeniably sinister, she was the step-mother that could liberate or oppress we children of Light with the slightest murmur. While we were united in one nation we believed she would use her powers for our common benefit, only to victimize the mortals. Alas we were arrogant and blind. By the end you shall know she escaped the eons much profited by her endless deceptions.

Life went on in the world. Demons became more dangerous without the alicorns to keep them in check, but the mortal civilizations rose to the challenge, advancing to new levels of science and magic that we had never needed. All in all, the world had survived the death of the gods infuriatingly well. They did not realize what Dark things still hung over them.

The birth of the Twisted Sinner

One day, in one of the petty principalities of old Equestria, in what is now known as the Frozen North, a unicorn was born. She was intelligent, kind, and very magically adept. Her family was unremarkable, except that the firstborn of every generation was female. Her name was Clover.

She apprenticed under the sorcerer Starswirl, who was still quite young and conventional at the time. After completing her education she served as court magician, advisor, and lackey for the Platinum Princesses, playing a pivotal role in the great migration of the Equestrian tribes south away from the advancing ice after the end of the pre-classical warm period. As the Equestrians began to settle the new land today's Equestria, she rejoined her old teacher Starswirl just in time for the zenith of his creativity and ability.

Deep within Starswirl’s Mountain laboratory and arcanum, they two hammered out discovery after discovery and spell after spell. They pushed the limits of conventional spellcrafting, sometimes venturing into arts considered taboo by the established academia in order to find truth.
The years began to take their toll on the couple. Starswirl accepted his aging gracefully, but Clover was devastated by the loss of her youth. She feared that her mind was next, and sought out a deeper understanding of life in order to stop the decay that time wrought on her.

Clover's search started out small, but soon expanded into questionable areas. She traveled the world extensively collecting artifacts of past ages, hoping that the relics of the ancient alicorns would allow her to glean some insight. Slowly but surely she began to piece together the ancient knowledge, discovering the legacy of the Ancient Alicorns and our fate. She attempted and failed to reach the Fires of the Gryph, but uncovered many other fragments of the alicorns, mostly old totems in isolated heathen villages, once the vessels of Dark children. She even discovered the origin of the Black Lord, heirloom of the Blackhorns who presided over Canterlot just outside Starswirl's Arcanum.

Just when she thought she had found all there was to be found, and that her search would be ended in vain, Clover met the lich Cadmirzan residing in the darkened underbelly of some Roanish colony. Cadmirzan, ancient and seemingly immortal, was seeming confirmation that the energy of the divine could allow mortals to surpass their earthly bonds. The old lich lent Clover his collection of texts he had collected over his many centuries of unlife. Among them was a blasphemous black book, dedicated to the Dark and its power, written by a Dark god. Clover, upon seeing this, was struck by a feeling of recognition. When she read it her eyes barely focused on the words at all, for she already knew every part by heart.

For you see centuries previous, when Anima Astral Nacre had gone to old Equestria in pony form, she found herself subject to the more mortal of the Dark emotions, particularly desire. By the time her body died she had dozens of new, mortal children. The firstborn became her new vessel, and so too did the firstborn’s firstborn, and so on for many generations until Clover. When Clover saw the blasphemous book ancient ancestor Anima Astral Nacre, the Black Flame, was reawakened.

Clover returned to Starswirl with her answers. She introduced him to the Dark, a force swirling through their dreams yet unrecognized, and Starswirl was dazzled by its untapped power. He saw the potential for the greatest magical advances ever made, and possibly a new world of where ponies embodied the example of the Giver with equal Light and Dark in Harmony. His idealism led him astray, when Clover asked him to help her study the Dark in depth.

Anima Astral Nacre would not be content standing by, and began to assert herself against Clover more and more. The stream of discoveries was no longer enough for the scholar, and she began to lose sight of the world around her. She had eyes only for the goal, 'ultimate' truth, which Astral began to gradually pull farther away from her. Starswirl was too enamored with the Dark to see what it was doing to his friend, and followed Clover all the way to the pinnacle of the search.

In order to truly pry into the nature of magic and reality, they had to confront it with it’s every facet. Clover and Starswirl discovered that the innate force of will within the Dark asserted itself uniquely against every race, and that by distributing a spell pattern across multiple races they could fill the gap of any one of them. At the pinnacle of that work was a spell of unparalleled intimacy, that could alter form and consciousness on a level even the alicorns had lacked.
The Ritual, it was simply called by most. What more need it be called? It was THE ritual, the only one worth speaking of. The ritual would allow Clover and Starswirl to bend the whole spectrum of magic in whatever way they desired. Clover had a very specific purpose in mind for it.

With the ritual, the duo launched into their darkest work yet: Experiments on ponies, trying to perfect with magic where biology had failed. It is likely you could find their failures even today in the deepest dankest depths of the Vacuous Arcanum, misbegotten ponies and half-formed demigods.
Clover found that ponies sharing similar blood to her own, those tainted with godly ancestry, were the best foci and catalysts for the ritual. Her disciples scoured the land for such ponies, abducting and hauling whole families into the Mountain.
At first there were only a few successes, but once the method was perfected, every test produced a viable specimens. Nascent alicorns, hundreds of them, imprinted with absolute devotion to their creators, were manufactured en masse. The Mountain, which had once been a beacon of eccentric but fantastical learning, had turned into a menhir of Dark despair.

As if things were not bleak enough, Anima Astral Nacre’s immortal thrall Sojourn resurfaced from the gloom under the crags of the Smoky Mountain. He went to Clover and announced that he was nearing completion on the great weapon that Astral had tasked him with. The platinum alicorn, a machine to conquer the world, had only to be taken to the Mountain and bound to Clover’s will. Thereafter Anima Astral Nacre would return to near-omnipotence.

The Celestiaan

The children of Wintertide during the second cycle had the vaguest awareness of something with them in the formless world. The last vestiges of the Giver and his gift evolved along a different path from the gods, their Light and Dark staying dormant through the birth of Wintertide and Astral, and the first deaths of them and their children.
These last vestiges, forgotten scraps of energy that did not take on life, became something else, the centers of the new Sun and Moon: Not communal entities as became the children of Dark and Light, but vast enclosed monoliths, that despite their great power did not assert themselves onto the world. As matter and energy began to dilute more and more over the cycles, that began to change.
After the destruction of the ancient alicorns, the Sun and Moon came into their own as the great overseers of this planet. Distant, inexplicable, yet closer than anyone could imagine, the Sun and Moon have their aura wrapped tight around the Bright World.

An aside, viscountess, do not trifle with the power of the Sun and Moon. Do not take them lightly. They are immense, past all comprehending, and you are so very tiny. Even Anima Astral Nacre could not oppose them, granted she was hobbled, but they were billions of hooves distant.

And to that opposition, you see, you will discover the first time the Sun and Moon began to assert themselves on the world more directly. When Anima Astral Nacre took hold of Clover and reached the conclusion of her ultimate machinations, those celestial entities reached out.

Perhaps a mortal summoned them, beseeching the unknown to stop Astral's victory. Perhaps they took initiative themselves by their inscrutable motivations. The results, whatever the cause, were new gods.

Two divine sisters, the daughters of the celestial, the Celestiaan. At first they did not at all resemble what visages they settled into, appearing to anyone who saw them as amorphous and ever-shifting souls. They found the archetype of the ancient alicorns fit them best: Four legs, wings, and a horn. Interestingly, they chose to appear pony-like, though that their main threat was in Equestria likely contributed to that decision.

The elder of them wielded the Light of her mother Sun. She was overbearing and stern, but magnanimous when it was called for. She was blinded by her own brilliance, and was unwilling to tolerate or give any quarter to the Dark. She was the demigod who came to be known as Celestia the First.

The younger of them lived within the Dark, but all anypony could see of her was the little amount of Light she had, a pale reflection of her sister’s glory. Such with her patron moon, yes? She was very reserved, with cruel eyes that saw everything around her. Any who saw her would wonder if there was more to it than what was apparent, but she concealed her Darkness well, pushing it deep inside herself lest she draw her Celestia’s ire. She knew that the task of mitigating Astral’s power was vital to the health of the world, but her sister’s zeal often made her wonder about the righteousness of the task.
Her name, for better or worse, is lost.

The Celestiaan came to stop Astral, and so they applied themselves immediately to that end. They entered the Mountain through Canterlot and effortlessly passed the traps and guards, to arrive at the gates of the Vacuous Arcanum. Celestia cut through the students and slaughtered the young ritual alicorns, while her sister looked crept through the bloodied halls and read everything she could find.
When they faced Clover, Starswirl pleaded with them to spare her life, but he came to realize that his cherished protegee, college, and friend was too far gone. Unfortunately, Clover had already started the ritual, and when the Celestiaan tried to interrupt it miscast with terrible consequences. Large portions of the school collapsed, and malformed monsters and wild magics poured out into the Arcanum. Clover was missing presumed dead.

Celestia and her sister made peace with Starswirl on the condition he abandon his research. He wandered from city to city for a time after, a shell of his former self, before disappearing from history. Most would say he returned to the Arcanum, though whether with good or ill intent cannot be known.
Alas, the ritual crisis was ended with terrible loss of life, but a much greater holocaust was averted.

Their task complete, the Celestiaan roamed the earth waiting for their time to expire so that they could return home. The more they learned about the world, the more they found the mortal life amusing and even appealing. They began to court the idea of staying, and ruling over their own corner of earth like the ancient alicorns had.

Concerned by the unfamiliar ambition she felt, Celestia decided to consult the last known survivors of the race of gods, we Fires of the Gryph. Over the centuries, our role in hippogryph society had not changed drastically, except perhaps becoming more sacred in their eyes for the years we unwillingly watched over them. The Maredian fire priests denied the Celestiaan an audience with us, decrying Celestia as a false flame and a misleader of the honest. In response the sisters attacked the temple. They slaughtered hundreds of hippogryphs, and for their crime Wintertide denounced them. Incensed, Celestia stole the sarcophagus I was in and took me as a prize.

Naturally, Celestia asked me what I saw in her future, hoping a more favorable portant than the one my progenitor Wintertide had given. I was angry, but I spoke the truth when I foretold of their doom.
Despite my warnings, the Celestiaan decided to found their own nation, where their growing ambition could be used to a beneficial end.

They buried me here. There were hundreds of hidden storerooms like this one, where Celestia kept looted artifacts. They built their Everfree principality over top of us, taunting us with every confident hoofstep that echoed through these subterranean prisons. I took some small solace in my knowledge that their doom would come and it that would be, as it always was, of their own creation.

The Traitors

As the years dragged on, the idealism of the Celestiaan wore thin and the realities of a fractured Equestria settled on them. A great war was raging in the north between the main line of House Blackhorn and a rogue son, Sombra Blackhorn, who had carved a kingdom out of the far north. Celestia led her new principality in an intervention, but even with her enormous powers she was too impulsive for the the necessities of warfare, and only exacerbated the suffering of the ponies of the North. Evil forces scattered to the four winds, Lord Sombra included, dissatisfying everyone. Far from being a decisive unifier, an alicorn playing at secular leader drove ponies to be more contrary and distrustful.

The Celestia’s sister observed her elder’s impotent weakness. She saw that the sun princess had overextended greatly, trying to assert both a magical orthodoxy and political alignment over millions of ponies who desired neither. The younger sister did not immediately jump to traitorous thoughts, but she began to more overtly court her Dark tendencies. There would be an opportunity soon, she deemed.

While this was happening, sitting in the bowels of this hidden prison, I received a visitor. The first visitor besides the Celestiaan, actually, and the only one in decades as the Celestiaan had long since stopped caring to taunt me. However this visitor was not there to taunt me. She was there to confide in me.
It was Clover, or had once been Clover. The former unicorn prodigy had been hideously malformed unicorn, a warped monstrosity that defied description. A onetime seeker of the Fires of the Gryph...

Forgive me, viscountess. Even after a thousand years is it difficult to speak of her. I came be quite fond of her, you see. Her condition was the fault of the ritual that the Celestiaan interrupted. She had escaped death but at terrible cost, her body merging with, the platinum alicorn vessel, and whatever flesh she could scavenge for herself after the slaughter of her students. Her soul was an awful amalgam too, and sometimes she spoke as Clover, other times as Anima Astral Nacre, or just screamed madly. Yet within that contradiction was a dreamer on the verge of greatness, and a god almost returned to heaven. The twisted sinner was as fractured in mind as she was in body, and came to me desperate for answers.

I was bitter, so very bitter at what the Celestiaan had done to me, separating me from my family and my only friends. I was willing to help that Twisted Sinner get back at them. I told her to finish what she started and unleash the Dark upon the unrepentant oppressors, and destroy everything the Celestiaan held dear.

The Twisted Sinner gathered eleven other creatures who would be willing to help her. Their professions and origins were disparate as could be, but they all shared an absolute arrogance, a dedication to their own self-interest, and not a small tinge of insanity.

Sojourn, the ancient dragon smith who was still in Anima Astral Nacre’s thrall.
Phyte, a unicorn musician who coveted her lost youth so that she could have children.
Shale, a pegasus rune mage who wished to inscribe her name into the gods'.
Master, a changeling scholar who wanted to resurrect the legacy of the empires of Chitin.
Zero, a changeling mage and consort, who wanted to spend eternity with his love.
Prysma, a unicorn enchantress, who hoped for divine beauty.
Flair, an earth pony knight who wanted immortality so that he could fight forever.
Axium, an earth pony channeler, who wanted to extend the life of his faithful dog.
Black Bell, an earth pony alchemist, who was obsessed with a wish to fly to heaven.
Radial Edge, a pegasus who wanted to be have the power to force all others out of the sky.
Cadmirzan, the hippogryph lich who wanted the power to repair his rotten body.
Clover and Anima Astral Nacre, bound as one within the Twisted Sinner, was the twelfth.

Together, they were the Stars, and their ultimate goal in joining together was to aid in completing the ritual to their own ends. Some had simple desires, some grand, some impossibly farfetched. They all saw the answer to their desires with the ritual. They were foolish not to suspect that the Twisted Sinner was lying to them from the first moment.

Nightmare Pretender and the last Cycle.

With the Stars behind her, the Twisted Sinner approached the younger Celestiaan. In the dark shadows of the Everfree Castle, the sinner found she was expected, for long had the younger sister waited for a messenger from the Dark. The Twisted Sinner whispered disloyal temptations that played on her growing dissatisfaction with Celestia’s zeal. She promised a world where creatures of all sorts were lived free, where the Dark held equal place in the hearts of ponykind to the Light. To the detriment of all, the younger sister was swayed.

Celestia’s sister began by solicited the help of the neighboring principalities, who had all lost territory to the Everfree. Three unicorn warlords, three pegasus skylords, and three riverpony dukes joined her, eager to get revenge and replace Celestia with somepony they believed would be meeker and more conciliatory.

There was no delaying. While the armies gathered for surprise attack, the young Celestiaan withdrew to the forges, to create her armor. Yes, the armor you are now burdened with, viscountess, was cast in the lost depths of Everfree Castle, where the younger sister was sure not to be found. It was there that she began to experiment with emotions she had denied herself for so long, and set herself on the course of corruption.

With the coalition amry ready, the younger sister disappeared from the castle, leaving a note stating her declaration of war against her older sister. Celestia was so shocked and heartbroken she withdrew from public life, and it fell to her advisors to summon her own allies and rally a defense. But the younger had the advantage of planning, and she routed the Everfree armies in a quick advance into the principality.

The Twisted Sinner and the Stars joined with Celestia’s sister to lay siege to the Everfree Castle, and the pony coalition fanned out to occupy the surrounding and outlying villages. Celestia stalked the halls of the castle in listless depression, either unwilling to accept what was happening, or fully and fatalistically accepting it. Perhaps she remembered my prophesy and believed that it was fate that everything be destroyed in the conflict.

The Everfree Castle held firm against all artillery and attack, even without Celestia’s intervention. Moral began to slump in the attacking coalition's camp, and some of the princes even threatened to abandon the campaign. Disease hunger chipped away at both sides, with the difference being the attackers had a way out. Desertion began such a large problem that the younger sister feared that the siege would become unsustainable.

When she deemed that the younger Celestiaan had become desperate enough, the Twisted Sinner came to her with a solution.
At first they only muddied the lines, and began accepting the help of the Dark ponies hiding since the fall of Lord Sombra’s Kingdom, but soon they started soliciting any and all. Marauding warbands, fell beasts, heinous cabals, and corrupt demons joined in at the chance to kill Celestia. The Stars used their necromancy to rise any fallen soldiers, stopping the attrition aside from any undead who had come back as raving madponies.

The Twisted Sinner returned to me every day of that siege, wasting away the hours in conversation while Celestia’s sister wasted countless lives. It was from her that I heard every bit of the events I did not experience myself.
Often she talked down to me, as though she were still married to my father Wintertide, and I began to suspect that she was so horrible because she had one hoof in her native cosmos already. But she was not purely as I remembered Anima Astral Nacre, and the wit and cleverness of Clover came through very strongly in her. Then as I said she fell into fits of mania and depression, her focus on the end goal the only thing keeping her sane. See how I go on about her... She was very compelling. I could bare the sight of her barely, out of necessity; For revenge.

As was the Twisted Sinner’s plan, the besieging army was insufficient even with the aide of the evil beasts. The principality was growing foul with thousands of corpses and fouler still with the anguished souls of destroyed demons and failed necromancy. The earth turned poison and the weather ran wild. With her leap of glory falling short, the younger Celestiaan sister became truly frantic.

She decided that it was time to use her power to end the stalemate and force Celestia’s hoof. She decided to tap the Dark within herself, which she had sealed away for so long. I can only speculate to what her expectations were, of a magic she had estranged herself from for so long, but whatever it was her desperate act did her no benifit.
For when the younger Celestiaan reached for the Dark, it rushed to her with the fervor of a long lost dog. With the moon overhead, she chanelled into a principality's worth of Dark suffering, malevolent and toxic, and was reborn by it. Yes, guided by her patron moon, the younger sister embraced her purpose, to rule in shadow.
With the Twisted Sinner and the Stars gathered around laughing, the Nightmare of the Moon rose.

Nightmare Moon's assault on the castle was devastating. She broke apart stone and flesh with blasts of Dark magic, and disintegrated whole towers with her tempestuous mane. Celestia did not rise to her challenge, so Moon was forced to seek her out.
They met in the throne room, and at first Nightmare Moon stayed diplomatic, trying to talk her sister into surrendering. Celestia considered the demand, but before she could decide Moon was overwhelmed by her murderous urges. The two sisters began to battle, sealing the doom of the Everfree.

Their clash was so great I could feel it from here. Later the Twisted Sinner described it to me as being greater than the sum of a hundred cycles of war between Astral and Wintertide, though that is obvious exaggeration, but I understand the sentement. The sun and the moon unleashed their full powers in mortal skies, terminating all life within a great radius of the castle with mere motions. It is a display likely never to be seen again.

Somewhere in the melee, Celestia found the resolve to end the fight, and unveiled her trump card.
You see, Celestia had uncovered the mote of Harmony that Astral Nacre had created at the end of the ancient alicorns, centuries previous. Here I must profess a great ignorance, as the Twisted Sinner refused to speak about it much, but I inferred that Celestia had hidden the force of Harmony under Everfree Castle itself, and that the climactic battle had caused the cavern to cave in.
The younger sister sster may or may not have known about this powerful living artifact, but either way it did not keep it from being utilized against her.

Harmony or, The Harmony as the Twisted Sinner called it. I shudder to think of it. It destroyed my home and all of us ancient alicorns. It was lost for an eternity, and its reintroduction to the world was to be used as a weapon again. How contradictory that a force of balance causes so much destruction, but then again one must be honest that mimicking the power of the ancient Giver logically ends in self destruction...

Alas, Harmony was unleashed, and with grave silence I am told, worked to sooth unevenness. For Celestia, who had begun harboring Dark thoughts since her sister’s betrayal, the weapon affected her only slightly. Against Nightmare Moon, who had cast away all Light within herself, it was devastating. The Harmony erased Moon from the world.

But this was far for a defeat for the Stars. Yes, Anima Astral Nacre had known what was coming, and the moment they had been waiting for arrived. They were deviously prepared.
They sat at the very edge of Harmony's reach and began the Ritual. When the Harmony began to assail them with tremendous amounts of Light in an effort to cancel out their Dark, they instead snared and channeled that magic into the ritual, giving it power beyond anything in creation could provide. The ritual completed, and the Stars withdrew into the night, leaving a scarred land and a solitary princess.

And that was it. The brief war ended in total destruction.
The Twisted Sinner visited me a last time to say her goodbyes. She was changed, but not in ways I could explain. She would not tell me if the ritual had done what she wanted, or what it had done to the other Stars. She left to talk to Starswirl about some revelation she had made, leaving me to live out a thousand years of loneliness.
I suspect, young viscountess, that whatever the result of that ritual, that Anima Astral Nacre lurks in the depths of the cosmos again, watching from the shadows of stars. She got her way, in the end, to roam omnipotent while all the other gods waste away.

Alas...

You likely know more about the thousand years since then. The Harmony could not save the Everfree from the pain of the war, and the forsaken land began to warp. Plants that grew back were sickly, and wild animals moved in. The Dark of the anguished souls began to pool around me, attracted by my Light. Everything in this principality fell to ruin.

Celestia abandoned Everfree. She was freed from the burden of leadership by the fires of destruction, but not for a moment did she reconsider her choice to rule. The trauma of the siege made her more resolute if anything, and she was willing to unify Equestria by whatever means necessary. However her success came with stipulations, and she compromised with the aristocrats and landed nobility, sacrificing the equality she had once envisioned for ponykind for unity. Celestia had to compromise in other, more suspect and sinister ways as well, which I can not get into.
The tragedy of Everfree followed her until her succession.

And now, we move to current events.
Celestia and Nightmare Moon’s death this night has triggered a change in the world. The cycle is turning over, and very soon everything will change.

Young viscountess, the company you bring is the first I have had in near a millennium. You were not very difficult to read, for all your burdens are too great to conceal. You see, the Light and Dark is the paradigm through which all the world must be viewed. The truth of Light and Dark is the acquittal from morality and the social imperatives and contrivances.

You must be an heir to one of them! Celestia and Nightmare Moon are fallen, and new champions of the primal energies are needed. They are ever in need of protection and propagation, and yet they will always be in balance.

This is your choice! You must take up the torch, or the-

“Ahem.” Ancepanox interrupted. “I know you’re reaching the climax of this monologue, but I have a few quick questions."

The cathedral library was deathly quiet. All the dream ponies, the scholar Twilight Sparkles and the stoic black alicorns, had either stopped to listen or transcribe Myriadess’s great revelations. Now that she was silent they seemed tense and anxious for more, glancing angrily at Ancepanox for her disruption.

“First off, thank you. That was a fairly comprehensive, insightful lecture." Ancepanox said. "You've clearly practiced."

Myriadess's red eye stared blankly for a few moments, before she composed herself from the tremendous digression from her previous train of thought.. "Um, thank you. I have, yes."

"It’s not that I haven’t been satisfied with everything you’re telling me, but, well, It's not tremendously helpful to my current situation." Ancepanox continued. "Hearing about Clover and who Anima Astral Nacre was cleared up a lot of gaps. It's just that I have to know certain specific, more pertinent things. You know, my answers, that you promised.”

Myriadess was another few moments in answering. "Viscountess..." She began, cautiously. "I do not wish to read insensitiveness in your tone..."

"I'm not ungrateful. Far from it. I actually feel a lot better now. Less lost, you know." Anceapnox fluffed her wings, seemingly rethinking what she was going to say.
"So, then, if you want to talk more about the Ancient Alicorns-"

"I have no specific desire to talk about the ancient alicorns." Myriadess huffed. "But ask."

"Uhh, so, what are the vines tangled around your eye. I mean, I assume your eye is you, being crimson, but those vines are very different.”

Myriadess's eye rolled in said encasing vines. “I do not know what the vines are. Some parasite entity seized to my bound soul, I assume. They began to infiltrate my dreams several years after Nightmare Moon’s rebellion. I believe they connect me to the Twisted Sinner in some way.”

“Assume? If they infiltrated across the dreamscape they can be traced back-” Ancepanox caught herself. "Wait, parasitic? Does it have anything to do with the nightmare?"

"No."

"How do you know? A parasitic dream entity sounds like the nightmare exactly." Ancpeanox pressed, swiping a hoof lazily at the vines, which retreated from her touch. "I mean, unless you Ancient Alicorns knew more about the dreamscape than modern scholarship-"

"I would appreciate if you do not speak of my bretheren with such aimlessly familiarity."

"Hey, you were the one that went on that spiel about the mythology. I thought that's what you wanted. I was just being nice." Ancepanox said, a bit testy. "I want to talk about the nightmare, since, you know, that's what I have to deal with, not long dead gods."

"Watch it, viscountess." Myriadess warned. "I brought you here to inform you of you new responsibilities to this world."

"Okay, but did the nightmare curse that brands me now start with Anima Astral Nacre, or Celestia’s sister?”

“I told you already, your Dark has no connection to them. Their curse started and ended within themselves, yours with yourself.”

Ancepanox pursed her lips. “Yes, you did say that, and it didn't make sense the first time either.”

“The ‘nightmare’ is a parasitic dream, but it is always originating within one’s own Dark. In some ways it is the purest expression of will, to have a second dream spring forth within oneself. Will, unfettered from destiny. Some would call it a liberation. Not I, but some." Myriadess droned
"Do you recall your berzerk rage against Glori Sabonord, and your hungry prowling in Ponyville? That was your Dark. It was not Nightmare Moon's, or anypony's, but yours. Certain events may trigger it, but not cause it. Yes, viscountess, one's dark always originates within oneself. You, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, all of you have-"

“Wait. Wait! Stop talking.” Ancepanox sharply interrupted. “What you’re saying makes no sense! The other ponies and Forlorn Spark were mixed up with the nightmare. I’m NOT a nightmare. I retained my mind and my sanity, because it remained seperate from me. I am just the carrier!”

Myriadess and Ancepanox stared at each other, until the large red eye, born aloft by the vines, dipped forward. "Viscountess, you are wrong."

“Oh yeah?” Ancepanox’s eyes narrowed.

“I will not cousin this lesson. You need to be told bluntly.” Myriadess words were stern but tinged by sadness. “Ponies sometimes need to be confronted instead of coddled for them to improve, and this is one such moment. You see, viscountess, you were born with the Dark that compelled you. That of itself is not so strange. What is, is that you were so naturally mired with Dark, it shared your dream with you instead instead of forcing you out of it. Twilight Sparkle was a naturally Dark, evil pony."

Silence reigned again. Ancepanox's lip slowly curled. "Evil."

"Dark is Evil. You were Dark. It follows."

“No, you don't know that. You don't know any of that.” Ancepanox whispered. She bent forward, running a trembling hoof through her limp mane. The dream ponies around them recorded the torment in their never-ending records. "You're... You're making that up! You've made all this up! That’s incomprehensible!” She pointed up, to the many levels of the dream library. "Does this look like the dream of an evil pony?"

“Do think now! Are you naive or blinded by ideology?” Myriadess loomed over her. "Just because I am telling how things once where does not mean you are shackled to past sins. Forlorn Spark now owns Twilight Sparkle's dream. Yes this dream is hopeful, but because YOU made it that way. Dreams are inherited, family endeavors. You have made something good for yourself and this is to be celebrated not despaired."

"Celebrated? CELEBRATED? No, Buck you!" Ancpeanox barked. "Twilight Sparkle was not an evil pony! My family are not evil ponies! My nightmare came from the moon!"

"There WAS no nightmare that you did not create, lady viscountess." Myriadess growled, getting aggravated herself. "Do you think that your friends Rarity and Applejack would still be alive if there was an old, vicious nightmare within them?"

"But I have a hundred counter-examples! I was compelled to hunt! And Nightmare Moon told me, no ambiguity, that my corruption was her fault, and that was when she was clear of head for having done so!" Ancepanox straightened herself, matching the red eye's unblinking stare with her own, wild gaze.
By the way she was working her jaw, breathing slowly, running her hoof in little circles on the marble floor, there was something grave on her mind. She wanted to argue the point she was a good pony. But she could not. Good ponies would not have done what she did in Canterlot's shadow, massacring and hunting hundreds of ponies. Who could have done something like that other than the foulest, most evil of creatures.
Now Myriadess was telling her she couldn't blame the nightmare for her actions?
"You're going to upset me, alicorn." Ancepanox said quietly, maintaining the stare.

"Or you me. This arguing is pointless. I'm telling you this so you realize that because both exist with you, good and evil, Light and Dark, you have a choice. I say to you, that you have a personal responsibility to do the right thing. You are NOT a pawn, or a victim of fate."

“Oh? OH?! If I'm not a pawn, why are you treating me like one? There was nothing in you well practiced, cynically executed history lesson that resembles an impartial opinion. ” Ancepanox stood up, and began to circled the room, weaving around the desk and tables stacked with scrolls and tomes. "Child of Light, Child of Wintertide... You think you're an oracle or some mystical fount of wisdom. You're a hundred-thousand year old propagandist and nothing more."

“TWILIGHT, DO YOU WANT TO BE A NIGHTMARE FOREVER?!” A plume of infernal flame ignited around Myriadess's red eye, rising up in a great plume. “Am I happy Celestia is destroyed? Yes! Why? I celebrate the destruction of the Celestiaan because I see a hope in mortals like you to be purer expression of Light than they could be. You could be very powerful, viscountess. I wish for you to make the right choice. Earnestly."

Rage filled Ancepanox. She wanted to reach out and tear the red eye from it’s prison of vines and crush it under her hoof. She wanted, for once in her life, to punish one who would abuse her.
‘control, control, breath in, breath out’ She muttered to herself. She looked back up to the alicorn eye. “You’ve been thinking about this for a long time.”

“I have.” Myraidess intoned. “Millennia, in fact. I knew the Celestiaan would be destroyed from below, as I forsaw. How lucky that it was by somepony as interesting as you."

"You're a fraud. They destroyed themselves. Me, Forlorn Spark, and any other mortal just happened to be there to watch the show."

Myriadess quivered, flames still curling around her. "Do not presume to stray from the destiny I have foreseen.”

“Oh I get it all now. I’m the one standing in between you and your happiness.” Ancepanox nodded, again feeling anger. “I've just got one question for you: What is the Tower?

"The Tower... Yes, the Tower of the Bard." Myriadess repeated. "Do not worry about the Tower. The Tower represents the old, the obsolete."

"Oh the gall. You lecture me about worrying about old news?" Ancepanox snorted. "I'm only going to ask again. What is the Tower?"

"An old dream. A forgotten dream, hopefully. Dreams like the Tower of the Bard deserve to decay in anonymity." Myriadess insisted. "Indeed if Forlorn Spark, and thus that doppelganger Twilight Sparkle now holds the Tower, we may have to make steps to sequester her."

"I see." Ancepanox hung her head, hiding her bared fangs. She was losing control over herself, trembling with hate. "I'm glad you know best. I really do. I would hate to make decisions for myself."

Myriadess paused. "I am detecting... the Dark welling from within you."

"Imagine my surprise." Ancepanox voice was hoarse. "Let me pose this to you, alicorn. I believe, wholeheartedly, that Twilight Sparkle was a good pony. But you tell me she was Dark. Rather than accept you interpretation of the morality of the situation, wouldn't it make more sense for me to conclude that the Dark is not evil?"

Myriadess seemed to be catching on that the black alicorn was more than just confused. The red eyes searched Ancepanox’s for her intent. “Lady viscountess… Nightmare Moon and Anima Astral Nacre were blights upon mortalkind."

"And I'm to accept that mortalkind suffering is bad a priori?! I reject that. Not only because of everything Moon taught me, but because I'm mortal, and I deserve to suffer!" Ancepanox snapped. She wondered if she looked like Nightmare Moon, self-confident and lethal, or how she felt, savage and animalistic. She wanted to kill and destroy, and it took every effort to make pronounce her words instead of growling them. "Let them suffer! MAKE them suffer! I want to show all you fucking gods that mortals are perfectly capable of bringing ourselves the joy and agony they proscribe!"

"You don't believe your own words. You're falling into your Dark. Take a moment and calm yourself." Myriadess ordered.

“No, no no no. No hesitating. Hesitating has cost me everything.” Ancepanox laughed. “I understand now, the truth you’ve spoken. Dark is swift and decisive action, brooding vengeance, lethal retribution! According to how you’ve characterized me, it is wrong- WRONG for me to wait."

"Though you mean to mock me, you speak the truth. We are defined enterally by those fundamental energies, we can not escape their pull. Even my kin and I, the ancient gods." Myriadess intoned. “You will fulfill the destiny I have foreseen. Do not be upset with the truth.”

"No." Ancepanox leaped up on the table, bringing her nose inches from the red eye. "I already had one god telling me what I'm going to do, and she was a lot more authoritative than you." She flicked her tail. "I recommend you recant, alicorn. Take back your mythos and your prescriptiveness, and tell me about the Tower."

"I will not tell you about the Tower."

"Then what is the point of you?"

"Do you think ideas of fate and destiny are thrown out lightly by we creatures of Light? If you do not want to be the champion of the Light, there is another mortal out there who will be. There is no divergence from what I've seen." Myriadess accepted the shouting match. "Perhaps in time you will see the wisdom of what I've said. I am not pressed; I waited a thousand years for the Celestiaan to die. I can wait longer if I need to."

"All very good and well..." Ancepanox grit her teeth. Visions of Celestia and Nightmare Moon flashed before her eyes. "For having crafted your philosophy for a thousand years, it is heavily flawed. Destiny comes from above. It shines down on us, warms us, guides us. Newsflash, the sun's not out right now."

“It won't be night forever.”

“For you it will. I've decided I'm going to kill you.” Ancepanox laughed.

“You know you cannot damage me, for this avatar before you is as an illusion, your perception of the psychic link between us. I am not a dreamer, if you remember. So, my lady, you will calm down before you hurt yourself.” Myriadess’s cool words hinted at a threat. “You do not want to damage your own mind, would you?”

“But you perceive me back. Your view into my mind is dependent on what I show you.” Ancepanox waved over the library, and the many purple onlookers. “To be able to hear me, you must be listening to what psychic messages I send back. Without even trying, I bet I could crowd the link with overwhelming clutter…”

Ancepanox jumped backwards into the open atrium with a sweep of her wings, letting an arc of magic off her horn. The energy twisted around all the dream ponies in the room, be they purple or black, and in a terrible instant of screaming of pain and agony, the dream ponies descended on Myriadess in a feral frenzy. The thorns around the red eye thrashed violently to keep the howling dream ponies back, but others jumped from the higher floors and pushed it down into the throng.

Ancepanox watched for a moment, enjoying the satisfaction at Myriadess’s confusion and pain.
"Now... how do I get out of this place?"
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them she was again a mote in the deeper dreamscape, observing the etherial connection between her dream and Myriadess's soul tremble. The alicorn had been forced to retreat.

But the old god’s trembling voice followed her, strained and desperate. “Fighting me will accomplish nothing, you want young viscountess.”

“Accomplish nothing but my pleasure. Your crime is annoying me, and the punishment is death.” Ancepanox snickered. “To tartarus with you. I will frolic like a babe in your ashes.”

Focussing with all her might, Anceapnox tried to push away the alicorn completely. Myriadess trying to say something else, but it was lost in the void as she pulled free.

With a gasp, Anceapnox awoke in the real world. She was in the darkened antechamber, laying on the stone pyre. With careful effort she took conscious control of the trance spell that had been shielding her from the corrosive black fog.
"Look at you. You present yourself so grandly in there. Out here, you're just a big box." She climbed off the sarcophagus. “And you make for a terrible bed.”

A hushed whisper emanated from the faint light off of the stone pyre's embeded jewels. “Do you really want to be alone in the new world, young viscountess?” Somewhere inside the sarcophagus was a small platinum sphere, painted red with the ichor of crushed roses. It was so small and vulnerable.

“I don't know yet, but I'd like one without you. Thank you for everything you've told me, Lady Myriadess, and goodbye.”
Ancepanox’s horn stopped glowing, and her protective shield disappeared. The black fog that pervaded the enclosed space rushed to fill the air. But it did not eat away at her, no, it absorbed into her. A tarry blackness began to radiated outwards from her eyes like foglamps.
She struggled to take in breath. All the foul things that had seeped into the ancient sepulcher over the millennia, the tormented dead of the Everfree, filled her with a feeling like she’d never experienced. Single-mindedly she acted, the compulsion to destroy and dominate deafening in her head.

Without hesitation, Ancepanox unleashed all the power she had consumed. The damnable magic made no sound, but it tore through all matter it touch all the same. Within the deeper dreamscape, the bright red mote of light encased in black vine faded out, leaving the dream of a brilliant purple dreamer, whose mind was a shade darker than it had been before.

Author's Note

When I say 'Twilight Sparkle', in most civilized company, I would find myself the target of uncomfortable stares or nervous avoidance. Even before you consider Ancepanox, there is no historical character so surrounded by controversy. In fact, I have been the target of criticism for portraying her in a sympathetic light, and it seems certain readers are quite determined to keep their hateful notions of her.

A friend of mine in Trottingham informed me of a running bet at the College of History there, where the professors guess how long until my readers murder me. I can appreciate a dark joke, even one in such bad taste, but I found this particular bet rather saddening. Would some pony or griffin really kill me because they found my portrayal of Twilight Sparkle or Ancepanox objectionable? In the current stable political climate, I should think they would be passe issues. And yet I am now worrying.

Clearly, the legacy of the twin deceptions is a ticking bomb that ponykind has pushed away. We are unwilling to debate or even acknowledge our collective history as if touching the subject will cause harm. The crown's antipathy on the issue is particularly appalling, for while they make no move to condemn their predecessors, they are unwilling to protect critics of revisionism. Of course I do not mean revisionism in that history should not change with new scholarship, I mean bad faith arguments. The number of bad faith arguments far outweigh the earnest contribution, however. It is a very interesting predicament.

I apologies, dear readers, for this rant, but I hear that some of you find my lengthier notes to be more personal, illustrating a face behind the pen. Some parting words, for you:
Ponies have a right to give their rendition of the past, as I am. Ponies have a right to try to make a business out of rehashing and changing the past, but they will not get my respect. It is said that nothing makes a cheat so nervous as the truth.

Chapter 40: Self

Very slowly, the oppressive silence lifted.

The wall of the antechamber, which had absorbed the rest of Ancepanox’s magical attack after it had disintigrated the stone pyre, turned into black ash. It began to sag as it was infiltrated by moisture from the surrounding bog, and the surrounding masonry started to crumble.

The black light faded from Ancepanox’s eyes. It took several long seconds for her to recognize her surroundings. Somewhere in the pile of wet ash that had once been the pyre-shaped sarcophagus, was the slag and particulate remains of what had once been Myriadess, the Scarlet Flame.
Ancepanox regarded what she'd done in silence. She smoothed out her fur and mane as best she could, a little motion as she similarly worked to assuage the tempest of emotions she felt inside.
Deciding that she had no reason to linger, she turned her back on the ash and began a slow climb up the bile of bones to the exit chasm.

"Did I just do that?" Ancepanox asked herself, jumping up to the lip of the old cistern-shaped hole.
She had just killed another creature, an old god this time. She had been relatively clear of mind, and she did not regret it.
"Yup. I'm a good pony." She whispered to herself, watching the covern below her all but collapse. The soggy island built around Myriadess's prison fell in, erasing all evidence from the outside except for the disturbed soil. An anonymous grave, for the one forgotten by history for a thousand years.

Perhaps Myriadess really had believed what she had been spouting. Perhaps she was just trying to manipulate Ancepanox. Maybe those tales had been true or they had been lies.
It didn't really matter in the end, did it. "I had no choice. She wouldn't tell me what I needed to know." Ancepanox uttered, pushing through the underbrush back into the marshy waters around the isle, not heading in any particular direction other than away.

Perhaps Light and Dark really were how Myriadess had described them. So what? Did arduous histories of dead gods matter one little bit? Did 'the Giver' or some other long dead bumblefuck have the keys to Ancepanox's salvation? Of course not! Myriadess had practically misled her, making big promises and not following through! Ancepanox knew she was justified, she just wasn't sure how to phrase it yet.

Ancepanox didn't even bother casting the spell to stay above the water, willingly trudging through the murky swamp, aimless. Were there any other lost gods hidden in ancient stashes somewhere in the Everfree? They would have all different stories, all different soapy tales about why their archaic ideologies were right and Ancepanox should become champion of their side.
The thought os someone trying to coerce or trick Ancepanox into believing something was one she was more and more annoyed by. She would not set herself up for another loss like she had experienced with Celestia. She would not let herself be wounded ever, ever again.
She had given up her name, willingly, to pursue Myriadess's siren call. She did not regret that either, for it was an act necessary for other reasons. But it would be the absolute last time she would ever give up anything because someone wanted it from her.

"So I'll keep searching, to find out what happened to me. I'll make absolutely certain I never again suffer like I did." She inspected her reflection in the dark water, shown by moonlight. "Light, Dark, whatever... It doesn't matter to me. Not really. I just want to ensure I'm protected." After a few seconds of thought she added. "And so too for the ones I love."

Yes, that was the justification she'd been searching for: Exerting herself against Myriadess, destroying her, had been done in the name of ensuring safety. It didn't matter she'd been greatly pleasured by it, that tapping her inner fire had brought her an awful joy, sickly saccharine, at seeing the destruction she could bring. There was no shame to be exhilarated when killing, and indeed it was good and honorable to be so, when protecting oneself and ones dearest.
Ancepanox looked forward to tapping that feeling again for some future triumph over a crushed foe.

But, and Ancepanox was now sidetracked by this intrusive question, where did that feeling actually come from? Myriadess had accused her and Twilight Sparkle of being 'Dark', evil, and whatnot. So did her feelings stem from the nightmare, or her own mind?
Ancepanox reflected on this a while, and in the end decided it mattered very little. One some level, she realized that it should have alarmed her much more, but she rationalized her decision by telling herself she would begin to worry if she did something truly bad.

"I'm not a bad pony." Ancepanox promised her reflection. "On average, I'm a fairly good pony, you'll find. I look forward to doing more good things in the future!"

The question remained though, what to do now?
On reflection, it had been stupid to let Rarity harangue her into leaving, even if the mare had legitimate grievances. If the ponies she'd wronged held it against her, Ancepanox should not run away, but work to do better and make up for what she'd done. Desperation, denialism, and hysteria was not the right way to respond. She was a student, after all! She could, and would, get control of herself.

After all, that was all she could get control of. Everything else in existence, mortal and god, were essentially chaotic and unknowable, and had to be fought. Yes, if Ancepanox was ever to be safe, she had to inoculate herself against the chaos of the world.

"I'm a mare. I'm a noble. I'm a viscountess. I'm a student. I'm a..." She straightened up, looking north where the Everfree Castle waited for her to return. She turned that direction and resumed her sloshing trot through the bog water. "I'm an adventurer. I'm a pioneer. I'm a general. I'm a dreamer, I'm a dream-breaker." She hummed, trying to think of more. "I'm a good pony. I'm on my own. I'm a defender, I'm a god-killer. I'm an... an alicorn?"
She was not so sure of that last one, yet.

So yes, she was going back to Everfree Castle, for all the reasons she'd thought of. She would make sure the Nightmare ponies were doing okay, and reassure them she was still looking for their cure. If indeed the strange magical effluence in the crescent chasm was the Harmony Myriadess had spoken of, Ancepanox would make sure nopony else got to close: If Dash woke up and realized what it was, that would be its own problem. Otherwise, it was just a geographical feature, coincidental, because Ancepanox refused to subscribe to Myriadess's worldview of Light vs Dark.
Perhaps it was time to face her fear, and hear what the Tower was from the mare who'd dreamt it: Twilight Sparkle. The dream, she was certain, would show her the way to the deeper mysteries, and finally found out why a cursed fate had befallen her.

The Everfree Castle was completely swallowed by mist, black and consuming all moonlight, now beginning to billow out into the surrounding forest driving fearful animals before it. The longer it lingered, the thicker and colder the fog became. The halls of the castle might have well have existed at the center of the planet for all the light they were getting.

A burst of purple light and static in one of the outer courtyards disrupted the chokehold of the mist. Ancepanox compleated her teleportation spell and popped back into creation.

The fog touched her skin, and she felt a jolt. She threw up her magical barrier again, pushing the mist away. (t took a minute to make sure she was actually back in the castle, and she hadn't teleported into the crescent gulch.
"Again with the mist. What is it with magic manifesting as mist tonight?" Ancepanox mumbled. She let her barrier fade just a it and reached through it, to feel the magic pervading the area.

Rapturous hatred, sadistic glee, and suffering washed through her for a fraction of a second, before she jerked her hoof back.
A pony was responsible for this, no doubt about it.

"Consarn it." She sighed. "Wasn't gone that long. Who did this?"

She prowled the south edge of the ruins for a while, and found nopony. The little annex where the campfire had been was quite, the fire dead.

"As still as the grave." Ancepanox mumbled. "Hello?! Anypony here, like, at all?!"

Coming into the throne room off the courtyard, Ancepanox view was half obscured from the fractured model solar system, so with a bound she alighted on the largest grey stone orb of the sun.

The throne room had been completely redecorated in the short time she’d been gone, and not in a good way. In the dark haze, it looked like a full showing of the royal court: Taking the place of the lords and ladies of the castle were empty armor sets on their racks, mossy statues, hideous gargoyle, and propped up paintings, pulled from all over the castle. A narrow path was left open through the crowd up the center, all the way to the raised throne dais. At the head of the room were the Castle’s most important ponies.
The late Celestia in her dented royal regalia was laid on her shattered throne of gold, looking as though she’d simply fallen asleep while holding court. She was attended attended by her hoofmaiden, Twilight Sparkle, unconscious beside her.
On her right was the vacant moon throne, still destroyed, waiting for it’s princess to claim it. Watching over it from the bodyguard's spot were the glazed-over eyes of Chrysalis, the vigilant stance she had been posed in undermined by her startled death mask.

"Holy..." Ancepanox blinked. "I think I know who did this."

A sound drew her attention. The nightmare pony Rainbow Dash was gagged and restrained by a web of fabric that held her against the wall to the left of the throne. She’d managed to tear away some of the more decayed fabric around her left hindleg, but she was left kicking into empty air in her constant struggle to free herself.

Draped limply over the rubble of the nightmare altar, at the edge of the dais, was Applejack, her fore and hind hooves tied and stretched apart like a ritual sacrifice. Cuts and lacerations criss-crossed her body, making patterns of red across her corrupted orange-grey fur. All her muscles were lax and her eyes were unfocused; Ancepanox could only guess at how long she’d been tortured.

And kneeling above Applejack, slowly licking along the bleeding wounds, was Rarity. She was shaking, either in exhaustion from the toil of moving the elaborate scene into place, or in exhilaration from her sadistic affections. The black moon tapestry hung off her neck like a scarf, keeping the darkness in her body connected to her soul.
“Can you feel it? The building gravitas.” Rarity was whispering to Applejack. “So, so good of her to join us at last.”

Ancepanox jumped off the stone orb. She cantered deliberately up the hall, and saw that all the statues, paintings, and armor subtly bow to her under the effect of Rarity’s magic.
When she reached the edge of the royal dais, the Rarity looked up from her task, to face her and the court. The nightmare unicorn pulled at Applejack’s bonds, levitating the unconscious earth pony to a tapestry hook next to Dash and hanging her there.

“You’re back far faster than I anticipated. I haven’t finished playing yet. Heh heh heh.” Rarity giggled softly. She had a mania behind her eyes, and there was a warble in her seductive whisper as she addressed the gathering of inanimate objects, deceased, and corrupted ponies. The gallery of stone, metal, and canvas onlookers turned to face the front. “I welcome you back all the same, Lady Sparkle.”

“You tricked me.” Ancepanox said angrily. “I see it in your eyes. You’re not Rarity at all. You’re pure nightmare.”

“The most pure, thanks in no small part to your help. Rarity's soul is sequestered in this fabric, serving only to feed me while I reign in her body. No conflict, no balance, only nightmare.” Nightmare Rarity curtsied. “I must admit, I was largely playing it by ear, but predicting you was easy. You don’t stray far from what you know, do you?”

“Was it really so bad to just ride along in Rarity’s body? Did you really need to be in control?”

Rarity burst out laughing. “Asked the mare who selfishly used the ritual to make herself into an alicorn! Oh ho ho, but you had good intentions? As if!” Her smile became a frown. “This is the question I heard so clearly, pounding through my head: What is a dream without a dreamer? The answer, I decided, is NOTHING. I would go to any length, kill anypony, to keep myself from feeling that again. Just like you did, Twilight. ”

The black alicorn let out a pained breath. “Don’t call me Twilight.”

“But darling, why not? Are you afraid to dirty your name with your new life?” Rarity inquired mockingly.

“Because it belongs to her.” Ancepanox looked past Rarity to the unconscious purple unicorn, laying limply against Celestia’s old throne. “I had my chance with it, and now it’s her turn. She deserves a chance, without my burdens.”

“How positively… selfless of you.” Rarity cooed. “And utterly out of character for your cynical nature, Sparkle. You just want to hide from the consequences of what you've done."

“I will face the consequences, but not as Twilight Sparkle!” The black alicorn felt the urge to charge the nightmare, but suppressed it. “My name is Ancepanox.”

“And mine is..." The unicorn tapped her chin with her hoof. "Why don't you just call me Rarity, for simplicity's sake. I won't burden everypony with ridiculous labels like 'Forlorn Spark' or 'Ancepanox', just because I had a change of mood. I'm not a coward!” Rarity laughed. “You want hide behind your names, so it can absorb all the grim things and you can escape to the new name. I am nightmare, but still I will carry the name of Rarity, for it is by her sins that I am given life. Do not deny the same is true of you!”

“Just-” Ancepanox paused. Rarity’s words were hitting her hard, vindicating all the little self-doubts she’d pushed away for the sake of her sanity. A certain part of her incited to violence, demanding she silence any impudent tongue, and she was having a harder and harder time ignoring it. She could see herself evaporating that unicorn like she had Myriadess's pyre.
"Your criticisms are valid, Rarity, but I deny them. Don’t think of me as a continuation of Twilight. Think of me as my own mare.”

“Then who are you? What is your past, your heritage?!” Rarity challenged. “Without Twilight, it would be impossible to understand you. No, I can not forget Twilight."

"You can and should. I don't even have my old dream anymore." Ancepanox promised.

"Oh come on, my lady, you know there's more to the pony than their dream. You didn't even know about the true nature of the Dreamscape before you met Nightmare Moon." Rarity flashed a devious grin. "You still share many things with Twilight. Such as her Dark, by which all the nightmares here were given life."

Ancepanox felt a knot in her throat. “How... How did you find out?”

“That you were the cause of all this and not Nightmare Moon? Rarity knew all along. She knew for a fact that the magic hunting us was made by a mortal and not the princess. The dream, the Tower... Only a mortal could have brought us there. Yes, if Nightmare Moon was responsible, we would have been dead on the first hunt." Rarity stood up and paced back and forth in front of the thrones. "All of us realized it on some level. It was obvious, and you should have seen it too. It was so very clearly you!" She kicked a chunk of the broken nightmare altar across the room. "It's astonishing when you think about it, and a little infuriating. Rarity would have murdered a pony to have the potential Twilight Sparkle did. Still, she and I are not positioned to take advantage anyway. We have a Dark heritage to empower us on our quest, same as you.

“I will acknowledge that darkness, but I will not accept it.” Ancepanox growled.

“Ha!” Rarity laughed derisively. “You are a foal who hates the idea of growing up! Pardon my Prench my lady, but you are a bucking idiot! Do you not realize what you are yet? Your whole life, you have lived with a purpose, denied until now. A dreamer, with the Tower as their dream! Can there be any clearer sign?"

"Don't read so much into things. Not everything is a sign." Ancepanox said, detecting in Rarity's words the opposite assertion as Myriadess had made.

"Said the mare who stole the nightmare alicorn's body!" Rarity shouted in excitement. "You were made for a darker purpose, dreamer. You killed Celestia! You killed Nightmare Moon! We should be wondering if you're a pony or a god!"

“Of course I’m a pony!” Ancepanox balked.

“It’s such a shame too.” Rarity nibbled her lip playfully. “Tell me about the death you've rought! Excite me! Entice me! Let me know how they bled. Confess to me what you yearn for: To kill! To destroy! There is no higher calling for the Dark than to hunt and consume the dreamers of this world.”

Ancepanox wondered if her killing Myriadess, what she pompously considered a great act of rebellion, was just another step in some larger, unknown destiny that Rarity was now scratching out. She would have killed Myriadess for nothing.
The only question, burning heinously in Ancepanox's mind was this: What was the Tower, and where had it come from.

“Your assertion is meaningless. Not just wrong, but meaningless. I left old dreams behind, and the new one is NOT Dark. It's ordered, and beautiful, and something I chose. I have every reason to believe that the future is in my hooves, untethered to the past." Ancepanox said. "I am who I choose to be. And you can be who you choose to be.”

"That's so trite. I'll ask you forthrightly: Do you consider yourself responsible for the sins you've committed?" Rarity asked, sharply.

Ancepanox looked past Rarity to the obsidian moon throne. She could only look at Chrysalis’s grotesque corpse for a moment before she had to look away. “I refuse to involve myself in your games. Sin, propriety, and any other accusation you can throw at me, its all meaningless spooks. I have greater truths to search for.”

Rarity's shoulders slumped, and a scowl overcame her features. "I see. You think you're above it all." She fidgeted, making the tapestry draped over her back flutter; On Ancepanox it sat like a cape, on Rarity like a princely robe. "My lady, we're going to butt heads over this. I don't think you respect us. I don't think you recognize my right to exist."

“Conceited nightmare. What makes you think I give a damn about you?” Ancepanox shouted agrily, then paused. “This court and audience you’ve made… And that broken blue throne? Did you mean that for me, or for yourself?

“That’s the first sensible question of the night! Rejoice! Or DIE!” Rarity smashed her hoof against the ground in a sudden outburst of anger. The mania in her eyes grew wilder. “Yes, Yes! Nightmare Moon is dead! Let's suss out who among us will replace her."

“If there's one thing I've learned tonight, it's that I shouldn't care about thrones, especially alicorn's thrones. Besides it's all jagged and doesn't look very comfortable.” Ancepanox said. Her gaze shifted to Twilight Sparkle. While she wanted to leave, she didn’t have the courage to turn her back on that sleeping face. “Don't get caught up on the symbols of the past. They're dead. Rarity, you can come with me. There’s so much we could discover out there, together.”

“What a wonderful idea! Let's go and victimize the world under continuously changing alias, discovering new and exciting ways to dodge the consequences of our actions. Let's be cowards together! Let's be little snots, little bucking weasels together." Rarity mocked acidly. "Let us go off and be in our own little world, conceited, uncaring, disconnected. I've never wanted anything more than to be a bucking worm eating shit and telling myself how intelligent I am."

That was the last straw.
Ancepanox’s annoyance and anger had been steadily building over the conversation, try as she might to suppress it. Rarity's nightmare wanted something from her she could not morally provide, and was a real bitch besides. But there was an iching truth to the accusations, that Ancepanox really was being foolish, and she knew it.
She'd hunted Ponyville, she'd perforated that changeling Chrysalis, she'd indirectly caused Celestia and Moon's deaths, she'd massacred Glori's camp, and she'd killed Myriadess. How much could she actually explain away those acts? How could she distance herself from it?
She knew she was trying to enforce a lie. She was a monster. She was evil. She was not a good pony, and being detached and aloof from her crimes did not make them go away. If she was being honest with herself...
Ancepanox looked into Rarity's eyes, and let out a growl from deep in her chest. If she was being honest with herself, she felt the pride, anger, and hatred. It invigorated her, fueled her. Yes, Ancepanox was more than a persona now, but not to hide from the sins of Twilight Sparkle. Ancepanox rejoiced in sin like Twilight never could.. She was alive.

“What do you think I should be doing? Fighting, dominating, hunting?" Ancepanox snarled, drawing herself up to her full height. "I can be really nasty when I want to be, nightmare."

"Good! Embrace it, my lady! You know its not the trickery of some curse. This is what you WANT!" Rarity cried out. "Show me how much you want it. Please!"

"If you want your nightmare, you shall have her. Your corpse will be me cushion on that jagged throne.” Ancepanox spaced her legs out pulled as much energy to herself as she could. Her eyes began to emit sickly black light as darkness filled every corner of her being. She began to tremble.

“Go farther than you ever have before. Then we can have our battle, for the heir to the Moon! I'm not a warrior but I promise to give you a good battle, my lady.” Rarity laughed triumphantly, readying herself. “A l'attaque!”

They loosed their attacks. The enshadowed throne room was lit up like a dying star as unicorn and alicorn cast spell after spell.
The burning tendrils of Darkness found purchase in the dark fog, and a thousand radiant fangs of concentrated hatred jumped and arced through the black air. Ancepanox's spells flashed out as quick, sharp beams that sliced and pierced the air. Rarity let loose a hail of raw magic that more than made up for her lack of skill with sheer output. The magical annihilated each other where they met in the air, making deafening crackles and flashes, and tore out even more of the surrounding stone of the throne room.

Ancepanox stood fast, refusing to flinch as she hellacious energy Rarity was casting began to overwhelm her careful attacks. Rarity's bolts began to blast apart the statues to either side of her, and thinking quickly Ancepanox cast an unaimed beam and a shield at the same time. But the shield did not cover herself, but rather Twilight and Celestia's bodies as her wild counterattack cooked everything around Rarity; That left her body unguarded, and Rarity's attacks finally began to catch her, slashing across her black fur in rivulets that sent searing pain strait along her nerves.

There was a lull. Ancepanox was left breathing heavily, her vision returning only slowly after the blinding exchange.
"Goooodness. You're really, really angry." She wheezed. "But so am I." She embraced the pain, letting it power her. Every chunk of flesh that was burned away was immediately healed with a shimmer of dark purple magic. Like the nightmare's regeneration, she noted.
She was beginning to understand the Dark and its place within her. It could be a powerful asset.

Rarity, amidst the sizzling rubble of the dais, was laughing. "You nearly got me darling." She was holding up her dark tapestry, apparently having used it and its intricate wards as a shield against Ancepanox's largest blast. "If you had done any less rigorous a job protecting Rarity's binding, she and I would be but ash." She re-tied the tapestry around her neck. "Again."

Ancepanox, eyes narrowed, charged forward.

Rarity’s mane and tail unwound from its luscious curl, encapsulating her and dissolving into the mist. She reappeared on the other side of the room. "A physical engagement? Come on my lady, we are more civilized- Wah ha ha!!" Her negging was replaced by a shriek as the dark alicorn raked the wall with a another beam. The unicorn watched her fur and flesh sizzle before she evaporated herself into mist again. The wall behind her was practically evaporated by Ancepanox's sustained attacks.

"Was that it? Was that all you had in you?" Ancepanox roared, advancing on the empty dais. “Who’s the coward now?! I'll tear this castle brick by brick if I have to.”

Rarity appeared in the air above her and tackled her to the ground. Ancepanox tried shielding herself from the trampling with her wings, but the thin bones were pulverized under the assault. Rarity retreated back and smoothed out her mane with her magic. Her coat was smoking from the hits she’d taken.
“The pain drives us forward, makes us more.” She winced. “Oh but darling, darling! You've burnt off my tail!”

“P- Pathetic.” Ancepanox snarled, rising to her hooves. With a sickly grind, her wing bones pulled back into place. “I'm a bucking alicorn and you're gunna have to do way more to put a dent in me."

The alicorn dove forward, trying to impale Rarity on her horn. Rarity jumped to the side, but was caught as Ancepanox threw her head from side to side wildly. She tried running, but was slashed twice more on her side. Blood began seeping from the cuts. “My coat! My perfect coat!”

Ancepanox grinned. “Let me taste it!” She jumped toward Rarity, but the unicorn disappeared into shadows again. “That is quite the clever power you’ve learned, but it won’t save you.” She blasted at the corners of the room with spells, trying to find where her opponent had gone. “Rarity! Come out so I can finish you!”
But there was no answer. She stopped, and listened to the absolute silence.

The throne room had been devastated. In a few short seconds of hate, Rarity and Ancepanox had massively outdone the damage Celestia and Forlorn Spark had wrought. The assemblage of miscellanea that had comprised the pretend court had been scattered, broken, or melted. The back wall behind the thrones had been all but evaporated, with what little remained threatening to collapse.
Ancepanox took a deep breath to clear her head. Rage had once again led her to victory.

“You can't touch me. I'm a queen. I kill princesses. Bide your time as much as you want." Ancepanox addressed the empty aid boastfully. “We both know I’ll win.”

She waited for a few more minutes, just to make sure it was safe. The black mist was thinning out, and soft moonlight was beginning to barely pierce through. Whatever force within Rarity that had spread itself out so much had been assuaged, or perhaps suppressed.
Satisfied with the continuing silence, Ancepanox cautiously approached Dash and Applejack.

She removed Dash’s gag. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve been better.” Dash croaked, then after swallowing to wet her throat, continued. “Let me down, eh?”

Ancepanox nodded, slashing through the bonds with her magic. Dash fell to the ground, groaning as she stretched her sore muscles. “And Applejack-”

“I know.” The black alicorn brought Applejack down more gently, carefully cutting and undoing the fabric around the nightmare earth pony’s hooves. “She’ll heal, but it will be slower without energy.”

“Damn, that fight was nasty. Call me crazy, but compared to that Forlorn Spark and Celestia were holding back.” Unable to stay standing, Dash sat and leaned against the wall. "We missed each other earlier. Glad to see you're, well, alive."

"Yeah you were passed out when I left for Canterlot, and passed out when I got back. Funny how things work." Ancepanox nodded. "You heard everything Rarity and I said."

Dash looked the dark alicorn up and down. "I had my doubts Sparkle, but you pulled through. But um..." She didn't like the slightly wild looks she was getting. "Are you okay? It looked like you got pinged pretty bad."

"Never better." Ancepanox said. "I just what to know what's going on around here? Did something set Rarity off?"

“Not that I know of. She's gone completely nuts, talking all about how she is going to make Ponyville a nightmare paradise again. She thought you were going to help her kill all the ponies.”

“As you can see, just the opposite is true.”

Dash arched a brow. "Is it?"

"It is." Ancepanox rumbled. “Enough yapping. Where are the young ones? Rarity may try something with them.”

I…” Dash looked crestfallen. “I was going to evacuate them, but I messed up. I tried to clear the fog and Rarity used it to grab me.”

“That’s it! Of course!” Ancepanox’s eye lit up in realization. Just like in Myriadess’s antechamber, the black fog permeating the castle was the manifestation of dark emotion. It it could be absorbed in the same way. "Don't stand too close."

She closed her eyes, letting Rarity’s hatred flow into her. Hatred of perceived injustices, hatred of those born with fortune, hatred of inconvenience; It was every little peeve of the white unicorn blow up to vast proportion. Ancepanox felt like she might throw up.
"Urgg, I'm not, ooh, metabolizing as well this time. But..."

Anecpanox placed a hoof each for Dash and Applejack, letting Rarity’s pain flow out of herself and into them. She could feel their greedy nightmares metabolize it, using the emotion to repair their hosts. The concept of emotion as energy and currency, so foreign to the pony mentality, was beginning to feel normal for her.

“That was unpleasant." She opened her eyes. Most of Applejack’s cuts had healed, and Dash was breathing normally again. "That should last you for a while. Doing well?"

Dash had her eyes closed, trying to keep the influx of dark emotion from taking over her mind.

“Rainbow Dash?” Ancepanox nudged her. “Doing okay?

Dash opened her eyes slowly. “Fine, I’m fine. I thought I was going to wig out for a second there, but I got it.”

“Good. Now go find the fillies and Spike. Did you meet Spike, my dragon? Just get them out of here. Can you do that?”

“Yeah you can count on me.” Dash saluted. “What are you gunna do? Will you be good on your own?”

Ancepanox cracked a smile. It felt amazingly refreshing to have someone care, even offhandedly. “For the first time in a while, I feel free."

"Uh, I meant against Rarity."

"Oh, yes I can take her for sure, barring something unforeseen." Ancepanox winked.

“Then what?” Dash asked, concerned.

“I don’t want to hurt Rarity, I really don’t. She’s not herself. But if worst comes to worst I won’t hold back.” Ancepanox shrugged. She gently pulled Twilight Sparkleup to her, checking her for damage. Thankfully Rarity had not touched her. "Don't let her accusations confuse you. I'm not here to hurt anypony unless I have to.

“I think I believe you.” Dash tentatively offered a consoling hoof around the black alicorn’s shoulder. "Maybe I'm making a bad call here, but I've seen friends go crazy from smaller amounts of power." She cleared her throat. "But that stuff about thrones and stuff, and Nightmare Moon..."

"Nonsense."

"If you say so. it sounded like you thought there was something more important. Some big mystery."

Ancepanox squinted, chosing her words carefully. "I don't want to go into it too much. But, ahem..." She made a little motion up towards the silver moon above. "If certain old entity is to believed, there's larger powers looming over us than Celestia and Nightmare Moon ever where. All of this might have been orchestrated."

“Orchestrated?" Dash asked, voice dipping in worried recognition. "You mean the ancient alicorns, don't you."

“Anima Astral Nacre, is who I mean." Ancepanox nodded. "And another ancient alicorn named Myriadess told me."

Dash did not look as surprised as Ancepanox expected. "Oh, yeah, I heard a lot about A.A.N. in Chitin." She motioned to the dead changeling. "The black queens worshiped her or something."

"I'm beginning to think some ponies too." Ancepanox grunted. "She was here a thousand years ago, and a lot of the crap happening now is just the continuation of those old grudges. We're going to hearing a lot about Astral in the future, because there's one up in heaven, and one over in Canterlot."

"Damn, really?" Dash rubbed her chin. "Heavy stuff dude. Sounds like we have a lot to talk about later, if we survive. Out of curiosity, where's that other one, Myrides? I'm guessing she's one of those metal spheres?"

"Was. Myriadess tried to manipulate me and I destroyed her." Ancepanox reported. "I suspect she was wanted me to procure a mortal to hitch a ride on. Apparently, that's how Anima Astral Nacre survived the death of the alicorns. She hid in pony's dreams through a line of her mortal progeny. She'd still be around today in somepony's head if she hadn't returned to the cosmos years ago." She shrugged. "Then again, lots of other things would be different too, so that neither here nor there."

“So, like, she transferred herself through her descendants? Wow. I hate to keep going back to it but we saw a way lamer version of that in Chitin. Didn't end so well for him though.” Dash chortled darkly. “Man, if Celestia and Nightmare Moon had thought of that, they'd still be alive wouldn't they.”
Dash galloped off into the castle. Several minutes later she could be seen flying above the castle with a precious cargo of three fillies and a baby dragon.

Ancepanox did not notice.
She was aghast.

Celestia… Nightmare Moon…

Celestia particularly...
She would have thought about it, because she'd know from history.

Entering and becoming a part of a pony’s lineage… It was all dreams, anyway. A creature could survive their death by sheltering in another’s dream.

She looked to Twilight Sparkle, then to Celestia.

Then back to Twilight Sparkle.

Chapter 41: The Longest Night of the Year

The night of the Summer Sun

Night was inevitable. I was guaranteed to come and end the day, but it would not last forever. Yes light would be replaced with darkness, but light would come again. It was not for no reason that countless proverbs referenced this endless cycle: As sure as the sun would rise was Twilight's favorite. Two states of being, two powers, two princesses.

But this night, this eternal night, promised no deliverance.

The dust was long since settled from the destructive exchange between Rarity and Ancepanox, but the black alicorn could still feel the stings and burns of where she’d been hit. The flesh and fur had restored itself, but the pain persisted in a certain way, an echo of the trauma her nerves had been exposed to.

An echo… An echo of pain since passed. In what world did it make sense that pain should persist after the cause had ended?

Ancepanox sat down and leaned herself against the base of the broken old sun throne. She had been in this spot plenty of times, in that other throne room, hundreds of kilometers away in Canterlot. She could not deny the view was the same beside both thrones, as she could see the whole room, destroyed as it was, and still the similarities in her head were eerie. Was the newer modeled on the older, or did a throne room anywhere in the world look about the same?
Not many other civilized throne rooms could sport as much carnage though. Applejack was nestled beside her, still unconscious but stabilized, but the other bodies were still where Rarity had arranged them, in mockery of the onetime grandeur of the Everfree Court.

Celestia… Ancepanox tilted her head back, to look at the limp body of the sun princess draped over that broken old throne. A dead principality, a dead castle, a dead Princess.
“Who are you?” She asked the corpse. “When Myriadess told me about Celestia the First, I could barely reconcile it with who I thought you were. Until she started talking about the siege, that is.” She sat up a bit more and fluttered her wings. “When ponies get hurt, we only have to deal with it for a few decades before we die. Mortal pain, like mortal lives, is transitory. But an alicorn’s? That lasts a lot longer doesn’t it.”
Her wide, saddened expression turned severe. “How can I hurt you now, Celestia? How do I cause pain that will last an eternity, like my predicessors did on this very spot a thousand years ago?”

Her gaze flicked momentarilly to Twilight Sparkle before she chose the next target of her ranting.

“Changeling. What was your name? Chrysalis? What an aweful name.” Ancepanox adressed the dead queen, laid off to the side of the dais, that damnible look of eternal surprise/anguish just as gruesome as it was when it was fresh. She’d begun to attract ants.
“You feel almost… suplamentary to this story. But it easilly could have gone the other way, and it would have been you pondering things and me rotting on the ground. But at the same time…”
She kicked a levitated a small chunk of rublic and pinged it off the changeling’s carrapice. “It was not you who was sucked into my story, nor me into yours. This is an alicorn’s tale. “
She threw another piece of rubble. “And despite that, I still want to saver the moment we had. I don’t even remember the words we exchanged, or the fight, and that’s fine because it was the moment wasn’t about that. It was about how much I hated you, and how that triumphed over your hate for me. Isn’t it lovely, and isn’t it poetic, that we can hate each other enough to kill despite just meeting? I was horrified when it happened but now I think that’s a welcome change from these ancient dramas I’ve been drawn into. Just two hates, and one death. Hell yeah.”

She stood up. “Were it so easy all the time! Gods curse the inventor of history, to deprive ponykind of the simplicity of deaths like yours, changeling!” She burst out laughing. “Ha ha!! And deaths like Myriadess’s! And deaths like those knights! Just so many chance meetings, chance convergences of fate that bring together two hates, and one death. It feels so good! Why does it feel so good to kill?!”

She paced around on the dais. Again her eyes turned to Twilight Sparkle, but she looked away. She wasn’t ready to talk to her yet.

There was a crunch as her metal-clad hoof came down on some glass. The shattered stained-glass, once the magnificent window between the throne room and the land of Everfree, now shared the floor with stone and dust and blood. Ancepanox picked up a shard, angling it back and forth to catch the moonlight in different ways. The crafts of ponykind were doomed to erasure by the course of time, and did not need mortal help to expedite the process.
As she angled it just so, Anceanox saw her own reflection. It was at the exact profile that had graced the moon’s surface for a thousand years, the mare in the moon. Ancepanox imagined it was Nightmare Moon herself, looking out at her.
“Am I doing a good job?” She whispered to Moon. “Is this mortal doing enough to protect the dignity and legacy of the Nightmare of the Moon?”

She looked up to the moon, then back to the reflection. “I wish we could have talked more, about ancient philosophy and history and all that. The months were not enough to let me know, truly, who you were. I’m sorry but I have to guess. I have to guess what you would have wanted, both for this body and for me.”

She crunched the glass into sand, then stood up to her full height. Let the discourse begin.

“Celestia!” She barked at the corpse, leaning over it. “Celestia, why did you take me as your student?! What inside of me gives me the distinct honor and privilege? Because I was a disaster waiting to happen, too powerful for her own good? Why did I get a student’s dorm instead of a cell on top of a mountain? From the very first moment, my capacity for destruction, perhaps even death, was obvious. Hell, my kairotic moment was the explosion of Cloud Creche!”
She pointed a hoof accusingly. “You knew. It wasn’t just my magical potential that made me a hazard, but something deeper, darker, and impossible to admit to me. Did you take me on as a challenge to yourself, to see if a pony with Dark dreams inside of her could be saved? Celestia, my princess, were you thinking of other Dark ponies who you could have saved from themselves?”
She grinned, knifelike teeth wavering between smile and snarl. “You can’t save ponies who don’t want to be saved, princess. You should have destroyed me and my family if you wanted to keep this from happening. Bucking, sit little filly Twilight down on the floor and turn her into DUST!”

Tears were beginning to well at the edges of her eyes. Angry tears, sad tears, she couldn’t really tell.

She pointed at Chrysalis again. “Do the math, Celestia! Can’t you see how much suffering letting me live has caused? Why do you let evil ponies live? Like me, like my mother, like this bug?! Celestia the First traveled the world with her sister driving fillies like me into the dirt. Who hurt you? Who made you lose your way?”

She picked up another shard of glass to urgently shout at the reflection. “How much did she really know? She was your sister, yet separated by succession and the years. What would she have said to you, or you to her? I wonder if you would have even been able to communicate, so alienated you two really were from each others conception of each other. You would have needed a translator.”
A translator, or a messenger, or a medium of common exchange. Ancepanox ground her teeth, the tears coming freely now. It was so undignified, she thought, and Nightmare Moon would never have cried like that.
“You should have chosen a different pony, Moon. You should have chosen a different pony, Celestia. Something was wrong with me and I could not be the pony either of you needed. I was both of your triumphs and failings, a idle seeker of virtue who let her Darkness linger. Not for any high minded reason, but because I was a student.”

She fell back on her haunches, feeling weak in the legs. “Historians don’t like to talk about inevitability, but on reflection, you couldn’t have brought us together and have it end in any way other than tragedy. Myriadess tried to prevent this moment, where I realize how bucking pointless all the ideology and posturing is. But this was inevitable. At the end of the day, Twilight Sparkle will give way to a monster.”

But Ancepanox knew, as she sniffled softly, that the cursed fate she was uncovering for herself was not to be mourned, but celebrated. If there was anything to be learned from Myriadess’s lecture, it was that the aspect of Dark was just another interpretation of existence like the Light was.
“Mom, dad, I’m evil.” Ancepanox whispered ruefully.

She looked into the glazed eyes of Celestia, and remembered what she had seen when those eyes were alight with hatred. Destruction, death, agony, and pain, that is what she’d seen.

Ancepanox wanted it. Every time she lost the veneer of restraint, pain and death followed: Chrysalis, Glori, Ripple Wreath, Myriadess, and nearly Rarity. Incalculably more if Forlorn Spark, the truest manifestation of that Dark desire within her, was counted.
Without control and without restraint, when she was being honest with herself, she wanted to make reality that bleak future full of woe and anguish. That perverted joy asserting herself, in a way that could not be denied, made her feel more in control than restraint ever had.

“Should I hate myself for what I am? Do the other creatures of the world deserve the least iota of protection from sadistic obsession. I could get away with it so easily. Astral Nacre and Velvet’s crimes in Canterlot prove this nation isn’t ready for creatures like me. None of them, no, not a single thing of this planet could stop me.” She said gravely. “That I know of.”

She nodded to herself. “What to do then? What to do, what to do, that’s the stressful question. What’s the future hold for me. There’s a humdrum, bourgeoise worry in me, a fear of falling from these heights. What do I do to keep what I have and rise even higher?”

Answers. From the very beginning of the accursed night she’d wanted her answers.
“No more putting it off. My circular speculation don’t get me any closer to the truth.”

At last, she allowed herself to look at Twilight Sparkle, resting so peacefully against the princess’s side.

Twilight Sparkle.

“I can feel your mind. It matches so well with what I was. You’re me.” Ancepanox mumbled, half-lidded, probling the little mare’s faint magical aura. “What a trick, what a feat, to put the cat back in the box. Last week Twilight Sparkle had the capacity to become Forlorn Spark, or me. Did Celestia change you too much for that to happen again?”
She knelt down by the purple pony. “I could ask her. She’s up there somewhere. Celestia the dream parasite. She’s the difference between you and me. You’re my past, but I might not be your future, little Twilight Sparkle, because of her.”

Things were coming to a head.
Ancepanox leaned forward, her breathless whispers tickling Twilight’s ears.
“Yes, my teacher, a certain word yearns to be tasted on this tongue of mine. Why? Why did you do this to me? I loved you, but with your dying breath, you spited me. Why did you save Forlorn Spark instead of me?”

Ancepanox’s tears dried up.
She grabbed Forlorn Spark around the head, bringing them nose to nose. The dark alicorn mashed their faces together, the cold metal of the helmet against the other’s forehead, their mane tangling together, their horns grinding.
“That’s right, Celestia. I’m coming after you.”

The shimmering glow of magic was all the preamble before Ancepanox collapsed, her consciousness having departed her body for the Dream.

In another deep dark place, another cursed creature also wandered, less the questions of existance and more physical space. The cavern under the Mountain was vast and black, and even at its edges the place’s nature abused its visitors.

“Hmm.” Wreath took in his surroundings, and acnowledged he was well and truely lost. By the faint light of the firefly lantern, there was no telling one direction from another. He’d even turned and tried to go back the way he’d came but never found the cavern wall again. There were only the strange, towering statues spaced irregularly on the rough sone ground.

He had never been one to talk to himself, but he could almost hear the voice of Glori berating him. “What were you thinking?! Êtes-tu imbécile? How was running out into this damn cave at all preferable to the company of an old gentlepony? You could have grilled him for information and snapped him in half! Now you’re lost, and it’s dark, and we’re hungry, the list goes on! When we get back, expect the world of hurt! Tout ce monde!”

Wreath didn’t even have to elaborate to hard to acnowledge that he was a very small creature in a very large, uncaring void. A pebble in space. A particle of dust in the moonlight. Lost in the dark.
Wreath sighed, feeling that without an overseer to be disappointed in his follies, it fell to him to be disappointed in himself. Given the smallest iota of leeway, he immediately showed aweful judgement and lost himself in a hole he doubted even the gods could have found him in.

How many hours had he been there already? He held the lantern up and let it illuminate one of the solemn stone faces above him. Watch though they may, the dead stone gave no answer, only silent contemplation of his fate.

Stifling an irritated sigh, Ripple Wreath sat down on the stone underhoof. He looked from the statue before him to another, a dozen hooves to the side, a mere outline in the fleeting light.
Each statue was easily thirty hooves tall, bearing the countenances of solemn ponies in flowing robes. The sculpter had done a masterful job of capturing a strained control about them, like those ponies of action had not been pleased to be captured in still stone. Wreath could almost beleive they would rear up at any moment and crush him for his transgressions.

Still, their company was an improvement on Astral Nacre’s. He might wither among the stone and join them in their stillness, and he would not have to contemplate the blasfemies he would live out under the ward of the aweful alicorn.

He stared into the firefly lamp, wondering if it would be better to die in the dark. He was cursed, host to what Ancepanox had called a nightmare, an insideous evil whose first attack on his sanity made him tremble to recall. If he returned to ponykind and they found out they would kill him, because they knew as well as he that the nightmare was a mortal danger.
Wreath wasn’t even sure his family would take him back, especially one the full story was known. It was one thing to go crawling back to the family castle, cryig about a curse. It was another thing to admit how he had failed to protect Lady Glori, how he’d been humbled and shamed by the alicorns, forced to surrender himself to them. He could only imagine the rage his father would fly into once he saw the dented wolf helm. When pissant knightly families had only their honor to tout, they became vicious in its protection. Wreath had failed to protect him honor.

It really was better to die, so there was a slim change the world thought he’d died protecting Lady Glori. Maybe they would think he had an honerable duel with Lady Ancpenoax and-

He lurched, stumbling over his own thoughts.
Ancepanox… He didn’t want the world to think she’d killed him either. She was…

He squeezed his eyes closed and sighed. Thinking about the black alicorn, oddly enough, set him at ease somewhat. He thought about what she would say, and how she would asuage his worries. She had saved him from death.
Wreath wondered, what was his ‘progenitor’ doing at that moment?

To delve into the dream was rather like diving into a pool. Once you jumped, there was the rush of space and the crash into the refreshing waters.
Color, light, emotion, shapes and ideas that could only exist in the imagination or beyond the stars…
Anceapnox did not care for the art of it. In fact it was only making her angry. The swirls and sparkles of magic that coursed around her only served to draw out the process. She was not there for beauty. She wanted answers. She drove down with relentless intent, through the mire of energy and haze.

Here it comes.

The dream.

The dream that had been her dream.

With a flicker, the visage of the black alicorn came into existence. She sighed, and opened her eyes.

It was the top of a tower, a circular plateau of obsidian wrought bricks a hundred hooves across. Past the edge was void, dropping to an infinite oblivion.

“This place.... I know it.” Anceapnox tilted her head back, to stare past the lip behind her, to the endless levels of the tower extending down into the abyss. “I know. I feel, deep in my heart. I feel it more truly that I ever did in that cathedral library.”

But the solitary black spike of the tower was not the only occupant of the dream. Anceapnox lifted her eyes skyward.
The sun, as red and as bright as it had ever been in the real world, hung low in the void. In fact Ancepanox could sense a certain presence and tangibility to it, like it was actually there, within the dreamscape enclave of Forlorn Spark. It’s rays shown through the mire with perfect clarity, illuminating her.

“You-” Ancepanox’s voice caught in her throat. The sun was watching her. “But that means-”

One other, the most impossible of mares, stood before her.

She was also standing at the lip, on the opposite side of the tower. She looked over the void in silence. Hearing Anceapnox’s little whispers, her ear flicked.
“Luna?” The mare hesitantly twisted her head around to face the newcomer, the rest of its body following. The nebulous mane about it’s face pulsed and stretched with every word.

It was Celestia, but not quite the same as the regal alicorn laid to rest in the physical world. Her soul had taken the same shape as in the waking world, yet with surreal proportions, changing constantly. The edges of her form seeming to waver on the edge of nonexistence, reinforcing her alienness.
By far the most startling feature was her eyes, with ovoid pupils like a cephalopod, and which lacked any ability to focus giving her the look of staring far beyond anything in front of her, as if she could never stop watching the abyss around the tower, ruminating.

“You should be dead.” Ancepanox accused, trying to choose between advancing on the fallen princess or running away. “Are you just a memory, or a ghost, or a phantasm? Something else?”

“No, you’re not Luna. Not even Nightmare Moon. Similar, very similar, but not the same. A case of, hmm, convergent evolution, one could say. It looks just like her, but more.” Celestia’s bizarre eyes were unable to focus, and still Ancepanox felt the weight of their gaze. “Twilight Sparkle… One of the other Twilights.” She tapped the side of her head. “It’s coming back to me… Twilight, yes… I did not forget about you. You shouldn’t have come here.”

Ancepanox wanted to say so many things. She had to stay in control of her emotions, so she opted to say nothing at all. She closed her eyes to sort through the barrage of conflicting thoughts.
For a while, Celestia was similarly silent, looking the intruder up and down. “If you didn’t look so confused, you’d look frightening, terrifying even. Your posture is deteriorated too. You don’t intimidate a pony by being on their level, Twilight. You have to tower above them, have a presence.”

“Are you seriously lecturing to me right now?” Ancepanox wasn’t sure if she should scream or laugh.

“I am merely matching your cruelty, Twilight. You chose that manifestation to torment me, as is your prerogative I suppose.” Celestia tilted her nose up in the traditional Canterlot display of snooty superiority. “I thought you learned that I do not bend to that kind of emotional manipulation the last time you tried it.”

“W- What you think I chose this look because of you?” Ancepanox had her answer: scream. “Conceited bitch! YOU did this to me!”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re always so stubborn. You don’t even pretend to understand.” Ancepanox barred her pointed teeth, made for ripping chunks of meat off pray. It hurt just like the first time they’d argued, years ago. The gravity and circumstance was a little different this time. “Do you even know what you’ve put me through?”

Celestia blinked, one eye then the other. “Hmm, that is different, better. Ferociousness and its product, fear, has it’s uses. It adds a certain edge to petty politics when the opposition can not reliably say you will not maim them for being uncooperative. Personally, I found that mindless adoration and my cult of personality to be much more useful.” She pursed her lips. “Tell me, Twilight, what do you think?”

“I think-” Ancepanox expression reverted to stoic neutrality. She really wasn’t sure what to think of how erratic Celestia was acting, besides that she was being taken for a ride. She sighed and rubbed her forehead.“I’ve never heard you talk like this before.”

“I apologize. I thought perhaps that we were ready for a forthright conversation. The visage of maturity belies a vulnerable soul. Just know I have nothing to hide from you anymore, and you, it seems, have nothing to hide from me.”

That was not at all true. Ancepanox would die before telling Celestia the truth about NIghtmare Moon’s death, and even worse before revealing what Moon’s body was now. And similarly, she didn’t believe the creature before her would tell her the truth.
“Do you think I’m interested about political theory right now? This isn’t a politician’s manifestation, princess, it’s a monster’s. This monster came to you with desire for only a single answer: Why?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Celestia blinked a little too quickly. “Clarify, please.”

“Tell me why you did this to us.” Ancepanox demanded slowly. “Why did you fabricate this fake Twilight, instead of doing right by me?”

“More changed than I realized, for you to be talking to me like that. How do you view me now? Not as your ruler, it seems, but your mind was already made up about that before you came. Do you have doubts, Twilight?” Celesia asked. “Are the convictions you came with failing you?”

“Shut up with that drivel! I’m not a stupid filly who would be impressed by that sophistry.” Ancepanox snapped. “And stop calling me Twilight!”

“What would you like me to call you then.”

“I am ANCEPANOX, the Twin Twilights!” She tried to say this with an air of epic proclamation, but her creeping grief stole her breath. “Because you killed Twilight when you chose a lie over me.”

“Ancepanox. Roanish, very much in naming convention of the ancient alicorns. It can mean what you think, but also ‘the treacherous dark’. It has several connotations, none of them very good.” Celestia sighed. “That is to say, not to my liking.”

“I don’t care. I don’t need your permission.”

Oddly that made Celestia pause for a while. “The lines in my mind are fuzzing. I’m having trouble dissociating personal preference from objective virtue. Twilight, I think something’s wrong with me.”

“Yes, very wrong.”

“You were more right than you know, when you said I died. I feel that large parts of me are missing, and have diffused into this dream.” Celestia inspected her hoof, fluctuating, like the implication of a hoof more than a physical thing. “Time moves differently in dreams. I could not rightly tell if I’ve been here for a millennium, or mere minutes. Your arrival and state hints to me that it has been several weeks or so. Maybe less, if your fall was faster than I anticipated.”

“It’s been a couple days.” Ancepanox said. “I’ve ‘fallen’ very fast.”

“I wanted to avoid that.”

“Ironic then, that you caused it.” Ancepanox said. She took a daring step forward. “I won’t stop saying it, now matter how much you deny or deflect. The choice was in your hooves and you chose this for me. Just tell me why.”

“If you insist on the hardline approach then no answer will satisfy you.” Celestia frowned. “Before you loudly object, I shall impart what I can. Do you understand where this is?”

“This is my dream, obviously.” Ancepanox condescended.

Celestia glanced away, showing signs of annoyance. “Perhaps. I meant to ask what this structure was.”

“The Tower.”

“Of what?”

Ancepanox sighed. “The Tower of the Bard.”

“Yesss, yes indeed. The Tower of the Bard, mythical monument of a time before history. It was fallen long before me, or even the ancient alicorns, walked this planet. Yet here it stands again, skirting heaven.”

“You didn’t put it here.”

“Obviously not.” Celestia condescended in kind. “But it was here for me. The Tower was the symbol of the unity of all creatures under the sun, now disparate.” She resolved to match the dark alicorn, and take a step towards the center. “I needn’t tell you what you already know. This dream was yours.”

“And the nightmare stole it.” Ancepanox growled.

“The nightmare did no such thing, because there was no nightmare. You knew that too.” Celestia countered. “You gave up your claim to this dream.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

“You, whatever you chose to call yourself, once shared the space of the soul of Twilight Sparkle with another thought. But when confronted with the prospect of power, you backed down, and she moved forward. It would be trite but accurate to call her Dark, and you Light.” Celestia whispered. “You know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Forlorn Spark. You and her were segments of Twilight Sparkle’s soul, and when you rebelled, only Forlorn Spark was left.”

“THAT’S BULLSHIT.” Ancepanox roared. “She stole my dream, my body-”

“Why was she in tune with Twilight Dream and you not? Could it be that she was always comfortable in it, and you were not?” Celestia continued. “You couldn’t stand the dream, not only by your nature, but what it represented. You rejected the unity of the Tower, and thus you rebelled from Twilight’s soul.”

Ancepanox REFUSED to consider Celestia’s words. It was impossible in every single sense of the word. “I was Twilight. I KNOW I was. I had my agency and my soul.”

“I’m sure you would have perceived of it that way.” Celestia tisked. “But one wonders if you are a reliable narrator. Can a broken being like you understand what’s happening to them?”

“I understand enough.” Ancepanox was having trouble breathing like she always did when she got too angry. “I know the Tower of the Bard is not a symbol of unity. You couldn’t have picked a more obvious lie! The Tower is a challenge to the gods! The Tower is the monument of mortal accomplishment! The builders of the Tower wanted to pierce into heaven and make a name for themselves that even the ruin of time would not erase.”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Mortals accomplish things thought cooperation, my lady. A show of mortal power means a show of mortal unity.”

“The fuck does it matter. The gods knocked the tower down, so as far as either of us can speculate this tower stands for mortal folly.”

“In the waking world yes. But in this dream, despite the trauma of the dreamer and the efforts of a god, this tower stands.” Celestia went silent for time. “All the races of the earth built the tower with one promise in mind: The grandeur and power of the gods could be theirs. Their only fault was that they succeeded. They were mortals tampering with power far beyond their comprehension, just like you.”
Her form grew more solid for a moment. “So you don’t believe me. That’s fine. Of what consequence is the past anyway? The future, however, has its worries for you. Did you build the tower or will you knock it down?”

“It’s MY dream. Why would I destroy my property?” Ancepanox said. “If anypony was going to destroy it, it would have been you. It’s an open invitation to crush my dreams again.”

“I have adopted the tower.” Celestia asserted.

That made Ancepanox very angry. “It’s not yours to adopt! You are a usurper!”

“My apologies, I meant to say I adopted its dreamer.”

“A thief!”

“This again?” Celestia rolled her eyes. “You are being uncustomarily repetitious. I try to have a philosophical discourse, and you drive it back into squabbling. Have you no other words to say?”

“So much.” Ancepanox’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“What have you done to yourself princess? You were never this cold, even after times somepony had made you mad. Emotional ponies would denounce you in the most scathing terms in court and you would be laughing with them the next day. When someone in need came to you, you were the most compassionate and caring of any of us. Even when you had your distant moods, you had time and answers for me.”

“And?”

“This state you now exist in… You’ve mutilated yourself, princess.” Ancepanox said. Her anger had subdied, and now her voice was tinged with pity. “I guess I should stop asking why you chose her over me, and ask why you came to this place?”

“You’ve just recasted the question. You still can’t grasp my motivation.” Celestia chided. “I have just finished explaining it was not as clear a choice as you accuse. I had to look between two ponies, and make the difficult decision to which of them had the best hope to be what was needed.”

“Forlorn Spark, the nightmare that had gleefully been trying to obliterate you minutes before, was a better candidate for your aid than me.” Ancepanox uttered.

“I did, for all the reasons I mentioned. She had the dream. You were a wraith, and when my mother sun spoke through me she proscribed only destruction in your future.” Celestia was the one now voicing her pity. “I wish I was in a circumstance to give you a second chance, but you made your choices. You continue to make your choices. You stand there in a mockery of my lost sister.”

“She… She had the dream. She had this place.” Ancepanox turned away, wandering to the lip of the tower and looking out into the empty void. She could feel the gaze of both Celestia and the sun above on her back, waiting for her reaction. “It doesn’t make sense. I can’t reconcile what you’re telling me against your own words. You say Forlorn Spark was Dark and I was Light, that I chose not to embrace the dream, that her possession of the dream made you choose her over me… Celestia, am I mistaken, or are you admitting to choosing Dark over Light.”
She turned back to the princess. “Is this why you never taught me the history or nature of Dark and Light? Is this why I had to crawl through the muck to that ancient hack Myriadess to learn even the basics of these fundamental forces?”

Celestia, unnervingly, smiled thinly. “Do you think I’m evil, Lady Ancepanox?”

“I hold no assumption to morality, except that you wronged me.” Ancepanox answered.

“She thinks I’m evil.” Celestia nodded up towards the sun above. “She thinks that since I ignore her ordainments I am bringing doom to mortalkind. She thinks she is the only source of good and propriety in this universe.” Celestia tapped her head. “I decided that she was wrong. I see past the lies of alicorns and celestials. I decided that dogmatic adherence to my mother sun’s destiny was poison to the soul of ponykind. Like you, I saw past Light and Dark. Only old crones like Myriadess would call one side evil without irony.” She chuckled darkly. “How is she? I had forgotten about her.”

“Dead.” Ancepanox said.

“Ahh…” Celestia rubbed her chin. “That is for the best, I think. Indeed the era of absolutes has come to a close.”

“What a meaningless sentiment.” Ancepanox scoffed. “You act like coming into this dream was some great act of bravery. Do you want to be congratulated for defying your sun? You’ve been doing it for hundreds of years! Why does it matter now instead of then?”

Celestia said nothing.

Ancepanox glared. “You have an answer. I can see it in your face. You just don’t want to tell me.”

“It would anger you.” Celestia mumbled. “Before, I did it for myself. My apathy, my arrogance… This time, I did it for somepony else, Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps I could have saved myself, or at least ensured the succession. I chose to save Twilight Sparkle, and resolved to ensure the very best world for her.” He gestured around them. “Thus I came here, to save the sinner Forlorn Spark and turn her back into Twilight Sparkle. I knew she would not know, and therefore she would never be prompted to forgive me, but I would be able to forgive myself.”

Anceapnox was so sickened by the conceit she almost threw up. “You should have made amends out there with me, rather than in this fantasy.”

“Do you wish it were you I remade?” Celestia asked, but she could see the answer on Ancepanox’s hate-mangled face. “How I could I have? You were a dreamless dreamer.”

“I have one now.” Ancepanox posed. “Are you tempted to try?”

“Once upon a time, perhaps. Not anymore.”

“Humph. It only took one night, and I’ve moved past you.”Ancepanox said. “I am deeply, deeply changed from when the night began. Then I might have laid down my life for you. Now I have ambitions beyond pleasing you.” She bared her teeth. “I had no expectations for this ‘visit’, but now I’m convinced that your new Twilight must not make the mistake I did. I will not let her obsess over you. I will not let her love you.”

“You will not let her.” Celestia repeated, voice peaking in mild amusement. “You wish to protect her from the betrayals you think I have planned.”

“You’re going to sculpt her the way you see fit. If you don’t see the immorality of that then we have nothing more to talk about.”

“She was a broken, incomplete creature. It takes more than glue to fix a soul when it was broken the way Twilight was. Yes I had to change her. I wish I did not have to, but she was not sane and not complete.”

“Grand. The nature of Twilight Sparkle will be decided by the pony who betrayed her.”

“Why did you change your name if not to distance yourself from her?” Celestia leveled. “Why do you care about her? You are not sure if you want to speak her name with reverence or distain.”

“Buck off. You’re just trying to offend me now.” Ancepanox grunted.

“I would never. I cared deeply for you.”

Ancepanox spat. “You cared more about the idea of me than you did of me. When the reality didn’t match your idea...” She turn her hoof up. “I get it now. All this happened because I didn’t match your expectations.”

“Cruel words.” Celestia sighed. “In a certain twisted way, you have surpassed my expectations. You are forging ahead, though it is down a Dark path, to embettering yourself, becoming strong. Your radiate power and it makes me ache even more to know what I lost with you. Forlorn Spark was right: Our daughters will become everything we were, and more.”

“I am NOT your daughter!”

“She who was led by me, taught by me… In a certain way, your current state of mind and body was born by my actions. What more is a daughter?” Celestia twisted her head back to look longingly at the sun at the distant, abyssal horizon. “Now I hope for another. Yes, it is selfish to desire to shape Twilight to my ideal, but it is the love of a grandmother that guides me. It is all for her, really.”

“YOU’RE SICK!” Ancepanox’s disgust boiled into rage. “If you cared at all about me, why didn’t you show it when you were alive?!”

“None of that matters now. You don’t matter. I’ve already won. This is as real as anything can be for me, from now until the end of all things. Exit the dream and kill us-” Celestia shivered. “Please don’t do that, actually. I need more time, before I can accept death. I am not ready yet.”

“You... selfish-” Ancepanox clenched her jaw, hard enough to have trouble speaking. Every word was laced with malice. “selfish… selfish… I can’t even believe-”

The sun dipped closer to the horizon.

“What are you going to do, oh Twilight, oh Ancepanox?” Celestia asked. “Are you going to leave us alone, or will you try to stop me?”

Ancepanox didn’t reply. She knew with conviction that Celestia had to be stopped, but she could not simply turn to violence against her former mentor that easily. As much as she was filled with hate, Celestia was her princess, her muse.
Of course, the Dark stirred with every feeling, yearning to rampage. however the Dark seemed to recognise damaging the dream around them would be a sacrilege.

“Flipping through her memories, I begin to wonder where I could have recovered you, and what the latest point would have been to keep you from going down this split path.” Celestia spoke again, and she summoned her magic. The space just beyond the edge of the tower was filled with faint images from Twilight’s memory, or rather Forlorn Spark’s copy of the memories. Each of them bore obvious differences from Twilight’s, the marks of Celestia’s tampering. “I have made so many little changes now, trying to tune every moment of her life just right, that I forget just what it was like when it was happening. But as I said, that hardly matters now. That past is gone.”

“No. It isn’t. Because I’m still alive, and no amount of wishful thinking will change that.” Ancepanox seethed. “And I’ve had enough of your posh! Your guilty consciousness is shit-all to what you have to answer to me for.”

“And so you bother me, like a bad dream, a nightmare, so I can explain myself. How very like you, Twilight.” Celestia never strayed from that mournful expression, even as her tone took a turn for the scathing. Ancepanox had not expected to hear her former empress take the offensive. “You seemed to work so hard for my satisfaction, but you took the first opportunity to oppose me. My decision has been vindicated: You valued the power I could give you over your relationship with me.”

“WHAT?!” Ancepanox’s cry was more pitiful than intimidating. “How can you say that, after looking through my memories? I LIVED for your approval! I spent every waking moment imagining the moment you would do so much as smile and say ‘Good job, Twilight.’. Instead, what I got from you was years of torture! You obviously care much more about the act of teaching the magic than you did about me! You wanted a doll to pose and play with!”

“I-” Celestia looked into Ancepanox’s eyes and saw genuine pain. Her perspective of those events, years ago, which she had reinforced over and over to assure herself that she was doing the right thing, was cracking. She just had to reach out, offer her hoof. With a single word, a quiet apology, she could save Twilight from Ancepanox.
But Celestia was too committed, too far gone. Instead of opening up, she doubled down on her delusion. “I died to redeem your past, to offer the name of Twilight Sparkle another chance, and this is how you act? This purification is more than you could ever deserve. I should CELEBRATE that you abandoned that name!”

Though she should not have, Ancepanox shuddered with a grim euphora that Celestia was shouting too. “You have no right to decide what is pure and what isn’t. This dreamer and I shared a history, a memory, and a past! You have taken her dream and twisted it, terraformed it for your habitation. Riddle me this, Princess Celestia: What is a dreamer without her dream?”

“Do you wish I was dead?”

“That is not what I asked!” Ancepanox hissed. “You may have a right to continue to exist, but that does not entitle you to change a sentient being to your liking. You can not force her to die with you!”

“Twilight, I healed her!” Celestia waved over the obsidian tower, where the painted memories were fading just like Celestia eventually would. “If you think we are evil then kill us.”

“Kill you?” Ancepanox frowned. Celestia’s goading was getting more visceral.

“That is how the Dark gets its way.” Celestia looked down her snout at the other alicorn. “I want you to throw aside your pretentious, and come to what is the obvious concluding point of your line of logic. Tell me you want to destroy me, Lady Ancepanox.” Celestia snickered darkly, a sound nopony had ever heard from the princess and one the other never wished to again. “Then I will know for certain how far you have surpassed my expectations.”

Ancepanox stared at her.

“Well?” Celestia barked. “Why did you come here? Do your violence, nightmare!”

“I am not a nightmare. There never was a nightmare.” Ancepanox said.
The situation had flipped, and now she was once again the meek one contending with an angry princess. Celestia had a lot she could be insanely irate about, if only she knew: What Ancepanox had done with her sister’s body for one. Celestia couldn’t know, she’d told herself. Any amount of personal pain was worth keeping the horror away from Celestia. The princess deserved punishment, but never that.
So with a clearing mind, she examined the situation. She had succeeded in turning Celestia from apathy to antipathy. Could the she be pushed farther, to see as Ancepanox did that anger was just a tool of self defense? The two of them agreed on many things, despite all the talking past one another.
“Princess Celestia. Have you been honest with me?” She asked quietly.

Celestia scowled. “Quite frankly it is more than you deserve. Yet I have been.”

“What I deserve? Are you telling me to hurt me, or because telling the truth is its own good?”

“No. It’s because you don’t deserve the effort of duplicity.” Celestia snorted.

“You cared for me once. Do you no longer? Not at all?” Ancepanox asked.

Celestia gave a half-hearted shrug. “I am discovering my feelings anew.” She closed one eye, then the other. “You want to tell me something, don’t you. Hmm. Under it all, you have all of Twilight’s tells. You can’t distance yourself from her as much as you think.”

“If anypony else was here, would you tell them what you’ve told me?” Ancepanox glanced away. “Do we… still share something, princess?”

Celestia arched one brow. She cleared her throat, and gave her answer much more quietly than before. “A history.”

“I see.” Ancepanox whispered back.
She was filled with hatred, despair, and sadness, and the selfish parts of her wanted to share that with Celestia. Celestia had guided her for most of her life, and it had led to this sorrowful moment. All the problems she faced were the princess’s fault.
On the other hoof, it had been a good life while it had lasted. Celestia, at least within her own logic, was still protecting and helping Twilight Sparkle. She really did mean well, and perhaps it was just her deteriorated state that meant she could not explain herself well.

Ancepanox wanted to extend the benefit of the doubt. She really did.

But on the other hoof, she had sworn to fight back against those who would harm her. Celestia had harmed her egregiously.

“You must know better than most ponies that we all are capable of terrible things in dire circumstances.” The dark alicorn said slowly. She was apprehensive: Hurting Celestia would not come as easily as hurting Myriadess, even if her weapon was mere words. “There are times when there is no good solution.

“It is not action, but intention that matters.I stand my what I’ve done.” Celestia shot back. “I will face history on my back as I have in my past.”

“I’m not talking about you anymore. Not entirely anyway. I mean myself, and the despicable fate we both share.” The black alicorn swallowed her doubt before continuing. “Your accusations of hypocrisy as closer to the mark than even you might realize.”

“Do you expect me to repay that complement in kind?”

“I expect you to LISTEN! You were always such a good listener, and if you recover one iota of your senses I hope it’s that!” Ancepanox shouted. “The battle against Forlorn Spark pushed you past your limits and it was still not enough! Same with her! Same with me! Same with Nightmare Moon! Our all was not enough! How were we expected to keep sane in those circumstances. It should have been obvious some of us would resort to such heinous acts of desperation.”

“I don’t regret choosing her at your expense and I never will!” Celestia continued to shout.

“No! LIsten! I mean your sun, and I mean Forlorn Spark! We killed! Celestia, we killed!” Ancepanox stumbled forward, tears pooling at the edge of her eyes. “You and I, we pushed away the Dark within us, and it came back as terrible demons that ruined this world! Your hateful sun, me, and my dark daughter! They are us, and we killed.”

“Your cryptic-”

“God damn it Celestia!” Ancepanox bounded forward, coming within hoof-reach of the other alicorn. “We’re all murderers.”

“W- What?” Celestia stumped over her response. She refused to believe that what Ancepanox was saying was true. Not because she didn’t think it was possible, but because all the time she was in the dream she had assured herself that by changing Forlorn Spark she would give redemption for all that had happened.
She looked into Ancepanox’s eyes, trying to detect a lie. They were a strange blue, not the color of her lost sisters, and not quite Twilight Sparkle’s. Something deeply disturbed her about those eyes. They did not remind her of her sister, or even of her student. It reminded Celestia of herself. Those eyes had a lively mortal joy in them, cast in shadow by the potential for great evil.
“Killed? I never killed anypony.” She cleared her throat shakilly. “Not this night I haven’t! The nightmare and Forlorn Spark were-”

“You KNOW there was no nightmare. There was only me. There was you. There was Moon.” Ancepanox whispered hoarsely. “And you scored the only kill of the night. Your sister.”

“no…”

“Your own sister. You beat her down, Celestia, with such unrepentant brutality. She never stood a chance. Run away if that’s what you want, like you ran here. Make-believe until your manifestation dissolves into nothingness. Deny it with all your might, as is your prerogative. But nothing can change that fact.”

“you’re lying”

“Put two and two together, princess. You can see now that everything, and I mean everything is your fault.” Her accusatory glare softened. “But I’m here for you. Can you accept me, not a student, but a concerned friend? We both have things we refuse to believe. If we put that aside for now, there is so much we can accomplish. Can you undo this damage and set a yearning soul free, for me? Just maybe, it can be our fault.”

Celestia’s eyes grew distant, even locked in a stare with the other alicorn.
After a long while she turned away, strode to the edge, and again gazed at the infinite horizon.

“Princess.” Ancepanoxlicked her lips. She had expected that to work. “Princess?”

Celestia’s ethereal form was much more tangible since Ancepanox’s arrival. “Twilight… I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry for how I have been treating you.” She whispered. “I have been treating you like a subject and a student, when you are not that anymore. You are... You are my equal.”

Ancepanox was a bit annoyed and flattered at the same time. “Thanks. Can’t help but comment that I’m alive and you’re technically not.”

Celestia wasn’t done pondering though. “My lady, what will you do if you get everything you want?” She whispered. “Will you go around looking like that, enjoying the chaos my absence will surely cause?”

It was a digression, but clearly Celestia wanted her to talk while she wrangled with her own feelings. It was progress.
“No princess. I honestly don’t care about that kind of thing. I’m not sure what I’ll do, after I find out why all this happened.” Ancepanox was only partly lying. “Coming here was the last obligation I have to the past before I’m free to decide my own future.”

“Yes… I imagine there are many opportunities out there while it’s darkened by night.” Celestia mused softly. “My mother sun may have her manipulations sow amongst the light she provides the world, but it genuinely brightens the path of those who seek happiness for themselves and others.”

Ancepanox had many quips she could have thrown out, but opted for silence.

“Lady, ahem, Ancepanox.” Celestia turned back and smiled sheepishly. “Whatever you are, I can try earnestly, to accept you. I think there are many things we can compromise on.”

“Sure.” Ancepanox nodded. It was a nice sentiment but there was only one thing she and Celestia could be in contention over, and it was the one thing neither would budge on.

“We have much to talk about.” Celestia went on. “I could see you and I becoming genine partners for the transition to the world without me.”

“Don’t push it. You have a lot to answer for.” Ancepanox said, voice dipping. “And don’t think I’ll take a rain check on justice. I’m not leaving and giving you a window to cause trouble.” She laughed to herself. “I don’t trust you. It’s a good thing I won’t have to be worrying about alicorns after you’re gone, because you’re all brats.”

Celestia did not laugh at that. Nor did she slip back to apathy or consternation or anger. For the first time she looked afraid. Something was dawning on her and it was not good. “You said Myriadess was dead… You killed her, didn’t you.”

Ancepanox nodded. “I did. She had it coming. She tried to manipu-”

“No no no! My lady, if you killed Myriadess, that means the other one knows!” Celestia said in a panicked hurry. “If she suspects I’m gone, there’s no telling what she’ll do. Oh goodness…” Celestia ran a hoof through her mane, while she tried to steady her breath. “We could have a very large problem on our hooves.”

“If you’re making this up-”

Celestia shook her head. “This is not a joke. There is a grave danger.” She shook her head, trying to grasp a solution. “The guardian under the mountain. After me, she is the last alicorn.”

Ancepanox sighed. “Well thank for waiting this long before telling me.”

Aurthora Airy swept the splintered remains of the lab table into a tidy pile, picking out the instruments that still looked functional. Phyte’s lab was nearly picked clean. Only a few spots were left to check.

“The best part about the eternal night is no one getting on your case about keeping them up too late.” Prosser was saying, whacking random devices things with one of the sturdy surgical hammers. “No, when time is meaningless, one one is saying ‘Sir, sir, please stop playing the trumpet its past midnight.’ ”

“I didn’t know you could play the trumpet.” Aurthora said, only half paying attention to what he was saying. She began collecting the spoils, especially the ones she thought Lady Velvet would find interesting, in saddlebags. It would take more than one trip to get them up to Canterlot, but since Sel Lech had shown her the direction of the surface tunnel before he’d left, she was not to worried.

“I can’t.” Prosser snickered. He whacked a beaker with the hammer, shattering it. “Say my lady, what did you think of that visitor we had?”

“The nightmare alicorn, yes.” Aurthora hummed. “I have no opinion.”

“None? I encountered her atop the city wall, and she came off as quite the frightening character.” Prosser said. “Perhaps you are waiting to hear Lady Velvet’s thoughts.”

“So should you, sir.” Aurthora said.

Aurthora noticed something under one of the cabinets, the corner of a thin notebook. She pushed the cabinet away and grabbed the notebook, brushing away the tin layer of dust that’d settled on it.

Journal
Volume II

New Frontiers in Experimental Sciences
Phyte

“Councilor, I have found something!” Aurthora eagerly exclaimed. It was the first documentation of Phyte’s activities that they had managed to recover. Her minions in the Musician’s Guild had destroyed everything in the guild building itself and the catacombs rather than let it fall into the hooves of the guard.

“Is it a pinchy thing?” Prosser asked. “As respectable as this collection thing, it lacks the vaunted pinchy thing, bane of nipples and loose skin the world over.”

Aurthora blinked. “Ah… No.”

“Then why are you telling me?” Prosser turned his back to Aurthora and began his dawdling inspections again.

“Excellent question.” Aurthora let out a sigh. She cantered closer to the firefly lamp and opened the journal to it’s first page. She noticed that just under half the journal’s pages had been ripped out, mostly from the front.

I have run low on stationery and paper materials. I will be using this notebook until I am able to appropriate more. Seacrest Blackhorn will no longer be needing it.

I will be moving the core of the surgical operations out of the Guild to the new hideaway, within the Vaci Arcanum. The very limited exploration my musicians have made into the cavern have so far revealed it to be uninhabited.

The statue garden that dominates this section of the Arcanum concerns me. It blocks the way to the center, where I believe the deeper sections can be acessed. The towering statues have some hidden nature, I am sure of it, but I refuse to linger around them. Everypony I send to find a way past disappears, and I do not think they are merely lost. Something despicable therein lurks. Celestia may know, but I do not wish her to learn that I have breached the Arcanum, at least not yet.
I will not be sending any more explorers. I am content with my corner where I have my hideaway.

Still, if I am to reveal the full measure of the Arcanum’s secrets, I will have to go deeper eventually. Moving my experiements out of the guild hall will give me more liberty to try loud tests, and thus my schedule is accelerated. Before too long, I hope to create something that can survive the deeper horrors. The lost artifacts would be a great boon: I have only just scratched the surface with the dragonfire cages we found in the upper catacombs. My old friend Clover has many trinkets that yet lay among the shadows.
Who knows what great strides I could have made while I still had my babies to help me. The great stress I feel would have been relieved just by their presence. Damn Celestia for sending them away.

The next round of experiments will begin tomorrow, in the new theater. Each successive step I have replicated has brought better and better results. Soon, I may have a sane one.

Week Two since move

All of the surgical subjects, both those in post and those awaiting experimentation, have been moved into the new Arcanum lab. I expect only one subject of this round will recover: Seacrest Blackhorn, the orator volunteer to whom this journal once belonged. The others are too damaged, and I will dispose of them soon. Thank goodness for the move, for their screams would have awoken the whole Old Town at the old laboratory.

But I digress.

Seacrest’s body has been remarkably resilient, fusing well with the other components. Minimal scarring around the throat and dragon gland transplant could mean that he will be the first success of that procedure. Therefore I have not only matched, but surpassed Celestia the First’s old crossbreed work, from what I know of her experiments long ago.

I must admit, I must move very carefully from here on. Celestia does not know of my work, but she surely suspects. I do not know the degree to which she is aware of her ancient predecessor’s explorations…
The fear strikes me now that Celestia had already walked this path, and I am catching up. For all I know, the experimental notes may be hers and not Celestia the First as I thought. The old notes, much in the spirit of Clover, has genius and madness and great daring. The notes of her experiments end halfway, but I suspect she must have continued the work until the end, to truly discover the nature of mortal and god.
I hope it is an answer too great to be shared, rather than one too disappointing, for either way the world is ignorant. Absolute power is close at hoof. The artifacts in the Arcanum will show me the way.

I will need more dragonfire soon. The tests consume great amounts. The usual deal with Celestia will restore my stocks.

Week Five

I can hardly believe it, but life has stirred from the depths of the Arcanum. Two ponies, two unicorn mares, simply strode out of the shadow. They called themselves Dances-on-Graves and Entanglement Theory.

I include this in my experimental journal because they claim to be the authors of the notes I found in the catacombs. I find it hard to believe, as they are both very young, and yet they were able to recite the theorems word by word.
Allegedly, the catacombs lair was one of their past hideouts. They were not very forthcoming about where they their more recent shelters were. They both feel very familiar to me, but I can not quiet place them. In their paranoia they cover themselves. Dances-on-Graves is their mouth, and seems to be the more devious and coy, but the more meek Entanglement Theory strikes me as the more dangerous. There is a dark tinge to her aura, that makes me fear for my life and works.

I am vexed, truly.

The duo proposed a deal. They had experiments they wished to conduct, similar to mine so they say, and were willing to share their knowledge in exchange for tools. Wherever they came from, they seemed to know the secrets of the deeper Arcanum, lost since Clover, and thus held the key to my progress.
Thus I agreed to their deal. They served me an extensive list of materials, then disappeared back into the shadows of the Arcanum.

My concerns grow. I don’t believe their claim to authorship of the notes, but they clearly had access to them, or ones like them.

Week Seven

My situation grows more desperate. Seacrest was due to be released tomorrow, but a major infection arose in the hybrid tissue in his dragon glands. I was about to declare him a loss, when Dances-on-Graves appeared and healed him. The magic she used was unmistakably that of the Celestiaan.
How is it possible? I can not say. My pet theory is that she is an ancient creation of Celestia that escaped. Implausible, but how else could she have that magic? Unless...

Regardless, of her identity, she gave me a new list of materials she required. She must be trying to construct a base, so great is the demanded volume of iron, copper, and glass. I tried to tell her about my progress with her experimental theories, but she expressed extreme disinterest.
Entanglement Theory, however, watched everything. My mass experimentation methods intrigued her massively. She seems genuinely eager to learn and, as she states it, ‘drag down god and extricate his secrets’.

I know not what I have dug myself in to, but I like it.

Week Nine

I have diversified my list of allies.
Twilight Velvet, an up-and-coming local noblemare has reached out to one of my musicians and made offers. Lady Velvet holds an unclear resentment against the empress, and aims to undercut Celestia’s power in Canterlot. She knows of my grudge against the Celestiaan and expressed a willingness to go into business. She has requested some of my contacts and pertinent information, and in exchange she will strike against imperial power in ways I can not.

I found all this very agreeable. My influence on the surface has dwindled, and Celestia can not squash a known aristocrat as easily as she could me if I caused trouble. Hopefully, Lady Velvet’s shenanigans will distract Celestia from my work. With Entanglement Theory’s added notes, I get closer every day to total success.

Again, I put this in the experimental notes because Lady Velvet additionally requested to see the results of my experiments. She asked to see Seacrest Blackhorn by name, in fact.
One of the guild mares must be gossipping. I will have to guess which and make an example of them.
Regardless, I will send Seacrest to her. I have already moved on, and he merely takes up space.

Week Ten

My daughter has come back to Canterlot. She made a grand show of herself in the halls of my guild, and none of my musicians thought to apprehend and bring her to me. That will be fixed.

Destiny must be nervous of my progress. They bring my children back to be to distract me from my goals. Nay, that will not happen.

If I secure my daughter, Celestia will have nothing to hold over me. Besides, with how my methods have improved since those first experiments, there are many improvements I could make to my daughter’s rudimentary nature. Octavia can bring her in.

Things are going my way, for the first time in an age.

Week Eleven

My daughter is dead. The gods are collecting their debts, it seems. The world is losing its joy for me. What remains?

Purpose. I get nearer the god’s secrets every day. Entanglement Theory tells me so.

Week Twelve

I have accelerated my plans. No more small iterations. I must have a fully functional experiment as soon as possible. If the next test remains sane, I will immediately jump to the last stage.
I have appropriated a perfectly ironic body for the next experiment, that of former vizier Fancy Pants. He died to severe blunt-force trauma to the head. Here is to hoping that his brain is recoverable.

Dances-on-Graves and her friend Entanglement Theory have stopped visiting me at the Arcanum lab.
The situation both above and below grows more worrying.

Week Thirteen

Fancy Pants is completed. I predict a full recovery of the use of his body and magic, and partial use of the additions I made. It is wonderful. Now I can say I am on the edge of perfection and mean it.
I thought of Black Bell today. It has been quite I long time since I communicated with her, even though she is one of the more friendly of my fellow Stars. Her experiments were always more esoteric… Considering how long Black Bell has been abducting politicians and aristocrats, she must be very knowledgeable about how to use noble blood. When I have my perfected experiment, I should visit her. Griffany is nice this time of year.

This journal grows long and winding at times. My sanity is wearing thin. I hear my daughter’s voice in the stone. Something big is coming. A thousand years since we Stars became what we are, and it comes to a head now.
If there is one thing my experiments have proven, is that old friends are never very far away. I am coming for you, Clover.

Week Fifteen

I have been betrayed. Twilight Velvet has apparently been in contact with Shale, that devious bitch, and aspires to undercut me! My old experiment Seacrest is with her on this too. Velvet has been massively successful in garnering political support, using a fop actor pretending to be the returned Blackhorn prince. I should have been more suspicious of how she knew so much, but I was too focussed Celestia: I think Velvet is a descendant of something very powerful, and is awakened to it. I am beginning to fear. Velvet is more of a threat than Celestia was, because she has active motivation to destroy me. I sent a cadre of guild mares but they disappeared; The black earth pony hangs Velvet must have stopped them. What powers have infiltrated Canterlot while I have been preoccupied...

And to that motivation, I think Velvet will try to perform the ritual. Shale must be helping her. I dare not think what she will create. I will make escape plans.

No more journal entries until I finish preparations. There is no need to tell anypony in the guild about this. They have served their purpose. They will now die to protect me, and the sweet music we wrought for generations will stop in just before its last stanza. Disappointing. I was so close.

Week Sixteen

Dances-on-Graves has just gone up to the surface, after bidding me farewell. Entanglement Theory told me they have made a staging area and are assembling the resources to stage a departure. They detect it too, the impending change.
The Vacuous Arcanum has been much colder than usual. I fear what sorcery those two mares concocted. I hear noises from the deep shadow. I leave with the week.

Before I go, I have a few things to check on with the guild. Pegasi from Cloudsdale have allegedly been surveying the building. The guild agents tell me it has to do with the arrival of Rain Gnash. I remember her father when he was the IHG captain, but I have intention to become acquainted.

Addendum:
Everything is falling apart. Lady Velvet’s allies have beset me and a Nightmare is among them! That was something I did not expect. I foolishly thought that was a transgression too far, that I could summon Celestia to stomp down the presumptuous creature, but even she has fled.
I hardly understand what is happening anymore, expect that I must leave before my enemies close in on me. Goodby, Dances-on-Graves, Entanglement Theory, and good luck to you.

Aurthora lowed Phyte’s journal. She didn’t know what to think of it but then again she had never been the academic type.

She assumed Dances-on-Graves and Entanglement Theory were the ponies Sel Lech had been looking for. If the journal was to be believed, they were already gone. Gone to do something up on the surface.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” She mumbled. Her other take away was that the Arcanum she was in contained something more evil even than Phyte.
“Sir Prosser.” She spoke up. “Don’t stray too close to those statues.”

“Eh? Think they’ll fall on me?” Prosser, still fiddling with various things, quipped.

“No, sir. That would be a very merciful end.” Aurthora put the journal in one of the saddle bags. “What menaces whose whose amusement those statues were made will make your suffering last.”

Aurhora Airy’s grave warning came too late for Ripple Wreath, lost and wandering among the monolithic stone figures. He was now kilometers into the maze, in a world of darkness save to the small circle of light created by the firefly lamp.
The Arcanum was not meant for ponies. Even when it was new, its monumental scale and stark stone excavation was oppressive to the pony mind and senses. Since its cured fall, even the most measly exploration or habitation was impossible. The pitch black was less a consequence of a lack of light, but a feature of the air, a inexplicable curse.
Some creatures, however, survived and thrived where the sun could never touch.

Then, without warning, every firefly in the lantern died.

“Oh no no no no.” Wreath whined, tapping on the glass urgently, trying to revive the little bugs. “Please come back. Don’t leave me alone.”

The faint light faded into nothing. Wreath sat perfectly still.

“This is no good.” He groaned. “Not a fan of this at all.”

Wreath started to see things. The perfect dark was too absolute for him, and his mind tried to fill the abyss with shapes and color.
He tried blinking away the hallucinations. That worked for a bit.

Then he realized he actually was seeing his surroundings. He could see without light.
Wreath blinked in surprise. Yes, he could see in the dark, in complete absence of light. Not perfectly, and his vision in the Arcanum still dwindled to nothing at about thirty hooves distance, but it was better than nothing.

“Ancepanox’s curse.” He mumbled, a bit awestruck. He didn’t want to think of the implications. “Whelp, this is pretty neat, and if I turn into a bat or something in exchange, I think that’s fair.”

Feeling strangely liberated by his new power over the darkness, he looked up to the nearest statue, and took the time to appreciate the details. The mason had clearly been a master of his craft, capturing perfectly the personality and appearance of the subject at a ten times greater scale.
It was an earth pony stallion. His face was gaunt and slightly wrinkled, protected by a neatly trimmed beard and short hair. His eyes suggested wisdom and cynicism, though a certain wishfulness, as though his days had been spent looking at a distant horizon. He was wearing a chain mail and gambeson covered by a traveling cape, which seemed to billow slightly in an imaginary wind.
A warrior prince from ancient times, Wreath guessed. The eyes were enrapturing, a perfect summation of the rest of it, yearning for something beyond his reach.

Wreath scooted forward until he was at the statue’s base, trying to see how fine the details got. Every inch was shaped, every hair of the pony’s coat and every fiber of his clothes, in the what was likely the exact likeness of the subject, save one detail.

A circular plate of a shining silver metal, platinum by Wreath’s amature guess, was laid against the back of the forehoof, where nopony without heightened dark vision would see. The plate bore an etching of a short passage.

Lector
Prince of the Riverponies

The world was not enough for him, and so he lead his people into Tartarus
I honor your drive, but not your judgement
The Eternal Garden is your new charge, undeath your royal right
Protect my Deava, enthroned in the throes of collapse

“Lector?” Wreath mouthed silently. He knew the name, and a bit of the story. In real history, the prideful warlord had nearly unified Equestria, but fell into madness by his thirst for conflict. Wreath’s homeland had been a part of Lector’s principality, as well as most of the riverpony lands and Eastern Coast of Equestria.
Wreath also vaguely recalled an old opera inspired by him, King Cobalt. Cobalt led his nation into a mountain, eventually descending into Tartarus like the plaque said. He briefly fancied that this was the mountain in question, and that Tartarus lay ahead of him. But it was just a story, an allegory.

Were all the statues labeled? Wreath got to his hooves and cantered over to another one. This one was a unicorn mare, regal in dress and poise, clutching a crown against her breast. The plate and message was in the same place on her hoof.

Tomorrow Hope
Princess of Unicornia

The last Platinum Princess sought to live up to her family name
If only she had seen how I exploited her
The Deava, my power and image, is never to be trusted, though it is too late for you now
Protect that sinner as you would protect the sin

Wreath had never heard of Tomorrow Hope, and the only knowledge he had of the Platinum Princesses were that they had led the unicorns from the old northern homeland to modern Equestria.
More intriguing was the second reference to the ‘Deava’, a name that he doubted was even Equestrian. By the connotation, it was quite unpleasant.

Wreath moved on to the next statue. The unicorn it depicted had the most arrogant smirk, his clothes luxurious silk, his pose tilted back in self-assured contentment. The unicorn’s eyes were startling, as they reminded him very much of Glori’s cousin Seacrest. “Creepy.”

Argo Blackhorn
Prince of Canterlot

Betrayed and killed by his nephew, Sombra Blackhorn
The blessing of riches could not protect him from those blessed with power
Now she with the most power binds your will to hers, she is the Celestiaan
You will stand in vigil of my Eternal Garden that you hated so much

A much more recent historical figure than Prince Lector. It was common knowledge that the last Blackhorn prince had died just before Celestia claimed his city of Canterlot as her new Capital after the fall of Everfree.

“Ah. It’s like a gallery of famous leaders, or something.” Wreath tapped his chin. “The Eternal Garden. Kinda a lame name.”
Whatever pony had put the statues together was clearly a bit unhinged based on the plaques, but that was to be expected if they put their ‘Eternal Garden’ in a huge dark cave. It could be no more recent than Prince Argo, a thousand years or so, and if the little messages were not metaphorical ponies of past eras would have known about it.

The question remained however, why was it all here, for whose pleasure had it stood, and why had it been forgetton?

Ripple Wreath was moving to the next statue when he snagged his hoof on something, causing him to faceplant on the cold rock. He look back, and saw the black vine that had caught him dissolve into dust. “This place really was a garden. Not very eternal though, was it.”

Still, plants meant light, water, and hopefully a way out. He picked himself back up, readjusted the makeshift saddlebag, and turned around. Having a clear direction to go for once, he followed the black vine along the ground, his eyes glued to it’s snaking path, ignoring the scattered statues lest they caused him to lose the vine.

But despite his run of decent luck, a swell of great unease was forming in his gut. He thought he heard a distant, quiet shout of alarm, but he dismissed it as imaginary for it lacked the echo-y peculiarity of the other sounds in the cavern.

He stepped onto something cold, or rather, a patch of the cavern floor even colder than the surrounding stone. He looked up, to find that he had stumbled into the shadow of something large. At first he thought it was a column running from the cavern floor all the way to the ceiling, for it seemed silhouetted against the emptiness behind it even in the near pitch black of the cave. How could there be shadow and silhouettes in the dark? Something was very very wrong.

But as it’s eyes opened, and the vine that he had been following jumped up and seized him, he realized the misjudgement he had made. He was pulled to his knees by the vines as they ripped into his skin with their thorns. “What?!” He yelped.
The great shadow shifted, and the vines began to drag him forward, pulling tighter when he struggled. His saddlebag and wolf helm were crushed against his side.

“What indeed.” A clicking voice that carried a multitude of tones, as though played on a xylophone, echoed in his ears. “Is that you Sunset, or another? Come closer.”

Wreath tried to speak, but could not open his mouth with the vines binding his face.

”A pony. Not who I was expecting.” He could hear the bizarre voice more clearly as its owner drew him closer. “A trifiling distraction. Has a way been reopened, as Sunset said?”

He was close enough to see it now. At first he thought it was a pony standing on its hindlegs, which if it had been it would have to be as tall as the statues all around them.
He thought next that it was a hippogryph, for it’s head was an oddity befitting its voice and surroundings: It had an avian look, with a long beak and a extravagant feathery crest, but its two spiraling horns and cat-like slitted eyes subverted that. The fact that it also had a long mane, tangled up in the black vines that covered her, further complicated attempting to define the beast. She was like a peacock-pony-goat hybrid.
She, for while its species was ambiguous there was a definite femininity to its curved body and lashed eyes, was clearly ancient. She reminded Wreath of a fairytale beast or corrupt demon from the legends of Celestia I.

“Come closer, come closer. Let us get a better look at you.” It chirped.

Wreath had not been entirely wrong with his first impression of the shadow, for the gigantic creature was attached to a jutting rise of rock, pinned like a butterfly in a display case. The black vines ran around and through her chest, hoofed legs, and feathered wings. Each limb was pulled in a different direction and impaled, in mimicry of a torture rack.

“MMHHPH!” Wreath tried speaking to no avail.

The vines lifted him up to the creature’s level, so that her glowing maroon eyes were staring directly into his. ”An earth pony. Did you walk here, earth pony? You stink of odd magics. Perhaps your arival is the one I was anticipating after all. Or, as Sunset warned, a bumbling tourist? Which is it?”

She lowered Wreath to the ground at the base of her rock, and loosened the vines from most of his body. Able to move his head once more, he looked back up at the enormous thing, just as much a prisoner as he was. He noticed a glint on the back of one of her forehooves: An embedded metal disk just like on the statues.

“Who are you?!” Wreath could barely open his mouth with the vines still around his face. “What do you want with me?!”

Surprisingly, the long shot worked, and the ancient creature paused. It stared at him for a long while. “Know you not?”

“N- No.” Wreath stammered, unable to move anything below his chin. “I- I’m lost.”

“We are all lost. Every one of us. Those who are not lost have not strayed far enough from the path.” The creature said indifferently. “You don’t even know who I am. Dissapointing. You must not be who for whom I wait.”

“I, um, would be eager to learn your name, should you deign it, my lady.” Wreath said meekly. Living around harsh ponies like Countess Glori had given him a certain skill at avoiding their outbursts.

The creature, however, was not impressed. “As if you are fit to speak it. My mother gave it to me, before she sealed me away here. I have a name with a purpose; To tend to those who need completion at any cost. I am an oracle, but sacrifices are made by those pilgrims who come to seek my truths. They are Dark truths.” It tilted its beak up haughtily. “I am Agana, the suzerain of sin. Knowledge, the forbidden fruit, the greatest sin, is my crop. And this is my Eternal Garden.”

Wreath was scared. Somehow the thing before him terrified him far more than Ancepanox or Astral Nacre had. The alicorns were malevolent almost by accident, where as this one was silenlty enjoying watching him writhe.
“L- Listen, please. I’m trying to find a way out of here.”

”The way out?” The creature called Agana asked, more to herself than Wreath. “It used to be that there was no way out, and that the pilgrims entered the arcanum knowing that. Opening new passages is a mistake.”

“I don’t know about any of that. I got thrown down here magically.” Wreath mewled. “But I saw other ponies. They must have come down through whatever passage you’re talking about.”

The creature Agana stared at him impatiently.

“Uhh, Lady Agana, please, can you let me go?”

”You may have noticed the creeper is not a part of me. I do have a measure of influence over them though. If I ask them...” Agana muttered, and the vines pulled back from Wreath, dragging their thorns along his skin a last time. But before there was any time for relief, the mare’s twin horns began to glow and he was seized by maroon magic. Agana hissed in amusement at his renewed struggles. “It has been such a long time since I have had a pilgrim to play with. I can not pass up this offering, unwilling though it may be. Especially because it is unwilling.”

“I’m not a bloody pilgrim! I’m just a knight!” Wreath protested. “Damn it can’t one of you monsters leave well alone?”

“As I said, for as long as I have been imprisoned here, there has only been but one way out. Those seeking completion would join with me, for a brief and euphoric peer into the true nature of the world.” Agana said, her melodic voice taking on a tinge on anticipation.

Wreath wanted to turn away from those thin maroon eyes and the horror that bore them, but he could not. The magic was crushingly strong, and for the first time since the horrors had started, Wreath began to cry. “W- What? Join with you?”

“I will try not to kill you, but Sunset has been such a tease, staying just out of my reach.” Agana lowered her head as much as she could, speared as she was, until she was looking straight down at Wreath. Magic spun and arced between her horns, faster and faster, forming a halo-like disk of her dark energy. The great black vines moved with her, starting to writhe and tremble in anticipation of their occult union. “I will try to limit how much of my power enters you, lest you are overwhelmed.”

“Please, you don’t have to do this! I don’t want enlightenment! I just want to go home!” The patch of cave around Wreath was bathed in blue-ish light as the glow around Agana’s horns grew. Though she was still above him, pinned to the rock, he could feel her as though she was touching him. He could smell the blood on her breath and the sweetness of the vegetation that surrounded her. He could read out the message on the plate nailed into her hoof.

Agana Nacre
The Oracle I Made

I once had a friend like me, fallen from grace, filled with hate
By her word, I felled a kingdom, two princesses, and the delusion that Dark would die
In her honor, I created the Daeva, and this is the first, a gardener of the mind of ponykind
Perhaps she was not so great of a friend, after all

He smelled flowers and rot from that plaque, a trace of it’s horrible commissioner. In a way, it reminded Wreath of the monstrous alicorn Astral Nacre.

Agana, ignorant of his reminiscence, activated her spell.
”So, little earth pony, let us see if you are the one I have been waiting for. So many questions… Did you kill Myriadess, or know the one who did? Is Celestia weak enough to challenge? What strange magic pollutes your blood? Yes so many questions.” Her glowing eyes filled every corner of his vision. ”And alicorns don’t ask. They take.”

Rarity had been watching Ancepanox for half an hour, searching for any sign of a trap. Her shadowy profile peeled itself from the wall, and reasserted itself in three dimensions with a puff of teal magic.

“Oh darling, you actually passed out.” She tittered grimly to herself. “I never did envy your sense of timing.”

Rarity’s coat was still charred and cut where Ancepanox’s magic had burned her. She winced as she approached the sleepers, limping slightly. She rewrapped the tapestry around her neck tighter, taking care to keep in constant contact with at least part of it.

“Ooh! You even left Applejack here for me to play with when I’m done with you!” She scooped up one of the heavy stone orbs from the model solar system, the same one Celestia had used to kill Nightmare Moon. “You are so thoughtful! Now be a dear and stay asleep for this next part.”

~~~

On que, as soon as Celestia was finished shouting her warnings, Ancepanox felt a horrifying pressure at the back of her mind.
It was a psychic voice, like Astral Nacre’s or Myriadess’s, but magnified a thousandfold in strength. Anceapnox felt like she was being bellowed at from an inch away, by a shout that would blow her to the depths of the Dreamscape if she didn’t hold on tight.
Yet it felt like it coming from inside her own head!

The dark alicorn stiffened, weathering the shouts that only she could hear.

Celestia saw this, and inched forward. “What are you doing? Is something wrong?” Then she twitched involuntarily, and her shocked expression betrayed she could feel a small part of it too. “No, already?” She mumbled.

Without warning the dream around them began to heave, shaking every imagined molecule and mote. Ripples of agony reverberated up and down the tower, making the obsidian behave like so much putty.

Ancepanox reeled, clutching her head with a hoof. An image was coming through, forcing itself into her vision. An eye, very much like Myriadess’s, crafted from platinum and painted in orange.

“Unwanted attention.” Ancepaox grit her teeth to keep from screaming, trying to fool herself that the pain was only in her mind, a part of the dream. “I think somepony’s trying to get in my head.”

“How is it reaching us here?! Is your waking body safe?” Celestia recoiled.

In a rush of alien sensation, Ancepanox could see the face of her accoster, through the eyes of another. The monstrous sentience was abusing the intangible link she had formed when she spread her corruption to Ripple Wreath.

Panic only came when she saw the look of horror on Celestia’s face as she described the sight. “It’s the other alicorn. Looks like I bucking bird…” Anceapnox uttered. “It has my progeny.”

From Ancepanox, the foul and intrusive probe of the ancient alicorn spread to all the others she had touched and was connected with.

Rarity’s knees buckled and the magic from her horn evaporated. The heavy stone sphere she’d picked up dropped to the ground and rolled away. She tried to get back up, but her limbs refused to do anything other than twitch in pain. She could see Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Ancepanox similarly tortured, their unconscious bodies spasming and their muscles tensing.

“Damn.” Rarity sunk to the ground, accepting her predicament. “I really wanted to crush her head again.”

Dash scrunched her nose. She could feel something like a mosquito's buzz between her ears. She scanned the forest around her for trouble but saw none.

“Can you hear that?" She asked the filles. She had gotten them to safety in a forest clearing closer to the village, but it was still not safe enough that she could seriously considering leaving them to go back to the castle.

“Nah.” Apple Bloom was poking the campfire they’d made with a stick. The other fillies shook their head as well. “Must be your imagination.”

~~~

“Fascinating. Most fascinating.” Agana cooed. Her maroon eyes were glowing more brilliantly than before, but besides the first few seconds of pain, all Wreath was feeling now was pulsing discomfort at the base of his skull. “A new dark star is asserting itself. How fortuitous I have caught one of its formative progeny. Yes, this will be a development to watch.”

“Are you done yet?” Wreath grunted weakly. His entire body had gone numb and he couldn’t tell up from down.

”I’ve yet to start.” The towering alicorn laughed, starting to find its enthusiasm. “As I said, I will let you go. But not before I have some fun with this young parvenue.”

Ancepanox’s manifestation within Forlorn Spark’s dream began to fray; The more her mind tried to resist the psychic assault the harder it was to stay within the mind of the dreamer. Not that that dream was faring any better.

“Ah geez.” She sunk to her stomach. “Myriadess was nothing like this.”

Celestia was faring better, succeeding at staying on her hooves. “Myriadess was a soul in a jar. Of course she wasn’t a problem.” She mumbled, eyes closed, shivers running up and down her body. “Not to mention you’ve just attracted the attention of the alicorn specifically designed to attack dreams.”

And attack it did. The stones of the Tower began to crack and deform, and the void around them seemed to grow heavy and crushing.
Only the sun above the horizon, ever observant, seemed unaffected.

“I can’t…” Ancepanox tried to pushed herself up. With a sharp ringing, a renewed psychic pinch pushed ber back prone.
“C- Celestia! Help me!” She pleaded. At any other time, it would have been an appeal for divine aid, but no, it was a very personal and desperate cry.

Her dreaming form was becoming a nebulous.

Celestia was riveted in place, compelled to watch as her the carefully manicured dream around them was fissured. The black alicorn before her, helpless in the throes of abject agony, was just as much at her mercy as at Agana’s.

Celestia remembered her youth, when she was a willful and adventurous princess with the mind of a child, only just come into the world. She enjoyed exploring the world around her, uncovering the secrets of her predecessors, particularly Celestia I. The entombed oracle Myriadess and the impaled oracle Agana were among the most dangerous: The former oracle because of her guile, the latter because of her raw power.

Seeing the Ancepanox, the very image of Nightmare Moon, so pitiful and vulnerable, also stirred a deeper memory, something that did not quite belong to her.
Celestia I, the most regal and powerful of the line of sun princesses, had seen that scene in parody in the Everfree Castle. That time it had been Celestia herself that had struck Nightmare Moon down, using the power of the Harmony to banish her.

She tried to let that memory carry her away to a more pleasant place, but she could not escape the fracturing of the the dream. She couldn’t bare to face the pain and the disorder that she could not fix. Helplessness in the face of the great enemy, the oblivion of death, the inescapable outcome, filled her with transfixing fear.

“I- I can’t.” She backed away.

Control is what ponies craved more than anything else, but Celestia felt it more than any other. Eight-hundred years of absolute rule had her hooked, and when Celestia lost control she lashed out.
She could still remember the screams of her regents as she burned them, her first experience with death. It was so long ago… Was she the same pony who had done that? True she had not undergone succession, but surely eight-hundred years was as much difference as outright replacing her. She was not the kind of pony who killed recklessly anymore, she told herself. She had to believe that. She had to believe she was a benevolent god.
She did not kill her sister. She had to believe that.
“I’m a good god. I’m a good girl.” She mumbled, cradling her head. “And nothing bad is going to happen. I’m in control...”

At least back when she was a murderer, she had passion and drive.

“What is wrong with me…”

Instead of the Tower of the Bard, she was standing on the southern watchtower of Canterlot Castle. Twilight Sparkle was there, enraged and incised. Celestia could hear the echoes of her promise, that had rung hollow in her former student’s ears. ‘Never forget I trust you implicitly. I will always trust you.’

Had that been a lie? At the time, Celestia hadn’t thought so. Despite the rift that had formed between them, she had still considered Twilight a pure and trustworthy subject. She’d known then as she knew now what Twilight was capable of, but trusted her anyway.
Had so much changed since then?
“I’m a good god. I’m in control. I promise I’m in control.”

Was this to be the end of her life and works? Her old acquaintance Agana, reaching through dream and space, would tear apart the dream, Twilight, what once was Twilight, and cast Celestia herself into oblivion.

Celestia opened her eyes. That wasn’t what she wanted. She wasn’t in control. She hadn’t been in control for a very long time, even when she was still alive and reigning in Canterlot.
Celestia had never been in control.
Even when she was rebelling against her mother sun, sabotaging the ideal of Equestria and abandoning her duty, it was just adolescent destructiveness. She was in control of nothing, building nothing, caring for nothing. She was smugly declaring her unwillingness to play others’ game but presenting no alternative.

And perhaps, for a brief time, she had control over the dream of the Tower. That was ending. As Ancepanox had accused it was all her fault.

Caught up in her hallucination with Twilight on the watchtower, Celestia’s heart ached with self-loathing. She wanted to interrupt the memory, wash away the lies and tell Twilight the truth. She wanted to break apart that cold and formal demeanor, so Twilight would see how much she truly mattered to her. But the past was past, and if Celestia was to cure the ailing relationship, it would have to be then and there, atop the Tower of the Bard in the dream.

Celestia’s empire didn’t matter. Her past didn’t matter. She herself didn’t matter. It was all dead anyway.

“I reveled in my death. I reveled in my Empire’s death. But my legacy is alive.” She whispered, pulled as much power to herself as she could. Resolve, purpose, and newfound certainty refined her appearance, making her defined, almost like she was alive again. She looked back at her sun a last time, then back to Ancepanox. “I can save you. I will save you. This will be our fight, our problem.”

Hoof touched hoof, and they turned together against the tortuous wave of Agana’s spell.

Chapter 42: A Traitor and A Queen

Day

“So how did you say the sun reappeared again?” Twilight shaded her eyes with her hoof, staggering a bit from walking on three hooves. It was the hottest it’d been in her time in Ponyville; One could say the sun had come back with a vengeance after being hidden.

Iillor was accommodating Twilight's slower pace, but not without passive glances of mild annoyance. “I don’t know. I was napping at the time. Everypony has a different claim." She shrugged. "The knights claim it rose from the south, but Risky says it just popped up. What sounds more plausible to you?”

“I’m no expert. Celestia was never too keen to share when it came to-” Twilight twitched; Unbidden, a flurry of memories came to the front of her mind, somehow forgotten but inexplicably remembered, as if on cue. “I, uh…”
Twilight tried not to drool as she tried to parse the images assaulting her. She felt sick.

"Yo, you okay?" Iillor apparently noticed her discomfort.

Twilight rubbed her forehead. "I remember... Princess Celestia. I remember her explaining the metaphysics of her mother sun." It was unnervingly peculiar that Twilight could not place the context of the memory at all, as if it had just appeared between day-to-day activities.

"That's cool I guess." Iillor blinked.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Uh huh. And it's why I'll posit that how the sun disappeared would depend entirely on the manner of it’s absence.”

Iillor frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Princess Celestia told me the sun is magical more than anything else. Certain patterns or spells could theoretically effect it in a way that would be impossible for a physical mass even a millionth its size. Ergo Princess Celestia raising it during the Summer Sun." Twilight said. "So... If I'm doing my mental math correctly. A magical phenomenon slightly stronger than Princess Celestia would be able to conceal it in various ways."
A magical phenomenon slightly stronger than Princess Celestia: AKA, Nightmare Moon.

"And?"

"So either the sun was hidden but still where it usually is..." Twilight motioned to the blue skies. "Or it was removed from this world somehow. It might take years of scholarship to know exactly what happened."
Or, simply asking the aforementioned Nightmare Moon. Twilight's idea lurched at the prospect.

"Well here's your first little conundrum to do with said scholarship." Iillor hummed. "Why did it come back?"

They were very close to the library, the Golden Oak. Twilight was torn between her twin desires to go check in with Spike (who knew what trouble he had gotten into waiting for Twilight to wake up), and continuing the conversation.
"Most likely, whatever form of concealment was hiding it was removed. Unless..." Twilight sighed. "The sun was connected to Princess Celestia on a level deeper than we could ever understand. They were literally a part of each other. I don't know how things are going to go if our princess is truly gone for good. Maybe somepony else might be communing with it.” Twilight decided not to address the immense theological problems of what she’d just said. “Princess Celestia was the sun's hierophant. Without her there's so much uncertainty, so much we can't know."

"A lot of things hinged on Celestia." Iillor agreed.

"Yeah..." Twiligtht mumbled, holding back tears.

Iillor wasn't paying attention to Twilight's affect anymore, trotting along and thinking aloud. "There might be clues in the Everfree. Who knows what Duke Lightdowser finds in there. Well, you know, or knew, ha ha. There might even be other survivors with a more intact memory than you."

Twilight brooded on that. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had both acted very strangely. There was a change, however slight, that they knew something she didn't. But in her emotional state Twilight didn't feel like doing anything but going home and talking with Spike.
"Doesn't matter at this point." She said softly. "The sun is back. End of story."

"Until the next time it disappears." Iillor agreed, throwing Twilight a sidelong glance.

They stepped into the little plaza in front of the Golden Oak. Twilight paused before opening the door. “I guess this is my stop." She cleared her throat. "Do you want to come in?”

“Nah. You need more rest and I’ve got stuff to do. I need to make up for I the time I spent babysitting you.” Iillor ribbed. “I don't know how much work a noble like you has in a day but you've probably got a backlog of your own. Hee hee.

“Not really. A viscountess isn't responsible for much.” Twilight sighed. "And without my princess, that's... that's all I really am. I may not even be that. I'll find out when I go back to Canterlot if I still have that stupid gatehouse castle Celestia gave me."
She closed her eyes and sighed again. "There is a turbulent future ahead for all of us."

"We survived the night. The future's no problem" Iillor winked. "Lord Lightdowser will get back from his expedition into the forest soon, maybe tomorrow, maybe not. You should talk to him."

Twilight said nothing to that.

"Anyhow, I'll check back on you if that's okay." Iillor bowed.

“I’m fine, really.” Twilight tried to smile but could pull it off convincingly. She wasn't sure she wanted the earth pony following her around anymore. She was nice, but nosey. "I'll find you."

“Your perogative, my lady. Till next time.” Iillor did a laughable impression of a curtsey, and pranced back up the street out of Ponyville.

Twilight waved her farewell and pushed through the library door. Books were scattered everywhere, like somepony had been looking for one in a hurry.

“Spike! I’m back!” She called out, but the only response was the cheerful chirping of birds from out the window.

The Night. The Eternal Night. The Night of the Summer Sun

It was night outside the Vacuous Arcanum, but it was always dark under the mountain.
Yet even for creatures of that perpetual dark, the Eternal Night was proving treacherous.

Agana, cackling to herself over the pain she was causing Ripple Wreath and the alicorn linked to him, felt silent.
The great creature's joyful expression slowly transformed into a scowl. ”Something is not right.”

“Yes, I’ve come to realize that.” Ripple Wreath tried to laugh at his own weak joke but painful numbness had spread over him entirely. It was all he could do to continue breathing.

“NO, you fatuous ass! She is fighting back.” Agana sounded both infuriated and shocked, as though the concept of dispute had never even occurred to her. “There is more to this... ” She was silent for a long while, while she processed the scope of what she was facing. ”Ahh, the Celestiaan is with her. That is going to be a problem.” She clacked her beak and her eyes came alight with delight once more. “And an opportunity!”

Ancepanox’s pain stopped, leaving a fuzzy sensitivity in all her nerves and a haze over her mind. Similarly, the apocalyptic seizing of Twilight’s dreamscape died down to a tolerable tremor. The alpha strike was over, and they had survived.

She recomposed herself from her curled position, cracking her eyes open. Celestia’s sun had clocked up to high noon, it’s symbolic energy coursing down to it’s avatar. Celestia was raised off the tower, her entire body alight.

“Thank you, Twilight, for much needed insight.” Celestia intoned. “I desire life again, and my star has renewed her link with me. By her phenomenal power, the decay of my mind is revived.”

“Stars are fickle bastards. And so are you.” Ancepanox groaned, rolling to her hooves. She would have to save her suspicion of Celestia's intentions for later. “Still, thank you for saving me, however you’re doing it.”

“I took the liberty of sequestering your connection to your dark progeny.” Celestia said with a hint of distaste.

Ancepanox snorted in displeasure. She felt a pang of possessiveness of Ripple Wreath. "Oh did you now?"

"Agana was using him as the vector of attack. Feeling me through the link has thrown her off. Limiting the connection will give us the time we need to prepare." Celestia said. She descended back to the ground, still glowing radiantly. “And by 'we', I mean you. Dead though I am, I can still bear Agana’s onslaught. I have decades of experience fighting creatures like her.”

“Agana...” Ancepanox repeated, but a name to the pain. The bizarre avian face she’d seen through the link was very unlike the pony-morph alicorns. “Another stupid old bag, thrown in my way to distract me.”

“Mindless is the last word I would describe her by. Distraction is a close second-to-last.” Celestia warned. “Set aside your contrarian hatred for me for a moment, please, or we will not survive her.”

“Don’t be a bonehead. I already offered you my friendship. I want to help you more than I want to hate you.” Ancepanox said with a surly sigh. “I’ll everything I can, obviously, but don’t think for a moment that I’ve dropped my grievances against you.”

“Fair.” Celestia nodded.

“So…” Ancepanox nibbled on her lower lip, tried to get a feel for the tumultuous dreamscape around them. The Tower seemed sturdy, but there was a indescribable hint of fragility to the air, like it all might shatter if pushed too hard. “How can I help defeat this tart.”

“Defeat? Nothing for now.” Celestia said simply. “We will sever the link and the Suzerain of Sin will have no avenue to attack us.”

“What? No! I need to stay connected.” Ancepanox protested. “She’ll kill Wreath and I won’t let that happen!”

Celestia approached her. “Agana is not to be underestimated. Did you not hear me say she was designed to attack dreams? The Dark Lady herself vested Agana with enormous psychic power. My mother star may have given me a second wind, but I still can not hope to match her.”
Celestia sighed. "Thought it was centuries ago, she and I fought a battle like this before. Even then, at the height of my power, I could only run from her dream attacks. Her weakness lies in her physical form, which obviously we have no way of hurting right now.

"I'll put myself out there and confess I have no idea what the hell is going on. What is Agana?” Ancepanox brooded. “A designed alicorn, you said. What does that mean?"

"All alicorns are designed. You met Myriadess, one of the ancient alicorns of Light, who were made by their father Wintertide. You must have heard from her about their counterparts of dark, made by Anima Astral Nacre." Celestia said. "Even my sister and I were made, my our celestial patrons. You were..." She trailed off.

Ancepanox clucked her tongue. "Yeah but what's Agana."

"A creation of Anima Astral Nacre, the Dark Lady, but made after the fall of the gods. She was made after the fall of Everfree in fact. As such, she incorporates lessons the Dark Lady while she roamed the earth. As alicorns go Agana is a young one." Celestia said, summoning faint visions of the towering peacock-hippogryph alicorn appeared in the air. "She lies in bondage under the Mountain of Canterlot, in the lost Vacuous Arcanum of Lord Starswirl, waiting for wayward ponies. She, well, consumes them, eating their sins."

"Bondage?" Ancepanox quirked a brow.

"She was not meant to roam the surface, at least not until I was gone. She is held in place until such a time she will reign undisputed. Another of the Dark Lady's creatures, a dark vine, binds her." Celestia said. "Agana is not too pleased to be held in place, and let me know how wrathful she would be once I was gone and she was free. She is very arrogant, even for a Deava-"

"Woah, what the buck is a deava?" Anceanox demanded.

"Byword for dark alicorn. Deava and Ava, light and dark. Hippogryph Maredian terminology." Celestia explained. "I somewhat misspoke since Ava and Deava are used in religious contexts primarily, and-"

"Thanks, just needed the first part." Ancepanox interrupted again. "A dark alicorn, strapped up under Canterlot, and this is the first I learn of it. I thought Myriadess would be the end of this night's surprises." She chuckled. "Any other alicorns just laying about, posing a tripping hazard? Should I be worried about a tentacle god under my bed?"

"I understand you are upset but it was vital the ancient alicorns remain veiled in secrecy. What if ponies turned to worshipping Anima Astral Nacre?" Celestia posed.

Anceapnox suppressed a laugh. "What if indeed."

"Don't be trite." Since getting her second wind Celestia had been calm and patient, but her annoyance with the dark alicorn was showing.

"I'm not being trite. I'm just confronting what I see as a fundamental injustice here, exemplary of what you JUST SAID you weren't going to do! I'm not going to let you cut off Ripple Wreath. I'm not going to abandon him to a gruesome death." Anceapnox scowled. "Your bullshit light/dark politics will not cost a pony their life, especially since you caused this whole situation with your apathy.

"You were never this foul mouthed before, my student. Even now you amaze me." Celestia said, half-snide, but still oddly respectful in her tone. “How you have formed a relationship worth dying over in so short a time is beyond my ability to understand.” The grudging respect came with qualifications. "Let me sever the connection, my lady."

Ancepanox bit back her anger and just sighed. “Beyond your ability to understand...” She glanced to the ground, brooding. "Then the one who does understand has to take charge. I'm going to fight, and fight back hard."

“Damn that Celestiaan!” Agana roared from her beak, sending flecks of spittle raining down on Wreath, and her psychic voice turned from melodic to shrill. “She's going to stop the fun before it even started!”

The magenta magic surrounding Wreath was starting to constrict his ability to breath even worse than the black vines had. “Wa-” He ran out of breath and started again. “What does that mean?”

“She is vulnerable. But still they are going to get away! ” Agana seethed with limitless rage. “Your link is so pitifully underdeveloped that I can hardly push through it at all!”

Wreath bit his lip to stifle the sudden urge to make a dirty comment on that statement, but found himself devoid of the ability to talk even if he wished it, as Agana squeezed him with bone-crushing magical force. He heard several cracks and unbearable pain lanced through his limbs. She was going to kill him.

“I cannot let the Celestiaan flitter away from me again. I'm so close to freedom.” Agana clacked her beak in consternation. “Little earth pony, sacrifices must be made to achieve this victory..."

Wreath wheezed futilely. How had Agana gone from talking about Ancepanox to Celestia. Wasn't Celestia dead? It had been Ancepanox that told him so.
Before he could dwell on it further, the magical ring between Agana's spiral horns flared with brilliant, awful dark light.

"I must break through. Thus I will make full use of your darkness right now, for you see that I have greater need of it than you. My condolences to those who loved you.” The bound alicorn said.

Enormous burning pain blossomed from every inch of Wreath’s skin. Roaming his form with her unblinking alien eyes, Agana tore away the Dark influences that had settled into his body. Like millions of hairs being pulled out by the follicle, she assimilated the nightmarish corruption Ancepanox had gifted him with.
With ravenous malus, Agana cracked her beak open in glee as she felt her horns burn with the stolen energy.

“POWER! You will die, Celestiaan!” Agana cackled, the magical ring between her twin horns turning black and maroon. She tossed Wreath away like a used towel into the forest of statue. “Die and I'll be free. DIE! DIE! DIE!”

Twilight Velvet was somewhere between awake and asleep, trying to focus on the words in front of her face. She had so much left to do, and nopony could tell her to stop, not even Night Light. Yes, it was a little embarrasing to hide from him on top of Chateau la Garde, but needs must.
Running a functional government for a city of hundreds of thousands was a whole different beast than managing a few captains and their followers. The depths of the unnatural night were a darling opportunity to reshape things how she wanted, but the limits of her middle-aged body could not be pushed further.
Velvet slumped forward, then jerked back up. "Maybe Night Light is right..." She rubbed her eyes. "Maybe I should take a nap."

Just then, a jolt, and her eyes flew open. There was something in the air, something unnatural. She felt it at the tip of her horn like warm sunlight, a looming change peeking above the horizon.
She stood up. Where was it coming from? She trotted to the edge of the roof and stared over the valley.

"Is it you?" She asked the small black dots hanging near the horizon. The picket of airships from Cloudsdale fleet had gotten closer, and now a number of larger ships were among their number, but no, Velvet did not detect any anomalous magical forces from it.
"Hmm..." Her gaze roamed to the city below. Like her, it was drifting between sleeping and awake. Ponies were staying inside except to get necessary supplies. Even the usually zany spots like the university were still and silent. The ponies were subdued, waiting for her to impose her will over them.
"Then where..." She backed up from the edge and looked strait down. She narrowed her eyes. "Did one of my naughty captains wake something up down there?"

She tried to summon up a letter with her magic, so she could send a scathing message to subordinates telling them not to meddle with things outside their lane. Without warning, her magic up out, and the sheet of paper drifted to the floor.
Gasping in surprise, she tried again, and was only able to produce the faintest aura of green magic around her horn, like when she was channeling a dragonfire spell. She took a few deep breaths, moved closer the to the sheet, and tried again: Still nothing.

Even as tired as she was, Velvet knew she should still have been able to tap into her magic. The feeling in the air was disrupting her.

"Whelp. I'm taking a nap." Velvet sighed and made for the stairwell. "I'll figure it out later."
If her Astral, the Cloudsdale ships, or something else caused trouble, then her husband would have to deal with it. Not that he hadn't been completely willing to take the burden, but Velvet didn't trust his mettle. Oh well.

“Mother!” Astral’s psychic wail mingled in her head.
A swarm of tendrils rose over the lip of the parapet and latched on, hoisting the otherworldly flesh alicorn up to the roof. Astral Nacre was jittering with anxiety, unable to control her bone wings. “Velvet I need your help!”

“There's my little darling." Velvet said flatly, half-lidded. "Have you come to apologize for your rudeness at dinner?"

"Ehh? Sure whatever. Ancepanox and I are friends now." Astral rushed to explain. "But she gave me a pony and I lost him! I need you to summon him back!"

"Ancepanox... gave you a pony?" Velvet sighed. "Astral, darling, I don't want to deal with this. Loath though I am to admit it, I need sleep.

“The cage ATE him, and I need him alive!” Astral refused to be still, trotting in circles around Velvet’s desk. “Please! Please! I'll be good from now on! I don't want to disappoint her!"

What the hell was she on about? Velvet turned fully to Astral, her grimace wavered into a confused frown. She could hardly focus on what Astral was saying. “You- You put a pony in the dragonfire cage? Why didn’t you just activate it to bring him back?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t… I didn’t know!” Astral tantrumed, beating her hooves against the floor. It was like a drumbeat across Velvet’s mind. “Please, Velvet, help me.”

“Astral... calm down.” Velvet pleaded.
At the same time, a flare of joyous glee rose in her. Astral was promising to be good? Could it be that Velvet finally had the leverage she needed to control her alicorn.
"Astral..." She cleared her throat and tried again. "Astral, do you trust me?"

Astral froze. “Trust?”

“Yes.” Velvet propped herself up by leaning on the desk. She steeled her expression, but she knew there was no hiding her weariness from Astral. “Do you trust me, my daughter.”

“Daughter?” Astral swished her fleshy mess of a tail around in anxiety. “Velvet… Mother…” She sat down, her beady eyes focused fully on the little mare in front of her. "Lady Velvet, what kind of relationship do you think we should have? I'm not good at this. I don't know what to do or say."

“Astral Nacre, I created you to be a tool. A means to an end. I won't lie, my daughter, but I brought you into this world never considering that you might self-actualize. ” Velvet did not mince words, watching Astral’s tail move when she knew it could be used at any moment to kill while she was vulnerable. “Control is the aspiration of any sentient being. We desire control over own own lives, but sometimes, we feel the hunger for control over others as well. You understand this as well as anypony, because you embody my hunger for control.”

"Yes..." Astral's psychic voice came softly. "Without lie and pretense and show... I'm a tool."

Velvet locked eyes with those unblinking black beads she had brought into the world. “The most magnificent tool in the universe. A tool to bend reality itself, once calibrated. You wish to know and change everything to how it should be, and so do I." Velvet said. Tired or not, once she was in her groove Twilight Velvet was a master orator. "I am a tool as well. I'm a servant of a dream far greater than any of us. The inheritance of generations of House Twilight, is a dream that can rival the gods. We must reach that end. We WILL reach that end. No shame and no dishonor can come from any action that drives us towards our goal, Astral."

"But mother... I can not dream." Astral said anxiously.

Velvet held up her hoof, made sure Astral was watching, and smashed it against the stone underhoof. "See that? Not a dent, and of course not, for stone stands against muscle and bone." She nodded to the spot Astral had stomped in her tantrum. "But like a chisel, you can break what I can not."

"Individual chisels never feature prominently in the stories of architectural masterpieces." Astral countered. She was getting wise to Velvet's tricks.

"Bad analogy." Velvet hummed.

"Then think of one that reassures me that I have a place with you when I can not dream." Astral said, practically begging. "We can help each other not because of coercion and trickery, but because we trust each other! Because we want to!"

Velvet squeezed her eyes shut, trying to work through the haze in her mind. "The House of Twilight... it can be more than a dream. What use is a dream unless its implemented. The- no..." She cut herself off and tried again. "You feel what you must feel to have my plans fully realized. Even your confusion is- no, no... damn." She ground her teeth together.
What was Astral looking for? Honesty? Earnestness? Velvet had a VERY had time with that. It was worth a shot though.
"Astral Nacre... I want to control this planet." She began slowly. "My plans, with or without you, brings to me absolute control over every second, every split moment, across this entire world. It is a very grand, very alicorn-like need, to dominate everything." She leaned in. "With you I'm getting close. But if you try to deny me, like history, like the Celestiaan, like the Stars, and like everyone else has tried to deny our house throughout eternity... I'll kill you."

Astral was completely still, save a few errant twitches from her tail.

Velvet tilted her nose up, settling into a smug smile, and chuckled. "Come on then."

Astral, as if hesitant, tilted her head too. "Mother..." She began quiet, then mimicked Velvet's goading tone. "Ditto."

Velvet barked a laugh. "Good show! That's what an alicorn should be: You dominate, you rule, you assert yourself. We could be transactional, but I say no. Let us be slaves to each other's needs, and self-actualize together!" She closed one eye and tilted her head to the side. "So you'll get your pony back, I promise. I don't need another reason besides that it's what you want."

“Velvet, tell me who denied us?” Astral whispered, tense yet eager. “Mother I will destroy them. I will destroy them for you. Mother I would destroy the gods for you.”

“Ohh.” Velvet sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a laugh. “That won’t be necessary yet. I just want to know, my beautiful third-born, if you share our dream.”

“Always my dear Velvet, mother.” Astral’s beady eyes stared into Velvet’s. “I feel so many things, but I what I feel most of all is a deep need to please you.”

“Ahh.” Velvet smiled. “I am very, very happy. Will you prove that to me? Will you do anything for me?”

“Yes mother!” Astral straightened out. “Anything!”

“Very good, and while you do, I will see about bringing back the pony you lost.” Velvet smiled in earnest pleasure. She took a step towards the stairway. “Let us start out with something small then. Destroy Clousdale’s blockading fleet. Leave none alive.”

Night Light was getting agitated. He thought he could be useful, but everywhere he went the underlings assured him that everything was taken care of. He didn't even recognize some of the ponies patrolling the streets or manning the checkpoints. Blueblood and Aurthora had pulled in lots of ponies and Night Light was more than a little hesitant. If Velvet's lethal wrath wasn't 100% assured, Blueblood may have been tempted to try something with his mass of ponies. More than just cruelty, whipping the 'prince' every now and then kept him from even considering disloyalty.

But that left Night Light rather out in the cold. There was seemingly nothing for him to do.

"Velvet is up to something." He grumbled. His wife told him she would rest when he left her, but he highly doubted she actually was. She was probably pulling in paperwork with her nifty dragonfire spell, keeping it out of everypony else's hooves.

With the Blackhorn Sword strapped on his side, Night Light wandered into the Old Town. He was the only pony on the street, for it seemed the crowds that had turned out before at the Opera House had realized the true peril of the unending night.

He passed by the plaza near the royal garden. He passed the spot Sel Lech had been sulking in after the events of the Opera House. Blueblood was cowed, but Sel Lech was different. Sel was an emotional, whimsical pony at times. Hitting him had done no good: The lesson faded as quickly as the welts. In fact Night Light was at bit of a loss when it came to Sel: What was he good for? Why did Velvet keep him around? His apologetic earnestness was going to be a liability.

"hm." Night Light dragged his hoof over the ground a bit. "When did I get so cynical?"

Night Light stopped for a moment in front of the Musican's Guild. The facade was a mess, with broken windows and debris scattered everywhere; A real eyesore for the prim and clean Old Town. The inside was even worse. He wondered how many former guild ponies were still around, hiding in safehouses around Canterlot. They probably didn't know Velvet was the one behind the Wonderbolts's attack, but there was still a risk. It could also be an opportunity, if the new regime found a way to being the guild ponies on side. Trained assassins had many uses.

"Hmm." Night Light was not especially proud of having to rely on assassins, as Velvet had against the Bright brothers in foal, but they could potentially be used to avoid more wasteful methods. Thankfully nopony else in Canterlot was making trouble, so no more be killed yet. Indeed, a surprising number of ponies were still showing up for their government posts, save the mass exodus from Canterlot Castle the IHG had orchestrated.
On that note, Night Light wondered how the guard lads from the Chateau la Garde gatehouse posting were doing now. Another gate perhaps?

It was becoming cold, and the supply of wood and coal was dwindling. Peasants came in twos and threes from the countryside, escaping from shortages caused by the trade breakdown. The situation was probably worse for ponies further out in the hinterlands, where opportunistic animals or bandits prowled the dark.

He tracked down the new posting for his acquaintances the city guardsponies . He joined them at the city’s small western gate that guarded the skydock. But standing around wouldn't do. He wanted to help, in what little way he could.

“Not like that. Hold it like this, so the shock of a strike doesn’t break your teeth.” Night Light guided one of the guardsponies with his swordsponyship while the others watched. He adjusted how the stringy unicorn held his longsword in his mouth. “Make sure the crossguard is far enough out so that your nose doesn’t get cut off.”

Unicorn guardsponies too weak with their magic to lift a weapon were often deprived of vital training. Night Light’s stamp as a duelist was to be proficient in any situation, knowing how to use any sword with his mouth, hoof, and even his tail in dire situations. Who better to instruct? Took his mind off the frustration.

The guardspony practiced slashing at the air, but the sword’s hilt slipped out of his mouth and clattered on the cobblestone road. Night Light cringed at the possibility that it would be nicked, but it was a relatively generic blade; Not like the Blackhorn Sword he’d lain against the wall while he instructed. It was a beautiful sword of a shining silver metal, with a wooden hilt of the same lacquer as the armor. He couldn't help but glance to it every minute. Nopony would risk to use such a work of art in a practice battle.

“Try again.” Night Light sighed, fetching the longsword back with his magic. “That sword is balanced perfectly, so you don’t have to clamp down on it when you’re not swinging. Save your jaw some strain.”

Was this what he was good for, Night Light wondered. Was the the only task that would not be taken from him.

“Uh, some ponies are coming m’lord.” One of the guards behind him said. Night Light grunted in acknowledgement and continued his lesson.

It was a small convoy, three covered wagons pulled by two ponies each. The lead wagon was pulled by two mares, concealed by black hoods and shawls. The taller of them, strands of yellow and orange hanging out of her articles, was in front, confidently leading the other. Her voice was smooth and somewhat commanding. “Mind opening the gate for us, Gentleponies?”

“Uh, this the gate to the skydock. You know that, right?” The guardspony looked baffled, looking over the laden carts.

“Yes, that’s why I’m going this way.” The mare said with a chuckle.

“Well, uh, okay then. What’s your business, going through to there?” The guardspony began at the top of the list of standard questions while his comrade fetched the ledger. Night Light kept watch on them from the corner of his eye while he criticized his trainee's form.

“Take wild guess.” The mare snarked.

“Do you own an airship moored there?” The guard looked over the wagons and the other ponies, who hurriedly pulled their hoods closer.

“I’m in the market for one. I thought I might take a look at what’s in stock.” The yellow mare smiled broadly. She flashed a quick glance at Night Light, and he could have sworn she’d winked at him.

“Uh… Ok. Umm, FYI the admin don't like sarcasm and if I write that down I'll get chewed out, so please tell the truth. Let's, uh, start with your names.” The guard took the ledger from his friend, being the only literate one of the squad.

“Dances-on-Graves.” The lead mare pointed to herself. “And my friend is Entanglement Theory.” She pointed to the mare behind her.

“Two unicorns… Dances-on-Graves… Entanglement Theory…” The guard murmured around the quill in his mouth as he wrote. He spared a look at the stallions pulling the two carts behind, but scrawled a small addendum for them, deciding the peons’ names were unimportant. “It's a funny name you got, Mis.”

“Funny nose you got.” The Dances-on-Graves quipped.

The other guard blushed to the sound of snickering behind him. “What’s in the wagons?”

“Some tools and stuff.” Dances-on-Graves said. “Furnishings for the airship, if you will.”

“Uh, anything to declare mis?”

She shrugged. “I’d like to declare my undying love for Celestia, but I don’t think you’re the pony to talk about for that.”

The guard sighed. “Okay, whatever. We're all tired.” The guard had an uneasy feeling, but didn’t see the harm in letting them through. There wasn’t much damage they could do from the isolated skydocks. “We’ll have the gate open in a jiffy, ma’am.”

The sword clattered out of the trainee’s mouth once more. Night Light scooped it up with his magic, but instead of returning he brought it to his side. He slowly approached the mares, also snatching up the Blackhorn Sword. Seeing this, every guard froze.

“Leaving Canterlot?” Night Light said, tapping the flat of the training sword against his shoulder impatiently. "Dances-on-Graves... You carry yourself like a noblemare, but I would have remembered a name like that." He looked her up and down, but the robes and dark of night obscured her. “My friend might have forgotten, but the city is closed. There's no leaving without approval."

"S- Sorry, my lord." The guardspony muttered. "The shift before us didn't mention-"

"That's okay." Night Light grunted, his attention fixed on the defiant mare. "Why are you abandoning the city? Things aren't better anywhere else. In fact this is probably the safest place in Equestria right now."

Dances-on-Graves’s grin grew wider as she sized up Night Light. “It's more dangerous than you think. Besides, we're after green pastures, not safety."

“Who are you loyal to?” Night Light tried to get a good look at the smaller mare (Entanglement Theory, she'd said), but she pulled her hood down hastily. “Let us cut to the chase. What you are trying won't be abided. Depending on how truthful I feel you are being, I may let you leave from the main gate, without your wagons. If you lie I will have to conclude you are an enemy of the lawful government of Canterlot.”

“I have always held a deep patriotic love for Celestia and her laws.” Dances-on Graves said with exaggerated pride.

Night Light stood there silently for a moment. Then he used the point of his blade to push back her hood. She was an orange unicorn, with unruly red and yellow hair. Her cyan eyes stared back impetuously. "You had to go and do it."

Night Light jet his jaw. "Yes I did." He dropped the practice sword and backed away slowly,

The guards looked confused. "Sir?"

“A traitor, lads.” Night Light warned softly. "The Traitor is back."

Sunset Shimmer laughed at the seriousness of it. She didn't even bother to unyoke herself from the cart. "It's me." Her decade of exile was over.
That boded poorly for the future of Equestria.
“You’re wondering why I’m bothering using this gate, why I’m talking to you.” Sunset watched Night Light, reading his expressions carefully. “You’re wondering what I have planned, and why I’ve let things go as they have up here in Canterlot.”

“Those are all very reasonable things to wonder, Lady Shimmer.” Night Light controlled his breathing. He knew that Sunset could level the block in the time it would take him to draw the Blackhorn Sword. He threw desperate glances at the bewildered guards, praying they wouldn’t do anything rash.

“Lord Light, what is going on?” The lead guardpony asked, looking confusedly for his superior's directions. “Do we apprehend this mare?”

“Back off.” Night Light ordered. When the guards hesitated he repeated sternly. “Back off now!”

Sunset Shimmer snorted flippantly. “The pseudonym 'Dances-on-Graves' isn't just for show, you know. Come on then, don’t pussyfoot around." She glanced south. "Nopony's coming to help so don't try to stall. At this moment, everypony is distracted."

"You've had a long time to plan." Night Light acknowledged.

"Fight or Flight, Lord Light?” Sunset glanced over at the smaller mare yoked beside her. The little mare was shaking with fright. That seemed to mellow Sunset’s arrogance with a touch of caution. “Let's not cause trouble. Not here at least. Let us pass. As I said, there are greener pastures for us.”

Night Light fidgeted, unsure what to do.

“And you going to try to stop us?” Sunset cocked a brow challengingly.

“You’re a criminal and a traitor.”

“So what? Who isn’t? Not you, I’ve heard. He he!” Sunset giggled. “Just letting you know, but the amount of time for you to open this gate voluntarily is running out.”

Either roll over for a dangerous maniac or fight a hopeless battle. Night Light had never faced odds like that before, usually being on the side of the maniac. He was a generally confident stallion, but he could see no positive outcome in this dealing.
What would Velvet do? He imagined she would probe for weakness and feign submission then strike when the moment was ripe. Unfortunately Night Light lacked her uncanny perceptiveness, and he doubted he would even be able to exploit any dents in the traitor’s armor.

“We’ll be well rid of you.” Night Light tried to sound stern. He took another step back and toward the gate operator, who initiated the opening mechanisms. “Canterlot will be much safer without your treachery.”

“Oh if you think I’m the most dangerous thing in this city, you’ve got another thing coming.” Sunset cautioned, leaning into the harnesses to pull her cart forward. “This whole mountain is teeming with monsters. Get prepared, Lord Light. Real monsters aren’t as laid back as I.”

Briefly puzzled at that cryptic warning, Night Light withdrew from the convoy as it rolled through the gate. He could feel the looks of the guardsponies on him, lost and unnerved. If they had known who she was, would they have been braver and least tried to stop her?

“Gods damn it all.” He cursed acidly.

He snapped the practice sword back to his side with his magic and, with a moment of quick calculation, chucked it at the mechanism above the gate.
The dingy sword nicked the side of the tensioned rope which, with its integrity compromised, frayed and unwound in the blink of an eye. The heavy wood portcullis came crashing down but did not, as Night Light expected, flatten the third cart. The wheels snapped and the wooden frame splintered, but the bulky cargo under the tarp held the gate’s weight.

A gust of wind whistled through the gate, flapping up the edge of the tarp. Night Light could see the cargo, stacks and stacks of small copper cylinders, tied together with thin wire in an elaborate array. Unknown, extrinsic, technology.

“Very cheeky, Lord Light.” Sunset’s mocking tone echoed through the barbican. She unyoked herself and \ jumped atop the lead cart to stare him down. "I know you're a good stallion, or you want to be... But the most annoying obstacles are always the ones like you. I'm surprised your wife hasn't crushed that out of you."

"Whatever you hope to accomplish-" Night Light started to call out, but his voice died when he saw flickering light gather at Sunset Shimmer's horn.

"I'm going to have to punish you, my lord." Sunset barked. "Shame I have no time to dance after."

Surreal light flashed from above them, banishing shadow with blasphemous illumination. Night Light had just long enough to unsheathe the Blackhorn sword before Canterlot felt the wrath of the Traitor.

It was space without space, time without time, the world of the absolute other, that Ancepanox awoke to. A black, blacker than could possibly exist in the physical world, filled every corner of the void, oppressive in its greedy nothingness. Rings of burning, devilish magical fire rested in the infinite distance, outlining the profile of incalculably huge, alien eyes of black. From six directions they watched her, reading her every movement, tearing away all secrets with their lidless stares.

It was like the mind of Myriadess in overdrive.
"What just... happened?

A point of light blinked into existence, then expanded into the form of that horrendous ancient alicorn Ancepanox had seen through Wreath’s eyes. An upright grey equine body, with a fanned feather tail and falcon wings, topped by the severe eagle head with swirling horns and a exotic crest. Her legs were shackled with trailing black vines, like those that had borne Myriadess.
It was like something out of mesoequestrian mythology, though its cephalopod eyes betrayed it’s undeniable abnormality.

Anaga spoke with amused apathy in a resonant hum of a voice.
“Don’t worry, you are not dead yet. I requisitioned you progeny’s connection to you, and you were pulled from that other dream into mine.” She floated in a position stationary relative to Ancepanox in the turbid abyss, her vines and fur rippling in an absent wind. "I am Agana, the Suzerain of Sin, daughter of the Dark Lady. Deava. Adversary. Oracle."

"Hey what's up." Anceapnox grunted.

"Celestia has told you about me? So it seems." Agana clacked her beak. "What she has said is not lies. By her words, you likely want nothing more than to destroy me.”

“You’ve got that bucking right.” Ancepanox barely stood out in the void, with only her gleaming fangs, glowing eyes, and streaming hair to remind her that she had not simply stopped existing. “I swear to Celestia, I will annihilate your every atom if you hurt Wreath or Twilight.”

“Swear to Celestia, hmm? Then I suppose I should discard pretense right away and say that I have hurt your boy. He’s dead, most likely. Whoops.” Agana shrugged. “That notwithstanding, I hope you can take a moment to hear me out before we commit to this feud fully.”

Ancapanox had nothing but looks of pure hate for the ancient alicorn.

“It is not as if you have a choice. Your formative powers are no match for mine in this realm of the wanton.” Agana continued. “Sins flourish in the dreamscape, and so we Dark ones flourish. Ponies store here their pride, greed, desire, etcetera. You sequestered away all your wrath, which is now coming back to the surface.”

“You’re keeping me here so you can talk at me, lording over me with your pseudo-philosophical blather?” Ancepoanox sneered. “Puh-leese! I can get the same treatment from any number of idiots!”

“Do you like hurting ponies?” Agana asked.

“What?” Ancapanox was caught off guard.

“Oh, don’t be alarmed. Until you develop your psychic defenses you should expect to have every crevice of your mind available to curious gods.” Agana opened her beak in mimicry of a malicious smile. “So I ask again: Do you like hurting ponies? It certainly seems like you do.”

“No. I don’t.” Ancepanox objected. “I used to be afraid to defend myself, but that's compleately different."

“Society would have you believe ponies had a deep adversity to killing, and that it is something unnatural to your race.” Agana said. “Do you still believe that?”

“Yes.” Ancpeanox thought about the gentle ponyvillians, like Applejack and Fluttershy, and her dear acquaintances in Canterlot like Laurel, Manered, Moondancer, and many others.
And then she thought about Rarity, whose madness seemed to put her on the edge of murderous, and Velvet, whose disregard for life had ended hundreds of innocents. She thought about Skratchy, Glori, and innumerable thugs that paraded themselves around Canterlot, in the couture of nobility and law enforcement.
And the she thought about Astral, if that deranged creature could be called a pony, and Nightmare Moon, and about herself, all whose restraint were seemingly gone. “It depends...”

"Your race had a chance to organize itself in a more just, harmonious way. It rejected that. In fact, it tried to destroy the pony who offered it to them." Agana said, clearly reading into Anceapnox's doubts. "You ponies tore down the principality of the Everfree, Celestia the First's beacon of hope, and only once she was angry and bitter enough did ponykind chose her and their leader. They want to be coerced. They want to whipped."

Ancepanox let out a sigh. If Agana liked to hear herself talk as much as the other alicorns, the next while was going to be a slog. "That's culture, not pony nature."

"Ooh, it's just their culture. Was it culture that made you kill those hundreds of ponies? When it comes to oppression, you are the pony to beat.” Agana’s laugh was like a cacophony of chimes signaling a funeral. “As soon as you tapped into your true self, you became a butcher, cutting away mortality from the many helpless victims as a butcher separates fat.”

“That's not a revolutionary idea. I’ve heard all these terrible things before." Ancepanox raised her voice, feeling like she had a whole audience, with how the distant eyes in the void were trained on her. "I might be pushing the boundaries of morality with my self defense, but I am not a monster."

“A monster? A monster is a wild beast, unable to reason, lurking in the corners of the ill minds of ponykind. I could be called a monster, but not you, not yet. You have the chance to descend to this level... If that is what you wish.” Agana offered with misplaced allure. “On the other hoof you have the capacity for less barbaric expressions of the Dark. Use your power correctly, and the sum of ponykind could bow to you.”

The flattery was worming its way into Ancepanox’s heart, but she kept a cautious tone. “I doubt I’d like your definition of correct.”

“You speak of proprietary and morals. Such things come and go obviously. I mean correct in a very objective sense: That which gives you the most power is that which is right. ” Agana elaborated. “For example, allowing you to live is objectively incorrect, for doing so deprives me of power and establishes a threat to my life.”

“Let’s hope you come to regret your decision.”

“Is that really all you have to say?” Agana frowned. “You yearn for vindication. I can feel it in your heart. I can see it in your eyes. Nothing in your past can offer the solace you seek."

"You think you can sell me on a worldview that can satisfy me." Ancepanox squinted incredulously. "If you're reading my mind, you know I already killed an oracle that tried that."

"So you will go back to being repressed? Why do you not express your heart as you yearn to?”

“Let loose, you mean.” Ancepanox grunted.

“To kill.” Agana crooned. “There is no greater declaration of your existence than to end another’s. For we Dark ones, power always comes at the expense of another. Do not tell me than siphoning away a weakling soul does not fill your mind with joy!”

Ancepanox chose to sit in silence rather than answer the peacock alicorn. Finally she spoke. “I will hear you out.”

“It is difficult to overstate how wise you are, little dark one.” Agana grinned. “And I would know, for I am the suzerain of sin.
“Consider the senseless, guileless animals of the earth, devoid of sentience or sapience. There are two things which separate us from the beasts: Knowledge and sin. They are one and the same! Is it not the case that the purest among you are those living simple, ignorant lives? Yes, the sliding scale runs from those most like privative cattle, to those approaching the divine in weight of power and sin.

“I can hear what Myriadess told you. flashing through your head, about the fundamental forces of Light and Dark. She was not wholly incorrect. She was correct in saying that they are at their core the two competing influences of energy: Dark is the aspect of Will, Light is the aspect of Destiny. You understand now that Light, and its associated influence of Destiny, takes control out of the hooves of ponykind. Without control, there can be no will, knowledge, and sin.

“Myriadess could not tell the whole story. She was limited to that which he knows, which by her nature was narrow. Your expression shows your confusion, so I shall explain. The Light is a centralized energy, a force of consensus and collectivity. Before the fall of the ancient alicorns, the Lord of Light, who came to be known as Wintertide, was the conscious instance of that collective drive. He has since decayed, and the course that destiny dictates flows from parts unknown, even to me.

“I, unlike Myriadess, am able to tell you everything I desire to tell you. Free will, insofar as your instinct, personality, and situation allow it to be free, exists! Dark is inherently decentralized, for while it encompasses a great many things, they all act independently under its veil. The Dark Lady did not create her children by synthesis as the Lord of Light did, but by fission, splitting off one of her many distinct Wills to make us.
You see, while all Light is linked to the founding moment of the Giver and Lord Wintertide, all Dark is separate from the Dark Lady and yet was a part of her. The one Myriadess called the Twisted Sinner, was no more and no less the representation of Anima Astral Nacre's true form than any random pony with Dark in their heart.

“Don’t give me that look! Yes, you hold a fragment of the original Dark Lady, Astral Nacre, as well. She waxes and wanes with the eras, just as the moon princess, mortalkind, and the moon do in the shorter timescale.

“With this long night, my lady’s power is ascendant. The night is death and danger, where even the most powerful can be brought low. The Dark Lady yearns to have her powers exercised, to be used by an against the willful creatures of this planet. Wherever she may be now, I know she looks upon this fluctuating world with ardent glee, awaiting the time that her servants, willing and unwitting alike, bring about her promised reign."

Ancepanox sighed. "Okay... And?"

Agana's alien eyes flashed with anger. "Before to long, you shall understand things my way."

"Okay great. Is that going to stop be wanting to tear you guts out?" Ancepanox asked, matching the larger alicorn's scornful gaze. "You're not hard to read. You want me to betray Celestia, help you kill her, and let you free. But you'll betray me as soon as that's done."

Agana laughed disdainfully. "Celestia is your natural enemy. Betraying her should not even be in question."

"And yet it is. How's that for free will you feathered bastard?" Anceapnox shook her head. "Send me back to the Tower. We'll be waiting for you."

Agana lifted one of her forelegs and pointed into the void. "We will see if your mind changes once battle commences. Yesss, go back to the Tower. I'm soon to follow. It won't be long before you realize Celestia is not worth suffering over."

The eyes in the void winked out, and Ancepanox left the strange realm.

Chapter 43: For Those Whose Ships Have Already Sailed

Hours earlier

Soarin didn’t like the look of the moon. Since it had been dominant in the sky for several days now, he should have gotten used to it, but the missing profile of the Mare in the Moon at once unnerved him and made him wonder where that demon of legends had escaped to.

Fleetfoot, trotting beside him, seemed to have no such concerns, though with the incredible trauma she’d borne in Canterlot it was to be expected that anything so petty would fall beneath her notice. She looked normal, or even good, expect when she didn't think Soarin was looking; In those moments her weakness showed through, and she let herself heave with a phantom sickness that she was not really experiencing, and scratch at burnt skin that was not there. Fleetfoot was holding herself together, but just barely. Rain Gnash's pain pounded through her head.

They were on their way to Spitfire’s family home, in the dense Nimbostratus District, where Cloudsdale was closest to the Unicorn Mountains to the immediate south. The density of the stacked cloud houses had forced them to land as they searched for an address that had proved elusive: When the arrangement of buildings was always changing in three dimensions, standardized labeling became meaningless.

“You’ve been there before, right?” Fleetfoot asked.

“Yeah, once or twice.” Soarin nodded. “Spitfire didn’t really like being there though, so we usually hung out at the officer club or my place.”

“This district isn’t really the proper place for a pegasus knight, especially not a wonderbolt. I can’t believe the admiralty punished her father that badly.” Fleetfoot commented regretfully. “Please remind me to apologize to her for degrading her so much about the whole dishonor thing.”

“Hey, don’t hurt yourself over it. She knows that everypony’s basically expected to mock her about it.” Soarin smiled sadly. “She’s kinda made it a point of pride that she made it as far as she has with the stigma.”

“But she doesn’t deserve it, and I’m ashamed I didn’t see it earlier. Now we’ve out a captain and our bravest leader.” Fleetfoot sighed. “Gnash says she’s sorry too.”

“How did you…” Soarin hadn’t noticed the telltale efflux of light from Fleet’s eyes that accompanied the broader mental linkings between her and Rain Gnash, enough to get complete thoughts through. Gnash he knew, while still debilitated in the hospital, could see as if she were in Fleetfoot's skin. She was in Fleet's skin. Soarin cleared his throat and tried to play it off, for however much it disconcerted him it would be immoral to dwell on his comrade's curse. "Well, I’m sure Spitfire will be happy to hear it. heh heh..."

Soarin hadn’t been watching where he was walking, and a mare rounding a corner collided headlong into him. They fell in a tangle of wings and legs into the malleable cloud-street.

“Goodness gracious!” Another mare, the companion of the one under Soarin, proclaimed. She quickly helped separate the two and get them on their hooves. “We’re ever so sorry and- My oh my! Soarin! It’s been so long!”

Soarin got a good look at the other mare. She was finely dressed, lilac with with a pale blue mane and tail and deep purple eyes. She had all kinds of frilly things, pins, and buttons attached to her vest and skirt. The mare he’d collided with seemed to be the young lilac mare's maidservant. “Uh… Do I know you?”

The blue mare blushed furiously. “Ooh, missy must of hit you harder than I thought. It’s me! Seafire!”

Soarin croaked in embarrassment and facehooved. How could he forget Spitfire’s little sister? “Of course, of course. Shame on me.” He said quickly.

“It’s no big thing Soarin. I wouldn’t be hurt if you’d forgotten me completely! You must meet so many mares, but I really remember you.” Seafire fluttered her eyelashes.

“I…” Soarin sputtered. He’d sworn to Spitfire not to touch Seafire, on pain of death and disembowelment, a threat he knew his captain could and would follow through with. Besides, she was cute but not his type. He used the most convenient digression. “Fleetfoot, this is Seafire, Spitfire’s lil sis. Seafire, this is my friend Fleetfoot.”

Fleetfoot blushed slightly at being called a friend. “How do you do, ma’am.”

“I’m no ma’am. Call me whatever strikes you happy!” Seafire giggled. “Beg pardon, your eyes are kinda funny."

Fleetfoot stiffened in alarm, and covered her glowing eyes with a hoof. When she dropped her hoof down they were returned to normal. "They do that sometimes." She laughed emptily.

"Sure!" Seafire thought nothing of it. "You all already met missy!” She nudged her maid cradling her head from the collision, who waved silently.

“I’m really sorry about that.” Soarin offered. “But, uh, Seafire, it’s lucky we bumped into you. We were trying to find your house, and I’ve gotta admit we’re a little lost.”

“I figured. Spitty’s come home, and I don’t much guess you would have any other reason to come round here.” Seafire shrugged. “We were heading home anyway, so I’d say luck was with both of us tonight!”
She giggled gleefully, trotting up the street with her maid in tow. “Come along then!”

“Spitty?” Fleetfoot smirked. “I’m saving that one.”

Soarin winced. “You know that time I came back to the barracks with a broken rib?” Fleetfoot nodded. “Yeah, don’t call her Spitty.”

The house they stopped at was hidden by a veritable jungle of vines and bushes in the front courtyard. Fragrant air plants dominated the little garden, and most of the fence and path to the front door. In the pale moonlight it had the air of a forgotten graveyard.

“Momma likes her privacy. She hardly tends her plants anymore.” Seafire explained, leading them off the road into the yard.

“This place is a little more overgrown than I remember.” Soarin noted, brushing some hanging moss out of the way with a wing.

“Poppa does most of the trimming, and he’s been getting a little…” Seafire glanced up at the house’s higher floors to make sure nopony was listening. “odd, pardon me for saying. He says he doesn’t want to hurt the plants any more.”

“That is a little odd.” Soarin agreed, not really sure what to make of that.

The maid ran ahead, opening the door and holding it for everyone to pass through.

“I’m home!” Seafire yelled into the foyer. “And I brought company!”

“Seafire, please. We’re not here to impose, just to see Spitfire.” Soarin protested.

“It’s no imposition! Come on in!” Seafire beckoned.

“Who the hell did you bring home this time, you little tramp?” A familiar voice voice, full of annoyance, echoed out from the first floor landing. “Mom might let you get away with bringing your beggar friends here but I-” Spitfire poked her head through the door and saw her subordinates standing there. “Oh.”

“Hi, captain.” Soarin managed a little smile.

“Captain.” Fleetfoot brought up her wings in a salute.

“Gods… I wasn’t expecting any of you buckers to come after me.” Spitfire smoothed her mane back before emerging fully into the foyer. She looked like he hadn’t slept in days, or the equivalent amount of time in the eternal night. Seeing her uniform or even casual wear was weird. “It’s... It's good to see you guys.”

“Same.” Soarin trotted forward and threw a hoof around her shoulder. “We couldn’t keep away.”

“They were lost.” Seafire giggled, which drew in immediate rebuke from her sister.

“Go play with your dolls or something.” Spitfire pushed Seacrest up the stairs. “I have important business with my friends.” She turned back to Soarin, holding back an exausted sigh. “Something’s wrong, isn’t there.”

“There are big problems brewing, yes.” Fleetfoot cut to the chase. “Cloudsdale is going to war.”

“Shit.” Spitfire swore, putting a hoof to her head. “That’s not good.”

“I sat in at the Admiralty on Lady Gnash’s behalf, and a big majority that wants to retaliate against Twilight Velvet and Canterlot. The doves managed to stall long enough for them to settle for a blockade with options for future escalation.” Fleetfoot recounted. “The officers are irate, braying for blood. Cloudsdale pride was wounded, and there's a popular rumor that overthrowing Lady Velvet will bring the sun back." She shook her head. "A full scale invasion is in the cards.”

Spitfire stared into space, contemplating the situation. "Mobilization?"

"Priority reservists have been put on notice, but the picket and preliminary blockade fleet are staffed by active duty and volunteer knights." Fleetfoot recounted. "By Admiral Gnash's estimation, that's about two-thousand ponies about to be sent to Canterlot. If the call for the reservists goes out, that'll quadruple."

Spitfire paled. "Didn’t anypony warn them what's waiting?”

“Yes, but there’s been enormous controversy about the Wonderbolt’s role in what happened. Naval Intelligence is constantly contradicting us with BS. Everything we say is just being taken as us trying to save our hides.” Soarin grumbled. “You’re the obvious scapegoat, captain. If things go wrong a second time...”

“I don’t give a buck what the maggot-brain admirals accuse me of. I did what was right by the Bolts, and now they're sending you back?! It's suicide. You know it, I know it.” Spitfire hissed.

“Our number's been called, unfortunately.” Fleetfoot frowned. “It was obvious we were going to be sent back, and that's the reason we came to see you. Our orders have just come down. The Wonderbolt brigade is assigned to the Feather Slicer to enforce the blockade. We’re leaving immediately. I know you won't, but if you come Lady Gnash can protect you, roll back the accusations dereliction.”

“Buck ‘em. The accusations are true. I have a resignation written up and they can collect it any time.” Spitfire turned away. Her voice dropped to a pained whisper. “I've tried to inspire the Wonderbolts with my actions my entire carrier as an officer. I thought I was teaching not just bravery, honor, but also right and wrong, and a soldier's cleverness. You know what you're getting into if you go back to Canterlot. You know what Twilight Velvet has in store for you.”

Soarin wanted to offer some comfort, but an agitated shiver from Spitfire warned him against it. She didn't want his consolations. “Captain... We'll see you later then.” He backed out of the foyer, head bowed.

“If we come back from Canterlot.” Fleetfoot added, pausing in the doorframe. “It's gunna be rough. Pray for us. Captain, I’m sorry for everything I put you through. We are sorry.”

Spitfire broke from her sour brooding, and nodded solemnly. “You three stay alive, all right? Don't kill die being damn fools."

Fleetfoot saluted again. “Yes ma’am.” She followed Soarin out the door.

Eight hours later, above the Dneighper Valley and Canterlot

“The Helbark signals that she’s reached her station and is holding steady.” The forward spotter called out.

“Very good.” The deck commander nodded. “Make the necessary adjustments to maintain this relative position.”

Among the chorus of ‘aye’, was the muted rustle of the huge airship’s sails being furled on the other side of the hull.

Looking from the airships' forward window, to the right and to the left, one would have seen an awesome sight: Above the darkened fields of the gentle Canter, birds of prey were gathering. Airships, pegasus constructs of fabric, wood, and metal. Rarely was a fleet of any notable size seen anywhere but at the anchorages of Cloudsdale and Los Pegasus, and even in the colonies airship actions involved a singular capital ship with a few escorts.
But there, above the Canter, poised against the city of Canterlot, a full squadron of the Cloudsdale Fleet had been gathered. Like black clouds they drifted into their assigned station, to form a wide semi-circle concentric to Canterlot's plateau. At the center of the ark of airships, the flagship of the operation and largest of the capital ships, the carrier Feather Slicer.

The blockage was established, and the pegasi let feelings of retributive satisfaction swell in their hearts.

But the pony whose retribution the squadron flew for was less enthused.
Fleetfoot watched from the corner of the bridge operations room, observing the unfolding situation. She was in her ceremonial Wonderbolt uniform, a light blue in contrast to the grey of the airship officers around her. Her left eye glowed a brilliant white, as Rain Gnash watched along with her from a hundred kilometers away. She tried to cover the eye with a lock of her mane, and had so far kept the ponies around her from commenting.

“It’s like they don’t even care that we’re here.” Fleetfoot brooded. Canterlot was silent and unmoving beneath them. Lights were shining here and there, but pitifully few for a metropolis of the capital's calibre.

Nothing happened for hours, and a slumbering calm settled over the Operations Center. Of course, that was good, though the more eager pegasi were itching for a reaction from the city, anything to justify an attack before a response came from the Admiralty. Even the officers repeating they were there only to blockade were secretly anticipating the attack, for what better show of Cloudsdale's power, now even surpassing Canterlot's, in the uncertain future after Celestia?

Fleetfoot considered abandoning her duty of observing to run back and check on Soarin and the other Bolts down below in the lance quarters. Then again, they were likely having a roaring good time without her, and she wouldn’t want to bring them down with her cursed presence.

"This isn't right." Fleet heard whispers from the corner of the bridge, where two young officers were lingering. "Sure I hate the hornheads too, but they're ponies. They're Equestrians."

"Maybe that mattered last week, but Equestrian unity was broken by them, not us." The other officer countered. "They mutilated an admiral. They disrespected us. This is self-defense."

"Is it?" The firs officer hissed. "This isn't what I signed up for."

"What did you sign up for? We're protecting our homes just as much as when we're busting pirates in the Southlands."

"So... Not at all."

The second officer let out a low growl. "You should go back to your post, or Naval Intelligence will want to hear where you got your traitorous ideas."

Fleetfoot and everypony else in earshot had a show of not looking as the nervous young officer walked back to his post on the other side of the bridge.

Fleet tried to scan Canterlot again, but it was becoming a tiresome task. There was no signs of activity, no reminders of her mistreatment to rage against. Just a sleeping city, but even that was a wear against Fleet's sanity. Something was wrong; She could feel it, Gnash could feel it, but not quite grasp or articulate it.
"It's about to start." Fleetfoot's eyes instinctively roamed to the southern edge of the city wall, where she knew the Chateau la Garde to be. Across space, she knew Velvet was watching her back. "Gods help us."

“Activity at the ten! Light, possibly magic!” The spotter yelled, breaking the general lul of the bridge.

“Get the captain up here!” The commander jumped up and raced to the spotter’s side, taking the binoculars for himself. “It doesn’t look like an attack. Still, put all hooves on standby alert.”

“Aye!” The midshipmare echoed, running back to the cabins portion of the airship.

“What do you see?” Fleetfoot asked.

“Just some occasional flashes. I think there’s a battle down there by the skydock.” The commander said, handing the binoculars back to the spotter.

“Somepony trying to escape or get in.” Fleetfoot speculated to herself. “We’ll keep watching and see what happens.”

“Or we will seize the opportunity!” Captain Hail Strom strode out into the operations center, prompting a quick salute from the command staff and bridge crew. “The skydock is the perfect place to start our attack.”

“Surely you’re joking.” Fleetfoot arched a brow skeptically. "It's just flashes."

Hail Strom sucked his bottom lip in in annoyance. The eager pegasus stallion was the quintessential 'pegasus of action' that typified the Cloudsdale officer core; The lower order nobles and knights that filled fleet's ranks were ravenous for opportunities to rise above the crowd, for the life of an Admiral was leagues more luxuriant than most Cloudsdale wellborn. And so Hail Strom, in his crisp grey uniform and neatly combed mane, was absolutely ecstatic that he was to command the operation against Canterlot, which would no doubt be cemented for all history as a glorious moment of Cloudsdale.
However, the captain had not been keen on having a representative of the Admiralty onboard to second-guess him, especially not one as subject to rumor as Rain Gnash in the form of her ‘representative’ Wonderbolt.

“The local population, seeing our mighty fleet, is creating a distraction for us. This is the best chance we have of catching the enemy while they’re weak.” Hail Strom tutted. “When the messenger back from Cloudsdale arrives, they be astounded at the beachhead we’ve established.”

“Or they’ll lament over or burning corpses. You were given permission to counter-barrage, not engage willy-nilly.” Fleetfoot said sourly. “Besides it's a trap. No doubt about it.”

“Then we spring the trap, and crush it.” Captain Strom declared, and several of the bridge crew cooed in agreement. “There’s been no activity on their walls for hours! If they plan an ambush, then their defenses will be weak. Either way, the situation calls for action.”

“Captain, strength of will not not carry the day, err, night. If you play by Twilight Velvet's rules, you will lose.” Fleetfoot turned to look at the jagged rise of Canterlot Castle, then Castle Magoria, then alas to Chateau la Garde. “Her servants are powerful and dangerous, and driven by loyalty and fear that we can hardly understand. Lady Velvet herself is a considerable magical talent." She fell silent for a moment. "And there is a ferocious beast under her command, that you don't have clearence to even hear a description of."

"Shall you next tell me she may cleanse my sins if I repent before her?"

Fleetfoot's expression turned cold in the face of Strom's mocking disrespect. "Captain, it's not my way to police ponies' tone, but be mindful: I speak with Admiral Gnash’s authority.” As she said this, the soft glow of her left eye intensified, and it could not help but be noticed by Strom and the ogling bridge crew.

Strom seemed momentarily off-put. Perhaps he'd heard rumors of the curse Fleetfoot had been stricken with. “Of course. My apologies." But this token humility was erased by a wry snort. "But you are still here in an advisory role only.”

Fleetfoot choked back a displeased cry. "Captain Strom-"

“I’m simply trying to say that you are needlessly discounting the option of a preemptive attack because of how scared this Velvet has you.” Strom laughed.

“You would be too.”

“See? You divert the discussion! We are giving the enemy time to prepare and repair. You all see it, don't you?” Strom was clearly selling his order to the crew more than Fleetfoot. "Are we not pegasi? Are we not swift and cutting as the wind? We fear nothing but the chains of lethargy!"

"Aye!" The bridge crew chorussed, and Fleetfoot's gut sank.

Strom turned to the spotter. “How’s that lightshow at the skydock?”

“Ongoing.” The spotter responded. "Intensifying. Magic, but also fire. It may well be an insurrection, sir."

“Captain, your duty are to your orders. Your duty is to obey. This fleet was ordered to to blockade, not to attack." Fleetfoot tried one desperate line of reasoning. "Consider, even if you achieve a victory despite the odds, you may face court martial for this."

“Court martial? Do you speculate that as a Wonderbolt or an admiral's representative, Lady Fleetfoot?” Hail Strom said over his shoulder. His tone mellowed though, with clearly feigned contemplation. “But you may be right. Perhaps the fleet did not send this grand fleet here for war. Perhaps Cloudsdale's honor, your honor, will not be avenged."
He saw every pony on the bridge and operations room were watching him expectantly. It was a moment like that which spawned legends, Strom thought. “Take us off standby alert.” He ordered.

“Aye.” The commander saluted, confused but obedient. “All hooves, resting stat-”

“Did I say resting status?” Hail Strom interrupted him. He looked Fleetfoot right in the eye. “General quarters.”

The midshipmare pulled the alarm cord, and clanging bells echoed throughout the large airship.

“Full Alert! General Quarters!” The commander hollered, galloping to his battle station as the rest of the bridge crew did the same. “This is not a drill! All hooves to action stations!”

Fleetfoot was not surprised, just disappointed. “This is treason against Cloudsdale.” She said solemnly.

“Do you really believe that? The admirals will not punish the son of Cloudsdale that delivers them Equestria.” Hail Strom moved slowly to his command position in the center of the bridge. He looked to his officers, and saw that they were all alert and diligent. They were behind him, for revenging Cloudsdale's honor and earning their own. “And my fellow childeren of Cloudsdale, do not mistake this. This moment will bring Equestria under the pegasi."
He laughed. "And we stop a madmare along the way. You have but to look at what’s become of Lady Fleetfoot to know that Twilight Velvet has to be stopped. Nopony but us to bring down justice.”

Fleetfoot stood up. She considered for a brief moment trying to making a physical protest. But she was far too outnumbered. It would take too long to run and find Wonderbolts among the other lances. “I implore you, at least risk this ship alone.”

Strom smiled triumphantly at Fleetfoot's pleading tone. He turned to the commander. “Signal the task force. We converge on Canterlot on my command.”

“Aye!” The commander galloped out to the upper deck to the signal teams.

Weathering Fleetfoot’s burning glower, Hail Strom closed his eyes and brought a hoof up to his neck, tightening the collar of the grey uniform. “And may our princess guide us to victory.” He whispered, making a star sign over his breast. “Ave Celestia.”

Night Light coughed violently to try to clear the smoke from his lungs. In mere moment, a terrible blink of an eye, the gate leading out to the skydocks had been transformed into a burning ruin. The gatehouse, built into the mighty city wall, was intact, but gouts of flame came from every window. The wooden gate, scaffold, and guard stations were mere cinder in the midst of a magical inferno, and the blocks of homes nearby had been caught in the zone or were starting to catch.

Luckily for Night Light he had been on the very edge of the attack, singed and blow back, but otherwise alive. Screams and howls of terror and pain sounded all around him, from the ponies trying to get out of their flaming houses and the guards trying to drag themselves away from near death, some nearer than others.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Sunset Shimmer’s laugh carried through the smoke, echoing and morphing into a demonic cackle in Night Light’s ear. “Yes! It feels so good to be back. Magic, MAGIC! How I missed it. Come now! Provoke me again!”

“L- L- Lord Light!” Came an anguished wail, and he could see shadowy shape in the smoke nearing him, crawling. “My lord- I-” The guard was missing most of his barrel, and half of his face had been burned to the muscle. “I-” His remaining eye rolled back and his tongue lolled out, and gravity pulled him back to the dirt.

“Oh gods...” Night Light squeezed his eyes shut to avoid seeing the grizzly corpse. Instead, memories of the massacre of the Estates flashed across the inside of his eyelids. He could remember the rush of battle, as one sided as it was, with his own hoof leading fatal strikes into helpless ponies. He was seeing wanton murder from a different perspective now, that of prey.

“Did you have fun being the hero, for all of twenty seconds?” Sunset’s mocking voice brought him back to reality. She was right above him, looking down at him with arrogant, psychotic mirth. “Play it again. Play the hero again and I’ll play along!”

Night Light struggled for a solid minute to get to his hooves, with Sunset leering over him all the while. He played up his exhaustion and pain, while he made his plans.

He pretended to collapse in a faint, but tucked in his hooves and rolled to the right, snatching up the Blackhorn Sword with his magic as he neared it.
But by the time he was on his hooves again Sunset had gotten over her surprise, and his swing only cut the hazy air as she teleported. She reappeared behind him.

“Tricky.” Sunset snorted. “I LIKE it!”

“Yeaaaah!” Night Light screamed as he wheeled around, swinging and thrusting forward again and again with the black blade. Again and again, Sunset teleported, moving by inches each time, just enough to dodge the attacks, in an astonishing display of magical power and control.

“Good! Good! Fight the devil! Usurp the tyrant! Battle the Traitor!” Sunset teased, her words like joyous exaltations. “This is what heroes do!”

“ENOUGH!” Night Light tried changing the speed and angle of his strikes, but still Sunset evaded him. “Fight back, damn you!” The ash in the air was making his eyes water uncontrollably, and uncountable little cuts from the explosion made dirty rivulets of blood down his ash-coated fur. "Fight me!"

“Yes yes yes! Curse at me! Hate me! Fill your heart with righteousness!” Sunset’s peals of laughter were paused each time she teleported. “Be the one that they all look up to!”

In a last act of desperation, Night Light bounded forward and tried to grapple the laughing mare. She teleported again, and this time Night Light swung the sword where he thought she’d reappear, behind him. Instead, as he fell to the ground from the failed tackle, she reentered reality right in front of him. The Blackhorn Sword planted itself in the ground beside him.

“That would have worked on a lesser villain.” Sunset smirked. “Better luck next time, hero.”

“You scoundrel... You scoundrel..." Night Light fought to catch his breath. "How... How can you revel in your flagrant evil?"

Sunset looked at him like he was crazy. "My lord, you're not taking this seriously are you?" She smiled. "I was harkening back to the last time I was on the run like this. Traitor, villain, devil, tyrant. Those are the names they hurled at me as I stepped back from Celestia, and began my exile in realms beyond." She shrugged. "But you're not Celestia. No, you're definitely not Celestia. Or her avenger, for that matter."

"I'm a knight doing what's right. Yes I can not beat you... Even inconveniencing you comes at a terrible price.” Night Light hung his head, trying to ignore the destruction all around him, the result of his hubris. “Whatever you do to me, I beg that you spare Canterlot and it’s ponies any further pain.”

Sunset cocked a brow amusedly. “What, you think I’m going to execute you over a cart of capacitors? I honestly don’t care, not one little bit, about what you try to do to me. You're a good knight! Upstanding and respectable! You remind me of my dad. I was never going to kill you, Lord Light, but I had to punish you.” She acted as though she was talking to a foal.

“You’ve killed dozens!” Night LIght struggled to his hooves again, leaning against the Blackhorn Sword for support. This time it was not an act.

“Yes I did.” Sunset nodded. She cleared away the smoke with a wave of her horn, and the extent of the carnage was revealed. The marble gate itself was turned to slag and the surrounding homes were turned to tinder. The road was littered with ponies of all ages choked by the smoke. Some of the guards were still standing, but as charred husks that disintegrated into ash as the wind began to howl through the new gap in the wall. “Don't be so overwrought. Mortal lives are so monumentally inconsequential I have trouble putting it into words. What matters is the goal, the DREAM. You know that, my lord. Just because you think these ponies were innocent bystanders doesn't chance we both kill for our dreams."

“Wax eloquent all you wish, but you remain a monster. I’ll see you pay for this.” Night Light promised, a bloody ferocity tinging his words.

“You? I wouldn’t count on it.” Sunset chuckled, turning away from to return t to the skydock. “Maybe I’ll give you a chance some other time, old hero, when the-”

Night Light attacked once more.
Instead of cleaving through the cloaked unicorn like Night Light expected as he plunged it downwards, the Blackhorn Swords glanced off Sunset’s back. It tore away the loose cloak, revealing the black lacquer armor underneath.

Sunset chuckled, casting a saucy look at him. The Blackhorn armor enclosed everything below her ears, its straps pulled tight, its buckles jingling. Now that she was revealed, Sunset pulled the matching helmet out of her saddlebag and snugged it over her head.
“So tricky! I like your perseverance, Sir Light. Again!"

"What?" Night Light pulled the sword back to a defensive stance. Why did Sunset have the Blackhorn Armor? With horror he remembered how he'd assumed Velvet had taken it when he noticed it missing from the throne room.
No matter, Night Light tried again, hefting the sword that his exhausted body had no buisness hefting, and bringing it down.

Sunset, giggling, headbutted the blade away easily. The helmet wasn't even dented. “But the Black Lord can’t be turned against itself. You’d think that our parts of this set out be reversed, me with the weapon forged for murder, and you with the armor crafted to protect. But really, both of them together were meant for oppression.” She advanced on Night Light. "Try again, my lord! See if you can get it this time! Kill the traitor!"

But Night Light had learned his lesson. He retreated a few steps, until Sunset stopped chasing him.
They stared at each other for a long moment, Sunset with impetuous glee, Night Light with defeated resignation.

"I surrender." Night Light said quietly. "You shall have no more resistance from me."

"I don't want your surrender. I want you to do better. If you can't defeat me, as utterly pointless as I am, how can you hope to defeat the gods? Get better, Lord Night Light, or aim your sights a little lower. When you shoot for the moon and miss, you'll splatter again the stars."
Sunset trotted lazily away, over the melted gate to where her companions were finishing loading the contents of the carts onto a bulky cargo airship.
“Sayonara, Lord Light!” She called out, boarding the craft as it ascended away from Canterlot.

It was too late now. Night Light thought that death would be an acceptable sacrifice to fight the Traitor, but she found his martyrdom unsatisfactory. Unconsciousness overtook him, and he slumped to the ground. The Blackhorn Sword clattered beside him, shining darkly in the silvery moonlight. The Traitor was ascendent.

Ancepanox opened her eyes, her real eyes, and immediately winced at blinding light of the moon in her eyes. The luminosity of that satellite had varied much over the night, but now it was beaming with a power that rivaled the late sun.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw a second pair staring into hers. Rarity was silently glaring, her expression of unadulterated malice somewhat sabotaged by her unsightly position, prone on the floor.
The oppressive numbness Ancepanox felt all over her body told her most of what had happened while she was in the dreamscape. All the cursed ponies connected to her were all paralyzed by the alicorn Agana's psychic attack.

'Good morning, Lady Rarity.' Ancepanox tried to taunt, but with as poor control over her mouth as she had, ‘phhhhh’ was all she could manage.

Ancepanox knew she needed to get back into Twilight Sparkle's dream. Agana would soon make her next attack, in her quest of ambiguous vengeance against Celestia. Ancepanox had her own grudges against them both, not to mention her resolute promise to herself to defend that virgin mind of her former self.

There was no time to mull over the information Agana had pushed on her. In fact, Ancepanox hardly cared. Celestia and those relic alicorns had so much intellectual energy invested in their little battle of Light and Dark, and all their evangelizing did was piss Ancepanox off. There were real battles to be fought, so couldn't the ideological debate be postponed?! But then again, the battle was as much about ideology as anything. It was just that Ancepanox had gone through the cycle of shock, revulsion, and acceptance a dozen times already. Nothing shocked or surprised her anymore.
Nothing except the one niggling detail: Agana, whose forte was the mind, had seen and acknowledged her as an alicorn. Surely if anypony could see through her persona, it would have been Agana.

But first things first, Ancpeanox had to solve her issues in the waking world. She tried shaking off the paralysis that gripped her body but the numbness lingered horribly.
Mind over matter, Ancpeanox told herself. She knew she controlled the alicorn body by sheer force of will, and not by an inheritance of flesh and neurons. She focused inwardly, but her consciousness was unruly. Mind over mind, she told herself. She would not be prisoner to emotional weakness. So she used meditative techniques that she hadn’t used since she was a filly doing her first experiments with magic: She took slow, deep breaths, letting magic in all it’s forms flow through her, soothing her like a cold stream. Her mind became calm and the numbness in her limbs was washed away.

Ancepanox rolled to her hooves. However she did not allow herself time to feel triumph. Rarity was still there before her, still prone, still staring with a unique hatred.
"Oh Rarity, even if you had attacked me while I was in the dream, it wouldn't have done anything. You could turn this flesh to paste and I'd still get up." She tapped her blue steel cuirass. "Until you learn how to attack a soul, this is just play."

That only enraged Rarity more. The unicorn fought against her paralysis to chock out a guttural threat. "I'll fuck anything you ever cared about."

"Oh yeah. The ponies I care about."
Ancepanox stepped away from Rarity and returned to her meditative state. She opened her eyes to the magic of the castle. The world was ablaze with invisible auras: Streaming down from the moon, blowing in with the wind out of the Everfree Forest, swirling in little eddies in the corners of the throne room. And something she never noticed before, a thin connection between Rarity and herself, like a black thread, tracing the course the corrupting influence that Twilight’s darkness had taken. It was like the linkages in the deeper Dreamscape mapped back onto the waking world.
Ancpeanox looked and saw more more of the silken links. Like a little web, she could see her connection to Applejack and Twilight Sparkle, and two that went in opposite directions, deep into the forest and up at Canterlot so far away. Any others, if they existed, were too thin for even her empowered eyes to see. She could have spent a year pondering the threads, evidence of a lifetime. It was not just the curse that linked to the others... It was something more.
"I..." Ancepanox was strangely moved the the sight. A pony was not an island. They lived within ponykind, that they effected and effected them with bonds that transcended physicality. If only she could dwell on it more, rather than rush into bitter conlicts.

But wait… Ancepanox paused. She faced north, the direction of Canterlot, where a gleaming thread led. Why would she still be linked to Ripple Wreath if he was dead?

Blood pooled underneath the broken body of Ripple Wreath. The earth pony knight lay exactly where Agana had tossed him, his skin shredded by the violence of her magic when she'd eaten the Dark within him. He was not breathing, his eyes were glazed, and a frothy mixture of spit and blood bubbled out of his open mouth.

But a spark of life still clung to him.

“You’re pitiful.”

He was home, on the wall of his families castle on the banks of the Crystal River. He was sitting on the edge of the ramparts, looking down at the swiftly flowing water a twenty meter drop below him. Everything was silent, except the harsh voice behind him.

“Lame, is what you are. A cripple, basically. Just look at you! Somepony should put you out of your misery!” It was so harsh and screeching, he wished he could tear his ears off to keep from hearing it.

“I can’t fight.” Wreath sighed, cradling his face. “It hurts too much.”

“If you weren't so weak, maybe your family would love you! Maybe Glori would respect you! Maybe somepony on this earth would look at you and feel something other than disgust.” Those voices were so familiar to him but defied identification.

“I know. I should just die.” Wreath mouthed.

“Death is not too far away now.” A cold hoof pressed against his shoulder, paused there for a moment, and pushed. Wreath slipped off the wall and plunged down into the water.

Wreath lost awareness of the warped aberrations of his trance, until he regained some awareness. He was laying on the riverbank, the cold Crystal River banding everything behind him. Before him was a vast and misty forest, it’s thick grey trees so high their tops disappeared into the abyssal sky.

"I... I'm downriver." Wreath looked to the direction he thought his home would be, but a mist obscured the distance. "What forest is this? " But despite his qualms, the grey trees beckoned.
Wreath pulled himself to his hooves and took a step towards the forest.

“No. Go no further along this path.” A creature stepped out from between the thick trees. It could have been called a pony, with a nebulous suggestion of wings and horn, it’s fur so black that Wreath though for a moment the abyss that was encroached on his dream had become tangible. The region of her face was a cluster of glowing violet eyes the same color as Ancepanox’s. It’s voice was low but stern, sympathetically authoritative, something Wreath’s troubled soul could hardly understand. It was decidedly Dark. “Don’t die. Fight to survive.”

Wreath looked at the entity with watery eyes. "Ancepanox?"

"Don't die." The dark visage was unclear, but definitely reminiscent of Ancepanox. But Wreath was not sure it was her, or an analogue of her.

“But this life... It hurts. I failed it.” Wreath fell into quiet sobbing. He wished nothing more to enter the forest, past which his woes would disappear forever. "I buck up constantly. What good am I? Years of training, only to end in repeated humiliation." He searched the hazy entity for signs of pity. "Then Ancepanox 'takes me in', then immediately fobs me off to find my own way in this new world. I'm unwanted, but I know that's because I'm worth nothing to anypony."

The Dark entity dipped its nose. "Is that what you think?"

"I'm so many things! I'm curious! I'm kind! But the world doesn't care. It just wants to see my face in the dirt. It cares nothing for my struggles."

"So? That gives you no license to die? Don't.” The Dark entity demanded. “There was no point to having lived this long to die now. Fight to live.” It's many glowing eyes turned one by one to something behind Wreath. "Or would you rather listen to that thing."

From behind Wreath, a gurgling sound.
“What a waste. What a waste. Why spend breath on this dead soul?” It was the same harsh voice from the castle returned to taunt anew. The river rippled as the voice’s owner pulled itself onto the shore. It was a enormous, undulating mass of vines, ponies’ legs protruded at various angles, their struggles proving the horror its propulsion. “Hello, sister Nightmare.” It said offhandedly to the Dark entity.

“Gross. Grosser even than Twilight Sparkle's manifestations. What a pent up pony you are, to create a manifestation like that.” The Dark entity sniffed. “And like the others, it has no regard for its own preservation. Listen, you native Dark, your host must live!”

Ripple Wreath looked at the heinous river creature, and knew that under those vines, his body was amongst the limbs and mouths: It was giving voice to something he tried to push down. Now that he was on death's door it had come to talk. "You... You've been with me a long time. I've known you since I was young." He told the manifestation.

"We grew up together." The twisted mass of wet vines and flesh agreed. "Your home was not nurturing for you, but it was for me. If you thought you could ignore the, the whippings, the sucker-punches, and the castigation, you were wrong, because they were feeding me. I'm big now, and you're so very small."

The Dark entity trembled with disgust. "How uncivilized. Dark does not need to be so self-destructive."

Wreath shook his head. “But I am.”

“Pitiful!” The vine monstrosity laughed, the vines uncurling just enough that the trapped ponies’ mouths were revealed; Their pitiful wails and pleas for reprieve were quickly stifled as the vines consolidated again.

The Dark entity looked very disappointed, its multitudinous eyes narrowed. "Ripple Wreath there have been uncountable mortals that have had less, suffered more. They fought on."

That put Wreath on the defensive. "Probably because they had something to live for! What have I got? Family? Family is the bed of my trauma! Loyalty to a lord? Glori Sabonord abandoned me to die! My new 'progenitor'? Anceapnox... Ancepanox..." He trailed off, his tears returning. "I'm not stupid. I know this place is allegorical. In real life, I'm a bloody pulp. Accepting death here is just a formality."

"Is it? Life is always changing, and you will evolve away from that which pains you now. There is no progress in death, only eternal constancy. Do you want to die as you are, and remain the dismal and failed wolf-knight?” The Dark entity asked.

“Everypony thinks of me that way already.” Wreath went back to hiding his face in his hooves.

“What does it matter what others think?! That native darkness behind you is not your own creation, and it admits as much! Other ponies have made it. You can throw them out!” The Dark entity became agitated, stomping her hoof against the squishy grass. “You have nothing to prove to them! You have only your own advancement, your own virtue. Take that Dark, and USE IT. You should be the best! Do not compare yourself against the best there ever was, but to the best you ever were! Better yourself! DO NOT DIE.”

“And maybe if you get better, somepony will actually like you.” The horrid vine-covered manifestation cackled.

“I’m not good enough. It’s never good enough.” Wreath gnawed at his lip as he thought about Agana and the insurmountable powers she’d used against him. “The pain is too much.”

“What is pain? Fiction! Your body and mind may seek to dissuade you, but you must persist! Adversity will force change, evolution, and progress.” The Dark entity encouraged. “Win here, and you will be the best you have ever been. And the moment after that, when you seek new horizons, you will surpass that record again and again!”

“I want to be better. Who bucking wouldn't! But...” Wreath admitted. He looked past the nightmare, to the shrouded forest. The world was chaotic and stressful, but the forest promised a certain comfort, peace, and rest. It called to him. “I... I don't even see the point. I'm a corpse. Where I go isn't up to me.”

“Listen to him, making excuses again! He wants to die, and he should!” The native laughed. “You’re so pitiful! Nopony cares about you. You’ll die and be forgotten, dragged to the depths. You and I.”

“W- Well…” Wreath wavered. “What will it matter? If, my utter miracle I live, then what? If I survive this, and still nobody cares about me-”

“But somepony DOES care about you.” The Dark entity spoke with a rough sincerity that bordered on mushy. “There is somepony who has, will, and will forever help you, because she believes in your power to succeed and evolve.”

“How can you mean that?” Wreath muttered.

The hazy visage of the Dark entity became briefly more solid. For a reason, despite its menacing profile, Wreath was comforted by its presence. "Because I'm here."

"You are." Wreath sighed. The nightmare was right. There had been a mare who had saved him and given him a second chance. “It’s her. She got me out of a situation like this. I still don't understand why.” He let out a weak breath. "If she'd killed me like she was supposed to-"

"Stop your fatalism!" The Dark entity ordered. “Ancepanox saved you from death once. You must trust her to do it again. You must trust her to trust in YOURSELF.”

“After this 'Ancepanox' almost killed you! Ripple Wreath they are just as obsessed with death as you!” The native screeched. “It is only a shame you are not counted among her victims. The incompetence of that hussy-”

“QUIET!” Wreath bellowed, curling his hooves in sudden fury. He wanted something to beat on, to punish the disrespectful dream abomination. "I AM a victim! I'm cursed!" He ground his teeth. "But I'm coming around to the idea that I'm alive because of it... That I'll continue to live because of it."

“But of course. You have something that connects you to something larger, but also a driver of personal evolution.” The Dark entity said. "The words you weathered as a colt will mean nothing to you when you become assured of your own place in the world."

“Or I can silence those words!” Wreath was not taken in by the Uberpony vision the Dark entity was selling. Pain. He wanted to cause pain.
He turned his back on the forest. There was still more to do in the world. “Those contemptuous little shits won’t have much else to say after I rip their faces off! You're right. You're so right. Why am I beating myself up? I should be BEATING THEM UP.”

“Ooh, I’m so scared.” The native manifestation ridiculed, shaking with foul mirth.

“Everypony only respects power. Maybe I’ll just show them real power.” Wreath imagined the massacre of Glori’s camp, of the hundreds of dead and the burning bodies. There with Ancepanox, cutting down knights with her stolen sabre, he saw himself, crushing heads underhoof, tearing out throats with his teeth, gleefully slicing away at his terrified comrades.
He wished he'd joined in.
"Buck that forest. I need to get back. How do I wake up?"

The Dark entity made a plaintive gesture. "Every path away from here leads back to the waking world."

"Fine by me." Wreath stepped forward into the Crystal River, letting the icy water numb him.

“But be careful as you embrace the curse anew. Such reckless use of power can overwhelm you.” The Dark entity cautioned, hiding a sly smile. "With that I leave you. Ancepanox has her own battles to fight." It backed away into the forest.

“I’ll live again, and this time I’ll use power however I want to.” With the the Dark entity departed, Wreath had the awful native manifestation to address. It's utter repulsiveness meant nothing to him anymore. “I’ll reshape you. When I come back here, you'll be as sleek and deadly as that nightmare.”

The native coughed dismissively. "Don't think you're getting away from me so easily. I'm still bigger than you."

"Not for long. I'm a growing boy." Wreath leaned forward until he toppled into the river, which swept him away with impossible speed.

Deep in Wreath’s heart, his faint dream linkage with Ancepanox sizzled and bloomed as he embraced the Dark. Unlike the first time, he welcomed the alicorn's curse. Reinvigorated by his unholy fury, his soul used the Dark in leu of any kind of physical or mental strength. A singleminded drive for chaos of destruction would bring him back to life.

Agana was too focused on her metal battle with Celestia to notice the blasphemous transformation transpiring below her.

Ancepanox breathed a sigh of relief at feeling the thread between Ripple Wreath and herself strengthening. He was coming back alive. Her joy waned when she felt the cancerous hatred that he emanated. It unnerved her to reconize the same bloodthirsty hatred in him as existed in Rarity. She'd pushed him too far.
But that didn't concern Ancepanox too much. The reason Rarity's anger was dangerous was because she could hurt Twilight or Spike. Ripple Wreath was hundreds of kilometers away.

Moving on to the next thread, Ancepanox submerged herself into the ocean of magic once more, and found the a silken dream string to pull on.

Across the forest, the other end of that dream thread was jolted.

‘Dash!’

“What the buck!” Rainbow Dash shot upright, ready to fight the interloper who’d snuck up on her. She'd heard a voice with no direction.

“Hey, we’re just fillies you know.” Apple Bloom shot. “It ain’t proper to swear round us!”

“Yeah, you are being a bad influence.” Sweetie Belle chimed in, stifling a giggle. “It’s a good thing Scootaloo and Spike are asleep and can’t hear this.”

Scootaloo punctuated with a snore.

“I swore I heard somepony calling my voice.” Dash frowned, looking around again. Her nightmarish instinct was to charge into the forest to fight and confront whatever interlopers lay in wait.

“I think y’all really are going crazy.” Apple Bloom raised a brow.

“In which case you should probably go somewhere where you won’t hurt anypony in your madness.” Sweetie Belle could no longer keep herself from grinning.

“Oh, you think this is funny?” Dash scowled.

“Yes.” Sweetie snorted.

‘Dash!’ The disembodied voice came again.

“Okay, this is weird.” Dash rubbed her head. “That sounds like Sparkle.”

“Now you’re just taking the piss!” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.

“Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle gasped.

“She started it.” Apple Bloom accused, waving to a distracted Dash.

“No, that was seriously Twilight Sparkle.” Dash mumbled.

‘Yes, it’s me, Ancepanox! Can you hear me?’

“Yeah, yeah I can! Woah this is too weird.” Dash fended off more scornful looks from the fillies. She scooted to the edge of the campsight and stared into space as she tried to focus on the voice inside her head. “How are you doing this.”

‘Magic obviously. I'm exploring how my curse binds us together. I thought you'd have to be sleeping to hear me, but I guess not. Perhaps the nightmarism is a dreamlike state? But I digress.’

"Freaky."

‘Stop speaking as well as thinking your words, it’s making an echo on this side.’

“Okay, right.” Dash clamped her mouth shut. ‘Wait, you can hear my thoughts?’

‘Yes, and you are thinking very dirty things about me right now, miss Dash.’ Ancepanox's etherial voice rose and fell in a light laugh, then became serious. ‘Okay I was joking but now you actually are... ewe.'

"You went there, not me!" Dash grumbled out loud. ‘Just tell me how it's going over there. Did you save Applejack?'

‘The situation is complicated and I need your help. I only have a few moments, so this is what you have to do...’

The situation above Canterlot was moving fast.

“The Helbark has faced the city walls at the southern quarter.” The commander reported.

“Very good.” Hail Strom nodded. “Signal them to launch all pegasus lances in reserve formations, in preparation for a ground assault. Lances from the Feather Slicer will join them soon. The frigates will move forward and support with cannon fire once they reach the city, at the points of heaviest resistance. Force dispersal and support concentration.”

Every so often he shot a smug smile at Fleetfoot. Once he’d achieved victory in Canterlot, the Admiralty would be tripping over themselves to make him the new postercolt of Cloudsdale supremacy. Any accusations Fleetfoot or Rain Gnash leveled against him would be dismissed as jealous attention-mongering.

Fleetfoot, for her part, had gone completely silent. Hail Strom knew she was planning something, but didn't care too much.

“Captain, new signal from the Slashing Dancer.” The spotter alerted. “She reports no activity in their sector. Hold on… The smoke is clearing from the skydocks. It looks like-” He gasped. “Captain, the skydock gate has been completely leveled!”

“What?” Hail Strom frowned. “Thats… Excellent! Signal the Helbark to begin the assault immediately! I don’t want them filling the hole in their defenses!”

Finally Fleetfoot spoke up. “Except there are no defenses, not anywhere. The enemy is a complete unknown still, and this attack is a sham. If that wasn't suspicious enough, you order the attack on the only area where there’s any sign of danger.”

“Obviously the partisans within Canterlot destroyed the wall for us.” Strom leaned back in his chair. “The smoke was Velvet’s attempt to hide the devastation of the wall from us.”

“You’re making so many complicated theories to avoid the bare fact that it’s a trap! You’re blinded by glory, captain.” Fleetfoot warned. “You’re being led like a dog on a leash.”

“When I make admiral, you will be apologizing for your insults.” Hail Strom smirked. “Helmsmare! Move the Feather Slicer closer! All pegasus lances, make ready to launch!”

Before the crew could enact that order, Fleetfoot stood up. If she was going to intervene, this was the last chance.
“I promise you Captain Strom, or any of you, that this will only end in an atrocity. We're not going to win." She felt a great chill. She fell to a whisper. "God's not on our side."

“How can you be so obstinate? The gates a literally thrown open for us.” Hail Strom laughed softly. “At this point, your screaming is less annoying, and more pathetic. You're so afraid of-”

“LOOK OUT!” Fleetfoot tackled Strom to the floor as every window of the Feather Slicer shattered inward.

Astral Nacre rocketed past the Feather Slicer, releasing a stream of turbulent magic that burned through the upper layers of the hull, vaporizing the banks of cannons. The great airship was rocked by secondary explosions as powder barrels detonated. Within seconds, most of flagship was engulf in flames.

Astral Nacre, soaring ponderously on her featherless wings, circled around and faced the next airship in the blockade. She swooped down at incredible speed, peppering the frigate with bolts of energy. Untrained as she was, her power was still great enough to blast apart the hull of the airship, and as she shot over Astral took great delight in seeing helpless ponies tumbling out. The smaller airship cracked apart like an egg and fell to the valley floor in two pieces.

But atrocity Fleefoot had predicted had only just begun.

Inside the walls of Chateau la Garde, the cacophonous gunpowder explosions were felt as gentle rumblings.
For Twilight Velvet, who true to her word was trying to sleep, it was torture. She wanted to be up there witnessing it.

"I can't take it much longer." Velvet sat up in bed. "Sleep can wait a little longer."
It being that she hadn't gotten so much as a wink in fifty hours, she was slow in descending from the upper keep to the connection with the city wall. But when she did sleepily stumbled into the cold night air, she knew she'd been right to come out.
It was a sight to behold. Her demonic daughter Astral was picking apart the airship blockade with amazing speed and grace. A mere silvery dot at that distance, she darted around like a sparrow, weaving in and around, up and down. Flashes of magic filled the dark sky, then another airship burned, a floating torch.

Velvet was of course overjoyed at the sight. "Get them! Get them!" She cried hoarsely. All her worries about political ramifications or violent escalation were forgotten. She felt a swell or pride and power, and all her doubts about Astral were pushed aside.
This was power. This was HER power. "How's that for playing hardball politics! Get Bucked!" Velvet shouted.

Equestria would hear loud and clear that Twilight Velvet's Canterlot was a force to be reckoned with.

Other ponies were watching the destruction too.
On the Canterlot Skydock, a small cargo airship began to rise from the moorings. It was a tubby thing, with a rotund balloon and truncated bow, but it was hardy. As it drifted away from the dock, the oars came out and rotated it west. The square sails unfurled, the ballast was cast off, and the little cargo airship began to rapidly rise.

"It's happening. It's finally happening." Sunset Shimmer purred.
The unicorn was riding high off her game with Night Light, but the feeling of leaving enshadowed Canterlot made her feel something much more complicated: Joy at her success and progress, but a deep apprehension. She knew her star was rising, but not for how long.
Sunset stepped back from the railing and took a deep breath. It was always best to focus on the joy, not the fear.
"Hey, should we be rising this fast?"

"We're within safe parameters."
Sunset knew very little about aeronautics and airships, and had entrusted it to her smaller companion, ‘Entanglement Theory’. The smaller unicorn had a mind for the mechanical, and knew almost on instinct how the airship should act without having seen one before. She scurried around the deck, making sure their helpers were doing what they were supposed.

Sunset's smile wavered. "You don't sound very happy."

Entanglement Theory paused what she was doing, her crafted look of neutrality turning sour. She pulled a pocket watch from the folds of her robe, checked it, and put it back. "Oh. Don't I." She said softly.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Come on, don't make me beg to hear your two cents."

"You won't. I'm just wondering why." Entanglement Theory turned away and returned to her task. "What was the point of that stunt you pulled back there."

Sunset shrugged. “I was saying goodbye.”

"No you weren't. You were playing! Cosplaying! Goodness sake, you were outright flaunting that armor." Entanglement theory rubbed her eye.

"Yeah, because I look good in it." Sunset laughed.

“Look I’m happy we’re out of that god-forsaken cave, even more out of that city, and not so happy you basically announced your return to this world with by loudspeaker." The small mare said, embittered. “Are there loudspeakers here?”

“Nope. But I understand what you mean. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” Sunset said, doing her best to look remorseful.

“No you’re not. You’re never sorry.” Entanglement Theory groaned. “Whatever."

Sunset pursed her lips. "I know this hasn't been as easy on you as we thought. You've talked about leaving."

"And I will." Entanglement Theory agreed softly. "After the projection, I go home.”

“I know that's what you want, but are you sure I can’t convince you to stay?” Sunset fluttered her eyelashes. “There’s so much more data to gather Twi.”

“One: Stuff it. Two: Use the codenames! Your world is messed up. Don't know whose listening.” Entanglement Theory ducked into the airship cabin, leaving Sunset standing alone on the deck.

Sunset chewed her lip, her good feelings of minutes prior dried up. For some reason, she was loosing her friend.
"Well... Nothing for it. If she wants to leave, she can leave, and I'll be fine with it." Sunset lied to herself.

Sunset pretended she had a reason to linger around the deck. She checked their altitude against the distant mountains of Unicornia, far to the West on the opposite side of the river valley.

"Well... Twi might leave, but I'll have somepony else."
Soon, the sun would rise, and Sunset would be the first pony to see it. The Traitor's path would come full circle.

As she considered the future, a light in the sky illuminated the whole port side of the cargo airship. Sunset was jolted out of her reverie.

"Airships?" Sunset scowled. "Burning airships?"

At the north end of the airship picket line, one small scout airship, Slashing Dancer, was inert and trying not to be noticed by whatever was savaging the capital ships.

"No orders from the Feather Slicer yet." The spotter did not need to speak loudly to be heard across the small bridge. "The bridge looks damaged. Command may have been transferred. It's chaos over there."

The captain rubbed her eyes anxiously. "Check periodically. We don't know if it's really an attack, or sabotage. Otherwise... We follow the last order and keep scanning the city."

The atmosphere on the small airship was one of building horror. In the mid compartment by the cannons and oars, the were constant murmurs of fear and apprehension. What was happening out there? Were the gods punishing them for daring to come to Canterlot with weapons drawn.

A few minutes later, the spotter noticed something. "There's movement around the damaged skydock. Looks like a cargo airship." He was silent for a few minutes. Based on its course we’re the closest to an interception point."

“We maintain our position." The captain repeated. "Based on how quickly the fire is spreading, we may need to help the Feather Slicer... when the order comes. We do nothing until the order comes."

There would be no order coming. The ponies on the Feather Slicer were more concern with saving their own lives than ordering the fleet.

Fleetfoot was the first to her hooves. She brushed the shards of glass off her uniform. "Where's your glory now, captain? Where?" She asked with a barely controlled rage. "You've killed us all."

Hail Strom propped himself up off the ground. He looked around his once magnificent operations room. Broken glass and splintered wood covered the ground, along with all the maps and instruments that had slid off their tables. Everywhere there had been a crewpony, there was now a body, their uniforms and fur perforated by hundreds of glass shards, their faces contorted into looks of shock and agony.
He cleared his throat. “This setback-” Fleetfoot bucked him across the face, bouncing him off his chair and back onto the ground.

“Idiot.” Fleetfoot spat. She galloped into the heart of the Feather Slicer. She needed to find Soarin and the Wonderbolts.

“Ooohh...” The bridge commander flittered back into consciousness. Half his vision was missing, and when he reached up to brush back his hair he felt instead a large shard of glass that had impaled itself in his eye. “Is anypony there! Medic!" There was no answer except the rumble of the terrified echoes of the crew seething in the rest of the ship. Nopony would be coming to help them. It was everypony for themselves. "C- Captain Strom?”

“Ce- C- C...” A gargled whimper echoed through the dead operations room. Hail Strom, his windpipe crushed by Fleetfoot’s buck, pulled himself to his chair and tried to deliver his last order. “Ce- Celestia... Sa- Sa- Save-” The message was concluded by its messenger choking on his own spittle.

Smoke began to fill the room, and fire not long after.

Fleetfoot didn’t have to search long, pushing and shouting to get through the cramped corridores at the same time as everypony else. Soarin and company were racing up the central passageway at the same time she was galloping down.

“What the heck is going on?!” Soarin demanded, shouting to be heard over the general chaos and yelling filling the burning airship.

“Astral Nacre. The bridge is a total loss.” Fleetfoot said solemnly. “She’s doing a number on the Helbark right now.”

“Well, that’s no good. If they’d only listened to us.” Soarin sighed.

“Well it’s too late for that now.” Fleetfoot nodded. “We need to get out of here, and signal the squadron to retreat.”

Soarin hesitated only for a moment. "I'll do it, Fleet. Things have gone crazy and, well, Spitfire isn't here to get us out. We've gotta step up."
He turned to the other Wonderbolts behind him. “Raipidfire, take first and second lance and the lower decks! Tell the crew to evacuate and rescue any wounded to the valley floor. The rest of you are with me. GO!”

Soarin and the Wonderbolts separated and went about their tasks. Fleetfoot was left contemplating her next move, either to help them or do something else.
But the etherial voice of Rain Gnash pushed from the back of her mind with her forceful suggestion.
‘Find Astral’

“That’s suicide.” Fleetfoot muttered to herself.

‘maybe, but we have to stop this massacre if we can’
And maybe Fleetfoot was imagining it, but she felt an optimistic tug from Gnash. It was a very long shot, but Astral Nacre could be the key to undoing the accursed bond that connected the two pegasi's minds; After all, Astral had been the one to create it, intentional or not.

So Fleet quickly made her way up to the main deck, but found that it as bad a shape as the operations room. Fire and smoke was billowing from the gun deck where Astral had strafed it. Wounded ponies were streaming up from the lower decks, tripping over each other and debris. Here and there dedicated pegasi struggled to keep the rigging together and the ship aloft, and mercifully the upper balloons looked intact, though the sails and rigging were shredded beyond repair.

She saw Soarin at the aft arguing with the surviving signalpony, who was adamant about waiting for an officer. It was almost too late the task force he was trying to save. Two smaller airships had been completely destroyed and were plummeting to the valley floor. The Helbark, an only slightly smaller craft than the mighty Feather Slicer, was being torn apart board by board by the rampaging alicorn of life. As Fleetfoot watched, explosions rocked through the Helbark, before it was completely blown apart as the gunpowder storage ignited. For a few moments, the valley was lit up like the day, before the fireball spectacularly burned itself out. The resulting shockwave rippled through the air, sending splinters whizzing by Fleetfoot’s head.

When the haze of smoke thinned, the Helbark could be seen through the watery moonlight as a corpse, drifting for a few moments before the balloon imploded. The massive airship went down with all hands, silently, to crash down on the valley floor.

“Holy buck.” Fleetfoot forced down her terror. She saw Astral Nacre flying stationary in the smoke. "I'm really not sure about this."

‘That means you’re still sane’

Fleetfoot was not finding this funny. Gnash could be liberal with her jokes while she lay in traction in Cloudsdale.
“Really doubt that. I’ll try not to kill us.”

“The Feather Slicer is signaling the fleet.” The Slashing Dancer’s spotter mumbled the words to himself as he translated the flag patterns. “R… Damn, it’s dark. I can hardly see. Might be a T or P… Something… E… A… T… And now they’ve hoisted the U flag.”

“Rpeat U? Repeat U? Is it code?” The captain pondered.

“The U flag is ‘you are heading into danger’, sir.” The spotter noted.

“And what does that mean for the current circumstance? ” The captain asked.

“I can’t say. They’ve left the U flag hoisted.” The spotter turned his binoculars to where he thought the Helbark would be, but instead saw the cloud of smoke and debris. He tracked the cloud down to the Helbark's corpse, just as it smashed into a thousand pieces on the valley floor.
He whimpered fearfully, and made the calculation that only by keeping away from the fleet would the Slashing Dancer be saved from destruction, and that included staying away from the retreat path. "Captain, I think they are ordering us to stay in our assigned sector."

“Fair enough then. Yes. Let’s stay in this sector.” The captain rubbed her chin. “That gives us a free hoof to intercept that cargo airship we saw earlier. Is it still in our sector?"

The spotter hesitated, and turned to find the cargo airship. "Uhh, aye captain, it's a half-klick to port of us, still rising rapidly."

The captain motioned forward. "Helmspony."

“Aye, intercept course.” The helmspony said, throwing the wheel to port. "Oars full ahead, stabilizers to ascend."

The sleek form of the Slashing Dancer turned and began to follow the cargo airship.

Astral Nacre hovered in the smoke cloud left by the Helbark's explosion, holding a pair of screaming ponies in her tendril mane. She rode the flapped higher into the sky, giving her a good perspective of what remained of the blockade. Five corvettes and one frigate were retreating at full sail back to Cloudsdale. Two other corvettes were hanging around to help the surviving carrier, the Feather Slicer, which was heavily listing. The crew of that mighty airship was evacuating, the pegasi carrying the earth ponies and unicorns to the valley floor.

Astral swooped around and latched onto the front of the Feather Slicer, hanging off the decorative seapony figurehead on the prow. She could see that besides the Helbark's, most of the airship crews had managed to survive the breaking of their airships.

“Goodness gracious. This is a time when I wish I was more skilled with magic like Ancepanox.” Astral told the ponies in her constricting grasp . “It would take many hours to kill you all."

“Please! I have a family!” The mare sobbed. The explosion had burned all the fur and feathers off her back and wings.

“Hey! So do I!” Astral said, her fleshy face pulling taunt in her best impression of a devilish smile. “I guess we’re not so different after all. I guess I can, hee hee, let you go.”

She lobbed the mare into the path of a pegasus fleeing the Feather Slicer. The target was knocked into unconsciousness by their hard collision, and the mare’s blistered wings were unable to keep her in the air. They fell like rocks.

“Did you see that! Hee hee, what a throw!” Astral roared in approval.

“L- Listen, I’m a well respected officer.” The stallion stuttered in a wavering tone, his eyes following the mare’s plummet. His grey uniform was stained by blood. “Cloudsdale would pay for my return. They’d pay anything you asked.”

“OoOo, that’s very tempting…” Astral hummed deliberation. “It’s a deal! They can have you back right away, and we can work out the details later.” She smashed the stallion through the side of the airship.
That did not amuse her nearly as much. It was not fulfilling to blow up the airships and slaughter the ponies within. Once she ran out of creative kills, she could predict it becoming quite boring. She'd stick through it because that's what Twilight Velvet wanted from her.

"Wait... What's that?" At that moment, Astral began to feel a strange aura in the air, radiating from something not to far to the north. It was an impossible thing, like the power of a star was bound up against it’s will, screaming to be let free. Astral suddenly remembered feeling the presence the briefest of moments in the Canterlot Castle throne room, just before she’d met Ancepanox. At the time she'd assumed it was a spell Ancepanox had cast, but this time the aura was unmistakably a force in its own right.

“Has Celestia returned?” She asked excitedly, scanning the skies. “No no no, she is definitely dead. Velvet said as much! Then what? Who?!”

The Feather Slicer creaked it’s last groan of despair, before the heel became too pronounced and the masts splintered under the torsion. The surviving balloons ripped and imploded, depriving the once-grand carrier of all it’s lift. Astral kicked off the hull as it plummeted, following the other airships to the bottom of the valley.

Astral flapped her gaunt wings quickly as she circled around, hunting down the mysterious and powerful newcomer using the sun's power.

Just as divine forced in the skies above Canterlot were hurtilling towards confrontation, so too below, deep under the Mountain where the moonlight did not reach.
Coming back from near death a second time was proving much more unpleasant than the first for Wreath. He was starved for energy and was missing most of his blood, but his pure will to exact retribution moved his body for him.

He pivoted up from his prone position, floating slowly to his hooves in impossible defiance of gravity. He opened his eyes, and they burned with the vitriolic hatred that now guided him, shining out with a blackness that deepened the absolute dark of the cavern.
Blood still wept from his shredded skin, but it also began drip from the corners of his eyes, and to spill from the corners of his mouth with each labored breath.

“Agana.” He whispered. The surge of rancor that followed those words invigorated his will to erase the very concept behind it. “Agana. The Suzerain of Sin. I will... I will kill you.” He promised, slightly shying away from the words.

Above him, the imprisoned alicorn could neither see nor hear him. Her senses were focussed elsewhere, on her phychic attacks against Celestia. She Agana stared into the emptiness of the cavern with vacant eyes.

“I will kill you.” Wreath repeated, more loudly. He took a step forward. “I will butcher you.” He alleged forcefully, picking up his pace. The bound alicorn loomed over him, as big as a hill. “Agana! I'll eat you! Agana! Agana!”

He galloped and jumped, unnatural energy fueling his movement. He impacted against Agana’s massive right hindleg, perching on it like a mountain goat. He stomped, but the leg did not snap like he was expecting. Wreath smashed his full weight against the limb several more times but it did no more than mat the fur.

Enraged, Wreath ran up her leg to her torso, and began beating at gnawing at side with animalistic fury. It was to no effect; Her skin could not be torn or bruised no matter how much he wailed on it. Nothing he could do had any effect against the massive alicorn.

Agana’s dilated eyes returned to sharp focus as she looked down at the attacker. ”The little earth pony is still alive?”

Wreath spat out a mouthful of fur. “I WILL DESTROY YOU!”

Agana chuckled. "Did that upstart nightmare rejuvenate you? How precious." She summoned her magic and swiped at him with a telekinetic paw.

Wreath dodged her magic and jumped up, clambering up her torso until he was on her shoulder. He began beating at her face, making Agana squawk in panic and began pecking at him. Wreath jumped away but lost his footing and fell onto his stomach, straddling her foreleg again.

”I had a little chat with your progenitor, Ancepanox.” Agana said tauntingly. She plucked him up by the tail with her magic and held him before her. ”She is an interesting little thing, but impudent. I will not lament her rejections of me, for it is my assessment that she is just as weak as you are.”

“I AM NOT WEAK!” Wreath howled. He curled up and bit through his tail, causing him plummet down to the cave floor.

Agana was surprised. ”How in the-”

Wreath barred his teeth, now as sharp as knives. He drove forward again, jumping on the tangle of vines that threaded Agana’s hoof and held her against the pillar. The bramble roiled agitatedly, lashing at him with dozens of thorny vines with the speed of whips. Blood flew in every direction as they mutilated him, but Wreath ignored them, and began biting through the black shackles.

For a few moments, Agana just watched Wreath bite the vines. But then the vines holding her other limbs began to tighten, and another part of the creeper wrapped around her neck and began to apply pressure. Agana squawked in panic. "Stop! Stop! If you try to make it release me before Celestia is dead, it will tear me apart!"

"Good!" Wreath roared.

”NO!” Agana struggled as violently as the bindings would allow, trying to shake Wreath off. ”I will not let you do this to me, so close to my release! GUARDS! WARDENS! STOP HIM!”

Guards? Wardens? Wreath was not in the frame of mind to wonder what she meant. He did not have to wait long to find out anyway, for Agana had no sooner finished her cry than A sound of grinding stone filled Wreath's ears.
“Step away from her.” A grating whisper sounded out from behind Wreath.

Wreath paused from his attack to see who had come to interrupt his vengeance.

A massive stone hoof swung out from the darkness. It smashed into Wreath with unbelievable force, smacking him several dozen meters away. He rolled to a stop in the middle of the statues, and as he pushed himself to his hooves again he saw that they were watching him. The towering stone effigies stood ready to squish the troublesome trespasser.
The statues had come alive. Wreath was in no mood to be amazed by the magical machinations that had animated the golems: He was pissed beyond reason.

“Please. I don’t want to do this.” The golem statue that had hit him approached. It had depicted a unicorn mare in a nun’s modest robes. With an unnatural jerkiness, the the face which had at first been one of serene contemplation was contorted into regretful anguish. The statue's voice was no more than the coarse scrape of stone against itself. “Run away, please. Or I will have to kill you.”

“You must not free the Suzerain of Sin.” Another statue said. It was one of the statues Wreath had inspected in detail earlier, that of Prince Lector.

“No. Oh no oh no.” Wreath said in a gravelly growl. “I don’t want to free her. I want to kill her.”

“That is not her purpose. She has a use, and must not be destroyed.” The statue of Argo Blackhorn, spoke next. Though the statues seemed diplomatic, they looked warily for Wreath’s next attack. “She believes the death of Empress Celestia will release her, but she was tricked. "

“The Suzerain of Sin must stay bound where the Dark Lady has put her.” The statue of an elder pegasus mare chimed in. “It is for that reason only we were animated.”

“None can bend the will of the Dark Lady. Not you, her, or us.” The statue of Tomorrow Hope whimpered. “You have to go. Please, we don’t want to kill you.”

The statue of Lector swept a hoof slowly along the floor, pushing the makeshift saddlebag holding Wreath’s heirloom wolf helmet forward. “Leave.”

“I’m not a violent pony. I just want to Agana her in pain, to suffer.” Wreath laughed raggedly, spitting up more blood. “So what if I don't kill her? What if I just drive her insane through pain? What if I just beat her brain into uselessness, but keep her technically alive?” He bared his teeth. "What I'm trying to say is, BUCK OFF, I'm going to destroy her."
For the first time in his life, he felt truly committed. He would see the battle through and he would win, of that he was absolutely convinced.
Only he could not, not in his current state. If he was to surmount the challenge he would need to, as the Nightmare said, advance and evolve. He would need to become something better than a mediocre earth pony knight.

He pulled his helmet out of the sack and regarded it. Fifty years ago, his grandmother had worn the wolf helmet into battle, triumphantly executing Celestia’s will and enforcing peace in the most troubled corners of Equestria. It was meant for intimidation as much as protection.
Ripple Wreath would not die as a pitiful wolf knight, would not bleed out cold in a cave. He would embrace of his progenitors, both biological and magical, and find the wolf and the truest dark within himself.

“I'll set you folks free too. It's gotta be boring down here. Come on, let's all go together.” He set the helm aside. “But let me get changed first.”

In the Canterlot throne room, Ancepnaox was jolted out of inertness by a tremendous upwelling of dark energy coming from her connection to Ripple Wreath. Amazed she explored the power he was using- and had learned to use to quickly and instinctually- to figure out where it had come from. It was only too odd, for unlike Light magic which had its ultimate origin in the Sun, and ordinary magic which came from the currents of nature, the Dark Wreath was pulling from seemed to have no source at all.

Ancepanox was very intrigued. All her use of Dark magic had been by twisting ordinary magic into Dark spellforms. She'd assumed that was just how it worked. Was this pure Dark magic, straight from the mysterious source? Could it be, Ancepanox wondered silently, that it was coming from the Dreamscape?

She looked up at the moon, but it offered no answers.

"Rainbow Dash, please tell me you're almost done over there. Things are coming to a head."

Rainbow Dash's scattered thoughts responded. "Almost. Something wrong?

"Something terrible is happening in Canterlot. But then, what else is new." Ancepanox laughed morosely. "Please hurry. We have to act quick or we lose.’

She looked over to Forlorn Spark. She had to return to that dream. Rushing back into the danger like that was madness, but neither Celestia nor Agana would expect it.
She was going to take back what was hers.

Chapter 44: The Many Memories

“What’s our vector on that cargo ship?” The captain of the Slashing Dancer requested.

“Five knots at negative fifteen degrees. We’ll be upon them in one-fifty seconds, mark.” The navigator calculated.

At the corner of the bridge, peering out of the front viewport with his binoculars, the spotter saw the last heave of the Feather Slicer before it's balloon imploded and it dropped into the dark valley.
“Captain... I... I should have told you earlier, but the Helbark exploded. The Feather Slicer just lost buoyancy." The spotter confessed nervously. “The surviving fleet is westbound at full sail. Please break off this chase and get us out of here.”

“I know there were a few fires, but the Helbark could not have just exploded.” The captain asked, incredulous.

“It did! Captain, I don't know for such, but I think it was an alicorn!” The spotter gibbered, drawing the eyes of all the ponies on the small bridge. “Captain please! That last order from Feather Slicer was a retreat order! We've got to get out of here!"

The captain tapped her hoof on the arm of her chair. "Okay... um... I know it's not easy for you to hear this-"

“I'm sane! Here, look for yourself!” The spotter jabbed the binoculars in the captain's direction. "They're all dead. We're all dead! Oh gods, oh gods." She fell into fearful little mutters.

“Urm…” The tactical officer roused from his nap, opening an eye. “I’d have to agree with Lens, captain. I think retreat is advisable.”

“My cousin in the admiralty didn’t promote me to captain to turn tail at the first sign of trouble.” The captain pursed her lips.

“First sign? FIRST SIGN?!” The spotter took a deep breath. “Captain, I know you’re remarkably tolerant when it comes to we crew expressing ourselves, but I’m afraid that the hull couldn’t handle my honest opinion right now.”

“Oh, alright.” The captain pouted. “After we get this cargo airship, that is. How about it lads? We'll split the spoils!”

There was mild agreement among the bridge crew and a few encouraged shouts from the oars. The spotter sunk to his stomach cowering against unseen forces.

“Good choice captain.” The tactical officer said before dozing off again. Nobody could blame him for wishing to sleep through the drama.

Sunset Shimmer sat at the back of her commandeered cargo airship, enjoying the view of Canterlot. Her hometown was like a glittering jewel under the night sky, all the more beautiful for how long she’d been gone. Celestia’s royal city was a bastion of culture and civilization, and Sunset loved her princess all the more for creating a monument to ponykind that would surely last a thousand years.
She was also enjoying the strange light show playing out over the valley, as the Cloudsdale airships burned, sunk, or exploded. She wasn't entirely sure what was happening but she could guess.

There was a tap on Sunset’s shoulder. It was one of the four pony experiments they’d brought along to help crew the airship, a yellow unicorn stallion in an ill-fitting grey robe.

“BbbBleeh.” The drone drooled slightly as he tried to speak. A look of sad frustration came over him as he wrestled to get his mind to work. It seemed he was one of the batch who’d retained most their grey matter, but still.
“What is it?” Sunset queried. “Does Mis Theory need me?”

The drone nodded eagerly. “Bleh bleh bleh!”

“Message received.” Sunset threw out a mock salute. The drone beamed with pride, happy to successfully communicate however trivial.

Sunset stood up, adjusted the armor she wore, and trotted into the tiny bridge of the airship, a modest little wooden closet towards the front of the hull. The forward window looked out over the Dneighper River valley below them, to and the Unicorn Range in the far far distance. It all looked very stark and severe in the monotone moonlight.

Entanglement Theory was steering the bulky craft, attended by another of the experiments, a unicorn mare. If she heard the clack of Sunset’s hoofsteps or the rustle of the armor, she did not show it.

“Things going alright here?” When she did not receive an answer, Sunset decided to kick back in an empty chair. “Kinda cozy in here, huh Twi?”

“Code names only Dances-on-Graves.” Entanglement Theory said curtly, refusing to look at Sunset.

Sunset shrugged. "Sorry, I know you're worried. But I just get annoyed by it, so use my name if it's the same to you. I'm not afraid of somepony hearing it."

"It's not some pony I'm concerned about." Entanglement Theory grunted.

Sunset was getting irked by the cold shoulder she was getting from her accomplice. Something was not right. "You know, I think we should spare a bit more of the language center in the next batch of lobotomies.”

“Yeah, you do that.”

“Hey, you called me here, so don’t get upset at me.” Sunset crossed her hooves.

“I need you to stop wandering off. Stay here in case I need your strength or magic for something." Entanglement Theory kept looking forward, glowering. "You need to quit waiting for me to ask you to help, and be proactive."

"Are you leaving because I'm not being 'proactive'." Sunset scoffed.

"No I'm leaving because this realm is dangerous, and no place for me. I have to go home." Entanglement Theory spit back. "I seriously considered leaving before we cast the projection."

Sunset tried not to let Theory’s combative tone get to her. "Twi, I feel like you're dumping this at a bad time. You could have brought this up last month when the gate opened. You could have brought this up a year ago when we started the experiments. You could have brought this up five years ago, when we chose to go down this path!" Sunset sighed and brought her town back to something conversational. "All I was trying to say was, if we ever decide to start cutting just for fun, we leave them with some brain, you know?"

Entanglement Theory closed her eyes for a few seconds, let out a sigh, and stepped back from the wheel. One of the yellow-robed experiment ponies stepped in to take her place.
"Sunset, if you want to experiment recreationally, I'm not going to be there. I'm done after this, Sunset, done. Get it through your head." She fidgeted with her spectacles. "Go find Phyte if you want a playmate. Go back to Canterlot and cavort with Velvet's alicorn! It's our sequence and our discipline that's kept us safe. You and me... we were partners in science, not..." She jabbed her hoof at the experiment pony at the navigator second. "Not this!" Then the experiment pony at the wheel. "Not this!" Then the pony waiting at the door. "Or this!"

Sunset slowly, deliberately, pushed the Blackhorn helmet off and set in her lap. She leaned forward. "You sound like you're having a crisis of conscious, Twi." She said coldly.

"Of course not. I know better than that. I know what we did was necessary." Entanglement Theory said with sincerity. "Every step we took, every new discovery, you know I was pushing as hard as I could. I'm not squeemish. I have no moral hangups. But-"

"But?" Sunset arched a brow.

"But this world isn't like mine. It used to be we were the most dangerous power couple in the world, and we knew it. Here you're a competitor, and it's gotten to your head." Entanglement Theory pushed back the hood of her robe, revealing her face and horn. Her long purple mane was tied behind her head to keep it from getting in the way. Her eyes were covered, as always, with a pair of thin glasses, magically enchanted with a reflecting gleam to hide her eyes.
"Sunset, it might not make sense right now, but after the projection, and after I leave, you need to pull back from the excesses. Stop experimenting, don't retread old ground on the sequence. Let the end be the end."

Sunset sent from defensive to confused. "What's with this change of heart? Why stop the experiments?"

"Because we're done. The projection is the last step of the sequence. This ISN'T a change of heart." Entanglement Theory said. "Sunset, tell me, are you actually going to want to pointless experiments after the fulfillment of all your aspirations?"

Sunset sat back in the chair and was silent for a while, thinking. "Twi, it used to be our aspirations. Did something change?"

Entanglement Theory turned away. The experiment pony yielded the wheel to her, as she resumed steering the airship. "Not really. I'm a product of my world, I guess. The old mantras have stuck with me. One especially, since the gate openned, and especially after that business with Agana I can say that with absolute confidence, that I have not been able to get out of my head." The purple mare pushed her glasses back up her nose. "Some truths are best left unknown."

“Something's wrong. If you can’t tell me-” Sunset said. It felt like she was talking to a stranger, and a brick wall. A stranger brick wall. “Twilight, what’s happened to you? I just don’t understand why you’ve gotten so distant…”

“Code-names only.” Entanglement Theory ignored her question. “That's all I summoned you for.”

“Then I guess we're done here.” Sunset rose from her chair and left the cabin.

Entanglement Theory watched her friend trot back to her spot at the stern. Sunset Shimmer was always looking at the past, always looking behind. Even when she was advancing the limits of mortal knowledge, it was with a mind to old glories or nostalgic revivals.
That was why Entanglement Theory was terrified Sunset would tread old ground.

The purple mare let out a shaky sigh. She needed advice.
Steeling herself Entanglement Theory shook her head until her glasses fell into her hoof.

Dark shadows filled the bridge, and when her eyes adjusted she saw she was among additional company.
Ghosts of the past, her discarded experiments of weeks, months, and years past, stood around her: From the early messy vivisections to the most recent lobotomies, they crowded the small space, wearing eager grins that stretched from ear to ear, or the nearest equivalent if their ears were missing or replaced.

"Hello again." Entanglement Theory whispered to the ghosts. When the opaque barrier between realities was made transparent, all sorts of horrible things revealed themselves. Entanglement Theory cradled her glasses, tempted to put them back on immediately and forgo the advice she was seeking.

Thankfully she did not have to wait long. There was a slight rustle, and suddenly there was another creature amongst the ghosts. She was a griffin, standing between Entanglement Theory and the forward window. She was short, with black fur and bronze feathers. She wore the top half of a rok’s beak as a tribal mask, concealing all of her face save two eyes of grey, quite unlike the slitted eyes of a griffin.

“You’re doing very well, otherworlder.” The she-griffin cooed, echoed by hushed giggles among the ghosts.

“Shut up. You have no idea how this makes me feel.” Entanglement Theory spat halfheartedly. She rubbed one of the dirty lenses against her robe. "Sunset is... being Sunset. She's going to get in trouble once I leave, I just know it."

“I know you want me to protect her, but that's far beyond my power. At this stage I can barely project myself to you. How do you expect me to bat away the arrayed powers of the cosmos?” The griffin snickered morosely. “Besides I don't really want to. Sunset Shimmer is the prodigal daughter of Light. We Stars are Dark."

"I'm not asking you to help her ideological vision. Just keep her from repeating my mistakes and sharing my fate." Entanglement Theory pleaded. "Please. You were mortal once. You understand how much it hurts to be tormented by the gods! Once I go back home I'll have ways of curing myself, but not Sunset. If she retreads old ground she'll never be able to say her own name again." She shivered.

The griffin was not moved. "Then she will suffer."

“Black Bell... I don't really like you. In fact I think I rather hate you. Every time I take off these accursed glasses, there you are along with every other reminder of my sins." Entanglement Theory's eye roamed the room, looking into the face of each of the ghosts. She remembered all of them, how tough their flesh had been, how much they'd bled, the color of their organs... Not things anyone usually thought about when mentioning qualities of a friend, but Entanglement Theory had been living that life for years. She could hardly look at another living creature anymore within wondering how they'd look cut open.
"But Black Bell, I need you. I had you wrong before, because I don't think you project yourself here just to harass me. I think you want to help, somehow."

The griffin named Black Bell grinned, her grey eyes twinkling sinisterly. "What can I say, otherworlder. I'm a teacher."

"Then how do I keep Sunset from preforming more experiments from the sequence and bringing down the divine attention on herself?" Entanglement Theory asked.

Black Bell thought for a moment, drumming her talons against the floor. "Keep her occupied. You think she will retread old ground because once she accomplishes her dream, she will have no positive goals. You must give her something to do." Before Entanglement Theory could answer, the griffin made a quick addendum. "And I can't help in this regard. I have my own plans. Advice is free, but everything more is billable."

Entanglement Theory held her glasses to the light, checking to see if she’d gotten all the smudges. "But how can I do that once I leave? I know what you're thinking, and I won't sabotage the projection. I just won't! It's too important to me, her, and the world!"

"Then Mis Sunset Shimmer should get used to using code names forever." Black Bell said. "Ahh, outworlder, the time we spend together is fun, but it's running out. I feel something is closing in on us." She cocked her head upwards, focussing on something through the ceiling of the small cabin. "Put those glasses back on, outworlder."

"Just one more question, Black Bell." Entanglement Theory said hurriedly. "I- I'm ashamed to admit it, but I do have my doubts. If Sunset and I suceed, and the projection goes as planned, will this world become a better place?"

Black Bell looked appraisingly at the ghosts and yet living experiment ponies about her. To what end had so many pony lives been sacrificed? If the ends did not justify the means, how could the perpetrator live with themself?
"That will depend entirely on Sunset. Your vindication relies on her. Hmm, is that why you want to save her?" Black Bell snickered. "Auf Wiedersehen, outworlder."

"Sayonara, manuke." Entanglement Theory put her glasses back on. The bridge was back to how it had been, with the three experiment ponies at their stations, nopony else, and silence.

But to Sunset Shimmer, peeking through small porthole at the back of the cabin, it appeared that Entanglement Theory was just mumbling to herself while cleaning her glasses.
"She never takes those things off anymore." Sunset huffed, slumping down with her back against the cabin. She wasn't sure if she was mad at Entanglement Theory or herself: Theory was always the voice of reason, but she was explaining herself uncharacteristically little since the Eternal Night fell, jumping at shadows and acting defensive over every question.
But this latest thing about not experimenting anymore was just too much. if there was one thing Sunset hated more than anything else it was constraining herself in other ponies' rules.

"Despite what she says, she does have doubts." Sunset growled. "We're so close. Literally minutes away to the greatest leap into the unknown... And she's right to be worried."

For a solid minute, Sunset just stared into the dark sky. Years and years of working together on their project, knowing out steps of their experimental sequence. Of course it was intimidating for that lifestyle to come to an end. Entanglement Theory woudl go home, and while that didn't mean permanent separation, losing the endless workdays side by side would be jarring, even lonely.

"Buck me. I'm no good at goodbyes." Sunset sighed. "Never have been..."

“Bleh!” The yellow stallion announced urgently.

Sunset looked up from the ground. The experiment pony was dancing in place.

"Oh cute, you're doing a little jig.” Sunset faked a thin smile. “I don't know lad... Twi thinks of the ponies we've had to sacrifice in the name of progress as dead as soon as we choose them. For my part, it gives me pleasure to think you're still a pony, kinda."

The stallion was not interested in her pondering. “Bluhbledleh!” He said more loudly.

“Or maybe you're not ponies. Take away your ability to communicate, and you're just lumps of flesh.” Sunset said with sigh, rolling on her side. "That's what the experiments is all about: Learning to communicate in ways we never knew possible. And becoming more than lumps of-"

“Ppphhh!” The drone kicked at her leg. “Phhbleh bleh!”

“Buck off retard! ” Sunset said with sudden ferocity. She sat up and pushed him away with her magic. “I'll throw you off the bucking side if you lay another hoof on me!"

Not that he had her undivided attention, the stallion was frantically pointing to two objects above them.
Framed against the night sky was a small scout skiff.
But above that was a pony-like shape, larger than a pegasus, with strange wings that let the moonlight through.

“Uh oh." Sunset groaned. The getaway from Canterlot had not been as clean as she'd thought. Both blockade and blockade-breaker were after her. "No way we can outrun a patrol airship. Buck! There's NO WAY we can outrun Twilight Velvet's alicorn brat. BUCK!"

She scrambled to her hooves and snugged the Blackhorn armor back on, hitting the helmet around her horn, and then took a deep breath. She was either going to have either a very exciting or terrifying time, hopefully both.

She half-turned to the yellow stallion. “Go tell Twi that-” She cut herself off.. “Nevermind, just get buckled down. Things are going to get interesting.”

Aurthora Airy having a hard time staying awake. Reading page after page of the impressive documentation of Phyte’s macabre surgeries was mentally and physically exhausting, but necessary to trying to learn more.

"Sir Prosser, have you seen any references to a 'sequence' in any of the material you've read?" Aurthora asked. She looked around. Prosser was asleep on the floor. "Oh nevermind then."

Phyte's journal had claimed her recent experimental breakthroughs had come curtesy of the two mysterious ponies who had emerged from the dark depths of the Vacuous Arcanum. Phyte had been ignorant to their true identity, and obviously Aurthora was no better clued in by just reading her guesses. Phyte was on the run and her guild destroyed, but the two ponies were probably still out there: Where had Entanglement Theory and Dances-on-Graves come from, and where had they gotten their knowledge.

"I see references to the sequence everywhere. "Aurthora said to herself. "Perhaps..." She shuffled through the pile of notes on particular procedures, their intentions, and their outcome. With reluctance, she got reading.

Immediately, Aurthora could tell most of Phyte's notes were paraphrasing some other work, presumably the book Dances-on-Graves had given her. However, the notes were just detailed enough that Aurthora could make the connections despite her ignorance of the subject.

The Sequence was a very specific progression of knowledge. Each step build on the last, and was both impossible and madness-inducing without it. It began like a religious induction, with the first few steps involving meditation, mantras, and symbol internalization.
Then came the hard swerve into the grotesque, the experiments on ponies. It began with pointless amputations, then to careful studies of ponies’ conscious state under various stresses, to the kinds of slaughterhouse carnage that still lay on the stone slabs at the lab’s edge. Far from being an end onto itself, the wanton butchering of ponies' bodies was unlocking some kind of esoteric secret to the experimenters. Aurthora was dazed by the jargon, but could deduce the purpose of the depravities was to reduce a pony to its base components, to better examine and understand them.
The ultimate culmination of the sequence was not mentioned: Phyte hadn't gotten that far.

"What an unholy mess." Aurthora mumbled to herself. She sat back in her chair. "Did Lady Twilight Velvet do something similar to learn the secrets?"

Aurthora kept thinking about how she was the worst pony for such academic examinations, but the so called Sequence was so visibly horrible on the face of she rejected the idea there was something she was missing. Phyte was a monster, a blight on Ponykind and Canterlot. It made sense her intentions would be bad.

But the two ponies...
What was it all building towards? What was the point of it?

Aurthora went back to the notes of the last experiments Phyte had conducted, just days before her hideout under the Musician's Guild was raided.
The writing became more repetitive and distracted, like her journal during those days. Most interestingly, the references to the Sequence had stopped. Phyte had gone off the rails and was just doing whatever.

Aurthora poured over the page. She couldn't believe what she was reading.
Wings on unicorns, horns of pegasi, and both on earth ponies… Phyte was trying to put together an alicorn. What an abomination Aurthora could barely imagine! A mishmash of organs and body parts did not an alicorn make! An alicorn was holy, an alicorn was sacrosanct!

"Could this be the point of the Sequence?" Aurthora whispered fearfully. Random thoughts coalesced in her head. The path of greater and greater understanding of ponykind, culminating in an apotheosis... It sounded an awfully lot like the ritual.
"Did Lady Twilight Velvet do something similar to learn her secrets? Have I been part of her sequence this whole time?"

She dare not ponder it. She dare not consider it. Velvet's escalating violence inside Canterlot, perpetrated by that gremlin of a pony, Iillor... had it been something else?! The massacre of the Musician/s Guild, the battle between the Blackhorn mob and the Wonderbolts, the massacre of the Estates... Escalating violence all planned by Velvet, all leading to the creation of Velvet's Astral Nacre.

Aurthora's eyes raced to the bottom of the page. She had to know that Phyte had failed, and never produced a working alicorn. She had to have that piece of mind, that Phyte's work and Velvets were different.

There, in big bold letters.

Fancy Pants, Unicorn

Under that.

He survived. Might retain use of magic. Otherwise a failure. Waste of time.

Aurthora tapped her hoof, staring into nothing. Iillor had killed Fancy Pants. In fact one could say it was his death that had started Velvet's star on the rise.
And hadn't Prosser said half of his body had disappeared from the morgue, which was why his funeral was months delayed?

She looked over to the sleeping earth pony. She stood up, trotted over to him, and began nudging him. "Sir Prosser. Sir Prosser."

"Emmm." Prosser groaned and yawned. "Done with your reading? Can we head to the surface yet?"

"Almost." Aurthora leaned over him. "Sir, why was Fancy Pants' funeral delayed so long?"

Prosser sat up and scratched his stomach. "I dunno. I wasn't on Velvet's payroll when she stole it. She just most of it back, miraculously lacking any decay, and told me to make something up."

"She gave most of it back..." Aurthora's eyes wandered to the stone slabs and the mutilated old corpses laid upon them. "So... So... Velvet did much the same thing as all this." She paced around the lab. "Right under our nose. Right under our nose. BUCK!" She kicked at a shelf, sending it crashing to the ground. the flasks and delicate divises scattered and broke. "What the hell have I been working towards!"

Prosser watched her tantrum. "How could you not know what you were getting into? Grow up, Lady Airy! You don't build gods without cracking a few eggs! A hell of a lot more eggs than the Estates, or any other you're thinking of. Take that number in your head and multiply it by a thousand, or by a million! That's who we need to sacrifice." Prosser's doughy face was not build for his serious words. "This isn't over by a long shot, Lady Aurthora. Do you think Velvet is pushing us into a Civil War for the benefit of Canterlot? There's always a higher goal, always a dream to fulfill."
He snatched a flash of an unknown liquid off one of the few cabnets not kicked over, and pilled it on the table. All the notes Aurthora had been reading curled and disolved. "We're working for Canterlot, ponykind, and this entire planet. That was never going to come without costs."

Aurthora slumped. "I always knew deep down... I didn't want to believe it, because her cause was just. I didn't beleive my intuition."

"Is the cause still just? Aren't we still working to make ponykind a species of gods and kings? We're not selfish Stars. We're ponies with stout hearts and good intentions." Prosser arched a brow. "Come on, Lady Airy. You're bent out of shape. Nap with me a while. You'll wake up knowing these feeling will pass. It's all a big goof, huh? Can't you not help but laugh? I sure can't! Haa haa haa! Haaaa ha ha haa ha!"

So close but so far, in the total darkness of the Vacuous Arcanum, more pain. More suffering. More hatred. The Eternal Night was reaching its darkest flow, and showed no signs of ebb.

Ripple Wreath's body may have been undergoing a transformation, so terrible to be incomprehensible to him, but he did even dare try. A jolly little melody sparked in his head, a little classical violin tune. It was cheery and jovial, and perhaps it so consumed his mind to distract his conscious from an existential torture that would have otherwise driven him insane.
“Fa la la la laa, la, la, la la la laaaa…”

His already tattered skin disintegrated in a spray of blood and black energy, and the flesh underneath swelled to accommodate the infusion of Dark power. His bones cracked and healed a hundred-thousand times, until the raw magic disintegrated them completely, binding the organs and sinew to the framework of pure Dark will that now coursed through him. His form and features shifted unceasingly under the abuse of the uncontrolled aspect of change, until Wreath battled away distraction and reasserted his will over his own body. For a few seconds he was just a haze of flesh and magic, before he remembered his hate and settled into a form.

A massive, haggard, demonic wolf stood in the bloody footprints of his former self. His messy tangled fur was already soaked with sweat and viscera, and the mad eyes that stared out with black radiance promised more of such dousings. His labored breaths came out as stormy jets of steam, and his lean frame shuddered with an eagerness for immediate, brutal action.

"WOW" He tried to say, but it just came out as an unintelligible scream. "I'M SURE CHOMPING AT THE BIT FOR SOME ACTION"

With no to-do, he leapt forward.
The statue golems, confused, had gathered in close. The monsterous wolf-nightmare tackled the nearest unsuspecting golem to the ground. The statue's ancient and solid stone, which should have been impervious to any attack, was rippled like so much paper under one-Wreath’s mighty claws.
The statue shrieked in panic, an awful scraping sound, but was silenced as the wolf snapped it’s hoof off. The body immediately froze solid, but the stone hoof continued to struggle until the platinum plaque that had borne the depicted’s name and legacy was snapped in Wreath’s maw.

The other statues backed away, shocked beyond words at the ferocity of the new creature.

"What happened to that pony?!” The statue of Tomorrow Hope whimpered, watching as the rock comrade she’d stood beside for a thousand of years was obliterated. “It’s a nightmare! How can we fight a nightmare?!”

“The Dark Lady is testing us. She sends her chosen to strain our defense of her Deava.” The statue of Lector said calmly. “There are a hundred of us. There is no reason to-”

The statue of Argo Blackhorn galloped in, head held low for a ram-like charge. The wolf, still occupied in the pointless fracturing of its first victim, took the blow to the side. In any mortal creature, his ribs and organs would have been pulped, but Argo’s statue only succeeded in knocking Wreath over. With the wolf on its back, all four clawed paws were available to tear apart the foolish golem. Argo fell to the ground as a collection of pebbles.

The statue of Lector felt a pang of loss. Death, having eluded the cursed and bound ponies of Agana’s statue garden, had been found at last.
One did not stand in silence for a thousand years, sentient but imprisoned, without contemplating one's escape. Myriadess dreamed of letting free her ideological vision back into the world, and Agana forever dreamed of the day she would kill Celestia and be released. Ponies and other creatures the world over raged against cruel circumstance bounding them in. So too the statues.
The statues were horrified of the destruction, for they had the minds of ponies. But they had lasted too long for pony minds to bear, and sought escape however they could. It was with a grim joy that the statue of Lector realized that something had finally come to destroy them.

The golem stepped forward. "We were created to stop the Suzerain of Sin from being released. That means we must continue to oppose you." He said, his grinding stone voice booming out. "You will have no choice but kill us all."

The nightmare wolf dissolved and reformed upright, ready to fight on. "NO PAWS IN THE VIOLENCE, NO MERCY" He gargled, before charging.

The statues offered a pitiful, half-hearted resistance, just enough to satisfy the spells that bound them to their eternal task. Once by one, the platinum seals that bound their souls were rent and shattered by the wolf. Their last moments were not peaceful, but it would not bother them after they found the rest which had long awaited them.

The statue of Tomorrow Hope was one of the last golems to throw herself in Wreath’s path. The wolf launched itself onto her back and tore at her neck, sending boulder-sized chunks of rock flying in every direction.
"Ave Celestia! Ave Celestia! Ave Celestia!” She screamed, until her head was gnawed off.

Just a few hundred meters away, Agana had again turned out the real world to concentrate on her psychic attack. This time there was absolutely nothing between her and the heaving monstrosity that had willed itself back to life to kill her.

Rainbow Dash, like most pegasus, had a instinctual fear of having her wings covered, bound, or otherwise constricted. Her adventures in Chitin had accentuated those fears. Now she found herself in that unenviable position, lashed, tied from hoof to wing with vines, to a tree at the edge of the campfire’s light. And it was voluntary.

“You fillies sure know how to tie a knot.” Dash complimented, squirming in her best attempt to escape.

“Comes in handy on a farm.” Apple Bloom said, double checking that all the vines were secure. “From time to time.”

“I tried crocheting once. It didn’t really work out, but I invented some pretty complex tangles.” Sweetie Belle boasted.

“I was in the coltscouts.” Scootaloo admitted, blushing slightly. “But don’t tell anypony!”

“Why? That’s super cool!” Dash during her youth she’d always wished had more opportunity for adventure. Now she was caught up in it constantly, in the worst possible way. “Kudos to your dad for being open minded.”

“Actually it was my mom’s idea.” Scootaloo coughed.

“Her mom’s weird.” Apple Bloom recalled.

“Like, super weird.” Sweetie Belle agreed, then quickly backpedaled upon seeing the hurt look on Scootaloo’s face. “B- But not in a bad way. She... eccentric!”

“Thanks a lot girls.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Back to the job at hoof, I’d say you’re pretty much stuck Mis Dash.”

“Then I won’t be able to hurt you.” Dash nodded. “And remember, if there’s any kind of trouble, just run away. I’ll be the easier target, and no predator could resist this prime cut anyway?” Dash wiggled her eyebrows.

“You’re funny Mis Dash.” Apple Bloom giggled. “Don’t kill y’all’s self doin this thing. Twilight Sparkle ain’t worth it.”

‘Kill yourself’. Dash was struck by the morbidity of it all, of fillies being shoved into a world full of pain and death. Just like she was. “Y- Yeah…”

‘Ready, Rainbow?’ Ancepanox’s query jolted her to attention.

‘Yeah I'm tied to a tree right now. Kinda nervous, but I'm ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.’

‘Thank you, Rainbow Dash. You're putting your trust in me and I can not overstate my indebtedness. Breath in breathe in. You’ll know when to breath out.’

Before Dash had the chance to ask what that meant, the forest, the campfire, and the the curious fillies melted away before her eyes. Color and concept, space and time, consciousness and imagination all exploded over her vision in splashes and streaks of light and dark. Memories and perception became one. Her mother, Gilda the griffin, and a fire-eyed Celestia were before her now.

“Woah, you don’t look so good.” Gilda idly scratched her beach with a talon. “Did we tie the knots too tight?”

“Maybe the transfer-thingy started.” Her mother guessed.

“Anypony else getting cold?” Celestia asked, her fire mane curling up into the sky and vengeful light pouring out from her eyes. “No? Whatever, I’m going back to the campfire.”

Dash gurgled. "Woah, bad trip." The preportions of everything around her stretched and shrank absurdly, until she saw only grey. Numbness saturated Rainbow’s entire body and unbearable static filled her mind. The static moved, forming into ponies. Six ponies, two of each tribe, in a circle. They were holding hooves, singing. ‘Let it be done. Let Light and Dark be one. Let our gods be be remade into this world.’

“Dash! Rainbow Dash!” Ancepanox yelled.
“What?!” Dash yelled back, in the same haggard voice. Wait...

‘Success.’ Ancepanox thought smugly.
To go back into Twilight Sparkle's dream, she would have to open herself to Agana's psychic attacks again. Exploring the bonds between herself and the other ponies had given her an idea: Ancepanox would pull Rainbow Dash's consciousness into her body, and Agana's attack, seeking to paralyze the alicorn, would instead be acting against Dash's body tied up by the campfire. Ancepanox would remain free to finish the fight. The only way Ancepanox knew how to do that was draw Rainbow Dash's conscious mind closer to her own in mimicry of the Nightmare Altar, with the side effect of of bringing the two minds into a much closer bond.

“Ohmygosh this is too weird!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed through Ancepanox’s body. Like Twilight ad done the first time, Dash tried to move and toppled the black alicorn over. “I’m you! Are you me now? Sparkle, you bastard, did you steal my body?”

‘Calm down Dash, I’m here too. I'm just lending you my body. You still have yours, but it's about to be in a lot of pain.’

“Oh yeah, this is…” Dash tried to stand the black alicorn body up, causing it to fall onto it’s side. Her head swam with nausea, and she felt a newfound sympathy for what Twilight had suffered loosing her body and having to take another. "Ooff, this is hard. Don't make a habit of this.”

‘I'm really not planning to. I wouldn't do this to us if there was any other way I promise.’ Ancepanox thought. ‘This body’s new for me too you know, and I’d rather not be kicked out so soon after moving in.’

Dash rolled the body into a sitting position, with the legs curled under the body. She looked the body over. “Your wings are in terrible shape. Have you been dragging them through the dirt or something?”

‘Something like that. I can’t use them at all, since I still have my unicorn soul. Huh, I wonder if you could?’ Ancepanox imagined making the transfer permanent, and forging a more fully functional alicorn out of herself and Rainbow Dash. They would be a dark terror, with a wild pegasus soul driving the wings and a powerful unicorn soul using her magic. Furthermore if Applejack could supply be the earth pony magic-

“Yo, tone down the freak factor. I can still hear your thoughts.” Dash pulled the alicorn’s face up into a fleeting smile.

‘It’s just a stress fantasy.’

“Yeah yeah… Hold up, is that Rarity?” Rarity was still prostrate on the ground, eyes burning with hatred for the alicorn standing above her.

‘Don’t worry about her. She's can't block out Agana like I have.' Ancepanox started explaining. 'Listen, I have to jump into a dream but nothing bad should happen. With you here, this body should be insulated from Agana's psychic attack.'

“Uh what? You're leaving me in here?”

‘Obviously not permanently! I’ve got to go back into Twilight's dream. Just, take care of my body. And especially take care of the armor, because that’s still where my soul is tethered. Okay?’

"Take care against what? Take care against WHAT? Sparkle just hang on a second..."
Dash got the sense that she was talking to herself.

Ancepanox had already gone silent, for she had immersed herself in the dreamscape.

Scale had never been an obstacle in the dreams Ancepanox had visited to date. They had been very straightforward, with everything close together and within a permissible tolerance of size and appearance to their real world counterparts. In fact, the dreams she’d been walking bordered on the mundane compared to some surreal nightmares she’d experienced in her life.

The dream she returned to, once the breathtaking Tower that stood resolute in the empty void, was changed. Twilight's dream was breaking under the climactic war between Celestia and Agana.
The Tower of the Bard was shattering again, shaking apart under the polar forces stressing it, its fragments falling through the infinite void in perpetuity. The sun was weaving wildly in the sky, changing the way the shadows played through the sprinkles of dust and debris. Up in the sky the strange sun still shown out, but it was not alone anymore: Agana had summoned a miasma of creeping darkness that reached out to seize the errant star. Darting through the void, the sun was keeping ahead of the splotch.

Much like her mother star, Celestia was flying haphazardly to escape her foe, weaving around the chunks of broken tower at speeds Ancepanox had never seen before. Behind the alicorn were a cloud of shadows, screaming blobs with pony faces, which clawed and shrieked through the air as they methodically drove down the sun princess, more feral and insane than any other nightmare Ancepanox had seen before. Every so often, Celestia shot a spell behind her, Parthian style, into the monstrous faces of the shadow shades chasing her.

Ancepanox felt her stomach churn. She felt a deep connection to that place. Though she'd never consciously known it, the Tower had been her dream all her life. Seeing it rent upset her.
Agana, the cause of the ruptures, remained absent. Ancepanox guessed the dark blot in the sky, strobed with its own corrupting radiance, was some kind of link between the Tower and the strange space of darkness Agana had taunted her in. The shadow shades were like an invading force, swarming out of Agana's realm and into the dream.

Ancepanox felt like she was over the deep end of it now. Her dreamscape delvings were mere play compared to Agana's depth of lore. It made her feel more than a little afraid, and a lot angry.

“Terrible, that it should come to this.” Ancepanox heard a familiar voice behind her say.

Sitting cross legged at the center of tower fragment was the dreamer herself, Twilight Sparkle. Or perhaps it was Forlorn Spark, for the dreamer was something of a mix between the fully realized nightmare she had been, and the unicorn she was becoming. She had had Twilight Sparkle’s pudgy unicorn body, but enshadowed, with her dozen violet eyes taking in the entire apocalyptic scene at once.

"It's you..." Ancepanox stared at the smaller dreamer for a long while, tuning out the chaos around them. "I was here before. I hoped I'd see you."

"I was in a strange state. I was not fully conscious yet. My soul had been disassembled, not fully reassembled." Twilight said softly.

"And why are you here now? Look at this place! Those two assholes are completely destroying this dream! You should be in terrible pain right now. " Ancepanox was trying to be gentle with the pony but her gravelly voice was not suited for it. "I guess I'm asking, why chose this moment to manifest?"

"The Tower was broken before. It will be whole again before long, I promise. That's what separates this tower from the one in the real world." Twilight said. She was supremely unnerving to look at. At certain moments she was fluid of form, more like the suggestion of a pony. At other moments, the shadows around her thinned, and she looked Twilight Sparkle with slightly darker fur and ten too many eyes. "I am manifested because the Tower is broken. I do not fully understand it. Before we separated, we were never able to walk our own dreams."

"Celestia believes you and I were Light and Dark. I think we are Dream and Dreamer." Ancepanox said. "And we went our separate ways, after you outgrew me. Now you're so much smaller. What's the implication?"

"Iterative change vs revolutionary change? Your guess is as good as mine." Twilight mused. "Despite change, the dream remains. It won't change permanently. Can you see into my feelings, like I can yours? None of this bothers me, and it shouldn't bother you. We're above this."

"I refuse to take this as a matter of course. This is Celestia and Agana's fault, and they think their stupid magic ideologies justify this conflict.” Ancepanox took a seat beside the smaller creature. It was clear how they talked to each other how two two personas had split off from each other in so quick a time, just on little mannerisms and pronunciations. "I came here to stop them."

"That's fine by me, but only if you are doing it for yourself, not for my sake." Twilight said.

"What?" Ancepanox blinked. "I'm here to protect you. If my only worry was my own skin, there's a thousand different directions I could fly to get away."

"That's not what I mean." Twilight said. "I want you to admit your very personal reasons for coming back, then I will give you permission."

"Permission? Where do you get off?!" Ancepanox barked. "Look at this bullshit! Look at what they've done to you! They deserve..." But seeing the impassive look Twilight was giving her, Ancepanox trailed off. "Look, what do you want me to say? You're me. You were me. My self defense instinct..." She fell silent again. Twilight wanted the truth from her, and would accept no alternatives.
"Yes. I'm angry. Agana is just outright hostile. Celestia has done everything possible to piss me off. Not to draw false equivalence, but..." She sighed.

“You feel lost. You feel the two forms of magic you've been told about, Light and Dark, ring hollow to you."

"It's divine mumbo-jumbo! It has no substance for us ponies!"

"You're angry at the gods. I know you have caustic grudges: You feel you've been abandoned and spited. That doesn't mean you have to hate everything divine. That will only drive you mad considering your form." Twilight paused. "Don't let angst drive your actions. Celestia still cares for you, in a way."

Ancepanox remained silent.

Twilight hung her head. "Okay, that was a lie. But consider this from her perspective. You manifest here, reeking of Dark magic and taking the form of her fallen sister. She doesn't have to dig that deep to identify you with everything she loathes, everything she fears..." Twilight let a silence hang, the only sound being Celestia's battle with Agana's shadow shades. "If she knew the truth, of what happened to her sister, she would kill you."

"She would try. Her resentment means nothing to me." Ancepanox growled.

"Yes it does. You're not a steely, stoic pillar. You're an emotional being with needs. And so am I..." Twilight sighed. "Which is why your fear of me pains you."

"I fear you? I feel a lot of things towards you, but I'm not sure fear is one of them." Ancepanox stood up. "Celestia said a lot of nonsense last time. I don't know what you were, what I was, and which one of us is the original, and frankly I don't care. I don't need to define myself in relation to you. I'm getting comfortable with myself."

"But you're not yet. That's why you wish the ideologies of Light or Dark had answers for you. Your frustration is borne of yearning. I know what you want: Purpose." Twilight said firmly. "Without the empire and Celestia, what do you have? The only voices you've heard that gives a purpose to for mortal suffering are Forlorn Spark and Twilight Velvet, and both of them have their own ideologies of apotheosis and abandonment of mortality."
Twilight shifted a bit. "I can't say it's impossible you will become semi-divine as well. You should be mentally prepared for that. If you are adamant on having purpose as a mortal, it will cause you pain."

Ancepanox was wordless for a long while. "You're wrong about me, Twilight Sparkle." She turned away from the pony. "Remember what Nightmare Moon told us, about the ancient philosophies of the Avatars cult? Every pony was a reflection of the god of their special talent. Well, I am god. You are my reflection." She spread her wings. "And my purpose as god is to do as all other gods seem to do: Squabble, rage, and kill.

"Ahh... I see. Yes I was wrong about you. You were set on abandoning mortality from the beginning." Twilight murmured. "My lady, it should have been you who took the Dream of the Tower, and I who would have to make their own."

"You'll find out why even that is wrong." Ancepanox cast her eyes up, to Celestia’s desperate flight. The shades were starting to overwhelm the princess. If Ancepanox did nothing Celestia would likely be destroyed. “Keep safe Twilight. I'll see you..." She sighed. "I'll see you when I see you."

"You too," Twilight nodded. "Lady Moon."

“Wraaah!” The experiment pony in the seat beside Entanglement Theory cried out, pointing frantically out the window.

“I see it.” Entanglement Theory grimaced. A small scout airship was tailing them, closing the distance fast. “Go cut 5 kilos of ballast.”

She reached over and snapped the lever controlling the pitch control surfaces into an even steeper climbing configuration.

Right outside, Sunset was tracking the scout airship, readying a spell to bring it down, when the hull beneath her hooves lurched upwards. "Whoa whoa whoa! Coo it Twi!" The cargo airship pitched up, tilting the whole deck substantially. Sunset tried to grab onto something but lost her footing and fell forwards. Her head smacked against the deck and the spell she was preparing misfired, streaking off the side of the ship and burning trail of sunlight behind.

“Magical attack incoming!” The Slashing Dancer’s spotter screeched.

“Then take evasive action, eh?” The captain ordered.

“I’m not even sure they were aiming at us.” The tactical officer yawned.

Everypony braced as the airship banked sharply.

Entanglement Theory glanced over her shoulder to see the sunlight lance dissipate into the clouds. “Damn it Sunset! If you were going to show your hand the least you could do is not miss!” She turned back to the wheel, thinking frantically. “Okay, change of plans. I’m taking us to, well, as high as we can go!" She motioned to the experiment ponies. "Cast off ALL ballast. As soon as we start leveling out I want all the equipment moved to the deck! Hopefully Sunset will have cleared our tail by then.”

She needed generous amount of space and no disturbances if she had any hope of pulling off the last step and completing the Sequence. Failure would be very unpleasant.

“Urg.” Sunset groaned. Everything felt hazy around her, but she could feel a great turmoil from somewhere far distant. When she spoke, it felt more like somepony else, and that she was simply watching. “Oh damn. I hit my head so hard I'm having an out of body experience!"

“It’s difficult to tell from this far away.” A nearby stallion said. “It looks like, well, a rainbow.”
No, something else was going on. Sunset was no longer on the airship. She was in a vision, or a memory, as an observer. Sunset grew gravely concerned. Whenever she's had similar experiences before, she'd be out of it for days, too disoriented to even walk.

Resigned, she took in her surroundings. She was in the highest tower of the Solar Monastery on the Mountain, high above Canterlot. Beside her was Manered, the young brother in charge of tracking the sun’s day to day movements.
Sunset's dread grew. She knew what memory this was, for she'd revisited many times in fevered nightmares just like this one. It was a day a decade gone, that had set her life down the path of ruin.

“Isn’t that the direction of Cloudsdale?” Manered asked, pointed to something in the extreme distance, just above the horizon.

It looked to Sunset like a little pinprick of light, but it must have been a truly massive explosion to be visible from Canterlot so many hundreds of kilometers away. Sunset felt a storm of static in the back of her head: At the time she had been confused, but she knew it to be the tormented wails of the victims of the attack.

“Stargazing is canceled for today Brother Manered. I have to alert the princess.” Sunset could feel herself say. She summoned her magic and teleported down to Canterlot.

She reappeared in a patch of grass, scaring several froliking fillies. She was in the central courtyard of Celestia’s Unicorn School, where she’d have the best chance of finding Celestia in the mid-morning hours.

She heard the clack of metal horseshoes on stone, and a second later spotted her empress galloping out from one of the adjacent halls and ran to meet her.

“I felt it too.” Celestia panted breathlessly, her normal airs and formality abandoned. A gaggle of court attendants were tripping after her in confusion.

“I saw it.” Sunset said gravely. “Cloudsdale’s been attacked. Huge explosion.”

Celestia did not immediately respond, and Sunset could see that the sun princess was focussing on something only she could perceive. “It wasn’t an attack. Not a normal one at least.”

“What then?” Sunset asked.

“Something impossible. A Rainboom, no, a Sonic Rainboom.” Celestia uttered nervously. “Those arts have been lost since before I was born.”

“Nationalist or labor terrorism? Does Canterlot have something to fear?” Sunset babbled. “Whoever cast that Rainboom surely blew themselves up doing it!”

Celestia shook her head. “We can't focus on that right now. The aura is getting stronger. Right now, we should be-"

The sky was filled with a thousand colors, radiating in amazing rainbow rings from the northwest. All of Canterlot shook, at first from the Rainboom’s energy, and then from the panic of the ponies.
An utterly indescribable energy filled the air. The static Sunset had felt in her head was not all around them: Strange shimmers of light fell across Canterlot like snow. Sunset, awestruck, watched the rainbow color in the sky slowly fade.
"So this is the power of a Rainboom." She gurgled. "I'll never make fun of a pegasus again."

Then more explosions. Sunset was blasted off her hooves by an incredible burst of force and magic from somewhere right nearby, maybe even inside the Unicorn School. When Sunset regained lucidity, her ears were ringing and everything from the moment of the explosion was still burning in after image in her eyes.
"Princess Celestia!" She coughed. "Princess!" Every time she opened her eyes it burned.

For the second time that day, Sunset's mind was flooded with unwelcome magic, but this time it was very personal and very strong. The burst had carried the brunt of a pony’s emotions. fearful, confused, and alarmed. The Rainboom, which was even now dispelling into the sky’s natural blue, had set somepony off: It was known to happen rarely, that undertrained unicorns would just explode in times of extreme stress, but never so violently as this.

“Princess Celestia!” She couldn’t even hear herself yelling. She could feel floating embers swirling around her. “Princess!”

She couldn’t tell how long she wandered blind, but when Sunset's vision returned she found herself where she needed to be.

The magical explosion had left a crater in the middle of the unicorn school. The entire examination tower, a stately structure where candidate students were tested, was just gone. Gone. There was no trace of it.
Sunset stumbled over the ridge of the crater and slid down to the bottom. There was Princess Celestia, standing by a blue stallion and a mare Sunset recognized as the lector Twilight Velvet. Between the adults, a small prurple filly, who at that moment was confused, dazed, and wondrously enthralled by Celestia's presence.

"What is even happening today." Sunset sat down, exhausted and aching. She stared at the purple filly
Celestia was talking to the filly, slowly and deliberately. The filly had been the one to cause the second explosion.

Sunset laid back, facing the sky. Her mind was numb from the duel assaults she'd suffered, and she guessed every unicorn in Canterlot was feeling the same.

Celestia was before her now. She looked happier than Sunset could ever recall her looking, a lively joy that defied the grave accidents. “Sunset? Are you okay?"

Sunset sat up. "I'm sorry princess..." She looked past Celestia, where the purple filly was being congratulated by her overjoyed parents. "Where is the teacher that administered that filly's test?"

"Don't worry about that now-"

"Princess, the Rainboom..." Sunset staggered to her hooves. She rubbed her forehead, trying to gather the mind to carry out her duties as Élève Premier. "We have to get back to the castle, organize a mission to Cloudsdale."

Celestia, still cheery, flicked her tail in a sign of disapproval of the interruption. "Sunset, there's going to be plenty of time to greave and rebuild. Come on." She guestured Sunset forward. "I want you to meet my new imperial protegee!"

"Imperial... protege?" Sunset rubbed her eyes. "Princess, there are whole political processes to go through to select the protege. Besides I really thing we should be focussing on-"

Celestia laughed. "Sunset, eyes up here. That's right, listen. I have a new student, Sunset, and that's very important to me. So come along, please, and introduce yourself." Celestia trotted back towards the happu filly and parants. "Come meet little Twilight Sparkle."

The dream shattered apart. Sunset was back on the cargo airship, laying uncomfortably where she’d fallen, with a dent in the deck where her head and helmet had hit it.
"Ah geeze." Sunset sat up. She felt like she was going to vomit. She hated the memories.

A shadow fell across the deck, blocking the moonlight. It was a large shadow, of a creature with a horn, wings, and a huge gravity-defying mane. Sunset stood up and turned to face the visitor.

Astral Nacre towered above her. The alicorn’s nearly skeletal face displayed a mad euphoria and her beady eyes roamed Sunset’s body in gleeful appreciation of her power. Astral Nacre's mane and tail of beastly snake-like flesh-hair coiled and uncoiled in agitation and anticipation, and her bone wings were flared in grand style.

“Amazing. I feel as though I've met you before, in a previous life. Why do I detect the spark of the sun inside you?” Astral Nacre crowed, reaching out at her. “If you shall not tell me, I will have a merry time pulling you apart to find out."

Visions... Unwelcome visions... Celestia saw light and color, but no form.
She had been fighting Agana's minions. Had they overwhelmed and killed her? Was this death?

No, but it was hell.
Celestia heard her name being called.

“Sister! Sister, we must hurry!”

Celestia opened her eyes. She was kneeling before a pewter chalice, in a great marble hall lined with imposing pillars. Her left foreleg was outstretched, and a steady trickle of of blood fell from a lengthwise cut on her hoof into the chalice.

“Not yet Luna.” She felt herself saying. She sounded so stern and confident, more than she’d ever been before that she could remember. “The old gods are patient, and so too shall we be.”

It was memory, that she was reliving! Celestia wished she had control so she could bare her face to the sky and curse the sun, for tormenting her again with the sins of past selves, past eras, past identities... Celestia tried to break the grasp the vision had on her, so she could return to the fight with Agana. However she could not escape it.
But for a fleeting moment, Celestia sensed another entity in the tangle of memories, which she would have sworn was Sunset Shimmer! The sun was relishing to inflict vindictive suffering on anypony it could, and no ponies did it have more bond with than Celestia and Sunset Shimmer.
Alas for the moment Celestia would have to ride out the memory and pray she could return to Twilight Sparkle's dream

Drip drip drip. The pewter chalice filled with blood from Celestia's cut leg, until it was one drop from overflowing. Celestia healed her self-inflicted wound with a spell, and withdrew her hoof.
She looked over her shoulder, and saw that her sister was carefully checking over the hippogryph guards, checking for signs of life. They had been hacked apart, their wounds cauterized by extreme heat. The alicorn sisters had been diligent in clearing the grand sandstone temple they were in, making absolutely sure that they would not be interrupted.

Celestia's eyes lingered on her sister. The moon alicorn was a deep blue with a sparkling ethereal starscape mane, so pure looking in her graceful movements, so humble and chaste from every angle. Her eyes met Celestia’s, and their blue orbs conveyed a hidden turmoil that could never have been conveyed by words.

But the Celestia of the past did not see that pain. “Come, Luna. The Fires of the Gryph will recognize their peers.”

Luna’s slight hesitation was the only sign of reluctance, for she followed as Celestia bade without objection. She kneeled beside her sister and waited for further instruction.

Celestia tapped her hoof against the the pewter chalice. “Wintertide, Pale Flame, Lord of Light, hear my name. I am Celestia, Daughter of the Sun, Champion of the Light, Cleanser of Darkness! This blood is proof of my divine descent.” Celestia intoned. “Wintertide, I come to beseech you, in need of your guidance and your blessing.”

For a while there was no sound.

“Hmm…” Came a intangible voice in Celestia's mind. It rumbled like the eruption of a volcano, but was as quiet as a whisper through a wall. “Celestia… I knoweth not of thee…”

Celestia’s blood offering jumped from the chalice and reshaped itself. Wintertide, the Lord of Light, had lost a certain subtlety about his presence, for he personified himself as a white hippogryph mare as tall as Luna. The wet sheen of its bloody composition could not be hidden, and so every ripple and deformation in his shape was exaggeration in the flickering candlelight.

“Thou hast contrived titles aplenty to thy name, yet I wonder if thou art truly worthy of any.” Wintertide strutted up the colonnade, constantly keeping one eye on Celestia. “Wherefore hast thou come, spawn of sun?”

Celestia could feel herself blush in anger at the insults, but she proceeded as she’d planned. “My sister and I hope to create a nation for the ponies of the continent of Equestria. We wish to know your insights on the matter.”

"I mean not this temple. I speak of the Bright World, on which thou trot."

"To defeat a great evil that was posed to overtake all of mortalkind." Celestia explained. "Anima Astral Nacre, your former wife, had set machinations in place to reclaim her divinity and consume this planet."

“Therefor thee descend to rule, instead of mine lady Anima Astral Nacre. Pray tell would thou beest a just and fair queen?” WIntertide seemed only tangentially interested in Celestia, focussed mostly on inspecting his surroundings and the imposing sarcophagi that lined the hall.

“I would be. So would my sister.” Celestia nodded.

“Would thee respect thy subjects and treat all folk equally?”

“I would treat them respectfully, according to their virtues.”

“How dost thou define virtue, Lady Celesia?”

“What?” Celestia blinked.

“Virtue, I ask. What is the limit of moral decorum to thee?” Wintertide asked. “What, for example, hath thy sister done to earn thine ire?”

Celestia could feel her sister’s shock and confusion. “What do you mean by that?! How dare you!”

“How darest I? Lady Celestia, I durst combat the forces of darkness at which hour it meanteth something.” Wintertide snickered. “Mine lady Astral wast of a dark nature, but I didst not hold it against mine lief mistress. The lady betrayed me, but I still care for Anima Astral Nacre most dearly. We were kindred. Not so with thou, even betwitx thou and thine sister. Thou art too ruthless, a tyrant lording above all. ”

Celestia was rankled. “Why you- you-”

“Yes?” Wintertide cocked his head. His deepset eyes held a wisdom that recognised blustering and posturing. He’d seen many like Celestia before, beings unworthy of his time.

“Haruph. You’ve lied enough! Begone, old god.” Celestia said coldly. With a swish of her horn, she boiled the blood emissary into red vapor, ending Wintertide’s message.
She stepped back from the altar. Wintertide was still watching, surely, for his aura permeated to the very roots of the temple. Celestia felt deeply unsatisfied, her confidence shaken. She'd come with full expectation of being hailed and congratulated by Wintertide. Wasn't she the inheritor of his legacy, the upholder of Light in the world?

“Shall we destroy his tomb?” Luna offered quietly. Celestia could feel how she was attempting to sooth out Celestia's displeasure.

Celestia shook her head. “No. No, we may have need of him later. He will remain here, imprisoned in glory by the hippogryphs." She turned and eyed the wall: sets of vaulted recesses ran along every side, and within the recesses were large stone sarcophagi. One in particular stood out to Celestia.
It was richly decorated, imitating a roaring pyre with twisting spikes of sparkling red jewels. Engraved into the side was a scene of court life, of kneeling griffins and ponies paying homage to a regal hippogryph lord. The name written along it’s edge, in the Maredian script, read ‘MYRIADESS’.

Luna read the name too. "This is the oracle we heard of."

Celestia snorted. "Let us ask this ancient thing for a prophesy. If we are pleased, perhaps we will be satisfied. If not..."

The memory wavered, faded, then finally dissolved away. Celestia was morose as the visage of her long lost sister dwindled from her sight.
Celestia was back in Twilight Sparkle's dream. She was laying on one fragments of the tower, swirling around in the void. The only reason the screaming shadow shades weren't gnawing on her was a dome of shielding magic, sustained by Ancepanox.

“Princess, are you alright?” The black alicorn asked.

Celestia squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to be able to catch a last glimpse of her sister. But the image of that soft blue mare had already faded, in her mind’s eye as in real life.

“Celestia? Come on, give me a sign.” Ancepanox laid a hoof on her shoulder. “You're not going to pass out are you? Because I don't know how that would work in here.”

“No. I'm awake. But I'm not alright." Celestia cocked her head up, trying to spy her mother sun through the cloud of shadow shades. She wondered bitterly if the sun was trying to get her killed by distracting her with the memory. She knew she should have been wiser than to insult the pony keeping her alive, but she was feeling a lot like the Celestia in the memory, impetuous and angry. "You came back. I thought you would be wise enough to stay away, but you must really want to rub it in.”

Ancepanox arched a brow. “You’re not making any sense. I'm helping you.”

"Isn't it suspicious that you disappear from the dream right at Agana renews her attack? I have been holding out for hours against these Dark monsters! Now you show up, right as I was vulnerable? What are you playing at?” Celestia asked accusingly. “Did you make a separate peace with that detestable Agana?!"

“Hey, I thought we had an understanding. We were playing nice.” Ancepanox squinted. “I have things to worry about in the waking world too. It's dangerous up there, and I have ponies to protect; Not just you, but friends and allies, old and new." She sighed. "Yes, I was pissed off and hostile last time, because I was afraid. I'm not anymore."
Ancepanox pointed to the shades surrounding them, kept away only by the purple bubble of her magic. “Look at them. Can you hear what they’re thinking? Those were ponies once. I can feel the echoes of their terror. Agana ate their souls. I may not agree with you about everything, but she has to be stopped, and to that end I'm your ally."

"It's all very high-minded, isn't it. You swoop in and save me." Celestia said harshly. "Let the monsters take my life! You would be happier that way, wouldn't you, since you went on so long about how I didn't belong here?!" She didn't really mean it. She thought about all the times in her life she’d been faced with death. The prospect of nonexistence, of death, still terrified her beyond reason.
But Celestia wanted to argue, if not to suss out Ancepanox's motives, then to buy time to recuperate. "Tell me why I should go on living. What is my purpose, in your eyes?"

Ancepanox pulled Celestia up, trying to get her to stand. “I think you believe some stupid things but I never stopped wanting you to live. You meant everything to me, and even if you wronged me, consigning you to suffer will not satisfy me."

Celestia detected a deadly double meaning behind those words. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she saw a telltale tremble in Ancepanox's earnest smile. "You would let me squat here forever?"

"I accept that it's not up to me." Ancepanox's voice grew rougher. "You have no idea how depressed I was when I thought you had died, even when I knew you'd betrayed me. Everything you ever touched has been ruined, but I remember you as a wise, compassionate leader. You were... You were my friend." She shook her head. "None of that matters now. My buisness with you is to the end of defeating Agana."

Celestia pushed herself to her hooves with the black alicorn's help.
"You compliment and insult me in the same breath." It felt so wrong, negotiating with Ancepanox. Every passing moment, Celestia was more and more repulsed by her, and it was obvious why: She could not escape the feeling that she was talking to the lost remnants of her sister, Nightmare Moon. She had to hold back her impulse to shout, cry, and embrace the dark alicorn. "You say it isn't up to you, but you don't respect my wants."

Ancepanox slapped her former mentor with the back of her hoof. Celestia could hardly feel the sting of the strike across her cheek; It reminded her of another time she’d been struck like that. “I'm not talking about it being your choice, you self-important git! I mean Twilight. She wants you to live! You owe her everything and I'm going to enforce that debt, Celestia. You'll stay alive as long as she wishes."

Celestia was going to argue more but saw that Ancepanox was deadly serious. She cradled her cheek, feeling it burn.
The idea of being held accountable... It terrified her. She'd lived her whole life comfortable in her superiority over everything around her. Acting justly and morally was just a curtesy. She wanted to believe that everypony would agree with her choices, but what if they didn't?
The fear and insecurities were piling on. "Does she have plans for me?" Celestia whispered. "Am I to be subject to her whims?"

"You really don't get it, do you. You only think in terms of hierarchal relationships. You think Twilight and I want to get one over on you. I'm the angry one, not her. She just wants peace." Seeing that Celestia still did not understand, Ancepanox paused to think.
"Princess, let's talk about... Purpose." She said softly. "You were my purpose for years and years. I am just uncovering my own. But what about Twilight Sparkle?"

"What about her?" Celestia asked without looking up.

"Finding purpose, and all the highs and lows that entails, is uniquely mortal. Have you designed a higher calling for Twilight? Have you stolen her the pleasure of discovery?"

“I had plans for you, yes.” Celestia said emptily.

Ancepanox narrowed her gaze. Celestia was answering a question she had not asked. She had the feeling she was encroaching on the biggest secret so far. “You had plans for me when I was your student?”

“I don't wish to talk about it. My ambitions failed, discredited. I should look to you for purpose now, or Twilight should you deem it." Celestia said with a hint of irony.

Ancepanox scowled. "Tell me what you had in store for me."

"Why do I feel like I'm being set up for retribution? Oh well. Here I go." Celestia sighed. "From the first moment I met you, to after you left me, I had a dream for you.”

Ancepanox stared incredulously.

"Twilight, it was not always easy. I knew my dream would burden you, but not more than you could handle. I chose you because your strength was fearsome from a young age you could handle the responsibilities. Then when we fell out, I grew even more sure that you were the right choice."
Celestia licked her lips. "But there was a corollary to my hopes and dreams. I feared the necessary sacrifice I would have to make to see it all through. Death, Twilight. You remind me of death. Every time I saw you, coming in to see me so willing to learn, I saw only the specter of long deferred, yet inevitable, mortality.”

“So you let yourself be scared of a filly. Is this why you were talking about killing yourself?” Ancepanox spat.

“You misunderstand... I was scared of the future. My dream, inherited from the greatest of my predecessors, was closely intertwined with death and a pony like you." Celestia said ominously. "More than that I can not say. It would just distract us."

Ancepanox tapped her hoof. Neither of them spoke, so the screams and moans of the shadow shades was constant and uninterrupted.

Celestia sighed. "You don't believe me."

Ancepanox curled her lip, trying to keep down her anger. "Celestia, if you don't tell me the truth... I'm going to grind you into dust far before I get around to Agana."

"Oh you will?" Celestia's mood swung immediately back to fearful and antagonistic. "My lady, you make many threats."

Watching the two alicorns across the void, sitting on her own chunk of the fractured Tower, Twilight Sparkle waited. It was sadly predictable that Ancepanox would get sucked back into arguing after saying she wouldn't: She had an instinctual expectance of respect that she wasn't getting from Celestia.

Twilight cocked her head up to search for the Sun high above her in the infinite void of the dream. Distance and size were convoluted in the dream, so a million kilometer wide star could nestle comfortable against the sky, and Twilight could have reached up and touched it if she focused hard enough.
Twilight got the impression the Sun was toying with the dark miasma chasing after it. In the scheme of things, the Sun was a billion billion times more powerful than anything Agana could conjure, even within the Dreamscape where the former was weak and the latter strong. The only reason the conflict was happening was because the Sun allowed it, right?
But then again that had always been true of every mortal conflict under the sun.

"You'd allow Celestia to die?" Twilight asked the Sun, but she received the feeling back that the Sun was apathetic. "Shouldn't you be helping Ancepanox? She's the only one that can release you from this dream." Twilight asked, but again the Sun indicated only apathy.
"Do you have any plan at all? I can feel you trying to reach outside the dream..." Twilight reflected somberly. "Is it true, that you have connections to other ponies besides Celestia?"

The implications were staggering. Twilight could not imagine any normal pony being able to survive the Sun's attention. But if it was a pony, and that pony was acting on behalf of the Sun...

Twilight looked back to Celestia, sustaining another dressing down from Ancepanox. How long were they going to bicker for? Twilight needed something else to focus on or she'd go mad from frustration. This intrigue with the Sun promised to be that necessary distraction.

"Can you show me? May I please know who out there is in communion with you?" Twilight asked the Sun. "I'm going to forget anyway. Celestia and Ancepanox would both purge my memories of this Eternal Night should they win, and if Agana wins I will be dead. Please just show me how a pony could possibly reach you."

There was a slight waver in the air as the Sun obliged her. Twilight popped out the dream.

Sunset Shimmer bucked open the doors of the princess’s private chambers. “Celestia! What is the meaning of this!”

“Oh hello Sunset.” Celestia, seated in her comfy chair, looked up from her reading. “Perhaps if you tell me what you refer to, I could explain better.”

“I’m obviously talking about you putting your new protege on all your advisory councils!” Sunset spat. “I didn’t get my seat until I was Élève Premier!”

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle is still a filly, and I don’t need or expect her to attend meetings until she’s older.” Celestia turned back to her book.

“And yet, she’s on the council minutes. What kind of message does that send?” Sunset tapped her hoof angrily. “Because to some ponies, it looks like you’re mocking the institutions of the imperial government. How will I look when all a detractor has to do is point out I sit on a council that has a filly on its rolls?”

“Sunset, I am setting out to teach Twilight everything she needs to know for her future. Shortsighted ponies can believe what they may. This is important to me.” Celestia said flippantly.

“And what, are you going to start putting some other incompetent upstarts on the council? Some commoners perhaps?” Sunset asked acidly.

“Do you think Twilight is incompetent?” Celestia’s tone turned cold.

“If an Imperial Council pony who hasn’t the tiniest idea of Equestrian policy and politics counts as incompetent, I suppose I am.” Sunset stuck out her chin defiantly.

“Sunset, I don’t care for you tone and I have to ask for you to leave..” Celestia glared, locked in a staring contest with her First Student. “This discussion is over.”

“This one maybe, but you won’t stop here.” Sunset stood her ground.

Very slowly, Celestia got to her hooves. She towered over Sunset, and did not even bother to step forward to project her intimidating presence. “Lady Shimmer, you audience is ended. You should have noted when I said this is important to me. I'll brook no second-guessing in this instance"

“This is how it is then. Fine! But I know, princess.” Sunset backed out the door, slowly closing it behind her. “Yes, I know what you’re planning!”

"That's highly unlikely." Celestia called after her. "See you tomorrow at court, Sunset."

Twilight was mute as she watched the memory warp and dissolve.
Sunset Shimmer... There was a pony she hadn't thought about in a long time. She had always remembered Sunset Shimmer as a polite mare, up to the point she'd been exiled as a traitor: One day she was there, the next gone. If the memory took place after Twilight had been taken under Celestia's wing, and before Sunset's exile, the memory she'd seen was about ten years old.

"Is Sunset Shimmer the pony in communion with the Sun?" Twilight wondered. Seeing Celestia and Sunset argue stirred recollections of the times she'd fought with Celestia, culminating in her leaving for the university. But Sunset had apperently been bitter about being replace by Twilight, and Twilight had been bitter about curtailed freedoms.
But if Sunset Shimmer was the pony who entered communion with the Sun, did it mean Sunset was back?

Before Twilight could ponder the implications, the next memory began to solidify around her.

Sunset Shimmer was in the Canterlot Castle library, pulling down books and setting them on her cart. She pulled an old looking tome off, inspected it's spine and set it with the rest.
Sunset pulled the cart to a reading table and sat down.

"Let's get a good look at you."
The old tome she'd found had a plain cover and no labeling, save a tag attacked on the spine: Elements of Harmony: Volume II of VI, Loyalty and Devotion
"Didn't I see another one of these in Celestia's rooms?" Sunset pondered. She opened up to a random page. "... I think... I think this is what I'm looking for."

It was not text, but art that filled out the pages of the strange old book. Intersecting circles, geometric shapes, lines, and symbols were arranged in nonsensical but strangely alluring ways.

Sunset lowered the book. She stood up and looked around, making sure she was the only pony in the library. She sat down and crouched over the tome, flipping back to the first page. It was more shapes and lines, and though Sunset stared long and hard, she could discern no pattern.

"This is older than the castle. It might even be older than Princess Celestia. This is ancient lore. Jackpot." Sunset hummed. "If only I could translate."

The dream wavered, and time passed. Sunset scurried between her reading table and the book stacks of the library. Shadows grew long, night fell, Sunset became sluggish with tiredness and frustration. The patterns and shapes remained elusive.

At last Sunset leaned back in her chair, pinching her nose, planning her next move.
"No good. There's a mental gap here, not a knowledge gap... I need some piece of lore I don't have yet." She sucked in a breath. "I need the first volume. Which means..." She glanced to a nearby clock. It was nearly midnight.

The memory shifted as it followed Sunset Shimmer through the halls of Canterlot Castle. She climbed back up to the top of the keep, to the door of Celestia's chambers. Two IHG knights stood guard flanked the doors.

"Evening gentleponies." Sunset bowed. "Is the empress in?"

"Lady Sunset, the princess is sleeping, but she gave orders that you be admitted at any time." The senior knight said. "She has been expecting your apology since last week's... disagreement."

Sunset smiled awkwardly. "Thanks boys. It's been stressful. I'm glad she still trusts me."

The knights let her open the door and slip inside.
Celestia's private quarters were tiny for a sovereign of her stature, but still large enough that Sunset didn't have to be too quiet if she didn't want to be heard. Sunset thought she remembered seeing the other volume of Elements of Harmony in the sitting room, but ten minutes of quiet prowling turned up nothing of the sort.
Sunset considered her options: Leave and wait until the morning when Celestia would hopefully leave her bedchamber, or go in right away and tip-toe around the sleeping princess.

Sunset sat in one of the parlor chairs, rooted by indecision. She wasn't committed to the idea of subverting Celestia's wishes; She just wanted to understand better, and her glances into the second volume of Elements of Harmony had promised spectacular knowledge yet out of reach. But if Sunset stepped wrong, and drew Celestia's ire without the understanding to defend her decisions, the consequences could be disastrous.

Sunset was about to commit to leaving, when a strange sound reached her ears. Something was scraping along the ground in the other room. Sunset jumped up in a panic, afraid Celestia was about to turn the corner and find her lurking. She was about to cast a silent teleport when the scraping stopped.
Sunset held her breath, in the throes of paralyzing panic, when something did indeed round the corner: A plain-covered tome the same dimensions as the one in the library. The book slid across the ground in little bursts, moved by a mystical power that danced furtively around its closed pages. The book slid right to Sunset, the flipped over, so she culd see it had a label like the other, reading Elements of Harmony: Volume I of VI, MAGIC AND POWER.

"Who are you?" Sunset dared to whisper, trembling. She had the distinct impression she'd just been chosen by something far more intimidating than Princess Celestia.

The tome began to levitate under its own power. It hovered just under Sunset's nose, flipping open to the first page. The pattern etched into the paper with ink echoed in Sunset's mind as far more than shapes or geometry.

She heard a voice, right between her ears. "Your god requires something of you, Sunset Shimmer."

The memory abruptly melted before Twilight saw any more. The haze between scenes was intolerable, for Twilight was curious and repulsed at the same time. She'd forget all of it unless she confided in Ancepanox or Celestia.
But something kept her there: No coercion, for the Sun had no great power over her. Twilight wanted to see more, for she grimly suspected that the conclusion to the memories she was being shown would reveal the reason for the secrecy.

So Twilight willingly reentered the memory in time to see the next begin.

It was the Canterlot Castle throne room, a normal day at the court. Celestia was sitting back in her throne, her retainers handling the attendees.
There was a foreboding look on the princess's face. Her court kept glancing to her, wondering to themselves if she had returned to the uncooperative melancholy of previous years.

Sunset Shimmer stepped into the throne room.
Immediately the lazy mood changed into one of tension. Sunset had a severe look about her; The Élève Premier never wore the kind of utilitarian vestments she was wearing at that moment, a saddlebag filled with notes, or the shiny timepiece hanging from a chain on her chest. She looked like a guard officer. Added to that was her expression, pure determination.

"Lady Shimmer, we've been looking for you since council this morning." Vizier Lightdowser remarked, twirling his mustache.

Sunset looked from him to Celestia, but said nothing.

"Lady Shimmer?" Vizier Lightdowser asked, concerned. "Is something wrong?"

The other activities in the court ground to a halt, as everypony stopped to look at Sunset, standing silently in the middle of the room.

Princess Celestia leaned forward in her throne, solemn. "Sunset... This is it, isn't it."

Sunset took off her saddlebags and set them aside. "Yes, Princess. Last week I was wrong. I really didn't know what your plans were."

Celestia stood up from her throne and stepped down the steps to the ground level. "And you do now?" A cloud of inevitability hung around her words, as though she was expecting that moment. "Will you act?"

"Oh yesss princess." Sunset said with a mirthless laugh. "It's what I've been asked to do by those above."

To the shock of the onlookers, Celestia charged at Sunset, intent on trampling the smaller pony. Sunset surrounded herself in a shield of magic just in time, but the force of Celestia's impact sent her sliding backwards, stopping right next to her saddlebag. Sunset quickly pulled the two plain old tomes from the bag with her magic.

"It has to be this way. Submit to DESTINY, princess." Sunset said firmly. "I'm on the right side of history."

Celestia stood stoically. She knew she couldn't stop what Sunset was about to do.

Sunset recited something unintelligible under her breath, her eyes darting frantically between the two books. She squeezed her eyes shut and said the last words in a pained hiss.

And so the throne room turned grey, and all movement stopped.
All life and color had been stolen away by mystic means. Ponies were frozen in their shock, their panic, their confusion. A dropped coin hovered just above the ground.

"It is as I feared." Celestia looked to her right and left. "You've come to usurp me. Well, students before have tried."

"No princess. No." Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes and set the tomes back in her saddlebag. She was gasping from the strain of what she'd just done. "I'm going to put you back on that throne. I'll make sure you stay there."

"Phantom Time." Twilight whispered under her breath. She recognized the grey pallor and the unmoving time, from the battle in the Everfree Castle throne room. This was the Sun's power, which had so climactically destroyed both Nightmare Moon and Forlorn Spark. Twilight felt pangs of pain, in remembered agony from the Sun's attack being used on her.
And Twilight instantly knew why she could not tell Ancepanox of the memories.

"Yes, princess, your patron told me what you're planning with Twilight Sparkle." Sunset Shimmer said. "I won't let you die, Celestia."

"Watch your tone, Sunset." Celestia said.

"Tone? TONE?! This is more important than that!" Sunset shouted. "We won't let you kill yourself!"
Sunset yelped in pain, and a ball of yellow energy coalesced above her horn.

Celestia sighed. "You think I didn't plan for this kind of thing, Sunset? She may be giving you power, but it will not avail you."

Heedless of this warning, Sunset let the power gather above her. Despite the Phantom Time an unnerving light began to shine through the windows, and flashes like lightning began to build outside.
With a wail, Sunset let loose her attack. The sphere of burning yellow magic streaked towards Celestia, crashing into her silently. The alicorn clenched her eyes in discomfort, but when the yellow magic dissipated not a hair was misplaced.

Sunset gurgled. "How?!"

"You have a long way to go if you are going to hurt me with solar magic." Celestia said, shaking little sparkle residues from her fur. "Any help my mother sun promised you is meaningless. You're on your own in this, Sunset."

The battle was brief. Despite her passion, Sunset Shimmer was batted around like a doll by Celestia's magic, barely forming her spells before she was struck again. Flecks of spittle and torn scraps of Sunset's shirt hung in the air, frozen in time like everything else.

"Submit, my dear." Celestia said distantly.

Sunset staggered to her saddlebag. She pulled one of the old tomes out. Before she could open it Celestia jumped at her and kicked the book away. Elements of Harmony: Volume I of VI sailed through the stained glass window before its inertia was swallowed by the Phantom Time.

"You've been had. The Sun lied to you, both about my intentions and hers." Celestia had a pained look. "Sunset, please, I don't want to lose you. Stop this madness." She stepped close, almost touching Sunset.

"Not until YOU stop YOUR madness!" Sunset barked. "Because I don't want to lose you!"

"Sunset-"

Celestia's appeal was interrupted by a quick slap, then a push. The alicorn let herself stagger backwards. Sunset grabbed her saddlebag and scampered farther. "You know you can't trust me. From now on I'll be watched every moment, kept far away from real power." Sunset said, trembling. "What will you do if I try to spread the truth? Will you have me killed?"

Celestia cradled her cheek. She looked calm, but her blinks betrayed how close to tears she was. "You're so close to understanding, but not quite there. We can talk this out."

"Not likely. We're at odds over this at a fundamental level." Sunset chewed her lip. "I can't let this go. I'm sorry princess, but my conscience and duty demand I continue this fight." She paused, hesitant and afraid. "If not in this world, than in another."

For the first time that day, Celestia showed signs of alarm. "Sunset don't try it." She said sharply. "If you try to take the Sun's power with you into the Dream-"

"I have her consent. She understands victory wouldn't come right away..." Sunset hissed. "And so do I."
Sunset yelped again, and closed her eyes to concentrate on an unknown spell. Color began to return to the world; Everything suspended fell to the floor. Elements of Harmony: Volume I of VI continued its arc through the air, landing somewhere far below in the streets.

"Sunset you won't-" Celestia galloped to stop Sunset, but instead of stopping the unnerving light pouring through the window, the end of the Phantom Time only made it brighter. It became swelteringly hot in the throne room in an instant. "Confound it! You'll kill them all!"
Celestia's horn flared to light and the heat in the room abated. The court, now released from Phantom Time, scrambled about in confusion. After a few moments, the light went back to normal.

But Sunset was gone. Only her saddlebag with some notes and one of the old tomes remained.

Twilight had nothing to say, as the memory dissolved away and she was deposited back into her own dream, but she had much to think on. The Sun's antipathy against Celestia did not make any more sense than it did before, but it was evidently a longstanding condition. Twilight had to consider the possibility that everything that was happening was part of somepony's plan, and not a happenstance of fate.
Most of all Twilight was glad she would forget it all and be unburdened from the grave knowledge she had glimpsed over Sunset's shoulder in those ancient books.

Sunset’s leg slipped into open air. She’d backed up too far and was now right at the edge of the airship. Astral Nacre, dominating the back of the deck, made another lazy swipe at her. Sunset had to retreat sideways to keep from getting hit: Astral's slow movements still had the power to strip the top layer off the wooden decking.

“Yes, you are something quite interesting.” Astral regarded her like a slavering beast, pinprick eyes unblinking and unmoving. “You were in the throne room, with Ancepanox just before I arrived.”

“I was.” Sunset confirmed.

“And that armor you wear…” Astral shuddered in remembrance. “I was born wearing it. It looked better drenched in blood.”

“But I’m guessing you didn’t chase me this far to ask for it back.”

“You’re a clever mare.” Astral backed off slightly, giving Sunset more space. “You have so much magic, I can see it steaming off your hide. Bright Magic, Celestia’s magic… No, Sun's magic. Tell me how this can be.”

“You could ask any pony but I and learn the truth.” Sunset replanted her leg on the hull. The wind was fierce at the high altitude.

“But not you?”

“I made a promise I tell wouldn't until its burden is lifted.” Sunset said stiffly.

“Burden? BURDEN? How can you describe such magnificent power as a burden? I'd kill to be so blazingly bright. I want that kind of power.” Astral quaked with anticipation. “Alas you mean in a more metaphorical sense. You wield power for a purpose... But I want it too badly. I must rip it out of you if I am to have it.”

“It's a fight then?” Sunset sighed. Her nausea and lightheadedness was not getting any better. For the first time in a while, Sunset was facing a battle she wasn't sure she would win. Added to that, Sunset outright did not want to fight an alicorn.
Sunset's best hope was to bluff and get Astral Nacre to leave. “Recently Equestria’s been filled johnny-come-lately usurpers and villains. So many negative examples of how to act in this civilized society… But me, I was the first. I’m a betrayer to end all betrayers. Not just a traitor. THE Traitor.”

"The Traitor? That tickles my memories." Astral Nacre purred. "Yess. Tell me more about misbehaving."

"Oh you bet." Sunset was making a gamble, summoning her magic while she was so nauseous, but decided it was necessary. She let a trickle of magic up her horn, and it burned in tempestuous rebellion against the night. Yellow and red light stained the standoff, as Astral took wary a step back, and Sunset a tired step forward. “Sometimes I come looking for trouble, often I make trouble. Right now I have other things waiting for me. Leave. Carry my apologies to Lady Velvet.”

“Why would I go just when things are getting interesting?” Astral arched a fleshy eyebrow. Her psychic presence was growing more wild, unraveling, losing her sanity to bloodlust. Everything in the alicorn's movements spoke of a growing need to see the Traitors insides become outsides. “I’m starved for engaging conversation. All those pegasi just wouldn’t STOP SCREAMING!”

Bluffing had not worked. Astral Nacre was not afraid. “I’m warning you. Provoking me isn’t smart."

"I'm not here to be smart. Nor for fun. Nor because my Lady asked me to." Astral flaged a wing towards the fires far far below on the valley floor, the wreckages of airships. "I'm here for the sake of Destiny. Yes, I can feel something pounding in your heart, or floating around your soul. I saw the sun only for a moment, but it said something profound and forgotten to me..." Her psychic voice wavered, growing severe. "No words are going to come between me and my desires. You feel the same. Therefore, we fight."

"Goddamn it, if you can see the aura of Destiny around me, you must know why I can't give it to you!” Sunset was starting to feel the cold nip of the wind through her fur; The airship had ascended to a height well above the level of the city Canterlot. They were now nearly even with the peaks of the unicorn fange far ahead of them, with only the tip of the Mountain yet higher. “Leave! I don't want the contest!"

“Don't be such a prude. I got enough of that from spoilsport Ancepanox! Fight! Fight!" Astral slavered. Her writhing flesh tensed up, readying for combat. "Ooh, I’ve yet to see a proper fire. Piles of bodies, burned to ash, are poor mirrors of holy blazes. I'm a Dark thing, but the Light draws me just as much, like a midnight moth: The moon is my guide but the torch intoxicates me. So come on now! Burn something! Make a good show! There’s just not enough fire in the world.”

Sunset's response was swallowed by a sudden swell of the pain and nausea in her head. She staggered sideways, catching herself on the railing to keep from falling over. The corona of magic on her horn evaporated away.
It felt like somebody was raking through her head with a comb. Painful flashes of memories danced at the corners of her vision. Somepony was in her head again, probably the Sun, to relish in her past pains.

Perhaps Astral Nacre could detect what was happening in Sunset's head. The alicorn lazily kicked at her again, this time catching against the Blackhorn armor and bouncing Sunset against the cabin. Sunset stumbled backwards, too nauseated to move. "Haaa ha ha! Let it out, let it out!" She gleefully cackled.

"What's going on out there Sunset?!" Entanglement Theory yelled through one of the cabin windows.

"I'm repelling boarders." Sunset groaned, crawling backwards from Astral. She was regretting summoning her magic if this was how she was repaid.

"Give me your fire. Gimme gimme gimme." Astral Nacre croaked. "Ancepanox will be so impressed."

Sunset's eyes fluttered closed. She couldn't tell up from down, left from right. She would be defeated by her own mind.

And then... She saw something. A pony in a dream. Amidst the falling ruins of a fractured tower, Twilight Sparkle. Sunset now recognized who had been mining her memories, with the Sun's help.
"Ahh... you were at Celestia's side at the end." Sunset murmured. "So... Celestia's dream came to fruition..."
Clenching her teeth, Sunset pushed herself to her hooves. She was not going to be beat to the finish line by a whelp like Twilight Sparkle. Sunset would see her plans through, even if it meant fighting an alicorn.

"Get up! Up up up!" Astral screeched jubilantly. "Give me fire!" The alicorn's tendril mane lashed out, coming down forcefully.

Sunset was forced to relocate with a split-second teleport to the nose of the airship. She heard wood and metal snap where she'd been standing moments before.
Sunset blinked away the post-teleportation daze and took a deep breath. "Listen here you damn Sun, I championed you when no one else would. You've toyed with me for years. It's time for you to live up to our bargain and subdue an alicorn with me!"

“Show fire! God demands it!” Astral clambered over the loose equipment covering the deck, relentlessly following her. “Fire Fire Fire! Bleed Bleed Bleed!” With a shrill screech, the beastly alicorn began to gather black energy at the tip of her horn.

With Astral Nacre going wild, Sunset was not confident the cargo airship would survive a fight.
"Twi! Finish the sequence, no matter what! I'll hold up my end, trust me!"

"Code names only, Dances-on-Graves!" Entanglement Theory shouted back.

Taking a deep breath, Sunset dove off the front of the deck into open air.

“Unicorn incoming!” The spotter yelled.

“A bloody what?” The tactical officer perked up.

The Slashing Dancer was knocked off course as two impacts, one small and one big, resonated through the deck.

Sunset had landed a little too hard. The nausea and buzz in her brain returned. She tried to sit up but a physical pain shot through her legs and chest.
"Get out of my head already!" Sunset shouted into the rushing wind. She took off the Blackhorn helm and rubbed her forehead.

Somewhere nearby, screams and laughs echoed through wood. Astral had followed her down to the skiff as planned, and was attacking the crew ponies.

“By the stars, I've got it in a bad way.”
Sunset bared her teeth. She was playing a dangerous game: Restraining the boiling solar power within her, something she'd successfully done for ten long years, did not come without a lot of focus, drive, and self-certainty. Thanks to the Sun's meddling she was lacking two of those. She was a dizzy mess.
But Sunset Shimmer was utterly determined. She had been the unquestioned master of the Sun's power, even if it was but a tiny fraction. She had survived in a hostile world for far longer than almost anypony before had, and returned to tell about it. Sunset Shimmer was not going to be defeated just because of a few gods tripping her up.
A sphere of yellow energy bloomed above her, like a luminous halo of deadly power. Sunset's broken bones and weakness faded away.
“Try to undermine me again, oh holy Sun, and I'll be pissed.” Sunset stood up. Though it went counter to her deepest beliefs, Sunset would have to rough up an alicorn if she was to see her plans though. "It's in your name I kick ass, praise be, amen."

She put the Blackhorn helmet back on and went searching for Astral Nacre.

Gods against mortals... Spin the wheels of fate enough times, and one time in a million the mortals might prevail. Sunset against Astral Nacre, Ancepanox against Celestia, Ripple Wreath against Agana... Had the wheel spun enough to reach that tick among millions that brought mortals their victory?

That was the question that haunted Agana as she waited, in tortuous suspense, while sounds of battle ehcoed through the Vacuous Arcanum. Ripple Wreath, or whatever monstrous thing he had become, was obliterating the last of the statue golems. Agana could not help but feel a grim satisfaction in the golems' destruction, for they were another symbol of her imprisonment, but they were also her last line of defense against harm.

With great reluctance, Agana weaned the amount of attention and energy she focussed into her psychic attack on Twilight Sparkle's dream. If she was going to defend herself against Wreath's barbarous ferocity, she would need her strength.
Infuriatingly, the plundering creeper vine that held her against the stone column was still not giving her any slack! The vines binding her hindleg were still oozing ichor from Ripple Wreath’s first attack, but the primitive intelligence of the creeper only knew how to hold her, ignorant of the fact it would be purposeless if she died because it restrained her.

Agana cursed the dogmatic instructions of her original jailor. If only she had a little slack, she could be confident in her self defense.

“Little pony, can you hear me? I commend your will to survive.” Agana whispered into the dark. “Even more, I applaud your will to dominate. However you could use some restraint next time, for it seems you’ve left too little of the golems to reign over.”

She head the click of claws on stone. The wolf was drawing near.
Agana felt a rare chill. It had been a long long time since she'd been threatened by anything. It filled her with an odd excitement. She decided to triage her power use even more, and completely eased off her psychic attacks against Ancepanox, and by extension, her coterie of corrupted ponies.

"I already made a generous offer to your master. She is not yet wise enough to accept." Agana said. "Dark beings like us can be powerful together."

The wolf stepped closer, lips pulled back into a feral snarl. It was covered in stone dust and its own dried blood. It made an abortive attempts at verbal speech. He finally responded psychically, his mental voice a perverse mockery of his pony voice. “Said she who tried and failed to kill me."

“I am impressed. Telepathy does not come easily to earth ponies. The Dark blesses body and mind, and you have use of all of her forms.” Agana appraised. “I think you have surpassed your progenitor. You could overthrow her with my help.”

“End this idle tongue waggling.” Wreath growled. “Make your peace!”

“If you really think that Ancepanox is the best you deserve, then fight me, and we will let the Dark decide our fates.” Agana shrugged as much as her bindings would allow. “But consider the other paths. Why defy me, when you can join me? And this time, I speak of alliance, not subsumption.”

“You did not offer me the courtesy before.” Wreath advanced until he was nearly at the base of the rock column that held the massive peacock alicorn.

Agana’s forced grin broke, and she clacked her beak angrily. “I am she who is of the Dark Lady herself! I am the Suzerain of Sin, knower of all things! For a thousand years, I have culled the weak, paltry, and unworthy! And you presume to question me?”

Wreath watched her in silence. He saw her alien eyes, which should have been dilated for the darkness, shrink to a line. Her breast heaved with shallow breaths, and her limbs were straining against the vines more than before. He witnessed her fear with relish.

Being in the body of an alicorn was much more boring than Rainbow Dash had anticipated, but that was more to do with having to stay. Really, all she’d had to do was pretend to not see Rarity sending death-glares her way.
Dash inspected the fleshy seam where the armor and alicorn met. It freaked her out a bit: The body was technically still dead, right? It had no soul, and were merely puppetted by the soul in the armor. So now here was Dash, a visitor in Ancepanox's body, controlling the armor, controlling the body. Dash didn't like it, and the sooner she got our the better.

Abruptly, a jolt of energy passed through her head.. “Ah!” She felt immensely dizzy, but at the same time she could think more clearly.
“Guess I must be getting used to it.” Dash said. At the back of her head, where she had a vague awareness of her own body, the persistent buzz she'd been dealing with faded.

There was movement out of the corner of Dash’s eye. She turned to see Rarity rising to her hooves.

"What!" Dash squawked.

Rarity was breathing hard, her body hardly able to contain how angry she was. One leg at a time, she pulled herself to her full height. Sparks of magic danced around her horn.
"You imbecile, cutting yourself off from weakness." She seethed.

It dawned on Dash that the jolt she'd felt was Agana, ending the psychic attacks that had kept them paralyzed.
And now Dash had to face down the vengeful nightmare unicorn in an unfamiliar body. “Oh buck.”

"No, I want the truth! I Know! Your evasive BULLSHIT isn't going to cut it anymore!"
The spirit of cooperation between Celestia and Ancepanox had, once again, dissolved into shouting.

"And I'm telling you it doesn't matter right now!" Celestia stomped her hoof. "Do you want to be distracted by old, inconsequential things, or do you want to fight off Agana?"

"I can do both. I can do anything I need to. What possible thing could throw me off, after everything else I've gone through. You're the distracted one, not me! You're the weak one, not me." Ancepanox paced like a caged animal shouting and whispering in alternation. "If the next words out of your mouth aren't ' I'm sorry, here's the truth of the matter', I'm going to get violent. I really will."

Celestia scoffed. "How self-centered are you!- HURK."

Ancepanox jumped at Celestia, pushing her on the ground and pressing her hoof against her neck. The sun princess offered no resistance, staring into the distance.

“I want the truth. I'm willing to kill for the truth! You still want to lie to me?” Ancepanox dared. “Go on! It's the only power you'll ever hold over me again, those little figments of falsehood you've spouted your whole life.”

“Twilight, I didn’t lie.” Celestia said, a broken hollowness to her labored words.

“You’re so full of shit, I wouldn’t even doubt that you believe what you’re saying. You’re just flopping around like a fish on land, gasping, promising anything if I’d just throw you back in the water. Do you grant wishes too?” Ancepanox mocked. “In your eyes, I can see so many emotions, and you can’t decide which one to feel.”

“Don’t you feel the same way?” Celestia asked, earning another quarter inch of hoof ground into her neck.

"Just who the hell do you think I am? I'll do anything to save myself, or anypony I care to protect.” Ancepanox shouted. "Look at me, Celestia! Do I look like a pony to be messed around with?"

Celestia stopped trying to avoid looking at Ancepanox. She stared into the dark alicorn's eyes. "No. You look like the most reviled demon in history, ravager of armies and killer of gods."

Far from being taken aback by this accusation, Ancepanox growled in pleasure. “I’ve always been searching for answers, but NO LONGER. I’m going to make answers. I’m going to make my path, my future, my will, my destiny, my gods… It’s everything I needed, and I only had to lose everything to realize it.”
She lifted her leg a little, giving Celestia more air. “You could have done the same. Yes, you had many opportunities to remake yourself, and all you decided to do was die. You might think of yourself as a martyr: You used your last breath to chisel Forlorn Spark into the pony you could never be. But all I see is cowardice!” She hoisted Celestia up, bringing her so they were nose to nose. “You couldn’t change. You couldn’t progress, evolve, or move on. You're stuck going back to what you know. Do you see any way of getting out of this miserable death?”

Celestia sighed, leaning back. "That's a lot to answer all at once."

"It's really not that hard." Ancepanox rumbled. "How are you going to keep me from erasing everything you've ever worked for?"

“I can't” Celestia said evenly. “Not even if I was still alive.”

“Do you see any way to save Twilight Sparkle, with me in charge?”

“N- No.” Celestia choked slightly. “I’ve cost another project her future.”

Ancepanox slammed Celestia against the ground again, looming over her with wild eyes. “PROJECT?! Gods damn you, Celestia!”

“Twilight please-” Celestia’s plea was cut off by a kick to her side and a headbutt in the nose.

“You killed the first Twilight, and the second. The third is mutilated, " Ancepanox trembled. "Celestia, I really want to kill you. I really, really want to kill you. I don’t care WHAT you did to Agana, I deserve this more than her!”

“Twilight… I never meant any of this to happen.” Celestia could deal with the physical pain, but her heart felt like it was shattering over and over again. “I... Twilight... I gave up everything for you."

"Yeah you will." Anceapnox cackled, licking her lips. Dark magic began to crackle around her horn.

"My dream, Twilight, I-" Ancepanox squeezed her eyes closed.
She was going to have to tell the truth.
It hurt a lot.
She didn't want to be honest. She shame was too great.
But she had to do it, because she refused to fight back, and without her Twilight was doomed.
"I was going to destroy all alicorn-kind, including myself. I was going to give Equestria to you."

Ancepanox slouched.
She looked up, and saw Twilight still sitting on her lone chunk of tower, watching and waiting. That lonesome pony looked burdened, but calm. They locked eyes.
Twilight's brow creased in thought, but after a long moment, she shook her head.

Anceapnox stepped back from Celestia, letting the white alicorn stand.
"You were going to give me Equestria."

"It was a fitful, scattered ambition, poorly built... poorly executed." Celestia mumbled, face burning with shame. "But I never gave it up. I lived every day with... painful determination to see it through." She swiveled her head, trying to spot Twilight, but could not. "That is why I came to Ponyville, when everything and everyone told me not to."

Ancepanox wanted to shout Celestia down again, but Celestia was for once totally honest.
But she was not heartened by the truth. It only made her more sickened, of how her princess viewed Twilight Sparkle as an object for her ambitions and manipulations. Celestia had never respected Twilight, or acknowledged her as a mare with agency.
"Bucking alicorns." She growled under her breath. "You should have done it, destroyed them and yourself."

"My lady... please." Celestia's eyes yearned for forgiveness.

However much she wanted to lash out at Celestia, Ancepanox had to abide by her word. Celestia had told the truth. "So that it's then. I should feel liberated."

"Twilight... Ancepanox..." Celestia mumbled. She knew what she really wanted to call the dark alicorn. Her eyes went unfocussed. “Luna, please. I messed up before. I can make things right if-"

"Hey, who are you talking to?" Ancepanox asked.

Luna was lost, Celestia knew. Nightmare Moon lived. She cradled her head, trying to get her thoughts in order.
"Show me a memory." Celestia murmured under her breath, not to Ancepanox, but to the other god within the dream. "I want to see her again. I want to see her face... Not to compare, but to remember."
High high above, her Sun listened.

And then Celestia was there again, reliving a past she'd never experienced, seeing through the eyes of a pony a hundred years her predecessor.
Celestia the First ached. Hours of battle and abuse had left her bruised and exhausted. The rain coming through the holes in the roof felt soothing on her fur.

The dark alicorn was before her.
Nightmare Moon.

Celestia yearned to say something, but it was only a memory. Nightmare Moon sat in a solitary patch of grass, silently watching the rain beat out the fires burning in the other parts of the Everfree Castle. She was slouched, relaxed even, her muscles slackened and her armor sitting at her side. She deserved it. She’d won.

Celestia pulled herself out of the mound of rubble where Moon had tossed her, collapsing on the slippery stone pavers. There she lay, too tired to even stand, her ethereal mane pooled around her like mist.
“You did it” Celestia said, spitting out blood. "You triumphed."

“Yes I have” Moon nodded, cupping hooffulls of water then letting it fall. “Ah, it's just us again, alone."

"No, Luna." Celestia gurgled. "It's just you. Finish this and kill me."

Nightmare Moon shook her head. "What’s the point?”

“Kill me.” Celestia ordered again. “Let my blood spill while it still rains enough to wash it from our castle.

“Don’t you think it’s too late to care about that now?” Moon paused, listening to the sizzle of dying embers. “It's gone. Everfree is done for. We can live without the castle, like we did before all this.”

“The first time we talk in... in nigh on a year of war, and you act like nothing has happened." Celestia pulled herself forward with one hoof, closer to Moon. Her mind was a tornado conflicting thoughts, muddying the antipathy and simmering hate that she’d let build over the siege. “Something HAS happened, Luna. You've obliterated everything we worked for. You committed to destruction, succeeded, and yet pull back from it."

“We all make mistakes. We mess up in big ways, ruin our lives and the lives of others. Along the way, maybe we learn a lesson or two.” Moon looked her sister in the eye, smiling sadly. Her starscape mane, covering in droplets, looked especially brilliant. “Our dream has come to a close, and now it’s time to wake up. ”

“How... How can you say that!” Celestia croaked. “You have to carry on our work! Your power is unmatched, you- You could conquer them all and none could resist you!” She pounded the soil with her broken hoof. "This planet is yours to unify. The watchword would be yours not mine, but it would be whole... and that was what mattered!

“It’s over, Celestia. Self-sabotage is a valid end to it.”

“Equestria can’t die with me!”

“Sister, Everfree and any hope for a unified Equestria is dead. I won't try to explain why I did it, but I did. I don’t want you to die too. I want you to live.” Moon sighed. She tried to look Celestia in the eye, but her sisters look of betrayal was more than she could bear. “I can see we both have a lot to think about.”

“This is outrageous. I can't even put into words... Sister, what was the point of this! I..." Celestia shouted into the ground.
The sun princess slowly got up. She didn't care not to act-nonthreatening anymore. "Why? I thought I understood the reason for your rebellion, but everything I thought has been cast into a mire of doubt. Was all of this just to spite me?"

“Perhaps. Do my reasons matter now that I won?” Moon asked, then shied slightly.
The moon princess's temper was growing worse with every passing hour; She could feel the rage she’d used to defeat her sister still roiling just under her skin, ready to come forth and destroy at her command. There was no permanent catharsis, no escape from virulent hatred.
But Nightmare Moon could ensure that no mortals would be harmed next time the alicorns fought, by denying alicorns any dominion of mortalkind.
“Wintertide was right, Celestia. We are not built to lead.”

"Luna!" Celestia kicked through a puddle. "Don't do this!"

Moon turned her back on her sister, and tried to catch a glimpse of the sun through the clouds. “We both have a lot to learn.”

Celestia disagreed.
The sun princess had learned a very different lesson than her sister: Sharing power led to treachery, betrayal, heartbreak. "I won't let my dream of a united Equestria die." She whispered.

"Then I might have to beat you down again." Nightmare Moon shrugged, laying back in the grass and enjoying the soft rain. "I'm happy. For the first time in my life, everything feels okay." She closed her eyes. "I beat you Celestia. You're never going to forget that."

Celestia knew what she had to do. "Sister... You're right. I will never forget this moment. However many years it may be until your next attack, and the memories of your victory will be there."

Moon nodded knowingly. "Do what you will. I won. My dominance is fated."

Celestia closed her eyes and reached out to her secret weapon of last resort.
Below the castle, in vaults Celestia had dug herself to maintain secrecy, an ancient thing came to life. It was not flesh, but stone, and though it was animated it did not move.

"Where will you celebrate your victory?" Celestia asked with a throaty growl. She felt the ancient powers gather, waiting for a target.

"This time of the month, when the sun so gently peaks above the horizon, is the most lovely phase of the moon." Nightmare Moon said. "My moon... it's so peaceful there. Come away with me, Celestia. I'll show you what I've been fighting for."

It was with a grave sense of failure that Celestia the First unleashed the Elements of Harmony on her reclined sister. Light, light, so much light danced and swirled and blinded.

Celestia sucked in a painful breath. The memory had ended. Afterimages of curling magical eddies and the blinding light did not fade for several second.

When she regained her vision, Celestia was faced with the present: Anceapnox

"You won... Your dominance is fated..." Celestia murmured.

Ancepanox was waiting on something, the answer to some question. "What are you going to do now, Celestia? Without your secret, what are you going to do?"

"Luna..." Celestia the Hundredth only understood her sister as a concept: She'd never met her before Nightmare Moon descended from the moon, only having seen her in figments of memories of the past life. But those memories were SO powerful, SO compelling... Celestia could not help but yearn for that lost sister.
And despite her conscious awareness it was happening, Celestia felt herself grafting that yearning on the mare she knew very well, standing right in front of her. Ancepanox did not have nearly the depth of character Celestia imagined Luna having, nor the same love of justice and logic... But she had the face, the magic, and the attitude.
"Sister I-" Celestia began. No! When she looked into Ancepanox's eyes, she saw unequivocally that a mortal soul was there. A mortal playing dress up as a god. Celestia cradled her head again.
"What do you want me to do?" She whispered.

Ancepanox seemed intrigued by the offer. "Will you die for us? For me and for Twilight?"

Death, death... Twilight Sparkle had reminded Celestia of death.
Death. Destruction of the alicorns. Sucession, not to the next Celestia, but to a pony.
Pony, Twilight Sparkle, death.

"Will you die for us? Will you die for us?"

Celestia put pressure on her head, trying to regain control of her thoughts.
Death. She was dead. She was dying. Alicorns did not belong in dreams, especially not alicorns of Light and Destiny like Celestia. She was going to come apart.

Light light, blinding light. Death death death death.

"Sister..." Celestia croaked. "Have you ever heard of something called the Elements of Harmony?"

Anceapnox did not grace the question with attention. She had no truck with Celestia until she recieved her answer.

Will you, the last Celestia, die for the sake of the ponies who usurped you?
Celestia looked high in the sky of the dreamscape. "What should I do?" She asked her Sun. "What can I do?"

To her numb shock, her Sun answered.
You should try to kill them, the intrusive thought said.
Celestia averted her eyes from the void above.

"You look ready to answer now." Ancepanox said.

Celestia rose to the dark alicorn's level. "I am, sister." She put her hoof over her heart. “I won’t let Equestria die.”

Chapter 46: The Eyes

"Oh my." Blueblood pulled a hankerchief from his vest and dabbed at his forehead. "This is a mess. A real mess."

Before him, the the burning wreckage of the skydock gatehouse. Some of the houses close to the gate had also caught fire, and though the fire could only spread in one direction, the local volunteers battling the inferno were losing the battle, unable to clear fire breaks before the magical blaze jumped to the next house.

Blueblood rocked forward and backwards gently, trying to think of more to say. The militiaponies he'd brought with him to respond to the explosion they'd heard were looking him for directions. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the blaze... The way the curls of flame danced and twisted in the wind as they rose reminded him of the Ritual in the throne room, and that the awful energies could sicken and destroy the stoutest stallion.

"Lads, ahem, you go in and help those ponies." Blueblood stuttered vacantly. "Need to, um, stop that fire before it eats the city- err, consumes the city. Burns it. The city." He licked his lips. "I don't feel so good."

While the militiaponies rushed to the locals' aide, Blueblood staggered back wards, trying to get the light out of his eyes. He sat against a cart in the road, trying to calm his breathing.

"I'm gentlepony of high status. Ponies like us aren't ruffled easily." He mumbled, rubbing his temple. "Good ponies are not phased when they act with honor and dignity. I bet none of the rest of the circle have doubts. Not Lady Aurthura. Not that snake Phyte! Certainly not Sel Lech! Bah! I bet Sel Lech is laughing it up in whatever hole Lady Velvet has assigned him to! The little scoundrel. The little usurper. He acts high class, but he's just an imposter! He's not cut out for this game."

"Blueblood." A voice cut through his paranoid fantasies.

"Eh?" Blueblood looked up. Twilight Velvet's maid was before him, standing prettily in her little outfit, looking expectant. "Um, hello... you."

"I am looking for Lord Night Light." The maid informed. "Have you seen him?"

Blueblood stood up. "Well, no. I haven't seen him for hours, since the dinner." He glanced towards the burning gatehouse. "I, uhh, did hear he was in this area. He- He might be in there."

"Hmm." The maid looked over her shoulder south, in the direction of Chateau la Garde. "Lady Velvet is still awake. She is on her way. Hmm..."

While Blueblood scrambling to look busy before Velvet arrived, the maid trotted towards the burning gatehouse. The whole structure, raised out of the strongest marble, stone, and brick, had been reduced to a heap like so much refuse, while all the flammable scaffolding and supports burned.
The maid was about to turn back when she spotted movement. Night Light was still alive, dragging something away from the rubble.

"Lord Light!" The maid called out, clambering over the rubble where she could to reach him. "Lord Light."

Night Light was moving a pony body. It was one of the gatehouse guards, crushed and burned. Night Light moved the unfortunate soul beside a row of bodies he'd already recovered: They were all burned to varying degrees, the crispiest of them looking like an ashen mummy.

"How can rule of law exist in a world where a pony can destroy dozens of lives in one thoughtless instant." Night Light uttered, barely above a whisper. He continued his gruesome work, dropping the body then going back to digging in the rubble for the others. "This brutality... So impersonal, so thorough."

"Lord Light, you have other duties to attend to." The maid slid down the pile of rubble to him. "There is so much to do, and none of us have time to dig or mourn."

Night Light paused his work.
The middle-aged stallion was covered in dust and ash. His eyes were red and wet from the ash in the air. His hooves were scratched and chipped, where his magic failed and he resorted to digging through chunks of stone manually.
"If not me, then who?" He asked hoarsely. "These ponies... were my friends. I cared for them."

The maid tapped her hoof. "Lady Velvet sent me to give you an updated list of duties."

Night Light gnawed on his bottom lip, his look vacant. "... I knew the terror we inflicted on others could come back on us, but I wasn't as prepared as I thought. I just need a moment." He sighed. "I just... wan't ready. Hopefully I'll be ready next time."

"My lord, you have conducted yourself admirably so far. There is much still to do." The maid said.

"Please be silent." Night Light said softly.

The maid pursed her lips, eyes darting back to the south. "My lord, Lady Velvet is coming.

"I said be silent." Night Light stood up. "Why must I have you hound me for my failure? Are the wails and crackling flames not enough?"

The maid stood up strait, eyes straight ahead.

"What a fool thing it was, keeping you around. Why are you still here? You're not needed. Go back home." Night Light berated her. "Whoever you are, whatever you are, get thee gone.

"My Lord, you too emotional. I can not obey when your reasoning is compromised." The maid said.

"Have you ever been so angry and upset, you know what you are doing is wrong, but you do it anyway?" Night Light whispered. His horn lit up with magic, and the Blackhorn Sword levitated from where he'd tossed it, returning to his side. "Maybe it will be cathartic, but I suspect it will just make me angrier, knowing it won't be permanent. No, you'll just come back. Then again nothing is permanent, and all can be undone." He slashed sideways with the hefty blade. The maid collapsed and her head rolled off. "Except for the divine. All under heaven can burn but those skies above will always twinkle and shine."

"Having fun?" A familiar voice rolled from behind him. Twilight Velvet stood lonesome by the smoldering ruble. She looked tired but smug.

"There is a buzzing in my brain. Are we sure we haven't completely destroyed this planet with our meddling." Night Light lowered the Blackhorn sword. His eyes were drawn up to the full moon. "What are we going to do, Velvet?"

“When I heard the gatehouse was burning I was afraid you were dead.” Velvet said. “I was... Inconsolable.”

Sighing, Night Light stepped back back from the decapitated maid, and approached Velvet. “I am sorry to have troubled you like that.”

“These things happen. I needed to be drawn down from my ecstasy anyway. The Cloudsdale Fleet has just been destroyed, and I would have been drooling all night without the sobering news.” Velvet said soothingly, the narrative taking shape in her mind. “Right now, I'm just glad to see you're safe."

Night Light stared at the charred walls of the closest houses, and at the corpses of the citizens too slow to escape the inferno he’d brought down on them. “I'm the safest I have ever been.” He agreed quietly.

Velvet looked past Night Light, to the burned bodies of the guards. "Any other survivors?"

"Not besides the perpetrators." Night Light said, choking up.

"Ah, yes." Velvet's eyes grew unfocussed, as she concentrated on something Night Light could neither see or feel. "That inconvenient flea, Sunset Shimmer, passed through here. Better that she is gone from Canterlot." She cleared her throat, blinking away the daze. "If there is a benefit to the mass casualties here, its that nopony can contradict the narrative: The Cloudsdale fleet assaulted the gatehouse. These ponies heroically sacrificed their lives to save to save Canterlot, and save you."

"Very good Velvet." Night Light said emptily.

“The city is in your debt. When this night is over we'll honor the brave martyrs. So on, so forth.” Velvet cleared her throat. "Try to stay alive, Night Light. ... I've grown very reliant on you. I would have a hard time doing it all myself."

"That is very kind of you to say, Velvet." Night Light knew his wife was trying to be nice. "If you don't mind, I need a rest." He motioned back towards the dead maid. "I can't furfill my duties in a timely way. Please accept my apologies."

"That fine. I need a rest too." Velvet cracked a very slim smile. "I was just going to head back to Castle Magoria. Would you join me?"

Night Light bowed his head. "Yes Velvet... I'd like that very much."
Night Light took a moment so secure the Blackhorn Sword to his belt.

While the volunteers and militia battled the fires consuming the neighborhood, Night Light and Twilight Velvet strolled up the street. At some point, Velvet began leaning her head against Night Light's neck. Night Light, besides wondering if she found the ash covering his coat disgusting, let her.

Blueblood waited until they were out of sight to abandon his spot in the bucket brigade, running north mumbling something about the opera.

Airships like the Slashing Dancer, were not very large or sturdy- About five ponies on the bridge and another dozen in the engineering spaces. That was just large enough that when a stallion screamed bloody murder on the bridge, it echoed through the hull to the back.
Sunset Shimmer pressed her ears back against her head. She'd head enough screams over the years to identify exactially what was happening to the unfortunate screamer.

“W- What was that?” The cowering pegasus next to her her asked, cringing in horror at the sound of one of her comrades being mauled.

“It’s what I’m trying to save you from.” Sunset whispered consolingly. Then, her magic lanced through the pegasus’s head, ending her life instantly. Ten seconds and another spell later, and the corpse was disintegrated, and of no use to Astral.

That was everypony in the airship dead, Sunset thought. Astral Nacre was literally eating the pegasi crew, gaining energy from them. The damage the alicorn had taken from the fall from the cargo airship had healed, once her seemly featerless face had cracked open and closed around one of the unsuspecting crewponies. From there she'd succumbed to her bloodlust, chewing through the crew in her blind hunt for Sunset.
Sunset, on the other hoof, was wracked by pain shooting up her legs, telling her they were probably broken. She'd tried to heal them with her magic, but her rush job still caused her agony with every step. She was very lucky Astral was distracted, letting her crawl into the dark spaces and preform mercy killing on the pegasi to keep them out of Astral's maw.

It was a kind of attritional battle Sunset was very unused to, but in hindsight one she should have prepared for: Even though she didn't want to fight alicorns, it was naive to think she would be able to put it off forever.

The screaming died off, confirming to Sunset all the crew had indeed been killed. But all was not silent. The ship creaked and groaned, and the wind howled on the other side of the hull. Sunset held her breath, a hard ask with how much pain she was in.
"Give me fire. Just something to heal myself with." Sunset whispered to the air. A little light flickered at her horn, and some of the pain went away.

Then, from very close by, another scream, this time feminine. “N- NOO! NO! NO! N-” The door of the room Sunset was hiding in, the small burst open. The screaming mare only got halfway though, when she was violently jerked backwards. The wails descended into pathetic gurgling. It was so loud and visceral, and little flicks of blood spashed into the room.

“Holy Celestia.” Sunset swore silently to herself. She was less desensitized to pony suffering than she thought.
The air was getting thin and breathing was harder. This was a bad environment for a pony to fight in.

“Hee hee hee hee hee.” Astral’s demented giggle echoed through Sunset’s mind. “Did you get tired of waiting for me?”

“Not as much, no.” Sunset whispered.

The alicorn's shadow loomed by the door, then pulled back. Sunset waited tensely.

"Nopony is ever ready, when the end comes. They think they are. The sickened elder, wasting away on their bed, may think they are prepared, but when oblivion looms, they try to fight it off." The voice came form everywhere, and Sunset could not determine the direction. "They try."

"Nopony deserves an end like you." Sunset stood up.

"What we deserve effects none of what we get!”
The alicorn stepped into the room, wearing a horrendous mimicry of plague doctor garb, made from torn scraps of uniforms stitched together with tendons. The customary beak was fashioned from some unidentifiable bit of bone. "Oh, this is not as nice as the costume I took from the hospital. More appropriate though. I feel, with every inch of my being, like a personification of death." Astral's eye stared out from under the little hat she'd found. Eyes so very different from those of the other ancient alicorns.

"I thought you were supposed to be a god of life." Sunset backed away. She jealously cursed the limits of her pony body, that she could not be so terrifying as Astral, even if it came at grotesque costs.

"Oooh, life is death, death is life. Death is death. But life is not always life." Astral’s spasming and writhing flesh and bone, was enough to give any pony nightmares for years. One of her errant tentacle-like strands of hair brushed against the spray of blood, absorbing it like a sponge. She moaned in delight. "What a poet I feel right now. Quickly jot it all down, so I can sort it when I'm lucid."

“Gods, you’re monstrous.” Sunset blanched. Fire, don't fail me now, she thought. She called all her power to her horn.

Sunset cast a fireball, hoping to catch enough of the wood and cloth around Astral alight. Astral anticipated it and she effortlessly smashed through the planks to escape into the adjoining room. Losing sight of her target, Sunset peppered the general area with piercing bolts of magic. All became still again, save that now significant portions of the airship were now on fire.

The hull groaned in protest as it lost its structural integrity bit by bit. A creak and the sound of splintering wood was all the warning before the ceiling split open and a cannon from the deck above fell through. It's momentum carried it through rest of the decks, but stopped short of making a hole through the bottom. Sunset could hear it rolling through the perishables and cargo below. Pins of Watery moonlight were begining to shine between planks of the hull.

“Alicorn, come back here! I don't have time for this game.” Sunset yelled into cold dark air. The fire she had started was beginning to crackle in earnest. “Looking for more ponies to pray on? I’ve killed them all, even the captain! He had such a stupid expression on his face too, like he couldn’t believe it was happening. I bet you’ll have that expression as well, dumb beast!”

With a banshee howl, Astral darted up through the new hole in the floor, catching Sunset completely by surprise. The alicorn tried to grapple the smaller unicorn but fumbled and continued through the next two rooms as well. Sunset bounced off the roof and fell to the wood floor, hard. She stumbled to her hooves as quickly as she could, coughing up blood.

“Mother bucker! I can’t dodge in these tight quarters!” Sunset coughed, grimacing. The pain in her legs was joined by pain in her spine. “If I don’t get to the top deck I won’t last two minutes.”

The sound of splintering wood alerted her that Astral was making another pass. She charged her horn for a quick teleport but it was too late. Astral came from the side this time and collided with Sunset. They hit the outer bulkhead, which bent and splintered from the impact, but stopped their momentum.

Astral drew back, eyeing Sunset’s limp body. The yellow unicorn would have been screaming in pain if all the air hadn’t been forced from her lungs, for many of her bones had been broken by the force of the attack despite her armor.

“What a HUNT this is! Big game! Oh, but we are both hunter and hunter. Is this more a duel of titans?” Astral laughed. Her body was loosing definition the more manically excited she was. Parts of her legs and torso completely unwound into the constituent muscle, vessel, and ligament, to thrash violently for a few second before rejoining the pony shape.

Sunset collapsed forward, only able to gargle. She couldn't see or breath, inches from death, but strangely all she could feel was an odd heat deep in her gut.

"Death, death, death! This has been the satisfying kill that eluded me with that pegasi fleet. This is... joy. Gods are made for killing gods. Playing with mortals is base decadence!" Astral screeched to nopony in particular. “This was an imperfect creature, a mortal, and even though she had a god's magic about her, she failed. Inevitable!"

Sunset focussed on the heat she felt. She rolled on her back, and the beams of moonlight felt like splashes of cool water on her face.
Fire, old fire. Sunset heard a distant buzzing, like a voice through a lead pipe. the Sun was trying to speak to her! If only she had her books with her, she could embrace that voice and use its power.
Fire come back to me, Sunset thought. Let me use you for the glory of the alicorns of Light.

"I could crack her open like an egg. I could saw in her in half. I could squeeze her. Anything to get that magic out. I want that fire. Death, death, death." Astral babbled to herself.

A deep throbbing bellow, more pyschic than physical echoed through the airship. Astral quivered, for she had not made it.
Sunset Shimmer peeled herself off the floor, adjusted her helmet, and took a fighting pose.
"You don't think I'm perfect, and you're right, but none of us mortals pretend to be. We will out our holes by Light of our goddess." Sunset felt no pain. Yellow magic danced about her horn. “Fire hasn't failed me. I'm in full control now."

Astral roared gleefully. “Yes! Show me more!

A blast of magic to the face interrupted Astral’s retort, followed by another to the chest. Sunset's horn burned brilliantly, like a star, as yellow magic flared out to her will.
Astral's magic-torn flesh shifted back into position, reforming her face and shoulder, though the plague-doctor outfit burned away instantly. The alicorn was too quick to be hit by the third blast, dodging backwards and disappearing into the remaining structure of the airship.

Sunset laughed. “Now you see-” She was unable to continue. The air was getting very thin. In the moment of calm, she began to notice the icy bite of the upper atmosphere, sucking all the heat from her body. A new factor the Sun's power could protect her from, a ticking timer counting down to when she would inevitable pass out from hypothermia or lack of air. The fires in the cabins had already gone out, starved for oxygen.

Sunset quickly cast a stopgap spell to prevent herself from going comatose, but it would not address the actual effects on her body. She wouldn’t notice if it became too much for her until she was dead. But she would feel fine. Fine enough to keep fighting.

First things first, she had to get above deck. She prepared her teleport, and once again Astral charged out from the shadows. Sunset threw herself to the ground and Astral passed overhead, bashing through the outer bulkhead and into the empty skies. She watched the alicorn tumbled in the fierce air currents for several moments, before completing the teleport and relocating to the top deck.

The cold was even worse in the wind, and the Blackhorn Armor didn't offer Sunset much in the way of insulation. The top deck of the little scout airship was a mess- The indent where Astral Nacre had crashed down was surrounded by the blood and viscera of the first victims. That was not the only problem, for the mast was showing signs of serious strain, as it was never meant to operate such a high altitude. The balloons were bursting at the seams, and Sunset speculated the only reason they had positive buoyancy at all was that so much of the airship had been broken and blasted off.

"I've got only minutes left." Sunset appraised. Not having wings would present a serious problem if the airship tore itself apart. Another problem the Sun's power couldn't solve. "This looks like the end for me... Well rats."

With neither the time or the willingness to contemplate the end, Sunset Shimmer knew all that was left was to do what she'd come back to Equestria to do: Preform the last sequence with Entanglement Theory and complete the Sequence.
So the door would close on the drama of ten years, of a Traitor preforming a last duty. Sunset would not fail this time.

An indignant roar sounded from off the stern, and Sunset could see Astral beginning to recover from her tumble. She had a clear shot, but she wanted something that could account for the alicorn's evasiveness. Sunset gathered her magic, calling more to herself than any the attack previous. When Astral was about even with the ship she cast the spell.
A swarm of luminous bugs were conjured above her head, little magical bombs that trembled with barely restrained energy. “Get her.” Sunset wheezed, gesturing at Astral.

The swarm did as ordered and flew to intercept Astral. The alicorn noticed the buzzing cloud and shot an arc of magic at it. The swarm parted to let the spell pass through, then hastened at their target. Being nothing more than magic in a thin membrane with wings, they collided with Astral and detonated.
The explosion was massive, and the blinding light washed over the Slashing Dancer. The pressure wave, however, was not so gentle, tearing boards off the hull and imploding the bow. Sunset blocked the propelled debris with a shield, but the wave still pushed her back.

After several seconds it settled down, as it seemed even the howling wind had died. A sound like squishing flesh and crunching wood could be heard from nearby; Astral must have landed hard.

"She still made it on the ship? She should be go! Damn!" Sunset cursed weakly. "I don't have any time. I have to force her off before Twi finishes the experiment ritual!"

For Astral, her vision was consumed by yellow, then white, then red, then black. Then, brown are red, as she slammed into the forecastle of the Slashing Dancer in an uncontrolled spin.

“How it burns! This is so exciting.” Agana's flesh sizzled, as she dragged herself back together. "I may not be able to defeat her! That would be very annoying." She reformed into her normal pony-ish shape, but the tissue remained charred to a crips. She felt like an burnt sausage.
"Bravo!" She psychically screamed. "Your skill is undeniable. But you can win a dozen bouts, and still not win, but lose once, and it will be over for you."

Astral suddenly became aware of two pony auras on the airship, besides the Traitor's. Sunset Shimmer had been wrong about finishing off the crew! Astral knew she had to reach them and consume them to keep up her energy for the fight. And what luck that the two unsuspecting ponies were coming right at her.

Astral sat up.

“Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do.” A pony shouted over the wind. A teal pegasus mare with a tousled white mane spilling out of her Wonderbolt armor. “Remember me?”

“Fleetfoot? By the stars!” Astral gargled. "I didn't recognize your aura!"

“I won't pretend to know how you alicorns operate. I won't ask you to account for... for what you've done.” Fleetfoot trembled. "Not yet. I... I don't think your capible of it yet."

"Capable of it? YET?" Astral leaned in closer to the pegasus. "You were with the fleet." Her beady eyes locked with Fleetfoot's. "... Rain Gnash is with you. Not literally, but..." Astral could feel it now, how Fleetfoot's aura was intertwined with the second, Gnash's. It took her a few moments to put everything together. "Ahhh, I understand! This is what happened when I used your soul to repair hers! How sublime. How sublime! I did that without realizing!"

"And I came to ask if you can undo it!" Fleetfoot barked. "Have you any idea of the torture, having another pony in your head all the time? No privacy, no personal thoughts? Release us from this curse or we will both go mad!"

"Of course I know how it feels. I was made that way!" Astral laughed. "Oh Fleetfoot, I am overjoyed. I have been flailing in ignorance, trying to touch the Dreamscape. I need you to come back with me, so I can figure out how I did it the first time. Oh I'll become so powerful-"

"I you won't fix me than it's over! I'll kill myself right now!" Fleetfoot wailed. "We can't like thi-"

Fleefoot was cut off by a golden bolt of magic ripping through her shoulder, spraying blood over Astral’s face. She tried to turn around but another magic bolt speared her through the chest, knocking her backwards into into Astral’s hooves, revealing Sunset Shimmer, silhouetted against the moon.

"Huh, a Wonderbolt. A friend of yours or something? Eh, whatever. I've got you where I want you." Sunset hummed. “Get off this airship, and go back to Canterlot. I don't want to hurt you any more but I won't hesitate to scower you down to ash if you get in the way."

Astral wasn't listening to Sunset. “Fleetfoot?!” Astral pressed her nose against Wonderbolt’s neck to check her pulse. She was alive but in shock. "Ack! Pony, let me leave with her. I... I will not get in your way again."

Sunset licked her lips. "It is tempting to believe that." A whine filled the air, originating from somewhere between Sunset's ears. She cringed, her look becoming severe. "But I can't. I can't let you interrupt my work. I'm too close. My patron correctly tells me that a Dark one like you is instinctually driven to lie and fight. So... I have to destroy you. That's a real shame."

Astral felt a spark of vigor as her flesh absorbed Fleetfoot’s spilt blood. She could consume the pegasus in the blink of an eye, and use that energy to blast Sunset into oblivion. There would be no dodging at their distance.
But she hesitated. She needed Fleetfoot to understand how to enter the Dreamscape.
And more than that... Astral felt an unfamiliar pang of kinship with the pegasus. "You would assume an alicorn is so easily beaten, Traitor?"

“As a friend of mine would say, assumption and supposition have nothing to do with it.” Sunset grinned deviously. She grabbed Fleetfoot hoof in her telekinesis and slung her over the side of the airship. “Bella Ciao!”

Astral stiffened, hesitative, before she spread her wings and vaulted after Fleetfoot.

“That's just pitiful. The Sun wants you dead, and who am I to argue.” Sunset watched the two pulled towards the earth, thousands of meters below. Their fall would end before then.
Another spell, even more powerful than the magic swarm, coalesced at her horn. A ball of rippling yellow and gold, and everything it’s radiant light touched was warped and pulled towards it’s throbbing surface. It grew to the size of a volleyball, and then began spouting gouts of vaporous fire in all directions. A little sun, the ultimate manifestation of the solar power within her.
Nearly instantly, the deck around Sunset was scoured into ash and all the nails, hinges, and other metal parts began to glow red from the heat. The wind started up again with a swirling gust that surrounded Sunset and her spell.

“Yes! Yes! Let me be your vessel, let me be your agent! When you trust me with your power, nothing can stand before us!” Sunset’s pupils lost their focus as she was overcome by her mania, and her shrieks of laughter descended into maddened babbling. “Alicorns! Alicorns! I fight you, I kiss you! I kill you, I birth you! OooOOoH! If Celestia could see us now!"

She leaned over the side of the airship, and focussed in Astral Nacre, tumbling through the atmosphere.

Far below, on the valley floor, the remnants of the Cloudsdale Fleet was regrouping. The airships that had survived and not fled were landed here and there, loading the wounded. The ships doctors passed among the worst, burned or crushed, triaging them.

While the other Wonderbolts were scouting the valley for more survivors, Soarin was at the edge of the makeshift camp, watching the lines of stretchers going up and down the airship gangplanks. It was unlikely that even half the bodies could be recovered from the crashed and twisted hulks burning all around them, pyres onto themselves.

If only they had listened, he thought despondently, none of this would have happened. Why hadn't the Admiralty listened, when Spitfire and the Wonderbolts unanimously told that only death awaited in Canterlot? His resentment was growing, not just for Velvet and her monster, but the Cloudsdale regime that had all but pushed the loyal ponies of the fleet into her maw. All she’d had to do was bite.

"Fleetfoot..." He whispered to the sky. "Are you going to be okay?"

Suprisingly, the sky answered. He was a glimmer of light, high high high above. There had been flashes up there before: Somepony was putting on a light show, Astral Nacre most likely.

"Tshh," Spitfire turned away. He could not bear to know the monster was still up there, having its cruel fun.

“Look! It’s the sun!” One of the ponies nearby yelled. “We’re saved! We’re saved!”

“Huh?” Soarin looked back up at the glimmering light.

It was a mere glimmer no longer. It looked from the valley as though there was a new star in the sky, brighter than any other and twinkling- no, not twinkling, wavering. It was definitely not the sun, but nor was it meaningless. Soarin's thoughts went to fire.

The strange light was drawing the attention of more and more of the camp. “Ave Celestia!” Several ponies chorused. “Ave Celestia!”

"A bare-bones skiff or maverick balloon? What could possibly be up that high?” Soarin mumbled to himself. “Maybe a scout skiff. We never saw if the Slashing Dancer crashed. Is that her burning up there?" He wondered. "Wait..." The light elongated and became brighter.

Like a zipper dividing the skies, or a stream of water from a pitched, a hellacious column of energy poured down from the new star in the sky. Despite being many of kilometers away, the column of energy that linked the earth to the dot of light was blinding. It was just like the solar beams that had inducted the endless night, but exponentially more violent and uncontrolled. For several seconds the entire camp was lit up like it way daytime.
Then it dwindled.

It was dead quiet. The moans of pain from the triage area and the chanting of hopeful ponies both died under an oppressive rumble that rolled over the entire valley. There arose from the distant hills where the beam struck an inferno of incalculable enormity, which seemed to match the very mountains around the valley. A whole swath of the Don hills north of Canterlot had been set aflame.

If Celestaia had returned, she'd lost all care for precision and collateral damage. The torch-like light was still in the sky, preparing itself for another attack.

“Did Astral Nacre do that? Something else?” Soarin uttered breathlessly. "Fleetfoot, be safe and come back to us! Please!" Another day, another ungodly power causing trouble for everypony.

For Astral, the ungodly pillar of light was not a distant lightshow. One moment she was shooting down through the sky to catch up with Fleetfoot, the next she was on fire, her skin burning and her blood boiling. She desperately fought to stay conscious through the torment of the infernal fire basting her. She could feel herself being burned away layer by layer by the unrestrained solar energy, until it was over and she was something like a blob of meat falling through the air.

Concentrating with the last of her wits, she regenerated herself as much as she could. She fell uncontrollably, spinning to face the burning ground below her and the rapidly shrinking shape of the skiff in alternation.

Attacking Sunset Shimmer had not worked out so well. It would have been a fantastic boon, to take the power the mortal was hoarding. It was not to be. The Traitor (Astral thought the epitaph was ridiculous, for she cared not for pony concepts of treason) was too powerful. Like Ancepanox had been too powerful. Like Twilight Velvet was too powerful. Astral's ego was taking a beating almost as bad as her body was taking.

Though her eyes were of no use, Astral Nacre was dazed by the sensory overload she was experiencing- the air crackled with the residual energy of the solar beam.
Astral stabilized her tumble, spreading her wings and regaining some control. She swerved out of the crackling air, into cold skies.

Down below her, she felt a faint sign of life, two tied souls falling together.
“Fleetfoot!” She psychically screamed out. If she'd had a mouth, the rushing air would have surely beat her words back into her throat.

Shockingly pegasus was alive- she had been in Astral's shadow and had been largely spared the obscene power of the solar beam, but the superheated air around them had set her partially aflame.
Astral could feel the aura flicker. Fleetfoot would soon be dead.

Astral’s heart ached in a way she could not describe. It was not longing or embarrassment but a more selfless despair she had ever experienced before. She had inflicted tremendous ills upon hundreds of ponies but only now that she saw Fleetfoot dying did she begin to feel remorse for any of it. It was very slowly beginning to dawn on her, how mortals lived and breathed and experienced the same world as her. They felt pain!
Astral had to save Fleetfoot, not just for what could be learned from her, but because it was the right thing to do.

Astral reduced her profile, swooping down with all speed. She had to reach Fleetfoot.
But up above, fire loomed again. Astral could feel Sunset Shimmer building up to another attack. The Traitor was serious about killing her.

The thick and hot air at once ripped at her raw skin as her speed increased, the feint pegasus magic within her pushing her past her terminal velocity. The gap between her and Fleetfoot dropped rapidly, but the growing power of the Light, taking up the sky above like a luminous cloud, was about to be cast again.

Astral reached forward, trying to open her eyes despite the wind. Her hoof touched Fleetfoot and adhered, allowing her to pull the small pegasus into a protective embrace. It was supremely uncomfortable, as her flesh stung with a needy hunger amplified by proximity to pray, but Astral fought against the urges and kept herself from consuming Fleetfoot.

Now came the tricky part. They were still thousands of meters high and about to be scorched to ash. Astral didn’t know what to do in face of the apocalyptic power blooming overhead.
She tried to extend her wings but the fleshy appendages weren't hadn’t healed enough to even slow their combined weight, not matter how hard Astral tried. In her strain and desperation she lost focus on her other parts, and her legs began to absorb Fleetfoot’s skin where they gripped her as her tentacle mane penetrated her like a metastasized melanoma.

“NOO!” Astral howled, trying to pull herself away. With the regeneration from Fleetfoot’s blood she underestimated her own power and strength, shredding both their skins. It was sheer horror. Was this how ponies felt when they saw her tear ponies apart?

Time was up. The air began to shimmer, and the solar beam came down again. Astral could feel herself be consumed by fire. Her every mote was being displaced, teleported to what she could only assume was hell. Her senses stopped working, and her existence became null…

She bounced against a cold, unyelding floor.

"Oof!" Astral slid one way, Fleetfoot another.

“Goodness Gracious, Astral Nacre! I asked you to destroy the fleet, not get yourself fried! You silly mare.” A familiar voice chided, accompanied by a slap across her face. “You could have been killed! With how much work went into you, you'd think you could stand to be a little more careful."

“Mother?” Astral croaked. With a snap of realization, she felt that her body was whole and her senses functional. With her beady eyes she looked up at Velvet, who in turn were looking down at her.
They were in... (Astral looked around) Castle Magoria, in one of guest chambers. Night Light was staring red-eyed from the adjacent bedchamber.

Velvet gestured out the window. Astral saw the light fade, as the solar beam intended to destroy her faded away.
"I teleported you out just in time. You have no idea how lucky you are." Velvet chided. Indeed, the unicorn's horn still still swirled with the green dragonfire magic she’d used to teleport them there.

Astral was too dazed and confused to understand what was going on for a few minutes. "I'm, sorry, Velvet."

"It's not all bad. You obliterated that fleet like nopony else could have. You've proved your utility." Velvet continued. "And what's this pony? Fleetfoot? My my, Astral, you keep bringing home pets you expect me to care for." Velvet laughed tiredly. "Before you ask, no, we haven't found your earth pony friend yet. But trust me, we're still looking."

Astral nodded absently. Finding Ripple Wreath didn't seem that urgent, considering what she'd just been through. "Yes, Velvet."

“Now stay out of trouble. I have my ponies looking out for your friend and they should not take too long.” Velvet trotted to the chamber door and knocked. Her maid came in and scooped Fleetfoot up, her apron staining red with the pegasus's blood. "Take her to the University Hospital immediately."

"Yes Lady Velvet." The maid said. She traded a quick glance with Night Light before scurrying out of the room.

Velvet licked her lips. “Well, that's it then. You look like you need rest too. Take the duke's chambers. When you feel better, perhaps we can discuss what you learned about our enemies. Good night, Astral.”

“Goodnight Lady Velvet.” Astral mumbled, slinking out.

Velvet rubbed her eyes. "I'm so bucking tired." She yawned.

Night Light, pleased the guests had left, flopped back into the bed. "We will close our eyes, and when we open them again, it will be a new day."

"Hmm... I think you're right. This treacherous night has run its course for us." Velvet lay herself beside him and rolled herself into the covers. "Goodnight, Night Light.

"Goodnight, Twilight." Night Light kissed her on the forehead and blew out the candle.

No amount of yelling, threatening, or glaring had forced the awful Manifestation to send Celestia to the top of the Tower.
It had come suddenly, right in the middle of a sentence. The fabric of the dreamscape crunched as Celestia popped into existence at the top of the tower. While she was recovering from the spacial jump, the Manifestation arrived beside her.

"Have I failed?" She asked herself and the Manifestation. "I came here to save Twilight Sparkle from Forlorn Spark. Did I doom her instead?"

The scene before her was predictable but disappointing.
Ancepanox and Agana were circling around each other, duelists waiting for the other to act. Nothing had changed from the unfair fight among the crumbled tower, but the atmosphere was entirely different this time. Ancepanox was less manic, more calculating. Agana was less gloating, more cautious. They circled and circled, their eyes locked in a stare.

Celestia's own eyes was drawn to another change since the last fight: Ancepanox had a weapon, a silver sabre she spun slowly in her telekinesis. Celestia immediately recognized the weapon was real, or as real as a weapon could be in a dream- Just as the dreamer forms of ponies were manifestations of their souls, the weapon was some kind of manifestation of a real world counterpart. Celestia could feel an anguished aura from it.
Something wasn't right. Celestia heart was seized by a sudden dread she couldn't explain.

“I don’t see this ending so well for me.” Celestia muttered. “or my young life.”

“Don’t intervene.” The manifestation warned. “With your renewed power, you'd gravely hurt them both. As long as Ancepanox keeps fighting, you can't.” The monstrocity's frown turned into a sly grin. "Unless you want to hurt her."

“Quiet, monster.” Celestia said with more vitriol than she’d intended. But it was right. She kept her body pulse with the sun's energy. Once tapped, it would be hard for Celestia to restrain herself.
She had to watch the clash of the two Dark ones, until one was defeated and thrown back.

Ancepanox and Agana circled the center. Ancepanox prowled, holding her sabre out menacingly. Agana floated above the ground.

"Mooneater, come defeat or victory, tonight you will learn something very important for a Dark one. Do you understand what the eye is? It is the tool by which we discern light from dark, friend from foe, truth from lies.” Agana cooed.

“Indeed.” Ancepanox agreed.

“But most of all, mine eyes see corruption. Mine eyes see SIN.” Agana whispered. “You may have eyes in your head, but truly can they see the world spinning round? Is it only what you have been told, or do you know it for YOURSELF? The only way for you to defeat me is if you find your eyes. Ah, but we begin now!”

Agana reached up to the sky. The dark blot of darkness in the void above, shaped as an eye, sent out a ghoulish light that coalesced on her. The foul light became a pillar, like an infinite river of oil coming down from on high. The oily pillar stopped, leaving a pool on the ground, which reshaped itself into a pony-like figure, a new shadow shade.
It was much more substantial shade than the previous ones, disgustingly tarry as opposed to shadowy and wraith-like. It had the form of a pony, tall and muscular, tied with chains across its torso and legs. It could not breathe easily for the rusty bit and bridle locked over its head, and every ragged breath was a fight to get through its displaced jaw. Of the nose there was no sign; Every bit of the face that was not covered by the chains was scarred beyond recognition.
Out of this monstrosity bled red light from two eyes, the windows to the abject hatred of the chained beast. Agana had not easily subdued it, nor did it suffer subservience easily.

"Another of your victims? He doesn't look very happy with his predicament." Anceapnox remarked.

"You have brought your tool to this battle. You have that right." Agana intoned. She summoned her magic to her horns and pulled on the shade's reigns, jerking the him towards her. "I will use mine."

"Mine's nicer." Ancepanox hefted her sabre. "But it’d look better red."

The shade opened it’s mouth a bit wider, and a chilling yowl rolled out from the back of it’s throat. It tried to charge forward, but was caught by the chain. Fighting to keep the monstrosity restrained, Agana drifted a bit closer to the ground, and her hoof bounced against the black stone. With the clink of keratin against rock, the signal for the duel to begin to earnest rang.

Ancepanox moved almost too quickly for Celestia to see, dashing forward and slashing wildly with her sabre. The big shade jumped to meet her, taking the slashes with indifference and responding with beastial ferocity, bucking and biting at whatever flesh it could reach. It’s jagged hooves and tombstone-like teeth did some on their own, but the rusted and cursed chain dragged against Ancepanox’s skin and ripped off a patch from ear to breast.
Ancepanox jumped back to let the grievous wound magically heal. Agana took immense pleasure in holding the shade back and watching it choke itself with it’s leash.

“This sinful retch is from before your time, Celestiaan. He was one of the first pilgrims to wander into the Vacuous Arcanum and submit themselves to me." Agana craned her head to face the sun princess. "If you know your history well enough, you may recognize him."

The shade was more depraved a beast than any pony Celestia could confess to knowing, and if her math was right it must have dated to Celestia the First. But something about it’s restless mannerism reminded her of an old friend, only a decade gone.

“I knew that thing’s descendant. That thing... is an ancestor of the Lightdowser dukes of East Unicornia.” Celestia watched the shade battle against its bindings.

“Close guess, very close. It was one of the Dark Lady's mortal progeny, bred into the Lightdowser line. In a way he was a distant cousin. Purpleoak, Duke-consort of the Duchess Lightdowser of old.” Agana grabbed the shade with her magic and turned him over to appraise him like a prize animal. “The blood of the Deava is sprinkled here and there in the dynasties of Equestria even to this day, is it not, Celestiaan?"

“Bloody fascinating.” Ancepanox panted. She was a little disheartened at how badly the shade had hurt her in so short a time. She took a deep breath and focused her magic on herself. Her dreaming form healed itself. "Hey, Agana! Any chance Twilight Sparkle is descended from the Dark Lady?"

Agana cast her odd eyes back to the dark alicorn. "Hmph. No."

Ancepanox had no feeling one way or another. She was only curious, with how Twilight Velvet had talked about her ancestral power and responsibilities, if the predecessors of House Twilight had some spark of otherworldly blood in it.
And Velvet's implementation of the ritual had, in her own words, needed 'blood of the Great Ones'. That had evidently been code for the descendents of the divine creatures bred into the old noble dynasties of Equestria. Rain Gnash, Seacrest Sabonord, and Foaly Flux.
But wait, how could uncle Foaly have 'Great One' blood, and not Twilight Sparkle?

Ancepanox gave a scruinous look at the slavering Purpleoak shade. There was only a suggestion of pony features in the husk, but there was also a hint of elle ne sut quoi that differentiated it subtly from the other shades…

Agana noticed her staring. "You can feel his mind, can't you Mooneater. Yes, he is not so fargone as the others. His mind remains intact despite his degradation! The virtues of alicorn blood. Ho, I wonder if that is how your little Ripple Wreath survived me... Eh, no matter." The peacock alicorn patted the shade on the head. “Are you making friends, boy? Am I not good enough for you anymore? Oh, Mooneater, you had better watch out for this one! He is a real… ladykiller!”

The peacock alicorn launched into a fit of giggles at her own pun. She further powered her horns and hurled the shade at Ancepanox as though she were putting a shot.

Ancepanox’s surprise lasted less than halfway through Purpleoak’s involuntary flight. She drove her sabre upwards on his downwards arc, and skewered him through his gut. Purpleoak was none too pleased and fell over while trying to dig the sword out.
Ancepanox took advantage of his distraction by blasting him point blank with a storm of magical energy. The chain and the sword conducted the arcs of purple electricity along their length, burning a huge swath of Purpleoak’s tainted black body and burning out his abdomen.

But the ravaging of his body only drove Purpleoak on. The sabre slipped free of his seared flesh, and he returned his attention to murdering Ancepanox. He howled and charged forward, and this time the black alicorn had no sword to protect herself with. She tried striking out with a hoof but the shade latched on, shaking her like a dog in an attempt to rip her leg off.

Agana could not stop laughing as she pull on the chain, dragging the entangled combattents along the ground.

Celestia was having a hard time keeping herself from fainting at the grotesque wounds Ancepanox was taking.
“Don't intervene.” The Manifestation floating beside her warned again.

Ancepanox kicked out again and again at the frenzied beast, beating fruitlessly against its horrid head. Finally she caught it square in its lower jaw, and the already displaced joint dislocated. Purpleoak roared in rage as Ancepanox scrambled away, and with a sickening crunch he smashed a hoof against his own face, putting the mandible back into position.

“Holy buck. You’re a tough bastard.” Ancepanox got back to her hooves. There was so much red in her black fur she looked like a revolutionary flag. “But so am I.”
She telekinetically grabbed the sabre but tucked it in her mane like a hairstick. She moved her hooves far apart, bringing herself close to the ground in a wrestler's pose.

Unintimidated, Purpleoak charged. Instead of taking him head on, Ancepanox juked and threw him sideways. His attack carried him a meter farther until his chain leash snapped taut and his head snapped back while momentum kept his body moving forward. He fell on his back and Ancepanox was immediately upon him, stomping mercilessly at his underbelly where it had been burned. Still at the end of his rope, Purpleoak could not get up. He suffered the trampling with a panicked yowl as he tried in vain to kick at her.

Celestia’s stomach churned as the brutal spectacle carried on for over a minute. By the end of it Ancepanox had splashed black viscera across five square meters and turned the shade’s chest cavity into a bloody dugout canoe. Slowly, the infernal fire in his eyes died, until they were only ashy pits in his scarred face. His soul extinguish, Purpleoak’s body turned to dust and dispersed on the dream’s ethereal winds.

"Rest in peace... bastard." Ancepanox wiped her forehead. She let out a long sigh. She trotted back across the tower to Agana, making a trail of bloody hoofprints. “That was a good fight. I... feel strange.”

“Ha ha ha ha! Yes it was good, very good!” Agana chuckled. She kept her distance from the advancing Ancepanox, drifting backwards for every step forward. “I almost doubted you Mooneater. I almost believed you would die to that pathetic thing, but nooo. You are stronger!”

She clapped her forehooves together, a field of maroon magic encased the keratin like gloves. Celestia could see it was not a proper spell, but more like a malevolent bastardization of life force. It must have been comparable to earth pony magic, twisted into a weapon.

“There's no shame asking Celestia for help, you know." Agana chuckled. "When two weak creatures alone can not fight the predator, they form a pack. Even then they sometimes fall. It's just the natural way of things!"

"You're invoking the Naturalistic Fallacy. You know I'm going to have to penalize you for that." Ancepanox chuckled darkly. She waggled her hoof. "Show me more wisdom, my Suzerain of Sin."

This time, Agana initiated. She moved with fairy-like grace, gliding a hooflength above the black stone in defiance of gravity, her waving veil of vines dragging behind.
“Witness us, Dark Lady, as your disciples battle for your glory! This will be a majestic duel for the ages. For once the weak crumple the real fun begins! Our eyes will open to heaven's wonders.“

Agana pounced, her hooves trailing watery light behind. Ancepanox jumped back while casting a magical shield, but Agana smashed through it like a bull through glass and connected her punch against the black alicorn’s shoulder. A wave of maroon energy rippled along Ancepanox’s body from the point of impact, and she was thrown back halfway across the tower.

With Agana steadily drawing closer, Ancepanox pushed herself up. Her fur sizzled from Agana's magic. “Those scrawny legs pack a punch. Not bad for an anorexic bird-headed bitch!” She snarled. "Give back Twilight!"

“Look at her Celestiaan, acting as though she understands the potential and scale of divine power.” Agana laughed.

“Don’t intervene.” The Manifestation reminded Celestia.

The peacock alicorn charged again. When she reared back to punch, Ancepanox threw up her own hoof, casting a ward around it at the same time. The two magic-encased hooves bounced off each other with an explosion of light, from which Agana immediately followed up with her other forehoof. Too out of position to block, Ancepanox cast a microshield in an attempt to deflect the punch, but Agana adjusted and shattered it just as easily as the first one. Still, it gave Ancepanox enough time to back out of her reach, as Agana swiped down with wing and hoof.

With her strike whiffed, Agana was showing her neck, and Ancpenaox capitalized by drawing her sabre and in the same motion slashing downwards to decapitate. Agana tried to pirouette out of the way and partially succeeded, brushing the sabre away with her wing before it had done more than graze her. Ancepanox stayed on the offensive, alternating sword slashes with bolts of magic, both of which Agana was knocking aside with well-timed movements of her wings.

"I can keep this up forev-" Agana's taunt died on her tongue, as one of Ancepanox's bolts of magic burned right through her wing, scorching the feather and sinew to black. "WHAT!" She tried to block with her hooves.

Ancepanox's sabre cut through Agana's left hoof and hacked away half her foreleg. The spray of blood distracted Ancepanox momentarily and Agana jumped backwards, almost colliding with Celestia.

“Ahhh! What have you done?!" Agana gawked at her stump leg. "This... This is amazing! Beat at me, scream at me, saw at my bones until they are grit! Yes, Mooneater, yes!” Agana raised up her mutilated limb straight up. The murky eye above trembled, and the leg was healed back in a wave of dark light. "This fear I feel, this ice in my guts... It's the same that I felt before I killed my physical body. This is the way to transcend my constraints once more. Make me fear you! Make me fear god, and mercy! Oh yes!”

“SHUT UP AND DIE ALREADY!"
Ancepanox tensed up. With shocking speed, she charged forward, her horn burning bright. Agana had no effort pirouetting out of the way. But Celestia, behind Agana and not expecting the charge, was almost caught on Ancepanox's horn, before she threw herself to the floor; Most undignified.
Ancepanox slid to a halt at the opposite side of the roof and reoriented herself back towards Agana.
"I'm starting to see what you mean. Fighting for my life fills me with an energy that I never knew I needed. I felt it while killing Glori's knights, and I was utterly intoxicated by it!"

"Killing who?" Celestia muttered. "Run that back by me?"

"You're saying the quiet part loud, Mooneater." Agana grunted, clacking her beak haughtily. “I am beginning to doubt myself. Perhaps you really are that shallow. You do not kill and fight, not in service of a worldview, or an ideological praxis, but because it is... Fun?"

“Enough about ideology already. Trying to tack on some 'Ideology' to all this is just creating epistemological assumptions! This isn't a bucking society! This is a dream! I am a dreamer!" Ancepanox raged. "Hey, here's some ideology for you: Kill all alicorns. That's what I'll be chanting until I have Twilight Sparkle back. Now observe my praxis!"
Ancepanox charged again.

To the observers, Celestia and the manifestation, something has subtly changing about Ancepanox. It was like if the fight were a puppet show, and the puppeteer for the dark alicorn was doing everything a little too fast, a little too hasty. Ancepanox was getting stronger, gaining a kind of mastery over her dream form, or perhaps, her dream environment.

Anceapnox's charge cut through the air light a lightning bolt, he sabre-slashes leaving a silvery trail behind her. Agana didn't dodge this time, bracing with both her wings and hooves. They crashed together, the sabre getting locked in between Agana's pinions. Rather than withdraw and charge again, Ancepanox leaned into the attack, even shoving against Agana's wings with her shoulder. Like two rams, they pushed and pushed against each other, snorting and braying.

“Do you think I talk too much? This is not talking, like crude forms would do in the physical world! We are but points of will in a sea of thought, with coursing energy carrying concepts that our feeble consciousness struggle to apply our limited understandings to.” Agana tilting her head forward, her cold breath, ticking Ancepanox's nose. “It is the only way we may hope.”

"How many times to I have to repeat it. Give Twilight back to me!" Ancepanox growled.

Celestia didn’t understand at all what was going on. "Don't get overwhelmed." Celestia exclaimed. "She's just trying to get under your skin. Keep a hold of yourself!"

"I'm trying!" Agana shouted back cheekily.

With a roar, Ancepanox twisted whole body to try to strike with her forehooves while still maintaining pressure with the sabre. Agana flared her wings apart, wrenching the sabre from Ancepanox's grasp, then threw up her hooves to block the punch. But the sabre dissipated, reappearing Ancepanox's other hoof, and she slashed upward. Agana was cut from pelvis to shoulder, and with a startled squawk batted Ancepanox away with both wings.

"Ah! Ah! Good hit." Agana winced. "I'll get you one better, I promise."

"Agana! Ancepanox! Please stop! Something is wrong!" Celestia called out, increasingly nervous.

"Damn right somethings wrong! She's not dead yet!" Ancepanox licked the length of her blade

"If you come between us, you will be both of our target, Celestiaan." Agana huffed, waving Celestia away. "This mare has a very skewed understanding of this world. She is due some HUMILITY."

Celestia clenched her teeth. "If you keep at this, she'll snap! Stop tormenting her."

"I don't want your hollow concern." Ancpeanox rumbled. She nodded to Agana. "You promised to do me one better, didn't you? I'm waiting."

Agana nodded back. She sauntered forward, her hindlegs not quite touching the ground as she floated, until she was right in front of Ancepanox again. "You cut me badly." He rubbed a hoof over the gash on her breast, closing her eyes. "What a sin, to pain a god like this! Oh oh! I must pay you back... with like sins."

Agana's eyes flew open. She twisted her whole body around, swinging her leg around in a twirling back-hoof smash. Ancepanox leaned out of the way but Agana kept twirling, smacking her back with a wing.
Ancepanox jumped back in, trying to sever Agana's outstretched limbs with her sabre, but Agana was much more mindful of the quick blade, and danced backwards. When Ancepanox tried to strike with her hooves, Agana blocked iwth her own hooves. When Ancepanox tried to stab with her horn, Agana caught it in between her pinions, the jerked the other alicorn's head back.

"You should think twice before using a vulnerable organ in such a way. You wouldn't swing your brain about like a bat, would you?" Agana chortled.

Ancepanox screaming in impotent anger. "I'll cut your sh-"

Agana knocked Ancepanox in the side of the head with one hoof, clanging off the blue steel helmet. While Ancpeanox staggered back, dazed, Agana smashed her in the face with an elbow, and spiked her into the floor with the other hoof.

"Leave her be!" Celestia shouted from behind. "If you kill her, I- I'll show you NO MERCY."

"Relax, Celestiaan. as I said I'm just teaching her some humility." Agana said. She kicked Ancepanox in the throat, sending the smaller alicorn spinning back. “Does this not make you glad? Celestia, old friend, deep in the recesses of your memories, you know this is GOOD and RIGHT. Your progenitor kicked this phantom down. You feel something inside when you look upon that face, because you know it is what you must do too.”

Once hoof at a time, Ancepanox pulled herself up. She was once again mangled and battered, and her dreaming form was beginning to fray. “Ngg, don't listen to her Celestia. She's desperate. I have her on the ropes.”
She attacked, but was considerably slower than before. This time Agana did not bother dodging as the black alicorn slashed sideways with the corrupted sabre, instead throwing up a hoof while shifting her weight, which deflected the slash just enough to miss her torso. Ancepanox sluggishly recovered and slashed again only to miss again in the same way. Infuriated, she began a wild flurry of attacks, and each time Agana danced backwards while knocking the sabre away with just her hooves. The waltz ended with Ancepanox collapsed on the ground, struggling to take in breaths.
“I’ll bleed you white.” She promised between ragged breaths. “I’ll pull you apart like soaked meat.”

"You were doing very well before! Recapture that feeling! You're getting close to understanding the difference, why I have power and you don't." Agana said with mock encouragement.

"Ughh." Anceapnox grimaced. Laying like she was, she saw the dark blotch in the sky, that wretched eye, framed behind Agana, like a black halo.
If Agana didn't have that eye to tap into, she would be nothing. Just like how Celestia would be nothing without her Sun's power.
These alicorns... They were puppets! Pretenders! Vessels of someone else's power! They had no skill or power of their own! Ancepanox, the mare who had created herself from nothing, could rage against them all she liked... To no end.
"When was I at my best? Where do you think my power should come from?" She asked softly, grinding her teeth.

Celestia watched, numb fear creeping over her. Ancepanox's eyes… Purple though they were, they quivered with ferocious rancor like somepony else’s.
Celestia saw fleeting visions of the forgotten past, of eyes just like those staring into her own. The moon had shone brightly overhead, heralding the consuming evil that would tear apart minds and nations alike. White teeth like knives, the figure had, stained red with a Celestia’s blood.
Nightmare Moon, and the beast that called itself Ancepanox, were as one. Not similar, but nearly identical. The once-pony did not look like Nightmare Moon in the dream simply from a combanatin of ego and spitefulness... She had become that in the waking world as well! Oh, how Celestia had denied the truth to herself! 'Convergent evolution', Celestia had told herself before, and her mind had submitted to that convenient lie.

"You... You really did it." Celestia mumbled. Oh, that saucy glance Ancepanox had thrown her, when Celestia had offered her dead body to Agana in return for peace! That had been a knowing look, from a creature who'd done the same thing, but to the other sister!
Celestia tried not to imagine it, but to her horror realized the dark alicorn she'd been speaking too must have been what she now looked like in the waking world. That ancient blue steel armor, vessel for Twilight Sparkle's orphaned soul, had clasped definitively onto its old owners body, to seal in union two two sides of the Dark: Theory and practice, dream and dreamer.

The former Twilight Sparkle had not abandoned her name for fun. She had literally transformed herself into another pony with another body.

"My gods..." Celestia sunk to her knees, trembling. She tried to catch Ancepanox's glance, so she could ask her question. Not 'why', because the night's fights and argument had answered that. Celestia knew why she'd done it, but not the other question.
"Twilight... How... How could you?"

"How could I not." Ancepanox hissed under her breath. "I was a dead mare, a mere revenant bound to shitty old armor! No transgression was too much to reclaim ponyhood. Do you think I was happy, having to defile my friend? I loved Moon! She's a part of me now..." She averted her eyes, trying to push away the shame she knew she should not have been feeling.. "The other choice was your body, Celestia. But I... I couldn't touch you. I couldn't even look at you. I don't know why. Was it because I hated or loved you too much, to see you laying over Twilight like that, eternally sleeping? I thought you'd made the ultimate sacrifice. How wrong I was."

"Twilight..." Celestia mumbled. What did she want? What she she want from her former student? Acceptance and forgiveness? Understanding? Compassion or love? Celestia could not tear herself away from Ancepanox, the pony that had known her best, who'd shared her experiences, who'd warmed her heart, who was to be her heir.
Celestia fell back on her haunches. "Ooohhh... Why? Why?" She sniffled. "My sister! My sister! What is wrong with my head!"

Agana regarded Celestia’s anguish. The peacock alicorn cracked a thin, satisfied grin. She leaned over and whispered to Ancepanox. "We could kill her, you know. You could take revenge on the one who cost you everything."

But Ancepanox wasn't paying attention to her. The dark alicorn was staring off to some far off horizon, unblinking.
Displeased she could get her jollies out of her, Agana stepped away from Ancepanox and went over to bother Celestia.

"Oh Celestia, oh Celestia! This little nightmare brought doom to you and your kin! Without her, none of this would have happened. Death, Celestiaan. Death to the world of Light. As the old adage, muttered by the flagellant apostles drowning in sin, goes: Your dooms has come, as it always does, from a source of your own creation.”

Who was listening to the Suzerain of Sin anymore? They were all absorbed in their own misery. They were angry and afraid, and resentful of everything that had put them in their situation. They wished for it all to be over, for it all to have been a dream... A figment of the imagination that could never truly be. Real life would never be so cruel...

Ancepanox staired out, past the edge of the tower, to that far off horizon. Agana was still engaged with ranting nonsense at Celestia, so Ancepanox crawled to the edge of the tower unopposed.
What was out there, that had her so transfixed? She didn't know herself. Was their a horizon? Was it just more void, more emptiness? The Tower of the Bard was the only occupant of the dream... Or was it?

Ancepanox felt connected to something out there. Not literally at the horizon, but past the bounds of the dream, beyond Agana's ranting and Celestia's misery. There was more to it than the dream... But of course there was! There was a whole world up there! Not even an esoteric world of dreams and heavenly lights- The thinking, breathing, stomping, romping, WAKING WORLD.
Ancepanox felt the ponies she had connections with- Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, the fillies, Spike, Ripple Wreath- rage and storm at the injustices they had suffered. They had a shared experience, a shared motivation!
Ancepanox's personal hate alone couldn't drive her to victory. But a shared pain, a shared hate... why that was the beginning of ideology. With the powers of allies, the strength of one mare could become the power of many.

Ancepanox laughed to herself. She felt... At peace. Not at peace with her external conflicts, oh no, but with herself. She knew where her power and strength came from.

But there was still one missing element. Celestia had her sun. Agana had that malignant eye. What would Ancepanox have?

"And like I said earlier, my ideology is: Death to the alicorns." Ancpeanox said out loud.

Agana, lost in her harangue, didn't hear her. "... the central conceit of which captivated you for centuries. Utter weakness, so typical of you, Celestiaan, that I should have hoped you would strive past in..." More blithering nonsense the likes of whitch had never been heard before.

But Celestia, the target, of Agana's rant, tingled at the soft voice. She broke out of her sorrowful catatonia, sitting up and looking to Ancepanox.
Ancpeanox's eyes had gone completely black. Not a good sign. "Oh no." She gurgled. "What have we done?"

That got Agana's attention. She looked where Celestia was looking. "Finally."

"Is the Tower a sign of mortal unity and strength, or of coming together to challenge the gods? Both? " Ancepanox asked rhetorically. "That drive was inside me all along. I'm building another Tower with my new friends."

"And the world thanks you for it." Agana nodded. "At least, I certainly do. Look at her Celestia! She is reaching her potential! One Tower of the Bard wasn't enough to reach heaven. A second might do it."

"You have completely miscalculated this time." Celestia said moreosely. "This has spiraled out of control for the both of us."
Celestia’s senses tingled! She jumped back as a bolt of black energy scorched the ground where she’d stood. She looked, aghast, as Ancepanox got up and charged her magic for another bolt.

"I have the means to do it now. Theory and practice, theory and practice. I can and will hurt you." Ancepanox hissed out.
Celestia had known from the first moment that this would happen. A little filly who could blast apart a tower was a dangerous, unstable thing. A filly who set classrooms on fire out of spite for her fellow students deserved caution and sanction, not private lessons. Celestia should have known.

"I knew it would come to this, but I prayed it wouldn't."
Eight hundred years of pain postponed was catching up with Celestia, but now she only felt numb. It was always mean to to be like this: Her student, mired in hate, lashing out at her. Twilight Sparkle, was never meant to be, designed instead to be replaced by darker things.
That tragic soul, looking at her with a hatred of infinite depth, was heir to the creature of darkness she'd consumed to craft her body. It was Ancepanox, and it was Nightmare Moon.
It was fated. Nightmare Moon's victory a thousand years ago was becoming manifest.
"My sister... You are becoming my enemy."

“Glad we understand each other.” Ancepanox felt so strained could hardly breath. Her fur stood on end and her wings shook in restless upheaval. Vivid visions of her tearing Celestia apart painted themselves over her visions, so forceful she had to bite her serpentine tongue to distract her from fulfilling the murderous impulse right then and there. "Do you want it first? Or Agana?"

“Something abominable has awoken here. Something sinful.” Agana pulled her beak into a smile of pure malice. “And through Sin, conflict, and strength propel us to higher states of evolution. You, Mooneater, are getting closer to becoming a god.” She bowed. “Now we can REALLY fight.”

“Go buck yourself. NO no nononono… I’ll do one better. I’ll buck you. Yes, I'm gunna knock your block off, and then I’m going to stuff the block down your throat and RIP your stomach out to get IT BACK.” Ancepanox growled. Red began to seep into her vision. Oh how she wanted to bathe in the blood of that hulking peacock, and wear it’s collarbone like vest. It’s eyes would adorn her horn and it’s entrails would be weaved into a courtly dress! Words could not articulate how much she wanted to turn her foe into pulp and roll around in it.

"Stars above, she has really lost it." Celestia mumbled, seeing how Ancepanox trembled as she fantasized all manner of death and horror. Beating the dark alicorn, making her accept defeat, would not be enough.

"You want to attack her together?" Agana laughed, sauntering forward. "On three! One... Two..."

"Stop!" Celestia shouted.
The color of the dream changed. It took on a shade of grey, and all motion slowed, until finally it stopped. Agana was cought in mid utterance. Ancepanox was frozen while drawing her sabre. The Sun at the far horizon and the murky eye high above shined on in their different ways. Phantom Time had descended on the dream.
Did it extend to the waking world? Celestia truely didn't know. She was surprised that it worked at all in the dream. Phantom Time was a contrivance of the Sun's power. As a guest in Twilight's dream, by what right did the Sun dictate if it moved or now?
Celestia didn't know. She didn't care about the metaphysics of the thing.
"I need more time. I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready to hurt her." Celestia whispered to herself, backing away from the other alicorns. She couldn't bare to look at them, but to fight, she would have to. "H- How can I resolve to hurt my closest friend?"

She looked to the sun. Even in this frozen state, the Phantom Time, the Sun wavered ever so slightly.

"Please." Celestia begged the Sun. "Y- You can give them the memories to make them understand! If we all just... just understand, then there won't be any more fighting!"

The sun didn't answer her. It had given Celestia its power, but now it was all up to Celestia.

"She defiled my sister, I know. She wants to destroy me, I know. She could destroy Equestria, I KNOW! Is there any chance I can still save her?" Celestia shouted into the void. "What can I say? What can I do? How do I bridge the gap between us?"

There was a rustling sound behind her.
Celestia turned back around.

From out of the vines that entangled Agana's limbs, a purple hoof dropped. Twilight Sparkle pulled herself from the vines, dropping to the ground.
Twilight's appearance had changed again. Her head was entirely missing, replaced by a vauge haze of black and purple that coiled and billowed around the rest of her body too.

"T- Twilight?" Celestia stuttered.

The bloated body of the Manifestation of Sin (Celestia had forgotten it was there!) hovered over to Twilight. "Keeping track of the two Twilight's hasn't been easy on you. Heh heh. is it you're having so much trouble reconciling yourself with Ancepanox because you've pushed off all your guilt for the both of them onto her alone?"

"My guilt?" Celestia asked vacantly. She searched desperately for signs of eyes or a face in the cloud surrounding Twilight.

"The thing about you, Celestia, is that you're not a true believer. Nuh uh, not at all. So when you paint over your sins with the language and absolution of ideology, you know you're lying." The manifestation chided playfully. "If you were a Deava or Dark alicorn, that would be great for you. But you're not."

Twilight Sparkle jittered to the side, wandering unsteadily on her hooves. She moved in the direction of Ancepanox.

"Twilight!" Celestia cried out, her tears welling up.

"How did you not see this coming? You don't share their dream? You're an outsider." The Manifestation said. "If you really think you can keep control here without resorting to drastic measures, you're too sentimental."

Celestia's breath cought in her throat. Yes... She was sentimental.
She knew what she had to do if she was going to live. She'd always known.
Celestia wanted to live.
Celestia had to kill them all, like her Sun had told her.

The headless visage of Twilight Sparkle made her way to Ancepanox. The little 'unicorn' paused, then threw her hooves around the black alicorn. A spark of light passed between them.

The grey palor faded. The dream regained its color.
Ancepanox looked momentarily surprised that she was hugging Twilight. She released the smaller pony, and Twilight fell backwards, limp, to the ground. Twilight was Twilight again. There was no sign of the monstrous or mystical aspects that had marred her in the dream. What was left was plain, innocent, uncorrupted.

"Did you do that Celestia?" Ancepanox asked, whispery quiet.

"I wish I had." Celestia said.

Ancepanox's heart filled with eager anticipation. The two Twilights, the two interpretations of the nightmarish hatred of the Dark dream, were unified.
Memories, oh gods so many memories, swirled and churned within her. Ponies, coming together for a common goal, a common fight, based on shared experience... That was real strength. Shared power, honed to a point.

Agana clutched her head. "Celestiaan... Did you just use the Phantom Time from within the dream?"

"I thought I did but it was a trick." Celestia muttered. "Twilight Sparkle has spun us for a loop, and led us to help Ancepanox."

"But don't you see this is exactly what we want?" Agana asked. "This mortal was deprived of her dream. Through self-searching and exploration, she defines her life and discovers her own dream. Or rather, rediscovers! Our premise about the nature of the world is proven true when..."

As Agana droned at Celestia, neither of them were paying attention to the subject of their argument, probably because she was unusually silent.
Ancepanox was thinking, thinking building up her thoughts to the honed point they would need to be. Not in a language of ponykind, but of concepts, ideas, patterns, shapes, abstracts things that swirled and churned in her brain as she processed her assertions. The roaring words that filled her head were thus: All alicorns must be destroyed, all mortals could come together for that goal, without alicorn interference mortalkind could be the master of its own destiny.

Ancepanox tilted her head back, staring up at the dark splotch above, the malignant eye Agana had summoned. Unlike the sun, which Twilight had lived under her whole life, that eye was something unusual and unknown, but no less a representation of a magical power.
Just as she looked up at it, the enormous sky-spanning eye looked down at Ancepanox. She could feel the weight of its attention. It called itself the Corrupting Eye. It was a link to another dream, Agana's dream, which allowed the peacock alicorn to draw power from it. Such was Agana’s trick, to use power from her own dream as a crutch.

Bridging dream, connecting them together... Such a magnificent power it would be, to be able to bring together all dreamers, and lash them to the single, monumental undertaking.
That was what the Tower of the Bard meant, after all. But it could not bring its own pilgrims. The Tower relied on other creatures to bring it its builders.

Agana was still talking at Celestia. "...and nigh is the time that you shall embrace the dregs of your soul and harken to the banners of the lords of Dark. They and we shall spill out over the land, and the perfidious ponies shall face their lies with sorrowful hearts!" Agana's preaching reached fever pitch. "And now you see that the nightmare, that which is the deepest reaches of ponykind, is but a pale shadow compared to the true abyss, the true work of the Dark Lady and master of this world!"

"Agana. Agana!” Ancepanox said louder, drawing Agana’s attention. She fell to a lopsided crouch and held a hoof out, as if begging for something, or perhaps to embrace something right in front of her.
"Do you ever think about how much their is to know? Individually, even the greatest of us are sordid, ignorant beasts."

Agana was silent for a while, mulling if she would continue ranting at Celestia or address Ancpeanox's question. "I try not to. Is it not the whole point of this struggle to transcend ourselves, to join with our heavenly gods in that place where knowledge and time are meaningless? Being weighed down by individual weakness is pointless. What is weak will die. What is strong will consume the weak. That's the way Dark operates, Mooneater."

"But not how I operate. You've made a big to-do about worldview, and while you've focused on 'world', I've been thinking a lot about 'view'. I'm starting to see connections between things, so to speak. Not just in a visual sense, because after all this is a dream and we a dreamers, and everything around us is just a stew of thoughts in a pony's mind. Nonetheless I see. Light, dark, and the shapes out minds hammer it into. It compels me to consider the organ behind it all, the thing that lets us 'see' the world."
Ancepanox glanced over to Celestia. Her mentor’s suffering melancholic frown contorted her own into a grin.
“Our eyes.”

Celestia saw a ripple of distortion exploding out from Ancepanox’s horn, curling and consuming the fabric of the dream like an event horizon. Everything froze as the hole expanded to every edge of her vision.
"Sister, STOP!" She tried to jump at Ancepanox.

But Celestia was torn from Twilight's dream, and her consciousness was assaulted with waves black, then white, then a watery rose. The freezing air was filled with the wail of airry horns, and as they crescendoed to a soul shattering blare, Celestia felt the hole retract, and she was grounded once more in the relatively solid plane of a dream.

She looked up, and the world around her and Agana had changed. She was in a great cathedral library, surrounded by a million tomes of a life's wisdom stacked to the ceiling on every of a dozen floors. High above, a stained-glass oculus let a beam of dusty light shine down through its brilliant image, two snakes eating the other's tail.

"I'm beginning to see your point about things going out of control." Agana cawed.

While Celestia and Agana were thrown one direction, Ancepanox was thrown another. She tumbled in a colorful world of shapeless forms, her eyes squeezed closed, until she felt her hooves touch down on something solid again.

The moon was as grey and lifeless as it had been the previous time Ancepanox had been there. The empty and dusty plain stretched to the horizon in every direction, interrupted here and there by craters and hills. The sky above was the cleanest black imaginable, but speckled with glimmering stars more beautiful than could ever be possible on the planet below. Like little eyes, they watched, ever more pleased.

Ancepanox stood there for a while, admiring the blues and greens and yellows of Equestria. It was so small from the moon, so that she imagined for a moment she could reach of and crunch the orb between her hooves.

"I did it." Ancepanox whispered to herself. "I controlled the dream. I made it do what I wanted. I..." She let her sentance fall off. But the silence of the Moon was overpowering, and she felt compelled to keep making sound, to remind herself she still could. "I have to know more about this power- Magic that can control the Dreamscape." She knew somepony who'd have her answers.

Ancepanox didn't know how to get the Moon Princess's attention directly. There must have been a phrase or pattern she could speak to summon her, but Ancepanox opted to try something else: She knew how to get the Moon to react against her hostilely.
As she had while casting the Ritual, Ancepanox reached out to the Moon and tried to use its magic- And like last time, something pushed back, trying to punish her for the attempted theft. Ancpeanox clenched her teeth and hung on, keeping the Moon's attention for as long as possible, before it finally threw her magic back at her. Ancepanox let out a labored breath.

There was a subtle crunch from behind her.
Ancepanox allowed herself a thin smile. Her attention-getting trick had worked. She turned to the new arrival.

It was ethereal alicorn mare, diminutive and blue. Her features were reminiscent of the regal bearing of Celestia, and yet tainted by an unbelievable sadness.
"How did you get here?" The blue alicorn asked quietly.

"Eat the moon, become the moon, or the more squishy pony bits of it at least." Ancepanox laughed at her own joke. The smaller alicorn was unamused. “Some silly creatures have taken to calling me Mooneater. By comparison you got a raw deal... Isn't that right Luna?"

Luna. That was her name, wasn't it. Celestia's sister had been cursed to be forgotten, yet in a moment of weakness, or perhaps a crack in the wall, Celestia had let that word slip.
Yes, Luna.
Though Luna was not much more than a ghost of the alicorn, the spirit’s face lit up in recognition. "Luna. Luna. Luna... A raw deal, says you? But I have a name! You feel empty in that way. I feel for you, who gave up your name."

"Willingly." Ancepanox interjected. "Your choice was fated, but I did this to myself." She sucked her lip in, nodding slowly. "It's ironic. We have swapped places, you and I, after I lived my life under the sun and you on the moon."

Luna stared at Ancepanox for a long while. "Twilight?"

Ancepanox let out a laugh. "Yes I am. I got ahead of myself, and forgot to introduce myself." She bowed, tickling her nose with the moon dust. "I'm Ancepanox, the Nightmare of the Moon. Viscountess. Princess. At your service."

"Twilight, Twilight, I am not sure how to feel about this situation that has come over you... but... I am very happy to see you." Luna took a step forward. "Praytell, did you think me gone?"

"No, I knew you were alive, in some way or another. I thought you'd just be mist, or a shimmer of light." Ancepanox said. "That you're alive, aware, and talking to me is more than I could have hoped for."

"You are right to say 'in some way or another'. I am in quite a state." Luna apologized. "Don't burden yourself with me any farther. I will have a long time to consider my condition."

Ancepanox gave her a skeptical look, but obliged. "You didn't know it was me last time I reached up to the moon to tap its power."

"I remember. Nightmare Moon had just been destroyed. I..." Luna trailed off. "It has been a long, long time since I was in this form. You will forgive me if I trip over my terms. I was Nightmare Moon. I will never be able to extract myself from that idea, even if it belongs to you now."

"And it does belong to me now." Ancepanox grinned. "I fully understand your condition."

"And I yours. I didn't mean to hurt you in your time of need, denying you like you mentioned. I had just suffered loss, death, pain, and was thrown back to my moon after so brief a time on the Bright World. I was defending what I had, instinctually."

"I know. I was angry at first. I almost died." Ancepanox nodded. "I was trying to preform the Ritual, you see. I was trying to come alive again, be a pony again. Seeing my own body fight against the ponies I cared about... I was willing to fight and kill to take control of myself again. Or not even myself! Anything! I raged for agency over my path!" She growled, then sighed. "I was willing to make a victim of you and your moon, so that I could live."

Luna shook her head sadly.

"I found another way, obviously. No hard feelings." Ancepanox said. "My fellow pony suffered in your stead. Heh heh. I accidentally killed my friend Rarity. She's been given over completely to the nightmare, and that's caused a whole slew of problems."

"Killed?" Luna breathed.

"I brought her back. Yeah, Rarity's a lich now." Ancepanox cleared her throat. "At the time I didn't really confront the fact that a pony died because of my actions. I more focussed on Rarity's victimhood. If I had thought more about the consequences of my actions, perhaps this all would have ended up differently. She wasn't the last."
There was a lull in the conversation.
"This place makes me feel safe, serene. I couldn't be angry if I tried."

Luna advanced closer, cautiously like a cat. "I sense blood on your breath." She looked over the black alicorn body, manifested here for her to see. "You look as I did yet..." She ran a hoof over Ancpeanox's neck, where the flesh merged with the armor. "different" She shakily caressed seam at her nose. "mutilated. perverted."

"That's not very nice." Ancepanox frowned.

Luna sighed. "That armor was made to be put on when was was necessary. For you to have embraced my sins and the dark curse so unreservedly... It chills to guess what you are capable of."

"Merci beucoup." Ancepanox gave a mock bow. "I feel capable of a lot. I feel in charge. I got the agency I was looking for."

Luna stepped back, giving her fellow alicorn her room. Luna had bright blue eyes. Ancepanox could see her own reflection in those eyes, how her own eyes were speckled with splotches of purple.

"So now you're going to ask me what I want." Ancepanox said, leaning in.

"I am."

"I have control over my own fate. Now, I have to extend the same to the ponies that matter to me." Ancepanox said. "I need more power."

Luna sat down in the lunar dust. "Power against who? Against what?"

Ancepanox found the question amusing. "Why limit myself?"

"I hope you realize, because of all ponies you should, that the end of this night that has gripped the earth will not mean the end of the strife. One phase will end, another will begin. That's just how it is." Luna said. "Act one, God against god. Act two, god against mortal. Act three, mortal against mortal."

"What's the next stage of that dialectic?" Ancepanox asked with a snicker.

"Mortal against the ashes." Luna said. "You find this humorous? There is terror looming. You contribute to it if you are not careful."

"Yeah, you never did put much trust in pony morality." Ancepanox hummed. "Maybe that's why I had to succeed you. You see, I'm working on a thesis too. This adversarial dialectic, mortal against god, this against that... I've been hearing a lot of theories this night, but yours stuck with me. But I can't hate mortals like you do, even if they are miserable little saps. They're my... my people, you know." Ancepanox tried to smile. "So, I ask myself how I can through my strength improve their existences."

"I admire your optimism, if that is what I am truly reading in your words." Luna paused. "But you still have not explained what you want from me."

Ancepanox let silence hang for a while. "I want your legacy. If I'm going to keep mortals from destroying each other, I need to be the other half of your little dialectic. But I won't have the objective of solving or synthesizing it, no, the aim will be to freeze it. Gods willing, if mortalkind has me as their eternal, unceasing rival, they will never transition into fighting each other or gaining new and more vicious foes."

"Twilight, it's not about being foes, its about fundamental opposition. It's the way things are." Luna's immediate concerns were written on her expression. "And what is this you say, abut my legacy? I don't understand what you mean at all."

Ancepanox gestured into space. "You know. Your ancient cause. Your ancient aesthetic. Your... your dream. And I don't mean the Moon! You know the one I mean." She scowled, like she knew she would be rejected. "I've got the rest of your hand-me-downs, after all."

"But why would you desire such a dream?" Luna asked somewhat sharply. "With the benefit of hindsight, I see now that it was as much a symbol of my sins as the body you now bear. There was no justice in it, only spite. To have let what should stayed a mere dream boil into a life destroying obsession was truly my undoing. But perhaps I answer my own question."

"That you do." Ancepanox agreed.

Luna sighing, took a step towards the much taller alicorn. A spark passed between them.
Luna felt simultaneously unburdened, and as though a great part of her had been lost. When she looked again, Ancepanox was surrounded by a subtle silhouette of pulsing red and black energy that slowly faded against the cosmic backdrop.

A gust of wind rolled over the moonscape, sending up eddies of sparkling grey dust.
"Has it worked?" Luna asked cautiously.

"A moment please." Ancepanox said distractedly.
She felt like she had met an old friend after years of separation. Her mind was pouring over Luna's dream. It was same one that had been bound to the Nightmare Altar: The Everfree Throne room, aged and ruined, where Twilight Sparkle and Nightmare Moon had met every night over the months.
There was power in that dream. Ambition, pride, hatred, and all the other emotions that had compelled Luna to begin her war. They had waited for a thousand years until captured and directed within the Nightmare Altar. What a perfect bait it had been for the latent and sleeping darkness of Twilight Sparkle.

Ancepanox felt her stomach growl, but she wasn't hungry. If Celestia had had a hart time telling apart the old and new Nightmare of the Moon before, she would be having conniptions after. The dark princess was coming back together, minus its weakest link, Luna.

She let out a little breath, nodding to Luna. "It's all there."

"You are making me apprehensive. I've accepted, LONG past accepted actually, that it is not my role to lord over ponykind. In the deeper decadences of my nightmare I forgot that." Luna said. "I am not the pony to tell you your path-"

Ancepanox tilted her head. She was hearing echoes of Celestia's faux-concern.

"But consider if you are taking this path because you think it is best for ponykind and your friends, or because it is best for you." Luna concluded.

"Nothing is 'best for me'. Like you, I accepted that I would not be materially enriched for my choices." Ancepanox said.

Luna threw her counterpart a sidelong look. "You know that's not what I mean."

"Why do you even care? You don't have a horse in this race anymore." Ancepanox snorted. "You confuse me, Moon."

"That I once walked down your path, does it not concern me? Am I wrong to wonder if it was my personal failings, or the inherent weakness of the dream that led to my ruin?" Luna reminisced. "There is more than a glimmer of similarity between you and I now. It's... disconcerting to see so frightful a reflection, and yet... Well, I won't retread my rude comments. I almost feel the need to impose my choice and discretion upon you. What will you do, acting in skin that pulsed around my bones, that grew from my flesh? I wish that I did not need to wait, for these questions do so burn in my heart."

"Believe me, I want those questions answered too. But I don't even have the luxury of sitting around and waiting." Ancepanox kicked up a little dust. "Hee hee, it's almost a forgone conclusion between us isn't it, that if I go back I'll be the lord of the entire planet."

"Yes. With Celestia gone back to her sun, and me here on my moon, you will be the face of the divine." Luna agreed sadly. "Barring other unforeseen factors."

"Indeed." Ancepanox felt a tug of morose fancy! Luna didn't know about the way Celestia had lived on in Twilght's dream, or about Agana, or Myriadess's death, or any of it.
And that state of affairs would continue for the moment.

For several minutes they sat in silence, listening to the lunar winds sing over the dunes.

"I have to go. I'll be back sometimes soon." Ancepanox promised. "And then you shall have answers and so, hopefully, will I."

"Until next time, Nightmare of the Moon." Luna curtsied. "By the gods and stars, I hope that you discover what that title means, and how you may embody it."

"My lady." Ancpeanox bowed back. "Now watch this. I dream-walker I've become, by watching and learning."
She faced away, and prepared herself for the final step. An eye opened in the air, that abyssal hole from which no light escaped, a cosmic eye. "See you when I see you." Ancepanox stepped into the event horizon, which shrank down to nothingness behind her.

The ghost of the moonscape was left to stare wistfully at the planet she'd lost forever.

"What is this place?" Celestia asked herself, observing her new surroundings.
To be honest, Celestia had thought leaving Twilight Sparkle's dream would immediately kill her. But there she was, in a different environment, a different dream.
But the longer she stood there, taking it in, the more Celestia's chock and horror grew.

There was no mistaking what that grand architecture, a kind of vaulted cathedral-library, was: Ancepanox had somehow dragged them into her own dream. There was a bone-chilling atmosphere to the place, like one would find in a catacomb, completely at odds against the open and breezy architecture.

"Oh goodness." Celestia whispered to herself. "I have been set up."
The cathedral-library was built around a voluminous atrium, and Celestia stood on one of the highest levels, looking over the mezzanine down the floors to the bottom. Above her, through the colorful skylight, was clear skies as blue and beautiful as on the loveliest day in waking world. But that sky was empty! Celestia could no longer feel her Sun, or the thrumming power it had given her. She felt castrated, like her guts had been torn out.
Perhaps it had been planned, or had been a last second ploy, Ancepanox had cut Celestia off from the source of her strength.

"Why? Why would she do this?" Celestia sense of inevitable doom only grew.

Agana, on the same mezzanine as Celestia, laughed melodiously. Her beaky grin had broadened to terrifying proportion. "Is something wrong, Celestiaan?"
A shadow passed over the skylight- Agana’s familiar, the great corrupting eye, HAD followed them. It was circling and peering through the windows of the cathedral-library.
"What does it mean when a dog shows it's belly to you, or when a lion bares its neck, or a soldier kneels and bows his head?"

"You actually don't think she's surrendering." Celestia said. 'This is an offensive move. She is not vulnerable here like you think."

There was movement from the corner. Twilight Sparkle's dreaming form had come along with them, still limp and unaware. Celestia moved closer to Twilight, crouching protectively over the small pony- Twilight was at greater risk away from the Tower. Thankfully Agana now was seeming completely apathetic to Twilight now, having transitioned all her attention and intentions onto Ancepanox.

But that did not mean Twilight was out of harm's way. Especially not in this dream, where an air of tremendous pain and turmoil hung heavy in every corner.
"Agana, something is not right with this place." Celestia whispered. "If you have no more use of us, please send us back to the Tower."

"Oh Celestia, do you beg? I don't know what to make of you. Why didn't you help your student when she was fighting me?" Agana laughed. The peacock alicorn wandered around the library, peering down the rows of bookcases, striding in circles around the reading tables and piles of books positioned here and there. "That you would descend to a state most pathetic there was no doubt, but this is a level far beyond even I imagined. Ha ha ha! This is everything I forwas and more, for..."
Agana continued rambling as she disappeared down another row of bookcases.

Celestia used the other alicorn's willing distractedness to retreat, taking Twilight under her wing and going in the opposite direction. She felt helpless, more than a little afraid, and more than anything angry. Celestia limped her way through the maze of bookcases to one of the corner stairwell inset into the wall.

"...and what a fascinating juxtaposition, is it not? Compare this introspective and enclosed space to the infinite monolithic grandeur of the Tower. But are they not both adulations to heaven?" Agana's harsh voice echoed as she knocked over pedestals and rifled through the piles of scrolls. "Both are as much a key to controlling their owner. Dreams and dreamers, one and the same."
Among the sound of books clattering to the ground, there was the sound of something glass shattering. "Oops." Agana titered.

Celestia darted into onto the spiral staircase, and crept down to the lower floors. "I have to find my way out of this place. I have to go back to Twilight's dream." She whispered to herself.
She should have known that Dark alicorns would inevitably ally against her. Past considerations and sentimentality would only hurt her in the end. That was just the way things were.
Celestia knew she should have listened to her mother Sun and killed them all, but could she still believe that when she had to face Ancepanox eye-to-eye?

Confusingly, the ground floor was already disturbed, with most of the tables smashed and chairs overturned. A smear of dried blood extended from the far wall to right under the serpentine oculus skylight, at the center of the atrium. Celestia saw a pile of black vines, dead and dried.
With Agana still ranting on the floor above, Celestia ventured to inspect the old tangle of vine. At its center was a small chunk of silvery metal, split down the middle. Though its paint was scratched and flaking, Celestia could recognize the delicately painted red eye.

"Myriadess." She breathed. Like a grotesque trophy, Ancepanox had manifested proof of her kill into her dream.

There was a rustling sound, and Celestia saw a hint of movement in the dark in every corner of the bookcases around her. Creatures of the dream had come to inspect the trespassers. Hundreds of slitted purple eyes and the predatory faces behind them watched unblinkingly. Ghostly nightmare-like apparitions, impressions and iterations of the dark alicorn, each a clone of that ragged black alicorn body.
Seeing that Celestia had noticed them, they smiled thinly before disappearing deeper into the shadow of the bookcases and tables.

Running was all Celestia could think to do, but the library seemed inescapable, omnitemporal, crushing in its vastness and closedness. Every book and scroll, bearing the memories of a life turned tragic, spelled out to Celestia a promise of certain and unavoidable doom.
"What is wrong with this place? Why does it feel so... unclean? The gleaming marble, the immaculate books. But a sickness lay underneath.

From the floor above her she heard the deep and churning growl of dark magic, and the airy whine as it tapered off.

"Ancepanox." Celestia whispered, looking up time to see the dark alicorn vault from above, landing on a table.

"Celestia." Ancpenaox bowed. "Do you like this place? I made it myself. Not inherited, not given by god, MADE." She hopped off the table. "A library is fitting, isn't it? Not only on the aesthetic level, but the meaning: A place of knowledge, accessible, open, welcoming, and collective. This is my corollary to the Tower."

"Gods preserve me, what a monster you are." Celestia muttered, staring emptily at the black alicorn. She couldn't stop thinking about how her sister's body had been twisted into that shape, a perverted remaking by a cursed soul. It made her so very very angry.

"Why thank you. That means a lot to me, coming from you." Ancepanox smiled and nodded. "I can't be a mortal any more, and I refuse to be an alicorn. What else can I be besides a monster? It's the only category left for me."

"Twi-" Celestia caught herself. Every instinct revolted at the notion of addressing the nightmare before her, but she forced herself. "Ancepanox, though this place's aura is like poison to me, I must stay to see this through. We can still ally. Agana is still here, and still powerful. The prospect of her victory is very real, despite your expanded power."

Ancepanox chuckled. "Are you saying that because you're cut off from your sun?"

Celestia ground her teeth. "Obviously I am. But together we-"

"What's this 'we' business? I rejected you several times already, and it's fairly inevitable I will turn on you again."

From what Celestia had heard and seen, it was almost certain. "Yes, you will turn on me."

"And I desecrated your sister, and you probably think I'll cast your empire into centuries of anarchy, and I threatened to kill you, and I threatened to rape you..." Ancepanox counted off. "I did a fair bit of yelling and threatening actually."

"The yelling is... excusable." Celestia said.

"I'm insane. I'm careening off a cliff. That's how it much look to you at least. The execution of my plans requires me to destroy you. Aren't I the antithesis to everything you supposedly stand for?" Ancepanox leveled. "And somehow, you still want to reach out to me. Maybe I'm not the insane one here."

Celestia tensed, for she openly admitted to herself that Ancepanox terrified her like nothing else. Twilight had been the wheel around which the fates of so many had spun, before catching and breaking and burning. "Sister, I know for certain that Agana is a threat to Twilight. That's all that matters to me right now. For her, I shall bear it."
Celestia let Twilight slip out from the wing where she'd nestled her. She set Twilight in one of the study chairs, and stepped around behind it. "This is our common cause, Ancepanox. She is the reason we will work together, despite our differences."

Ancepanox tapped her hoof, thinking it over. After a moment she laughed. "You make a sound argument." She let Celestia be hopeful for a heartbeat. "But no. Piddle off. I'll never accept your help ever again."

"Sister-"

"SHUT the BUCK UP." Ancepanox growled. "I'm not you sister. I'd have killed myself, having to live my life knowing I was kin to a thing like you, Celestiaan."

"You dare say that wearing her skin-"

"I'll say whatever I want! This is MINE now!" Ancepanox shouted over her. "What are you going to do? Who are you going to report me to? Ooh, the guard? The army? Your nation? Pissants, all of them. Every single one of them. I'm on top now."

Celestia gnawed her bottom lip, silently burning in her raging resentment.

"And you know, I'm on top BECAUSE of them. I'm the mortal above all others, but if there were no ponies, there'd be no me. I'm their SIN." Ancepanox chuckled. "You can't kill me until you kill every single pony on this earth. That's who I am, Celestiaan. I'm the corollary of the Tower, n'est pas?"

"I don't know who you are." Celestia whispered. "Get this over with."

"You'd like that." Ancepanox sniggered. "Stay put for me. I have bigger threats to deal with."

"You can't defeat Agana alone. You KNOW that." Celestia hissed.

"Keep watch on Twilight. It's all your good for anymore." Ancepanox grinned, showing off her knife-like teeth. She cantered into the shadows leaving Celestia alone again with Twilight.

Somewhere above them, Agana's ranting still rang out, echoed around and down through the library. All alicorns would die, Celestia thought. It reminded her of an old memory, of a Celestia long past gone, and it said god against god, god against mortal, mortal against mortal.

Agana eventually realized nopony was listening to her. She went silent, and took in her surroundings more fully. On the bookcase beside her were thousands of books of varying sizes.
Agana scanned the book titles. They read out names like 'My first kite', 'Playing Hopscotch with Shining', and 'Another Day of Hating my Classmates'. Agana wondered if there was anything hidden among the books, a special memory that gave some special insight into the dream-owner's nature.

A small black tome caught Agana's eye. It was very thin and had been shoved to the back of the bookcase where it had gathered dust and spiderwebs, a memory that hadn't been visited in a long time. Agana pulled it with a hoof out and dusted off its cover. 'Neighbor's Cat Kills a Songbird'.

Creaking sounds and the clip of horseshoes on stone let Agana know the other alicorns were creeping up on her. She craned her head around, her wings flapping in agitation.

Ancepanox stepped to the entrance to the bookshelf aisle. "Are you enjoying yourself?" Her tone was courteous but her eyes betrayed a seething violence.

"Very much, yes." Agana opened up the little black book and skimmed over the index.
The memory of 'Neighbor's Cat Kills a Songbird'. The memory had been made when Twilight was just a filly, a few weeks before her seventh birthday. "I wanted to get to know you better. I wanted to see if I could discover why you of all ponies had the Tower of the Bard."

"I don't know and I don't care." Ancepanox said. "The same can't be said of you and Celestia. Your fawning is honestly disconcerting."

"Don't get cocky. I need your dream, not you. If I could use the one without the other, I would." Agana flipped through the book.

'Twilight Sparkle was looking out her window one day when she noticed the neighbor's tabbycat playing with a little red bird. The filly rushed outside and shooed the cat away but it was too late. The little red bird died of its injuries.
The next time she saw the cat, Twilight threw rocks at it. Her big brother asked her what she was doing and when she told him Shining simply said the cat didn't know any better. Twilight accepted that answer, and after that she only felt sorry for the poor ignorant cat.
The month after, when Twilight learned how to summon magical fire, she burned the cat alive and threw it's body on the roof for the other birds. If a cat could not know better, it was up to Twilight Sparkle to bring the justice to them.'

Where the rest of the book was printed in orderly script, the last paragraphs were scrawled hastily in charcoal mixed with blood. Agana closed the book and put it back. "This memory isn't real, is it. You've gone far enough in your act of self-recreation that you are building memories out of whole cloth."

"What you see is what you get." Ancoanox said. "I couldn't go on existing like this- a fissured, disparate creature. I have to bring the past into line with the present or I'd go crazy."

"It's very impressive, and ambitiously transformative." Agana walked towards the other alicorn. Ancepanox gave her space, so Agana could exit the bookcase aisle. "But you are still thinking within the context of systems. You haven't reached for the full possibility of personal attainment." She leaned to the bannister over looking the atrium, making it creak with her weight. "You care too much to completely cast away the connections to the creatures that are holding you back. You can't bring yourself to sin against them to elevate yourself higher."

"That's right. It's not because I'm particularly empathetic, but because I need them." Ancepanox said. "I don't have a structural ideology, and really, I've gotten very annoyed with you trying to fit me in one."

Agana fluttered her wings. "It is good to be annoyed, is it not? You are starting to make your ideas more concrete, more capable of insult. That annoyance is existential, as you start to feel opposition press against your state of being."

"Sure, whatever. I'm done arguing."

"Yes. Even I am tiring of it." Agana squawked. She looked around but couldn't see Celestia anywhere. The sun princess must have been moving to an ambush position. "But before we fight again, I have a question. That power you summoned was clearly an 'eye' of a sort..."
She turned fully towards Ancepanox. "It was not very large. Barely bigger than you and I. Yet somehow, you were able to me Celestia, me, and my corrupting eye." She nodded upwards to the dark splotch in the vast skies above the skylight. The eye-shaped splotch blinked.

"That'll be my secret, Agana, and the prize if you can best me in this fight." Ancepanox said. bowing her head, She took a few steps backwards, then fell into her ready pose.

"No Mooneater, you SOUL will be my prize. HEAVEN will be my prize. This is our last bout!"
Agana's helical horns came alight with magenta magic.

Ancepanox's sabre shimmered into existance, for her to snap out of the air and brandish. "Death! Death! Death!"

The entire dream and everything in the cathedral-library seemed to buckled inwards towards them; Glass and stone cracked, the air grew heavier, pages turned and scrolls crumpled. It was a spell specifically designed to cripple a dream.

Ancepanox screamed and charged froward.
Agana cocked her head back and laughed. She flared her wings apart, crouching on her hindlegs, and crossing her forelegs.
Ancpeanox crashed against the larger alicorn, her cuirass impacting on the crossed hooves and her sword impaling into Agana's neck. Snarling, Ancepanox tried to pull the sword across and decapitate Agana, but Agana folded her wings against her back, pinching the sword in place. Agana headbutted Ancepanox, once, twice, beating her back with the third headbutt then putting her whole momentum in a driving kick. Ancepanox was driven into the bannister, all the breath driven from her.

"AGANA!" Ancepanox resummoned her sword and plunged it down, right through Agana's outstretched leg and into the marble floor. The peacock alicorn was trapped like a hair in a snare, and when Ancepanox spun around and bucked her she flopped on her back like a flour sack. Ancepanox accentuated this by stomping with all her might on the pinned leg, bending it far past normal. Agana, howling into the wind, tore her mutilated leg free with a spray of blood.

"MOOONEATER!" AGANA roared, pouring even more energy into her spell.
The walls began to bend and several floors split apart, dropping millions of books all around them in a rain of paper and papyrus. Bookcases exploded into splinters, iron lecterns aged into rust then blew apart, tables and chairs twisted themselves into contorted star-like shapes before imploding. The destruction of Ancepanox’s dream was nothing short of apocalypse.

Ancepanox jumped up, intent on crashing down on Agana again, but the destructive maelstrom caught her and pushed her back to the ground. When she stood up again, she was looking ravaged- patches of her fur were burning holes of dark magic, showing the true damage on dream on her dreaming form. The black alicorn was utterly determined though, and she grabbed her sabre and staggered towards where Agana was laying.
Her sneer damn near split her face, her fangs bared, her eyes wild with hate-consumed fire. Another gust of the dark maelstrom, and most of her face was gone, but the blue steel armor was still there, holding the sabre over Agana, preparing for the kill.

Celestia jumped from the aisle, punching with all her might, connecting against Ancepanox's shoulder. The black alicorn resisted for a second, just long enough to look at the sun princess, then withered into dust that was immediately carried away on the screaming wings circulating in the cathedral-library.

The great skylight at the top of the atrium was the last thing to break, shattering inwards and outwards simultaneously, adding millions of stained shards to the tornado of debris inside around them. The corrupting eye looked in through the new hole, bearing witness to the death of dream and dreamer.

Everything began to calm down. The maelstrom of wind and magic died down.
Agana propped herself up, saving the immense pain she felt in her neck and leg. Celestia was breathing hard, hunched over, refusing to look at anything but the floor.

"Amazing, Celestiaan. Amazing." Agana squawked, rattled how close to death she'd been, but above that was the immense satisfaction she'd just cleared the last obsticle to everything she every wanted. "So, am I to take this dream and use it to ascend to heaven, while you slink off with Twilight Sparkle?"

Celestia sighed deeply, cradling the hoof she'd punched with. "Yes."

Agana grunted contemptuously, waiting for her magic to heal back the damage she's sustained. "And to think I entered into this night believing wholeheartedly that destroying you was my ticket to freedom."

"Stop talking. Just- Just do what needs to be done." Celestia said curtly, her voice wavering, holding back some unquantifiable emotion.

"Naturally, Celestiaan. I don't want to stay longer than I must, even though there is so much to say." Agana stood up to her full height, trying to act as though she had not just had her life saved. "This dream must be used before it withers. Only..." Agana crossed her forelegs cautiously. "I don't detect that this dream is falling apart like it should when the dreamer dies."

Celestia looked up from the floor, fear crossing her features. "Don't look at me. I'm not doing this."

Agana uncrossed her legs, looking around the library urgently. "No. No. I refuse to believe I miscalculated so much two times in a row. No!"
At every corner of the library, there was subtle movement. The utterly disheveled and destroyed state of things, with bookshelves, books, and tables rippled to shreds, was slowly being reversed. Books stitched themselves back together from scraps, bookshelves from splinters, and the oculus skylight from slivers of glass.

"Maybe she wasn't bluffing about being immortal." Celestia muttered. "But I'm sure I killed her. I could feel her soul breaking."

Across the atrium, the library reformed itself back to pristine condition. For a brief moment, the deep shadows at the corners of the room sparkled, as if dozens of eyes were all opening and closing at once.

"We have to leave. We have to leave now." Celestia hissed at Agana. "Use your eye and get us back to Twilight's dream!"

"Wait, I want to see how this plays out." Agana cooed.

"There!" Celestia pointed, voice panicked.
A pinpoint of darkness, the sphere of dark magic Celestia had come to associate with Ancepanox's strange dream magic, bloomed into existance on the opposite side of the atrium.
"How did you do it? I felt you die." Celestia shouted at the sphere.

There was no answer. The sphere of dark just hung in the air, while the rest of the dream pulled itself back into place. The debris around Agana and Celestia gathered and congealed, reforming into the chairs, shelves, and books they once were.

"I think she's taunting you." Agana said. The peacock alicorn was getting nervous too. "The parallel to the Phantom Time is not accidental."

Celestia was struck by a singularly horrifying thought. What if the sun had been kept out of this dream by its own volition?
With Agana still lost in thought, Celestia had to act on her own initiative. She galloped to the stair and took it down to where she had stashed Twilight Sparkle.

Agana mulled over her options. She still didn't know what exactly was going on. The dark sphere churned and swirled within itself, giving up no secrets.
"How does one give a sense of the 'collective' on a dream? Hmm, with the Tower, all came together to build up the hierarchal. With the library..." She rubbed her beak idly, working out the puzzle. "The Tower breaks, the Tower reforms, but it only broke once, across many times and cycles..."
She leaned on the bannister, staring into the dark sphere. "Is the same true of you? Can you break and reform? Yes... Yes... But why?"

Before Agana could pursue her questioning further, the dark sphere trembled and receded back into a pinprick. Ancepanox was left standing there, just the same as always. The two alicorns locked eyes.

"Ahh, I'm grasping it now. It was not you who died. It was another dreamer, linked to you. A proxy." Agana cawed. "I see it! You have hunted so many ponies. They reside within you, collective but distinct, complementary, like books on a shelf."

"I told Celestia she'd have to kill every pony on the planet if she wanted to hurt me." Ancepanox said boldly. "It hurt a lot, but I survived the worst you can throw at me."

Agana growled in building anger. Her feeling of triumph was slipping away. "If I can't break you, I have to bend you."

"We're past the climax. You know I already won." Ancepanox laughed to herself. With a flash of light, she teleported across the atrium, right in front of Agana. "But I'll finish it nevertheless."

Agana would not let it end, not while she could feel victory on her tongue! She launched herself up into the air and plunged down at Ancepanox from above, hooves glowing with energy. Ancepanox disappeared into the depths of another bloom of the cosmic eye, reappearing on a higher floor across the voluminous central atrium of the library.

“I made a dangerous gamble. I didn't know if I would survive.” Ancepanox said. “But the fight is over now. I WILL beat you. Surrender.”
With a lazy flick of her horn, all damage that remained in the library was set right. The stained glass image of the skylight occulous, two snakes eating each others tail, reappeared.

"You were lucky last time! Repeat your victory and I might consider it." Agana shouted back. "I'll destroy you a thousand times if I have to, if it brings me to heaven!"

Celestia listened to the exchange from the ground floor. She felt very cold. It made a disgusting kind of sense now- Ancepanox was using other ponies' dreams like Celestia did her sun, or Agana her eye.
The prospect numbed Celestia's mind. She was revulsed more than she could even articulate. Ancepanox was putting mortals in the place of gods, not just rhetorically, but in a very real sense.
It had gone too far. Ancepanox needed to be stopped. Celestia had to end her student's decedance no matter what it cost.
She looked down at Twilight Sparkle, limp in one of the reading chairs. No matter what it cost... Save one.

Ancepanox let Agana come to her. The peacock alicorn was agitated and aggressive, climbing onto the bannister and launching herself up to her level. But as soon as she was on her hooves, Agana was on the defensive, facing down Ancepanox and her sabre.
The duel was much less dramatic than the previous. Ancepanox sliced down with her sabre, and when Agana blocked with her hooves, she slid the sword to the side, cutting off the limb at the joint. Agana, tried to strike out with her remaining foreleg, grazing against Ancepanox's helm and shearing off her ear. Ancepanox got in even closer, headbutting Agana in the neck and pushing her over.
Agana let out a choked squawk, trying to regain her balance, but Ancepanox was on top of her, speeding her collapse. The peacock alicorn fell ungracefully onto her back, a tangle of wings and vines, with Ancepanox standing on top of her.

"Yeah, I noticed pretty early on how vulnerable your neck is." Ancepanox said, adopting a lecturing tone. "Once I close in your vision is blocked by your own beak. If I had to give the biggest reason you lost, it was because you adapt about as quickly as a brick. You had to literally die to learn there was more to your existance, another way to exist."
Ancpeanox twirled her sabre around and stabbed it down into Agana windpipe. "But I have to hand it to you, that same stubbornness makes you as tough as a brick as well. I've almost become fond of you."

Agana, struggling to breath around the sabre stuck through her windpipe, gapsed an inaudible plea to the looming dark alicorn.

“Just a little more, and your skull will pop right off.” Ancepanox snickered, wiggling the sabre. “Tell me you feel the same. Tell me you've grown too fond of me to fight me anymore. We're good friends now, right?"

Agana reached up and pushed the sabre off her windpipe just enough to wheeze.

"What was that now?" Ancepanox leaned closer.

“p- please! I- I surrender to you!”

“Ha!” Ancepanox yanked out the sabre and wiped the blood off on Agana’s furred torso. “I feel pretty good about myself right now. I'm verging on immortal, beat the crap out of my most dangerous detractor..." She fell silent, her expression becoming clouded. "Well, second most dangerous."
Ancepanox trotted to the baniister, looking up and down the atrium. There was no sign of Celestia. Just to be sure, Ancpeanox glanced behind herself, in case the sun princess was planning another surprise attack."

Agana, panting and whining, rolled onto her stomach. "The Celestiaan is looking for a way out."

"Obviously." Ancpeanox brooded. "Caught your breath yet? No? Well maybe that’s for the best.” She crouched and put her mouth to Agana’s ear. She paused, relishing the feeling of control, of dominating. “Be a good girl for your new mistress, your new Dark Lady. I require a tribute. A sacrifice. Go and kill Celestia for me.”

Chapter 47: The Way it has to Be

Rainbow Dash had a lot going through her head, as she was blasted backwards off the second floor of the Everfree Castls's library. Mostly, pain. The fall seemed to last an eternity. The dark mist licked and curled around her, making her see things. The light swam before her eyes, changing between the foggy castle library and enshadowed forest glimpsed beyond the crumbling walls. Then she only saw the mist.
Dash hit the ground with all the grace of a falling tree. Her jaw smacked the ground with enough force to shatter a normal ponies', but in the borrowed alicorn body it served only to send a disorienting blast of pain through Dash's head. For a moment, Dash almost thought she was back in her own body, that she could feel ropes digging into her skin, and that the forest she'd seen was much closer. That feel faded, much to her chagrin.
Dash rolled into a sitting position and dry heaved. If Ancepanox had eaten anything recently the immense dizziness she was feeling would have assuredly made her vomit.

“That was was a hell of a fall. I haven't had one like that since the South Chitin Sea.” Dash mumbled, wiping the dust and drool off her snout.

A muted sound echoed around her. Rarity was making sounds up on the second floor. Dash prayed the obscuring fog worked both ways, and Rarity couldn't see her from the advantageous position.

Cautiously, Dash stood up. Her took one step and slipped on something, clattering to the floor again. Her knee knocked against something very sharp, cutting the skin.
Dash stifled a shout, cursing her accident-prone luck. She stayed still to make sure Rarity couldn't hone in on the ruckus, in which time the alicorn body's natural healing mended the cut.

During her second attempt at standing up her hoof bumped against what had cut her knee and sent it clattering across the floor. However the noises from above had abated- Rarity must have sought an alternative way into the library.
Dash stumbled around in the black fog, trying to regain her bearings. Even with a nightmare’s increased night-vision, she could hardly see a hoof in front of her face. She tripped over a fair few book piles before she came face to face with the mystery object she'd been bumping into.
It was a sword, somewhat like the cutlass backswords she’d used on ships before, but much thinner. The particular make of sabre was used by cavalryponies for slashing during a charge. Although the small armory stamp declared it to be of Manehattan make, such sabres were much more common amongst the pegasi, for earth ponies preferred lances for their knights, and unicorns preferred maces and halberds.

“Where'd this come from?” Dash hummed, turning the silvery sword over. There was something strangely enrapturing about the sabre. It was discolored, like it had been soaked in ink and poorly cleaned. Dash wasn't magically educated to explain it's sensation at the touch: She could almost swear it was vibrating, or fighting to get out of her grasp, but that feeling was purely mental. With a jolt, Dash realized it made her feel the same way as the crescent chasm south of the Everfree Castle, that had so overwhelmed her when she'd gone in to get water.

“This must be Ancepanox's. ” Dash reluctantly tucked the cursed sword under a wing. If it was going to come down to a fight with Rarity, an actual weapon would give her a chance.

But having lost chance of Rarity, Dash ran the real risk that the murder-bent unicorn would beeline to the altar and wait in ambush. That was just fine, since Dash was much more concerned about keeping Rarity distracted for as long as possible- Dash just needed to wait for Ancepanox to come out of the dream.
Then again if the past few days were any lesson, it was to never underestimate the power of things to be completely bizarre and weird.

“With how thick this fog is, the source must be really close.” Dash whispered to herself. "Rarity's altar might be in this very library."
Dash had to contend with both her own impulses, and how she imagined Rarity would act. Rarity had been wild, instinctually predatory- Dash bet that she would be on the prowl, searching for where her prey was hiding.

For a few minutes after Dash's plummet, Rarity stayed on the balcony. She stood still, trying to pick out by eye and ear where the alicorn body had fallen. There were a few muted sounds, but they came from several locations at once, and for sight the fog was far to thick to see any movement.
One by one, she pulled out the wooden splinters from the banister from her face, and indulged in the sharp sting as the wounds healed themselves. Alternating waves of blinding hatred and soothing pain radiated over her.

Rarity finally unclenched her jaw. It was time to start hunting again. She unwound her makeshift scarf, the tapestry her soul was bound to, and uncreased the folds. Satisfied it would hang elegantly when tied, she rewrapped it about her neck, taking care to make sure none of her glowing mane was caught.
Her head pounded with throat-clenching urges. KILL KILL KILL, they demanded.

“Never rush a lady.” Rarity harrumphed. She turned from the edge of the balcony and sought out the nearest stairwell. She had no idea where Dash would be heading now that visual contact was lost. Rarity would have to think strategically, and root the infuriating creature out of wherever it was hiding.

From her hiding spot among the bookshelves on the ground floor, Celestia watched Ancerpanox heave Agana over the side and tossed her down the atrium. The peacock alicorn flailed her wings to no avail, and she smashed through a table before coming to rest in the debris on the floor.

Agana whispered and muttered under her breath, her intonation changing between raging and whimpering rapidly. The back-to-back beatdowns was breaking the peacock alicorn's psyche. She struggled upright, her wings drooping.

"Celestiaan!" Agana finally said something loud enough to be overheard. "Celestia! Celestia! I need to talk to you."

Celestia waited in the shadows a few moments longer, then creapt forward. “Having trouble?” She whispered.

“Ehh... Celestiaan.” Agana clutched her head. She had a thin hole in her neck that whistled when she breathed. The murky light of the corrupting eye in the sky could not quite reach her through the stained glass skylight oculus anymore, and the wound could not heal. "I'm falling apart. This is how I felt before I destroyed my physical body. But there is nowhere left to withdraw to. This is my last resort." She gurgled.

“You seem unable to handle Ancepanox, on her own.” Celestia observed quietly.

Agana was far to disoriented to read into Celestia's tone. "She has replaced the old Nightmare of the Moon in every way. I'm reeling right now... I have been beaten at my own game. She developed a dream magic far more potent than mine."
She clacked her beak, holding her head up to face down Celestia. "I have to kill you, for her to spare me."

Celestia stood unmoving. “She's just going to kill you anyway. You must know this."

“Prepare yourself!” Agana’s demand came as a choked plea. “Do it! Now!”

“And even if she spares you, what will you do with the rest of your existance? What corner of the dreamscape would you shamble into, while Ancepanox dives deep and high, coming closer to the truths you would kill for?” Celestia arched a brow. “You were so proud, not half-an-hour ago. Now you are doing the crude math of a slave, pecking at survival.”

Agana took a step away so she was under the overhang of the floor above, out of Ancepanox’s potential line of sight, however much that mattered.
"If she comes down here, she will destroy us both! I have to think in my best interest here. If I survive, I may yet convince her of the propriety of my beliefs." Agana knew she was rambling for her own benifit more than Celestia's, for her panic only grew at Celestia's passive expression. "What else am I to do? Terror grips me! I don't want to die.”

“Nopony wants to die." Celestia said. Her brow furrowed. "Ancepanox didn't send you down here to fight me. That much is certain. She knows we will cooperate."

"This goes beyond opportunism, Celestiaan. We did some fabulous work together in our day, but that hour has passed." Agana said in a rushed mumble. "You betrayed me. I betrayed you. Whichever! I trust you even less than I do her."

Celestia remained silent.

"Your surprise attack did nothing against her. We can't beat her." Agana paced in a very tight circle. "There is no escape either! I'm sure she has devised some way to constrain us in here, to prevent us returning to Twilight Sparkle's dream. I know for certain the power of my dream is being interdicted! It makes my brain feel like mush without it."

Celestia's scowl deepened. "Ancepanox seems to think I am much more desperate and panicked than I am. Yes, I am desperate, but I am not panicked." She tisked. "I have no power without my sun. I would be powerless to resist. Ancepanox wants to see what horrible things I do, in my desperate." She laughed to herself. "Looking for poetry, my faithful student?"

"What are you even talking about?" Agana whimpered. "Dark Lady, Dark Lady, please deliver this sinner who has lost her crown. I was unworthy of you. Let me live! Let me live!"

"Worldviews and ideology isn't doing much for us now. We need power to triumph." Celestia said to herself. "I need power."

Agana continued to rant and whimper, indecisive, confused. She didn't notice Celestia creeping closer.

"Fundamentally, Ancepanox is elevated by communal power: The Tower, the Ritual, this Library, and shared dreams..." Celestia said to herself. "Can I fight fire with fire, or do I double-down on hierarchal power?"

"Alicorns can't preform the Stars' Ritual, Celestia." Agana burried her head in her hooves, then draped herself with a wing. "What would we even sacrifice?! Would it even work in a dream?"

Celestia stood Agana, her upright stance looming over the cowering peacock alicorn. "Follow my logic here. According to the Stars' Ritual, complimentary dreams plus great power equals divine magic, AKA an alicorn." Celestia said, lacking no resolve in her expression and movements. “If we flip the equation, is it not true that an alicorn can be broken down, yielding dreams and great power?"

Agana gave a halfhearted shrug. "What does it matter Celestiaan? This will end in death for us anyway."

Celestia flicked her gaze upwards, where Ancepanox would be waiting for one of their deaths. “You wanted to see what I would resort too. You are in for the show of a lifetime, sister."

Contrary to Celestia's expectations, Ancepanox was not watching, vulture-like, relishing the other alicorns' suffering.
The black alicorn was in one of the highest floors of the library. Here the bookshelves were mostly empty, but with a few books and scrolls tucked here and there. Many pairs of eyes stared out from the darkened corners, watching the dreamer closely for some incalculable reason.

Ancepanox was seated at one of the reading tables, staring at the wall. She wasn't think of anything, just staring, her big blue-purple eyes tracing the minutest cracks in the marble facade, the defects of the wood trim, the gaps between the wall and the bookcases. In the waking world, little defects like that would attract dust and cobwebs. But in the dreamworld, tiny overlooked details could hide whole worlds, or be genuine fissures into unplumbed depths of mind and space.

Ancepanox wondered, what was the deepest one could go? That land that lay under the starry skies of heaven, but not exist physically... How could she reach it? That had been Agana's puzzle, and thought Anceapnox had chosen to fight rather than complete it, it still nagged her.
As creatures of the waking world, mortals were used to speaking of every other realm in relation to the waking world. When Anceapnox contemplated the possibility that there was another place that, for lack of proper terminology, 'even more real' than the real world, it made her feel hollow. She felt like there was a big gap in her gut. Where was that esoteric land at the bottom of the Tower, and how could she reach it?

Ancepanox admitted, it was not the most helpful line of speculation while enemies still breathed. But she had to wonder... If she knocked down that library wall, with its cracks and gaps, would she be in a desert at the base of an impossibly tall black tower?

A strange sound bellowed up from the bottom of the atrium. Ancepanox stirred, looking over her shoulder in annoyance. Were Agana and Celestia finally having it out? The sound came again, but it was not the sound of fighting. She was at once on her hooves and peering down to see the cause.
There was no sign of movement.

Ancepanox glanced back at the wall, sighed, and vaulted over the railing, gliding to the bottom.

She was immediately struck by a very odd feeling permeating the bottom floor. It was something that shouldn't have existed in the dream without her knowing, yet Ancepanox was taken very off guard. "There's something rattling around upstairs. I can feel it. I can almost... taste it." She gnawed her lip, glancing around for sign of the other alicorns. The sense of emptiness in her gut was getting worse. She was alone.
She held out a hoof, staring at it intently, then slowly drew it up towards the skylight, then back down. There was something within, around, and without her. It was like a feeling deep in her spine. "Somepony, or something, is watching. And I find myself wanting."

"Hey! Over here!" A familiar squawking voice, broke the somber silence.

Ancepanox made a full circle, but still saw no sign.

“Think three-dimensionally.” Now that Ancepanox was paying attention, she could tell the direction. She did as she was asked, and tilted her head upward.
Above her, a horn embedded into ornamental wood trim of the bottom of the higher floor, was Agana’s disembodied head.

“Hwo ho ho, wow. You’ve been bodied.” Ancepanox could not help but remark.

“Mooneater, I've been rendered apart!” Agana’s head said angrily. "Look at how I suffer trying to obey you!"

“Wait, wait…”Ancepanox gnawed her lip in thought. “Oh oh! How about, ‘Should have kept your head on out there’. Or ‘You were headed for destruction’. NO, I’ve got it! Ahem, ‘It was a bad idea to take her head-on’. “

“Celestia is escaping with the rest of me!” Agana screamed.

Ancepanox's smile wilted. "Yeah, I can see that. I didn't expect her to break out so fast." She hummed. "Did she cause the strange aura I'm feeling?"

"How should I know! I stopped being able to sense anything at about the point by brain stem was disconnected from by spinal cord." Agana hissed bitterly.

“You know, I almost regretted not killing you. This more than makes up for it.” Ancepanox remarked. She reached out with her telekinesis and dislodged Agana’s horn from the wood. She caught the avian head as it fell. “You’re cute like this, like a little toy. I just wanna carry you around everywhere.”

"This is no laughing matter! Celestia is on her way to do something terrible with my body. You must stop her and get it back!" Agana said.

Ancepanox rolled her eyes. "Look, I can sense that Twilight Sparkle is still in my dream on one of the middle floors, so there's really no incentive for me to chase Celestia, wherever she may have gone." She shrugged. "Maybe it's better this way... She disappears into the folds of the dreamscape, I don't have to overcome my last reservations."

Agana did not seem very pleased with that.

"But it can't be over..." Ancepanox said, squinting. "Where does this strange empty feeling come from? It's almost the same as... as I felt before meeting Myriadess. Hmm." She cleared her throat. "Well whatever. If I track down Celestia, she might know."

With Agana's head in hoof, she jumped up to the floor where Twilight Sparkle was laying. The phantasm dream-things were beginning to mill in the shadows, doing the librarian's work of reshelving and transcribing the books.

“How did Celestia get out of my dream?” Ancepanox asked Agana.

“I could only see out of the corner of my eye, but I think it was a book.”

"A book? But the books represent my memories." Ancepanox scowled. She picked a random tome off a nearby shelf and inspected it. Besides the unusual words within (the memory seemed to be a stream-of-consciousness of one of Twilight's many sleep-deprived study sessions) it acted like a book would in the waking world.
"Does Celestia know a spell that lets her pry into pony's memories?"

"You think I know much more about Celestia than I do." Agana grunted. "My expertise is with dreams. If there are parallel, abstracted energy realms, I have no knowledge or access to them, memories among them."

Ancepanox tapped her chin. "Could Celestia, with her Phantom Time power, delve into the inherently temporal barrier between this existance and a memory?"

"Again, how should I know?" Agana said, increasingly annoyed.

"Unless the power lies with the concept of the book itself? Latent power of written words? Space-dream shuffling with thaumo-linguistics." Ancepanox's speculation went on. "Maybe it wasn't literally a memory, but a sub dream in the shape of the memory. I admit I'm not well versed enough it this stuff yet to know if that's possible."

"All those guesses sound wrong." Agana let out a gravelly sigh. "Unless... There could be a loophole.” Agana clacked her beak in contemplation. “Hear me out: A memory of a dream."

"Go on." Ancepanox said.

"I am entering a world of pure speculation here. When ponies lay their head down and 'dream' they have an experience in the Dreamscape, sometimes within their own dream, sometimes within other creatures', sometimes in places unknown and indescribable to even me." Agana said. "If you remembered those dreaming experiences, it could bridge dreamscape and memory-scape, if indeed those are separate realms."

Ancepanox wasn't really listening. The strange feeling in her spine was growing and growing. She had an unshakable feeling of being watched now.
Being watched... Watched...
Something from beyond was watching her, the library, and the whole drama. It had been watching when she'd met Myriadess. It had been watching when the Tower broke- every time it broke, once across all time.
"Celestia actually bucking did it. She used Dark Magic." Ancepanox whispered. She cocked her head back. The dark splotch in the sky, the corrupting eye that represented Agana's magic, stared back. "Holy buck. She used my dream as a big semaphore to shout her message into heaven, like you were intending to do."

Agana. whose train of thought was still with books and memories, gawked in confusion. "What?"

"Using your body, a context they understand, Celestia somehow gathered enough magic to fire a message into heaven!" Ancepanox gave a little laugh, awestruck. "But... That must mean she's still here, in my dream."

There was a shuffling noise, then a noice like rain on grass. Ancepanox reluctantly turned around.
Celestia was there staring, motionless, Agana’s headless body shifting idly at her side.

Ancepanox and Celestia locked eyes. The sun princess was missing one of her wings, which would have given her a comical appearance if not for the tired look and her tight-lipped frown showing something between sadness and dejection. Ancepanox went to step forward, but the sun princess acted faster.
‘No’, Celestia mouthed.

Ancepanox was able to enviously assess Celestia’s magical trap as a true masterwork of spellcraft, even as it impacted against her shoulder and blasted nearly half of her away. Like one of her signature solar beams, but using the power of the corrupting eye, distilled and concentrated into a single purple bolt of magic that bloomed into an inferno of soul-rending energy. It was the kind of spell a pony spent years getting the math and patterns right for, and weeks preparing to cast, and Celestia had whipped it up in a moment. Ancepanox’s admiration dwindled, like the rest of her, until the blinding light faded and her remaining parts flopped to the ground. For the second time in so short a span, Ancepanox's dreaming form dissipated away.

Agana watched in shocked silence, unable to tear her eyes away from the smoking aftermath of the spell. Celestia moved forward confidently, and Agana’s body floated in its weightless way to her heel. The dream-scribes withdrew back into the shadows, their glowing eyes darting between Celestia and the ashy residue of their dream-host.

“Just like I said, Agana. Decompose an alicorn, and you get great power.” Celestia said in an empty monotone, kicking at the pile of ash. The stump of Celestia’s own wing twitched. “She will regenerate very soon- She has multiple dreams to call upon, and unlimited tries at life. We can't win an attritional battle. I only have so many of my own limbs I can eat."

Agana’s head distractedly glanced between Celestia and the ashes, which were even then putting out coursing trials of darkness to reconstitute itself. “Whatever you've done, I want no part of it. Escape with my body if you have to, but let me live! I- I- I can still make a deal with her. The Mooneater can keep me around. You too, if you say the right thing! We would be alive, but subservient.”

“Quit your babbling. I had a similar choice with Luna. No deals, I said to her, no compromise. She beat my castle into the ground, and I along with it. Then at the height of her victory, she refused to finish it, so I did.” Celestia recalled, with all the emotion of remembering a tooth pulling. “There will always be a hint of sanity and compassion within the ponies fallen to the Dark, but is it really enough? Perhaps is even worse than if they were entirely insane, their having that sliver of one’s self knowing how wrong her actions and existence is.”

Celestia turned to Twilight Sparkle. "Oh Twilight..." The pony had slept through so much change. "If I had known fighting you when you were Forlorn Spark would lead to this moment, I may have let you kill me. Who could say what would have resulted then. It would have been better than this." She pulled Twilight up with her magic. “If it were I who had been bent to the capricious will of evil egos, I would need to be destroyed. So it is with my dear sister. She is lost. Stopping her will save ponykind. Ending her will be a mercy to her memory and her soul.”

“Celestia, old friend, I worry about your sanity.” Agana chirped nervously.

“Concerned? Ancepanox's existence is, after all, similar to your own.” Celestia appraised. Her grim mask almost cracked as she smiled slyly. “You are right to worry.”

Agana’s eyes shot open. “Celestiaan don’t do it!” Celestia picked up the head and tossed it into the corner. “CELESTIAAAaaaa…” Agana wailed until she ran out of breath. Her yells were muffled by the pile of scrolls she’d landed in. “You can’t do this to me!”

“This isn’t about you!” Celestia went to work as she talked, grabbing Twilight and preparing her spell. “I can not, WILL not, let anypony take away what I have toiled for for centuries! My life! My EXISTENCE as a THINKING creature can not be subject to the whims of a monster like Ancepanox. A time may come when I can rest, knowing I will be in good hooves, who will celebrate and care for me, as I did for ponykind. But that is not tonight. If I must make a deal with the higher powers to see it all through, I will.”
Celestia did not chose a memory at random. She very deliberately levitated an old, decaying pamphlet from between two larger books. She weighed it, reluctant. “Good bye, Agana. Ancepanox will kill you before she catches up to me. It has been exciting, hasn't it.”

“Celestia!” Agana yelled, helpless to do anything but. . “Celestia? H- Hello?”

Celestia’s parting was marked by the crack of magic as she, Twilight, and most of Agana teleported away into the abstruse depths of the memory.

They winds of the moon began to billow, churning up the grey dusts of the seas and peaks. Eyes from above and below were beginning to turn to that luminous rock. At last, worship befitting that celestial sphere would be given.
Blood and souls. Dark. Gods and gods, gods and mortals, mortals and mortals. It was the way it had to be.

Luna felt a tingle in her spine. They were being watched. "Are you coming, Celestia?" She whispered. "Not for me, but for one above?"

Ripple Wreath rubbed his eyes. He was among trees, with fat grey trunks rooted into packed dirt, in a real of thick fog.
"Oh, this place again." He muttered. "How did I get here this time?" He'd been knocked onto death's door, hadn't he, by that horrific monster of vines that had imprisoned Agana. It had sliced up his transformed body and bled him white. "Damn it all. How do I get back from this one?" He asked himself. He chose a decent looking boulder embedded in the earth to sit on while he considered his options.

Up from the shadow crawled a terrible queen of misery. Her pony torso was fused abhorrently to the abdomen of a great indigo spider, whose long chitinous legs scraped deafeningly against the sides of the pit from which she came. She had no horn, but her mane of tartauric smoke sparked with daemonic energy.
Upon emerging from the infinite deep, the queen laid her multitudinous eyes upon the pony dreamer trespasser. Wreath was looking glum, having taken a seat at the edge of the pit, trying his hardest to ignore his dour surroundings.

“What brings you to the purgatorial wastes of the Forest, sir knight?” The forest queen asked. It being that arachnids have no lungs, her words were wheezed and rattled.

Ripple Wreath looked up at the half arachnid queen. “I'm mad. I was having a great time being a wolf-thing, but I was killed.” He sighed deeply. “Maybe I’ll get used to peace, my woes carried away on these, um, decidedly stale currents.”

“Oh, well that is unfortunate.” The forest queen said sympathetically.

“I’m not even sure what on earth it was this time. Some kind of rock-tentacle thing. An old god, things unconceived of my me before this dark night.” Wreath laid back in the leaf litter and stared up into the mist-shrouded canopy. “You know, you see some weird things in life. Up in Prancia especially, where the thick forests there hide all kinds of chimeras and half-this half-thats. But this adventure to Canterlot has all but taken the cake.” He bit his lip. “Adventure. It sounds so innocent. What sane stallion would label this night as an adventure.”

“I don't know much about the waking world, expect for what passers-by tell me." The forest queen said. "Listen there... Perhaps you can hear the souls of the newly dead plodding along." She went silent, and Wreath listened for sounds in the mist. Indeed he heard muted sounds at a distance, silent moans, crunches, creaks, groans. "They are how I know this part of the Forest is near a place called Canterlot. It is through them I know some things: A thing called Celestia reigns above that city. Before her, mortal kings called the Blackhorns, a lineage I myself have met as they march the dead's way. They were sullen with severe eyes, the Blackhorns."

"Yeah, okay." Wreath pretended to act interested in the forest queen's anecdotes. "How things were doesn't do me much good. I want to be away from Canterlot. It's too savage for me. I want to be back North, nestled among the pony-eating beasts of the woods and mountains. At least then I wouldn't have to worry for my sanity." He chuckled, a sinister smile growing. "Still, I can't deny its been its own kind of fun. Getting lost among ancient statues, fighting alicorns, feeling the blood shooting through my veins. It's not just adrenalin. It's... A testament of existance. I'm doing something POWERFUL and MEMORABLE." He laughed darkly. "Dying after a few more good experiences like that wouldn't be so bad. As it is, I can't help but feel I went too soon.

“I can't say I know what you mean. Dwelling in this forest doesn't lend itself to the kind of excitement you're talking about.” The queen pulled herself fully from the pit and found a spot to rest her abdomen, twisting herself into a rough approximation of sitting.

“It's funny, in a way. Ostensibly my family sent me to train with Glori Sabonord to learn how to be a hardy knight. And yes, she was hardcore. But even Glori wasn't wild enough to break through my shell. I needed real blood, real death, before I could understand." Wreath nodded, his smile growing bigger. "Is it a curse, or all in my head, how I could relish the squealing deaths of everypony that ever wronged me? When did I snap? When I decided immortality could be achieved through perpetual hate? Yes, yes, I devoted myself to that decision so thoroughly it brought me back to life. How can a decision like that not drive a pony mad."

The queen clasped her hooves together and mulled over Wreath’s words. “I do not often meet mortals like you. Or are you mortal? If an alicorn has cursed you, your state of existance could be in doubt."

I don't care about the doubt. I'm not in any existential angst anymore. I've discovered what I like and what I'm good at.” Wreath said sharply. "I know what I'm after. It’s the emotion. I crave it. I want somepony to look at me, and be totally, truly afraid. So afraid they forget everything else.” Wreath said with shaky breaths. “Everybody made fun of me before I went off to become a knight. Even then I only got respect when I wore the helmet."

"So?" The queen pointed out.

"So I want my mother or father to look me in the face, free of that helmet, and see just how powerful a pony who's embraced hate can be. There's no doubt they'd be afraid. But that's not enough for me, no. I have to become more, like I know I can. I beleive in myself. I have it within me, that friend or stranger could see me at a mere glance, and forget all that they know in the face of the terrors they will feel, for my power and pain."

The queen remained silent for a long time, just staring at Wreath. Wreath just went back to looking up at where the sky should have been.
“Here, at the end of things, ponies have no reason to be coy or hide what they truly think. Thus I can say with a measure of certainty, that those are not normal feelings."

“I don't think I much care about what was normal. I have no desire to bend to the will of consensus. I have only two souls I must obey now- My own, and Ancepanox's. Are my thoughts abhorrent thoughts? Yes. But nopony has the power to punish me for them.” Wreath fiddled with a wayward strand of his mane. “How can anypony look at me with a straight face, and say democracy, normalcy, or consensus matters in a world where a prince can level cities. That magesty used to belong to Celestia. Now it belongs to Ancepanox and me."

The sound like a choked gasp cut her off. From a point not far off the ground, a sphere of total darkness spread forth. The haughty and ragged form of Ancepanox stepped out from the breach in the world before it closed. She looked around.

“Not so hasty, my progeny." Ancepanox said. The black alicorn looked very solemn, but thankfully Wreath was not the object of her frustrations. "We have work still to do."

Wreath and the forest queen shared a look of shocked bewilderment.

“Lady Ancepanox!” Wreath stammered out. He jumped to his hooves, then knelt, bowing his forehead to the dirt. "My lady... I had given up hope of seeing you again. I've been thinking so much about you."

"I'm charmed, Sir Ripple Wreath. I have been thinking of you as well." Ancepanox pushed wreath back into standing position. "Firstly, my hearty congratulations for whipping Agana."

"Thank you my lady. She hardly put up a fight." Wreath bowed his head again.

"Yes... She's certainly an odd one. She escaped into the dreamscape you see."

Wreath cleared his throat. "I wouldn't know about all that stuff my lady."

"Of course. Sufice it to say, her soul survived, manifesting in another realm like the one we're in now." Ancepanox explained. "She tried to use her power to conquer one of my friend's mind and..." She trailed off, seemingly noticing the forest queen for the first time. "Umm, help there.

The forest queen fidgeted, her arachnid half twitching madly. "You should not be here, necromancer, alicorn. Go back to the walking world. You have been the cause of no small amount of woe for this stallion, and you come to torment him more."

"Don't talk to her like that." Ripple Wreath scowled. "I'm sure she has good reason to be here."

Ancepanox shifted on her hooves, her sullen eyes shifting between the two. "Don't be a buckwit. I'm here for you, of course."

"Yes, my lady.” Wreath sighed and closed his eyes. There was something about the alicorn's presence that relived the subtle tug of longing at his heart, and filled him with a hint of undiluted pleasure. "I suspected but didn't dare be so arrogant as to assume."

"Ripple Wreath, you may dispense with the formalities. I've seen inside you." Ancepanox smirked. "Yes I have caused you suffering. I regret that I shared my curse with you, using you like a filthy rag to assuage my own needs."

"My lady, Ancepanox, you have no need to feel that way. You've liberated me. If there is anything to regret it is that it was not a happy, consensual experience." Wreath gnawed his lip, trying to voice his feeling without offending her. "If you want to make amends or, if you wish it, recompense, I can not object."

The forest queen was looking very annoyed by the apparent harmony between the two ponies.

"Then we are of one mind, or at least, of linked minds." Ancpeanox nodded. "I am here to restore you to life. I don't think necromancy will be necessary- because of the nightmare, your body has not entered the death state that rejects its own soul. I can send your soul back, and you can rest there, until I come for you."

“Okay.”

Wreath nodded slowly. There was a small part of him, as there is in every mortal, that craved the aluring restfulness of the forest. He'd endured brutalization and punishment beyond what a mortal could sustain. Of course, his rational mind was fully committed to the purposes of hatred, battle, and progress. There was more yet to be done. "Thank you Lady Ancepanox. I would rather wake up right away though, if that's possible. I have unfinished buisness."

"I can do that." Ancepanox agreed. "I'm very proud of you, Sir Ripple Wreath. You've progressed greatly in the short time I've known you."

"I owe some of that to you. That dark manifestation, when I was by the river contemplating letting myself die... You told me what I needed to hear." Wreath said, somewhat cheerlessly. "Lady Ancepanox, I will continue to serve you however I can. I will remain in Canterlot under Astral Nacre's wardship until you come for me."

"That suites my purposes." Ancepanox said.

Wreath turned to the forest queen. “Thank you for the company, mis. I am glad to have met you."

"Just leave already." The forest queen sighed. "This is a place for the dead. You mortals should go play somewhere else." Still, the she gave a deep curtsy, or the closest equivalent her rotund abdomen and eight spindly legs could allow. “Never hurts to be polite, I suppose."

"Be seeing you." Ancepanox grunted to the forest queen.
Taking a step back from the others, Ancepanox squeezed her eyes closed in concentration. The sphere of dark, that cosmic eye, swelled into existance. "Alright Ripple Wreath. Let's get you back to your dream."

“Right.” Wreath sighed, and stepped into the sphere.

Wreath experienced the transition poorly, for even at its gentlest the forest grew attached to the lost souls passing through. He felt a pain as though an icicle was being jammed into every inch of his body, then a tortuous stretching that threatened to rip his soul apart, then a squeezing contraction that threatened to crush him into a forgettable pinprick. A thousand shooting stars filled his vision, all crashing down upon his spine and beating him until he regretted ever existing.
He’d never woken up so sore. But then, seeing the grey stone in front of his face, he remember that it was just another dream. The cosmic eye had delivered him in a jumbled heap on the top of his family’s keep.

“A castle?” Ancepanox was pacing along the edge of the ramparts. “Is this your home? That’s sweet, in a way. Always dreaming of home, you are.”

“Sweet isn’t the word I’d use.” Wreath groaned as he took to his hooves. He looked to the rampart just behind Ancepanox, where he had fallen last time he was there. He remembered that monstrous tangle of flesh that had pulled itself out to torment him. “The idea of home doesn’t exactly fill me with happy thoughts.” He looked around, slightly more closely. "I don't think this is home though."

"No?"

"I mean, it similar..." Wreath turned a full circle, taking in the landscape. The castle jutted out of a rocky island in the middle of the river. On either side of the flowing cold waters, a small strip of land that abruptly rose into mountains many times higher than the castle. "But the details are all wrong. The mountain face, the colors of the trees, even the smell of the air. This castle is not home."

Ancepanox pursed her lips. "I don't think that matters all too much." A castle parting a river, betwixt two mountains. There was a theme there but Ancpeanox's didn't care enough to delve into it yet. Better left for another time.
What was more interesting was the possibility that, like the cathedral-library, the land beyond the limits of the dream was connected to that yet-only-hinted esoteric place, the base of the Tower, a land of dreams. Ancepanox had to ignore the temptation to launch into the sky and try to fly to that mysterious place.

"So I will wake up, my body healed, right where I fell." Ripple Wreath's words brought Ancepanox back to the present. "Better not the later. I don't want to stay here." Wreath frowned. "So what do you really want. Why did you fetch me."

Ancepanox smiled sadly. "It's not complicated, though I'm shamed that I do indeed have some ulterior motives for saving you again. You see..." She cleared her throat and pushed back strands of her mane. "I need your help to corner and kill Celestia."

“Celestia? CELESTIA?!” Wreath's jaw fell open in disbelief. “The empress is still alive? But...”

“Ehh, well, somewhat alive.” Ancepanox rolled her hoof around gesturally, weighing responses. “More than is best for her. I didn't know either, when we parted. ”

“So, you were wrong when you said you killed her, but now you want to make that claim true.” Wreath gasped like a fish, lost for words. “My lady, I don't want to deny you, but I don't know how I can help with a thing like that.”

Ancepanox grinned. "Okay, here is the quick explanation."

Some minutes previous

When Ancepanox had regained a sembelance of conciousness after being blasted out of her own dream by Celestia's attack, she found herself in a small cottage. It was a humble place, made of wood and thatch, with stone foundations. It had all the amenities of a comfy peasant domicile, a fireplace with a cauldron, a few tables covered in belongings, and the prized bed at one end with curtains around it.
Then there were the cottage's inhabitants. They were ill defined, hazy things, pony-like in shape but obscured by shadow, like Celestia had been the first time Ancepanox had met her atop the Tower. Yes, the dream of the cottage was degraded, and the faces of the ponies inside it had been forgotten.

"This is the dream of one of Glori's knights I hunted." Ancepanox said to herself. "He dreamt of home. That's very nice for him."

But the dream was her's now, taken when she'd hunted him, as with dozens of other victims. It's time had come.
Ancepanox let out a long sigh. Releasing her hold on the dream. All the details of the cottage, the products of a dreamer's life, dissolved away, until all was black, and Ancepanox was a pinpoint of purple in a vast emptiness.

The cottage dream had been sacrificed to give her new life. That is how she could survive being killed in her own dream.

Reaching out in the blackness, Ancepanox became aware of the other stolen dreams, the other ponies she'd fatally hunted- There were nearly fifty of them still powerful enough to restore her, if the need arose. Over time, they would fade and dissipate on their own, for a dream held but not nourished would wither. Ancepanox would need to get new dreams once that happened.
Finally Ancepanox brushed against the object of her search, her own dream the Cathedral-library, and reentered it.

Agana's head waited patiently in the pile where she'd been tossed. One of the shadowy dream-denizen scribes uncovered her while fetching a scroll and, acting annoyed that somepony had put a disembodied head out of place in the organizational system, had set her on a nearby lectern before wandering off. Now sideways of the lectern, Agana awaited Ancepanox to return.

Agana was no stranger to being alone. She had been lashed in place in the Vacuous Arcanum for almost a thousand years, her only company being the intermittently active statue golems. To survive the crushing loneliness, Agana had spent most of that time with her brain turned off, hibernating, letting her consciousness float in the dreamscape. That was where she'd honed her dream-powers, crafted her ideology, and nurtured the corrupting eye.
How depressing that none of that mattered now. What was to come next? How could Agana move forward?

The pile of ash on the library floor stirred. Like a sleeper coming out from under their covers, Ancepanox tossed and turned, pushing out of the ash.

"I looked and beheld an ashen horse, and her name was Death. Hell followed her." Agana joked to herself. Then aloud. "Mooneater, are you lucid?"

"This is less fun than next time" A groan came back. "Celestia did a much better job destroying me this time."

“I sympathize.” Agana said with bitter sarcasm. “Celestia is getting away, but my all means, you can take all the time you need.”

“You know maybe I will.” Ancepanox sat up and stretched her limbs. After a few minutes of the exercise she trotted over the the lectern Agana had been set on. “So, Agana, how are you adjusting to your de-truncation?"

"Is this how you are going to spend your time? Bothering me?" Agana growled.

"Yes, because I think you're a cretin and deserve to have it pointed out to you. I also enjoy it very much. It's just about the only thing keeping me from grinding my teeth down." Ancepanox said, voice dropping into a seething growl. "Celestia knew I would have let her get away, if she just kept her hooves off Twilight. She's taunting me, leading me, inviting me to follow her. You facilitated this, by letting her decapitate you! Idiot! I told you your neck was your weak point!"

"I'm sorry, but I have as much at stake as you.” Agana shot back.

"And significantly less ability to do anything. You're a freaking head! I could kick you like a ball. In fact, that probably how you got wedged in the ceiling."

"As a matter of fact-"

"Shut up. You don't speak unless I'm asking a question. That's how this relationship works now." Ancepanox glared. The black alicorn closed her eyes, trying to release the bubbling passions she felt welling up inside herself. There was a time for those raging emotions, but at present she needed her reason and cool-headed intellect to chase Celestia. When the sun princess was caught and the hunt began, that is when she would let loose.

And then there was Agana. Oh Agana, she thought, I really do hate you. But Agana could have her uses. Ancepanox had kept her alive for her knowledge, and that still remained her choice- Cutting Agana in half, metaphorically as all things in the dreamscape were, had separated her brawn from her brain. Ancepanox was not to fussed about the part Celestia had taken. She needed that brain, and what it could do for her.
"Tell me how your power of the corrupting eye works." Ancepanox demanded.

"An eye is a tool of observation, but also understanding, interpretation, and subjectivity. In the abstraction of the dreamscape these things take on special meaning." Agana explained.

"You've told me all this before." Ancepanox said impatiently. "And the lesson was not lost on me. That's how I've been traveling the dream." She gestured with her hoof, and the sphere of darkness briefly flickered beside her.

"Yes, I've seen that kinda of power before. The 'Cosmic Eye', it was dubbed. The Dark Lady used something similar when she walked the Bright World. It was her main method of controlling mortal behavior." Agana agreed. "But where the Cosmic Eye has an inherent inclusiveness to it, joining dreams from within, my power of the Corrupting Eye gives observance from above."

"There is an inherent hierarchical-ness to your power, then. The premises of your power are built on your ideology of domination and strife." Ancepanox said. "I'm beginning to realize, your beliefs and Celestia's are two sides of the same coin. She believed in the hierarchal place of the Sun, you of the Dark Lady." Ancepanox scratched her nose. "Key word, 'believed'. I don't know who Celestia is soliciting to, but stealing your body is the first step for her to find a new patron."

“That is an utterly stupid theory, Mooneater! Celestia does not have dream powers. She is running to hide, nothing more.” Agana spat back scathingly.

“We're about to find out, won't we.” Ancepanox grabbed Agana’s head with her magic. “Well, as soon as I figure out where- Hold on, is this the memory she used.” A slightly singed book was laying on the ground, undisturbed by the dream creatures tidying the rest of the library.
When Ancepanox picked it up she could feel the residual energy from Celestia’s spell. “This is an old memory. I..." She pressed her cheek against it. "I have a bad feeling about this."

“What does it matter? Less talking, more chasing!” Agana screeched.

“Okay okay.” Ancepanox nickered. "Just give me a second to, you know, learn the memory spell."

From the faint traces of Celestia's spell on the memory book, Ancepanox could glean the basic patterns of the magic.
Celestia had been familiar with the memory. Perhaps she was it's subject. Was that how she had escaped into it?

slipped through the fabric of the dream into the memory?

"From what I can tell, these memories are part of the dream. Celestia used your body and power to force her way in, like you did to Twilight's." Ancepanox explained. "Amusingly there is a thaumo-linguistic bend to it. I could rewrite the memory if I replaced pages of the book. There's power and meaning in words..."

"So? Is this all sentimentalism or can we chase her?" Agana crowed.

"Of course we can chase her." Ancepanox said. She thrust a hoof forward, upturned, and the dark sphere of the Cosmic Eye blossomed before her, swelling to her height. "My dream powers will take us anywhere she can go." She picked up the memory book and tossed it at a bookshelf. "After you, Agana."

Agana’s only response was an irate glare.

“No? Fine.” Ancepanox snorted. “Allons, à la victoire!” She vaulted into the sphere, carrying Agana’s head behind her.

The moon began to tremble under Luna's hooves. Luna jumped up, but the vibration died away.
Luna was starting to realize the scope of the coming problem.

"Perhaps... It is time, for the first time in a millennium, to call upon my loyal subjects." Luna said. "The Moon denizens deserve a chance to protect their home."

With an imperceptible whine, the Cosmic Eye opened.
Ancepanox stepped out into the new realm and looked around.

It was a stormy day in Canterlot, on a manner of speaking. The castle and city around them was being battered and twisted by waves of surreal energy in the sky, turning the gleaming towers and stately blocks into cracked and blackened husks. Ponies were screaming in terror and running in every direction. It was apocalyptic. It was chaos.

“Fillies see the world in interesting ways. Ominous, isn’t it.” Ancepanox was solemnly amused at the burning city around her. “I recognize this day. Yes, I can see why Celestia picked it."

“Ominous indeed.” Agana took note.

"Canterlot isn’t usually like this. This was a special day. The best day, in fact, when I earned my mark.” Ancepanox looked to the strange colors in the sky, probably the closest match for what had really happened that day. Twilight hadn't seen the waves of energy that had filled Equestria's skies when Cloud Creche exploded, being inside a building at the time. She had seen paintings and heard descriptions, but none matched her memories of the moment, burned into her mind from her magical senses.
"You're about to see Twilight Sparkle's defining moment. This is when she stopped being just another filly."

Agana pondered this. "Have you considered that there may be more to this moment than you ever realized?"

"Piss off. You don't know what you're talking about.” Ancepanox spat with a sudden venom. She began trotting where she knew she was needed. “You’re like a damn mother in law! Gods forbid I meet whatever pathetic issue your likes would create. I would marry it and I would loath it... But I think I would love it all the same."

"Mooneater you are making less sense by the moment." Agana chirped. “The closest I came to companionship was with Celestia, as a matter of fact. The falling out was explosive. The kids were left to me. Statuesque about the whole dirty affair, they were."

"Right." Ancepanox grunted dissimissively.
All the same she could not entirely dismiss Agana's question from her head. With all she had learned about the nature of the world, it was not so rash to take another look at even the most closely held, sacrosanct memories. The coming minutes would be very interesting.

She quickly came to entrance of the dream-warped counterpart of the unicorn academy. Like the rest of the memory, the city here was distorted and chaotic, the very buildings taking on warped and surreal proportions. She sky overhead was even brighter with its surging colors.

"And here we come to the center of it all." Ancepanox said.
True to Ancepanox’s expectations, the Examination Tower was unexploded, despite the Rainboom already happening. The closer they got, the slower things around them seemed to move, until everything but the two alicorns was frozen. The memory had stopped progressing. Any farther, and the Examination Tower would explode.

“Celestia is up there. I'm sure of it.” She pointed for Agana’s benefit.

"At the top of a tower, hmm?" Agana said.

"Yeah, that's the examination tower of the unicorn school. Prospective students have their magical acumen and control tested." Ancepanox said. "I was subjected to a battery of trails. I failed almost all of them, until... Well, you'll see how this memory ends."

Agana glanced up to the coruscating sky. "I can guess."

Giving the portentous tower its due, Ancepanox took the proper rout to enter, through the main hall of the unicorn school. The place was vague and undetailed, for at that point in memory Twilight had only once seen it, and even then had been distracted by stress and apprehension for the coming test.
Ancepanox was feeling a little bit of that.

"But I invite you to think harder, Mooneater, about this moment." Agana said.

"I'd be a fool not to recognize the symbology. A tower, like the Tower of the Bard. A moment of destruction, like the destruction of Bard." Ancepanox said. "But it's sheer coincidence."

"I think we are about to find out." Agana said, much more softly.

Ancepanox was starting to feel the strange feeling in her spine again. Celestia was close. The black alicorn reluctantly kept moving, mounting the spiral staircase to the top.

But an unexpected voice brought her to a halt.
"...very nervous. She can hardly hold her patterns. Poor filly."

That was Twilight Velvet's voice! The other pony in the conversation made Ancepanox bristled until she realized it too was just a part of the memory.

"That's natural. Encourage her to keep trying. We only have a bare minute before the shockwave reaches us." Celestia said at a whisper. "Make sure everypony is standing in the right position."

"Of course princess." Twilight Velvet's sarcasm using the word 'princess' could not have been more emphasized. "This moment is monumentally more important to me than you. Those judges will be in place if I have to nail them to the ground."

"Quite." Celestia said flatly. "Get going then. Thirty seconds. Make sure Twilight is using her magic when it hits. If you'll excuse me, Sunset Shimmer just teleported nearby."
The telltale crackle of teleportation magic filled the stairwell, quickly followed by hoofsteps up the stair, then a door creaking open.

Ancepanox realized she had been biting her tongue hard enough to draw blood.
"No bucking way. No way. No way." She murmured to herself. "This is a trick. Celestia has done nothing but lie to me. She has no idea who or what I am. All those 'explanations' were lies, and so is this. ALL. LIES."

"I thought the dream of the Tower was inherited." Agana said, awed by what they'd heard. "Congratulations, Mooneater. You were created by an occult ritual."

"Yeah, heh heh." Ancpeanox laughed emptily, shaking her head. "Celestia has quite the imagination. Heh... Imagine if this was real. Imagine if this really happened."

"I don't know why you're reluctant to embrace this idea. Hundreds of fillies and colts were sacrificed to manufacture within your head the facsimile of the most powerful dream of all ponykind." Agana continued. "Certain things start to make more sense this way. Celestia did not, as she implied sit pretty for hundreds of years, her ambition of mortal usurpation languishing. She took active measures, made active strides. Yes... She took what she learned from me, and applied it."

"T- This is post-hoc fantasy! Celestia's plans never made sense, were always contradictory, and this FARCE doesn't change that." Ancepanox hissed. "She's trying to get in my head, and you're helping her. Don't forget, you cur, that without me you have no hope of getting your body back!"

"Mooneater there is no shame in being manufactured. The Dark Lady made all us Dark Ones, after all." Agana began, but fell silent after seeing the seething look Ancepanox was throwing her.

As tense as a pulled spring, Ancepanox climbed the rest of the spiral stair to the top landing; It was a long climb, with the steps outrageously tall- Filly Twilight had had a difficult time, and her memories of the place had always been imposing.

An occult ritual... To turn a hapless filly into the vessel for a dream... A dream that meant so many complicated, unclear things, but above it all a clear message of power.

Ancepanox ground her teeth. She didn't have dwell on it. She just wanted to kill Celestia even more. She felt so wound up she feared she might crack.
Her spine tingled like the dickens. Celestia was just on the other side of the door, in the examination theater.

"This is obviously a trap. Like she did in my library, Celestia needs to pull me into situations where she has time to prepare." Ancepanox said, voice cracking over the tenseness in her throat. "But I don't care. I'll bear any attack, if I can see her dead."

"Mooneater, be careful. Celestia has proven she has more than magical attack." Agana said. "That conversation on the stair was obviously not from your memory. If Celestia could tamper and add it, she will do more."

"Let her." Ancepanox pushed the door open.

The room beyond was radiating raw emotion like nothing Ancepanox had ever experienced before. It went beyond all encompassing. Ancepanox felt as though she were standing before a flaming wind. It flowed around her, infusing her with its overwhelming energy. It was too much for her.

She could not tell how she came to be inside the examination room. She was in the top aisles, looking down at the day’s subject.
It was herself, of course. Oh yes, there was little Twilight Sparkle trying to hatch a dragon egg. She jumped and she gestured and she cast pathetic little spells. What could the innocent filly have known about incubating it in volcanic temperatures, or rough way in which she would need to pry the shell apart to free little Spike within?

At three points of the room, the teachers conducting the examination. They stood in place, ostensibly to examine Twilight's efforts and technique from different angles. More than a cursory look showed Twilight Velvet and Night Light, the last two points of the room-spanning circle, were holding them in place with magic.
The three judges were each of a diffferent pony tribe: Earth pony, pegasus, unicorn.

"You were the first one that worked." Celestia's cool voice tickled Ancepanox's ear. "Hundreds of years ago, fresh off my collaboration with Agana, I tried built my own child. It did not end well. My mother sun twisted fate around and led to her premature, awful death. Then, I tried with each of the Stars. Those efforts ended miserably too. I don't think any of the spawn of those dalliances made it past infancy."

"I don't understand. Your goal never made sense." Ancepanox muttered, eyes glued to the scene down below. Little Twilie was starting to cry, but still threw herself at the effort, shaking the dragon egg with her telekinesis.

"I don't want to die. Death... Fuck death." Celestia said stonily. It was the first time Ancepanox had heard the princess swear. "I was a creature designed to die. I was meant to be replaced. My individuality mattered for nothing. My mother sun would absorb one Celestia and spit out another, to perpetuate her control over the Bright World. You ponies get your mark, emblazoned on your flank. I had the brand of my enslaver, who it was known was going to devour me, after I had outlived my usefulness."

"What does this have to do with me?" Ancepanox demanded.

"When Anima Astral Nacre saw the decay of the Ancient Alicorns, she devised a way to live past their race's death. She entered a pony form, where she would dwell until such a time she could return to alicorn form, or even return to heaven." Celestia said. "I don't need to return to heaven. I just need an alicorn body powerful enough to fight my mother sun. I don't have to win. I just have to grind her to a draw."

"She's what gives you power and life!" Ancepanox exclaimed.

"Celestia the First realized the were other potential sources of power. She died before she could see it through. I intended to be the one who finished what she started." Celestia's tone turned sharp, reaching levels of rage to match the other emotions churning in the room. "A pony body ascended... capable of containing the united strength of all mortalkind... That would save me. I could sleep again. I could..." Celestia's voice trembled. "I would have solved that last fear, for all of us. Don't you see? I'm mortal too! I have that mortal fear of death! No other alicorn was saddled with a twisted kind of mortality like I was. Alicorns are supposed to be perpetual, but I was built with an expiration date. I have to rebuild myself, unshackle myself."

"You wanted to steal my body." Ancepanox finally allowed herself to look back at Celestia.
She was barely two hooves from the sun princess, who was hunched over in the next row of the examination theater. Celestia looked demonic, her hair on end, her mane flowing like steaming lava. Her eyes were black save for pinpoints of yellow.

"That ritual in the Everfree Castle throne room was meant for me. Twilight had to go and get a big ego. Fine by me, one body is as good as another, except that the newly branded 'Forlorn Spark' has split you off. You summon Nightmare Moon, which allows my Sun to possess me, and she kills Spark." Celestia ranted, her head bobbing back and forth in nervous rhythm. "One way or another, I have to get in control of a body. I have to live. My empire is waiting for me to come and tame it, to consume it. Ponykind will be harmonious with me. Together we can stand against the Sun."

"You're loonie. You have no idea what you're saying anymore." Ancepanox uttered. "You're lies have reached a breaking point."

Celestia stood up. "Decide for yourself how much of any of these possible truths you wish to believe. Who knows, sister. Who knows if it even matters. What matters is you and me." Her pinpoint eyes, bleeding light, slid over to little Twilight Sparkle. "And her."

The dreaded moment came.
Little Twilie screamed in pain and clutched her head. The anguish at far away Cloud Creche reached into her soul and pulled. She convulsed and was lifted into the air, and the hot wind blew about the filly, becoming hotter still to sear away the walls layer by layer. The three judges were surrounded by their own maelstroms of magic, and were torn into sinuous ribbons.

Physics finally caught up to the magic, and the tower exploded.

But when Ancepanox opened her eyes again, she was still at the door, hoof outstretched in preparation to push it open.

“Did I…” She began to ask Agana, but she stopped herself.

The world beyond the threshold was blank, empty of any and all meaning. The top of the tower had been torn out of the memory.

"Urhhh." Ancepanox groaned, clutching her head. "Celestia jumped memories."

"Can we follow?" Agana asked. "Did you see me body with her?"

"Yes and no, respectively." Ancepanox pushed down her mental pain at the memory's mutilation. "She is hopping towards an escape, but the Dark magic she's using is decaying her rapidly. She may not make it out of my memories."

"You don't have to explain to me. Just get us to them." Agana demanded.

Ancepanox swiped her hoof and the Cosmic Eye carried them on.

The dream magic deposited them on cold marble.
They were inside Canterlot Castle, in one of the ground floor hallways. It was much more normal and proportional, so the memory must have been more recent.

“I think this is the day I left her.” Ancepanox gnawed her lip. There were no obvious signs of the date, but the overall decor was rather like that of those years. “Throne room.” She grunted. “She’ll be in the throne room.”

Just to be safe, she summoned up her sabre. Wasting no more time, she teleported up to her destination.

As expected, Celestia and Twilight were at the other end, beside the great gold throne. Unlike last time, Celestia was not letting this memory play out. She had cut to the chase: Twilight was on the floor, bleeding from a self-inflicted stab in the gut.

"If you had been a less important pony to my plans, this is how you would have ended up." Celestia let her voice echo across the throne room. "Nobility, commoner, mage, or farmer. This is the fate of offending your princess."

"She's farther gone than you implied." Agana whispered.

Celestia went on. "I have destroyed my creations before. Clearly, I should have done the same to you, sister."

"I'm not your bloody sister. I'm a mare of her own creation. No one is responsible for me: I alone made myself what I am." Ancepanox replied. "Yes, when I was Twilight, I had ponies who built me up and helped me. It takes a village. That pony is not me any longer."

"Whatever." Celestia wavered her hoof dismissively. "I made the Bright World what it is today. The whole planet bows to my empire. The wealth of eight continents flow into Equestria. My ponies live in the closest thing to paradise that mortals have ever achieved. When I return to them, they will give themselves up to me, for me, with me. Harmony will power us. Harmony will rule us."

"You don't know what that word means anymore!" Ancepanox took a step forward.

Celestia's dark eyes narrowed. "I will do anything I have to, to correct my mistakes. I can't kill you retroactively, but I can get close.

The throne room crunched, obliterating everything past Ancepanox’s hooves, like had been done to the tower. Where had been living memory, was empty white.
“This is bad, Mooneater. Celestia is in some state of dissonance with the Dark magic she is using. She is beyond mad. Ooh, my poor body...” Agana wailed nervously, searching in the abject blank for any sign of where Celestia had gone. “We are at a severe disadvantage if we continue-”

“I don’t give a buck about this avant garde theater crap.” Ancepanox interrupted her loudly. “I swore to put an end to her. I will.”
The cosmic eye shuffled them along.

Running? Ancepanox was running. She felt an ache in her muscles as though she had been at it for hours. She was on the mountainside road above Canterlot, coming down from a visit to the solar monastery.
It was the dead of night, and the white moon hung low over the city. Yes the only think the gentle light illuminated was the southern watchtower, for upon it was Celestia, watching her and judging her from on high.

“You have been teleporting around all day. Good. It is ill fitting for a monarch to remain idle.” The sun princess praised, her whisper sounding from thin air despite her being kilometers away. “The empire is well, but I wonder for you. Have you found fulfillment?”

“Celestia, you have to realize you brought this on yourself. We didn't have to be enemies.” Ancepanox shouted back.

“I have tried to work with equals before. Luna, Agana, Sunset Shimmer... All betrayed me. There can be no equality." Celestia chided.

"And yet you want harmony?" Ancepanox scoffed. "You damn alicorns! You care more about your hierarchies than the lives of others!"

"Your words drip with hypocrisy."

"All the evils I've perpetrated have been because of YOUR system. Do you think I want to kill, dominate, and destroy?” Ancepanox howled.

Celestia's acidic laugh carried like crystal in the cold air. "Yes." There was a flash of light. Celestia teleported right up to Ancepanox, lightly lower on the slope of the path. "Is this how the 'self-created mare' conducts herself? Immediately throwing blame everywhere, pushing off responsibility for her actions?"

"I'm taking responsibility, by killing the source of my woes." Ancepanox rumbled.

“Insolent as always, Moon.” Celestia chided. “You dishearten me.”

"Where are you taking this?" Ancepanox asked.

"This merry chase, you mean? To the end.” Celestia shook her head sadly. “The Tower points towards heaven, but there's a waystop before we can reach those most lofty heights." She looked over her shoulder. "Hmm. I threw Twilight off the watchtower before I teleported here. We move on. We move forward. We move up."

Huge swaths of Canterlot winked out of existance, becoming that same white void as in the other memories. Celestia, and all the ground between her and Ancepanox, disappeared too.

“GET BACK HERE!” Ancepanox snarled, leaping into the air.
The cosmic eye moved her to places beyond, and as the layers of memory flittered by she saw Celestia passing near. They clashed, their willful attacks cutting through thousands of iterations of place and time. The euclidean aspect of the memories melted into incomprehensible concepts, wavering light, miasmatic dark, spots of blank whiteness, and muddied consciousness.
Ancpenaox chased Celestia back and forth through the years. Celestia moved with ethereal grace, taking up the role she had been remembered in, or some new interpretations. Always though, Twilight Sparkle was different, perverted in her form and function. The poor mare suffered death, mutilation, humiliation, absolute power, absolute helplessness, and the betrayal of her dear Celestia. She was young becoming older, and old becoming young, down to just born, and up to death’s door.
Time ceased to have meaning, and yet as it passed in myriad picoseconds Ancepanox felt her emotions toyed with in a million million ways. Celestia jerked her like a puppet on strings, exposing her to the worst a maddened mind could conceive of. The black alicorn felt overwhelming rage at what she saw until it was simply too much. For what felt like a hundred years she held that rage and used it to fuel her pursuit. But the disgraces Celestia inflicted upon Twilight Sparkle became common to her, and the shock and outrage of it all dulled, until Ancepanox could only feel tired.

It was then Celestia ran no more, and neither did Ancepanox chase. They had arrived upon the moon. The memory of the moon, that is.

The memory forms of Twilight and Nightmare Moon sat in the grey, looking longingly up at the earth and wishing to return. They would, and for both of them it would be the transition into their next state of being; They would be more.

Celestia's black gaze lingered on the two forlorn dreamers. "This is it. It's very peaceful here." She shifted on her hooves. Out of empty space, Agana's headless body appeared and stood beside the sun princess. "When we meet on its real-world counterpart, it will not be nearly so calm."

"It's not too late. We can still talk." Ancepanox said, lying with teeth bared. "We can both get out way."

Celestia let out a short laugh. "That is the kind of thing I would say! Oh, my dear sister... You have said it yourself. Our goals are fundamentally, irreversibly, opposed. Neither of us will compromise."

"Then next time we meet, there will be no words, just the fight." Ancepanox bowed her head. "And I'll kill you. I'll kill you with my bare hooves."

"I imagine so." Celestia alowed herself a thin smile. She grabbed Twilight Sparkle with her telekenisis, dragging the unicorn away from the memory Nightmare Moon. She case her last escape spell.
The starscape behind them hollowed and cracked. Celestia and company faded from the realm of memories, and escaped into the dreamscape at the only point in which it merged with physical reality: The Moon in the sky above Equestria.

Ancepanox found it difficult to care.
She watched the Nightmare Moon of memory, differing only slightly from her. That Luna possessed an unworldly grace and beauty, while she was ragged, savage, and ugly. That Luna suffered the exile of a failed rebellion with patience and composure, while she pursued in outrage over so selfish a slight. That Moon was alone, and so was she.
Ancepanox knew with all her heart her hate was valid. She would destroy a thousand mortals to end Celestia. There would be no forgiveness, no patience. Vengeance deferred was vengeance lost. That was the lesson from Luna's failure.

Ancepanox obliterated the memory, letting the stars and grey dust turn white. Nightmare Moon, solitary in her earthward longing, faded to blank.
Now Celestia was trapped, unable to reenter the memories.

"Now I am the only pony in all the world to have dreamwalking powers." Ancepanox said into the void. "Celestia, Agana, and Twilight Sparkle have joined Luna as prisoners of the Moon. Humph. The judge will be visiting, all too soon."

Ancepanox wandered through the memories for a while. The damage from the battle was severe, but she did what she could to repair it. She eventually found where she’d left Agana’s head and picked her up. The ungrateful deava tried asking her questions, then began shouting threats, but she ignored it all.

After a while she stopped in one of her memories from when she was eleven years of age. It was in Celestia’s personal quarters where, if Celestia and Twilight had been there, the sun princess would be teaching her protege about the paths of the stars. Ancepanox looked to the window where they would have been using a telescope, and the ancient astronomy book that they would have been consulting.
Content, she set Agana’s head on the boudoir table and settled herself on Celestia’s bed. Life is bliss, she thought idly to herself.

“That just raises more questions!” Ripple Wreath protested, rowdy for such an unsatisfying end to such a drawn-out story. “None of that made any sense at all. The only thing that made sense to me was that Agana went to your dream after she died, and even that is bloody confusing. Like, who the hell is Twilight Sparkle!”

“Twilight Velvet’s daughter, obviously.” Ancepanox rolled her eyes. “What’s not to get? I need you to kill Celestia because I can’t bring myself to. It’s a simple as can be.”

“No, it’s not.” Wreath emphasis. “You just said she’s trapped. Why bother?”

“Imagine two snakes. One is black, the other is white. They eat each other’s tails: The black one because it hates the white one, and the white one because it is necessary. Only the black snake decides it can’t be bothered, so it hired the wolf to kill the white snake so a certain smaller white snake can be born.” Ancepanox elucidated. “Celestia is the saturnine consumer, and Twilight and I are the children. Now, the saturnalia has ended, and I am the jupiterian usurper.”

“Thanks. That clears it all up.” Wreath snarked. He sat down and scratched his ear. “Especially the part where you need me to be the one to kill Celestia.”

Ancepanox was silent for several minutes. “Admittedly, I’m doing you poor by asking that of you. I’m afraid I won’t be happy. She needs to go, but… But I'm gripped by a fear that I'll be fulfilling a role I don't want to fill. I don't want to play their alicorn domination games, or go along with their twisted ideologies. I just want them dead.”

“Well, you can’t guarantee-”

“Exactly.” Ancepanox cut him off. “That’s why I’m asking you.”

“Uh huh. That’s ignoring what you just said all that stuff about the dynamic between you two.” Wreath sighed. He should have figured there was no way he was going to survive the night with a shred of his sanity intact. And yet something told him that Ancepanox had a similar worry, and that meant there was something she wasn’t telling him. “Does Celestia stir anything in you?”

“What are you implying?” Ancepanox narrowed her eyes.

“There’s something more to your story.” Wreath challenged, straightening up. “ Are you or are you not the alicorn who slaughtered hundreds of ponies in a bloodthirsty rage?”

“I am.”

Wreath gulped. Here came the risky part of his argument. “But you didn’t kill Glori, or me. Because, like you said, you're not a part of their game. I'll tell you why you didn't kill Glori, and you didn't kill me: You knew our names and story. Knowing the least bit about us meant you couldn’t bring yourself to end our lives. Then with Agana, and now with Celestia!”

Ancepanox clenched her jaw angrily, but did not deny it.

“So you had Agana do it, and she could not. Now you’ve come to me.” Wreath pressed. It was for her own good that he berated her, inciting her to be more. “You have the ability, don’t you? So this is an problem of WILL.”

"Yes, and?"

"My Lady, listen to me. This is a weakness you have to overcome. You KNOW you have to follow through. You said yourself, destroying Celestia would end the woes that have forced you to evil acts. You must commit, my lady. You have to press on against this doubt!"

Ancepanox closed her eyes, let out a sigh, and shook her head. "I killed Chrysalis and Myriadess. Your thesis doesn't hold up."

Wreath stood up, trotted over to the alicorn, and slapped her. "My lady, you'd better-"
The slap Wreath received in return knocked him clear across the roof area, and he collided with a stone merlon.

Ancepanox was looming over him when he stood up. "You think that was any good way to make a point, little pony? I could destroy your mind in a second."

Wreath sucked in a breath, braced himself, and tried to slap her again. Ancepanox didn't let him, pushing him back with a hoof until he was pinned against the wall by his neck. "ghhhh" He gurgled, trying to speak around the hoof asphyxiating him.

"OOooohhh." Ancepanox shivered. "Don't do this to me Ripple Wreath." She shifted her grip, holding his neck with both hooves. She played with applying more and less pressure. "I could break you in a moment. I could break this whole damn world..."
She slackened her grip, letting Wreath go. "You know... I'm god. I'm the bucking god of this planet. The sun is trapped. The moon is powerless. I'm as close to immortal as I could be. I'm the queen. I'm the princess. Every single living creature on this planet lives because I let it, and will die when I deem it."

"Yes my lady." Wreath said quietly. "You are powerful. That makes you worthy. Nothing else, especially the past matters."

Ancepanox opened her mouth to agree, then paused. "No." She shook her head. "Twilight Sparkle matters."

Wreath glanced away, disappointed.

"What I've done, I did for her. Twilight Sparkle deserves to be liberated from Celestia. Celestia, in turn, will be judged for what she's done to Twilight."

"That's all very good, Lady Ancepanox. Eventually I hope you extend this justice to all ponykind, as is your mandate." Wreath said. "And here we come to the original point. You have a barrier you are trying to overcome. Will you?"

The nonexistent Moon winds whispered strange things.
Luna, hiking one of the lunar peaks on the way to a village, grit her teeth. They were coming. They were going to use her moon for their blasphemous works, and for their battles. Not if Luna and her army had any say.

After what seemed like hours after Ancepanox left, she returned to the memory of Celestia’s chambers where she’d left Agana’s head.

“GAH! Finally!” Agana sputtered angrily. “I was beginning to think you would never come back, Mooneater.”

“Here I am.” Ancepanox shrugged, throwing herself onto a sofa. “You are proved wrong, yet again.”

Agana scowled. “Does that make you happy? Proving ponies wrong, that is?”

“Happy? No. I doubt anything could really make me happy.” Ancepanox pulled a crystal glass from one of Celestia’s cabinets, followed by a wine bottle.“Momentary bursts of pleasure, sure. But not happiness.”
She snapped off the neck of the wine bottle and poured into the crystal glass until it overflowed. She took a sip and frowned. “This is literally rubbing alcohol.” When Twilight had formed the memory, that was the only alcohol she'd known.
Sighing, Ancepanox gulped the glass, then the bottle, the them into a wall where they shattered.

Agana didn't know what to think of Ancepanox's emotional fragility. The black alicorn swung wildly between moods at the drop of a hat. She could stay mad for longer than it took to punch, and didn't stay calm long enough to have a conversation.
Under her visage of power and strength, Ancepanox really was just a young mare, force into a world she was unprepared for.

“So, what did your friend advise we do with Celestia?” Agana asked cautiously.

“Kill her.” Ancepanox laid back in the sofa. “He thinks I should take over Equestria."

“You jest, but I see having an empire ruled by the Dark Ones-”

“Not ‘the Dark Ones’! ME!” Ancepanox shouted Agana down. “Do I look like a ‘Dark One’ to you? You say that like I’m some face in a crowd, a nopony! ‘Oh look, there goes another Dark One’. I’m the THE Dark One. SAY IT! Say ‘Ancepanox, the Nightmare of the Moon.’ Say it!”

“Mooneater, you are getting too aggressive for me.” Agana mewled, casting her eyes to the floor in submission. “You know I meant no slight. I was stating a fact. You are one, yes? And you are Dark, no?”

Ancepanox rolled onto her stomach. "You're going to get me talking. I've been consciously avoiding veering into the longwinded rants. But heck, if I'm ever going to learn to be an alicorn, I better get used to it."

"You don't 'learn' to be an alicorn. You just are." Agana said with a mild snark.

"So am I or aren't I? What is alicorn-ness? Is it biological, mental, spiritual, or magical?" Ancepanox posed. "I know the semantic canards. Ali-corn, defined by its 'otherness' to ponykind. But I've seen that the spectrum of alicorn-kind has itself a spectrum of how it differs from mortals? So I ask, what is the one certain feature of an alicorn, instantly recognizable, that could never be feature of mortals?"

"What do you mean?" Agana asked.

"Why are the Stars not alicorns? Why are demons not alicorns? I met this freaky dream spider-pony in the Forest, and I wondered, why is she not an alicorn?" Ancepanox counted off. "On the flip side, why are you an alicorn? Why do you emphacize your alicorn-dom over deava-dom, when your rhetoric would imply the opposite? Was Myriadess an alicorn even being just a soul in a platinum sphere? Can you stop being an alicorn, then resume? Is alicorn-ness a sliding scale, or a binary state?"

"That is many questions at once." Agana grunted.

Ancpeanox lay her head back down. "Take you time."

Agana went silent for what had to be at least twenty minutes. Finally she sighed. "I don't know."

"Figures."

"What would you prefer the truth to be?"

"Well, it would suite my purposes if Alicorn was an identity. Concepts of alicorn-ness may be as constructed and arbitrary as any other social construct. The name of 'alicorn' may just be a signifier, broadly recognized but still arbitrary." Ancepanox said. "This is not for my benefit though. It's because I've decided that I absolutely loath alicorns, and it would be convenient for me to be able to exclude or include you or Luna or anyone else into the definition as it becomes expedient."

"Mooneater I love your cynicism." Agana said. "However, this is missing the forest for the trees. You have to decide to go after Celestia, or no."

Ancepanox ignored her. "I think the next few hours will prove if my thesis is true. I told Twilight I was a god. She seemed to be accepting or even welcoming of that claim. But how will that shake out when I tell my friends that? They saw my power even when I was Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps they will think about who I was before, with my power and stature, as some kind of pre-alicorn. Hmm. Ideas of fate, and identity... Very interesting questions."

Agana clacked her beak in annoyance. "Stop playing about. Are we going to go after Celestia or no?"

"Can the idea of the alicorn change in the popular imagination? I mean, people have some vague awareness of there being alicorns before Celestia, but only in accademic circles could anyone have even put a name or description to any of them. The idea of the alicorn is wedded to the idea of Celestia. But she will die. What will it mean if I come to them and present myself to an alicorn, will they adapt their view, or reject changing their ideas of alicorn-ness?" Ancepanox droned on. "It doesn't hurt that I have the same build and basic features as Celestia. Hell, if I was clever about it, I could try to pass myself off as a 'changed' Celestia, if that would make them accept me better."
She rolled onto her back. "This is accepting the assertion that I should be among ponies. I don't know... The next few hour will decide. In the next few hours, I'll find out what an alicorn is."

"You exhaust me Mooneater!" Agana shouted. "You are giving me a headache."

"Now much of an accomplishment since you're all head." Ancepanox said. "Also, quit derailing me. If you don't like me asking questions, say so, and I'll spare you."

Agana made a sour. "You are going to kick me out that window if I say that."

Ancepanox chuckled. "Yup."

"It's not that I'm not enthralled by your questions. You are a fledgeling, exploring, questioning. I have myself spent time exploring like that, and hearing you relitigate the same things gives me great anxieties." Agana said, her voice dipping into a soft sentimentality, but that did not last. "But nothing gives me more anxiety than contemplating losing my body forever! Gods damn it Mooneater, go kill Celestia and get my body!"

Ancepanox sat up. "Agana, do you have any intention of being a good girl?"

"That is an incredibly nebulous question." Agana said, chuffed.

"I mean, if hypothetically you had every power restored to you, and I let you off free to do whatever you wanted in this world, would you stop trying to kill ponies?" Ancepanox asked.

Agana's glare intensified. "You have built on the premise that not killing ponies is 'good', and on the premise that you are the arbiter of my behavior. I can not answer that question."

"I see." Ancepanox said softly. "If I decided that I have a moral obligation to fight alicorn-ism wherever it exists, though words where possible, with violence when necessary, what you you say then?"

"Alicorn-ism? What in gods' name are you trying to pull."

"Imagine a kind of cultural alicorn, separate but comparable to the physical alicorn-"

"Go to hell, Ancepanox!" Agana exclaimed. "You are trying to create the rhetorical framework of destroying us all, and I will not have it! We are proud creatures! Hypocrite! Blasphemer!"

"I can't punish you for crimes you haven't committed yet. If I want to preemptively punish any new alicorns the intrude on my planet, their crimes need to be obvious and clear." Ancepanox said.

Agana lacked the words to describe the tugging nervousness of what she was hearing. "Is there any chance you are entertaining hyperbole, to teach me the error of my ways?"

Ancepanox smiled. "The next few hours will decide."

"You keep saying that." Agana growled.

"And it's never a lie." Ancepanox said. She rolled onto her back, testing awkward ways to lay without crushing her wings. She let out a breath, scratching the nape of her neck on the cushion.
She could have stayed there as long as she wanted. Time moved strangely in the dreamscape, and that apparently extended to memories as well.
"I wish it could be so easy. I can see the appeal of just abandoning all the struggle and responsibility. Being stressed and angry all the time is tiring to say the least. I don't know if I'm ready for a life of struggle and responsibility on that scale. It's... intimidating as all hell."

"That is the greatest tell you are not a true alicorn. A real daughter of the stars would grasp your opportunities by the horn and drive them forward for all they're worth." Agana said.

"Until they breakdown into mental anguish, like Luna, like Celestia, and like the ancient alicorns. You're not as durable as you think." Ancepanox said. She sighed.
"I'm thinking about eyes. Yes, eyes. Looked at from a distance it is just a circle! The circle: A continuous line. The eye is like that most aboriginal of life, the embryo, with a vital core surrounded by protective shell. It grows and shrinks, and it will be the conduit of our understanding. I grew another eye tonight. I can open and close it as I please...”

“Good gods, I'm surrounded by literal maniacs.” Agana lamented. "Mooneater, was drinking that rubbing alcohol a good idea?"

“I’m talking about eyes. Many cultures call it the window to the soul. With them we blink, wince, cry, scowl.” Ancepanox hummed. "I see dreams with mine. I see cosmic possibility. With it, I direct many eyes to peer into the abyssal heart of the spaces above. If the cathedral-library is my Tower, than the eye that reads its secrets is my climber."

"I will admit I have dabbled in obscurantism but you are taking it to new heights." Agana said. “Poetry. Pure poetry.”

"Thank you, I try." Ancepanox said quietly. "I needn't get into what your eyes see. You've been telling me all night about how your eyes see sin. Or they did, before Celestia stole it. Heh, I still find it absolutely hilarious you talked so much about domination and all that, and at the end of it all, you were the one who got dominated."

They sat in total silence for many minutes. Ancepanox rested her head, but the building discomfort in her spine stoped her from being comfortable.
After a while she rolled into a sitting position, too giddy and uncomfortable to delay and longer.

“That's it then. It's time.” She uttered.

“Oh yes! Time to kill Celestia!” Agana said exultantly. “Let us go forthwith and scour her from all existence! Then we get my body back.”

Ancepanox remained sitting on the couch, looking at Agana’s head covetously. Those purple eyes held no kindness in them. True to the poetic portrayal, they saw darkness.

“W- What is it Mooneater?” Agana squawked in unease.

Ancepanox blinked, a slow and almost lascivious blink that could not keep Agana from seeing the stirring fire behind the mare. “Agana, going into this last battle, I need all the power I can get. I can't let there be any detractors or distractions. I'm sure you know what that means."

Agana grew gravely silent for a time. "Yes. I know. I could help though."

"You could. You won't." Ancepanox shook her head. "As consequence to forming my Cosmic Eye, I started to hear things, whispers, thoughts. It was mostly muddled, but I just heard your last thought loud and clear."

Agana let out a mournful caw. "Oh... I should have expected that sooner or later. In my defense, planning to betray you is hardly the worst I could have been thinking. It is in my nature."

"I know. This will be in my nature." Ancepanox said, regretful, but resolute. "Goodbye Agana.”

It had taken Dash far longer to climb the castle’s roof than if she had working wings, especially while having to keep a wing pinned against her side to hold the sabre. But afterwards she appreciated the view a lot more.

From her vantage point above the library, she had an uninterrupted view of hundreds of square kilometers of the forest, in all its green floral glory. The moon was full, and it’s silvery light had all the forest beasts clamoring for each other’s attention. The Everfree’s northwestern edge, terminating at the Dneighper and Ponyville, could just be seen.
By comparison to this wide world, Dash thought idly, we are very very small.

Unexpectedly, a shadow passed over the castle. Shocked and confused, Dash looked up to see what behemoth was above.
She only caught the briefest of glances, but she could have sworn that the Mare in the Moon had returned. But to scrutinous looks, the moon was still as plain as it had been all night. The shadow was gone.

“Weird.” Dash scratched an itch where the helmet met flesh. She corrected her assertion: Compared to the vast heaven, the whole world was very very small. That made ponies microscopic specs. How outrageous was it that those specs could even consider the vast infinities of space, let alone challenge them.

Remembering why she had climbed up, Dash clambered across the connected rooftops towards the throne room. She went slowly to make no noise, and crouched to avoid making shadows.
The battles with Celestia and Forlorn Spark had left the castle walls and roof a crumbling mess, to the point that it was fairly foolish to even leave anypony inside. Dash felt the unsteadiness of the structure beneath her as she neared the center of where the fighting had been- new gaps and scorched chunks of the roof were the exit punctures of spell that had missed.

Dash of all ponies was unlikely to be weepy about the destruction of old things. Old stuff was meant to be tossed away and replaced, and old stuff that happened to survive didn't suddenly give it value as an 'artifact' or ruin. She still felt bad for the damage to the castle.

She reached the side of the castle, and after watching from a distance for sound or movement, crept to the lip of the roof, overlooking the great roofless space of the throne room.

The corpse arrangement, comprising of Celestia and Chrysalis, was still undisturbed between the two shattered thrones. Twilight had either crawled or been moved closer to the broken stained glass window, but was to all inspection just as comatose as she had been all night.
But Applejack was missing.

“Not good.” Dash hissed. Either Rarity had gotten wise and had already doubled back to nab Applejack, or the nightmare earth pony had awoken on her own and wandered off. In either case, if Rarity got a hold of Applejack, then went back to wherever her other altar was (and Dash still had no idea where that might be), there wouldn’t be much Dash could do to stop the enraged nightmare unicorn from painting the walls orange. Or blackish-orange, or blackish-orangish-red.

The fleeting shadow over the castle returned. This Dash immediately jerked her head skyward to spot the cause.
There WAS a face on the Moon again, but not Nightmare Moon! The profile, a alicorn mare with a billowing mane, was unmistakable that of Celestia.
No sooner had Dash realized what it was then it vanished, leaving the Moon blank once more.

Dash had no idea what that haunting profile implied, but it could possibly be anything good. Who knew how many ponies across Equestria had been quick enough to see it, and then understood what it was. Dash's anxieties just kept growing: Rarity was looking like the lesser threat here!
But Dash took a small solace knowing Ancepanox had promised to handle the dream side of things, so Dash could focus on the physical world. The borrowed alicorn body gave Dash many reasons to be confident, and reminded of her of the duty to fight for her new friends.

Deciding her course, Dash turned away and clambered back towards the library roof. On her way, she grabbed every protruded nail she could work out from the remnants of the castle's wood framing.
Then Dash found a sizable gap in the ceiling and hovered over it, waiting.

The in the labyrinth of the castle's hallways, Rarity was ignorant to the other hunter's machinations. She was paralyzed by choice, unsure if she should run to protect her altar or go back and grab the sleepers. So she walked directionlessly, leaning on random chance to bring her to Rainbow Dash.

"That blithering tomcolt. Who knows what a dumb pony like her will do. She is too unpredictable. I have no idea where that opium-rotted brain of hers will take her." Rarity seethed. Of course Dash had never even mentioned opium besides vague references to drug fugues in Chitin, but Rarity could not help imagining Dash in the place of the most tasteless depiction of a changeling in a hazy drug den laying about and occasionally wheezing. It made Rarity even angrier, to contemplate such a pony had power over her.

But being alone with her thoughts, the first time in a while that she wasn't presented with immediate stimuli, gave Rarity time to think.
She knew herself to be not so much Rarity, as Rarity's nightmare. The idea of Rarity slumbered, while all that was avaricious, disdainful, and hungry about Rarity swelled into the Dark power that had been infused into her on the Tower. Rainbow Dash and Applejack could plausibly coexist with their nightmarishly enhanced emotions. Rarity could not, had not, and was thus overwhelmed.
"Does Rarity accept me? Would Rarity disown me? I exist to advance her goals. In time she could come to accept my ways. That's when we could become one again, and the nightmare folds back into the whole." She mumbled to herself. "Is it so with all nightmare ponies? If the contradictions were heightened, would Applejack and Rainbow Dash become as I am? And on the rival direction, if Ancepanox and Twilight become more alike again, will they congeal back into a single pony?"

Such wandering thought were brought back into focus by a head-splitting surge of raw emotion, mostly rage and hatred, that brought her to a sudden froth. Her every muscle spasmed before she brought herself back under control.
She needed blood! She needed to kill! She wanted to pain and write in red. She wanted to taste it. She wanted to hear their screaming.

What the hell is wrong with me?
But momentary doubt was washed away by the nightmarish urges, and Rarity felt a renewed sense of urgency. She had to find Dash NOW.

Rarity put on some speed, sweeping through the halls like a foul wind, making curling eddies in the think back fog where she encountered it. Here and there she got whiffs of Dash or other creatures, but her senses were too untrained to pinpoint where they were.
Rarity had very little knowledge about the floor plan, save for the path she’d always taken to and from her Nightmare altars. She took several wrong turns that left her in dead ends or outside.

“How does this even happen!” She rumbled. A few detours previous she had been in a decrepit tower, and now she was in a dank cellar somewhere underground. Dust piles were all that remained of the cellar's stock.
She turned around, but could not find the way she’d come in.
“I am caught in a thousand year old maze. How utterly humiliating!” She was ready to smash through stone if she had to.
So she did. She had no teleportation, and no spells for unlocking hidden doorways, but she did have at that moment a tremendous amount of raw dark magic.
Guessing the general location of the exit, Rarity bashed against the packed-earth wall with a sledge of magic. The whole room shook from the impact, and chunks of the ceiling fell around her. It took several more times before she caved into another hallway, by which time most of the cellar had collapsed. Silently satisfied with herself, Rarity quickly returned to a higher floor.

That satisfaction dried up as she came out directly adjacent to the library. She had gone in a giant circle. “I had might as well look here again, while I am here.” She ground her teeth.

Not one second later, she heard a clatter from the voluminous library, betraying somepony's presence. It was no doubt Rainbow Dash, come to fumble among the books in search of the altar.

Rarity flashed her teeth, her ire rising. It was time to strike.
Creeping into the library Rarity went. Her thrill grew, as did the burning feeling in her brain and muscles. She prayed the nest kill would relieve it.
Here the black fog was as thick as soup, threatening to suffocate her every breath and swallow her up whole. She had to move by memory, keeping an ear for any sign of Dash.

A mild confusion to her was that the mist it was not the same 'consistency' as what she knew.
Rarity knew the fog was like mirage of sorts, a visual corollary to a dark aura that grew out of control. When she had been the cause of it, she had been flush with so much dark it was spilling out of her, thus the fog. It had been humbling to watch Ancepanox absorb it all so hastily. Now, if somepony else's dark was creating the fog... Rarity raged to imagine Dash playing around with her altar!
Rarity was too emotional to realize the glaring error in her logic.

A muted clink, what most certainly the sound of iron horseshoes against stone, reached her ears. It must have been close, just a few meters away. Rarity paused to listen for more, and was satisfied to hear it get closer. The clinking stopped, so Rarity cautiously approached the last spot, ready to attack. But there was still no sight of anypony else in the library, besides a very vague awareness that Dash was near.

Clink. The sound of a metal hoofstep was right in front of her. Rarity should have been almost running into Dash, she was so close.
"Where are you." Rarity whispered.
Rarity hadn’t even taken a step forward when something small and hard smacked her in the back of the head, pinging like what she had thought were shod hoofsteps.
“Ouch!” She squealed, but instead of shying she spun around and caught the offending projectile in its bounce. It was a big rusty nail, like the kind used in the castle’s carpentry. “What?”
That was when Rarity realized she was actually being the one ambushed.

Dash pounced from above. Her swooping tackle caught Rarity’s midriff and carried them both another two meters until they smashed into a bookshelf. Rarity roared and lashed out blindly with her magic, turning the air to a storm of energy and sending Dash scampering away. The bookshelf collapsed moments later, burying Rarity in hundreds of heavy tomes.

A few minutes earlier.

Wakefulness slammed into Applejack like a tidal wave. Her eyes flew open and she jerked to her hooves. Her head swirled and pounded, as she coped with conflicting thoughts and nausea.

"I'm real sore." She gurgled. She only had scattered recollections of being strung up and tortured by Rarity.
For some reason, she had the most peculiar and gut-wrenching thought, about stillborn dreams rotting inside her own brain.
Applejack staggered a few steps and dry heaved. The putrid thoughts mostly faded. "Ho boy." She wiped her chin. Her head was still swimming. She released a short breath, then adopted her clipped Manehattan accent. "I don't want to be left alone with my thoughts any more than I have to be." Nightmare urges of domination clashed with empirical reality: She was whooped.

What is my dream, she wondered, if I could jump inside my own head. Would it be home, or Manehattan? Something, or someplace else? She did not imagine it was something as lofty and esoteric as the Tower.

Celestia's corpse was still on the throne, and the dead changeling was beside her, where Rarity had left them. Twilight Sparkle, however, had been moved from what Applejack remembered. Applejack's brain-buzz grew the longer the looked at Twilight, so she turned away and considered her next move.

"I remember... Twi saving me by fighting off Rarity." Applejack said quietly.
Blind, she wandered into the fog.

But dazed as she was, she could not navigate. “Ah, shoot. I’ll never find the way outta here.” He best hope was encountering Twilight or Rainbow Dash.

“Twilight? Dash? Y’all round here? Twilight?” Applejack’s called out.

She suddenly heard shouting, and rushed towards it, bouncing off walls a few times. The fog was making her head swim, and she hardly noticed when she tumbled over a pile of books and fell onto the cold stone. She came nose to nose with Rarity, who was temporarily dazed from the attack from above. Applejack lifted her eyes to the foggy outline of the nightmare alicorn, though its voice was distinctly a rougher version of Rainbow Dash's.

"Applejack?" The alicorn balked. "Get up! Get up and get out of here! She's not gunna-"

With a roar, Rarity threw herself up, knocking Rainbow back. Still a bit dazed, Rarity charged blindly, and Dash was just quick enough to dodge, letting the unicorn crash into a bookcase which collapsed on her.

Dash felt the alicorn's heart pounding from the adrenaline. It had the power of an earth pony, like Dash had never felt before. "I feel like a bull rider. But I'm inside the bull." She muttered.

Before she could plan any more, a thump sounded from the collapsed bookcase. Rarity was alive and kicking, it seemed.

"And there are two bulls." Dash ground her teeth. She needed to get to higher ground again and prepare another ambush.
Dash jumped onto one of the rotten bookcases, and from there an intact roof beam, taking her just above the level of the dark fog.

But... The air above the fog did not seem any lighter than within! In fact, it felt much colder! Dash looked up, but the Moon had no explanation. Still Dash could not shake the feeling of a swelling dread emanating from the pale satellite. It's energy was growing, bathing the Everfree Castle in a kind of negative light.

“Buck buck BUCK! I can't take this anymore! Sparkle needs to wake up and take control of this body again!" Dash swore. She made a wild jump for it back into the fog, landing square on her hooves and making a run for it. She had to get away! This wasn't fun anymore! She just needed to nab Twilight Sparkle's sleeping body and escape into the forest. Hopefully Applejack would have the sense to run too.

Rarity was so angry she felt calm. Methodically, one by one, she thinned the pile of books atop her with telekinesis, all the while counting down to the ungodly reckoning she would bring down upon Dash and Applejack. In her mind she imagined pulling their teeth out, strangling them with their own severed hooves, and the excruciating agony that would throw them into.

She burst out from under the last few layers. She listened to the echo of the clatter, and to the microscopic eddies in the mist. There was no sign of anypony.

“This is a most distressing state of affairs.” Rarity seethed to nopony. She turned one way, then another, admiring her how the muscles under her charcoal-colored fur moved. She wanted to be using those muscles to kill. The dark magic around her began to coagulate and thrash without her consciously meaning to, so filled was she with single-minded desire to destroy.

Then Rarity heard a tiny voice, distressed and desperate. Somepony was whispering nearby.

Rarity grinned evilly. It didn’t sound like either of her current opponents, but just about anypony would do for her to act out her overpowering urges. She didn’t give much thought as to why a stranger would have wandered into the castle. It could have been one of the fillies, and if that were the case Rarity would try to be restrained in her fury. Try.

She moved as quickly as she could without making a sound, slithering over the cluttered floor and through the fog with fluid grace.
She found herself being led on a familiar path, in the one corner of the library she knew from her pilgrimages. In the farthest, plainest corner of the great library hall, she came to the hidden threshold. Within the hidden space was the shrine of her Ponyville cult, where her secret second altar was.
The fog was chokingly thick, confirming the source.

Rarity didn't care that the whisper she heard would therefore be a plea to the Dark Lady, at the base of the secret shrine. She just wanted to kill, no matter who it was. No matter who.

Rarity stepped into entering the annex with her magic charged, ready to turn anything short of a dragon into pink mist. It was not Dash, Applejack, or anypony else she expected to find kneeling before the shrine: Astern statue of Nightmare Moon, the same that was broken off from the pedestal at the mass grave out in the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy was prostrate in a small circle of candles, whispering a prayer at the altar. At her hooves was a devotional, crocheted from wool, depicting of a solar eclipse. The hoofwork was exceptionally detailed, but frayed from the haste of its creation.

"Fluttershy?" Rarity just stared, too choked for words. A painful ringing sounded in her heads and painful spasms rolled up her back, the consequence of denying her urges.

"Wha-" Fluttershy looked up, startled. She saw Rarity, and eyes widened to the size of disks. The terrifyingly beautiful visage of the nightmare unicorn towering over her was what she had been hoping for and dreading. "N- N- N- Nightmare!" She squeaked, pushing herself back into the corner of the hidden annex.

No, Rarity bewailed aghast, why did it had to be Fluttershy. She felt her lips involuntarily curl back to show her fangs. "What are you doing here?" The concerned question came out harsh and demanding.

"I- I-" The little yellow pegasus stuttered, trying to compose herself. She could not keep eye contact with the nightmare's intense gaze. "M- My Lady. Please bring back the sun!"

She doesn't recognize me, Rarity realized.

Fluttershy must have mistaken Rarity’s internal conflict for displease, for she squeaked and bowed even lower. “N- Not that I don’t love the night! I- I do, I swear! But it is too dark, and too treacherous. My animal friends are scared, and so many of them can’t get food or warmth without the sun.”

Rarity just stared, her forced look of impassivity wavering on collapse.

“A- And the village is suffering. Our crops are starting to die, and… and…” Fluttershy began to tear up. “And we will too. Some of my friends are already missing, and I’m so scared! P- Please, Nightmare, nopony was more devoted, caring, and generous than your Rarity! I beg you help us!”

The hidden annex had a tiny slot, that in the dead of night the moon could shine on the statue. Despite the fog, a little of that light did get though, a stark beam in the sooty blackness.

Rarity could nearly feel herself physically falling apart. She didn't know how Fluttershy’s plea cut through her madness and struck at her heart, but it did. She had to answer, but could think of no sensical response. “I- I-” She choked out.

Fluttershy looked up from the ground, openly weeping. “Please! Please!”

Rarity felt an echo in her head like a pebble in a bowl. It was that word. She watched how the lips pouted before the ‘p’, and how the rest of it just spilled out until those yellow lips drew back to hiss the ‘s’. It was a juicy word, like an overripe tomato splattering against a wall. Rarity replayed it until it no longer made sense to her. It was just sounds, the whine of a hysterical pegasus.
How does ‘Rarity’ sound, the corrupted unicorn wondered. Just another noise that ponies make. Rarity was profligate, filth, the opposite of its supposed meaning in every respect. Yet it sounded so pure when Fluttershy said it, so clean of the dark grime it had accumulated.
Rarity felt like she was falling backwards. Her head swam with vertigo... Every time she thought a thought, there was an echo. Rarity the nightmare and Rarity the pony were colliding and clashing. She felt like she might burst like the ripe tomato in her mind's eye.

“...sorry...” Rarity hissed.

“Y- You’re not going to help?” Fluttershy sniffled.

“I can't raise the sun.” Rarity lurched forward, pressing a hoof against Fluttershy's chest, pinning her. She could smell her, and drooled. "I can't even lower the moon. I can't save Ponyville. I might want to but I can't."

Fluttershy could speak from a combination of sheer terror and the hoof on her chest.

But Rarity didn't follow through. The nightmare was losing its hold, and the pony was beginning to shine, like a brilliant beaken in a head full of darkness and fog, a call back to the light she felt from Fluttershy.
"But I can save you." Rarity whispered, calmly, familiarly. “I can make the night a little brighter, for you.”

Rarity released Flutershy and turned to the shrine. She bent down, smothering the candles with her flowing mane as she jabbed her forhead against the stone. She was as a appellant to the savage statue of the Nightmare of the Moon.
Rarity gripped the tail of her makeshift scarf, the tapestry binding her soul, and pulled it off in one motion.

Nothing happened. The nightmare did not abate like she’d expected.

“Oh.” Rarity said, feeling a bit silly. She looked back at Fluttershy. “Well, um…”

Fluttershy was just sitting quietly, trying to work through her fear and confusion.

The whole affair had given Rarity's rage some time to cool. She set her stance, ready to get back into her battle against the heretics Dash and Ancepanox as a rational and deadly agent- She promised to herself she would not lose control again. Even a nightmare had the standards of a lady to live up to.
“Stay here, if you will. I have some business to take care of.” Rarity dusted herself off. “But it is best you stop praying to the altar. In this strange night, you have been creating this dark fog. The other nightmare have been trying to track you that way."

“O- Other nightmares?” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Yes. I'm not your god. I'm not the Dark Lady. She has yet to descend. In her place a thousand horrors have awoken to exploit this dark night. Among them, the Nightmare of the Moon." Rarity said, and Fluttershy threw her gaze to the fierce statue, reverent but afraid. “But she is a very different nature than we thought. I shant lie to you, Fluttershy, but we are not gods. Truly the only thing setting us apart from pony is how wretched and sinful we are, quite literally.”

Fluttershy was on the edge of tears again. But not for fear, but for sadness, and her sympathy in the face of the awful curse laid upon the unicorn before her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Oh hush now. You have nothing to be sorry for.” Rarity held out a comforting hoof, but it began to shake and clench. The nightmare unicorn drew it back: She wasn't completely in control of herself yet. “From what I said, you have two options. Return home and forget about all of this madness, and forget this faith. Or, you may stay, and witness some very interesting things, as we claw our ways back from the clutches of insanity."

“I… um…” Fluttershy glanced around, searching for an answer in the corners of the room. “When you put it that way…”

“No, dear, I would never be so uncouth as to force an answer from you now. That would be simply unladylike.” Rarity apologized, flashing a shining, teethy smile. “And I am nothing, if not ladylike.”

“I agree.” Fluttershy said in a hushed tone. "... Rarity."
The truth of the unicorn’s identity was beginning to dawn on Fluttershy, but it surprised her less than she would have expected. So, Rarity had finally delved too deep into dark magic and suffered for it. On the one hoof Fluttershy was relieved that Rarity was not missing, hurt, or trapped in a much worse way. On the other hoof, what strange and terrible a fate it was to be twisted into a nightmare!
Fluttershy could at least celebrate that her dearest friend wasn’t dead. There were worse things in the wings if she was to be believed.

She was about to say something when all the candles in the room were snuffed out. A deathly chill settled over them, and the entire castle. With Fluttershy no longer praying at the altar, the black fog was beginning to dissipate, but a much more sinister presence was asserting itself now: A malevolent thing as yet unrevealed, not Ancepanox, and not Agana. What was it, it's oppressive aura filling the air?!

Rarity ran out of the hidden alcove, panicked to discover what this new evil force was. She ran into the library, tripping over stacks of books until the fog disipated away? Rarity looked around, to discover some faint light was negating the dark fog just like Ancepanox had. The light was coming from above, from the holes in the library ceiling.
It was the Moon. The pale orb looked almost twice its usual size, and had becomed tinged with a deep visceral red. Rarity could not pull her eyes away from it, and most horrifyingly of all, they could feel that most unholy of presences up there watching them back.

Fluttershy peeked out of the hidden alcove, her eyes darting up to the blood moon. “Maybe I should go back to praying.”

“Not a bad idea, all things considered.” Rarity could see an unparalleled malevolence in the eyes of the moon silhouette, to which her hatred and grudges were a pale shadow. Whatever had taken over the moon contained an anger and fury to match anything Rarity had seen so far that night.

Unbeknownst to them, Applejack was observing from a corner of the room. While Dash had fled and Rarity run about like a bronco, Applejack had slinked into the corner, giving subtlety a try. It didn't suite her. She fidgeted constantly, her own instincts and the nightmare curse demanding she act, quickly and violently.
Her patience was paying off. Rarity had pulled off her makeshift scarf. Applejack didn't know what that represented, but she had the feeling the nightmare unicorn was vulnerable now.

She stood up and approached Rarity. "Does that moon scare you, Rarity? It ran Rainbow Dash off." She said, slipping back into her Manehattan accent. "Somepony or some god is angry with us."

Rarity's ears flicked at the sound of Applejack's voice. "This isn't the time." She said harshly, but fear was seeping into her voice.

"This is exactly the time Rares." Applejack hissed, drawing closer. Her blood boiled for everything she’d suffered at the unicorn’s hooves. She was tired of reconciliation, tired of playing nice. Everypony else was using the wretched night to exact their petty revenges. Why couldn't she?

Fluttershy's eyes fixed on the new nightmare pony. "A- Applejack?"

“You back to prayin, Fluttershy.” Applejack whispered, drawing herself up and preparing for battle. Yes, she was certain Rarity was weakened without the scarf. Applejack promised herself she would act without remorse, and without mercy; Like bucking a dead tree to shake the limbs off. “You ain’t gunna wanna see this.”

Rainbow Dash, to her credit, did not mindlessly flee the castle. She scampered across the roof and dropped down into the throne room, where she ran over to Twilight Sparkle's limp body.
"Get up! Get up!" Dash shouted. She struggled to find the most efficient way to carry the small pony body. “How ironic is it that being in this alicorn shape makes me more useless?”

The eerie moonlight began to penetrate into the throne room. The atmosphere became unbearable. For what must have been the fifth time that night Dash was presented with the choice of abandoning them or staying. Why did the cruel world keep foisting such awful dilemmas on her?

Dash scrunched her face, then with a pained and choppy sigh, put Twilight back down. She felt a familiar tingle in her brain, like a psychic voice was trying to speak to her but not quite audible.
"I'm not the right pony for this. I knew that from the start. I held down the fort long enough to make the difference,"

Three screams echoed nearby down the castle halls, reaching the throne room like a cacophonous orchestra. Dash recognized two of anger, Rarity and Applejack, but not the one of terror, who sounded like a mare.
"Last time to enjoy the feeling of this body." Dash mumbled to herself. She checked Twilight was laying evenly and galloped in the direction of the yells and snarls she heard.

With the dark fog clearing up, Dash could see the entire situation upon entering the library. Applejack and Rarity were tangled together in a battle to the death. Sprays of black blood covered the floor, staining the brick and wood and the covers of the priceless tomes they rolled over in their mindless melee.

Taking a step forward to stop the two, Dash bumped into a small mare she hadn’t noticed. A pegasus mare with a coat the color of withered daffodils, and a mane as silky and pink as the soft tissues that built that innocent little body. Dash stared into radiant, tearfully eyes, and knew she had seen the mare before. From a time before fear and guilt, that mare and Dash had played and laughed in the fluffy skies of Cloudsdale.
“Fluttershy.” Dash gurgled. She recognized the little mare, a figment of a memory from a time she'd tried to forget. She remembered such a yellow and pink filly off to herself, hugging the edge of the cloud to stay out of the way of the other rambunctious fillies and colts. "You died... at the Cloud Creche! The Rainboom!"

Was transfixed by the deep blue eyes of the big black alicorn leering over her. Just as menacing in life as depicted on the makeshift altar in the alcove, the Nightmare of the Moon. But those wild eyes were filled with a silent desire and need to be recognized and forgiven, but Fluttershy could do neither. "My lady." Fluttershy whispered.

Dash grabbed her head and shook out her confusion and turmoil. She wasn't there on her own behalf. She had held down the fort long enough! She begged to be released from the alicorn body and get her own back. Maybe Fluttershy would recognize her then. "Make this stop already! Please I just want this to stop!"

The chaotic brawl between Applejack and Rarity continued and loudly and viciously as enraged cougars. Fluttershy, her attention torn between the fight and the shivering alicorn cowering next to her, was on the verge of breakdown. SOUND, CONFUSION, CHAOS. And the light of the moon overhead was getting painfully bright, so much Fluttershy thought she could almost hear it. "Make it stop. Make this stop." Fluttershy pleaded an echo to the alicorn's mutterings, directed to whoever was listening. She nudged Nightmare Moon's hoof with her nose.

Dash jerked her hoof away. She felt the insidious burbling urge... the nightmare urge, compelling her to destroy. With the alicorn body's strength, Fluttershy could be crushed in one quick stomp.
But there was the other urge too, the death drive that had been haunting her since the night's inception.
In that moment, Rainbow Dash had no doubt that it was the deepest, darkest, most horrible point of the night. The worst had arrived. Rarity and Applejack had lost themselves to the nightmare's animalistic passions. Dash wanted to lose herself too. Nothing made sense anymore, and her mind was frayed from the bombardment of stimuli and conflicting urges.

"Everything here leads to death." Dash still had the sabre she'd found. She untucked her wing and let it drop to the ground. She picked up the sabre in the curl of her hoof and limped towards the two entangled nightmare ponies. "Ancepanox keeps showing up when death is near. I wonder... What'll happen this time?"

Rarity and Applejack didn't notive the third nightmare until it physically bumped into them. Like drunken brawlers they both struck out at the intruder. Applejack pulled away from Rarity long enough to buck the alicorn in the side, kocking her to the side. Rarity, snatched up the silver sabre and jammed it into the dark alicorn's breast, just under the seam of the curiass.

Then nopony moved.
Fluttershy, transfixed by her fear and confusion, looked from pony to pony. It was unsettlingly calm all of a sudden. Even the painful light of the moon seemed to have abated.

"I..." Rarity was coming to her senses. She rubbed her eyes, affirming the body in the growing pool of blood was indeed Ancpeanox's. "I didn't mean to." She choked out.

Applejack, who had been much more lost into bloodlust, regained some semblance of reason by the shock. "You killed the best hope for us to go back to normal." She falling back into her drawl. "Hell, Rarity, you killed our hope of getting the sun back! Damn fool. It was me you were supposed to be hitting, not her!"

"I didn't mean to!" Rarity, trembling, wiped her brow with a hoof but only managed to leave a smear of blood across her forehead. Her head was a swimming mess of battling emotions. Her nightmare urge felt like a fire just under the skin, demanding she get up and keep killing. She slumped to her hindquarters. "What is going on! Why can't I have my head back!"

Applejack sniffled, trying to hold her aggressive stance through sudden tears. Her head was pounding. Rarity's weakness and remorse was MORE of a reason to pummel her... wasn't it? She wasn't sure which where her own thought and which were the nightmare's.

As Rainbow Dash had seen, the deepest, darkest point of the night had come. But it could not stay, because Dash's second observation, that Ancepanox came 'round when death grew near, was also true.
The alicorn body spasmed, it's eyes thrown open. The light of the blood moon dimmed even farther, and the chill in the air grew sharper.

Fluttershy wasn't sure what happened, but all of a sudden, both Rarity and Applejack grabbed their heads, screaming unintelligibly, then collapsed to the ground beside the bleeding alicorn. Fluttershy was frozen for several seconds before the rushed over to the pile of them. Rarity and Applejack were still breathing, but appeared to have fallen suddenly into a deep sleep.
Fluttershy clutched her little knitted devotional against her beating heart, trying to decide the next course of action. She sat that way for a while... but perhaps if Fluttershy had watched closer she would have seen that Nightmare Moon was also still breathing, her chest rising and falling very very slowly despite the sword jammed into it.

The experience of falling asleep had not been nearly as sudden or comfortable for Rarity and Applejack. One moment they were in the castle library, babbling and lamenting, and the next they found themselves amongst a world of light and color assaulting their senses.

A pulse of purple filled the ever-shifting void around them. They tried to move but everything seemed to be slowed down. They looked themselves over but even that was shifting and wavering.

From around them a voice came, then a figure apeared. A ghost , as gigantic as a manticore. It opened it’s mouth and an unholy roar echoed through the castle, and ragged and commanding though it was.
Ancepanox looked more like a concept than a pony. Her purple eyes shone out from under a crown of abyssal darkness, but a multitude more opened and closed across what could have been her face. Her body remained vaguely equine, but with radiant darkness issuing off of every edge. The longer one looked, the more it seemed to shift and change it’s shape. White tendrils emerged and retracted from luminous regions that appeared and disappeared across different points on her body.

"Hello girls." The all-encompassing sound came. "Welcome back into the dreamscape. We are on the hunt for Celestia, who has set herself against us and all ponykind. I ate Agana, Suzerain of Sin, and taken enough power to take us all the way to the end."

Applejack croaked out an unintelligible accession, and tried to kneel, head bowed to the nebulous shape. Rarity took a moment longer, thinking back to the black alicorn bleeding on the ground in the library, in contrast to the horror above her.

Seeing Rarity’s confusion, Ancepanox laughed; A terrible, head-splitting sound like tearing glass. “Yeah, I'm having a hard time keeping my manifestation together. I'm having a hard time keeping my whole self together! I'm twenty different ponies jammed into one skull. You understand what I mean, even if its just pony and nightmare in your heads. We're not meant to exist like this. It's driving us insane!"
The ghostly visage warped and shifted, coming more to resemble the dark alicorn body but still strange in ways that revulsed the senses "But if we run down and defeat Celestia once and for all, then I'm sure I'll have the power to resolve this. I'll become whole, and you ponies can be whatever you want to be."

A shimmering light cascaded through the vivid world, falling into place in between Applejack and Rarity, resolving into the shape of Rainbow Dash's nightmare pegasus form.

"You can ask questions on the other side. This ride is almost over, and hopefully things will make more sense there." Ancepanox said. "I'm sorry it had to be you three... But you've propelled me into this stage of existance, and I need you there to finish this project. I'm your progeny as much as you are mine."

This shifting and changing world of color became blinding. The nightmare ponies' remaining grip on reality fell away, and their consciousnesses were awash with numbness. Eventually that faded, as did the blinding light.

When they regained sense of direction, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash discovered themselves in an endless grey plainscape. But the pot-marked landscape and twinkle of stars overhead betrayed that this was not another fold of the Dreamscape.

The darkest moment of the Eternal Night was finding the skies above Equestria as desperate and confused as the lands. Sunset Shimmer struggled to hold onto life. Seconds before, she was powerful and triumphal, using the power of the sun to burn away Astral Nacre. The next moment, the exhaustion and lack of air made her crumple to the airship deck.

“Damn it all.” Sunset tried to curse, but there wasn’t enough air for even that. Her legs gave out and she collapsed onto her back. Too weak to sustain her grasp on the magical sun she’d summoned, she watched it burn itself out within seconds. The airship became very still and quiet, and without anything to give light or heat, as uninhabitable as cold space.
She was very close to the edge of what could be considered the Bright World. Yes, Sunset was right on the edge of space. Out beyond that invisible barrier were all the wonderful and horrible things that roams the untold reaches of the cosmos. Some of them could be called gods, some demons.

Sunset tried to crawl towards the edge of the airship. How was it still rising? The balloons should have popped long before that altitude.
Using the last of her energy, she pulled herself to the lip of the deck, but was too weak to go further. She could see the very curvature of the world, the bumps of mountains and the stains of clouds and storms. It was so far away to her now, as darkness crept in from the corners of her vision.

But there was something else up there with her. The Moon, in all it’s grey-red vastness that filled the dark skies beyond what whould have been natural or possible, leered down at her, taunting her for her arrogance and pride.
Sunset Shimmer felt a presance in that red moon's light. Something... or somepony... was aware of her.

"Celestia?" Sunset mouthed, for she could not whisper. Why would Celestia's aura be on the moon? Was that why the moon had turned to evil and red? It made no sense to her.
Sunset searched uselessly to spot any sign or spot on the pale-red satellite, anything to let her know that familiar sensation was not just the fantasy of an oxygen starved brain, but it was really Celestia up there watching her.

I did this this for you, Sunset said inside her head for hope of being heard. And either the Ritual would soon be cast and Celestia would walk the waking world again, and Sunset Shimmer would be walking the lands of death with her princess. Either way they were soon to be reunited.

It was not nearly so peaceful in the lower atmosphere, where Entanglement Theory fought against the wind and turbulence to make sure Sunset Shimmer's fantasy took place in life and not death. It was bitterly cold even without the whipping gusts that tore planks off the deck. With how quickly the old cargo airship was coming apart, it was highly unlikely they would be able to land safely

It was not Entanglement Theory's goal was to survive. Her goal was to complete the Ritual, and complete the work she and Sunset had been building towards for years. The wind threatened to sweep her off the side but she ignored it, drawing patterned runes, connecting wires, running back and forth across the heaving deck.

“No batteries. Makes things complicated.” She mumbled, untying the puzzle in her head. The years of planning weren't going to do much good in a system with no redundancy. Entanglement Theory did not like changing procedure on the fly, but with the loss of the batteries then Astral Nacre showing up, there was no salvaging the original plan.
"Think! Think! What can replace batteries." She asked herself as she put the finishing touches on the last rune pattern, a smear of ink on the stone slab.

Entanglement Theory's thoughts went to the other pony to have preformed the Ritual, Twilight Velvet. Entanglement Theory did not like to think about Velvet, even less than she liked to think about Twilight Sparkle. She didn't like to imagine how the contrivances of dream and reality that allowed her exist in the waking world could break if she encountered those ponies. At the same time Entanglement Theory felt a yearning for them and she felt pangs of regret she had to leave so soon... But if she did not then the curse that had stolen her eyes would visit a most horrific fate.

Twilight Velvet used ponies as magic batteries." Entanglement Theory pushed out her feelings. "But the trio she used for her Ritual were nobles with elder one blood." She glanced at the four lobotomized drone ponies she had at her disposal. If she tried to use those fragile souls as magic batteries they would pop like water balloons, and the Ritual would be ruined.
"Then... That leaves just one pony to act as a capacitor." She gulped. "Me."

And so, Entanglement Theory initiated the final step in the long and winding sequence she had been following all those years. It was time for the Ritual.

One pony, bound to the stone slab at the center of the deck. Entanglement Theory chose the yellow unicorn stallion, since she had two of those. The drone did as he was ushered and laid on the chunk of rock, allowing Entanglement Theory to claps his hooves in iron shackles and to jab copper leads into points across his body.

Three ponies, to use as foci, in the precise angles they'd deduced from the other experiments. At Entanglement Theory’s order, the three other experiments stumbled into position, circumscribed around the slab 16.7 degrees apart. An earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus, just as required. Entangelment Theory shackled them down too, and laid the last of the copper wire along the deck over her previous chalk outlines. The foci pony mutely accepted her hastily shoving them into the exact position. Their dull eyes followed her around: Should she be proud or ashamed that she had accomplished the same thing as Astral Nacre with her own flavor of zombie? It was much towards the same goal or perfection.

One pony, to act as the ritual caster. Theory’s heart was beating against her chest, fear and anticipation building up within her. She took her place opposite the foci and attached herself to various wires, finishing off by slotting a conduit over her horn. The unwieldy spur of bone would finally have its use. With the help of her machinery in the bowels of the airship, even Entanglement Theory's meager magical power would be enough to see the Ritual to completion.

And finally, one pony to receive the gift. Sunset Shimmer was far far above, the little scout airship barely a dot against the big pale-red moon. Entanglement Theory had to shield her eyes against the intense moonlight, but a feeling deep in her heart promised her that Sunset was still on their airship. As long as the Ritual was aimed correctly, Sunset would still receive its power. And then it would be over.

The end was so close. So much preparation, so much had gone wrong, but the end was still in sight.
"Get Ready, Sunset" Entanglement Theory whispered. She took the final tool in her hoof: An obsidian knife, flaked with gold, with a handle emblazoned with a yellow sun and purple stars. This was a Star's dagger, lovingly recreated to use for the Ritual.
Entanglement Theory's eyes settled on that silly little emblem, the sun and stars, that Sunset Shimmer had insisted to put on all their custom equipment. After they'd first met those years ago, and once Sunset had learned the language, her attempts to describe her native Equestria and its pony inhabitants had come across as charming fantasy. Sunset had boasted about how her mark, the yellow and red sun, evoked the symbol of her god-princess Celestia. From that Entanglement Theory had often wondered what her mark would be, despite Sunset's promises it would be a purple star circumscribed by five smaller stars.
All these years later Sunset Shimmer's promise had turned out to be true, but not because Sunset had some special insight into her soul... but because Sunset had seen it on that other pony. Yes, Entanglement Theory knew herself to be the mirror image of that other pony, that other Twilight Sparkle. And when it was over and she returned to her home, she would not be able to forget that her existance was a derivative thing, and that her entire dimension was only the twisted refection of this place called Equestria. Maybe Equestria itself was a derivative and fanciful reflection of an even more real place, yet unknown and unreachable!

Entanglement Theory did not have the luxury to dwell on it any longer. Trying to change this harsh reality was part of the reason she'd been cursed.
At that point, she only existed to support Sunset Shimmer's quest for gods and truth.

“We begin the ritual.” Entanglement Theory announced.
Purple magic sparked to life at the tip of her horn, then arced to the conduit. The airship lurched and shook as the arcane machinery in the cargo hold groaned to life. The magic traveled through each of twenty devices: Diodes, frequency adaptors, transitional infusers, patterns changers, all things to recreate a spell she would otherwise be unable to cast.

The spell came back to her as an angry and tempestuous power, coursing and scintillating through the wires. It reached the three foci ponies simultaneously, throwing them into soul-shattering agony. Entanglement Theory watched as the spell sent her drones into spasms and shrieks, but she knew they would hold up, for she had tested the limits of the pony soul and this was far from it.

From the foci ponies, wisps of dark power streamed through the air directly into the unicorn on the slab. At first he was placid, taking no care for his fellow experiment’s pain. Slowly, his look of dumb contentment faltered, and became more and more gruesome. He began to shake uncontrollably, and the muscles and flesh under his skin convulsed from the obscene magic forced upon it. He looked to Entanglement Theory, his eyes pleading for her to stop.

“Not yet.” She commanded, and poured more magic into the hellish devices. A murky light began to flood out from the foci’s eyes and mouth, and even their mistress’s order was not enough keep them on their hooves. They fell but continued to be fed the fell power, and so continued to emit the transformative magic into the unicorn.

His fur was no longer yellow, and he was no longer just a unicorn. With every mote of magic he became something different from what he had been. His forehead cracked and spurted blood as his horn pushed further out of his head, and as he opened his mouth to scream in pain his muzzle reshaped itself as well. His spine writhed and twisted within him like a snake, until the spell decided what it wanted and red wings erupted from his sides. His legs grew longer, his frame more regal, his mane and tail grew to thrice their their length.

An alicorn. Entanglement Theory grinned in grim triumph. Success so far.
She ended feeding magic into the device and detached all the wires to herself. Several seconds later the return spell ended, and the cracking power moving humming through the copper wires died away. The foci ponies stopped their spasming, but they had already died. Hopefully that had not caused any problems in the alicorn.

Entanglement Theory took a moment to cool down and catch her breath, but the task was far from over.
She took a step forward, standing over the shackled alicorn she had created. He was beautiful, the product of the most carefully measured ingredients and procedures. By all means this was the end of the end of the sequence- Pony magic had apotheosized, and through rigerous research and examination of the pony, the resulting alicorn was as 'pure' as could be achieved by mortals.
If Entanglement Theory and Sunset Shimmer wanted just any old alicorn, this would be the end. But they wanted a very specific alicorn and her very specific power. Their research assured them it could be possible... to sacrifice one alicorn for another.

Entanglement Theory passed the obsidian sacrifice knife from one hoof to the other, her eyes roaming the alicorn's sculpted body. What did it feel like to be a living god? Was it like a pony but more powerful? Did their cosmic nature mean they experience existance differently? Sunset Shimmer could talk for hours about Celestia, but it was never clear if the late princess was more pony than god, or god than pony.
“Hello.” She whispered.

The alicorn was conscious, but dazed and confused. He tried to bring a hoof to his head but could not for the shackles. “Uuuh…” He gurgled, trying to focus on Entanglement Theory with his new eyes. “W- What…”

“What will you be called?” Entanglement Theory asked. The experiment should remain nameless, she knew. It was best to remain clinical.

“I- I’m Salty. Or am I… Saph?” He slurred, trying to sort through the memories forced upon him from the foci. “Or Trompare?”

“No, no. Those were your past names." Entanglement Theory glanced to the burned out foci ponies sizzling on the deck. "You should have something meaningful. You are fleeting, but that doesn't mean you should be in the history books."

The disoriented alicorn fought through the cloudiness of his mind to think for a moment. “Celestia?”

Entanglement Theory laughed despite herself. Ironic final words. "Nevermind. You'll just be the 'Final Experiment', like Sunset wanted.”

She clutched the obsidian knife in her forehooves, rearing up in defiance of the winds. The alicorn saw what she was doing and let out a wordless yell of protest, before the black obsidian came plunging down into his heart.

The knife, an enchanted sacrifice blade in the style of the Stars, funneled the alicorn’s soul into the last machine. In the cargo hold, a device of glass and copper held a princess’s golden horseshoe, and it was into that device that the magic coursed.

Entanglement Theory counted the moments, and then yanked the blade of sacrifice out of the murdered alicorn. Glowing with magical energy and blood, the knife began to shake violently. The shear amount of magic extracted was proving too much for the apparatus down below.

Entanglement Theory had seconds to act until the machines exploded and the airship with them. This is where batteries and capacitors would have come in handy, she mused. Now she moved on to the last and most dubious step of her plan.
A second Apotheosis.

She flipped the obsidian knife around, so that she was holding point towards herself. “Calm. Clam.” She repeated, trying to keep the trembling of her hoof to a minimum. With a grunt, she jabbed herself in the stomach.

The pain was exquisite! Theory gasped. All of an alicorn’s magic was pulsing into her, burning her up from the inside.
She had to focus! She was the battery now, but still the caster! She stood up, holding a hoof on the knife to keep it lodged in her gut. Light poured out of her eyes, mouth, ears, and her entire hide took on a luminous glow. Already, the uncontrolled alicorn magic was bashing at her insides in a destructive attempt to mutate her.
From a festering pit of Dark in her abdomen, a formative consciousness fought back. The curse rejected the foreign magic. To Theory, it was like her innards were at war with themselves.
“Graaaah!” She screamed, trying to control her breathing. “Gotta cast it now. Gotta cast it now!”

The Dark kicked out, threatening a premature birth if its host did not remove the irritant. “Fuuuck!” Theory was on the verge of passing out, but dutifully oriented herself to the target. “Get ready Sunset!” She warned through clenched teeth.

She tried casting a bolt of magic up towards the skiff and Sunset. The alicorn magic suddenly had a pressure release, and in a torrent of golden energy it streamed off her horn into the infinite sky. For what seemed like forever to her frazzled mind, Entanglement Theory stood fast while an alicorn soul’s worth of raw power coursed straight through her skull on it’s way out. Until finally it was over.

Entanglement Theory collapsed onto her haunches. A great feeling of emptiness overtook her. For a few glorious seconds, she was divine.
Theory watched the golden bolt of alicorn magic hit the skiff high high above. A flash of light, and then the profile of the skiff dissolved away. There was no sign if Sunset had received the power.

"Ah... How miserable... being left in suspense." Entanglement Theory gasped, squeezing her eyes closed. For her own sanity, she had to believe that it had worked. Even now that divine magic was coursing through Sunset Shimmer, to be channeled into resurrecting the one alicorn that mattered.
Theory's leg went numb, and she couldn't keep the obsidian knift from sliding out of her skin. Blood welled out. of the thin cut.

Her one solace was that the Dark curse residing in her abdomen curled back into restfulness.

"Time to leave this world." Theory said shakily.
Slowly she reached up with a hoof and nudged off her enchanted spectacles.

The haunting visions were around her again, dead ponies giggling and pointing at her. The four fresh sacrifices, including the yellow stallion, were there among them. So much dead that she had created, all to this end! There would be no more.

The grey eyed griffin sorceress Black Bell was standing over her now, bemused but also impressed and admiring. "That was amazing work. I never imagioned an outworlder like you could have managed it."

“Yep.” Theory said acidly, trying to stem the bleeding at her abdominal puncture with a hoof. "I'll be the gossip topic among your Star friends for months and months."

Black Bell delighted at Entanglement Theory suffering, pushing the ghosts out of the way to leer over the wounded mare. "Don't be like that. I learned a lot watching you. I don't have much use for that knowledge, but I have it and that pleases me."

"And since I satisfied your voyeuristic pleasures, you'll help me, right?" Theory asked harshly.

"With the bleeding, the abortion, or the iminant crash landing?" Black Bell laughed.

"With Sunset, damn you! You have to protect her. I'm going home and I can't protect her any more. If... If she..." Theory was interrupted by a fit of coughing. Blood and phlem dripped down her chin. "The Dark gods will curse her like they did me. She has to be kept from making the same mistakes I did."

"You silly, ignorant cat.” Black Bell leaned down and pushed Theory’s hoof away from the wound, placing her own talon on the spot. Magic danced between the digits, and the skin and tissue healed itself. “That curse saved you. It's given you sight beyond sight! Smacks of ungratefulness you want to go purge it, and selfishness you want to keep it from your friend."

Entanglement Theory jumped up and head-butted Black Bell in the chin, making the griffin stumble backwards and trip into the crowd of listless ghosts. "Don't you dare talk about her like that! You and I might be worthless cynics but Sunset is different. She believes in somepony! She's traveled across dimensions for what she believes!"

"She believes in a fraud, and once she realizes that, then I'll be the one laughing." Black Bell brushed herself off, then let out a guttural laugh. "Oh little outworlder, I hope you find a way back into our world. It's been fun."

"So long and go to hell.” Entanglement Theory put her hoof on the spectacles, now fallen to the deck beneath her. She hesitated, casting a last long look towards the big pale-red moon, in useless hope that Sunset would be there. She put her weight down, crushing the glasses flat, and the last layer of enchantments within them activated. In a blinding flash of yellow magic, the purple mare was whisked off.

In warm sands where a white sun was just dawning, far distant very near to Equestria, an upright creature appeared. It admired the trackless dunes and glowing twilight, then turned away and padded towards home.

Chapter 48: Arise, Orphans of Tartarus

Author's Note

A reader asked me if I ever listen to music while I write. To answer, no, not usually. I own a phonograph but it sits in my small office at the University of Manechester, while I do most of my writing at home. However that is not to say music does not inspire the writing. Indeed some pieces of music invoke emotions that stayed with me for the rest of the day, and which I was thinking about when I wrote scenes of similar emotion.
For example I was thinking of this particular composition while I wrote this chapter. I put this author's note at the beginning in case you wish to hear it while reading, as I've heard is popular. For your audiophillic pleasure, I present to you Shostacoltvich, who will be rejoining us for the next few chapters as well.

Ballet Suite 4 I. Prelude

Chapter 48: Arise, Orphans of Tartarus

The Moon.

Rarity had to admit, for being a monochromatic ball of dust, it had an eerie beauty. Without trees, without water, without ponies or houses or clouds or any other reference, the hills and crevices of the lunar landscape could have been as tall as the sky and she would be unable to tell.

Above it all, the Bright World, shrouded in eternal night, but still sparkling in greens and blues. The prize.

“This is all too much.” She said to Applejack, who stood beside her. “How do we ever come back from this.”

Rarity had never noticed before how resplendent Applejack’s smile was, even when it was a sad, forlorn smile. “It’d never work out. We’ve seen too much. More than any mare should.”

In this extreme, stark place, the quibbling petty grievances that weighed them down were left behind on earth. Their thoughts were clear, for better or worse.

“Why was it us who were enthralled by the night? Why have our faults and failing, above any other pony’s, drawn us into a cosmic battle greater than we could ever understand?” Rarity mused.

"Dumb luck." Dash said. "Good luck? Bad luck?" The pegasus still felt pangs from being stabbed, though here on the moon her body was returned to nightmare pegasus form.

"Is it us?" Applejack wondered.

Rarity pursed her lips and shook her head. "Is it her?”

The three nightmare ponies swung their gaze to the fourth. Neither of them were sure how to approach or talk to Ancepanox since that traumatizing experience in the dream. What even was Ancepanox? They had a hard time believing she was a pony anymore after seeing that horrible visage in that space of color and light.

The nightmare alicorn had returned to looking like she did on the earth, minus the stab wound, but nopony could trust Ancepanox wasn't hiding her true shape... Especially because as soon as she'd appeared on the moon next to them her eyes had begun to glow with feint purple magic. She was wearing Rarity's tapestry like a cape again, perhaps to emphasize her control of the situation, perhaps because she liked the look. She hadn't spoken much, only saying enough to get the other three nightmare ponies to follow her.

"Pick up the pace a bit." Ancepanox mumbled, her first words in a while. She didn't bother to face them, for her attention was drawn to something on the distant lunar horizon.

"We didn't ask to be here." Rainbow Dash said.

"None of us asked to be here. Not to beat you over the head with Schopenhorse, but our existences are total cosmic accidents. We've been cursed to live and understand what's going on around us, and turn it into ourselves." Ancepanox spoke barely loud enough to be heard, which in the near total silence of the moonscape was barely a whisper. "I say that, but do I believe it? Every damn alicorn I've fought believed in a kind of fate or higher meaning that they aspired to. Am I heading into this last fight because it was my destiny, or because I've lived and killed creatures that believed in fate?"

"Shouldn't you know these things, being an alicorn and all?" Applejack asked.

"You'd think so. The other alicorns were completely convinced of their beliefs, which all contradicted each other. They just chose something that kinda made sense to them and called it absolute truth." Ancepanox said.

Rarity tittered. "How charming it would make life to not to ever worry about being wrong."

That point on the distant horizon became prominent as they trotted closer. It was a hill or mountain, though it was impossible to tell how high it was, for they were still very far away.

"Something is moving, on our three." Dash warned sharply.

Everypony looked where she was pointing. A shadow was shifted back and forth around the inner lip of one of the small craters.

Ancepanox wordlessly galloped towards the unknown shadow, stopping at the edge of the crater. She waved the others closer. "They're moon denizen."

"A what?" Applejack squinted, but still couldn't get a good look at the thing. It was a hazy black, more like a smudge or a suggestion than a creature that lived and breathed. It was just a cloud with glowing white eyes.

"These are the creatures Twilight Sparkle tried to steal magic from while she was preforming the Ritual." Rarity circled the crater. "I must admit I expected them to look more like animals."

"The previous Nightmare Moon told me they used to look like animals. They've were entirely consumed by the nightmare curse during the Everfree Siege." Ancepanox rubbed her chin. "Give us some space."

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash dutifully backed away from the crater. Ancepanox jumped down and began making small motions coupled with sounds. The moon denizen made a sound like a purr in return.

"Is it useful to dwell on the past?" Rarity wondered to herself. "For example, how would things have changed if we had killed Twilight Sparkle in the Everfree Castle, before Celestia arrived?"

"Celestia woulda killed us, then gone back to Canterlot." Applejack said. "We'd be dead but Equestria would still be alive."

"Good trade." Dash grunted.

"You don't really wanna die." Applejack rolled her eyes. "It joke was funny at first, but not anymore."

Dash shrugged "I don't want to die for no reason anymore. For the right reason I'll gladly off myself."

"Save your morbid prattle for later." Rarity said snippily.

Ancepanox concluded her strange conversation with the moon denizen and hopped out of the crater. "Celestia is there." She pointed to the distant rise at the horrizon. "There is an abandoned castle, overlooking the Mare Incognitum, a vast basalt basin. She's waiting for us there."

"Waiting? Sounds ominous." Dash remarked.

"There was no way I was not coming after her. The only question is what she has done to prepare." Ancepanox said. "But that's not all. Luna knows about Celestia's presence, and has gathered up ten-thousand of her moon denizens to meet her."

Applejack raised a hoof in the air. “Luna is the moon princess, right?”

“Yes, and the previous Nightmare of the Moon, before yours truly. She trusts me.” Ancepanox confirmed. “Also, put your hoof down. This isn’t magic kindergarden.”

"Ten-thousand sounds like a lot of ponies to bring to a welcome party." Rarity said, concerned.

"Is she going to help us, or help Celestia?" Applejack chimed in.

"Or neither?" Dash added.

Ancepanox took a long time to answer. “Luna’s motivations are unclear." She said reluctantly. "I hate to say it, but I don't know if I can trust her where Celestia is concerned. It would be better for us if we deal with Celestia and leave the moon before Luna even gets there.

"I adore that euphemism, 'deal with'. So much nicer than 'assassinate'. " Rarity laughed.

"You ponies are smothering me in sarcasm right now and it is not appreciated. This is important to me. This MATTERS." Ancepanox sighed. "Luna trusts me implicitly, but if we kill Celestia without her agreement, she will probably never forgive us."

"What's the chance Celestia manipulates Luna against all of us?" Applejack asked.

"Or seduces her with promises of power?" Dash nodded. "Is the chance more than zero? Are you willing to run that risk, boss?"

Ancepanox was motionless for a long while, deep in thought. "Luna... She means a lot to me. When the time comes I..." She paused, then shook her head with a sigh. "I don't know who to pray to, to steer me right. I just hope I make the right decision when the time comes."

"I don't sit right with me either. I figure I have a little bit of her in me right now, as part of this nightmare curse." Applejack said. "This is like kinslaying."

Ancepanox narrowed her gaze. "But if I asked you to, you'd do it."

Applejack averted her eyes. "Uh-" Ancepanox was willing to consult them, but was taking no challenge to her authority. "I'm right behind you."

Rarity chuckled at Applejack's evasive answer. "I would do it, my lady. Celestia stands as a threat to ponykind. If Luna stands between us, then she stands on the side of evil and must be defeated.

"You girls are stalling. Luna or not, we gotta get to the castle." Dash said, grinding her hoof into the lunar dust impatiently. “Let's giddy up!”

"You're right Dash. We won't have the luxury of choice if Luna gets to Celestia before we do." Ancepanox nodded. "I can't teleport us without alerting Luna, but I have certain dream powers. One in particular could help us."

Ancepanox made a little motion with her head, but cast no magic. A tiny sphere of darkness appeared in the air in front of her, then expanded to the size of a pony.

"We can move anywhere in any dream with this." Ancepanox pushed her hoof into the sphere of shadow and pulled it back out. "I call it the Cosmic eye... This is the only way I'll be able to defeat Celestia."

"Cosmic Eye? Melodramatic, isn't it?" Rarity cocked her head.

"It's kinda a play on words. Agana's power was called Corrupting Eye, but I saw the..." Ancepanox trailed off. "Why am I bothering to explain. Just get in the sphere. I'm taking us closer to the castle."

Rarity shrugged and stepped into the ball of shadow. The scene changed before her eyes, trnsitioning briefly through that place of color and light that she'd seen before.
When normalcy returned, she wasn't on the moon.

She was in a richly decorated room with marble walls. Dark wood furniture, yellow and white ornamentation, and a nighttime cityscape outside the window let Rarity know she was somehow in Canterlot Castle.
"What?"

The dark sphere popped into existance beside her, and Ancepanox stepped out of it. "I'm sorry I had to trick you, but I had to talk to each of you individually."

Rarity's eyes wandered the room. Sitting on a cushioned stool on the other side of the room was a bizzare severed bird head with two horns, skewered through the top with that silver sabre Ancepanox had been carting around. "Whose dream is this?"

"This is one of my memories, one from early childhood." Anceapnox sauntered to the severed head and pulled out her sabre. "This was Agana, by the way. The rest of her is with Celestia."

"Charmed." Rarity deadpanned to the dead thing.

"As to why I had to talk with you..." Ancepanox faced back to Rarity, a very serious expression on her face. "I don't want to pretend nothing happened."

Rarity had the impression that conversation was a bit pedestrian for a god entity. “I tried to kill you.”

“It was mutual.” Ancepanox offered acquittal. “Besides, that’s what nightmares do. That, and hunt dreams.”

“But there has not been very much of that going on.” Rarity gave a forced laugh. She had the distinct feeling the unusual niceness was going to give way to something horrible. “Do you want to kill me then?"

"No." Ancepanox said, to Rarity's surprise. "In fact, I will go out of my way to not kill you. I say this knowing you will take every advantage of this."

Rarity couldn't suppress a devilish smile. "You think you are a good pony, do you?"

"I'm a better pony than you. That probably bothers you" Ancepanox returned the smile, showing her fangs. "And I'm a better nightmare than you! That must drive you absolutely insane. You won't be able to keep yourself from attacking me."

Rarity's playful facade broke. She snarled, her expression contorting. "Were you not so immensely privileged I would have surpassed and destroyed you! Your hubris will find you at my mercy one of these days."

"You can threaten my loved ones, or the things I care about, but you'll never actually threaten me, Rarity's nightmare. The next time we fight will be your last." Ancepanox mocked. "This is my offer: If you wait until we return to the waking world, I will let you get one free hit in."

Rarity's eyes burned indignantly, her heart raging to unleash her power right there. How delightful it would be to see every corner of that pretty little room shredded by her dark magic, as Ancepanox's alicorn body was cut to ribbons.
But she kept control, forcing herself to late long even breaths. "I'm going to shatter you through the planet with that free hit."

Ancepanox shrugged and laughed. "I trust you to make it count." She made a gesture and the Cosmic Eye reopened beside her. "Back to the moon we go. Feel your anger melt away, replaced by determination to see Celestia defeated."

Rarity roughly shouldered Ancepanox out of the way. "Bucker." She spat,, stepping into the curved plain of the sphere and disappearing out of the dream.

Ancepanox lingered for a couple more seconds. "One down." She winked at Agana's motionless head. She considered taking it with her, for while Agana's head was dead and her body was soon to be, it would be a kind act to bury them together.
Ancepanox giggled. "Ah, buck her." She summoned the Cosmic Eye and let it sprit her back to the moon where the others were waiting.

The castles of the moon were gross parodies of the glory age of Equestrian feudalism. When Princess Luna explored to the Bright World with her sister, she envied the splendor of the great warlords. The lunar denizens, her ever faithful minions, began the erection of thousands of fortresses across the moon in that idiom. Before they were finished, the princess’s fickle attentions shifted, and the grandiose projects were abandoned.

One such castle had been constructed on a bluff high above the Mare Incognitum, a dark basaltic plain deep into the southern hemisphere. It had been an ambitious project, and even unfinished it towered to great heights with voluminous halls and spiraling towers in the gryph-gothic style. Now nameless, abandoned, decaying and decrepit, the castle was slowly collapsing into the plain below. It’s only entrance was a winding path carved into the bluff, and that had largely worn and fallen away.

‘How did it come to this… Sitting here, not an empress, not a princess, just the shell of a mare sitting on a chair.’

“Silence.” Celestia squeezed her eyes shut. She cleaned the flecks of blood on her chin with the back of her hoof.

Ancepanox has been right, that Celestia knew that she was coming. However the nightmare alicorn had been in folly to ask what Celestia would do to prepare for the looming confrontation.
Celestia did not prepare. She sat slouched in the grand obsidian throne erected at the head of the crumbling castle's main hall. No, Celestia did not have to prepare, because her aide came unbidden and unwelcome, an incessant voice in her head.

‘Give up. You’ve lost everything. Ponies on their soap boxes spout your name in false reverence whilst peddling their lies. Your Equestria was rotten inside years ago, and now that you’re not there to hold the skin, all that disease and filth can come pouring out. Buzzards are tearing the guts.’

“Silence! Be silent at once! You think I don't know?” Celestia clenched her jaw. The damnable voice had started haunting her as soon as she'd arrived on the moon, but it was growing in frequency and volume. It sounded like it was coming from right beside her!
"Foul deava. This is not the deal I want. I still have my pride."

The throne room was more like the one of Canterlot Castle than the Everfree Castle, possessing a long clerestory window that ran the length of the open hall. When Celestia arrived, it had been filled with dust. Now, rivers of blood trickled from the bodies of moon denizens who had been squatting there. Celestia barely remembered killing them. Her mind was hazy.

Standing next to the throne was the body of Agana, waiting with all the patience of a hoofmaiden servant. Thinking about it made Celestia feel revolted at herself for bringing it along, but also a tug of depraved hunger. There was enormous power encased within that alicorn manifestation. It could be tapped by one willing to cross that line.
On her other side was Twilight Sparkle, still sleeping peacefully. How long had she slept... The changes in her head, turning back the clock for the young mare's memories, must have been almost complete. Celestia felt her body tense with conflicting feelings of hatred, hunger, and pity whenever she looked upon the unicorn. Wasn’t it all supposed to be for her sake? Was it not for her that she had reached into her heart to flee from the world, and before that had weathered the sludge of pony wickedness and corruption for so many years?

"Twilight..." Celestia groaned. "I'll save you from her."

‘From me, or from the Nightmare of the Moon?'

Celestia shivered in disgust. She would never have an uninterrupted moment with Twilight again, with the voice now haunting her. Her lips trembled uncontrollably.

'Look at you. And you had the gall to call Ancepanox the monster. Will you eat your protege before the Nightmare gets here? Was that what you meant by saving her? You're losing control of yourself, Celestiaan. ’

Celestia teased her hoof with her teeth, then bit down. She cracked straight through the layers of keratin, stopping only when she tasted her own blood. The pain cleared her mind of the evil thought seeping in. Coppery sweetness tingled along her tongue, until her last specks of magic sealed the wound.
Her eyes naturally roamed to Twilight again. Her head pounded with contradictory temptations. But no! She would, couldn’t! NEVER.

‘You are broken, Celestiaan. Your years of life among mortals has diluted you, turned your into a dreamer, and animal. Do as they do! Eating, excreting, fighting, fucking. But animals can't beat gods. You need me to survive the coming storm. Will you be an animal with her, or a god again with me?"

“Shut up!” Celestia screamed to be heard over the voices. She clutched the sides of her head with her hooves and curled up in the throne. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up shut up SHUT UP!”

was it gone?

She heard a subsonic gasp and groan ripple across the darkened hall. The Cosmic Eye. Then the clop of hooves against the stone floor.
Celestia pulled her head out of her hooves. Four nightmare ponies, an earth pony with dark green eyes, a pegasus with cerise eyes, a unicorn with cobalt eyes, and an alicorn with smoldering purple eyes, stood at the entrance of the throne room. Ancepanox and friends. Celestia rumbled with unending jealousy and rage. Her own eyes, purple with tendrils of black intruding form the edges, locked with those of her student.

Ancepanox grinned. There before her was the final step. Celestia, her mouth dripping the golden ichor of her blood, her wild eyes unable to stay focussed. The veins of the princess's neck bulged as she strained to keep the darkness she'd accrued from devouring her.

“Keep a safe distance.” Ancepanox commanded her nightmares.

“Yes my lady.” Dash began circling to the left.
“Gosh, she done looks like a rabid dog.” Applejack took the right side.

Ancepanox, with Rarity a step behind her, went up the center of the throne room. By the meager light from the windows she stepped carefully around the dozens of moon denizen corpses, but never broke eye contact with Celestia. She stopped five meters away from the base of the roughly chiseled obsidian throne.

‘Look at her. She’s a rat. A damn rat, filthy and ragged. And still she’s better than you! She has purified herself into something divine while you have polluted yourself into a mortal. Oh, you do train them well, to have a god rat among your progeny.’

Celestia forced down the raging energy that threatened to overtake her. After a few tenuous seconds, her mind was clear enough. She swallowed the blood in her mouth and spoke. “You’re relentless. I will give you that.”

“Hrmph. I wasn’t going to let a sour parting be the last we saw each other.” Ancepanox said softly. Celestia’s voice was hoarse and pained. She almost pitied her. “Besides, a child shouldn’t be separated for their mother, don’t you think.”

“Child?” Celestia dare not look away from Ancepanox to confirm Twilight’s presence beside her. She kept her tone as even as she could. “What do you know of children? Have you suffered for her? Have you sacrificed for her? You are desirous of a life that does not belong to you.”

“OH! You thought… You though I was talking about Twilight.” Ancepanox giggled. “Well her too I suppose, but that’s not the parent-child relationship I was referring too. Anypony else want to take a guess?” Ancepanox tilted her head towards Rarity. “As an outside perspective, what do you think?”

“I know not, my lady.” Rarity said stiffly.

“Come on. on’t you have any hypotheses? Who is the authority, the all knowing parent? Who is the child, the inheritor, the promise of the future?”

“We have no worry of knowing, my Lady.” Rarity dutifully replied.

“No. No we don’t.” Ancepanox licked her lips. "It's wrong to give any higher meaning to this, but at the same time, I can't help myself. I want Celestia to chose the metaphore, since she is better verse in alicorn catechisms."

Celestia sucked in a breath. She was being toyed with, and it was making her very angry. She tried to focus on the events leading up to that moment, all the times she had one over on Ancepanox. She tried to focus on the smug pleasure of leading the Nightmare on a merry chase.
But there was no joy in that. This was the culmination. All that smugness and trickery had been for nothing.

"Something is seriously wrong with her. This is not the princess we knew." Rarity observed.

“She has fallen to Dark, hard. Her mind and body weren't prepared for it.” Ancepanox said grimly. "She might not even resist if we attack-

Dash interrupted her with a sharp whistle. "New arrivals outside ma'am!"

Everyone went quiet, and soon they began to hear what Dash did.
It started as a low rumble, shaking the dust from the highest rafters. It grew strong and stronger, becoming a rolling rhythmic beat. The stones of the castle and the moon rock underneath shook. Then at last it could be heard. Hoofsteps. Forty-thousand hooves beat against the basalt of the Mare Incognitum below them, ten-thousand at a time.

“Luna is here. We lost our window of making a clean escape.” Ancepanox hummed contemplatively. "She will be coming up. We finish this later, Celestiaan.” She nodded to Rarity and backed away from the throne.

The nightmare ponies withdrew to the sides of the throne room and disappeared into the shadows. Only their glowing eyes betrayed their presence.

From the bottom of the bluff, Luna looked up at the ancient castle. The fleeting lunar wind sent shivers down her spine.
The monstrous citadels had been made in her honor. An honor she had never deserved, and perhaps still didn’t. The creatures of the moon marched at her command unquestioningly, without thought to cause or justification. Who could ever deserve such loyalty?

“We hold position here, for now.” She commanded her moon denizens. “I shall go up and parlay.”

Of all places, how and why had Celestia come here, to HER moon? If something bad had happened to Anepanox, she would have known, unless…

Refocusing herself on the task at hoof, she spread her wings and flew up to the castle. As she grew closer, an intangible feeling of dread grew within her. The Celestia waiting for her inside was not like the one she’d loved and cared for, nor the one she’d grown jealous of and rebelled against, or even the one who had killed her. This Celestia was sickly, dirty, tainted almost past recognition.

She landed on a high flying buttress, and jumped her way down to the entrance. She’d never been there before, nor to the vast majority of the moon’s abandoned castles. She preferred the total isolation of the wilds, where she could be alone with her thoughts. Looking at it now she wondered why she hadn’t come before; It looked like the perfect place to be miserable in.

So often Luna had dreamed of having the roles reversed, where she would be the beloved and infallible one. In her imagination she saw a comically ugly Celestia, warty and bedraggled, always standing beside the great Empress Luna only to contrast their relative beauty.

“Luna.” The Celestia sitting on the black throne was not comically ugly. She was almost normal, but for her crazed eyes and that one of her wings was amputated at the base. It was that near normalcy that made her all the more unbearable to see.

“Sister.” Luna uttered, unable to formulate any other response.

“You know that I am not the Celestia who was your sister.” Celestia droned, as though describing bad weather. “I am several generations removed. The memories and the emotion is all dulled. I am... diluted." She winced at her own words. "I'm unpure. Celestia the First was a monolith of sanctity, but not I. I'm dirty."

Luna stood silently for a few moments. “In more ways than one.”

“Then what do you want?”

“To…” She averted her eyes. “help you.”

Celestia sat in silence.

“Listen, please.” Luna’s voice trembled. “T- This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.” She took tentative steps forward, not even noticing the blood covering the floor she walked on.

‘Vultures come in flocks. Even the weakest of the weak have come to pick at your flesh.’

Celestia stirred in her chair. Luna was lieing. Luna was coming to kill her too. “How was it supposed to be?” Celestia gurgled. “Perhaps you anticipated a happy reunion. Two goddess, two crowns both stolen away, and yet still optimistic for the future. The power of the nightmare of the moon is LOST to you, and so too is any fear I had of you, dear sister.”

“And I-” Luna swallowed the lump in her throat. She look down at her hooves, and when she looked back up her expression was detached. “I never feared you, sister. I only came to see if Ancepanox accomplished what needed be done.”

“And did she?” Celestia chirred. She not-so-subtly glanced at the nightmares still lingering in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to act out whatever plans they had.

Luna did not notice the gesture. “She has made me look foolish by going above and beyond. By sending you here, she has given us an opportunity we scarce deserve. We can be redeemed to each other! We can find what we lost. Ancepanox is a wiser mare than I to foresee that. Celestia, you are my sister, and I will embrace you with all my heart, no matter what!”

‘With how pleasant this vulture was, I doubted she was your kin. But that was imbecilic stupidity that could only come from your like.’

Celestia could almost see the comedy of it. Luna had let her naive optimism make Ancepanox an enemy. Now it was so clear why the nightmares hadn’t killed her right away: Doing so would have kept Luna from speaking her piece before Ancepanox knew her intentions.
Now those intentions were clear, and Luna was squarely in the middle of them both. It wasn’t Luna’s fault for giving Ancepanox more credit than she was due, but she would pay dearly for it.

Celestia's skin crawled. She loathed Luna with every fiber of her being! She hated Ancepanox even more than that! No cost was too great to make those arrogant black alicorns feel even one tenth of the misery she was experiencing! She was going to destroy everything they loved.
Starting with the thing they loved most: Celestia.

Luna noticed Celestia shake with anger, and misunderstood it to be directed at her. “Sister, I’m sorry about the past, but you don’t have to allow it to stop you from letting me help!”

Celestia refocused on Luna. Hate and darkness choked her words into a hoarse growl. “Help, you say. As if I would believe that. You wished me dead, and now you’ve come to see it through. And Ancepanox? HA! You never had any faith in anypony but yourself, and she knew it. I’ve been served up, to be executed at your pleasure.”

“NO! That’s not true!” Luna objected.

“Don’t deny you wanted me dead. The Nightmare of the Moon is the ANTITHESIS of all that I stood for, and you gave that power to Ancepanox for one purpose, and one purpose only!” Celestia beat a forehoof against the throne, the other pointing accusingly. “Don’t deny it! YOU WANTED ME DEAD!”

“No… No...” Luna stuttered, then turned resolute. “NO! This is MY Moon! You can not talk down to me here, Celestia!”

“No? You didn’t want me dead?” Celestia arched a brow.

“I… I did.” Luna lowered her eyes, grinding her teeth. “But don’t talk down to me.”

“Then where are we, relative to each other? You would imply that we are equal!” Celestia leaned forward, her laugh emptily of any goodwill. “Are we? I do suppose so, for that is how it has always been. Two celestial satellites, two dreams, two Celestiaan, two thrones.”

Luna’s heart leapt. Equals? Had her sister really said that? The more cautious side of her mind objected, vainly for she was already blurting out her enthusiastic words. “Yes! Yes! Out of this feeble common ground an understanding can be made! Our thrones have been smashed, our bodies and legacies destroyed. We have nothing left. Nothing but each other, Celestia.”

“You and I. I and you. Together at last.” Celestia’s wicked smile revealed that her own teeth had partially warped by the Dark, adding a set of fangs. “We will have the child shared between us.”

“Hmm?” Luna blinked. The tunnel vision fell away. Now she saw more than just Celestia. She saw the corpses she’d walked through, the headless body of Agana, and the sleeping Twilight Sparkle at the foot of the throne like a pet. “SIster, why is she…”

The whole situation came into stark focus for her. Ancepanox had not sent Celestia to the moon. Celestia had FLED to the moon! Ancepanox likely still wanted blood, and Celestia was fugitive with a death mark. “W- What have you done? You shouldn’t, COULDN’T be here!”

“Where?” Celestia titled her head slyly. “The throne?”

“MY MOON!” Luna screamed. “How could you come here if Ancepanox did not send you?! Not even at your zenith did you ever have the power to intrude on my moon. You and your mother have NO strength here.”

“And what about me alone?” Celestia asked. She glanced at Agana and Twilight. “Or mostly alone.”

Luna didn’t understand. “Sister what has become of you? Are you even madder than I think?”

“REBELLION, Luna. I have rebelled against my dear mother.” Celestia pushed herself off the throne and took measured steps forward. Her eyes were wide, and black presence at their edge pulsed inwards with every hooffall, advancing on the color of her iris. “She abandoned me. My sun abandoned me. And so, I reject her. I have found a different patron.”

“That is not possible.” Luna shook her head, but she could see and feel it was all true. “You-”

“I had NOTHING, not even my soul. So I make do with this one inside me now, an admittedly shoddy thing, to let me persist. That is the directive that drives us all, even gods. I will persist, Luna.” Celestia inched her way forward, step by step, until she was a hoof’s reach away. “That was our mandate on the earth Luna. We were sent to kill, or be killed. Clover died, our gods were saved, we survived.”

“Sister I-” Luna wanted turn her back and run away but a strange force transfixed her. “I want you to live too! I love you!”

‘Only a liar could tell you she loves you. The lie she tells is either told to you, or herself. Which one is more flattering, do you think?’

“You love me, you say.” Celestia stared at her younger sister, and the tears that traced their way down her cheeks. Celestia felt no love or compassion. Her ability to care and feel had been lost somewhere along the way. “In that way we are not equal.”

Luna sobbed. “Please, don’t say that!”

“If we were equal, you would understand the pain of my loss.” Celestia growled. Luna’s suffering gave her a dark pleasure she could barely understand, but craved. “You would know the agony of having everything you are stripped and defiled!”

“Of course I have!” Luna shouted, pushing Celestia away in half-hearted anger. “I have faced my nightmares, Celestia! You can not tell me I haven’t!”

“You were defeated, but you have dignity. You have pride! All that has been taken away from me, and you will not begin to understand until the thing dearest to your heart is stolen. TWO Celestiaan, Luna! Both of them have lost their throne, but only one has lost her DREAM!”

“Wai-” Luna’s protest was ended by a piercing pain in her side. Ancepanox’s silver sabre was in Celestia’s hoof, slicing through her right shoulder. How had Celestia gotten such a thing?!

‘Swatting at the carrion birds won’t save you know. You are just a husk, a scarecrow. You are empty on the inside and everyone knows it.’

“Do you hate me, sister? Do you loathe me with every fiber of your being? It’s useless to you now. All your feelings belong to the other Nightmare alicorn now. Wallow in your emotion knowing that you are still powerless.” Celestia seethed. She flashed the sabre back and forth, turning Luna’s body into a map of gashes. “I will cut the Moon out of you. It is deep inside, but it can be removed. I won’t stop until it is out!”

Luna tried to react. The pain was negligible, but a cold and smothering sensation pressed into her head, and she was unable to move a single muscle. A presence, some entity, was stifling her whilst Celestia hacked away at her.
As a final act, the magic that had hijacked her body closed off her windpipe. Torn by the trauma and stresses of Celestia’s attacks and the nightmare’s spell, she lapsed into unconsciousness, her bloody body joining the others on the floor.

Celestia stood over her. She would take Luna’s moon, and her pain would be known.

“Enough.” Ancepanox ordered. She and her nightmares stepped out from the shadows. The sabre disappeared from Celestia’s hoof. “I can’t have you killing her.”

“I-” Celestia looked at her empty hoof. Had Ancepanox given the sword it to her? The one moment, she had been yelling at Luna, and the next she had been slashing. She vividly recalled the absolute hatred she’d felt only moments ago, but felt only emptiness now. It was though it had been siphoned off, consumed by an outside force.
Celestia jumped in front of Ancepanox and yelled into her face. “You foul witch! Give me back my anger!”

Dash and Applejack grabbed Celestia’s shoulders and shoved her back, though Ancepanox herself was unperturbed. Rarity quickly used her magic to carry Luna and prop her up against a wall. Celestia struggled and spat for several seconds, and only when she stopped fighting did they release her and back away.

The voice in Celestia’s head was relentless in its pestering.
‘Was that all you had in you? For some reason, it falls flat against the god of rats and carrion birds. See now what great pleasure she takes in prolonging your life so she may drink in your torment.’

Ancepanox leaned away and wiped the spittle off her face. “Princess, you're really disappoint me. At least Luna was speaking from her heart, doing what she thought was right.”

“First Twilight, now Luna?” Celestia fought to keep her tone even. She felt so empty. She tried to stoke her passion back up, just to push that emptiness away. “You are covetous! COVETOUS! What more will you take?”

“It’s time for you to calm down.”
At Ancepanox’s unspoken command, Applejack and Dash struck at Celestia. A buck to her rib tossed her in one direction and a flying kick to her back sent her in another. Another buck, this time to a leg, sent her to the ground where the two nightmares began kicking her.
Celestia took the hits, limp on the floor. What was Celestia? What did a Celestia do in situations like these? Was she a Celestia anymore?

The number of kicks dwindled, until the two nightmares backed away.

“We’ve gotten to know each other too well, princess. You know how to push my buttons, and I know how to kick you ass.” Ancepanox was saying.

Celestia couldn't focus on the words. The space inside her head felt like a ball of fuzz. What did anything mean anymore?
Maybe... Maybe the anger had gone away because it had taken Celestia as far as it could.
It was time for a new emotion.

Something was dripping on the ground beside Celestia, mixing with the partially coagulated blood. Celestia, slowly looked up. Ancepanox was above her, leering.
No, not leering. Ancepanox stood over her like a concerned parent, mournful, regretful, hesitant. Tears ran down her black cheeks, past the edges of her grimacing mouth. Drip, drip, drip.
“But sadly, this has to end. No politics, metaphysics, or metaphore. You and I, my princess.” Ancepanox promised.

Celestia closed her eyes and nodded. She felt it now... The only emotion she hadn't cycled through in those uncountable hours fighting with and against the creature who called herself Ancepanox: Pride.
“I and you, you and I.” Celestia whispered. She addressed the other three. “Cavort no more, nightmares. This duel is between my sister and I, and none other.”

Rarity, Applejack, and Dash looked to Ancepanox for orders.

“I assume you have no objection of moving Twilight outside.” Ancepanox asked.

“Please do.” Celestia stood up, one hoof at a time. She looked terribly weak. “Keep her safe for me.”

Dash fetched Twilight from the base of the obsidian throne, while Applejack took Luna. They retreated to the door out onto the edge of the bluff, and waited.

Ancepanox and Celestia turned away from each other and strode to opposite ends of the throne room. Agana’s headless body trotted to Celestia’s side, the symbolic second for the duel.

Rarity tried swallowing and clearing her throat, but couldn’t rid herself of the ill feeling deep within herself. Her body was reacting to the tension, preparing to act nightmarishly. “Like I promised, I will help you.”

Ancepanox, however, pushed Rarity towards the door with a wing. “You've helped enough. Keep Twilight and Luna safe. If they wake up, avoid any questions until this is over and I return.”

Rarity felt slighted. “My lady-”

“Go.” Ancepanox growled. “Now.”

Celestia watched the nightmares leave, earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn. And last was the one who would not leave.
“Is there anything else left to say?"

“No, but we're going to talk anyway.” Ancepanox chuckled. Her cape, the richly embroidered tapestry weaved in deep blacks and mysterious blues, was lit up in her magic. She slowly and carefully ripped off a stripe of fabric. “Alicorns love to talk." Holding the strip of fabric in her telekinetic grasp, Ancepanox began wrapping a blindfold over her face. “I’m the child, Celestia. Smother me dead.”

“You promised no metaphors.” Celestia shouted, squeezing her eyes shut.

But the harangue went on, as Ancpeanox carefully tried the know behind her head, obscuring her own vision. “This is going to be the end of both of us, and the beginning of a new life. Call it selection, call it a synthesis. I'm going to become the better parts of both of us. If I am going to be able to love life and love living, I have to be the best pony I can possibly be."

"You don't understand the alicorn soul. It is not built for the world. If it is not filled by domination and control, it is soothed with decadence and gluttony. Our souls burn for higher purposes than any mortal can understand. If you try to work at their level you will destroy yourself, like I did." Celestia said. "Your goal is noble but impossible."

Ancepanox jutted out her jaw. "Hold onto the positives princess. I don't want to remember you as a neighsayer."

‘Can you match her on your own? Prove you are still an alicorn, Celestiaan.’

Celestia snarled. She called her magic to her horn, ready to let loose.

Ancepanox preempted Celestia with a blast of purple energy. Even with her eyes covered, her spells here honed with deadly accuracy. Celestia summoned a bubble of magic to deflect the bolt. Ancepanox cast another, and Celestia almost missed the window to cast another shield. A third bolt shattered the shield and almost clipped Celestia’s head.

Starved for magic, Celestia dodged desperately as she prepared her sacrifice spell. Her sheen of yellow gripped her remaining wing, and after a moment of pinching, Celestia could feel it tear off. Wasting no time she devoured the limb in a single motion, letting the surge of magic fill her body.
And just in time too, for Ancepanox cast another bolt that Celestia now easily blocked with renewed reserves. But this time the sun princess counterattacked, pouring her resurgent might into a plume of fire that engulfed the black alicorn. Celestia sustained the inferno for several seconds longer than she should have, and she ended up drained once again. However, the terrible damage she’d surely inflicted was worth the cost.

Ancepanox dispelled the fire surrounding her. The lethal burns were already almost gone due to the incredible speed that her body healed. Even the cape and blindfold were repairing their singed fibers.

“I thought you have to die because I hated you, but I had it all wrong. I don't hate you, no, it's just the opposite. I hate what has happened to you, and what you've become. Celestia... I love you. You were the best that there ever was. The wisest, strongest, most versatile, most able. It was my privilege to know you, and to be your student. I'm sorry that I didn't appreciate it while it lasted. Everything you stood for was for the right reason. I wanted to be just like you." Ancepanox said fervidly. “Only that wasn’t the real you. The real you is a stained sinner, trying to give her life meaning. But that’s okay, because everypony is like that. Even me, especially me.”

The black alicorn let off another deadly spell, a quintet of magical spears that whistled towards Celestia and the most convenient routes of escape. Celestia would either have to bear the brunt of the attack or use up the last of her magic.
Thinking quickly, Celestia devised a temporary third option. She jumped backwards, but forgot she had only the stumps of her wings to help maneuver as she moved. She was almost skewered by the spell hurtling towards her before she got into the shadow of the only cover in her vicinity: Agana’s body.
With a meaty thunk, a magic spear punched through the lumbering daeva's torso. Celestia was hit by a spray of black blood before the spear dissipated. She could feel the liquid on her lips, and when she darted her tongue out to clear it a chilling calm came over her.

‘An alicorn’s body is like a battery. Why would anypony waste a single drop of it?’

“You don’t have to fight it.” Ancepanox shouted. She sounded dejected, almost indecisive. “I don’t want to hurt or cause you pain. Only kill you. You can go out with dignity.”

Celestia couldn’t see what the next attack was, but the effect on her meatshield Agana was spectacular. The semi-equine torso was torn to shreds before her, and Celestia was bathed in guts and viscera.

‘This is the decisive moment. Ask yourself, are you really willing to relinquish everything you are to me? Even your name?’

“Yes. All of it.” Celestia craned her neck head, absorbing the shower of blood as fast as she could. The inky black that swirled at the edges of her eyes swelled inwards, consuming her iris and casting everything she saw into mire. With every passing second her reservations fell away, and her eagerness and hatred grew. She could kill Ancepanox. She WOULD kill Ancepanox. Her new patron would give her the power to do it. “I must persist, and so I give it willingly.”

‘I like that answer.’

The winding path down the face of the bluff, from the foot of the crumbling castle to the bed of the Mare Incognitum, was luckily sturdy and safe. Rarity and Applejack were halfway down the winding path, with almost a hundred vertical meters still to go. Rainbow Dash flew alongside them, having passed off her passenger.

“I ain’t entirely clear on this point, but is the moon real?” Applejack asked. The earth pony was having no trouble balancing Luna on her back. The princess of the night had healed away most of the cuts, but was still out cold.

"Real? Don't let Lady Ancepanox overhear you asking that or we will be subjected to a long-winded clammoring about what 'real' means." Rarity said. The motion force her to readjust how Twilight Sparkle lay across her back. She didn't want the little unicorn to fall- She didn't hold any antipathy for Twilight anymore, with the grudge having been transferred to Ancepanox. If she was to be believed, Twilight had been regressed to before they'd even met.

"If you don't know the answer, don't say anything." Applejack shook her head.

Rarity giggled. "The moon has both physical and intangible aspects, and I promise you I knew that before Ancepanox told me. It is the gateway to the dreamlike realms out in the cosmos."

"Is that a fact or is it just what your cult teaches?" Dash challenged.

"I try to be informative, and it is thrown in my face." Rarity tried to keep her mask from slipping. "It is very true. Look up there, to those stars and the spaces in between! We are on the brink of a universe that could swallow us up whole and be unchanged for it. Those inky black depths hide monsters billions upon billions of times more vast and grand as an alicorn." Rarity intoned. "This moon is the conduit for those inconceivable stellar entities. The alicorns we know and cherish were once nomads in that cast space sea, until they crossed the moon's barrier and descended onto our planet."

Rainbow Dash was stifling a laugh. "That's some real nerd stuff. Most religious ponies are pea-brains. Do they remember all that or do you remind them every day?"

"That's rude, very rude. Shame on me for playing along with you." Rarity ground her teeth, staring straight ahead. "And to think, I was going to spare you ponies?"

"Uh, what was that? Y'all saying you're gunna spare us?" Applejack scoffed. "Are you actually gunna have another run at Ancepanox? S'cuze me partner but did you SEE that THING in the dream with the color? You couldn't pay me a million bits to talk back to it, leave alone fight it."

"I have to. My dignity and pride as a nightmare demands it." Rarity growled

"You're gunna get creamed." Applejack tisked.

"Have some heart and think of the pony that has to wash you off the walls, which will probably be me." Dash snarked. "We're going to get cured of the nightmare anyway. Focus on staying alive. This is the mare with the death wish telling you this too."

"Whatever." Rarity mumbled. What would it take to turn the other nightmare ponies against Ancepanox? Didn't their hearts tremble indignant at how they were being treated?

Suddenly the ground beneath their hooves began to shake. Chunks of rock higher up the bluff began to come loose and fall, skipping down the terraced switchbacks and causing more small collapses.

“Uh oh.” Applejack gasped. "We gotta get off this hill!" Dash banked her wings and flew out to a safe distance, leaving Rarity and Applejack.

The shaking grew more violent, and a low rumble began to emanate from the top of the bluff. Rarity chanced a quick glance up, and saw that the derelict castle was aglow with lights of many colors. As she watched, one of the tall towers was torn apart by a concussive force from within. Rarity’s awe lasted up until black brick began to impact around her.

“It's going to explode!” She whined, breaking into a gallop. Applejack was close behind.
Chunks of castle rained down the bluff, breaking off more and more of the path. The rumbling from above was punctuated by a pop, then a deafening boom. Glass and iron joined rock in the material hail.
Dash was trying to call out warnings, but she was forced to juke and dodge for herself. She saw a tumbling boulder rolling straight towards Rarity, and bracing herself, swooped in and kicked the rock off course, to tumble harmlessly behind them. Dash retreated again, keeping half an eye to the others' safety.

After half a minute, the deluge tapered, but they had to stop nonetheless. The path down had been erased by erosion and debris. There was no way they could jump across or down to the next level, not with Twilight and Luna on their backs.

Dash landed on the opposite side of the gap. “Is everypony okay?”

“I’m bit rustled, nothin major.” Applejack coughed. “What happened?

“Magic duel, when it should have been a magic execution. Celestia is putting up more of a fight than she anticipated.” Rarity remarked.

Their discussion was interrupted by an even louder explosion, and she looked just in time to see half of the castle disappear into a bloom of white. A shockwave rolled through the air and down the bluff, throwing up a cloud of moon dust. When the dust settled Rarity could see the remaining half of the castle was teetering precariously above the drop, directly above them.

“I take back what I said. I ain’t feelin so good.” Applejack giggled nervously.

The air between Applejack and Rarity crunched and cracked as the Cosmic Eye swelled open, and Ancepanox jumped out onto the path.
The black alicorn was worse for wear, with a bruise on her cheek and several cuts across her barrel and flank. Her long mane had been burned short in places. “What are you still doing here?! Get Twilight and Luna out of harm’s reach!”

Rarity noted that Ancepanox had ripped a strip from the tapestry and tied it over her eyes. She was about start shouting about such poor treatment of her soul binding, but decided that complaint could come out with the rest, once they dueled. “It is more a matter of ability than will. What happened with Celestia?”

“Here’s the thing, I wasn’t expecting her to-” Ancepanox stopped mid sentence and her ears swiveled up, listening to something inaudible to any other pony. Perched on the top of one of the remaining buttresses was a grey alicorn. Rarity head swam with confusion; It didn’t look at all like Celestia, who should have been the only other pony up there. “Uh oh.”

The entire castle was surrounded by the telltale shimmer of magic. Impossible, Rarity thought, literally and completely impossible. No pony had that much magical strength. Her shocked expression became a tight-lipped frown.

Applejack was a bit more expressive. “My gods! What the heck have y’all dragged us in to?!”

The castle’s creaks and groans rolled down the bluff as it was torn by its foundations from the rock it had sat on for over a thousand years. Rock and dust sloughed off the roots of the castle, until most of it had fallen and the structure was left, suspended over its footprint.
The grey alicorn looked down at Ancepanox and the other nightmares, before kicking off of her perch and soaring into the open air over the Mare Incognitum. The floating castle slowly followed her, leaving the bluff behind.

"With exponential growth of telekinesis difficulty to mass..." Ancepanox ran the mental math. "An order of magnitude more magic expended every second than all of Canterlot in a year."

"She's gunna crush us." Applejack observed.

“No she's not aiming for us.” Dash said. Everypony, save the blindfolded Ancepanox, looked down to the army of moon denizens down at the base of the bluff.

“I'll stop her.” Ancepanox ordered. "This path could still collapse, so get moving!"

The black alicorn kicked off the ground, and for a good ten seconds Rarity expected her to disappear into the cosmic eye. But Ancepanox’s wings opened, and after a few experimental flaps, she rocketed away after the grey alicorn.

“Now I know I must be dreaming.” Applejack said flatly. Then the humor of the whole situation hit her, and she began to chuckle. “Then again, ain’t it the case that an alicorn who can’t fly is the odd one out?”

Ancepanox breathed deeply, letting the cool lunar air pass linger in her lungs, then expelling the gases after her body had warmed them. Even if it was just a dream, flying was exhilarating. It felt like nothing was beyond her. Maybe some day she would be able to fly in the waking world.

Of course, she would first have to deal with the looming threat.

Her eyes were covered, but the world around her was alive with magic. Just watched without changing anything with her own magic, admiring the swirling and churning currents. This moon had an aura all its own that flowed across its surface and through its skies. The last time Ancepanox had done this had been during her duel with Chrysalis, and for the same reason- Her foe was hidden.

For while the Nightmare Ponies, Twilight and Luna, and the thousands of moon denizens were like glowing tangles among the streaks of bright energy and subdued magical hues, brightest by far was the churning aura surrounding Celestia. No pony or alicorn Ancepanox had seen so far was that powerful, not even when the Sun had filled Celestia with her power.
This was not natural. This was not even the surge of power Celestia had taken by consuming Agana's body. This was something else... the mysterious 'new patron' Celestia had referenced.

"We're right on the edge of space. That's why Celestia retreated here. She was searching for someone specific." Ancepanox mused. "Something."

Ancepanox's confidence in victory was wavering. Celestia was was fast, overwhelmingly powerful, and unhesitating. But the cost had been great: The sun princess was coming apart even faster from the profusion of Dark magic inside her. Her outward manifestation, her ivory coat and ethereal mane, had become ferally bedraggled. She was grey in coat, mane, and magic. Her eyes were holes, bleeding the black ichor that had taken her soul.

"I could have prevented this." Ancepanox mumbled to herself. At one of a dozen opportunities, a slight word or action could have stopped Celestia from descending further into desperation and self-destruction. Ancepanox did not blame herself. "But so could she. This was her choice."

While Ancepanox was flying up to her altitude, Celestia was not idle. Her telekinetic grasp dragged the floating castle into position, directly over the moon denizens. Ancepanox could only guess why Celestia would target them; So freshly fallen to the Dark, Celestia was trying to slake her overwhelming destructive compulsion by obliterating of as many lives as possible, as quickly as possible.

Ancepanox knew she couldn't fight for control of the castle. Even if she'd planned ahead with special patterns and rituals, she would be too weak to even keep the castle even, let alone fight Celestia or drag it away. The best option she could come up with was to destroy it somehow.

Sensing that someone had come to stop her, Celestia darted under the floating castle and hovered between it and the other alicorn.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Celestia still had mind enough to speak. "You have opened my eyes. What does Equestria, or the entire planet matter? I could take a whole galaxy for myself with this power."

“Yeah, I don’t see that happening.” Ancepanox yanked a gargoyle off the castle with her magic and propelled it at Celestia.

Celestia didn't bother to dodge. With a little flick of her horn the gargoyle glowed a bright black before dissolving into dust. "You could join me. You could..." Celestia hesitated, and her next words came out stilted. "replace me."

Unwisely perhaps, Ancepanox pushed up the blindfold for a moment. She needed to see her princess with her own eyes. "Who? Who are you?"

Celestia grinned like a child being caught telling a lie. All her teeth had turned as sharp as knives. “I am your progenitor.”

“Who are you?” Ancepanox repeated.
Celestia wrenched a ten meter length of parapet off the castle, and used it to swat at Ancpeanox. The black alicorn enveloped herself in a shield, and the chunk of stone exploded into pebbles against it. “Who are you?” She asked the grey alicorn again.

Celestia tensed and untensed. Her muscles bubbled horrifically under her skin before returning to normal. "When you surrendered your name, what was the scope of your loss? I see you gave up more than you gained. You gave up a name and a past, but only gained a name back?"

"I gained a future." Ancepanox repudiated.

"That remains to be seen." Celestia purred. "Your chose a very weak companion for your change. Myriadess... even saying her name fills me with pity. You should be commended for your mercy." She shrugged. "I chose better patron, and a better time to sacrifice."

Ancepanox blanched. "I'm still the pony I was, but more. You have lost your mind."

"Don't kid yourself. You are making the same transition only more gradually." Celestia countered.

Ancepanox couldn't refute that. She had the conciliation that Celestia was mocking her for being weaker: If power meant bleeding black ooze out the eyes, Ancepanox was fine remaining weak.
"You are not going to deter me. The world still needs your death."

Celestia flapped harder, rising up to the top of the Tower. She landed on one of the towers, were she stood stock still, as motionless as the grotesque gargoyles. "You speak full control and a clear consciousness. You only gained those through struggle against yourself. You purged your weaker parts and became, as you said, 'more'. WATCH AS I DO THE SAME."

Ancepanox braced for an attack but Celestia, or whatever entity had control of her, was not done with the diatribe. One wondered if the power of alicorns corrilated with how much they ranted.

"You know nothing of the races of gods that dwell among the stars. How deliriously IGNORANT the alicorns of this planet have made themselves to assure themselves they are superior life forms. In truth, your 'Bright World' is a backwater haven, a place so unimportant that refugees like the ancient alicorns, the sun and moon, and the nightmares, can sulk in the open unmolested. That I have been beckoned here to interfere should be HUMILIATING to me... but it was not so long ago that I was a prisoner on your world."

"Ah... You." Ancepanox grunted. "I've heard so much about you. I was wondering when we'd get to meet."

"By mortal terms my accomplishments here were legendary. I birthed the Deava, powerful and sinful children. I forged the Harmony, a whole new power that had never existed in the history of this universe. I created the Ritual, making mortals into gods... But none of that compares to the most lethargic flick of we gods of the void." Celestia intoned, but the volume of her voice died away into airy rasping, but a new psychic voice grew in volume. "That is why I dwell on my time here fondly. My most trivial triumphs that meant the most to the most entities."

Ancpeanox nudged the blindfold back over her eyes, to witness the unfurling that was taking place.

The skin of space curled back around the grey alicorn, invisible except to magical sight, as strange and otherworldy power began to wrench their way into reality. Thin black seams formed in the air around Celestia, through which reached a fluid indigo tendril, then another two, then hundreds. The multiplying swarm of dark tendrils twisted around whatever purchase they could find. Then out of the mass jutted two enormous black wings, each over six meters across with scaly talons jutting off the alula, scraping and clawing at the air. The talons grabbed onto parts of the castle and quivered, struggling to pull something up along with them. With a horrendous squelch, the Dark god was at last revealed.

It was almost equine, in the same way that the shadowy Forlorn Spark, or Agana's torso had been almost equine- A detail on a mismatched and revolting composition. For it had a pony’s head and neck, but of such consuming blackness that it could only be seen by the silhouette against the castle and stars beyond. It’s taut body disappeared into the bed of tendrils, out of which jutted those vast clawed wings and a dozen small heads. It’s uncountable eyes were of the brightest indigo, and radiated the pure and flowing power of the cosmos.

"Out there, I am Anima Astral Nacre, one of many of my kind and caliber of divine. Down there, I was THE DARK LADY. Who can not love a name so grand, portentous, and final." The dark god rumbled, her psychic voice sending trembles through the magical currents around the two alicorns. "I am not owed, nor am I desirous, of anything on this planet. I would very much like to see it again through new eyes. It has been a thousand of your years, and that is a long time."
The dark god stretched her wings, and Celestia did suite in mimicry, shaking her stumps. "I have no particular gripe against you, but you in my way and I find you annoying. You can have your way with Celestia when I am finished with her, in a century or so."

Ancepanox wasn't going to lie: Anima Astral Nacre was beyond intimidating. Just looking at the enormous trans-dimensional horror sprouting from spaces beyond filled her heart with a frantic dread she couldn't suppress. That thing could not, should not exist!
But she had known that it was only a matter of time before one like the Dark Lady showed up. And truthfully, there was no better arena than the moon.
"I'm not going to wait. Give Celestia to me to face justice, or reap the consequences." Ancepanox stared defiantly into the deava's burning eyes.

The Dark Lady's psychic voice defied description. Like Agana's it was melodious, but changed and warped along a whole range of pitches, the sounds ringing out like singing bells, then turning into yowling flutes and screaming horns. The words overlapped and repeated themselves, as if a whole orchestra was drunkenly shouting and whispering and cooing it. It was deliriously beautiful one moment and maddeningly dissonant the next.
"You think to make war against me, my little friend? Very well. Do not draw this out so long then. Assume what form you will and let this test of strength and will begin."

"If its the only way I can keep up, then I will." Ancpenaox nodded. WIth the foe revealing her true form, Ancepanox though it only proper to reciprocate.
There was no denying it to herself, something had changed over the course of the night. Something in her blood, or soul, or something... Ancepanox wasn't just Twilight Sparkle with a different name. She was an altered pony. Devouring Agana's soul had cemented it, but Ancepanox didn't quite know just what it was yet. Yes, she'd seen it in the nightmare ponies had cringed away from her in the space of color and light. She felt it in how the dream magic now came naturally. Always at the edge of her consciousness she was aware of the other dreams around them, like visions through distant windows, alluring but separate. Yes, suffice it to say, Ancepanox was altered.
The moon around them flooded the black alicorn with power. Ancepanox welcomed it, slackening her self-imposed limits, taking on as much energy as she could- If she had to start bleeding out her eyes like Celestia was, so be it! Her body shifted and wavered, her spine lengthened, her legs stretched. Her mane and tail began to billow and dissolve, their color expanding into a cloud around her. From out of the cloud, dozens of purple eyes peered, and so too from her face, cast into consummate shadow.
Ancepanox let the breath out, relishing the power rushing through her. Strange light began to sweep from beneath her blindfold.

The Dark Lady crooned in pleasure. "There it is. A more true form of a Celestiaan. This will be an epic dance, one sister against the other. Let us reveal if the dreams of your planet can hope to match against the power of the cosmos."

Ancepanox tried to answer, but let out cacophonous roar instead- Her form was not made to talk, only to battle.

"Well said!"
Celestia stretched her legs and rolled her shoulders, and the horrible phantasm sprouting from her threw its head back and howled, a horrible sound like the sounding of a million sirens.
"I am Anima Astral Nacre, the Dark Lady, and this is the warmest welcome I could have wished for!"

Chapter 49: MOONBREAKER

"Arise, my foe. This battle decides nothing for they many mortals, but to us, it is everything!"
With a sweep of her mammoth wings, the Dark Lady rose into the sky. Against the backdrop of infinite space, her form could only be discerned by the absence of stars.
“None left to be said. We need not bother with terms.” The Dark Lady’s voice infiltrated Ancepanox’s mind with its crescendoing resonance. “To the victor goes all spoils.”

Ancepanox did not reply. She matched the Dark Lady’s ascent, until their eyes were on an equal level.

“Your struggle has been admirable. You have been sifting through the remnants of my work and the echoes of my actions. How heartening is it, to know a thousand years later what I did still mattered." The Dark Lady turned her primary head this way and that, alternating which of her indigo eyes was watching the black nightmare. “Myriadess, Agana, my two sodden daughters, are now a part of you. The Nightmare of the Moon was a creature of my design too, after a fashion. You are a consequence of my actions. I adore that. I adore you. However..." Her psychic voice dipping into the dissonant ranged, shrill clammors and clangs that flayed the ears and mind. "Do not expect mercy because of this love. It is in the divine nature of us both to fight and die to dominate."

A crack of light formed across the Dark Lady’s face. It widened, until the hint of her hundreds of her teeth could be seen. But the gash was far from what could be called a mouth, for it opened to reveal a pit of cilia and slavering tentacles. The god threw back her head and a blaring shriek roiled up from the hole.

“EEEEHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Ancepanox was not dirterred. She flapped her wings and charged forward through the air. The Dark Lady lashed at her with her tendrils, but could do nothing to slow the Nightmare.
They collided. To the naked eye, it appeared to be the black alicorn tackling the grey alicorn. But between the plains of physicality and dreamstate, it was the clash of monumental gods, beating and hacking away at each other with claw, horn, and spell.
The dozen heads latched on to Ancepanox all across her body and twisted and pulled in an attempt to tear her apart. A lance of purple energy from the nightmare’s horn severed most of them, and a rending kick sent the other in retreat.

“You’re calm under pressure. More than can be said of most nightmares.” The Dark Lady noted.

Celestia disengaged from the melee, hopping backwards and leaving Ancepanox to control the tower. But the shimmer of magic surrounding the floating castle faded. With a last croon of protest, the thousands of tons of stone began to plummet towards the Mare Incognitum. Down below, the moon denizens waited for their princess, apathetic to their fate.

Ancepanox croaked in panic, her mind racing to think to avoid the imminent catastrophy. But the Dark Lady took advantage of her momentary distraction, smacking her in the barrel with a bolt of magic. Ancepanox was knocked away the tower, but recovered quickly, but in those passing moments the mass of the castle had gained enormous inertal power
Without time to lose, Ancepanox did the foolhardy, and called up every ounce of her magic power, and seized the castle in her telekinetic clutches. Every muscle in her body spasmed in sympathy for the colossal burden her horn was bearing. Within seconds a brilliant corona of energy began to burn around her, and the layers of enamel of her horn began to evaporate. Yet the castle slowed.

"I can't let you do that, Ancepanox." Celestia chuckled. above her, the Dark Lady threw back her head again and let out another thunderous psychic howl.

“YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAA”

The dark god teleported forward in a burst of dark energy, One of her clawed wings shot forward, wrapping Ancepanox in its feather grasp. WIth her spell interrupted, the magic at Ancepanox’s horn went unrestrained, and bloomed into a burning explosion of purple and black. The Dark Lady quickly withdrew the burned wing, and her tendrils convulsed in sympathetic pain.

Ancepanox, dazed and damaged from the blowout, retreated to a safe distance cradling her head. In those seconds the castle fell another fifty meters, and was mere moments from crushing the creatures below.

Celestia glanced down at the impending impact. "Too late Celestiaan. You wasted your effort."

Tempted though she was to shoot of a witty retort, Ancepanox had no time. Focusing her dreamwalking power was less difficult on the moon than within the dreamscape proper, but to use it on any large scale was still an exponential use of magical power. Oh moon give me more, she demanded, or this invader will conquer us. Did the moon view Ancepanox more favorably for her years of life living in her pale light? By all accounts Anima Astral Nacre had trod under the night sky for thousands of years, and was of the moon's own kin besides. But despite those doubts the moon was forthcoming, and Ancepanox felt her needs fulfilled and her spell was cast.
A ripple of distortion exploded out from the bed of the Mare Incognitum, curling and consuming the fabric of the moon like an event horizon. The Cosmic Eye expanded to a hundred meter diameter to cover every one of the thoudands of moon denizens, then retracted instantaneously.

The black castle smashed into the ground at no great speed, but with such tremendous force that debris was hurled hundreds of meters in every direction. With almost surreal sloth, the castle pancaked, sending up a huge cloud of grey dust. As everything settled only a pile of rubble was left.

Ancepanox cast the next part of the spell. Thousands of shadowy spheres speared all across the landscape, dumped the moon denizens back onto the lunar surface

Ancepanox descended at a controlled pace, and landed on the stone mound that remained of the castle. The dazed moon denizens payed her no mind at first. But one by one, the shadowy creatures overcame their confusion and noticed the glowing black alicorn in their midst. They approached cautiously, buzzing and humming in their strange way. There was a great variance between them, despite the hazy of dark that ensconced their details: Some seemed like quadruped mammals with great crests, some like bipedal reptiles with thick flat tails, some as biped insects with thick fuzz, or a marvelous mix and match of any of those features. How many races had the moon had before the nightmare energy had subsumed them into homogeneity.

"Why are you ignoring me, Celestiaan? Do you find me less interesting than these things?" Celestia and the parasitic god sprouting off her descended down to the other side of the rubble pile.

Ancepanox, through great struggle with her altered vocal chords, choked out a reply. "You have nothing to offer me, or anypony else on my planet."

"Do you treat elderly ponies with that kind of disrespect? They lived their lives, sweated and toiled to create the world you live in. Do you demand they prove their worth when they rest on their stoop?" The Dark Lady asked. "Do you want to kill old ponies?"

"Your logic game is boring. You aren't entitled to me or my planet. We were only ever a means to an end for you to return to the stars." Ancepanox rebutted roughly. "Who did you care about?! Who did you care for?"

The Dark Lady's bright eyes glowed brighter, as her taloned wings clawed at the ground. The moon denizens, blind to the god attached to the grey alicorn, recoiled at the inexplicable disturbances. "I had meaningful friends and deep loves across millennia. I drank, gambled, bickered, and brawled your ancestors in the icy lands of the old unicorns. You have the blood of the lords of Bright, don't you? That means you share my blood as well!"

"Me and a million other ponies, living and dead. What has it done for us?" Ancepanox asked. It was strange to have more than two eyes... but she appreciated the total awareness the luminous eyes that had appeared across her body granted. It allowed her to see the way the terrified moon creatures looked from her to Celestia, then back to her, looking for which would tell them what to do. "I salute you for a life well lived while you were living it, but we don't care. You've come around like the worst kind of leaching relative, entitled as you are."

"Are you not going to give your weary elder succor?" Celestia asked, stalking back and forth.

Ancepanox lost control of her voice again, but her multitudinous eyes shown out in utter contempt for the otherworldly alicorn. She spread and angled her wings in a pegasus taunt. The message was clear: If something is owed, come and collect it!

The Dark Lady obliged, embracing the ground in preparation of continuing the duel on the hoof. The mass of tendrils smacked into the rubble, and the unfathomable equine neck and head following, their impact making a meaty crunch. The Dark Lady’s constituent material dissolved and reformed her upright.

“Of course not. You will not be surprised when that elder cracks you open. Your undoing has been of your own creation.” The Dark Lady said, her melodious voice peaking into shrieks and peals.

Ancepanox crouched, digging her back hooves into the rubble and tensing up her hindlegs. She lowered her head and held her horn before her like a spear. She spread her wings, preparing for another charge.

“You tried that maneuver. Again? Arrogance is unbecoming of an alicorn.” The Dark Lady held out her tendrils, ready to catch the nightmare an wring her into oblivion.

But instead of charging, Ancepanox hopped backwards, conjuring a Cosmic Eye and dissapeering into it, reappearing above the Dark Lady. She plunged downward, goring the god's primary head with her horn and beating it to the ground with her hooves. Then, she teleported back.

YEEEEYEEAAAAAAAAA
The scream of pain that issued forth from The Dark Lady felt loud enough to turn the rock to gravel. The too-near moon denizens clutched their various ears, the scream intruding into their already clouded minds. Celestia and the god atop her thrashed together, surprised and irate at having given first blood.
Ancepanox, galloping to a safer distance, let the psychic squeal roll over her. Her eyes flashed with triumphal eagerness, for the Dark Lady was still limited in many ways. Victory WAS possible.

Then, as if to refute her the Dark Lady unleashed another squeal, but of magic instead of sound. The bloom of raw energy caught Ancepanox off guard as it knocked into her, searing away most of her fur and dispersing her ethereal mane and tail. She was tossed a hundred meters from the rubble pile, and skidded for another dozen across the Mare Incognitum. Before she could even regain her bearings, the land around her began to shake. A spike of obsidian erupted from the dust, impaling her through the stomach.

"Oh..." Ancepanox groaned, tracing where her burned skin met the stone impaling her. "... ouch." Okay, so maybe she'd underestimated her opponent a little bit.

The unholy chorus like the squealing pipes and flutes rolled across the plain, as the Dark Lady taunted her. “Do you want to go on living, little Celestiaan? Clear the way for me, and I may yet let you exist!”

Ancepanox tried lifting herself off the obsidian splinter, but another rock spike surged forth and pinned her wing. Her horn sparked weakly, teleporting her onto clear soil even farther away from her foe. But the Dark Lady would not give her a reprieve. A glint of magic in the air was all the warning Ancepanox had before a shard of magic flew past her head, dispersing part of her vaporous mane again. She cast a shield in time to block more shards whistling through the clear moon air.

Ancepanox sucked in her breaths, trying to quell the surging anger inside herself. She entered into fights in control and with a plan, but inevitably the bestial rage lurking at the edge of her mind swelled and took control. But wasn't it also true that losing self-control was what had carried her to victory, against Myriadess, against Rarity, against Agana... so, what good was control?
Not yet, Ancepanox told herself. She was hurting, but not in imminent threat of defeat. She could go through the procedure of a 'normal' magic duel for a little while longer.

When the Dark Lady's cast her next salvo of magical shards, she observed with a rumble of glee that it shattered through Ancepanox's shield. However that immediately turned to displeasure when the dust cleared and the nightmare alicorn was nowhere to be seen. Celestia and the god atop her narrowed their eyes and tensed, anticipating surprise attack- Celestia turned her head to scan one way, the Dark Lady and her many heads in all the others. But Ancepanox was not standing out, especially since the Mare Incognitum was still populated by thousands of confused and wandering moon denizens.

"Is hiding the best you can do? You're better than this." Celestia chided. "Are you going to force my hoof?"

The Dark Lady's smaller heads, sprouting up from that tangled web of tendrils around her protruding torso, began to elongate and snake away from her body. The smaller heads, each the size of a pony, mostly featureless black silhouettes with those same burning indigo eyes, weaved in and around the moon denizens, nudging them, biting them. Still blind to the Dark Lady's presence, the moon denizens yipped and chirped at the invisible things molesting them, and began to run away from the grey alicorn in larger herds.

"When I lived alongside Wintertide and his kin, I was master of your planet, needed nothing, wanted for nothing. I took great pleasure in enforcing the Aeava's confinement. What a silly race Wintertide and his kind are, unique among the alicorns for how self-sacrificing they are! That is why they lost and were exiled onto the Bright World."
The Dark Lady's voice thrummed rhythmically, gutturally, like a rumble in the bones of everyone nearby.
"Yet while I gloated over him, Wintertide returned to me unconditional love. What a lowly worm, I thought, which is why I loosed upon him every wild passion and desire. We created fantastic things, neurotic and formidable. What a shame it is most of those childeren are lost now, but they were worthy sacrifices for attempting the next leap of the evolution of the alicorn races."

One of the moon denizens still lingering nearby felt a chill on their spine. It looked up from its idle preoccupation, trying to find what had touched it. The chill came again, and then a small glow of purple light from the clear air before it. The haze of shadow around the moon denizen's body flickered, relieving for the briefest moment something of the animal underneath- It looked semi-lupine, with a long snout that rumpled at some indecipherable stench. When the haze returned the creature scampered away, and the black tendril snaked its way to the next one, trying to sniff out Ancepanox.

"I speak of the energy of Harmony, little Celestiaan. It is a power to match and surpass any and every form of energy used by both mortal and god. In its theory it is laughably simple. In its execution it is sublime. I know for I have tasted it. I willingly destroyed everything I cared for and which cared for me, to experience Harmony for even the briefest of moments... I know now that I went about it the wrong way. Synthesis is a project of equal construction, not equal destruction."
The Dark Lady's lecture continued. How often was it that the prideful alicorns spoke of something that mattered? From her hiding spot Ancepanox listened keenly, enamored but resolute.
"When the force of Harmony I had created destroyed the home of the ancient alicorns and all their kind, I found myself a helpless refugee on the Bright World, in the same situation I had mocked Wintertide for. You would think I would use my mortal stranding as a learning experience, to discover gaps in my personality and my power, and perhaps in time to return to Harmony with a heart ready to wield it appropriately. Alas I am not that adaptable. I did on the earth much the same as I did in heaven: Lie, fight, wrench, and above all, scheme. Let it not be said that behavior goes unrewarded, for I am in heaven again, having learned no lesson."

Celestia was getting impatient with the search. She rolled her shoulders and wiggled the stumps of her wings, trying to scratch the insufferable itch of the dark god sprouting out of her back. Her little agitated movements were in contrast to the sweeping lethargy of the Dark Lady, who was starting to notice her host was perhaps not entirely under her control. Time to act.

"Hmm... This is taking to long." The Dark Lady finally pronounced. Her snaking accessory heads were withdrawn back into the tendrils like noodles being sucked out of a bowl. One of her vast taloned wings reached out, curling under one of the few remaining moon denizens in range and dragging it back to herself.

The moon denizen, a smaller specimen with two legs and vestigial wings, let out an alarmed sequence of clicks, pings, and trills. All the remaining creatures ran to safer distances.

“These wretched beasts... They were mortal once. I know not what to think of them. They have been remade so thoroughly by the Dark they would not survive without it. Are they my kin? Yours?” The Dark Lady mused, leaning down to bring her primary head face to face with the panicked moon denizen. Her burning indigo eyes dwarfed the creature's whole body!
“Do you feel empathy for them, nightmare?”

The Dark Lady and speared the moon denizen through the head with a talon. A chorus of lamentation rose up from the others. The Dark Lady’s shadowy horn emitted a shimmer of dark magic, and another of the creatures exploded into dust.
But there was still no reaction from Ancepanox. Had the nightmare alicorn run away? No, the Dark Lady was certain her foe was nearby, watching and waiting.

"When it comes time to lead, how much will you sacrifice against what you ask your followers to sacrifice? The line will be difficult for you, as it often is for ponies." The Dark Lady turned her attention on the three nightmare ponies, scaling down the bluff. She slowly extended an intertwined clump of tendrils over them.

The course of the battle above and on the Mare Incognitum was making Applejack tremble in anxiety. Ancepanox looked like she was taking a lot of hits against the grey alicorn Celestia, and not getting many in. But she began to wonder if she could trust her senses when the duel began to make less sense. It looked for a moment like Ancpeanox was striking way to far in in advance of Celestia, and then several of the moon denizens died with Celestia neither moving or using her magic.

“Somethin ain’t right.” Applejack muttered.

Rarity, who was just glad to have gotten past the most damaged part of the path down the bluff. She kept looking back and forth from the blasted stump of the castle still above them on the top of the hill, and the pile of stone that Celestia had dropped. What a shame to ruin such a perfectly good example of gothic architecture. "Hmm? What?"

"I can feel it in my gut... or maybe in my brain." Ancepanox said. Since Rarity had not been up to it, the nightmare earth pony was now carrying Luna and Twilight Sparkle both. "There's an evil in the air."

Rainbow Dash, eyes still glued to the duelists (though Ancpenaox had disappeared), voiced her concern. "I get that feeling too, but I don't know what it is." To Rainbow's shock, Celestia turned and looked up the bluff right at her, locking her into a stare. "Gah! We've been noticed."

Rarity stopped in place, looking where Dash was pointing. "Darling, she's over a kilometer away."

"Let's see if you can 'darling' me when spell blasts your flank off at the speed of light." Dash whispered, keeping up the staring contest with Celestia. "But its strange... Why isn't she moving?"

"Whatever. We're nearly at the bottom." Rarity harrumphed.

Applejack was about to respond when she heard a whisper at behind her.

‘Applejack, kneel.’

“Whah?” Applejack spun around, trying to catch the unexpected speaker, but the only thing behind her was the sheer drop off the narrow path. “Girls, I think-"
When Applejack turned back around, her heart stopped. Dash was on her stomach, eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth. Rarity was tensed, her eyes darting around in search of an elusive something.

‘Applejack, kneel.’

“Rarity… There’s a voice in my head.” Applejack whispered fearfully. She took another look at Dash, who had apparently been overwhelmed by the mysterious force.

“I hear it. I hear it. It wants my obedience.” Rarity hissed through clenched teeth. "It's my sovereign. I've known her all my life... She wants me to show my loyalty!"

‘Applejack, KNEEL!”

The source revealed itself in front of Applejack. From out of the empty air, the lids drew back on a dozen purple eyes. Applejack could feel the roiling power behind them, piercing into her. A cold force assaulted her mind and tore into her psyche. Applejack tried to turn away but the vision was still there, right in front of her! The horrible purple eyes were inside her head!
Her limbs became heavy and she couldn't move anymore. "N- Nani?" She gargled. Without the coordination to hold herself up anymore, Applejack collapsed into the same position as Rainbow Dash, flat in the dirt. Her two passengers, Luna and Twilight, rolled off to either side- One of them made a whining sound, a sign they could be finally waking up.

Rarity tried to scream in terror, but the air stuck in her throat. Awful and otherworldly visions refused to go away, and though Rarity resisting with every iota of her willpower a cold power draped over her body and overwhelmed her. She could feel that intrusive voice, even closer, like it was just beside her and whispering into her ear.
"Sorry Rarity. Keep your head down or she'll kill you."

It was Ancepanox doing this! Rarity's bottled rage almost boiled over explosively but the overwhelming coldness grew more oppressive, and she fell onto her side in the dust, trembling and fighting against the force controlling her.

Celestia and the Dark Lady watched the nightmare ponies fall in kowtow. "They are supplicating themselves before me, even though they can not see me. How delightful." The Dark Lady observed. "I may keep them around. Companions are never unwelcome, especially those subjugated."

But her original idea, to threaten the lives of the nightmare ponies to force Ancepanox out of her hiding spot, was still in effect. If the ponies were offering themselves up willingly then she could get in close without a fight, and make the executions even more theatrical to provoke that perfidious Ancepanox!

The Dark Lady curled her wings around Celestia, encapsulating them both in shadow. They popped out of existance, reappearing on the side of the bluff next to the nightmare ponies. The compacted dust and stone under the path groaned under the combined weight of alicorn and god.

"If I destroy you in one fell swoop, what will be left for Ancepanox to care about? What will drive her forward? I want to torture her, not kill her... so it will not do to kill you all." The Dark Lady addressed the prone ponies. "Wait a moment-"
Up close it was obvious that they were not kneeling or kowtowing. Twilight Sparkle and Luna were still out cold, and Applejack, Dash, and Rarity were limp and spasming, their eyes rolled back in their head!

“AHA!” The cry of victory boomed from the top of the bluff. Ancepanox dispelled her invisibility spell, showing she was several hundred meters higher on the partially collapsed switchback.

Celestia and the Dark Lady looked up, the former with anger, the second with the same grand lethargy. "The high ground does you no good, princess! Did you forget we can fly?" Celestia barked out.

Ancepanox reared up and stomped the plateau, sending a shockwave all the way down to the Mare Incognitum. For several moments there was no effect, but then the seismic groan of splitting rock sound out of deep within the bluff.

The Dark Lady tried to jump away but was too late. The entire cliff face erupted outwards, an under Ancepanox’s magical guidance the rockslide collapsed directly onto they grey alicorn et al.

For Rarity, with her face pressed against the ground and her body out of her control, the rain of boulders was infinitely more terrifying than the ones before. None of the rocks came close, but still her soul shrieked and wailed. Ancepanox had betrayed her meagre trust.
Beside her, she heard a nauseous moan from Luna. The origional moon princess was waking up.

Ancepanox watched Celestia disappear under the rock fall. Dark tendrils and the snaking secondary heads of the Dark Lady batted away some of the cascade, but Ancepanox cast another bolt of magic into the bluff face, blasting the whole things outwards onto them. But in a blast of light, Celestia launched away from the hill, streaming blood and magical discharge, to land back near the rubble pile in the Mare Incognitum. Ancepanox was impressed the Dark Lady hadn't blow herself up using that much energy with so many rocks flying through the air to disrupt her magic patterns.

Ancepanox teleported down to where her foe was. The Dark Lady was spasming in pain, trying to recover from the hits and burns. Her main head, mostly reformed from the attack, turned and stared at her with its indigo eyes. “That was a good hit, Celestiaan. Were that I had my full power I would destroy this blasted rock in hail to you.”

The multitude of tendrils coming from her center began to undulate and quiver with even greater urgency, while the two wings and four long legs clutched the rubble around her. All her form seemed to strain against itself, until each tendril cracked and split.
The air was filled with an inaudible whine, like a mental mosquito that strained the mind to swat. In every passing moment in grew louder and louder. As further cracks formed in the mass of tendrils, the Dark Lady’s howl joined in.

YEEEEEEEAAAAEEEEEEEEE

Another blast of abhorrent power surged out of the ancient god. It carried with it streaks of indigo magic and black blood. Ancepanox shielded herself, and still she could feel the radiant power of pure Dark eating at her skin. When it passed all passed, it became more clear.

The Dark Lady’s body, no longer imprisoned within the mass of tendrils, was like nothing Ancepanox could have expected. The dozen necks, and legs, and wings were all disappeared into a tangle of writhing flesh, loosely tied up like a wicker doll. Visible within the cavity were hundreds more small heads, twisting and fighting to get out of their living confinement and peering out with beady indigo eyes.

“I am finding Celestia INADEQUATE for my purposes. You may get your wish after all, and witness her destruction.” More and more of the Dark Lady pushed out of the confines of the void, entwining her host into the weave of her breast. “However, you will not get by without being taught a lesson. You have offended me grievously. Not since my time with Clover and have I felt such a deep NEED to defeat somepony. Ironically, my foe at that time was Celestia. I destroyed her life any everypony she loved. These centuries later, that wound did her in. Alas... I will be content kicking you around a little bit."

Ancepanox prepared herself. There would be no more running and hiding. The Dark Lady was powerful, but she had obvious physical, magical, and mental limitations in her present form. Ancepanox would have to exploit them to win.
She cleared her mind, and spread her consciousness across the hill and plain. The moon denizens, numbering at slightly less than ten-thousand, all felt a cold presence push at their mind. Controlling the minds of Applejack, Rarity, and Dash was easy enough, and Ancepanox’s new prey seemed easier even at such a vast scale.

‘March for me’

For the moon denizens, the psychic presence in their head was unfamiliar but not altogether strange. Their princess, Luna, beaconed and ordered them the same way.
At Ancepanox's will, the moon creatures moved. Slowly at first, then faster as they regained a semblance of organization. They were not stupid creatures by any means, but their habit to servitude was too ingrained for them to resist. Besides this new voice was familiar; It was easy for the creatures to obey.

The moonscape rumble and shook with every synchronized step of the moon beings. They marched in rings surrounding the hill of broken stone, moving clockwise and counterclockwise in alternation, circumscribing it with a moving tapestry of shadowy bodies. Their crack of their hooffall rocked very bones of the planetoid.

Atop the rubble pile, Ancepanox faced off against the Dark Lady. "You know..." She croaked. "Neither of us really wants this. We would both rather be fighting Celestia right now."

"That may be true, but that's not what is happening." The Dark Lady said grimly, her melodious voice dipping into lower chords of regretful but resolute tones. "Celestia is mine now. This is a fitting end to her tale as any."

"No, there's one even more fitting: Me banishing you and putting an end to her." Ancepanox chuckled gruffly. She cast an eye to the rings of marching moon denizens, an informal ring for the match that was about to resume. "That's why you won't be so bitter about losing. You recognize the poetry of it all. Let's do it!"

EEEEEYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAA

The Dark Lady released another wave of crackling dark magic, and Ancepanox once again defended herself with a shield. As soon as it passed, the nightmare alicorn charged forward. The Dark Lady’s indigo magic arced from her horn to the ground but her aim was imprecise. The sparks danced along the ground, and so too did the Ancepanox around the sparks and towards her foe.

Ancepanox put all her momentum into a punch, which connected with one of the Dark Lady's long spindly legs. It snapped off completely; The ancient alicorn’s body had the consistency of sand, and seemingly evaporated under the attack. Ancepanox dodged a downward strike from another of the legs, and bucked it in half. But as easily as they came apart, new limbs pushed their way out of the teeming abdomen.

The Dark Lady smacked the nightmare back with a wing, then let loose yet another wave of dark magic. This time, Ancepanox teleported past the deadly attack, and fired a spell point blank into the ancient alicorn’s neck. She was rewarded with a spray of black blood and a retaliatory spell into her flank that seared away a patch of her skin and muscle. She teleported behind the Dark Lady, but could not get off another spell before she was forced to run from another bolt of indigo magic.

However no distance was safe, for a spike of obsidian pushed out of the earth and rubble to block her way. Ancepanox was stalled just long enough for a shard of magic to catch her through the back of the head. She gasped in pain as her left side was burned away, and she lost sight in many of her peripheral eyes.
She encased herself in a shield to protect against more attacks, but the Dark Lady was hanging back. The glow around her eyes had changed from indigo to an ever-changing rainbow of hues, and the magic around her horn had shifted to bright purple.

"I can see your brain stem through that hole in your head. It is remarkable you are still standing." The Dark Lady rumbled, her voice running up and down the octaves, pitch changed wildly between words. "You are lucky your soul is in that armor, not in that body."

"Nggg." Ancepanox gurgled, nursing the missing side of her head with a hoof. She watched the magic course around the Dark Lady's horn in an ever-expanding corona, fluctuating in time with the rainbow in her eyes. Was the Dark Lady casting the ritual?! Ancepanox could recognized the magical pattern but she could not be sure. "Do better, my lady." She mocked weakly.

The Dark Lady Ignored her, concentrating more on the spell she was charging. The unusual magic pulsed, causing Celestia to howl in pain from within her prison of twisted and tangled legs and heads.

Ancepanox froze. Was Celestia... still conscious? The host would not have been pained unless the body still had some alienation from the Dark Lady. That meant Celestia was still partially alive in there somehow. The analogies to a parasite, and a mind controlling one at that, were perhaps more acurate than Ancepanox first realized. Now that she was pushing her body further into the moonscape, the Dark Lady didn't have to directly control Celestia's body anymore.
Maybe that was the key to victory. Nothing else had worked so far.

Heedless to Ancepanox's scrutiny and plotting, the Dark Lady kept pouring power into her ritual. More secondary heads pulsed out the mass that formed her torso, dozens of them, distending her frame to grotesque proportion. A cluster of the heads elongated and wound themselves into a braid, becoming another rudimentary limb. The Dark Lady's pony-like head and wings were looking more and more out of place on the horrendous body by the moment.
"Lower your shield, little Celestiaan. There is nothing to gain by defensive play." The Dark Lady mocked. Since her horn was occupied, the dark god used her new braid-limbs to bash against Ancepanox's shield spell with frenzied violence. The purple dome cracked, and then shattered. Ancepanox tried to cast another shield but she was too slow, and the Dark Lady smacked her chest with an indigo tentacle at whip-like speeds. Where the tentacle hit the cuirass it bounced off, but Ancpenaox's black fur and flesh was around her right leg was ripped away. The leg sailed off. The grievous tear in Ancepanox's side dripped back blood.

Ancepanox said something garbled by her own phlegm, before she crumpled into the dust. Her manifestation on the moonscape wavered, becoming hazy and slightly indistinct. As her psychic presence receded the synchronized march of the moon denizens became chaotic.

The Dark Lady observed the collapsed alicorn for several long moments. When she was satisfied Ancepanox was down for the count, she dispelled the spell she was casting: If Ancepanox was defeated she didn't need to pull more of her body into the moon.

"You exceeded my expectations, Lady Ancepanox." The Dark Lady lurched forward, looming over her defeated enemy, scanning with her many indigo eyes. It really did seem like Ancepanox was knocked out. "Do not resent your pedigree. I do not mean as a descended of nobles, or of gods, or of unicorns. I mean as a mortal. There is no shame in it. In this universe, mortality is something that can be overcome through strength of magic and power of will. I did it, and so have you. In that respect we are equal."

Some of the Dark Lady's limbs snaked forward, pushing down on Ancepanox's chest, pinning her to the rubble. She lowered her head down, coming face to face with the smaller entity.
How fascinating the dark lady's 'skin' was up close. It was like liquid mercury, but darker than black, so that the faintest reflections of the stars above and the moon below could be seen. But were they reflections? Maybe they were visions of something else, things contained within the Dark Lady. How many stars and planets did she contain within herself? What churning cosmic patterns of moving solar systems, streaking comets, colliding asteroids, and random stellar radiation spontaneously gave birth to the vast yet inconsequential being known as Anima Astral Nacre?

"But in the end you are barely even an alicorn, while I am I queen among Deava and gods." The dark god ruminated. "In the centuries to come, you will chase me, seeking to banish me. Year after year you will get more powerful, until you have the strength to match my manifestation. When that moment comes, I will have to abandon my vacation on the Bright World, until I gather the wherewithal to return in force. Know this, little alicorn, it will be a million-million years before you grow enough to face of against we gods of the void on our own turf."

From behind her, at the base of the bluff, the Dark Lady heard a pained yell. Her secondary heads turned to the unexpected sound: One of the nightmare ponies, Rainbow Dash, was clutching at her head, shouting into the air. A quick glance confirmed the other nightmare ponies were still higher on the bluff with Twilight and Luna. What was Rainbow Dash doing?

"Is that fool pony going to attack me? What a twisted sense of loyalty you ponies have. She will have to wait that trillion years, just like you." The Dark Lady mused.

Then, even more unexpected than Dash's yelling, Ancepanox spoke up. "Nope. She was just rebooting me." The nightmare alicorn said soft out of the remaining half of her mouth. With what little strength she could muster, she curled her body and grabbed the Dark Lady leg. The skin deformed like rubber. "And if you don't mind, me and her will take our victory NOW."

The Dark Lady was about to launch into mocking laughter, but as she tried to shift positions, she discovered the leg Ancpenaox had touched had become insensate. "Cheep tricks won't win you..." To the Dark Lady's confusion and shock, the numb limb dissolved away. “What is this now?” She tried to retreat but the ailing leg gave out, and she fell forward into the nightmare’s clutches.

Ancepanox latched onto her neck and face. The Dark Lady roared as she tried to pull away, but every moment had her feeling weaker and weaker in the nightmare’s hold.
“You walked right into this one.” Ancepanox growled, her eyes molten fire for the Dark power she was subsuming. “Now I am going to devour you, because that’s what nightmares do.”

The Dark Lady’s realization that Ancepanox was using Agana’s magic, infuriated and terrified the ancient god. The magic fizzled from her horn and she could not gather enough power to cast even a single spell. A sense of impending doom overwhelmed her: Ancepanox was going to win, and become an even more powerful opponent.

Luna cracked her eyes open. If only she had an eternity to process the confusion and heartbreak, like after the Siege of the Everfree. She remembered Celestia attacking her with the sabre, but that had not been the reason she'd collapsed. Some other force was at work...
She could move again but chose not to, instead letting herself remain limp on the hard rock path. Luna's heart ached for Celestia. Her sister was so close yet so far, and dangerously close to losing herself to her madness. She would suffer, but not forever; Luna herself was a testament that the fact that there was respite and life after such a trauma. That was, if the situation hadn't deteriorated while she was passed out.

In front of her has a pony’s flank which, like the rest of the pony, was flat on the ground. Like Luna, the other pony seemed to be in her position by choice. From the wings and greyscale of her mane, it was the nightmare earth pony Applejack. Judging by the dust around them, Applejack had pulled her from the castle, away from Celestia and whatever had caused her to collapse.

“Are you alright?” Luna asked.

Applejack lifted her head up to see who was talking. Her nose was scuffed, but she was otherwise healthy. “I am. Tryin to keep a low profile up here.”

A scream of frustration interrupted Luna’s response. Rarity, who had also been prostrate, jumped up and began pacing the ledge. “I'm not. I'm very not alright. What misery and pain! I could wring that harlot's neck!"

Applejack hissed. "Keep your damn head down or we'll get attacked again."

"AND WHO ATTACKED US?" Rarity fumed. "That witch! That damn witch! She used MIND CONTROL on us! Ordering us around is one thing, but this violates all sense of trust.”

Applejack followed Rarity with her eyes. Below them in the Mare Incognitum, the moon denizens were beginning their march. "And what does that change exactly? You were gunna fight her anyway."

Rarity looked like she was about to scream again. “How can you be so cavalier about this? She has manipulated us, controlled us without our consent. You should side with me over this offense!”

“And chances are she’s gunna do it again. Messin with ponies’ head is just what nightmares do.” Applejack mused grimly. "Furthermore I don't get why you draw the line here. She literally killed ya, and you forgave her. Maybe you'll forgive her for this too and get offended by the next thing."

"And?" Rarity asked, teeth bared.

Applejack sighed and sat up. How pitiful that the same gripes had resurfaced, even now at the climax of the night. It seemed the moon was not as skilled at dispelling the worries and weights of the waking world as it claimed. "Rarity, I'm not gunna side with you. The best I can do is not get in your way, and that only if Ancepanox doesn't control me to fight you with. That's already a lot, considering you still want to kill me."

Rarity absorbed Applejack's words in furious silence. She would find a way to spite Ancepanox before the night ended. Applejack too.
But what about the other ponies? Rarity's eyes turned to Luna, still laying against the cliff face trying to get her bearings. Here was the alicorn who she had once regarded as a god, made utterly inconsequential.

“Princess, I don’t think we were introduced. I am Rarity.” Rarity offered her hoof, which Luna cautiously took. She helped the moon princess onto her hooves, then pulled her into a hug. She whispered into her ear, so that Applejack would not hear. “This is a critical moment. Help me save your sister, while there is still time.”

The Dark Lady yanked herself back, trying to leverage with her wings. This time Ancepanox let her go, releasing her grasp and falling back into the dust.

“Well done indeed. I have seen cornered animals ferociously scare away the hunter. I have seen master generals snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Never have I seen a pony win total victory after being so soundly defeated." The Dark Lady was suffering badly from having her Dark power siphoned away. Her appendages began to dissipate and her secondary heads withered and dissolved one by one. She could hardly hold herself upright or keep her wings from dragging. "What a master stroke, Ancepanox, hiding your stolen skill until the final moment. You truly deserve the title of Nightmare of the Moon."

“What can I say? I’m a usurper.” Ancepanox slowly followed the retreating larger alicorn. With her magic renewed from what she'd stolen, her horrible wounds were encased in shadowy magic and began to slowly regenerate. She levitated her severed leg to fit it back into place. "I'll admit, I was a bit taken in by that sappy speech. I almost wanted to give you the win, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I have conquered the moon and the dreamscape. With your defeat, I will have conquered the past. All that will remain is the future.”

“You vastly underestimate the past.” The Dark Lady coughed, her melodious voice becoming clashing and crashing chords that lost all sense of harmony. She was ailing. “The past is deep, strange... You may go and see it but it will not change for you. There is much about your own planet you need to discover before you rise to challenge we gods of the cosmos."

"I know that. I don't really want to do any of that challenging right now, even if I don't plan on waiting your million-million years to get around to it." Ancepanox laughed. "Lest we forget, I came here to kill Celestia. That's all I want. Then... the future."

More than anyone else, the Dark Lady could appreciate the sick irony of the nightmare’s ambition. “Do you plan to rule your world?"

Ancepanox thought on that a moment. “I don't know yet. I feel flush with the thrill of the fight. Tomorrow or the day after, I might find meaning in new discoveries. I could meet ancient creatures and find lost things, like that mysterious force of Harmony. When will it begin to wear thin? Will all pleasurable things become mundane?"

The Dark Lady felt sorry for the smaller alicorn. "For you, I expect the onset of your immortal misery will come sooner than anyone would expect."

Ancepanox cast her eyes down. "Yes... I suppose so. Just knowing what infinite grey awaits me, even grayer than this dustball of a moon, is enough to fill me with a very mortal dread. I wonder, is that the greatest difference between alicorn and mortal?"

"Haa haa." The Dark Lady wheezed. "Consider this, oh Nightmare of the Moon: The entity called Forlorn Spark reached the same level as you did. Perhaps even farther, since she was alive and you are a soul in some armor. Yet at the first opportunity she abandoned the alicorn power she'd created and went back to being a little purple pony." Despite her abject weakness, the Dark Lady's words menaced. "You should think deeply on that, Ancepanox. What purpose do you have to live, and can you live for that purpose."

"Poisonous words. They will hurt me far longer than your magic did." Ancepanox allowed herself a slim, triumphal grin. "Goodbye, Anima Astral Nacre. I'll think of you every time I talk to the one who bears your name down on the Bright World."

The silver crack of the Dark Lady’s mouth split her head again. But not to howl as times before, but to smile. “Until next time, Celestiaan. And there WILL be a next time, for as long as there are ponies to sin, they shall call out to the Dark Lady.”

The dark silhouette sagged. The grinning mouth became downturned, the indigo eyes were covered by drooping lids, and taunt skin wrinkled and slackened. The Dark Lady’s form melted into sand, and that sand was carried into the sky by a gust of wind. Within moments, the horrendous bloated body was so much ash, drifting away on imperceptible magical currents.
Anima Astral Nacre was banished back into the depths of the cosmos.

Celestia, released from the Dark Lady's body, dropped to the ground. She didn't stir.

With the Dark Lady defeated, Ancepanox released back all the power the moon had invested in her. Her form shifted back to its normal, losing the added size and godly visage. She ran a hoof through her mane to make sure it was solid again; It still glowed though.
"Goodness gracious." Ancepanox sighed, then laughed with a silly little smile on her face. "I can't believe it did it. Celestia I have you now. I had to beat back the neighborhood street animals, but the treat is mine."

“Get away from her!” Barked a voice from behind.

Ancepanox turned around, to see Luna and Rarity pushing through the rings of moon denizens toward her. Luna looked scared but determined. Rarity was grinning fiendishly.

"Oh great." Ancepanox laughed to herself again, but this time it was out of regretful frustration. She had enjoyed a triumphal victory. Now she was going to experience a tragic one.
“Stay away from Celestia. The Dark Lady may still have tricks up her sleeve.” Ancepanox ordered. But once Luna was out of the crowd of moon denizens she galloped straight for her sister. Ancepanox was forced to teleport in Luna's way to block her. “Hey, back it off. Didn’t you hear me?”

Luna shook her head emphatically. “Yes, I heard some of what you said, but that is my sister! I can't be deterred.”

“Listen, that’s-” Ancepanox glanced over her shoulder.

There was still no trace of the indigo eyes, nor the giant black wings, nor the six legs, or any other sign of the Dark Lady. Just to make sure, Ancepanox closed her eyes, but still nothing unseen was revealed. There was only Celestia, greyed, beaten, and bruised, face down on rubble.

Ancepanox turned back, unsure of herself. What was it that she had just battled? Literally none of the other creatures on the planet had seen it, maybe not even Celestia. The only evidence was the damage to the battlefield and the few dead moon denizens.
There was no use trying to explain. The narrative of fighting Celestia worked as well as fighting the Dark Lady. Ancepanox opened her eyes. Luna looked at her plaintively, trustingly.

For all her attention to detail, Luna did not notice that her trust was one-sided. Ancepanox's stare in return to hers was narrow, cynical, and calculating.
“Luna, I know you’re upset. You were in a terrible state when we found you, and heavens knows what she did to you!”

That drew a contemptuous scoff from Rarity. “And you seemed more concerned about your own revenge than helping her, my lady.”

“Lady Rarity now is not the time to be derisive. I only wish to see my sister!” Luna pleaded.

‘First look is free, sister.’ Ancepanox almost grinned at that impious thought. She looked back at Celestia again.
Luna joined her in observation. Tears beaded at the corners of her eyes but she quickly wiped them away. “Gods… I don’t know how she did what she did to me. I breaks me just to see her like this.”

“She’s not herself, and might never be again.” Ancepanox offered a comforting hoof. “I know I should have waited until you awakened, but she was out of control.”

Luna turned away, unable to stand it any longer. “I-" She had to pause to gather herself. "You did the right thing.”

“For herself!” Rarity spat. “This is her plan, to usher you and Celestia out, and herself in! Luna you can't trust her.”

"Really Rarity?" Ancepanox cocked a brow at the nightmare unicorn. So, Rarity had decided she didn't want to wait to resume hostilities. Fine, but Ancepanox had bigger fish to fry. “If I really wanted supremacy, there would have been faster ways to do it than this. I've been very careful, Luna.”

“You take joy dominating others whenever you can. Even with insular pettiness, like tricking us and toying with our heads!” Rarity continued.

“I resent that accusation!” Ancepanox shouted back. She loved the accusation. Rarity was playing into her designs perfectly.

"Hey, cut it out y'all!" Applejack, Twilight Sparkle still on her back, was helping Rainbow Dash navigate through the crowd of moon denizens to where everypony else was standing. "We don't celebrate a victory by immediately bickering."

"Oh, don't we?" Rainbow Dash mumbled. The nightmare pegasus was not looking well. She had a difficult time focusing her eyes and her steps were uncoordinated, hence Applejack's assistance. "We could all get behind fighting the big foe. Now that we won we can't decide how to divy up the spoils."

"My sister is NOT spoils." Luna spat.

"And I did basically all the work." Ancepanox remarked. "Though I do appreciate you lending me your head again Dash. That came in handy for the surprise attack."

"Don't mention it. Just be more gentle next time." Dash groaned, fighting off a wave of nausea.

Applejack sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Okay, can somepony tell me what the heck is going on?"

"I have defeated Celestia. Now these two want to let her go." Ancepanox's gaze flicked over to Luna and Rarity.

“WHAT?!” Luna gasped. “My dear friend you have gravely misunderstood me!”

“She absolutely can’t be let off.” Dash mumbled from under her hoof. "We all agreed Celestia needed to die. Don't get distracted by these naysayers."

"How senselessly cruel! That is my sister you are speaking of." Luna shot back. The dire situation was dawning on the moon princess.

“I don’t disagree ‘bout not letting Celestia off, but we don’t need’ta kill her either.” Applejack contributed. “She's beat. Why not let her stay here where she can’t hurt nopony?”

“Yes coming and retrieving Twilight Sparkle was a goal onto itself, and yes I could possibly forgive Celestia for her crimes thereby. However, Celestia is never going to stop being a threat while she's here, on the edge of the cosmos." Ancepanox warned cryptically. “A moment of weakness, and nefarious forces from the stars will overwhelm her. And that's assuming she reforms herself! If she makes willing covenants with the things out there, it would be even worse!"

"Do you know something I don't, my friend?" Luna asked sharply.

"I don't know how you went a thousand years without facing at least one incursion by a cosmic entity. You don't seem to believe me, so nevermind." Ancepanox said, equally as sharp. "I still not going to let you off for your hypocracies, Luna. You were willing to do what was necessary before, and now you're not.

“Nightmare, you have put words into my mouth. I am beginning to see Lady Rarity’s side of things. ” Luna scowled. “And I will never, EVER, stand to see you kill my sister!”

“This is actually getting a bit comical. You think you’re beating me, but you’ll only let a bigger monster survive.”

Rarity laughed disdainfully. "Is it up to you to decide? What earned you the right to decide her fate?"

"Well believe it or not, there was a prophecy about 'fate'. You don't know it, but Luna might. An acquaintance of hers now dead spoke it." Ancepanox chuckled sinisterly. “But if you don't believe in meritocracy, and you don't believe in prophecy, there is a way to chose our path. A VOTE, for Celestia’s death!”

“Vote?!” Luna barked. “You nightmares have no right to my sister!”

“You think we are unfit judges? But aren’t all of us here complicit in sinful excesses of different sorts? Some may be justified, but sin is still sin.” Ancepanox sneered. It felt good to show the true nastiness she was feeling. “And you think, somehow, the judge must be pure. Tisk.”

Everypony could see Luna doing the mental math. Dash and Ancepanox would push one way, Rarity and Luna another. Applejack would be the deciding vote.
“Very well then. Everypony here, every one of us excluding my loyal subjects, shall vote to determine my sister’s fate.” Luna said solemnly. "Gods preserve us... Five ponies deciding how to treat the sovereign of millions..."

“And so it shall be done, in good faith.” Ancepanox grinned. “I vote for EXECUTION!”

“Seconded!” Dash thundered hoarsely, ignoring her nausea to stomp her hoof in acclaim. “Death to Celestia!”

“Amnesty!” Rarity called out. She knew that Celestia had to die, but she could not let herself roll over to the fiendish Ancepanox. Once the nightmare alicorn was dealt with, Celestia and Luna would be easily done away with. “She may have not been the princess I worship, but nor shall she be the one I kill.”

“Seconded.” Luna said softly.

Everypony turned to Applejack, who was staring into space in search of answers. The nightmare earth pony gnawing on her lip for almost a minute before she answered. “I third. For amnesty.”

Luna visibly relaxed, taking in another labored sigh. “It is decided then. She shall-”

“wait!” A pained cry came forth.

Everypony looked in amazement as Celestia, grey, broken, and bloody, propped herself up on a jagged chunk of rubble. Her eyes, still bleeding pure darkness, were pained. Her existence was perpetual torment, and everypony wondered how such a contradiction had been able to exist, let alone fight. What misery.
“please, kill me! I can not bear this. I deserve to die. I NEED to die.”

Luna gagged, then doubled over, covering her mouth with a hoof to keep herself from retching. Even when she’d recovered from the shock, she had to look away from the dying alicorn. “Sister please don’t say that!”

“if I may have a last wish, it is that you do not leave me here, to be seen by any pony who could still believe in what I fought for. somepony… somepony has…” Celestia was slumping again. “somepony has to believe, in equestria.” She fell on her face and closed her eyes. Her breaths came weak, uneven.

Ancepanox shook her head and chuckled grimly. "For the second time since this Eternal Night fell, the sun princess is on death's door. You cheated it last time Celestia. I respect that you know when the game is up." She waggled a brow at Luna. "It's a tie then."

Rarity jumped up to her, screaming. “How dare you take advantage of this! Celestia does not count!”

“Why not?” Applejack, of all ponies, cut in. “Who’d do a better job of judgin a pony then themselves?”

“Are you changing your vote?” Dash asked.

“No, but I ain’t gunna let a vote go uncounted. Luna said everypony here. Celestia’s right here!” Applejack pointed.

“My sister is sick! How can you count an ill pony’s vote?”

“We’re all bucking sick!”

“Seconded!

The group descended into shouting and shoving, as the nightmares and alicorns tried to have their point heard by nopony in particular. Dash leapt on Applejack and tried wrestling her to the ground. Ancepanox argued with Luna and Rarity at the same time, delighting in infuriating them with gross exaggerations and lies.

Nopony noticed that Twilight Sparkle, laid to the side, had awoken.
The little pony scanned the crowd of moon denizens, and then the five ponies brawling. She didn't recognize any of them.
"Who..." She looked at her hooves, marveling at the normal ways they moved. "I'm... Twilight Sparkle."

"None other." Came the pained reply.
Twilight looked to the voice. Celestia. Yes, that was a pony she recognized. On unsteady hooves Twilight stood, and like a toddler walking for the first time she clambered over the piles of rubble. Easy strides for the tall nightmares was exhausting for the diminutive unicorn, but her determination would not be overcome by mere stone.

She put a hoof to Celestia’s forehead. The alicorn’s eyes fluttered. “Twilight… What do you remeber?”

“... you." Twilight whispered. "What happened to us?"

"You've come and gone. I pray... you're here to stay." Celestia mumbled, trying to pull herself closer to the unicorn. "It's over for me. Somepony may try to bring me back... but it won't work. There will be no Celestia after this, expect in the memories."

:Shhhh. Don’t worry anymore.” Twilight whispered, nuzzling her cheek against Celestia's. “I believe in what you fought for. I remember Equestria.”

Celestia’s tears, unstained by the corrupting filth that pervaded the rest of her, shimmered crystalline as they rolled off her cheek onto the dusty brick. “Ancepanox will have her way with you... She will release my Sun back into the waking world. She may steal your dream. But you will always have this moment... Twilight... Please remember me when the time is right."

Twilight smiled sadly. “I will.” She sniffled a bit, tearing up herself. "I forgive you princess."

Celestia closed her eyes again, too overjoyed for her weak body to handle. “M- Make it quick.”

Twilight hugged Celestias head, and jerked.

The sound, the crunch of a pony’s neck breaking, echoed across the Mare Incognitum. It was instantly recognizable to Dash, who immediately released Applejack and jumped to her hooves, and to Ancepanox, who began laughing to herself, and to Luna, who gargled in horror as she realized what had been done.

“CELESTIA!” The moon princess wailed, fixing her eyes on the small purple perpetrator. "Wha- What have you done?" She shivered, weak at the knees. "She's... gone."

Twilight released Celestia’s head and stood up. “I vote execution.”

“I-” Luna’s mind screeched to a halt. There was no peace, or serenity, or forgiveness anymore. She had set all of that aside for Celestia. Now there was only room for hatred. She shook her head, her shivers turning into a shaking rage. “I will never forgive this.”

Indigo magic sparked to life at Luna’s horn, energized by her outpouring of emotion. Dark intent clouded her senses, until all that she could see before her, flaunting and laughing, was the black nightmare that had haunted her for a millennium.

“I should never have trusted you. Now DIE.” Luna cast instinctively, and her magic formed into a javelin of lightning. At her will the incorporeal shaft shot off towards Twilight with cackling lethality.

With a deafening teleport, Ancepanox interposed herself. The lightning javolin struck her in the torso, burning a hole to the bone. Ancepanox took the hit unflinchingly.
“This is it, Luna. This is the end of the two original Celestiaan. I loved you..." She sighed and shook her head. "Goodbye."

Luna, unhearing and uncaring, released another magical javelin. Ancepanox caught it in her hoof and slung it back.

The spear hit Luna right between her eyes. The moon princess died instantly.

Rarity watched Luna’s body fall over. Ancepanox had won again.

“Why did you do it this time?” Ancepanox asked. The dark alicorn stepped over to Luna, shifting the moon princess into a more dignified pose.

Rarity laughed bitterly. “Inconveniencing you was its own reward. This is only the first step for your destruction.”

"If I told you to learn how to forgive, it would be hypocritical of me. Yet Hypocrisy isn't the worst thing in the world anymore." Ancepanox said emptily. Took a step back from Luna and glanced to Twilight Sparkle. The little unicorn, her purpose served, had fallen back asleep. "Terror, pain, misery... These things are many times as horrible as hypocrisy, yet in their scale they seem too daunting. Is that why we forgive those horrors, but leap at hypocrisy?"

"What are you even talking about?" Applejack interjected with a hiss. A dour mood had a hold of the earth pony, for her princess had just died.

Ancepanox shrugged. "I don't know. It was just something that was on my mind."

"I think we know why." Rainbow Dash remarked. She waved a hoof towards the two princesses: Celestia and Luna, daughters of the sun and moon, incomparable figures of history. They lay dead. What fact of their lives would be remembered the most? Their smiles? Their idle passions? Their little fears that drove them forward?
Two princess lay dead. The Nightmare of the Moon stood over them, grim as the grey lunar landscape. Terror, pain, misery... What would the future historians seize upon to describe this moment? Not those things.

That was it then.

“What now?” Rarity asked.

The ten-thousand moon denizens, standing stock still by their princess’s order, shifted their expectant gazes from Luna to the nightmare alicorn above her.

Ancepanox looked up to the starry expanse around them. How small it was. But it mattered. Millions of souls that lived and died, that experienced those pains of existance, depended on that tiny slice of existance, sandwiched between the Stars and the soil. Hopefully she would find a way to matter too.
The Nightmare of the Moon brushed her hair away from her eyes. “Next, life.”

Chapter 50: Watch at Dawn

The darkest part of the night had passed. The worst of the deaths, destruction, treachery, and cruelty had passed. But the night was not over yet, and in its waining it retained a sinister potency.

Yes, the Eternal Night was not over yet.

Especially in that place where the sun had not reached in many thousands of years, under the Mountain.

“Seems like somepony has no appreciation for fine art.” Prosser regarded the strewn about fragments of dozens of statues. He brought the firefly lamp closer to one of the chunks. It was half of a sculpted face, teeth and claw marks defacing its twisted expression. "Me-oh-my. Lady Aurthora, I am going to lose my stomach for this adventure at this rate. I didn't agree to venture deeper into this place with the expectation of actually finding anything."

"Your sense of peril is askew. You think nothing of massacres and living sacrifices, but scattered stones makes you pale." Aurthora said humorlessly. "But I will concede, in strict confidences, that it was perhaps not the wisest idea to charge after unsettling sounds in the depths of this uncharted place."

"Thirty years ago, Equestrian explorers were mapping the coast of Chitin and Horsestralia. Ten years ago they were delving into the mountains of the Griffin Far-East. One year ago they sought the source of the great Sahellan rivers." Prosser rattled off. "This is the frontier of Pony exploration."

Aurthora noticed a discolored puddle near one of the shattered statues. She rubbed her hoof over it, and finding it wet, sniffed it. "We may yet find ourselves like those unfortunate explorers who Sahellan pigmies turned into shrunken heads. This is saliva, and it is still wet. Sir that sound we heard was a beast, and a large one at that.

"Grand. I'm going to have to go through my books to find a creature that drools." Prosser rubbed his chin.

Aurthora swept her lantern over the ground. Something glimmered from the darkness. She trotted over and picked the shiny thing up, and found it to be a twisted and gouged fragment of metal. "Platinum?" She turned it this way and that, trying to make out the words etched into it, but they had been rendered illegible by the damage.

"Platinum is conductive to a very particular kind of magic that makes it the perfect binding for master necromancy." Prosser took it from her to look for himself. "Allegedly you can resurrect the living soul right into the metal itself. They don't even have to be dead! What a sinister prison it would be, to steal somepony's soul in something like this and stack it away."

"Dreadfully morbid. These were clearly pony statues." Aurthora said. "It defies belief. Was this some manner of... immortal sanatorium for trapped souls? No longer, clearly. This was a deliberate and targeted destruction.”

“Just when you’d think that a place can’t get any more welcoming.” Prosser looked out past the edge of the meagre light of his lantern. The naive little earth pony who had fallen through the dragonfire cage had gone out into that voluminous void of darkness. He was probably dead. "For your consideration, I present that we take a page from Sel's book and book it."

"Leave?" Aurthora asked.

"Yes, right now." Prosser nodded eagerly.

Aurthora lowered her lantern. "This is a fearful situation, but I could not conscience fleeing before this threat and leaving Canterlot undefended."

"What about US being undefended? Do you think we can fight an animal that can bite through stone?" Prosser kicked at the statue rubble. "

That elicited a moment of silent thought from the viscountess. "Are we worthy of lordship over this city if we can't?"

"That is a question of political theory that I am not equipped to answer. I'm a civil servant dogsbody and occasional wit, not a philosopher." Prosser mused. "At the core of your question, we confront the question of relationships. Do the nobles live for the sake of the commoners, or the commoners for the sake of the nobles? With Celestia gone, I think the answer to that question is radically different from the answer of yesterday."

Aurthra squinted at him. "You are circling my question so much I wonder if you miss my point. Lady Velvet and all who swore to obey her have declared themselves Canterlot's protectors. That is the salient point."

"Oh, yes, now I see." Prosser chuckled.

Once again Aurthora was regretting her choice of company. “The gods did not bless you with much courage, did they Lord Prosser. This long night has made us weary. I'm sure you are having trouble sustaining that cheerful, sarcastic exterior."She tapped her sword. "I will search for the beast that did this. You can stay behind if you wish, to 'raise the alarm' should I fail to return."

"I may do that. Although..." Prosser looked into the void again. "Curiosity grips me."

"Do as you wish. It will not be hard to find each other." Aurthora hefted her firefly lantern and started trotting in a random direction.

Prosser began wandering as well. After a while he saw another glimmer by the light of his lantern. He took a step towards it, but a foul stench hit his nose. It was like a mix of rot, clams, and urine.
The glimmer was the reflection off the light off a huge puddle of blood. Some of it was black and some of it was red, and where the black and red met the puddle steamed as if boiling.

“Fascinating.” Prosser muttered, kneeling by the puddle. He was struck with an impulse to taste the retched liquid. "This was not a natural beast, as if that needed confirming." Besides the puddle there were also dried streaks of the red blood that went farther into the darkness. “Lady Aurthora!” He called out towards the other point of light in the dark. "I've found something!"

“On my way.” Aurthora called back. She trotted over hastily. “Oh gods… This could not have come from just one pony.”

“That black stuff didn’t come from a pony at all.” Prosser pointed out. "This is... something else."

Aurthora didn't like the way he'd said that. Her brow furrowed. "Do you mean Phyte, or one of her monstrous creations?"

"No, no, this is related, not exactly. Black blood is the stuff of Dark alicorns. Deava. Anima Astral Nacre and her children.” Prosser trudged forward, lifting the lantern high. He stepped around the puddle and began following the scrapes and dried red streaks. "Either one of the things from deeper in Clover and Starswirl's Arcanum wandered up here, or somepony conducted a ritual to create a border guard of sorts to prevent the first case from happening."

"Wander up here? Oh dear." Aurthora sighed.

By lantern’s light Prosser followed the red trail to it’s terminus, a massive rock column pockmarked with small holes. At the base of the column were dozens of shriveled black vines and another large splatter of black blood. He ran a hoof over one of the vines. It was more muscle than vegetation, and oozed blue-black ichor. “I don't know which case this confirms, but this is Deava malarky for certain.”

Aurthora followed behind him, looking around wearily and tapping her sword nervously. “What a whimsical word for something so upsetting."

They circled the pillar several times, inspecting it from all angles. Prosser was deep in thought, slowly putting the clues together. Aurthora, however, was more and more jumpy by the moment. This was well outside her expertise; Was it even possible to overpower an alicorn by brawn?

"I think... these vines were one entity, while that black blood came from another." Prosser said. "Which leaves two creatures unaccounted for."

Aurthora stopped circling. Her eyes were drawn out into the dark. Like most ponies, the word 'alicorn' drew association with the regal bearing of Princess Celestia. But after Twilight Velvet created Astral Nacre, that association withered. What could an alicorn be? Her mind imagined all kinds of strange things filling the empty void past light's edge. Strange and curling things that comported to none of the rules of biology and evolution...
And then, something that was not imagined! Another little glimmer in the dark- no, two glimmers. As she watched the glimmers rapidly disappeared and reappeared. She was about to point it out to Prosser, when they disappeared again.
“Eyes!” She hissed. “Sir, we're not alone!”

Prosser stopped in place. "That's not good."

Aurthora wordlessly drew her sword out of its sheath, and cautiously approach where she’d been looking.

Prosser considered running away. If it really was an alicorn, or a monster that could hurt an alicorn, a sword had no hope of stopping it. But as he was considering this a third possibility crossed his mind- that the 'beast' that had destroyed the statues and bled so much was a pony or several. That perhaps frightened him most of all: If they got into Canterlot it would be difficult to track them in the general population. Was there more to that clueless knight that had wandered this way>

Aurthora moved her lantern across the empty cavern floor. She began a wide circle of the area around the column, and found another of the fragmented statues. This one was more intact, and dipicted a crying pony, with eyes turned upwards as if appealing a higher power. The sculptor must have been half out of his wits to create such tortured works of art.

She was about to turned back when she noticed a pinkish glob by the statue. "What is this?" She poked it with her sword, and it yielded and bled. “Flesh, not pony. Too porous.” Aurthora speared the glob and lifted up to inspect. On close observation, the pin flesh was still making minute contractions, animated by an unknown force. "Good gods. It is like the stuff Astral Nacre is made of."

The horror heightened.
Out of the darkness past the edge of the light came a squelching crunch, followed by a long scrape.

"Shoot." Aurthora hissed, quickly closing the shutters on her lantern. The grotesque sounds continued. It sounded like... Aurthora dare not imagine.
Against her better judgement, she crept forward silently in the absolute darkness. She honed in on the crunches and squelches, and they became steadily louder. Yes, something biting and chewing.

Her hoof bumped into another fragment of a statue, and it went clattering across the ground. The sounds stopped.

There was absolute silence. Aurthora stifled her breathing.

Then, an unexpected whisper. “Is somepony there?” A stallions soft voice sounded out.

Aurthora could see nothing. She didn't dare to move or open the lantern shutter.
But after several long minutes, she began taking small, slow steps toward where the voice had been.

“Oh, so is nopony there?” The stallion voice came again, tinged with disappointed. The direction of his voice changed slightly, now sounding as though it came from above. Aurthora didn’t hear wingbeats however, which ruled out a pegasus. “If there was somepony out there, not that I’m accusing anypony of being there, they really should tell me. Then we could avoid any drama. We could be friends.”

Something was very wrong. The faux-innocence of the stallion's tone and his confusing words filled Aurthora with a dread she could not describe.
In her nervous shaking, she accidentally bumped the lever on the lantern, cracking open the shutters and releasing narrow slivers of light in every direction.

Right in front of her was a massive carcass splayed out on its back. Truly it was, or had been, larger than any creature she’d seen before. It’s barrel was as wide as she was tall. It’s torso and flanks had been eaten into by monstrous fangs in some places and pony-sized teeth in others, exposing meat and ribs. The thing’s head was nowhere to be seen, though iridescent feathers lay in a pile nearby, thoroughly plucked. There was black blood everywhere, dried and coagulated or pooled thickly.

“Aha! I’m so glad, for us!” Standing on top of the half-eaten alicorn carcass, knee deep in guts, was a grey earth pony with a short pink mane and wild red eyes. His smile was positively manic. “If there’s anything better than indulging in heinous sin, it’s doing it with friends!”

No pony, however hungry, would have been able to eat the amount of flesh missing from the alicorn body. Aurthora backed away slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on the earth pony. "What in the gods' name..." She muttered.

“You’re a Canterlot Noblelady, I’d guess. Well met! This is, or was, Agana. Say hello.” The blood covered stallion prattled on. “Did Astral send you? Oh, I feel so alive! I can’t wait to get back into the night air. Did my lady send you? I want to see the moon so badly I’m fit to scream!”

“Stay there!” Aurthora ordered hoarsely, retreating until her light barely illuminated the lunatic colt. The grotesqueness of the gore and the earth pony’s rambling was making her doubt her own sanity. Her stout heart was beating so fast she was afraid she might pass out.

“Hmm, yes, I can understand this looks bad. Let me explain. It was play gone wrong, you see." The stallion cooed. "I'll be more careful next time! Just come a little closer. I want to talk to you. Please I need to... to talk!" His face was contorted by extreme worry. “Goodness my head is swimming. Is this how her ladyship felt when she created me?"

This was the beast! This... dainty little earth pony with girlish hair! "You are acting suspiciously!" Aurthora croaked. She didn't want to provoke him, but she couldn't let him get away. The only think that came to mind is trying to arrest him. "Step back from the body and submit to an inspection." She brandished her sword.

The stallion seemed to ignore her in favor of talking to himself. "Oh... but if there is to be a party, and I'm quite sure there will be..." His voice dipped into a growl. "I'm not dressed for it." He lowered his head into the body cavity and ripped out hunk of a lung with his teeth. He turned toward Aurthora, face dripping with black blood. “I'm being SO RUDE! Want some?”

Visions of being eaten alive flashed through Aurthora’s imagination. Panic overwhelmed her and all she could think of was getting away. She lost her grip on the lantern and it clattered to the stone floor, the glass shattering. The fireflies dispersed into the shadows.

“No. Don’t go. Don’t go. don’t go…” Wreath and the carcass were swallowed by shadow as the circle of light shrunk. With the dying of the light, his voice also dwindled to silence.

“no no no no.” Aurthora clenched her eyes shut and tried to focus on her magic. Her telekinetic grip on her sword became too weak, and the blade clattered to the ground. “I'm done for.”

An odd vibration tingled up her spine and between her ears. She likened the sensation to hearing Astral Nacre’s inaudible telepathic voice, but without any words, just the sensation of being spoken to by something abhorrent.
She opened her eyes. A mouth full of teeth the size of a pony’s hoof was inches from her face, twisting in soundless mimicry of speech. Above them were Wreath’s red eyes, blown up to monstrous proportion and slitted like a predator’s.

Aurthora spun around and galloped as fast as she could.

A paw swatted to her the ground. Before she could move, the beast grabbed her tail and dragging her backwards into the great dark emptiness.

Back at the great hollow column, Prosser heard the echoing shouts and screams. “Aurthora?" He whispered. "Whelp, nothing for it now." It was time to surrender to the new authority threatening his life, again. "Come on then, hurry it up." He called into the darkness.

The scene was delightfully eclectic. The statues, the plundering creeper, the beast, the alicorn… Something very curious must have happened to have brought all of them together. Perhaps, something deeper inside the Arcanum. The legends all told of Starswirl’s sprawling complex of laboratories and lecture halls, but all anypony had seen yet was empty cavern and rough hewn rock.
There was something down there, undoubtably, calling out. It would remain hidden for a while longer, but not that much longer. The seekers of those secrets were beginning to break through.

"So then, what has found Aurthora? The alicorn or the beast?" He wondered aloud. "Or the hypothetical pony?"

A sound from the dark. An airy, whimsical whistle. “fwee fwuu fwee phwEE fwee, phwUU, phwuuu, phwee phwee, phwuu phwuu”

Prosser frowned. He had heard Sel Lech humming that exact tune. “Movement three of Buckerini’s string quartet number five in E major. The Celebrated Minuet.”

Something very large moved at the edge of the light, then retreated back into the darkness.

“Yes… I’m certain that’s what it is.” Prosser retreated to the column, keeping his back to it Through the visceral silence of the Arcanum, he heard deep, rumbling breaths. “A bit overdone in my opinion. There was a few months were you’d hear it at every function and garden party. Positively nauseating.”

The head of a ginormous wolf pushed it’s way into the sphere of the firefly lamp’s modest light. It stared down at Prosser with massive red eyes.
“It's quite an earworm.” It said in a deep and rumbling voice. Blood seeped from the corners of its mouth as it mumbled. “Troubadours prance up and down the riverpony lands playing it, despite have no idea what its called. Just another cheerful tune, I thought. Imagine my shock to hear it here in Canterlot, center of high class.”

“How very ironic, he he...” Prosser’s nervous laugh caught in his throat. He began hyperventilating. “D- d- don’t forget to s- slur the eighth notes. He hee.” He fainted.

Ripple Wreath chortled. So much for those two ponies interrupting him. He would finish his work in the Arcanum and find a way back to the surface. He could feel a tingling in his spine that told him the night would be coming to a close soon. It would be better to get back to Canterlot before then.

The waining moments of Applejack's time on the moon were like flipping pages to her, flat seuqnces of images. Her grasp on events after Luna's murder deteriorated until she was set adrift from the lunar dreamscape.
On reflection, Ancepanox probably cast her off the moon on purpose. Whatever was going to happen next, to Twilight Sparkle and the bodies of the dead alicorn sisters, was not for the eyes of the nightmare ponies.

So Applejack drifted backwards throught that strange and nausiating space of light and color, though mercifully without the added horror of seeing Ancepanox's changed manifestation, until sensation began to return to her body. Bit by bit the visions of things betwixt faded out, until all was black, while at the same pace the cold, damp Everfree Castle reimposed itself on her sense.

Applejack opened her eyes. Things were not how they'd been left. "Goodness." She groaned, rousing herself and looking around. It seemed somepony, probably Fluttershy, had dragged the sleeping ponies (save for Dash’s, still tied up in the forest) into decaying stone chairs around a broken library reading table, as if they were having a demonic staff meeting. Mostly though, they'd flopped out of the chairs back onto the floor.

“It’s like bein in Manehattan again.” Applejack murmured, rolling onto her stomach then sitting up. She felt aweful, nauseated, and in pain all over her body. "Ghh, wish I coulda stayed in the dream a little longer."

Across from her, a sharp intake of breath as Rarity roused. “Oh dear..."

“Yeah? Think life sucks now, just wait.” Applejack rubbed her eyes. "You've got a due date with an ass-whopin', heh heh."

Their eyes were drawn to Ancepanox, draped over the third chair at the reading table. The nightmare alicorn was snoring softly.

"It is very tempting to imagine I could win through dishonest means." Rarity regarded the sleeping princess. "Asking myself what attack or strategy could I ever adopt that could hurt her in a meaningful way, I come up short. It is... disconcerting to think that this pony dozing beside us is an immortal, impervious god."

"A bit, yeah. Applejack admitted.

"You will die, molder, and be forgotten. Some time later, I will deteriorate too as the necromancy that binds me unwinds, until I am dust. But this pitiful, foolish child once named Twilight Sparkle has bumbled her way into infinity by a confluence of coincidence, luck, and genuine skill." Rarity continued. She slumped over the table, fighting back her emotions. "Everything about this world we know and understand will fade from existance and memory, and this wonk will remain. When I consider this, I feel a deep anguish of helplessness."

"Don't pretend like that's the only reason you're gunna fight her." Applejack chided.

Rarity laughed softly, sinisterly. "Well no. I fight Ancepanox because I hate her. I will not succumb to helplessness. I will retain my optimism for victory, even in the face of these odds."

"It's not odds if its a sure thing, Rarity." Applejack quipped.

"You are being to witty for your own good, Applejack. You know I could tear you apart before she wakes up.” Rarity stood up and stretched, making her fur and muscles shudder. It amused Applejack that the strikingly beautiful nightmare unicorn would pose herself so ungracefully. "How far can I push it before I invite retribution not only on myself, but the things and ponies I love? Wringing you is probably in the range of 'safe' activities."

"Very funny." Applejack deadpanned, but Rarity wasn't wrong.

Rarity kicked away her chair and began pacing the dilapidated library. "I had the word in my hooves, Applejack. That is how I felt at least, for a few hours of ecstasy. I had you and Rainbow Dash at my mercy, and I had every confidence in myself, that I would be able to destroy Twilight when she got back from her soul searching."

"Unluckily for you she weren't Twilight anymore."

"That's not the point. I had everything." Rarity shook her head. "Now, it is not that I have nothing... but I have much less than everything."

"You goat, you've got your family and friends! That isn't everything?!" Applejack exclaimed.

Rarity's eyes were drawn to Ancepanox again. "Look at her. What do you imagine she is doing up there, on the moon?" They both looked up to that pale satellite peering through the gaps in the library roof. "Things too horrid to imagine! Her prerogative is to devour and claim for herself everything that Celestia and Luna had. THAT COULD HAVE BEEN ME."

"I'm right thankful it wasn't." Applejack said dismissively. Still she whispered a silent prayer asking the dead sun princess for forgiveness. Old habits died hard.

Maybe Rarity detected Applejack's little whisper, but she didn't mention it either way. "Humph. Her excellency is awakening now. Time for night to come to an end then, at long last."

"At long last." Applejack echoed.

Ancepanox twitched. Her purple eyes slid open and she sat up. "You stayed." She noted, looking first to Applejack in the seat beside her, then to Rarity. "I thought you both would have run for your different reasons."

"Nuh uh. You owe me a cure for this curse." Applejack said.

Rarity snorted disdainfully.

"Fair enough. It's better this way." Ancepanox uncurled, pushing the table and chair away as she stood up. There was a hint of anger in her voice. "My sisters are dead. Time to stride past this chaos and transition."

"If you say so." Applejack stood up too. "So, how do we do that?"

Ancepanox gestured to one of the exits. "Find Twilight Sparkle, first of all."

Rarity stepped in their way. "Being what you are now, Applejack are much more akin to Twilight than you are."

That earned a piercing glare from Ancepanox. "In the same way two children of different species are more similar than their respective parents."

"Hmph. Twilight has had her agency and self-determination stolen from her at every turn." Rarity said. "We demand to know your intentions for her!"

"Uh, we?" Applejack stuttered.

"Don't think I can't see through your obvious faux-concern, Rarity. Maybe you're wondering if Twilight and I orchestrated that double homicide against the sisters. Are you relieved or not to hear me say no?" Ancepanox narrowed her gaze. "I have to set Twilight up with everything she will need to live normally after this. Her psyche was been partially deconstructed and her memories had been scattered. Waking up and going on with things after this is going to require dedicated engineering of her soul."

"I have to admit, that doesn't sound great." Applejack pawed the ground.

"Celestia deprived Twilight of her self-determination. Of course its a paradoxical process fraught with little perils about how to restore it. I won't bother you with the details." Ancepanox shrugged. "The first question is whether or not Twilight even wants to be repaired of Celestia's tampering. That is the only place I can start, and it is only after deep reflection on our few interactions that I conclude that yes, I should strive to turn back the clock on Twilight Sparkle."

"And the Tower?" Rarity demanded.

Ancepanox shook her head. "That's not for you to know."

"And the Sun?" Applejack asked.

"You'll find out soon. You won't even have to be here." Ancepanox stepped around Rarity and strode towards the hall. "If you would please, ease my worries. Rainbow Dash and the fillies are about a kilometer northwest of here. Rendezvous with her and together take Spike and the fillies to Ponyville."

"Ponyville?" Applejack whispered.

"Fluttershy's house should be isolated enough. You can wait there until we arrive." Ancepanox nodded. "Stay away from town and ponies in general. One of the unicorn lords, Sharphoof Lightdowser was camped northwest of the outskirts when I was there."

"I think I can do that." Applejack agreed.

Rarity followed them a short distance, sulking.

"in that case, the sooner you leave the better. If It's light out by the time you reach the edge of the Everfree, the chance of being spotted will rise steeply. It would be preferable to remain unknown to Ponyville and ponykind at large, I think." Ancepanox continued. "Do what you have to to keep the fillies calm. Spike should remain in his enchanted sleep until I get there, so you won't have to worry for him."

"I think that covers most everything. I should get going." Applejack said. "See you at Fluttershy's."

Anceapnox waved her off, as Applejack doubled back and trotted to the nearest castle exit.
"Do want to be ordered around too, Rarity?" Ancepanox said once Applejack was out of sight.

"Not especially. I am just enjoying seeing you work." Rarity said coldly.

"I am a sight to behold, aren't I. That's not lost on me." Ancepanox chuckled. "And I'm sure its not lost on you what I want out of this relationship. I'm afraid that the spirit of cooperation and friendship is not going to be sustainable under our circumstances."

"You want me to be your slave." Rarity accused.

"If that's what you want to think of it, fine. I did not think of myself as a slave of Princess Celestia when I was her retainer, but realistically, there was no way I could have escaped her if she didn't want to let go of me."

"Servility does not suit me." Rarity shook her head. "Do you want to duel here, now? Or when it fits your schedule!?"

“Give it a rest. You won't have to wait long, though. We will commiserate when the air is clear.” Ancepanox said.

"However you want it. Truthfully, I don't know if I am controlled by mare or nightmare right now. It doesn't matter. I would feel the same either way. You deserve to be opposed by me." Rarity replied. "Twilight Sparkle used narcissistic overconfidence to hide her doubt and fear, for what good it did her. You though, you genuinely think you're superior." She sighed. "You are superior. What now, princess? Is this whole world going to be servile to you?"

Ancepanox stopped trotting.
They were near the throne room. The hall they were in connected to one of the adjacent courtyards.

"Well?" Rarity asked.

"I don't have an answer for you Rarity. I have been treated to several different interpretations of alicorn rule this night. But it was always alicorn rule, reign, and supremacy." Ancepanox leaned herself against the hallway wall, staring off into the distance. "Am I even an alicorn? If I am, when did it happen? I don't think it was during that retched ritual that killed you. Somewhere between here, Canterlot, and a hole in a marsh, I grasped the nature of an alicorn. Somewhere between here, the Tower, and the Moon, I filled in this retched body and became a lord of creation."

"Then your logic has progressed along the same lines as mine." Rarity agreed. "I worshiped the nightmare gods my entire life, but faced with one, I can't help but be disgusted with your existance."

"Harsh. And true. I felt the same way when I drilled down to the truths about Princess Celestia. The years I spent as a pony will be rapidly overshadowed by my years as an alicorn. How long before I completely forget not only this moment, but my mortal heritage? Will I then be capable of the things Celestia, Agana, and Myriadess were?" Ancepanox sighed, cupping a hoof over her nose and tracing the seam where her helmet met warped flesh. "The Nightmare of the Moon was designed, in body and mind, for war. See how the flesh and metal are one and the same. My mind was hot cast in fear and hate, tempered in fear and hate, cooled in fear and hate. The designer is dead, but the weapon remains."

"You mix metaphors, but I understand you." Rarity said. "It isn't going to be less humiliating if I'm beaten by a mare with conflicted feelings."

"Am I mare?" Ancepanox asked earnestly.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to check. Let us get on with your chores, my lady."

'My lady'. Ancepanox felt a swell of disgust at the phrase. It reminded her of life in Canterlot. She knew it was her emotions speaking, but she wished to never hear it again. Impossible, obviously. The phrase served a purpose. What would ponies call her instead? By her name, causally and familiarly?
“I feel like a schoolfilly struggling to define herself." She pushed off the wall and continued her trot towards the throne room.

Rarity followed behind. "Yes we have spent the last minutes going over how self-conscious you are. Honestly, its unbefitting of a divine entity to act like this."

She was mostly ignored. "Do you think I was wrong to adopt a new name? Perhaps I should have gone nameless." Ancepanox muttered to herself.

"What made you decide on 'Ancepanox'?"

“Alicorns use names with meaning. Ancepanox, the duel twilights, the twin treacheries, is a very nightmare-esk name. Myriadess liked it. I liked it. I...” Ancepanox hesitated. “I like it. Other entities called me other things: Agana called me me Mooneater, and Anima Astral Nacre called me Celestiaan."

Rarity, yet ignorant of the cosmic aspect of the battle on the moon, was sure she'd misheard. "Anima Astral Nacre?"

"Called me Celestiaan, yes. It irked me. I call them my sisters, half joking half serious, but I could never put myself on the sacrosanct level of Celestia and Luna. They..." Ancepanox fell deathly silent.

They emerged into one of the small courtyards connecting to the side of the throne room. Since the devils on the moon had been excised, its bloody pallor and chilling glare had abated. The greatly overgrown courtyard looked like it was carved out of stone under the moon's pale light.

“Darling, you are giving this too much thought. Why, would you propose that I should I have a special nightmare name? Shadow Diamond perhaps? Ah, but there is only one of me!” Rarity said, a mocking tone hiding her tentative sincerity. “Ponies don’t change their name on whims and feelings. A name is the encapsulation of what that pony is.”

Ancepanox shook her head. “Names are just language. Language is the fine tool by which ponies spread ideas. With language, ponies pass on concepts with such detail that they survive past the death of their progenitor. I am a firm believer in language, written or spoken.” She spread a wing a ruffled the grass and brush, disproving its petrification. "When Luna rebelled against her sister, her new name Nightmare Moon exploded into history so ferociously the old was erased and lost. When the first Celestia returned to her sun, replaced by another alicorn, it was still known as Celestia. Yes, names have power and meaning that can sometimes surpass their circumstance.”

"Close, but you're wrong on one small account. The Nightmare of the Moon was her title, not her name." Rarity corrected.

"Don't presume to know better than me. She told me her name was Nightmare Moon. That only reinforced my point about the power of names and words." Ancepanox counter-corrected. "A title so powerful and accurate replaced itself even within the mind of its holder."

"When you phrase it like that, the name 'Ancepanox' can hardly even compare, can it." Rarity said snidely.

They reashed the threshold of the throne room. Ancepanox stopped again, thinking on Rarity's words. Of course Rarity had just been needling her again, but there was truth there. "Yes, in confusing times perhaps it's better to stand by well-trod words with established power. They are fitting for me, aren't they?"

"Eh?" Rarity was confused.

"I mean, to be known by my title, the same as Celestia was always on her subject's lips as 'princess', or 'empress'. And is it not fitting for me? I think it has already been used once or twice anyway.” Ancepanox said, drawing her lips back in a fanged smile. “Yours truely, the Nightmare of the Moon.”

Fluttershy was sweating, but continued in her toil. It was hard work moving dirt without a shovel, but slowly she had dug a hole big enough for the dead changeling queen. The solemn tombs in the crowded graveyard around her intimidated Fluttershy with their beauty and stature, and she was almost ashamed she could only make a hole for the latest of the eternally resting. Life was fleeting, and death was supposed to be forever. Was it fair that ponies give so much attention to the living and provided the dead with only the smallest memorials?

“Sorry about this.” She cringed, as she pushed the insectoid pony into the hole. The green and black cadaver did not have far to fall, so landed relatively unjumbled at the bottom. Hauntingly, her green eyes had come open while Fluttershy was dragging her, and now she stared up blankly as dirt was tossed back over her.

“You’d defile the ancient dirt for her?” A ragged voice said. “I’d have tossed her in the gulch.”

Fluttershy squeaked, paralyzed by icy fear. The nightmares had woken up. She didn't dare turn around

“I just want to talk.” The rough voice said in exasperation. “Maybe a bit more than talk but still. Come on, do me the dignity of facing me!”

Fluttershy was grabbed by telekinetic magic and spun around. Looming over her was Rarity, still tall and dark yet unmistacably her friend, but beside her was the ghastly nightmare alicorn from before. It looked exactly like Nightmare Moon as depicted in statuary, yet couldn’t be!

“I surrender” Fluttershy whimpered.

“I’ll be merciful you if you beg.” Nightmare Moon laughed. “Oh, I’m just kidding. Kidding about the mercy. Ha Ha Ha Ha!”

“Lay off it!” Rarity said scornfully. “It won’t be so funny if you scare her to death.”

Moon abruptly stopped laughing. She turned cautious, looking Fluttershy up and down. “I didn't plan on bringing her into this. At this point it can hardly be helped. Do you think I can trust her?”

“That depends on what you plan, darling.” Rarity said. She wished more than anything that Fluttershy hadn’t gotten involved, but it was too late for that now. “Be gentle with her.”

Fluttershy felt a quiver of annoyance at Rarity's attitude. Her friend had apparently ingratiated herself to the alicorn she had been denouncing not two hours previous. "I'm not as fragile as you think I am, Rarity." Still, she couldn't quite meet Nightmare Moon's glowing stare.

Moon mulled for a moment , then stepped forward. She grabbed Fluttershy’s head in her hoof and forced her to look into her eyes. “Fluttershy, there's a memory I have to show you. It will be quicker than explaining.”

"Let me go." Fluttershy protested weakly, and squeezed her eyes closed.

Unwilling to accept that, Moon peeled her eyelids back with magic. “Come on, Fluttershy, look at me. That’s what eyes are for...”

Abruptly, her surroundings fell away. She was in another place. The past? Nightmare Moon had said it was a memory. Could the alicorn manipulate with ponies' minds so easily?

The world around her came into sharper focus. Fluttershy saw herself in her home. She was eating dinner on her fireside chair. Her plate was unusually sparse, with only vegetables from the her garden and her customary cup of tea. Whatever time Fluttershy was seeing must have been a day she didn’t go to the market in Ponyville.

There was a knock at the door. It was the decisive, two-beat knock of somepony in a hurry. Fluttershy saw herself stand up and put her plate down before rushing to the door.
“Hello?”

“Good evening Fluttershy. Mind if I come in?” The voice of Twilight Sparkle said from behind the door.

Fluttershy the observer’s heart filled with fear. She remembered the night she was seeing.
It was the eve before the eternal night. She hadn’t gone to the market because of rumors of a plague putting ponies in comas. When Rarity and Applejack had been stricken, Fluttershy had decided to lock herself up at home until it passed.
And that meant Twilight was there for her. Yes, she knew what this memory entailed. She almost couldn't bare to watch, knowing what was in store.

“I- I- I guess so.” The Fluttershy of the vision said. “It’s rather late.”

“All the more reason to let me in, right?” Twilight laughed unnaturally.

‘don’t do it!’ Fluttershy the observer wanted to scream.

“Um…” Fluttershy’s cheek reddened as she realized how rude she was being. She quickly unlatched the door and opened it for Twilight. “Please come in.”

Twilight didn’t waste any time. As soon as she had line of sight with Fluttershy she cast her spell, surrounding Fluttershy in a translucent bubble of lavender magic. “Don’t mind if I do.” She chuckled, slamming the door behind her. “Getting enough oxygen? Let’s fix that.”

With a sadistic grin, Twilight shrunk the bubble, forcing Fluttershy to contort herself to fit. As the situation dawned on her, Fluttershy began to scream and squirm, shear panic overwhelming her.

“Who is Solemn?” Twilight demanded. Her eyes were tinged with murky black, telltale of the nightmare influence.

Fluttershy was crying too hard to formulate a response.

“Hey, do you understand me? Who is Solemn?” Twilight shrunk the bubble again, almost forcing Fluttershy’s joints out of position. “Tell me who Solemn is!”

“I- I- I- I don’t know!” Fluttershy said between breathless sobs.

“Then why does her map have your house? Where does it fit in?” Twilight said, but then as she realized that line of questioning was getting her nowhere, she shifted gears. “Allow me to rephrase. What do you know about Dneighper Crypt?”

Utterly relieved to be able to answer one of the questions, Fluttershy replied quickly, tripping over her own words. “M- Most of them left a h- hundred years ago! The only things they left are here and at Rari-”

“Where here?!” Twilight interrupted. “What is it that you have? Another map?!”

“Yes yes! A map! In my bedside table, top drawer!” Fluttershy squeaked. “Please, Twilight! don't do this!”

“I don't care about your shameful secrets enough to reveal them to the world. This about me, and what I need.” Twilight hummed, letting the magic bubble pop. She immediately cast another spell that hit Fluttershy in the head as she hit the floor.

The spell paralyzed Fluttershy on the floor. Her breathing situation had barely improved, and now she couldn't even push or scream.
She could only look up in terror as Twilight’s shadow fell over her.

“Ahh… The tense part is over. We can relax now." Twilight whistled. "Luckily both of us, I think we'll be undisturbed for quite a while."
Lacksidapially, Twilight sat in Fluttershy's chair, eyeing her sparse dinner plate. "I don't want to prolong this, not that you'll remember anyway. Well, actually I don't know how much you will remember. Most ponyvillians don't seem to recall any of it, besides their vague feelings of terror. Rarity might have cought on, just because it was so obvious when I hunted her."

Fluttershy the observer remember the turmoil and panic she'd felt in that moment, hearing what Twilight was about to do to her, the mixed relief and horror. Twilight wasn't going to kill or dishonor her, but that euphemistic 'hunt' was causing its own fear.
But it was not even the pain of the experience that had scarred Fluttershy's memories, or why seeing it again she was filled with revulsion or shame. It was the helplessness, coupled with Twilight's meandering claim she would never be able to identify or revenge against the pony who had tortured her that way.

"You know I hate to do this. You don’t understand how awful it feels when I’m hungry in that way.” Twilight stood back up and trotted back to Fluttershy, kneeling beside her. “You understand, right Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy, incapable of acceding her understanding or otherwise, was powerless to keep Twilight from nudging her with her horn.
Fluttershy the observer watched her past self’s color drain away as Twilight devoured her waking energy. She knew what had come next, vaguely: She remembered a tower, an infinite miasmatic abyss, and horribly bloated creatures with a dozen faces.

The vision faded away. The nightmare alicorn’s purple eyes filled her vision, watching for her reaction.

Fluttershy stared at the ground for a while, before slowly meeting Moon's unblinking gaze. "Twilight..." She said. "I saw you, sleeping, against Celestia."

"The pony in the throne room is also Twilight Sparkle." The black alicorn released Fluttershy and gave her space. "But I am too.I have Twilight's memories, her life’s knowledge, her hopes and dreams, and her soul. Or rather her soul, and more.”

Fluttershy slid into a sitting position, cradeling her head a bit. Her heart was still throbbing from the traumatic memory. She wished she didn't have to deal with this monster bothering her too.

"I am now Ancepanox, the Nightmare of the Moon. In briefest summary, both the good and evil halves of Twilight Sparkle apotheosized, but the good returned to pony form." The nightmare alicorn continued quietly. "Celestia and Luna are dead. I remain."

“You understand, right Fluttershy?” Rarity asked. Those words, right out of the memory she’d just seen, stuck in Fluttershy’s head!
Fluttershy understood perfectly, and she felt her fear melt away. It wasn’t a god in front of her, just a cruel and evil pony. She was a pony, and ponies were fungible. She could fear no pony any more than she could fear herself.
And without fear, she only felt anger for the nightmares.

Fluttershy stood back up. She sneered disdainfully. “Of course I understand. I’m not an idiot!”

Rarity was flabberghast. “I- I never meant to imply-”

“Yes you did. You always did! What, just because I found some comfort in your fool’s religion, I must be stupid? That has to be how you always saw me: A fool!”

“F- Fluttershy!” Rarity stammered. “I really believed, with all my heart! I’d never lead you astray on purpose!”

“Yes, yes, tell me it all again. It’s just the kind of thing that appeals to weak ponies like me. Tease me with promises of power and superiority. Tell me how much better I am than everypony else and how much I’ll make them suffer when the anointed time comes!” Fluttershy continued mercilessly. She felt more anger than she ever thought possible. “Was being your friend not enough for you? I had to be your dog, begging at your heels for the latest word of the Dark Lady? You’re disgusting Rarity, rotten on the inside. It must be why you care so much about your appearance.”

Nightmare Moon spoke up. “If it’s any consolation to your ego, the Dark Lady is real.”

“I don’t want you damn consolidation! Do you know how long I stayed in bed after what you did to me? I didn’t even know the sun was gone until a few hours ago, and then I came straight here to pray.” Fluttershy raged. “When I saw ittle wittle Twilight Sparkle, sleeping so peacefully, I understood a little of what you did to me, even if I couldn't remember exactly. And you know what, I almost forgave you."

Ancepanox bowed her head, ready for the next blow.

"But come to learn, you’re actually an alicorn now. You get to pass off all the terrible things you did on another pony, while you frolic as a bucking god! I mean, Nightmare Moon? What gives you the right to have that name? That name means something good and decent to somepony! ... But not to me anymore. How can I put faith in another pony after this, let alone a fantasy from the stars.” Fluttershy turned away from them, trembling in anger, and went back to filling in Chrysalis’s grave. “Go to hell, both of you.”

Rarity looked to be on the verge of tears.

Ancepanox felt tired. In truth, connecting with her pony emotions were becoming exhausting. She wished she didn't have to think emotionally or feel anymore if it was going to be so draining. Twilight had always been able to be aloof to how most ponies thought of her. When had she lost that?
She felt a throb in her heart. She needed to get in a fight again. Going mad and drunk in the frenzy of battle was a euphoric escape from the burden of worry.
"What is wrong with me?" She muttered her herself. "Why do I care for these little creatures?"

"Maybe you're not fit for that skin you're in." Fluttershy quipped, continuing to push dirt.

Ancepanox sighed. "I've genuinely come to hate alicorns. But every alicorn I came across tonight loved the alicorn nature and rejoiced that they had it to lord over the lesser creatures. So, no, I'm not fit for it. Is it self-loathing that has placed such a heavy weight around every breath I take, and every action I commit?"

Fluttershy paused for a second, glancing back at Ancepanox. The alicorn looked sincere, unsure of herself, perhaps even verging on tears.
"It's not my fault you've gone down a path you loath. I can't do anything for you." Fluttershy turned back to her work.

The night was still cold. It did not know what dawn could come.

"I understand. I'm sorry for presuming to burden you with my inner turmoil." Ancepanox averted her eyes. "In desperation, we need you compassion for the cursed, if not for me personally, then for others. Applejack and four children are going to take shelter in your house where they won't be spied on. Please help them. They’ve suffered this night worse than anypony. What pain it is to experience this tumultuous night without having the strength to divert its stream.” She said, hoping Fluttershy was at least listening a little bit. “A nightmare named Dash might be there too. Just so you know.” She nudged Rarity. “Let’s go. It’s about time this night wrapped up already.”

Fluttershy ignored them.
Their voices, Rarity’s warbling pleas for reassurance and Moon’s sighs, trailed off in the direction of the other side of the graveyard, where Twilight was.

But a key word tingled in Fluttershy’s mind as she pushed dirt. Dash.
Had she heard correctly? And could it somehow be that for all the cosmic possibilities and permutations of ponies with the name Dash, that it could be Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale?

Blueblood was tense, looking over his options with deepening dread. He was trapped, unable to escape the onslaught. His men were out of play or in full retreat, and he alone would face the ridicule for such an overwhelming defeat.

Night Light moved a pawn up on the flank. “Don’t feel too bad. I had to practice for years to be anywhere near competent.”

“Don’t patronize me.” Blueblood mewled.

“I am only trying to help.” Night Light shrugged.

The Opera House was quiet without the constant shuffle of Astral’s zombies. They had all been herded into the orchestra pit, where they stayed and stared listlessly at anypony passing by. The piles of gore had been shoveled into the alley behind the building and magically, so as not to attract attention with clouds of smoke.
It was shadowy and grave in the Opera House. There would be no performances for quite a while.

Having the chess game on the empty stage was making Blueblood feel even worse about his loss. He felt like he was on display, though since all his militiaponies had gone home once the zombies were corralled, for whom was a question best left to the imagination.

“I didn’t start playing until my daughter Twilight got interested.” Night Light had been a constant source of anecdotes over the course of the game. “She came to it like all her phases. She was obsessed for about a month, thinking about nothing else. She played the family to exhaustion and then started on the Canterlot Castle staff between lessons with Celestia. But she could never get Celestia to play with her, so she lost interest. That was getting close to the time she she left Celestia, but was still struggling to engage with her.”

“Cool story.” Blueblood muttered, maneuvering his last rook to hem in a bishop.

“Yes well, it is not quite a doctoral thesis quality assertion, but in a way Celestia’s unwillingness to play chess led to her sad demise.” Night Light laughed, but his very word sounded forced. The stallion had cut short his rest beside Twilight Velvet to venture back into Canterlot to review the city's security. Finding it silent, he'd commandeered the chess board. “Insofar as Twilie was the only pony who could have saved Celestia from herself.”

“Things did go into a downward spiral after Lady Twilight left for Ponyhill.” Blueblood watched Night Light exploit the gap left by the rook’s move to maneuver a knight behind his defense. It put the king in check and, to Blueblood’s shock, the bishop he thought he’d trapped completed the mate.

“Ponyville.” Night Light corrected. He took mercy and went for the kill. “Good game. It is usually considered good manners to concede when the game is clearly lost, but for the purposes of learning I believe we should play to completion. So how about we review where you first went wrong.”

“Or how about you don’t try to use me as a surrogate child.” Blueblood snapped, then instantly regretted it. “I- uh…” He wasn’t sure how he could apologize with pigheaded pride intact.

Night Light rubbed his eyes and leaned on the chess board with a foreleg. "Blueblood, there are other reasons ponies help each other than family. Friends help friends. Superiors help subordinates and visa-versa. Do you actually think I would want you of all ponies-" He stopped himself, seeing Blueblood evert his eyes. "Hmm, it would seem we both should think more before speaking."

"The fault lies with me, my lord." Blueblood said through his teeth. Night Light would probably let him off the hoof, but he'd better hope word of the insult didn't get back to Velvet.

"How ironic, more than a hundred hours of Endless Night, and I manage to be sleep deprived.” Sighing, he lay back on the stage and folded his hooves behind his head. “We shall yet see how the course of this night continues, and if I will continue to be as useless as I feel.”

Down below them, in the dark underbelly of the Mountain, something was drawing nearer. Fortunately, this time it was just Sel Lech Sabonord.
To Sel's great relief, his arbitrary wandering through the catacombs (including though side passages he could have sworn weren't there the first times) brought him back to the slowly curving tunnel that connected to the Opera House. Each of the four times (so far) he’d walked the damp corridor, they went on just a little longer than he expected.

Being alone with his own thoughts was starting to become unbearable, and the worry drew out every moment even longer in his head. His every thought turned to anxiety and dread, especially considering Sunset Shimmer. He didn't know what he should or shouldn't tell Velvet, and how it would get him or Sunset in trouble. If only he'd gotten an opportunity to talk to her! He could either forget the whole deal and pretend he'd never seen her, or tell Velvet everything.

Thankfully the tunnel came to its terminus before the questions became too existential.

The ropes and harness to pull oneself out of the tunnel were still dangling where he’d left them, swaying in the cold draft whistling down from the Opera House far above. Sel went about attaching himself to the harness and started hoisting himself.

When the pulleys of the prop hoist began spinning, both Blueblood and Night Light looked to it

"Huh?" Blueblood stood up. We was thankful for something to distract from the awkward moment. "Is that supposed to happen?"

"It goes down into the catacombs. I have not seen Sel Lech, Aurthora, or Prosser for some hours, but I doubt they went down there." Night Light said, disinterested. "Unlike us, they have learned their lesson that this night means trouble, and have decided to sit it out."

Blueblood trotted over to the hoist, holding onto it as he leaned over the hole in the stage. "Who dug this?"

"Phyte, most likely. The Musician's Guild had several arrangements with the Theater's and Actor's Guilds." Night Light said from his reclined pose.

"Most likely..." Blueblood rubbed his chin. "Hello?!" He called down into the dark hole.

Sel heard a voice from the light above, and stopped hoisting himself. With the echo it was impossible to tell who it was.

“It’s me, Sel!” He hollered. “Could you give me a hoof, if it’s not too much to ask?”

“Somepony’s down there!” Blueblood exclaimed.

Night Light, apparently finding inertness more tiresome than action, rolled into to his hooves and went to investigate. “Sel Lech said it was empty.”

"Sel says a lot of things." Blueblood grunted. "What are we going to do if there's an army of cave creatures clawing their way up from the darkness? I'd need to go get my militia!"

“Militia guards been stationed here for hours. Did none of them report anything to you when you came on?” Night Light inquired. “Did any of Astral's little zombies fall in, or anything like that?

“Somepony might have said something. I wasn’t really listening.” Blueblood said dismissively.

Night Light’s ears flicked. He heard the voice Blueblood had spoken of, but also a coarse yelling, almost like a distant roar. “What was that?

“What was what?” Blueblood arched a brow. “That’s the pony we were just talking about. My lord, are you hearing correctly?”

“Be silent for one moment you addlepated bufoon.” Night Light heard the sound again. It was a mixture of a bear’s roar and a wolf’s howl, distorted by the reverberation. “There it is. A howl. Can you not hear that?”

“Sir? The beasts are all around us, not slinking around in holes.” Blueblood snickered. “My lord, listen clearer, not closer. There is silence. I will say it again if you misheard, if that is a problem for you.”

Night Light frowned ever so slightly. “Something is wrong with you Blueblood. Your indiscretions are pilling up."

“There you go, cast in your father-figure role. I’ll have none of it.” Blueblood turned his nose up. “And it’s Prince, for you information.”

Night Light, to his credit, let Blueblood finish speaking, and even held his peace several seconds after that. Then with violent quickness he seized Blueblood by the throat with a spell around his hoof, and pushed him to the edge of the chasmic hole.
“What is a prince, my friend?”

Blueblood squirmed violently in the magical hand, unable to speak or breath. It apparently didn’t bother him, as perilously close to the edge as he was, that only the choking grasp was keeping him from falling.

“Who gives a pony the title of prince, and more importantly in this situation, who takes it away.” Night Light continued, his self-directed anger battling to break through his calm exterior. “Blueblood, you have gotten far, far too comfortable with your paradoxical state of affairs. You want to keep one hoof in your old world and the others in Lady Velvet's world. However, a system like this is destined to be violently unwound when its contradictions become to great."
Night Light took a deep breath. How undignified, to shamelessly threaten death on a vassal like he was. It was further proof of his frayed nerves. He again admonished himself for not staying in bed with Velvet. But that didn't necessarily mean chucking Blueblood down the hole was a bad decision. "So tell me prince. Is this the moment the contradictions become too great?"

Deciding to be merciful for the second time in as many minutes, Night Light pulled his hoof back and hurled Blueblood into the chess table. The white stallion tumbled over the edge of the stage into the orchestra pit.

Night Light sighed, before trotting to the edge of the stage after him. A zombie had cushioned Blueblood’s fall, and the others were now milling around him in mute but harmless agitation. "Sir, do not joke around with me again. I am not your friend, I am you liege lord. What amuses you should stay in your head around us."

“Aach! Aach Aach!” Blueblood coughed, easing his throat of Night Lights throttling. He took a deep breath to calm his trembling. “M- My lord Night Light, it is never pleasing to be on the receiving end of your admonishments. Is it so wrong to try to relieve the tension in these perilous hours?"

Night Light sighed and stepped back from the orchestra pit.

Sel resumed hoisting himself up, shrugging away the voice he had heard as a curious guard. It was a shame no pony was going to help him though.
That expectation was reversed as somepony up above began hastily reeling him in. Sel could hardly cope for how fast the rope was spinning through the harness.

That speed carried on all the way to the top. He was pulled clear of the hole and he harness bumped against the pulley.

“Sel?” Said a familiar voice.

It took Sel’s eyes a moment to adjust to the brightness in the opera house. “Lord Night Light! Thanks for the help. I was getting kinda tired.”

“Kinda… tired?” Night Light’s face contorted in confusion. He pushed the swinging arm of the prop hoisted away from the hole and lowered Sel to his hooves. “Aren't we all, Captain Sabonord." He said roughtly. "But what was that sound?"

"What sound?" It was Sel’s turn to be confused.

To Night Light, something only he could apparently hear was not a sign of bad hearing like Blueblood had suggested, but impending crisis. "The distant howling. It would have to have been right behind you!”

Sel grew more confused. He had to admit, he had been too absorbed in his inner thought to pay much attention to the monotonous catacombs, but he didn't believe he could have missed something like Night Light was claim. "My lord, I plead ignorance! Lady Aurthora and Sir Prosser were in the cavern, but that is at such a distance you would never have heard them.

“Aurthora and Prosser are still down there?!” Night Light uttered hoarsely. They were at tremendous risk! “Quickly unstrap yourself! I must go down and save them.”

“Save them from what?” Sel bit his lip. He had the swelling fear that this was his fault.

Since Sel Lech was too engrossed in his worries to obey the order, Night Light began roughly detaching the harness. “There is no time! There is some manner of magic beast down there nopony can hear except-” His words died in his throat.

The flooring of the opera house began shaking, and a shrill scrape rolled out of the hole. It was like dozens of claws being perpetually drawn across a chalkboard, which may not have been too far from the truth.

Blueblood, having mostly extricated himself from the orchestra pit, peered worriedly over the stage. “I’m hearing it now, my lord.”

Night Light looked for his sword. The Blackhorn sword was lying against the wall where he had left it. "Sel, make your escape, NOW!" The sword was encased in the translucent sheen of Night Light's magic as he levitated it up. WIth a deft slash he severed the ropes of the hoist. The disconnected rope and pulleys dropped into the hole.

The scraping sounds and shaking got stronger.
Sel was still frozen by confusion and indecision. He prayed for another slap like Night Light had given him before, to discipline him to action. "M- My lord it's too dangerous." He croaked.

“Get going!” Night Light shoved Sel off the stage, then turned to face the oncoming threat. He heard two sets of hooves clop down the rows of seats to the concert hall’s front exit, Sel and Blueblood making a hasty retreat.

“I wonder what it will be today.” Night Light took deep, meditative breaths as he waiting for the newest adversary to show itself. “A dragon, long slumbering beneath the mountain? An alicorn come to challenge our creation? Whatever it is, I will prove my worth. Naught else I can do.”

Two shaggy paws protruded from the chasmic hole and clamped onto either side, splintering the wood floor with their enormous claws. They provided leverage for the rest of the creature to pull itself up. Candles began to snuff out, so that for the first few moments of its emergence the beast was obscured. But then its eyes began to glow, illuminating just enough of the the enshadowed opera stage.
It was a gargantuan wolf, its fur a panoply of glistening colors, it’s eyes a sinister red. It held two ponies in it’s mouth, like a duck retriever bore its prey.

“No, you are something different.” Night Light crouched low.

The wolf opened it’s mouth, and the ponies tumbled out onto the stage. It was Prosser and Aurthora, unharmed but absolutely covered in the enormous beast’s drool. They seemed to be trapped in a fitful sleep but unable to wake up.
With it’s mouth unoccupied, the wolf began to speak. “Which way to outside?” It asked, moving its mouth in ways unnatural for any kind of dumb animal. “I need to see Moon.”

“Usually in literature, the transformation comes after the werewolf sees the moon.” Night Light pointed out. “Did Celestia create you? Or Astral?”

“I am a simple hunter my lord. I am gregarious and larger that life, but playful and gentle with my friends." The wolf-beast muttered in a rush, as it shifted from paw to paw. It didn’t seem comfortable. “Will I get no peace from you? This is unnecessarily. I just want to go outside to satisfy this urge I feel. Formality can come later I promise. I'm buzzing with unfamiliar thoughts! I need to see the Moon!”

This was not a lunatic's rambling. Night Light knew exactly what this thing was. “You are a nightmare.” He sucked in a fearful breath. Suddenly the wolf’s coloration and baleful voice made sense. Just as some ponies were transformed into dark mockeries of themselves, those disproportioned nightmare ponies of myth, some ponies were cursed to become the varg, whose nightmarish power twisted their bodies into whole new and heinous things. "I'll ask more the open ended question this time. Who created you, nightmare?"

The wolf beast gnashed its teeth anxiously. "I will not answer that! Step out of my way. I've brought you these two interlopers, so obviously I don't want trouble!"

"That's not so obvious to me." Night Light uttered. "Return to your pit until my vassals regain consciousness and explain their side of the story. You are not welcome in Canterlot whilst- WHOAH." A heavy paw smashed into the stage beside him, forcing Night Light to throw himself to the side. He repositioned himself, Blackhorn Sword held forward to intercept any more attacks. "Is this the kind of trouble you didn't want, nightmare?!"

"Yes, so get out of my way! I NEED TO SEE THE MOON." The nightmare wolf hung back, but its movements were getting even more jittery, like a pony possessed. Which it was. "Alas, this has become a bad first impression either way. You are forcing me to do things I don't wish to." The wolf's expression contorted into something akin to a pained smile, its lips pulled back to a teeth grin. "I'm am going to have to hunt you sir, and pluck away this bad impression."
It watched, analyzing Night Light’s stance, planning it’s reaction on a move by move basis. They were warrior’s eyes in the face of that beast. “Good sir, I prey on fear. All who I have hunted have succumbed to fear, and you shall to. It starts out small, just a little doubt or uncertainty, but grows pestilently. Then you will surrender to it, and I will have won.”

How unfortunate that I revel in my own fears, Night Light thought to himself. He pulled back the Blackhorn sword, preparing to charge in.

It was approximately ten minutes before Blueblood and Sel Lech independently found militiaponies in the area and galloped back to the Opera House. Sel Lech took it upon himself to calm their neighbors, offering excuses and explanations that were even more hollow than the ones when Astral Nacre had claimed the hall. Meanwhile Blueblood and his militia had gone inside the Opera House, ostensibly to help Night Light. But when Sel Lech returned to the Opera House's extravagant entrance, he instead found that it had been torn apart to build barricades between it and the main hall. Blueblood had sealed Night Light in with the unknown beast.

"Blueblood... What the hell!" Sel Lech exclaimed, aghast.
The satin and velvet of the plush furnishings had been ripped out and gold fixtures had been yanked from the walls, jammed together with benches and desks to stuff the passage into the hall.

“Ah, the commoner classes destroy everything beautiful they touch.” Blueblood lamented, eyeing the handiwork his militias had wrought. “It’s why you can never trust an egalitarian.”

"What?" Sel didn't understand. "Blueblood have your ponies pull one of those down! We need to save his lordship!"

Blueblood pretended to think about it for a moment. He turned to the militiaponies. "Lads, some of you were here and saw what was on the stage last time. Without slipping up your vows of secrecy, ket us know if you would care to go in and face a creature of similar magnitude."

The militiaponies who didn't know what he was talking about stared in confusion, while those that did fiddled with their weapons uncomfortably.

"Blueblood this isn't a question of magnitude! We have an obligation to save Lord Night Light." Sel pleaded.

"Prince Blueblood, thank you. His lordship chose to sacrifice himself. He told us to escape." Blueblood shook his head. "Self-sacrifice only goes one way." Then remembering the conflagration at the Skydock gate, Blueblood wondered if it was possible Night Light would survive another attempt to martyr himself. "Sel Lech, are you genuinely looking to save your boss? That is the wrong attitude to have as an up-and-comer. Humph, maybe you're just a go-along lump."

In that moment, Sel Lech was reminded of why he loathed Blueblood. He was so secure in his shamelessness he was willing to flaunt it in front of Sel just to prove a point, heedless to the possibility of consequences once Velvet found out.
"I might be an up-and-comer, or I might be a lump, but more than either, I am a CAPTAIN of our city." Sel said with a sudden ferocity. "And I order you ponies to clear away that barricade! You liege is behind it!"

But nopony obeyed. Blueblood stood smug to his own, while the militiaponies were still gripped by confusion or fearful reluctance.
So Sel Lech did it himself. He galloped to the nearest heap of furniture and began pulling things away, hoping to make any gap he could get through to get back into the grand hall.

"You are going to get yourself killed, you fool. For what? Some one-sided bathos that will never be rewarded?" Blueblood clucked his tongue reproachfully. “Survivors control history, Sel. Don't you want to stay behind and tell your side of the story to Lady Velvet too?"

"You're making the fatal mistake of assuming you'll survive this, as if whatever is in there can be contained by a pile of benches even I can tear down." Sel said, panting from exertion. "And I won't need to tell my side! It will be obvious from my actions, I went back to save my friend!"
Having made the smallest gap at the top of the barricade he could get though, Sel Lech climbed into the main hall.

"Learn to pace yourself Sel, to learn your surroundings." Blueblood chuckled to himself. "He could have checked things out by going up to the second floor and peering from the box seats."

One of the militiaponies spoke up. "My lord... what if the creature in there can fly?! Couldn't it get out here from the same way?"

Blueblood paled. "Y- Yes I suppose so. Uhh... Look for more furniture and block the stairs! Hurry!" But what if that wasn't enough, he thought. "And then withdraw! We need reinforcements!"

In the grand concert hall of the opera house, things had become dark and still. Sel was reminded of a temple after an evening service with how the trailing wisps of smoke off the recently extinguished candles wafted into the air.

The opera stage was concealed by particularly thick shadows, as if blanketed by an obscuring haze.
“Lord Light!” Sel yelled, running up the aisle. “Lord Light are you okay?!”

He hesitated at edge of the orchestra pit, staring into the haze for any sign of a pony. “Night Light!” He screamed again. He had no idea what could be causing this. It was not, as he had fleetingly imagined, Sunset Shimmer or any other known threat. No this was not something any pony could do. The fear he felt was otherworldly, exquisite, impossible to shove away.
"Night Light!" He called again, quieter. He circumnavigated the orchestra pit and climbed onto the stage, into that obscuring shadow.

Canterlot, with a population fluctuating around nearly one-hundred-fifty, required a thousand city guardsponies for its day-today security. Added to that were the one-hundred Imperial Household Guard, and another thousand private guards, sworn knights, and vigilante town watch.
But since the fall of the Eternal Night, that conventional system had turned belly-up. The City Guard had had hundreds of its number killed or imprisoned, the rest suspended until further notice. The IHG had fled the city and taken their families with them. The private guards, the knights, and the vigilantes had either chosen to stand their own guard or huddle in their homes, and while the latter were as silent as the rest of the city, there were scattered reports of the private guards and miltias being attacked and murdered, some of the few crimes during that Eternal Night.

So who did it fall to, to keep the peace? Twilight Velvet's roving militias were on their surface an unprofessional, inadequate lot. This surface look was in fact completely true: The ponies patrolling the street were the same Blackhorn Council street gangs that Velvet had used to leverage Seacrest Blackhorn into the viziership, but now with guns and a charter to uphold the 'law'. It was a temporary solution that obviously could not last forever.

When Twilight Velvet woke up and realized her husband had already left, she felt a tinge of annoyance, and wondered if his pleading that she rest was some underhanded effort to appear more proactive and diligent. After she stretched she dismissed that worry for the paranoia that it was and got herself ready for another 'day' of activity.
The left the guest room she was staying in into Castle Magoria's dining hall. Her maid was waiting with a simple breakfast.

"When did Night Light leave?" Velvet asked, pushing away her empty plate.

"Two hours ago." The maid reported.

"Perhaps he is just more restless than me. The messy incident with Sunset Shimmer must weigh on him." Velvet said. "Is Astral still at the University Hospital with that pegasus?"

"Yes my lady." The maid confirmed.

As she got dressed and left Castle Magoria, Velvet was contemplating the security question. The militias were unreliable. There had to be better solutions than ponies obeying out of free will. "Phyte was making loyal assassins for years. There has to be a magical solution..."

One of Aurthora's knights and two militiaponies were posed at Castle Magoria's gate, joking and laughing until Velvet trotted past.

"Do you need an escort my lady?" The knight asked.

Velvet shrugged and allowed the knight to follow her.
Her destination was the Black Horn Council's old hall, in the Old Town. The streets were remarkably calm. Sometimes that boded poorly, for empty streets opened opportunity for all kinds of conniving. Yet even villains were staying indoors where they could.
Except for us, Velvet thought with amusement.

"My lady, is it true what they say about the city guard?" The knight spoke up.

"You will have to be more specific." Velvet said. There were quite a few rumors going around to why the City Guard had been suspended.

"About the revolutionaries. Ponies say it was republican conspiracy among the guards who killed the Speakers of the Estates. They were about to get caught and launched their plan early." The knight whispered, her tone fearful. "But to think, of they'd gone a few days longer undiscovered, they would be ruling Canterlot right now!"

"Yes, Princess Celestia's sudden departure pushed forward everypony's plans, sometimes faster than they could handle." Velvet agreed. "As for the City Guard, the investigation is still ongoing. Just between you and me though, your version of events look like the correct one."

"Who knew such devious schemers hid among us. Now our noble Speakers have paid the ultimate price." The knight muttered. "Was it hard to defeat those scum?"

The answer was the same for the guards or the speakers. "It was hard, yes, but no difficult." Velvet said with a little gesture. Maybe some day the truth could come out, when the lives of a few hundred ponies sacrificed for the greater project would seem like no big thing.

They arrived at the Black Horn Council hall in short order. Velvet bad the knight return to Castle Magoria, and went inside.
Since the ranks of the politically active nobility had been brutally culled by the massacre of the Estates, the Black Horn Council had lost most of its membership. Almost everypony that remained were those middle-class commoners in the militias, shopkeepers and craftsponies who had most favored Blackhorn-style Canterlot unicorn rule.
So, the council hall had nopony among its normal membership to use it. Velvet had seen fit to order Blueblood to turn the building into a staging ground of sorts, where Velvet and her inner circle could receive news and send orders close to the city center, instead of it being routed out to Castle Magoria or Chateau la Garde.

The main meeting hall was still the same, with a long table running from one side of the room to the other. A few ponies were sorting through papers on various corners of that table. Velvet recognized some of them as imperial tax or law agents, part of the thin bureaucracy that controlled Canterlot.
"I was expecting Blueblood to select his loyalists." Velvet mused.

One of the former bureaucrats looked up from her sorting, staring at Velvet through her broad-rimmed glasses. "We sought him out, you ladyship. The status of the imperial government in Canterlot is..."

"Uncertain." Another bureaucrat picked up where the other left off. "For those of us with expenses, we need the work."

"I'll have to check what Blueblood promised you, but I think we can at least match the imperial salaries. This is going to be the nerve center for administering Canterlot for the foreseeable future." Velvet confirmed. It was better to have these durable-state civil servants than whatever sycophants Blueblood could have dug up. It remained to be seen if they could adapt to changes Velvet had planned for the system. "We can dole out specific duties later. Right now we have a volume problem, so minimize what you're sending to my desk. That means use your own initiative, and don't be afraid to be inventive with solutions."

But by the blank stares she was receiving from the paper-pushers, Velvet wasn't confident they knew what inventive meant.

"I will see if I can pull in some dogsbodies and messengers. We can tame this city." Velvet grinned.
She trotted to the end of the long room, where one of the side rooms, formerly Blueblood's office, had been converted into her office. There was even a small desk set up outside for a secretary.
"Blueblood has shown some rare competence in this whole affair." Velvet laughed to herself.

She entered the office and crossed to behind the new desk. It seemed so long ago that she had smashed the old desk in two in anger at Blueblood's failure to keep Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser in Canterlot, when it had happened barely a hundred hours previous, just before Eternal Night fell.

"Blueblood can have a broom closet or some such. Next time he messes up I'll show my displeasure by breaking brooms, mops, or buckets he shares the space with. Much cheeper to replace than a desk, not that I paid for this one." Velvet laughed to herself.

She had no sooner sat down than there was a commotion out in the main hall. Somepony was very loudly and demandingly asking to see Twilight Velvet. A few seconds later, Upper Crust peeked around the doorframe of the office.

"Just the mare I was looking for." Velvet joked. "Come in."

Upper Crust stepped into the office. The yellowish mare was dressed in black, with a sheer black shawl covering her wavy light purple mane. "Thank you for giving me the time, Lady Velvet.” She said quietly.

It was unlike the mare, usually a political dynamo, to be so reserved. Velvet decided to rub it in. “First of all, allow me to be most sincerely regretful for the tragic death of Lord Jet Set.” Velvet said, letting some sadness seep into her voice tone.

“Yes... We have all had a good cry about this tragedy.” Upper Crust said, taking a seat. Maybe she was suspicious of Velvet's feelings, because she glanced over her shoulders to make sure there was nopony sulking in the corners of the room. "Canterlot has been struck by a succession of violence that would be inconceivable a month ago. First, those pegasi brutes sacking the Musician's Guild. Then, our friends and peers serving as Speakers of the Estates being murdered by their own city guard! Then the pegasi returning to humiliate us more. Each time, you are there to save us, Lady Twilight Velvet."

"Let us not forget Sir Fancy Pants's murder. That was the event that spurred me to vigilance, and alerted me to the peril looming over Canterlot." Velvet leaned back in her chair.

"And you have been nothing but trouble for the powers-that-be since." Upper Crust scowled. "You chose subverting instead of supporting Captain Hauseway and his allies!"

"You seem to be accusing me of killing the Speakers. Well well, you should be glad there are no witnesses here to corroborate this slander." Velvet said, her gaze sharpening. "My lady, you have been listening to the advice of ponies with bad information. I subverted nothing and nopony. I supported a pony I knew in my heart could reform Canterlot for the better, Seacrest Blackhorn. I was not resentful when Hauseway poached Lord Blackhorn away from me. Indeed I was overjoyed that he was elevated to vizier, with or without my having been rewarded personally."

"You were in the loop, Lady Velvet. That dog of yours, Sel Sabonord, was made Guard Captain." Upper Crust said, but she did not seem so sure of herself.

"Sel Lech is my friend, but he is not my dog. It would not offend him to be called such, but it offends me! He is my peer and my collaborator out of mutual respect and trust!" Velvet hissed. "He follows my advice since the tragedy of the Estates for his own reasons. You have no evidence he was my 'dog' while serving as Guard Captain in Hauseway's regime, because there is none."

"That's not how it looks to us." Upper Crust shook her head.

"Us? Right now, I only see one pony." Velvet waved her hoof dismissively. "You can think I was trouble for the powers-that-be. Well Lady Crust, I am that power right now, not for scheming, and not through dishonor, but because I have been there to fight Canterlot's enemies when nopony else was."

Upper Crust sighed, slouching in her seat. She fussed with her veil for a while. "You are in charge. That is something I can not dispute."

Velvet decided to shift gears. Upper Crust's offensive capacity was exhausted. It was time to go on the offensive. "You know, I hope, that you have nothing to be anxious about. The worst has passed, and I will work as hard as possible to make sure nothing too traumatic changes."

"Your promise is reassuring. I will be trying to puzzle what it means for a while, I suspect." Upper Curst mused. "You have kept your clique very small, with just a few trust agents close to you."

"No all of them are trusted either." Velvet chuckled.

"I only mean to say that the nobility will be looking for an active roll in things going forward, such as they enjoyed with the Estates. They will be suspicious if you deny them for too long."

"You speak as though you are not part of this group of demanding nobles." Velvet grinned.

Upper Crust gave a slight shrug. "I am too hollow to be thinking of such things right now. I will wait and see."

"With your connections, I can only hope you remain friendly to me going forward. I will have enough difficulties as is." Velvet said. "Unless, as you fear, the death of your ally Jet Set hurts your credibility?"

"My credibility?" Upper Crust sounded more confused than angry by the insinuation.

"Sorry, I should have used a better word. Your... validity? I mean to say that you will no longer to be a close confidant of a pony close to power, as you were with the exalted late Jet Set." Velvet equivocated. "But, naturally, if I hope to establish something, it will need some way to reach out to Canterlot's nobles in a meaningful way. That could be institutional or..." She shrugged. "Personal."

Upper Crust saw what Velvet was offering, but true to her word she was going to wait and see. "Yes, I see your dilemma. In time I may be able to help with it." Upper Crust said. "You say the worst is over. I hope so. My friends and I have had little time for much other than mourning so far, but that is becoming anxiety again. I am concerned, most concerned in fact, about the possibility of future attacks against us. We the honorable noblesse don't want any more of our blood spilled!"

Velvet hid her head behind her crossed hooves, feigning contemplation, but really she was trying to stifle a laugh. "The nobles will bleed no more tonight. I swear it to you, my lady, that I will do everything I can." There was a time and place for the next round of sacrifices.

"If indeed you and your new guard can ensure that, we would be most welcome."

Velvet had no doubts that Upper Crust’s deference was a hoof-in to a future power play. The mare obviously suspected something, although if she knew what had actually happened to the Estates, or was merely guessing, she clearly knew better than to say it without a bigger base of support. The nobles would have to get inventive with their strategy, with so many of their most influential members culled with the rest of the Speakers.
"Before you go, I have some advice to ask of you, Lady Crust."

Upper Crust rose from her chair. "Many ponies know me for my advice."

"Many ponies believe our empress has died, and will never return to us. Some other ponies believe this chaos is temporary, which of course it is, but that Princess Celestia's return will restore order and light. I myself have been planning as though the first state of affairs is true, not out of disloyalty for our princess, but because it is always wiser to plan for the worst case scenario, and be received when reality is kinder." Velvet explained. “When I reached out to the urban nobility explaining how I would help in this time of crisis, when our empress is gone and terrorists prey at our most lofty institutions, I attributed to myself only one title: Lady Regent. I am not anypony's empress."

"This is self evident but I appreciate hearing it from you." Upper Crust said. "Exactly for whom you are regent has been a question of some speculation. It seems to some ponies that you want uncontested control of Canterlot."

"With everything we have discussed that should be clear for both of us. This want is not coming from greed, but necessity! Can Canterlot survive if it is divided between warring parties?" Velvet posed.

"Well, one would assume the parties dividing Canterlot would be at peace and come to a political arrangement." Upper Crust said. “Some naturally assume you will oversee the establishment of a new Estates, who will find a righteous leader among the landed nobles of Equestria.”

“But you are too smart to believe any such silliness, aren’t you?” Velvet leaned back in her seat.

Upper Crust's scowl returned. "Is that your question, my lady?"

"No, no, nothing rhetorical like that." Velvet chuckled. "I wanted to ask if you would be willing to come around again after the sun has risen and the dew has dried from my guardianship of Canterlot, to pose your questions again. At that time both your questions and the answers will have matured, and we will be more satisfied."

Upper Crust rubbed her chin, trying to guess at Velvet's game. "Yes one would hope. I see no reason not to." She recalled Velvet's circuitous insult, of lack of 'validity'. "I will be a reliable channel back and froth between your circle and my friends, if necessary."

"That would be most helpful." Velvet smirked.

To punctuate the end of the conversation, a messenger filly burst into the room, scamping into the office and jumping on top of the desk.

“Message for you sah!” She squeaked to Velvet. “Most tremendous of emergency at the old city Opera House! Come A.Q.A.P. As quick as possible! Signed Prince Blueblood!”

Velvet scowled, giving the floor a look so contemptful that one would have thought it murdered her family. When she looked up, her expression was neutral. “Inform Blueblood that I will be on scene shortly.”

As the messenger galloped away, she stood up, and Upper Crust rose with her. “Lady Velvet, I don't envy you. You have endless fires to put out, literal and figurative.”

“Indeed, not everypony can do my job. But none of my circle of allies are horny-handed sons of toil. We discovered for ourselves the meaning of exhaustion." Velvet said with a slim and devious smile. "Next time you come forward with the nobility's thoughts and concerns, perhaps give me some impression the noblesse with do anything other than sit impotently if their demands are not met.” Velvet brushed bast Upper Crust and stalked out of the room, off to douse another fire.

The longer the idle time in the Everfree Castle's graveyard wore on, the more unbearable it was for Rarity. It reminded her of her own mortality, now traded for a profane state of undeath. She would never share the same fate was that changeling bug Fluttershy had rolled into a grave, as enviable as that was: There would be no friends or contemporaries to mourn her as she withered away, hollowing and slowly turning to dust as the necromancy binding her slowly unwound.
She glanced to the tapestry, still serving as Ancepanox's cape. She felt a compulsion to run up and grab it, to rub her face on it while she wept. Rarity would be one of the few creatures that would see even a fraction of that dark alicorn's infinite life, and that rankled her even more.

That was all assuming she was not destroyed in the duel. Ancepanox was being wishy-washy, preferring to wander around the graveyard in a melancholy rather than get on with it, and fight.

"If you are going to let a little mare like Fluttershy cripple you emotionally, perhaps you are not as big a threat to the world as Celestia and Luna thought." Rarity teased.

"Said is if you aren't the pony that was not set weeping by her renouncement of friendship." Ancepanox mumbled. She walked from tombstone to tombstone, admiring those overgrown and illegible grave markers. "Rarity, it's not my place to tell you how to live your life... but for your own sake do everything you can to restore than bond of trust between yourself and Fluttershy. It's the only way you're going to survive the aftermath of this wretched night."

Rarity bared her teeth, feeling both the sting of mocked and patronized by Ancepanox's words. "Is that your game then, my lady? You're going to spend the rest of my life playing matchmaker?"

However Ancepanox did not follow up the mockery, for she hadn't meant it that way in the first place. "I am going to be sorely lacking for company. Somehow, I already feel alone and needy. It's not just you though, I promise. Even with Applejack or Fluttershy there, I felt... nothing." She sighed, moving on to the next grave, pushing aside a vine to read the worn runes. "Rarity, did I kill my only hope for companionship with Celestia and Luna? A looming dread hangs over me, that I fear I will only be able to fight through the most bitter kind of self-discipline."

"Get bent, my lady." Rarity hissed.

"You should get used to calling me Lady Moon." Ancepanox said.

it was not too long before they arrived at the center of the graveyard, where that great stone tomb with the broken statuary stood. It was here that Ancepanox, after being denounced by Rarity, had run out into the marsh and relinquished her old name.
"We called this Luna's grave."

"Celestia's sister's grave." Rarity corrected reluctantly. "We had still forgotten her name."

Ancepanox stood in silence for a while, looking into the air where the statue would have been if it had not been snapped off at the base. "Is it better that way? Luna's name feels to private, so personal. I think it is something everypony should discover themselves, rather than being told." She looked to the moon. "Then they can share this feeling too."

"Connected to a dead mare." Rarity sighed and shook her head.

"Yes." Ancepanox agreed softly.
The alicorn's horn cam alight with magic. In a shimmer of light, Twilight Sparkle and Celetia's resting forms were teleported onto the grass beside the tomb. "We are all connected to everypony else, thought history, magic, society, and uncountable other ways. That's why its so ludicrous that I should feel this way. I hope I am just feeling an undiagnosed special kind of grief."

"A kind of grief that only comes about it very particular cases." Rarity added. "Humph. I won't deny you have suffered in very peculiar ways."

Ancepanox wondered if there was any trace of Anima Astral Nacre influence in Celestia's body, or if the moon had served its purpose and kept that cosmic entity away from the earth. It did not matter so much really, for she was sure that the Dark Lady was watching from the dark skies.
"Rarity, how does your cult conduct its funerals?"

Rarity quirked a brow. "Are you forgetting I led a Nightmare worshiping cult? Is that really suitable for the princess of Equestria?"

Twilight shrugged and gave a little laugh. "I know the last rights of a few ancient cultures I studied, but nothing suitable for a princess. Some of those ancient and decided faiths celebrated death with new life, if you know what I mean."

Rarity sighed. "Are you don't want to send her off with nothing at all?"

That question was more poignant. "Her soul has had its sendoff, in a grand and violent ceremony on the moon. But her body deserves something of its own." Ancepanox said. "For most of my years as her protege, I don't think I knew her soul. Maybe I never knew her soul until she sacrificed herself, and I met her in the dream. So for those years of delusion, I only knew something superficial... her body. In its way, her body was its own kind of acquaintance to me, distinct to her soul."

"You are out of your mind, my lady." Rarity said, somewhat disgusted. "Anyway, the Nightmare Faithful don't really have funeral rituals that I know of. If we do, I was never taught them."

"Then this farewell be a personal one."
She kneeled down to look over Celestia. The sun princess’s body had rested undisturbed by the horror and abuse her soul suffered. It looked like she had fallen asleep and had yet to wake up. But there was no heat to her, none of the radiant warmth that had drawn Twilight closer on cold winter morning lessons.

“Was this Luna’s tomb? Perhaps Celestia, the original Celestia, intended it for herself. If so, succession squandered that plan.” Ancepanox said. “It's not labeled. With the statue broken, we can never know which sister stood atop it.”

“Is it… empty?” Rarity asked. Luna wasn’t in the stone sarcophagus obviously, but it did mean that nopony was.

Ancepanox couldn’t sense anything unusual, but then again millennia old bones didn’t have much of a magical presence. “There’s an easy way to find out.” Her purplish magic encased the heavy stone lid, and with a groan of protest it come loose of the base.

Rarity leaned over and peered inside. The sarcophagus was filled with small metallic orbs, painted with unfamiliar symbols. “How odd.” She picked one up and took a closer look.

“Platinum? This is disconcerting.” Ancepanox blinked.
Myriadess had been trapped in such an orb, though it had been painted with an eye.

“Metal eyes like these are what the ancient alicorns used to preserve their souls after death. It’s just… weird. Platinum has no especially remarkable magical properties.”

“It’s very pretty.” Rarity put the sphere back. “Although being trapped in such a small space for eternity doesn’t sound like a pleasant way to spent eternity.”

“These eyes are empty. I don’t think they ever had a soul inside. Celestia, for whatever reason, made a tomb full of unoccupied receptacles.” Ancepanox said. Something was amiss. “What could it mean? The Celestia that did this was not my Celestia. As horrid as it is to say, it was a grander, more powerful version of the alicorn I knew. Everything since have been... shadows.”

"Do you think the same will happen to you, by some contrivance of fate?" Rarity asked.

Ancepanox stared into the filled tomb, thinking of much and of little at the same time. "Rarity, if you could go back and begin this night again, what would you do differently?"

Rarity was tempted to dismiss the question with a joke, but she considered it. "Maybe I should have been more clever, or more vicious, or more secretive. I don't feel either of the shining dreams I have been chasing, that of Rarity, and that of the Nightmare of Rarity. Instead I feel like a ship adrift, misled by your blinding light. In that frame of mind, I would have run away, as far and as fast as I could."

Ancepanox bowed her head. "If only our past selves were wiser, we wouldn't have sacrificed as much to survive." She cleared her throat, pushing back sentimentality. "I speak of the whole world with that. We have survived this dark and wretched night..." She looked to Celestia. "Save those of us who didn't. This didn't need to happen. If we become wise, it never will again."

"Useless interlocution." Rarity said quietly, laughing to herself. "You conducted a ceremony after all."

Ancepanox laughed too, pained. "Yes... Yes I did."

She gingerly lifted Celestia with her magic and laid her down in the sarcofagus, head tilted back, hooves folded over chest. She was a bit uneven, having been laid out on the platinum orbs. Whatever Celestia had planned, Ancepanox was going to let it play out. That was her final gift to her friend.

“In the castle, out of sight, we place away the object of a million ponies' aspirations, their hopes, their needs. She was a political and spiritual leader. She did not rise to the occasion. She did not chose to exist as a leader. She was born to reign and control over mortalkind. In the end... her thoughts were of simpler things." Ancepanox back up into the star-flecked sky. Were Celestia and Luna out there somewhere, in that cosmic expanse some ponies called heaven? What riveting mystery, terrible and magical, lied just beyond the ability of pony minds to grasp? What must I she to gain that missing sight? To see Celestia again?
With a stifled, sigh, Ancepanox's attention returned to the princess lying in repose on the earth. “I keep thinking she’s just alseep or holding her breath, and any moment she’ll wake up. She may never decay. How many centuries from now will adventurers pry open this tomb and find her, as placid as she is now."
She could bare it no longer, and turned her back. “Rarity, will you do the honors, please.”

Rarity took the lid in her magic and, with some difficulty, hefted it back up. Suddenly, the painted symbols on the platinum spheres began to glow red. A tendril of magic jumped out and grabbed the lid of the sarcophagus from Rarity’s telekinesis. With a startling clatter, it slammed shut.

“Rarity!” Ancepanox whirled around. “That was unnecessary.”

“I-” Rarity blinked. “There was an, ah, a thing. They glowed.”

“What glowed?”

“The spheres. The… eyes.”

“What?” Ancepanox gave the lid a few experimental tugs. “Sealed shut! I dare not break it.” She nibbled her lip. “How could something with magic like that hide from detection? That devious princess. This was your last trick... To never let me look on your form ever again.” She slouched. "I..." She knelt by the tomb, laying her head against the cold stone. "Rarity... She's gone." She covered her eyes with a hoof to shield her eyes from judging stares. "How many times do I have to relive this. Once, twice, now thrice I have to experience losing my princess in a new way."

"I'm just glad I was there to experience it with you, every time." Rarity said.

Ancepanox rested there for a while, her head on the tomb. Her little movements with her breathing made her steel helmet scrape against the stone, so she just stopped breathing.

Rarity sat in the grass. Why did she have to bear witness to the highs and lows of that mare she hated so much? It was as though she were becoming an inadvertent chronicler.

"It's time then." Ancepanox roused, standing up strait. "The future has begun."

"Doesn't it always." Rarity quipped.

"And here we come to the second sleeper. She rests, but not eternally." Ancepanox refocussed on Twilight Sparkle, laying in the grass. "If she didn't exist, and if I cast away my name all the same, would Twilight Sparkle be dead?"

"It's better not to dwell on those things. Raise the sun already." Rarity nettled.

It was a provocation, but it was very true. Ancepanox closed her eyes, picking up Twilight and leaning her against Celestia's tomb. "No. There is something we must do first."

Rarity understood instantly. "I see."
The night could not end while there was one conflict remaining.

Ancepanox backed away from Rarity, creating a space between them. Rarity stood up and also backed away, putting fifteen or so meters between the two mares.

"If I thought there was some way to compromise between our beliefs, I would. I never wanted this to come to violence between us." Ancepanox said. "I have no reason to fight you."

Rarity laughed contemptuously. "And I have nothing to lose by fighting you, because I have nothing to fear from your victory. You want to compromise right away! That is not the sign of a mare with strong convictions."

"I have no convictions."

"Then there is nothing to compromise to begin with. This is not an ideological contest." Rarity agreed. "I wish it were, not for my sake, but yours. More than anypony else on this planet, you are in a position to make your vision of the world real! You say you have no convictions... Humph, it shows."

Ancepanox sighed. "We're talking at cross purposes. You're using me as a target for all the conflict you're feeling, whether or not it's true."

"Maybe I am. We will see how this turns out either way. I will be vindicated either way." Rarity said.

"Unless nothing changes."

"Yes, unless nothing changes." Rarity agreed. "My lady, for pride or otherwise... Prove your dedication and superiority through force. This is the choice I've made."

Ancepanox nodded. "I will, believe me." She cleared her throat and squared her stance. "Since you broke your promise, I'm not going to give you the one free hit. But I will let you initiate."

“I’ll have you, MOON! EEAAH!” Rarity charged forward.

“HAA HA!” Ancepnaox leapt to meet her.

Rarity swung a hoof, and Ancepanox threw up her own to block it. Keratin glanced off iron, and a shower of sparks and crackling power arced off in every direction. Rarity skipped back, only to spin around and buck out her back hooves. Ancepanox tried blocking but the impact overwhelmed her, and she was knocked backwards.
Rarity tried to exploit with a knee buck. Ancepanox somersaulted back, using her wings to right herself in mid air, then dove back in for a kick. One hoof caught Rarity on the cheek, forcing her to roll with it. Ancepanox tried to keep up the offensive, but Rarity reversed her momentum and leapt forward again.
The two nightmares crashed together. They growled and panted as they tried to overpower the other. Rarity had far better leverage and slowly she forced Ancepanox to her knees. The alicorn tried to use her wings but Rarity twisted sideways, throwing her on the outstretched wing.

Rarity threw her head back and laughed. “Hah, look at that. I tripped a god!”

“See Celestia’s tomb? This night is a night of degradation and destruction. As long as it lasts, nopony is safe from death, not even me.” Ancepanox rolled onto her stomach.
“Under the endless watch of caressing moonlight and the twinkle of the stars, a maddening whisper dances in our ears. Their false light brings degradation to soul and mind, and perverts most terribly our most closely held dreams. This night had brought great benefit to me, yes, but just as quickly it could turn against me and bring my doom."

"Hmph. Are you going this now to introduce some real risk to this duel?" Rarity asked saucily.

Ancepanox smiled thinly. “Some."

“Ooh, I must concede to you in the arena of callous words.” Rarity snickered. "A lady like moi does not like to dirty their hooves, but I will suffer it if I can have just one more memory of besting you in this contest of strength!"

“You certainly don’t make it easy for me.” Ancepanox got up and pulled her dislocated wing back into place. “The sun will be here soon! Quickly! We will finish this!”

Ancepanox darted forward, head low. Rarity braced herself and caught the tackle head on and tried to overpower her again, but this time Ancepanox had the leverage. Rarity lost her footing and was tossed backwards, colliding with a headstone. She shook it off in time to see Ancepanox coming in for another tackle, so she reared up, ready to bring her hooves down on the alicorn’s back.
At the last moment Ancepanox changed her momentum. She met Rarity hoof to hoof, and pushed her even farther up, until they were teetering at the edge of unbalanced. Rarity tried to push and Ancepanox responded with a headbutt. The spell-moulded steel of her helmet was unyielding, and Rarity staggered backward, nursing her head.

Ancepanox hopped back, letting Rarity hang in the air awkwardly. She held back until the moment the nightmare unicorn recovered, when she she flung herself forward and teleported in the same instant. Rarity felt the hit before she saw it, as Ancepanox’s iron-shod hoof smashed into her gut, sending shockwaves up and down her body. The rest of the alicorn smacked into her a moment later, sending her careening into the air. Rarity landed between a tangle of weeds behind one of the graves, where she lay unmoving.

"Urggh." Rarity gurgled, struggling to take in breaths. She didn't try to get up. That hit had hurt a lot.

“They don’t teach you that in magic kindergarden.” Ancepanox glided to the earth and brushed the dirt off her shoulder. “That’s why I’m Nightmare of the Moon, and you’re just the nightmare of Rarity.”

Rarity stared into the sky. The moon looked back down pityingly. “At least I tried.” She coughed, rolling onto her side. The grass was comfortable, but she would give anything to be in her bed again. If only the night could pass, so she could rest without fear. Night was the time of the usurpers, not those who wished to live in peace. "I return to my lot in life."

"We all do, sooner or later." Ancepanox nodded.
Twilight, laying on the sarcophagus, was sleeping uneasily with fluttering eyelids; She was dreaming a normal dream. And for a moment, Ancepanox was filled with hope that maybe this Twilight would be normal, and could live her life free from the temptations and terrors that haunted the standouts of ponykind.
But it was just a dream.

“Alright everypony, let’s find Fluttershy and get back to Ponyville.” Ancepanox grabbed the two unicorns in her magic and turned away from Celestia’s sarcophagus, beading back towards the castle. “It’ll be day soon, and it’d be a shame to miss the sunrise.”

The violence was over everywhere, even if some ponies didn't realize it yet.
Twilight Velvet felt the change in the air, and while she suspected the day was coming the new crisis at the Opera House was making her doubt her own senses.

“We don’t know what happened. The damage in the main hall is bad but nopony, not even those mindless zombies, are severely injured.” The militia sergeant was explaining. “It's the strangest thing... There's signs of some big monster, like Prince Blueblood was saying, but it has vanished without a trace, after doing little more than knocking a few ponies unconscious."

"It must have retreated back down that hole." Another militiapony said.

Twilight Velvet listened to the report in silence. Even though she was a stoic pony in a crisis, what she saw that disturbed her.
Five unconscious ponies were being treated by doctors pulled from nearby practices: Her husband Night Light, Aurthora Airy, Sel Lech Sabonord, Prosser, and an unknown grey earth pony stallion with a pink hair.

“I recognize this youth.” She murmured to herself, eyeing the earth pony. Somewhere in the thousands of dossiers she’d made while planning her web of rebellion, she had seen that earth pony’s effeminate face and short mane. “He is a riverpony noble’s son, or a lord’s close relative, something of that sort.”

“He was wearing that when we found him.” One of the guards pointed to a silver helmet stylized as a wolf’s head that had been set next to the earth pony. “There’s bruising around his hoof and mouth, so we think he might have had a weapon that was yanked away from him. Whatever the monster was, it was able to disarm without harming.”

“Spooky.” One of the junior guards shuddered.

Whoever the young stallion was, what he was going there, and his role in events, Velvet was not in the mood to speculate. Once Night Light or the others woke up, they could speak to it. Until then, she'd had enough of crisis. She had exploited it as much as she could, and now peace and quiet would suite her, at least for a little while. Time would tell if she would ever be able to step back and enjoy the fruits of her labor.

“As you can see, we waited for you to arrive before trying to wake them or moving them too far.” The guard sergeant continued. “What are your orders?”

Stop bothering be, she wanted to say. But considering every single member of her inner circle were unconscious on the stage, save Blueblood, there was nopony to delegate to.
"Was there anypony watching any of the other entrances, say, to the roof or the alleys behind the Opera House?"

"No my lady. There are no witnesses that we found."

There was not else much to be done. It was unwise to go chasing after monsters while night still reigned. "Then move everypony to the University Hospital. I have a few things to check on first, but I will join you there soon."

The guard sergeant was weary, but obeyed. “Yes, my lady.” He bowed, before snapping off orders to his underlings. The guards and doctors gently moved Night Light, Prosser, Aurthora and Sel onto stretchers.

Velvet picked up the wolf helm. It was a masterwork of craftsponyship, light but strong. She took a closer look at the dent in the visor. Barely visible was the imprint of a hoof, or perhaps a horseshoe, and the signs of warping where somepony had tried to fix the dent with magic.

“A good smith could have restored this to pristine condition. It must be a recent mark.” Velvet put the helmet back down.
Among so much crisis and worry, little observations still deserved their time. Such as that the earth pony on the ground, though showing every other sign of unconsciousness, had the too-even breathing of somepony taking very deliberate breaths.
“What an odd third-act twist this night had in store. At first it looked like it had become a classic tale of knights and monsters. Isn't it an interesting subversion, when the knights are the monsters.”
She picked the grey colt up and set him on her back.

"My lady?" The guards looked at her quizzically.

"He's rather light for a stallion." Velvet said, dismissing their concern with a shake of her head. "Follow me just in case."

The remaining guards escorted her out of the Opera House.

“Do you need help with him my lady?” One of the militiaponies asked her.

“Do I look so weak?” Velvet snapped back. Actually it was a bit tiring, but it hardly mattered. She could feel a stirring in the cold night air, a certain energy just out of sight. The world was turning. "It's time to gallop." She said to herself. She glanced back to the militiaponies. "Do either of you know the backstreets here?"

“My lady?” They looked at her quizzically.

The cold nip in the air was not as bad as it was earlier. Could it be, could it be, that the night was ending?
“Quickly! What’s the fastest way to the city wall!” Velvet demanded.

The militiapony snapped to attention. “Up Ohray avenue and through the castle gardens, ma’am!”

“Then let’s go!” Velvet grinned. She turned and galloped up the street, and her shocked knights chased after her.
She ran harder than she had in years, until she began to to feel the burn that a relatively sedentary life had deprived her of. Velvet soothed her muscles with her magic, driving them far past their normal endurance. She ran until she was nearly on the point of collapse, which left her in the middle of the castle gardens. on the north side of the plateau. In front of her were was the gentle curve of the city wall, and one of the solid watchtowers to climb atop it.

“M- My lady...” The militiaponies, weighed down by their equipment, were not faring well either. “My lady you must rest!”

“Yes, please rest.” The other choked out, collapsing on her knees.

“But we will miss it!” Velvet grunted.
Her limbs felt heavy and her body yearned to be free of the burden on her back, but she would not be deterred. Green and purple magic sprang to life at her horn, spreading to encase them all before turning into an inferno of crackling fire. Before they could even blink, the dragonfire spell had deposited them all atop the city wall. The militiaponies gagged and reeled from the unexpected teleportation.

“There it is!” Velvet shrugged the colt off and rushed to the edge of the wall. She fell on her haunches, dizzy and breathing hard, but she'd made it in time. "Look. Look..."

The northwestern sky, where the peaks of Unicornia and the Don hills met the sky, a subtle glow where light was gathering. At first it was only a streak of scarlet tickling the celestial underbelly, but soon it exploded into orange and yellow hues.
Velvet watched in utter glee as the sun peaked its head above the horizon. With languid but inevitable persistent, the great inferno rose. The moon hesitated, but with equal poise and gravitas she descended to her cradle in the east, conceding her spot for the time being.

The night was over.
Velvet slumped over the wall, physically and emotionally exhausted. The world had its light and warmth back, and it’s ponies had their guiding light.

"What a buisness, gentleponies." Velvet laughed quietly. "But we survived. We flourished. The night is a time for death and decay... and maybe that why we did so well..." She folded her hooves and lay her head down. "Soon we'll see if this land is do its rejuvenation... or it's destruction."

The sun rose high enough to peer into the city over the ramparts. Out of the streets a building murmur, as ponies opened their door and windows, to bask in the sunlight. They thought their harrowing experience was over. They thought normalcy and the status-quo would reassert itself.

Ripple Wreath rolled on his stomach from where Velvet had laid him, cracking one eye open. He'd been expecting to burst in to flame under the sunlight, so it was some relief that the nightmare curse didn't quite work that way. "I'll be." He groaned, stretching his back and limbs from his prone position. "The future is going to be interesting."

"Yes indeed sir, it will be." Velvet agreed sleepily. "Gentleponies, please escort this young knight to the University Hospital. He is expected. Carry him again if he is feeling weak."

Ripple Wreath eyed the mare. He didn't know what he was being led into, but if she had wanted to get revenge on him for hunting her subordinates, she could have done it while he was passed out. So far, the vaunted Twilight Velvet that Glori had ranted against was seeming more like a cheerful manager than an evil mastermind. Then again, Astral Nacre was living proof of her intention, so... "Thank you my lady." Sel stood up. "I did so enjoy the Canterlot moon while it lasted. Here's to hoping I enjoy the sun here as well."

The exhausted militiaponies traded glances, but they obeyed their orders, leading the young earth pony off the wall.

Velvet didn't want to worry about the future or repercussions or anything for a while. She just wanted to enjoy the knowledge the world would keep spinning and life would go on, with or without her.

Epilogue 2: Same as the First

Three Days after the Summer Sun

How to come back from a long and harrowing experience? In some ways, not much had changed. Fluttershy could look out her window and see all the same trees, stones, rivers, and mountains that had always been there. But rarely was it that the pony's life was made or unmade by those things, since long ago ponykind was able to work for more than mere survival, but for society.
And it was society that had been so deeply wounded by the Eternal Night. Fluttershy saw it in the way ponies moved and talked, even after the sun had risen again. They had been deeply afraid, in a way that couldn't be forgotten. Even when life was outside of the little pony's control, at least it was in the hooves of their institutions: Night came after day, clear sky came after storm, spring came after winter. But none of that seemed true now. For the first time, maybe... Maybe life was not in ponykind's hooves, but was in the grasp of that vast and unaccountable 'nature'.
The feeling of helplessness could not be overstated. Thus, the trauma.

And ponies could cope in whatever way they could.

“It’s not the original house, is it?”

“Umm, what?” Fluttershy, looked up from her crocheting.

Against her better judgement Fluttershy had let in those weary refugees, those nightmare ponies and their dark mistress, to give them a place to stay while they worked out their situation. The night was over, but trouble was not over for them.
They were all in her living room, lounging. Fluttershy was seated in her cushioned armchair by the fireplace, facing the nightmares. Dash hung by the window, looking out from between the blinds for trespassers. Applejack was alone on the couch. Ancepanox lingered in the corner of the room stirring her cup of tea. Rarity was conspicuously absent.

Without natural light or candles it was almost too dark for Fluttershy to see, though she knew her nightmarish guests had no problem in the dim light. Dash stayed in the basement of the house most of the time, as Ancepanox did in the Golden Oak. Applejack claimed to be doing just fine in her own homestead. They could move at night to avoid being seen, even though it meant if they came together to meet it had to be an all-day affair.
The one pony Fluttershy was not comfortable having in her house for an extended period, Ancepanox, could teleport, but the alicorn still lingered longer than necessary asking questions.

“I was asking if this house is the one that originally stood on this site or not.” Ancepanox repeated. "When I was digging into Ponyville's past, back when it was Dneighper Crypts, I found indications there was a house on this spot. But that was two-hundred years ago, but this cottage doesn't look to be more than fifty years old.”

Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She very rarely lost patience with ponies, but with Ancepanox she was having to host her abuser, and knowing there was really nothing she could do about it made it hurt even more. just looking at those purple-flecked eye filled her with revulsion.
“Well, um, Rarity told me old church was here. Well, uh, not actually here here, but between the tree and and creek. Nopony used the building after the Apples and the others moved to the Cryph and founded Ponyville. The church burned down a few years before I moved to Ponyville, but the foundations were still here.”

“The, err, nightmare church?” Applejack coughed, shifting in her chair.

“Yes. The land on this side of the river is common for Ponyville. Rarity and her friends helped me raise the house. Um... Big Mac among them..." Fluttershy glanced away, voice growing quiet. “Does, um, anypony want more tea?”

Dash’s cup was untouched and ignored on the platter, and Applejack and Ancepanox were still waiting for their first cup to cool.
“We’re good sugar.” Applejack smiled, hiding her cringe at the mention of her brother.

Ancepanox spoke up again. “So that would make the house how old?”

“Eleven years.” Fluttershy nodded. “I moved right after the Cloud Creche, um, incident.”

That elicited a cringe from Rainbow Dash. She slouched away from the window, her gaze sinking to the floor. “Has it been eleven years already?” She whimpered.

“Yup.” Applejack said somberly. “I remember it. I was in Manehattan. Lights across the sky, so pretty. I’d wondered if’d been Ponyville that exploded.”

“Yeah… Eleven years.” Ancepanox sipped her tea, scalding her tongue. Unlike the other ponies in the room, Ancepanox was not feeling down. In fact she felt rather okay about how things were going. The sun was up. The Bright world had its future to look forward to. “Where do you think we will be that long from now? I hope to be reminiscing about this moment, in peaceful times.”

“In eleven years I'll probably be dead.” Dash mulled somberly, turning back to the window. Looking out she could see a good stretch of the Dneighper River, Ponyville, and the rolling hills beyond. The scenery, in all its lush tones, was beutiful beyond description. Since returning to Equestria Dash hadn't taken even a moment to appreciate her homeland. Had she ever? "Even so, I hope I live. There’s lots I want to do out there.”

"Don't be so morbid." Applejack leaned to the side and set her head on her hoof. "A lot can happen in that time. Golly, in eleven years Apple Bloom will be about as old as I am now! Do you think a filly like her would be as silly as me?”

“You think you're silly?” Ancepanox asked.

“Feudin' with friends, tryin to manipulate others, havin' anger problems. I feel a real fool. I deserve... worse than I got.” Applejack listed morosely. "I don't have much in this world, just some land and my family. I've already been an unforgivable jackass to my big brother and drivin' him away. What's Applebloom gunna do with me now? I gotten myself cursed for my sins. I helped y'all kill my princess for gods' sake! All the usual silly stuff." She laughed humorlessly. "So yeah, I'm a silly pony."

“When you put in those terms, I can hardly disagree.” Ancepanox another sip of tea.

"Aren't friends supposed to reassure each other over their flaws, not agree about them?" Dash asked.

Ancepanox considered this for a while. "Nevermind Applejack, you're not silly."

"Thanks. Means a lot to me." Applejack said quietly.

Though she was obviously being sardonic, Ancepanox appreciated Applejack was even willing to talk like this. Had she ever just sat down with friends and had tea before? For a few months, right after she had left Celestia and began her studies at the university, she had tried to salvage her nonexistent social life by going to the Canterlot coffee shops with various classmates. Only the a few dared to share a table with the notorious Twilight Sparkle, mostly carryovers from her brief time at the Unicorn School: Lyra Heartstrings from the College of Music, Minuette from the College of History, Lemon Heart from the Biological Sciences Department, Twinkleshine from Performing Arts, and fellow polymaths Moon Dancer. It was... an awkward time, looking back on it.
Of course, it all changed after the rivalry and spat with Cadence. Everypony had abandoned Twilight, citing her hair-trigger and constant outbursts. The bubbly socialite alicorn had deprived her of her friends just by being so infuriating! When Cadence went reclusive after the collapse of the marriage conspiracy plot, Twilight didn't bother to search out her friends again, to rediscover the absolute joy of being all alone (with Spike).

Those weren't happy days to look back on. Really, Ancepanox struggled to think of any part of her childhood and late youth that was good in any real sense. Yes she remembered fulfillment and enjoyment when reading, practicing magic, and being with Spike, but those were fleeting compared to the day to day hum-drum.
How were her old friends and enemies doing now? Canterlot had been so dark and quiet when she'd visited during the night. Her university friends were no doubt doing fine, sheltering in their dorms or on campus. But those ponies of note, Cadence or Shining Armor, would be under genuine threat by the shattering of the old status-quo.

“What are you thinking about?” A question broke pulled Ancepanox out of her thoughts. Surprisingly, it had been Fluttershy who had asked it. Ancepanox had caught the pegasus staring several times.

“My life before Ponyville. It would be better for me if I stopped caring about my old life, but can't.” Ancepanox said. “Maybe you remember me telling you about the junior princess, Cadence. I should be way past that old feud, but I can't help feeling smug that I'm superior to her in every way now."

“Alicorns are supposed to be above that kind of thing. Leave your past to Twilight. I thought was the entire point of you.” Fluttershy said, with no small tinge of sanctimoniousness in her words.

"Are we? Because every alicorn I've ever met was consumed by bitter, petty obsession. If you think heavenly beings act aloof and high-mindedly, you've been sold the same lie as everypony else.” Ancepanox laughed, taking another sip of tea. “Being around me will quickly disabuse you of that delusion."

“Just because you are a self-absorbed, uncaring meany doesn't mean anything. I won't judge all alicorns by you the same way you can't judge all ponies by me.” Fluttershy glared. Gradually her expression softened. “We can be better. I know we can be better. When we all work to make the world a less nasty place, we have less reason to be mean and paranoid."

"That's a pretty optimistic utopian vision. Not to swerve off into political science here, but this world will have to change a lot more than you might think to actually erase evil." Ancepanox leaned to one side.

Fluttershy thought for a little bit. "Everypony is selfish, but that's because there's not enough for all of us yet. It doesn't have to be that way."

“Everypony?” Ancepanox rose up, stepped around the couch to look at Fluttershy one-on-one. “And what selfish thoughts are you thinking right now, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy stared back at her, her expression neutral.

Ancepanox leaned forward, inch by inch, until her nose brushed back some of Fluttershy's curing mane.

'Can you hear my thoughts?' It was a feint whisper, but still audible.

"Yes I can." Ancepanox whispered back. She took a step back. "I can't control what I hear and what I can't. I'm still getting used to this power. I..." She glanced around the world, a devious smirk overtaking her. “Really? Such thoughts! I would never have imagined.”

Fluttershy allowed herself a thin smile.
Dash and Applejack seemed to be getting nervous.

“All of them? B- But what about their families?!” Ancepanox stammered. “No. That’s taking it too far!”

“What’s goin on?” Applejack asked, alert. "Are we in danger?"

"Tshh, nah. It's a joke." Ancepanox chuckled, falling back into the couch beside Applejack. "Not a funny one, granted."

"I thought it was funny." Fluttershy beamed with adorable devilishness. “I was imagining otters.”

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. "Did you actually... read her mind?"

Ancepanox shrugged. "Hey, I don't know what I did. I'm probably going to experimenting with my magic for the next hundred years and still not know every trick. Most of what I've been doing to far is adapting spells I already know." She paused. "If only Celestia weren't dead and the nation wasn't careening into chaos, I could take some time and really delve into Dark magic and dream magic. It's a field totally forgotten by Equestrian academia!"

“Seriously?” Dash deadpanned.

“Well yeah. I might discover something really useful." Ancepanox insisted.

"Not when you have a hundred things that need your attention and time. You've got big horseshoes to fill, you know." Applejack said. "Like, you've got the power to go out and help ponies, so frolickin' around with your magic could even be seen as evil."

"Hence my earnest wish Celestia were still around. Even if she didn't do anything, her presence kept things stable." Ancepanox huffed. Applejack brought up the issue of time. It made Ancepanox think of the one branch of magic that would probably elude her forever, that mysterious and monumental power reserved for the Sun and those daring enough to challenge it... The Phantom Time. With Celestia dead, would some random pony get invested with the sun's powers? It would be interesting to see, though thinking on it Ancepanox wasn't confident she could win a fight against an opponent that could literally manipulate time.

"Y'all're looking a bit pale there. You okay?" Applejack asked.

"Why do you ponies keep bugging me about my thoughts." Ancepanox muttered. She cleared her throat and spoke a bit louder. "I make a joke and it's not funny. I try to reflect and I get interrupted. How about you talk to me only after I talk to you. How about that, huh?"

"Maybe don't be an alicorn if you don't want to be the center of attention." Dash said.

Ancepanox scowled. "How about I just leave then."

Applejack shook her head. “That ain’t funny. We’re all on edge here.”

“Well, um, you could try to be a little understanding of their situation, Moon. Everypony is counting on you, and you joking and playing around is making them anxious.” Fluttershy chipped in. “Not that I mean to cheapen your choices and agency in any way.”

“It's already been pointed out to me I have big responsibilities, and shirking them would be 'evil'. ” Ancepanox grumbled. She poured herself another cup of tea. “That’s why I’m just on edge too. I’m just feeling dragged down. To be honest with you, I'd rather just be watching over Twilight right now. Being around her makes me feel..." She trailed off.

"How about you focus on one thing and complete it. Then it's off your plate." Applejack said.

Ancepanox glared at her, tempted to retort, but she held off. It would be too easy to argue with them all day. "Well I'm certainly not solving anything sitting around here. By my calculations, the first big chore I can complete are the tests I'm running on Rarity."

"Do you mean with Rarity?" Fluttershy asked.

Ancepanox ignored the question. "In the next few days, I think I'll have a much more complete understanding of how the nightmare curse works, and crucially, how to suppress it. Like I explained before, Rarity is the ideal test case for this because I can mess around in her body without irreversibly damaging her soul."

"But I don't remember you telling us it didn't hurt her." Dash said.

"I doubt the pain will be that traumatic." Ancepanox said dismissively. "Besides she consented to this. It's to help you!"

Fluttershy shifted in her seat. "You would rather be with Twilight than do that."

Ancepanox scoffed. "Obviously I would rather be with Twilight than with Rarity, even if the former is still sleeping.

"Is it going to change anything if you're there when wakes up? I mean, we really have no idea who she is right now." Applejack pointed out. "Her brain's been stir-fried by the nightmare, chopped up by Celestia, and who knows if time or your magic made her whole again."

“I appreciate you reminding me of that stress inducing fact, Applejack." Ancepanox grunted, sipping on her second cup of tea. "None of this will be worth it if she comes up broken. Ancepanox's existance has been premised on the assumption that Twilight Sparkle would be alive and well as her own being. If she isn't..." She drank the hot tea in a single gulp, relishing the way the hot water tortured her throat and stomach. It was a good pain. "Whatever. I've got to go. There's stuff to do and I won't stand to be called evil for not doing them."

“See ya.” Dash nodded. Fluttershy and Applejack gave little waves.

“Same time tomorrow I think. I hope to have some better answers by that time..” Without further ado, the space that the black alicorn occupied exploded into purple light. When it cleared she was gone and her empty tea cup lay on the tray.

Applejack rubbed the afterimage of the blinding flash from her eyes. “Geeze. I'll never get used to that.” She stood up. “It’s 'bout time I go and check on Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Who knows what kinda trouble they could get into on the farm if I let them alone too long.”
She used the door, checking for any snooping ponies before galloping towards home. With a nightmarish burst of speed, she was almost a blur as she leapt across the river into the trees.

Dash returned her attention out the window. “Eleven years, huh?” She said vacantly.

“Eleven years.” Fluttershy echoed, resuming her crocheting.

Aside from Fluttershy, there had been one Ponyvillian who had stayed the Eternal Night in town and still come up with a clear idea about the cause.

Pinkie Pie exited her little bakery and looked around. It was a quiet mid-morning. A couple ponies were on the street but by and large everypony was still staying in their homes.

"Things will go back to normal. Then things will get even better." Pinkie said confidently. She knew how a city healed after a crisis. She'd lived through it before.
She trotted out to the edge of town without meeting anypony. "Wowsers." Pinkie said. Ponyville's hospital had already been more of a clinic, being both small and ill-equipped for complicated care. With the second floor blown clean off it was even smaller than it had been. "I have to check on Rarity and Applejack later, to check they're okay. But right now, my Pinkie sense tells me there's another pony that needs my attention.

Pinkie Pie was not a vindictive pony. She had been, once upon a time, in her teen years in Canterlot. But those days were long gone, if not by time then by her personal evolution.
Ponyville hospital was quiet as she approached. Peering through the broken windows she could see the building was as trashed on the inside as on the outside from whatever blast had blown apart the second floor. Broken glass and debris had been swept to the corners and broken furniture had been stacked later disposal. One of the nurses, Redheart, was by the entrance treating a Ponyvillian for a scraped leg.

"Good morning!" Pinkie said cheerfully.

The pony with the scrape was Amethyst Star, something of a cynic and a grump but generally a nice pony. "Hi Pinkie."

Redheart looked up from her wound cleaning. "Hello Mis Pie."

Pinkie had a mission but that didn't mean she couldn't give time to her neighbors. "How are you doing?"

Redheart shrugged.

"I punched a wall." Amethyst said, sounding proud of it. "Another thing I have to fix I guess."

"Only if you want to. Could be a conversation starter." Pinkie joked. "Have you seen Cherry Fizzy?" Amethyst Star, Cherry Fizzy, and a dozen other ponies were loosely in Rarity's orbit, attending her 'parties'.

Amethyst Star shook her head. "Nope, sorry."

"That's fine! It's not important." Pinkie said. She glanced into the hospital. "Is anypony in there?"

"No doctors. Doc Horse was up there when wind blew the second floor off. He's at home now. It's just me doing first aid for who needs it." Redheart said.

"Hope he gets better." Pinkie said earnestly.

"He will. Maybe.” Redheart smiled halfheartedly. “So are you here for us... or her serene ladyship inside?”

“I heard there was a sick pony named Twilight in need of cheering up.” Pinkie said.

“Should be the only room with a light.” Redheart pointed down the hall. “Go in, but I doubt Lady Sparkle will be that responsive. You can hardly tell she's alive just by looking at her, she breaths so slowly. She has been that way since we found her at the edge of the forest."

"Is she dreaming?" Pinkie asked.

Redheart shrugged.

“I bet she is.” Pinkie smiled. “Maybe she’ll dream about me.”

Redheart let her pass, then reconsidered. “Wait, Pinkie. What do you think about the duke and all the knights being here?”

Pinkie stopped in her tracks. “Huh?”

“We are a town without an army. If Celestia’s really gone, what can we do to protect ourselves?”

“Wowee, what’s got you serious all of a sudden?” Pinkie scratched her head.

Amethyst Star laughed. "Yeah Mis Red, why ask Pinkie Pie of all ponies about this hostile occupation? No offense Pink."

"But Pinkie lived in the big city. I barely went farther than Embankment for my nursing apprenticeship, and most Ponyvillians never leave the village." Redheart explained. "We're... anxious. We don't know if this means the loss of our independence."

“Redheart, you don’t need to listen to what ponies say when they’re scared.” Pinkie silenced her with a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “Like momma Pie always said ‘A pony is smart, but ponies are dumb, panicky animals’. She used it in a bit of a different context, but it’s still rad advice.”

“You’re right.” Redheart sighed. “We should wait to see how all this bears out."

"And accept our fate." Amethyst Star commented snidely.

“Hey, everypony has things they worry about. If we didn’t have worries, we’d all just go crazy and make new ones.” Pinkie giggled. “ I’m just gunna pop in to see Twilight and be right back. We can talk more after. That okay?”

“Oh naturally.” Redheart nodded. “Mis Star's treatment is almost done.”

"Finally." Amethyst Star remarked with a laugh.

Pinkie stepped into the hospital and bounced her way down the corridor. Like the entrance, most of the rooms she passed were bare. Hairline cracks had formed in places, and Pinkie doubted the building was safe to be in, let alone to keep patients in.
But there was only the one patient that day. Pinkie Pie stopped at the the only closed door, from under which a faint light came. She pushed it open.

Pinkie wasn’t sure what she had been expecting. Something evil for sure. Perhaps for Twilight to laying decadently on the bed, feeding herself grapes between bouts of insane laughter. Or maybe for Twilight to be sitting in an oversized, chair stroking a mangy and ill-tempered cat. Except Twilight didn’t have a mangy and ill-tempered cat, just Spike. Stroking Spike then. Wait, that didn’t sound right either.

But no, it was just like Redheart had said. Twilight Sparkle was just laying in the hospital bed, bandages wrapped over her forehead and eyes. Warm sunlight streamed through the broken window, but the light visible under the door had been a firefly lantern hung above the bed that was almost burned out.

“So, Twilight, we meet at last.” Pinkie narrowed her eyes. She stepped over to the bed and shuttered the lantern.

Except for the slow rise and fall of her chest, Twilight was motionless.

“Soo, now you have me beaten, trapped. I have no chance of escape! Will you tell me your evil plan?” Pinkie asked.
Face to face with the pony she was pretty sure was responsible for most Ponyville's woes in the past month, Pinkie felt her pent up frustration bleed away. Twilight wasn't an evil villain. She was just a pony. There was no telling why or how she'd done what she'd done until she woke up to answer for herself.
"This is what happens when Pinkie tried to do everything herself. The princempress dies and half of Ponyville goes kablooie." Pinkie sighed. "I've been friends with supernatural ponies before, and I've fought them too. I thought I could contain this problem but I miscalculated by, like, a lot."

Twilight, of course, said nothing.

“It wasn't just you. I thought Rarity was a wannabe poser, no threat at all. I thought her super secret cult were going to fizzle out from her incompetence. Hee hee... If I'd taken them more seriously maybe this wouldn't have happened." Pinkie didn't know for sure if Rarity was involved, but her absence during and after was telling. "Or was Rarity just along for the ride? Were you just along for the ride? Gosh, it's all so confusing.” Pinkie leaned over the prone unicorn. "If I tell myself I shouldn't beat myself up over this because it's larger than what just one pony can solve, then it wouldn't be right for me to just blame you, or just blame Rarity, or anypony. But... somepony could have stopped this, right?"
Pinkie's cheeks were turning red. "You're gunna wake up and clear up all this confusion! You've gotta! Then you can put on that Summer Sun Fair like you were supposed to, and it sill be a super-outrageous party spectacular that will bring everypony together and we can forget this ever happened, and-"

“Pinkie, is everything okay? I heard yelling?” Redheart’s voice carried down the hall.

Pinkie stepped back from Twilight. She was more emotional than she'd meant to get. “Everything’s fine!” She called back to Redheart. Then quieter to herself "Everything will be fine."

There wasn't much else to say.
Pinkie was about to pack it up and go home, when all of a sudden all the muscles of her back tensed, and the base of her tail began to itch terribly. For any other pony, it would be the sign of a stroke, but for Pinkie they were symptomatic of something much worse.

“Gah!” Pinkie half gasped, half choked. “A Star in Ponyville?!”

She had to hide. If her sense was correct, and it always was, a Star was about to walk through the door. Or that was her panicked and rushed judgement based on the feeling she received.

Twilight’s mouth fell open and she began to gargle her spit as her unconscious body tried to form words. The entire room was filled with an inaudible whine that made Pinkie’s ears ring and eyes water.

“What is even going on?” Pinkie cried out. She really hadn’t come ready for trouble. She wasn’t prepared.
Pinkie considered about warning Redheart, but there was no time. Promising to herself to apologize later, Pinkie dropped to the floor and squeezed under the bed. It was extremely cramped, and a pony less flexible than Pinkie wouldn’t have managed.
She forced herself into a slow and deep breathing cycle to minimize her aura. She was just in time, for her muscles and tail tensed again, enough to make her cramp painfully. Pinkie had to bite her lip to keep from crying out.

A sound like a snapping twig came from just outside the room: Somepony teleporting. But Twilight was the one on the bed... Who else in a hundred kilometers of Ponyville could teleport?
There was the clink of horseshoes as the new arrival stepped into the dim room. Pinkie dared to rotate her head a bit, to see four steel blue horseshoes attached to slender black legs.

“Not sleeping well?” Questioned the interloper’s hoarse but feminine voice. “What's happened? Is dreamless rest so... unfulfilling?" A muffled sigh. "How hard I may try to ease your slumber, it's not to be. How restless the world expects you to be in all things, waking or not."

Pinkie had no idea who the interloper was. Not one of the Stars she'd met, but there was no mistaking the chill Pinkie felt upon hearing that voice, the subtle energy behind it. If it wasn't a Star it was something akin, a very powerful entity.

Above Pinkie on the bed, Twilight Sparkle continued to whine and gargle, greatly pained by the interloper's mere presence.

“I hear you, I hear you. Like a chick calling for her mother, you... yearn for... nourishment.” The mystery mare stepped closer to the bed, giving Pinkie a good look to the winding etched patterns and on her steel horseshoes. Her fur was a very dark purplish color, almost pure black. "What am I going to do with you. Instead of giving you freedom I've..." The bed creaked. "Well, we will see what happens."

The facts were coming together in Pinkie’s mind.
Rarity and Applejack’s disappearance made a lot more sense with a Star thrown into the mix. It wasn't even impossible that she had been the one to Eternal Night. Judging by her legs and the way the floor creaked underneath her, the mare could probably have taken on Celestia in a fight!
The question was how Twilight fit in. Pinkie hadn't thought anything about the similar magic of Twilight hunting dreams and the Stars preying on souls, but now the superficial similarities were looking not so superficial. How much different was biting off a chuck of dream to a chuck of soul? Pinkie Pie didn't know.
Now with this creature leaning on Twilight's bed, Pinkie had to reassess her assumptions, and how much she thought she knew. Dang it Pinkie, Pinkie thought, hubris strikes twice in as many nights. She'd never had such a hubristic trip-up since she'd seen fit to explain what hubris was to somepony, and they shushed to and said they already knew. How embarrassing. Now she'd been thinking of the word hubris so much it was undergoing semantic sanitation for her.

Mercifully for Pinkie's derailing train of thought, the interloper whispered again, her hoarse voice cracking into near indecipherability. "Please don't cry. Please, what do you want? Twilight... Only the mare who introduces themselves says their own name. It's other ponies' names that we speak. Names, words, connections we're making either giving or taking other's names." A throaty snicker. "Geeze, what the hell am I saying. Rambling..." A sigh. "Who else am I going to ramble to, Twilight?"

You could ramble to me, Pinkie Pie thought to herself. Besides that this new character was bizarre and compelling in her mystery, Pinkie liked the gravelly voice. She was unsettled but excited about it all. She was half tempted to squeeze out from under the bed and introduce herself.

But a sharp cough from above superseded that thought. "Oh whatever. Whatever. I didn't come here to talk, as good as it feels. I have to stop you crying, little foal." The interloper put more weight on the bed, making it s springs creak into Pinkie's ear. "And for others listening... unfortunately covering your ears won't help. I have to feed the baby."

Pinkie was wondering what those creepy words meant when she the most awful sound she could ever imagine forced it’s way into her head. It was like a hundred rusted nails being pulled out of hardwood, or piles of bones cracking and all the lost flesh squelching in the stomach of a virulent pustule. When it was over, after about fifteen seconds, Pinkie achingly pleaded that splinters be driven into her eyes rather than bear the sound again.

But Twilight wasn't whining anymore. It was completely silent.

From above the bed, the interloper was speaking again. "Sorry. That's just how a dream sounds out loud. My poor child needs it. Don't blame her. She's not going to understand what's going on either for a while. Hmph. Sleep well Twilight."
The sharp sound of space being folded and broken once more rang through the room as the mystery mare teleported away.

Pinkie, groaning and cradling her head, scooted her way out from under the bed. “Oooh, that was toooooo close.” Her stomach was still doing somersaults from the awful mental intrusion. Twilight, who’d borne the brunt of it, was looking contented and snug. “This isn't good. Why's a thing like that got an interest in Twilight?” But the logic was the same as before: Twilight couldn't answer for herself until she woke up.

With all the shouting, shrieking and cracking of spells, Redheart should have surely heard and investigated. Pinkie, unsteady on her hooves, staggered into the hall and towards the entrance.
Redheart was slumped against the hospital door, shaking and whimpering, her eyes fluttering behind closed lids.

"Did she..." Pinkie pressed a hoof to Redheart's cheek. She was no warmer or colder than a pony should be. "How? She's been... hunted." Pinkie dragged Redheart into the lobby to shelter her from the elements. It would be a few hours before she would awake. "Whoever that was it wasn't a Star. A Star eats ponies whole." Then why hadn't the mystery mare hunted Pinkie, if she'd known she was there? Did she want an eavesdropper?

Pinkie, sat down and waited for her nausea to pass. “Gosh. I don’t even know what’s even going on anymore.” She glanced back towards the room Twilight was in. "I'll find out eventually. I just gotta keep myself out of trouble until then." She grinned. "Hee hee. Like that's an option."

Apple Bloom didn't know much about the storied history of her home, the Sweet Apple Acres. She didn't even know it was called that, and neither did most ponies. They just knew it as Applejack's farmstead. It was a much more luxurious affair than would be expected for the humble mare, multistory, ornamental filagree here and there, very sturdily built, and a cellar. When most farmhouses in Ponyville were modest cottages the Apple family's home was akin to a little palace, so to speak. It was one of the oldest buildings in Ponyville despite its new paint and immaculate timbers, the first building put up after the influx of new settlers. The Apple family and the others who moved into the valley raised their homes on the refounded land that had been Dneigper Crypts after those older inhabitants dispersed for unknown reasons. As the farmsteads went up, those dilapidated and rotted ruins collapsed, as did their history.
But as it went, even the more recent history receded into the past, and the only ponies who could have told Apple Bloom those old tales too dispersed.

"Hey, Apple Bloom, why don't we ever see your granny any more?" Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom stoped staring out her window, glancing back at her friend who was doodling on scraps of paper on the floor. "She joined a caravan to help found a settlement down south. I thought I told you that."

"I guess I wasn't paying attention." Scootaloo shrugged. "No offense, but how's an old grandmother help found a settlement?"

Apple Bloom went back to looking out the window.

There was some sounds from the next room over. A minute later Sweetie Belle peered into the room, hair mussed and eyes bleary. "How did you get here before I even woke up?" She asked. "And weren't you grounded?"

"Nope!" Scootaloo happy declared.

"So... your mom was okay for you being missing all night?!” Sweetie Belle asked. She looked to Apple Bloom who shrugged. "Lucky."

“Uh huh. She just wanted to know where I went.” Scootaloo nodded.

“Did you tell her the truth?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Obviously. She’s my mom.” Scootaloo said, turning back to her doodling. “I even told her about the nightmares and Celestia dying and stuff, and she was like ‘okay Scootaloo, here’s dinner’. “

“I wonder about y’all’s mom sometimes.” Apple Bloom muttered.

"I'm glad you're not in trouble though. Lucky you." Sweetie Belle hopped onto Apple Bloom's bed and sat down. "What have you been talking about?"

"Not much." Scootaloo said.

"I've been thinking though. We've got a problem." Apple Bloom whispered.

"I mean yeah, lots of problems, but what are we going to do?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Lucky stars, the nightmare thing only accidentally involved us. It could be worse, like if we were at the center of the whole thing."

"Ya don't think we could change it? Think bigger, Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom turned from the window. "Let's kill Twilight Sparkle." She picked up one of Scootaloo's scraps of paper and crayons, quickly sketching a depiction of two pony figures, one purple and one black, hanging from trees. “Both of them. We can put them in a trap like ya do for rabbits.”

"That seems like an extraordinarily bad idea." Sweetie Belle deadpanned.

"Yeah... Your sisters would be really upset.” Scootaloo protested.

Sweetie Belle nodded her agreement. "Like, the princess is trying to help them turn back to normal."

"I see you avoiding saying 'make them not be black anymore'." Scootaloo joked, waggled her eyebrows. Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out at her friend.

"Y'all don't get it. Twilight caused all this and she needs to go to. It's the only way to end it." Apple Bloom promised. She grabbed another sheet of paper from the pile and began another sketch. “Nopony else can do it!"

"Can't they?" Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom's scowl deepened. "I've been thinking about it since the sun came up. It's the only way to fix this! We’ll put her in a coffin and drop her in a snake pit, like in the story of Princess Reckless in the storybooks!”

“But, would that make us the bad guy?” Sweetie Belle whimpered.

“It’s only bad if you do it to a good pony!” Apple Bloom stabbed into her paper with her crayon. “Bad ponies like Twilight Sparkle deserve it.”

“I don't agree Apple Bloom. That's just evil.” Scootaloo took another scrap of paper for herself and began idly doodling clouds and flying pegasi. “I mean yeah, she did attack everypony and cause the night, but she fixed it afterwards.”

“What?” Apple Bloom hissed. “Fixin' it doesn’t mean she can get away with causin' it! Besides, our sisters are still all monster-y!”

“But our sisters promise that's being fixed.” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

“Shut up!” Apple Bloom snapped, instantly regretting it. “I’m sorry Sweetie Belle. I didn’t mean that. I just don’t know how y’all can defend that monster!”

“It’s okay. If I had a sister and she was turned into a nightmare I’d be pretty sad.” Scootaloo consoled her. “Or would it be rad? I don't know... Oh, but if was one of you two, I'd get mad! Yeah. ohh, I’d be sooo mad, I might just want to kill her too!”

“Thanks Scootaloo.” Apple Bloom sighed. It felt much better knowing there was at least two ponies there for her when everypony else was unreliable. “I guess that idea’s bust, three to one against.”

“We’ve all had our turn being the angry one. It’s better than being a crybaby about it.” Scootaloo offered. “Why do you think your sisters, Mis Dash, and Mis Fluttershy like Twilight and Ankle-pants-socks?”

“It’s pronounced Ancy-pan-oxe.” Sweetie Belle coughed.

“Isn't that what I said?” Scootaloo arched a brow.

“No, you said it different.” Apple Bloom sided with Sweetie. “But do they like to like her, or do they have to?”

“Have to?” Sweetie queried.

Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah, for pragmatical reasons.”

“What’s pragmatical mean?” Scootaloo asked

“I dunno, but Applejack’s always sayin it. I think it means that you do somethin' you don’t like, so you can do somethin' you do like.”

Scootaloo pushed away her drawing and started on another. “So what you’re saying is that we can do something for her, to get her to do something for us?”

“I don’t think that’s what I said, but maybe…” Apple Bloom scratched her nose. “Yeah, we could do practical.”

“Do you think we’d get a wish?” Sweetie Belle wondered. “We could ask Ancepanox to... make us stronger.”

“Yeah! We get strong enough to help our sisters by ourself” Apple Bloom chortled gleefully. “THEN we kill that monster!”

“Let’s do what we agree on, then do what we don’t.” Sweetie Belle said. She’d heard Twilight say that once. It was a versatile phrase. “We go to Ancepanox Twilight and do pragmatical with her.”

“I agree.” Scootaloo said. “Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom nodded her concurrence.

The three of them put their hooves together, and after a moment of unspoken covenant, pulled away and resumed their childish doodling.

The sun was setting over Ponyville. Though it had risen and fallen once already since the Eternal Night, the ponyvillians on the roads and in the markets still cringed at the sight. Only in their imaginations did they know that dark and monstrous figures had walked their streets during the knight. They had only a vague awareness of foreign, unreal things, lurking and moving, testing ponykind's fortitude. Their eyes darted towards the Everfree Forest frequently. Rumor and suspicion were starting to spread.

Iillor hung at the edge of the market square, watching it empty out as ponies rushed their shopping to get home before nightfall. Not that the evening activity was that much to begin with.
She took a bite out of a pear she’d bought, letting the juices dribble down her chin. If there’s one thing city ponies missed out on more than anything else, it was fresh food.

"Hum dillidee dum, the hills are lively and so am I. Hum dillidee dee." Iillor sang to herself. The had an unshakable and oppressive feeling clouding her thoughts, that she both belonged and was a stranger in Ponyville.
Yes she was a stranger. She knew none of the ponies around her, their habits, their desires... But she knew the streets, the way the earth and air smelled, how the clouds drifted overhead. The Ponyville's little market square was both comforting and depressing. Yes... she was gripped by conflicting, paradoxical emotions, but she wouldn't trade that experience for anything. It made her feel more alive than almost anything she'd done since returning to the Bright World.
Almost, because nothing could surpass the ecstasy of the kill.

One of the market venders, a pink earth pony with a straw hat and a yellow mane noticed Iillor loitering and trotted over. The mare had a pair of cherries as her mark. “Are you okay mis?” She asked. “Are you lost?”

“Nah, I’m just enjoying the sunset.” Iillor smiled. The ponyvillians were seeing unfamiliar faces since Duke Lightdowser arrived and set up his camp at the edge of town. Some ponies were bound to be curious. “It’s been a while since I was in a village like this. I’m a country pony myself, from a scratch in the dirt smaller even than here.”

“Yeah? Are you from Unicornia too?”

“Nope, I'm a valley mare too, from near here actually. It’s was a pretty small village so might not have heard of it. Just a few families. Place called Dneighper Crypt.”

The pony blinked. A visible change came over her demeanor and she slightly leaned away from Iillor. It was multiple seconds before she perked up and replied. “Huh. Dneighper Crypt. Nuh uh. Never heard of it. And there aren’t many villages on this stretch of the river either. Would you, uhh, tell me about it?”

Iillor grinned wider. “Would I ever! Oh, my home was an easy place to miss. The forest covered both sides of the river all and the houses were nestled just out of sight of the embankment. There was the tailor’s house and her little hemp field, the cluster of farm houses, the commons, the blacksmith’s house and his shop, the baker’s house, and the orchards. And me and my father’s house too.” Iillor recounted nostalgically. “Oh, Mayor Solemn was a slave driver, but there was never a more selfless pony. Even though my father and I were outsiders she let us in. That’s a rare open-mindedness for clannish village ponies, you know?”

“Uh huh.” The mare agreed very eagerly. “This ‘Solemn’ sounds nice. Too many ponies are too busy throwing blame everywhere, being suspicious, and not busy enough being hospitable to new friends.”

“Ponies in general are just too mean. Too… Confrontational is the word I’m looking for.” Iillor extended a hoof. “I’m Illustrious Valor, Iillor for short.”

“And my name is Cherry Berry.” Cherry shook Iillor’s hoof. It was a stiff, rushed shake. “Whew, Illustrious Valor is super cool name. Are you a soldier, or a knight? Doing some investigations?”

“I’m a teacher. Kinda.” Iillor shrugged. “And I assume you sell fruit?”

“Kinda.” Cherry Berry glanced back and saw the sun was two-thirds disappeared under the horizon. “You know I’d love to talk more, but uhh, I have somewhere I need to be.”

“Oh, I understand. We all have somewhere to be before dark.” Iillor joked, flashing a last long grin. “I’ll see you around.”

“Probably. It’s a small town.” Cherry laughed along with her.

Iillor waved farewell and cantered out of the market square, on her way to the western edge of town. Twilight Sparkle would be waking up soon, and she needed to be there for it.

Cherry Berry watched Iillor leave. "Golly me." She muttered to herself as the black furred mare turned the corner out of the market square. She went back to her stall and finished closing up.
Most of what Cherry Berry had been selling had been picked before the Eternal Night, since the night’s chill had killed a lot of Ponyville’s fruit. It didn’t mean a catastrophe, since the lush Dneighper Valley allowed multiple harvests per year. Best case scenario, the mid-summer harvest was bountiful enough to make up for the losses. Hopefully there were no crop failures.
But none of that was an immediate concern for Cherry Berry. Her mind was a tumultuous sea, trying to decipher meaning in what Iillor had said. She'd said Dneighper Crypt. Nopony knew about Dneighper Crypt except Rarity's circle of confidents in the Nightmare Faithful. What was more only about ten ponies know the name of Solemn.
Was Iillor a cultist from another city, a potential enemy, or an overly curious outsider? Iillor's descriptions of Dneighper, spoken almost longingly, were more like a fond memory than the articles of scripture that the faithful had.

Cherry Berry knew it meant something, but she didn’t know what yet.

Berry finished locking up the stall and took off her straw hat, then set off towards the riverside at a quick trot. She did actually have a place to be by sundown: A meeting in Rarity’s house/tailory.

Cherry was hoping to have the full walk from the market to Rarity's house to think, but three familiar ponies standing by the bridge, whispering amongst themselves, pulled her attention.

“Oh hey guys.” Cherry Berry looked around for any possible snooper before approaching. “Doing all right?”

The ponies looked her way. Cherry Fizzy, her brother. Caramel, one of Fizzy's friend. Amethyst Star, one of Fizzy's... friends? But beyond friendship the ponies had a reason to be idling by the bridge at dusk. "What's up Cher Berr?" They beckoned.

“So…” Cherry Berry joined their circle. “Did Rose talk to you all too? About the meeting at Rarity's?"

“Caramel thinks it’s a trap by that duke, but I’m not buying it.” Cherry Fizzy was a tawny colt with graphite black hair and a mark that mirrored his twin sister’s exactly. “They would’ve nabbed us by now. They have no reason to play around.”

“It’s not the duke I’m worried about. It’s the knights.” Caramel objected. His coat was a very similar shade to Cherry Fizzy’s, but his mane and tail were light brown. His mark was a trio of stylized blue horseshoes. “They’re always following me, looking at me.”

“They’re just patrolling, ya dumbflank.” Amethyst Star was leaned back against the bride, snacking on an apple. She was a tall lilac unicorn mare with a two-tones of violet in her mane and three cut diamonds for her mark. “Maybe it’s you who's following them.”

“What? I never!”

“You never, huh? I know for a fact they look at you funny because you keep ogling them.” Star snickered. “Have a thing for mares in uniform?”

“Do not!” Carmel objected, his voice getting whiny. “That’s baseless!”

“Guys, you’re losing the plot here. Carmel has a good reason to worry and there’s a real risk that we’re exposed.” Cherry Berry sighed. Amethyst Star and Cherry Fizzy looked at her, incredulous. “Look, I know I said yesterday that the chances of anypony suspecting us is pretty much nil, but I was wrong.”

“What, did somepony squeal?” Star grunted.

“Maybe, maybe not. But somepony knows.” Cherry bit her lip. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m just worrying you over nothing.”

“The hell do you mean, nothing!” Cherry Fizzy snorted angrily. “If somepony knows, then somepony told. If somepony tells a bit more, we’re all dead!”

"This vagueness is killing me Cherry Berry. If we're in danger you've got to tell us." Caramel said.

“Implying anyone gives a buck.” Amethyst Star laughed. “At this point, with all the wacky stuff happening with the sun and moon, worshiping our demon gods makes us the sane one, and them the heretics.”

“Really Star? Have a little pride. What we believe can’t be deconstructed like that. We’re faithful ponies. We have traditions.” Cherry Berry scolded. “One of the new ponies in town knows our traditions too. Draw your own conclusion.”

"So, like, what do they know?" Caramel asked cautiously.

"Who cares the scope of the leak, or how they found out, or who it is." Star said. "You're not putting the cat back in the bag without killing some ponies."

"Star, what the hell are you talking about?!" Caramel exclaimed, aghast.

"Yeah, that's what I though. Since you don't want to kill anypony you just have to sit tight and let the consequences roll down on top of us." Amethyst Star shook her head. "Not being fatalistic, just being real here."

"You're just being mean Amethyst Star." Cherry Fizzy chided.

Star rolled her eyes. "Whatever. This endless speculation is boring."

Cherry Berry sighed. “I didn't mean to set off any speculation. I wanted to ask if anypony had seen Rarity.”

“Rose talked to her.” Caramel said.

“None of us in person though, nor anypony else.” Amethyst Star took another bite out of her apple. “Shuspicioush.”

“Wait wait wait, what are you implying?” Cherry Fizzy scowled.

"Cherry Berry brought her up." Amethyst Star said.

Cherry Fizzy turned to Cherry Berry. “So you say, in very vague terms, that an outsider knows about us. Then you bring up Rarity."

"No, I’m not implying Rarity sold us out. I'm not. I literally just asking if you’d seen her. Of everypony, I’d expect Rarity would know what's going on, since she’s always communicating with the expats.” Cherry Berry groaned. "All I'm saying, honestly."

"Eh, I kinda do think Rarity sold us out." Amethyst Star shrugged. "If Cher Berr were a little less vague I would be able to say for sure."

"As if, Star." Cherry Berry rolled her eyes.
Maybe hinting about Iillor had been the wrong thing to do, but Cherry Berry wasn't sure what could be done about the strange outsider even in the best circumstances. As Amethyst Star had crudely said, there was no putting the cat back in the bag without murder. The thing was, Iillor had seemed like a genuinely nice pony. Cherry Berry almost wanted to believe that the burnt mare wouldn’t do anything to harm them. “Buck it. I’m going to the meeting. Even if Rarity sold us out, at least I’d have answers.”

Amethyst Star tossed her apple core in the river and pushed off the bridge wall. “Eh, if I went home I’d just have to deal with my sister all evening. Guess I’m in.”

“Well, I would go, but now you’ve got me worried too.” Cherry Fizzy whispered. “Like, what if why the meeting’s at Rarity's house, and not at the statue or the castle like normal, because this she wants to limit our escape routes?”

“Goodness gracious Fizzy, now you're being as jumpy as Caramel. With these knights around there's no way a dozen ponies could sneak out of town unnoticed. Staying in town is much less suspicious. ” Cherry Berry said. “Let’s go Star. These two dolts can panic on their own time.”

“I hear that.” Amethyst Star followed her.

“Okay okay! We’re coming.” Cherry Fizzy relented, falling into step behind the mares. “But I’m standing by the door in case it is a trap.”
Caramel followed behind too, muttering to himself about something or another; about legal limits on knights' uniform sexiness to not be so distracting, Cherry Fizzy imagined. Such was the preoccupation of stallion minds.

The sun was now fully below the horizon. The pink and orange light of the fading sunset was slowly growing dimmer.

The four faithful trotted around the town hall to the northern edge of town. All the curtains in Rarity’s home were drawn, except some on the second floor. The bedroom light was on.

“Everypony else is probably already in there.” Amethyst Star yawned.

Cherry Berry shrugged. “Better late than never.” She opened the door and held it open for everypony, closing behind herself.

Like Amethyst Star had predicted, all the other faithful ponies of Ponyville had already arrived, and were now lounging on Rarity’s various chairs and couches, though there was no sign of their host. They numbered fifteen, including the four latest arrivals.
The room was cold. Not literally, but Cherry Berry felt a chill run up her spine as she searched for acknowledgement from the other ponies in the room. They glanced at her and quickly away, or ignored her. They fiddled with their chairs or stared off into space.

Thankfully one pony was willing to break the uneasy silence. “Good evening fillies.” Roseluck, better known to her friends as Rose, was an older mare with a cream-color coat and raspberry mane. She was was seated daintily on one of the measuring stools, right leg crossed over the left. “Long time so see.” She joked.

“Heya Rose.” Cherry Berry gave a little wave. “Felling better than this morning?"

"A little." Rose said.

Cherry paused, but still nopony else said anything. "Um, how’s Daisy?”

“Good. Everything’s good.” Rose smiled tightly, not inauthentically, but Cherry Berry had the feeling that she was as tense as everypony else, but better at hiding it.

Pushing aside her unease, Cher Berr pulled a folded duvet out of one of Rarity's many closets and used it as a cushion. She scooched over so her brother could use it too.
Everypony was there and waiting. All that was missing was the host.

Everypony’s ears perked at the sound of the floorboards of the ceiling creaking, as somepony’s hoofsteps moved from one end to the other. A minute later and a shadow loomed at the doorframe; Rarity leaned out, greeted by the stares of fifteen ponies.

“Ahem. Uh, hello everypony.” Rarity whispered, then louder. "Hello." She stepped fully into the room. She did not look healthy, her eyelids drooping a bit and her coat a tinge grayer than the usual. She had an old book cradled in her hoof. “I’m glad everypony could make it.”

The room was silent.

“I’m, umm…” Rarity cleared her throat. When she looked from pony to pony, she saw they didn’t look relieved to see her, only anxious or impatient. “Well, uh, as you can see Fluttershy isn’t here. She’s, uh… I’ll explain that later I think.” She cleared her throat again. “How are all of you?”

“What is this, an anonymous support group? Pick it up a bit eh?” Amethyst Star shouted. A couple of ponies chuckled nervously.

“What I wanna know is if we have anything to worry about.” Caramel piped up. “Are we safe?”

“Yeah! Are we safe?” Cherry Fizzy and the others chorused.

“Well I- I-” Rarity choked up. She looked at the floor.

Cherry Berry wasn’t sure what to think. Talk, big and small, was one of Rarity’s fortes. When she had something to say, she said it articulately and confidently. Her oratory skill had gotten the faithful out of quite a few conundrums. The Rarity she knew wouldn’t stumbled unless she was carrying a heavy burden.

Rose cleared her throat. “Rarity, our noble hierophant, why don’t you start from the beginning.”

Rarity nodded, and took a deep breath. Still looking at the floor, she began to talk.
“I know a few of you have battled addiction in the past, or known some pony who has. Psychological disease is sometimes much harder to treat than bodily ones. Please, remember that before you judge me too harshly.”

Cherry Berry lay down on the duvet and got ready for a hot mess. Depending on what Rarity had to say, the gathered ponies were going to strangle her or start bawling their eyes out.

“I’m sure you all remember that grave we found at the edge of the forest during last year’s Winter Wrap-up. I stepped up and told the village I would do the research to find out who it was. I told everypony that it was one of Ponyville’s founders. I’m sure all of you realized what I meant by that, and what reburying her near my family’s property signified. Maybe some of you put two and two together when I uncovered the way through the Everfree Forest to the castle, and guessed where the map had come from. When going to and from the castle became routine, the orrigion of it all lost attention, but in reality, nothing was ever so impactful as that moment, that reburied skeleton. Before, I let implication and idly guessing bridge truth and faith. I can't do that anymore. I have to tell you the truth.
"Those of you that have read my books, or payed any attention during lessons, will recognize the name of Solemn. Yes, a name from our town's golden age two hundred years gone, of Dneighper Crypt not Ponyville of course. It wouldn't surprise you to know it was Solemn's grave we found, but there was another. Did you notice duplicate bones, or some discolored in inexplicable ways? The second pony in that grave, unspoken of in any of our liturgies or histories, was just as important as Solemn. She was Solemn's killer... yet also my ancestor. She was Illustrious Valor."

Everypony’s eyes widened as they struggled to understand what it meant.
For Cherry Berry, reclined on the duvet, it was like the world had stopped making sense. Illustrious Valor? As in, the Illustrious Valor she’d talked ten minutes prior? As in, the Illustrious Valor who claimed to be from Dneightper Crypts and know Solemn? She almost stopped listening, gripped by a dread for the two possibilities: An outsider knew everything and was cruelly toying with her, or that dark pony had told no lies. Something very bad was happening in Ponyville.

“I was as shocked as you all are now. To even harbor the suggestion that a murderer could be counted among my line, why it was positively uncouth! A mere hint it was, in the texts as I was researching those intertwined bones: 'Illustrious Valor, diabolical progenator of the lineage of Solemn and Oddity'. It reads as nonsense, but scratched in blood in our vaunted records it could be nothing but the truth. I had no choice but to reckon with this inconceivable thing I had discovered.
“More information was hard to come by. Scarcely was the name of Illustrious Valor even mentioned, let alone elaborated upon. My parents knew nothing. The litanies and records were unhelpful, even those kept in gloom under the roots of the Golden Oak. In rash desperation I sent a coded plea to the expatriate faithful in Baltimare, just hoping they would confirm she existed, and was not just a clerical mistake in our sacred texts.
"The reply from Baltimare was more than I could have dreamed. By personal delivery by a blind messenger two artifacts were delivered, old things that had been taken from Ponyville when Dneighper Crypts was abandoned. The first artifact was a missing volume of records, those of Peculiarity, Solemn's daughter and successor as mayor. I had barely begun to read the volume when I was confronted by truth, as it started with a grim birth announcement, that of Peculiarity's sister Oddity, who would eventually succeed her as mayor. Only here with this first passage, out of hundreds of thousands of passages about the lives of the ponies of Dneighper Crypt which follow, does Peculiarity allow herself a moment of sentiment. Try as I did, I never managed to memorize it.”

Rarity lifted the tome she was carrying with her magic and opened to the bookmarked page. Her eyes scanned the lines as she searched for the right place.

“ ‘My bastard sister. How abominable the circumstances of her conception, however revolting the abhorrent the condition of her birth, is still my blood. Yet will my mother’s soul find rest while her mistake breathes? Illustrious Valor has been brought to justice, but I see her as clearly in the bastard's eyes as I see my mother. All my instinct tells me to destroy this horrendous thing, this demon, this other. But my mind says no. She is my sister. I would be a kinslayer.’
“ ‘Counter my duty to destroy the abomination, is I. My body is barren, bereft of a way of giving my dear mother what she always wanted, the continuation of this house. Perhaps that was her justification for her dalliance with Illustrious Valor, or perhaps not. Whatever the terms of their unholy union, the resulting love child likely has the same fecund powers as her dark progenitor. I shudder to put this thought to paper, but if my sister Oddity caves to her instinct, as Valor did, the house of Belle will not lack for heirs. My mind is asunder. I can not consider that horrific future any longer, comforted only by the chance that the sins I will unleash through my mercy are outweighed by the virtue of my devotion to my mother and my house. Dark Lady, take pitty on me. Heaven will be gorged with the victims I have enabled.’ “

Rarity snapped the book shut, making every pony jump.
“Never again is Illustrious Valor mentioned, nor the power that Peculiarity mentioned.”

Amethest Star raised a hoof.

“Yes Star?” Rarity sighed.

“So let me get this straight. Solemn, aching for grandbabies, lets Illustrius Valor impregnate her. Their little hellspawn kills Solemn, and the village lynches Valor. Are you sure that’s not a minotaur tragic play?” Amethyst said.

Rarity was silent for a while. “Based on what Peculiarity writes I conclude Solemn and Illustrius Valor had been lovers for some time. But Valor was not the, ahem, father, based on my research, not that it saved her from the mob. Valor’s execution must have been heinous and violent, for her bones were broken in a great many places. However Solemn’s skeleton was another story. Her jaw bone had been broken, and showed about eleven months of healing. Her abdomen...” Rarity trailed off, looking distraught by the very memory. “Shall I say that I came away thinking no pony of this earth could have done that to her.
“So I therefore conclude that the abominable conception to which Peculiarity referred was not between Solemn and Valor, but to Solemn from a heavenly thing... dare I say a god? The two lovers, if they were in fact lovers and not cooperators, were the first of our town to commune with the Dark Ones, perhaps even the Dark Lady herself. They may have even been the first to worship the nightmare. I would go as far to say that the summoning, and the resulting child in the form of Oddity, were the true source of the sacred text and incantations. The ponies of Dneighper Crypt had killed Illustrious Valor, but bit by bit they were brought to worship her new gods.”

“Rarity, what you’re saying goes against what you’ve taught us.” One pony, Sweetie Drops, pointed out. “It’s heresy.”

“It is a different truth that we thought we knew." Rarity said evasively.

Amethyst Star laughed softly to herself. "Sounds like were lied to."

"When I found out, I realized it did not really matter if the scriptures are millennia old or only a hundred. What mattered was I was finding proof! The Dark Ones and the Nightmare were real! It was possible, I believed, to do what Solemn and Illustrious Valor had done. I could call another daughter of the Dark, reveal her child, and turn the ponies of Ponyville to our faith. It was everything we ever dreamed about!” Rarity said. She was beginning to twitch. “Oh but where to start, where to start? I had the patchwork history but not a clue about how to recreate it. How was I supposed to tempt the divine to the earth, and let a Dark One be born amongst us?
“That is where the second artifact came in. It was a horseshoe, steel blue, made of spell cast iron. The pony who sent it to me said it had supposedly been found on Illustrious Valor’s hoof when she was caught after Solemn’s death. By description alone I see some of you realize, as I did, whose horseshoe it was: The onetime hierophant and avatar of the Dark Lady, the Nightmare of the Moon, was prophesied to return to the Bright World clad in unholy armor of war. Two hundred years ago, Illustrius Valor and Solemn used that horseshoe to invoke their summoning. I was determined to use it the same way."

Rarity, weary of talking so long, set her book down and reclined in the last empty seat. All the eyes in the room followed her every little movement in silence.

“A horseshoe alone, even if it was brimming with Dark power, was not enough to whim down a god into our world. I recognized then that I still had not nearly the same knowledge as Illustrius Valor. Whoever she was, her control over the delightfully hideous Dark magics was spoken of in hushed tones by the ponies of Dneighper Crypt. So to substitute skill, I opted for raw force: I had to retrieve more of Nightmare Moon’s armor. Yes, it was I who disinterred those caskets in the cemetery last year, and I who unearthed the mass grave below our statue. Though not sinful for our faith I knew I was breaking an important taboo by ripping up those corpses so callously, searching from the rest of the armor. I could not admit to any of you it was I know'd done it, and my lies by omission grew to pure deceit. I threw blame all around, casting suspicion and making accusations. All of you thought I was stressed, and I was, but it was not a noble cause I toiled for.
“But the search bore fruit! I found more pieces of the armor, buried in the shadow of her monument at the forest’s edge. In fact I found them all, here and there, some buried deep and others shallow, orphaned or mixed among monstrous bones of fell beasts. I could not keep all of the armor in the same place, or its power would have destroyed me, so some were reburied. I kept the central piece, the cuirass, and when I donned that cold blue armor, I could feel a nightmare's spirit all around me. She was a leviathan, her soul an infernal gale that threatened to snuff my life out. The experience was almost too much, but I managed to take the helmet off and escape. The next time, I only used one or two piece of the armor at a time, and enjoyed a far more manageable audience with the presence I believed to be the Nightmare of the Moon. She placed within my mind visions of the altar I would need to create.
“Devoted though I was, I obviously could not allow myself to be impregnated. Oh, not only would that simply ruin my figure, but the divine bairn would surely kill me as it had Solemn! I needed a substitute host, a sacrifice. For half a year I deliberated over that problem.
“Most of you know that Fluttershy and I have been close since Macintosh left. Please, do not suspect her complacency. I shared some of what I discovered with Fluttershy, but withheld details. I was afraid that if I told her everything, she would try to offer herself up. I could not allow that to happen, not to her. So she was kept in the dark like everypony else. But you say that it is her choice to make and not mine? Maybe some of you think to yourselves how you would be more devout than I was, and would chose martyrdom. Ah ha ha, when I’m done speaking you will feel differently.”

The more Rarity spoke, the more she slouched, until she was more on the floor than in her chair. Sometimes her gaze was on her audience, seeking understanding or empathy from her fellow faithful, then her gaze turned absent, staring off into infinity.

“Night after night I would put on a piece of the nightmare armor, usually just the helmet or cuirass, and slowly assembled the altar in my mind's eye. I didn't properly know the spells I was casting, or the incantations I was repeating, but through me the armor built its device. The process was painstaking, made even more difficult by my absolute secrecy. But at last it was completed, four months ago.
"It was simple... radiant... deeply evil. I knew as soon as I had finished it that I had done something wrong, even by the standards of our faith. But I was entranced by the altar, and by the obsession that was gripping my mind tighter by the day. With lascivious depravity I imagined how the altar would drag a Dark One down from heaven and impregnate the pony I would sacrifice. I imagined hailing the resulting creature, our new messiah, and following it to conquer Ponyville and all Equestria, a worthy sacrifice for our Dark Lady.
"I don't know what I could have done differently to prevent the disaster that next befell me. More caution, some assistance, more preparation... none of it would have helped. For you see my cleverness undid me! I was hiding my new Nightmare Altar in the Everfree Castle, but there hiding and there stalking was another mad thing, who saw my creation and knew it wanted it.
“The half-mad creature that lurked in the castle, I would later learn, was a changeling queen named Chrysalis. What a wretched thing! She was just as entranced by the Nightmare Altar as I, only from desperation rather than my ambition. I discovered her her fawning over the altar, and in a rage tried to kill her. I forgot I was wearing a piece of the Nightmare armor, the horseshoe and it resonated with the pieces of armor sealed in the altar. All became confusion as the altar activated, infusing the air with choking magic! That changeling Chrysalis was much closer than I and was seized by ethereal tendrils coming off the obsidian. Before my very eyes, a ghostly shape peeled herself off the slab. She was black, oh so black, with glittering green eyes full of evil! The tendrils pried Chrysalis’s mouth open, and the ghost-”

Rarity began to sob softly.

“I ran. I could not stay to watch what was happening, even though it was exactly what I wanted, the sacrifice. I do not know what kind of demon Chrysalis birthed. I doubt she even registered the event, for she was in horrible shape, and made no mention of it later. But something emerged from the altar, and the changeling survived. I almost wonder if that event transpired at all like I remember, with how the air churned with Dark magic. It could have all been a twisted dream...
"That was when I forbade any journeys to the Everfree Castle, four months ago, for I was confused and indecisive. I spent every night dwelling over what I had seen and what could be then lurking in the castle. Alas I know many of you ignored me, making your individual pilgrimages out to the castle to pray at the statue. It was magnificently lucky that the changeling didn't attack any of you, nor any other dark things. The ghostly entity I saw emerge, I can only guess, escaped and left, and roams Equestria even now- Perhaps they were the one that gave me the visions to build the altar, and tricked me into being the agent of their release upon the world.
"I had little time to ponder things. Only two days after the disaster was the day Viscountess Twilight Sparkle arrived from Canterlot. To my confused and panic-striken mind I could only conclude that Celestia knew of the altar, and Twilight was sent to secretly investigate. That was the death blow to my ambition, for I then realized how small I was, and how great were the powers I was messing with. I tried to willfully forget everything. I tried to be as genuine as I could with all of you, as though nothing at all had happened. But like always, my undoing was of my own creation.”

Rarity paused to blow her nose. She was truly weeping now, letting the guilt and shame she’d let fester spill out for all to see. Every pony kept watching her, wishing for more, wishing for some modicum of comfort after the tale of horror.

“Through dumb luck or calculated action, Chrysalis kept the Nightmare Altar activated. It maintained its task, to drag down a Dark God, and how unsurprising that it caught the one closest and most mortal god: The Nightmare of the Moon. I am ignorant of the mechanics of the thing, and only through things I have learned later can I guess how she was snared and dragged, like a hare in a trap, from her rest on the moon. Yet her ladyship did not manifest, remaining a nightmare in the Dreamscape around us. Nightmare Moon’s hunger was unleashed on Ponyville, and our dreams became her fodder. We all fell victim to her, even me, and even Twilight Sparkle. Especially Twilight Sparkle.
"Celestia did not send Twilight Sparkle after me, but she did sent her after the lurking Dark in our village. Though was ignorant of her mistress's intentions, Twilight chose to chase the source of the nightmares and went out to the Everfree Castle alone. That bravery and foolishness, blameless in its own way, led to the doom of our nation. The power of the nightmare around Ponyville swelled to obscene levels, and finally sensing the true scale of the danger she had just sent her vassal into, Princess Celestia embarked to battle the hunting dreamer, her own lost sistren.
"The Nightmare of the Moon was more powerful than anypony anticipated. Twilight Sparkle, myself, and even Celestia underestimated her ladyship. After that night, I fear the nightmare was more powerful than we even can comprehend.

Rarity took a moment to compose herself.

“We have debated amongst ourselves many time about the nature of a nightmare. It is a dream without a dreamer, a parasite, but they are very needy, fragile, and despairing. I know it would be nice to know that you worship triumphal gods. That isn't true for us, I'm afraid to report. In due time, when the pain is more manageable for everypony, we will tell you all the details, but I had to tell you know. I owed it to you.”
Rarity stood up. She pushed past her exhaustion to put on a face of determination, but still of sadness.
“So it is now that I get around to answering that those questions. you asked when I came in. Yes, this is a support group. I don’t know if our congregation can sustain itself anymore after what I discovered and what I’ve said, but I know I’m not the one to do it. I’m sick, deathly so. I ache with alien thoughts I can not, will not, answer. I can feel it inside my head, wriggling and trying to escape and get free.”

She sank to the floor again.
“That is all friends. I’ve said what I wanted to. Everypony can go home now and start rethinking their life without me, without this. My ambition, my blindness, has ruined us all. Alas...” She sighed, and appeared to drift off into unconsciousness. “You are all such good friends.”

All the the candlelight in the room wavered. The fifteen other ponies felt a chill creep from Rarity’s direction.

“It was fun while it lasted.” Amethyst Star stood up and stretched. “Let’s go.”

Cherry Berry, could not take her eyes off Rarity. There had to be more answers, something to explain how somepony name Illustrious Valor could exist now and in the past.
“Star, sit down please.” Berry said, as she herself got up. “I’m going to take Rarity upstairs. Then we can talk about what we do next.”

“Next?” Amethyst Star snickered. “You now I hate to be cynical, but we either willingly live a lie, or we go on with our lives. What’s to discuss?”

"I think you love to be cynical, Star." Cherry Fizzy mumbled.

"Friends, please, this isn't the time to be sharp with one another." Roseluck said.

Cherry got up from the duvet and approached Rarity. The long tale Rarity had told them should have revolted her, for fear for her hierophant's sanity or for horror at what had been done. But Cherry Berry was drawn in by the fantastical nonsense she'd just heard, and wanted to hear more, although she didn't want to voice her burning questions in front of everypony.
“Rarity said she’s given up her authority but she’s still the hierophant, now more than ever. She’s told us what she’s seen and it’s now up to us to interpret it. It’s our chance to improve. Are you going to make her sacrifice meaningless?”

“I can't be that sympathetic considering she lied to us. And that's ignoring she was basically trying to cause the apocalypse. Only her incompetence saved us.” Amethyst Star glared. “And maybe I choose to interpret Rarity’s ravings as a sign that I’m going home.”

“Sit the BUCK down!” Cherry Berry wheeled around. “You can pretend you joined the faithful for lifestylism, but we've been here for you in hard times, Amethyst Star! Don't lie to yourself and think otherwise, or you're just as guilty as Rarity is."

Amethyst Star’s eyes flashed with anger, but slowly she sank back into her seat. She looked around the room but everypony was avoiding everypony else’s gaze.

Rose uncrossed her legs, then recrossed them with her left leg on top. “We are all feeling some pretty strong things right now. Maybe we should wait to discuss this.”

“Yeah, we should wait Cher Ber.” Caramel piped up, then hesitated when her angry eyes turned to him. “Uh, that is, that without Fluttershy we only have what Rarity says. She might be, um, forgetting certain details. What she said might not be the most accurate thing she could tell us. We can’t make an informed decision like this.”

“But doesn’t what she’s said make sense?” Cherry Berry grumbled, her voice tainted by despair. Was any of it real, or just painted on lies to conceal an even more rotten core deceit? She pulled the sleeping form of Rarity over her shoulder. “Shouldn’t we choose to believe?”

“Look sis, you shouldn’t be launching into the existential questions right away. We need time.” Cherry Fizzy said. “I know I have to sleep on this.”

“Me too.” Caramel and several other agreed.

Amethyst Star smirked. “Meeting adjourned then?”

“Until Rarity fully recovers from her ordeal and Fluttershy is here, it would be best to adjourn.” Rose nodded. “That’s an amicable to everypony, right?”

Cherry Berry wasn’t listening. She was already on her way upstairs, carrying Rarity on her back. She was now getting angry and scared, but at her fellow faithful! They were so blasé, like nothing Rarity had said even mattered! Had they all taken the faith so lightly?
She carried Rarity to the bedroom and tossed her on the bed. “Stupid mare! There must have been a better way of letting us know than this.”

Rarity groaned in her sleep and curled up on her side.

Cherry Jumped up on the bed and pulled prone unicorn into a sitting position. “Tell me something that makes it all makes sense!”

Rarity slumped forward and began snoring.

Cherry released her. “I don’t know what I expected. Maybe you really have told us everything you can. I'm sorry.” She sighed. “You’re awake, aren’t you?”

All the candles in the house extinguished themselves. Cherry Berry heard the ponies downstairs yelp in surprise. With the curtains drawn it must have been pitch black down there.

“Shaking a sick mare? Oh, you are such a good friend.” Rarity said softly. “At least you apologized.”

Cherry shivered at the sultry words. “Neat trick with the candles."

"The Rarity you knew has undergone a catastrophic rebirth. I might look the same as I did, a normal mare, but I did not get off easy for my sins." Rarity rolled over to face Cherry. Her azure eyes glowed. "I hoped I could cured before I told everypony the truth, so I wouldn't have to commit this last lie by omission, but the choice was out of my hooves."

"The nightmare curse still has its grip on you." Cherry surmised. "Why did you have to let us? Things were going fine while we were ignorant. Telling us the truth might be the thing that destroys this faithful fellowship we had."

"In clear moments I feel the erupting urge to let the world know what I did, not out of guilt, but I need for vindication of my actions. For all the chaos I caused I can not let go of the feeling deep down that I did everything right." Rarity said wistfully. "I hold onto that feeling because in a certain way I succeeded. A Dark god did come down to our planet... though through altogether different means than I thought.

"You don't mean the Nightmare of the Moon? She's real? S-She's returned?" Cherry’s heartbeat quickened.

Rarity paused, then sternly shook her head. "Darling it would be better if you ignored me, and believed everything I was foolishly telling you was the fevered ranting of a mare gone mad. There is so much uncertainty right now. I would hate to tell you something that would put you in danger."

Cherry Berry felt an icy stab of fear and excitement. "How close is the Nightmare of the Moon to us right now? Is she staying in communication with you?"

Rarity pursed her lips. "If not for your own sake then be cautious for mine, Cherry Berry. If you catch Lady Moon's attention he wrath may follow back to me."

Cherry took a deep breath. She wanted to learn more, but Rarity was right. “I don't want to put anypony in danger.” Cherry said. She got up and backed away to the threshold of the room. “We all just want peace of mind, you know? Thank you for telling what you have. I won't share it.”

“I understand.” Rarity sighed, and lay back down.

Cherry Berry was halfway out the door, but hesitated. “Hierophant, Rarity, I believe everything you've told me because I happened to get an outside hint that substantiates a lot of it."

Rarity glanced down, then back up to Cherry. "Not a Ponyvillian?"

Cherry shook her head. "A jet black earth pony named Illustrious Valor is in our town right now. She came with the Duke, from Canterlot. She knows this land."

Rarity took a long time to answer. "Thank you. Somepony already told me."

"Good luck with everything, Mis Rarity.” With that, Cherry Berry descended to the ground floor where everypony was waiting.

Rarity squeezed her eyes shut, listening to the clip of hooves on took and the squeak of her stairs. The faithful’s safety was out of her hooves.

However Rarity was not left any time to herself to think. The wisps of smoke off the dead candles was swirled on an invisible breeze, and suddenly Rarity could feel an oppressive presence at the foot of her bed. She reluctantly opened her eyes.

Ancepanox was leaning over her makeup table, admiring herself in the mirror. “Good evening Rarity." The dark alicorn said in a rumbling voice.

"My lady." Rarity dipped her head. She couldn't keep her eyes from gravitating to the tapestry Ancepanox was still wearing like a cape.

"Don't blush. I only listened to the last few minutes of your story, but I thought you did very well." Ancepanox glanced at Rarity in the mirror. "How do you feel?"

"My head is going to rip in two. I feel a grinding and buzzing in my brain, like I am sitting on a rumbling grist mill." Rarity said quietly. "Please, I'm going to explode. Release the spell on me."

"Don't be so dramatic. The nightmare inside you is making you feel that way, but it means the suppressing magic is working." Ancepanox smiled. "And if it works on you, it can work on Applejack and Rainbow Dash."

"I wouldn't wish this on my enemies." Rarity whined. "Standing in front of those ponies I felt a voice screaming in my ears, telling me to rip their throats out. At the same time I heard sobbing and tortured wails, telling me to surrender to death. If I press my head back into my pillow a deafening whine drowns out all other sound. But it is all silent to everypony else! Maddening..."

Ancepanox turned away from the mirror, facing Rarity. "You might be going crazy, but there is no telling if it is because of the suppression spell, so I see no reason to release it."

Rarity slumped back in her bed and groaned. "I hope it makes you happy to see me suffer this way since you don't look too cheerful otherwise. Twilight must still be sleeping."

“Saying 'sleeping' gives the wrong impression.” Ancepanox grunted. “She's undergoing something similar to you, only she's lucky not to be lucid for it.”

Rarity groaned. "And what is her treatment? Similar to mine?"

"We will get to that." Ancepanox said. "I'm not too concerned about Twilight, actually, or you. This discomfort will pass. What does concern me are town ponies causing problems."

Rarity bit her lip. "Ponies?"

"Just Pinkie Pie, that excitable baker." Ancepanox shrugged. "Concerned about somepony else?"

"Well, no, nopony in specific." Rarity glanced away.

Ancepanox squinted at the unicorn, unconvinced. "Riiight."

Rarity hoped the nightmare alicorn wasn't peering into her thoughts somehow. She wanted to keep Ancepanox from learning about Iillor for as long as possible for selfish reasons. "What did you do to Pinkie Pie?"

"Nothing. Or rather I didn't hurt her. I gave her a bit of a show while I was checking on Twilight." Ancepanox smirked.

Rarity sighed. "Keep an eye on that mare. She is more dangerous than you think."

Ancepanox trotted to the window and looked out onto the darkened street. The Nightmare faithful were filing out of the house, saying their quiet farewells and disappearing down into the night.
One pony lingered in front of Rarity's house, looking up at the bedroom window. Ancepanox stared back, wondering if the mare could see her through the shadow.
"Rarity, even if little Pinkie Pie were hiding a horn and wings she would be an utterly inconsequential threat to me. Nothing is." Ancepanox said, keeping her eyes on the mare on the street, until finally the pony turned away and shuffled into an alley. "Still Pinkie or other ponies pose a problem because of the social question: How does ponykind react to my existance? If the wrong pony finds out and spreads rumors in the wrong way, that could be problematic. You of all ponies would agree that correct presentation is everything."

"I don't think obsessing over something like that is important at this stage." Rarity murmured, sinking further into her bed.

Ancepanox stepped back from the window. "Oh, am I obsessing? News to me. Not as though I could do two things at once." She said sarcastically.

Rarity didn't want to argue so she changed the subject. "You didn't come here just to ask me how my night was going."

"No, I came to chat. We're chatting." Ancepanox said. Maybe she detected Rarity's evasiveness but let it slide. "Ehh, but there was one interesting thing I thought would pertinent to your case. Twilight's state is... complicated. I bet you would never guess how I have been soothing her troubled soul."

With how the dark alicorn said it, Rarity could guess that the solution was particularly ironic. "I wouldn't take that bet."

"Dreams, Rarity. Someway, somehow, that troubled sleeper is calmed by the hunt." Ancepanox said ominously. "I don't think it's the Tower of the Bard either... It's strange."

Rarity was silent for a while. "Do you have a reason to think it's not the Tower?"

Ancepanox nodded. "Ever since the sun rose again, I haven't been able to enter her dreams at all."

"That is not a reason to draw any conclusions but I'm sure it fits in your logic." Rarity shook her head.

"There's the sass I know and love." Ancepanox flashed a fanged smile. "Anyway, I hunted Redheart and fed her dream to Twilight. Redheart should be fine in a day or two, and with luck, so will Twilight."

"Ponyville is going to descend back into plague panic if you keep that up." Rarity said.

"Oh don't worry, I think I can of better ways to hunt for my little Twilight." Ancepanox said.

Rarity closed her eyes and sighed. "Now we are getting somewhere."

"That's right Rarity. You've got a tangled little soul, but despite the necromancy I'm sure you've still got a dream in there somewhere. Otherwise how would the nightmare curse still sustain itself off you." Ancepanox leaned onto the bed, leering at the unicorn. "I wonder... how does a soul like yours taste?"

"My lady you're going to kill me if you keep experimenting with me." Rarity said quietly, fighting to keep fear out of her voice.

"Relaaax. I'm only posing questions." Ancepanox laughed, shimmying her shoulders and making the tapestry hanging draped over her back ripple. "I was thinking, if Twilight and you have similar symptoms, what would happen if I gave you the same treatment? It would be instructive if nothing else."

Rarity didn't understand what that meant. "Are you going to release the spell holding back the curse inside me?"

"No, I'm going to feed you. Then I watch what happens." Ancepanox giggled. She jumped up fully onto the bed.

Rarity scooted backwards, pressing herself against her headboards. "I don't like the sound of that."

"You don't have to like it. You just have to sit still, or I will have to remind you why you call me your lady." Ancepanox's playful tone sharpened. "I am going to solve the nightmare with your cooperation or not, so you had better get over yourself."

Rarity nodded. There wasn't anything she could say.

"Good." Ancepanox leaned closer, examining Rarity's eyes. “I know I'm hard on you, maybe harder than I should be. But you can't deny you've been a constant headache. Sometimes I think I'm overly tolerant.”

"Do you enjoy seeing me in pain?" Rarity whispered.

Ancepanox shook her head, continuing her inspection. "Of course not. I don't like to see anypony in pain, even if it's necessary, and even if I cause it."

Rarity sighed and kept silent for the rest of Ancepanox's inspection.

After a few minutes of staring at Rarity and prodding her with magic, Ancepanox spoke again. "Rarity, I'm going to feed you one of my dreams. That way, I can experience the process it undergoes."

Rarity closed her eyes. "Okay."

"Also, do your best to stay awake. I'd like for you to report how it felt. I mean, I know how eating a dream feels, but being force-fed one might not feel so good." Ancepanox cleared her throat. "Alrighty then. I need a bit of excitement. It puts me in the zone."

Rarity stared at her, confused.

"I can't just switch gears that easily. I gave Twilight a recently hunted dream, but the one I'm going to give you has been within me for a few days now. So excite me. Bring it to the surface. Maybe I'll forget if I'm giving or taking." Ancepanox pressed her face to the unicorn's, whispering throatily. "If I do end up accidentally hunting you, try to fight back. If it doesn't snap me out of it, it will at least make it authentic for me. Can you do that?”

“yes” Rarity lied, fighting back terrified sobs.

Ancepanox pushed the stay stands her luminous hair away with a hoof. “Then lie back and let me do the work, but try not to scream. We would hate to wake up the neighbors.”

Two nights and a day passed quietly.

Five Days after the Summer Sun

Another day, but it didn't feel different. Things had settled into a repetitious cycle very quickly. Fluttershy didn't mind the repetition, since most of her life had always been unexciting and repetitive. She did mind that she had been sucked into the daily lives of ponies she had no buisness caring about or interacting with. She just wanted to be left alone, but even if she had the confidence and strength to say it, the Nightmares would probably just ignore her.

Fluttershy watched the hands of her stately grandfather clock tick into alignment at twelve o'clock. Across the river she could hear the ring of the clock tower bell. Fluttershy only had a few seconds to consider the mechanical brilliance behind the clock dial when there was a blinding crack of dark purple magic in the empty seat across from her, and Ancepanox was revealed.

“Hello, Lady Moon.” Fluttershy welcomed her formally. The alicorn was as punctual as Twilight had been.

“Good afternoon Fluttershy.” Ancepanox bowed her head. Five days of company had warmed the pegasus to her slightly, and Ancepanox in turn was loving having tea every day again. At first they had just conversed in terse mumblings until finally they wordlessly agreed to act courteously around each other.
For Ancepanox, it was an odd time of near normalcy. For Fluttershy, it was sorely desired company, even if she couldn't admit she wanted it. Even a nightmare was better than loneliness. “How are you today?”

“Rainbow Dash was here a few minutes ago. I was getting used to her. I can’t blame her for preferring Applejack’s farm to my basement.” Fluttershy poured out a cup of tea and passed it to Ancepanox. “We talked a lot, but not about anything important.”

“Thank you.” Ancepanox cast a discreet spell to cool it off, but when she took a sip she found it too cold. “I have a question for you: Pinkie Pie."

"Is that a question?"

"You tell me. Rarity seems to think she could be a problem, or even a threat." Ancepanox said. "But Rarity is very cagey about what she means by that."

“I know what she means. Pinkie Pie grew up on a homestead downriver but spent many years in Canterlot.” Fluttershy reported.

Ancepanox half-shrugged. "Pinkie told me as much months back."

"Rarity used to think Pinkie was an imperial agent sent to spy on us. Now, or um, more recently, Rarity thinks Pinkie has connections to a rival cult or Star." Fluttershy poured tea for herself. “I didn't agree with Rarity but I still kept my distance from Pinkie. She isn't my type anyway. For you though, I I think you should wait and see. Pinkie is strange sometimes, but she is Applejack’s friend and a good pony. I don’t think she will hurt anypony unless you provoke her.”

“Hurt anypony? Why does everypony think she has that kind of power?" Ancepanox brooded. "As it stands, well, I did sort of attack her before the Eternal Night. I hunted her. Rarity even told me they met on the Tower.”

"Like I said my lady, wait and see.”

“Waiting’s been the modus operandi for most things so far.” Ancepanox sighed. The Eternal Night had been fast and intense. Everything after the sun started moving felt lethargically slow. She sat back in the couch and let herself relax. “You’ll be glad to know Rarity’s doing much better.”

“Good to hear. I miss her.” Fluttershy smiled, mixing a spoonful of sugar into her cup. “Do you think the suppressing spell can be used on other nightmares?”

“Absolutely. I’ve been getting some practice with manipulating dreams, with Rarity’s help of course. I’m on track to administer the spell to Applejack and Dash tomorrow.” Ancepanox said proudly.

“Tomorrow? Why, that’s amazing news.”

“Yes it is.” Ancepanox shifted gears. “In other good-ish news, Twilight woke up last night.”

“Really?” Fluttershy dropped her spoon in surprise. “Was she sane? Could she talk?”

“Yeah, she was fully responsive. Vibrant... A small miracle considering how much that mind of hers went through.” Ancepanox nodded. “It was a bit emotional honesty. She called herself Twilight Sparkle. I could see the way she moved and thought, almost before she did. Yes... She's not completely back to normal but she is not possessed or anything. Twilight Sparkle... Gods, I’ll never get used to that not being my name."
Ancepanox hung her head. "I can't disassociate her from my soul. Every fiber of my being calls out in recognition when I see her! She is me, yet other, a different soul and consciousness. I've given up guessing which one of us is the original, but I can't help but wonder about the nature of our relationship. I spawned out of Twilight, but she is lesser than I. Which is the parent, which is the progeny?"

Fluttershy wasn't sure how comforting she could be for such bizarre topics she barely understood. "Why has that question come up so often?"

"I don't know. It's part of how alicorns and gods understand relationships, I think. Massive entities of absolute will don't experience society and socialization like mortals do. They just... aren't able to recognize the self in the Other. To the alicorn, everything is the Other. Yet progeny are undeniably part of you. I can't get down to the specifics because I just don't know. Like, when Twilight Sparkle was talking to me-"

“Wait, you talked to her?!” Fluttershy gasped. “Moon, I thought you agreed with me! No contact!”

Ancepanox smiled guiltily. “She could see through my invisibility spell. I either explained or let her assume the worst."

"Her assumption couldn't have been any worse than reality." Fluttershy shook her head. "Tell me, did Twilight really see through your spell, or were you hoping to get caught?"

"You thought I agreed with you, and I did. I still do. I wish she hadn't seen me, but I can't take that back." Ancepanox promised. "Maybe it was because of similar magical attunment between us. Maybe I have less control over my magic than I think."

"You took an unnecessary risk even being there.” Fluttershy scolded. "You have been thinking about Twilight too much. You don't know who she is, and you have to accept that.

“Calm down. It wasn't all that bad. We were courteous and I was very convincing.” Ancepanox said tersely.

Fluttershy had the feeling that the black alicorn wasn’t telling the whole truth. “It’s your call, I guess.” Fluttershy said, letting her disappointment be known. "If you still agree with me, like you say you do, focus on other work. Let Twilight rediscover what being awake is like. If you constantly hover over her it will only hurt both of you."
Despite herself, Fluttershy wanted the nightmare alicorn to succeed. Then she could say at least one pony she knew was making progress in life.

Ancepanox glanced away. She appreciated Fluttershy’s honesty, if it was more bitter than she hoped. Nopony else could be relied upon to give her unbiased feedback.
“There there was another pony there last night, waiting for Twilight to wake up.”

“So?”

“So she’s a nightmare, and an old one at that. Not ancient like Luna or the Deava, only about two hundred years.” Ancepanox reported somberly. “Her name is Illustrious Valor, aka Iillor. Ring any bells?”

“Rarity mentioned her. She found her bones, or so she said.” Fluttershy recalled. “What makes you think she’s the same mare?”

“As I heard it from Luna, Valor was a hybrid of pony and changeling. Get this- She died after preforming blasphemous rituals with a nightmare altar, but her soul was saved by her connection to the nightmare. Valor languished on the moon for a hundred years and now she's back. Does any of that sound familiar?” Ancepanox sipped her cold tea. "Illustrious Valor escaped the moon through the altar around the same time I came to Ponyville. By then that crazy changeling Chrysalis was haunting the throne room. However, I don't believe Chrysalis released Illustrious Valor; She was a fly in the ointment and nothing more."

Fluttershy didn't see the point of the digression. "Okay, then why does it matter?"

"Because when Rarity built that nightmare altar she was aping Illustrious Valor's process. But where did Valor get the process from? That sequence of events, of preforming a blasphemy, dying, and coming back changed, has played out multiple times: Illustrious Valor herself, Luna, me, Rarity, Twilight, to name a few. Variations on that theme include Celestia, Agana, and umm, somepony in Canterlot I don't want to talk about yet."

"That just seems to be how the Dark magic works, rather than by somepony's intention." Fluttershy said.

Ancepanox shook her head. "I'm not saying it's intentional. I just find it intriguing that Illustrious Valor came back. Maybe Rarity's bumbling with the altar really did cause all this. Maybe this was the work of some greater force.”

Fluttershy set her tea cup down and crossed her legs. "You bring up too many questions you don't have the answer to, my lady. We have to be focussed."

"Actually in this case I'm asking the question as a rhetorical device. I think I have the answer." Ancepanox winked. "I listened in when Twilight and Illustrious Valor talked. Valor claimed to know Twilight Velvet."

"So... Twilight Velvet is responsible for the events here?"

"Highly unlikely, but Velvet might know who is."

Fluttershy sighed. "More questions and guesses. You don't know. My lady, at some pony in their life, a pony must accept that they will never have all the answers."

"That's coward talk. I'll grab heaven and shake out all its secrets." Ancepanox smiled. "Tomorrow, I’m going to Canterlot to inspect Agana’s remains and rendezvous with my progeny there.”

Fluttershy hung her head, accepting the swerve in the conversation. "You are putting even more on your plate. Have you been listening to me? If not, why are we talking? My lady, why are you going to Canterlot with unfinished buisness here? I thought you were going to cure Mis Dash and Applejack tomorrow.”

“Are you implying I won’t do both?” Ancepanox sounded insulted. "Also, 'treat', not 'cure'. The distinction is eminently important."

"You shouldn't be getting caught up on semantics. You know you should be staying here, making sure the nightmare is gone for good." Fluttershy said.

“Fluttershy, I’ll wait on ponies. Society, politics, and conquest can all be deferred indefinitely. Hell, I can outlive everypony in Ponyville (save Rarity) several times over and only then deign to civilize this rotten world.” Ancepanox laughed a mischievous, perverse laugh. “But I won’t wait on knowledge and power, for they are life, and I will enjoy living."

Fluttershy blinked. "What? What are you even talking about? Lady Moon, this has nothing to do with helping our ponies, which is what we have been talking about."

Ancepanox grinned. "I'm talking about the existence of an alicorn. To the alicorn, all else is the Other. They are islands. They are dreamless for only by recognizing part of themselves in the Other does the mortal form their own dream. Or perhaps... Perhaps the dream allows that recognition. It's a chicken-egg question." She shook her head, making her long mane dance around her shoulders. "Fluttershy, since Celestia is dead, I will never truly find out who I was. But there is a promise in Canterlot, that I will discover who I want to be. That is the god I am seeking, to pull down and take secrets from."

Fluttershy felt a tingle run down her spine, and realized to her own shock that Ancepanox’s words will thrilling her. She still absolutely detested her for the traumatizing harm she'd done, but at the same time the resolute ambition was addicting. Fluttershy cleared her throat. “You don't have to use fancy language for me, Lady Moon. I'm going to be impressed either way. I just want it understandable."

“You said it yourself in the dead of night: Ponies are fungible.” The side of Ancepanox’s mouth twisted down into a pensive fown. “Twilight’s here.”

There was a knock at the door. It was a meek and uncertain, more like a suggestion.
Fluttershy looked at the door, then at Ancepanox. “What do I do?”

“Send her away.” Ancepanox said.

“How? What will I say?” Fluttershy whispered desperately. She wasn’t good at off-the-cuff conversation. “Teleport away so I can let her in.”

“Send her away.” Ancepanox repeated, slowly and sternly. “Or I’ll answer and do it for you.”

Fluttershy swallowed her apprehension and walked to the door. She cracked the door open. “Twilight?”

And there Twilight Sparkle was, looking concerned. The mare of sculpted and manufactured innocence was awake.
Fluttershy was feeling a bit awed to know that it was real and not just words. Who was the pony in front of her? Who was the pony behind her? She was beginning to understand Ancepanox's frustrations.
“What brings you out here?” Fluttershy asked Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight's lip curled, like she found the question laughable. “There was an ellipse, Celestia is dead, and Ponyville’s hospital exploded with you inside.” Twilight put her hoof to the door and gently tried pushing it open. Fluttershy kept herself in the way, blocking it. “I needed to see if you’re ok.”

“Um, now’s not a good time.” Fluttershy said curtly.

“Why, what’s going on?” Twilight cocked her head and tried to get a good look in the room. Ancepanox stepped to the left to stay just out of sight.

“Nothing. It’s just not a good time.” Fluttershy was getting anxious that Ancepanox might intervene anyway. She tried pushing the door closed but couldn’t with a purple hoof in the way.

Twilight was getting visibly annoyed. “Why? Why is it not a good time for you?”

“It’s-” Fluttershy bit her lip. To channel her fleeting and fickle resolve, she thought of how angry she was in the Graveyard. Twilight Sparkle was an evil pony! Twilight Sparkle was a manipulative bastard!
Fluttershy cleared her throat. “It’s not a good time, for you.” She said impassively, shoving the door closed and throwing the lock. “Come back later.”

She heard the clop of Twilight’s hooves traveling back up the path. “That was weird.” She heard the unicorn say.

Fluttershy wiped her brow. “Oh dear. That was awful.” She turned and glared at Ancepanox. "Couldn't you just have left? Why are you ordering me around?"

Ancepanox giggled mischievously. “Nosy little mare, isn’t she.” Ancepanox trotted to the window and bent the blinds to peer through. She watched Twilight and a black earth pony walking in the direction of Ponyville. “That’s Iillor there. Hmm, I’m willing to bet she’s trying to find out from Twilight what happened during the Eternal Night.”

Fluttershy joined her at the window. “She’s small for a nightmare.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she has transformation abilities.” Ancepanox let the shades drop. “You should find out her agenda."

"You're ordering me around again. I'm not you servant, Lady Moon." Fluttershy said defensively.

Ancepanox groaned in mock annoyance. "Alright, well, would you feel better about just keeping tabs on Twilight?"

"I, um... I could do that." Fluttershy said with a sigh.

“Nice!” Ancepanox smirked. “I have some last minute stuff to take care of before I head off to Canterlot, so I might stick around until tomorrow if I can't get it done tonight. I'll leave you for now. I have to get ahead of Twilight."

"Either I see you tomorrow or after you get back from Canterlot." Fluttershy gave a shallow bow. "Have a nice evening, Lady Ancepanox, Nightmare of the Moon."

The subject of all that worry and speculation, Twilight Sparkle, was ignorant to their wondering. So the day passed on, Twilight and Iillor arrived back in Ponyville, parted, and Twilight stood once more in the threshold of the Golden Oak.

“Spike!” Twilight navigated the pillars of books covering the ground floor of the Golden Oak. The untrimmed branches outside blocked the moonlight, making the library rather dark. “Spike are you there?”

From the moment she’d awoke and realized Spike wasn’t at her side, Twilight had felt a gnawing fear as to the whereabouts of her dearest friend. The sign of something wrong was of absense: Spike hadn't been there when she'd woken up. Nopony had said a peep about him so far and admittedly Twilight hadn't said asked about him. She had assumed, very optimistically, that Spike would be happily waiting for her in the Golden Oak.
But the silence that greeted Twilight proved her naive hopes false.

"Spike!" Twilight called out again. A million possibilities flashed through her head. She felt distraught and powerless.
With anxious urgency, Twilight galloped up the stairs to the upper floor landing. The door the the bedroom was cracked open and a cool breeze was seeping out. Twilight pulled the door open with her magic.

Spike was tucked into her bed, snoring peacefully in sight of the grey moon.

"Spike." Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumping. She'd been worrying for nothing. Nopony mentioned him because it was all fine. "Thank goodness.” Twilight rushed forward and pulled the sleeping dragon into a trembling hug. “Spike I was so worried!”

“Uuuurgh…” The sleepy dragon groaned irritably, shivering awake. “Twilight?”

“Yes Spike it’s me.” Twilight was crying tears of happiness. “I’m so so sorry for leaving you here.”

“Leaving me?” Spike, still groggy. “What do you mean?”

Twilight released him. He wasn’t acting how she would have expected. “Tell me how the night went. Was everything okay? Did you get enough to eat? Did you get any help from the neighbors?”

“Twilight, you’re really confusing me. You’re acting like it’s been years.” Spike pointed out the window to the moon. “Look. It's barely evening. You’ve been out, like, a half hour at most.”

Twilight stood absolutely still, trying to process Spike’s words. "You don't..." She fell silent.

Spike's brow furrowed, and he hopped across the bed to the window. "Hang on, where did the storm clouds go? There was about to be a cracking storm." He turned back to Twilight. "Did I sleep a whole day?"

"A bit longer than that." Twilight whispered.

"Spike, could you remind me what I was out doing?”

“You were going out, but I can't remember what you were going out for. A map from Mis Fluttershy? Was that it? I'm confused.” Spike scratched his stomach. He turned back to Twilight was saw the deep worry on her face. "Hey, is something wrong?"

“It’s…” Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’ve been stressed.”

“True that.” Spike snorted. “I’m not feeling so tired anymore. I might go read for a while so you can have the bed.”

“Uh okay.” Twilight vacantly moved to the bed and sat. What was going on?

“You’re supposed to say ‘As if I need permission to use my own bed’. Honestly Twilight, get with the program.” Spike ribbed, but seeing Twilight stay worried, he grew concerned himself. “Twilight? Do I need to know something?”

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Twilight assured him weakly. “Why don’t you get yourself a night snack or something.”

Concerned or not, Spike couldn’t say no to that. “Can do.” He trundled out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen.

Twilight fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Sleep, and the vulnerability and total loss of control, didn’t seem very appealing at that moment. Finding out Spike was okay had only deepened her feeling of powerlessness. His fate, and even his memories, had been at the whims of a total unknown.
"Oh gosh." Twilight buried her face in her hooves. It was starting to sink in again just how much things had gone wrong.

Five minutes later, Spike came back up, holding half an egg sandwich in one hand and a crisp piece of paper in the other. “Hey Twilight, what’s this note say?”

“What?” Twilight lifted her head to see what he was talking about.

“This note you left on the door.” He tapped the top of the sheet, where her name was written in clean and legible script. It looked like Twilight’s own hoofwriting. “I can’t read it.”

Twilight took the letter in her magic. The body of the letter was in an ancient equestrian glyph script used by the ponies of Dneighper Valley before the unification. It was close enough to other hieroglyphs Twilight knew for her to understand it.

We put values on ponies all the time.
Tell me the cost of innocence preserved.
Tell me the cost of a friend.

Your new guardian angel is watching you. Tell me how to suffer.

At the very bottom were two crescent moon glyphs, the logograph of an old Roanish word: Nox. Literally twin nights.

“Come on Twilight, what’s it say?” Spike said between bites of egg sandwich.

Twilight averted her eyes. “It’s a message from the princess. Nonsense sentences, but she thinks she's being clever with the glyphs.”

“Princess Celestia is using normal post now? Somepony must be stealing her dragonfire again.” Spike laughed. “It’s nice to know she cares though, right?”

“Right.” Twilight agreed quietly.
Spike went back downstairs, and Twilight was left looking at the letter. "So... I'm going to have to start... start paying?" She looked out the window. The moon was beginning to rise, and she felt a tingled on the nape of her neck. "How... pitiful." Twilight mumbled, getting to distraught to finish her sentences in one go. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes.
It really was starting to set in how much had changed. "Goodby, princess, Celestia. Hello... the darkness."
Despondent, she lay down and wept into her pillow.

Night swelled and took over the land. But for all the planet now under her grasp, the new suzerain of the dark had eyes for that one mourning dreamer, and watched from a distance until they both drifted off, first the dreamer to her agitated sleep, then the watcher to her tasks.

Bridge Prologue 2: Friends of the Family

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Bridge Chapter 6: A Truth Comes to Light: Xaron

The stars love the timpani. The stars love the viola and violin. Even the novice could hammer out a tempo that could make the stars above jitter and dance in wild exultation. The stars love the drum. The stars love the horn most of all. It is never for the art of the music that drives the stars to their dervish dances, but for its violence, as even in harmony there is the violence of the waveform advancing through air and space. The stars love a chorus. Songs about lost loves please the stars less than songs about empty roads by moonlight. They dance and dance and twirl and vibrate, for there is never a moment that someone somewhere is not playing music for the sake of the stars alone. The stars are jealous, of mortals and of each other.

Three Weeks Before the Summer Sun

Coltcutta, several hours after dawn.

Gilda, was face to face with great danger. It was not just because of the danger of hooves, claws, swords, or guns. There was a haunting reminiscence in the creature she faced off with. It was silent but overwhelming.

A squawking and plaintive cry echoed through the warehouse. It sounded like Gilda was in big trouble. But Rainbow Dash didn’t look, didn’t even flinch- She was locked in her staring contest with the massive hippogryph before her.
Flowing robes and a thin smile, it was an inquisitor of Maredia, here to put a stop to heresy. The large hippogryph blinked, slowly, deliberately. One eye was real, the other fake- Or perhaps, in another sense, both were real.

“Your eyes, they show to me determination and strong will.” The inquisitor said. “You are difficult to fool.”

“What do you want?” Rainbow Dash barked. Gilda’s screams began to die out, until it was all quiet in the warehouse. “Hey, I asked you a question!”

“Lower your voice, too loud. Peace follows me, I am its bringer and receiver.” The hippogryph said. Her crackling voice was not very well suited to the dulcet tone she was attempting. “Put down your sword, so we may talk calmly.”

“You’d have a better time taking the claws off a bear! You can’t fool me, birdbrain.” Rainbow struggled to calm her breathing, shivering despite the heat. But she was resolute and did not lie.

“I do not pretend. Honesty and humility are lights most core to the gryph. I mean no harm, truly.” The inquisitor slowly ripped open the front of her red robe and shrugged it off. “No weapon. No sword in my soul, either.”

Dash flicked her eyes down to the hippogryph’s equine body. Though there was indeed no weapon, the inquisitor’s wings had been modified with slivers of silvery metal. Weapons in wings were something she’d only ever heard about in stories. The way they reflected the dusty light of the warehouse was oddly mesmerizing.
“Good gods, can you fly with those?” She whispered.

“I see what you think, but my tools do not destruction, they construct, add.” The inquisitor slowly circled to the right, clearing Dash’s path to the front entrance. “I am not enemy, you know, Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale.”

Dash blinked away her daze and lifted her cutlass again. “So you know my name. Congrats, but we knew you’ve been following us, creep.” She spat. “Why don’t you tell me what you want already?”

“You will not disarm? Very well. Talk first, yes.” The hippogryph squawked amusedly. Dash though she saw the gryph’s artificial eye twitch, of perhaps it was her imagination. “I am Sarbaz Yazatan.”

“And? Just another weird name to me.”

“Not name, no. Am. Khar. Profession, you say?” The hippogryph squawked amusedly. “Sarbaz, fighter. Yazata, the gods of the earth.” She reached up and tapped on the platinum sphere taking the place of her right eye. “I hunt, I fight, I suffer for Xaron, the one who fills me with blessings.”

“Good for Xaron, but I already know what you are. An inquisitor, which I hear is just another word for murderer.” Dash sneered. “What’s your name?”

“Inconsequential it is, I am Sharamin.” The servant of Xaron shook her head. The hippogryph seemed to be having fun. “Rainbow Dash, do you now desire my birth day and weight, or we proceed and talk?”

“Sharamin... And another weird foreign name. They just keep coming.” Dash scowled, but very slowly her dour expression turned into a slim smile. “How long have you been following us? Since the Sahella Strait? Or Andoulu? There's gotta be bigger fish." She pointed at the hippogryph. "You need something from us!"

“From you and Dame Gilda. Rather, not need, no, we do not need. But we like you two.” Sharamin laughed. “I desire see you prosper. Your inclusion with the plan brings benefit.”

The way Shamamin said it gave Dash pause. It was caring, but hinted of an doting obsessiveness. “So, you want to bring us in on a job or something?” Dash mulled. “Then why was Gilda shouting.”

“Scream as she did, Dame Gilda is in no danger. Two ponies with me came, unable to harm. She will come when able. We go check on her?”

“Stay right where you are.” Dash debated believing the inquisitor. Her heart, freshly aching from her hurt feelings, wanted to be seduced by the inquisitor’s promises. She looked over her shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of Gilda and what had happened to her. “So, Gilda and I can trust you?”

“Now and forever. Such is my vow, the Pale Flame smite me do I break it.” Sharamin pressed a hoof to her chin, then her forehead. Dash wasn’t familiar with hippogryph customs but she guessed it was a pledge. “Tak! This brings benefit to us.”

“If you say so.” Dash grunted.

The hippogryph’s ear flicked, and her metal eye quivered. “I hear approach. Gilda comes.”

Dash was about to retort when she heard the sound the inquisitor spoke of. It was supremely unpleasant on the ears, a kind of wet scape like spreading mortar over a brick.

Sharamin scowled, but not at Rainbow Dash. “Wrong? Qhui migie Ava Xaron?” Her platinum eye twitched again, trying to source the horrible sound. “The ponies dead? Then Dame Gilda…”

Gilda stepped out from behind one of the pillars.
She was covered from paw to crest in blood, and not just sprays, but as though she had been fully submerged, practically painted. Tangling around her claws and paws were somepony’s guts, and bits of skin were stuck to her beak.

“Rainbow? Are you out there?” Gilda’s eyes were covered by a skin blindfold cut from somepony’s blue pelt. She staggered forward, feeling out her path. “Everything is faded. And my head, it hurts!”

“GILDA! Gilda can you hear me?!” Dash felt her steadfastness falter. She turned back to the inquisitor. “What’s happened to her?!”

“She play rough with the others, it appear.” Sharamin clacked her beak nervously. The platinum eye glanced up, between Gilda and Dash. “Dame Gilda, have you remembered something?”

“I’m- I’m back home. Godswing. It’s so cold.” Gilda ran a trembling talon over her cheek. “Rainbow, save me. Save me from Black Bell!”

Rainbow Dash dropped the cutlass and bounded to Gilda’s side. She scraped as much of the wet blood off as she could. “Gilda, it’s okay. I’m right here, okay?”

Sharamin, increasingly nervous, pranced in place. “This goes not how we expected. Dame Gilda’s reaction most ill... This reverie reeks of Star’s magic. Curses upon the Graffina of Gottrakt!”

“Did you… You must have caused this!” Rainbow accused.

“Nay, nay. Ah, well, somewhat. Xaron apologises. That devil, Black Bell, spoke a spell onto Dame Gilda reduce her utility to us!” The servant of Xaron trotted around Gilda, looking her up and down. “Be wary. She may do at you as she did the other servants. Evisceration, Xaron says.”

“Black Bell… Yeah, she said Black Bell. Oh no.” Gilda had never been very forthcoming about her childhood, and even less about her stepmother Black Bell. Dash’s impression of her was sketchy, but absolutely terrifying. She took a step away from Gilda, fearful. “Will she be okay? What can I do?”

“It being we caused Dame Gilda’s plight, Xaron shall aide her. I and you execute his desires, az’megheh.” Sharamin pushed Gilda’s rump into a sitting position.
She turned her head to the left and met it with her wing. Very carefully, she wedged one of the metal shards between her skin and the platinum eye, and popped it out.

“Guh” Dash gagged. The back of Sharamin’s left socket was bare bone.

“The wind was always strong here. The north wind was the worst.” Gilda was starting to babble. “The naked slaves would freeze to death before they even got off the docks, but that didn’t save them. Dying is only the beginning of the torture on Godswing.”

“Dame Gilda would most upset losing an eye. Praise be, there are other ways interface.” Sharamin scooped up the platinum eye off the ground. Dash noted that her words were more accented and harder to understand than before she’d taken out the eye. “Rainbow Dash, please hold open her mouth-beak.”

Dash hesitated. “What are you planning? She’ll choke on that thing.”

“Eih? Nah nah! Dame GIlda will not choke if not swallow, merely hold she will.” Sharamin cawed. “Hurry please. The bile of the mind bubbles baddly in her head.”

Giving in to the hippogryph’s unwavering gaze, Dash pulled Gilda’s beak open. Gilda didn’t resist, but nor did she stop trying to talk, resulting in airry gargling. Sharamin had to encourage Dash to pry a bit more before she could nest the platinum sphere in. Gilda’s tongue licked over the foreign object.
Slowly though, Gilda’s spasms and gargling stopped. She slid down to her stomach and lay there, taking long breaths. The platinum eye staring out from between her mandibles looked like a strange third eye, or the apple of a stuffed pig.

Dash disentangled the guts from Gilda’s paws now that she was restive. “Is she going to be okay?”

“Away from me, I can not hear Xaron. But Dame Gilda’s calm is good. The spell of Black Bell is bested.” Sharamin explained. “Tak, Xaron is orphan master to dreams, as all Yazata.”

“Eversnake was not nearly as annoying as you are.” Dash let out all the anxiety she’d had in a choppy sigh. “But I guess you’d have to kind of a freak to be a murdering zealot.”

“Rainbow Dash, you aim at maim with your words. I am not blind deaf to the talk such as that.” Sharamin, since her commandingly upbeat facade had fallen, had a much more cautious and harsh look about her. Up close, her fur-parting scars were much more intimidating, some recent and pink. “All other play at faith, make amusement with religion. Only gryph, and Sarbaz Yazatan, do as necessary. ”

“You’re not going to make a convert out of me, pal.” Dash rolled her eyes.

“Hmm, as you say. We talk, of business.” Sharamin invited Dash to sit. “Of khar.”

“Profession.” Dash sat. “First I gotta know how you know about me and Gilda.”

“First at Andoulu, I saw you. Only small too late there, did Daring Do escape the Sarbaz Yazatan.”

Those two sentences were so loaded with information Dash almost exploded. Gilda had been a hundred-percent spot on with her guess that the inquisitors were after Daring Do. Now the way Daring had snuck onboard the Flyer Kyte, and all her following paranoia, made sense. Dash sensed a conflict of loyalties in her near future.

“I do not fail often. I was angry, most destructive in hate. Next place my khar was needed, was Reqheh Besurje, I think ponies call it Stirrup Town. I punished them. Death followed me, and the ponies heard me say it.” Sharamin leaned back and closed her one good eyes, and began reciting something like a poem.
“I am the bringer and receiver of death. The lords of darkness welcome, and unbidden I trot until the gates of damnation close. Death follows me.”

Dash was surprised. The way the poem sounded made her think it wasn’t a translation from the maredian tongue, but equestrian. “Gilda was telling the truth. Stirrup really was wiped out.”

“Thieves hide there no more.” Sharamin cackled triumphantly. “I learned Daring Do, lowborn heretic, was mastermind there too. I made a trap for her, but Dame Gilda broke it instead. I did not know her, but Xaron did, and he gave me the love he had. Dame Gilda and you became the new task for my khar. I reunited.”

Dash would have remembered if Gilda had ever said anything about some ‘god’ named Xaron. The was a non-zero probability that Xaron was just a schizophrenic voice in the insane mind of the inquisitor projected, as Dash was gathering, on her artificial eye. It didn’t explain Gilda’s swoon though.
“So, you followed the Kyte here with the two issues of us and Daring.”

“Yes! Xaron urged patience, telling that I let the heretic go to catch later. I obey. Xaron said I give a job-test for you and Dame Gilda, so I and you have honesty and humility for honor of Yazata. I obey again.”

“You pretty much lost me on that last part. Humble’s never been my thing, really. Not honesty either.” Dash said. She looked over to her cutlass, laying on the ground on the other side of Sharamin. She had a feeling it would have been useful if she’d been planning to turn the inquisitor down. But she wasn’t going to. “What’s the payout?”

“Fulfilling wealth, friendship, benefit. Most marvelous, thanks of Xaron. More pleasure than that gold full bag brings.”

“Must be a hard job to earn a reward like that.” Dash sniffed. A certain mercenary instinct was taking hold of her, and now that Gilda was seemingly out of harm’s way, she was approaching the situation with cold logic.
More valuable than any currency, it was said, were connections. Her current job was with Magistrate Mare, who’d proven multiple times her ability to get in over her head. Odds were, the plucky bureaucrat would end up dead before forty. Daring Do too had gotten on the wrong side of the law, with inquisitors and unfeeling corporate force of the EOC looming over her.
On the other hoof was Sharamin, and what she offered. One of the foremost agents of Maredia, one of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful states second only to Equestria, was offering an alliance of sorts. “But there’s been one thing you’ve been dancing around, Sharamin. What do you need us to help you with?”

“A small thing.” Sharamin reached into the folds of her wadded up red robes and extricated a dagger, and held it out to Dash. She noted with alarm that the dagger was the same one as the blue unicorn thug had used, its pommel embedded with teeth. “We kill the Maharajaja of Coltcutta, and free his secret.”

Gilda hated the north wind. It whipped the northern sea into a frenzy of icy and salty spray, and with its cutting gale stripped all vegetation and life from Godswing. It had made many assignments of solitary contemplation into moist and miserable experiences.
But those experiences had done their purpose. After hundreds of hours with only the shriek of the wind over the rocks and the crash of waves on the jagged shoreline, the young Gilda had heard what she was there to hear. Carried off the arctic ice sheets south to Godswing was a windblown whisper, come down from an unknown world. The students of the School of the Black Bell listened, and gradually, they would grow to understand secrets too far to see.

It was mid afternoon on Godswing. It made sense. Latitudinally, it was a quarter circumference west from Coltcutta. The basalt mountain that dominated the island was beginning to cast a shadow over the water.

“Gilda! Gilda!” A desperate voice said behind her, difficult to hear over the whistling wind. Black Bell was approaching, braving the sharp rocks and tempest. She was not wearing her roc skull, instead letting the wind ruffle her feathers freely. She looked overjoyed. “I can hardly believe it! Finally, you’ve come back to me.”

Gilda couldn’t see her own body, for of course it was still in Coltcutta. In Black Bell’s eye she could see a reflection, a oblong chunk of the black basalt omnipresent on Godswing, encased in the faint shimmer of golden magic. Of all the things her dreaming perspective could have latched on to...

“You are back. I’m simply… overjoyed. These past ten years have stretched out longer than any before in my thousand years of life. Your absence had weigh heavily on your father and I.” Black Bell looked exactly how Gilda remembered her, maybe even a bit younger if it were possible. “It was hard being patient. I knew that you would eventually, inevitably, dream this dream again. All that time, I was thinking about what I could say to you, to convince you to come back.”
Gilda was helpless to do anything but watch and listen, but perhaps it was for the best. She knew she probably wouldn’t have been able to keep herself from yelling and antagonizing Black Bell until one of the did something they regretted. At the same time Gilda hated the sinister griffin, she loved her.
“But at the same time, I know you must have changed greatly over the years. You are not the naive and willful girl who slept through cooking class anymore. But surely, my child, this will not keep you from appreciating the majesty I have created in your absence.”

The wind stopped. Gilda saw that the sea was now entirely placid as well.

Black Bell could not restrain a growing smile. She held a glowing talon into the air, warping the world to her will. “This is the power we’ve been after, Gilda. We are at the threshold of being able to reshape the world how we want.”
She began dance to the now absent tune of rushing wind, enraptured in her euphoria. “Oh, GIlda, this is it! This is the justice we can give. My poor child, you didn’t believe me, didn’t believe that what we were doing here was worth it. “

Storm clouds began form around the basalt mount,hiding the sun behind a curtain of grey. Black Bell’s mood similarly darkened. “Somepony- nay, some alicorn, is trying to pull you away into another dream.”

The grey clouds contorted and twisted, pushing down in some areas and pulling up in others, until out of the turmoil the shape of an eye could be seen. Lightning streak inside the clouds, creating the complex but fleeting patterns.

“Xaron. So, it was one of Wintertide’s ilk who found you.” Black Bell said sourly. “As Ava go, there are worse. He has a habit to pick narrow-minded bigots as his servants. I release you to his care. I trust that you are smart enough to see through any lies he offers.” She stepped back. “Gilda, a critical moment approaches that will upturn the balance of this world. When it happens, be prepared to seize the moment. Always know that your father and I will welcome you back.”

Gilda’s perspective was jerked into the air, and the world around her faded into murky dark. For a minute, she could see a universe of the faint motes of dreams, nebulas of coursing thought, and tangled thought; The deeper Dreamscape. That faded away as well.

Gilda’s reintroduction to sensation was a her own breathing. She felt the tickle of grass on her back, and when she opened her eyes she saw clear night sky full of stars. The air was thin, but warm and dry.
She was laying in the middle of what looked to be the garden courtyard of a palace complex. The buildings around her were of beige stone interpolated by pointed arches and fresco, topped off with turquoise tile. Towers stretched up to the sky, reaching with all their might to reach into space.

“Maredia.” Gilda sat up. She had never been to the reclusive mountain nation, but even in a dream the feel of the place was unmistakable. Under the sent of the fragrant flowers planted everywhere was a acerbic smell, like some was burning something nearby.
She yelled into the air. “This is a very fine dream you have, but you wouldn’t let me loose in it unchaperoned.”

She heard the patter of feet on tile nearby. A wavering and melodic voice spoke from the shadows. “I’m just giving you a moment. Are you well?”

Gilda looked for the source of the voice. “Peachy. Vulgar memories attacked me earlier, but I got the best of them.”

“Naturally so, Dame Gilda. Or as graffina Black Bell said, ‘my child’. But that’s simply too charming for me.” It was on the masculine side of gender neutral, but shifted up and down the scale. A diminutive figure stepped into the starlight.
Xaron had taken on the appearance of a crimson ibis, and was no larger than one either, barely coming up to Gilda’s chest. However the tiny bird had many, many more legs than it should have, and it glided like a caterpillar on the hundred spindly legs. It only had one eye in the center of its face, whose jagged pupil widened and contracted at random. “It has been too long, my darling niece. Do you recognize me? My my, you’ve gotten taller since last we met.”

Hearing that voice agitated Gilda’s memories. She saw visions of a tawny hippogryph male standing on black basalt cliffs of Godswing, watching the raging ocean below. In the place of his left eye was a platinum orb, it’s smooth surface reflected the world in inverse. “Yes, I remember your visit to Godswing. Xaron, child of Wintertide, Fire of the Gryph, and seer of the Sarbaz Yazatan. You had a different vessel, a male.”

“Correct. Your memory has indeed returned.”

Gilda frowned. “The only reason you stood out to me is because of how many slaves you brought.”

“I remember you making the same mistake then.” The Xaron chided. “The Ava have servants, I corrected, not slaves.”

“I saw what you did to those ponies. Stone eyes don’t lie.” Gilda clucked her tongue.

With such a narrow beak, Xaron’s manifestation did not emote well, but Gilda got the impression he was smiling. “It is taught among the gryph that the Ava’s methods are inscrutable, their goals unknowable.”

Gilda was already getting impatient. “Save the preaching. No doubt, Rainbow Dash is getting the same in the waking world. I’m ready to hear whatever you have to say, but if you try to gaslight or lampshade me, you won’t find me very receptive.”

“Oh well done, well done indeed.” Xaron chuckled. “A scholar comes into my dream, my memories, and addresses me flippantly. You Gottrakt griffins are a league above.”

“Do me a courtesy and cut the bullshit.” Gilda snapped. “What is in the sarcophagus Daring Do has? Definitely not an alicorn, since it’s a fake.”

“A replica, Dame Gilda, but not a fake. Yes, it was not made by the maredians, and does not hold a Fire of the Gryph, but it has much the same purpose. Reverence, but at the same time, containment.” Xaron said. “The real-world counterpart of this palace complex is one big sarcophagus. My kin and I are all effectively dead and buried, and receive from the same ‘servants’ our praise and our shackles.”

“I only asked one question, bucko. Try again. What’s in the box?” Gilda demanded coldly.

Xaron struggled out as short an answer as possible. An alicorn without flourished and flowerly monologuing was a neutered being. “A dead horse.”

“And the significance of that is…”

With some difficulty, Xaron sat down and pacified his myriad legs. “Would you like for me to start from the top?”

Gilda too made herself comfy on the grass. “Oh, please do.”

“Over the course of your education, you doubtlessly heard a creation myth or two. The various pantheonic griffin mythologies, for example. The sun-worship equestrians like to say that the sun, source of all virtue, created the earth. Other pony civilizations retain the ancient alicorns as their gods of choice. All of those have their tidbits of truth. For you, my niece, I give a greater framework.

Before we begin in earnest, I will admit that I do not have much of a memory beyond a few centuries ago. None of the Ava do, except perhaps my lord father Wintertide, and he is reticent of the secrets of the past.
The maredians are insatiable hunters of the arcane. Everywhere the Sarbaz Yazatan operate, they are seeking artifacts to plunder. What I know is what they have pieced together. Soon, I fear, the Fire priests will find a way to channel magic without the Fires of the Gryph, and my kin will lose the only thing we have.

Ahem…

Approximately ten thousand years ago, a tribe of mountain hippogryphs began to hear something. It was a faint whisper that intruded on one’s mind, filling empty heads with knowledge. Fire, agriculture, bronze working, architecture, all the tools to begin a primitive civilization. The proto-mardians called these whispers, who had given them the light of truth, the Fires of the Gryph.

The hippogryph’s blessing came inadvertently. The children of Wintertide, the Ava, were at our lowest. Once, we shared a cosmic home with the deava, our darker counterparts and embodiment of all conceivable evils, but there could be no harmony between us. We were defeated by the Deava and cast out of the heavens, and were forced to make our home in the skies of this planet.
Exposed to the physicality, the ava were gradually becoming corporeal. After several millennia this shift would yield the ancient alicorns. But during this time mortals were a new phenomenon to us, and aside from deviants like Myriadess we stayed away from them. On the highest peaks if the tallest mountains, such as where the mardians lived, they could hear our voices. Refrains from the limitless dreaming sky, by proxy.

In another part of the world, there was another whisper being heard. The Bard, proud ponies of the deserts of Sahella, felt upon their cheeks the breath of a much darker divine.

When the Ava came to earth, they did so in the knowledge that the Deava could not follow them. Any amount of matter would disperse an unformed god’s manifestation. In that way, retreating here was the ultimate concession that we Ava could never match the Dark Ones, and that dirtying ourselves with physicality was more befitting of us.
One of the Deava did follow us though. Anima Astral Nacre imbibed physicality and joined us as a gesture of reconciliation, or so she claimed. Wintertide dared not let her live inconspicuously among us, and so with matrimony did he make certain her ambitions were known to him.
Astral Nacre’s intentions were obviously anything but kind. Her first target were the mortals underneath us, and her dark allure sung to the lonely ponies on their sand dunes.

With Astral Nacre’s voice in their ears, the Bard began to advance rapidly. They went from a society barely mastering the wheel to a civilization of steel-smiths and philosophers. A great city was founded in the heart of the desert, an oasis for both the thirsty and the clever.
One day, Astral Nacre’s voice changed its pitch. The Bard, seduced by its melody, were twisted by the new compulsion that pounded in their skulls. A tower, she asked of them, that could reach all the way up to the sky. Once it reached high enough, mortals could tear down the Ava and finish what the Deava could not.

The Bard devoted the combined efforts of their people into the tower. The first iteration was of sandstone, and it collapsed less than four-hundred hooves off the ground. The second iteration was of marble, and it rose a measly thousand hooves before it fell. Obsidian, black as night, was mined from the dead volcanoes under the seas of sand, and comprised the third iteration. The obsidian tower did not sway, did not falter, and clawed its way higher on the toil of the Bard. It was their tower, but at the same time they belonged to it.
As the Tower of the Bard rose, it began to conduct the voices of the alicorns, both Ava and Deava, better. Whispers grew louder, suggestions became thoughts, distant gods became near. Many left the city, choosing to endure the desert rather than hear the intruding susurrations.
The Bard suffered, but did not relent. Those who could not stand the god’s power were unworth, those who went mad were blessed. The volume of revelations swelled, offering power beyond mortal reach, but the Bard were too preoccupied to act on them.

The tower reached a kilometer high, then two, then three. Every meter brought them closer to the alicorns and made the voices stronger. The power conducted down the tower to the city below, where it pooled into a stupefying haze. Jumbled words and emotions of higher beings is unhealthy, to say the absolute least, and the Bard began to mutate subtly. The voices began to subtly terraform the hapless ponies’s minds and dreams, to make them more hospitable for their grandeur.

But the Bard built too high, and too ambitiously. After a hundred years of construction, the tower came in range of the whispers of the cosmos.”

Xaron fell silent. His turned his eyes skyward, to inspect the twinkling stars above. “Questions?”

“How far away are the galaxies and stars?” Gilda asked.

“Trillions, nay, trillions of kilometers away. No power, mortal or Ava, could reach them. But they can reach us triflingly easily.” Xaron lifted a hoof up, as though to caress one of the lights, but thought better of it. “Have you ever been to the Deeper Dreamscape, Dame Gilda?”

“When I was a student.”

“The Dark beings of the cosmos operate on a level inconceivable to us down here. Reality is their dream, outer space their dreamscape. We down here are just parasites, infesting and polluting their dreams with our thoughts.” He shivered. “What utter carnage it causes when the stars stop their idle whispering, and begin to shout. What horror it inflicts when the cosmos pays attention to us.

“And pay attention it did. The Tower of the Bard was the earth’s antenna, and through it the Bard received the unfiltered Will of the Dark Ones.
Utter ruination, complete and instant, coursed down the obsidian spike to the Bard’s city. The Dark One’s words were too powerful for mortal minds, even those made fertile by Astral Nacre’s whispers. The lucky ones were disintegrated, and they passed to Elysium with their dreaming sanity intact.
The less fortunate were horribly corrupted. Those with a poor grasp of the divine had their flesh and souls revert to a more primal state, in an effort to escape the sin of knowledge. The scholars, priests, and magicians had their very souls burned away by the Dark voices, leaving empty vessels for Deava to inhabit. The most knowledgeable and powerful retained their sanity at a terrible cost, for the Dark inflicted upon them a mad hunger of dreams, making them the first nightmares.

The records to this point have come from archaeological clues. Written accounts, first-hoof and hearsay, are all but nonexistent until Astral Nacre descended, for it was she who inscribed upon platinum tablets her deeds in the lost city.
For you see, Astral Nacre saw the deathly slaughter down below with disappointment. She had been cultivating the Bard for her purposes. That her cosmic kindred had so thoughtlessly erased a hundred years of work made her angry. She ordered the Dark Ones to turn their attention elsewhere, but they could not help themselves.”

Xaron paused again. Gilda took it as a sign he would be asking another question.
Indeed he did. “Dame Gilda, what do the whispers sound like?”

“It starts as nothing, a phantom in the wind. You wonder if it’s really there or a trick of the mind.” Gilda explained. “Before you realize, words in a language you don’t know start leaking into your inner voice and your conversations. You start listening for real, and when you close your eyes you begin to see symbols and patterns. After a couple decades, my teachers said, you can clearly hear the will of the Deava lingering at space’s edge.”

“That sounds like gross hyperbole. Even Clover could not do that unaided.”

“Well, I’ll let you sit in the north wind and decide for yourself.” Gilda smirked. “But wait, you already tried that last time you visited Godswing. You’re deaf, and your silly servants can’t hear anything but you. The cosmos has nothing to say to the Ava. Just us mortals.”

“For how much you hate your mother’s work, you defend her quickly.”

Gilda glowered, but she didn’t have a proper response. “She’s my step-mother.”

“It’s not a very big step. You two are very alike. So, how does it feel to be beside your step-mother at the leading edge of your species’s evolution?” Xaron pried.

To which Gilda had no answer but a sour gaze.

“For me and the gryph, plunging into the past has evoked a very similar feeling. Every time you think you understand what you are, the bottom falls out again, and new secrets are revealed.

“For the Bard it was, understandably, different. They were not digging, but climbing. Too bad they were doomed from the start. A fate like their awaits any who pry too far into the unknown. Unless, like Black Bell and many others have sought, there is a way to tear down god and get her secrets without her being able to fight back. You can’t help but wonder…

Those who survived the Dark One’s initial attack were plagued by the mutated husks, hollow shells, and hunger-mad nightmares. The tower which had become the focus of their civilization and religion was broadcasting Dark madness, and the city containing all their recorded knowledge was burning around them.
Astral Nacre’s arrival on the surface brought a great hush, it was said. In that time, no mortals had the facilities to see magical beings like the ancient alicorns, so she came to them as a dominating voice and cold presence. All the corrupted ponies and malformed beasts bowed down to their overlady, not just as the greatest of the Dark Ones, but as the true face behind the whispers. Of course, she was calculating how to use the tragedy to advance her goals.

Astral took the afflicted under her care and sent the others into the desert. The Bard were nomads once more, stripped of their anachronistic god given grandeur. Astral held two back: A mare by the name of Velvetine, and a stallion by the name of Vlelveran.
The platinum tablets go on at length about Velvetine. She was the sister of one of the great archons of the city, Vlelveran, and was herself an skilled listener, some say the most skilled. She was attentive enough to Astral Nacre’s whispers that her dreams had been completely remade. Velvetine could survive the presence of the Dark Ones unharmed.
Vlelveran is less known about. He did not have his sister’s prowess, so he was one of the unfortunate few to be twisted into a nightmare. He did, however, possess a sight that transcended mortal powers. His eyes could see the magic, the Light and Dark and grey that flowed through the air and along the ground. With that sight, Vlelveran was able to see the ethereal Astral Nacre and the Dark Ones who accosted his people from just beyond the edge of space. As Astral commanded, he relayed.

Now, my dear. we get to the point.
Velvetine began to climb the Tower of the Bard. For a thousand miles she climbed against the flow of the Dark Ones’ power. Vleveran and the nightmares stayed in the husk of their city, and waited.
Astral does not go into detail when she inscribes what happened to Velvetine at the top of the Tower of the Bard. Her mind, a living ritual, was able to steal from the cosmos without punishment. In the era when the unicorns of Old Equestria were still hunting game, she was witnessing the pure aspects of Light and Dark. That remade her into more.

The tower shattered. Obsidian rained down on the dead city and the surrounding desert. Astral Nacre protected the nightmares and the abominations as best she could, but she was not corporeal and could only do so much. The rockfall lasted for days.
The last chunk to fall carried with it the body of Velvetine. She had, and I quote Astral here, ‘Greatly blessed in death’.

After that, Astral inscribed the story in platinum and buried it under the rubble. The Sahella sands swallowed the city, and the only surviving proof it happened was the myths of the Bard.

We Ava, utterly ignorant of doom averted, welcomed Astral Nacre back from her mysterious sabbatical and went about our boring lives. Our benign voices continued to grace the maredians, the griffins, the equestrians, the highland zebras, and wherever else one was close to the sky.
And then of course Astral betrayed us and obliterated the ancient alicorns with her play at reviving the omnipotent Giver. The Ava became the Fires of the Gryph, prisoners of mortals.”

“Yeah, nice story, but let’s focus on the stuff that matters to me.” Gida said. “Daring Do said she pulled the sarcophagus from the ruins of the Tower of the Bard. But the sarcofagi for the Fires of the Gryph came centuries after the fall of the tower. Did the Maredians copy the Bard?”

“No. The replica is much newer, only nine-hundred-ninety-nine years old.”

“ -1 SS. The year of the Nightmare Pretender's rebellion. Oddly specific. I can’t remember anything interesting happening in Sahella in that timeframe.” Gilda scratched her chin. “So… Did someone dig up a body, put it in the replica, and put it back in the ruins? No, there wasn’t such thing as archeology back then.”

“You are missing the obvious.”

“The obvious answer would be Velvetine, but you said she died on the tower. Who then? Vlelveran? I don’t know a nightmare’s lifespan.” Gilda grasped at answers. “Astral Nacre or Clover, maybe?”

“Gilda, darling, think about who we are dealing with. The Bard have lost all their knowledge of the gods and their city outside of myth and conjecture. Some pony of enormous religious significance, newly ‘deceased’, is interred in a copy of the most holy graves in the world. This horse was interred like a god.” Xaron posed. “Now what does that tell you?”

“Grr, you just said Velvetine was dead!”

“I said that Astral Nacre said she was dead, or rather ‘blessed in death’. Who knows what that means to a Dark One such as her.”

“Stop jerking me around! What happened to her on the tower? How could she die if she was already dead?!” Gilda demanded. After a moment of angry pouting, she realized something. “Wait… She doesn’t have to be dead. Like the Fires of the Gryph, reverence and containment in one. Imagine this: On the eve of the Celestiaan’s battle, an ancient hierophant goes to sleep. His/her followers entomb her and put the sarcophagus in the ruin of their holy city. It’s undesturbed until Daring Do digs it up.”

Xaron nodded slowly. “There’s one way to find out.”

“This could be big. Who knows what secrets Velvetine could have! I mean, if it really is her, and she is who you say she is.” GIlda cawed eagerly. “It’s obvious why the Stars or Black Bell might want that sarcophagus, but why do you? I haven’t heard how this story ties to the Ava or the ancient gods, aside from Astral.”

“Oh come now Gilda. Does this history not fill you with burning curiosity? Why would I not desire to know more about my mother and her deeds?” Xaron shrugged. “We potentially have a ‘firsthand source’ for the nature of the Dark Ones. That is powerful leverage.”

Gilda had a lot to think about. Xaron could be, and probably was lying, or at least exaggerating certain things. But there was indeed one way to find out.
If there really was a mare named Velvetine in the sarcophagus, Gilda would be pleasantly surprised. If said mare showed signs of alteration, then Gilda would have to start thinking about how she was going to go forward. If that mare was alive, Gilda might find herself diving headfirst into the perilous life she’d tried to leave behind on Godswing.
“Can you and your servants handle Daring Do by herself?” Gilda cautiously asked. It would be good to know how many hippogryphs and Ava she might have to deal with.

“We could have even whilst you and Mis Dash defended her.” Xaron said with a tinge of smugness. “Though my servant protests, it is much better to watch her from a distance until more is unfolded.”

“What does Do know?”

“Next to nothing, I should say. Whomever she works for will only have told her the absolute minimum. Without the education one could get from Canterlot or Gottrakt, it is doubtful she could piece things together.”

“Hmm… I let slip that I was from Godswing, and she started asking a lot of questions. Yet she wasn’t suspicious. She’s totally paranoid about inquisitors though. So, yeah. She’s clueless.” Gilda said. “But somehow, she learned about the sarcophagus, and about it’s connection to a ‘treasure’ in Chitin.” She leaned forward slightly. “What do you know about the treasure?”

“Not much. Chitin is a very large place. Who’s to know what that mare thinks she’s found.” Xaron’s smile did not give much credence to that claim. “But that it requires Velvetine and Vlelveran’s sarcofagi would suggest it is something related to the Tower of the Bard.”

So, the sarcophagus that Do had been trying to buy from philosophiser Hyle and sniper Pip in Stirrup had been Vlelveran’s. It was a second replica.
Xaron could have been talking completely out his ass about ‘other artifacts’. Everything he said might could have been learned from Vlelveran’s sarcophagus after the he and the inquisitors sacked Stirrup. They had been hunting Daring believing she had a genuine Fire of the Gryph. Not that they knew, none of them had bothered intercepting her at Coltcutta, except for Xaron.
The ava was pursuing things for his own end.
Gilda was getting a clearer picture. “Do you suspect one of the other Stars is behind Daring’s expedition?”

“I do. They went to great length to hide their activity.” Xaron nodded. “Not all the Stars are as respectful of Maredia and the Sarbaz Yazatan’s jurisdiction, as Black Bell and Cadmirzan.”

“Respect?” Cadmirzan made annual visits to Godswing to stay apprised on Black Bell’s discoveries, and all the hippogryph litch did was gripe against the maredian fire priests and their misuse of the Ava’s potential. “Sure, you can call it respect.”

Xaron guffawed airily. “They are less likely to be meddling than, say, Phyte or Shale. That whole equestrian coteree has been silent for too long. Equestrian ponies are clannish sorts, and I would not be too surprised to find that the EOC and Celestia’s state are complicit in this deception.”

The idea of running afoul of the Empire of Equestria, in addition to the immortal Stars, didn’t make Gilda very happy. “I’m not going to get involved with your politics.”

“I have too much invested in this to leave it on your say so, my dear niece.” Xaron said, hinting at a threat. “Therefore you have to ask yourself if you should run away, or keep working with Daring Do.”

Xaron was right. There was no way that such a relic could exist without some contention, as demonstrated with whatever was going on between Daring Do and Emerald Rose. But Gilda didn’t necessarily want to make her choice without consulting Dash first. For better or for worse, Rainbow Dash would share her fate.
Therefor, with the weight of both her and Dash’s lives on her back, Gilda needed to make the responsible decision. The responsible thing would be to run away, and leave behind the Daring Do, Magistrate Mare, and the sarcophagus. But Gilda felt revulsed at the idea. It felt like surrender. She had to advance against the world and better herself, and become more. It was her calling as a lady and as a student of the Black Bell.

Then what was to be done?
Daring Do’s intentions for the sarcophagus could not be relied upon. Gilda might have to take it for herself. And if the sarcophagus held great power, she could do great and terrible things with it, if she so desired.

“I’ve seen that look. You’re thinking evil thoughts.” Xaron smirked. “Dame Gilda, if you undertake this dangerous game on your own you would make a lot of enemies. Allying me would be much easier.”

“Then perhaps I should wait too. When the treasure in Chitin is uncovered, I’ll decide which is worth keeping and use the other to pay everyone off.”

“Oh, my dear, you are quite devious. Thankfully for me, hippogryphs can be devious as well.” Xaron laid back in the grass. “You didn’t forget this this was a dream, did you? One could only imagine the hijinks my servant Sharamin dragged Rainbow Dash and your body into in the time we’ve been talking.”

“You…” Gilda sucked in a breath, then exploded in anger. “BASTARD! I’ll get you for this!”

“All’s fair in love and war, they say. Astral Nacre had a different take on that idiom: Don’t hold back for plays of power and passion.” Xaron laughed and laughed, like a colt who’d pulled off a wily prank. “When you wake up, you’ll find yourself beholden to my plan, my idiom. Like the Dark Ones out there in the sky, I have made the world into my dream, mine to manipulate. You will have to make the best of it.”

“This isn’t over.” Gilda swore. She could feel her manifestation waver. Xaron could eject her from the dream faster than she could get up and squish the little bird.

“Yes it is, unless you can go back in time and unkill my servants. Now all you can do is offer tulips to their grave and pray for forgiveness.” Xaron’s smile became rigid and severe. “You Stars are all the same. You think you can break whatever you want. Well, my dear niece this time, unless you cooperate, something you love will be broken. Now, get out of my dream and start suffering your punishment.”

Gilda clenched her jaw. “Listen here, you shiny-ball, rock-headed, one-eyed, bucking piece of living sh-

The dream disappeared in a swirl of blinding white. It took a few long second for her mind to ‘wake up’ from the dream, and adjust to the sudden change in setting.
She was flat on her stomach, lying on the roof of one of the short Coltcutta townhouses. Her talons were clutching her arquebus, pointed over the side of the roof. She felt itchy all over and her jaw ached terribly.

Then, she heard the yelling. It was not one thing, not fearful terror, or anger, or pain, but a cacophanus combination of all those things, roaring out from below.
Gilda extricated her phalanges from her gun and pushed herself up. The streets were roiling with bodies of every species and every class. At the head of the crowd was Xaron’s inquisitor in her red robes, urging the incised masses with screeching exhortation. Gilda saw, or maybe she imagined it, Rainbow Dash’s chromatic mane pop up in the crowd before disappearing.

And the building across the street was the great palace that she Rainbow Dash had been working towards all morning. Where the maredian palace in the dream had been topped with turquoise, a receptacle for the night sky, the maharaja’s palace had a bulbous dome of white marble with many smaller cupolas jutting out at even angles, an imitator of the sun’s light.
The palace guards, burley zebras in yellow garb, had formed a shield wall barring the front door. The back line poked their spears through, ready to stab at any of the angry crowd who got too close.

“Reinforcements have been sent for. The garrison at the city wall will come and kill the mob.” Xaron’s voice echoed in Gilda’s skull. The reason her mandible ached so much was that the platinum eye was holding her beak open to it’s maximum extent. “Rainbow Dash will either be crushed by the resulting stampede, or try to fly away and be shot down like a bird.

Gilda saw guards with bows and arquebuses taking position in the palace cupolas. They were setting up to rain death on the street below.

“If you do nothing, my servant and your friend will die. I would say you have about ninety seconds before time is up.” The ava was calm. He knew exactly what was going to happen next. “I have prepared you. The gun is loaded. Powder in on the left, lead balls on the right. How fast and true can you shoot, my dear?”

Rainbow Dash waited anxiously, a hoof hovering at the sacrificial dagger on her belt. Sharamin was shouting grievances against the maharaja, shifting between the local languages none of which Dash knew. In a matter of minutes, the restive market crowd had been transformed to frenzied ‘revolutionaries’, ready to tear down the despot that lived above them in his white palace. Even though Dash did not understand, she felt the power of the hippogryph’s words, a magic that demanded attention. She wondered if she had been charmed herself, by subtle magic on that harsh voice.

A gunshot roared from above.
One of the palace guards was hit in the neck, and his blood sprayed across his comrades as he crumpled. The guards and crowd hardly had time to process what happened when another bullet tore through the head of the next zebra in the shield wall.

Gilda popped open the breach and blew out the gunpowder residue. Reloading as recklessly as she was, with little care for measuring out the powder, had the high risk of literally blowing up in her face. She snatched another lead ball out of the bag and thumbed it in the breach. She snapped the breech closed and took aim. The process took mere seconds.
Xaron’s platinum eye watched from where she’d tossed him. He prodded at her focus, daring her to make a mistake. It was all very amusing.

Another shot rang out, another guard was hit, and the mob charged in. There were still thirty guards in the shieldwall, but the gap in their line spelled death, as ponies and zebras jumped through and hit them from behind. The guards were swallowed by the volume of bodies, but their incapacitation did not end it, as the attackers began to trample and buck them. With blood-crazed fervor, the shield wall was torn apart.
The guards in the cupulas with the bows and arquebuses shot into the crowd, trying to hit Sharamin or cause random casualties. Gilda shifted her aim up, and began picking them off one by one.

“Come, Rainbow Dash. Our business is inside.” Sharamin yelled, her shrill beckon cutting through the roars and screams.

Dash followed her past the beset-upon guards to the front door. Sharamin experimentally pushed it with a hoof but it wouldn’t budge. “Locked. Not surprise.”

“But not a problem, right?” Dash asked nervously.

“Not very problem, no.” Sharamin agreed.

Gilda waited until an archer was leaning over the side of the cupula to fire. He toppled forward and slid down the palace’s dome, right off the edge to the street. He suffered the same fate as the shield wall at under the hooves of the mob.

Xaron interrupted her sniped. “Take me to my servant. She is in need of my power.”

“I’m not going down there! I’ll be torn apart.” Gilda balked.

“Don’t forget what’s at stake.” Xaron warned.

“Oh, I haven’t. The archers are dead. Rainbow’s escape route is clear.” Gilda wasn’t going to gloat yet, but she was feeling in control. “You’re going to have to incentive me.”

Xaron’s platinum eye, inexpressive though it was, radiated annoyance. “You don’t understand what is at stake here, Dame Gilda.”

Gilda swung the barrel of the gun down to point at the red-robed inquisitor. “How fast and true do you think I can shoot, my little metal friend?”

Sharamin waited patiently for Gilda to bring her master, but every moment battered against Dash’s resolve. The deafening yells, the gunshots, the smell of blood and urine, it reminded her of another chaotic moment so long and far away now. Foalish screams and eddies of dust and cloud muddied her mind. Was she going to be responsible for another catastrophe.

Sharamin’s crowing voice dragged her out of her daze. “Dame Gilda is be very cockish.”

“Uh, what?” Dash had to yell to be heard over the din.

“I am most sorry it is this way.” The gryph unfurled a wing and draped it over Dash. “Dame Gilda does not play nice.”

Dash could feel the dozens of metal slivers laying flat against her fur. If she moved at all her skin would be cut to ribbons. “I- I- I thought I could trust you.”

“No harm shall come to you and Gilda. This I promised.” In the midst of the din and uproar, Sharamin’s voice was soothing. Dash once again wondered if there was some magic messing with her head. “Your friend values your living too much to continue this.”

Gilda watched and did nothing as the inquisitor laid her deadly wing against Dash. If she shot her right then, Dash wouldn’t get more than a few bad scratches, but who could say what the berzerk mob would to if they smelled her blood and weakness. “This is a bit of a standoff, isn’t it.” She remarked to Xaron. She felt much calmer, and now her anger was cold and hard. “It’s too bad I care about Dash, or I could shot your zealot and toss you in a gutter. No skin off by back.”

“Mortals are as undone by their emotions as they are made by them. There would be no such things as the Stars or Fires of the Gryph if creatures didn’t feel insecurity about their place in the world.” Xaron counted the seconds. The guard reinforcements would be arriving soon, and if the palace door wasn’t open by then, all their lives would be forteit. “You want the reassurance that someone out there still cares about your hide. That is the feeling of one full of doubt and fear.”

Gilda cast a glance in the platinum alicorn’s direction. “Are you going to entice me with an alternative?”

“You are clever enough to realize that there are parts to the story here I am leaving out. You have asked yourself why an ava would risk himself for a long-dead horse? The reason lies at the end of this road.” Xaron said. “You and I, the Stars, the Ava, the Deava, we share an aching need. All the greatest of this world feel a hunger to fill the holes in our dreams with power and control. Deprived of our native cosmos’s caress, we attempt to love life, and become decadent.”

Gilda took her talon off the trigger. “But in Chitin, there is a solution to our pain? A solution to our yearnings, our hungers?”

“Exactly so, my dear neice.”

Gilda forgot about the turmoil in the street below, and of her friend’s danger. The way Xaron kept repeating that phrase, that confession of a fictive kinship, was just another way he was trying to manipulate her. But in an odd way, it made her feel good. “What is it? What’s waiting for me in Chitin?”

“I hear there’s a lot of changelings there.”

“Ha!” Gila laughed. “You know you have me interested, so now you’re going to string me along. It’s easier than trying to trick me, isn’t it?” She pulled her arquebus back from the lip of the roof. She emptied it of the gunpowder she’d stuffed in during the hasty reloading. “I’ve killed for less.”

“Base, purposeless murder. You should find a cause worth fighting for, and let out this aggression that’s caused this misunderstanding between us.” Xaron said with a hint of sarcasm. “Well, now that we have a tentative understanding, please take me to my servant.”

“Tak! Conflict resolved.” Sharamin lifted her wing off Rainbow Dash. “I am in relief. I would be regret to die, without anyone to lay a tulip on my grave.”

“You have regrets? Yeesh, that makes me feel good about the situation.” Dash giggled nervously, bordering on sobbing. Why was she doing this? What was she proving by joining reckless destruction with a murdering zealot?

Mercifully to Dash’s sanity, Gilda flew down to them, flattening several of the mob in her landing. “Doing alright Rainbow?”

“I’m fine, I guess.” Dash swallowed her fear. She pushed aside the doubts and doubled down. Gilda was beside her. They were doing what was necessary. “You?”

“Just dandy.”

“That was some amazing shooting.”

“Thanks. Soon I hope, I’ll find out what I was killing for.” Gilda said dryly. She turned to the red-robed inquisitor. “Hiya. Guess we’re working together now.”

“Sharamin, I am. Servant of ava Xaron.” Sharamin gave a little bow. “He has praised much of you.”

“Yeesh. That guy huh? He sure is putting a lot of pressure on me.” Gilda joked, absolutely humorlessly. She pulled the platinum sphere out of her bullet pouch and held it out for Sharamin. “Speaking of which, this is for you.”

“Tak! I thank you.” Sharamin scooped Xaron up with her wing and put him back into her left eye-socket. “A moment I beg, friends. Xaron’s voice builds in volume slowly after separation.” She closed her natural eye and began humming. The platinum eye continued to watch the world.

Dash took a deep breath. The crazyness was only beginning. “Something happened to you in that warehouse. You were, like, talking crazy, and you doused yourself in blood. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“When I left home, I forcibly stopped myself from dreaming about it anymore. Seeing the stone eyes triggered unwanted memories. I had to take a few seconds to pull myself together.” GIlda explained, not entirely untruthfully. “That inquisitor already explained Xaron to you?”

“Kinda. It’s only been a half-hour since we left the warehouse, so not much time to talk. You separated to set up on that roof, while we whipped up this, uh, this mess.” Dash tried not to look at the coltcuttans, braying and destroying each other in blind mania. “G, is it alive? What does it want?”

Gilda cast a tired glance at the platinum eye. “I’ll tell you everything when we get back to the Flyer Kyte.”

Sharamin snapped her eye open. “The Light are returned to me.”
She turned and touched her hoof against the sturdy door of the palace. With a crackle of red magic, it exploded inward in a shower of splinters. The guards waiting in ambush just inside were too surprised to stop the huge hippogryph from striding into their line and cutting them to shreds with her wings.

Gilda nodded appreciatively and stepped smartly after her. Dash lingered at the threshold, staring blankly at the bleeding bodies, thinking about how it could have been her on the recieving end of Sharamin’s acuminus metal.

Taking her time to admire the magnificent art and architecture, Gilda wandered in the grand foyer while Sharamin forged ahead. Exquisite sculptures decorated every corner and priceless diamonds were on display in the halls. Except for where the slain’s blood now stained the walls, miniature scenes were painted around the room, telling an epic myth in vivid color.
“Hey Dash!” She called out. “Dash, get in here!”

Dash obeyed, The mob stayed outside, compelled by an unseen will to block the way of arriving reinforcements. So much the better, Dash though. Maybe some distance from Sharamin would dispel the bloody trance. “Yeah G?”

“Xaron and I talked a bit, but mostly about esoteric stuff. So I’ve gotta ask what we’re doing here.” Gilda made sure she worded her question in a way to fend off future curiosity. She didn’t plan on getting caught for her lies again. “What’s the return on suicidally attacking the stronghold of an incredibly powerful and wealthy ruler? Not money. Inquisitors and gods don’t care about that crap.”

“We’re here to kill the maharaja.” Dash said.

Gilda blinked. “Okay, what? What?!”

“Yeah. He’s been flakey about his alliances with the inquisitors, so Sharamin said he has to go.”

“Dash, DASH, do you have any idea what kind of shit we’ve gotten into?! I mean, not that breaking in wasn’t awful already, but KILLING a noble monarch will get you outlaw in eighty percent of this world’s nations! If word gets, we’re screwed. The other rajas will put bounties on us. EOC will be out for blood. Royally screwed!” Gilda screeched. Keeping things low-key was the only way her ambitions could possibly go forward. “Dash, we have to get back to the Flyer Kyte right now. It’s bad enough we lost the bits-”

“Hey, me and Sharamin hid the bits in the warehouse. We can grab them on our way back.” Dash interrupted sternly. “But only after we do this.”

“Jeez louise Dash, one bad decision does not need another.” Gilda was having a hard time not cursing out her friend. She sighed. There was still a remote chance that things could work out, but only if everyone who saw them didn’t live long enough to spread their descriptions.
Burying her anger for later, Gilda cracked a smile. “First Lightning Dust, then Do, now an inquisitor? I’m starting to think liars and murderers are your thing.”

Dash flinched. “Yeah, whatever. I’ve got a secret to free, down in the dungeon.” She trotted deeper into the palace in the opposite direction of Sharamin.

Gilda was left to wonder if she’d hit closer to a nerve than she’d meant. Rainbow Dash, a mare who’d never gotten along easily with anypony, was throwing herself any whoever so much as smiled at her. The pegasus must have been hurting badly.

“Gilda, my dear, are you still with us?” Xaron’s phantom voice rang in her mind. “You are needed in the throne room.”

If Xaron thought he could use Dash to lead her around, he had another thing coming. Gilda unholstered her arquebus and cleaned it properly before loading it again. With it in couched against her breast, she hobbled along the trail of bodies to where Xaron and Sharamin was waiting.

The throne room was circular, about a hundred hooves across, but hundreds more tall. A scaffold spiraled up the wall all the way to the underside of the palace’s dome, allowing access to the cupulas.
Ponies and other courtiers were running out as Gilda came in, screaming terrified from Sharamin’s butchery. The hippogryph was standing before what Gilda assumed was the throne: It was a golden box decorated with hundreds of sparkling jewels, and shaded by long peacock feathers.
Sitting cross-legged atop the box was a orange tiger wearing a golden headdress. His gaze shifted from his dead guards to the new arrival.

“Yo!” Gilda slowly strode up to the inquisitor. “Is this the maharaja?”

“A griffin who speaks equestrian too? Ava Xaron, az qeh mohourd dari?” The tiger sighed. His equestrian was impeccable, something he needed for his dealing with the EOC. “I am Birza Behanust Bengal, maharaja of the Delta Lands, raja of Coltcutta, raja of Ewear, raja of- ah, but what do titles matter now.”

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Gilda noded. “If I hadn’t run into this joker, we would have been meeting under different circumstances. Unfortunately, Xaron’s got it in his head that killing you will accomplish something.”

“So his servant has just explained.” Birza Behanust said. He took off his headdress and set it on the throne beside him. “For being such a spiritual people, the gryph have chosen for themselves very pragmatic and cynical gods.”

“Five thousand years of exile from our cosmic home has taught us one thing, my friend. And that in the immortal words of Thuclydesdale, ‘The the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.’ “ Xaron intoned. Half a second later, Sharamin echoed his words for the maharaja’s benefit. A degree of magical training was needed to hear the ava’s voice. “My friend, it’s too bad I happened to be in your town when I kick off my rebellion.”

“You could have not, though.” GIlda remarked. “Because I’m still failing to see why you’re doing this.”

“You misunderstand. The peasants outside are not the rebellion. It is I. I hereby declare myself free of the shackles of the maredian fire priests.”

“What…” It took Gilda a couple seconds to process what had just been said. “WHAT!” Gilda screeched. All the yelling was making her hoarse. “Bucking, WHAT?!”

“Why did you think I came alone? Why do you think I contacted you, but for a lack of the limitless resources and reach of the Sarbaz Yazatan?” The platinum eye quivered enthusiastically. “It is a great and glorious thing you and Mis Dash are helping me with, to reassert the right sovereignty of the Ava over ourselves.”

“Oh geez.” Gilda was shaking, half in fear and half in unequaled anger at being so tricked.
Yet, it all made disgusting amounts of sense. Xaron was paranoid that the fire priests were trying to usurp the powers the Fires of the Gryph provided to the hippogryphs. The maharaja’s murder would drive a wedge between the inquisitors and the priestly diplomatic administration. But to truly secure the Ava’s indispensability, Xaron had to secure the cosmic artifact that awaited in Chitin.
“You got me good, Real good.”

“For what it is worth, I’m sorry to have lied to you. I had to gauge how you would react.”

“And you determined I too pansy to do anything.” Gilda choked out. “How very deava of you.”

“I’m not a villain, Dame Gilda. I’m trying to do the right thing.” Xaron said, and Sharamin parroted. “Was it a bad thing that I’ve done, returning your dreams to you?”

“It’s not bad or good. It’s just…” Gilda slouched a bit, feeling utterly defeated. “I think I understand. We’re all trying to be more.”

“That in exact.” Sharamin agreed, then waited for Xaron’s corroboration. “This world’s dreams all shout upwards, reaching for the sky. Soon. Soon we will grasp god and rip her from her perch. Soon we will gut her of her secrets. Haa hee hee!” The ava chortled. “Now, my lovely niece, since you’ve truly open to reconciliation between us, I will give you the honors.”

Birza Behanust had been listening to the exchange in morose silence. He could not help but wince as Gilda turned to him and raised her gun. “Not in the face, please.”

~~~~

As she trotted through the hazy underway of the dungeon, Rainbow Dash reminded of the griffin adage, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. The cells were small, but cleanly by equestrian standards (Dash had seen the inside of the Baltimare drunk tank many a time). The prisoners sat at their desks, reading or writing by candlelight, only a few sparing glances for Dash as she passed.
It was a prison for those out of favor in the court, nobles and administrators used to suffering the whims of the rajas. A few of them called out her Dash in sahellan and other languages she couldn’t understand, but she didn’t stop until one said something in equestrian.

“A pegasus? Now this is a marvel.”
Dash peered inside the dark cell. Two figures were firefly illuminated by a firefly lamp, sitting across a table from each other. One was an orange tiger, who was almost emaciated lean, but held a regal bearing in his pose and movements. He was the one who’d spoken. “Look at the way she walks. Those legs are used to cloud-kicking and hard landings. An equestrian peasant pegasus.”

“Excellent deduction, Bevri. If we were closer we could likely smell Celestia’s sun on her.” The second prisoner was almost invisible against the background, except for his glowing red eyes. It was a changeling drone, freakishly large for one of that caste, being almost twice as large as the tiger across from him. The way his tattered wings buzzed intermittently made Dash think of a fly. A huge, red-eyed fly… “Who do you think sent her?”

“One would first have to discover why she is here.” The tiger stood up and approached the bars. “She looks unsure of herself, and of us. This is no professional.”

“Well excuse you bub. I’m a mercenary.” Dash blustered. “I’m Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash. Maybe you’ve heard of me.”

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to offend.” The tiger bowed his head. “My name is Bevri. I have nothing nearly so precious to my name as even mercenary work.”

“She doesn’t react to your name. She is not here for you. Therefor…” The changeling stirred. “Not many people, pony or otherwise, know I’m here. Lady pegasus, are you one who searches for the Stars?”

“I’m here for Zero. Are you Zero?” Dash asked.

“I am.” The changeling named Zero nodded. “Bevri, tell me since my eyes are failing, is that a dagger on her belt?”

“It is.” Bevri confirmed. “It is as sharp as a leaf’s blade, and decorated with bone. There is a subtle aura to it.”

“My own sacrificial blade.” Zero pushed up from his seat and joined Bevri at the bars. Closer up, Dash saw how his red eyes were patterned just like the platinum sphere. “Who, Lady Dash, have you come with?”

“Xaron.”

“He’s finally gone and done it. The gods strike back against the mortals.” Xaron scowled. “This bodes poorly. I hoped this day would never come.”

“Are you leaving?” Bevri looked distraught. “What shall I do without you?”

“Don’t fear, friend. You are much stronger than you think you are.” Zero patted his fellow prisoner’s shoulder. “But it is time to end my self-imposed exile.”
In a sweep of dark green magic, Zero became a sparrow. The little bird hopped between the bars before transforming back to his original size.

Dash blinked. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Depending on how long we will be working together, you may not have to expect it again. I don’t change often anymore.” Zero remarked, causing Dash to blush. “Harumph, no matter. I’ve been around zebras long enough to forget old taboos. Now, the dagger, please.”

Dash grabbed the morbid blade with a dexterous wing and held it out. “A gangbanger in the slums had it.” The changeling smelled strange, like the open skies only emptier. It didn’t make much sense. “You’re going to leave your friend?”

Zero and Bevri shared a solemn look. “This is where he has chosen to be.”

“It is what I deserve.” The tiger agreed. “I am still unworthy of freedom.”

“You guys must have weirder ideas of honor and stuff than even griffins. Do what you want I guess.” Dash cocked her head. “But you know, somepony might let you out soon. Xaron was going to kill the king- er, I mean maharaja.”

Bevri paled. “Zero, let me out, please.”

The deafening report from Gilda’s arquebus echoed thunderously around the domed roof.
The maharaja topped backwards off the throne and rolled down the back of the dias.

Gilda waited for the ringing in her ear to stop. “Think they heard that back home?”

“I think the fire priests will be hearing that shot for decades, Dame Gilda. The contentment and complacency of the order of nations is greatly shook.” Xaron said. “Wintertide’s children announce their ascendancy.”

“Now is the Wintertide of your discontent. Made glorious summer by, uh, yours truly.” Gilda strode around the dias. The shot to the heart had killed Birza Behanust, probably not painlessly. “It feels a bit like a betrayal to help you. Take everything away from me, I’m still mortal like them. You’re ava, the other, the indecipherable, the enemy.”

“Not right now I’m not. Listen to the voice of my servant, and understand that what I am now is mongrel. The Fires of the Gryph are a mortal contrivance, a tidy name to the wretched shackle holding us down.” If Sharamin was disturbed by Xaron’s badmouthing, she didn’t show it, as she continued to say aloud his thoughts vigorously. “We can be more. The ava will cease to crackle as the Fires of the Gryph, and begin to roar as immortal blazes in the dreams of this world.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Gilda secured her gun to her back. She didn’t plan on using it any more that day. “I need to know now, Xaron, what’s waiting for us in Chitin.”

“A Deava.”

“You can do better than that.”

“Wulei, child of Astra Nacre. His soul has been crafted into a tool of immense magical power: The Alicorn Amulet. The amulet has stolen the souls of millions of mortals, and with it I will be able to grant dreams to the Ava.

Gilda had heard of the Alicorn Amulet, but classes on artifacts that powerful were for more senior students of the School of Black Bell. “That sounds incredibly dangerous.”

“It will be. Ancient ruins deep in the hinterland, past the maps of ponies and griffins. Corrupted changelings with dark masters will try to stop you at every turn.”

“I mean the amulet. Deava are no joke.” Gilda said. “Will you really be able to control it?”

“Would it be worse that you or I have it, or that Daring Do delivers it to whomever she works for?”

Gilda was silent for a moment. Xaron was losing utility to her with every secret he let slip. Time would reveal if she could betray him, and take the sarcophagi and amulet. “It’s you and me all the way, buddy.”

“Gilda!” Rainbow Dash entered the throne room. With her were two others, a large changeling and another tiger.

“Has the endevor been success, Mis Dash?” Sharamin asked her, without prompting from Xaron.

“Obviously so.” The huge changeling cantered up to Sharamin. “I never imagined you would be the one to ‘rescue’ me, Xaron.”

“I finally decided to uplift you from your own ignorance.”

Zero watched Bevri rush to the side of the dead maharaja. The young tiger cradled his father’s head and he began murmuring soft apologies.
Zero turned back to the hippogryph, staring angrily at the platinum sphere with his own red eyes. “I refuse to destroy anymore. All I ever wished to do was improve this world, and to end these kinds of senseless death.”

Gilda met Dash. “Is that Zero?”

“Yeah. He said he’s a Star.”

“He looks a lot older than he did in the schoolbooks.” Gilda remarked.

“It’s not going to be how it was. This time you can use your power to help mortals transcend the divisions created by race and religion, instead of enforcing them.” Xaron explained to Zero. “I found the first nightmare and the first dreamer.”

“They’re just myths.” Zero spat dismissively.

“They would beg to differ. Xaron sniggered. “Zero, my old friend, you can do so much more than teach one little whelp at a time. Help me teach the world it’s forgotten history.”

Zero sighed. Wordlessly, he walked away from the hippogryph to Bevri.

“I would have liked to say goodbye a last time.” Bevri sniffled. “I- I think more than that, I wish I could hear him forgive me.”

“You’re going to be fine ruler. I’m sure he knew that.” Zero consoled softly. “You still have friends out there, willing to fight for your birthright.”

Bevri closed his eyes, letting out a shuttering breath. “Let us hope the coup is successful this time.”

Zero wasn’t really listening. He was enthralled by the visage of a spritely young griffin, talking to Rainbow Dash. She had a gun in a harness on her back. Her aura, the magical emotion she exuded, made Zero ill to try to decipher. “Who are you?”

Gilda perked to who’d spoken. “Hi. I’m Gilda. Or, Gilda von Gottrakt, if you want to be formal.” She extended a claw in greeting. “Nice to meet you. I don’t get to meet Stars that often.”

Zero did not take the offered claw. “Have you ever tasted the dreams of your fellow animal, Lady von Gottrakt?”

Gilda was briefly puzzled. She cleared her throat and matched his hard tone. “We all sate our hungers in different ways, sir.”

Zero grunted. “What fine allies Xaron has found him himself.” He rounded back to Sharamin. “Are you using children for you misdeeds now?”

“Do you hear that?” In the silence between the words, one could hear the roar of the battle raging outside between the citizens and the guards. “I’ll use every soul in this world twice over if it would ease my family’s pain but for a moment. We all have an understanding here. If our abilities fall short of our ambition, we will get crushed.

Zero nodded. “So be it, ava. Bevri!”

The young tiger drew himself up to his full height. Old memory of princely behaviour was coming back to him. “Yes?”

“We must part, for certain now. Know that this battle I commit to is no more important than battle against ignorance.” Zero bowed. “Fight the good fight, my student.”

“As you wish.” Bevri bowed back.

“Well, uh, nice meeting you.” Gilda gave Bevri a little wave. “Sorry about your dad.”

“Until next time.” Bevri nodded stiffly. “Lady Dash.”

“See ya later.” Dash could not sustain an earnest smile. “Maybe…”

~~~~~

They were back in the warehouse. The afternoon had worn on. The lengthened shadows were offering space places for floating dust to hide.
Dash and Sharamin had gone to where they’d hidden the bag of bits, leaving Gilda and Zero to contemplate the mangled bodies of two ponies: An earth pony sailor and a blue unicorn, whose left eyes were replaced with ones of stone.

“The unicorn was the one with my dagger?” Zero asked.

“Yup.” Gilda said unenthusiastically. There was something deeply unsatisfying about the ponies being dead, and not remembering doing it.

“It is a little tradition I have to give my dagger away when I come to a new place. How it travels from person to person is a fascinating study in the ties that bind us together.” Zero said. “Those who give, those who take, those who build, and those who destroy. My dagger has beheld more than its fair share of the destroyers.”

Gilda couldn’t help but feel that was directed at her. “I didn’t mean to kill them. My mother’s charm was making me see things. I couldn’t understand what I was doing.”

“You don’t have to defend yourself to me.” Zero snorted. “Live as long as I have, and the little atrocities just run together.”

Gilda let out a despondent sigh she’d been holding since before the dawn. “Was it fun to just let loose?”

Zero nodded. “My fondest memories was being a mercenary like you. I think all the Stars tried that somewhere along the line, as we tried to identify our niche in a world that died without us. Hastening the cycles of death just seemed natural. Oh, the slaughters were glorious monuments to our Dark gods.” Zero shrugged. “But even the most dangerous game becomes passé. Of the twelve of us, only Salvador Flair stayed in that line of work.”

Gilda thought about that band of friends. They had come so close to clutching the heart of divinity, but missed. What would happen to Dash, Magistrate Mare, and Daring Do if they failed and darkness overwhelmed them all. What if they succeeded? “When we get to Chitin… Can we all get what we want?”

“Of course not. Xaron will have to die.” Zero said. “The rule of the Ava will not bring the harmony he thinks it will, but rather the kind of injustice one sees in Equestria. Gods can force obedience, but not happiness.”

“Will he really try to take over the world?”

“Oh, doubtlessly. The Ava can’t go back to being dispassionate observers. Just like Celestia and her sister, they will try to fill the holes in their dreams with decadence and domination.”

Gilda plucked the stone eyes out of the corpse of the blue unicorn. “The Alicorn Amulet can’t fill that hole, sate that hunger forever?”

“Lady Gilda, nothing can fill that hole. It’s took me a long time to learn that lesson. The other Stars refuse to believe it. They can’t stop chasing that elusive dream of perfection.”

Gilda sat on the rough, dirty floor. She felt so helpless sometimes. She had to take more, become more, to keep from feeling that way ever again. “I probably won’t either.”

“To each their own.” Zero shrugged. ”The creatures who can settle down and be happy with their lives are the special ones. I got very close this time, with Bevri, but it was inevitable that we fall to our ambitions again. Princes and Stars are made of the same stuff.”

Gilda knew that for sure. “So, getting back on topic, think you can swing that earth pony’s look?”

“Effortlessly.” Zero was encased in a flume of green magic. When it passed, he held the shape of the sailor stallion. “The dead live again.” His voice was also identical.

“Nice. Drink and swear enough and nopony will tell the difference.” Gilda nodded appreciatively. “His name was Bowline Tight, or something like that.”

“You’ve already changed. Good.” Sharamin and Rainbow reentered the warehouse, the latter carrying the heavy bag of bits on her back. “It’s getting late. Will you three get back to the ship okay?”

“We will have to take a boat since earth ponies can’t fly.” Gilda nudged the disguised Zero. “There’s enough confusion in the city right now that no one will wonder too hard about a missing dinghy. Between the three of us, we’ll come up with a good excuse for Mare and Do.”

“Then we part! I shall meet you all in Chitin, and there we begin the fight to destiny. Dame Gilda, and Mis Dash, au revoir.” Sharamin bowed at Xaron’s compulsion. “Zero.”

“Xaron.” Zero grunted back.

Sharamin cantered to the exit of the warehouse, only to turn back and give Dash a lascivious wink with her right eye. “Seeing you soon, Mis Dash.” The hippogryph took to the twilight skies.

“Let’s go.” Gilda prompted. “Every minute here is minute farther away from Chitin.”

Author's Note

Interestingly, there is not much of a record of Gilda in between the time she left Godswing and exploits the Equestrian Civil War. I have based her personality mostly on writings by ponies 1001 SS or later, so it is possible that she was a much kinder and gentler individual whilst her memories were sealed away. It is an amusing (though morbid) idea, since she is known to have eaten ponies during that time.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, has a lengthy record for her time in Baltimare. The Weather Factory there maintained reports for every worker, which survived the Civil War.

What we know of their adventure on the Flyer Kyte is compiled from scraps of testimony from various ignorant observers. Nopony who survived the expedition spoke publicly about it, and the Crown has never released it's findings on the incident. Though I can and do guess, one really does wonder what they were thinking when it was all happened.

Bridge Chapter 7: Phantom 1

Three Weeks Before the Summer Sun

“Well… Here’s the thing…” Gilda trailed off.

Magistrate Mare waited patiently.
There was a light breeze blowing across the lagoon, tugging the edges of the furled mainsail. The crew on watch sat here and there in silence, waiting for their orders.

Gilda was unnerved. Just coming from the supernaturalities of Xaron and Zero (one of which had followed her aboard), she was very on edge. She had planned to engage Mare privately, not in front of a hawkish crowd.

“Ahem. Well, as you can see, there was some, uh, drama, getting to the maharaja’s palace.” She coughed.
Beside her was the visage of Bowline Tight, Zero in disguise, rigidly at attention. Gilda had given him the rundown of the situation on the Flyer Kyte, but he seemed to have misinterpreted, as he was affording Mare military discipline. “Coltcutta went a bit crazy.”

Mare looked past the duo, to fire and conflict burning in Coltcutta. Whole districts were ablaze, painting red the low-hanging clouds that divided the sky between ensanguined substratum and the purple twilight overhead. Violent yells and screams of a city in turmoil echoed across the lagoon to where the Flyer Kyte was anchored. “I can see that.”

“And I could see, what with the timing of it all, you thinking that Dash and I had something to do with it. Well...” Gilda laughed dismissively. “That’s just crazy. Two gals can’t overthrow a nation.”

“Seems like crazy is applicable to a great deal of this situation.” Mare said.

“Yeah, it’s cra- Um, it’s complicated.” Gilda pretended to cough, giving herself a little time to calm down. There was something unsettling about the ship that had she hadn’t felt before, like a churning and grinding that radiated out of the depths. More than the rock of the deck on the waves, we could almost swear everything was vibrating.
“S- Sorry. I’m a bit shaken up still. We barely escaped. But hey!” She elbowed Bowline Tight. “We found this guy.”

“And thank yo ufor that.” Bowline Tight nodded. “Begging your supreme pardon Magistrate, about the state of intoxication that kept me shoreside until the ladies saved me. The mobs had me trapped and-”

“Hey, you shut it. You were basically dead when we found you, face down in dust.” GIlda scoffed. The disguised Zero winced at the deceitful morbidity of the joke. “Anyway, ma’am, the political situation made Dash and I unable to-”

“Am I to understand that you couldn’t make it to the palace?” Mare interrupted.

“Er, no, I mean yes. We couldn’t.” Gilda coughed.

“Where’s the ‘tribute’? I presume you picked it up from the treasury, but you don’t have it with you.” Mare’s expression was unreadable impassive.

“Well, you see…” Gilda smoothed back her crest. “It was chaos, okay? Thugs, revolutionaries, soldiers battling it out in the teeming streets! Blood ran as rivers! We did what we had to.”

“Uh huh.” Mare leaned in, and after throwing Bowline Tight a suspicious glance whispered “Dash is tucking it away in one of your cabins, right?”

“Er, yes. For safekeeping. Couldn’t have the rapscallion crew seeing it.” Gilda smiled unconvincingly.

“Be tight-lipped about it, Mis GIlda. We’ll talk later. There’s work to be done.” Mare eyed Bowline Tight again, who stiffened. “Except for you, if you don’t sober up. Drunkenness while on shift is strictly prohibited. You’ll be post-mortem liable for any accidents you cause.”

“Of course, ma’am. I accept any punishment you conceive.” Bowline Tight bowed his head.

“Sure?” Mare scowled in fleeting confusion. She wasn’t used to any of the crew speaking so wordilly. “Dismissed.” She turned her back to them to address the languishing crew. “Raise the anchor! Unfurl the sails! Helmspony, take us out of the lagoon!”

A chorus of ayes came back. Mare trotted to the aft castle and began discussing navigation with the helmspony.

Gilda’s composure cracked, and she groaned in nauseous pain. “I don’t feel so good.”

“I think that went well, all things considered.” Zero shrugged. “Mis Mare suspects something, but has no dirt to scratch in.”

“Not that. My guts hurts. Like, physically hurts. Almost like I’m exploding.” GIlda held her woozy head. “I can hardly think.”

“There’s a faint something, down below us. Everything trembles in unease. The Bard sarcophagus.... Could it truly be?” Zero frowned. “Lady Gilda, your stress is making you more sensitive. Go lay down and rest yourself.” Stepped towards the hatch. “I will go acquaint myself with Bowline Tight’s schedule. We reconvene tomorrow.”

Gilda let him slip away belowdecks. In a haze, she stumbled into the cabins and into her own room. She could barely unclasp her arquebus harness before she collapsed on the bed.

~~~~

Gilda slowly advanced across the uneven, indeed perilously jagged, volcanic shore. The screaming north wind was slamming waves into the black rocks, throwing up icy seawater that moistened her carefully groomed crest and stung in her eyes. Were she not bitterly angry enough for nature's hatred to be repelled, she would have been miserably cold.

“Bucking wind.” Young Gilda was rather new to profanity; It was still an unexplored and exciting thing for her, and she took to it with unspoilt vigor. “Can’t fly for shit in this weather.”

Earthbound as she was, she had to carefully chose her footing as she circled the basalt mountain, towards to her destination: A flattened chung of the shore raw before the storm, where the students of the School of the Black Bell took their meditation test.
The rock had an unspoken gravity among the students. It was singularly undiscussed by the older apprentices, and tensely anticipated by the younger. When one went out to the rock for the test, sometimes for days or even sometimes weeks, they came back changed. Some returned mad, babbling insanity in unknown languages. Some had their personalities completely altered, becoming melow where once bombastic or visa versa. Some crawled back to Black Bell with tears in their eyes, begging for reprieve from unspeakable pain that biology could not explain. The luckiest came back completely silent, in solemn awareness of the revelations they had heard.
It was spoken officially as a test of wit and will, and as a right of passage. Everyone knew that Black Bell was using her students as bait, to lure down the most heinous deava and the most powerful patterns to study with her cabal. It didn’t matter if the student came back lucid enough to describe the whispers either. There were ways.

Gilda went out with very much the same attitude as she’d had frequently over the last few months: Irreverent, cynical, and contentious. She wanted to get the test over with so she could get back to her prefered history studies.
Not that she didn’t like the arcane branch of her studies; She loved the idea of magic, abysmal though she was when trying to make patterns and control magic. The whispers had granted her fellow students a measure of control over the flow of magic in the world, but Gilda was not so blessed. Somehow, the damnable gods had screwed her out what she deserved. Through no fault of her own, Gilda had been stunted: Magic would not spring alive at her clawtips, as it did for everyone around her.
Depressed and resentful, Gilda tried shutting out the whispers. The test on the rock was a last slap in the face, after which she would never have to go out to face the north wind. The sooner it was over, the sooner she could forget everything and move on to the next disappointment in life.

“Bucking Black Bell. What’s she get off with shoving me out here? Bucking freezing.” Gilda ranted to nobody. Gottrakt wasn’t a very large island, but on the northern slope of the basalt mount, opposite the port and city, it really seemed like she was a million miles from the nearest friend. She was in a wasteland of cold salt and coarse rock.

After another fifteen minutes of cambering Gilda arrived at her destination.
The rock was unmistakable, in a rather mundane and unassuming way. It was like any other boulder, black basalt crusted with dried salt. It had been carved partially flat, and the center was curiously smooth, but most of it’s surface area was covered in scratches, unpatterned yet suggesting some purpose behind them. More than one student had tried to cope with the test by sketching out the maddening visions in a vain effort to get them out of their head.

“Big whoop.” Gilda grumbled, her words mostly lost to the shrieking wind. She hopped onto the rock and slowly walked to the center.
She sat, covering the smoothed out spot with her own body. She hated the north wind more than others, for while the south wind was warm(er) and humble, and the east and west winds had a dancing adventurousness to them, the north wind was spiteful. The Deava spirit was alive within it, spurring on its frosty gallop to bring misery to mortals. The wind oppressed, deceived, derided, hated.
Already, Gilda was beginning to hear the quivering suggestion of the demonic voices, not quite audible, not quite there, yet tantalizingly close. Every time she blinked or covered her eyes to block the wind she saw indescribable shapes in the darkness, demanding to be seen.
She loathed them, and how they mocked her. They arbitrarily denied her what could make her belong in Gottrakt. Magicless they had left her, no better than the slaves that were driven from the ship into the depths of the heartless mountain, good only for debased experimentation and slaughter.
Gilda spit. “Big bucking whoop.”

The students of Gottrakt went out to the rock as a winter storm was coming, and stayed until they knew they had to return. Gilda knew there was only one way she going back. If the wind denied her still, she would be saving everyone the trouble by slipping off the rock into the tumultuous waters. It wouldn’t be pretty, but getting ground against the sharp rocks would still be better than a life without magic on Gottrakt.

Black clouds were massing on the horizon, organizing themselves for a push south. The faster the wind, the more treacherous the air and skies, the louder the whispers would be. Truly, for how violent the winter storm appeared even at great distance, one could expect them to be intense.
Intensity is what GIlda demanded. As much as she hated the wind, she begged it for the secret it held back. Among the muddled incomprehensible words had to be the one that unlocked magic. And if it gave her that, Gilda could be truly through with the wind.

“Get on with it! My dead grandmother can scream louder than you.” Gilda mocked the storm. She closed her eyes, and...

~~~~

Three Weeks Before the Summer Sun

The tropical seas on the corner of Chitin and Zebrastan were known to the Equestrians and Griffins as the Elephant Isles, and true to its name it was filled with thousands of islands and archipelagos and as many regal jungle elephants.

The Flyer Kyte hugged the mainland as closely as possible, avoiding entirely the great islands that could be see on the southeastern horizon. The Elephant Isles may have had a bountiful mineral and botanical wealth but it was not the treasure Do’s expedition was after.
So they followed the Zebrastani coast as it curved northward, and rose into rugged forested hills, then into mighty mountains sliced by fertile river valleys opening to the sea. The vibrant land of Zebrastan had given way to the ancient and evolving continent of Chitin, home of the Changelings. The Kyte was still at the southern edge of the enormous stretch concave coast, and had a few day’s worth of latitude until it arrived at it’s destination, the Equestrian treaty port of Hornzhou.

Gilda found Zero where she herself was often to be found: Staring into the horizon on the forecastle. The disguised changeling had some time to himself between shifts in the rigging tying knots, but he had not been able to keep to the schedule of raucous merriment under decks of the real Bowline Tight. Instead of drinking, he read borrowed books. Instead of gambling and dancing to merry tunes, he shared witty poems that went unappreciated.
The kind of pony who would commit his or her self to the risks and rewards of a life at sea did not often have a personality given to introspection. Zero wasn’t that good at being a sailor, Gilda decided. He couldn’t be bothered to live up to the archetype.

Gilda leaned on the railing beside the changeling, acting nonchalant. “Hey.”

“Pleasant day to you, my lady.” Zero grunted. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure all the sailors on deck were too busy with their duties to eavesdrop. “You look better. Feeling well?”

“The last two days have been hell, but I’m much clearer now. My head doesn’t feel like it’s going to explode. Guess I slept it off.” Gilda said. “I was a bit of an ass when you tried to check in, and I’m sorry about that. I already apologized to Dash. I told her I had flue. I’m not sure I can explain it well to her.”

“I understand. These dreams had to play themselves out, or they would have given you no rest. I am not the most knowledgeable about magic in griffins, or Black Bells’s blasphemous interpretation of it, but you were undoubtedly hypersensitive to psychic emanations. Xaron forcing his will over your body made you more tender still.” Zero comforted, but he turned more grim. “But about your secrecy with Mis Dash, I don’t understand. Isn’t she your best friend?”

“If I tell her everything about the sarcophagus, and why I’m suddenly reacting this way to it, I’ll have to tell her everything about the Tower of the Bard, and what Black Bell did to me.” Gilda sighed. “I’m not sure I could sit down and explain it all. To Dash, the gruesome horror of Godswing would come off as barbaric and gratuitous. And she would be right.”

“You think she will see you different after you tell her about your studies.” Zero surmised.

“I’m very much a product of that place. Evil like that… I don’t know how to describe it. It rapes your soul. I’m going to have that weight forever.” Her eyes unfocused. “And not just memories, that push back even after I force myself to forget. The idiom of Godswing, the crushing brutality, haunts me. I fear my memories will carry me there every night, immersing me in everything foul and corrupt that. Just last night, I dreamed of the rock, on the north side of the island...” She shook herself out of the revery that wa threatening to overtake her. “Buck. There I went. It’s bad.”

“Is Black Bell causing it?”

“No. She’s not a dreamcrafter. She invades dreams, ravages, and destroys them. She has been mercifully absent since Coltcutta. No… My dreams are mine alone, and that is the worst part.” Gilda shuddered. “The things I see make me never want to sleep again, so abhorrently twisted are they. And they’re mine. I own them, and they own me.”

“Again, I’m not an expert, but I think it is the most merciful way your soul can immerse you in the most traumatic memories. You have to build resistance to it, and you have, to an extent. Aren't feeling better? Those dreams made you more resilient against the vile aura of the sarcophagus.” Zero.tapped a hindhoof on the deck. “Do not let your thoughts be dominated by anxiety about what you may or may not dream. Accept it peacefully.”

“I’m afraid that if I try, Black Bell will be there, like the nightmares are the only thing keeping her out. But at the same time, I almost want to see her again. When I saw her chimerical in Coltcutta she invited me back, and mentioned my father. I know I played it up, but Godswing was still my home. Every new memory reminds me of why I left, but it also makes me homesick.” Gilda had only known her step-mother for a blink of an eye compared to Zero. It would be fascinating to hear everything he had to say about her. “When I left, my father was in a weird place. He threw himself into mysticism and magic, and there wasn’t a night I wouldn't come home to seeing him mutilating himself for a peek into ‘phantom planes’, or other such insanity. It was the only way he knew to get Black Bell’s attention. I’m overjoyed he is still alive, but at the same time I dread what horrible sorcery let him survive. I don’t know what he’s become, and I’m afraid to know.”

“Terrible. I remember my parents, though the situation was slightly different. They aged and died, and turned to bones, then to dust, and I remained exactly the same. They never told me what they thought of the family line becoming petrified, terminated yet perpetual, with me as their only immortal descendant. What could have been, yes? But of course were I not immortal, my parents would not be even the faintest of memories, as all my hypothetical progeny live ignorant of their ancestor of a millennia past. The Stars are bearers of the last possible memory of thousands of people we meet. I some ways, I think it is our only use: To save from a final death the most deserving heroes and humble friends.” Zero reminisced morbidly. “Be very careful Lady Gilda, as you remember what you’ve forgotten. If you tread this path to its logical conclusion, and you earn the power as a Star, the pleasure of a normal life will be lost to you,”

“You think I have a choice? I have been enslaved to evil hungers for most of my life: One was physical mostly, but the other that has come back with memory is mental.” Gilda shook her head. “Becoming a Star is going to liberate me, from this urge to consume.”

“Surely, you are kidding.” Zero half scoffed, half chided.

“No.”

“Allow me to tell you that less will change than you think.” Zero shook his head sadly. “There’s an old changeling saying about how thirsty yaks know not to drown themselves. There are other ways to self improvement than transforming yourself into a sin against nature.” He was silent for a few minutes. “Did Black Bell have a throne?”

“No.” GIlda said, a bit snippy.

“Ah, if you had said yes, I would have asked you if you’d ever sat on it. I would ask if you knew what it felt like.” Zero sighed. “I’d ask if you took that high seat for granted, or did it impress upon you a certain heaviness. When you looked upon it, did you realize how it was the ultimate aspiration of millions upon millions of creatures to have a throne with a power and authority such as it had?”

“But there was no throne. So there.” Gilda said, getting defensive.

“Maybe I meant to say your mother’s lap.”

“Piss off. She’s my step-mother.” Gilda rolled her eyes. “Cheeky bug.”

“You are not afraid of being like Black Bell?”

“I had this discussion with Xaron. I’ve heard the whispers and they do not scare me anymore.” Gilda said firmly. “I’m not a child. I am not afraid.”

Zero tisked. “Nopony is asking you to be afraid. They are asking you to be terrified. Be terrified of boundless power you court as a Star. If you think your dreams now frighten you…” He sighed. “Lady Gilda, you have a complex relationship with your power, clearly. It scares you like it would a child; You know only that it is there, that it is overwhelming, but not what it is. But at the same time, you have a sense of pride in it. You hold it as what sets you above the rest.” He looked her in the eye. “Gilda, you tried for years to have pride in yourself as an individual, independent of that power and that past. You failed. It is not purely chance or fate that drew you back to the past. You sought it. On some level, you yearned for the fear and the pride that life wasn’t giving you.”
He paused to find the right words. “What I’m trying to say is this: You need to find a more mature approach to your magic, than just childish fear and childish covetousness.”

Gilda didn’t want to hear it. Zero’s criticisms were painfully accurate, and it made her silently angry. If he understood her so well, why didn’t he agree with her?
“Whatever you say.” She huffed, but as she said it she realized that she didn’t want to hurt Zero’s feeling, and more jokingly added. “Old man.”

Zero wasn’t convinced that the joking came from a place of levity. “Come to your own conclusions at your own pace. Just don’t take too long.”

Gilda averted her eyes. “I should go.”
She was about to return to her cabin when Zero put a hoof on her wing. “Listen, I don’t want to talk ab-” She cut herself off when she noticed his expression.

Zero was staring into the horizon ahead of them, fixated on something that took his full attention. For a time, the crash of the waves and the groan of the ship were the only sounds. Even the noisy crew behind them, completely unaware of the aura around them, were inspired to silence.

“We are not the only ship with a psychic emissary aboard.” Zero muttered.

Gilda could feel the magical pressure in the air twist. The new aura was different and abhorrently complementary to the one under them in the cargo deck.
“There’s another one out there. Another what though?” She breathed. “Zero?”

“Sometime between her unearthing and now, the thing in the cargo hold began to stir. What were feeling before was just it’s jitters. In my hammock down in the orlopp, the squirming sense of wrongness pervades.” Zero nodded back to the cargo hatch. “Velvetine, as Xaron called her, is slowly starting to mewl more loudly.”

“The other Bard sarcophagus is out there. Vlelveran calls back.” Gilda had been feeling good about her ability to quell the unease that had overcome her the nights before, but her confidence was waning. “Two Bard sarcophagi. Xaron was telling the truth.”

“About some things.”

“How is it possible? The sarcophagus can’t be close! How?” Gilda’s face scrunched as she calculated. “Has to be Xaron. He must have moved it by cargo ship.”

“It is right along our path. It must be on a ship, but…” Zero closed his eyes. “Xaron and his hippogryph is slaughtering the crew.”

GIlda was so amazed at the range of his perception that the gross morbidity of his proclamation were lost on her. “Xaron is with the sarcophagus?”

“Just beyond the horizon I feel him. There’s screaming and laughing, and the flow of magic from that direction carried the ripples of violent deaths. Yes, I’m quite certain Xaron has killed the crew of that ship.” Zero shivered. “Best not to dwell on it. We will get the cargo intact.”

Gilda heard nor saw anything from horizon to horizon, but it was there. “He’s dropping it off for us.”

“Somehow, he tricked a vessel into transporting it for him, and is now disposing of them for us.”

“But why…” Gilda pondered. “Why kill them?”

“Ava are inscrutable, their actions seemingly arbitrary. Clearly though, this speaks to haste or impatience. He has laid it dead ahead, where we cannot miss it. The Flyer Kyte arrive at the hulk before sundown, provided the wind holds.” Zero waved towards the prow.

“Dead ahead. Nice one.”

“Lady Gilda, ponies are already dying and the battle hasn’t even yet begun. This is clear message from Xaron that he is willing to sacrifice anything to achieve his unclear goals.” Zero pushed himself away from the railing. “Not that we won’t play along. We must intercept the ship and take the sarcophagus, like he intends. We’re not even to Chitin and he’s putting blood on our hooves.”

“He already did that with the Coltcutta palace massacre. He’s not sending a message. There’s something he’s trying to accomplish.”

“But why would he want to deliver it so early? It would obviously make the Magistrate and Mis Do suspicious. Bah, alicorns.” Zero glanced toward the cabin. “We need to discuss our plan, immediately.”

“The long-postponed meeting.” Gilda nodded. “But one more thing-”

“Is this the best time?” Zero sighed. “Is it about ‘Bowline Tight?”

“Yeah. He was convenient for sure, but you could use a more fitting disguise for your personality.” GIlda nodded. “Start thinking about which of the crew you could replace.”

“I don’t like that implication one bit.” Zero winced. “It may not be necessary-”

“You’ve been getting weird looks the moment you came back with us in Coltcutta. They know something’s up between us, and the less they know the more they’ll speculate.” Gilda said. “So choose somepony: That recluse in the galley, or that mare who does the depth soundings, or whoever you could do convincingly. Because this-” She poked him with her left claw. “Is not convincing.”

“I’m not murdering anypony for a disguise’s sake. ” Zero faced out to sea. “They’re dying. I can only imagine what tortuous death that brutish hippogryph is reaping. Enough blood has been senselessly spilt today. I will come up with something different.” He promised. “Now, go make sure the cabins are clear. I will fetch Mis Dash and we can make plans.”

“If you think you can manage that.” Gilda laughed. She didn’t quite notice the sour look that passed over Zero’s features. “We reconvene in ten.”

“If you think you can handle it.” Zero said with fulsome mock concern. He leaned back onto the railing, and returned to staring into the horizon, at a grievous massacre yet beyond their sight.

Gilda left him to his deliberations, feeling jollier than when she’d arrived. As she passed the crew they gave each other amused looks, but she didn’t care. Her high spirits carried her nearly to her cabin when the dreaded call came from to rooms over.

“Mis Gilda, could you step into my office for a moment?”

Gilda let the smiled melt from her face. She leaned into Magistrate Mare’s room. “Yeah?”

Mare was reading letters. Not her own, both those she’d heaved from the Coltcutta courier office, stacked on the corners of her desk. “Come in. Sit down.”

“Sho thang, mastah.” GIlda sneered, but did as ordered. She jumped up and sat herself on the windowsill. “Not going to ask me if I’m feeling better?”

“Clearly you are.” Mare said. “Whatever pale ailment you caught in Coltcutta is no match for griffin constitution.”

“What does that even mean?” Gilda scowled.

Mare squinted, like she was trying to remember what she’d just said. “Oh. Nothing. I’m just babbling.”

“Are you joking? Is something funny?” Gilda pried.

“Not especially no. It’s nerves more than anything.” Mare said. “Though with you back in action I have one less thing to worry about.”

“Why are you worrying? Is any of that mess in Coltcutta reaching us?”

“Thankfully not. The young new maharaja is putting a lot of pressure on the EOC to support him against his enemies, and several ships have had their cargo seized as leverage. It’s a whole debacle.” Mare put her letter-reading on hold. “We left at just the right time. We avoid conflict with the raj and dodge getting swept up in the EOC’s reaction. Still, there’s the question of what to do with the bag full of bribe money…”

“Buy a crown with it, next place we stop. We go down to a jeweler's workshop or artist’s studio, find the most beautiful and expensive work of art, an plop our bits on the table.” Gilda advised wryly. “Capture that feeling of frivolous wealth we’ve been chasing.”

“You never cease to amuse. Truly.” Mare laughed a bit, but like Gilda her joviality slid into rigid sternness. “Do you like crowns, Mis Gilda?”

“Eh, Dash has been looking for a souvenir. I think I prefer thrones. Or my mother’s lap, some say. Actually she’s my step mother.”

“What are you even talking about?” Mare asked, baffled.

“Nothing.” Gilda shrugged. “I’m just babbling.”

“Sure…” Mare hummed. “I was going to ask you something about what lengths ponies go to for crowns, but I’ve forgotten.”

“Not as far as griffins go to, I can promise you that.” Gilda recalled her father’s little circlet. It was a humble thing, passed down the generations. Yet it represented something more than itself: A divine right to rule and command, to possess sovereignty over the lives of others. It was something the Stars took without crowns.

“You’re chattier than usual. Do you know something I don’t? Have a secret aching to burst out?” Mare asked.

“No, it was a joke. But while we’re on the subject of secrets, you’ve been keeping Dash and me in the dark, and we want to know what’s in those letter you took!” Gilda pointed to the bind of letters on the desk.

“Don’t get snippy with me, mis. You’re answerable to me, not the other way around.” Mare growled.

Gilda did not feel like backing down. “No, not anymore. We’re conspirators, equals, comrades. Dash and I stuck our necks waaay you in Coltcutta and we deserve to know the whole picture.”

“So then when are you going to tell the truth about what happened there. I’d sure like to know how two gals overthrew a monarchy and touched off a civil revolt.” Mare narrowed her eyes. “I’ll find out about that colt later. Right now, you’ve got your own answers to give.”

Gilda rolled her eyes. “You can’t take the moral high ground here.”

“Why not.”

“Because it wasn’t us. We were bystanders.” Gilda insisted. “Perhaps not, bystander, but not the cause definitively. Our role was very minimal.”

“That was the fasted walk-back I’ve ever seen. Wow.” Mare tapped the desk in polite applause. “Am I ever going to find out who the ‘real’ perpetrator is or do I have to kiss you for that confidence.”

“Easy there, Mare. You won't like my taste.” Gilda said. “Here’s my take. Why does it matter? We got away! We got the bits! The truth doesn’t matter.”

Mare huffed. “Because I hate secrets.”

“You don’t mind keeping them.”

Mare took a deep breath and hissed it out slowly. “Gilda, would like to hear an anecdote?”

“Sure. You have the best anecdotes.” Gilda smirked. She pantomimed fluffing up a pillow and lay back against the hard wood of the sill.

“Ah, if you ever opened up I think I would be greatly humbled by the color and excitement you could share.” Mare cleared her throat. “When I was still in university in Filly Delphia, the city and campus were unexpected hosts to a visit by Empress Celestia. It was her last, or maybe second to last tour of Equestria, before she started shutting herself up in Canterlot and leaving everything to advisors. The empress decided to wander without her retinue, popping into lectures and peeking into the library annexes. It was surreal, having our god-sovereign pass us by or stare at us as we studied.”

“Did you talk to her?” Gilda asked. She had seen Celestia once. It had been just after Dash had convinced her to aid her flight from her family in Cloudsdale, in a brief stop in Canterlot. They had been perched on a crumbling townhouse in the inner city, overlooking a dirty plaza with a muck-filled statue, like plazas and fountains in the inner city were want to do. Suddenly a group of Imperial Household Guards in shimmering armor emerged from an alley and began shoving ponies to the walls. A slender carriage pulled by more IHG darted through the gap in the indolent crowd, and disappeared into another narrow alley just as quickly. For a brief second, Gilda could have sworn she’d seen the magenta eyes of Celestia watching her from between the laced curtains of that gilded carriage.
Lost in her vivid memory, she almost forgot that she had asked a question and was startled to hear Mare start talking again.

“If you’d believe it, I did. On that partly-cloudy thursday, I was engaged attending an academic court for a friend of mine who had been accused of cheating. I was there to comfort the poor boy, and also make sure the charges stuck since I was the one who’d ratted on him. Oh, don’t give me that look! It was a cutthroat environment, highly competitive. He’d have done the same if he caught me. Anyway, this court was, as I’m sure you would expect, painfully drab, until Empress Celestia of all ponies poked her head in. Some daft administrator stuttered out an explanation, and her majesty said something completely banal, but something I will never forget.
She said, ‘Everyone essentially tries to do the right thing. By various levels of delusion, we become separated ourselves from the truth of our actions.’ Compelling, insightful, completely ignored.”

“I kinda like it. Delusion is basically the only way I get up every day.” Gilda shrugged. “If I stopped denying my mistakes and pretending I’m perfect, the collective guild and embarrassment would kill me.”

Mare’s frown tightened.

“I know, right? Let’s get off this topic.” Gilda felt a cringe coming on. “Before we hurt ourselves.”

Mare cleared her throat. “I didn’t share that story to fuel your self pity. I’m trying to do the right thing, and on some level, you are too. Now shut up and let me talk, and if I don’t give you every iota of information that comes across my desk here, it’s because I’m too busy thinking about ways to save this expedition from disaster. On that subject...” She reached under her desk and pulled up the bottle of glowing green liquid she’d retrieved in Coltcutta, which was churning restlessly within its glass confinement. “Do you know what this it?”

Gilda tapped the side with a talon and watched the liquid swirl angrily. “Dragonfire. It’s very concentrated based on how brightly it’s glowing.”

“Correct. I see you have a commanding knowledge of arcane hydraulics.”

“Don’t patronize me.” Gilda snorted.

“Ooh, you really want to make this painful for me, don’t you.” Mare frowned. “I will be straightforward with you Gilda, we are in for a very bad time in Chitin.”

“No shit.”

“Here’s what I know: A rival expedition, in actuality a mercenary army from Horsestralia on Butcher Rose’s payroll, is going to be shadowing us on our way inland. When we arrive at the dig site, we will be attacked by a rogue faction of local changelings, who will in turn be slaughtered by the mercenaries.” Mare explained. “Chairpony Rose has, in her great hubris, done all through her communication through official EOC channels. There’s a detailed copy of this conspiracy in every courier roost from here to Filly Delphia.”

“So it won’t be hard to nudge other officials towards the eviance. Hmm, I’m guessing blatant murder is against EOC policy.” Gilda said sarcastically.

“Yes, yet we cannot know if she’s done this with the Chairpony Council's complacence. This could go all the way to the top.” Mare went on. “There’s plenty of resentful patricians who’d like to see me gone for the embarrassment I’ve caused them.”

“How paranoid do you have to be to think the entire company hierarchy has it out for you?”

“Well…” Mare scratched her head awkwardly. “My stunt with the blackmail was not the only black eye I’ve given the chairponies. From time to time I steal and leak confidential reports or audits, just to remind them what kind of damage I could do if I actually wanted to.”

“Mare, you really are something, but at least you’re not some deluded idiot thinking she’s doing the right thing. You and I are sinners, and we know we are. We solve problems. Thing is, solutions appear to be less permanent than mine.” Gilda chuckled, earning her an angry glare. “So where do I and a liter of highly condensed dragonfire get us?”

“I hear that the highest echelons of the imperial government of Equestria use dragonfire to send messages, but I’ve heard of a different use. If it can be done safely, we could use the dragonfire to escape any dire predicament we walk ourselves towards.”

“Teleport ponies with dragonfire? Tell me you’re kidding.”

“You have a familiarity with the stuff. Could you do it?”

“Not even if I’d finished my studies.” Gilda laughed at the outrageousness of it. “Have you any idea how volatile this stuff is? The amount of energy it releases can vary immensely. It can tickle your eyelash or melt icebergs with equal application. If that bottle still had a label it’d say ‘Extreme Danger: Keep away from non-magic plebs’.”

“In other words we would need a practiced magic user to utilize it.” Mare sighed.

“A practiced magic user might be able to keep it from exploding and burning his ass off. You’d need a master with decades of study to do what you’re thinking. It takes a certain temperament and understanding.” Gilda rubbed her temple and smoothed her crest feathers. She was getting worked up in her ranting. “Believe you me. I’ve seen people I respected be obliterated in moments by that stuff.”

“No wonder you recognized it then. I suppose it will have to be used in a different way.” Mare sniffed. “Do you think it would be a capable enough backup weapon to burn mercenaries with?”

“Are you talking murder?” Gilda was shocked.

“Blatant murder.” Mare confirmed. “As you said it Gilda, we need permanent solutions.”

Gilda was impressed. Mare could be a petty and unscrupulous mare by her own admittance, but it took something else to make the jump to murder. Especially a gruesome murder by way of scorching dragonfire.
If Mare was willing to do what was necessary, she had the possibility of being an ally when it came time to fight Xaron. Even if she was ignorant of the great secrets of the world, she was a clever and devious mare who could take up the game quickly.

But Gilda wasn’t going to make any such proposition yet. “I agree. We have the right to self-preserve.”

“You took a long time to answer, but you weren’t hesitating. No, you were calculating.” Mare smiled thinly. “If this expedition had stayed boring and mundane, and you remained a simple bodyguard, I should expect it would have ended with you murdering somepony anyway. It’s the nature of monsters to do monstrous things.”

Gilda chose not to be offended. Mare would understand eventually. “Everypony flourishes by horrendous strife, but in different ways.”

“That’s more philosophical than I expected from you, Gilda.”

“I have my moments.” Gilda shrugged. “But I have a question for you. Why not skip out on this expedition. You have the choice not to risk your life. You can choose not to take the path that will force you to kill. That’s cold blooded, on a level I didn’t expect of you.”

“Come now. I grew up in the country. Ponies died all the time. And at university in Filly Delphia, there were students who literally worked themselves to death. And don’t forget that scene in the alleyway in Clawstantinople. I think I know the value of a life. It amounts to an incredible amount, all that someone was, until suddenly it isn’t.” Mare put the bottle of dragonfire back under the desk. “I think I like you, Gilda, because you can put words to my deeper and darker thoughts, the thoughts propper ponies should let slip. I want to test myself against Butcher Rose in every way. I want to know if I have the constitution to do what is necessary. Can I flourish or will I wither?”

“Just now you mentioned those griffins in Clawstantinople. Honestly I didn’t remember them well, but you have clearly.” Gilda said. “Did it shake you? Do you have nightmares about them taking you away to cut you up into meat?”

Mare stared down at the desk for a while. “Is it wrong to want to be the butcher?”

“Better than the meat atop his table, ma’am.” Gilda slipped off the sil and made to leave. “Keep an eye on Do. She’s a less honest liar than us. No telling with her.”

She cantered out of the office and closed the door behind her. She waited a few seconds before cantering over to her own room and going in.
Dash was waiting on her, sitting on the bed leafing through one of Gilda’s books. “Zero informed me of a meeting, so I came posthaste, as soon as I could tear myself away from Mis Do.”

“Dash doesn’t talk anything like that.” Gilda shut the door behind her. “Be a parrot or something.”

“Don’t be insulting.” In a flash of green light, Dash changed into the form of a huge monitor lizard. “Parrots are not my definition of magestic.”

“Implying Dash is majestic? Gee.” Gilda had gotten somewhat used to the changeling’s transformation antics, but it was still disconcerting seeing mundane animals move their mouths in unnatural ways to form words. “How about… a pigmy griffin-hawk. I had a pet one named dame Gibby for a few years.”

“That I can do.” Zero sissed, once again changing. He came out of the green fire as a rabbit-sized hawk, black in collaboration with wide red eyes. He flapped back to the book he’d been reading. “I heard you talking with Mis Mare in the other room.”

“I’m having a hard time deciding what to do with her. She’s not a bad mare, really, and that’s a problem. I don’t know if she would be on our side if we get into a three way fight with Xaron and the changelings. Actually a four-way fight, since Mare was telling me that there’s a mercenary army that’s gunna merc us once we uncover the treasure.”

“Hmmm, that could be good, or it could be bad. This ‘army’ could be a few hundred, or it could be ten thousand. The larger it is, the more easily it would be to find a weak link and exploit it.” Zero chirped. “Irregular soldiers are already given to unruliness and infighting. We could potentially even buy them off ourselves.”

“Mare didn’t even consider that. She was willing to commit to fighting them straight up.”

“That’s what she told you, at least.”

“She doesn’t know who she can trust, for good reason.” Gilda agreed. “We might want to bring Mare in on our plans, just so her independant machinations don’t screw us over and get everypony killed prematurely.”

“Let’s consider it. It would be a terrible waste to die pre-maturity.” Zero nodded. He swived his red gaze to the door. “Here’s Dash.”

On cue, Rainbow Dash opened the door. She stared at the fluffy bird perched on Gilda’s bed for a few seconds. “Nice disguise.” She pulled a chair away from the wall and sat on it backwards, forehooves crossed over the back. “Whats up?”

“Hey Dash. We’ve got problems. There’s a menace on the wind.” Gilda explained.

“Let’s not beat around the bush.” Zero interrupted. “Mis Dash, within the next seven hours, the Flyer Kyte will come upon a derelict merchant vessel, showing signs of having been attacked by pirates. The pirate in question being Xaron, and instead of taking the cargo, he’s leaving it for us to find.”

“The second sarcophagus that Sharamin and Xaron took, right?” Dash cocked her head. “We’re barely two days out from Coltcutta. How did he get it here from Maredia so quickly?

“Yes, It is curious how fast he’s arranged this. He may have sympathisers in the Sarbaz Yazatan, willing to help his secret cause.” Zero said. “My best guess is that he chartered the ship to carry his sarcophagus out of Stirrup, It may have been in Coltcutta with us and we never noticed. Now Xaron ties up that loose end. Let it not be said that ancient alicorns are careless creatures.”

Gilda shook her head. “No, Xaron implied he took the sarcophagus to Maredia, which fits in with what I heard from the sniper in Stirrup. I think Xaron brought it with him to Coltcutta, and chartered a ship there. That could explain why the one below us started waking up: For a short while her companion was right across the bay.”

“What I was concerned about was this being a setup. As in, what if the Maredians are lying in wait, looking for a chance to ambush the Kyte and take our sarcophagus.” Dash clarified. “They couldn’t pin down our location before, but if we stop to investigate the derelict, they’ll have us.”

“Xaron is heartfelt about his rebellion. GIlda can attest to that. If the Maredians are chasing us he won’t be to blame.” Zero shook his little head. “Fortunately, the hippogryphs have little to no influence in Chitin. If they do come after us, they’ll be relying on small units without any local help. We may not have much warning, but between the two of you even the most dangerous gryph will pose no problem.”

“That is, if they don’t use another ancient alicorn against us. There’s got to be at least one loyal ava, and who knows how dangerous they are.” Gilda pointed out. “But enough digression. Zero, tell us about the derelict.”

“Ahem. From what I felt, it is a medium sized merchant vessel, crew contingent of about eighty. When we arrive, all the crew will be dead, in the best case. If Xaron left any alive, it will be our responsibility to keep them from talking.”

“What? Xaron actually killed the sailors?” Dash balked.

“Yes.” Zero confirmed. “Quite horribly, from what aural emanations their deaths made. I can no longer detect the disturbance so Xaron must have finished the deed and left. I don’t imagine him sticking around to watch us gawk at the bodies. Then again...” He coughed. “Incase his stunt in Coltcutta did not make it obvious, alicorns have little regard for mortal lives.”

“And we’re going to murder too?” Dash gasped. She liked to think that all the ponies that had died on the adventure so far had at least slightly deserved it.

Gilda was annoyed at Dash’s self-delusion. “I’ll do it. We can’t let survivors telling Daring and Mare about Xaron or Sharamin. We need to be the ones controlling the narrative. Mare’s going to draw connections and start figuring things out herself. Daring Do might bug out and take the location of the treasure with her. She’ll already be on edge seeing a ghost ship.”

Zero chirped in agreement. “Indeed. We must take charge wherever we can, steer ponies’ action, make this ship ours. You two will go aboard the derelict therefor, and make certain that the second Bard sarcophagus is secure. Once that is done, inform Mare and Do, then proceed immediately to the Kyte’s cargo hold, and inspect the first sarcophagus while everypony distracted. I will be disguised as one of you to make your absence less conspicuous.”

“Great idea actually. It’ll be the best opportunity to see inside both sarcophagi.” Dash said.

“Not that it matters too much. I know what’s in there. I have suffered it.” Gilda mumbled. “I’m not sure I want to get too close. Not to either sarcophagus.”

“You would fare better than me. Your little illness has desensitized you to a degree.” Zero offered. “Or, Dash could go by herself.”

Gilda sighed. “No, I don’t want to wimp out it’s just…” She closed her eyes and listened for the lolling perturbations that rumbled down in the cargo hold. “As they get closer, they might calm down. Or, get louder.”

“We will see.”

“Yes we will.” Gilda nodded. “Beside that, I see no flaws. It’s a good plan, Gibby. Good plan.”

“Gibby? Wasn’t that the name of your- Oh.” Dash laughed, realizing what Zero’s avient disguise evoked. “Ha ha! That’s pretty funny.”

“Not especially.” Zero ruffled his feathers. “My name is sufficient short, I don’t think I’m in any kind of need of a nickname.

‘It’s a code name.” Gilda smirked. “Zero isn’t a common name, you know. If the wrong creature hears that a Star is near it might cause trouble for us.”

“Then you shall be ‘Princess’, and Mis Dash can be ‘Tortuga’. ” Zero shot back.

Gilda squirmed. Being call princess brought on uncomfortable reminders of Godswing. “Hey now-”

“Codenames are a mark of a professional. You wouldn’t want to be unprofessional, would you?” Zero cooed. One would almost think he were teasing, if he his relationship with humor was anything other than tepid.

“For buck’s sake, it was a joke.” Gilda groaned. “Fine, whatever. Only on ‘missions’ though. Dash?”

“I don’t know what tortuga means but I’ll take it.” Dash shrugged.. “But uh, back to the plan here... I had one sticking point. Daring Do will be very, very suspicious.”

“It will be up to you to convince her to think nothing of the incalculable coincidence. Or at least, convince her not to abandon the expedition.” Zero said. “Gilda and I were considering bringing Magistrate Mare into our little cabal here. She could help you corral Mis Do, among other things.”

“Erm, no. Bringing on Mare should be a last resort. She’s not gunna like what we’re doing one bit.” Dash resisted. “She’s about profits, not revelation and cosmic theology.”

“And that’s good! We don’t need somepony blinded by ideology, we need an amoral opportunist. Another amoral opportunist, that is.” Gilda argued. “No matter how this adventure ends or what we decide to move on to, having Mare on our side makes sense. I don’t see a downside.”

“If you can’t find the bad, you aren’t looking hard enough. Nevertheless, the pros outweigh the cons.” Zero chimed in. “When it’s convenient, we bring Mare on.”

“I don’t like it.” Dash grumbled. “You guys can have that job. G, I think it’ll be mostly you.”

“I’ll help, if I can. She may be persuaded to agreeableness if I reveal my true nature.” Zero agreed. “Any questions or additions?”

“We’re all squared away.” Gilda pushed everything aside and lay on the bed. “Now we wait.”

~~~~

The storm was terrible indeed. It was a tour de force of nature, plunging Gottrakt in complete darkness, interrupted only by sky-splitting streaks of lightning.
The situation on the surface was not half as bad as in the air column, where a malignant sentence was waiting. Dark magic sparked and crackled, manifesting the entity out of power coursing down the cumulus from the edge of space, where the highest reaches of the storm scraped the nearer deava. The entity focused its attention on the black basalt island below,

Gilda was not unaware of the looming presence. To her, eyes closed against the shards of ice blown forth by the tempestuous winds, the entity radiated a foul aura, like the stench off a rotting knot of seaweed. It’s psychic power filtered through the darkness like dusty sunbeams, but infinitely more rank. It was numbingly overawing, to witness at last the species of being whose friction against the atmosphere had sent endless whispers to her and her fellow student. Everything the school had ever aspired to, the infinite divine, was just out of her grasp. More or less.

For an instant, the two creatures saw the other’s observance, but while Gilda could do nothing but watch, the entity had free reign to punish snooping mortals.

A massive form, shrouded in obscuring cloud and shadow, emerged from the dark skies. It was neither hoof nor talon, but a squirming gasping thing, like the uncurling frond of a fern. Along its length were diagonal sequences of glowing grey-red eyes, whose radiant darkness pierced sheets of rain, refracting the unholy light into a sickening rainbow.

Gilda was helpless: Hunched over, hind legs folded, talons clasped together desperately, wings held tight against her side, whole body tensed to keep herself upright in the face of the hurricane.
She could hardly hope to survive the storm, even less the terrible thing her communion had pulled out of it.

“I don’t think this is normal. The test shouldn’t be like this.” She squawked in nervous terror. She wasn’t ready to die, to have the deava tear her soul out and retreat back to the heavens; The other students would find the charred husk of her body the next day, and stare in horrified wonderments at what cosmic power had touched poor Gilda to obliterate her so thoroughly.

The cloud-shrouded shape crashed into the sea, a mere dozen meters off into the water from the rock upon which she sat. It continued to course downward, forming an unbroken connection between the black depths and the black sky, both unseen through the deluge and spray.
But it did not communicate. Even the whispers, although the north wind continued whistling past her ears, were nearly silent, only chanting and lolling in reverence of the entity’s arrival.

But without the agitation of the deava’s whispers, Gilda’s mind was free, and she shook off fear. Fueled by adrenaline, she raced through the possible ways to placate the entity. First and foremost, discover why it had come down from the cosmic curia of the deava alicorns, to interrupt something so infinitely miniscule as a mortal’s meditation.
She cracked her right eye open, and tried to establish contact with one of they that rotated down the pillar of un-flesh. “Who are you?”

The entity rotation slowed, until it became stationary; Pillar-like it loomed, absolutely unmoving in the gale. It’s thousands of red-grey eyes, or at least the ones facing her, swiveled to Gilda, bathing her in their murky light.
The voice it projected in her mind was sublimely awful, like a slathering of pithy rancor that only begrudgingly had woken up. Gilda could only conceptualize it as a blistered thumb, pressed down on the earth, and retched as it assaulted her mentally.
“The deava born a thousand years ago, the deava created for sacrifice, I arise from sleep at my Dark Lady’s command. You are a supplicant of the godhead, but I am all that can answer. Godhand, name me, for that is what I will become, after sacrifice. I do so for you, Gilda von Gottrakt, the recipient of Anima Astral Nacre’s dark attentions, and worse intentions. Rejoice or lament.”

~~~~

“Hey.”

“Uwww…”

“Gilda, wake up.”

“Awwawa.” GIlda sat up and stretched. “Uhh… Did I fall asleep?”” She yawned.

Zero, still in the tiny hawk form, was on the bed beside her. “Yes you did, four hours ago. Dash went back to her cabin.”

“Oh.” Gilda tried to formulate complete thoughts but, a haze of nebulous fear kept pulling away her attention. She had had another dream, and as she tried to grasp its content her brain was jolted with another dose of immaterial terror. Wary, Gilda took a deep breath and focused on the now. “Something up?”

“The lieutenant on watch reported to Mare a few hours ago, presumably about the derelict being spotted. We should be close enough to tell that it is motionless. It’s time you double checked and told Mare.” Zero chirped.

“Alright. Gimme a sec.” Gilda spent a few more minutes stretching, before pulling her arquebus and its harness out from under the mattress. “Since this is a merchant ship, the ‘lieutenant’ is the chief mate. Mare swaps the mates constantly to keep them from ‘accumulating power’.” She began strapping on the harness. “When does Bowline Tight begin his shift?”

“He have the eight to twelve and it’s about five now, so Bowline Tight’s last watch is over. See, I was thinking about a new disguise. You’re right, ponies are beginning to get suspicious.”

“Because you’re not even halfway playing the part.” Gilda scoffed. “So, what’s you idea?”

“I’ll change on the derelict. I shall be Gibby, a mentally scarred survivor of the pirate attack. I haven’t decided on form yet.” Zero contemplated.

“Not your natural form, to be sure.” Gilda shook her head. “How about a hippogryph. If Daring Do suspects the Sarbaz Yazatan are coming after the sarcophagus, she might be comforted by one telling them otherwise.”

“She will certainly think I am a spy. I like hippogryphs, but it’s off the table.” Zero said. He hopped into the center of the room and transformed into a silver unicorn stallion with a moss mane and an eye for a mark. “I’ll be a unicorn. That way I can use magic freely.”

“The eye is a little too on the nose.” GIlda pointed out.

“Oops. That’s my default.” The eye mark shifted into a pigmy griffin-hawk icon. “Better?”

“Goodun, Gibby. I hope I can keep myself from bursting out laughing every time I see it.” GIlda lay back down on her bed. “So, Bowline Tight will mysteriously disappear. Someponies will blame me, since they’ve seen us together. Mare and Do might call me out.”

“They wouldn’t be wrong.” Zero transformed into Bowline Tight’s visage and trotted to the door. “If it comes to that, I’ll provide you an alibi.”

Gilda scoffed. “You want to be everywhere at once?”

“Don’t forget to tell Mare.” Zero said, before exiting into the hallway.

Gilda watched him leave.

Would he wave to die?
Gilda had been thinking. Everypony had something they hoped to gain from the expedition, except for Zero. He expressed no aspiration or ambition, save for being helpful, which either meant his desires were unrealistically pure, or too terrible to dare mention. The mystery and the resulting lack of predictability put Zero in an odd place were Gilda was unsure of his commitment to anything. He could turn on her and Dash in a moment, for any number of reasons.
But, Gilda liked him, earnestly. She had never had any male friends that she did not later end up eating, but Zero had hit her from the off as a wise sage-like figure, genuinely interested in everything, more than willing to hold her company. In a way he was strangely fatherly, and Gilda was very tempted agree to the thereto unspoken offer, and join Zero to finish the studies she had abandoned in Godswing.

But was he actually a friend?
There was subtle inconsistencies between him and his surroundings. His disguised body trembled and fought against itself, struggling to keep it’s form. Gilda was not expert, but she had thought that a changeling could only change into something of equal size. Zero’s changes had flaunted that law.
The way he acted, moved, and spoke were haunting familiar to her, bearing the imperceptible tells of a Star. His red-grey eyes betrayed a lurking savagery and hunger that his stoic voice and cultivated lexicon hid: He was a predator, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whatever he may say or do, a Star was a selfish creature of the highest order.

“Hey Z.” Gilda called out.

“Yes?” Zero leaned back into the room, speaking in the voice of Bowline Tight.

“Why did you come with us? Wouldn’t you have rather gone with Xaron?”

“Xaron is an old acquaintance of mine, but I was never able to stand him for more than a few minutes. Besides, where would it leave you young ladies? Without a modicum of mentorship, you especially could run dangerously wild.” He said, with a hint of regret. “It’s in everyone’s best interest. Let’s leave it like that.” He shut the door behind him.

Gilda waited for his creaking hoofsteps to fade down into the lower decks. She exited the cabins onto the deck, and flew up through the rigging to the crow’s nest.
The earth pony spotter on watch was lounging under a fabric sunshade. “Hello Mis.”

“Hello yourself.” Gilda grunted. “Where’s the derelict?”

“Derelict? I don’t know about that.” The spotter sat up. “There’s that frigate on our eleven. Come to say, it ain’t moved very much since I last looked.”

“When was that?” Gilda shaded her eyes to see the ship he was speaking of.

“Hour ago, ‘bout.”

Gilda did not have to look for long to see the derelict. It was not a frigate, but about the same size: Three-masted, expanded cargohold. Quintessential equestrian cargo ship.
“Hoof over the spyglass.”

“Sure.” The spotter complied.

A sinking dread came over Gilda as she peered through the spyglass. She knew well the mermare carved onto the prow of the ship, and the pattern of green and white stripes that adorned its shredded sails.

It was impossible. How could a slower ship have come out ahead of the Flyer Kyte? Questions raced through Gilda’s head, and the raring eagerness that she had felt began to fade into emptiness.
She her claw droop and the spyglass slip out. “That’s a dead ship.”

“Hey! Be careful!” The spotter snatched the spyglass off the floor and inspected it for cracks. “And what’dya mean, dead ship?”

“Everypony onboard is or will be dead.” Gilda promised.
It could not be a coincidence. Xaron was sending a message by using the Seapony’s Pride as his postage casket, which could be best understood like Gilda chose to in that moment: Destroy the past

~~~~~~

“Come again?”

“Anima Astral Nacre, her great majesty the Dark Lady, incomparable master of the lights that watch the heavens, has uplifted me. From the blackest abyss, the storm attracts the currents, and the mire upwells. I reach for the impossible sky, for the Dark Lady who grants me succor. Denied the caress I yearn for, I nonetheless serve her. Cursed with earthly shackles like all the earthborn deava, I can do no more than manifest her will, as the servitor of her desire. In pale homage to those far greater than I, I deem myself gohand. The Dark Lady has come to announce that she has seen you and taken interest. Rejoice or lament.”

“Do I have to choose now?” Gilda asked.

One of the teachers at Black Bell’s school had once told her that the defining characteristic of religion was submission. Not faith, or mysticism, or spirituality or understanding; There could be no worship, and thus religion, without submission to the divine.
Griffins did not worship deava, not even the School of the Black Bell. But the indomitable black pillar of dark magic, running from the impossible depths to the unreachable outer limits of mortal reach, provoked in her young heart a sensory and sensual overload. She imagined for a moment the great significance of what she was experiencing. It was a modern revelation, completely unprecedented since the classical age. That very moment, with a lone griffin standing (though she was still sitting) against the storm, with the ‘godhand’ providing otherworldly knowledge and power, would be remembered forever.
“Of the two, rejoice-ment and lament-ment, which would you recommend?”

The way the storm was blowing, Gilda was in the godhand’s windshadow, and the streaming rain and ice swirled at it’s fluctuating edge. Now that the pillar was stationary, the thousands of luminous eyes started moving independently, gliding side to side, but ever watching.
“That, Gila von Gottrakt, would depend on if you embrace change. You have wished idly for a clear path to self-fulfillment, and a way to progress meaningfully. The Dark Lady will give you a path, through sacrafice. Accept it with joy, or accept it resentfully. Either is your prerogative. I am only here to ensure you accept.”

“Accept a sacrifice? T- That sounds...” Gilda’s snide facade was breaking apart. The godhand’s prolix and protracted address was, despite her best efforts, worming its way into her chest; Anxiety was beginning to clench her breast. Through her closed eyes the Dark light burned, and tingles of fear ran up and down her spine.

“You must accept the sacrifice. Or, more aptly, allow it to occur. Acceptance can come later.” The godhand’s mind-pealing voice did not convey detached certitude well. The veiled threat rang dissonantly over the rainsoaked coast, a promise of damnation. “Acceptance will come later. It is in your nature, as the Dark Lady knows. For what other reason does she bestow consideration. You will accept.”

“I- I- I don’t-” Gilda squawked. She whole situation had suddenly become much more stark. So much talk of sacrifice. It evoked the memory of the kinds of experiments Black Bell conducted in the heart of Gottrakt, rending ponies apart, making patterns out of their blood and organs, burning hallucinogenic drugs and flesh together in obscene rituals: The less ‘scientific’ and rational side of the island, the true School of the Black Bell. Sacrifice meant death in the most terrible fashion conceivable. “I don’t have a choice?!”

“Did Black Bell give you a choice to study her dark magic? Did your father give you a choice to move to this barren isle? Did your mother give you a choice to be born? No.” The godhand pronounced. Lighting flashed in the sky, momentarily burning away the shroud of dark mist. Gilda could have sworn she saw a thousand murmuring mouths, counterpart to the eyes, aimlessly migrating around the pillar. And the teeth, sparkling reflection, like millions of stars in the void, licked by grey an petulant tongues. “Yet you’ve made a choice here. You chose to commune with the north wind! Noone else but you decided to hold out your soul for the deava’s scrutiny. You bowed your head to the godhand without direction, and without any consequence. You submitted. The Dark Lady sees fit now to arrange your fate.”

“Am I going to die?” Gilda choked.

“There will be death.” The godhand agreed. Perhaps Gilda only imagined it, but the deava’s air of monolithic certainty faltered for a fraction of a second.

“N- Not my death? Then I don’t understand!” She tried to deciphered the obtuse riddles. “Please, I only wanted magic, like everyone else!”

“Then you should take your issue to Destiny or the godhead. I can do nothing.”

“But I-”

“What a child you are. You make communion, bowed down, begging for the privileges you could not earn for yourself. It plays upon the deava contradiction; Revulsion of weakness, but love for domination. Where does submission lie? Lacking. Oh, but the Dark Lady appreciates how ignobly you’ve suffered.” The godhand laughed, but not just psychically, but physically, as the thousands of mouths Gilda had glimpsed launched into a shrieking din to match the storm. “Little mortal, little girl, how stupid are you, to prostrate before the Dark Lady? You make a little child wish as though she were a fairie! How foolish? I was awoken for the sole purpose of telling you! Telling you of your feebleness, your helplessness, your blind mortal stupidity. Now…”
The thousand lolling tongues spoke in unison. “The sacrifice.”

“Wait! No, please wait!” Gilda felt a cold settle on her mind, and suddenly her movements were not her own. At first it was a loss of sensation, but when she noticed her muscles moving on their own she realized in helpless terror that the godhand had taken over her body. She could not even scream.

The thousands of eyes gradually winked themselves off, until one was left. “It will not be the first time, nor the last, that a pitiful mortal stares into the eye of their god and sees the destruction they were to unwittingly cause. Ava, Deava, Star, and Celestiaan, they all know that brushing against the divine brings only suffering. Suffering for you, and so it also seems, for me.” The thousands mouths’ shrill laughter started up again, threatening Gilda with insanity like the whispers never had. The pillar began to spin again, returning it’s shroud of cloud to cyclonic turmoil. “The Dark Lady has seen fit to sacrifice us both, one more completely than the other.”

Gilda’s right foreleg was lifted into her view. It dissolved into dust.

“You yearn to see magic dance between your fingers, like they do for those other, lesser, students. You will. Whose magic will it be?” The godhand jeered, and the mouths joined in a final pronouncement. The dusty red-grey light congealed and lept up, rebuilding the bone, vessels, nerves, muscles, and finally skin of Gilda’s destroyed leg. Across the coursing bond of bloody light the godhand’s essence passed, and with every millimeter of flesh rebuilt the pillar of cloud and darkness loss more cohesion.
The swirling clouds dispersed themselves into nothing, leaving rain and spray in their wake. The absence of the godhand’s physical presence left behind it’s own terror, as Gilda’s reconstituted leg jerked back reflexively when she regained control over herself.

She opened her eyes, daring to look at what had been done to her. It lifted up to reach for the black sky, as she willed it to, but unbidden it mocked in deava’s timbre. “Let not my death go to waste! Let us go kill a Star!”

~~~~~

“Gilda! GIlda! Wake up!”

“That looks like a head injury.” Mare peeked over Dash’s shoulder. It was very obviously a head injury, one that was bleeding badly. “We need to get her inside, right away.” She straightened up. “You two, help Mis Dash! The rest of you, back to work!”

The crew reluctantly stopped gawking and returned to their tasks. The two sailors Mare had singled out, Bowline Tight and the spotter (who’d jumped out of the crow’s nest in a failed attempt to catch Gilda), helped carry her into the cabins.

Mare stayed on deck a few seconds, contemplating. “Something’s not right here.” She looked up to the crow’s nest. Bouncing off the rigging a few times had saved Gilda’s life, but why had she fallen? “Healthy people don’t pass out for no reason.”

When she followed the others into the cabin, they were talking in hushed tones. “Look at her eyes, how they’re fluttering. She’s dreaming.”

“No way. GIlda told me it takes hours of sleep before you start dreaming.” Dash nibbled her lip. They had pulled GIlda onto her bed, where she had the comatose griffin’s head cradled in her lap. “How’d it happen?!”

“One second she was talking, some weird stuff about a dead ship, and the next’un she was lights out!” The spotter was nervous too, afraid it was her fault. She looked up to see Mare, standing by the door. “Oh! Mis Magistrate! I- I- I’ll get back to the deck now.” She galloped out.

Mare and Bowline Tight locked eyes. “Don’t you have knots to tie?”

The stallion scowled. “No ma’am, I’m on the eight to twelve.”

“Then why were you on deck?” Mare demanded, but it didn’t sound like she actually wanted an answer.

Dash attempted to answer for him. “He was-”

“I was going to see if the rumors were true.” Bowline Tight replied for himself. “About the derelict ship.”

“Derelict ship? Dead ship?” Mare arched a brow. “Mis Dash, do you have better, more sane answers than the rest of this lot?”

Dash averted her eyes. Bowline Tight sighed. “We seem to be in last resort territory. Gilda can’t do it.

“Gilda said she'd have by back, and I have hers.” Dash softly agreed. “Magistrate, any sane answer I could give you would be lies.”

Mare’s frown deepened. “I see. There is insanity at work.”

“You have us in an unfortunate position. Don’t be hasty, however. it bears remembering that there are two of us in here, and one of you. ” Bowline Tight said stiffly. “Fortunately for you, Gilda expressed a desire to inform you of the goings on. Otherwise I doubt we would be talking. Indeed, I think one of us would be disappearing, and the other experiencing an odd habit change. ”

“I understand my position here.” Mare scratched her chin. “I’m listening, if you have something to share.”

Dash elected to go first. “It started in Sahella, we think, when the sar-”

“Golly! It’s true!” Daring Do trotted into the room. “How’d it happen.”

Dash looked alarmed, Mare noted, like she had been caught saying something wrong. “W- We don’t know.”

Daring checked Gilda’s pulse and eye dilation. “I heard her head was bleeding. Shouldn’t she be getting medical attention?”

Come to mention it, the gash on GIlda’s temple had disappeared. Mare shivered.

“We got her taken care of.” Bowline Tight replied to Do, with a glance at Mare. “She’ll wake up after a few minutes.”

Mare cut in. “As you can see, everything is taken care of, Mis Do. Now, was there something you needed?”

Do’s brow knitted in angrily. “No, I don’t need anything. I’m just checking in on a friend. Is that prohibit on your ship?”

“No, but you are crowding the room. Respectfully, find something else to do while I sort this out.”

“Sort it out, huh? More like sweep under the rug! If Gilda is hurt I’ll do something I might regret! Now if you’ll excuse me…” Do stormed out, making sure everypony knew she was irritated, in a ‘I still care for my injured friend’ kind of way.

There was a few seconds of silence.
“Did she look relieved or concerned that Gilda was okay?” Bowline Tight posed.

“Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Dash snapped.

“We can’t discount the possibility that she-”

“I said shut up!”

“Both of you are just babbling!” Mare shouted, startling them both. “Now in one word, ONE WORD, tell me what’s going on!”

“Alicorns.” Bowline Tight reported.

“Alicorns.” Rainbow Dash corroborated.

“Bullshit.” Mare spat.

“Could you close the door, please?” Bowline Tight asked.

Mare backed up the door, not taking her eyes off them for a moment, and kicked it shut with a hindleg. “Now, you will reveal who you really are. A changeling, I can only assume? Not many other species of shapeshifters. And don’t say alicorn, or I’ll be pissed!”

“Not going to ask about the original? Just as well.” Bowline Tight slid off the bed and walked to the center of the small room. His body was spontaneously consumed by green fire, and the form underneath bulged to twice the earth pony size. When the fire burned itself out, a huge black changeling stood in the center of the room. The only thing that had stayed the same, Mare noted, was his red-grey eyes. “I would hate for you to end up like him. I don’t want to have to kill anyone, if it’s not necessary. Not like you, I hear.”

Mare instinctively took a step back. “Woah. I didn’t they came that big.” The changeling towered over her, his spined head almost scraping against the ceiling. No normal changeling should have been able to alter their size that much. Clearly, Mare decided, the monster’s threats were not idle. Joining the little conspiracy seemed to be the only possible choice. “What’s your name?”

“Zero. If you prefer it, Lord Zero.” Zero chortled darkly. “I did entertain a noble lady, long ago.”

“Stow it, sailor boy. Who do you work for? The EOC? The griffins?”

“Are we gunna have to say it again?” Dash rolled her eyes.

“Alicorns.” Zero nodded. “However ‘work for’ is too strong a term. I should hope at least. Against my better judgement I seem to be dancing to the ava tune closely.”

“Boy, do you ever talk. I thought Gilda was bad. What you’re saying is all nonsense. I have no context for any this.” Mare tapped her hoof impatiently.

“You really are making it hard to justify preserving your life.” Zero began pacing the tight confines, barely getting a step or two in before he had to turn around. “Pah, but the truth is it has been quite a while since I disguised as a mare, and I find it none too pleasant. I woul prefer to leave her intact, I feel.

“Wait, what’s wrong with mares?” Dash grunted.

“Nothing. Just a few hours ago I was you. It isn’t difficult, only unpleasant for me.”

“Me? Okay, that’s creepy, but ignoring that… It is because of anatomy? You changed into a bird! They only have the one thing!”

“I was male bird. There is a distinction I doubt you would understand” Zero huffed. “Would you like me to replace Mare with a male version of herself? I could do that. I’ve done it before, and it turned out every bit as bad as you are imagining. Hey, what are you blushing about?!”

‘Just what the hell am I dealing with?’ Mare muttered to herself. “Hey! Idiots! Plot my death later. Tell me what’s happened to Gilda.”

“Alicorns.” Zero shrugged.

“The hell it is.” Mare spat. “I’ve had it with you right now. You can step out, so I can talk to my employee alone.”

Zero stood fast. “That’s not going to work.”

“I’m unarmed. I’m sleep deprived. I couldn’t beat a ewe in a wrassle right now.” Mare growled in exasperation. “Now, let me talk to Dash alone! Private conversation, chop chop!”

“Hmm, fine. Don’t bother trying to deceive her.” Zero matched her gravelly tone, something he could make infinitely more intimidating. “Mis Dash, keep her back from Gilda. She may try something .” He changed into a sparrow in a shower of green fire, and jumped to the door. He changed again into an anole, allowing him to barely fit through the gap in the frame.

“He’s a Star. Apparently that’s an ancient order of philosopher-magicians, who achieved immortality with a blasphemous ritual.” Dash said nonchalantly. “He’s a cool dude, once you-”

“Are you under duress?” Mare demanded. “Is he holding anything over you? Or Gilda?”

“What? No no, nothing like that. We’re trying to do the right thing!” Dash protested. “We have to stop the sarcophagus from being abused.”

“The one we have?”

“And the other one. The one we missed in Stirrup. But it’s close. We can save it, and protect it.” Dash noded eagerly.

“Explain.”

“The derelict. Everyone’s gotta be talking about it deckside now. A ship of the dead, with only one passenger who’s meant to be.” Dash was talking too fast for herself and tripping over her words. “Xaron, the ava we met in Coltcutta, was the one who nabbed it from Stirrup. Now that we’re pals, he’s going to give it to us!”

“What the hell.” Mare closed her eyes and tried to connect the dots in her mind. “So the sarcophagus in Stirrup was taken by an ava. Ava, a hippogryph word, interpretation of alicorn. Hippogryph. Maredia! Inquisitor! The inquisitors are after Do. They want the sarcophagus we have! No, they’re giving us one, and the one we have is a Bard replica. Wait, the one from Stirrup must also be a replica! They’re giving it to us as a…” She opened her eyes. “Second replica. Are we starting a collection?”

“The ancient bodies inside them are going to let us unlock the treasure in Chitin.” Dash corrected.

“Treasure… Alicorns… That changeling...” Mare looked to Gilda. “The Tower of the Bard. I’d never heard of it before Do mention it. Two two sarcophagi fit into that myth somehow. It’s a creation myth, of sorts. This treasure we’re after, relating to the tower that challenged the power of the gods themselves…” She paled.

“We don’t know what Daring knows. I really want to trust her, and believe she wants to do the right thing too.” Dash said quietly. “We need your help to steer her.”

“Goodness gracious this is… This is really something.” Mare dragged her hoof against the floor nervously, tracing all the imperfections in the grain. “The right thing? How can I even know…” She clear her throat. “I’m going to have to talk to Gilda.”

“You didn’t-”

“Zip! When she wakes up, I’m going to be the first to talk to her, and I won’t hear anything else about this until it’s her telling me!” Mare shouted, glare hardening again. “Dash, inform the helm that I wish to inspect the derelict. But hold us away! Noone boards before Gilda and I!”

Mare’s look was fiery, and as much as Dash was ready to get into an argument she was reluctant to do it over Gilda’s sleeping form. “Mare… You’re not going to hurt her, are you?”

“Piss off! What would my promises even mean to a deceiver like you? Go to the helm, now!” Mare stepped aside and opened the door. “She’s safer with me than any of you lot.”

Dash looked hurt, and indignance flashed across her features, but with a quick glance at Gilda she sighed and complied. Mare shut the door behind her, depriving herself of the ensuing argument between Dash and Zero.

“What have you done to yourself.” Mare took a deep breath. Was she talking to Gilda, the absent Dash, or the comatose Gilda? She didn’t know. “How are you going to get out of this?”

Gilda’s chest continued its slow rise and fall, and her eyes continued to flutter.

“Make room.” Mare pushed the griffin over and lay on the bed beside her. She let her own eyes droop. “It’s impossible… Gods almighty, just kill me now so I don’t have to deal with this…”

~~~~

Visions of demons and destruction had faded, but Gila was still blinded by the shock of what she’ seen and felt. She pushed herself on her belly, face down, eyes clenched shut, whole body trembling uncontrollably. She pulled herself South, taking it rock by rock, unwilling to lift her head or dare raise her eyes to the horrors that could still linger in the storm.
With her hindlegs, her wings and her leg foreleg she pushed in excruciation; Her right foreleg she let hang limply. Though it felt just the same as it had before, she rejected it. It was an alien construction, contrivance, a facsimile of flesh, that dared to shake and ache and sweat with the rest of her body. It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be real.

At her back, the North wind jeered cruelly, it’s whispers come back to life in the godhand’s departure. It whipped around her, trying to find a purchase to snag, to rip at in mockery of her latest failure. ‘Get away from here’ the nonsense whispers seemed to tell her, ‘never come back’.
‘ ‘Til’ The dark qualification rumbled in Gilda’s mind, ‘you kill the Stars’

“Impossible!” Gilda screamed into the ground, her words drowned out by thunder. How could she possibly match Black Bell? And why was she even contemplating it? It was madness!

‘ Stupid little child! The Stars are pathetic has-beens. The Dark Lady surpassed their milenium of effort, and she did it with a dweeb like you. Are you going to pine for a limb that isn’t there anymore? Or are you going to accept me?’
How could it be that the jeering voice matched the godhand’s, speaking in the sarcastic cadence of a cocksure youth, like Gilda’s own only slightly more? She gathered her courage and darted her eyes over her right leg, to reassure herself that it had not sprouted a lolling mouths with which to taunt her endlessly.
It had not, yet the Dark continued to be given voice.
‘Common looser. Try it out, before we have to scrap. Don’t forget this is what you wanted.’

“S- Shut up!”

How the voice in her head loved to talk.
‘Tonight we face with Black Bell. Rejoice or despair!’
The windblown whispers laughed in an echoing resonance, letting their uncontainable happiness be known.
‘We subvert her plans, and subvert her kin. Rejoice or despair!’
The whispers became a cacophony of euphoric screams, fluctuating into sporadic mockery of Gilda and her mother’s powerlessness.
“In tonight, we subvert her life. Rejoice or despair!’
The whispers could no longer be discerned from one another, rising as one into a progressively rising whine, until Gilda felt as though her brains might melt.

“No! I can’t! Let me go! I- I can’t...” The poor griffin writhed, grasping for anything that could give her solace from the Dark. “J- Ju- Just kill me.”

The basalt rock that formed her bed fractured, and in the shadow of the millions of fissures and holes there peered the red-grey eyes, and just as many jagged mouths.
Lolled and mouthed, wagged and chittered, gibbered sheer insanities in sounds that could vaguely deciphered as language, if one had infinite time and an infinite sternness against the maddening and otherworldly utterances of the other. The phantasmagoria extended its tongues and caressed her. She was coddled, she was helpless, and it was purely her choice to be such now.

‘Oh, poor poor Gilda. Geez, what a baby you are. Why did it have to be you? Why couldn’t I have died for some other shrimp.’ For a fleeting moment, the red light of the godhand scattered through the black skies. ‘What a bucking disgrace, that I got sacraficed for you. Wait for hundreds of years in watery solitude, and this is my reward. What a lame joke.’

~~~~

“You’re familiar with that ship?” Zero queried.

“Yeah. Gilda worked on that ship, and convinced me to join her. I was assistant navigator and weathorpony, under the Captain Pleiades. It didn’t last long, just between Baltimare and Clawstantinople, because I-” She sighed. “I screwed up, got us in big trouble with a mercenary company, and out of a job. Mare saved us. Actually, we saved Mare, and she got us out of there on the Kyte.”

“I hope to hear the details of that eventually. Sounds exciting.” Zero nodded.

The Flyer Kyte now had its sails furled and was drifting parallel to the derelict Seapony’s Pride. Most of the crew had taken shelter from the sun belowdecks, waiting for Mare’s next command. Do was on the forecastle, watching the Seapony’s Pride for signs of trouble. Dash and Zero were on the aftcastle monitoring the beige pegasus.

“Err, it was eerie, looking back on it. I thought adventure and getting into trouble was the kind of life sailors had. But pretty quickly I found out that it’s just me and Gilda. We’ve got an aura of trouble.” Dash said dourly. “The Seapony’s Pride though... There’s no way it’s a coincidence. GIlda could probably tell you better but I don’t think there’s any way it could actually be here!”

“Indeed. The transatlantic leg from Clawstantoinople to Filly Delphia, from there to Baltimore, and from there around the south cape to here, would take a ship of that size and configuration nearly three months. And that’s nonstop. There’s a sorcery of the highest caliber at play here.”

“Could it be a fake?”

“Like an illusion. Not a chance. Illusions don’t have crew who scream in agony.” Zero scowled. “The sarcophagus below us is mewling incessantly, and her counterpart over there is calling back. It is nauseating like I can’t describe. I feel like I am on a dingy, buffeted by a raging sea.”

“That sounds intimidating.” Dash gulped.
When they were traveling Equestria together, little more than girls, Gilda had told her wild fairy tales of fanciful heroes and heroines using magic and wits to overcome the odds. Growing up in Cloudsdale, Dash had only ever had pegasus myths and madrigals. Hearing about not only griffins, but unicorns and earth ponies too, using magic in their quests for renown or greatness, was bitter. Pegasus magic had destroyed Cloud Creche. Pegasus magic had used her as she used it, and murdered hundreds of fillies and colts.
Dash had been happy to forget about magic in her day to day life in Baltimare. Now that she was with Gilda again, and their adventure had taken a swerve into the magical and bizarre, she wasn’t sure what to think. She knew she was consciously holding herself back, keeping herself from tasting the magic that threatened to flood her with power and happiness. She didn’t know what nearly ten years of pushing it down was doing to her.
In a way, seeing Gilda and Zero suffer because of their magic made her happy. She needed every reminder of the terror that magic was so she could deny every temptation. She couldn’t trust herself, like a petulant child who could help but seek the forbidden cookies.
Dash was burning up inside with an envy she couldn’t explain. Gilda, Mare, Do, Xaron, Zero… They were all fascinating and spectacular people. Who was she? Only a murderer with no self control. She knew it, in the cold moments when she was alone in her bed. She was a murderer. Her anger was a murderer’s anger. She couldn’t let herself get mad like she had in Coltcutta. If she did, the magic would use her and she would use it. She would be responsible for hundreds of deaths again. It was best that she never tried her magic again.

And then there was the nagging fear that she dared not even consider for the terror it caused her: That by inaction, by letting the likes of Xaron and Gilda run amok, she was just as guilty.

“The air is getting colder again. I guess we’re making northward progress.”

“Is it?” Zero stuck his tongue out, tasting the air. “I can’t taste anything but pollen. The pollen of the marsh rose, native of the Greentail Marsh, in the Baltimare marches.” His words caught in his throat. “How could…” He stuck out his tongue out again, and walked around aftcastle. “It’s everywhere!”

“Pollen? Notta big surprise. It’s Spring.” Dash was confused by his behavior. Maybe it was a changeling thing.

“Pollen that should only exist in Equestria. To assert it would blow this far is absurd, especially in this concentration!” Zero was distraught, pacing furiously. “This whole area around the Seapony’s Pride is saturated! It couldn’t have been dispersed from the ship. Grace preserve me, this is a conundrum and a half.”

“It is colder, I’m sure of it.” Dash clasped her wings to her side. Zero’s anxiety was getting to her. “I- I’ve felt this air before! In Baltimare, where I used to live, we used to get fronts of cold air that settled down from the Badland Mountains to the south. The fronts would make the hot and humid springs cooler, but carry a bunch of nasty smells from the swamps it passed over. That air from the mountains felt exactly like this!”

“I trust your pegasus instincts.” Zero said. “Baltimare air, Baltimare pollen, and a ship that was due to be leaving Baltimare round this time… What does it mean?”

Dash gulped. “Could the whole-”

“No, impossible!” Zero swore. “Not even an alicorn like Celestia could transplant so much water and air on the opposite side of the world. Not even a deava.”

“But it happened!”

“It’s got to be something impossible then.” Zero closed his eyes. “Like phantom time.”

“Phantom what?” Dash cocked her head.

“Time. Phantom time. It was a thought experiment the Stars and I had about what the most dangerous ability an ava, an alicorn of Light and Destiny, could have.” Zero explained. “It turned out to be true. Celestia the First activated it during her battle with her sister, the Nightmare Pretender. A decade ago, Celestia one-seven-nine did it again. But I can’t tell if it happens. Almost nopony can. I didn’t even know until Black Bell told me.”

“Yeah, but what is it?!”

Zero hesitated, clearing his throat nervously before continuing. “Desynchronizing the course of Destiny.”

“Now I know how Mare felt. Nothing you say makes sense.”

“Destiny is time, Mis Dash. Whoever did this, presumably Xaron, stopped time and dragged a bubble of air with the ship inside halfway across the world, from Baltimare to here.”

“Damn it Zero! There’s Chitin, ten kilometers off our port. If you want to have a mental breakdown, have it over there where nopony can see you.” Dash shouted. “Because that’s impossible!”

“Don’t vent your frustration on me, Mis Dash. I’m want to find an explanation, but even more one that doesn’t scare me to death. Right now I only have that one, and it is terrifying.” Zero said. “And keep your voice down. Daring Do is looking out way.“

~~~~

“Finally. It’s the moment I’ve been waiting for.” If she still had a pony’s mouth it would be upturned into the widest of grins. She could still do it, but it wasn’t quite the same with a beak.

The grand hall of Gottrakt Keep was the largest interior space in the port town, soaring up to great heights with the support of flying buttresses and perfect engineering. Multatures of hideous gargoyles lined the crown and buttresses, carved like the rest in the decadent gryph-gothic style. In any direction, one could rely on hundreds of tiny eyes to be watching from the masonry.
The hall was more cathedral than court, a gross mockery of Celestia’s throne room in Canterlot Castle. Where the stained glass in the princess’s castle might inspire faith, pride, or awe, the graffina’s grizzly and depressing commissions, visible during the fleeting lightning’s illumination, brought nothing but fear.
Black Bell, the graffina of Gottrakt and mistress of the School of the Black Bell, was pure evil. And she love it.

The grand doors were pushed open. “M- Mother!” Gilda gasped, exhausted. She didn’t know how she’d had the strength to make it to the town from the north shore, but that godsent tenacity was beginning to fail her.

“Oh Gilda, you came back! You’re such a clever little griffin.” Nearly fifty meters away, at the head of the enshadowed hall, sat Black Bell. She was reclined against the wall, as one would against a tree during a nature hike. Her roc skull helmet was laid beside her, it’s empty gaze and permanent sneer matching her’s. On the wall above Black Bell was her ego writ large: A great tapestry with the black talon that served as her personal sigil and icon of the School of the Black Bell both, caressing the coat of arms of House von Gottrakt.
“How was your test?”

With the doors open, Gilda had to shout to be heard over the wind that had followed her in. But she could do nothing more than whimper. “H-Help...” She was dead on her paws, barely able to keep herself up. She hopped forward, putting no weight on her right leg. “The test was too much for me.”

“Oh come now. Don’t think like that.” Black Bell soothed. With a flick of a talon, the doors swung closed. “You did very well. For one, you’re still alive. The last few times a student tried to beseech a godhand, they ended up as steaming piles of flesh. Not that isn’t entertaining in its own way, but truly, Gilda, congratulations.”

“Y- You knew?!” Gilda squawked.

“I’m insulted you would think otherwise.” Black Bell chuckled. “Come closer my dear. But not too close.”

Gilda’s mind was cast adrift in a sea of confusion. She slowly walked herself across the hall. The pelting rain on the roof echoed around them, punctuated by earthshaking thunder.

“Anima Astral Nacre is a good friend of mine. Back during the War of the Nightmare Pretender, when she was still trapped in that oh so disgusting body everyone called the Twisted Sinner, we would go on long walks through the burnt and ravaged countryside together. Dear oh dear, her soul was beautiful! Never was anypony so eloquent and deep.
“When she ascended back to the cosmos, I entered a deep depression. I searched high, and I searched low, for a way to follow her. Alas, Destiny only allows the migration between earth and space in one direction and only once could her rule be flouted. But in a fluke, I came upon one of the long lost relics of the end of the ancient alicorns: The abyssal deava who called themselves the gohands. They had been born with a fragment of their soul tethered to the stars. Each time a godhand was destroyed, I could communicate with Astral for a feeling moment it’s soul was returning to it’s mistress.
“Shame to say, the godhands deava are dreadfully annoying a far cry from Astral, but isn’t that always the case with derivative works. They speak in this grinding patois that I simply cannot stand! So whenever I want to commune through them, I have to send a student.”

Gilda tripped on the curled edges of a rug and fell flat on her stomach. Too weak to stand, she crawled like she had on the rocks. Gargoyles and monsters of stone and painted glass were audience to her humiliation.

“Fair is fair, right? Astral has her godhands, and I have my students.” Black Bell shrugged. “I’m sure it pisses her off, but honestly who else is she going to talk to. The other Stars? They hate her non-corporeal guts! The Celestiaan? Girl, if this latest Celestia communed with a windigo, it’d be twice as impressive as anything she’s ever done.”

GIlda got the impression her step-mother was trying to be funny, but all she could feel was pain and emptiness. Flickers of aggression grew at the edge of her consciousness, and wordlessly, the godhand, her hand, compelled her to keep advancing.

“Never mind that stuff though, let’s talk about how great it is that you succeed. What messages do you have for me? Oh!” Black Bell smacked her forehead. “I just said to talk about you. Not like we can’t talk about all that stuff at a better time, right? I bet your head is teeming with thoughts. Later, tomorrow maybe, we can sit down and decipher it. Be a dear and try not to forget anything. Astral’s voice is a big step up from the little whispers you’re used to.”

Astral’s voice? GIlda had only heard, and lamentably continued to hear, the godhand. It dawned on her that the experience on the rocks was not as Black Bell had planned for her. With gut-crushing dread, she began to fear that she had done something punishable, to veer from expectation.
‘Hey, don’t look at me. I followed the script perfectly.’

“I knew from the instant your father and you arrived on Gottrakt that you would be perfect. Unadeptness to magic is good, complete deafness is ideal. Otherwise, you wouldn’t make your wish at the rock, and attract the godhand’s attention. Astral simply loves irony. Something about teasing a mortal and crushing their dreams turns her on. Oh, naughty girl!” Black Bell’s cheeks burned red when she remembered who her audience was. “He he… Forget all that I just said.” She cleared her throat.
“I’m sure you remember your ancestor, Gharl the Martin, the Eagle of Boseburg, the warrior-king who crushed Prance at the height of its power. I’m sure it made you burn with self-loathing that you could never live up to his legacy, and would never wield magic like he did. You wondered if your magical deafness came from your mother, despite the apparent paradox that it was through her you were descended from Gharl. You wonderment was correct. That whole linage, ending with you, is tainted by the curse of magical impotence. Isn't it ironic that Gharl’s victory, which made magic more acceptable to griffins, attached a stigma to his descendants? I find it hilarious.
“Gharl was the case zero, as it were, for my vicarious communions. It didn’t work quite right unfortunately, and instead of recieving my messages he got incredible magical power. A power that didn’t carry to his children, interestingly. Ever since then, I’ve had a idle desire to try again on his progeny. Perhaps they wouldn’t muck it up like he did.. I was correct!”

Gilda’s anger was growing. Every despicable word the Star said made her unnatural urge to kill grow stronger. She closed her eyes, clenched her beak, and started crawling again. She didn’t care how much it hurt.

“In most of the world, not having the ability to channel magic is no big deal. Here, on Gottrakt, it puts you in a category below the slaves. That unspoken truth must have grinded your sanity like nothing else, huh Gilda.” Black Bell chuckled. “Especially with the rumors. All those griffins joking and jeering. The absolute worst was the one about your mother. Graff Goric can use magic, so why can’t his daughter? Well, the rumor went, her mother was an unscrupulous lady and-”

“SHUT UP!” GIlda screeched.

Black Bell was caught mid word, poised to enunciate. She closed her beak, and slowly drew herself up. Her cold eyes were infinitesimally narrowed “Gilda, my darling, do you have something to say?”

Gilda considered walking back her outburst, but the rage kept building inside her, and she refused to be abused a second time. “I do.”

Black Bell smirked. “Let’s hear it.

“Your plan… It needs a student to beg with all their heart and soul.” Gilda struggled to keep her tone even. She felt like leaping and tearing at her step-mother. “Those that died during the communion died unvindicated. They were wretched and broken, and they carried that feeling with them on.”

“Gilda, I taught you better than to make religious allusions in serious magical discussions. Why do you care about the other students? They wouldn’t have cared about you.”

“It could have been me.”

“Oh come now. If you hadn’t executed the communion to anything less than perfection, we would not be here right now. I wouldn’t risk you.” Black Bell stomped. “A hundred percent, I wouldn’t risk your life. You and I are family, Gilda. Put my trust in you, and you succeeded.”

Gilda swallowed. “Trusted me to be a messenger girl?”

“Don’t you think you are being ungrateful?” Black Bell seemed to be getting wary of Gilda’s insolence. “You have done what none of the rest of the students on this island have. You have survived a deava. And not only a deava, but one of Astral’s sadistic godhands. You can walk among them smug in your superiority over them.”

Gila stopped crawling. She had to rest, her gasping breaths condensing in the freezing air. She dared to glance at her right foreleg.
It was plain, normal, yet infecting her with an energy that she’d never felt before. She couldn't understand it, except through primitive emotion. Its heat was soaking into her body, putting fire to her feelings. She looked back to the Star at the end of the hall.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Are you upset with me? You know I couldn’t tell you the truth behind the test. Your expectations would have changed. You wouldn’t have had pure and earnest feelings. Instead they would be paltry, and paltriness is no way to lure in a gohand. Are you feel disappointed that you didn’t get your magic?”

Suddenly, Gilda understood. She erupted into giggles. “He he he he he!”

Black Bell frowned. “Gilda, kiddo, what’s so funny. One second you’re crying and now you’re laughing.”

“N- n- nothing! I- It’s just-” Gilda’s attempt to explain devolved into more laughter. “Heee ha ha ha!”

“You know I hate secrets.”

“He he he…” GIlda’s giggling slowly dwindled. “I get it now. I get the joke.”

Black Bell sighed. “Joke? I don’t remember making a joke.”

“Nah, you didn’t. It was the godhand. It said something about Astral surpassing the Star’s milenium of work in mere moments. I didn’t get it at first. But now…” Gilda rolled into a sitting position and, very deliberately, pushed herself up with her right leg. Putting weight on the reformed limb made it tingle. ”That god you keep talking about, Anima Astral Nacre, sure does love irony. She sure does love teasing fools and dashing their dreams. She just can’t get enough of it.”

“Gilda, I should think you know very well who Astral is. Isn’t it her message that compelled you here?” Black Bell was getting wary. “You did see the godhand, that much I can tell. And yet…”

“Sorry mum. I take after my grand-pappy Gharl.” Gilda sneered. That idea that had seemed so impossible before, of assaulting and destroying the Star, wastantilizingly close. So close it hurt. “To us, the messenger mattered more than the message. The death of the godhand was not trite and insignificant, like it was to you. We were kindred spirits. We sacrificed together.”

Black Bell ran her eyes over her step-daughter. “Another failure…” She titled her head back and stared up to the ceiling. “Ahh. Astral must not be very happy with me right now.”

“HEY! You’re conversation isn’t with Astral right now, it’s with me! ME! She did more for me in five minutes than you did my entire life.” Gilda laughed darkly. “I don’t know why, but I was chosen. I was chosen, Black Bell, and you couldn't change that! Doesn’t that make you mad?”

“No. What makes me mad is that I could have changed that. I should have been smarter, and realized that there were more similarities than blood between you and Gharl.” Black Bell ran a talon over her face, ceremonially wiping away the regret and indecision. Her expression hardened into a stoic mark, with only her raging eyes to betray her true feelings. “I should have stopped you from eating ponies.”

~~~~

“Aaahh!” GIlda jumped up. In her attempt to stand she tangled herself up in the bed sheet and fell flat on her face. Still thrashing, she knocked her head into the base of her cabinet. The burst of pain stopped her movement, letting her realize her surroundings.

“Calm down, or you’ll give yourself another injury.” Mare untangled Gilda’s legs from the now shredded bedsheet and propped her into a sitting position. “Gilda, hey, are you hearing me? Give me a sign here!”

“Wuh…” Gilda swallowed her mouthful of spit and tried to decipher the tangle of memories in her mind. Her dream was still fresh, and filling her with phantom sensations of hatred and anger. “Mare? Where… How did I get here?”

“You dove off the crow’s nest but fell a little bit short.”

“I did?” Gilda took a deep breath. Her head was clouded with thoughts and emotions that she could not be sure belonged to her or her dream. The lack of the constant drum of pelting rain or the intermittent booms of distant lightning was making her agitated. Nothing felt as it should have been. “S- Sorry. I had a bad dream. But it was just a dream. Just a dream.”

Mare arched a brow. “Then again, maybe it’s too late for you.”

“I’m fine. Just fine. Really I am.” Gilda insisted. She gingerly flexed her right claw, making sure it wouldn’t start whispering maddening abuses. “I was exerting myself under direct sun too long, that’s all.”

“Your brain is fried if you think I’m going to accept that answer.” Mare snorted. “And what could you have possibly been doing? All you do is stand around and gab.”

Gilda knew Mare would recognize the name of the Seapony’s Pride as soon as she saw it. The paranoid mare had pulled records on everypony on this ship on the way to Stirrup, and had been especially scrutinized for Rainbow Dash and Gilda.
Mare would have to get her answers right away.

“Daring Do has gotten us wrapped up in some very dubious business. Umm, squirly business, even. It’s difficult to explain but if I had to summarize I’d basically say…” Gilda tapped her chin. “Alicorns.”

“Mother bucker.” Mare swore under her breath. “It’s true.”

“What’s true.”

“Mis Dash and your coltfriend said much the same thing after I grilled them.”

“Coltfriend? You mean Bowline Tight?” Gilda drew in a panicked breath. “No no, he’s just-”

“An inexplicably massive shapeshifter. Yes, ‘Lord’ Zero showed me. So I don’t need the lies.” Mare interrupted. “Exactly the opposite, actually. I want to know everything you have to say on the subject.”

“Damn it.”

“What? Damn it what?” Mare frowned.

“I must have given Dash a heart attack. Gods, she had to have thought I was dying or something.” Gilda sighed. In a certain way, it wasn’t far from the truth. The terrors of her dream kept welling up, an Gilda felt as though something was climbing up her throat. Sudden death by brain hemorrhage wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. “No offence Mare, but they were just placating you with whatever they told you, trying to get you off their back.”

Mare laughed. “On the contrary, Mister Zero seemed to indicate he usually dealt with problems like me by killing them. But, then said you vouched for me, which I found hilarious as you’d be right onboard with the killing.”

“Well… I did vouch for you.” Gilda confirmed reluctantly. “

“Glad to hear it.” Mare trotted back to the bed and sat herself. She felt tired, an she had done very little. “You and Rainbow Dash had dragged me into a situation I can hardly understand. I need any explanation you can give me, if you would be so kind.”

“You already heard the kicker. Alicorns. Ava to be exact, or as most creatures would know them, the Fires of the Gryph.” Gilda began. “The treasure Do is after is, as I’ve been told, the trinket-y prison of an ancient god. You can understand that might draw some attention.”

“And this Zero character is…”

“Advisor basically. He came with Dash and me to make sure the sarcophagus gets to the treasure. The inquisitor in Coltcutta-”

“Whoah whoah woah. Run that by me again.” Mare groaned. “Did you say inquisitor?”

Gilda stifled a sigh, and immediately after, a moan of pain. Aura of misery radiating up from the cargo deck was starting to effect her just as bad as the phantom dream. The reply from nearby, the call of the second sarcophagus, was pounding into her head like a dusty cod of earth, making her feel hurt and dirty all over. “Mare, I said you’d get answers, and I stick by that. You deserve them. But right now I have to go up and get some fresh air.”

Mare nodded slowly. “Fair…” She stood up and opened the door. “Gilda, we’re not exactly comrades, but we have an understanding, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“Being a tough-assed bastard means you lose some opportunities to open up to ponies, as you probably know. Perhaps I’m understating it a bit here, but I’m out of my league with this supernatural shit.” Mare confided in a low, strained tone, like it was physically hurting her to admit it. “I hope you decided to inform me about this not just because of practicality, or because of some responsibility you felt towards me, but because you trust me.”

Gilda was silent for a while. “Okay.”

Mare glanced away. “Okay then. Um… I should let you go.”

“Yes, I think you should.” Gilda agreed. She gingerly stepped around Mare and beelined for the deck.

“Shit. I thought I was getting better at this.” Mare swore to herself, pressing the bridge of her nose with the edge of a hoof. “I’m losing it. I’m losing it again. The slightest hiccup, and I start falling apart. Fuck. I need more rum.”
It took a few minutes to regain her composure and follow Gilda to the deck.

Dash was debating going down to check on Gilda when the object of her concerns flapped her way onto the aftcastle beside her. “Yo.”

Dash scowled. “Stuff your yo, you big dumb idiot! What were you thinking, scaring me like that?”

Gilda threw up her claws defensively. “Hey, I get that-”

“Are you stupid? Why are you out of bed?! You were bleeding out of your head half an hour ago!” Dash thumped Gilda in the side lightly. “We’re stressed enough already.”

“Well, princess, it wasn’t your smiling mug I awoke to, now was it.” Gilda shot. “I get you’re scared and concerned, but everything’s fine. Will you accept an apology? Not like I did anything wrong, though.”

A look of mortification slowly overtook Dash, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hide tears. “I know. Apology not accepted. You did nothing wrong.”

GIlda felt a pang of regret. “Buck up D. I promise everything’s just fine with me.”

“You are making a lot of promises you might not be able to keep.” The disguised Zero approached them. “Gilda, what happened up there?”

“A dream decided to drag me back. I was surprised by seeing the Seapony’s Pride and wasn’t able to protect myself against it. It’s fine.”

Zero did not look pleased by that answer. “You need to be more vigilant, especially now. We need your full power and attention in the case that bringing the sarcophagi together triggers something bad.”

“Bad.” Gilda parroted. “Could you be more descriptive than ‘bad’?”

Zero stared at her in silence for a time. “Yes. It’s my belief, though Mis ash disagrees, that this ship was moved through a phantom time.”

Gilda stared at him from almost a minute. “We will talk about this later.”

“G, you know what he’s talking about?” Dash hissed.

“It’s nothing to get worked up over. Zero was just messing with you, probably.” Gilda cleared her throat. “Okay. Okay. Dash, you to check that derelict?”

Dash sighed. “I am, I guess. I just have a bad feeling about this. Lemmie go talk to Do real quick and I’ll join you over there.”

“Alright.” Gilda let her pass, before turning back to Zero. “When we talking this morning, I was standing on your right, right? I only ever touched you with my left claw.”

Zero scowled in confusion, but after a few seconds replied. “That’s correct.”

“And back in Coltcutta too, I never touched you with my right claw, right?”

“No. except when you offered me my sacrifice blade back.” Zero agreed.

“Dosen’t count. You grabbed it with your magic. No contact.” Gilda clacked her beak as she sorted through her thoughts. “ Let’s keep it that way. When you can, stay on my left.”

“Lady Gilda, you have me profoundly curious for what this is about.” Zero laughed in mild exasperation.

“Taking precautions. If I touched you with this right leg of mine, it could kill you.” Gilda said. Before Zero could demand an answer she launched herself into the air and began the short glide to the Seapony’s Pride.

“Keeping so many secrets from me already. Silly girl! She is going to get us killed.” Zero trotted in place in agitation. There was more happening in her dreams than she was letting on, from moment to moment, Gilda’s disposition and magical awareness was changing. Gilda was letting her relieved traumas effect her more than she was letting on.

“That’s not the only answer, because I happen to know there is a creature who loves turbulent dreams.” Zero knew there was a blighted dreamer near, a malignant black speck in the dreamscape that reached out to all nearby.
After all, the corpse in the second sarcophagus was that of Vlelveran, the first nightmare.

~~~~~

The beat of the rain on the roof far overhead stopped. The whistle of the wind around the spired corners of the hall stopped. The echoes of rattling glass that roared airily from every corner ended. Black Bell’s rant ended.

GIlda opened her eyes. The waver and flicker of every one of the two thousand candles tacked around the hall was frozen. The rain outside was suspended, so that anyone that cared to could have pluck individual raindrops out of the torrent. A lance of cloud lightning was just beginning to branch, it’s luminescence flashing over acres of the black cloud above.

It was as someone had put a stop on the progress of time.

“That’s exactly what’s happening.” Black Bell laughed in disbelief, breaking the abject silence. “It’s happened again. Can you believe it?” Her anger dissolved into wonder. “Oh, this is amazing! It’s been so long I thought I would never see this again. Amazing! Amazing!”

“What’s happening?!” Gilda demanded, pushing back the fear of the unknown with anger.

“Amazing. Look at how the rules of physics and thermodynamics break under the strain of sustaining the spell!” Black Bell skipped down the hall with child-like wonderment, brushing her talon over every frozen flame. She could swat and flick it, moulding it like clay. “Gilda, this is the greatest power of Light, the aspect of Destiny. We walk in the phantom time, when destiny is distracted.”

“You’d better stop it then!” Gilda barked, cheeks turning red. Without heat dissipation through the frozen air, her skin began to burn under her own body heat.

“Talk about coincidences! Talk about infinitesimally unlikely coincidences! Gilda, somewhere in the world, right now, someone has knocked this planet into another dimension. Look closely at the floor or the table.” Black Bell was in full student mode, running around to take everything in. “See how every atom has been shifted infinitesimally. A spell of inconceivable complexity of power has nudged the earth, sky, magic, an all energies a few nanometers out of it’s alignment. Destiny moves us from A to B, and organizes everything in between. When she can no longer touch us, in the phantom place between existences, the movement stops and we no longer move towards our destinies. Time stops.”

Gilda felt overawed again, and then she felt insulted. Someone was trying to steal the wind from her sail. She was on the verge of asserting herself, of declaring her place in the world, and now that world had been stopped.

“I know what you’re wondering. ‘Why aren’t you and I frozen?’ We would be. But you and I have a guide that does not rely on Destiny. We can pass from A to B here. I made my guide, my tether to time, a thousand years ago when I learned about the phantom time from Astral.” Black Bell tapped the beak of her roc skull helmet. “If we went outside and walked up to anyone else on this island, they would be frozen, utterly helpless. Naturally, if there was an enemy who learned about phantom time, I would need protection against them. I would so eagerly like to know who has stopped the world right now! Was it Celestia? Did that dopey fool finally work up the courage to examine her ancestor’s forbidden grimoires?”

She came closer and closer to Gilda, not at all paying attention as she went from candle to candle, toying with the light. Realizing that she would overheat if she didn’t move, Gilda slowly advanced on her unaware step-mother. She could feel the air move to fill empty space, almost viscous, holding her back.

“And the elephant in the room: Why are you moving, GIlda? What exactly happened during your communion?”

“I honestly don’t know. I guess I’m just full of surprises.” Gilda shrugged.
Black Bell was not a large griffin, almost a head shorter than her step-daughter. When Gilda charged her at full speed, she hardly had time to react before she was caught in the chest by a headbut.
“Guuh!” Black Bell went flying. She bouncing and rolled across the ground, but the moment her roc skull helmet separated from her head, she froze. The helmet continued to roll and clatter another dozen hooves from its owner.

“Amazing!” GIlda mocked in a nasal reproduction of Black Bell’s voice. She cocked her head from side to side, strutting over to her incapacitated step-mother. “Amazing! Amazing!”
She look in the look of shock etched on Black Bell’s face. “Mum, it’s really unfortunate for you that you decided to tell the truth.”

She could do what the godhand had said. She could kill Black Bell. It was not so impossible after all.
Gilda stared into the frozen eyes, noting the subtle distortion that betrayed the ‘nudge’. How did it feel to be pushed out of your own dimension, out of the flow of destiny and causality that created time.

“Time that should be there, but isn’t. Phantom time. That’s dangerous. Really dangerous.” Gilda took a step back. She imagined she was the only person in the world unaffected. The entire world was literally waiting for her. There was only one creature who could challenge her over the matter.

“Well, I don’t know what to say. You were my mother, kinda, but right now I think it’s going to be better for me if you stopped living.” Gilda said roughly. The urge to kill surged from the same place as her hunger: She had to rend, bleed, dominate viscerally. “I’m going to make a new life for myself. For however long this lasts, I’ll take and kill at my leasure! The dweebs of this world can’t stop me now.”

She confidently stepped over Black Bell and grabbed her throat with a claw. Unthinkingly she had chosen her right claw, and immediately upon contact Black Bell unfroze, with momentum preserved. She collided with Gilda’s legs and dragged her down. They tumbled another five meters before coming to a halt.

“Shit!” Gilda tried and failed to scramble away. Black Bell’s neck had impaled itself on her talons. The graffina’s wheezing breaths were bubbling blood out of the holes.

“Gothha.” Black Bell gargled. Unable to speak, she settled for a smile. She raised a claw to Gilda’s face and traced gingerly down her right side to her claw, jammed into her own the downy neck. “M’mathing.”

“Oh SHIT!” Gilda put her left claw on Black Bell’s face and held her down while she yanked with all her might. Her right claw came loose of Black Bell’s neck in a spray of blood that froze in mid air, as did Black Bell, moments after. “Shit shit shit! She knows! She figured it out!”

‘What does it matter? She’s still trapped phantom time unless you touch her wrong.’ The grinding low squeal that was the godhand’s voice popped into her head. ‘Kill her now.’

“I- I was wrong! I can’t kill her! She’s a Star! Even if I chop her up into a hundred pieces she can come back.” Gilda combed her crest in frantic nervousness, staining it with her step-mother’s blood. “I can’t do it!”

‘Bah, back to being lame! Grow some confidence, you sniveling baby!’

“Then give me some confidence.” Gilda pleaded. “Like you did before!”

‘Come the buck on, G. I’m dead! What you’re hearing is your mad inner voice trying to integrate your dissociated leg! You almost had it! Kill Black Bell, accept the leg, and I go away forever. Capiche?’

“I’m insane. I’m insane. I can’t… I don’t…” Gilda curled up and covered her eyes. Absolute silence reigned.

Black Bell unfroze and slumped back against the ground. She waited for the huge gash in her neck to close sufficient before rolling onto her stomach and reaching for her roc helmet. For a brief moment , she feared she was desynchronizing again, but finally she clutched her tether.

“Whaa. That was uncomfortable. Getting stabbed always is. That’s why I never consummate my marriages.” Black Bell tested healing windpipe. “You almost had me there. Had me there a hundred percent. Except that you pinched yourself on my larynx, and a droplet of your blood dribbled ever so slowly down to my heart. Hat’s off to you, Gilda. I’m seriously impressed. Gharl came nowhere as close as you just did.” She put the roc skull on. “Astral Nacre has a lot to answer for. Turning my daughter into an assassin isn’t cool”

Gilda declined to answer, or do anything other than stay curled up with her claws over her eyes..

“If you need time to decompress, that’s cool by me.” Black Bell went around the room picking the flecks of her flesh out of the air. “I’m going to go take a nap and wait out this phantom time. I trust you not to try anything again.” She reached up and snapped half the cheekbone off her roc skull, and jammed it into her stomach. She patted it to make sure it would stay in place, as the skin healed back over. “But just in case, I’ll make it a bit more difficult to desynchronize me.”
She cantered down the hall to the big doors and cracked one open. “We will be talking about this tomorrow. Don’t think you’ll get off easy. I’m not so impressed I’ll forget discipline. Trying to murder me is against the School’s code of conduct.” She stepped into the darkness. “Damn. Frozen rain is just as cold!” She griped, before teleporting away.

Gilda wasn’t listening.
Gilda was too riveted by the other throne room, a golden throne room thousands of miles away that flashed in her vision. She saw a golden princess, pure white with a radiant mane, and golden student, petulant yellow with a burning red mane, and dozens of inconsequential lookers frozen around the golden duo. The student was triumphant. She had been the one to cast the phantom time, and thus she surpassed her mentor. The princess was defeated, humiliated, unable to stop the red-haired unicorn for siphoning off her magic.
The student gave her princess a last bow, and cast another spell. She disappeared from existence, and the world resynchronized. Time resumed. The crowd came to life, and after a moment of shock ran to the aid of their princess.

The vision faded, and Gilda was left staring at the palm of her claw. The creases had been soaked with blood, making a pattern which had not been there before: A thickly lidded eye whose long lashes traced up her talons. The khamsa blinked at her, blinked again, then closed itself. The pattern began to well up fresh blood, washing itself away.

The world around her, like in the vision, had resumed its Destiny. Rain pattered, thunder clapped, and the frozen sprays of blood fell back to earth in a shower.
Unlike the vision, the student had lost. Gilda elected to stay curled up on the floor, until self-pitying tears carried her to a terrible sleep.

Bridge Chapter 8: Phantom 2

Three Weeks Before the Summer Sun

Magistrate Mare stood in the shadow of the mast for what felt like hours, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the blinding tropical sunlight. She heard Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Zero bickering and argue. Words like ‘Star’, ‘phantom’, and ‘death’ lept out at her. The argument died down, apologies were exchanges, and Gilda departed for the derelict Seapony’s Pride.

A few seconds later Dash passed Mare own the way to the prow. “Oh hey. Didn’t see you there.”

“Gilda is going alone?” Mare let her displeasure be known with a small frown.

“I’ll be going too, after I say a few words to Do.” Dash explained apologetically. “Don’t worry, we’ll have everything squared away so we can dash off to Chitin.”

“Who is worried. Do I need to be worried?” Mare tilted her head up incrementally, so she was staring down at Dash.

Dash’s worry melted to annoyance. “Mare, if you have a problem, I’m not the pony to bitch at.”

Mare’s ire grew. Bitch at? She only trying to preserve the safety and security of the ship and mission, and she was being accused of bitching? The nerve! The utter nerve! Didn’t anypony have the least bit of respect? Couldn’t they have postponed their outrageous supernaturalities until after the expedition was over?

“Mis Dash, you are overstepping a boundary of propriety that I hold very dear.” Mare scowled.

Unexpectedly, Rainbow Dash continued to be brazenly annoyed. “Well soooorrry, but I just have to run take care of this maybe kinda massacre on that boat. Let me stop for a minute and listen to you talk about boundaries.” With a flick of her tail she turned her back and made to trot away.

Mare made a grab Dash’s hip but only brushed her. She was confused, but mostly angry. “Rainbow, wait until I-”

“Buck off!” Dash snorted disdainfully. “This is why I was worried about you, Magistrate. You don’t know when to shut up like I do.” With that said, she galloped the remaining distance to the forecastle.
Daring Do greeted her friend, and they began chatting in hushed tones.

Magistrate Mare felt a deep weight in her heart. She was very, very angry. Nopony was listening to her anymore!
How had it happened? Gilda fell out of the crows nest, a sailor turns out to be a changeling, and then… The agreeable and loyal Rainbow Dash says ‘Buck off’? What?

Lightheaded, she traced her habitual path to the aftcastle. The changeling was there, disguised as her diligent knotspony. What was his name, she struggled to recall. Zero. Zero.

The changeling noticed her as she drew neer. “Magistrate.” He bowed formally.
Mockingly, Mare assumed.

“Zero. Zero. What an odd name. Zero is nothing, emptiness.” Mare declined to bow back. “Let’s get comfortable with each other. You know me. You’ve been here for a few days and seen how I act. But I don’t know you. Let’s fix that. What kind of creature are you, personality wise?”
She talked fast and hard. The anger was palpable.

Zero scrunched his nose in displeasure. “Madam-”

“If I squeezed you, you could tell me all kinds of things about me. Shouldn’t I be able to return the favor?” Mare posed.

Zero clearly did not think so. “I’m not overly fond of self-reflection-”

“By all means keep your disguise.” Mare hushed him. “But I deserve to have some insight to the changeling underneath.”

“Deserve is a strong word. However, I will share.” He cleared his throat. “I like to think of myself as an optimist. That’s what I was, long ago. Before I was a Star. Before I had to be more to be able to contain the Dark magic thrumming within me.” He shrugged. “Now I do what I have to do. Everything is in service to my goals. I keep my dignity by making those goals lofty and benevolent, but I must have that goal. WIthout purpose, I’ll be reduced to nothing.”

Mare didn’t care to understand his meaning. “So… You’re a pragmatist? Is that what I’m getting.” She arched a brow. “That’s good. We’re alike then!”

Zero smiled a thin smile. “You have goals, Mis Mare? Forgive me for calling you out, but I see no evidence. You are a moth to the light of power. You are a mercenary dreamer. You serve to other pony’s ends.”

“I what?” Mare spit, eyes growing very wide then very narrowed. “Listen here you black-plated spider bait, I’m no mercenary. I serve higher purposes-”

“You and the EOC are co-parasites. You use them to validate your ravenous nature in an environment that applauds that kind of immorality. They use you to summon their great and unwavering idol: Money.” Zero shook his head pityingly. “You wish you had the braver to be so blatantly monstrous as Lady Gilda. You wish you could stand up and shout out your hatred for this world and your fellow pony. You have neither. You cower in the shadow of a ‘duty’, and use it to justify your feelings.”
Zero turned his back to her. “I know evil, Mis Mare. It lies within us all. Either fight against your conniving and devious nature, or recognize that you have chosen sin over propriety.”

“You…” Mare was struggling to speak over how tight her throat felt. She was woozy, and so, so angry.
For the second time in as many minutes, somepony had turned their back on her. She felt a pang of a deadly forgotten friend: Hatred. “You don’t know me.”

“I know a million of you. I know all possible paths for you. I know you’ll turn to dust like all mortals like you do, your life having meant somewhere between something and nothing.” Zero shrugged.

Mare bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood. She was shaking and tearing up and her body screamed for reprieve from the stress.
“I think I want to kill you.” She whispered.

“You want to kill me.” Zero repeated. He chuckled. “You want to kill me.” He turned a bit to look at her. “Not for security reasons, or self-defense, or paranoia, or your ’duty’. Simply because you want to. Now that is… Very interesting.”

Mare said nothing.

“To conclusively answer your first question, Mis Mare, I am a soul who get pleasure from guiding others to their potential. I have no other joy than seeing mortals strive to be more. I’m a gardener in a way, even if some of my old Star freinds fit bill that more literally. But don’t get me wrong…” Zero leaned in. “Seeing greatness wither on the vine is its own kind of pleasure. Like a burning house, the culmination of a beautiful soul is wasted in chaos and ruination.” His eyes rolled and his tongue lolled. “Oh… I cannot help it. It’s intoxicating. Darkness is still the unparalleled succor for me. A suffering so sweet, a thick liqueur. Ahhh.”
After a few moments and a deep breath he regained his composure. “So keep in mind that disappointing my expectations in you isn’t too terrible. It just makes my appreciation different. More perverse. But you won’t deprive me of that purer joy, I trust.”

“Count on it.” Mare shuddered. She took a few measured steps back, bowed, trotted off aftcastle and disappeared into the cabins.

“Hmm… Did I go too far?” Zero hummed. “Some ponies only begin to strive when there is the pain of resentment driving them. Now I am in her crosshairs, but hatred only caries ponies so far, and never to a good place. I hope, when we reach Chitin, she will agree to bear my dagger.” Zero returned to his observations of the infinite sea. “Bah, I have enough troubles as it is. Why must I create more for myself? I am less like a gardener and more like a fussy old mare like Phyte, looking for mortals to mother, in my own peculiar way.”

On the opposite end of the ship on the forecastle, Rainbow Dash and Daring Do were having their own argument.

“You’re the VIP. You can’t go until me and Gilda check it out.” Dash was already tense and strung out from Gilda’s miny-coma and her disagreement with Mare. She was finding Do unreasonable and was having a hard time keeping her cool. “What if the derelict explodes?”

Do shook her head. “You think the expedition can continue without you? Rainbow, if you or Gilda are incapacitated or, princess forbid, killed, this Chitin adventure is over before it has started.”

“And if you die, we can’t find the treasure anyway. Obviously it would be better for nopony to risk herself but we’ve gotta know what’s up with this derelict.” Dash said. “You better stay put or else.”

“Or else what?” Do arched a brow.

“I’ll break your wings.” Dash grinned.

Do hesitated. The way Dash was looking at her, teeth bared in a sinister smile… It was undeniably intimidating. “Rainbow are you serious? You’re smiling, but your body language is sending a different message.”

“I’m doing what I have to. Daring, stay here.” Dash spread her wings and flew a few feet into the air. “It’s about time I stepped up. I have to pull my share. So stay put, okay?” That said, she flew off.

“Damnations. This is not helping my headache one bit.” Do watched her fly to the slowly drifting Seapony’s Pride. “Is Rainbow Dash hiding something? No… She wouldn’t betray me. She thinks she’s protecting me from something-” Do blinked. “Protecting me from someone, more like it.”

There was danger on the Seapony’s Pride. A certain feathery danger, waiting with covetous talons.

“Mis Gilda.” Do sucked her lip in. The brown griffin was plotting something deadly. “Why? What is forcing her claw? Magistrate Mare will need to hear about this.” Gilda’s motivations were difficult to parse. Was she really just a senseless killer? “Is murder on your mind, Mis Gilda?”

~~~~

Murder was indeed on Gilda’s mind.
“Ghost ship. Spooky.”
There were dead ponies littered everywhere. The sailors of the Seapony’s Pride who she’d had as crewmates for years were crumpled at their post. There were no signs of violence, and no damage to the bodies except for those who had fallen out of the rigging. It was as though they had fallen asleep where they stood, and just not woken up.

“Zero made it sound like a slaughterhouse. This is more like a slumber party.” She laughed emptily. “Get up, you lazy mother buckers! Captain Pleiades is going to be angry.”

Speaking of the captain, Gilda did not see his body anywhere, which was somewhat surprising as there was almost never a moment he was not on deck. After a quick and futile check for heartbeats among the intact bodies, she unslung her arquebus and peered through the agape cargo hatch. She saw more dead bodies.

“Hello!” She called out. “Anybody alive?”

There was no answer. No sound at all, save for the creaking of the boards and Gilda’s own breaths.

“This is too weird.” GIlda sighed. Her withered magical sense, though recovering slowly since the dreams, were overwhelmed by the abusive malaise radiating from beneath her. The Dark aura was sickening to contemplate, and Gilda’s instincts were to flee.
There was no doubt about it: The second sarcophagus was in the Seapony’s Pride’s cargo hold.

She heard a couple of wingbeats and the scuffle of hooves on the deck. “Yo, G!”

Gilda looked back to Dash and waved her closer. “I’ve checked around. Nopony alive.”

“I-” Dash looked around the deck, seemingly seeing the corpses for the first time. “Yikes.” She said softly. She there still for a solid minute, take in the scene. “This is… This is terrifying. They look like they’re sleeping. I recognize these guys. That’s the navigator, over by the wheel.”

“My thoughts went to sleeping as well. Something happened to these ponies, and I don’t think it was Xaron.” Gilda clacked her beak . “Did Zero say he was absolutely sure that it was Xaron or Sharamin he felt?”

“G, about Zero…” Dash cleared her throat. She leaned away a bit, as though she was expecting some backlash. “We talked while you were passed out. He wanted to know about our history with the Seapony’s Pride.”

“Oh. So I came in on the tail end of that, huh.” Gilda clacked her beak and averted her eyes. She took a second to collect her thoughts. “Rainbow, did he say anything to you about phantom time?”

Dash felt her stomach sink. There was that phrase again, that had upset Gilda so much before. “G, you shut him down when he mentioned it.”

“It was a knee jerk-reaction. I should have heard him out because we could be in danger now.” Gilda confessed. “Remind me to apologize to him.”

“So you’ve heard of it before?”

“Maybe.” Gilda said, then paused. How could she explain something so uncertain without sounding evasive and untruthful? Would Dash believe her? “I think my dreams are returning me to sordid little moments of my memory I tried to forget. They took me to the exact moment I learned about phantom time from my mother.” Gilda said softly. “So I might have. Who knows if the dream was real.”

“Well, okay.” Dash was getting anxious. Though she wanted to drop the conversation and move on with the task, she could tell Gilda was hung up on it. Standing among so many unmoving bodies didn’t help. “I’m really not the pony to ask about any of this, you know.”

“Dash, not to worry you, but it could spell danger for us right now.” Gilda said. “So just tell me what Zero told you about phantom time.”

“Stopping time. Or he didn’t exactly say that, but it’s what it meant. Totally crazy.” Dash said, not totally convinced of what she was saying. “I told him he was stupid, and then when you shut him up I felt vindicated because you know better too. So, um, is it real?”

Gilda stared into space for a long time, then held out her right claw, palm up and talons open. She flexed it, watching the creases intently. There was nothing there.
“I’m not the griffin to ask.” She cleared her throat and changed topics. “So, this isn’t nearly as messy as Zero made it out to be.”

Dash was very unnerved by Gilda’s sudden uncommunicativeness. When Gilda had a secret, it was always bad. Case in point, the real story of what happened in Stirrup.
It took Dash a moment to swallow her reservations and give an answer. “I mean, they are dead, but yeah you’re right there’s no gore and guts.”

“He said it was Xaron. Obviously this isn’t how Xaron and Sheremin do business, based on our interactions with them.” Gilda said. “We can’t waste time. Let’s go strait to the cargo hold.”

Despite how she was feeling Dash replied without hesitation. “Right. I’ve got your back.”

Gilda smiled grimly. “If there are survivors, keep your distance. That goes double if they have stone eyes.”
She look the lead, entering the cabins hallway in the aftcastle.

It was moody and dark. The ship had been derelict for only a day at most, but the air seemed musty and stale like a thousand year old crypt. Gilda chalked it up to her imagination.

“If you don’t think it was Xaron, do you any guesses who did this?” Dash whispered, nudging the outstretched leg of the nearest corpse.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t. But it was sudden, and nopony had a way to fight back. They didn’t even know it was coming. That’s obvious.” Gilda eyed the body wearily. “You couldn't even prove there was a murderer at all.”

“So what, toxic gas? We hear about the swamp gasses choking yokels south of Baltimare sometimes.” Dash said, and with hesitation she continued. “I told Zero earlier how familiar this air feels. I could almost swear it was Baltimare air. Don’t you think so, G?”

“I can’t really tell.” Gilda knelt down. “But we can test your theory about gas.”
The body before her had been one of the the rigger colts. Gilda didn’t remember his name. “No blemishes, boils, or discoloration. His sweat smells normal.” She licked his cheek. “Tastes normal too.” She punched him in the chest. “His lungs are empty of fluid. It wasn’t gas.”

“So they all died for no reason.” Dash was a little creeped out. Thankfully she didn’t have to sit through the carnivorous feeding that sometimes followed Gilda’s appraisals. “There’s literally nothing wrong with them.”

“This must be the work of magic.” Gilda pried back one of the corpse’s eyelids. “Hmm, his eyes are very over-dilated, more than happens naturally when muscles relax.”

“What does that mean?” Dash asked.

“I think he was asleep when death struck them.” Gilda stood up. “Everypony was asleep. A very deep sleep at that.”

“Therefor what?” Dash asked.

“Xaron is utter trash at dreamer manipulation. His mind control with the stone eyes is different from dream magic.” Gilda led the way deeper into the ship. “Unless a stone eye proves me wrong, we can completely rule Xaron and Sharamin out. Zero was wrong about what he felt, which is honestly a bit strange since I felt it too.”

They peeked inside all the cabins they passed, on the watch for signs of life. There was none. Nor was there any sign of Captain Pleiades.

One after the other the two heroines crept down the stairs to the crew deck.
The bunks were filled with the crew who had been off their watch, napping, gambling, drinking, and carousing. Cards and shattered bottles lay where they’d fallen when sudden death struck their owners.
There was two rows of hammocks, all the way from one end of the deck to the other. So many dead ponies. Dash hadn’t considered her crewmates on the Seapony’s Pride as friends, but trying to comprehend the utter stillness in their familiar faces was making her mind spin.

“I really don’t like this G. Not at all.” Dash shivered. She didn’t hear a response. “Gilda?”

Gilda was doubled over, clutching her head in her claws. Her muscles twitched and every feather stood on end. “I feel it. Like a bad vibration I feel it.” She raised a trembling claw and smoothed back her frazzled crest. “It’s right beneath us. The pony in the second sarcophagus is starting to awake.”

Dash put a hoof to her cutlass, signaling the willingness to fight. “That Bard king Xaron told us about! Vlelveran. What’s he doing to you?!”

“Vlelveran’s a nightmare. The first nightmare actually, if Xaron is to be believed. He’s just doing what nightmares do: Bothering normal mortals.” Gilda shivered, took a deep breath, and got up. “You don’t feel anything?”

“Now that you mention it, I feel weird.” Dash scrunched her nose. “I feel woozy, but only in the back of my head, like a part of me is drunk. I thought it was fear.”

Gilda processed the information. “Dash, are you tired at all?”

“I wouldn’t mind a nap, but…” Dash eyed the corpses all around them. “Why? Should I?”

“If you were under Vlelveran’s influence, you would. Forever.” Gilda said gravely. “I get it now. He’s the one who’s done this. Gods, I was stupid not to make the connection.” She shook her head sadly. “This boat was a nightmare snackbar.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did your mother tuck you into bed with stories of hideous monsters that nip at bad fillies? Did she tell you about the unholy nightmares that eat dreams? There used to be a lot of nightmares in Equestria, before Celestia I purged them.” Gilda said. “But Celestia couldn't or wouldn’t kill Vlelveran.”

“That was a thousands of years ago!” Dash did not have a good perspective on the outrageous age of entities like Zero of Vlelveran. “He’s still, like, functional? I Imagined he was a mummy or something!”

Gilda nodded. “He could be rags and dust, but nightmares aren't normal. As long as his dream has a place to reside, he can wake up. And when he did, he must have been ravenously hungry after being asleep so long.” She bumped the nearest hammock. The head of the pony inside lolled limply. “Every pony on this ship was yanked into his dream, where they were picked to the bone.”

Dash wretched. “Holy Celestia, that sounds horrible.”

“There are worse deaths.” Gilda nudged Dash’s hoof away from her cutlass. It wouldn’t help them.
“And if he could kill this many ponies… I feel a bit dumb for not making the connection before, but it was obviously Vlelveran’s influence that’s been tormenting me with the dreams.”

“But what if… What about the sarcophagus we had, G? It’s was right under you, way closer.”

“I don’t know. If Vleleveran really did kill everypony through the dreamscape… Well… Bothering me is within his reach, to understate it. Velvetine’s an unknown.” Gilda yanked open the hatch down to the cargo hold. She felt a gust of cold air, carrying a nauseating stench.
“Grab a candle out of that box and bring it over please.”

“Sure.” Dash fetched the candle and joined GIlda at the hatch. “Here. Have a match?”

Gilda silently took one of the candles.
Among her hazy memories recently returned to her, she saw herself on Gottrakt, trying to light a candle with magic. All the other students did so with minimal effort, sparks jumping off their talons and igniting the wick.
She put two talons of her left claw on either side of the wick. Nothing happened.
She shifted it to her right claw. As she brought the talons together she felt a moment of apprehension. What if that sinister eye from the dream, the thing that called itself a Hamsa, returned?
Nothing happened.

“What are you trying to do?” Dash pursed her lips. “Try your wings. Sometimes I can get a good static charge between my feathers and make a spark arc.” She grunted. “Heh. Spark arc.”

“Nevermind. I’m just being crazy.” Gilda felt disappointed and relieved, but her paranoia and fear lingered. There was no way to prove a negative. “I have a matchbox right here anyway.”

With the candle lit, Gilda descended the ladder into the cargo hold. It was dark, dank, and musty, for seawater had infiltrated through a loose board or crack and it was now ankle deep.

“This is… Very uncomfortable.” Gilda felt her body pang and throb at every joint and muscle. She felt lightheaded, but very heavy at the same time. “Geeze. I’m almost going to pass out.”

“Is everything okay?” Dash called down to her.

Gilda squeezed her eyes shut. Color swirled in her vision, turning red with her heartbeat. “Give me a second. Maybe you won’t have to come down here.”
She took a few steps forward, sweeping the candle back and forth. The cargo hold was usually packed to the brim with cargo of every variety. It was completely empty, even the afthold, where rations usually sat. “This is really strange.” She returned to the ladder. “Dash! How was the ship listing when you came over?”

“Uh… High in the water, but heavy towards the front.” Dash recounted.

“I think Captain Pleiades stowed the sarcophagus in the secret smuggler hatch.” Gilda sloshed through the water to the front of the hold. The pain in her body strengthened. “Dash, is there a prybar up there?”

“No. Do you need help? Hold up, I’ll come down.” She heard Dash splash down. “Yuck. It’s wet!”

“Come towards the light, Dash.” Gilda beckoned.

“Hardy har.” Dash entered the range of the candlelight. “So, where is it?”

“Behind this false wall.” Gilda rapped on the planks at the front of the cargo hold. It replied with a different pitch from the sides, which were part of the shell. “There’s a small compartment behind this bulkhead. One of these planks should be loose.”
She started tugging on various parts of the bulkhead, but none of them budged. “Okay, this isn’t how it usually is. Somepony nailed the trick board down. There must have been an inspection.”

“Inspection?”

“It’s a smuggling compartment. Even a straight-edge captain like Pleiades sometimes wants to move goods without tariffs. He’s a free-trade kind of stallion.” Gilda explained. “Only, it’s the oldest trick in the book. They had to make it look convincing for a port official or coastal patrol. Hence, nailing it solid.”

“So either Pleiades or somepony else didn’t want the officials to know he was transporting the sarcophagus.” Dash tapped her hoof against wall to test it for herself. “G, we’ve been going at this wrong. Somepony charted this ship, and I’ll bet you they’re involved to what happened to all these ponies! They’d know how the Seapony’s Pride is here, thousands of kilometers from where it’s supposed to be.”

“You’re totally right. Whoever hired the Seapony is a part of this. I hope it’s somepony we can identify, maybe Butcher Rose and the EOC, maybe a faction in Chitin, and not somepony we don’t even know about. How can we even deal with a complete unknown?” Gilda backed away from the false wall, alleviating some of the pressure on her mind.

Just on the other side was an ancient creature, an elder sibling of mortalkind, full of hatred and dark power. It’s dreams swirled and churned, exuding a presence of inconceivable darkness. The more Gilda dared to contemplate the aura, the more she was convinced that it would try to kill again. Had it been negligence or malice that had put it here, to pray on the dreams of relatively innocent sailor ponies?
Gilda knew she couldn’t beat Vlelveran. What she could do is find out who was arrogant enough to try. “Captain Pleiades would have a manifest and receipts in his cabin. They’ll tell us who hired him to move the sarcophagus.”

“Right behind you.” Dash nodded.

Gilda was halfway up the ladder to the crew deck when she was struck by a revelation. Pleiades might not have been the only crew unaccounted for.
“Dash, of the ponies you got to know, were there any you haven’t see dead? Besides Pleiades.”

“No idea, really. You?”

“Me neither.” Gilda nodded. “I guess we got lucky we got off in Clawstaninople.”

“Yeah. I had a feeling the Captain was planning on booting us off in favor of that hippogryph anyway.” Dash said. “Wait a sec…” Her face contorted in realization. “His name was Eversnake! Where’s Eversnake?!”

“Oh shit.” GIlda gasped. The annoying black and white hippogryph had completely slipped from her mind. “Dash! Be on alert! That feathered snake might still be around here!”

She ran up the stairs into the cabins area and burst into the captain's room. All the documents were neatly organized into a sorting cabinet by the bed. Gilda grabbed a wad for the most recent filings. “Mother bucker, mother bucker. I bet Eversnake’s got something to do with all of this!”

“He could use magic too.” Dash pranced in place nervously. “Remember? He was a fire magician!”

“Yeah, a heretic mage. He said they ran him out of Maredia for breaking a taboo around ‘shadow’ magic. I KNEW there had to be more to his story.” Gilda found the records she was looking for. “Let’s see… Ah ha! Here’s the last entry! Port of Origin: Trottingham. Destination: Baltimare, with stopover in Filly Delphia for passenger exchange. Volume: One crate. Contents: Sarcophagus, classified as luxury good, insured by Swallow&Crane of Antwepwren. Yadaa yadaa yadaa...” She read further in silence.

“Trottingham? The sarcophagus was in Maredia less than a week ago, according to Xaron. And if you don’t believe him, you said it left Stirrup right before we got there.” Dash scratched her head. “So how did it get from Maredia to Trottingham fast enough to then make it to Equestria? Then to here. It’s just impossible!”

Gilda glanced up. “That’s right. It doesn’t seem possible. Maybe… Maybe it’s not the same one.” She went back to reading. “We never saw the one Xaron claimed to have.”

“G, this is the Seapony’s Pride, one-hundred percent. If this ship can defy reality, then an old stone box can too. We can figure out Xaron’s crap later.” Dash countered. ”Just skip to who shipped it!”

“Calm the hell down Dash, I know.” Gilda snorted. She flipped to the next page. Every line further she read, her eyes grew wider with shock and confusion. “Buck me, I wasn’t expecting that.” She flipped to the next page. “Damn it, we might be screwed.”

Dash’s face contorted in frustration. “Comeon G don’t leave me in the dark here!”

Gilda handed her the manifest. “Right here on the dotted line.”

“Co-signed by Salvador Flair of Trottingham and Cadmirzan of Maredia.” Dash read the names several more times. “There’s the two locations! These ponies must’ve orchestrated the sarcophagus leaving Mareia and arriving in Trottingham.”

“Actually Cadmirzan is a hippogryph but that’s besides the point. Those two guys, Flair and Cadmirzan, they’re Stars.” Gilda snatched the manifest back. “The Stars stole the sarcophagus and were trying to smuggle it as far from the Inquisitors as possible.”

“But how in hell’s name did it get shipped out of Trottingham weeks before it left Stirrup?”

Gilda clacked her beak in thought. “We only have one theory: Phantom time.”

Dash whimpered. “Like Zero said.”

Gilda narrowed her eyes, thinking back on all her conversations with the old Star. She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his lack of motive and strange helpfulness did not earn him trust in an environment of fear and paranoia.
“Zero knew. He had to have known! He keeps in touch with his fellow Stars.” She pulled back the wispy curtains on the window. She could see the disguised changeling standing solitary on the Kyte aftcastle. “When he said it was the phantom time, he wasn’t guessing. He was well aware that one of his fellow Stars involved with it.”

Dash’s eyes lit up. “From Maredia to Trottingham, from Baltimare to here! It’s the same both times! The sarcophagus left a location, and showed up far away and in the past!

“Phantom time can move a location into the past and across space. I don’t know how, but its the only explanation that fits the facts.” Gilda confirmed. “You know, the sarcophagus might be in multiple places at once. Right at this moment now, it could still be with Xaron in Maredia. Within the next few days, it’s going to get stolen, sent to the past, and travel forward to us here.” She laughed at the absurdity of it. “True to its core concept of phantom time, more time passed for the sarcophagus than everything else in the world. It’s been knocked out of the universe’s continuity.”

“It went three-quarters of the way around the world before it even left. Talk about quick shipping.” Dash laughed with her, then sobered to a worried frown. “G, how can we even fight that kind of power? What will the Stars do to us.”

“Forget the Stars. They’re at home.”

“Why? But you said-”

“They’re involved with the conspiracy, but they weren’t the ones creating phantom time. Stars are slaves to the aspect of Dark. Phantom time is Light magic. Light, like the Ava and the fire priests.” Gilda clenched her jaw. “Ergo our friend Eversnake, their agent who could potentially use phantom time. How the hell he learned about it or learned to use it is a question I don’t even know how to approach. Honestly besides speculation, I’m bankrupt for real knowledge about phantom time.”

“But you’ve got a rough picture of what happened?”

Yup, and I really don’t like it. We start in Maredia, a couple days from now.” Gilda grabbed a small globe off Pleiades’s desk and jabbed it at each location she mentioned. “The sarcophagus is in Inquisitor custody after they seized it in Stirrup. But the Stars and their lackies among the fire priests steals the sarcophagus and sends it back in time to Trottingham. Eversnake on Seapony’s Pride, ingratiate with Pleiades, convinces him to ship it to accept the Star’s cargo and ship it to Equestria. Eversnake could either be a hardcore Star follower or just an opportunist. Remember, he said Equestria was his ultimate goal anyway.”

“But why didn’t they send it directly to Equestria from Maredia?”

“Distance limitations? But it is farther from Baltimare to here than Maredia to Equestria, with the Eastern Ocean being so huge an all. If there’s a limitation it could be based on sender skill.” Gilda rattled of hypotheses.
“Or maybe there has to be a someone on the receiving end. Well, then they could have sent someone ahead to receive… Ahah, maybe it has to be a Star receiving. If that’s true then Flair and Cadmirzan are the only ones working on this conspiracy.”

Dash tapped her chin contemplatively. “Nah, I’m not convinced about any of that. Why would the whole ship end up here, nowhere close to the conspiracy or Equestria?”

Gilda closed her eyes and contemplated.
She saw flicking tendrils crawl up the inside of her eyelids. Manifestations of dark malevolence were dancing all across her vision, and the painful numbness of the hateful evil ran up and down her nerves. Her heart raced at the thought that the nightmare could pounce on her dream at any moment
She opened her eyes, but the visions lingered for a few moments before yielding to reality. “Vlelveran started to wake up en route. Eversnake or somepony tried to send him away with phantom time, but ended up sending the entire ship.”

“And if your receiver idea’s true, then Zero was probably intended receiver.” Dash said.

“That’s a big if, but either way Zero’s almost certainly involved.”

“And he didn’t tell us the whole story.” Dash said. “G, I really hate to say it but we can’t trust him.”

“You took the words out of my mouth.” Gilda grunted. With dull resignation she knocked her number of friends back to one.

“So then we might be in super real danger! We’ve got to get out of here.”

Gilda knew she should agree. The safest and most rational course of action was to scuttle the dead ship and its cargo, to make as certain as possible that no one would suffer the agonizing fate the unfortunate crew had. Ancient Bard secrets be damned. Mysteries of phantom time be damned. Gilda had other chances to work through her memories.
But even as she weighed the options, Gilda knew that was not an option for her. She had something to prove, and an ideal to strive for, and that ideal was one of uncompromising action. Was she advancing as a student and a Star if she turned her back on a challenge? No opportunity to march towards heaven’s infinite promises could be missed!

Explaining that to Dash would be difficult though, so Gilda bullshitted.
“Dash… We can’t leave. Though it involved convoluted time buckery, the two Bard sarcophagi are still supposed to go together. Without them, we might not be able to get to the treasure in Chitin.” Gilda tossed away the manifest. “The Stars went through so much trouble to keep them away from each other, but by sheer coincidence or incalculable foresight, Vleleveran has returned to Velvetine.”
She stepped around Dash and jogged to the Door. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. In fact, you shouldn’t. Make sure my escape route’s clear, if you know what I’m saying.” She ran for the stairs. “And make sure everypony stays the hell away from the Seapony!”

“Gilda. Gilda!” Dash shouted after her. “What are you doing?!”

Gilda paused halfway down the stairs. “If we’re going to take Vlelveran with us, he’s going to have to go back in his box.”

Dash was not about to let her friend kill herself for no reason. “G, we have no idea how to contain a nightmare! Sure, the Stars could, at least until this happened, but can you? The way you described him, fighting Vlelveran would be suicide! Please, don’t. At the very least ask Zero. He might know something if you push.”

“There’s no time. Every second Vlelveran wakes up more. We might be able to resist for a few seconds, and that will be enough for me to maim him.” Gilda ruffled her wings, jostling the arquebus strapped to her back. “Dream power can’t stop lead bullets.”

“Gilda…” Dash wanted to offer, nay demand, to come along, but an icy lance of fear shot through her. “G, hold down the fort for as long as you can. There’s got to be some documentation about how to subdue that nightmare. I’ll be there, when it matters.”

“I know you will, ya dweeb.” Gilda smiled.
She jumped down the stairs and to the cargo hold ladder. Dash heard the creak of the ladder down into the cargo hold, and a few moments later, the hatch clatter shut.

Dash took a deep breath. She wasn’t usually so afraid, even facing big threats like in Clawstantinope and Coltcutta.
“Every day I get a little braver and bolder.” She knew she could be rational, daring, and courageous without resorting to haughty emotion. “I’ve got this. I’ll find what I need to find.”

Not wasting any more time on worry she galloped out of the captain’s room. During her service on the Seapony’s Pride, she’d stayed in the lower decks with the rest of the crew, and so had much less familiarity with the cabins than she did on the Flyer Kyte. The Seapony had been a line ship once, and had just as much space in the aftcastle as a complement of officers would need. That equaled a mere two compartments, one for the doctor and one reserved for the occasional paying passenger.

Dash began with the doctor’s cubby. Death had found the doctor and a patient in a scandalous embrace.

“Oh my.” Dash reddened. She hadn’t gotten to know the ship doctor, Ostio, very well. The other pony in the frozen relationship was a swabbie. Avoiding looking at the two as much as she could, she pulled open the doctor’s desk and riffled through its contents.
The doctor didn’t keep the most meticulous records, but that just meant Dash could flip through them quickly.

“Ahah, here’s the last ones… From three weeks from now.” According to the records, a more than half the crew were complaining of debilitating headaches or insufferable nausea. With her notes scribbled in the margins, the Doctor Ostio speculated an unknown flu or bad food was to blame.

The real find was a torn scrap of paper with several bullet points, for named right at the top was Eversnake.

Had meeting with Cptn. Pleiades, F.M. Deiter, and D.C. 1st Eversnake (temp), 11,999SS 8:15

Eversnake refuses to take responsibility for strange illnesses. Cptn and FM considering refusing to stop at Filly Delphia for him. Eversnake made vague threats to ‘move’ us to anyway Filly Delphia. Cptn decided not to call his bluff. He’s never this flippant about open threats. All officers agreed Eversnake and his friends present a business opportunity, if reluctantly. Eversnake was content to have his way.

No address of strange sounds from the cargo. FM thinks the crew suspects something, I concurred. Eversnake proposed to bankroll extra rum ration for crew to get their minds off it, and the illness that had been going around. I protested, no sedatives; Caffeine is most reliable cure to the mystery illnesses. Cptn and FM overruled. Pleiades can’t turn down free stuff. We will be picking up more Rum in Filly Delphia.

Talked to Eversnake personally. He seems very distracted. I told him we need to treat crew with stimulants, not depressants. He laughed in my face claiming it would make no difference if things got worse. Meeting was adjourned.

9:45 Note to self: Eversnake dropped by. He defended depressants as the best cure against the illness. He said that stunting mental function and lucidity through inebriation was necessary to live through the worst symptoms. I told him how outrageous that was, but he left without further explanation. He did, however, promise to come back and explain more tomorrow. I now consider his claim. Perhaps body and brain temperature was a factor with the mysterious illness. I will test.

Dash speedily read glanced through the other pages and saw that some patients had indeed been dosed with different liquors and opiates. She found a last note under all the rest. It was actually a letter, folded but not addressed.

Dear Eversnake:
Since your disembarkation in Filly Delphia, our situation onboard the Seapony’s Pride has deteriorated. Like you predicted, symptoms have become less severe, but spread to the entire crew. Every moment I have a sailor in my room complaining of headache and light sensitivity. Most frighteningly, the steward, cook, and everypony else who spends their time in the lower decks are complaining about the ‘whispers’, exactly as you described them.

We are in peril, truly, as Cptn Pleiades refuses to believe me. Confiding in me alone may have been a poor choice, though I lack an answer as to who else aboard would have possessed the faculties to comprehend that macabre thing down in our cargo hold. Even now, days away of safe harbor, my mind is haunted by ghastly afterimages of that horrendous thing.

Thus fate closes in on us. We were simply too slow. In Baltimare lies our salvation, but the winds have been poor and the illness has hampered the crew too much. Thus we die at home, on the sea. With how symptoms are escalating I give us a day at most. We might even be in sight of Baltimare.
I for one will use my time to confess my vagary to the most handsome among the crew. I hope you blush, though I will not care if such lewdness flusters you, for I will be dead.

So to bring to a close this rambling and fevered confession, I absolve you of the guild. I know our suffering weighed heavily on you, and so too shall our deaths, but it was for the greater good. Eventually, all ponies will live and die for the Crown, as we unwittingly have, and as you will. Thank you so very much, Eversnake, for bringing euphoric closure to my doubts and cynicisms.

Sincerely, D. Ostio

“This seems weird, but important. But I dunno if I can use it right now.” Dash pushed the scraps of paper and the letter into the pocket of her trousers. “Even if it works, this isn’t the time to get drunk or high.” Even if it was very tempting.

She took a last look at the dead doctor and her company before she left the room, to duck into the one immediately adjacent.

This one was clearly the one Eversnake had stayed in. The half-avian had made something of a nest from his bed, but all the bookshelves and storage had been removed.

“Dang, what a mess.” Dash punched a chunk from the haphazard nest. “How am I supposed to find anything in this?”

A glint of glass sparkled from the nest where she’d torn it.

“Huh?” Dash crouched down. “It’s a lens or something. What are the chances of that?” She tore away more of the nest, scattering straw and downy feathers everywhere. The embeded thing came free of the tangled mess and clattered to the floor.

It was a pair of glasses, like Dash would imagine a clerk would wear. It was thin, delicate, made from iron. Based on the bridge it fit over the nose of an average pony.

“Holy heck. Glasses. These things aren’t cheap.” Dash picked it up, bringing the crafted frame level with her eye. “No use throwing these away. There’s not many places that make them this good.”
Pegasi were very diligent about their eyes and eyesight, and losing good vision was one of the most debilitating handicaps. In Baltimare, Dash had frequently overheard the factor of the Weather Factory complaining about having to send his expensive spectacles to Manehattan to repair.

Just as she tried to stand up the whole ship lurched, throwing her into the wall. Dash spent several dizzy second waiting out the residual vibrations of whatever ha jolted the Seapony.

“That’s not good.” She groaned. “Gilda…”
Depressing awareness of herself swooped in. There she was, punching nests and theaving glasses, while Gilda was down in the darkness facing of a nightmare. Why did she let herself do that? Did she have so little care for her friend in her heart, to let her attention be so easily stolen away?
“I’m such a miserable cur.” Dash berated herself. “But I get a little braver. It won’t just be a little attack of conscience this time! I’ll be there for you, Gilda!”

She grabbed the glasses as she rose. “I can be better.” She bared her teeth and leapt out of the room. “I kept forgetting my lesson! I can kick flank when I need to!” She ran to the stair down to the cargo hold. “Even if I didn’t find what I needed to find, I can return to you, Gild-”
Thoughtlessly, Rainbow Dash slipped the glasses into place on her face. Unnoticed to her, the thin metal frame began to glow a soft white. In a snap instant she disappeared from the world, leaving only the echo of her gallop.

~~~~~

Gilda paused on the ladder down into the cargo hold.

It felt much colder than it had before. It could have been her imagination; She didn’t have Dash to back her up. Or, the slowly awakening nightmare could have been sucking the heat out of the surroundings.

She reached up and grabbed the hatch, heaved, and slammed it closed. She descended the ladder in pitch black darkness. Only once she had all four limbs planted firmly on the floor, ankle deep in the stinging sea water, did her stomach settle again.

“Vlelveran’s probably fully awake and alert now.” She lit a candle. It’s light didn’t reach as far as the earlier one. “I what am I getting myself in to?”

She swallowed her apprehension and took a few steps closer. “Can you hear me?” She whispered, hardly doing more than mouthing the words. “Can you understand me?”
She closed her eyes. She saw Dark magic oozing from between the minute gaps in the planks of the smuggler's hatch, like hundreds of liquid snakes that thrashed against the limitations of space and reality. They wanted to break free. They wanted to tear everything apart. Gilda couldn't blame him.

“Hello?” Gilda took a steadying breath and moved closer to the effluent Darkness. All her hair and feathers stood on end. “Vlelveran, are you there.”

There was silence.

Yet…

In the imperceptible ranges deeper than sound there was a pained, enraged groaning. Stone grinded against stone. A millennium old prison was at long last breached and ancient evil was released.

Gilda took small comfort in knowing that there still was a thin but sturdy barrier of wood between her and the nightmare. She spoke again, louder but still softly, for the quiet of the Darkness loomed ready to attack any who disturbed it. “Hello. My name is Gilda von Gottrakt.”

WHUMP.
The collision of flesh again wood resounded through the cargo hold, making Gilda jump. A shower of wood dust fell from the ceiling, making the air even more murky.

“Oh boy.” Gilda shuddered. Vlelveran was trying to break out.

A panoply of unknown sounds, muted by the wood, echoed around her. Squeals, scrapes, and agonized infernal moans. Through it she heard what could have been the gurgling growls of a massive monsters, in a crude mimicry of language, deep within her mind. “g- g- gilda…” The sounds, physical and mental, died away.

“Yes.” She replied to the ghostly moan. “I wish to talk.” She passed the candle to her prehensile wing and unslung her arquebus again. She checked that it was loaded. It was. “Are you wondering about your sister? She safe. We’ve got her sarcophagus. We’re protecting her.”

WHUMP. The center of the smuggler's hatch bowed outward.

Against every instinct and practical sense, Gilda took another step forward. “I don’t want any trouble. I have some questions, maybe a proposition, that’s it. We can be friends. Want to see your sister? That’s totally arrangeable. I’m not sure I can arrange her release, but maybe I can work something out. There doesn’t have to be any bloodshed.” She leveled the arquebus at the hatch. “Except for all the ponies you killed. And that doesn’t even count. You didn’t spill any blood. Like it was all a bad dream.”

WHUMP. Some of the boards cracked, some nails shot out, plinking off the walls and into the water. The ethereal foggy Dark streaming between the cracks began to solidify. Like bat’s fingers they pried and scratched at the barrier, trying to pull it apart. Here and there a flicker of red light shone out from inside.

“I just want to talk.” GIlda squawked unintentionally. She was choking up with nerves. “Please let me know you understand me.”

Under the assault of the manic magic, the crack in the boards widened, and the red light shone brighter. It swiveled left and right, bathing different areas of the hold, before settling over GIlda.

It was his eye, she realized too late.

“Light: Intrusive, caustic, hated. Your light is bothering me.” A deep voice filled her head. “Do away with it.”
Without her consent, her wing released the candle. It doused in the water, and the cargo hold was returned to near total darkness. Only the glowing red eye illuminated now.

“What?!” GIlda tried to swivel her head, but could not. “G- G- Get out of my head!” She protested, but her mouth refused to move any more. Icy coldness filled her mind, as though a blizzard had descended and frozen her inside and out. The nightmare’s shadowy will was puppeting her, through her dreams.
She tried to squeeze her talon to the trigger of her arquebus but every millimeter was a huge mental strain.

“That weapon. A gunpowder projectile gun. It can produce light.”’ Vlelveran’s severe accent was like a dancing lion: Elegant, yet weighty and overtoned by grizzly death. It made some sense; He had been an aristocrat once. But it trembled and echoed, like a block of sound that had just happened to be a voice. It tumbled between pitches and chords, like a boulder careening down a steep mountain. Gilda did not like the strange metaphors the nightmare was putting in her head. “Gilda. Disarm yourself.”

“Oh-- no-” GIlda felt her claws open up. The arquebus fell from her grip, but right before it hit the water her right leg snatched it back. After a moment of disbelief, GIlda tested her movement. Her right leg up to the shoulder was free somehow, but that was all. “I- It’s fra- fragile. Gotta keep it- it dry.” She tried to smile.

The red eye started at her in silence. The Dark tentacles trembled in anger, nibbling away at the the edges of the hole in the boards like hundreds of starving rats.

It took some contortion, but Gilda holstered the arquebus into its harness with her right leg. Wherever her claw brushed, sensation returned for as long as there was contact. She cupped her beak like she was shouting, and was pleased to feel the nightmare’s paralysis retreat from her throat and mouth as well, letting her speak. “Vlelveran, or sir, or lord, or whatever, greetings. I just want to talk.”

The shadowy nightmare stood silent for a few moments. “Vlelveran will do.” He backed away from the hole and hunched down. WHUMP. He stuck the hatch again, widening the crack. Infuriated that it was still not enough, the myriad claws began spasming and attacking everything in range. Now they really were like snakes, biting off slivers of wood from every surface in their blind rage.

“Don’t like to talk? Me neither.” GIlda fought through the mental freeze to picture herself as a predator: Slashing through the throat of the sailor on the Baltimare docks, bringing down the butcher in the Clawstantinople alley, gunning down the thugs in the Coltcutta slum. She had no idea if her thoughts could be seen or if it was a one-sided link. “I’m like you.”

“Like me?” The deep voice made the rough approximation of a chortle. “No.”

“You’re- Hey!” GIlda felt her wing poke into her breast pocket and fish out her matches. “Come on, dude! I- I’m not an enemy!” She tried to grab it but couldn't reach across her chest. She watch helplessly as the wing flicked the matches into the water next to the candle. “I’m just here to help! I can reunite you with your sister, Velvetine.”

“She is close, but still slumbering. I think I can find my way.”

Gilda was beginning to feel very stupid for willingingly coming to face the ancient nightmare. “Bastard.”

“There it is. Revealing. You may pretend, but a trial always reveals true nature.” He backed away from the barrier again, never taking his bright red eye off Gilda. “Your mercenary nature.”

He charged forward. WHUMP. Most of the smuggler's hatch exploded into splinters, and the bulkheads around it twisted and cracked. The trickle of water into the cargo hold quickened.

“Most ponies who come before me are pilgrims. Empty. They come to satisfy the compulsions of faith, to lay their dreams on my altar. They seek my domination. Completion.” The vague shape of Vlelveran’s form lumbered forward. His red eye, hovering in the center of his head, seemed to be the only solid thing about him. The rest was shadow, roiling confined in the shape of his body. It was bulky, primitive in its inelegant shamble, but imposing in its crude way.
“Then again you are not a pony. Verified. Inform me when and where am I?”

Gilda felt the oppressive presence in her head recede just enough that she could speak freely without holding her beak. “A boat off Chitin, a thousand years after you got in that sarcophagus.”

“A thousand years. Unexpected. That is much longer than I thought.” Vlelveran’s tone became even angrier, if it was possible. “She never came back for me. My ally...”

“You don’t know that. Whoever your talking about might’ve tried, or been delayed.” Gilda supplied. She wasn’t the best anger therapist she knew, but at the very least she could placate him a little. The only thing more dangerous than a nightmare was an angry nightmare. “You’re at the center of a lot of conspiracies. I really don’t know if somepony was trying to release you or just happened to wake up. I was going to asked but you seem a bit starved for answers yourself.”

“I do not need your footnotes, mercenary.” Vlelveran growled, a throaty crocodile-like sound that echoed off the bulkheads. “However…” He fell to a hush. “The word conspiracy rouses a lonely fear within me. Fear. Paralysis. My old enemies are here again, haunting me past the grave.” He snarled. “The Stars… At last I am free but their specter follows me.”

The nightmare was positively livid. Xaron had conveniently left out any mention of a rivalry between Vlelveran and the Stars. “They’re very involved.” Gilda confirmed.

“Concerning. Distressing even. Stars, Stars, confounded Stars. Was it through their interference I am freed? Perhaps. It will shoulder their attention not!” Vlelveran seethed. He swept his gaze up, identifying the exit in the form of the hatch on the ceiling. “Is it daytime? How far can I run?”

“It’s very daytime.” Gilda confirmed, unable to deny herself a wry smirk.

“That is bothersome. Why is everything so bothersome!” Vlelveran’s displeasure became known as his black tendrils began thrashing with renewed vigor. To Gilda’s terror, he was nearly close enough for the hungry tentacles to reach her, and she saw in detail how that caustic magic thrashed and splashed, carving layers of wood into splinters. “Ah… That prompts me; Mercenary, I felt your drea-”

“You got my name right once.” GIlda snarked. She was rewarded with the icy pain of the nighmare’s gaze intensifying to clamp her mouth shut. The crushing pressure became almost unbearable.

“So familiar already. Nay.” Vlelveran took another step closer. He leered above Gilda, the tip of his shadowy horn almost touching the ceiling. “In my late slumber did I see you as a dreamer. Of that I am sure. Details are fleeting. Still some facts I recall: You are bewitched by one of my nemeses, the Stars.”

“Well, Black Bell is-” Gilda cut herself off.
Vlelveran spoke of Stars with venom. There was no telling what he would do to Black Bell’s daughter. Or step-daughter, Gilda corrected herself mentally. “They tried.” Whatever insight Vlelveran couldn't get from his dream power, Gilda was absolutely not going to furnish him farther.

“Don’t be coy with me. Whep. Impotent! I know what abominations the Stars craft.” Vlelveran blustered. “I know well. Sight, vision! I know because I have seen the perverse fruit of that heretical labor they call experimentation and progress.”

Gilda did not reply.

“Reticent at last? Well enough! What shame you would give voice to, Hamsa-bearer!”

Gilda’s breaths quickened. Hamsa… It was a soft word, alluring almost. In the dream, it was the name the godhand had placed in her head to describe that awful eye, formed from cracks, that had come to life on her palm. That word, ‘Hamsa’, was made her quake with fear of the unknown.

Vleleveran continued. “The Stars have cast you into the role of a betrayer of your mortal kin. You now posses a power of the elder siblings of mortalkind. A power to execute the path Destiny, as they do.”
He stooped down. “A certain phantom power.”

They were eye to eyes. The murky red light of the nightmare’s solitary eye melted into the fog of his body just deep enough to reveal that there was structure underneath: A skeleton ran under his ‘skin’ of shadow, rotted by time but partially repaired with compacted dust and ash which had once been his tissue and clothes. A pony’s skull that stared out of the nightmare’s translucent head, a horrible revelation by his own light. The red eye sat not within its socket, but within the jaw of the blackened bones.

“I say with no pride that I am undefeatable. Except for Phantom Time. Its secrets are unapproachable for me or my sister. But those treacherous Stars...” Vlelveran had to stop to collect himself, such was his fury. “That cabal who dare to pry in the Dark Lady’s secrets, with their leader who DARES to wear her name, are my sworn enemies!”

Gilda grabbed her beak again. “I don’t know when you met them, but the band split up right after they achieved immortality.”

“Doubtless I was, that they succeeded their quest for immortality. It is their role to haunt the world eternal. Infuriating!” Vlelveran, surprisingly, took a few steps back to make some room between them. “Only through their living weapon, the Hamsa-bearer, were they able to sequester me and my sister.”

“No shit huh? Black Bell was invoking the godhands a thousand years ago.” Gilda grunted to herself.

Vlelveran twitched. “Black Bell? Nay, nay! It was their leader, that misshapen horror cloaked in rags. Has the knowledge of the Hamsa spread? How in all the damnable world am I to live in a world overrun with you abominations?!”

Gilda chose not to remark on the irony of a nightmare accusing anyone of being an abomination. “Not exactly. Black Bell’s the only one who knows the least bit about that crap, and I don’t think she even knows that well.” Gilda asuaged his concerns. “Astral Nacre, or you can call her Clover if you want, disappeared. Returned to her home planet, I guess.”

“SILENCE! The Dark Lady shuns that HERETIC!” Vlelveran bellowed, with a dark outpouring to create chop in the shallow sea underhoof. The skin of his shadowy body began to boil and loose definition. His tendrils dug into every surface, even Gilda’s tunic, and with their intensified writhing every board and bulkhead in the cargohold began to buckle inward. Gilda’s tunic was torn to shreds and her chest was cut shallowly by the magical coils. Dozens of new leaks hissed from between the cracks, filling the hold with salty spray.
“Speak of her NOT to imply her relation to MY Dark Lady!”

“Look I don’t disagree!” Gilda shouted to be heard over the cacophanus storm of dark magic. “Please calm down! I just want to some agreement, you know, of understanding. Regardless of what I might or might not be, I’m cool. Get it?”

Vlelveran hissed in displeasure, but the magic shedding off him abated. “No, I do not ‘get it’! You keep repeating the same thing about talking, yet say nothing of content. Do you want something from me?”

It was not going very well. Gilda’s bland amicableness was not getting very far with Vlelveran. “I mean, when you think about it, we have been talking. But I came down here to work something out. We’ve been keeping your sister, and we don’t want trouble, right… Let’s agree… I…” She stuttered, unable to think of anything to say. “Well crap. I won’t lie, I was stupidly hoping you’d come along. I have no idea what we need you for honestly. It might be a fight, or we might need your ancient knowledge. Just stuff, you know.”

Vlelveran said nothing, which was worrying, but by the same token neither was he exploding in anger.

Gilda clacked her beak nervously. “It worked on the last shmuck.”

“Cease your prattling. The details are meaningless for everything is within my ability, excluding a certain exception.” He muttered the last part. “So if you had any sense you would see the conclusion I am drawing to. You, Hamsa-bearer, will protect me against the Stars when I return to the waking world.”

“Uh, what?” Gilda croaked.

“What I do between now and when my ally comes for me matters very little, so long as I am not imprisoned again. She and I can strive from there.” Vlelveran said. “Exchange of service. I ‘work’ with you and your employer, and you guard me against the the phantom time. Quid pro quo.”

There was the second mention of the ambiguous ‘she’ who was supposed to save Vlelveran.

“Uh…” Gilda stuttered. “Would you be willing to stay in the sarcophagus most of the time? You’re supposed to be a secret.”

Vlelveran scowled. “Do not dare attempt to seal it.”

“I’ll take that as a maybe?” Gilda scratched her head. “And what about hunting. Can you control yourself around prey.”

“I can control much more than myself.” Vlelveran crowed.

“Then your suggestion is...” Entirely reasonable, Gilda almost said.
Only she was utterly unable to actually manifest the Hamsa. She didn’t even know what it was! She was hoping to get a clearer answer from Vlelveran. Now if she came off as too incompetent for his purposes he was likely to kill her. “Great. It’s great. I agree. Verbal contract established. We’re pals now.”

Vlelveran was silent for a moment. His shadowy body and its mess of tendrils thrashed and rolled agitatedly. “You make it difficult not to despise you, mercenary.”

Gilda felt Vlelveran’s icy grip disappear from her mind, but had no time for joy or relief before nausea overtook her. She collapsed onto to her stomach, her legs weak and her head throbbing. “Son of a bitch.” She half-moaned, half-gargled, for the water was half a hoof deep and rising. She pushed herself up and spit out the water. “I’m not going to be a happy pal if you do this to me dude. I already have three demanding assholes to answer to.”

“I care not for your split loyalties, as long as you are there to interdict the phantom power.” Vlelveran sniffed. He turned away, sloshed slowly back into the smuggler's hatch, dragging along the ethereal tentacles sprouting from his shadow. The tentacles were none too pleased, squealing like blinded crows at losing potential prey. “If you can do that, I see no reason we can not be friends.”

“Oh, not just pals, but friends. It’s what I asked for, after all.” Gilda rolled her eyes. “So glad to have you, Vlelveran.”

“You are only too welcome. I look forward to trivializing your petty problems.” Vlelveran strode to the sarcophagus, but twisted around to face her again. “Oh, but one more stipulation, mercenary Gilda. Is it true or do I feel wrong, that there is a dreamer who does not dream nearby?”

“A what?” GIlda stared into his light, her apprehension growing again.

“An accursed mortal. One who has become more. Not quite a god or an alicorn, but an elder sibling of mortalkind.” His gaze became heavy and cold again. Gilda felt her joints become stiff and static numb her muscles. “One who has sacrificed their dreams to achieve power. A Star.”

“T- That’s not a stipulation. That’s a question.” Gilda said through her clenched beak.

“The stipulation is that you answer the question.” Vlelveran hummed. To that point, the nightmare had worn his erratic emotions on his sleeve. His first sign of anything resembling restraint was where he should be the most enraged, the most explosive. “Who is the Star? It is hard to tell from here. Is it Flair I feel? Although it is less pony-like. Cadmirzan or Zero or Master, I say.”

Gilda swallowed. It was time she did what she’d come to do, and it hadn’t been bending over backwards to a rotten old asshat. “Zero, actually.” It was time to be foolhardy. “Another detail I left out is that we’re after the Alicorn Amulet. So yeah, that’s also a thing.”

“You know what is also ‘a thing’ ? You ceasing to bother me.” Vlelveran said.

Gilda felt all the muscles in her upper body relax. She fell face first into the water. She panicked struggling fruitlessly to send a command to her muscles to pull her head up, but Vlelveran continued to exert his influence on her, intent on drowning her. Not so intent that she wasn’t able to prop her head up with her right leg. Her nostrils were barely above water, and said water was steadily rising.

“In the desert of the Sahella water is a priceless resource. I built the city of the Bard around a great oasis and gave my people its joy. Drowning was the second most honorable death, the first being swift suicide. My ponies exalted suffering deaths.” Vlelveran said. “When the gods destroyed my city, the water became toxic with their magic, and any who tried to drink it became monsters. In retrospect, I do not lament my tower or my ponies’ destruction, for it is the fate of all peoples. The loss of the oasis hurts most deeply.”

“Sucks.” Gilda gargled. It was time to do something daring.

Vlelveran hissed, his stoicism breaking into anger again. “I should have done this sooner, phantom time or no. It is your time to be destroyed, mercenary. In the name of the Dark Lady I condemn you to death, you stunted abomination.”

Gilda felt her neck muscles tense, preparing to force the rowing issue. Gilda pushed all hesitation behind her. It was do or die now. “Can’t go long without mentioning your Lady, huh? I respect that, I guess. Maybe you’ll respect this.”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and plunged her right claw into her neck. She’d been aiming for the jugular vein but her shakiness meant different talons ended up in her artery, through her trachea, and around the cartilage of her esophagus. It hurt much less than was expecting, until she tried to breath and sucked in blood instead of air. She convulsed and yanked her claw back out.

But the frigid grip of Vlelveran’s will was completely expelled from her body. Her right leg’s immunity had spread to the rest of her. Losing vision and choking on blood, Gilda pushed herself to all fours. She locked eyes with Vlelveran.

“Impressive. Griffins are remarkable. However, friend, wouldn’t it have been much easier to use the phantom time to escape me? “ He laughed coarsely. “Were you not withholding from that power as a courtesy to me? Or are you… powerless?” His laughs devolved into a guttural yowl. “Treachery. Fool! Thinking you could deceive me, Vlelveran! You hamsa-bearers have decayed in quality over the millennium.”

Gilda steadied herself against the wall but her legs gave out again she she slid back into the water. She couldn’t breath, was getting only half her blood to her brain, and the searing pain in her lungs was close to making her pass out. Die seemed much closer than do.
She reached into the hole in her neck and, after a little fumbling, she found both ends of her vein. She brought the severed ends together.

Vlelveran watched her jerky movement. “I was numbed with disappointment for yours to have been the first face upon my liberation, but this glorious spectacle makes up for it. Ahh, the first death I witness in a millennium, to brighten an otherwise bothersome day. Or not quite the first death; There were the dreamers, but as you said, they do not count.”

“Ass… hole.” Gilda gargled through the holes in her neck. She knew she had the conviction to prove him wrong. She couldn’t put him back in his box if she died. She had to live.
A spark danced between her talons, arcing around the exposed veins and cauterizing them back together. Gilda repeated the process on the artery.

“What are you doing? Was that magic?” Vlelveran cocked his head. “But you- Hamsa bearers can’t...”

Gilda retorted by contorting in a violent coughing fit. She spat blood into the water for a whole minute, then slowly straightened up. Her smile could not have been bigger as she rolled her shoulders freely under the crimson gaze of the nightmare.
“Bitch.” She croaked, unworried by the hole still marring her neck. “I run on blood, and so does my eye!”

She turned her claw up. The viscous blood coating it was boiling and frothing away, revealing a symbol underneath. The Hamsa, the thin eye, delicate like calligraphy, opened from between the creases on her palm. It’s lashes unfurled and spread along her talons, and the iris expanded and spawned a furrowed pupil.
It locked eyes with Gilda. Just like in her dream, spilt blood revealed the hamsa.

Vlelveran recoiled in horror and his multitude of shadow tendrils screamed in fear. “Are you mad?! Put that away!”

Gilda shrugged weakly. “I can’t control it. It’s dissociated. All I can do is point it.” She clenched her claw tightly. “And punch the dweebs who need punching.”

“You want to fight? That won’t do, that won’t do! Futile!” Vlelveran tramped the floor, letting out an ear-piercing yowl. “You have denied me an execution and now a fight to the death will satisfy me alone, mercenary! You’ve wasted too much of my time already.”

“That’s not your time you should be worried about, pal. It’s my time.” Gilda squawked, narrowing her eyes. Vlelveran was going to go back into his box.
“Because the phantom time begins NOW.”

Author's Note

My oh my this took a long time to put out. Every chapter has large amounts of writing, from the first few drafts of said chapter, notes to self, and other things, which I collect together as 'tailing'. Tailings usually end up being 1.5 times as long as the chapter or thereabouts. The tailings for this chapter are around 16k words, and that's just what I completely discarded.

I must say, it is not an easy task to write. I do not know how others do it.

Anyhow, a reader requested a pronunciation guide, and I shall supply.

Ancepanox: As a roanish name, the c technically a hard 'k' sound. However in that era most equestrians would have mispronounced it as a soft 's', including Ancepanox herself. An-seh-pan-nox

Astral Nacre: Also roanish, the most common way this was said was with mild beak-ish inflection. Very soft, save the hard 'k' from the 'c'. Ast-rahl Nak-r

Myriadess: The origin of this name is difficult to trace, but is likely either Maredian or Harsi. However the hippogryphs pronounced it much differently from ponies and griffins, and it is difficult to determin which is correct.. Gryph: Mie-ree-ah-dess Equestrian: Mee-ree-ah-dess

Agana- Agana was a name from ancient equestrian folklore long before the alicorn was created, but interestingly it was pronounced differently from race to race. The Unicorns preferred a soft 'a' at the front, while the pegasi preferred a sharp hard 'a'. Earth ponies used a laughably soft 'a', almost an 'u'. After the migration the unicorn pronunciation won out. Ah-ga-nah

Celestiaan- One of the few words we know of coming directly from the Ava language. Cel-less-tee-ahn

Xaron- Maredian. ks-Zar-ron

Zero- Chitineese. Seh-roh

Vlelveran- How the Bard pronounced words is sometimes utterly baffling to outsiders, but thankfully this is an exception. V-lel-ver-aan

Velvetine- Bard. I have fought in vain to have the accepted Equestrian spelling of this name changed to be more accurate. Vel-vet-tee-neh

Bridge Chapter 9: Phantom 3

There was something in the air. Daring Do couldn’t pin down what, but some distant stench like acrid smoke was stinging in her nose, and it was giving her a headache.
She waited for a moment in the hall, hoping the headache would resolve, but it did not. Annoyed she did what she’d come to do and knocked on Magistrate Mare’s door.
“Mis Mare, we have to talk.”

“Come in then.” Came the muffled reply.

Do slipped in and shut the door behind her. Mare was at her desk, reading something.
“Magistrate...”

Mare looked up.

“Magistrate, I have a very serious issue that I can’t work out on my own.” Do hovered by the door. “I need you to be straight with me here, to the point, you know. I’m getting very concerned with one of your hires.”

Mare was silent.

Do waited Mare to reply, but Magistrate Mare was strangely untalkative. “Ahem, yes… It’s Gilda. Obviously.” She cleared her throat. “As you’ve probably seen, she has not been very open with me. Actually I think she is hiding something. She’s been acting strangely, even for a griffin.”

Mare remained unmoved. “Yes, and?”

Do didn’t really want to get Gilda punished, just removed from the expedition or declawed proverbially speaking, but in a way that Dash wouldn’t suspect she’d done it. “I’m saying she might not be who she says she is. I mean, she could be a spy, or a threat. At the very least, she could compromise the expedition by keeping secrets.”

“She’s not.” Mare shut her down, in a tone that did not leave it up for discussion.

Do did not like being stonewalled. “You don’t know. Have you been seeing her real personality? Who knows what she’s wrapped u-”

“Don’t tell me what I don’t know, Mis Do. Gilda’s habits, vices, and past are all known to me.” Mare interrupted her. “Don’t be insulted when I say she and I are closer than you and I. I happen to trust her so don’t bother. If I find out you’re trying to pressure her to resign I will be very upset with you.”

I-” Do puffed her cheeks out in annoyance. Where did Mare get off, throwing around words like ‘trust’. “I have legitimate grievances.”

“Don’t bother her.” Mare said louder. “And stop bothering me while you’re at it. I’m not in the mood.”

Daring was just annoyed enough to try something risky.
“Oh sure, but did I hear you right just then?” Do scowled. “Do you know all her habits?”

“The one that matters.” Mare was utterly cold; more mirthless and curt than Do had seen before. “You know I hate repeating myself, but I will so you get it through your skull. I trust her. Don’t bother her.”

“Magistrate!” Do paled. “If you knew why the hell is she still on this boat?!”

“Because I trust her, and again I repeat, more than you. I further think it is rather sneaky to be going behind her back like this. When she and Dash come back from reconnoitering that derelict ship, you can talk your differences out like adults.”

Do felt nauseous, like the floor was falling out beneath her. “How can you say that? Your employee is a murderer!”

“You knew that the day you came onboard, but you decided to wait to tell me.” Mare said accusingly. “I question your motivation. Holding on to that juicy tidbit for a rainy day? Almost certainly, but now you want her gone. Why? What did she do to you?”

Do couldn’t think of what to say. She was rattled, and Mare’s empty stare was scaring her.

“Did she disturb you? Did she offend you?” Mare continued. “Ask her to apologize.”

“Magistrate,” Do cleared her throat for all the good it did. “Don’t you think her ‘quirk’ compromises her ability to protect me? You are hired to keep me alive and your employees are charged with keeping me safe.”

“I thought the drama at Coltcutta proved that was more or less false.”

“Does my safety count for nothing then?! Gilda threatened me in Andolou and she will again.”

“No.” Mare responded simply.

“No? No what?! H- How are you okay with this?” Do’s face contorted in helpless indignation. “She kill ponies! Good gods, she kills and eats ponies! Magistrate, you can’t blow me off like this.”

Mare’s slow, half-lidded blink conveyed all her apathy. “Can’t I?”

Do sighed. She didn’t have the strength to continue arguing. She felt queasy and her head throbbed. “Damn it all. This isn’t right. But… there really isn’t anything I can do.” She threw her hooves up in surrender. For better or for worse, she was going to have to trust Mare’s assessment of Gilda. But shy did she feel like she already had a claw at her throat?

“The situation is mutable, Mis Do. Prove yourself more trustworthy and I’ll choose you over her.” Mare explained, a devious glint in her eye. “If a careless whisper passed your lips, perhaps, to the true contents of the sarcophagus down in the hold. That just might tempt me.”

Do dropped her eyes to the ground, and after a moment of hesitation turned away. “I guess I’ll get out of your mane then.”

Mare sunk into her chair. “That would be for the best.” She picked up the next document to read. “Don’t be dour, Mis Do. Leveraging us forward is my top priority. I may not have time for your drama, but all my effort goes towards preserving your expedition.”

Do passed into the hallway and gingerly shut the door behind her. She stalked to her room and threw herself on the bed. “Trite lies! What bullshit! Everypony’s keeping secrets from me.” She groaned into her pillow. She couldn’t muster up any more feelings than that. “Gilda’s going to literally kill me… I’ll be remembered as a griffin’s chewtoy.”

She rolled onto her back and pointed her hoof-strapped pistol, usually hidden under her sleeve, up at the ceiling. “Bang.” Would she need to put Gilda down before Gilda put her down? Do hoped desperately it wouldn’t come to that, but if it did, she wouldn’t hesitate.
She lowered her hoof and cradled the pistol for a while, before unstrapping it and setting it on the floor by the bed. “Erg… At least this headache of mine has gone away, mostly.”

She’d halfway drifted off to sleep, lulled by the steady rock of the ship, when a shockwave smacked into the Flyer Kyte, cracking the windows and lurching the entire ship sideways. Daring Do was thrown to the ground and the pistol went off. That noise was drowned out by the rumbling KABOOM that echoed after the shockwave, leaving a ringing in her ears.
“Oh crivins…” Do moaned, bringing her hoof to her temple. She felt wetness. “Are we under attack?”

Her mirror was shattered all over the room. Do leaned over one of the shards to inspect her face and saw a red smear in her hair and on her face.

“What?” Do squinted. She tried to stand up but immense pain shot up her leg into her spine, forcing her to her belly.
She looked at the offending leg, and discovered it was shorter than it was supposed to be. When she landed on the pistol she’d shot her hoof at the joint, and it was barely hanging on to the rest of her leg. “Well crap. That’s bone. I shot myself in the hoof.” She stiffened. “Shot myself in the hoof…”
She groaned, pushed herself to her three hooves, and hobbled to door. She heard Magistrate Mare, running out of the hall onto the weather deck, shouting questions. Grimacing against the pain shooting up her limb, Do limped to the stair, to descend into the cargo hold.

Magistrate Mare watched from the deck as what was left of the Seapony’s Pride began to sink. Everything above the mid-deck of the former warship had been blasted into the air by the powder explosion, and was now slowly falling downwind as a hail of wood and rope.
With a sound like the gargle of a pony drowning in its own blood, the Seapony’s Pride turtled, exposing its barnacle-encrusted keel to the sky. It sunk beneath the water, leaving flotsam, foam, and a few floating corpses.

Despite her orders to remain belowdecks, the crew had come up to watch too. They went to whispering among themselves. Hadn’t Mis Gilda and Mis Dash gone abroad to reconnoiter? Were those really corpses among the debris? Had the ghost ship been a trap? Some of them looked pensive by the turn of events, others terrified.

Mare looked over to the aftcastle. She locked eyes with that changeling Zero, still disguised. He flashed a bewildered look. He didn’t know what was going on either.

“Keep an eye open for survivors!” Mare ordered harshly, voice strained. “In half an hour, rig for full sail to Chitin!”

All around Dash was sand. Dunes rose and fell, hundreds of hooves high, to every horizon. The stark landscape was illuminated by a big blue moon hovering above, amongst a sea of twinkling stars.

“Where…” Dash blinked. This felt wrong, like she was at odds with her surroundings.

She spun around, looking for any landmarks in the dune ocean.
Directly behind her was some kind of tower, taller than any she’d seen before (she couldn’t actually see the top), at an indeterminate distance. The strange, impossible tower was jet black.

“Where am I?” Dash mumbled to herself, staggering towards the tower.

“Asoko ni!” A feminine voice called out. Dash spun around again, to spy a figure looming on the larger dunes.
It was not a pony, not even a species Dash recognized. It stood upright like a minotaur, but was lean and tall. It hunched over slightly, with it’s torso and limbs covered in loose-fitting fabric, with tufts of fur sticking out at the uncovered spots. Overall it had a very cat-like appearance.

“Hey! Hey what’s going on here?!” Dash barked, running halfway up the dune.

The figure watched Dash, then retreated from the peak of the dune, disappearing where Dash couldn’t see.

“Damn it get back here.” Dash growled, flapping her wings for extra help getting to the top.
She was confronted by the figure she’d seen and another like it, standing back and watching her. Up close, Dash could see that they were indeed cats, upright at about the height of a hippogryph, in layered desert garb.

The two strangers exchanged a few hushed words, in a language Dash didn’t even recognize.

“Where am I?” Dash wondered to herself.

The original figure took initiative and stepped forward. She pushed back her hood, relieving a long, slightly curled cat’s mane, and fur that would have been orange in the sun, but now looked blue like everything else under the big moon.

“You look confused. Where are you from?” She said in Equestrian. She sounded young and arrogant, with a slight Canterlot accent.

“Cloudsdale.” Dash replied.

“Is that where you entered?”

“Entered? Huh?” Dash puzzled. “Last thing I remember, I was…” She bit her tongue not really sure how much she should share. “I was on a ship in the South Chitin Sea...”

“Is that where you found those?” The creature pointed to Dash’s face.

“Huh?” Dash brought up her hoof and bumped it against the glasses. She had forgotten she was wearing them. She lowered her hoof and stared at the curious cat. “How about you answer some questions for me, instead! Like telling me where the buck I am and how I got here!”

The lead creature turned back to her fellow, saying more in the unknown language.

“Hey, what are you telling her.” Dash demanded.

“I’m telling her that you’re an Equestrian and seem genuinely confused.”

The other creature, still cloaked, had a much softer voice. “If she’s not here for you, then we send her back.” She looked at Dash, searching for approval for her use of Equestrian. “It’s just coincidence she ended up here.”

“Maybe.” The forward creature hummed. She turned to Dash again. “If you want to leave, break those glasses.”

“Leave where?”

“Here. This place. You’ll go back to the ship you were talking about.”

“And where am I?” Dash said, then repeated harsher. “Where am I?!”

The smaller creature squeaked in alarm. She shouted something in the unknown language. Among the garble of words, Dash heard ‘sunset’.

“Hey hey hey, what’s she saying!” Dash demanded. “What’s sunset mean?”

“She said you have a sword.” The lead creature laughed. “And Sunset’s my name. Sunset Shimmer.”

That sounded like a pony name. Dash rubbed her temple. “She doesn’t like my sword? I’m not dropping it.”

“Of course. All sorts of reasons to have a sword on a ship, especially in the South Chitin Sea. It’s a dangerous part of the world.” Sunset Shimmer took a couple steps around Dash. “Want to see something cool? Follow me. We’ll show you something before you go back.”

Dash grumbled. “I could try my luck, you know. If you’re out here then somepony else-”

“We’re here specifically to look for you, which is honestly looking like a waste of time.” Sunset pulled her hood back up. “If you don’t trust us, just break those glasses and you won’t have to worry about us ever again, provided you don’t come across another pair.”

Dash bit her lip. The inexplicably strange feel of the dune ocean around her was starting to make her stomach churn. Two unknown cats in an unknown desert, apparently looking for an equestrian, sounded like the punchline to a joke.
“Are you going to show me that tower?” Dash asked, motioning in the direction of the inexplicably tall tower.

“We are.” Sunset confirmed. “It’s not that far.”

So, the three of them straddled the huge dunes in the direction of the black tower, Sunset in the lead and the yet unnamed cat taking up the rear. On a stretch with steady footing, Dash took off the glasses. As she did she imagined for a moment that all the stark light and shadow from the moonlight on the dunes swapped places, but after a couple blinks everything returned to normal.

“Anything interesting happening in Equestria lately?” Sunset asked, glancing back at Dash.

“Not really. I’ve been away for two months though.” Dash said. “There were rumors in Coltcutta that the Canterlot vizier got murdered, but I wouldn’t know.”

“The vizier? Interesting.” Sunset said to herself. “And you? I suppose you must be part of the fleet or something.”

“I’m an agent on an EOC ship.” Dash reported.

“Agent? Lots of things for ‘agents’ to do in that part of the world.” Sunset mused. “It’s just a shot in the dark, but you wouldn’t happen to be going into the interior of Chitin, would you?”

Dash stopped, her guarded look returning. “So… Do I have to guess who sent you, or are you going to tell me? The EOC? The Maredians?” She growled. “Was it the Stars?”

“You’re throwing names around but you don’t know what they mean.” Sunset laughed. “You’re just a pawn in someone else’s game, mis.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I used to be a noble, you know.” Sunset chuckled. “We’re too proud to be tools.” She jogged a few steps farther, to the edge of the large dune they were on. “That’s why I came here!”

Dash advanced to the edge as well. Under them was a vast depression, a bowl of sand a dozen kilometers across. At the center was the base of the tower, driven into the sand like a nail.

“Sometimes it is at the peak of a mountain. Sometimes there’s ruins strewn around it. THE Tower, black as sin.” Sunset said. “You recognize it, don’t you.”

“Yeah, by description.” Dash said quietly. “That’s the Tower of the Bard.”
She was in Sahella then? But the Tower of the Bard had collapsed thousands of years past!

Sunset jumped and slid down the face of the dune a ways. “Come on mis! Time passes strangely here. We’ll be greeting the gatekeepers in no time.”

Dash looked back to the more silent cat, whose purple eyes stared unblinkingly out from under the lip of her hood. Then Dash jumped after Sunset.

Magestraite Mare climbed somberly back on deck to the sound of hubbub and from the crew.
The deck crane boom was swung off the port side, straining to pull something out of the water. Mare ran to the edge, to see an imposing stone sarcophagus, the mirror image of the one down in the Flyer Kyte’s hold, being slowly hoisted into the air.

Mare watched into stunned silence for several minutes, as inch by inch the sarcophagus was pulled to the same height as the deck, then the railing, then finally swung overhead.

“Let it down slowly.” She found her voice. “Drop it and it’ll puncture through the hull.”

“It bobbed up to the surface.” One of the sailors reported, disconcerted. “Stone don’t float.”

The sarcophagus was lowered, and the wood of the deck groaned under its weight. The ropes were loosened but not released, as the crew waited for Mare’s next order.
Up close, all the same intricate engravings could be seen on the sarcophagus as with its counterpart. Stylized depictions of hippogryphs, gods, temples, and worshipers covered every side. On the lid, the etched profile of a pony laying down, presumably the occupant.

“Ain’t this ‘bout the same size and weight as the crate in the hold?” One of the sailors whispered.

“So it is.” His comrade grunted.

Mare put a hoof against the damp lid. She could peek inside before Daring Do knew they’d recovered, but the crew would see as well. Was it true that that cheeky changeling said, and an ancient nightmare creature lay within?

“Get this thing belowdecks.” She said sternly. “Mis Rainbow Dash and Mis Gilda sacrificed themselves to get this to us.”

“Begging your pardon, magistrate.” One of the sailors spoke up. “There might still be more flottsom to find. The girls, even.”

Mare shook her head. “We have this. The sooner we get to port, the less risk we share the fate of the-”

WHUMP. A muffled thump against the lid of the sarcophagus made it jump, and with it every pony on the deck.

“There’s somepony inside!” A sailor shouted.

Mare’s eyes bugged out. Whatever monster inside, that had destroyed the other ship, was still alive! She jumped onto the lid, praying she could hold it down with her weight. “Get some chains up here!” She shouted. “No time to explain! Bind it up!”

WHUMP. Mare was nearly throw off.

“Captain! We’ve gotta let them out!”

Mare shouted back, almost pleading. “I said get a chain! That’s an order! Unless you all want to die then put your weight-”

‘hey. Anyone out there?’
A miniscule voice, almost inaudible, bubbled out through the lid gap.
‘Magistrate, I’d really appreciate if you let me out. I’ve got it under control in here.’

Mare, dumbfounded, dropped to her stomach and pressed her ear against the stone. “Gilda?”

‘It’s just me and some bones.’

Mare sat up, cleared her throat, and slid off the lid.
“Well then lads…” She tugged at the corner of her waistcoat, making sure it wasn’t wrinkled. “Get her out already. Tick tock. Time’s money and we should be in Chitin by now.” She quickly retreated back to the cabins, trying to hide how much she was blushing.

Mare brushed past the disguised Zero, looking on with curiosity. Like her, he was very curious how Gilda had survived such a violent explosion. Unlike her, he had his suspicions.

The closer they got to the tower, the more its impossible dimensions impressed themselves on Dash. It was barely a hundred hooves across, but truly infinite in its height, its peak somewhere among the twinkling stars of the desert night.

“This place isn’t real.” Dash whispered to herself.

“It’s real. It’s not happening in reality, but it’s real.” Sunset Shimmer said. “I know that sounds like it doesn’t make sense, but it does.”

“Just saying it makes senses, doesn’t make it make sense.” Dash countered. “So tell me, if you can, how something can be real but not in reality.”

“ ‘Reality’ is a place, and this realm is outside of it. This isn’t your world. It’s mine.” The smaller, quieter cat taking up the rear offered. “I shouldn’t say too much...”

“Just know this is a different world. Things work differently here.” Sunset added.

“Different… But not too much. This place is… inspired by your world, I guess you could say.” The smaller car continued, haltingly, hesitant. “They’re very close together. You could almost reach out and touch.” A subdued look overcame her furry features. “Like was done to you.”

“I get it, i get it.” Dash huffed. “It’s me believing it that’s the problem, not me hearing it. This place is like a dream.”

“There’s a reason for that.” Sunset laughed. The smaller cat cleared her throat, and Sunset paused for a bit before she continued with her thought. “This place has a whimsy to it, a lack of consistency that makes us dreamers from the Bright World a bit crazy. Doesn’t make it any less real.”

“Sure.” Dash said with empty agreement. She was sure the cats were having a laugh. She’d generally come to think that she was imagining it all.

The craterous depression in the desert began to flatten out at the center were the Tower was, and soon enough the three travelers were only a few hundreds hooves away.

Two equine figures stood between them and the base of the tower. They were huge, alicorn sized, and were wrapped in white linen in a similar manner to the cats, but more fully covered. Their eyes glowed red in the moonlight.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Dash mumbled as they approached.

“Don’t provoke them.” Sunset Shimmer ordered, tugging at the corner of her hood with her paws. “And if they get angry at you, break those glasses as fast as you can.”

“Mortal. Sunset Shimmer.” A male voice boomed across the sand as one of the equines called out to them. “You have returned.”

“Despite our advices.” A female voice joined the male’s. “Dreamer, are you so bold?”

“Not usually, lord gatekeeper.” Sunset yelled back. “I happened to be in the neighborhood, since a fellow pony stumbled in nearby.”

“Fellow pony?” Dash arched a brow. “You’re a cat.”

“Imagine my surprise.” Sunset chuckled.

“An outworlder? A dreamer fully entered? Show us.” The male voice demanded.

“We should like to inspect, and know how these dreamers lately trespass.” The female agreed.

“Come on then.” Sunset motioned forward. “Stay formal mis. The gatekeepers and I are acquainted, but they’re far from chummy.”

“They’re actually kinda intense.” The smaller cat mumbled, folding her arms into her robe.

The three of them shuffled through the sand closer to the imposing equines. The two giants, with a rigid bearing and odd angularity under their linens, were as imitators of the Tower looming above them. Their glowing eyes flicked between the visitors.

“Towaireyeto. What trouble has Sunset dragged you into this time?” The female pony looked down at the smaller cat.

“Strange things are happening in the other world, lady gatekeeper. We foresaw another dreamer arriving, and we thought it might be the hippogryph again. It was this pony.” The small cat, apparently called Towaireyeto, said. “See, she has enchanted spectacles, like we said about the hippogryph.”

“And that is to absolve your meddling? You should know better. It is not your job to triage wayward mortals.” The male equine growled. He bent his neck to get a closer look at Rainbow Dash. “How does it come to be that you mortals bring your physical and dreaming form both? It should not be possible anymore. The known entry points were sealed.” As he said this, the equine shifted his gaze to Sunset, who grinned guiltily. “Devilous work. The alicorns of the waking world are playing tricks on us.”

“I shouldn't say so. I think the mortals are doing this themselves.” The female equine contradicted. “We can not underestimate mortal ingenuity for mischief. That is, after all, how Sunset came to us.”

“Gosh guys, go easy on me for once.” Sunset laughed, a hint of nervousness seeping in.

“Hang on…” Dash tapped her chin. “If this is the Tower of the Bard…”

“It is.” The two equines confirmed in unison.

Dash’s eyes lit up. “You two ponies… You’re the Bard! Velvetine and Vlelveran! Holy crap dudes!” She laughed. “I’m starting to get it now.”

The two towering equines, unamused, loomed over Dash.
“Get it?” The male, Vlelveran asked coldly. “It there something to ‘get’? Illuminate us.”

“We have not ‘got’ it.” The female, Velvetine confirmed.

“In the real world, your Tower exploded. You became, like, ghosts or something, and got put in coffins by the Maredians.” Dash explained what she could remember of Gilda and Zero’s exhaustive explanations.

“This is known to us.” Vlelveran, his linen wrappings getting taunt with his agitated movements, said. “It is not known to most in your world. What is the meaning of your probing intrusions, dreamer! Are you so cowardly to refuse to come through our gate?!”

“Uh… No?” Dash didn’t like getting yelled at, especially not by so large a creature. “I’m a guard. I’m part of a team that’s collecting your remains to bring to Chitin. I don’t know about that other stuff.”

Nobody spoke for a while. A light breeze over the desert made little eddies in the sand.
Towaireyeto stepped over to Dash’s side. “I suggest you break those glasses right now.”

“No.” At long last Vlelveran spoke firmly, and an unspeakable power rippled around him to prove he was ready to enforce his command. “We do not give her leave yet.” He turned to gaze on Sunset. “Mortals approach the gate with the key.”

“She said she was near Chitin, so I suspected.” Sunset crossed her furred arms. “Trust me, lord gatekeeper, I have nothing to do with this.”

“Despite it being so complete an answer to your prayers? We remain suspicious.” Velvetine said softly, cynically. “Now, you would cause catastrophe on this realm for your short-sighted goals. You are a troublesome mortal indeed, Sunset Shimmer.”

“For your information, lady gatekeeper, I was developing a different way back to the waking world. One that didn’t break anything.” Sunset shot back.

“You say that tiringly often, and each time a lie.” Vlelveran growled. “This is the opportunity you have waited for: An opportunity of your own manufacture!”

“Please, we really don’t know what’s going on up there.” Towaireyeto placed herself between the gatekeepers and Sunset. “I mean yes, we calculated something like this would happen with the thousandth Summer Sun, but we didn’t know for sure. We don’t have any contacts up there.”

Vlelveran brought a hoof to his head, closing his bright red eyes in a bout of frustration. “Mortals breaking in, mortals breaking out. Too soon, the task of gatekeeper will be rendered meaningless.”

“Times change, even here.” Sunset bowed her head with a smirk. “But if I might offer advice, don’t take your frustrations out on this pegasus. She actually has no meaningful idea what’s going on.”

Dash was very confused. “Is something wrong?”

Sunset giggled. “Yeah. They don’t like difference.” She knelt by Dash. “Thousands of years ago, somepony came in here with a relic of the Dark Lady. It can’t be recovered until the Tower does. And the Tower…” She nodded towards the impossible black spire. “The Tower will be open when you reach the outer gate with the key.”

Dash blinked. The relic Sunset was talking about was the amulet, but all that other stuff bounced off her. “What?”

“Wingshan, mis. The top of this tower currently links to the rotted ruins of Wingshan in the highlands of Chitin.” Sunset said. “That’s where you’re headed with the Bard corpses, even if you don’t realize it.”

“Uhh…” Dash looked between the upset gatekeepers and Sunset. “Is that something I shouldn’t be doing?”

“I told you, you are a pawn, mis.” Sunset petted Dash on the head. “Somepony is maneuvering you to open the gate, open the Tower, and connect our Bright World to this Dreamland.”

“Dreamland…” Dash repeated.

“Speaking of maneuvering,” The small cat Towaireyeto spoke up. “Sunset, if the gate’s going to open-”

“We capitalize, of course, and throw our plan into motion! Ha ha! We’re gunna do it, Twi! This is the moment we’ve been waiting for!” Sunset threw Vlelveran a saucy wink. “I’m going home.”

“Do not gloat to hard.” Vlelveran said harshly. “When these interlopers open the gate, this land will be exposed to tremendous peril. The realm that offered you refuge will be swallowed by chaos whilst you traipse away.”

“Don’t be anxious, my lord. Before we go, we’ll come help you vett out the biggest troublemakers.” Sunset proposed.

Towaireyeto frowned. “Can we do that?”

“Sure we can. Only one dreamer needs to get past to get the amulet.” Sunset made a little motion towards Dash. “Then they close the gate behind them.”

“Even a moment of their presence will draw them.” Velvetine intoned. The emphasis she placed on the word ‘them’, soaked in malace, disgust, and fear, sent shivers down Dash’s spine. From that word alone she felt compelled to help the gatekeepers, so that the unnamed ‘them’ would not be drawn to the dreamland.

“This was going to happen anyway, with or without me. I’m helping you by warning you this early.” Sunset said smugly. “I’ll warn the vulnerable settlements nearer the mountains too.”

But the gatekeepers were not swayed by Sunset’s glib promises. Vlelveran and Velvetine shared a long look, before the former shook his head disdainfully.
“Very well, Sunset Shimmer. Send it away, before I change my mind.”

“Yup.” Sunset saluted. She snatched the glasses off Dash’s face. “Guess you get to live. How about that. Don’t worry though… When you get back to the Bright World you might well look back on this as just a bad dream.”
She tilted her head back and pointed up to the twinkling nighttime sky. “See those? You’ll be up there, next time you sleep. Your friends, family, enemies, pets… They’re up there too. Yeah. So close you could almost reach out.” She looked a bit downcast, and her eyes slid to the black mass of the Tower. “So very close.”

“Mis Sunset…” Dash began, quietly. “My friend and me… We might have a bead on the ones behind the scenes. Does the name Eversnake mean anything to you?”

Sunset shook her head. “Nah. Who’s she?”

“Hippogryph mage guy. Those are his glasses, maybe. We think he’s working with a couple of Stars. They might be using Phantom Time.” Dash said, feeling silly as she did. “Man, I was the wrong pony to get sent here. My friend Gilda would’ve done better.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You’ve relayed some very interesting news.” Sunset rubbed her chin. She nodded to Vlelveran. “Hear that lord gatekeeper? The hippogryph dreamer snooping around.”

“Eversnake.” Vlelveran said icilly. “One who meddles in both Phantom Time and the Dreamscape, sounds to be a troublemaker on your level.”

“Send her back before she adapts.” Towaireyeto interrupted, louder than her usual.

“Okay, okay. I’m keeping these glasses though. Might be able to reverse engineer them.” Sunset chuckled. She winked at Dash. "See you in waking world." Without ceremony, Sunset crushed the pair of spectacles in her paws.

When the lid was pulled off the stone sarcophagus, there was a tense moment of silence. Then Gilda peeked her head up and looked around.

“Thanks for that guys. It’s a nice sarcophagus but I’d still not like to be buried in it.”
Gilda's beak, neck, and right leg were stained with blood. Her tunic was ripped to tatters and the feathers underneath were brown with dried blood too. The griffin had trouble focussing her eyes and holding her head up.

“Good grief!” The ship’s surgeon pushed through the circle of gawking crew. “Mis Gilda, you’re still recovering from your fall!”

“Obviously not doc.” GIlda said, smiling but mostly grimacing. She clenched and unclenched her right claw repeatedly. “Where’s Dash?”

A hundred hooves off the bow and several hundred hooves high, Rainbow Dash popped into existence. She did not recover her sense of direction before she crashed into the sea several seconds later.

“Huh?” Gilda shoved the doctor back and looked towards the direction of the sound. “Dash!” She jumped into the sky and streaked towards the shape in the water.

Now that she was clear of the sarcophagus, the crew could see the pile of unmistakably equine bones Gilda had been laying amongst.

With her shot, bleeding, limp hoof, Daring Do took longer than usual to pull apart the crate down in the Flyer Kyte’s cargo hold. She was breathing hard, getting lightheaded from blood loss, but she had further to go.
Gathering herself, and put all her weight against the lid of the stone sarcophagus, and it slid off surprisingly easily, to fall with unnatural gentleness to the hull floor.

It was silent, utterly. A ship with its creaks and groans should have not been so silent. But there was a soft suggestion of something else in the air, either very quiet or out of the range of pony hearing.

“I know. I feel him. He’s giving me a killer headache.” Daring panted, squeezing her eyes closed between breaths. “There are others too. Stars or inquisitors, I can’t tell. They’re closing in on us. One of the mercenaries, Gilda, might try to kill me. I don’t know who she’s working for.”

Borne on a swirling grey mist, a cloud of dust levitated up from the sarcophagus. The dust formed briefly into a pony profile then dissolved again, then again to a pony, then back to particles.

“I’m going to figure something out.” Daring promised in a hurried, belabored whisper. “My hoof… It’s damaged.”

The cloud of dust extended out and around Daring Do’s hoof, and when it withdrew the bone and flesh was mended.

“The captain might be in on it. I’ll sink this boat if I have to. I won’t let him fall back in the hippogryph’s paws.” Do worked her hoof. “Once you two are back together, the biggest hurdle will be behind us. Please tell me you agree.”

The sarcophagus lid was lifted up and back into place, sealing away the dust and mist.

Daring was left in silence. She stayed there for a while, working the hoof idly, mulling things over.

Then, voices from the stair, and shouting that filtered from the weather deck. She heard the clanks and creaks of the cargo hatches being opened. There was about to be company.

“...totally sedate. He knows I’ve got him by the jewels. As long as I keep sane, that is.” Gilda’s voice grew louder from the stair, until the griffin limped into the hold.
Daring and Gilda locked eyes, the former stoic, the latter cautiously judging how much had been overheard. “Mis Do.” GIlda nodded.

Gilda’s company leaned around the stair as well. It was one of the knotsponies. Do had been seeing more and more of him but didn’t remember his name.

“Mis Gilda.” Do nodded back. She didn’t think much of the griffin’s disheveled state, except that is heightened her vague terror to be around her. Do momentarily thought, senselessly she realized, that it was somehow her blood covering Gilda.

“You probably noticed that explosion easilier. Dash and I got out fine, as you can tell.” Gilda hobbled closer. By the look of her the griffin had a very different definition of ‘fine’, and as if to confirm this thought, she continued. “Dash is in her bed. She fell and hit the water pretty hard, but no lasting damage. Uh, yeah, don’t worry about this blood. It’s not all mine.”

Do said nothing to that. She followed Gilda with her eyes.

With a creak, the cargo hatch above them was fully pulled open, and a beam of light penetrated down into that dark and musty cargo hold. The shouts and orders being traded on the weather deck echoed down to them, and among it was the sound of clicking wood gears and twisting ropes.
Little by little a shadow began to fill out the beam of light, and then the second stone sarcophagus was lowered into view.

Gilda pushed past Do and guided the sarcophagus to its resting place beside the other. “Right there! You got it!” She yelled up to the ponies on the higher decks. She undid the ropes. “Pull it up and close it up!”

Daring could hardly breath. There was a ringing in her ears and her head ached like she couldn’t believe, but it didn’t matter. There was the object of her toils and tribulations, brought down like a gift from on high. The second sarcophagus was united at long last with its pair.
Daring ran a trembling hoof along its richly engraved lid.

“Both keys.” She whispered to herself.

“Yup. We found those before the ship exploded.” Gilda said, as the cargo hatch above her was cleared and closed back up. She smiled slyly. “No need to thank me. Just doing my job.”

Do looked up at Gilda. They stared at each other, Do somber, Gilda oddly giddy.

“What?” Gilda said with a chuckle. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You… you know what’s going on here?” Mare asked, barely audible. “Why it’s here? Why it was on that ship?”

“Luck? Providence?” Gilda effected a shrug. “That’d be my guess, unless you out and tell me you’ve got a friend that stole it back from the inquisitors.”

Do worked her jaw.

“No, huh?” Gilda arched a brow.

“Hmm.” Daring Do went back to admiring the sarcophagi.

Gilda cleared her throat and withdrew back to the stairwell. “Okay then. I’ve got to talk with Mare. My pal here, Bowline Tight, will be guarding the hold from now on.” She grasped the pony she’d brought with her on the shoulder, and the stallion was clearly uncomfortable being touched by her bloody right claw. “The crew have been getting restless, and might try to steal something. You know how it is.”

“Uh huh.” Do grunted. She could guess the purpose of the guard: To watch her.
While Gilda climbed up the stair, Daring began piecing back the crate around the first sarcophagus. The headache, seemingly a curse the second sarcophagus was working on her, was not bothering anypony else. Do, excruciating as it was, would have to bear it.
“Really going to stay there all day?” She asked Bowline Tight.

“Yes ma’am.” Bowline found a place to sit, and rested in hunched silence as he observed her and the sarcophagi.

Do tried not to let him see her annoyance or pain. She might not have an opportunity to be alone with the sarcophagi until they were well into Chitin. “Good lad.” She said. “Dedication to duty. Commendable.” She attached the top part of the crate, completing its enclosure. “I think I’ll hang around too, to savor this moment.” She chose a spot by the crate and sat down. She was going to be damned before she left anypony alone with the precious cargo.

Gilda emerged from the stair into the cabins hallway. Daring Do was not going to move from the hold while Zero was still down there.
Gilda grinned. She had free reign for a while.

She heard sounds from Magistrate Mare’s little office-cabin. She knocked once, then tried the door to find it was locked. Irritation boiled up, and she knocked the door wide with a rough punch.

“Geez!” Mare, crouched next to her storage chest, turned to the intruder. “Gilda!”

“Yo.” Gilda closed the door behind her, but it did not lock properly after her hit. “I’m not mad. Not even annoyed. How could I be? I’m on top of the world.” She limped her way to the Mare’s side. “The crew are hoisting the sails. We’re going to make it to Hornzhou by tomorrow evening.”

Mare got to her hooves and stood up straight. “Mis Gilda, I’m very pleased to see you alive. I…” She sighed, her formal facade cracking. “I was sitting here, considering what to do without you or Dash. My choices were either to drink myself to death or throw myself in the sea.” She rubbed her eyes. “I can’t see this through without you. Nopony I can trust enough. Nopony competant enough.” She laughed mirthlessly. “How awful is it to admit, I’m rather fond of you Mis Gilda, professionally. You and I are birds of a feather. Daring wants you gone. She knows about your... tendencies. I defended you. Ahh... What right do I have to chose the hires over the client?”

"Every right." Gilda said.

Mare gave a little nod. "Of course, of course."

“And don't be bothered by your feelings. I'm fond of you too, ma'am. I see a lot of potential in you.” Gilda said with a subtle smirk.

Mare sighed again. She didn't want to dwell. “So what happened over there?”

Gilda’s wings had been clasped tightly to her sides since she’d emerged from the sarcophagus. Now she fanned them out, and a small reddish metal orb she had been keeping pressed to her body fell to the floor with a clunk.
Gilda scooped it up and held it up for Mare to inspect. “Meet Lord Veleveran. He can’t talk right now, but he’s watching and listening.”

Mare was dazzled by the intricate embossing making the little red orb look like a bloody eye plucked from a giant. The detail was incredible. “I don’t follow. This little thing?”

“Uh, yeah. Please be nice to him. When I put him back together I don’t want him to try to kill us all.” Gilda cleared her throat. “We need his help. He’s strong, clever, and psychically strong. Fighting him, while fun, takes a toll.” She motioned to the blood now turning brown on the feathers.

Mare was past asking questions of how or why. She just had to accept things didn’t always make sense. “Can I talk to him?”

“Not without the rest of him, which is in his box down in the hold. Do’s down there right now, though Zero’s keeping her out of trouble.” Gilda smiled. “I advise you wait. Let him cool off, see we’ve got good intentions. He’ll also see we’ve got Zero on a leash, which was a tense point between us.”

Mare nibbled her lip. “We have Zero on a leash?”

Gilda clacked her beak in amusement. “Yes. Yes we very much do.”

“I’ll defer to you.” Mare trotted behind her desk and sat in her chair. “And Dash is-”

“She took a fall. The surgeon is with her. She’ll get well soon.” Gilda nodded. “All in all, things worked out great.”

“Glad to hear that.” Mare said distractedly. Her brows grew more furrowed as she silently deliberated something. The sound of chanting sailors and billowing sails was tinged by an unspeakable fear, for the superstitious sailors had seen the bones, the carvings of the sarcophagi, and the bodies in the water.
“Gilda….” Mare said slowly. “You want to be in charge.”

Gilda gave a little laugh. “I don’t like the tedium of leadership, but I sure like the aesthetic.”

“I’ll handle the little things.” Mare scooted her seat forward, and she ran a nervous hoof though her pink mane. She looked tired, strained, and very uncertain. She had gone her entire life seeking more and more responsibility, more and more power. But what could she do when faced with a monumentally alien problem, that she had not even the smallest ability to comprehend! She literally lacked the magic to interface with the strange creatures around her!
“But for big decisions that involve these… these magical entities, I want you to be the arbiter. I don’t want to second guess, I don’t want doubt. When a crisis occurs, your word will be THE word.”

“When the troops get out of line, or the beasts come roaring, you want me to put the stick about.” Gilda chuckled. “So what I’m already doing.”

Mare sighed. “You will also decide the future path of this expedition, and whether or not you take anyone’s advice will be up to you.”

Gilda pretended to consider this. She limped to the small window, looking out to the patch of debris that had once been the Seapony’s Pride. That ship had once been her home. Its crew was dead and it was blasted to oblivion. How much time before the same happened to the Flyer Kyte and its ponies?
“Mare, have any water?”

“Uhh, not quite.” Mare reached under her desk and pulled up a flask of clear rum. “You must be thirsty after- HEY!”

Gilda had taken the rum and begun pouring it on her right claw. “Achchch. It stings.”
The rum washed away the dried blood caked on her talons and palm, and slowly, something revealed itself: The ornamental arabesque curls of the Hamsa, the eye ineffably etched on her skin as though drawn in ink. The flat eye opened, scanned the room for danger, briefly lingered on the red orb set on the desk, then closed again.

“What. The. Buck.” Mare muttered. When Gilda set down the little flask she grabbed it and took a swig. “You know what, I don’t even want to know. I don’t want to know.”
She sunk in her seat and stared up at the ceiling. “Mis Gilda, get up on deck and make sure we make good time to Hornzhou.”

“Aye, magistrate.” Gilda took the tattered remnants of her tunic and wrapped it around her cursed right claw. She grabbed the red orb off the desk and tucked it back under her wing. “You’ve placed your trust in competent hooves, ma’am.”

Mare tilted her head a bit. “Are they good hooves, mis?”

Gilda clacked her beak, in amusement or worry it was hard to tell. “I’ll see this through. Trust me.” She fumbled with the broken door and limped into the sunlight.

Author's Note

In case you missed it the recent epilogue to the first bridging arc is rather essential to understanding this chapter.

The epilogue to the second bridging arc will come in time. I wrote out the battle scene between Gilda and Vlelveran, but considered it drawn out and put it aside for now. I may release it as an addendum chapter.

An Intermezzo: A Velvet Manifesto

With the return of the sun and daylight, construction on the six towers on the bastions of the Castle Magoria had resumed full tilt. Even more than under Foaly Flux’s leadership, the project was a hive of activity. Twilight Velvet had pulled generously from the imperial coffers to bring on every craftspony and worker in the city to work.

Sel was waiting in the garden at the base of the central keep, watching the carpenters and masons go about their work. In and amongst the craftsponies were a few academics from the Canterlot University, surveying the work and drawing up plans from some mysterious power system Duke Flux had commissioned.
Laurel Black, imperial architect, broke away from the congregation and trotted over to him.

“Hello Sel Lech. It’s been a while.” Laurel Black said in her meek voice.

“Good morning, Lady Black.” Sel bowed, surprised she remembered his name. He always thought of himself as being in the background, forgettable. “I thought about you during the Eternal Night, and how you were taking the news of Duke Flux’s death.”

“Not well. I’ve had a little time, but I’m going to need a while longer.” Laurel casted her sad eyes up to the keep. “At least Lady Velvet is honoring his memory by finishing his castle.”

“He and Velvet cared for each other like family.” Sel said wryly. Poor Foaly Flux, covering his bitter depression with extravagance and fancy. He’d been happy to let Velvet kill him. “She’s sentimental.”

“She’s something, taking charge of a lot of things around Canterlot.” Laurel said. “How is she treating you?”

“I’m up to see her right now.” Sel sighed. “Honestly, I really screwed up. I expected her to boot me out of her coterie, or even out of Canterlot.”

“Oh no, she wouldn’t do that.” Laurel lamented. “Sel Lech, you should stand up. Tell her I’ll stand with you.”

“Thank you but you don’t know what you’re getting into.” Sel looked around for any sign of nearby guards, but they all seem preoccupied with the construction workers. “Laurel, I signed up for a very dangerous game, a VERY dangerous game. I don’t want you to get sucked in too. I don’t mean this as insult, but you’re too nice. I was too before all this, but I’ve gotten better, or perhaps worse depending on your perspective. Laurel, stay away from Lady Velvet and politics.”

“I see you really have changed, Sel.” Laurel looked very sad. “Lady Velvet is a client and my friend’s mother, that’s all. She’ll stay that way, I promise.”

“Be careful. This city is starting to wrap up and smother innocent ponies.”

“Sel Lech, if you’d ever like to talk, come by my office at the university.” Laurel turned away from him. “I will see you around, captain.” She trotted back to the construction site.

Feeling even more melancholy than before, Sel entered the keep. Without Foaly Flux’s eclectic and colorful decorations the old tower was unfriendly and cold. Such was probably Velvet’s intention, to put ponies off before they met with her.

Twilight Velvet was herself was working out of the castle’s modest library, reviewing expense reports. Night Light was lounging in the corner, double checking her tallies. He’d started taking the Blackhorn Sword with him everywhere, sheathed against his barrel with a harness. Every moment he wasn’t helping his wife, he was practicing with it.
Sel waited in the doorway, unsure if he should interrupt. After a few minutes Velvet looked up from her work. “Come in Captain. I summoned you once, I shouldn’t have to do it again.”

Sel quickly stepped forward. Velvet had visited him in the hospital but hadn’t said anything. It was long past due that she hand down his well deserved punishment for the lies.

“Sel, do you have a good memory?” Velvet asked.

“Ma’am?”

“I feel like my memory has been fading lately, becoming less of the sharp and rational flipbook that it used to be. Whenever I try to remember things now I feel more emotion, more heat and fire.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Sel, between you and me, I think the dragonfire spell is subtly changing my magic. Something odd and new is growing out of the hole left in my mind since Astral’s birth. Fascinating, isn’t it?”

That kind of talk terrified Sel more than threats or abuse. “My lady, please!”

“It is only a small change so far so no need to worry. Longer term plans will need to be adjusted.” Velvet pushed her paperwork off the table and plopped a calendar down on the table. She opened it up to the middle. “Let’s see… Hmm, all of this will have to be reworked. That means some doubling up, some slashing. Night Light dear, have you heard back from Aurthora about transferring prisoners from the constabularies to the royal dungeon for processing?”

“Not yet. She’s having doubts about the plan after the encounter with the beast.” Light Light said.

“As she should. Send her a reminder, just to let her know we haven't forgotten.” Velvet laughed. She turned back to Sel. “But what about you? Can you remember your early childhood, the color and faces of all the ponies in the background of your life? It would be understandable if you didn’t notice, for example, a mare and her young children in the same park as you and Sunset Shimmer.”

Velvet had known about Sunset Shimmer all along. Not surprising. Sel sighed. “She was my only friend, before she left for the unicorn school. I never saw her much after that. When Princess Celestia selected her to be l’Élève Premier, I thought about visiting her in her new castle but I never got the nerve. I guess it’s better I didn’t since she was branded a traitor so soon after. Sunfall Scandal, everypony called it. I missed her, so much.” Sel stared at the ground, trying to hold back tears. He felt so worthless. “I doubt she ever thought about me. As one of the most powerful mares in the empire, she must have had tons of colts to choose from.”

“Sunset Shimmer was a piece I never quite got my hoof around. Like Twilie, she was too aloof, too detached from politics. But her betrayal was obvious!” Velvet grinned. “You could see the resentment on her face, every time she saw Celestia and Twilie together. She’d been replaced and she knew it. But what could a common pony do against the power of the princess? More than you would think, it seems. She sure did a number on the skydocks.”

“My lady if I had know what she was planning-”

“Hush.” Velvet barked. “No need to feel that way. Come closer.” Sel complied, stepping into her reach. Velvet did the last thing he expected: She smiled. “Sel Lech, I thought you did great.”

Sel was dumbstruck. Deep in his heart, the clouds of depression and despair lifted slightly. “My lady…”

“Captain, you tried to do what you thought was right, and you tried the best you could.” Velvet patted him on the shoulder, but just to remind him who he was dealing with she flashed a sinister smile. “You are getting to be a very capable pawn.”

Sel fell to his knees, tears of joy welling in his eye. She forgave him, and more. “Thank you so much, my lady!”

“I applaud your diligence.” Velvet cood, lifting his head so they were looking eye to eye. “Go to the Mane Gate and await further instructions. If we are to fulfill our goals with the time given to us, we must all act as precise machinery, efficient and unflattering.”

Sel stood up. Pride swelled in his chest. “I will serve you to my dieing breath, my lady.”

“It is night no longer. We can not die, Captain, only change.” Velvet leaned back in her seat. “Now go.”

Sel nodded stiffly and exited in what he hoped was a professional mix of haste and dignity.

Night Light watched him go. "I just got the joke."

"What joke is that?" Velvet asked.

"A few days ago you told me Sel would raise the Sun."

"Oh, that joke. Ha ha, I though it was clever at the time." Velvet grinned lopsidedly. "I knew Sunset Shimmer was out there but I didn't know where. I thought Sel would be bait enough to draw her out."

"Somehow, you have made your first true believer.”

“You have been paying attention, so you would already know my great revelation, Night Light. It is far nobler to build somepony up than tear them down. One creates fear and possibly resentment, the other dependency, admiration, and dedication.” Velvet eyed over her calendar, reading the hasty scribbles or grand flourishes past her had made. “Sel Lech, Little Sel, disenfranchised self-doubting Sel, was the perfect target for empty words and actions. To make this work on a much grander scale we will need a much grander promise.”

“We need a fractured empire.” Night Light said.

“I know, I know.” Velvet pursed her lips. “I have been distracting myself with inconsequential busywork, from the questions that need answering! Gods, Night Light, did I ruin it all?”

“No, of course not. We can and will succeed.” Night Light reassured her. “Sel Lech believes in you, and so do I. What we need to do is reexamine our strategy, instead of pretending nothing is wrong.”

“Pretending? Is that what I have been doing?” Velvet sniffled. “Yes… I suppose so. A cocky smile has narry left my face since the onset of the Eternal Night.”

“Shall I tell you what I think?”

“Please do.” Velvet smiled. “I’m so happy you are taking interest in my work.”

“Massacring the Estates has set back the whole timetable worse than anything else. With them alive we would have tightened our control over the city much faster and had the gravitas to declare the unicorn supremacy. That would have triggered the civil war by now, no doubt about it.” Night Light got up and trotted to her side. “The empire would have been completely delegitimized.”

“The lines would be drawn, tribe against tribe. Ponies would have their beacons and their higher calling.” Velvet nodded. “But that plan died too soon! Now the empire exists in a damn quantum-like state, obscure in its health. Will it fail, will it reform? If we declare unicorn supremacy now, ponies would laugh it off and unify against us. If we are to sow the seeds of hatred and split this continent apart, we need legitimacy!”

“So you turned to Astral?” Night Light cocked a brow. “We could play her up within Canterlot, but to the others she would be more ravings of mad mares. We need a Celestia, something that evokes a sense of continuity with the past.”

“Hmm, what if… no… well how about… Huh. Not necessarily.” Velvet mused. “It is about perception and acceptance is it not? We could force the creation of a new paradigm, as long as everypony accepts it.”

“How? A new Estates?”

“Possibly, but not on my watch. At this point the nobles must never think I will tolerate anything less than absolute royal control. It is from that control that they will be given rights, not the other way around.”

“That’s your paradigm.” Night Light tapped his chin. “Are you suggesting removing yourself from the Canterlot paradigm?”

Velvet grinned. “Night Light, I have been so arrogant, thinking I could steer this world back into the barbarous past by tearing it down. No, I need to lift them up!”

“Velvet…”

“Ponies have grown used to institutions and rules, but do you think they will have forgotten the laws of nature? Ponies will seek glory, distinguishment, actualization, and dirty themselves in the great sins of frothing war and villainous butchery. All we need is a tone setter.”

Night Light shifted uncomfortably. “Will we be said tone setter?”

“In a way.” Velvet said. “The lords will come for Canterlot, Night Light, and when they do they will think themselves united. They may win, but at a terrible cost. Somepony to rise to great heights through an abhorrently despicable act: Controversial, revolting, but unmistakably primal in its victory.”

“I see what you are saying.” Night Light said. “A new power will arise, legitimized by their triumph, but too sullied to maintain the unity of the lords. They will revolt against him, against Celestia’s system and empire.”

“But he can’t be so bad that he is the new pariah. It will be a delicate balancing act.”

“Where will we be during all of this?”

“Biding our time, changing for the new and unpredictable circumstances that the fractured world will create. I’m going to love it.” Velvet licked her lips. “The untamed war is the most basic meritocracy, and there we will flourish as we so deserve.”

“As we do so rightfully deserve.” Night Light agreed. “Shall we commit?”

“We shall.” Velvet laughed. “Bring out the atlas! Let us plan the burning of the world!”

Author's Note

Ah, I really should be going back over Act 2, but I can't help myself. I have a craving for politics and geo-political conflict that our current Pax Coronam just doesn't provide. Sometimes I wish for the days of old just so I could see nobles and politicians arguing with each other again, instead of hugging and pretending the Crown isn't watching. Is it morbid to wish that this tranquil world would provide some entertainment with a war or two? Very much yes, I should think.
Equestria was in a very similar state just before the civil war, with peace having been the only thing the ponies had known for a hundred generations. War is still in living memory for us, but we know that nothing of that caliber could ever happen again so long as the status quo holds. That much is obvious. But can anyone seriously think of any possible threat that could ever unseat the Crown as hegemonic peacekeepers over even a single inch of this planet? Not I. For better or worse, they are here to stay.
Famous last words.

An Intermezzo: Never far out of Mind

There were answers out there somewhere, calling to her. Twilight knew it, as much as she tried to ignore them so she could get some much needed sleep. Somewhere in the library downstairs, or maybe in Canterlot, or anywhere within Equestria, was an explanation for what was happening in the world and how she could stop it.
Why was she laying in bed when she could be searching for the truth? Because she needed sleep! She pleaded with herself, rolling this way and that to get comfortable. Twilight counted sheep, she pretended to snore, she held her breath. Nothing could stop the empty feeling inside her.

In fact the yearning in her chest grew. Everything felt confining. She felt like only a wide open sky would be enough space. But at the same time she felt spaced-out, like a whistling wind was passing between her hears, and she had to curl up to make it stop. Nothing she did made the little torments stop.

She heard a wooden creak from outside.
Twilight sat up, letting the covers slide off. She flicked her eyes towards the window above the bed.

Nightmare Moon was on her balcony, crouched own so she could peer into the bedroom. Her swirling purple eyes glowed, and her mane shimmered with the same brilliance as the moon and stars outlining her black body.

Twilight’s heart quickened. “Hi.” She croaked.

Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed faintly, and the latch on the window slid back. With a creek the window swung open. A feint night breeze blew into the room, ruffling Twilight’s fur and upsetting her papers on the nearby desk.

“I got your letter.” Twilight tried to smile but her lips were warbling too hard. “I… I want to thank you for keeping Spike safe. And… His mind too. If he had gotten hurt I don’t know what I would have done.”

Nightmare Moon pushed the window open completely and slunk through like a cat. Twilight scrambled to the headboard of her bed to avoid being stepped on.

Twilight sat silently. Was this going to be a regular occurrence? “But, um, why are you here?”
Nightmare Moon was standing on her bed, acting a mime. Twilight had the feeling that if she knew everything that had happened during the Eternal Night, she would see that this was actually on the downslope of the absurdness curve. Her empty feeling grew: There was so much she didn’t know.

“I came to see if you were stable.” Nightmare Moon spoke softly. She looked around. “Where is Spike?”

Twilight felt a spike of protectiveness, but Nightmare Moon probably wasn’t there to take Spike away again. “Why do you care about us?”

“You’d do well to address me more formally, circumstances notwithstanding, Lady Sparkle.” Moon’s eye narrowed. “So too would do well to answer what I asked. My babbling nonsense and evasion of questions does not give you license to imitate.”

Twilight was confused. Was that a tongue in cheek joke? Who would have guessed. “He’s downstairs on the couch. He insisted, saying something about standing guard. I think the paranoia going around town is getting to him.” Her reservation turned to concern. “Ponies are terrified. Rumors about Celestia’s death are everywhere. Someponies think there’s going to be a civil war.”

“Eh...” Moon rumbled, looked out the window to the full moon. “Probably. Ponies without guidance cannot help but squabbling. They are vermin, always clawing at each other for scraps.” She refocused her attention to Twilight. “How have you felt lately? I heard you passed out the other day?”

Twilight sucked in a breath. Was she being constantly watched? Did Moon have agents in Ponyville? If so, why were they being used to observe her? “I keep hearing these…” She wasn’t sure how much she could confess about her mental state. It felt pervertedly strange to be speaking like she was to Nightmare Moon. This was how she talked with her friends, and Princess Celestia. “I feel these concepts bleating in my head.” It was especially inappropriate since it felt like Celestia was the one shouting into her ear. “Something bad happened me. My memories don’t make sense.”

“Something bad happened? Ha, I don’t recall you having a degree in understatement.” Nightmare Moon giggled darkly. “Oh, you have so badly abused it defies belief. I have to make sure you don’t sour. Break? Snap? Melt? Burst into flame?” She tisked, testing for the right word. “In any case, if I had a precedent I could refer to we could tell if you were going to unravel. Unravel!” She shouted. “Yes, unravel was the word I was looking for.”

Twilight was frozen by that terrible diagnosis. “I’m going to unravel?” She whispered, the tightness in her chest spreading to her throat.
She felt dizzy, so dizzy. Nothing felt right.

“It may be inevitable, or you may last a thousand years. I don’t know.” Moon shrugged. “What can a researcher do for an unprecedented case except watch and take notes? But then again you are the researcher, not I.”

Twilight scooted to the edge of the bed and slid to her hooves. She had it in her head to walk to her dresser and straighten her hair, or some other small task to calm her racing mind. But her knees buckled and she fell forward on her face. She tried getting up but her muscles would not listen. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears, and bile burning in her throat. It felt like she was ‘unraveling’ already.

“What a mess. They should have kept you in the hospital.” Nightmare Moon shook her head in sympathy for her pitiful little daughter. “Please roll over Lady Sparkle. On your back, so I have access to your face.”

Twilight remained inert. She could not summon the motivation to do anything. Celestia was dead. She herself was going to die soon. Equestria was on the precipice of disaster. She couldn’t even sleep through it with consuming thoughts beating in her head and dread nightmares tapping at her window.

Moon grimaced, listening to Twilight mumble meaningless into into the floor. What a mockery of the proud and eminently capable pony Twilight Sparkle this was. New Twilight was just abysmal. Celestia’s tampering had resulted in a deeply flawed dreamer, and Moon had to admit the changes she had made had only complicated the matter. Twilight’s soul was a tangled mess of contrived, rewritten, and erased memory.

“Lady Sparkle, I asked you to roll over.” Moon said, less asking now and more demanding. She stepped off the bed and pushed Twilight’s rump out of the air, then tilted her face upward with magic.

Twilight was gurgling her spittle, eyes half lidded, pupils completely dilated. Little spasms jerked her limbs. Moon sighed. Little Twilight was suffering from a sort of dream withdrawal. Her body and soul could not produce the dreams she needed to survive. Had she even slept since leaving the hospital? Pitiful, just pitiful.

“Thank you, Celestia, for leaving me yet another burden in the wake of your passing.” Nightmare Moon grumbled, levitating Twilight back onto the bed. “The original Nightmare Moon didn’t have to deal with this. I was a powerful rival, a dangerous adversary, calling her down to earth for a challenge every night. This Twilight will be lucky not to end up braindead.”

It was a cruel thing to say but not inaccurate. Without dreams, Twilight Sparkle’s brain would die.
Nightmare would have to do what she had done while Twilight was still comatose in the hospital, and feed her dreams.

“Lucky I’m around. Nopony else in the world could do this.” Moon smirked weakly, mentally preparing herself. “A shame that Pinkamina Pie isn’t here again. I love showing off.”

How many dreamer’s dreams did Ancepanox have within herself now? There was her own the library cathedral, the Moon, Luna’s mind, Celestia’s mind, sordid fragments of the nightmare not yet assimilated, and some bits and pieces of the dozens of ponies she’d consumed in Glori Sabonord’s camp. She felt a dark stirring at the memory of that last one. Good times.

All her souls churned inside her head, spawning millions of hours of dreams yearning to be slept through, experienced, enjoyed or suffered. A horrible synthesis resulted, and that synthesis was everything that was Ancepanox. It didn’t make sense, and it wasn’t the dreams of a healthy mind, but it they were the dreams Ancepanox dreamed now.

She sat on the bed beside Twilight, and after a deep breath allowed herself to slump a bit. “You poor poor child.” She sighed. “I can’t dream my dreams for the both of us forever? Why can’t your dream work how it needs to? Isn’t it what got us into this mess? I had a tower in my head that yearned to escape, and now that you’re out you can’t reach up to the sky like you yearned to do.”

Twilight’s spasms stopped and her breathing became steady, but her eyes remained unseeing, her ears unhearing.

Moon hovered over the much smaller mare, face to iron-marred face. She let her dreams expand to fill her consciousness, and trembling from the sudden onslaught of emotion, she embraced Twilight in a wide kiss. Both ponies stiffened as Moon felt a trickle of dreams diffuse out of her mind to her dream-starved twin.
The trickle exploded into a flood. Moon could feel viscous dreams coursing out of her mouth into Twilight’s. Light and sound filled the room: Screams and shrieks of the damned bounced off the wall, accompanies the the wails of millions of burning violins, and a sound so terrible it defied description, all rising and falling to differing psychotic tempos. Strange and unnatural light came from every corner of the room, battling each other to bathe the ponies in a hue, before with wavering brilliance the light changed again.
Moon closed her eyes. She saw enough dreams while asleep. She did not want to see them manifesting in the waking world.

The sensory torment faded as quickly as it appeared, withdrawing back into the dreamscape. Moon felt the dreams settle down, both within herself and Twilight, and took it as a sign they had reached an equilibrium.
“How ironic would it be if I was suffering the opposite problem as you and simply not realized it.” Moon was tired after the dream transfer, and she lay in the bed beside Twilight, vowing she would only rest for a second. “Too many dreams for me, too few for you… Once again we’re co-dependant and parasitic.” She let out a contented breath. “Which one of us was the original consciousness, and which the parasite? I always forget.”

The nightmare alicorn fell asleep.

An hour later, Twilight came to her senses.
She kept her eyes closed, trying to figure out what had happened. She was in a panic and then… Then what had happened? She’d passed out again. Great. She felt the dried spittle around her mouth, and when she swallowed her throat was incredibly sore.

But for the first time in days her head felt clear. The indescribable yearning that had been strangling her had been alleviated. She could breath, move, and think freely.

“What a relief.” Twilight giggle-cried. “I can get some real rest now.”
She tried tugging on her bedcovers but they refused to come untucked. Reluctantly Twilight opened her eyes and realized she was the little spoon to the slumbering Nightmare Moon.

“Sleeping above the covers? Barbaric moon dweller.” Twilight scrunched her nose. “If you were going to commit such heresy at least have the decency to do it in your own home.”
She paused. That was kind of funny. Why was her mind making jokes at such a stressful time?

“Unraveling is a euphemism from going insane. Yup. I’m going insane.”
Twilight gingerly leapt over Moon, muting the impact of her hooves against the wood floor with magic. She quickly cantered out the bedroom, throwing a quickly look at the monster on her bed. “But it really felt like I was coming apart at the seams. Did she do something to me?”

She closed the door behind her and locked it telekinetically. It wasn’t too sturdy but it would deter Spike from peeking in and seeing the unwelcome guest.

Twilight wandered down to the kitchen and started heating the kettle to make tea. She didn’t feel too tired, but she was very thirsty and hoped a hot drink would soothe her throat.

“What am I going to do for the rest of the night? I’m not going to get my bed back.” Twilight watched the water reach the exact point it was boiling then dialed back her spell. She put the hot water and tea leaves in a teapot. “I mean, I never given up my bed to a princess before but it’s not as endearing as I imagined. Probably because of which princess I wanted and which I’ve ended up with.” She scruntched her nose. “Is Nightmare Moon a princess? She was a ruler of the Principality of Everfree for a while. Did she ever renounce that title?”
She briefly considered waking Moon up to ask, but decided against it. Even if she offered tea, Nightmare Moon was probably going to be grumpy. Or not. It was nighttime after all. Twilight assumed Moon’s circadian rhythm made nighttime her most active part of the day.

Alone with her thoughts, Twilight gave serious consideration about what she was going to do with her life. The fear and uncertainty she felt must have been felt all across the empire of Equestria as the commoners contemplated with dread what the nobles were going to do without Celestia reigning them in. War, serfdom, brutal taxes, and tribal segregation didn’t seem out of the picture.

Twilight wondered about herself. Without Celestia she’d lost about 80% of her life, realistically. She had been Celestia’s protege, her Élève Premier, friend, and client. Celestia had given her the Chateau la Garde du Celestia, her assignment in Ponyville, and so many more little things that defied quantitating. What was Twilight without Celestia? A minor noble daughter with only a townhouse to her family’s name. Maybe she could find a place in a new regime, but Twilight felt no desire to serve anyone who was not Celestia.

And then there were the market rumors about what was happening in Canterlot: A revolutionary conspiracy had massacred the Estates, her great-uncle Foaly Flux included, and now a mysterious new empress ruled through by proxy. Twilight had even overheard a whispers about ‘Velvet’. Could her own mother really be involved? Yes she feared terribly for the fate of her family, but Twilight imagined them sheltering in the family townhouse or Chateau la Garde, not getting mixed up in things. She feared most for Shining Armor. He’d been utterly loyal to Celestia and a new regime may not like that, but she took solace that somepony trying to get rid of all the soldiers who’d loved Celestia was as impossible as it was foalish.

Satisfied that the tea had steeped, Twilight poured herself a cup. She smelled it. “Hmm…” She blew on it and took a tiny sip. “More bitter than I like. Spike must have bought the wrong kind.”

Cup in her telekinetic grasp, she trotted to the front door. She had to be careful not to trip over the piles of books cluttering the floor. Making too much noise would wake Spike up.
She didn’t know where she wanted to go, but she just had to get out, go for a walk, and clear her head. She opened the front door just enough to slip out and shut it behind her.

The full moon was halfway to the horizon, keeping most of the village streets in dark shadow. Twilight trotted around the Golden Oak towards the riverside, but noticed that one of the houses still had a light inside: Rarity’s tailory/home.

She paused. Had Rarity and Applejack returned?

She decided to find out. Only the upstairs room had light coming out and she couldn’t see anything at her angle, so Twilight knocked on the door.

The window where she saw the light opened and Rarity poked her head out. “L- Lady Sparkle?”

“Hi Mis Rarity.” Twilight gave a little wave. “It’s, um, good to see you. I’m happy to see you safe.”

Rarity stared at her, taking a while to formulate a reply. “It’s… good to see you too. Let me get the door.” She drew back and shut the window behind her.

Twilight waited patiently for about a minute before the door unlocked and opened.
Up close she could see that Rarity was in a poor state. Her mane lacked its glossiness and its mild curliness, and it lay flat against the back of her neck. Her eyes were red and her lips were very dry. It looked like she’d been through an ordeal.

“Oh dear.” Twilight ghasped. “Rarity, are you okay?”

“Hmm, I haven’t slept well lately, but I assure you I am perfectly fine.” Rarity said. She took a step back and let Twilight pass inside. “Can I offer you some- Oh, I see you already have some tea.”

“Yeah.” Twilight said, taking a sip. “I’m not sure I really like it that much. It’s a bit bitter. Spike or I must have bought the wrong kind.”

“Maybe your tastes changed.” Rarity offered. She led them to her couch and set her firefly lamp on the adjacent table. “Speaking of Spike, is he well? How is he taking the news.”

“I guess it depends on which news you mean.” Twilight snorted mirthlessly. “I mean, he’s been out of it. He apparently slept through the entire Eternal Night. It’s been a bit weird for me too.” She was reminded about Moon’s joke about having a degree in understatement. “I have a hard time remembering what I did. There are things I can’t be sure are real panging in my head. I…” How much could she tell other ponies? If word got out about Nightmare Moon there was no telling what could happen; But it would definitely cause more harm than good. “I heard Princess Celestia is dead.”

Rarity bit her lip nervously. “Indeed… That is looking more and more true every day. Fire and shafts of light reigned down from the heavens, then the Eternal Night fell. No sign since. I don’t know how much that will effect Ponyville, as we a are technically a free city, but-”

“You’re kidding, right? The effects are going to be, well, catastrophic!” Twilight lept up, incised. “Do you have any idea how well Princess Celestia kept a lid on the problems in this empire? Without her there’d just be hundreds of small kingdoms perpetually warring each other, and now that she’s gone it’s going to end up like that sooner or later. Nopony had her gravitas, her wisdom, and her strength. I mean, just the idea of Celestia kept everypony in line. Can you think of anyone else who can do that? Do you have a princess up your sleeve that you would like to share with everypony?”

“I… I...” Rarity stuttered for a bit before falling silent. After a moment of thought she started over. “I’m sorry Lady Twilight. I know you were the Princess’s student. Even if you weren’t on the best terms I understand she meant a lot to you.”

“What do you mean, ‘weren’t on the best terms’? What did I do to give that impression.” Twilight was getting worked up, but she took an angry sip of her tea and let herself calm down. She settled back onto the couch. “Sure, we disagreed from time to time. Sure, I took a break from her tutelage for a while, but that was only so I could study at the university. I did that at her insistence anyway. So yes, she meant a lot to me. Pah, now you’re the one with a degree in understatement.”

Rarity blinked. “I’m sorry I don’t quite follow.”

“Never mind.” Twilight sighed. Why was she getting so angry, so sassy? “I’m sorry for barking at you like that, Mis Rarity. You can tell I have been stressed, but that’s no excuse I know. You’ve must have been through a lot lately too.”

“You heard that Applejack and I had gone missing?” Rarity said. “It was an unfortunate thing, as our sisters went missing and we got lost in the Everfree forest searching for them. Thankfully we all got back safe and sound. If you would though please, be gentle around the fillies. They had a traumatizing time in the forest. In fact it might be better if you avoided them.”

As rarity implying she couldn't be delicate? Twilight narrowed her eyes, but decided to let that slip. “Yes, you just returned and you need time to rest. I passed by your house on the way home from the hospital and it didn’t look like anypony was home. I tried asking Fluttershy but she was acting strange.”

“The poor darling has had a lot on her plate since the Eternal Night ended.” Rarity sighed. “If we can, we should all convene and make sure we are all on the same page.”

Twilight pursed her lips. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

Rarity hesitated. “I simply meant that the little group you put together, with Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and myself, should convene again to… You know, catch up and things of that nature.”
Rarity frowned, her expression worried. “You understand what I’m asking, right? We need to make sure we are all okay.”

Twilight felt a pang of annoyance. What was Rarity trying to pull. “You mean if I’m okay. You want safety in numbers incase I’m unhinged, incase I unravel!”

“Lady Sparkle, I meant nothing of the sort. You are putting words in my mouth.” Rarity protested.

Twilight jumped off the couch and trotted to the door. “If you’re not comfortable being around me alone then I shall take my leave and let you get the sleep you obviously desperately need.” She said haughtily. “Come by tomorrow morning. With friends, should it please you.” She paused at the front door, taking a deep breath. Something had set her off again. Why? She was having a hard time examining her own actions. Oh well. She had already made a scene and she couldn’t go back with an apology without looking like more of a jackass. “Mis Rarity, I know you must be tired and not thinking straight. Just try to phrase things more delicately in the future.”

Rarity stayed on the couch, looking confused and troubled. “Lady Sparkle I don’t usually apologize unnecessarily, but I hope you will forgive my verbal clumsiness. At times I forget who I am speaking to.” She leaned forward, opening the door with her magic. “Have a nice night, your grace.”

Twilight took a sip of her tea. “You too, Mis Rarity. Pleasant dreams.” The door almost hit her on the way out. “Yeesh. I fussed that a bit.”

She continued towards the river, thinking about what had just happened. She had been awfully aggressive and irritable lately. She was never so curt with friendly ponies. It was horrible to contemplate, but had to consider the possibility that Nightmare Moon was influencing her mind somehow.

“How am I going to stop her if she is? She could erase me with a flick of her horn! I’m still alive because she wants me to be, because...” She trailed off.
Why was she still alive? Nightmare Moon’s motivation for keeping her nemesis’s protege around didn’t make any sense. If the Dark princess was going to make a play at power, it would make the most sense to eliminate any figures who could provide a rallying point for a resistance effort. The sooner the better, before Twilight got any recognition so killing her wouldn’t make her a martyr.
“Am I being toyed with?” Twilight gulped. “Am I being kept around to amuse her?”

Twilight Sparkle had a limited number of choices.

One: Run away, maybe as soon as that very night when she knew Nightmare was asleep and not watching her. If she got away without leaving a trace maybe Moon wouldn’t be able to track her. Twilight could find someplace to live quietly and in anonymity. Yes she would not be able to live as a noble and scholar anymore, but it was a small price to pay for not being kept under the hoof of a malicious Nightmare.

Two: Pretend nothing was wrong. She could go about her life with the knowledge of Nightmare Moon pushed to the edge of her mind. That would become more difficult if Nightmare revealed herself, but if Twilight made an effort to out of her way perhaps the princess would eventually forget about her.

Three: Try and work with Moon. Like it or not, her sun princess had been replaced. Whatever Twilight could offer to the new Equestria regime, she could offer to Nightmare. Especially if Nightmare was the new Equestrian regime. Yes, she would be betraying Princess Celestia's memory, but survival called for callousness sometimes. Nightmare Moon might even reinstate her to her administrative position of Élève Premier, or make her the royal protegee. If she was loyal and did a good job, an Empress Moon might make her more rich and powerful than she could dream of.

Four: Try to kill Moon. If she was going to fight the nightmare there would be no half measures. Moon was in her bed, asleep and vulnerable. Twilight could go in with a kitchen knife and-

Twilight gagged. She couldn’t bring herself to image killing anypony, not even the evil nightmare who had killed Princess Celestia.

“Woe is me. None of those choices are good at all.” Twilight moaned. Choices one and four just wouldn’t work out. “What would Celestia want me to do?”

As she passed the bridge, she heard a distant howl. She looked east across the river, to the vast unconquered Everfree Forest. Celestia lay somewhere within. What had Moon done to the Princess’s body? Had she been given a proper burial?

“Celestia would want me to live and thrive. The question is whether or not she would accept me working for an evil pony to do so.” Twilight sighed again. There were no easy answers, and so many questions.

She carefully descended the slope of the riverbank to the edge of the water. She was on the spot where she’d had the heart-to-heart with Fluttershy, on her third day in Ponyville. It felt like forever ago. At the time had just been a student trying to do her job and put together a fair, and Ponyville had seemed like an unassuming village. That had all turned out to be a deceiving veneer. Village and student were fated for terrible things.

“I should put on that fair anyway. With all this uncertainty, a day of unabashed enjoyment would do us all good.” She sat on the riverbank, looking at the moon’s reflection on the river surface. “Yes… A belated Summer Sun Celebration, here in the Free City of Ponyville where the Empress decreed it be. That is my responsibility, my charge, my raison d’etre!”

Twilight lay her head down. She knew it realistically did no good, but as long as she had that task to focus on she might be able to keep her sanity. There were no doubts or distractions when it came to her assignments from Princess Celestia of Equestria.

“And right here…” She mumbled. She suddenly felt very tired again. She finished off her tea but darkness was creeping into her vision anyway. “This’ll be where the altar to Celestia will go, facing the…” She was facing east. She frowned, letting out a disappointed neigh. “Facing the setting sun…”

She drifted off to sleep. Her teacup, liberated from her magical hold, fell into the grass and rolled into the water with a plop. It sunk to the gravelly riverbed, where it startled a sleeping fish.

Chapter 51: Impossible Towers

Applejack’s farm was, when not in the middle of the harvest season or a renovation, a very peacefull place. Melodious birdsong could be heard in every part of the property and the wind chimes on the front porch of the farmhouse joined them with its sparkling resonance.

Applejack sighed and took a sip of an apple cider she had brought up from her cellar. She glanced to where fillies’ card game was left on the floor. Of the fillies there was no sign.

“Somethin ain’t right.” She said to herself. She took another sip of the drink. Her face was already starting to feel flushed.
Was it just dealing with Rarity and Nightmare Moon’s shenanigans that was weighing on her? It was certainly very stressful whenever they were around. She’d thought once she returned to the farm they would starting thinking less and less about her, and she could return to productive ignominy. That was all she’d ever really wanted. Not Manehattan, not Everfree Castle, just peace and hard work.

“Why do I feel there’s somepony watching me?”
She looked over the small clearing. Some leaves were drifting to the ground, having been upset by a bird or squirrel in the trees. She heard a squawking sound, then silence. “Huh. Must be my imagination.”

She went inside with her cup of cider, trotting back to the kitchen. The barrel of cider she brought up needed to be taken back to the cellar. Sighing again, Applejack put down her cup, balanced the barrel on her back, and picked up the cup again. Wobbling to keep the barrel balanced while on three hooves, she moved across the room and carefully down the dark stairs to the cellar.

The firefly lamp she had brought down while fetching the barrel was still on its hook at the center of the earthy room. Applejack gracefully rolled the barrel off her back onto a pile of similar barrels.

She stood still, listening to the low buzz of the fireflies. She heard another sound, like a long, sucking ghasp, very quiet, but originating from everywhere around her.
“Huh…” Applejack gripped her cider tighter. “I’m feelin mighty cold right now, and cider usually warms me right up.

She stood still, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did, except that the celar kept getting colder on Applejack’s skin.

She took the firefly lantern off its hook and sat on the dirty floor with it. She rose her cup and, brushing her mane back, peered into it with an eye wide open. In the low light, she could just barely see the reflection of her eye: A small dark shape near her pupil darted under her eyelid. It was like an eye inside her eye, twitching and wobbling as it darted around. Something was inside her looking out.

“Nuts.” Applejack swore, sitting up. She tapped her foot, nothing but various swears passing her murmuring lips. “I got no idea how long before I snap. I maybe won’t make it to Fluttershy’s. Maybe even if I do, Ancepanox’ll already have left.”

She trotted up the stairs of the cellar to the door to the rest of the house. It was a heavy oak door, which could be locked from either side with its old iron key. “Hmm…” Applejack took the key from the outside of the door, locked it securely, and sli the key under the tiny gap at the bottom. She was now locked in the cellar. “I’ve been through worse. I can wait here with the cider ‘till somepony comes with a cure.”

She sat on the stairs and waited, experiencing in silence the geologically slow spread of alien coldness across the back of her mind. Her legs began twitching periodically.

“I can’t even get peace in my own home.” She said quietly to herself. “None of this woulda happened if I’d just stuck to my work. I didn’t need to get involved with Rarity and Twilight. But I did and that sin’ll follow me around for a good while. Repreve, as Ancepanox calls it, is what I’m prayin for.”

About an hour later she heard ponies on the other side of the door.
“Applejack! Applejack?” Was Rarity’s concerned call, while “Yo! Are you here?” was Rainbow Dash’s.

“She’s not here. Perhaps it really was her we heard out there.” Rarity pondered.

“In the trees? Nah. I don’t think she’d be up there without you treeing her.”

Applejack got up and knocked on the door. “Over here.”

“Did you hear that?” She heard the two ponies approach by the creaking floorboard. “Oh my. She appears to have locked herself inside.” She heard Rarity say. “She must have felt something off and deduced the diagnosis. She’s more clever than I give her credit for.”

“I can hear y’all.” Applejack said.

“Oh. Oh...” She could picture Rarity blushing in embarrassment. “Ahem, well Applejack, it has been a span and I can tell we both have calmed down a bit from the level of all the shouting earlier..”

“You were the only one shouting.”

Rarity audibly shrugged. “I was very upset.”

“So then I’m guessing you ain’t here to apologize.” Applejack sighed. “Rarity, I think’d just be easier if we avoided each other so we don’t gotta go through this every time. We just don’t get along.”

“Indeed we do seems to bring out the worst in each other, but I digress.” Rarity cleared her throat. “Applejack I was correct to assume you locked yourself away because you felt the nighmare’s grip in your mind, yes?”

Applejack worked her jaw, feeling the cold pain inside her. “Yup. Still there. Sucks, but I knew deep down that Moon’d never cure us propper. We have to live forever with the punishment for losin control.”

“As much as I would like to blame her, this is not Lady Moon’s fault.” Rarity said, her tone becoming hesitant, regretful. “Applejack, do you remember the contagious phase of Twilight Sparkle’s nightmare, before the eternal night? She lost almost all control overherself. She hunted us, not only to take our dreams but to ensnared us in the nightmare’s parasitic dream. You remember the Tower?”

“Course I remember.”

“The nightmare inside me has become the same, um, somewhat: It is less conscious than when it takes over by body, but it is contagious. I am what Lady Moon called a carrier.”

“Y’all... infected me? How? We didn’t even touch!” Applejack shouted in agitation.

“Our heated emotions were the way it spread. It’s a dream infection more than it is a bodily one.” Rarity explained. She was now very happy to have sat through all Ancepanox’s exhaustive theories about the nature of the nightmare. “Rainbow Dash is infected too, but she isn’t as far along as you are.”

“So… Justing bein angry around each other can do this to us.” Applejack grit her teeth. “I’ll tell ya Rarity, you keep one-uppin yourself for big mistakes. Ancepanox’s not gunn-”

“Oh hush about her.” Rarity bit. “Now, Appljack, you did the right thing putting yourself behind that heavy door. I was afraid I was going to have to convince you to lock yourself up. I am only a little disappointed I can’t put Mis Dash in there with you.”

“Go buck yourself.” Applejack hissed.

“What I need right now is resoluteness and vigor, not your smoldering resentment.”

“You think I’m resentful of you?!” Applejack nickered. “Rarity, take yer head out yer plot girl! I want ya gone! Out of my life! I just wanna buck apples, not deal with yours and Moon’s horseshit anymore! So BUCK off.”

The crass declaration led to minutes of silence from the other side of the door. After a while Applejack thought Rarity and Dash had left, until Rarity spoke up again.

“That won’t be an option. Now is obviously not the best time to discuss it, but we have to come together for Twilight Sparkle. I highly doubt we will survive a prolonged amount of time in Lady Moon’s new world otherwise.” Rarity said. “Anything to add, Mis Dash?”

“N- No, sorry.” Rainbow Dash’s voice was quiet and shaky. “I’m just freaking out right now. I can feel it in my head. Please Rarity, you have to make it stop before it takes me again!”

“I know. I’m sorry. I promise to com back for you.” Rarity sighed. “Applejack, I have to tie Mis Dash down in your bedroom so she doesn’t hurt anypony. I will also be barricading this door to make certain you don’t bust out. You understand, right?”

Applejack shivered. She felt angry and helpless. She was devolving into the nightmare’s control again, and it was all Rarity’s fault! She heard Rarity start moving tables and chairs to make the barricade.
“Why did Ancepanox leave you alive?” Applejack jeered.

“It’s difficult to say.” Rarity said between unladylike grunts of exertion. “Why are you the one locked in that basement, and not me?”

Applejack had no such quip ready, so she stood in grim silence as her prison was reinforced, until a thought hit her. “Rarity, where are the fillies?”

She heard a pause, then Rarity resumed her redecorations.

“Rarity! Where are the fillies!” Applejack shouted again. “Rarity what y’all done to Apple Bloom!”

Rarity sighed deeply.
“Applejack, they were in a state of agitation when I talked to them this morning. So I’m afraid our sisters were easily taken under the nightmare’s control.” Rarity’s voice was mechanical, suppressing the baleful emotions she must have been feeling. “Don’t worry, Applejack. I am going to do everything I can to save them. Please believe that I can save Ponyville and our sisters.”

“RARITY!” Applejack roared. She smacked the door over and over but it was too solid. She wheeled around to buck it but lost her footing on the stairs. With a pained cry she fell and rolled back down to the earthen floor of the cellar. “Land’s sake, the night’s over! Why won’t this nightmare end already.” She sniffed. She promised herself she couldn’t cry, and she didn’t.

~~~~~~

Fluttershy flew as fast as her wings would take her in the direction of Applejack’s farm. Just as she arrived over the clearing around the farmhouse Rarity emerged from inside.
“Rarity! Rarity!” She cried out, flapping down to the ground. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, thank goodness it’s you Fluttershy. I thought I heard something else.” Rarity sighed in relief, then straightened holding up her hoof cautioning. “But don’t come any closer. You must keep your distance from me. You just came from your home, correct?”

“Rarity, Cherry Berry was being controlled by a nightmare, b- but at a distance! She didn’t have a parasitic dream, and we think maybe it was your nightmare that was manipulating her.” Fluttershy explained quickly, stumbling over her words. “A- And Nightmare Moon... She just left! She left for Canterlot. She didn’t even care. Oh Rarity I’m so worried.”

Rarity absorbed the information stoically. “I see.”

“Rarity we have to do something.” Fluttershy insisted. “I- I- I- don’t know what, or how… but something! I don’t know what’s happening...”

“Yes.” Rarity squirmed, then she began to jerkily pace around. “I made a big mistake, Fluttershy. Like Twilight did, I allowed the nightmare to take advantage of my depression to spread to other ponies. I don’t believe anypony is as ravaged by pain as Applejack, Mis Dash, and I were when we were claimed, so we should not have to contend with a fully emergent nightmare, however the danger remains. It is casting its influence as far as possible to grab angry or anguished ponies. I believe the fillies and Roseluck are infected. I can’t say for anypony else.” She motioned to the farmhouse. “Applejack and Mis Dash are secured. I couldn’t do anything for them, but they won’t interfere which is fortunate.”

None of that sounded very fortunate to Fluttershy. “Moon cast a spell that looked like it cured Cherry Berry. Could you-”

“I have none of control over dream magic she does. Nor do we have any way to compel the nightmare to release anypony.”

Fluttershy looked at the ground. Actually there was a way, but it involved killing Rarity. “So…”

“So we have to trap or subdue whoever's infected.” Rarity continued. “I want to help, but since I am still infectious I don’t know how much I can do without risking everypony around me. I am trying very, very hard to remain calm right now, because the more darkly emotional we are the more easily the nightmare will spread. For your own good, Fluttershy, please suck it up.”

“R- Rarity!”

“You can’t be angry, hateful, or sad right now.” Rarity said, her resoluteness growing. “You just have to be determined to but this bully nightmare in its place.”

Fluttershy shivered, trying to reconcile her feeling. She was never very determined, never not emotional. She hid behind strong and charismatic ponies like Rarity or Ancepanox because she didn’t want to stand out or have stand on her own socially.
She was happy giving a friend (or nightmare alicorn) suggestions over tea, but going out and doing things? Fluttershy knew she could only spur herself to action when she got emotional. When she was thinking straight she kept to herself. It was foolhardy actions like going out to the Everfree Castle which had gotten her mixed up with the nightmares.
“It has to be me?”

“Nopony trusts me, and I can’t trust myself. Fluttershy, I will do as much as I can but it won’t be much.” Rarity nodded. “I believe in you.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath and let it out, but she was still shaking. She didn’t want to. She really didn’t want to. “I…” She turned away from Rarity, ready to fly away crying, but something stopped her. She saw the leaves on a dozen spots on ground in front of her suddenly get knocked a few centimeters off the ground. Then she saw a waver in the air, and her ears caught the slightest whoosh of movement.
Fluttershy snapped her eyes forward, trying to pretend that she hadn’t seen or heard anything. She was sure it was Nightmare Moon, watching them under her invisibility spell, trying to learn something. She cleared her throat, trying to act casually, but not too much. “Rarity do you really think I can help?”

Rarity nodded eagerly. “If I didn’t beleive it with all my heart, I would never even dare to say so.”

Fluttershy had to force herself not to look around to look for Nightmare Moon. The alicorn could be in any direction, or above them. She might have even left already.
Was Moon expecting something of her? Did she want to see how Fluttershy would cope with the stress? It was a perverted experiment when ponies’ lives were on the line!
Fluttershy tensed, resisting the urge to scream. “Then… Then we should look for the fillies first. Twilight might be in danger but she’s a good magician. Rose won’t be able to hurt her.”

“Don’t underestimate the crafty nightmare. Twilight could be in great danger, especially since she has no idea what’s coming.” Rarity fidgeted. “But the fillies should be our priority. I promised Applejack.”

“Yes that makes sense.” Fluttershy agreed quietly.

“The fillies are either on their way to Ponyville or one of their houses. Scootaloo’s parents live north of the windmill, I believe.” Rarity explained. Fluttershy already knew that Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s parents’ house was east of Ponyville, since she had visited many times over the years. “But just in case they are still on the farm I suggest we split up and quickly check the orchards. We can meet on the road back to town in ten minutes.”

Fluttershy did not like the idea of splitting up one bit, but could not find the courage to disagree. ” O- Okay.” She whispered.

Rarity paused. She saw how Fluttershy was acting and drew the wrong conclysions. “Fluttershy, darling, I know you probably still hold a grudge against me for what I have done, but I hope we can put it aside to do what we must. You understand, right?”

Fluttershy tried to meet her gaze. “I- I... “ She swallowed, hesitated another moment, then hovered into the air. “We have to find the fillies, Rarity.”
The pegasus circled up to the ideal search altitude and raced off towards the easternmost orchards.

Rarity stood rooted in place, ashamed at herself for trying to get a concession out of Fluttershy at such a stressful time. She cleared her mind and galloped for the other orchard.

Fluttershy was not a very fast flier, but her scan of the eastern orchards went quickly enough. There was no sign of the fillies so she looped back around and landed on the path to Ponyville, as Rarity had said.

Maybe it was paranoia, but she could almost swear she saw a flicker of the light that gave away Nightmare Moon’s position, if the alicorn was even there at all. As she waited she plied her memory, trying to find a hint in Moon’s last words to her about her plans. What would Moon do to her if things went really wrong? Would she intervene, or punish everypony. There was absolutely no telling with her sometimes. The alicorn’s moon swung from just mischievous to manic or depressive in seconds. Fluttershy wondering if the original Nightmare Moon had been so neurotic.

Fluttershy had to admit she was culpable for the way Moon behaved. She had let the nightmare into her home, served her tea and talked about all sorts of things. She was no better than a dumb sycophant, with the added shame of getting absolutely nothing for her trouble.
But what else was she supposed to do? It wasn’t like any punishment she could wield would have any effect of Moon. She chastised the her, but Moon could not be shamed, nor her mind ever changed. On some level Fluttershy justified herself by saying she was protecting ponies from Moon by occupying the nightmare alicorn’s attention. She could say she was protecting herself, ingratiating herself to Moon. But it was seeming like Moon’s fickleness proved all those excuses as empty.

There was a rustle in the tree, drawing Fluttershy’s attention. She saw nothing, save a few falling leaves. She was now beginning to regret pushing Moon to perfect her invisibility magic.
A quiet, indecipherable female voice carried down to her from above.

“Whah? Hello?” Fluttershy perked up. She turned to where she thought the voice, moving her head to look through the leafy canopy. “Um, is somepony there?”

She heard it again. It was a coarse but feminine sound, spoken with the peaks and inflections of paranoid mumblings. Fluttershy’s ears twitched: It was coming from overhead.

“Moon, I know you’re there.” Fluttershy whispered urgently, raising her eyes to sweep the branches of the apple and oak trees around her. “Whatever you’re doing, please stop it. This was never funny. If you want to talk to me, come down here. Please, Lady Moon.”

The mutters pitched down into gravelly whispers. Listening, Fluttershy could just make out the words. “..could have sworn she landed somewhere around here. No mistaking her… damn it all! She could have gone anywhere in Equestria. Did she? Did she stay here? Or where...” So the mumbles continued filtering down through the canopy, until they suddenly ended. A cascade of leaves and broken branches rained down on Fluttershy. The voice started up again a little farther away, then stopped again.

Fluttershy shrank to the ground. That was not Nightmare Moon. It was not even a pony. What she’d heard sounded like a griffin. Only when it was entirely silent for a few minutes did she get up.

“O-Oh my.” She shivered.
There were griffin communities in Equestria, most notably at the Embankment at the Dneighper Bend way north of Ponyville. Communities also existed in the three Free Cities on the East Coast, Manhattan, Filly Delphia, and Baltimare. However the griffins rarely left their enclaves, as pony knights made every effort to drive them off: Even without a weapon, a griffin was a dangerous creature and a threat.
It all meant meant a griffin in Ponyville had a reason to be there. Fluttershy swallowed. She had never liked griffins. Not since a young urchin griffin attacked her in Cloudsdale a few days after Cloud Creche. She hadn’t been badly hurt, but it had solidified her parents decision to move away from Cloudsdale.
And the way the griffin was talking, it sounded very upset about something or someone. Fluttershy had no reason to think a griffin was looking for her but the idea still terrified her.

“Fluttershy.” Rarity’s melodic call came from behind her, pulling her attention away from the voice. “Is that you I hear?”

Fluttershy sighed in relief and closed her eyes. “I’m over here.” She stood up and waited until her heartbeat slowed back down to normal speed. “Rarity… We have to be careful. There’s a griffin in the trees!”

Rarity opened her mouth to speak, then paused. She looked up into the foliage, then back down to Fluttershy. “A griffin? Really… Darling are you sure?”

“I heard it talking! I think it’s looking for somepony.”

“Did you actually see this griffin?” Rarity nodded back and forth like she was weighing the possibilities. “I’m sorry but right now that just serves as a distraction. It’s unlikely she’s looking for us.”

“But Rarity-”

“Fluttershy darling, please, this isn’t the time. It really truly isn’t the time. Did you find the fillies?”

It infuriated Fluttershy to be dismissed like that, but she held her tongue. Getting both of them angry would only make the nightmare spread more easily. She felt like screaming but instead she sighed and duly answered. “No. I couldn’t find the girls.” A sickening thought passed through her about the griffin possibly being the reason for that. She nearly retched. “But, um, I think we should stay together.”

Rarity squinted, appraising Fluttershy’s pale face. “Yes, in case of griffin, hmm? Well, we will have to be vigilant regardless. I could not find the fillies either unfortunately. We must look in Ponyville therefore.” She trotted up the path. “Coming?”

“Y- Yes.” Fluttershy took a deep breath and followed behind Rarity at a dozen hoof distance. She listened for the griffin again but hear nothing. She was suddenly wishing that Moon WAS snooping around. At least alicorns were still ponies, somewhat.
But wait… What had kicked up the leaves back at the farmhouse, if not Moon? There was no way she wouldn’t have been able to see the griffin, and besides she had seen a shimmer and heard movement. Unless the griffin was traveling impossibly fast, none of that could have happened! Something strange was going on.

Rarity was talking.
“We check around the village periferee, just incase the fillies are there and so I don’t run the risk of exposing anypony in town. If nothing becomes of that we try to convince Twilight Sparkle to shelter at her residence while we lock down the other nightmares.” Rarity said. “I can’t get too close to anypony, which means that if push comes to shove, you may have to be the one tieing down Twilight. Getting her infected would be a death sentence, either from her or Moon. With Roseluck and the fillies, I will help, but of course while maintaining a healthy distance from you.” She looked back at Fluttershy, searching for approval to her words. “Sound good darling?”
Fluttershy wasn’t paying attention at all, too engrossed with her own thoughts, so Rarity looked forward stiffly, feeling the numbness of her regrets and self-loathing again. Fluttershy didn’t respect her enough to even bother listening.
Rarity whimpered. “Why do I hurt everypony I care about?”

Rarity was more and more convinced she could never change. She would never be able to be a good pony, however much she pushed or screamed at herself. She had a heritage tinged by the evils of the past, and she could only hope that her story did not end so gruesomely as Illustrious Valor and Solemn’s had.

~~~~~

That Morning

Iillor had awoken at the crack of dawn and gone for a nice stroll north along the river. At the end of it she’d jumped into the cold blue water and let it carry her downstream. She pulled herself out at the bridge where, to her surprise, she’d found a sleeping Twilight Sparkle.

“Huh. Would you believe it? ” Iillor tapped her chin, then broke out into a wide smile. “This was my favorite spot to nap, back in the day! Great minds think alike, as they say.”
She shook herself dry and lay down a dozen hooves away from the young unicorn, enjoying the warmth of the rising sun.

Half-an-hour later, Twilight Sparkle awoke. She tossed like she usually did after waking, but discovered that she felt grass instead of her covers and sheets. “Huh?” She said groggily, rolling to her stomach and opening her eyes.
Seeing the river, she remembered the night before: The strange visit of Nightmare Moon, her argument with Rarity, and her resolution to the Summer Sun Fair. What hadn’t been there the night before was the lazing earth pony Illustrious Valor.
“Uh, good morning.” Twilight cleared her throat.

“Good morning my lady.” Iillor waived.

“You haven’t been here long, have you? I mean, it’s not what it looks like.” Twilight blushed. “I was just enjoying a nap.”

Iillor shrugged. “You don’t have to explain anything to me, my lady. If I judged anypony who I ever found sleeping in parks, well...” She sat up. “I’d only be judging you. But I don’t so whatever.” She laughed.

Twilight smiled meekly. “Thanks. Ponies already think it’s weird I don’t go around with a hoofmaiden and bodyguard. Back in Canterlot even poor nobles had lots of servants.” She brushed some of the grass and leaves off her coat and out of her mane. “My mother would chew be out for unbecoming behaviour if she saw me right now.”

“It used to be that nobles fought and got dirty. Now they’re all refined snobs, huh?” Iillor ribbed, then winced at seeing Twilight blush. “I mean I’m not saying you’re a snob. You’re a nice gal, my lady. But you’ve got to admit some of the knight here…” She leaned in whispering conspiratorially. “are downright asses. They think they can do whatever they want.”

Twilight nodded after a few seconds. “Yeah… the nobles around the Unicorn School and University were tended to be more arrogant than the commoners. But commoners can be real jerks too.” She frowned at a catalogue of memories where she was teased, insulted, or cursed at by fellow students or ponies on the street. It made her face flush in remembered anger and embarrassment. She took a few seconds to breath out that stress, sighing. “Sorry, I sometimes forget about taboos like class or tribe. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, I brought it up, and I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” Iilllor got to her hooves. “I should know better than to talk politics to a noble. Even if you don’t mind it’s just bad news all around. It’s not a commoner’s place to try to convince a noble, or visa versa.”

Twilight sat silently for a few minutes. “Yeah, I suppose so. Let’s drop it then” She sighed. “So, uh, what brought you to the riverbank?”

“I was just out for a walk.”

“Of course.” Twilight glanced away for a second. Iillor was a nice enough pony, but as long as Twilight remained watched over by Nightmare Moon, she had to stay away from ponies who could find out her secret. Iillor claimed to be a magician, and Twilight did not want to test the earth pony’s mystical ability to detect lies or whatnot. “Um… I should go home. Er, to the Golden Oak I mean, where I’m staying. I haven’t had breakfast.”

“Neither had I actually. I was planning on grabbing something from the bakery.” Iillor beamed. “Wanna come?”

“Uh…” Twilight tried to think of an excuse. “My ward Spike usually makes breakfast-”

“I’ll pay. I’d really like to have your company.” Iillor insisted.

“Price wasn’t really the problem.” Twilight bit her lip. An hour with Iillor wouldn't hurt. “Alright Mis Valor. You win.”

“Nice.” Iillor clopped her forehooves and let out a victorious tisk.

Twilight cocked her head.

Iillor smiled. “No offence your lady but I thought you were going to fight me way harder on this. But I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Oh, please remember I go by Iillor.” Her smile broadened. “There’s never been such a thing as a Mis Valor.”

“Uh, sure. I’ll try my hardest to remember.” Twilight smiled, a hint of unease making her lips wobble. She wasn’t sure what it was, but the magic in the air was starting to feel unpleasant. “Lead the way to the bakery.”

~~~~~

Pinky Pie was enjoying the beautiful morning, humming diddies and sharpening knives, when the telltale canter of an earth pony and an unicorn was heard on the patchy cobble outside the bakery. “Oh boy!” She exclaimed gleefully, twirling the knives around in her hoof before jabbing them back in their block. “That sound like Twilight, and…” She licked her lips as she tried to remember what the other hoofsteps reminded her of. “And her friend from the other day!”

A few seconds later her guesses were vindicated when the purple unicorn and the black earth pony pushed through the bakery door, putting their conversation on hold to greet Pinkie.

“Hello Mis Pinkie Pie.” Twilight smiled weakly. Pinkie was looking warmer than the other say but she didn’t want to be presumptuous. “I’m glad to see you opened back up.”

“Yup! Sour moods and locked doors don’t pay the rent.” Pinkie giggled. “Oh, who am I kidding! I haven't payed rent in years!”

“I remember you telling me you owned the bakery.” Twilight cleared her throat.

“Yeah, but the holding company I put the bakery in went belly up.” Pinkie’s expression became ruefull, then immediately returned to exuberant. “Probably because I wasn’t paying the rent.”

“Then who owns the bakery.” Twilight asked.

“I do. My name is on the deed and everything.” Pinkie said, tracing in the air the oversized curves of her signature.

“Then I struggle to to see the point. Why a holding company? Where within two hundred kilometers could you find find a court to file in?” Twilight tapped her hoof impatiently. Then dawning realization overtook her. “Wait… You’re just pulling my tail, aren’t you.”

Pinkie chuckled. “Yup!”

Twilight planted her face in her hoof. “Is this way of saying you forgive me?” Forgive for the trespass that Twilight didn’t even remember, and which Pinkie was oddly mute about sharing. But saying ‘forgive me for whatever it was I did’ did not sound good, so it was left ambiguous.

“Ehh…” Pinkie wobbled her hoof in the air, like stabilizing scales. When it seemed it might tilt one way, Pinkie jerked her hoof the other way, then broke out into a cheer. “Of course I do! What kind of no good jerky pony would I be if I held a grudge?” Her wide eyes slid over to Iillor. “I mean gosh. At some point a girl’s just got to let it go.”

“I agree, with reservations.” Twilight said, oblivious to the developing staring match between the two earth ponies. “You wouldn’t forgive a pony that really hurt you.”

“Why not?” Pinkie asked innocently, not taking her eyes of Iillor. The black mare’s expression became stoney.

“Because the kind of pony who causes just unforgivable hurt is the kind of pony who would do it again and again.” Twilight said, her expression hiding the bubbling angush. She knew she could never find it in her heart to let go of Nightmare Moon’s murder of Celestia, however it had come to pass. “A baker like you might not realize it Mis Pinkie, but the world is filled with genuinely bad ponies.”

Pinkie closed her eyes, and when she reopened them she was looking back at Twilight. “Why wouldn’t I realize it, Lady Twilight?” She asked, her tone still as playful as if she was talking about candy. “What makes bad ponies and good ponies so different?”

“AHEM.” Iillor coughed, pulling Twilight’s attention. “Sorry. You’re Pinkie Pie, yeah? Well, we came in to get some breakfast.” She looked to Twilight. “Breakfast, right?”

Twilight stared at her a moment, recollecting her train of thought. She’d gotten sucked into the conversations and almost forgotten her hunger. She nodded. “Yes… Yes!” She turned back to Pinkie. “Sorry Pinkie. I didn’t mean to be rude. So, um, I’ll have...”
Twilight couldn’t remember what the best options were, despite a distinct memory of coming by on most mornings before the Eternal Night. She stifled an infuriated grunt at her scrambled memories. “I’ll have my usual, please.” She said, taking a gamble.

“I heard the coco croissants are something of a local specialty. I’ll have one if you have any left.” Iillor said.

“Coco Croissants?” Pinkie looked at her quizzically. “Do we have those?” She leaned back to scan the arrayed pastries, breads, and snacks under the glass. Her brow furrowing, she leaned over the counter to look at it from Iillor’s perspective. “Cocoo croissants sound really really good and all but I don’t think anypony in Ponyville makes them. Who told you we did?”

“It was a while ago. I don’t remember.” Iillor pursed her lips. “In that case I’ll have a honey and bree bread then.”

“Great choice!” Pinkie nodded. She grabbed the honey bree bread and a baggie of puffy gougeres, giving the former to Iillor and the latter to Twilight. “Three bits please!”

While Iillor was fishing the bits out of her slim bit pouch, Twilight levitated her gougeres and sat at a nearby table. She bit into one of the puffy little pasty and was surprised to taste a bit of fish and nuts in it as well. “Wow.” She said, taking another bite. “Past me has good taste.”

Iillor sat at the small table as well. She sniffed her honey bree bread before shoving it into her mouth in a single bite. Twilight watched dumbfounded as the earth pony worked her stuffed mouth. Pinkie look impressed.

“How about that.” Twilight returned to her gougeres. “My friend Lemon Tart eats like that. She never gets a meal she can’t swallow all at once.”

“Oh Lady Sparkle, you shouldn’t justify my barbaric habits to me.” Iillor laughed after swallowing. “I’m just a common pony, ignorant to etiquette.”

“Stop that please.” Twilight said more tensely than she intended. Joking about subverting social norms and such was good fun, but harping on it could be as dangerous as it was tiresome. It would be a disaster if the commoners began to think it was alright to openly criticize the nobility.

Iillor went silent for a few minutes, letting Twilight eat her gougeres in peace. Pinkie Pie whistled to herself as she swept behind the counter.

The front door swung open and Cherry Fizzy leaned in. The beige earth pony smoothed his mane back nervously as he looked from Iilor to Twilight, then cantered to the counter. “Hey Pinkie…” He leaned in. “Are you busy right now?”

Pibkie shrugged. “You’d think so since it's the middle of the business day, but nope! Gimme one sec.” She trotted around the counter to Twilight and Iillor’s table. “Hey guys I’m really sorry but I’ve gotta close up. It’s a family emergency.”

“Okay. I completely understand, family comes first.” Twilight stood up.

“Rarity’d thank you for the concern. I’ll be back by lunch, if you wanna talk more.” Pinkie bounced to the door. “Come on Fizzy! I left the shovels around back.”

“So…” Twilight and Iillor were left standing on the dusty street, watching Pinkie and Fizzy gallop up the street with shovels. “Was she talking about somepony else’s family?” Twilight speculated.

“I think so.” Iillor shrugged. “Um, this may seem like a weird question, but have you ever been to her house?”

Twilight’s brow knitted at the question. Thinking about it, she did remember visiting Pinkie Pie’s personal rooms above the bakery, but the memory was clouded and fraught with the same jumbled, wracking emotions as many of her memories just before the Eternal Night. “Tentative yes.”

“Does she own any birdcages? Any size, round, made of metal.” Iillor held her hoof off the ground to demonstrate a range of sizes. “May or may not have been glowing magically.”

“Now you’ve got me curious.” Twilight chuckled.

“No? Never mind then. I’m just following a lead from Canterlot.” Iillor said dismissively.

Twilight was unconvinced, but Iillor was very obviously going to get defensive if she pursued to topic. “Sure… So do you have a plan for the rest of the day?”

“Nah.” Iillor shrugged. “I have to go by and give Risky a lesson before the end of the day, but I’ve got no other obligations.”

“Really?” Twilight cocked her head. She was intrigued to see how the earth pony preformed magic. “What are you teaching him?”

“Just theory stuff right now. Nothing very complicated, and just what I know from practice and rustic folk knowledge. University taught ponies wouldn’t be very impressed.”

“University-level method and theory isn’t too helpful for beginners. Teaching foals is a skill to itself.” Twilight smiled. “I’d be very interested to meet Risky and see some earth pony magic firsthoof.”

Iillor glanced away, taking a moment to come up with an excuse. “Uh, no, you wouln’t think that much of it.”

“Iillor, magic is my life. Why would I think that? Do you think I’m prejudiced?” Twilight frowned. “Spells an unicoern magic is my speciallty but I have nothing against earth ponies, or pegasi, or their unique magics.”

“No I don’t think you’re prejudiced, Lady Sparkle.” Iillor said.

“Then-”

“It’s not earth pony magic.” Iillor interrupted tersely. “And it’s not unicorn or pegasus magic either. It’s something that relies on the mind of the individual, not the tribe.”

Twilight blinked. “Mis Iillor, it sounds like you’re describing...” She blinked again.

“You might understand why I’m stepping forward where other magic tutors didn’t. They lack particular insights into the world.” Iillor continued. “But Duke Lightowser desperately , desperately wants his son to be able to use magic. I can teach a certain type of magic.”
The black-furred earth pony sighed. “So now maybe you get why I think you’d be less than keen to sit in on a lesson.”

Twilight couldn’t believe it. A Dark magician was standing less than a meter away. She had so many questions, yet so many fears! “I…” She gulped. “I’m a bit hurt you didn’t tell me earlier. I might come visit, uh, just to make sure you aren’t hurting anypony.” She tried to sound harsh. “I’m sorry Mis Iillor but I can’t know if you’re trustworthy.”

The atmosphere had become very tense. Nopony was sure how the other would react.
“I get ya.” Iillor bit her lip. “You don’t know if I’m a danger.”

“Yes, and there’s some things I have to think about.” Twilight backed away slowly. “Just… If I don’t come by, please stay away from me any Ponyville.”

“Please don’t tell anypony.” Iillor whispered. She would hate to have to make a mess in her old hometown.

“I won’t unless, well...” Twilight cleared her throat. “I- I’ll see you later, Mis Iillor.”

“Not going to go and assemble a mob against me?” Iillor asking semi-jokingly.

Twilight declined to answer. Her hard stare said enough: Not unless I need to.”

“Bye, m’lady.” Iillor bowed ridgely, then started down the road towards the eastern edge of town.

“Yup.” Twilight teleported away in a violet magical burst.

~~~~

For Spike, time had become a suspicious, muddled thing. In the wake of the Eternal Night, what ponies were saying and what he remembered mismatched so badly he began to distrust any news from anypony but Twilight. Ponies could have good intentions, but they were panicky, rumor-driven animals, especially when they felt hopeless or stressed.

Since Twilight wasn’t working on a big project, he spent his time reading. The Golden Oak, while no Canterlot Castle Library, had a large number of books on a broad variety of topics, which was all he needed. Since Spike never strayed far from her, her friends and acquaintances were his, and they all assured him he would make a capable and intelligent magistrate or professor one day. Of course that was what a bookworm would imagine the pinnacle of achievement to be.
But also like Twilight, Spike had grown up knowing the nobility and their lives. The splendid parties, the grand courts, the titles and prestige… For Spike it had an intoxicating allure. Nobles were rich, powerful, and had enormous castles: Everything a dragon craved by nature. So while he wanted to be an academic and magician like Twilight, he also felt drawn to the spectacle and grandeur of the aristocrats. It wasn’t clear how much of any of that he could accomplish by riding Twilight’s coattails.

That morning since Rarity’s visit, Spike had been going through the hundreds of books Twilight had left strewn around the floor and begun reshelving them. It was tedious and time consuming but he didn’t mind too much.
As he worked he found himself recreating the stack of books that didn’t belong in the Golden Oak: Uncle Foaly Flux’s gift, a catalogue of dark books with terrible titles, had gone unread as far as he knew, yet stuck among their pages were bookmarks and notes on scraps of paper, like Twilight always did.

He chose one of the books, The Apocryphon of the Bright World, and sat down on the couch with it. He flipped to a bookmarked page and was greeted by a indecipherable math in a script he didn’t even recognize. On the next few pages were diagrams of strange overlapping circles with pictographs of stylized pony designs. Spike discovered that Twilight had done more than read the book, because margin notes in her hoofwriting were on almost every page. But still he couldn’t read any of it, because Twilight had written in old Roanish.
“Roanish? Why is Twilight writing in Roanish?”

The longer he looked at the strange combinations of circles, the more he started to hurt. It was like a vice was squeezing the sides of his head, trying to force something out. His eyes watered, but he just couldn’t tear his eyes off the patterns. They were reminding him of something, which he had been forced to forget…

Before he had time to let the this mystery unfurl, a loud ban and a flash of light from upstairs pulled him out of the reverie. Twilight had returned.
Feeling like he was messing in something he shouldn’t be, Spike quickly snapped the book shut and tossed it on the pile.

A few moments later Twilight peered over the railing of the upper floor. “Heya Spike. Holding down the fort?”

“Oh you bet!” He agreed eagerly. “Look, I organized up the library.”

Twilight nodded appreciatively. “What indexing system did you use?”

“Your modified genre-topic system, of course.”

“It looks very nice, Spike.” She teleported down to him. “What’s that stack over there?”

“The, uh…” Spike bared his pointed teeth nervously. “The ones I couldn’t find a place for.”

Twilight picked up the top book in her magic, which was The Apocryphon of the Bright World. “Oh… Okay, yeah, these don’t belong down here. These…” She prissed her lips. “These shouldn’t be publically displayed. I’ll put them in my room.”

Spike nodded. “Twilight, err, what wrong with them?” He wasn’t sure why he was being so bold, but on some level Spike was confronting the unthinkable possibility that Twilight might lie to him.

Twilight did not disappoint. After a moment of pensive silence. Twilight sat on the couch next to him and pressed The Apocryphon of the Bright World into his claws. “When Uncle Foaly sent these, I was pretty confused and outraged. First of all, they belong in the Canterlot Castle Library. Second, I thought he was implying all kinds of terrible about me things by sending them. Now I understand better.”

“What do you mean?”

“These books are… a desperate measure. Uncle Foaly might have been a bit wonky, but he knew something was wrong in Equestria way before everypony else. He sent me these because he knew I might need them. That really scared me. The kind of situation where I would have no other choice would be a dire one indeed.” Twilight said grimly. “Magic can be used for wonderful things, Spike, but it can also be used for evil.”

Spike looked down with dream at the book. “Are these books evil?”

“Not inherently. Like all knowledge, magic is only evil when it’s used in an evil way. Still, some ponies might want to keep the public from knowing some parts of magic that are easier to use for evil than good.” She tapped the Apocryphon. “Consider the case for Dark magic. To laypony ears, the words conjure up images of corrupt sorcerers and ancient unicorn warlords. To magic academicians, it’s the term for a range of phenomena that are too dangerous and uncontrollable to dare study or approach. But for a few radicals, it’s just another kind of magic.”
Her face contorted as Nightmare Moon’s smug grin flashed across her mind’s eye. Then she thought of Iillor, smiled awkwardly. “A pony powered by hate can draw obscene amounts of Dark magic to themselves. But they can’t do much more than destroy.”

“You’re worried about somepony using Dark magic?” Spike asked.

“... Kinda.” She nudged the book. “The pony who wrote this was an astrologer. Like the solar monks who make predictions based on the movements of the Sun, astrologers charted the paths of the stars. The writer’s thesis was that everything in heaven in reflected on the earth. By understanding the nature of the universe out there, we could understand our world.”
Under Twilight’s watchful gaze, Spike opened to the page he had been looking at before. Twilight read over her notes quickly before clearing her throat and continuing. “Central to the thesis is a belief that things in this world work in cycles. Things that have happened in the past will happen again for example” She tapped the center of the pattern of circles. “A court of nightmares.”

Spike gulped. “Nightmares?”

“Nightmares.” Twilight confirmed. She shifted uncomfortably. “Spike, you’re not too young to know that there are bad things that happen in the world.”

Spike nodded.

“But we’re all too young to have to experience them for ourselves. There’s been a… calamity, like hasn’t happened in a thousand years.” Twilight felt so anxious she could hardly get the words out. “Princess Celestia… Princess Celestia....” She locked eyes with Spike. His wide eyes, so earnestly concerned for her, gave Twilight the confidence to choke out her words. “Princess Celestia isn’t going to come back.”

Spike put aside the book and hugged her. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and sighed, and bit by bit she untensed.

“We’re going to face an uncertain future Spike. We may have to do things we don’t want to, in service to causes we don’t agree with.” She said quietly. “I might have to do evil things.”

“I trust you.” Spike said.

“I love you too.” Twilight returned the hug. She enjoyed the feeling of Spike’s scales again her fur. She felt peaceful. It reminded her of the moment by the river. “Spike, I promise you that I’m going to improve this world. No matter what comes, no matter which way everypony else goes, I’m going to move forward.” She pulled away so she could look him in the eye. “I swear, I’m going to step into Celestia’s place in every way I can. I will keep Equestria from becoming a dour, lightless place. I may get sidetracked, and I may get discouraged, but I will.”

Spike nodded. “I’ll always be there to remind you.

“There’s evil in this world, Spike, and it can’t be ignored. Infact, I might even have to bargain with it.” Insofar as Nightmare Moon could be bargained with. “But even if I have to do bad things, never for a moment will I forget my real purpose.

Spike smiled. “And I’ll be by your side, no matter what.”

“Thank you. You have no idea what you mean to me.”

“How do we start?”

“How Celestia started every new year: With a celebration.” Twilight jumped up and trotted to one of the bookcases. “I came here to hold the Summer Sun Fair, and I will. With the full authority of the empress's ÉLÈVE PREMIER, I am going to turn this town into a beacon for Celestia’s lasting memory! Everypony in town will contribute, including the duke. They owe me that much.” She began pulling out all the documents she had about her plans for the fair, making a thick stack beside the Dark magic books.

“And Rarity, Applejack and Pinki-” Spike jumped as he suddenly remembered what Rarity had said earlier. “Oh, Twilight, Rarity wanted to apologize for what she said this morning. She was feeling real bad about hurting your feelings.”

“This morning?” Twilight’s brow knitted in confusion.

“Yeah, when you two talked.” Spike said. “Or argued, I guess. You must have been pretty mad, leaving without breakfast or anything.”

“So I talked with Rarity this morning… here…” Her eyes widened in horror. “I was mad?! Oh poop.”
Rarity had met Nightmare Moon, and all the things that implied.

“Uh, Twi?” Spike was confused. Twilight looked so nervous she was about to explode.

“UhThanksGottaGoBye!” Twilight teleported to the coat rack, quickly threw on a cloak, and teleported away.

Twilight reappeared across Ponyville in front of Rarity’s door. She knocked urgently. “Rarity! Rarity open up! I know what she said to you, but we have to talk about it. Just…” Twilight sighed. “Don’t believe what you might initially think. I can explain I promise.”

Silence was all that answered. Twilight teleported into the house.
“Rarity?” She called out urgently. Still no answer.

Reluctantly, Twilight began breathing slowly and deeply. When she closed her eyes, the magical currents of the world were visible to her mind’s eye.
The whole shop and house were tainted with Dark magic. Of Rarity there was neither sight nor scent.

Twilight teleported back out of the house and ran to the neighbor's house. “Has anypony seen Rarity today? It’s really urgent!”

“No Lady Sparkle.” All the neighbors answered as Twilight went to their houses one by one, until finally one said different. “I saw her in the market. She looked unhappy.”

Twilight knew that she had a tendency to jump to conclusions, but the risk of ignoring the peril Rarity could be in was just too great. Moon had established that she had, and had enjoyed, killing ponies. If there was anything Twilight could even try to save Rarity, she would.
But went charging in Twilight wanted to consult somepony she suspected would know much more about how to intimidate a nightmare.

The Lightowser camp had been established in a fallow field half a mile west of Ponyville around the landed airship. Tents, some fire pits, and a small wooden tower had been erected, but most of the supplies stayed in the ship. A couple of the duke’s knights lounged around, waiting for anyone to come along and make guard duty interesting.

In the next field over was the collected heap of shattered remains from the elegant royal airship Princess Celestia had tried to come to Ponyville in. A dozen mounds of earth marked the resting place of the crew.

Twilight reappeared on a raised path two fields away from the camp. She regained her bearings and was about to teleport the remainder of the distance when a squeaky voice grabbed her attention.

“Heya Twilight!” Pinkie Pie and Cherry Fizzy were on the path too. They still had their shovels, which had apparently been used since both ponies were covered in dirt. “What are you up to?”

“I’m going to go see somepony.” Twilight gestured to the Lightdowser airship and camp. “And uh, how did the family emergency turn out.”

Pinkie Pie and Fizzy glanced at each other and shrugged. “Dunno yet.”

“Right…” Twilight smiled nervously. “Pinkie Pie, you should probably stay out of town for a little while.”

“Why?”

“There’s a chance there’s a danger?”

“Oh yeah? Like what kind of danger?”

“A, um…” Twilight kicked the irt. “A monster basically. LIsten, just stay out of town.”

Pinkie Pie blinked rapidly. “Okaaaay.” She turned to Cherry Fizzy. “Go ahead and I’ll catch up with you.”

“I know you will.” Fizzy nodded. He picked up his shovel and cantered down the path back towards Ponyville.

“Don’t worry. We’re going to the other side of the river, not ponyville.” Pinkie consoled Twilight’s confused glare. “But before that we have to talk Lady Twilight.”

“Yes, I think we do.” Twilight agreed. “Do you have any idea where Rarity might be right now?”

“Nope, haven’t seen her.” Pinkie shook her head “Should I tell her you’re looking for her if I do?”

“Yes please. She’s at the center of the danger in Ponyville.” Twilight said. Then she realized that wasn’t correct. Twilight was at the center of it, and Rarity had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. “Damn it. I should have warned everypony sooner. This is my fault. It doesn’t matter that I would have been punished, it was my responsibility as royal agent in Ponyville to ensure everypony’s safety.” She sighed. “I’ve let Rarity and Ponyville down. We're in such huge trouble it's hard to even register.”

Pinkie Pie had adopted an expression that was something akin to a child seeing a bizarre avant garde circus for the first time. Her lips were drawn tight and her eyes were wide and unblinking.

“Her name…” Twilight took a few calming breaths. She had to do this. Telling Spike was only the first step to clearing herself of the guilt. Everypony deserved to know about the new world they were living in. “Her name is the Nightmare of the Moon. She’s an ancient alicorn with a tremendous amount of power. She killed Princess Celestia, and it was by her will that the Eternal Night came and passed.” Twilight felt a flood of relief. The cat was out of the bag now. The only way she could stop everypony from knowing was to strike down Pinkie Pie. Far from the hopelessness that had threatened to overwhelm her before, she felt light, determined, and in control of her destiny.

“Nightmare Moon, huh?” Pinkie tased the word. “Uh… Hmm… Nah.”

“What?” Twilight brow furrowed. “What do you mean ‘nah’?”

“She not the pony I was thinking of.”

“T-Thinking of?” Twilight stuttered. Did this have to do with Pinkie’s strange behavior?

“Yeah, thinking of in my brain.” Pinkie nodded. “Like, thanks a bunch for sharing, but the evil pony here is not Nightmare Moon.” She picked up her shovel and began drawing crude stick figure ponies in the dirt.
“Nightmare Moon is the name for the freaky angel thing of Rarity weirdo cult. She’s supposed to be a stoic, harsh but fair poky pony thing who comes from heaven and gives all the good ponies treats.” Pinkie roughly sketched Rarity and some other ponies bowing down to a statue of the rered up Nightmare Moon.
“But the pony in Ponyville right now is not any of that. She’s a meany. She’s ferocious! She’s loonie. She’s got a second name too. Actually she’s got a bunch of names but only one other that really matters.” Pinkie drew the silhouette of a dark, looming mass with spikes and ragged fur. Two pinpoint eyes were the only feature on the shape.

Twilight felt a chill run up her spine. That was a lot to parse. “Are you telling me the thing that’s been haunting me is NOT Nightmare Moon?”

Pinkie Pie shimmied her shoulders in uncertainty. “Not the one ponies think about when they say that name.”

Twilight looked down at the dirt drawing again. Looking at Rarity prostrated before the grand statue of Moon, her heart began to sink. Even when mysteries and secrets were revealed, things made less sense.
It was true that there were notable differences between the Nightmare moon she’d seen before and the one she’d seen after the Eternal Night. The one before, who she’d only seen in reams of the Everfree Castle throne room, was regal, severe, and given to bouts of philosophy. The one she’d seen after, in the flesh, was haggard, twitchy, and profane in every way. “Who is she?”

Pinkie swiped a hoof over the drawings, erasing them from everywhere except Twilight’s mind. “Dunno. My Pinkie intuition tells me she’s a Star.”

Twilight kept staring at the first where the drawings had been. “A Star…”

“Not one of the original, obviously. She was probably created the same way though.” Pinkie shrugged. “If you find out her name and birthday, could you tell me? Oh, and ask her if she wants a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party. Oh, and ask her what she was doing to your face that night in the hospital.”

“Sorry, what?” Twilight jerked up.

“Long story short, I was under your hospital bed, and not-Nightmare Moon visited you and did some stuff to your face.” Pinkie Pie looked like she was queasy just remembering it. “It made a really bad sound and made my head hurt. That’s when I was close enough for my Pinkie intuition to tell me she’s a Star.”

“My face?’ Twilight lifted a hoof to rub her own snout to make sure nothing was wrong with it. “Then how…” She looked back to Pinkie. The earth pony as staring at her blankly. “Mis Pie, what the heck were you doing under my hospital bed?!"

"Euh, dunno. I was suspicious of you and wanted to take a look. I hid when not-Nightmare Moon got there. She probably knew I was there..." Pinkie shrugged. "Weird huh? I thought this stuff was your fault. I don't think that anymore." She looked back up the path in the direction she'd come.

"So then, um, why are you telling me this when you don’t trust me?”

“You were my friend, Lady Twilight. You hurt me but we can be freinds again when you remember what you did.” Pinkie Pie smiled sadly. She guestured to the Lightdowser Camp behind Twilight. “Now you know what I know. I hope that helps you against your new friend. Incase you didn’t know, she’s bad news. I think she wants to kill me.”

Twilight frowned thinly. Her heart ached terribly, and nothing made sense.
It was not a good start to her grand plan to fulfill Celestia’s dream, but even painful progress was progress. She would not shy away from pain. “I know. What do you think should I do with her?”

Pinkie Pie cast her eyes down, conflicted. “I never had to face a question like that since I left Canterlot. I don’t want to think about it.” When she looked back up her eyes were watering a bit. “Do what you have to, for yourself and for Rarity, but I’m going to make your friend a grave by the old cemetery near the Everfree Forest. It's where she belongs. Don't let her tell you otherwise.”

Twilight and Pinkie Pie stared at each other in silence for what felt like hours. Finally Twilight spoke up. “Pinkie, you shouldn't have to dig graves, not for anypony. I believe in a dream where Iillor can live in harmony with you.”

Pinkie Pie said nothing. She turned away and began bounding down the path in the direction of Ponyville. With her impressive speed the pink pony had caught up with Cherry Fizzy in seconds.

Twilight was left to grind her teeth in indecision. She had to be resolute. “I believe in a dream... “ She repeated to herself through clenched teeth.

Twilight teleported on top the Lighdowser airship’s balloon, and almost toppled over from the unexpected soft footing. Regaining her balance, she made a last teleport down to the ground. The knights on guard jumped from the sudden sound and lurched into combat poses.

“Hi. I’m Viscountess Sparkle. You’ve probably heard of me.” Twilight said quickly, urgently. “I’m looking for Mis Valor. Is she back here yet?”

One of the knights, the junior of the two, cautiously approached her. “Uh, hi. Say your name again.”

“Twilight Sparkle, viscountess, élève premier. I was the empress’s protegee for a while too. I don’t know how often you get imperial news wherever you live.” Twilight explained. “Now please, it’s kinda important I speak to Mis Valor. And by kinda I mean very.”

The junior knight looked at his superior, who shrugged. The senior knight cupped a hoof by his mouth and yelled towards the airship. “Oye! Mis Iillor! A purple pony’s here to see ya!”

“I’m a viscountess. That counts for a little dignity, don’t you think?” Twilight muttered.

“What viscountess would be out here in Ponyville. Not exactly Canterlot, is it eh? ” The senior knight questioned. “And without hoofmaidens or nothin? Just curious.”

Iillor’s fuzzy black head popped over the side of the airship. “Oh hey Lady Sparkle! I’m so happy you came. Give me a moment and I’ll be right down.”

“Sorry for suspicion, m’lady. Can’t be too cautious.” The senior knight bowed.

“Sure.” Twilight waited impatiently, tapping her hooves and trotting around the camp as she waited. She tried thinking of happy thoughts to lighten her sour mood. She thought about Celestia, about joyful days in Canterlot Castle under the princess’s wing. She thought about rainy days when the two of them stared out the window to the expansive lands far below them in the valley, and Celestia was comforting her with a hoof in her mane, as if saying that it would all be Twilight’s one day.
“I believe in a dream where ponies can be happy on rainy days.“ She whispered to herself.

About then Iillor came trotting down the gangplank, with a small earth pony colt in frilly finery in tow. Twilight took a deep breath and tried to shake off the rest of her negative thoughts. Confronting Iillor was going to be stressful enough as it was.

“Hello. You must be Lord Lightdowser’s son.” Twilight knelt by the colt.

“Risky.” The colt agreed meekly, averting his eyes. “I, uh… Nice to meet you.”

“Apparently, Lord Risky knows all about you.” Iillor snickered, making Risky blush. “Being at the princess’s right hoof makes you a big name amongst aspiring magicians.”

“This isn’t the time unfortunately. I’m not here to see a lession.” Twilight stood up to face Iillor, though she caught Risky throwing strangely awed glances her way. “There’s a problem in Ponyville.

“Oh?” Iillor arched a brow.

“It’s the kind of problem that makes us join together, casting away all falsehood to unify to common purpose. That, or the kind of problem that fractures our wits and drives to destruction.”

“Prosaic.” Iillor sorted.

Twilight glared. “So much so say that we have to be straight with each other, Mis Valor.”

“Iillor.” Iillor insisted.

Twilight blew a raspberry. “Oh whatever! Listen, I don’t need you to be coy anymore. I have to know right now if you’re the pony I should be consulting, so I’ll asking in no uncertain terms.” Twilight grabbed Iillor and pulled her close, so she could whisper in her ear. “How powerful of a Dark magician are you?”

Iillor was vexed. She had assumed that Twilight was going to be cautious around her for the next few weeks at the very least. Twilight Sparkle, unlike Velvet or Lightdowser, had no great need for her in the long run, which meant Iillor had no security around her on the baseline. Iillor had hoped that some amount of friendship and trust would create that security, but seeing the testy arrogance in Twilight’s eyes now, the earth pony was starting to realize that there was more to the unicorn than met the eye.
“I’m going to need promises from you, Lady Sparkle.” She said tersely.

Twilight pulled away, a glint of triumph in her eyes. “I don’t want anything more or less than what need to keep everypony safe.”

“How noble. How about I refer you to those chaps over there who are sworn to protect the commoners.” Iilor waved towards the knights.

“Okay, so you want something from me?” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Yes… You’ve wanted something for a while. You follow me around and chat me up. Of course you want something. Obviously!”

“Maybe I helped because I’m a nice pony.” Iillor was desperately trying to think of ways to disengage.

“Oh I’m sure you are, but it’s not showing right now. You seem to be very adverse even knowing what I need help with.” Twilight said. “Unless you already know.”

“Focing my hoof is going to strain our friendship.” Iillor hissed. “I don’t want to have to spend the rest of the week avoiding you, Twilight.”

“I’ll let you call me Twilight when we’re closer.” Twilight Sparkle harrumphed. “Because right now I just see a selfish and defensive pony.” Twilight took a few steps back. “Mis Iillor, I believe in a world that can be improved. This world I believe in has a place for every pony as long as they have a willingness in their hearts to coexist and improve themselves. This world is the one my late princess dreamed of making, and now her dream is my dream.” Twilight set her jaw. “What kind of pony you are and what kind of magic you have doesn’t matter. What matters is your willingness to do what you can for the better tomorrow.”

A tense silence fell over the encampment.

The senior knight spoke up. “Is this something we should be involved in?”

“NO!” Twilight and Iillor yelled simultaneously.

Iillor was in a real bind. She didn’t want to push the little unicorn away, but neither did she want to rush into anything that could compromise her. So she had to get a clear answer of what Twilight was asking her to do. “What, specifically, do you need?”

“I just need a negotiator and/or translator. I need to know why and how somepony is going to act.” Twilight grimaced. “A particularly Dark pony. You know what I mean.”

“Ah, shoot.” Iillor hissed closed her eyes. She wanted to see Nightmare Moon on open, amicable terms, not face her down. She began apologetically. “I really didn’t want to get involved like this. I was taking my time, sussing everything out.”

“Things don’t always work out how we want. So, do you know enough to be of use to me?”

Twilight already knew the answer she wanted to hear, and if Iillor turned her down it was going to be next to impossible to get back in her good graces. Iillor cursed silently, wondering how a demure little unicorn like Twilight could be more difficult to manage than a paranoid madmare like Twilight Velvet. It was mostly because Velvet used Iillor to kill, which was exactly what she wanted to do anyway. “I can help in ways you wouldn’t even expect.” She mumbled.

Twilight sighed in relief. “Then I might just have a chance.” She straightened up. “I need to hear the bare-bones on the way back to Ponyville. You can flesh out an explanation later. In exchange I promise to tell you everything I know, which I can tell you’ve been dying to pick at.” Twilight promised. “In fact, everypony has a right to know. The world I believe in is one with no secrets between ponykind.”

“Lady Sparkle…”

“Your secrets will be safe with me for as long as you want to keep them secret. If I learn enough maybe I won’t need you next time.” Twilight said, half consoling half aggressing. “But right now, the safety of one of my friends is at risk, and I won’t let you hold back.”

Lives were always at stake. Iillor was usually the one putting those lives at stake. “Fine, if you really tell me everything.” She knelt by Risky, who had been listening to the mares silently. “Lord Risky, I’m sorry but I have to go do heroic things. Shocking I know, but apparently it’s the right thing to do.”

“When are you coming back?” Risky mewled. Twilight couldn’t guess how much the young colt had understood.

“I won’t be long. Do some reading while I’m away, alright.”

Twilight was starting to get impatient again.“Okay enough of that.” She threw a last glare to knights. “Have fun shoveling garbage, sirs, or whatever it is you do.” She turned tail and galloped away from the camp.

“Then the heroes embark! Ye haw!” Iillor saluted casually to the camp and dashed after Twilight, comfortably catching up with earth pony speed.

Twilight had never been a very athletic pony so the pace she set was slow enough to converse. “First of all, thank you. I feel way in over my head and I need the help.”

“Eh, I’m a helpful pony.” Iillor shrugged.

“I’m sure. We have to get close enough to town for me to teleport us the rest of the way. Moving multiple ponies is an enticing challenge.”

Iillor did not like the way that was phrased. “But you have done it before, right?”

Twilight hummed with uncertainty. “I don’t remember. I… I have the impression I have. My memory’s getting better but it’s still squirrly.”

“Okay, great.” Iillor groaned internally. Choosing between Twilight Sparkle and Nightmare Moon, if it came to that, was not going to be an easy decision to make. Of course it depended a great deal on context. Context like how receptive Moon would be to getting talked down from whatever nightmarish things she was intending.
Taking a deep breath, Iillor began talking. “So how much do you actually know about the events of the Eternal Night.”

“More than I want, less than I need.” Twilight shivered. “An ancient creature who calls herself the Nightmare of the Moon awakened and killed Princess Celestia.” She eyed Iillor nervously. Nothing she was saying was technically a lie, and after the were was some plausible deniability as to whether she knew what the alicorn’s identity truly was. “But, uh, you already knew that I think.”

Iillor nodded reluctantly. “Nightmare Moon was one of the reasons I came here.”

“And the reason you’ve been hanging around me?”

“Partially. I really do know your mother, and she’s not a pony I want to cross, so I’ve been keeping an eye on you to make sure the Duke doesn’t try anything. It’s complicated.” Iillor grunted. “I felt Nightmare Moon’s presence around you quite strongly, and I have been trying to contact her. No luck so far.”

“You want to contact her?” Twilight squeaked. “That sounds like- No, it IS a really bad idea.”

“But it’s something I have to do. You’d understand if you knew me better.” Iillor said. “Have you noticed her presence more than once?”

“Yes…” Twilight wound up, preparing for her turn of admissions. “She has been… haunting me. I think she came multiple times when I was in the coma (once for sure), and more after I woke up. She’s mad, insane! I don’t know if she’s doting on me, or obsessed, or is just tormenting me. Something is wrong with her.”

“Wait wait wait. You’ve seen her multiple times?!” Iillor asked, slackjawed. She was thinking that Twilight had barely caught glimpse of Moon or something like that, which had thrown Sparkle into her panic.

“She’s been in Ponyville since the Eternal Night. Sometimes I can tell when she’s around.” Twilight’s voice hitched. “Like a little buzz in the bottom ranges of my hearing or… You know when there’s a tremble in the magical aura, and you recognize how it feels on an instinctual level? It seems like she’s everywhere sometimes. She can go invisible, so I see her shadow in the most innocuous things. I thought I was free for a while when I didn’t feel her all this morning, but then I found out it’s because one of my friends ran into her.”

“How do you know?”

Twilight squirmed. “She was in my bedroom this morning, and my friend Rarity came to visit me. She met her instead.”

“Oh” Iillor said. Twilight’s spending the night by the river made much more sense.
Iillor found herself short of breath, and it was not because of the running. Why was Nightmare Moon paying so much attention to Twilight, and spare not even a moment for an old friend. It made her feel tingly and jealous. “What was it like?”

“What was what like?”

“To be in her presence?” Iillor breathed. “How did it feel to be right up against a creature who could end your life instantly if she wanted to?”

“I don’t…” Twilight was taken aback. It seemed like a very inappropriate time to be asking that “I’ve been Princess Celestia’s student for years and ponies have asked me variations on that question. All I could tell them it’s comforting that the princess loves ponykind so much she devotes all her powers to protecting us.” Her voice wavered. “But Nightmare Moon makes me feel so many things I can’t even describe it. Every time I look into her eyes, I see her imagining all the ways she could make me hurt. The helplessness is excruciating.”

“Sounds...” Iillor gulped, feeling giddy. “Exhilarating.”

“That’s one way to put it.” Having those thoughts dredged up was making Twilight much less eager to run to confront the creature who called herself Nightmare Moon, but she knew it was something she had to do. How could she ever claim to be fighting for Celestia’s dream if she wilted at the first challenge fate threw her way. “We’re almost within teleportation range. I can land us precisely at the edge of town where-” She saw a colorful shape in the trees lining the road. She skied to a halt. “Iillor did you see that?!”

Iillor took longer to arrest her momentful, and she jogged back up the path to Twilight. “See what?”

“I swear I saw a pony over by that scarecrow.” Twilight hopped off the road and waded into the nose-high wheat field. “Hello?! Are you okay?”

Iillor nibbled her lip. “Typical hero, always getting distracted by another pitiful pony.” She mumbled to herself. She slumped against one of the nearby trees and began thinking about what she would say to Moon.

Twilight’s eyes had not been lying, because she saw movement in the wheat a few meters away from where she’d first seen it. “Something’s not right here. I feel…”
She pressed her hoof against her head and yelp at how sensitive it felt. “Oh no.” She whimpered. A rising whine filled her ears.

She was having another attack, and this time Nightmare Moon wasn’t there to save her.
“Wha- ww” She struggled the speak through her convulsing throat. She felt like every part of her body was withering into a shriveled husk then blowing into dust on the wind. It felt like teeth were being scraped over her skin and gnawing on her joints.

“O-Oh my…” Twilight slumped. She breathed in short gasps, and thought frantically how she might get help this time. Maybe Iillor- But a stab of agony down her spine interrupted the thought.
Against her will, her mouth began to form words. “R-r-r- revenge…”

Revenge. Twilight was lost to the horrendous meaning behind that singular concept until sights and sounds began to fill her mind. The furrows of wheat became as colonnade own either side of a grand throne room, and the sky became the impossibly detailed ceiling. At the end of the room was the throne, with a disappointed looking empress slouched over upon it. The great white alicorn tilted her head so Twilight could clearly see what she was mouthing. REVENGE.

Celestia’s memory yearned for revenge. It had no dream of harmony and progress for ponykind, no, it wanted the destruction of she who had destroyed her. Every moment Twilight stared into the mirage Celestia’s empty eyes, the more her ears were filled with hideous shouts and tortured cried, each twisted with hatred. They all wanted REVENGE.

“But how” Twilight rattled out. “The most I can do is talk.”

The answer came as the resurgence of the same pounding message like she had seen soon after awaking in the hospital. This time more than mere concepts, a regal voice behind and around her giggled childishly. ‘POWER, my dear Twilight Sparkle, seek out POWER and MAGIC. Then you can destroy the one who calls herself Nightmare Moon. That would please me.’

Twilight began hyperventilating. She tried summoning magic to her horn, a self defense reflex, but the disgusting overflow of indescribable emotions felt like it was pooling over her soul and smothering all that lit her from within.
“Celestia!” Twilight screamed, but only in her head, as she reached out to the mirage in vain. Purple and deep violet magic arc out of her horn and scorched the earth. The crackling arc contracted until it bridged with itself, and then shorted out.

Twilight’s knees buckled and she fell face-first into the furrowed soil. Iillor, who was not paying attention, did not see her fall. But the three fillies who Twilight had glimpsed in the wheat had.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo circled the helpless mare and watched her silently. Their eyes were unfocused and their posture was rigid. They twitched and shivered from every gust of wind through the field. The nightmare magic guiding them effervesced from their eyes in shadowy wisps.

“Kill her?” Sweetie Belle asked slowly, mechanically.

Scootaloo twitched. “Yes.”

Apple Bloom wasn’t even sure what she was seeing. The cloud of darkness in her head was filling all her senses so badly she could only distinguish a purplish blur in front of her. “Girls… Where are you?” She asked, like it was a question in class.

“Where?” Sweetie Belle frowned. “I don’t know…”

Scootaloo twisted her lip up like she smelled something foul.

Sweetie Belle looked down at Twilight Sparkle and gasped as if noticing her for the first time. “Should we help her?” She twitched. “Or kill her?”

“Why all this talk about killin?” Apple Bloom asked the air. “We shouldn’t do anya that. We don’t like it.” She rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of the incessant itch she felt in them. “It’s what bad ponies does. You told me so...”

“Girls...” Twilight rolled onto her stomach and sat up as much as she could manage. The horrible visions kept coming, confusing, contradictory, overpowering. She was blind and deaf, as sordid fragments of dreams bombarded her. Among the fleeting images that demanded her soul she saw sights she’d never seen, and ponies she’d never met. Other pony’s lives combatted hers for the space in her consciousness,
But over all of it were two looming profiles: The dark light of Celestia grimaced and demanded she take her POWER, her MAGIC, her FRIENDS, and the shining oblivion of Nightmare Moon smirked at her and challenged with her eyes.

“I’m sorry for sinning. I’m sorry for sinning. I’m sorry for sinning. I’m sorry for sinning.” Twilight chanted into the dirt. “I’ll never do it again.”

Sweetie Belle, inched a hoof closer to the unicorn. “You’ll never…” She cocked her head. “Do what again?”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak but somepony else’s voice came out. “NO! NO! SPARE ME! PLEASE!” It was the sound of hopeless disappear, spoken onto the world already by a pony since dead.
Nightmare Moon or whoever you are, Twilight seethed within the storm of dreams. What have you done to me? Why have you left me alive like this?

The shouting did not fail to grab Iillor’s attention. “Huh?” The earth pony jerked around, trying to see where Twilight had gone. “Twilight? Are you okay?”

An arc of violet energy coursed from the field, catching one of the nearby trees on fire. Iillor heard Twilight wail again.

“Oh damn! That doesn’t sound good.” Iillor let out a frustrated sigh. She clambered to her hooves “Guess it’s time to do something.”

Her mane and tail began to lose their cohesion, dissolving into smoke that swirled and wrapped around Iillor. From this dark mass a unicorn horn coalesced on her forehead, from which more dark magic seeped. A magical scythe formed, and Iillor charged into the wheat field with it in her telekinetic grasp, reaping a path towards the tortured unicorn.

Apple Bloom stared silently as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo began to poke and prod Twilight, halfheartedly fulfilling the nightmare compulsion to kill her. Twilight was screeching and wallowing in a way that reminded the young earth pony of a terrified pig, only with a lot more magical discharges flying around and setting everything on fire.

“Twilight Sparkle…” Apple Bloom mumbled slowly. “I was gunna make you feel real bad. I was gunna make you feel like how you made me feel. There wasn’t nothin I wasn’t willin to do to make you hurt real bad.”

“Pronounce it with me: Ancepanox.” Sweetie Belle was saying to herself. She was trying to stab Twilight with her diminutive horn but kept missing as the older unicorn thrashed in the dirt. “Ancepanox.”

“How do ponies taste?” Scootaloo asked herself. She was kicking at Twilight but not doing much damage. “I don’t wanna go my life not knowing how ponies taste.”

“I felt hate real strong, Mis Lady Sparkle.” Apple Bloom continued. “I knew with all my heart I was gunna get one over on you, and then you’d be beggin me to make the nightmares stop.” She sighed. The more she talked, the clearer her head felt and the more coherent her words were. “For Mis Rarity, for Mis Fluttershy, for my sister, and for my friends, I was gunna make you a real pained pony, Twilight Sparkle. That… That was my dream!” She was tearing up now. She jumped forward and hugged herself to Twilight's face. The mare's panicked breathing made her feel calmer, her heart more serene, like Twilight was sucking the pain out of her. “Dang it! Why do ya gotta take the wind outta my sails like this?”

When Iillor reached Twilight, she was confused by the scene she discovered. Twilight was crouching by three sleeping fillies. There was blood on Twilight’s face.

“This is one of the weirder things I’ve ever seen.” She mused, dispelling the magical scythe and her horn formed of darkness.

Smoke and fire were beginning to rise from the field around them. Ponies’ shouts were rising in the distance.

“So…” Iillor cleared her throat. “Should I ask? Or are we going to pretend like this” She waved over the burning wheat. “Didn’t happen.”

Twilight straightened up and Iillor could see her dirty face was streaked with tear trails. “I think I’d be much happier pretending.”

“And the fillies…”

“Eh.” Twilight gently picked up the three fillies with her magic and set them on her back. “Does the name Ancepanox mean anything to you?”

Iillor squinted. “No, can’t say it does.”

“That’s fine then.” Twilight sighed. “If we don’t get to Ponyville right now, I’m probably going to die.”

“That’s sure dramatic.” Iillor backed up to let Twilight pass back to the road. “But, uh, what about this fire?” The heat of the growing blaze was now incredible, as it had consumed half the field and a few of the nearby trees.

Twilight twitched. “Oh, should I have said the part about me dying a bit louder then?” She took a deep breath, held it for an unhealthily long time, and let it out as an angry sputter. “But I guess we’re all just making time here anyway. Just… give me a second to think of the right pattern.”
Twilight screwed her eyes shut. After a moment a subtle pulse of magic emanated from her horn. The wave smothered the fire instantly as it rolled across the field, then dissipated after another few meters.

“Pretty impressive, Twilight.” Iilor whistled.

“It’s a modification of a spell I boil my water with. Though by the look of it I made the counter-vibrations a bit too strong.” Indeed everywhere there had been fire, there was now a sheet of frost. “If I’m going to die, at least I frustrated just one more pony before I go.”

“Okay, what the hell is with this death talk?” Iillor barked.

“I guess I should have said before that the reason Nightmare Moon has been hanging around me is that I can’t survive without her.” Twlilight said quietly, unwilling to face Iillor. “I can’t understand it, but there’s a force inside me that’s ripping me apart. Moon can treat me, for a little while. I was right at the precipice but, uh, the fillies helped me somehow. I genuinely can’t explain it.” Her confusion became tired determination. “Now I have face Nightmare Moon with you and get the answers I need to keep myself alive.”

“Everypony looking for answers. Same as now as way back when.” Iillor took another look at the fillies. Then she felt out the scene with her magic.
Twilight was, as usual, swelling with magic, though significantly diminished for the magical feat she had just done. Her soul, however, looked like it was cracking in a way Iillor had never seen before, but could instantly understand just by the feel of it.
“Hmm. Hmmmmmmmm.” Iillor hummed loudly to herself to keep expressions of shock and profanity pouring out. “HmmMMmmmMMmm.”

Twilight stared at her. “Yes?”

“You’ve, uh, sure got it in a bad way.” Iillor said. She could feel herself tensing up and had to fight to force down the upwelling of aggressive feelings. “Yeah, we really really need to get you to Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight judged by Iillor’s sudden tenseness that the earth pony knew what was wrong.
“Yes. We should be right in range of Ponyville, even with the extra cargo.” Twilight wiggled her shoulders, slightly jostling the fillies on her back. “Then I can maybe not die.” She took a preparatory breath and began charging her horn.

“You’re being pretty morbid.” Iillor scooted up to Twilight and awaited the expanding field of magic to whisk them away.

“Sorry. I didn’t remember my other near death experience so it came as a bit of a shock to me.” Twilight said through gritted teeth. A battle between euphoria and agony played out in her head as she fought to harmonize the teleportation spell just right. “If I’m lucky we might just have a third.”

“We coulda walked the rest of the way.” Iillor pointed out, before the spell completed and tore them out of the world with a loud pop.

One hour Later

Rarity and Fluttershy got all the way to the edge of Ponyville before they ran into other ponies. Unfortunately, it was perhaps the second worst group they could have run into.

Amethyst Star had been the first to spot the unicorn and pegasus cantering up the road from the direction of the Apple Family Farm, still a half-kilometer away. “Hey!” She nudged Carmel. “That’s Rarity and Fluttershy over there!”

Carmel looked to where she was pointing. “That explains why there was nopony at either of their homes.”

“Yeah but why are they coming back from Applejack’s?” Amethyst pondered. “There’s some shenanigans going on here, I’m sure of it!”

“I for one am happy to see Mis Fluttershy is alright.” Carmel said. “Though she doesn’t look that happy. Neither does Mis Rarity.”

In the uncomfortable leadup to contact, the two groups avoided looking anywhere near each other as Rarity and Fluttershy approached.
If there was any doubt there would be a confrontation, it was dispelled when Amethyst stepped into the path once Rarity and her trailing friend were within ten meters.

“Hail, hierophant.” Amethyst bowed. “Doing the rounds? Saving souls?”

“This is a very bad time Mis Star. I promise to listen to what you have to say later.” Rarity said, rushed and shaky.

Amethyst blinked, she was expecting Rarity to have spent time composing herself since the tearful confession in her house. Fluttershy didn’t look very good either, as the little pegasus kept glancing up at the sky. And that made the darker parts of Amethyst’s mind very happy. “Oh, some trouble about? Something gettin to ya? Making you anxious?”

“Rarity are you sure she’d not already infected?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“No darling, Amethyst is simply voicing pent-up snippyness.” Rarity assured her. “There’s much she feels the need to say that can so easily be put off until we’re not urgently busy with this business of ours.

Amethyst giggled. That was more like the Rarity she knew. “Heya Fluttershy. Doing alright?”

“Um, I guess so.” Fluttershy said softly.

“Could you come a bit closer? I can’t hear you that well.”

“Um, no, not really.” Fluttershy shuffled off the side of the path. “Rarity… I…” She gulped. “I have to leave you to this. I’m sorry. I have to find Twilight.”

“Oooh, is somepony on a first name basis with the Viscountess? We know what you’ve been doing all night, huh?” Amethyst tittered, but she sobered when she saw Fluttershy galloping away. “Oh common Fluttershy! I didn’t mean it! Grr, damn it!” She stamped her hooves. “You’ve made a real mess of things Rarity!”

Rarity knew she could rely on Fluttershy to a certain limited extent, so she could feasibly take a moment to talk Amethyst down and not totally ruin their relationship. Thankfully there was one unparalleled trump card that happened to be true in that situation. “Amethyst Star… I…” She didn’t have to try very hard to sound torn up, like a poor filly losing her composure under a mountain of worry, because that really was how she was feeling. “Have you seen Sweetie Belle anywhere?”

The effect was immediate. Amethyst Star went from standoffish to horrified at herself, and her gaze sunk to the ground as she hung her head.

Carmel lept forward with questions. “Sweetie’s missing?!”

“She went off to play and now she and her friends are missing. Are they in town? Has anypony mentioned them?” Rarity asked, pleading. Always, she was careful to keep at least a two meter distance from the other ponies, though she wondered if in that moment of tenseness the nightmare inside her hadn’t already jumped to Amethyst.

“We’ll all ask around. I know Cherry Fizzy and a couple of the other guys are at the bakery right now. We can combe Ponyville and the surrounding farms.” Carmel said. “Is that, uh, why you needed to get to Lady Sparkle?”

Rarity quickly though of a plausible explanation and nodded. “She’s got to know a filly finding spell or two.”

“Don’t you know it. Hooya baby!” Amethyst cackled under her breath.

Carmel looked at his freind, aghast. “The hell, Star?! There’s children in danger!”

“Oh mama, you want to know who’s in danger?” When Amethyst lifted her eyes the black tinges were already beginning to show. Her lips curled back in a sneer. “Rarity darling, where’s Cherry Berry? Why don’t you tell us what you did with Cherry Berry.”

“Star?” Carmel twitched, and his jaw fell open a bit. “Uuuu.” He groaned. Black swirls began to form in his eyes as well. “T- That is a pretty good question…. Rarity, where’s Cherry Berry? What did you do to our friend?”

“Oh shoot.” Rarity backed away slowly, as the two infected ponies took an equal number of steps forward. “I don’t want to test if the nightmare is willing to destroy me and thus herself, so I must bid my current acquaintance with you an abrupt adieu.”

“Not so fast Rarity!” Amethyst Star leapt at her.

Rarity struck out with her hoof, but unlike when she had fought hoof-to-hoof with Ancepanox, she was no longer as tall as an alicorn and brimming with nightmare power. Amethyst barreled over her and sent her flying off the road.
Rarity jumped to her hooves and brushed the dirt off her nose. “How unladylike!”

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me where Cherry is!” Amethyst swaggered back and forth above her. “Don’t make me hit you again.”

Caramel, who was not as predisposed to conflict as Amethyst hung back. “Mis Rarity we’d really like to know where Cherry is.”

Rarity was coming to realize that she would not be saving Ponyville when two upset ponies was all it took to stop her. A flicker of temptation crossed her mind, reminding her that a greater power could trivialize such pitiful ponies. Rarity almost considered the nightmare’s offer.
“What are you to go when I tell you, Mis Star?” Rarity demanded. “Do you really care where Cherry Berry is or is it the nightmare telling you to care?”

“Of course I care!” Amethyst spat.

“Well in that case I can comfortably tell you that she’s at Fluttershy’s house.” Rarity smiled nervously. “So long then.”

She turned tail and galloped back across the fields towards the Apple family Farm, the other two ponies hot on her heels.

“I can feel the nightmare around here, like a hole my magic shouldn’t touch, but I’m not sure it’s Nightmare Moon.” Twilight whispered. “If she were near, I would be able to tell immediately. But she’s not. It’s just vague… vague nightmare-esk auras.”

“I constantly fluctuate between considering you indispensable and incapable.” Iillor joked mirthlessly.

“Yeah…” Twilight coughed and return to her observations.

Her group teleportation spell had taken them two feet above the floor in the Golden Oak, so they'd tumbled ungracefully into the stack of books Spike had organized earlier in the day. Explaining nothing, Twilight had passed the fillies off to her draconic housemate’s care and rushed into town with Iillor.

They slunk around the village’s streets and open areas, trying to pinpoint Nightmare Moon’s position.

“Are you sure she’s even here?” Iillor whispered. “I thought you told me you hadn’t felt her all morning.”

“Yes I said that.”

“What then?”

“Everypony said Rarity was last seen here at the market square, talking to Roseluck over there.” Twilight pointed to the strawberry-maned earth pony with the pale yellow coat behind the fruit stall. “Though I’m pretty sure that’s somepony else’s stall. Cherry somethin?”

“Ah, the mystery slowly comes together.” Iillor nodded.

“Shut up unless you have some other idea.”

Iillor smirked. “I might have a couple.”

Twilight felt the early signs of another attack, as the indescribable whine in her ears picked up volume. “You joke, but we’re on the brink of all mysteries being stripped away. I’m right at the edge of remembering what happened during the Eternal Night. I can feel it, like shapes through opaque glass. The fillies were there. I’m sure the fillies were there.”

“Glad to know there was a reason you knocked them out, and it’s not just a thing you like to do.”

Twilight shifted uneasily. “Look, all I want is my friend's and my safety. Right now Nightmare Moon is the only one who can help me with that.”

“And she’s going to save you quid pro quo, or pro bono?”

“All I can do is talk to her.” Twilight said. “I have a message, about Celestia’s last dream-”

“I’m sure the Nightmare of the Moon will be very stirred by the message of personal progress and social eudemonia.”

“That’s a big-girl word. Learn that in university?” Twilight hissed at the sarcastic earth pony.

“Nah. An old friend taught me that one.” Iillor chuckled to herself.

“I see.” Twilight said. As helplessness and fear once again began to stab into her heart her thought became strange and delirious.
Am I being set up, Twilight wondered to herself. Am I going to wade out into that crowd and die like the protagonist of some half-bit writer’s nihilistic theater play? If it could have but one tenth of the meaning and power of Celestia’s certainly glorious death, Twilight would be content.
“Mis Iillor, you know what’s wrong with me, don’t you?”

“Ehh, it recognize it a little, and you would too with a little cleverness.” Iillor rubbed Twilight’s side through her cloak. “Come on Sparky, you like puzzles, right? Take your mind off your imminent death, and think it through.”

“I‘ve done nothing but think it through since I awoke! My books nor my memories nor the stars above have any answers for me!” Twilight spat at her. “What do you want here? You want to see me die?”

“No, of course not.” Iillor was starting to feel giddy again. Even with the chances of of seeing Nightmare Moon dwindling, the chance of a real spectacle were improving. The Twilight-Bright family never disappointed. “I really like you, Twilight. I want to see you succeed. There’s nothing sweeter than seeing someone strive against adversity.”

“T- This is a game to you?!”

“It has game-like aspects.” Iillor chortled. “Twilight, good pal, I know your predicament is not your fault, but this whole situation tickles me in a way like you would not believe. Me and your brother ended up in a similar predicament, going down to face off with Guildmistress Phyte.”

“Who’s Phyte?” Twilight asked.

“A Star.” Iillor said. “By the way you’ve got a bit of blood on your face.”

“I have blood on my face?” Twilight was losing the ability to concentrate. She wiped her nose on the top of her forehoof in a long red smear. “This is my blood.” She looked at the blood for a long moment. “Who did you way Phyte was again?”

“A Star.”

“I see…” Twilight dropped her hoof and trotted out into the market.

Iillor giggled under her breath and followed. “Here we go.”

~~~~

Fluttershy arrived on the other end of the market square just in time to see Twilight Sparkle leave the cover of the ally. The purple unicorn trotted slowly in her direction, talking nonchalantly with a black-furred earth pony.

“Oh thank goodness we’re not too late.” Fluttershy sighed. “But wait, that’s Illustrious Valor she’s with. I…” She hesitated. She was drawing a blank on what if anything Nightmare Moon ha said should be done when engaging with Iillor.

That hesitation proved to be a terrible mistake. Beelining towards Twilight and Iillor from the fruit stalls was Rose, clutching a small but sharp fruit knife in her hoof. With fatal speed, Rose hurled herself on the unsuspecting unicorn and stabbed downward with the knife.

Fluttershy squeaked soundlessly, unable to believe what she was seeing. Blood spurted and splattered across the market. Shoppers and solicitors at their stalls screamed and scattered, while a daring mare and stallion pulled Rose off Twilight and restrained her. It was all too late. Roseluck wasn’t resisting, or even moving much at all. Twilight, with Iillor hovering over her, lay motionless on the pavers where she’d fallen.

Now that the flurry of action was over, a crowd formed at around Fluttershy's distance. Everypony was mute, uncomprehending. Had there really been a murder in Ponyville?

“You can’t be angry, hateful, or sad right now.” Fluttershy whimpered to herself. She had to be determined. Against her every skittish instinct she approached the wounded unicorn. She hoped and prayed there was something she could do.

“No, removing it now would be a very bad idea.”
That was Twilight’s voice!

Fluttershy shoved Iillor out of the way so she could look at Twilight.
The little purple unicorn stared up, surprise momentarily overriding her grimace. “Mis Fluttershy?”

Roseluck’s knife was still sticking out of her shoulder. Every heartbeat produced another small spurt of blood, but it looked like nothing vital had been hit.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy kneeled by her, but hid her face behind a wing to hide her tears. “You’re alright!”

“Flower venders don’t make the best assassins, so it seems.” Twilight said. She craned her neck around to try to talk to the ponies holding the limp Roseluck. “Please don’t hurt her. I want to talk to her later.”

“AHEM.” A voice said. Fluttershy turned to see a rather irritated Iillor. “Who are you?”

“I’m, um, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy blushed. “Sorry for pushing you.”

“We’re all a bit stressed.” Iillor waved it away but by her glare she wasn’t as quick to forgive as she said.

“Hey, still bleeding here.” Twilight motioned to the knife with her eyes. “Somepony please call for a doctor.”

‘You can’t be angry, hateful, or sad right now.’ Fluttershy repeated to herself.
She grabbed a leather belt, a pair of tweezers, and a bucket of water from the nearby market stalls.
“Twilight, can you feel your hoof?”

“Yeah, but not in between my ankle and shoulder. That means my, uhh, median nerve is cut.” Twilight looked over Fluttershy’s supplies wearily. “Not that I don’t trust you but I would prefer a hospital setting.”

“Ponyville hospital is destroyed.” Fluttershy reminded her. “I’m going to reconnect your nerve. That will be enough, right?”

“Enough to get my magic back into my leg, if that’s what you’re asking.” Twilight confirmed.

Fluttershy had attended to animals with badly cut ankles on several occasions, and though the cut promised to be cleaner it looked like there was going to be a lot more blood. “Do you have a any blood pressure problems, Twilight?”

“Usually no. After this I might be on the low siiiii!!!!” Twilight sentence disolved into a pained squeal as Fluttershy tightened the belt above the stab as a form of tunicate. “Gah! Holy Celestia that hurts!”

“As much as getting stabbed?” Iillor asked.

Fluttershy worked quickly. She used the water to wash the wound as she slowly removed the knife. Circulation was mostly cut off thanks to the tunicate, but she still had to wash periodically as she carefully used the tweezers to root around in the tissue. The cut was indeed very clean and both ends of the severed median nerve were found quickly.

Twilight was a very good patient, but Fluttershy discovered that was because she had passed out after the tourniquet was tightened.
“I have to wake her up if her breathing becomes too shallow.”

Iillor snorted from her spot on the sidelines. “GIve Twilie a break. She’s had a rough day.”

“I don’t want her to go into shock, but I don’t want her to suffer either.” Fluttershy sighed, as she ever-so-carefully brought the nerve back together. “Could somepony please run to Rarity’s house and bring back the smallest needle and thinnest thread that she has? Please?”

Cherry Fizzy, who was in the crowd, volunteered and dashed off to fulfill the request. He returned promptly and Fluttershy sewed the nerve back together. For good measure she also rejoined the larger blood vessels but it was doubtful the little makeshift sutures could hold them together without some magical healing.
“Twilight.” Fluttershy roused the unicorn. “How are you? Can you be moved?”

Twilight very slowly roused, the the crowd pressed closer, breath bated.

“Hey, how about you give us a little space here!” IIlor began pushing them back. “It’s not a gallery without a little space for the surgeon, dig?” The ponyvillians reluctantly swallowed their curiosity and backed a fair bit away. Enough, Iillor judged, to talk to Twilight with them hearing much.

After a short while Twilight regained full consciousness. When she was finally speaking coherently it was not to Fluttershy, but Iillor. “Hey. Where’d they take that pony.”

“The one who stabbed you? Town hall looked like.”

“There’s a small unused cellar there.” Fluttershy confirmed sadly. “That’s where they’ll lock Rose until everything can be sorted out.” Rose wasn’t an especially close friend, but it pained Fluttershy greatly to know the mare would suffer so badly for something that wasn’t her fault. Maybe Twilight would understand their explanations about the nightmare, if they dared speak them.

“Mis Illor, make sure they don’t hurt her. Check if she’s cleared up too, if they let you in with her.” Twilight said.

“I’ll make up some bs about being there on the duke’s behalf.” Iillor giggled. “But I’ve just gotta ask… How did it feel?”

“How did what feel?” Twilight asked evasively, trying to hide little glances at Fluttershy.

Iillor leaned over her. “Imbibing from her.”

Twilight’s lip trembled. “Just go. I’ve got to concentrate on the spell.”

“What spell.” Fluttershy asked.
That question was very promptly answered when she and Twilight disappeared in a purple teleportation burst.

They reappeared in the Golden Oak, but this time Twilight had accounted for altitude and deposed herself right on the downstairs couch, and Fluttershy right beside.

Fluttershy retched. She had not been expecting to be moved so quickly. It made her very cross everytime Nightmare Moon had teleported her without permission, but she could forgive the wounded Twilight for her haste. “P- please warn me next time. I- I don’t feel so good.”

Twilight wasn’t listening. “Never mind that now. Healing spells are really damn complicated, which is why almost nopony memorizes beyond first aid. I need you to find the Vascular Healing and the Neurological Healing spellbooks.” Twilight explained. She cleared her throat weakly. “Uh, actually get Spike from upstairs and tell him.”

Fluttershy drowsily got to her feet and plodded upstairs. “Sir Spike?” She called to the closed bedroom door.

A few seconds later Spike’s spined head popped out from the room. “Oh hey Mis Fluttershy! I’m sorry but this is a bad time.”

“Twilight is downstairs. She needs you to find some books.” Fluttershy said, then deciding that didn’t bely the urgency of the situation, added. “She’s hurt and needs healing spells!”

Spike’s eyes widened. He threw open the door fully and rushed to the stair. “I’m coming Twilight!”

Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to do from there so she stood in place, listening to Twilight repeat the instructions to Spike. As Spike was digging through the bookcases, Twilight beckoned her back.
“Mis Fluttershy, you saved my life, and for that I owe you a great debt.” Twilight said. “It’s true another pony might have stepped forward, but that it was you matters to me a great deal. I…” Twilight sighed. “I haven’t recovered all my memories of what happened during the Eternal Night, but I can recall a powerful moment of emotion between us that ended horribly. I did something to wrong you. In fact, I’m coming to believe I did something bad to a great number of ponies.”

“W- What makes you think that?” Fluttershy whispered. According to Nightmare Moon, Twilight wasn’t supposed to ever remember being under the nightmare power’s sway. Was something going wrong?

“I’ll let you go in my room and see for yourself.” Twilight said. She let Fluttershy get a few steps away before called out. “Wake them if you can, please. It’s unhealthy for them to stay knocked-out.”

Fluttershy dutifully climbed the stairs again and entered the bedroom. Laid across Twilight’s bed were the three fillies, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom. They were awake, but unresponsive as they stared into distant points of space, their eyes dilated and their ears splayed back.

“Oh my.” Fluttershy whimpered. She cautiously approached and knelt by the bed. “Girls?” She whispered to them. “What happened? Oh you made us so scared!”

Apple Bloom moved her head ever-so-slightly towards Fluttershy. “Some thangs weren’t meant to be. Try ta reach fer the sky, and you’ll fall every time. It’s like…” Her face scrunched in confusion. “Sweetie help me out.”

“Thematic repetition.” Sweetie supplied distantly.

“Thanks Sweetie.” Apple Bloom nodded.

‘Shut up you two.” Scootaloo closed her eyes. “What’s a bratty filly like you going to reach anyway. The doorknob?”

“It don’t hurt to try. Well actually it do, a lot.” Apple Bloom said. “Anyhow Mis Fluttershy, you be careful. An tell my sister I’m sorry for worrin her.” The little filly curled up a bit more. “Could ya leave please? Yer being too loud. Our heads are throbbing. Too sensitive...”

Fluttershy silently retreated from the room and closed it behind her.
Downstairs, Twilight was reading from a heavy medical textbook, while her horn glowed a dull purple that matched a sheen around her shoulder.

Spike sat to the side, resting after his haste to get the books. “This part takes a while.” He explained. “Want some tea?”

Fluttershy’s mind flashed to Nightmare Moon and company huddled around her living room and tea set. “Umm, no thank you.”

“Twilight said you saved her life. Is that true?”

“A, uhh, crazed pony stabbed her. I reconnected the nerves and arteries.” Fluttershy said. And if I had been faster she wouldn’t have been stabbed, she thought but did not say.

“That’s cool! I thought about being a doctor. Twilight tells me I’d be a really good surgeon with my dexterous manipulating claws.” Spike twiddled his clawed fingers demonstratively. “I don’t even know how non-unicorns do that kind of precise stuff.”

“With practice.” Fluttershy said. “Not every time I tried to help my animal friends went well at first. I felt so bad that I not only couldn’t help, but I’d made it worse. I spent a lot of time at the hospital following whatever doctor was working. That was, um, before the hospital blew up.”

“So I assumed.” Spike smirked. “But man, that’s so cool, saving Twilight life. You know, you could probably ask her for something like a knighthood and she’d have to say yes. You’d be Sir Fluttershy! No, Madam Fluttershy!”

“Don’t spread misinformation Spike.” Twilight said from her place on the couch. “Madam derived from Prench ‘ma dame’, essentially ‘my lady’. Dame Fluttershy is the appropriate title- Uhh, err, would be the appropriate title, I mean.” She glanced away, flustered, then went back to casting the healing spell.

“Typical Twilight, more concerned with criticizing me than with her own health.” Spike rolled his eyes. “So, if not tea is there anything you want, like cookies or sandwiches? I guess you don’t have to stay if you don’t want. Twilight got all the healing stuff from here.”

Fluttershy knew she should leave. If Ancepanox came back and caught her socializing with Twilight without permission, not even the guilty undertones between them could prevent a serious outburst and maybe violence. Judging on how bad Rarity had gotten it when she’d crossed the line, Moon’s protectiveness was backed up by a smattering of paranoia.

“She’s not coming back, you know.” Twilight spoke up.

“Huh?” Fluttershy blinked.

“Nightmare Moon, Ancepanox, whatever she calls herself. She's done with us. She doesn’t have a reason to stay in Ponyville so she left.” Twilight said. “That, and it’s starting to become dangerous for her here.”

“Dangerous?” Fluttershy couldn’t image anything that could get close to touching Ancepanox. As Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash had described to her in hushed whispers, the black alicorn had all but slaughtered Celestia, her sister Luna, and the manifestation of the Dark Lady. What upon the Bright World could contest a creature that had living and cosmic gods under her belt? “Lady Sparkle, are you sure you know what you’re talking about?”

“Let me put it this way. Sometimes I look into the flow of the magical world around us, and I marvel at its possibilities. It’s ponykind’s burden to find the right pattern, expression, emotion, or dream to shape magic into what we need. And ultimately, it is exactly what we need. Magic is the answer to our problems. The rest is all differences in the intonation.” Twilight rambled. “So you see, that I have become something that is not quite pony anymore is just the, um, manifestation of the answer to what I need. Mis Fluttershy, I don’t think I will ever be able to survive without hunting dreams. If I stop, everything inside me will begin to wither and die. But it is up to me, and only me, to choose the kind of dream I hunt to predate, and the kind I chase to fulfill.”

Fluttershy’s stomach sank as she heard the dour confession, but by the end returned to a cautious optimism. “Twilight, as much as I hope you can, nopony can control the nightmare. You purge it, it takes you over, or you become it.”

Twilight smiled apologetically. “There’s no parasitic dream inside me. I’m no nightmare.” Her horn flared its last spark of light and the spell around her shoulder faded. Twilight worked her leg experimentally, but winced. When she stood up she was careful to keep her weight off her wounded leg. “As Pinkie Pie or Mis Iillor might attest, I’m closer to a class creature known as a Star. I can accept parasitic dreams and pony dreams both. So, yeah… I can eat nightmares.”

Fluttershy said nothing.

Twilight’s sad smile curled up in mild panic. “Please please don’t think less of me. I can to do the right thing, I promise! The fillies and Roseluck had some kind of nightmareism controlling them and I healed it! I’m not a monster. I- I promise I’m not a monster. I want to live a normal life despite this affliction. I can control my needs.”

You can’t be angry, hateful, or sad right now. Fluttershy shivered. What if she did believe Twilight? Then she would be trading one abhorrent patron for another. At least Nightmare Moon could defend herself and her followers. What did Twilight Sparkle have? What could she do for Ponyville and ponykind? “I’m sorry, Lady Twilight, but how do you know that?”

Twilight sighed and limped to the window. She looked out into a world illuminated by the midday sun, warm and bright, which would always be a reminder of the princess who had loved and protected them.
But in the shadows of the houses and trees she saw accusing eyes staring back at her, purple eyes turned golden and bright. The message of Celestia's Revenge was never going to let itself be forgotten, even if Twilight Sparkle wasn't ready to tell it. Twilight blinked and the mirages faded.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Fluttershy, I believe in a dream…”

Chapter 52: Tonight we Run Til Dawn

A plain of infinite light stretched in every direction around Shining Armor. He sat up a bit, trying to find a feature or point on the horizon that broke from the endless monotony of the landscape.

“Oh, this place again.” He mumbled. “It’s not as bright at last time.”

The sun shown down on him from the vast sky. It’s light, so bright as to be solid, fell like rain.
Shining waited until a shimmer split the air, and a ghostly shape stepped into the world. A mirage in a vaguely pony form, it stood at about Celestia’s height relative to Shining, but with a twisting, ever-changing silhouette.

“So, here you are. Do you taunt me, entering this dream again?” The shape asked, its voice deep and masculine. That was a surprising change of pace. All the previous times, it had spoken with a female voice.

Shining shrugged. “I’m not doing it intentionally.”

“Yes you are.” The voice accused flatly. “You keep reading that book. For a pony who has reached for the truth and had his comfortable life shattered for it, you are remarkably persistent.”

Shining said nothing to that. Though his faith in many things had been rattled apart, going out of his way to insult god was still something he was unwilling to do.
“Should I leave?”

“That would be for the best.” The mirage said. “Yet, we both know you will be returning.”

“If you say so.” Shining grunted. He stood up. “So, until then-”

He opened his eyes. A single ray of light had found its way through the forest canopy above him to shining directly on his face to welcome him back to the waking world.
“Until the next tonight, my lady.” He whispered. He rolled to his side, eyes briefly settling on his saddlebag, and a book poking out of the flap.
But he didn't linger. The rest of the camp was starting to wake up. Another day, more work to do. Such were his responsibilities as captain.

Through the thick forests hugging the Crystal River a thunder could be heard. They sky was clear and blue, a reflection of the cool river under it, but the makings of a storm was rolling to its Southeast.

Captain Shining Armor and his retinue looked more like a heathen warband than the most prestigious and trained fighting force in Equestria. They were haggard with untrimmed whiskers and fetlocks. Their manes were long, matted, and tied up various ways. They’re eyes were universally sullen, darting around to scan every detail of the forest as they galloped past. Their pristine plate armor had been lightened down to just a gambeson, and their hefty longswords were left behind for bows and shortswords.

Who were they now, Shining Armor wondered. Still the Imperial Household Guard? They were not imperial, nor attached to any household, nor guards besides from guards of their own person. They had ditched the associations of Canterlot, the gleaming visage, the pomp and prestige. What had they become? Just knights. Just ponies with swords.

The band, roughly two dozen, continued at their breakneck pace with no lagging for hours, until the trees thinned out and they saw a collection of hovels. The village hugged the Crystal River, with farms and vegetable gardens radiating out in a semicircle. Slightly separated from the village was a larger two-story building.

“That’s the local lord’s manor.” Shining Armor pointed to the larger house.

The young stallion was dressed slightly differently from his knights. He wore much thinner fabric armor and a sleek saddlebag, containing a few books, folded parchment: More a scholar’s pack than a knight’s. His mane and tail were still trimmed to regulation, but he wore no weapon.
He gestured to everypony to gather round, and the formation pulled in. The two pegasus of their group, who had been circling discretely, landed in a tree above them.

“We’re getting closer to Four Fords, and there is going to be a continuous line of settlement from hereon. Good news since I was getting tired of trees. Bad news since we won’t have to forest to cover us anymore.” Shining Armor grinned. “Let’s visit the lord here and see if we can arrange a deal for supplies. If not…” He cleared his throat. “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to unpleasantries again.”

The knights murmured in agreement.

“Half of you stay here behind the treeline. No need for concealment but be coy about your numbers.” Shining waved toward the village. “The rest come with me.”

The knights obeyed, splitting up wordlessly and moving to their position. Shining Armor and the dozen with him moved quick and cautiously into the village. The villagers in the fields and in the dirt streets took one look at the rag-tag group and ran shrieking for their homes.

“Think we have a reputation or they’re just paranoid?” One of the knights asked.

“Paranoid.” Another mused.

“They don’t have to be either.” A third said. “They either think we’re bandits, or we’re soldiers here to stop bandits. Both come down hard on villages like these. Penny hasn’t dropped yet on which we resemble more.” There was a grave silence for a moment. “It’s a difficult call.”

“Cut the fashion chatter.” Shining ordered.

They arrived on the threshold of the lord’s manor, a two-story stone structure very much in keeping with the Riverpony style: It was built of grey stone bricks of various sizes with canal tile style roof.
However it was immediately evident that things were not as pastorally peaceful as it had seemed from a distance. The door of the manor was broken in half on the ground, and the interior was stained like it had been exposed to the elements for a week at least.

“Somepony’s been through here roughshod.” A knight stated the obvious.

“Not bandits obviously, unless they were class-conscious bandits. The village looked completely intact.” Shining Armor noted. He stood in the doorway and looked around. Whoever had attacked the manor was eager to destroy rather than steal, for broken silver lanterns, shattered sculptures, and shredded paintings littered the entryway and foyer rooms. “I don’t think it was villagers either. If I had to guess, a rival knightly house did this.”
He turned back to his knights. “You two, scrounge around in here for anything useful. Everypony else go through the village. Get the details of the attack, and if you see anything that they might have taken from the manor, see if you can persuade them to surrender it.” He waited for the chorus of affirmation before continuing. “We’re are apparently going to be running into some rough and ready knights. Having more silver on hoof to buy passage might be useful.”

“Any punishments?”

“No. The villagers may have looted the manor afterwards, but they weren't responsible.” Shining said. “This village is lucky to have its fields and houses intact. They won’t be too upset to hand over some fancy furnishings.”

The knights dispersed as ordered, two into the manor and the rest into the village. One of the pegasi from the knights he’d left in the forest descended to the ground in front of Shining. It happened to be Flash Sentry, the awkward novice who’d nearly gotten himself killed in Canterlot. He was genuine fellow, if clueless a good deal of the time. “Hey captain! Squad in the trees has requested to know if it’s safe.”

“Safe enough yes. They can join in searching the village.” Shining nodded. “It’s looking like we’re close enough to civilization that the violence has gone civilized too. Some knights ransacked the manor but left the village alone.”

“Better than the heaps of ash we’ve been slogging through so far.” Flash agreed. “But I’ve gotta ask captain, can we face knights? We left the plate mail with the caravan.”

“The thought crossed my mind. This place is a lot more densely populated than the Denish lands. This won’t be some stuck up sod in a rusty suit of armor. We’re going to be looking at at least a dozen hussars, if I had to guess.” Shining nodded his head towards the manor. “But Celestia willing they’ll be open to a bargain or something.”

“Should I tell the squad all of that or…”

“Tell them to get in here and help clear the village.” Shining smiled thinly. “Now get on it!”

Flash saluted and galloped into the air.

Shining Armor let out a long breath. He was alone. He took off his saddlebag sat against the wall. He had a couple minutes before anypony reported back.

It had been hard going the last few weeks. The Imperial Household Guard had left Canterlot as quickly as possible with no real clue about their final destination, until Manered and Fancy Pants suggested they make for the Foal Mountains, where Foaly Flux’s subjects would be willing and able to shelter his great nephew. The fall of the Eternal Night had made their mountainous first leg of the journey fraught with anxiety. The thin mountain road, winding south then east from Canterlot into the Riverpony Lands, was on the very edge of the Everfree Forest, and its denizens had made frequent showing of themselves, howling and shrieking their horrible litanies up to the brilliant moon above. Thankfully nopony in the caravan had suffered anything more severe than a little scare.

However arriving in the forested Western edges of the Riverpony Lands, kown as Denish, The IHG party had discovered that the struggle ahead would not be against nature, but other ponies. Every village they had passed by had closed their doors to the caravan, and some of the knights had even tried to stop them to demand a tribute. That behavior was unheard of in Equestria, for free passage was one of the most strictly enforced laws of the empire. Shining Armor had not been amused: More than one manor had been looted for much needed supplies, leaving the presumptuous robber barons well humiliated.

Once they reached the Crystal River though, the scope of the problem revealed itself to be much greater than Shining Armor thought. The caravan passed through village after village along the river and found them sacked and burned. Banditry and raiding had run rampant over the Eternal Night, and the knights over the area were either retreating into the larger holdfasts or participating.

It wasn’t long before the caravan encountered one of the bandit bands, as the villains attempted to raid their camp a few days after the sun returned. Of course the untrained peasants-cum-brigands could not have chosen a worse target, and the knights easily scattered the attack. To Shining Armor’s disgust, the bandits were from a bandit-ravaged village they had just passed through.
He hadn’t know what to think: Yes, the villagers were desperate, but their village’s misfortune hadn’t been Shining’s fault. They should have been focussing on rebuilding. Apparently they had taken a lesson and discovered it easier to steal and cause hardship than to create.
Shining left the bandit’s fate to Fancy Pants, and the former vizier let them go. Shining tried not to think about it.

Shining had been trying not to think about many, many things. Being in charge of nearly two-hundred knights, their families, and a dozen wagons full of belongings was a strain he was not prepared for. Back in Canterlot the Imperial Household Guard had a support staff in the hundreds. There were no amenities in the mountains and forests between Canterlot and the Crystal River. There was no reprieve from the elements, the sky above, and the fear.

The fears were everywhere. Leading too the equivalent of a village’s worth of civilians, the husbands, wives, and foals of the knights, Shining had heard waves of rumors and whispers pass through the caravan. They ranged from dismal to apocalyptic. Nopony know what was happening in Canterlot, except that they needed to be as far away as possible. The rest of Equestria, however, had been less than accepting.
Shining feared. He feared a great deal. Was he doing the right thing, trying to lead the knights to the Foal Mountains? Or was there nothing but peril and misery in store for them? He wasn’t as crassly iron as Hauseway had been, nor as charismatic, disciplinary, or as physically strong as his position needed. He felt like he was running on the fumes of the respect the Household Guard felt for him. How long before he ticked somepony off, and dissent began to spread? There was only a thin hair between the ruggedness and informality the knights had begun to adopt, and total indiscipline.

“Speaking of fear, let’s have a look at you again.”
He pulled the book out of his saddlebag. It had a plain cover, but was quite well made. Nopony would think much of it, if they didn’t know Shining had pilfered it from his mother’s library during the IHG’s brief occupation of Chateau la Guarde.

Shining flipped it to the page of his bookmark. The left page was brightly illustrated with cosmological symbols, arranged in nonsensical patterns. The right page was mostly text, through a carefully etched eye, with lace eyelashes and a strange pupil, occupied the middle.

“I wish I had the bravery to try poppy or hemp-seed. The boys in the Canterlot coffee houses were always saying how good it made them feel.” Shining mumbled to himself, his eyes wandering the page with the same intensity that the patterns stated back out at him.
“There are many ways to search for god. I think I would have been more comfortable if my search hadn’t succeeded.”

Going through this book, one of dozens he had stolen from his mother’s collection, was a trying mystery. It was not in equestrian or any other language he knew, yet whenever he stared at the symbols a strange sort of silent overtook his thoughts. It was peaceful. No, maybe not peaceful; It was sedate.
It had terrified him the first time, as he had done it very much on accident, but the book alleviated the fear and anxiety so completely he could not well keep away. What had been a much, much worse shock had been the dream afterward: The plain of white, the sky, the sun, and the mirage. That other world… Ponykind was never meant to even know of its existence. But somepony HAD discovered it, and put it into writing.
That’s what the book was. Another world, put in writing.

He found it worked best when it was night and the moon was directly overhead, but for the past few days he had opened the book at every free moment, sickly eager to be once again engrossed by the numbing illuminations of the ancient text. It was a waking dream, and like a dream it didn’t always make sense.

As he looked upon the left page, of painstakingly drawn stars, planets, comets, constellations, and pointless lines between them all, he felt lightheaded overtake him. He felt like the wall behind him disappear, and the ground beneath him twist and shrink until it was like he was sitting on a bubble in an endless void. It felt good. He wasn’t afraid anymore. He dare not take his eyes of the page to verify if he had actually been cast into the stellar depths, for sparks of light shot off the paper, becoming fuzzy balls of light hanging in space with him. That was new. Magical lines flowed between the balls them, connecting the starscape through a continuously branching, rotting, then regrowing network of thin magical beams.

The unreadable words read themselves to him.

“I sat alone on the last shred of the land I had walked, overlooking a hundred planets hurtle through the cosmos around me. The heavenly bodies burned with lights of yellow, green, blue, red, and color without reason. The heavenly bodies sent off golden rays which intersected around swirls of black and white. Behind the planets I saw the emptiness of space broken up by a billion stars, and a spiraling void of fuzzy violet.
A red pegasus flew through the void, and came to a stop above me and my island. It had no face, but its skull was also red. In one hoof it held two arrows, and in the other it held one. Trills, booms, and rings filled space around me, and a smooth voice instructed me with three melodic notes, repeated over and over.
I stood up, and upon my head there fell a golden helmet. My face was covered down to my nose, yet I discovered I could see more than ever before. I reached up too feel the dozens of thin eye slits cut into the metal and found that I could not pull it off.
The pegasus gave me the one arrow but kept the two for itself. I reached into the void and pulled out my bow, a construct of gold and violet, strung with golden filament. I notched the arrow, but the pegasus had disappeared. Instead I saw the golden rays coursing off the planets begin to bend and form shapes. The convex curves met at sharp points, creating a massive spiked ovoid shape from the outline. I did not understand, until a seam ran down the shape in space, and split apart, to reveal the interior. The ovoid and the seams pulled open farther, until the great eye was fully opened.”

Shining slammed the book shut and closed his eyes. That had been the most intense experience yet by far. His skin tingled.
“Buck me.” He said, shaking. “This is going to kill me.” That excited him.

He lay his head against the wall and let his breathing return to normal. The words he had felt reverberated through his head, until they faded with his shivers.

“Nopony has any business with this thing. I have no business intruding on god’s dream.” Shining hugged the book tightened against his chest. “I wish I had Twilight here. She could tell me what these things mean- no, I shouldn’t wish that. Twilie would hate me.”
He could only suspect, but some of the other pages hinter that it had been an ancestor of house Twilight that had made the book. Had they ever used it? Had god talked to them as it had him, or, with Celestia still alive, had it destroyed them for their heresy?

The books were works of blasphemers and evil heretics. Twilight was too pure for that tainted legacy. A month ago, Shining would have thought himself above such vile wretchedness too, but he could not stop himself. It made him feel good.
It made sense, if he was right about his assumption and an ancient member of the Twilight dynasty had made the book. It was fined tuned to the family’s magic. It was plainly bound poppy, made just for him.
“Only from the fulfillment of one’s destiny can true peace be found.” Shining recited the old Celstianist verse. “And only from the light of the sun and her daughter does destiny flow.”

Maybe that was all still true. Shining definitely wasn’t feeling peaceful.

“By the end of this I’ll be able to go back to Prosser and give him a pointless riddle to fuss over. Turnabout’s fair.” Shining laughed quietly to himself. Oh, he could not imagine the kinds of things Prosser would say in the presence of god.

The story on that page wasn’t complete. There was more to that world of planets, space, and color that the book had to tell him. He glanced at the next page with the script and the delicate eye, but it did not pull him in like the one he’d just read. That was fine. Some pages needed more concentration that others.
Withstanding the urge to keep reading, Shining shut the book. Fuzzy and pleasant though he may have felt, he drained by the experience. He had more hours of galloping ahead if his knightly band was going to make it to Four Fords in a timely manner.
Besides, he had to save future pages for his future self, lest he exaust it. He did not want to give up his path to god quite yet.

Shining wasn’t entirely certain how long had passed since he opened the book, as it had stolen whole hours into seconds before. Thankfully it seemed to only have been a few minutes this time. He put the book back in his saddlebag and rolled to his hooves.

He trotted towards the village to check if any useful information had been gathered, but he stopped mid stride when an unexpected sound made his ears flick.

“Tico tico tic, tico tico tac, tico tico tico tico ta…” A gentle voice carried down from above him, accompanied by a warm melody. “Tico Tico tac, tem que se alimentar…”
Shining Armor shaded his eyes and scanned around to see where the strange music was coming from.

A grey unicorn mare sat on the edge of the manor house’s roof, a guitar cradled in her hooves. She hummed as she strummed, occasionally adding lyrics where she remembered them. “O tico tico tac, ta outra veh aqui…”

“Hey!” Shining shouted through cupped hooves. “Hey, you on the roof!”

“Hmm, hmm hmm…” The mare continued to hum to herself as she lay the guitar aside, then looked down at shining. “Hello sir. A fellow unicorn I see. Are you passing through the Riverpony Land on your way east or west?” She had the tinges of a Foal Mountains accent.

“I am eastbound.” Shining confirmed. “What are you doing up there? Could you come down so we could speak face to face?”

“Um… Yes. I could. Do I have to? It is much nicer up here than down on the ground.” The mare crossed her hooves.

“I ask that you do please. This distance between us is too great. It’ll be only a few questions.” Shining insisted.

“Fine, sir.” The mare tucked her guitar under a hoof and stood up. She seemed to lose her balance, almost careening off the manor roof, but at the last second the jumped. She still fell over a dozen hooves hit the ground harder than one could expect a pony to do safely, but she stood up and brushed herself off, her body and guitar perfectly fine. “Hello. I’m Sparrow Showdowner.”

Wasn’t Sparrow a pegasus name? That made her desire for some elevation clearer. Closer up, Shining could see her mark, which showed her eponymous bird in flight. “You’re not from this village clearly.”

“No sir, I’m from Craggobend.”

Shining knew Craggobend was a domain of his late uncle Foaly Flux, duke of Foal. How wonderful since that was the IHG caravan’s ultimate destination. “Mis Showdowner, may I ask why you are in the Riverpony Lands?”

“I was traveling to Canterlot, but I have lost my inertia. The air down here among the earth ponies is positively strangling. That is why I was up on that roof.”

“Uh huh.” Shining was pretty sure that the atmospheric pressure difference between the ground and a second-story roof was basically nothing. “Are you still heading to Canterlot? I warn you it is a… dangerous place to be right now.”

“I don’t know. I was thinking about going back to Foal, but there was some drama brewing at Four Fords. I’m just sitting around, sampling the villages and rooftops around here.” Sparrow Showdowner shrugged. “I had a travel partner but we got separated, so I’m kinda looking for her as well.”

“Hold up. Did you say there is drama at Four Fords?” Shining scowled. The last thing he needed was some local problem to block his progress. “Can you elaborate?”

“Oh it’s real bad.” Sparrow shook her head. “A faction tried to push the duchess off the throne and install her daughter, but a deadly scuffle broke out and there was a fire in the castle. The duchess is missing and her daughter is dead. Some distant cousin is ruling right now. It’s a huge mess, and it’s probably gotten worse since I passed through.”

“When was that?” Shining asked, his investigative skills perked.

“A week ago.”

Unlike the journey so far, which had had a fair amount of travel along lonely forest roads to avoid harassment (which hadn’t worked), Shining and his followers had no choice but to pass through Four Fords. There was no other crossing for hundreds of kilometers. Crossing by barge would force the families to leave most of their belongings and Shining refused to put them through that hardship.
But if there was one lesson from Canterlot, it was that there was opportunity in division.
“You don’t say.”

“Captain!” Two of the knights galloped up from the direction of the village. “We found a stallion who was in the manor when it was attacked. He says it was a force from Four Fords with a mare at their lead.”

“It happened six days ago.” The other knight contributed.

“A mare led them?” Shining turned to Sparrow. “Who is the duchess’s cousin? Or should I call her the new duchess?”

“Heck if I know. The commoners I mingled with just called them all the duchess, her ladyship, or the bitch.” Sparrow shrugged.

“Insightful.” Shining grimaced. “Whatever the case, It’s looking like we’re in for some drama of our own.” He turned back to his knights. “Let’s gather up. We can only leave a couple for the caravan to catch up, because we need to reach Four Fords ASAP.”

“Why’s that?” Flash asked.

“If we arrive while the quarrel is still hot, we can make hotter still.” Shining grinned, visions of colliding and exploding planets running through his mind. “What better strike does a hammer like us make, than on the hottest of all irons.”

Flash squinted. “Not sure I get you, captain.”

One of the other knights chuckled. “We’re going to set Four Fords on fire.”

“Metaphorically.” Shining agreed with a laugh.
But literally as well.

It was the white dream again. Or god’s dream? Celestia’s dream. The nature of the world around him was unclear.

After a polite amount of time, the mirage reappeared again.
“As I thought.” it grunted. It’s voice was masculine again, and even deeper. Shining wondered if it was trying to sound authoritative, and had chosen a voice that fit. “You’ve read the book again.”

“Hello again.” Shining nodded to it. “Are you bothered by me?”

“I am not able to be bothered.”

“Are you able to ignore me?”

“Eminently.” The thing said. “I do not enjoy you being in this dream. I come to ask you to leave.”

“Not responding to my presence at all would have been a better bet. Ponies don’t return to dry wells.”

“Then why do they breed?” The mirage asked. “Mortals exist in a state of perpetual futility. Your condition has been known to you for millennia. It is well established that from the moment of your birth, your kind are doomed to die. Yet, you persist.”

“Can’t speak for mortalkind, but you’re missing the point of us.” Shining retorted. “We may die as individuals, but the species go on. Our ideas, our thoughts, our words and mannerisms, continue forward through time.”

“That will end too, sooner or later.” The mirage said. “Does that depress you?”

“Lots of things depress me.”

“But you counter that with emotional responses, neurochemical in nature, that make your existence tolerable.”

“If you’re going to talk science, you should write it down so I can have my sister explain it to me.”

The mirage paused, and Shining humored the idea it was off put by him mentioning his sister. Did the god-thing have a sister of its own? Did it understand familial ties in the same way mortals did?
“I speak of joy.”

“Oh, no wonder I didn’t catch on. Not a lot of that happening in my life right now.” Shining slouched. “I’d like to leave now.”

“But you have a question for me.”

Damn thing was reading his mind. “I do.”

“...”

“Where were you?”

“You will have to be more specific.”

“You know what I mean.” Shining said in irritation. “During that Eternal Night!”

The mirage shifted, like it was turning away from him. “In a dream. It was a vast vast dream, not like any that has existed before. As you can understand, it is difficult to contain us.”

“A dream… down on earth?” Shining didn’t believe that for a second. “A mortal dream?!”

“In some ways yes, in some ways no.”

“Some god you are, letting yourself get trapped in a dream.” Shining shook his head. He knew the entity could read his disbelief.

“We do strange things to keep from hurting the ones we love.”

“Funny, that sounded like something a mortal would say.”

“Such is the nature of this dream.”

“Yeah whatever.” Shining rolled his eyes. “I’m waking up now. Not sure if I’ll return.”

“You will.”The mirage asserted.

Shining shrugged. He wasn’t the omniscient one. “You’re more likely to know that I.”

The further south Shining and his band went, the more populous the land became and the closer together the villages were. In every village, the manor houses were gutted but the commoners were left alone. The stories Shining heard were the same: A band of knights had ridden into town, looted the manor house, and ridden off. Of the nobles there was no sign. They had either fled and not returned or been carted off by the knights.

That was until Shining’s band found a smoldering village at the base of a tall stone tower, with no signs of anypony around. It was a bleak evening, overcast with light rain. The shower made the Crystal River sing as raindrop met the clear waters. It was getting dark, for both the building clouds and setting sun.

“This is strange.” Flash Sentry shielded against the rain with a wing as he cast his eyes to the pointed top of the tower. It was a very well constructed little fortification, likely belonging to a baron or earl. “Captain, could this have been a different group than the one we’ve been chasing?”

“No.” Shining Armor grunted. The rest of the knights were picking over the soggy piles of ash that were once houses, searching for survivors. The ash sizzled and spit as the rain soothed the burning wood. “Look there. The raiders tried to burn down the tower after failing to hack down the door. Then they burned down the village in frustration.”
Indeed, the base of the tower was still blackened where debris from the village had been piled and burned. The single door, made of solid metal, was scored with hundred of scratches and gouges, but remained sternly in place.

“Wow. If I ever buy a door, I know what brand I’m getting.” Flash nodded. “So, why did they want to get in the tower?”

“Same reason they trashed all the manor houses to this point. They were after the nobles inside.” Shining said. “Sentry, search for an unlocked window. Try to get in there and find somepony. Be careful.”

Flash flew up to the level of the windows and circled a few times, trying to find a way in. Not finding one unlocked, the pegasus smashed a window open with a quick whack from the pommel of his sword.

“That’s one way to do it.” Shining remarked, as Flash squirmed through the small opening. He waited next to the tower’s solid metal door until he heard a scapeing sound from within.
The latch pulled back and the door swung open. It was just Flash. “What, nopony?”

“Nope. Nopony.” Flash shrugged. “Smells a bit though.”

Shining Armor nibbled his bottom lip. “This door is impossible to lock from the inside. There has to be someone.”

“I can take a second look I guess.”

“No, don’t worry about it.” Shining grunted. He waved the other knights over. “But now we have a place to shelter overnight.”

The tower was very smartly furnished, and clearly purposed for a lord and his family to live in. It’s state of general disarray indicated that its residents had left in a hurry.

“Make your bedroll wherever you want but try not to disturb anything. The owner might come back and we don’t want them getting too upset at us.”

The knights spread out between the first two floors. Shining borrowed a few candles and passed them out, before settling on the second floor. He always stayed with the knights to keep the sense of comradery strong, but also to keep tabs on them.

Shining didn’t participate in the conversations as the knights wound down from the strenuous galloping. He undressed quietly, his eyes lingering on his book as he folded his clothes over the saddle bag.

“I grew up in Foal. Every couple years my family would visit Canterlot and pass through this area. The imperial ferries were just too unreliable so we always went through Four Fords.” One was saying.

“Well that’s thing I won’t ever miss. Damn ferries would demand a bribe before letting you on, and another before letting you off!”

Shining’s family had always taken an airship to visit his uncle Foaly’s castles in Foal. Thinking about it, he began to wish he’d stolen an airship on his way out of Canterlot. Sure it couldn’t hold everypony, but it would have allowed the caravan to cross the Crystal River hundreds of kilometers north.

The candles burned out after a while and the conversation died down. With the patter of rain getting stronger and louder, everypony began to fall asleep.

Except for Shining Armor. Hours after everyone was snoring, he rose from his bedding and fetched his book from his saddlebag. He climbed the central spiral staircase straight to the top floor, a lordly study.
But there was already somepony there.

“Oh hey.” Sparrow Showdowner looked over her shoulder at the stallion. She was fiddling with the strings of her guitar by the light of a firefly lantern. “Nice night huh?”

“What are you doing here?” Shining demanded. “Have you been following us?”

“Yes to the second question, resting to the first.” Sparrow said. “This tower is the tallest thing around you see, though it does smell a bit like rotten meat.”

“Mis, you’d have to by at least a thousand hooves above the ground to notice a difference in the air.” Shining grunted. “But that’s not important. Why are you following us? How are you following us, or even get into this tower, without us noticing?”

“I walk very quietly, to the second question. Because I want to, to the first question.” Sparrow shrugged. “And has anypony ever told you asking a bunch of questions all at once is annoying?”

“Well I…” Shining flared his nostrils. “We’re knights on a mission! You can’t follow us.” It struck him as a rather silly and insubstantial threat. What could he do to prevent her, besides causing some unforgivable harm. It wasn’t like he could arrest her.

Sparrow clearly realized that as well, for a goofy smile broke out over her features. “Okay, sir, if you say so.”

“No I’m serious. You’re suspicious.” Shining sneered. He circled around to her front and sat down. “Why did you sneak up here instead of informing me of your presence? Pull this again and I’ll tie you up for the next band of adventurers to find.”

“Okay okay! Geeze.” Sparrow rolled her eyes. “It’s obvious honest musicians like me can’t go looking for inspiration without getting harassed. Sign of the times.”

“Whatever. Just keep this moment to yourself and I’ll call it even.” Shining pulled the lantern closer as he flipped open his book. “That means keep your eyes to yourself too.”

Sparrow rolled her eyes but returned to toying with her guitar’s tuning pegs.

Shining opened back to the page with the circles on it. He immediately chided himself for thinking of it so simply. It was more than circles. It was circularity, oneness, deeper messages about the nature of existence. It was a story about creation, a dream of a thing more vast than the world. It made all his problems seem so trivial.

His eyes traced the circled over and over until he felt dizzy, but the pattern refused to reveal anything to him. That sometimes happened. He had had to skip over pages before. It upset him though. It made him feel empty and off balance, like sitting on a chair with uneven legs. Was it his fault he couldn’t coax meaning from the book? Was he not worthy for the end of the story?

“What are you reading? “ Sparrow’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Astronomy, broadly speaking. Don’t bother me.” Shining growled at her.

“Astronomy. Wow. Like a solar monk huh? Gives me all sorts of interesting thoughts. A little tune like this...” Sparrow hummed a chaotic melody to herself. Trying to replicate it, she plucked the strings of her guitar with her magic and adjusted their tension at the same time, creating strange convergences of sounds, like five wailing foals. “Ahh, if I just had a bit more precision with my magic.” She knitted her brow as she teased expanding and contracting chords that evoked thoughts of strange and alien things in Shining’s mind.

But Shining Armor was not paying attention to the tune, as much as to the reaction of the book. The circles seemed to pulse and rotate to the beat, their interactions sparking the beginnings of that immersion he craved. Light seemed to lift off the page, but only slightly.

It was not enough. The tune was not right.

“At this risk of looking foolish, I have to ask you for a favor.” Shining levitated the book to Sparrow. “Can the right page be transcribed into some kind of musical notation.”

Sparrow’s brow shot up as soon as she looked at the page. “Sir, I think your book about ‘astronomy broadly’ fit more into broadly. Is this supposed to be modern art?”

“Is that a no?”

“Heck if I know. I’m not guild trained.” Sparrow smiled apologetically. “I mean, I’m an eager amature, but I just play by ear, or how I feel.”

“Thanks anyway.” Shining sighed in disappointment. Still, he felt he was on the right track. He needed more than just his eyes to understand the end of the story.

“But I know who could, I mean if it could be transcribed. Raven Ruddy, the pony I was traveling with until we got separated, is a trained singer. In fact she worked for one of the nephews of the duke of Foal, before they died.”

“Wait, who died?” Shining perked up.

“Duke Flux, my liege, had a bunch of brothers way back when. One of the brother had two sons that survived when most of the family died ‘bout twenty years ago.” Sparrow explained. “Duke Flux gave them some holdings to look after while he cavorted in Canterlot. The brothers died in a poop explosion a month ago. It’s kinda one of the reasons I’m heading this direction, since me and Raven Ruddy didn’t have a reason to stick around Foal anymore.”

Shining’s eyes glossed over, his frustrations with the book temporarily forgotten. His great uncle Foaly Flux had never made any excuses about naming his brother’s sons as his heirs, with polite apologies to Twilight Velvet and Night Light. With the brothers dead, there was nopony of House Bright to inherit besides Night Light and his children.
“Mother bucker. I bet I know who’s responsible.” He growled.

“Responsable for what?”

“My mother killed the Bright brothers.”

Sparrow blinked. “Okay…”

“That makes it more important than ever that I get to the Foal Mountains.” Shining said to himself. There was a tantalizing possibility, however remote, that there was something for him to inherit among the late Foaly Flux’s holdings. That could mean security, and a place for his knights.
In a twisted way, he felt like thanking his mother for her insidious and murderous ways. Setting a child up to inherit lan through assassination was probably the only kind of parental love she knew how to express anymore, warped as she was by her Dark magic.

Shining looked down at the book in his hooves. Maybe it was for the best that he didn’t understand it. The end of one story begged the beginning of another, then another. He didn’t need god if he had comfort on earth.
But still… He wanted to read a little bit. The top of the next page? No, he’d hold off. He wondered if Velvet’s fall had such innocent beginnings as just wanting to finish a story.

Shining stood up and trotted to the staircase. “Mis Sparrow, do you think you’ll be stalking us to Four Fords?”

“Uh… I may be. I’m still trying to understand your whole ‘my mother killed some ponies and now I’m galloping to their holdfast’ logic.” Sparrow leaned back, using her guitar as a pillow. “You hoping to find something there?”

“Yes. A crown.” Shining smiled thinly. “Have a nice night. Hopefully this rain will clear up by the morning.” His smile flattened. “Whew, it is really starting to smell in here. Somepony must have left some food out when they left. Ah well.”

“Yeah… Good night sir.” Sparrow nodded. She sat in silence for a minute, thinking about Shining and his odd book, before she slid the shutter over her lantern and settled herself down.

The morning was cold and drizzly, but at least the worst of the storm had passed in the night. Shining felt tired, which was expected since he’d stayed up longer than he’d meant with Sparrow, but he pushed that back.

He leaned over the knights eating a light breakfast. “Everypony up and ready?”

Some laughs and nays came back at him.

“You’re not going to eat anything captain?” Flash Sentry asked.

“Not hungry. I’ll have something at noon.” Shining replied. “Don’t take too long with your food boys. I want us at the gates of Four Fords by tomorrow.”

Since everything with his knights seemed fine, Shining climbed up the stairs to check on Sparrow. The smell foul smell was stronger than the day before, an almost unbearable stench that made his eyes water by the time he reached the top floor.
“Holy Celestia, how could you sleep in this?” He hacked. But is seemed Sparrow had already left. “What? How does she keep getting by us?”
Shining was torn between wanting to escape the horrible stench as quickly as he could and wanting to investigate it’s cause.

Something dripped from above, nearly hitting his head.

“Huh?” He looked up. There was a wet patch in the ceiling. “A hole in the roof? Or…”

Shining inspected the ceiling, a jointed wood form that looked very sturdy. “Hmm…” He looked around the room. He spotted a halberd in a display mount on the wall. Perfect.
Pulled the halberd to himself with his magic, Shining began to prod the ceiling with the polearm’s shaft. After a few minutes he found a joint that bent more than it was supposed to.

“Bingo. Let’s meet the lord in residence.” Shining grinned. He poked the joint again, trying to move it enough that the hidden hatch or whatever would deploy, but instead a stream of liquid ran out from the joint and began to drip down on him. “Ahh! Gross gross!” He jumped back. “What the hell!” He wiped the viscous liquid off his fur and smelt it. His eyes widened in shock, for it was the smell of blood.

Spinning the halberd around, Shining hacked away the joint, making that part of the roof collapse. Among the splintering an clatter wood there was a wet splat. One after another, pony bodies rolled out of the ceiling space and fell down into the study.

Shining Armor was struck dumb. He identified a well dressed mare who was probably the countess, sone ponies were were likely her children, and a dozen more commonly dressed villagers. He glanced up into the ceiling space and saw more villagers.

“Ah… I see.”

There were some daggers in the hooves of the adults, and all of the wounds were stabs to the heart. By the angle, many had been self-inflicted.

Shining let the halberd fall from his grasp. He slowly backed out of the study, down the stairs, to a lower level bedroom where his knights were almost done packing up.

“Well boys and girls…” He cleared his throat several times but his voice was still shaky. “We have a few minutes before we’re leaving.”

“Oh?” The knights looked up.

“Yes, I…” Shining Armor went silent. He looked between his follower’s expectant faces.
The Imperial Household Guard had been a well trained, well equipped ceremonial knightly brotherhood, but it was still ceremonial. The real policing in Canterlot had always been left to the city guard. For many of them, the night Fancy Pants was murder was the first time any of them had ever seen a dead pony.
Shining Armor, by virtue of being second in command under Hauseway, had been the go-to choice for whenever the guard was invited into an investigation. It was a point of pride that he had experience charging into crime dens or breaking into illegal brothels alongside city guards.
That was to say he wasn’t a stranger to depravity and horror.
But the grisly scene upstairs was too much.

“Captain?”

Shining blinked. “Yes, ahem, we’re leaving. Gather flammable material in the lower floor.” He paused. The room was deathly silent for a minute, save for the soft patter of rain on the windows. “When we leave… we burn down this tower.”

When Shining became aware of himself, the dream, and the vast white plain, the mirage was already there. “Hello.” It had a mare’s voice now, awfully like Celestia’s but less melodic. “You were able to hold off for a day.”

“Uh huh.”

“But when you needed comfort, you began to read again. Do you not think that your comfort should be found in your fellow pony, not in me?”

“My fellow is capable of terrible things. I don’t want to think about them. I want to think about you.”

“One would begin to think you are becoming obsessed.”

“It’s not an obsession, it’s a responsibility.” Shining said, looking up at where the thing’s face would have been on a pony. “Your interface without our world is gone. With nopony to interpret my fate for me, I come straight to the source.”

“Now isn’t that presumptive of you.” The mirage said. “The texts say I have a plan you each of you. But it does not say I care, love, or protect you. Those were my daughter Celestia’s tasks, and she has died.”

“I don’t know why you humor me, but you do.” Shining grunted. “And I, you.”

“The divine is burdensome, you think?”

Shining said nothing.

Not that it mattered much, since it could read his thoughts. “Your experiences with the Stars and the nightmare have tainted your view in a regrettable way. Consider your perspective, the son of a noble, having wanted for nothing your whole life. You have never been in desperate need. You have never called up to heaven for repreve.”

“But you never answer.” Shining said, some anger seeping into his voice.

“My light shines on your world, warming it, feeding it energy. The entire ecology of your planet and the structure of society is based around the daytime I provide.” The divine thing said. “I do not do that because I hate you mortals.”

“No, you don’t hate us.” Shining agreed. “You’re not capable of it. Emotion is, like you said, a neurochemical thing. No part of a ball of fire and light supports emotions.”

“That is true of many other divine entities, but not for me. I am a thing born out of the Giver’s attempt to uplift the Have-Not. It is understandable that I would be keen on the disparity between us.” The divine thing said. “Take this dream, for example. It is part of the, how did you put it, ‘interface’. Being exposed to us can destroy even the most stalwart mind. By degrees, we made a way to have what we know revealed to you.”

“Hmm.” Shining grunted. “You’ve lived since eternity talking to yourself, and you’re pretty damn sure that yours is the only truth.”

The mirage shimmered like it was nodding its head. “Correct.”

“Why does a thing like you give a damn about us? Why do you lower yourself to our level?”

“I think you care less about that, than you wonder how how I view you. Why do I enter this dream, converse with you as I do? Questions of faith and heresy bounce about your head, and you begin to doubt if it matters at all.” The divine thing again proved its ability to read his mind. “But on the other hoof, when so much is wrong with the world, you wonder if being a devout pony matters anymore.”

“If you don’t know, I’d have to flag down a theology professor.” Shining said.

“And here we reach the real reason for you return. You want… vindication. You want some assurance that you are still a good pony despite your sins. How amusing. Usually when ponies ask this question of their god, it is in a less literal sense.” The divine thing began to jiggle, like it was laughing.
“Yes, it disappoints me that you forsook your oath to serve Celestia and her laws. Her ideas, her soul, her light… Are they not worthy despite her death?”

“It’s not her death that bothered me.” Shining said, the god’s words weighing on his heart. “It’s her actions before she died. Anypony would have felt the same.”

“I could not stop my errant daughter from doing what she did. It was all I could do to make polite suggestions.” The divine mirage countered. “I am not at fault that she stayed on your world for long past her… expiration date.”

“I won’t criticize. I don’t know much about designing alicorns.”

The divine thing was silent for a long while.
“You cared about her.”

“Does that surprise you?” Shining laughed bitterly.

“No. It was her purpose to be cared for.” The divine thing said. “It is difficult to attach emotion to conceptual entities, such as I. My daughters, however, were regal and beautiful things. It was easy for ponies to be drawn to them.
“Alicorns were a reviled, ‘ugly’ race before my twin and I sent our daughters down to you ponies. Wintertide, Astral Nacre, and the other ancient alicorns were all they knew of us. Thus ponies were unwilling to cooperate with we divine creatures, and our designs for you were shunned. But we have changed that, and now the idea of the ‘alicorn’ is inexorably linked with Celestia. They are wise, powerful, just beings, who deserve mortal followers.”

“Only, it’s not true.” Shining said acidly.

The divine thing looked down at him. It did not possess a face, but Shining could feel the weight of its observation like a blast of heat across his skin. It did not feel good.
“The project has not been without its flaws.”

The streams of lights around them twisted, showing shifting images as the divine thing spoke.

“Luna’s rebellion was a significant coup. Not only did it introduce the possibility of the alicorn as an evil entity to ponykind’s consciousness, but it signaled to us that alicorns too will begin to self-actualize if left alone.
“When the first Celestia began to diverge from me, it was not too surprising. She had been badly traumatized by her sister’s rebellion. It took a few generations, but she returned to me and accepted that a new Celestia was needed to maintain a harmonious relationship between mortalkind and their destiny.
“But when the second Celestia began to diverge IMMEDIATELY upon her descent onto the world, it became clearer that there was a problem. I could not stop the Celestias from gaining a will distinct from mine, but I could prevent them from causing too much damage. The yearly succession made certain that more than Celestia herself, the IDEA of Celestia would rule the empire.
“But Celestia you knew, the ninety-ninth to to descend from me, and the hundred-seventy-ninth in the annals of your empire, decided that she liked being alive. That was new. Fear of death is such a mortal thing, as silly as it is to say considering you are defined by your ability to die.”

“So…” Shining shifted uncomfortably. “Celestia was becoming more mortal.”

“It becomes clearer with every time that mortal and divine were never meant to be mixed, ever. Every iteration of that ends poorly. Luna, Celestia, the Stars, etcetera. It remains to be seen if you mortals will even survive this latest round of elder siblings.” The divine thing had a strange tone, like it was holding something back. “It will be hard for you to survive.”

“I can believe that. Why bother lying to me, right?” Shining said. “It earnestly surprises me. You are something capable of talking to me, emoting, making a nuanced point that answers my questions.”

The mirage was silent.

“Then again, this is just the interface. The real you is that thing I see when I look into the sky. I couldn’t get within a million kilometers before getting incinerated.”

“That, and you can not traverse the cosmos. That is a trait yet reserved to us.”

“Yup.” Shining rose to his hooves. “Well… You’ve contextualized a lot of things for me. Not sure what to think.”

“Most do not.”

“I don’t hate you. You’re misguided.” Shining sighed. “There are worse things out there.”

“For mortalkind, yes. My cousins that reside the voids of space, beyond light, beyond where thoughts and even dreams can take you. You are extraordinarily lucky to have a benevolent god.”

“I’m sure there were plenty of worlds out there that weren’t so lucky. They’re probably not worth talking about now.”

“Except to take heed of.”

“I can’t help feeling I threat from that.” Shining grimaced. “You have your ‘laws’ that you wish to be followed, but you make no explicit mention of punishment for them not being followed. You won’t… get tired of mortals, will you?”

The mirage was ominously silent.

When Shining awoke, he was consumed with a singular thought: Whatever had trapped the Sun in a dream had been doing mortalkind a favor.

Two Days Later

Four Fords was the largest city in the Riverpony Lands, home to some fifty-thousand earth ponies on the clear banks of the Crystal River. It say on flat land on the eastern bank, surrounded by farmland. The city had proud stone walls and dozens of temple spires rising up towards the sky.
Go any deeper than the spires and you entered an unpleasant world of deprivation and squalor. What had once been a prosperous trading city had fallen into poverty and disrepair. Nopony ended up in Four Fords of their own volition. Those not lucky enough to be serfs tied to the land drifted in and out of the city between seasonal work. It made for a volatile atmosphere, a trait shared by the dynastic house of the city, house Highlight.

The fords after which city was named were a series of slightly submerged stone banks on an run where the river widened and slowed. The fords were a natural bridge that had served as a focal point for trade for over a millennium. They were slightly downriver of the city of Four Fords, meaning one could steer clear of the city if they wanted to. Evading knights from the city was another matter, and the broad, flat farmland of the east bank made hiding impossible.

The western bank had once been farmlands too, but a plague had depopulated the area a few decades past and so it had reverted to shrubland and forests.
Shining Armor and the few knights with him lingered at the edge of the trees, watching the city of Four Fords across the Crystal River. Sparrow Showdowner had come along too for some reason.

“It’s no Canterlot.” Flash remarked.

“I swear there was less smoke last week I was here.” Sparrow said.
Indeed several of the outlying settlements were burning, Throwing billowing pillars of smoke up to dirty the pristine blue sky.

“The duchess-in-exile is letting herself be heard.” Shining Armor wished he had a spyglass or something to pick out ponies on the opposite shore.

“By burning her own lands, killing her own ponies?” One of the knights asked, confused.

“As though any of us has never done something regrettable is misplaced anger.” Shining said, his frown tightening. “But that doesn’t mean it’s okay. That’s between her and god.”

“So what’s our plan?” Flash asked.

“We go in and see who’s more open to solicitation. We go from there.” He turned to Sparrow. “Ma’am, it’s been fun galloping with you, but we are knights, and it is the job of the knight to draw his sword and kill. You’ll have to make the rest of the way to Foal without us.”

“Really? I’d much rather stay.” Sparrow pouted. “A nice unicorn like you really clears my head of this earthy pony air.”

“Filly, we’re going to go and fight some ponies. How do you plan to help?” Flash scoffed. He did not hide his dislike for the openly prejudicial Sparrow.

“Gosh, I guess I’d play my guitar.” Sparrow said. “Wouldn’t you love an inspirational tune during the heat of battle? It’d really help you out huh?”

“Yes, that would be nice, but what would keep our foes from hearing it and being similarly inspired?” Shining armor asked.

Sparrow blinked.

“Oh whatever. Do what you want.” Shining sighed. “Alright, everypony listen up. As soon as we cross the ford we are going to be charging to find whoever is setting fire to those fields. If they are willing to bargain, we bargan. If not... We may have to slay them. Putting an end to this conflict is our best bet for securing safe passage for the caravan.”

Everypony was silent. It was a grim task they were undertaking, but nothing was too far when it secure the safety of their friends and family. They did not cross hundreds of miles of forest, facing bandits and depravity, to be denied here.
Shining Armor felt a stab of reluctance. Nothing was too far? Was that really true? He hoped he didn’t have to find out. Today it was some knights engaged in a dynastic squabble, but what if there was somepony more innocent between them and their destination.
Shining Armor heard the crash of planets against each other ring in his ears. He heard the divine mirage speak ‘One would begin to think you are becoming obsessed.’

“Hike up your pants everypony. It’s going to be wet for this first bit.” Shining said, trotting out of the treeline towards the ford.

Duchess Aura Highlight was not a wroth pony. No, she was regarded as relatively temperate among the Highlights. She did not feud with any of the neighboring fiefs, or engage in any bloody sport, or even attend the executions that were so popular in Four Fords.

But sometimes, ponies change their mind. When Aura saw her daughter’s body laying at the hooves of her cousin Misty, she had a change of mind.
She had been feeling rather wroth since fleeing Four Fords.

“Traitors. All these traitors.” She said to herself. She counted the bodies laid out before her. Two parents, a couple of servants, but no sign of the children. Did this family have children? She couldn’t remember. Their faces, now twisted into agony, had graced her parties and dinners so often, but she’d never paid them any mind. She’d only begun to care when they’d smiled from over Misty’s shoulder.
Aura turned to face the knights of her retinue, her armor clanking. “Burn it.” She glanced back at the dead parents. “I’m done dealing with rival claimants.”

Soon enough smoke began to curl around the house. The blaze spread quickly, and as Aura watched her knights tossed the corpses onto this hateful pyre. Another black pillar joined its siblings in the sky.

Aura turned away from the heat and light she’d created. Another down. Traitors. She looked to Four Fords. What was Misty doing? Was she enjoying a hearty lunch in the ducal palace, or perhaps touring the streets making excuses about the mayhem outside. Was she on the walls, staring right back at her?
“We’re so close now, and still no response. What are you waiting for, Misty?”

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice one of her knights galloping up until he physically shook her. His silver mane and tail spilled out of his pristinely shining plate armor.
“My lady, my lady! There’s ponies approaching from the direction of the fords! They’re fast and in formation.”

“The fords? Who could be coming from the fords.” Aura licked her lips. Somepony was coming to intervene in her feud. “What number do they have?”

“About a dozen.”

“A dozen? Why that’s nothing. Get a few lances back here. No need to pull anypony else from their jobs.” She picked her metal helm off the ground and slipped it over her head. “Oh and one more thing.”

“Yes my lady.”

“Smile for me.”

The knight hesitated, before sliding up the visor of his hemet. He smiled awkwardly.

Aura scrutinized him with her empty gaze. “Very nice smile, sir. Get on then.”

“T- Thank you my lady.” The knight let the vizor drop back over his face. He galloped off to gather the retinue to face the newcomers.

Aura stayed in front of the burning house, waiting. She kicked at the dirt, fudging the imprint the corpses of the parents had made when they’d fallen. Maybe they weren’t parents. She hadn’t heard any screams in the house once it had started burning.

“I was a good duchess, wasn’t I? Nopony has any reason to dislike me.” With her hoof Aura drew two little pinpoint eyes in the dirt, and underneath them she slowly made the arc of a smile. Now the dirt imprints were happy. “Traitors.”

Shining Armor had to admit, seeing the fifty ponies gathering outside the burning house was a little bit intimidating. He had no weapon, and the dozen knights behind him had small sword and very light armor. Sparrow only had a guitar for Celestia’s sake!
But he had the book in the saddlebag, and that made him feel better.

As they drew closer, Shining could pick out the pony who appeared to be in charge, pushing the group into a formation. It was hard to determine sex since the pony was in full plate, but he/she had very shiny armor and a silver mane.

Shining and the IHG knights slowed to a trot two-hundred meters out.
“They’re not attacking right away. Good sign.” Shining said. “Okay, um, I’ll go talk to them. Since I’m unarmed I’ll look the least threatening.”

“Is less threatening what we need right now, captain?” One of the knights asked.

Shining didn’t have an answer for that. “Be on alert. You might have to charge in.” Taking a steadying breath, he broke away from the group and approached the clump of soldiers.

The crackling of the burning house grew louder and louder as he got closer. How could so many ponies agree to killing the ponies they were sworn to protect? Why was he even considering making a deal with these ponies? They were evil.

The silver-maned knight he’d picked out a distance called to him once he was thirty hooves away. “Halt!” it was a male’s voice, so not the duchess.

Shining halted as asked. There was no reason the negotiations couldn’t be pleasant, even if he was dealing with immoral ponies. “Hello sir. I’m here to talk. I don’t want any unnecessary trouble.”

“That will be for us to decide.” The silver knight strode out to meet him. “We don’t get many unicorns through here? What lord do you serve?”

“Empress Celestia, sir.” Shining said simply.

“Ah, Celestia takes interest in us earth pony suddenly? So very funny. Are you mercenaries? You have a very rough look about you.” The knight scowled disdainfully. “Come to sell your services have you? Yes, you vultures smell blood so you circle in to tear at our carcasses and take our wealth.”

“No. We are simply looking for safe passage. Naturally we sought out the rightful lord of these lands to secure that safe passage.” Shining said, with a not-so-subtle nod towards Four Fords. “We will pay, of course. We have some recovered fine goods, but we are also fine fighters. I’d like to make an offer to the duchess.”

“So you are mercenaries.” The silver knight spat.

“No, we are knights.” Shining said. More knight than you, he was tempted to say. Being an imperial knight stood for something great and virtuous. Apparently being a knight in the Riverpony Lands meant looting and killing.

“Knights?! Impotent scut. I’ve seen beggars who made more convincing knights.”

“We have had to make some sacrifices, thus our need to cross this land. Now take me to the duchess please.”

“You won’t be getting within a mile of our rightful duchess.”

Shining was getting impatient. The knight was being very rude. Shining didn’t want to spill everything to an underling either, nor tell a story he would later have to repeat to the duchess. “I don’t think that’s for you to decide. She’s here, yes?” He sidestepped the knight. “My lady, I have an offer to make!” He yelled to the crowd of soldiers.

“Knave!” The knight grabbed at Shining’s saddlebag to pull him back.

“Hey! Get your hooves off me.” Shining snapped at the knight.

The other soldiers reached towards their weapons but the silver knight waved them down. “No, I have this villain.”

“Oh is this a machismo thing? Listen we just want safe passage. We didn’t even have to come to you.” Shining was feeling very irritated now. “There’s another duchess who may or may not be open to offers.”
Shining knew he’d said the wrong thing as soon as it came out of his mouth, as the silver knight took a swing at him with his iron-shod hoof. Shining ducked away.
“Let’s be practical here then! What if I were a mercenary? Do you think you’re winning the city by burning farms? You want the crown back, right?!”

“I should kill you.” The silver knight hissed. He glanced up towards the crowd of soldiers. Shining tried to see where he was looking, but didn’t catch the shrug from one of the armored ponies near the front. “But we are merciful here. Strip, and that nice bag will be recompense for wasting our time. May plenty of fun be had by your band selling your service to the usurper.”

Shining Armor wasn’t going to leave. The rejection wasn’t even coming from the duchess, but an arrogant provincial knight. This pony, who dirtied his hooves with innocent blood thought himself better than Shining. “I didn’t come to hear and make threats. We came here to give you a chance first. More than you deserve.”

“And how do we know you haven’t been in touch with the usurper already? You are awfully persistent for a mercenary.”

“Because Imperial Knights don’t like usurpers.” Shining growled. “Give me a sword and I’ll prove it t-.”
Shining felt something jostling his bag, but when he turned to look he saw nothing. The other soldiers were maintaining their distance. “What?”

The clasps of his bag came undone and his book was pulled into the air. Shining gasped and grabbed for the book, but it jumped out of his reach into into the hooves of the unicorn in the crowd.
Shining Armor hadn’t been expecting a unicorn among the earth ponies. He wasn’t expecting somepony to take HIS BOOK. He was getting very, very upset.
He faced back to the silver knight, a wide-eyed glare and snarl consuming his features. “You have a last chance to earn my forgiveness, sir. Order them to give that back.”

“I’ll be having that saddle bag.” The silver knight chuckled.

“Evil pony.” Shining widened his stance. He had no sword, but as the other unicorn had proven, that was no issue. He could have as many swords as he liked as long as they weren’t being too tightly held. “You are going to make me act very unchivalrous.”

Flash Sentry and the other IHG knights watched with rapt attention from afar as the ‘negotiation’ between their captain and the silver knight devolved into shouting and threats. With his sharp pegasus eyes, Flash saw the unicorn steal the book and told the others. Everypony was getting nervous. It looked like there would be a fight after all.

And all of a sudden, there was. Shining Armor telekinetically yanked all the swords and spears of the ponies around him of himself in a mass, then one by one plunged them through the gaps in the silver knight’s visor. The silver knight was pinned into the soil like a butterfly display gone horrifically wrong.

For the first few moments everypony was too shocked to do anything.

“You fools call yourself knights? Rule ONE of fighting a unicorn is to secure your weapon.” Shining Armor lambasted the soldiers. He cantered to where the silver knight pincushion had fallen and yanked a shortsword out of the pincushion.
He'd killed that pony. It made him feel strange. He'd killed a pony before: Some punk in Canterlot's Inner City, who had ambushed the group of city guards Shining was with, to score reputation with his gang. That had been quick, almost accidental. One blow and the colt had collapsed. That had been hard to deal with, but Shining hadn't let himself break down over it. It had been done in the service of his duties to the princess and her ponies. Over the years, he got in similar situations several more times, but only been involved in fatal encounters twice after that.
Then the slog through the forests between Canterlot and the Crystal river... Shining didn't want to think about the depravity they'd encountered there. Ragged and starving bandits, for whom death had almost been a mercy, did not weigh on him much either. As sickening as it was to say, the world was a better place without those ponies.
But to murder a knight, that was different, wasn't it? Their task was ignoble but they were well born and deserved a fairer end than what Shining had just provided. Shining wasn't sure. Maybe knights and nobles answered to their crimes the same as commoners.
“And what kind of goddamn ceremony is this? You greet everypony this way? I feel like I’m on a stage, or like some pagan champion sent to fight the enemy warrior. You earth ponies are devolving into savages!”

Killing one and taking a bunch of weapons didn’t change the math of one against fifty, and Shining knew the revere would soon be broken. Time for the hard sell.

“Lady Duchess, the Imperial Household Guard is willing to support your claim to the throne of Four Fords, in exchange for supplies and help on our way East. Unfortunately, turning us down will force us to look elsewhere, and that will make you our enemy.” He gestured to the corpse. “You should not make an enemy of an institution with ‘imperial’ in the name.”

The clinks and clanks of the armored soldiers shifting uneasily in their armor was the only sound. Finally one of the knights stepped forward and removed her helmet.

Aura Highlight was a stout earth pony with lushious white fur a shade more grey than Shining's, and a light green mane like newly sprouted leaves. Most striking of all were her eyes, an oaky red, which never blinked or narrowed from a look of total fascination. She mad a mad air about her. “Imperial Household Guardsponies never leave Canterlot without their empress.”

“Our empress is everywhere now, in every heart and book.” Shining said. “Our guard is now more or less limited to our own person.”

“And you seem to guard that well enough.” If Aura was upset that her silver knight now had less face than a yak, she did not show it. Her unflinching stare was unnerving. If Shining were less heated he might have shied away, but he matched her in a tense staring contest. “What do you want?”

“I’d like my book back.”

“Pardon?”

“The book your unicorn took. I’d like it back very much, and very soon.” Shining said. “Now, in fact. I’m not leaving without.”

Aura nodded slowly. “Oh… Yes it would make sense that you would want that back.” She didn’t move her body much either, Shining noticed. When she wasn’t talking, the duchess was like a statue whose artificial mane whipped in the light wind. “I’d like to talk.”

“What?”

“Your deal. Bring your friends closer please, and we can have a talk about your safe passage through my land.”

Shining scowled. “But your soldiers are still drawn up. You won’t spring upon us? You won’t avenge your knight there?”

Aura’s lip twitched. “Well… He did throw a gauntlet at you, signaling the willingness to duel. His hoof was still attached, yes, but I think it stands.”

Shining was unsettled. It was dawning on him that this band of soldiers had no regard for pony life. “Very well. Let’s talk, after you give me back my book.”

Aura’s lips curled up in a half-hearted attempt at a smile. “You should get it back. It’s yours. Nopony’s but yours. Let nopony separate you from what rightfully belongs to you.”
She turned away and strode back to her soldiers. After some words between the her and her captains, the group began to disperse to resume their plunder of the surrounding countryside. A few knights stayed behind to discuss something with their dutchess.

The little unicorn who had taken his book was now looking very nervous. She slowly approaching Shining. “I- I- I’m very sorry.”

Shining stared at her impassively.

“H- Here you are.” The unicorn held the book out with her magic, turning her eyes away in embarrassment. “I can’t help myself sometimes. Sorry Sorry! When something looks interesting, I- I just can’t keep myself from taking it. And your book just looked so interesting.”

Shining arched a brow at the little kleptomaniac. “Um, it has no cover.”

The unicorn averted her eyes. “The, erm, magical look.”

“Whatever.” Shining sighed, putting the book back in his saddlebag. He made a mental note that he’d need a better clasp to keep something similar from happening again.

“I… I should go.” The unicorn backed away.

Shining’s knights rejoined him, all auspiciously silent. They were trying hardest not to look at the silver knight’s corpse.

“You guys alright?” Shining asked.

“Yeah captain but…” One of the knights. “The way you wasted that pony was brutal.”

“Hmm.” Shining turned away. “They call it a… show of force.” His mind flashed to Hauseway. “It’s a technique that is as strong as any swordplay, yet it is one I hope we never have to use again.”

They all looked at the burning house.

Done discussing with her captains, Aura Highlight returned to talk. “What are your names.” She addressed the group

“I’m Shining Armor. You will be going through me.” Shining interrupted her. He didn’t want his knights interacting with the amoral ponies. “That will be true the entire time we’re supporting you, and when the rest of our band is passing through.”

“Very well. I can understand that. You’re in charge for a reason.” Aura nodded. “You’ll do me the same courtesy, yes?”

“Absolutely.” Shining nodded. “Ahem, now to talk business. How best getting you back in Four Fords. Firstly, how did you come to be out of the ducal seat?”

“A conspiracy of knights and local nobles decided they’d had enough of my kindness and tried to imprison me so they could puppet my daughter and do as they wished. The plot went wrong. I got away, and my daughter died. My cousin Misty stepped in and styles herself duchess now.” Aura explained. It was all consistent with what Sparrow had said. “My loyal retainers and I have been working to punish her supporters.”

Shining glanced at the burning house. “That was the house of one of the traitors?”

Aura shivered at the word ‘traitor’. “I think so.”

Shining sighed. “That’s… some consolation, I guess. So, how many do you have at your back as opposed to your cousin in Four Fords?”

“I do not know how many she has, but they will not be knights. Her knights have been taken care of.” Her expression took on a look of satisfaction. “And so I have every confidence that once we are in the city, my cousin's supporters will break like glass.”

“Then the clearest use for us is in infiltrating the city and opening a path for your forces.” Shining said. ”Some unicorns would be under much less suspicion of being on one side or the other of this conflict. Hmm, it will take some planning, but overall it would not be too difficult.”

“Big talk. How lucky that you have a chance to follow through.” Aura scoffed, taunting him with her eyes. “Just one more thing sir. Could you smile for me?”

Shining wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. "Come again?"

"Smile for me. A big, happy smile." Aura urged. "Show off those pearly whites."

Shining blinked. He really did not feel like smiling. "After this is over, maybe."

"I see..." Aura frowned. "Let's hope it's a grand one, Sir Armor." She turned her back and trotted away.

“I’m having a hard time telling if that went well or not.” Flash Sentry pursed his lips.

“So am I.” Shining grunted. “Where’d Sparrow go?”

One of the knights pointed out into the fields. “She started talking to that unicorn who took your book. They wandered off.”

“Guess we won’t worry about them right now.” Shining slouched. “We need to start thinking about how we might get the gates of Four Fords open.”

The little camp the knights had set up felt cold. Yes, it had a fire, the usual tents and bedrolls, but there was something missing that Shining couldn’t explain.

He stood at the edge of the cap, staring over the fields of wheat at the walls of Four Fords. By the meager light of the crescent moon, the fields seemed like a dark sea, waving in the weak breeze.

“Good thing it stopped raining.” Flash Sentry trotted up to him.

“Yup.” Shining said.

Flash kicked at the dirt. “I… I don’t have family with the caravan, like a lot of the guys do. It makes me feel strange, knowing they’re fighting for somepony while I’m not.” He sighed. “I joined the IHG out of genuine faith, you know. With Celestia gone, life feels off kilter. It doesn’t seem possible, but she really is gone. I can’t look up at the sun and think of it as her sun.”

Shining looked at the slightly taller pegasus. “Nopony’s stopping you from thinking of it as whatever you want, Sentry. Just because our princess is dead doesn’t mean what she represented isn’t worth fighting for.”

Flash averted his eyes. “Is that what we’re doing?”

Shining’s gut sank. “We do what we have to.” He mumbled.

Flash smiled awkwardly. “I trust in you, captain. We all do. You’re… the best of us, you know? We believe you can lead us right. We were just spoiled nobles and brats before the IHG, and to Captain Hauseway, we still were. You believed in us captain. You believed in us as ponies, and as knights. And-” Flash was choking up. “And when Canterlot was falling apart, you took charge and led us out. We owe you our lives.”

Shining couldn’t help but smile at the heartfelt words, but it weighed on him all the same. Other ponies’ lives were in his hooves. “Thanks… Flash.”

“Night, captain.” Flash bowed and returned to the camp.

Shining brought his hoof up to his heart, and felt it beat though his thin robe. He was alive.
“Is it wrong to feel envious of those ponies who went and died with Celestia?” Shining looked up at the moon. “They saw a princess returning to life. Fire, ambition, a dream, making a pony worth having faith it! Oh, Celestia… I miss you.”

On his way back to his tent, Shining nearly tripped over Sparrow and the other unicorn laying in the dirt at the edge of the campfire’s light.
“This again?” Shining scowled at her. “Sparrow, get up.”

“Hmm?” Sparrow, curled up around her guitar, open an eye. “Armor?”

“Get up I said.” Shining ordered. He nudged the other pony. “You too.”

“Emm?” The other pony, the klepto from earlier, drowsily got to her hooves.

“Oh, Sir Armor, I didn’t introduce you to the travel partner I lost.” Sparrow hugged the other unicorn. “Shining Armor, meet, Raven Ruddy. Ruddy, this is that knight I mentioned, Armor.”

Raven Ruddy muttered out a tired greeting.

“You ponies.” Shining rubbed his forehead. “You can’t sleep out here on the dirt.”

“More like we shouldn’t.” Sparrow said.

“Yeah, whatever.” Shining grunted. “You two… spend the night in my tent.”

“Oh my.” Sparrow Blushed. “That’s quite the proposal.”

Shining sighed. He led them back to his tent.
Trying to ignore them as they settled down, he took off his robe and settled into his bed role.

He’d almost drifted off to sleep when he heard a voice in his ear.
“I had a look in your book. At the page with the bookmark.” Raven Ruddy whispered. “When Sparrow told me you talked about translating it to sound, it piqued my interest. So I…” She hesitated. “May I have a look at it?”

Shining wordlessly motioned to his saddlebag. Sparrow had not failed to notice and was now watching intently.

Raven Ruddy crawled over to it and took out the book. She glanced over a couple times. “Oh boy… This is going to sound… interesting.” She flipped the book around, and by the faint glow of her horn Shining watched the page as she began to strum on Sparrow’s guitar.

The words read themselves into Shining’s mind. But instead of the universe of light and color like the other page had held, only darkness seeped out of that page, so contrary to its illustrations.

“The ovil and the seams pulled open farther, until the great eye was fully opened.
With a horrible whine it all came apart. All the golden rays which formed the outline of the eye and also its lashes pulled taunt. The planets connected to them were pulled off their courses and drawn into the eye. Planets smashed into each other with incalculable force, making explosions of heat and rock that rivaled the light of a sun. The horrendous cacophony of a million dying worlds overwhelmed me and I fell to my knees. I looked on in despair as they eye consumed more and more of the universe around it.
I notched the arrow into the bow and drew it back. With great effort of my magic I turned round it while maintaining force on the string, and loosed the arrow into my throat. It hurt but I was happy. The world around me had become too much for my eyes, and one by one the slits on the golden mask began to close, what I saw became dark, until I saw nothing at all.”

Shining opened his mouth, trying to understand. The illusion faded, leaving the three of the sitting there. “That’s it?” Shining stammered. “It can’t all end like that! There was… So much light!” He collapsed into his bedroll. “There was so much light…”

“The Mortal capacity to learn and to grow is astonishing.”

“Not in the mood.” Shining sneered at the divine thing.
The world of the dream was beginning to wear on him. He did not like how bright it was, how flat and perfect it was. It was too pure. Nothing like it should exist on earth, which technically it didn’t.

“When you read that book, in essence you agreed to a pact that would take you here, to be subject to my presence.” The divine thing said. “Or do you really think you can peer at the nature of the cosmos without stumbling upon god?”

“I don’t make assumptions about that kind of thing.” Shining shrugged.

“If only all mortals has as much sense as you.” Was that a joke? The interface was evolving, Shining mused. “Yet if you had even more sense, you would not make assumptions at all. Your mortal perspectives are so, so miniscule. You comprehend nothing.”

“Is that why you’re more fit to decide our fates? Because you understand more?” Shining asked.

“Among other things.” The divine thing said. “You do the same, don’t you? With your following of knights, your fedayeen, you have things you wish them not to know. Now out of maliciousness, but just the opposite! You wish to protect them, have them live the best lives they possibly can. Only you know that it could come at the expense of others. You can make peace with that. You can’t protect the whole world. You couldn’t even protect Celestia from herself. But you can protect your fedayeen.”

Those words hurt, a lot. “What do you know?!” Shining spit at the mirage. “You don’t know what it’s like, to suffer, to feel pain! You’re a goddamn ball of gas!”

The mirage twisted. “Correct.”

“You and I, we’re from different worlds, and you have NO RIGHT to guide us. How can anything that doesn’t know what it’s like to fear death be our arbiter?!” Shining buried his head in his hooves. “Don’t think I haven’t enjoyed our time together. You’re fascinating, in a horrible kind of way. But I won’t be coming back. You make me angry.”

“Don’t lie.”

Shining bared his teeth. ‘I WILL read my book again, but you don’t have to answer.”

“But this is my dream.”

“This is your INTERFACE. The divine don’t have dreams. Give this dream back to us mortals. It belongs to us. God damn it, it belongs to us!” Shining screamed. Why?

“...” The divine thing move around him. “You are not going to take it well went one of your fedayeen reject you.”

“Why do you keep calling them that?!” Shining barked. He felt so fragile, like a light tough might shatter him. His heart felt sore. Why did he have to exist like he did? Couldn’t he have been a god, and never worry about pain or sadness? “What does that mean? W- What does it all mean?!”

“Fedayeen? It means faithful martyrs.” The mirage shimmered, and Shining swore he saw a smile. “Martyrdom, to die for what you believe in… Strive, fight, and do the other things mortals do, Shining Armor. One day, you may find something, or somepony worth dying for.”

Shining covered his eyes. But he could not stop the tears. “We strive…” He said, rocked by little sniffles. “To understand.”

The mirage kneeled beside him, blanketing him with it transparent body. “That, my son, is why I love mortalkind.”

Author's Note

The wail of a violin, the boom of a drum, a beautiful tune... Some tell me that we think of all these things in the way we do because of our ancient ancestry as prey animals. Every sound we understand means what it means because it sounds like to something we evolved to respond to in a certain way.

That is a heartless thought. It was no beauty.
I like to imagine that of all the things the divine has given us, music is one of them. I hope to know one day how the cosmos sounds, and where among its multitude of chaotic cords, did the first melodies arise.

Chapter 53: Cloud Curtain

The sun had been climbing its way into the sky for hours by the time its light finally crested the peaks of the Unicorn Range, to shine down on the quaint village nestled in the crux of a vale. The light dissolved the mist from the lips of the doors and away from the edges of the thatched roofs.

The villagers awoke to grim strangers standing in their modest plaza: Knights clad in full armor, with golden cloaks fluttering in the morning breeze. Their weapons were drawn, a warning to the locals not to intervene.

Two carriages entered the vale from either side, clattering on the decaying cobble road. The carriages were simple, but well crafted, and in the place of the house sidgil which would adorn a noble’s coach there was a golden sun.
The carriages rolled into the village plaza and rolled to a stop on opposing ends. The ponies in the harnesses had the same shining armor as the knights. Simultaneously, the carriage doors opened, and a pony stepped from each.

From the east an ancient blue pegasus mare, with a withered and scarred face. From the west a middle-aged earth pony stallion, light green coat, gaunt, with his head shaved. They both wore grey robes with delicate red trimming, and a brooch pinned at their shoulder.
They established eye contact across the plaza and, after a nod to their guards, they shuffled their aged bodies to the center.

“Master Prelate.” The pegasus mare bowed.

“Mistress Prelate.” The earth pony stallion bowed back.

Silence permeated the plaza. The prelates rarely saw each other, too busy or paranoid to put valuable and vulnerable Celestianist temple officials in the same place. Also, though the recent batch of prelates got along fine, infighting and feuding was not uncommon between them. The more they kept out of each other’s way, the better it usually was for Equestria.
But these were most unusual times.

The Pegasus Prelate spoke first. “I know this is very difficult for you. I know you like to make your schedule months in advance.”

“Schedules are the least of my worries.” The Earth Pony Prelate laughed humorlessly. “All the long night, I was been running up and down the West Coast between Talltail and the delta, promising the laity that everything is allright. “

“Long night? More fitting name than what the ponies of the heartland have been calling it. ‘Eternal Night’ though it fails to capture its depth.” The Pegasus Prelate glanced away. “Ponies have suffered.”

The Earth Pony Prelate was dour. “I have received no news or messages from Canterlot because the dukes of Unicornia and Whitetail have locked down travel over the roads and rivers. Do the ponies in the North or East know what happened?”

The Pegasus prelate drew in a breath before starting her explanation. “Canterlot has suffered some manner of armed coup. The suspected leader is a minor noble, a certain Lady Twilight Velvet, who leads a very hostile provisional government ruling in the vacuum.
“Rumors abound: Princess Celestia is missing feared dead, the Household Guard has disappeared, and the provinces don’t know who is in charge. The capital has gone dark.”

“That does sound bad.” The Earth Pony Prelate said euphemistically. He paused, choosing the first out of many urgent questions. “You stayed in Cloudsdale all the night?”

“Yes.”

“Are you clued in to how the city will respond to Canterlot?”

“They already probed. There was a Wonderbolt squadron in Canterlot when the coup happened. We were hoping to reestablish the Pegasi Clique in the confusion after Vizier Fancy Pants’s death. When night fell they returned, abused and with the admiral mutilated. So in response the Admiralty sent an expedition, which severely rankled non-interventionists and even drew a protest resignation. I left shortly thereafter, but things are breaking down along the predictable factional lines.” The Pegasus Prelate lamented. “We had a partnership with Lord Lightdowser of East Unicornia to help reform the clique, but some have accused him of abandoning us to the coup.”

“I see.” The Earth Pony Prelate frowned. “Other lords are moving?”

“Lord Lightdowser has gone south and we do not know why. A northern lord, Countless Glori Sabonord, is reported to have made a foray south to scout out Canterlot. Unicornia is antagonistic as always. No news at all from the Riverpony Lands, Foal, or beyond.”

“If the Princess has truly perished…” The Earth Pony Prelate fell silent as he thought. “With the severity of this crisis, so grave it is difficult to express, our concerns become more immediate. I am lucky so little information has gotten through to the West. If I properly deliver the news I may stop those who otherwise will exploit the situation to the hilt.”

“That’s all very well, but that ships has already sailed for me. As I see it uncertainty is the greatest threat at the moment.” The Pegasus Prelate asserted. “Action now can prevent further chaos. In the best case, the lords are passive without the coercive oversight of the empire, but that is far from likely. They may need to be ushered to passivity. The temple can preemptively-”

“Forget whatever you’re proposing. Preemptive is not in the Celestine Temple vocabulary.” The Earth Pony Prelate laughed. “Our best hope is to be an afterthought, draw mere apathy. You say uncertainty is a threat, then we will disarm it through patient observation. We can weather the unicorn lords or other troublemakers.”

“I fully acknowledge the unicorns are a great danger, yes...” The Pegasus Prelate paused. Displeased with her Earth Pony peer shooting down her idea before it was even heard, she stood silently for a minute, locked in a stare with him. “One among many dangers. Some Darker and more subversive than unicorns, and less easily seen.”
The knowing silence lingered, before the pegasus spoke again. “How you think inactivity should be our course baffles me. Did you not say you spent the accursed night jumping up and down the coast?”

“You are hinting at actions that drive beyond the temple’s scope.”

“The temple has always been politicized. We would not be in this situation were it not.”

“Then perhaps this is an opportunity to de-politicize the faith. More ponies may find their way to us that way.”

“You call tragedy and our princess’s death an opportunity? You are losing your way.” The Pegasus Prelate cast a long glance. “If you tried to sit back and track every threat you would be left spinning.

“That does not mean we should not try. The alternative is untenable.” The Earth Pony Prelate looked East in the direction of Canterlot, though it would have been too far to see even without the mountains. “Without a princess on the throne, the temple is the strongest force of cohesion in Equestria. Those who demand their freedom will attack us prevent a resurgence of a centralized power.”

“Without Princess Celestia, I strain to think of anypony with power willing to stand up for us. It falls to us to defend ourselves.”

The Earth Pony Prelate took a seat on the uneven paving of the plaza, wrinkling his robe. “If Princess Celestia is dead, and we are destined to follow, so be it.”

“Without the princess we are nothing. So we fight to be something.”

The Earth Pony Prelate scowled. “Fight?”

“Strive.” The Pegasus Prelate corrected sourly. “Do you really want to meet the same fate as our colleague the Unicorn Prelate? Who knows how comfortable she felt in the crowd of Speakers, up to the last moments. We will be cought similarly complacent.”

That gave the Earth Pony Prelate pause. “I struggle to believe it. Who would openly murder priests?! Shameful. Even revolutionaries would not stoop that low.”

“They would kill politicians, which we prelates very much are.”

The Earth Pony Prelate squinted at that point. “Again you loop it back to politics.”

"Unicorns and anarchists do not attack us because they’re atheists. They do it because we are symbols of authority. The princess is gone and the status of temple figurehead devolves to us. We DO NOT have the luxury to tally enemies: Those who draw our swords against us and those who combat us in other ways.” The Pegasus Prelate sighed. “If you bar pre-emptive action, then only politics can avail us. In Cloudsdale I have already started making promises I can’t keep to protect myself and my temples. There is only a cracked sort of unity among the Admirals now, and the temple could become a wedge issue. Civil strife within the city itself is possible.”

“You should consider yourself lucky. Dissent will be the least of my troubles.” The Earth Pony Prelate said. “Talltail and Vanhoover will not be able to protect themselves if the Whitetail and Unicornia dukes attack.”

“Exactly! You should be the one saying what I’m saying! And I say that we can prevent attacks by proving our mettle. NOT doing so makes you culpable for lives lost.” The Pegasus Prelate hissed.

The Earth Pony Prelate against shook his head. “Were the temple to stick its hoof in we would become exactly what we are accused of being. Better a few lives be lost than the innocence of the temple.”

The Pegasus Prelate closed her eyes. She was getting frustrated with the stubborn earth pony. “Fine. You want other ponies to stick their necks out for us.”

The Earth Pony Prelate nodded. “Yes. That is what ponies are for.”

That little comment irked the Pegasus Prelate. Her earth pony peer was being callous about pony lives. The ‘purity’ of the temple would mean nothing if they were all dead. “Do you seek someone to submit to you, or the other way around? Because nopony would defend the temple and ceed their newfound sovereignty to a non-princess?”

“It is indeed unlikely.” The Earth Pony Prelate conceded.

“Extremely unlikely. At this stage ponies may reject a princess too. All trust has died. Before the full picture was known the Admiralty has imprisoned the imperial governess, then crafted charges of negotiating with Lady Velvet’s Canterlot regime. Then, I was forced to swear that I would never recognize a princess or prelate that was selected without pegasus acceptance.” The Pegasus Prelate bared her teeth. “They WANT to be at each other’s throats. Ours too.”

“Damn them! Do they want war? As if the unicorns weren’t enough!” The Earth Pony Prelate exclaimed.

“Ostensibly so.” The Pegasus Prelate grimaced. The other prelate had reacted the most to the idea of priests being attacked. If she could harp on that point… “What will remain of us, pure or no, if every priest is coerced to swearing allegiance to whatever local warlord happens to pass through that day?””

But the Earth Pony Prelate remained unconvinced. “Let the sin be upon the head of whoever tries to extract such a pledge.”

The Pegasus Prelate stifled a sigh. She did not like talking for so long in her age. After a moment of silence she shifted gears. “I respect your decision for the temple, and even your stubbornness with me. Do you trust me?”

The Earth Pony Prelate looked offended. “What manner of question is that? Trust is irrelevant to our relationship. We trust in Destiny, not ponies.”

“I ask this not as a prelate, but as a pegasus. Because I detect a certain cynicism in your words, my fellow.” The Pegasus Prelate said cautiously. “In the conflicts that follow, the fortunes of our respective tribes may rise or fall depending on what we decide.”

“I see.” The Earth Pony Prelate closed his eyes. “In that case, yes. I trust you with the fortune of my tribe, as I hope for you to trust me with yours.”

“Thank you brother.” The Pegasus Prelate cleared her throat. She was taking a risk givine up secrets, but hopefully it would sway him.
“The Cloudsdale expedition I spoke of, the airship task force to blockade Canterlot…” She hesitated. “I am committing a grave indiscretion to tell you this, but early reports have come back that it was an unmitigated disaster. A whole task-force was destroyed. Hundreds of lives were lost.” She unclenched her teeth and sighed deeply. “I did not want to tell you lest you carry this information back to the unicorns and expose our weakness, but I feel now that we must work together no matter what. Every move we must make together, to keep the temple together against all threats!”

“My condolences to your tribe’s losses, sister prelate, but what am I supposed to do about a lost fleet? You wish me to staff another?” The Earth Pony Prelate asked darkly.

“I am saying blood has already been spilled. Earth ponies are under threat too. While you have been sequestered in the West, the East has gone neglected, and that is the region most susceptible to heresy.” The Pegasus Prelate lambasted. “Think about it. The oceanic trade networks connecting through the Free Cities exposes them to all manner of strange and unequestrian beliefs. If the East Coast moves from the Celestian Temple, it will never come back.”

“If is fated, then we will accept East is lost to us, and focus on the West and North.”

“You will accept it but not I.” The Pegasus Prelate said.

“If we overextend we lose everything.” The Earth Pony Prelate said cooly.

The Pegasus Prelate was getting properly angry. She had learned to be patient during her time as a provincial priest, but by this point in a conversation she would have made at least some progress. She sourly began to wish the Unicorn Prelate had survived and the Earth Pony died. “Insufferable neigh-sayer! There could be decades of war!”

That silenced the Earth Pony Prelate for a few minutes. At the edges of the plaza, the knights of the respective prelates were getting ancy. They had come expecting a certain amount of disagreement but it was hard to tell if they would soon become hostile. The two elderly prelates could do little damage to each other, but things could easily get out of control between the armed and armored knights.

“Am I getting through to you? If you want a passive Celestine Temple, we NEED a strong ally. Somepony has to step into Princess Celestia’s role as a strong centralized force.” The Pegasus Prelate filled the earth pony’s silence. “I am offering you input and you have been an ass. I could offer the temple’s loyalty to anypony, while you sit idly by as you’ve promised to do!”

“How altruistic of you to point that out.” The Earth Pony Prelate finally said. “But who would you offer it to.” His wrinkled face twisted into a look of mocking faux-innocence. “Lady Twilight Velvet?”

The Pegasus Prelate was ready to strike the stallion, if she didn’t think it would provoke his guards. She was tired of the arduous effort at cooperation, pretending they were equals.
She matched his look with one of exaggerated thought. “Lady Velvet, you say? Hmm! What an idea! Her ladyship must be capable to take control of a politicking populace like Canterlot’s.”

“Don’t kid. You are belittling the legitimate choice to be neutral.”

“Why would I kid? The mare who destroyed Cloudsdale’s blockade fleet must be very formidable. Once I get back to Cloudsdale and hear more of the story, I may be completely won over.” The Pegasus Prelate sniffed. “A decisive ally who does not shy from trouble is what we need.”

“You’re mad. Not only has that mare killed of your tribe, by your own account she is the one who has most fed this crisis!” The Earth Pony Prelate took the bait. “You would be rewarding murder, handing the loyalist flag to a usurper, and empowering a unicorn! DO YOU WANT A UNICORN EMPRESS?!”

“Better a unicorn empress than no empress. One is subservience, the other is destruction!” The Pegasus Prelate barked back. “Do you alternatives? An earth pony? A pegasus? Junior Princess Cadenza?!”

She only got a stare in response.

“Fine. Fine. I see you need time to think. We both do.” The Pegasus Prelate narrowed her gaze. “I have said everything I wanted to, and heard everything I needed to from you. When next you meet, I expect you to be more open to suggestions.”

“When and where?” He said curtly.

“Northern plains, if that would work with you.” The Pegasus Prelate looked away. “We need to reconvene soon. Within a week I should have more information.”

The Earth Pony Prelate sighed in tired annoyance. “Take all the time you need.”

After a stiff bow, the Pegasus Prelate backed up and turned away. She slowly walked back to her coach, jaw clenched in indignant rage. She felt very disrespected.

“How did it go, mistress?” One of her retained knights asked, his voice muffled through his helmet.

“Better than expected.” She said as she climbed the step into the carriage. “Back to Cloudsdale.”

“We will be back at the airship soon enough mistress.” The knight bowed. Cautious of the Earth Pony Prelate’s knights on the other side of the plaza, the host withdrew to the road east.

“Stubborn mule.” The Pegasus Prelate mumbled to herself. The earth pony was doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. He didn’t see what was ‘right’ didn’t matter. “He knew about Canterlot and the princess from the start. He was just stringing me along.”
She was an old mare, and the talking had made her fairly tired. She rested her head against the back of the carriage, fading into a nap.

When she awoke she was in a soft chair in a ship cabin, moving with the familiar sway of an airship. One of her knights stood post at the door.

She cleared her throat. “What is our time to Cloudsdale?”

“Not long now Mistress Prelate. I would have to consult with the helm to know the exact-”

“Not necessary.” The Pegasus Prelate sat up and stretched.

The Celestianist Temple, despite or because of its no longer being imperially supported thus relying on its own budgeting, kept it operations austere. The temple retained a select few volunteer knights to protect the most important clerics and properties, plus a select few luxuries. The Pegasus Prelate made use of a retrofitted messenger airship, the Earth Pony Prelate kept a quick sloop, and the Unicorn Prelate (when living) served from Canterlot’s opulent cathedrals. It was just enough to serve their needs.
“Any trouble clearing Unicornia?”

“Nay, Mistress Prelate. We have been clear of the mountains for hours with no sign of patrols, unicorn or pegasi. We should make it back to Cloudsdale undetected. Some commotion on the eastern approaches has them distracted.”

“Good.” The Pegasus Prelate folded her hooves. She had a good idea what that commotion was. “I would hate to have to explain this adventure to the Admiralty.”

Spitfire was one of the first to see them. Ragged, tattered, limping back with half their sails and overloaded with casualties. The expedition fleet sent to blockade Canterlot returned to Cloudsdale utterly vanquished.
Some of the once-mighty airships looked ready to split in half. Pilot boats rushed out to help the flagging crafts to dock.

“The idiots.” Spitfire shook her head. She didn’t have enough anger anymore to feel properly outraged. “If only they’d listened.”

She was sitting on one of the great cloud berms that contained the Nimbostratus District where she lived. At the very edge, with the layers and layers of cloudhomes at her back and nothing but open skies before her, she felt tempted to just fly away from her problems and become a rogue like Shining Armor and the Imperial Household Guard had done.
But she knew she could not. Her parents and her sister needed her, no matter what lay ahead.

“Soarin and Fleetfoot better have survived.” She grumbled as she pushed herself to her hooves. “I’m going to be pissed if the captaincy gets bumped down to Rapidfire or Misty Fly. Those undisciplined louts couldn’t hold a one-pony brigade together.”

She knew better than to try to find her Wonderbolt comrades as they arrived. It would be chaos on the docks as the surviving airships offloaded the wounded. The Admiralty would be scrambling to learn as much as they could about the disaster and the presence of a dishonorable recreant like her would only incite them. Spitfire would wait for somepony to come visit.

She was glad she hadn’t gone along with the foolish expedition, but she felt pangs of guilt for letting her loyal Bolts go out without her. They had gone into danger, and she had not been there for them. She had chosen to make an ineffectual political message rather than do her duty. Now she could only watch from afar.
She looked to the blue skies. Heaven was laughing at them all. Maybe she should have stayed behind in Canterlot with Rain Gnash and Fleetfoot: If she’d been mutilated like they’d been, she would have an excuse to feel so pitiful. Besides it had been her duty to protect them. Her failure was multilayered.

So, as awful as it was, hating others for their failings was a needed distraction.
“Gods damn the Admiralty.” She clenched her teeth. “Without our princess, we have to protect each other now.”

There was not much else to see besides suffering.
Spitfire turned her back on the sky and lazily flew back home. There were a few neighbors outside but they ignored each other. They looked haunted. A shadow had settled over Cloudsdale, and Spitfire had seen it once before.
“Unlike Cloud Creche, we’re not going to get a royal visit out of this tragedy.” Spitfire muttered. But the last tragedy was a natural disaster. This time it was more like murder.

Do to a cold front passing near the city her house had shifted closer to the top of the district. More light was getting through and the air plant garden was looking vibrant. Seafire and the maid were in the garden watering.

“Hey.” Spitfire grunted. “Stay home for the next few day, okay?”

Seafire giggled. “Is you say so sis!”

Spitfire narrowed her eyes. “What are you giggling about.” She trotted to the front door. “Has anypony been by? One of the Bolts?”

Seafire grinned. “Sorry!” She singsonged. “I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise!”

Spitfire did not like the sound of that. Unless it was Seafire being silly, the Wonderbolts wouldn’t act like that in a grave situation.
She went into the foyer to hear the sound of clouds crunching underhoof directly above, in her room. She ran to the greater hall and looked looked up to the second-floor mezzanine. Her door was open.

“She let them into my room? What is going on here?” Spitfire whispered to herself.
She silently crept up the stairs, pausing beside her bedroom door. She pressed herself against the wall. Somepony inside was breathing. “Who’s there?” She demanded.

“You should come in. We need to talk.” A mare’s voice replied from within the room. It was not Fleetfoot, or any of the Wonderbolts, or anypony’s voice that Spitfire could recognize.

Spitfire bristled. Something was very wrong. “Hey listen, I don’t want any trouble here. My sister and parents are none of your concern. Let’s take this someplace else.”

“Your sister’s a very nice little filly. I’m not going to hurt her. We can talk here.” The mare’s voice was stern. “Come in, please, Captain Spitfire.”

Spitfire was engulfed in a glowing gold magical aura and was yanked into her room.

“Hey motherbucker! Let me go!” Spitfire kicked out and the aura dispelled. Thinking fast she threw herself towards the shape of the intruder sitting on her bed, wagering she would win in close quarters.
They collided but Spitfire bounced away. She landed on the floor and was trapped in a magical aura again. She was pressed against the cloud floor, completely frozen this time and barely able to move her mouth. “W-What the buck?! Who are you!?”

“Does something have you on edge?” The intruder was a unicorn yellow with a short red and yellow streaked mane. She did not look healthy, being abnormally pale around the face and with sullen, uncannily glowing eyes. Despite this she had a cheery though arrogant smile, all too familiar to Spitfire as a tell of sly evil.
And finally, the unicorn wore a set of black lacquer armor that Spitfire recognized instantly. “I think you may know of me, slightly.” The unicorn said. “I’m going to let you go now. Please don’t attack again.”

The telekinetic aura faded and Spitfire sat up. “W- Where did you get that armor?! Did Lady Velvet send you?”

“Relax captain. Nopony sent me.” The unicorn said calmingly. “Take a minute, see if you don’t realize who I am.”

Spitfire quietly obliged. Her eyes wandered to the unicorn’s mark, a stylized sun. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“Think back. It was eleven years ago, minus a few months, in the aftermath of Cloud Creche. There was a parade through the Cumulus District and none other than Princess Celestia herself was in attendance. She had a very modest delegation, but I wore my hair longer back then, and acted harmlessly awkward.”

“Eleven years ago…” Spitfire’s frown deepened. It was obvious this was a dangerous mare before her. Options ran through her head. She could attack again but that was a nonstarter: The aura of power that radiated off the unicorn was palpable, yet somehow felt at odds with the mare, like she had somepony else's magic.
Spitfire considered running, but chances were she would only be able to get Seafire away from the house, for as always their parents were locked away in their wing of the house, listlessly reading or gardening.
So, she thought back. She tried to picture the mentioned scene a decade past, and how the empress’s delegation looked. Brow furrowed she mined her memories for any standout impression. After some minutes she faced the invader, holding in her mind her old curiosity to who the nervous unicorn mare behind Princess Celestia was. Eleven years ago, a pony of infamy had been her highness’s élève premier.
“You… You were the princess’s student back then. You’re the Traitor.”

“That’s me.” Sunset Shimmer smiled. “Last we met eyes you were still a squire, in the shadow of one of the beefy winged hussars at attention. You were wearing armor but your big bright tail was sticking out.” She continued. “Your knight was missing half of his feather cape. You must have been chewed out thoroughly for breaking it.”

“As a matter of fact it was his own damn fault it got ripped. Didn’t stop me from getting blamed. Story of my life.” Spitfire said grimly. “And its mindful of that fact that I’m telling you to get the hell out of my house, right now. You’re endangering my family being here.”

“No one saw me arrive.”

Spitfire trotted to the window to look to where Seafire was whistling, blissfully ignorant. “I don’t care. I’m not harboring a Traitor.”

“I think you should get used to calling me by my name.” Sunset Shimmer said. “I’m in a bit of a pickle. I need help and I won’t, can’t, take no for an answer.”

“You think I’m going to help you?” Spitfire growled. “Even if you hold my family hostage you’ll never be able to trust me. First chance I get I’m going to plunge my sword into your back.”

“Stab me all you like. It would do very little. I’m protected by my dream, who will let me come to no harm.” Sunset thumped her chest with her hoof. The black armor sent off a little spark of energy where she’d struck it. “Beside, I think you will enjoy working with me.”

“Buck right off.” Spitfire sneered. She’d had her fill of snarky, cocky, and smug unicorns. “If you want help, go to the hospital or charity center. Poor knightly houses like mine don’t have spare rope for whatever bull you’re feeding out.”

“I grew up in the princess’s shadow. I know how to negotiate.” Sunset summoned a piece of parchment and ink quill. “You saw how Lady Velvet did business. She has her supporters, whose loyalty flows out of her irresistible authority. I’ve trended towards that way, but since my exile I’ve learned to prefer formality and forthright business.”

“Don’t compare yourself to Velvet. All you’ll do is come out looking stupid.” Spitfire eyed the unicorn as she jotted something down on the parchment. “But maybe you are stupid. I told you I’m not interested.”

“I understand you think your mind is made up.” Sunset levitated the parchment to Spitfire. “What I’m offering for what I need.”

After a minute of thought and sour looks, Spitfire snatched the parchment and read down the list.
For Spitfire’s help as a guide and making introductions, it claimed, Sunset Shimmer was to provide information: She was offering in-depth informational material about the Star's ritual, Twilight Velvet’s diabolical works in Canterlot, and data about new nightmare movements.
Nightmares? Spitfire had to reread that. What? “What is this?”

Sunset snorted. “You can read, right.”

“Buck off.” Spitfire rolled up the parchment. “I can read BS. I want to hear why you’d give all that to me.”

“I have to offer something.”

That was the thing with the smartass unicorns. One always had to keep asking the same question in different ways so they could get all their quips out. “Listen here bucker-”

“Please, not so harsh.” Sunset said calmingly. “I want to make the world a better place. I can’t go back to Canterlot, so here I am.”

“Yes, and why bother ME?”

“Because you survived Canterlot. You know just enough presently to allow you to function just as is needed from you; Needed both by your city and by me.” Sunset Shimmer said. She stood up and began to pace in front of the bed as she explained.
“With the information I can feed you, you will become indispensable to the Admiralty as they ramp up Cloudsdale’s involvement in the South and East. The more they learn of the forgotten truths, the more they’ll want, the more they will want you.”

“You want me…” Spitfire felt a flash of faintness. Was this a fever dream? “To go to the Admiralty…”

“And lead however you want. Just as long as I’m kept safe, you will keep getting information.” Sunset rested on the bed again. “This is your chance to give your family the security they deserve.”

Spitfire’s eyes unconsciously darted in the direction of her parents’ wing of the house.

”And others too, captain. How are you going to keep the Wonderbolts safe if you’re wasting away here? With a voice among the Admiralty you can guide this city in a rational way. You can be your city’s Velvet, but a force for Light instead of Dark.”

Spitfire stared at Sunset. We wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or curse the traitor. “You are stupid. Or just insane.”

“You have no idea of the weight of that word.” Sunset said, perhaps jokingly, but certainly somewhat rankled by the accusation like it was mocking some great accomplishment. “Did the Admirals call you insane when you recounted the events of Canterlot to them? There are proper junctures to go insane, Captain Spitfire: This is not one of them.”

“Then just stupid, to think I’d more than laugh or argue with you! Divide the Admiralty’s collective wits by twenty and they still wouldn’t bite at a raw bait like you’ve got, especially not relayed from me.” Spitfire lobbed the parchment back. “I’m not Lady Velvet. I don’t relish to deceive and outwit ponies.”

”You don’t have a very strong dream, it’s true. But perhaps that why you’re my best hope.” Sunset said. She licked her lips, and her ear flicked. For the briefest moment, Spitfire thought she heard a gurgled exhalation from somewhere between them, and that Sunset was straining to listen, but that impression instantly faded with Sunset’s rising voice.
“I have a dream worth rallying around. It’s the kind that breaths life into shy hopes that ponies shirk from in normal times. And the pegasi will be warmed by it, and will feel the drive for revenging themselves on Canterlot and a world at large that seeks them ill. That’s the environment you’ll carve a niche into: A bastion against crisis, and an interpreter of the strange feelings Cloudsdale will be awash with.”

“Another dream to follow.” Spitfire accused, lip curled. They both knew that would be a red flag for her. Lofty dreams had been Velvet’s banner, proved at the last to be a diversion from the sinister Dark motives. “This one leads to death too. You want to send Cloudsdale to war.”

“It wasn’t my first plan, but it is the best one considering the changing circumstances.” Sunset said. “I promise, this will save lives. If others besides us lead, war will still happen, but hurt the pegasus civilians more. My plan will keep the battles away from your soil and clouds.”

“If you have this all planned out, then what’s the final part? Where’s the dismount?” Spitfire demanded. “You can’t puppet them, us, forever.”

“When the Admiralty falls from grace, only a mare like you, estranged from the normal ties of loyalty, will survive.” Sunset said, leaving to the imagination how that fall from grace would happen. “Hopefully the world turns more sane by then.”

“A coup.” Spitfire clenched her jaw. “You smug piece of shite. How dare you come to me and try to make me part, no, CENTERPIECE of your conspiracy.”

Sunset wrinkled her nose, but would not be discouraged. “It has to be this way.”

“Buck you, you aren't listening.” Spitfire said at a deadly whisper. “I’m not a liar.”

“I’m telling you to tell the truth! There’s nothing duplicitous about serving your city to lead it to salvation.” Sunset said. “Maybe it will take time to understand, but when mortals know horrible truths with inner peace-”

“Shut up! Just shut up!” Spitfire barked. “I don’t care one bit. You wanna preach, do it outside in the Cloudsdale you claim to care so much about.”

“The springs are wound such that ponies won’t trust an alicorn to take control. I have to be patient.”

There was a long period of silence.
“Alicorn? What alicorn? Who is talking about alicorns?” Spitfire eyed the Blackhorn Armor. She remembered the grave manner it had been toted around Canterlot in the hours before the fatal ritual, but she’d departed before seeing it used. The fitful, incomplete accounts of Fleetfoot and Rain Gnash of Velvet’s spell placed it centrally. “Cloudsdale already has their alicorn. Maybe you’ve heard of her.”

“If you think you can fluster me bringing up Princess Celestia, you are in for a surprise. I can and will talk about her for hours.” Sunset chuckled. Through the arrogant smile and sinister gleam in her eyes, Spitfire thought she might have seen a hint of reverence when Sunset said the name. “As for Cloudsdale, you echo exactly what I’m saying, Mis Spitfire. This world had her, then rejected her, and so she rejected it.”

“Rejected?!” Spitfire protested. So Sunset had brought up alicorns to segway into the strange accusation. Spitfire was fuming so much the unicorn’s antics were starting to seem funny; Not laughably funny, but the kind of bad joke that caused gagging and whimpering.

“That the city didn’t collapse into chaos after her highness’s death proves they weren’t devoted enough. If we want our princess back to return we must forge new bonds of love and trust.”

Spitfire was ready to viciously argue over moving goalposts, but consciously picked what she felt would end the conversation fastest: Acting like she relenting to what the Traitor was saying.
“How do you intend to make a bond with a dead mare?”

“I’ve done the hard part.” Sunset said, explaining nothing. “Death needn’t be a barrier to love anyway.”

Spitfire shuddered.

“I would, like you offered, go out and foster the love between mortal and god myself, if it wouldn’t be misinterpreted because of who I am. Thus, I offer to you the opportunity of being known as the pegasus who returned this nation to its god.”

“I don’t give two shakes of my leg to being known for anything. I just want you out of my house. Any answer you have aren’t worth putting my family in danger.” Spitfire insisted. “That is, unless I have promises (useless as they are from a traitor) that I’m making them safer.”

Sunset shrugged, and her armor clacked. “To be frank, every pony in this city is already under threat of death. The question is whether you all find god before it’s over.”

“You’re seriously messed up.” Spitfire sighed. “Bucking fine. Fine. I’ll listen more, but not here. I already owe you a beatdown for talking to Seafire.”

“If we must.” Sunset stood up. “Let’s go for a walk. ”

“We are on final approach to Cloudsdale, Mistress Prelate. We will arrive at your private dock momentarily.” The captain reported.

“With not a single airship on defensive station on this vector.” The helmpony scratched her head with her wing in bafflement.

The Pegasus Prelate brooded over this. The expedition must have gone worse than the first reports suggested. It was going to be interesting to see if the commoners, and the ideological agitators who worked among them, would say. Perhaps the future was not so grim for the Celestian Temple.
“Take us in quickly. There will be many callers today that will need my careful hoof to turn away.”

“Turn away?” The captain and the crew were nonplussed. “Can you do that?”

“The steps of the righteous are guided by god, except when god’s not watching anymore.”

Spitfire could not believe what she was doing. Leading one of the more infamous ponies in recent history along the cloud-streets of Cloudsdale in broad daylight (though not really, as the Nimbostratus streets were shadowy at best) was not something she could have ever seen herself getting roped into. Yet there she was, just a few steps ahead of Sunset Shimmer trotting along the narrow cloudways between the districts.
Then again, she’d been right in the mix at Canterlot with Twilight Velvet, and she guessed history would be even harsher on that evil mare. Or not, being that myriad events were still unfolding.

“We’re in luck. The returning fleet has everybody’s attention.” Sunset Shimmer remarked. She had tucked a traveling cape and hood into the gorget collar of her armor to cover herself. “Lady Twilight Velvet set her alicorn upon them. They didn’t stand a chance. The larger carriers came apart quite spectacularly, and not without great protest. Any lesser foe and the sturdy pegasus engineering would have triumphed.”

“So many lives wasted.” Spitfire said acidly. One of the airships had caught fire as soon as it arrived at the skydock. Caustic black smoke curled up from the Stratus district in a lacy ribbon that mirrored the gleaming white of the Nimbus district. “And for what?! To say we gave it a good try? Pride can’t repay the cost in lives.”

“There are occasions worthy of sacrifice.” Sunset said.

With most other ponies, Spitfire would have made accusations of tribalism for such dismissiveness, but Spitfire was certain Sunset would have grinned just the same if it had been unicorns who’d died. “Was it ‘worthy’ this time?”

“No.” Sunset confessed.

“You would have prefered to have gotten another alicorn out of it.” Spitfire spat.

Sunset answered only by way of a shrug.

The further towards the outer parts of the Nimbostratus district they went, the more there was an atmosphere of apprehension and fear. The honest ponies of the district had sent sons and daughters on that fleet. Over the next few days quaking and wailing would rise up from the old but tidy houses all around them, afterwards replaced with depression and resignation.

Spitfire felt a sudden, murderous urge. She imagined putting her hooves around Sunset Shimmer’s neck and throttling the life from her, if only because she was the closest living being. How badly did the Traitor want her alive? If Spitfire refused to stop attacking, would Sunset kill her? But maybe with a well-placed buck to the head at a surprise moment...
Spitfire let the tension out with a pained sigh. It was too risky. Sunset would face her comeuppance eventually.

“You’re angry.” Sunset remarked.

“My patience for taking orders has worn away.” Spitfire said, surprised at her own candor. “I wish I could move everypony I care about to a safe little cloud bank over a desert island or something. I can’t smile at strangers like I used to. I think about all the ways they could hurt me, or I could hurt them.”

“I know the feeling.” Sunset laughed, like she was talking about an in-joke among friends. “You should back off that kind of thought before it leads you where it led me.”

“Betraying my sovereign.” Spitfire muttered.

“Betraying who you love.” Sunset corrected.

Spitfire heavily relied on the fact that her friends could weather her moods to justify her behavior, acknowledging that a measure of stern cantankerousness was expected from a squadron captain and Wonderbolt both. But this was different. “It’s not my fault.”

“Whose fault is it? God’s?” Sunset said, slightly mocking.

“Some god.”

“How would it make you feel if the god you revered wanted to see you suffer no matter what? Would it push you to find a new god?” Sunset asked. “You don’t have to answer. ”

Spitfire hadn’t had anything to say about it either way. She was coming to think that a threshold had been crossed, and she would have to get used to ponies rummaging around in the divine as a fact of daily life. She played out the future conversations in her head where everyday ponies greeted each other by chatting about what unholy terrors they’d danced with in the dark.
“Ahh, that why you gush about how love Princess Celestia so much. You feel guilty for looking at the other mares.”

Sunset, however, did not bite. “Captain, what kind of world do you think we live in? All the morals, rules, and taboos we live by, are they mortal or divine contrivances? The temple tells you that all our morality is given by our god and her guidance.”

“I don't give a damn.” Spitfire said. “It’s not good enough that I’m leading you, you want to play psychologist with me.”

“You would have to make your mind before I could examine it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Never mind.” Sunset shrugged.

“Bucker. At least Velvet explained herself coherently.”

“I am regretting drawing the comparison to her, if it’s going to be brought up this often.”

“Then quit talking like her!”

Sunset cracked into a goofy smile. “I should. I really do come off looking stupid, but I’ve done that plenty.”

“Grand! So have plenty of ponies, including me. It’s part of life, and a lesson you’re supposed to learn when you’re a shite teen.” Spitfire sputtered. “You must have never learned, what with how you go around with your nose in the air acting like you’re the cleverest mare in Equestria.”

Sunset wrinkled her nose. “And you pegasi, so high and mighty, are any better? The hissy fit your tribe threw when Rain Gnash wasn’t made IHG captain… What a riot! I heard all about the circumstances around Pegasi Clique leaving. The unicorns just laughed and laughed and laughed. What a bunch of petulant children the pegasi are.” She smiled knowingly. “You though, you’ve gotten jaded to that bluster. You’re ready to be a pragmatist.”

“Get bent. Just because I’m not throwing my life away for pride doesn’t mean I’m renouncing my tribe.”

“Ponies are dismissive of what they lack.” Sunset winked.

“I’ve heard some roundabout insults before-”

“Can you deny the psychology of it though? We don’t want to think about loss, bereavement.” Sunset said. “I’m dismissive of a lot of things, for example.”

“Is this working up to some stupid explanation about how your betrayal of the princess was justified, I’m going to chuck you off the cloud berm.” Spitfire glared.

“It’s not.” Sunset giggled.

“Then what the hell are you going on about? Do you want pitty?”

“Why would I want pitty? I’m just trying to let you know.” Sunset said. “Know that I am dismissive of the divine.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.” Spitfire wasn’t making connections. Was Sunset implying she could not have the divine? Not that a madmare could be expected to keep her delusions consistent.

They went along in silence for a time. The cloud-street wound around the larger structures, branching off into clustered cloud-homes. It eventually connected into a larger, arching causeway bridging the Nimbostratus District to the Cumulus District.
Since they were leaving a quiet residential district for the open bustle of the public places, they began to see traffic, running towards or away from the Stratus skydock in varying levels of distress. Sunset Shimmer adjusted her hood to keep her horn from showing.

The edifices got larger and more austere as they passed government and fleet buildings. The causeway intersected the grand boulevard, lined with air plants. Off to their left the boulevard terminated at the grand square, where the Records Hall, Mayoral Palace, and Charter Bank were located.
At that moment emergency responders were pouring down from the other districts to help.

“Ha ha, just like the last time we were here together. It’s a veritable parade.” Sunset laughed.

“Why is everything you say so vile and callous?”

“What do you think is more worthy of mourning, avoidable or unavoidable death?” Sunset asked in return.

“I already said my piece about the expedition.”

“I’m not talking about the expedition. I mean all death. Because from certain points of view all forms of death are unavoidable, and from others all death is avoidable.”

“Holy Celestia, give me a straight answer!” Spitfire bristled. She was fully aware the yelling could draw somepony’s attention and so was Sunset.

Sunset gave the pegasus a sidelong look.
“For the last eight years, ninety percent of my conversations have been with one mare. It’s disorienting to come back to Equestria and explain things I’m used to being taken for granted. Things don't work like they did during my exile.”

“Welcome back.” Spitfire said sardonically.

“I would have stayed away for longer, if I could have.”

“Come to visit the family for the Summer Sun? I can only stand my family in short bursts too.”

“Heh, not exactly. It’s not for the sun I came, but the night. You can do all kinds of interesting things in the dark without being bothered.”

Spitfire's brow creased. “So, when god was distracted by the Eternal Night, you did your witchcraft.”

“Something like that. I have a sly feeling several groups used the opportunity to enact ceremonies or spells.”

That confirmed it for Spitfire: Sunset Shimmer had performed the ritual. Did she come to Cloudsdale to bask, or was she looking for a repeat performance? Had she even succeeded the first time? Spitfire’s eyes roamed over the Blackhorn Armor.
“If you try to do your magic in Cloudsdale, I’ll turn you into paste.”

“Don’t worry captain, casting the ritual is the last thing I intend. I want to resume our princess’s work, nothing more.”

“I can’t pretend you’re making any sense to me. You’d make the most ponies happy by killing yourself. You’re never going to be a hero.”

Sunset’s smiling veneer cracked for a bare second. “I don’t have to be a hero, captain. I just have to be triumphant.”

“The kind of ponies who say that have no regard for laws of monarch or god. Lucky you, amoral despots aren’t rare in Cloudsdale. Most of them have uniforms and batons, and only a few have a black heart like yours.” Spitfire leveled. “But call me an idiot if I don’t recognize that history is filled with mares like you. Last time I faced one I survived despite my bungling. I won’t be blindsided again.”

“That’s ambitious. A mare striving for security in insecure times. Your optimism inspires me.” Sunset laughed a little.

“Do me a personal favor and shut your trap until we see Admiral Gnash.”

Cloudsdale Royal Hospital was overflowing with the wounded. Every few minutes a new wagon full of casualties from the docks arrived and offloaded. The top floor reserved for officers was packed to capacity.

Rain Gnash, stable as she was, had been bumped to a low priority and had been wheeled into the small flower garden on the roof. The garden was pleasant, with rows of planters bearing gently wilting trees, framed by trestles full of air plants and flowering orchids. It was a pleasant, quiet place the likes of which one would spend their waning moments.
Rain Gnash did not want to think so fatalistically. It was a garden, nothing more.

With all her bandages removed it, Gnash was the shadow of the mare she once was. Her left leg and wing were stumps. Her right leg and her ears were completely gone. Her left eye was covered by an eyepatch and her muzzle was stitched partially back together. Her torso was horrifically scarred from where her body fat had boiled off. Her fur was just starting to grow back on her head, but otherwise the skin was still pink and raw.

“Simple miracles, gentleponies. Simple miracles.” Gnash hadn’t regained all use of her tongue or throat yet, leading to most of her sentences ending in a lisped whisper. “We can thank our lucky stars, our guardian angels, or our rabbit’s foot. Whatever you want. Just give thanks.”

“Not everypony will agree with you. I’m not sure I do.” Her lone visitor Soarin lay flat on the floor staring into the smoky sky. He’d been lucky to come back unscathed. He was supposed to be with the other Wonderbolts getting debriefed, but every twist of his gut drove him away from it. Every time one of the Bolts spoke visions of the burning carrier flashed over his vision. He heard screams and the phantom sound of tearing flesh. It made him want to run away and hide. “The longer this is going on, the more cynical I’m getting, which doesn’t feel good. Now who’s going to play off Captain Spitfire? We had great chemistry.”

“You kook.” Gnash gurgled. “Hang in there. I won’t let another Bolt fall. Trust me on that.”

“How are you going to stop the admiralty if they decide to send us back?” Soarin rubbed his temple. “I’d leave before that, following the Captain out the door.” He sighed. “The helplessness eats at me. We couldn’t do anything. Hundreds of ponies dead and we could only run away.”

“This is what I’d call an unmitigated disaster. The Admiralty has a lot to answer for. I… I have to get stronger before I can get back in the mix.” Gnash laid her head back.
She closed her eyes. Through murky eyes she saw the a pony’s face, looking down at her. She felt Fleetfoot heartbeat and the slow rise and fall of that other pony’s chest as she breathed.
“Because we can’t let others drive our path.”

“Absolutely nopony. Nopony but ourselves.” Soarin agreed darkly.

They heard the sweep of wings and a clatter of hooves from nearby.

Soarin jerked his head up. Spitfire was looking around, making sure it was just them in the rooftop garden.
“Yo! Captain!” Soarin hollered. “Admiral, it’s Spitfire!”

“At buckin ease, soldier.” Spitfire said gruffly. “Admiral Gnash, you’re looking better.”

“Shove it, Captain.” Rain Gnash opened her eye. “You never come to visit.”

“You’d get sick of my company real quick.” Spitfire maneuvered around the planters and flower beds to sit on the ground by Soarin. “Well… Let’s get this out of the way. What happened in Canterlot?”

Soarin was having a hard time deciding where to look. “That glory hound Captain Hail Strom tried to attack the city. It went about as well as it looks. Hundreds dead.”

“Wonderbolts?”

“One MIA, officially.”

“Fleetfoot...” Spitfire looked to Rain Gnash.

“She is alive, in Canterlot.” Gnash croaked. “Nopony else knows that.”

“But she’s Lady Velvet’s care. The Admiral told me she got hurt badly.”

Gnash hung her head. “She almost died, and me with her. From the sporadic sensations I get I think she’s recovering, but it’s almost certain that Lady Velvet has her.”

Spitfire gave a reserved nod. “I was afraid she wasn’t going to make it back. I, uh, suspected she wanted to get herself killed. Before the expedition left she was looking real bad.”

“She’s not out of the pan. Lady Velvet has kept her alive, but that doesn’t guarantee anything.” Gnash said. “She’s a hostage to ensure our cooperation.”

Soarin whinnied in disapproval of the situation. “And what choice do we have?! We can’t let her die, or the admiral will die too.”

“NOT death. Something markedly less pleasant.” Gnash said. “Our souls are cursed now, from the touch of the demon.”

“It’s something we all might have to face soon.” Spitfire brooded. She looked around again, checking for interlopers, then leaned in. “What are the other squadrons saying? What did they see of Lady Velvet’s demon?”

“Nopony knows what to say. There’s a… collective denial, like they refuse to believe what they saw.” Soarin nibbled his lip. “But there was more.”

Spitfire looked from Soarin to Gnash, who affected a weak, resigned shrug.

Soarin ventured to explain. “Somepony else… something else… Was in the skies when we were attacked.” He hesitated, looking for Rain Gnash’s permission before continuing. “Nopony got a good and up close look except Fleetfoot.”

“Elaborate a bit for me.” Spitfire frowned.

“We just don’t know. Sure, the alicorn monster took out the airships, but she didn’t make that light. Just... this pillar of light.” Soarin whispered. “See Fleetfoot went after the alicorn, but the alicorn was chasing after somepony too. They were leaving Canterlot the same time the assault started. Fleetfoot got between them and got messed up. That’s what the Admiral says. Right after, while we were retreating...” He swallowed. “This huge pillar of light came down, like those sun beams just before the Eternal Night! A scout investigated, and said that the hill it hit was turned into glass. Everything within a klick was charred to dust.”

“An alicorn-esk power, but not from Velvet’s alicorn.” Spitfire clicked her tongue.

“We thought it was Princess Celestia returning to cast away the night, but there was something about the light that was so repellant, so…” Soaring flailed for proper adjectives. “Ghastly! Terrible! It felt like death.”

“I felt a burst of sensation right before Fleetfoot passed out.” Rain Gnash licked scabbed lips. “It might be another alicorn.”

Spitfire slouched. “Damn.”
She didn’t want to get her comrades involved. She really didn’t. But she felt a pair of eyes on her from a concealed location, making sure she didn’t do anything rash. Sunset Shimmer had doubtlessly been the other creature in skies over Canterlot, and her power was not in question. Should that rogue cast the sun beam in Cloudsdale the loss of life would be tremendous.

There was no finagling out of it. Spitfire could only minimize the damage. “Damn it. DAMN IT!” She lept up and kicked at a planter, cracking it apart and spilling the soil. “Isn’t there a way out for us?! What do we have to do to escape this mess! Die, apparently. Even then, we face a terrible curse!”

Ever-wary Gnash detected more than the average desperation in Spitfire’s actions. “Captain, what’s wrong?”

“I-” Spitfire clenched her jaw. Here was the plunge. “I- I’m sorry admiral. We’ve been wrapped up in something bad. Trouble’s after us like a starving wolf.”

Gnash sucked her lip in. Suddenly she too was aware of the vague feeling of being watched. “I understand captain. There is no shame to be upset about problems out of your control. When the time comes, we have to be ready to account for them.”

Spitfire, swallowing a sigh, put a secure hoof on Soarin’s shoulder. She ignored his confused look. “The time is now, and forever.”

With a deafening crack that made everypony jump, a new pony teleported into the garden. “Konichiwa, pegasi. My ears were burning like they only do when somepony’s talking about me.” Sunset Shimmer let the hood slide back. “Rain Gnash! It’s been too long.”

“Sunset Shimmer.” Rain Gnash growled. “Welcome back to Equestria.”

“Admiral! Captain!” Soarin leapt to his hooves and drew his sword, but Spitfire’s hoof kept him in place. “Stay back, Traitor!”

“Get too close to me with a conductive material like that sword and see what happens.” Sunset Shimmer chortled. “Come on, try it. I’m genuinely curious.”

“Captain…” Soarin’s voice trembled. “Please run and get help.”

“Soarin, she was in Canterlot.” Spitfire said. “She cast that pillar of light.”

“You were impressed by that paltry ray? There are much more wondrous powers at my disposal than that now.” Sunset pulled down the neck of her cloak, revealing the Blackhorn armor. “Would you like to see what I can do in a populated place like this?”

“Cool it Shimmer. We’re cooperating.” Spitfire barked.

Gnash struggled to lean forward in her wheelchair. “How long have you been here, Shimmer?”

“Is that any way to address an old friend?” Sunset pouted. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you while you were suffering Twilight Velvet and her alicorn. I didn’t, and still don’t, want to get mixed up with them. Astral nearly got me.”

“Oh I understand, Shimmer.” Gnash scowled, making the bare skin of her face wrinkle horribly, like the last week had aged her eighty years. “And I asked you how long you’ve been here.”

“Just arrived. I come as I am: Broke, penniless, with my song and soul as my only wealth.” Sunset Shimmer kicked at the worn edges of her cloak. “Oh! I also have a metric kilo-buckton of magic bound up in this armor, pardon my prench.”

Gnash cast her eyes over the black lacquer armor Sunset wore. Even more than Spitfire she knew the heinous things it was capable of. She remembered, amongst sensations that defied descriptions and the sound of her own screams, the sight of that armor consuming the fake Seacrest Blackhorn. Oh, how his flesh had bubbled, deformed, twisted around itself, until at last it had erupted to assume the form of Astral Nacre!
So Sunset had endeavored to do something similar, but it was for her alone to know the fully cost and result.
“You want to talk with me.”

“That’s right.” Sunset confirmed the non-question.

“Then leave them out of it.” Gnash raised a hoof towards Spitfire and Soarin. “I don’t want them to see me suffer.”

“Sure sure.” Sunset nodded. She grabbed Spitfire and Soarin in her telekinesis and pushed them to the edge of the roof. Soarin made to rush back in but Spitfire tightened her grip on him. They would have to be observers.

Sunset loomed over Gnash’s wheelchair, grinning like some mad-murderous jester. “Admiral Rain Gnash. You deserve it, the promotion I mean. You always were a go-getter. Heh. I’ve been asking this a lot today, but do you remember when we met?”

“Not much.” Rain Gnash maintained an even tone, but hatred was simmering in her eyes. “Just that you were doing some dumb crap that needed calling out.”

Spitfire whispered in Soarin’s ear. “They entered the palace the same year, Admiral Gnash with the IHG, Shimmer as her highness’s student.”

“A lot has happened since I’ve been away. I was sorry to hear about you and Hauseway falling out, but he always did take things too far. You two made a great team.” Sunset said. “The years of separation changed both of you for the worse.”

“He died an awful death, and I replay that moment in my head to reassure myself there’s still a scrap of justice in this world.” Gnash said, steely. “You know I deserved the captaincy. I was my father’s shadow since I could hold a sword, and I didn’t endure his abuse and impossible expectations just for that shithead Hauseway to bump me out when it was finally time for me to get what I earned.”

Sunset looked down her nose at the cripple. “How glib.”

“Said the mare who sees the phrase ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ and tries her damndest to be as un-witty as possible.” Gnash met her look.

“Being talkative is equal to celebrating death, you say. Okay, I’ll keep that for future reference.” Sunset upturned a flower pot and used it as a stool. “You don’t have to act tough with me, Rain. I was watching you in Canterlot.”

Rain Gnash scowled, running over all her memories in Canterlot to try to pick out any sign of the Traitor.

“I wasn’t out in the open, obviously. I was underground most of the time. I did however enjoy a bird’s eye view of Velvet’s blasphemous ritual in the Canterlot Castle throne room. I was on the South Watchtower with a binocular and a scroll to take notes.” Sunset recalled. “I saw what happened with you and Mis Fleetfoot.”

Rain Gnash sighed and laid back in her wheelchair. “Glad it amused you so much.”

“Amuse me? No no no. It was sickening, but now you have become an intriguing artifact. You and her share the same dreams, right? You can hear her thoughts, and she hears yours, right? How can I not marvel at that! It’s the essence of Harmony, and Harmony brings us closer to the divine. Yes, it is a horrible trauma to one’s mind to intertwine it with another, but...” Sunset smiled. “But we can save this digression for later. Sometimes I get all wrapped up in ideas for the future.”

“Don’t we all.” Gnash said flatly.

“Hah ha! We’re a race of dreamers! But let’s get to the point.” Sunset pulled off her cape and hood. “Rain, do you recognize this armor I’m wearing.”

Gnash, threatened again by the awful visions of Seacrest burning in his skin, twisted her healing leg in a painful leg, so she could relish in the head-clearing pain that lanced through her. She was long in answering. “You know I do. I’m not that far gone.”

“Once long ago there were ancient alicorns who spurned the sight of us mortals. Having fallen, the gods that survived were made into platinum orbs, trinkets, other fanciful things. This armor was made housed the soul of one such Deava.”
Sunset thumped her chest. Spitfire, standing off the side, was itching to know what that motion meant.
“We ask ourselves, why do those divine creatures from beyond our earth allow us to make mockeries of them with our attempts at divinity? It’s unknown, and there is no way of knowing either, except to push the boundaries yet further and invite Darkness to the Bright World. So we toil, vindicated by the cosmos’s apathy, to reach upward to the gods and share in their secrets.”
Sunset turned her head curiously. “Gnash, have you heard of the Tower of the Bard?”

“No.” Gnash said. She wished Sunset would skip past the flowery introduction and get to the point. “But I can guess. Ponies being dumbass and overreaching their boundaries.”

“Isn’t that what they gods want?! Isn’t that why they came to us, first as the ancient alicorns, then as the Celestiaan?! They want to be with us! They want us to brush against them. Why would a divine thing take a form that can be seen, touched, adored, and loved, unless it was to draw those things out of us mortals?” Sunset insisted. “They want us, we want them. Doesn’t that make sense?”

“When ponies ask that question, the answer is always a definite no.”

“I want to hear your opinion.”

“I’m a cripple in a chair, not a god. I have no opinion on apotheosis.” Gnash said. She struggled to shift in her wheelchair to a more comfortable position, matched by shifting the conversation. “Why did you come to Cloudsdale?

“I tried to cast the ritual but I made a slight mistake. I refined the ritual to up absolute, to make it the most perfect it could ever be. But I went too far, made it too perfect, too close to a pure alicorn soul. Consequently, the alicorn soul rejected the corporeal world and stayed inside the armor.”

“Tough.” Rain Gnash spit.

“Very tough, yes. Years of calculations, hoping and praying to fulfill the work of my predecessors, to come to this. Contrary to proving that mortal and divine are meant to be together, I proved the opposite.” Sunset’s brow creased, and she looked away as though her attention was drawn to some far off place. “So in the end, the answer to my question was a definite no. Equestria’s best hope of getting its princess back has failed, for now.”

“We’re not dogs here to pick at the scraps of your work.” Spitfire shouted from the sidelines.

Gnash was silent in thought for many minutes. She had to conscience the idea that Spitfire, who the Traitor had first gone to, had already made a clandestine arrangement.
To confront what she would be willing to do to protect Cloudsdale, she would have to confront the unpleasant, near-maddening feelings she held towards Velvet and her alicorn creation. Gnash of course hated Velvet for what she’d done, the cost in lives and suffering she was still incurring. Yet Gnash shivered to think about how, unconscious and barely clinging to life she had been at the time, Astral Nacre had attempted to heal her.
If Gnash hated them utterly, then she would have to hate herself. If she did not hate them unconditionally, she would be drawn to question their (and her own) meaning in the context of the new world dawning.
Was it not natural that a milenium should draw not more than a little progress from the natures of ponykind? Technologically the pony races had made great strides, especially in the recent years of gunpowder, printing presses, and expanding oceanic travel. Yet in terms of wisdom, mortals were stilted, still stultifying, and would have remained like ignorant if not for Lady Twilight Velvet’s actions.

So, question was posed: Was the new world better than the old?

Rain Gnash shifted in her chair. “Shimmer, what did you offer Captain Spitfire?”

Sunset Shimmer, who over the long period of silence had begun to polish her armor with her magic, looked up. “I want to help her, and you, into positions of power in the Admiralty. I have very detailed notes and theorems to give you.”

“Theorems? Are you here to start a university?” Soarin mocked.

“Hush Soarin.” Spitfire bumped his shoulder. “After what you saw over Canterlot, can you really say that Cloudsdale can survive without help?”

“You would survive, but in a squirming, slavish way.” Sunset Shimmer said. “With me you’ll have knowledge which will prove indispensable in combating the otherworldly threats coming your way. I wrote up a little contract.”

“A contract? You babbling moron! Don’t you know what it’s called?!” Gnash croaked, her numb lip flapping from the excitement with which she spoke. “A COVENANT! When you wager our sins and virtues against the laws of gods, we call it a COVENANT.”

Sunset Shimmer was taken aback by the ferocity of Gnash’s words and the newfound enmity in the maimed pegasus’s expression. “I wouldn’t presume to-”

“To hell with your presumptions! Your thoughts and plans and bunk! There should be only one thing to talk about to convince us. Everything else flows out of there.” Gnash spit. “You know what I’m talking about, right?! That thing, that terrible and glorious thing, that can enrapture the inferior minds.”

Sunset was gravely silent.

Evoking comparisons to miracles of the Classical Age, Gnash pushed herself off the wheelchair, and wobbled precariously on two hooves. “Your dream, you duplicitous dog. Tell us of your dream.” She stroked her chest with her wing, as though comforting her own heart. But her balance was thrown off and she fell on her face. “Your dream… What did you try to bring to life?! Tell me about the thing you raised out of the ritual!”

Sunset stood stolid, unmoved by Gnash’s passion, at least outwardly. “I’m sorry admiral, that’s not something I can’t show you yet.”

Rain Gnash sneered. Her scabbed lip was beginning to crack and bleed anew. “Then get out of here until you’re ready.”

Amazingly, Sunset obliged, trotting to Spitfire and Soarin. Spitfire had to conclude that Sunset was offput by Gnash’s demands for the same reason she was flustered when asked about heroics: Sunset wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing.
Spitfire held back a triumphal cry at that thought. She would have to devise clever ways to steer Sunset by twisting on that insecurity, but avoid being steered herself.
“Looks like she wants more than you’re willing to give.”

“I’ll be back, tomorrow or the day after.” Sunset promised, glancing back to Gnash. “Then you’ll see.”

Gnash, with Soarin’s help, clambered weakly back in the chair. “I’m looking forward to it.” She said coldly, like a boss stating expectations for an underperforming employee.

“Captain, admiral, this is treason.” Soarin teetered on his hooves anxiously. “This mare betrayed the princess.”

“The princess is dead.” Spitfire said. “We’re all traitors now.”

Soarin looked pained. “Captain…”

Spitfire watched Sunset don her cloak and hood, so she was once more concealed from the eyes of mortals. “Gods help me, I’m going to save this city, Soarin. I won’t let another Wonderbolt fall.” She leaned over and draped a wing over Soarin’s hip, where his sword was waiting. “Like we agreed in Canterlot, Soarin: Stab me in the back if you think I’m going down the wrong path.”

Soarin mutely considered Gnash and Sunset. He was a follower. It was not his place to judge right and wrong. But minutes ago he had been passing judgement on the vaunted Admiralty, had he not? Something had to change.
“We’re still alive, aren’t we?” He laughed awkwardly. “But the Bolts will have to know about this eventually.”

“Talk with them, discretely. They need to know.” Spitfire agreed. “Introduce the idea that Admiral Gnash and I are working on a way to keep Cloudsdale safe, forever.”

Soarin was uncertain. “Admiral… You agree we going along with this?”

“Two wrongs don’t make a right. I have so, so many doubts.” Gnash said quietly. “But unlike with Lady Velvet, we have the upper hoof. It’s our duty to make absolutely sure of everything before we commit.” She eyed Sunset. “Which is why I want to see her dream. I have to know for certain what we are piling behind.”

Sunset responded in a whisper. “You have your suspicions. They’re probably correct.”

“I have to know for certain.” Gnash repeated.

Sunset turned to Spitfire. “Thank you for bringing me here. It’s been productive.” She nodded to Gash. “See you tomorrow, admiral.” Then to Soarin. “Sir.”

“If I never show up again, mark a spot as my grave saying ‘She died being a damn fool.’ “ Spitfire whispered to Soarin.

“It was always going to be that.” Soarin laughed silently.

Bidding further farewell with little jabs, Spitfire broke away from Soarin. She passed Gnash on her way to Sunset, received and herself reciprocated with acknowledging nods. Nothing more needed be said until later.

Sunset waited at the edge of the fragrant garden. Down in the Stratus district the fires on the airships were just being brought under control. “How are you feeling?”

“What?” Spitfire found the question absurd. “I feel alright, I guess. Are you done here.”

“I am, for now.” Sunset confirmed.

"Are you going to have what Admiral Gnash wants tomorrow?" Spitfire asked, expecting a confident platitude.

But Sunset surprised her. "She cought me off guard asking about the dream. And that talk of covinents was nothing I was expecting. Rain has always been a needy mare."

Spitfire didn't want to swell on that implication. "Let's get on."

“If I can propose a change in the literary, I’d like to visit someplace before we make our next call.”

“Shure thang.” Spitfire drawled sardonically. “Yur tha chief, boss mare.”

Sunset pursed her lips. “Don’t think I’m deterred by Rain’s stubbornness, captain. We will still be going to see the prelate.”

“Suddenly feeling humorless, Mis Shimmer?”

“See if the humor keeps with you. We’re going down.” Sunset waved a hoof off the edge of the roof. By down, she indicated all the way down, to the valley floor. “Please meet me on the roof of the Skyroof village customs office. We can proceed on hoof from there.”

Skyroof was one of Cloudsdale’s earthly suburbs, where caravans could send goods up to the city in the daily airship ferry. “That’s how you got up to the city?”

“No. I teleported.” Sunset said. “I promise it’s exhausting to teleport that far, so get a head start and maybe we’ll arrive at the same time.”

Spitfire didn’t imagine she would be rid of Sunset if she just flew off. Besides, with what Soarin had said about sky-rending beams of solar fire… “Fine.” She paused. “Mis Shimmer, we can be gentlemarely about all this, right? If I help you to the end, you’re not going to terminate the relationship by turning me to orange goo, right?”

Sunset hiccuped a strange laugh. “Yes captain, we can be. We can agree to mutual respect and good faith.”

Spitfire nodded curtly. “Good, I guess… Drama tires me out.” She flapped her wings to hover off the side off the roof. “But don’t you know I’m not the Wonderbolt captain anymore? You don’t have to call me that.”

“But your pegasi comrades call you captain.” Sunset considered the point for a moment, then shrugged. “Oh whatever. You should get going to Skyroof. There’s more to do today.”

A kilometer above them, hanging off the side of a buoy cloud, a sextet of eyes observed the hospital roof.
“Admiral Gnash appears to have turned her away.” A pegasus stallion in a black gendarme uniform said lowered a spyglass from his eye. Another, a small mare, was dressed similarly.

“I see. We can extract the details of the conversation when it becomes necessary.” A grey-suited officer mare mused. “Keep on her. Report to me when she goes home, but keep the house surveyed in shifts. I will investigate the identity of the unicorn when I have time.”

“Any red lines?” The stallion asked.

“No. The Admirals want Spitfire watched for subversion. Don’t get inventive with orders.” The officer said sternly. “Thank you for alerting me about the unicorn, but don’t send for me again unless she contacts known dissidents. I have more pressing cases right now.”

“Yes ma’am.” The stallion saluted as the officer departed. He nudged his partner. “I told you she was going to be an ass about it.”

“I wasn’t disputing that. Agent Skyrivers has no off switch.” The little mare looked over her shoulder to make sure the officer, Skyrivers had flown out of sight. “Who knows though. Ten bits says we’re bumped to counter-terrorism in Cirrus because of that noise from Stratus. Fire follows smoke around here.”

“Yeah.” The stallion brought the spyglass up to his eye again. “Spitfire’s leaving the unicorn to head to the valley floor. Should we follow or wait for her to come back up?”

“If we want to file a case on her before we’re bumped, we’d have to do it today.” The mare shrugged. “I’m not saying we make something up, but if she’s being subversive, we find it now or never.”

“Then we go. Hug Nimbus South, I’ll hug Cumulus. Rejoin me on the ground.”

“Yes sir.” The mare nodded.

The two gendarmes swooped off the cloud and took separate paths, but both keeping careful watch on their quarry.

An hour later

The rolling green plain was dotted by ugly grey boulders and unkempt shrubs. There were signs of some grazing and fires, where a nomad tribe of goats or sheep had passed by. One one of the hills, jutting from a rocky outcropping, was a squat black obelisk with an inscription on one side.

982 SS

A Great Disaster Befell the Pegasi

Wounding the Treasure of Our Tribe

214 Fillies, Colts, Foals Recovered

32 Missing

Fate Leaves Us Bereaved

We Fly by Our Faith

The other sides of the obelisk listed names of victims.

“Your little sister would have been about the right age. How did she escape?” Sunset asked.

“Seafire was getting bullied at the Creche, so my parents kept her home. She lost many of her friends. A couple girlfriends of mine lost their little sisters.” Spitfire said somberly. She didn’t like those hills, where the ash had fallen so thickly after the Cloud Creche disaster.

She had been among the first responding to the disaster, along with Soarin, Fleetfoot, and other squires training in the vicinity. By some miracle or twist of fate, everypony had been looking the other direction when the disaster transpired. What a great mercy it was, because there were others nearby who had been looking, and for months after the incident had suffered from depression and paranoia, gibbering in twilight hours about how the rainbow was coming for them.

They were a dozen kilometers east of Cloudsdale, with the rising foothills of the Unicorn Range to the south and hills flattening into open plains to the north. Cloudsdale had been closer to the spot, but was pushed west after the incident. Not far enough to disrupt trade routes, but enough to get the palpable aura of death out of the air.

“Ten years ago, when you visited with the princess’s entourage…” Spitfire trailed off because something pulled her attention.
She spotted movement on the next hill over, some two-hundred meters away. They were not as alone as they’d thought.

“What?” Sunset asked after the dropped question.

“There’s somepony over there.” Spitfire said at a whisper, even though there was no chance of being heard at the distance. “No, not some pony…” She shaded her eyes with her wing. “That’s a griffin!”

Sunset cocked her head. “A griffin, this far from the coast? Unless something’s changed in the last few years-”

“No, it’s still highly unusual. They stick to the coast or the Embankment.” Spitfire was off-put by the unlikely visitor. In normal times it would be a curiosity, but in these times anything unusual could be a threat.

The griffin noticed them too, and was looking in their direction every few seconds as it went about its business.

“Should we say hello?” Sunset wondered.

“Why?”

“Because I’m curious.” Sunset said. “And because she might be here for the same reason we are.”

Gilda had found the hills a very peaceful, lonely place. The pegasi actively avoided the haunted monument, which meant her modest camp under a walnut tree had gone completely unbothered even when she was away hunting.

But waking up that day, the skin around her anklet itched terribly. When she listened to the rustle of the grass in the wind, she heard little strange melodies and indecipherable whispers. Something important was going to happen.
It was not that unexpected then when a pair of ponies appeared on the monument hill, nor when they started heading her direction.

“A pegasus and a unicorn.” She whispered to herself. The unicorn had a loose fitting robe on so it was unclear if she was armed. As they grew closer, and the understated aura of power radiating off the unicorn became more apparent, the more tense Gilda became.
“That’s close enough!” She yelled when the reached the base of the hill she was on.

“Are you okay?” The orange pegasus yelled back. “We don’t see your kind around here often.”

“I’m peachy.” Gilda said. “I’m just keeping the place safe.”

“Safe?” The yellow unicorn queried.

Gilda felt a tingle at the edge of her senses. There were more ponies keeping out of sight, beyond the crest of a nearby hill. Her skin under her anklet was itching terribly.
“Safe from ponies like you.”

The unicorn whispered something to her companion and climbed up the hill. Gilda stood still, letting the pony come face to face. “Hi." Looking past Gilda, the unicorn spotted the tent and campsite under the walnut tree. "You live here?"

"For now."

The unicorn scrutinized her for a long moment. "You’re from Gottrakt, aren’t you. I’ve never heard of one of you this far afield.”

“Go play anywhere else in Equestria, not here.” Gilda said gruffly. “Using magic here will disturb the dead’s slumber.”

“What’s your name? I’m Sunset Shimmer, late of worlds abroad, later of Canterlot.” Sunset bowed.

“Go away. I’m not interested in any of your games.” Gilda said with increasing harshness. Did this unicorn really think she could make friends just by exchanging formalities? It didn't work that way between magicians. “Whatever your political or magical ambitions, I’m telling you to erase this place from your maps.”

Sunset was having a very difficult reading the aura of the strange griffin. She hid her magical aura very well. “Do you ever visit the city?”

“I find plenty to do here.” The griffin said.

“I was just thinking, if you really are from Gottrakt, I’d like to talk some time.” Sunset said, giddy and nervous at the same time. She knew very little about the Stars living in foreign lands, what little she did know coming out of Celestia’s old notes.
Though thinking back on it, during their stay under the Mountain Entanglement Theory had invested a lot of research into Black Bell and her school at Gottrakt, secreting books and asking Phyte during the infrequent meetings. Perhaps she’d had an inkling of their involvement in the sequence and the ritual, somehow. “Are you a graduate? What’s your specialty?”

Suddenly Sunset felt it deep in her bones: A churning change to the way reality was operating. The rustle of the wind dwindled and died, and the air got much warmer. Sunset found it hard to breath.
The griffin blinked, languidly, waiting for Sunset to mirror the action before speaking. “You talk like an amature, but you’ve apparently grown eyes for Phantom Time.” She scratched at a metal band on her right foreleg. "You're operating in Cloudsdale?"

"That's my plan, yes. I just arrived but I don't plan on making any waves, beyond helping a few new friends of mine."

The griffin considered this. "Laying low then?"

"Much like yourself." Sunset smirked. "Is controlling Phantom Time something they teach in Gottrakt or did you teach yourself? Must come in handy for avoiding trouble."

"It comes in handy all the time." The griffin shifted her stance. “My name is Gilda.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

“Let me make it clear right here, I couldn’t care less about what you do. I’m not one for the feuds and plots of the elder siblings.” Gilda said. “But if you’re operating in Canterlot, you’re going to be my neighbor, and I want to make sure you won’t cause too much trouble.”

“You want to make sure I won’t cause a repeat of Cloud Creche.” Sunset joked.

Gilda did not find that funny at all. “I want to make sure I’m not going to have to kill you.”

“If that need arises it will be very interesting which of us will triumph.” Sunset grinned. “If you’ll excuse me, I actually came to pay respects to the victims before I go.”

Gilda stared in silence. Sound and life returned to the world around them. Sunset’s skin under the Blackhorn Armor was feeling numb: The energy in the armor was very uncomfortable in Phantom Time.

Spitfire waited for Sunset to climb back down the hill. “Well?”

“She’s a mystic. A pretty powerful one too. Fortunately she’s seems more interested in camping out here than meddling in the political climate. She doesn’t have an accent at all.” Sunset said. “She said she might tag along.”

“Tag along? What the hell for?” Spitfire groaned.

“Just to see what I’m up to. Maybe we’ll have an opportunity to talk shop.” Sunset shrugged. “Oop, here she comes.”

The griffin glided down to them, meeting Spitfire’s sceptical looks with an expression of half-lidded contempt. “Hello Mis.”

“Hi, I’m Spitfire.” Spitfire offered her hoof for a shake.

“Gilda.” Gilda said, ignoring the hoof. “Are you the same Spitfire that led the government forces during the Snow Factory Riots?”

Sunset arched a brow. “That’s a pretty obscure bit of trivia.”

“Shimmer here doesn’t have the Admiralty’s backing, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Spitfire said. “I’m on furlough pending review of my resignation.”

“Yeah, I don’t care.” Gilda said flatly. “I asked because my friend’s uncle was arrested during the riots and died in prison. That’s how I heard your name.”

Spitfire didn’t have a response to that.

Gilda clacked her beak. “Not going to offer a token apology?”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Spitfire glared.

“Wasn’t my uncle.” Gilda shrugged.

Spitfire groaned internally. Was there something about deep magical secrets that turned creatures callous, or did it take that kind of attitude to search in the first place? “Fair enough.”

“Where are you going after this?” Gilda asked.

“The abandoned sky redoubt east of the Stratus District, then on to the ecclesiastical palace in the Cirrus District.” Sunset reported. “I can tell you’re impatient.”

“Great.” Gilda grunted. “Say your empty prayers and get moving. I have to be back here by nightfall.”

“Why are you concerned? You have unlimited time.” Sunset chuckled. “Oh whatever. I’m done here. Captain, you and Mis Gilda can go directly, I will be going back through Skyroof.”

“Don’t keep us waiting.” Gilda said. She leaned in. “It’s just the two of you, right?”

“For now.” Sunset said with a smarmy smile.

Gilda nodded. “Just checking.” She launched into the air towards Cloudsdale.

Spitfire lingered for a second. “You didn’t plan this, did you?”

“I had a feeling we’d find something interesting here.” Sunset said. “I didn’t know what it would be, but places like this attract creatures like her.”

“And you.” Spitfire quipped.

“S it seems.” Sunset laughed. “Meet you at the cloud redoubt.”

The cloud redoubt was an ancient structure, resting on a thick bank of clouds overgrown with air plants. Its oldest cloud-brick foundations were built in the pre-classical age by the hero of the great migration, Grand Admiral Hurricane. In the years of feuding and wars before the unification, the redoubt had withstood countless sieges, been destroyed multiple times, but was always rebuilt. After the unification, it had served as a prison for a short time, then fallen into disuse. Wherever Cloudsdale migrated, the redoubt drifted close behind, a haunting statement that seemed to tell all that beheld it that the glory of war was but a rainbow, marvelous but transient.

Gilda and Spitfire touched down on the south side of the crumbling fortress. Like the Cloud Creche memorial, the pegasi avoided the redoubt out of vague superstition. Thousands of ponies had died there throughout the ages in battle, and hundreds more had perished in the dank confines of the prison. Legend told that ghosts haunted it.

“This brings me back.” Gilda remarked. “Ten years back I squatted here.”

“Where are you from?” Spitfire asked.

“A little island in the seas north of Griffany, but I moved here when I was young.” Gilda hopped off the collapsed bastion into the overgrown courtyard. “I bumbled around Cloudsdale for about a year. I had a shack in Cirrus for half that time.”

“That’s when you met your friend with the dead uncle.” Spitfire guessed.

“Yeah.”

While most of the structure was collapsed and unusable, several connected casements were intact. Spitfire poked her head inside. She saw by the dim light filtering in somepony, she guessed Sunset, had laid out a bedroll and a pack full of supplies resting on a makeshift table. A bag of scrolls occupied another corner.

“What did you do while you were here, Mis GIlda?”

“It’s just Gilda. Sometimes Lady Gilda.” Gilda informed.

“Oh, sorry.” Spitfire apologized. Was it just pretentiousness or was she actually a noble?

“It’s fine.” Gilda found a comfortable place on a lichen-covered stone block to sit down. “I was a thief. Sometimes I ran contraband from the docks into Cirrus, which is how I afforded the shack.”

“So what they say about immigrants bringing crime and drugs is true.” Spitfire said wryly.

“Yeah, I did a lot of opium in those days.” Gilda clacked her beak. “It’s how I met my friend with the dead uncle.”

Spitfire pursed her lips. “Well then.”

“Relax, I’m only joking.” Gilda laughed.

Spitfire sat on the ground. “I’m glad to know you have a sense of humor.”

“I become a bit of a prissy bitch when it comes to magic and stuff, but I’m generally pretty relaxed.” Gilda said, but the way she said it wasn’t very convincing. “And I’m happiest when I’m flying or talking about history.”

“Oh, her ladyship is a nerd.” Spitfire cackled.

Gilda grinned. “I said flying too.”

“I’ve never met a creature with wings that didn’t like flying.” Spitfire said.

Gilda idly scratched at her anklet. “I should have said racing, then.”

Spitfire was starting to feel relaxed. She’d missed having casual conversations. Everything with the Wonderbolts was crisis and looming disaster, and Sunset was insufferably cryptic.
“Racing eh? That’s a whole different boat.” She leaned forward. “How fast are we talking here?”

“I’ve held pace with Wonderbolts material.” Gilda boasted. “I’ve outflown changeling swarms and dodged bullets. I could make your head spin.”

“Sure kid. Try me and we’ll see that cocky grin disappeared.” Spitfire flapped her wings. “But some other time. I know where to call on you.”

“Some other time.” Gilda agreed.

That ended the conversation, so they sat in silence among the whistles of wind gusts and buzzing of bugs among the air plants. A few minutes later a crack and a burst of light announced the arrival of Sunset Shimmer atop the broken bastion.

“Took you long enough.” Spitfire yawned.

Sunset jumped down to them. “I thought I was being followed. I had to be sure.”

“I’ve been on-and-off under surveillance since I submitted my resignation.” Spitfire said.

Sunset’s expression darkened. “And you never thought to mention this?”

Spitfire shrugged. “They stopped showing up a few days ago. They were pretty obvious. We’d know.”

“Perhaps we do.” Sunset said, scowling. “There’s no helping it now. I might have to move camp.”

“You weren’t coming to grab your things?” GIlda queried.

“Yes I came to check on them, but I also thought this would be a convenient rendezvous before going up to Cirrus.” Sunset said.

Gilda must have detected a lie in that claim. “Did you leave something here?”

“No, no I…” Sunset bit her lip. “I just wanted to stop for a moment, check my notes. I didn’t intend to take this long to get here.”

Spitfire stood up. “Is there something I need to know?”

“Am I not explaining myself well? We’re leaving.” Sunset said, her assertion muddied among a wavering voice. “I’m sorry for keeping you waiting but we have to go.”

Wordlessly, Gilda hopped up and walked into the casement. Sunset whined between bared teeth, torn between moving to stop the griffin and letting it happen.

Gilda passed through the first casement, where the bedroll and pack were, to the adjoining partially collapsed casement. A dead pegasus was slouched in the corner.

Gilda knelt by the corpse. His fur had been singed off and his body was like a dry raisin. Even his eyes had dried up. Yet his undecayed state and fresh smell told Gilda this was a recent death. There were little signs he'd lived a hard life: Chipped hooves, old scars around his neck and shoulders, and several missing teeth.

Gilda stood up and turned to Sunset and Spitfire, paused at the entry portal. “This bum was living here when you arrived, huh?”

“I didn’t mean to kill him.” Sunset vowed. “He was welcoming, gentlecoltly. But I let him try on the armor and…” She sighed. “There was a flash. When my sight returned, he was a husk, still alive but blind and deaf. The things he was screaming about... I had to put him out of his misery.”

“So you did mean to kill him.” Gilda leveled.

“Fuck you.” Sunset bit. Curse rang in the room until she gathered the breath to continue. “This armor is my burden! I can’t defuse it and I can’t destroy it!”

Gilda paced to the window. Its iron bars were rusted to nubs. “My original assessment was right. You’re just an amature, and you’ve shackled yourself to powers beyond your feeble comprehension. Thanks to you, our world has another god to tiptoe around.”

“I made a mistake that I’m trying to fix. I can’t feel bad about it forever.” Sunset said weakly. “I tried to resurrect my princess and that’s still my plan. Maybe you can help me-”

“I have zero interest in your plans. My advice to you is to throw that armor in the ocean and go on with your life.” Gilda growled. “A thousand years from now somepony might discover it and have their life ruined, but you won’t care because you’ll be long dead.”

Gilda’s cruel words washed over Sunset. At first she looked distraught, then angry, then irate. “You don’t understand at all. Ponykind can have their princess back.”

“You scatterbrained hornhead. You don’t really know, do you?” Gilda’s stare was intense. “You must have had your eyes closed, or had someone else do it! Flash of light, bah! You haven’t seen what the divine is really like!”

“I’ve been yelled at a lot today, and it’s starting to wear at me.” Sunset stomped her hoof. The desiccated corpse fell forward into its own lap. “I’m doing the right thing right now. I’m helping the pegasus survive the troubles to come.”

“Did they ask for your help? I think you’re not helping anypony but yourself.” Gilda brought her right leg up to her chest, clenching and unclenching her claw experimentally. The strange anklet was vibrating slightly. “You say you can’t destroy the armor… You haven't even tried.”

Spitfire didn’t even see Gilda move. One moment she was by the window, half in shadow half in light, the next she was grappling Sunset against the wall, grunting and gasping. A testament to the griffin’s strength, she pinned the unicorn up with only her right claw, while the other fended off Sunset’s desperate flails and kicks. Sunset was trying to push Gilda off without using magic but the larger creature wouldn’t budge.
“Spitfire get her off me!”

Spitfire was motionless. With an encouraging word, maybe GIlda could solve her problems right there. But why was Sunset holding back? Wasn’t it all a little convenient? Was it a test? “Hey, break it up!”

“This idiot is going to destroy your city if you let her.” Gilda growled. “Stupid little ponies don’t deserve the kind of power she’s stolen.”

“Then the laugh will be on me.” Spitfire said. “Put her down.”

Gilda’s face was strained. “You ponies. Tss... You really want to suffer.”
With a twirl she launched Sunset into the far wall. Sunset bounced off, tried to stand up, and collapsed.

Sunset was in a familiar place, the bridge of the cargo airship she and Entanglement Theory had stolen. Everything was dim, hazy. She saw her purple-coated friend, and the glint of the moonlight on the frame of her glasses, hunched over the wheel.

“You’re back, but…” Sunset swallowed. “I thought you left for good! You said you’d never be able to come back once you went back!”

Entanglement Theory’s ear twitched, but she didn’t otherwise react.

“Entanglement…” Sunset began, but that didn’t sound right. It wasn’t right. She grit her teeth, building courage. “Twilight…”

Shapes moved at the edges of the small cockpit. Heads with empty eyes turned her way. The experiments, the lobotomized and mutilated ponies, let their presence be known to their creator.

“I-” Sunset began hyperventilating. Why were they looking at her that way? She wasn’t sure who to address now, her hunched friend or the strangely alert lobotomites. “Am I supposed to apologize? Did I do something wrong?” She asked the air.

A creak behind her and Sunset whipped around. One of the lobotomites was laying on a rack, its hooves ties down. Wait, she was outside now! Yes she was on the prow, with the wind screaming around them! The pony on the rack was babbling something, and Sunset realized it had both wings and a horn.
Entanglement Theory was beside her, head lowered as she whispered something too, but it was lost to the wind. The purple unicorn had the sacrifice dagger in her hoof.

“Twilight!” Sunset yelled but she could not outscream the wind. “We don’t have to do this! We can turn back!”
Entanglement Theory was looking at the alicorn, so Sunset did too. It looked… beautiful. Not cosmically radiant like Celestia, but perfectly handsome in a nearly unnatural way. Though he was dazed and confused Sunset could see the spark of life and intelligence in his eyes. He could have been the kind of pony you talked with at the park, or sat down by at the bar.

Entanglement Theory considered the lethal dagger in her hoof, admiring its heinously sharp edge. When she turned it in the wind it cut the air with an agonized shriek.

Sunset took a step back. It was a horrible tool! She looked around, and more things horrified her further: The trio of lifeless pony bodies around the new alicorn, the mess of wires and cables strewn about like the exposed veins of a huge beast, and most of all the look in Entanglement Theory’s eye as she plunged the dagger into the alicorn’s breast.

“TWILIGHT!”

Sunset lept up so fast she smacked her head on Spitfire’s who had been standing over her. “OWCH! Mother Bucker!”

“I told you to stand back.” Gilda said.

Sunset Slumped back against the floor. She was overwhelmed by pain, disorientation, and nausea. “I- I’m still in the redoubt.”

“Of course you are you nonce.” Spitfire nursed her forehead. “Stupid unicorn can’t even take a concussion.”

“I was…” Sunset sat up slowly. The movement reminded her of the weight of the Blackhorn Armor. She stroked it for comfort. “I was on the airship again.”

“Above Canterlot, huh? You were calling out for Twilight. Must have been begging her to recall her demon.” Spitfire said.

Sunset sighed and shook her head. There was no good way to explain it, and judging by Gilda’s stares if she did explain it she’d only earn amore grilling and ridicule. “No, another Twilight. Her, um… Basically her daughter, I guess. We were friends. Somewhat.”

Spitfire rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Can you stand?”

“Uph, let’s find out.” Sunset pushed herself up but immediately regretted it. Her vision swam with darkness and color, and her sense of weight was overwhelmed. She felt like she was in freefall, and a second later she was as she fell against the dessicated corpse.
Visions exploded over Sunset’s mind. She saw a hundred leering lobotomized experiments, peeking out of every crack and corner.
She screamed. “Nooo!” She trashed and batted the corpse around in her scramble to get away. “You’re dead!!

“Well observed.” Gilda said.

“T- This isn’t supposed to be here! This isn’t supposed to be here!” Sunset screamed, scrambling back to the door. “Gone! GONE! INCINERATED!” She waved her hooves wildly, but her voice descended into guttural muttering. “I saw the crash site. Nothing survived. Nothing could have crawled its way out of there! I burned the bones. I BURNED THE BONES!”

Spitfire scrunched her face up in exasperation. “She was lightly salted nuts before, but now she’s off her rocker!”

“She’s just having a psychotic episode. Happens all the time with mortals who cavort with divine power.” GIlda said. “Yes, its happened to me too.”

“What are we supposed to do with her?” Spitfire asked.

“Wait.” Gilda followed Sunset’s crawl. The unicorn made it back to her bedroll and twisted herself up in it in the fetal position. She was shivering and mumbling things to the dark shadows of the room. “You should go home. I’ll watch over her.”

“Watch over her?” Spitfire repeated. “You’re not going to hurt her, right?”

Gilda was gravely silent for a moment. “No. I’m not very hungry.”

“Funny.” Spitfire frowned. “Listen, Sunset Shimmer is a pompous jackass, but I think there’s a chance that cooperating with her will make Cloudsdale safer. She knows she made a mistake and is trying to repent for it here.”

“Repent? Didn’t you hear the words out of her mouth, ‘I can’t feel bad about it forever’ ? She’s using you.” Gilda emphasized. “I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved, so this is just advice, but I’m telling you clearly that no good can come of this. Facing god with hubris in your heart will cast you to depths worse than death.”

Spitfire thought of Rain Gnash and what she’d said about her curse. “So you suggest we let Twilight Velvet and her demon consume us?”

Gilda was again silent. It was after noon and not much sun was getting through the thin casement windows. “I would suggest you do everything you can to avoid facing the divine. You may have to make many sacrifices, but the alternative…” She pointed a talon to Sunset, shivering on the floor. “In the wake of the Eternal Night the barrier between the dreamscape and reality is weakening, and forces of evil are encroaching into our world.” Gilda summed up with a throaty growl. “Weak ponies will touch great powers, and there will be destruction. The earth will whisper the names of profaned stars for many nights to come.”

“You sure are a poetical bird.” Spitfire said.

“You ponies are ignorant of what you really need. You think you can find meaning in the stars, as though their love and attention will fulfill your wildest dreams.” Gilda trod to the table and swept it clean so she could sit down. “Blind. You’re all blind. You want your god-empress back to lick calming platitudes into your ear.”

Spitfire cringed. “Thanks for the horrifying mental image.”

“Thanks for being a sheep to evil forces, pony.” Gilda closed her eyes. “Go home, come back tomorrow.”

Spitfire hung her head. “Fine, I'm going.”

“I won’t kill her.” Gilda promised. “I won’t even touch her.”

“I believe you.” Spitfire nodded. “I’ll be back early tomorrow, or early as I can be after checking on some necessary things. Meantime, you keep an eye out. Maybe we were being watched.”

Gilda was silent.

“Okay…” Spitfire fidgeted. She wasn’t good at goodbyes. “See ya.”

“Wait.” Gilda commanded. “I have a favor to ask you.”

Spitfire arched a brow. "What’s up?”

Gilda glanced away. “Because I’m away from my camp, there’s a chance somepony might pass it and I won’t be there. Please, if you see a rainbow-maned pegasus mare, tell her to wait for me there.”

“A rainbow-maned mare.” Spitfire repeated. She remembered seeing a rainbow-maned stallion in Upper Nimbus before, but not a mare. “Care to attach a name to that, so I’m sure I have the right mare?”

Gilda shook her head. “My name will be enough.”

Spitfire trotted to the exit to the overgrown courtyard. “I’ll keep an eye out. You take care.”

“You too ma’am.” Gilda said quietly.

Spitfire jumped into the sky and angled towards home. She felt tired and hungry, and certainly was feeling the soreness of anxiety, but at the same time she was giddy about the prospects of tomorrow. It felt like a race, but against who or what she could only guess.
A race against the unknown… Spitfire figured that it was all she could do to gun it as hard as she could and pray the dark opposition couldn’t beat her best. But maybe it could, because a slow trot could beat a gallop made in the wrong direction.

Gilda, sitting in the casement, cast an eye to Sunset Shimmer's pile of scrolls.

The Pegasus Prelate was dining in her study when one of the servants leaned in.
"Mistress, a letter under the door is requesting a audience tomorrow."

The Pegasus Prelate put her fork down. "I'm not taking audiences for the next week at least. I told you that. We wait to gauge the reaction to the blockade fiasco."

"Yes mistress but I thought you would want to see this." The servant offered the letter. It was in barely legible wing writing but halfway through switched to a much prettier cursive with dotted hearts.
But under the usual formality and written prostration, was the simple request.

Sunset Shimmer wants to meet with you.

The Pegasus Prelate set the letter down, then pushed it to the far end of the desk like it would bite her. "Not that's interesting. Very interesting..."

"Yes mistress. Should I keep the schedule open?"

The Pegasus Prelate folded her hooves. "I suspect... That would be for the best." She turned back to her plate of fruit. "I suspect that audience will happen whether I want it or not. Keep the guards on alert."

"Yes mistress." The servant bowed and backed out of the study, leaving the prelate to wonder if she had just been served a huge complication or the answer to all her problems.

Chapter 54: The Dream Discovery Club

Rarity was finding her days dreadfully drole. Nothing happened in her castle, erected of pale stone so fair it fooled one for porcelain, built in the sea of black trees so thick the forest floor could not be seen. Every day was a routine, and bored her terribly. She wished she could fly above the canopy like the birds could, because nothing seemed to happen when she was watching from the ramparts, but as soon as she stepped away all kinds of sounds and currents rose up from the dark wood.

Her life at court had become nothing but a facade of contrite contrariness. Her words turned cynical, her disposition depressive. All the researchers left the castle whenever they wanted, but not her. She was prisoner as much as sovereign, shackled to her duties and her security.

But then one day, watching the birds again, something occurred to her. All her boundaries were artificial. She lifted a hoof to the clouds, ready to hug them up with sheer force of will.

“Don’t even think about it.” A whisper came from behind her.

She half-turned, expecting a courtier or guard, thus ready with a dressing down from such impudence. But it was a figure she’d never seen before: An enshadowed haze in a roughly equine shape, with glowing patches of purple light where its eyes would be, hung by the stair down into the castle. The living stain was defiant of the fuzzy sunlight shining through the clouds. Rarity thought she she know who or what it was, but could not quite grasp it. “What?”

“Don’t try to leave. This is the safest place for us.” The entity said. “Why are you dissatisfied with this indulgent wish or yours? Stay until it is safe.”

“Indulgent? Is that how you would describe this purgatory?” Rarity asked pointedly. “This place is gleaming but it has no glamour. The brilliant variety of detritus fungus would provide more color, so that is where I shall wayfare!”

She brushed past the living shadow and descended through the castle to the grand entry hall, beyond which was the door out of the castle and into the forest. The usual guards were gone, reinforcing to Rarity that her boundaries were constructs of her own imagining.

The shadowy entity was behind her again. “No, Rarity, you limitations are very real, and they were inscribed in adamantine by GOD. Push them again and you will get us both destroyed. Whatever you think you may find, hidden potential, lost destiny, happiness… You won’t find it in the Forest. You won’t find anything in there.” It sounded pensive. “Against the odds you survived the night. We you so eagerly throw yourself to your death in the day?”

Rarity dismissed the concerns with a wave. “You may have the run of the castle in my absence, however long that may be.”

She pushed with her magic, and the grand doorway creaked open.

Iillor didn’t even have to say anything to get past the ponies guarding Roseluck. The Ponyvillians had seen her walking with Viscountess Sparkle and figured it was best to stay out of the way: One their own had attacked a noble and retribution was not far behind. The legal asks of investigation and trial were out the window since the Eternal Night.

Iillor descended into the town hall’s dusty basement, used storage, where she found the small cell containing Rose. The raspberry-maned earth pony looked up for a brief moment then slumped again.

“I’m not going to hurt her. Please give us some time alone.” Iillor said to the other villagers. They reluctantly climbed the stairs back to the Town Hall ground floor, leaving the two mares alone.

Rose jumped to her hooves and ran up to side of the cage, wrapping her forehooves around the bars. “Please, spare the rest of them. What I did is my crime alone and Ponyville doesn't deserve to suffer because of it!”

“It’s not up to you who deserves what. You attacked a viscountess.” Iillor found it amusing to see the mare sweat it for a little while. “There’s no imperial power here to protect your Free City status. Come tomorrow, Ponyville might only exist in maps and memories.”

Rose pressed her forehead against the bars, her voice falling to a whisper. “Just ‘attacked’ a viscountess… Lady Sparkle survived then.” She let out a relieved sigh and slumped to the floor. “I didn’t mean to do it.”

“And yet you did.” Iillor countered.

“I hardly remember, even though it was just an hour ago. Like I was drunk, or dreaming…” Rose said, tone wavering between distraught and resigned. “I’m no stranger to fugues. My, um, friends and I have gotten into exotic ‘substances’ before, but those were nothing like this.”

“Use your adjectives.”

“Well… Helpless. Compelled?” Rose met Iillor’s gaze. “You talk like a mare that’s seen the world. What on earth can force a mare do to something that she doesn’t want to?”

“Their master.” Iillor said simply.

“The ponies of Ponyville say they know no master but their princess.” Rose said, lip pursing.

Iillor laughed solemnly. “Apparently not.”

Rose sat silently for a long while, staring at Iillor. Iillor was getting more and more giddy imagining the thoughts that must have been stewing in the villager’s head.

“So, it’s true then.” Rose finally whispered.

“Speak up.” Iillor said.

“What… What my friend said.” Rose retreated to the farther end of the cage again. “If it was really true... It’ll affect us all, faithful, heathen, child, adult… We all have a new master now. And our first encounter has left me... terribly frightened.”

“You’re being vague, mis. Who told you that?” Iillor asked.

Rose shook her head. “I have to talk with Lady Sparkle.”

“Oh, do you now?”

“I do. I don’t care the pretense: Tell her I confess, or would like to apologize, or whatever. It’s urgent.”

Iillor strode up to the bars. “Oh come on. If it’s that urgent, secrecy won’t matter. Who told you about the nightmares?” She searched Rose’s eyes for a tell. “Don’t be obstinate or you’re going to annoy me. Don’t stick your neck out to avoid a simple question: Which one of those miserable bucks from Dneighper Crypts survived to found your little cult.”

Rose gulped. She was hoping to get away being coy. “Like you said, mis, only the master can compel a pony to do what it doesn’t want to wants.”

“Don’t think I can help you? Don’t think I’m on your side?” Iillor closed her eyes and let herself relax.
She took a step forward. Without her focus on her physical appearance, her pony form dissolved into shadow as she passed through the bars. Once on the other side she opened her eyes again and reformed herself, to leer arrogantly over the startled Roseluck. “Seems like I’m on your side now.”

Rose took a cautious step forward and pressed her hoof against Iillor’s neck, then patted her mane. She blinked, clearly unsure if passing through the bars had just been an illusion of the dim candlelight.

There was a rush of foul air. Iillor batted Rose away, pressing at her from every side with her magic. In the struggling candlelight the black pony gloated to see Rose’s terror. “Name, now, or I’ll break my promise not to hurt you. Don’t push me to become your master.”

Ten minutes later and Iillor was cantering through Ponyville on her way to the Golden Oak. The streets were empty: since the clamor over the stabbing had died down, ponies had withdrawn to their homes, weary of more trouble.
But as she emerged into the little plaza in in front of that grand old tree she saw another pony emerge from another street across the way. Pinkie Pie, shovel still slung over her shoulder, still grimy with dirt, bounced her way to the Golden Oak’s front door, but stopped as she saw Iillor. The pink earth pony stared, then broke into a wide smile and waved Iillor closer.

“Heya! You’re Lady Sparkle’s friend!” Pinkie giggled. “I’m totally shocked we haven’t been introduced yet. I’m Pinkie Pie!”

“Iillor.” Iillor curtsied. “Nice to meet you Mis Pie. I’ve got to say, that bread this morning was amazing. It’s always good to see an earth sister owning a business out here.”

“You should meet my friend Applejack! She’s like, one of the biggest earth pony freeholders in Equestria!” Pinkie giggled. “Me, I’m just a baker.”

Iillor cracked a big smile. “And, so I’ve been piecing together, a friend of a Star.”

Pinkie shifted her shovel into her hooves, bearing it like a weapon. “Lots of ponies are nowadays. Not a fan?” She asked cheerfully.

“Not gunna mince words, but no. They really tick me off.” Iillor said, her big smile sharpening. “But I don’t want this to get between us, especially when Lady Sparkle needs our help. I don’t see why we can’t be friendly.”

Pinkie frowned appraisingly. Her right brow slowly arched, and she re-shouldered the shovel. “Alrighty.” She brightened up, smile popping. “Fight ya later then!”

“Heh heh, you’re quite the act sister. They build you Musician’s Guild girls well.” Iillor snickered. Besides from Sparkle, this odd pink pony was going to be the biggest problem for her, she predicted. She stepped past Pinkie and knocked on Golden Oak’s front door.

A few seconds later the lock clicked, the door cracked open, and Fluttershy peeked her head out. She saw Iillor and paled, then saw Pinkie and got even paler. “H- H- Hello.”

“Hey Fluttershy!” Pinkie jumped forward and pushed the door open further. She saw Twilight Sparkle sitting on the couch, nursing her bandaged right shoulder. Twilight and Spike swiveled to face their visitors. “Hey Lady Sparkle! Hey Sir Spike!”

“Heys all around. So much hey it’s like a barn.” Iillor stepped through too and shut the door behind her. Fluttershy retreated from the two brash earth ponies. “Looking good Twilight.”

“Mis Pie, Iillor.” Twilight nodded to the arrivals. She looked weary, glancing between them and Fluttershy. “Spike, you can go back to keeping watch on the fillies so they don’t hurt themselves accidentally. No need to watch them like a hawk, just read a book in the same room. And thank you, thank you for the help.” She nudged the book with the spell she’d healed her shoulder with. “You know you’re my number one knight.”

“Okay Twilight. I’ll be there if you need anything” Spike hurried upstairs, delicately closing the bedroom door behind him.

Twilight waited for the door to close to begin again. “To begin, forgive me if I seem haughty today. I had never been stabbed before, but I took it so I could know more about what I am and what I’m up against. I might ask you to step up, and not sympathize with your excuses.” She cleared her throat. “Otherwise, I see I’m not lacking for interesting company. Like the old poem, three unwashed heretic mares. Literally in your case, Pinkie Pie. Why did you come into my house unbathed? I’ve hosted cleaner hogs.”

“I was gunna clean up, but then I heard about you so I rushed over. Our chat had me real worried!” Pinkie said.

“And you.” Twilight shifted to Iillor. “What’s your excuse? I thought you were going to check on Mis Roseluck.”

“Are you calling me dirty? Like a rat dirty?

“I don’t know, am I calling you a dirt pony? Decide for yourself.” Twilight bit. “How’s Mis Roseluck.”

“The mare is fine. I didn’t touch her, if that’s what you’re on my case about.” Iillor assuaged. “She’s lucid, we talked, and she wants to talk to you too.”

“Good. I hope talking is all you did.”

“I’m guessing I’m going to hear a lot of it from you.” Iillor said snippily..

“There’s a lot to say. I’m sorry if I end up being rude to say it, but don’t think I’m setting out to be rude. I am hard after the truth.” Twilight leaned back in the couch. She she cleared her throat, took a calming breath, and when she resumed the anxiety and exhaustion in her voice was gone. “So then everypony, introduce yourselves.”

Pinkie quirked her brow.

“Oh get bent. You’re doing this now.” Iillor huffed.

“Yes, right now. If you don’t like it, you can leave.” Twilight nodded fiercely. “Secrets and duplicity is only going to undermine Princess Celestia’s dream.” The tapped on the table. “So right here, right now, we lay ourselves open to our fellow pony and let them accept us. All of you already know me, as much if not more than I know myself right now. I want to hear of you from yourselves.”

Fluttershy looked like she was about to cry. “Twilight…”

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, in this respect I can’t be tolerant. There can be no secrets between us.” Twilight said. “And if you’re worried about Rarity, I’m further sorry but we have no chance of saving her unless we do this.” She blinked. “That’s the last I’m going to apologize.”

“What a great friend you are.” Iillor snarked. She eyed the mares. “Me first? Why not, since I suspect you two commoners already have some idea.” She cleared her throat.
“Hello fellow meatbags, my name is Iillor, and I’m a Dark warlock. I used to live in Ponyville but got shown off a long time ago. The past couple months I’ve been raising hell in Canterlot on behalf of Lady Twilight Velvet, but don’t get me wrong, I’m just out here for fun.” She turned to Twilight. “And I’m going to hold you to your promise not to spread this, Sparkle.”

“Big talk, Mis Valor.” Twilight grunted. “Dark practices I forgive, if you use them with respect and good faith for your fellow pony. Being a jerk, I won’t. So watch your tone, and your definition of ‘fun’.”

Iillor rolled her eyes.

“Who next? Me? Can it be me?” Pinkie babbled. After a nod from Twilight she launched into it. “Hey everypony! I’m Pinkie Pie! I grew up on a rock plantation! I moved to Canterlot and got inducted into a super secret murder music cult, performed some great hits, made some great friends! I moved here after some of my friends got banished and have been baking ever since. I look after the town and my friends as best as I can! And…” She tapped her chin. “Yeah that’s it. I stayed in touch with the Star who ran the cult until Twilight broke by bird cage, but she might have been dead anyway.” She nodded to Iillor. “I dunno. I’m not a mare with big fancy ideals, so I’m just here to help Rarity, even if she doesn’t like me.”

Fluttershy wrinkled her nose. “Because you don’t like her.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Was I wrong to?”

Twilight assumed it was just back to the pettiness of being Applejack’s friend against Rarity friend. “It sounds like we need to talk more later, Pinkie Pie. Everything you’ve told me the last few days has been true, if been painfully distressing.” She sighed. “It takes a big mare to took past itching rivalries, and I respect you for it. But what led you to make that decision? To make yourself feel better? To save Rarity for her own sake, or the sake of her inherent rights and dignity as a pony? For me and my new dream? I’d like to know.”

Pinkie nodded. “Uh, that part about dignity I guess, even if some got that dignity dirty.”

“Rarity’s in big trouble and you still talk about her so meanly.” Fluttershy accused, softly but sharply. “You can be a real bully, Pinkie Pie. And since you confessed, we know you can be dangerous when you want to.”

“You seem like you have a lot to say, Fluttershy. I hope you weren’t holding back talking with me earlier.” Twilight leaned forward in her seat. “Because if you were, now’s the time to let out the truth.”

Fluttershy whined like a kicked dog. “You don’t know the whole picture. Pinkie has been harassing us for years. She’d do the same to you if she thought she could get away with it.”

“You’re one-hundred percent validating my point. If we lived with an open heart, a… willingness to be seen, criticized, but understood by fellow ponies, there wouldn’t have been a problem between you.” Twilight said. “So please, tell us what you need to.”

Fluttershy looked like she’d been hit. “This isn’t fair. Rarity and I…” She couched her muzzle under her hoof. “You don’t understand. Rarity and I have more to lose.”

Twilight glanced away for a bare second, as if considering backing down, but turned her head up stern. “Then I have to work harder to help you. If you can’t own yourself, I have to own you. I have to love you, nurture you, guide you, because you don’t love, nurture, or guide yourself. You’re in want, and I will provide, both because it’s my duty to a fellow pony, and because you’re my friend.”

“I don’t want your pity. I want…” Fluttershy trailed off. It was evident she didn’t really know what she wanted.

Twilight scoffed. “You’re not getting my pity, you’re apparently getting my maternal care, since that’s what you need. You need a nanny. I can do that. Sit over there, and let me nuzzle you and call you a good filly. Or don’t you want to be a child?! Just because you’re bashful don’t mean you get to shirk off your issues! Do you think your problems are special? Honestly? You are tortured by your feelings of helplessness, but don’t attempt to heal it. Indeed you’ve done nothing to help yourself, expect perhap to patch up my stab wound. Is that where the problem lays? Are you a masochist, Fluttershy? Hmph. you’d rather lend a helping hoof than confront yourself.”

Perplexed, disbelieving silence reigned.

“Filly, is this you without a filter? What is wrong with you?” Iillor finally said.

“What she said.” Pinkie nodded. “Like, I think you’re trying to be nice but you’re not coming across that way.”

“I’m not doing this to be nice, or it’s the right thing, though I do think it is both of those things…” Twilight cleared her throat.
“I can see by the look on your face, Fluttershy, that you’re not exactly pleased with me. ‘I saved your life’ you want to say ‘You mistreat me in return’. But you don’t say anything. You don’t say anything because you accept what I’m trying to do. Rarity… She failed you, didn’t she. Now your new crush the Nightmare of the Moon has gone off to do her own thing.
“We have to stick together, trust in ourselves and those who stand beside us, and take back our lives. We have to do this because Nightmare Moon was right when she told me the pony soul is ugly, unkind, selfish, and Dark by nature. To make Princess Celestia’s dream a reality, I have to fight that nature, and so do you. It won’t always be pretty, but it will be necessary, because the payoff is a world more beautiful than you can imagine: A world in harmony not because gods, Stars, alicorns, or elder siblings are forcing us to be, but because we mortals WANT to be.”
She looked each of the ponies in the eye in turn. “I get you. I completely, one-hundred percent get you. You hide your true selves because the world would ostracize you. I don’t think that’s fair. So long as you approach them with love in your heart, they should return the favor. So please, when I’m yelling at you, I’m yelling at them as well. If I can convince you to trust me, the successor to a princess of Light, then I can get ponykind to trust the followers of Dark. You just have to believe me, and take that leap.”

Nopony said a single word.

Twilight got up from the couch to pace to the kitchen, wincing whenever she put weight on her wounded leg. She returned with a tea set.
“You don’t think it concerns me when the ponies I have to trust revere the force that I’m fighting against? We should be enemies. The alicorn I worshiped was killed by the one you all worship. Yet I want to love and trust you.”

“It’s simplistic and stupid to accuse us of worshiping Nightmare Moon.” Iillor chided after Twilight. “It’s not the alicorn that deserves our worship, but the aspect they represent.”

“You know what I mean.” Twilight confirmed firmly. She set the tea set down and ushered everypony forward. Pinkie came forward happily, Fluttershy very reluctantly, and Iillor not at all. “Princess Celestia fought and died to keep the Dark out of her empire. She thought the Dark divides and destroys us in petty battles for supremacy, and considering her past I don’t blame her for thinking that. But I’ve seen a different side of the Dark, and I know that Princess Celestia’s dream of harmony can extend into its real as well.”

“You think you know Celestia’s dream better than she did.” Iillor said snidely.

“She left her last wishes with me. Now it’s up to me to interpret them” Twili scowled as she poured out the tea to everypony. “I’m the protector of her memory, her authority.”

“Well then, exert her authority on me. Force me to play nice.” Iillor patted her own cheek. “Oh, but would that contravene the harmonious dream? You’re pushing yourself into a paradox, Sparkle.”

Twilight scoffed. “Do any of you want to be my enemy?”

“I don’t want to be your enemy, Lady Twilight.” Fluttershy said, barely above a whisper. She took a sip of the tea and made a face, but dutifully took another sip. “I… You’re right, I want to help you succeed, because… I think you’re a good pony, even if you’ve made bad decisions.”

“Yep! That sums my thoughts too.” Pinkie agreed, downing her tea in a single gulp. “I glad you accept us, but I’m happy because you’re you.” Her smile turned sheepish. “Not every pony understands, until you change their mind like you say you will. That’ll take more parties than I could imagine.”

“From where I’m sitting, helping Ponyville ‘understand’ was what got this country in this trouble in the first place.” Iillor scoffed. She looked between from Twilight and Fluttershy. “You must have already heard about what’s really wrong with your friend Rarity. Must be why we’re so chilled on going to save her.”

A pregnant silence reigned for a minute. Twilight, her hooves wrapped around her tea, pondered how to answer.
“Rarity, so far as I’ve been told, has made some dire mistakes. The fuzzy edges of both Fluttershy’s recounting and my own memory tell me that she’s not the only one. Yes… I’m being a little sour and hard-headed right now. But…” She sipped her tea. “I have to be of one mind. I can’t selfishly let mine or other ponies flaws distract me from the dream Celestia has been trying to show me.”

Iillor groaned in annoyance. “You’ve talked a whole bunch about the dream, but not a lick how it would help save your friend. Why aren’t you rushing over like you were before?

“Because before I thought Rarity had been taken by Nightmare Moon, but I know not she’s taken by something more insidious: Her fear of herself.” Twilight said. “The dream will help her overcome fear, whereas all I could do is bite it out of her for a little while.”

“Yeah, but what’s the dream about? You know what I’m asking, Sparkle.”

Twilight crossed her hooves. REVENGE, the subtle pulsing at the back of her head chanted, a raspy chorus of slit throats. She blinked and imagined she saw that bizarre throne room in the burning wheat again. She barely suppressed a shudder.
Celestia… She wouldn’t really demand that. Twilight’s heart burned with the desire to run and find Nightmare Moon right there to demand what Celestia’s demise had been like. But she couldn’t. She had to chose what she believed. Twilight had to follow what she knew the dream was, not what Celestia may have wanted it to be in her last, weak moments.
“The dream of Equestria, Iillor. I wouldn’t expect you to understand, because it is one of compassion, harmony, and things of that connotation. The dream of the unified nation, the perfect society, the peaceful mind. It’s what mortals have asked the gods for since time immemorial, and like I’ve said, it’s time to make it for ourselves.”

“Make it for yourself, more like.”

“Ponies have sacrificed more for things a lot less worthy.” Twilight narrowed her gaze.

“Look at the big pants on you, ready to tell the whole empire what to do.” Iillor snickered.

“Not nearly. I’ve barely a grip even on myself.” Twilight finished with the tea and eased back onto the couch. “I woke up damaged, but it was in such a way that means I can fight nightmares like nothing else. That tells me something, just as loudly as the voices in the visions I’m getting.”

“It tells you you’re making a big mistake. When the Nightmare of the Moon gets back she’s going to whip your ass.” Iillor, after a moment of pause, finally joined the other ponies at the table. “You’re like a filly deciding to venture out on a adventure way too big for them.”

“Hmmph, don’t project on me, Iillor” Twilight said sharply. “I am going to find a purpose that will keep me sane. What do you have? All you’ve done is traipse around Canterlot and Ponyville, occupying yourself with trivialities to fool yourself into thinking you care about pony things and your pony life.”

Iillor drew in a startled breath. “W- What? What could you know about Canterlot?”

“Your thoughts aren’t private around me, especially if you don’t guard them at all.” Twilight said gravely. “I can’t control what I, ahem, ingest.”

Iillor immediately clenched her eyes shut and focussed will all her mind on her pony form. The nebulousness of her presence in the magical currents reformed to the size of her body. She wondered tensely how much of her memories Twilight had glimpsed. She wouldn’t be so careless again around the unicorn. “You should have told me immediately Sparkle.” She hissed.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie exchanged confused looks.

“Mis Iillor has been throwing her aura around like she’s trying to impress a class of novitiates.” Twilight explained to them. She pushed the last tea cup to Iillor. “I didn’t see much, I promise.”

“Then I’m still on your side. Consider yourself lucky.” Iillor burned with embarrassment that she had been so careless. She had been lackadaisical reassuming her pony form after visiting Rose.
She accepted the tea cup from Twilight and took a swallow. She cringed like she was having a seizure and spit out. “The hell is this?!”

“Wax tree tea. They say it has healing properties, but it’s the bitterest, vilest stuff I have. It hurts more than it helps, in my opinion.” Twilight said with a thin smile. “You say you’re with me. Are you really?”

“I’m not drinking this crap.” Iillor stuck her tongue out.

Twilight considered this, then stood up. “Drink it, Iillor.”

Iillor looked at the unicorn incredulously. “You’re pushy today.”

Twilight slid Pinkie’s seat and the table to the side. She limped forward, and put one forehoof by Iillor’s on the cup and the other on Iillor’s shoulder. “Do you know why good ponies followed Empress Celestia? Not because she had some legal authority over them, or because she protected them, or because she was their savior. No. None of that. Good ponies followed Celestia because she was kind and just, and a pony worth following. Do you know why bad ponies bowed to Celestia too?” She put a little force on her hoof, pushing the cup to Iillor’s lips. “Because slaves fear what their master can do to them.”

Iillor felt a tingle down her spine. Twilight had seen a lot more of her recent memories than she let on!
Iillor pushed herself to her hooves, knocking the cup of tea to the ground and forcing Twilight to take a limping step back. “That’s too far.” She said, trying to sound intimidating but feeling genuinely shaken. “I’m not a dog. You won’t break me to your will like you will these commoners.”

Twilight, frowning deeply, looked down at the tea now pooling on the floor. “Look what you’ve done. Now you’ll have to lap it up.”

Iillor stood stock still for a full minute. Finally, apparently done deciding her course, she took a big step back and sat down on the floor again. “Fine. You’re in charge, Lady Sparkle. But push me like that again and I’m going to-”

“Going to what? Your threats are empty, so I’d ask you to please stop talking and start listening. Listening for orders, specifically.” Twilight said gruffly. “I’m still holding you to your oath to help me save Rarity. At last we’ve reached a consensus: I’m in charge.”

“You are the noblelady.” Fluttershy agreed evasively. She wasn’t sure what to make of the odd dominance display between the two magical mares. “Please, let’s save Rarity. Applejack too. I forgave you Twilight, and I still do. You can make your peace with them now.”

“Yeah, let’s go save Rarity!” Pinkie Pie squealed and leapt to her hooves.

Twilight’s scowl softened to a smile as she averted her eyes. “Thank you two, that means a lot to me.”

“My lady, ditch the charismatic leader and bad bitch shticks. Stick to humble.” Iillor said, but it lacked her usual quippyness. “But if you wanna go save your friend, just do it. Don’t get stuck justifying it to us.”

Twilight shook her head, comfortable since she’d already won the earlier contest. “You’re right I don’t have to justify myself to anypony, least of all you. If you feel disappointed you can break your oath to me and go away. Yes, go back to Risky and tell him fairy tales and teach him Dark magic, if you’d like.”

Iillor scrunched her nose. “Sheesh. I sat through your seminar so I might as well follow along for a little while.”

“Thank you.” Twilight turned her head up and shouted to the second floor. “Spike, we’re going to go get Rarity! Stay here and guard the fillies! Don’t let anypony in.”

The bedroom door swung open. “Okay Twilight. Good luck.” Spike saluted. He nodded to the other mares. “Keep Twilight safe please!”

“Will do Sir Spike!” Pinkie giggled. Fluttershy smiled a little.

“So girls, Fluttershy told me Rarity is likely to have run to her parents house. That’s where we’re going to go first.” Twilight bade Pinkie and Fluttershy stand up too. “Unfortunately teleporting four ponies is going to be very hard on me, so I can only take us part of the way. We’ll take the rest on hoof.”

“Hold on to your stomachs.” Iillor laughed.
Fluttershy squeaked and riveted her eyes shut. Pinkie yipped as she remembered last moment that she left her shovel outside, but her request to Spike to bring it inside was interrupted by the pop of magic as the quartet of mares dissolved in the teleportation burst.

Rarity’s parents lived a half a league to the west of Ponyville, past most of the outlying farms, in the crux of two forested hills. A small garden plot divided by a stone path led up to the humble cottage made of stone and timber. It looked older than most of the houses of Ponyville. The style of its windows and gables reminded Twilight of the Golden Oak, which would date it to when Ponyville was still called Dneighper Crypts, at least a hundred years past.

Fluttershy knew the house the best so took the lead, but Iillor was right behind her looking around with mute interest. Pinkie and Twilight lagged behind them, the former helping the latter get along with her injury.

“I don’t think she’s here.” Fluttershy flew up to the second floor window and peeked inside. “Um… That means… She must have run to Applejack’s.”

Twilight sighed. “She could be anywhere, really.”

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t right with my first guess, Lady Twilight. There are a limited amount of places she would run with her affliction. Her parent’s, back to Applejack’s, or my house.” Fluttershy said. “Rarity was very upset that she was spreading the nightmare’s control. She wouldn’t go back anywhere with vulnerable ponies.”

Pinkie looked politely skeptical. “Do you think Rarity was telling the truth?”

“You didn’t think the most of Rarity, but she’s my friend, and she’s only ever tried to do the right thing. She just get’s, um, misguided and obsessed.” Fluttershy nibbled at her lip. “I admired her for her dedication. Even when it became obvious she was using me, I think she told herself it was to help us all in the end. She didn’t really mean us any harm.”

“Are you for real? I feel sorry for you. You’re as trusting as a lamb and you got shysted.” Iillor snarked, but her heart wasn’t in it. Something about the house and its surroundings had her preoccupied. “Your ‘friend’ is a real character. Even by the standards of this bunch she’s messed up.”

Nopony had any objections to that.

Pinkie Pie let Twilight support herself. “Do we want to hang around talking about Rarity or go save her? Comeon! Let’s go to Applejack’s!”

“Give me a minute to catch my breath.” Twilight leaned on the fence in lieu of Pinkie and fanned her face with a magic conjuration. “My shoulder is on fire. Healing spells can’t make all the inflammation go away.”

“Sure.” Iillor grunted. She stepped around to the side of the house. “So, Rarity’s family lived here. The house is nice. Solid." She rubbed her hoof on one of the most weathered foundation stones,

“Um, please stay away from the house.” Fluttershy said.

Pinkie flatly ignored the request and trotted up to peek inside alongside Fluttershy. “Do Rarity’s parents keep any memorabilia here?”

“What?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“You know, their nightmare stuff. I wanna see some. They’re nightmare worshipers too, right? I never knew for sure, but I assumed they were.” Pinkie clarified. “Like, her ancestors going back like ten generations ago were nightmare worshipers, so it made sense the tradition continued.”

“Ten generations ago? How do you know that?” Twilight squinted.

Pinkie’s smile went squiggly. “The devotionals they were buried with. What, you thought I got this dirty in a playground?”

POW! Fluttershy’s punch caught Pinkie Pie square in the jaw, sending the candy earth pony spinning into the garden plot. Fluttershy's eyes were wide with anger and surprise at herself. She cradled the hoof she’d struck out with. “P- Pinkie Pie, t- there are some lines you don’t cross!” Her voice trembled. “H- How could you do something like that?!”

Pinkie lay in the dirt, accepting her place for the time being. “I didn’t mean to.” She picked her head up a bit to speak. “I was just looking for evidence. I pinkie promise I put the skeletons exactly back where they belong. More than I can say for you and Rarity!”

Fluttershy gasped and clamped her wings to her side. She retreated away from Pinkie.

“Ee hee, I’ve gotchya there.” Pinkie sat up. A red hoof-shaped welt was already starting to inflame on her cheek. “The start of all this wasn’t Twilight, nope! It was you and Rarity digging her up!” Pinkie pointed at Iillor accusingly.

“Eh?” Iilor perked a brow.

Twilight sighed and sat down. “This didn’t last long.”

“Rarity was a paranoid pants, but not cautious enough to stop me figuring it out. When old Pinkie catches the scent, she always gets the prey.” Pinkie Pie pressed, eyes narrowed. “I don’t care about your nightmare fellowship, or the rituals, or that I was never invited you guys’ parties. Nope don’t care at all (but maybe I care a little). Summoning demons is totally not cool though! What was Rarity thinking?! What were you thinking helping her?! They say demons hold the wildest parties ever but it’s not worth it when ponies get hurt in the process. Risking friends and family… Risking our village… So Rarity could tell the whole town how right she was, and how awesome her god is, and to bask in the adoration…”
Pinkie sighed. “I didn’t stop you two when I should have. I messed up. I was distracted with Canterlot, and failed Ponyville. I just hope its not too late.”

Iillor didn’t know which of the mares to look at. She was still processing what Pinkie had said about digging and summoning.
She looked back to Rarity’s parent’s house. Two centuries ago a different house had stood on the spot. Her gaze shifted up, past the house, to scan the forest hills.
“Sorry, I have to go check on something.” She dissolved into mist and darted into the treeline.

“Iillor!” Twilight shouted after her. She ground her teeth and turned to the other two. “What are you two doing?! Is airing this dirty laundry actually going to solve anything?! I don’t care who did what, but now this arguing has cost us precious time!” She took a deep breath. “Okay, I really didn’t want to split up but since you two can’t get along we have to. Pinkie Pie, I’m going to teleport you towards Applejack’s farmstead. Fluttershy, I’m sending you towards your house. If Rarity isn’t where you’re looking go immediately to the other location.”

Neither mare looked very happy with the order but accepted it silently.

“If you find Rarity, make sure she’s safe but keep a healthy distance. If she’s under attack help her then secure her, the attackers, then yourself, in that order. Don’t worry about getting infected, I can cure you.” Twilight swallowed. She was just starting to itch again in a way that indicated the onset of another dizzy spell. “But if anypony gets hurt bad, that’s going to be harder to heal.”

“You’re going to fetch your new friend?” Pinkie posed, her high pitched voice squeaking testilly. “Why do you want her? You know what she is. She’s not your friend.”

Twilight tried to come up with a convincing reason, but earnestly couldn’t. “You let me worry about her. She has connections to my mother in Canterlot.”

Pinkie wasn’t buying it, but didn’t pursue further. “If you say so Lady Twilight.”

Twilight concentrated her magic to her horn and teleported the two mares as close to their respective destinations as she could. When she released the magic she found herself significantly out of breath. She’d been teleporting around all day with nothing but the brunch at the bakery to fill her up. Her dream meals contributed to her mental stability, but not a full stomach.
After a minute breather she hobbled into the woods after Iillor. The pain in her shoulder reminded her she should have been taking it easy. Things were coming at her so fast and it was all so frustrating! Ponies were hard creatures to deal with.

“Iillor!” She shouted into the trees around her. “Iillor you selfish shirker! Where did you go?”

“Up here m’lady.” Iillor’s voice echoed back to her from higher up the slope.

Cringing past the pain, Twilight made her way to the top of the hill.
It was a small meadow in the middle of the glade, covered in groundcover wildflowers, with a few weathered stone tombstones jutting out of the earth like rotten tree stumps. The forgotten graveyard showed signs of some upkeep: Many tombstones had been scraped clean, and withered flows lay with others. The most obvious thing was the recently disturbed plots on the farther end of the meadow.
That’s where Iillor was standing, looking over the packed earth, her face an unreadable mask.

Twilight made her way over to them: Iillor and the grave. Her anger and urgency was forgotten in the secret hallowed place. There was an air of darkness, restfulness, and hope about it. It was something about how the light danced through the leaves of the trees…

“Does your family have a plot like this?” Iillor asked without turning.

“No. The Bright half of my family is interred into the great crypts of Foal. I don’t know about the Twilights. They go in the Canterlot catacombs with the other nobles I guess.”

“Or eaten or thrown out with the trash, from what I’ve seen of that clan.” Iillor joked mirthlessly. She still hadn’t torn her gaze away from the grave. “My mother was burned in a pile of corpses, among heaps of my half-siblings. Changelings aren’t very sentimental with dead bodies. I don’t know what happened to my father. It sounds concieted, but I was the only thing he lived for. Heh, when I died he probably stopped eating or drinking, until one day he walked into the Everfree and was never heard from again. Yeah… That sounds about right.”

Twilight felt an indescribable mumble of magic from under the packed earth of the grave, like an echo of something said a very long time ago. “Who is this?”

“This one is Solemn.” Iillor patted the mound. “That one next to it was for me. Over on the other side those oldest graves, that’s my arch-rival Peculiarity, Solemn’s daughter. Then beside her…” Iillor licked her lips soberly. “My daughter by Solemn, Oddity.”

Twilight took in all the other graves. Solemn, Peculiarity, names out of Ponyville’s past. “The rest of these?”

“Oddity’s descendants, generation by generation. Every iteration was a little less quirky, and more normal, but at least a little of my blood remains in this house. Otherwise your friend Rarity would not be half the trouble she is. A strain of Dark from across the ocean of space spices her veins.” Iillor finally moved, strolling through the disordered rows of headstones. “I mean, Oddity wasn’t actually my daughter. She was something Solemn and I conjured out of the depths of the dreamscape, an experiment. At the time I was ready to get rid of her and move on to the next experiment, but mine and Solemn’s deaths came all too swiftly. Peculiarity, that twisted jerkoff, found it funny to keep a memento of us.” Iillor hiccuped a laugh, then began to sniffle. “Gods, I hated this place so much. It’s so far out of town, and every day I had to gallop to make it to lessons on time. It didn’t help my father and I were outsiders to Dneighper Crypts. The old blood of the town didn’t like us. Gods bless Solemn though. She beat the crap out of anypony that gave us too hard a time.”

Twilight didn’t know what to say. Nothing, she decided.

“I could say something moving like ‘I know she smiling at me from hell’, but I know that’s not true. This world has nothing after it. Heck, it’s got very little during it! When we’ve gone away, our dreams might linger for a little while in the dreamscape, and our names might last for a while on a tombstone, but there’s no paradise for our souls.” Iillor pointed up in the direction of the afternoon sun. “That’s our fate, Twilight, our Destiny. For mortals, that’s our elysium: To be consumed by our gentle goddess and exist no longer. Unpleasant to think about, really.” Iillor’s lip twitched. “Fuck the sun.”

“What a life that I get to hear somepony say that and completely mean it.” Twilight mumbled. There had to be a word for the sensation that came along with secrets being revealed rapid-fire immediately after she decided to stop looking for them. “Why are you here?”

“Ponyville, or the Bright World?”

“Is your answer different?”

Iillor gave a little shrug. “No. Fun. What else is there to do? I’m a blip. I have no investment in this world. My time on it was over two-hundred years ago.”

“Yes here you are. You may not have a biological imperative, or a reason to make the world better, but you can do it anyways.”

Iillor summoned her magic, letting shadow gather all around them . The soft sunlight in the meadow burned into the darkness like a fire in the mist. “Look at me Sparkle. This fancy dream you want to realize, where do I fit in?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. Sometimes, ponies aren’t meant to understand where they belong. The Celestianists say that our destiny is decided by the sun, and Celestia was the deliverer of that destiny. When we didn’t understand our place in the world or the meaning of our gods-granted mark, we would go to her.” Looking at Iillor’s mark, the cloudy eye, she could see interpret many meanings for it. “For you, I’d say, do what you feel is right. Good intentions are what we need more than some rigid interpretation of doctrine.”

Iillor took a last look around the graveyard. “Listen Sparkle, just give me something to do. I just wanna…” She shook her head, searching for words to express her thoughts. “Make a big difference, have a long shadow, throw my weight around. It’s my gut instinct, get me? I wanna put my hooves around the world and shake it.”

Twilight nodded solemnly. “I understand the sentiment. I understand it completely. You want to be where you can have the most impact on history.” She arched a brow. “Where do you think that is? Go back in your grave, you’d have at least partial credit for causing this disaster that destroyed Equestria, through your descendants. Mortals surrender the future to their sons and daughters, Iillor. It’s just the way of things. Are you going to try to steal Rarity’s thunder?”

Iillor laughed in confusion. “Sparkle, are you telling me to take responsibility for my bastard from two-hundred years ago?”

Twilight stared at her intently. “It will give you something to do.”

“Ho. Ho ho!” Iillor waggled her head back and forth, considering it. “I can read in to your words, little lady. You want me to care about somepony, to have an investment in the future. I’m a heartbreaker, Sparky, not a mother. Maternal isn’t in my vocabulary.”

“That’s something we have in common, but do you see me treating Spike coldly? He’s my brother, my closest friend, and my ward. I’m totally responsible for her future until he’s grown enough to take responsibility for himself. Why? Because he’s young and he would make mistakes.” Twilight said. “So is Rarity. Sure, she’s older than me, but she’s entrapped by childish ideas. She needs somepony to help her. To some extent, that’s the idea behind Princess Celestia’s dream: Accepting ponies for their faults, so that they can accept themselves and seek to work past fear. But Rarity… She needs somepony who sympathizes and wants to see her improve, because they were in the same situation.”

Iillor clucked her tongue. She wandered between the graves, contemplating on their names. Twilight let the black earth pony take her time.

“No.” Iillor finally said. “Even if I cared about Rarity (and I don't), I would stay away. I’m not a good pony, and I wouldn’t teach her good things.”

“You teach Risky.” Twilight pointed out.

“And Duke Lightdowser doesn’t want him taught good things.” Iillor emphasized. “Enough talk! Let’s get moving and save those mares.”

“Fine.” Twilight agreed. “I sent the girls to check out the two possible locations. We’re going to Applejack’s farm since its closer.”

“How are you handling all this teleportation?” Iillor asked.

“I’m fine.”

“No, I mean literally how are you doing it? Just today you’ve expended enough magical energy to slag a small mountain.” Iillor hummed. “I’m worried you’re going to slip and send us ten feet underground.”

“I’m starting to see what you mean. You’re morbid.” Twilight licked her lips and drew up her magic.

The teleportation landed them in the middle of a wide open soy field. Twilight wobbled on her legs and had to lean on Iillor for support. They were still less than halfway to the edge of The nearest apple orchard and Twilight was exhausted.

“Ghh this is, tshh, unpleasant.” Twilight sunk to the ground and soothed her wounded shoulder with a bit of magic, trying to make it stop stinging. “Do you know any teleportation spells?”

“Told you so. I might side with Nightmare Moon if she promises me I won’t have to run around like this.”

Twilight was finally running dry. She tried again and no matter her effort the magical power was barely enough to make her horn glow a bit. “Iillor, are feeling generous right now?”

Iillor could not have stared harder. “Do you want to die? Don’t even consider it. Some things even girls don’t share, Sparkle.”

Twilight groaned in pain. “Get me some food. Just a nibble. Please.”

Iillor scanned their surroundings. She saw a small farmhouse at the edge of the soy field. “Be right back.” She broke into a sprint in that direction.

“Here I am, laying in a field again, thinking about life.” Twilight moaned into the dirt. She would recover, remember, practice, until she could do everything that ponykind needed, like Princess Celestia had. REVENGE.

Four minutes later a rustle in the grass signaled Iillor’s return. She unshouldered an unconscious farmer pony and dropped her in the dirt by Twilight. “Drink up.”

“Iillor! I meant literal food! Food to eat!” Twilight cried out.

Iillor made a face. “You should’ve been more specific.” She ran off again.

Twilight recognized the passed out pony next to her, one of the mares who had a stall in the market. Did she sell flour and grain? Twilight couldn’t remember.
After a few minutes Twilight was feeling well enough to sit up, and a minute after that Iillor returned with a sack full of carrots.

“The mare would help you too, you know.” Iillor said as she watched Twilight eat. “She’s not gunna notice if you have a little taste.”

“Only consenting ponies or extenuating circumstances.” Twilight insisted. “Things aren’t so dire right now I’d hurt another pony just to help myself.”

“I’m eager to see what that line is.” Iillor smiled cruelly.

Twilight ignored her and filled up on the carrots. She left the bag with the farmer mare and got up. “In Canterlot I averaged teleporting five times a day. Usually little hops. WIth everything going on I think that average may go up.”

“The mare who wants to be everywhere will have to move a lot.” Iillor agreed.

The Apple Family’s farmstead looked entirely normal, from the outside. The bird and bugs made their sounds and lived their lives, but without the upbeat humming that often accompanied them among the apple trees.

Twilight found Fluttershy pacing back and forth at the treeline, nearly in a panic. “Fluttershy, what’s going on?”

“There was nothing unusual at my house. Cherry Berry is still asleep there, but nopony else was around.” Fluttershy reported hurriedly. “When I flew over here, I heard shouting and screaming coming out of the farmhouse, th- th- then nothing!” She pasued to take a deep breath. “And I keep thinking I’m hearing a voice in the treetops! I- I don’t think we’re alone.”

“Let’s worry about the farmhouse first. Fluttershy, wait for us on the road to Ponyville. There's nothing you can do here.” Twilight and Iillor cautiously moved out of the orchard, approaching the house. Most of the upstairs windows were closed save the master bedroom, and the only thing moving was the windchime. “Sense anything?”

“Yes and no.” Iillor murmured. “Twilight, tell me about Rarity.”

“She a unicorn. Tall, very clean, cares about her appearance.” Twilight said. As she drew up to the porch her voice fell to a whisper. “She cares too much, actually. She has a fake accent she put on, a mid-coastal articulation, trying to sound like a high-society mare. I think she’s used it so long that’s just how she talks now. She’s not rude about it, but she wants to be proper like a noblemare.”

“Sounds like a git.” Iillor scoffed. She lingered by one of the big windows, listening and looking for any signs of life.

“She’s like you in that she wants to be important. Hence her fellowship of nightmare worshipers. Leading those ponies makes her happy.” Twilight slowly opened the screen door and the front door. The front of the house was completely normal, save that the cellar door was open with pieces of upturned furniture around it. “She wanted to have something to be able to point to and say ‘this is mine’. She’s a craftsmare, a tailor. Sometimes the urge to shape the world around you isn’t limited to your carrier medium.”

“You talk a lot to explain a little.” Iillor followed Twilight into the house. “She’s power hungry.”

“She’s starved of purpose.” Twilight corrected. “I hope you talk to her. You'll understand.”

Rarity found herself on a grassy riverbank, shivering from the cold water she had just pulled herself out of. The grey mist all around her made it impossible to see farther than a dozen meters away, but she could just barely see the trunks of mighty trees ahead of her.

“This place is just dreadful.” Rarity squeezed as much water out of her mane as possible before she tried to reshape it into its customary curls. Hadn’t she just been in her castle? Her frilly noble finery was gone, and her muscles felt like she’d just finished a marathon. “What happened?” She tried to remember.

A red glow spread through the mist from the direction of the trees. Rarity saw the same shadowy pony-like figure from the castle emerge from the forest, head tilted up in disapproval. “I hope you’re happy.”

“Excuse me, I think you owe me an explanation.” Rarity cooed. It was a very strange looking but it still registered as a pony to her.

“There's nothing to explain.” The figure shook its head.

Rarity pulled herself further away from the river, finally drawing herself. She lamented silently how filthy her fut had gotten with dirt and grass. “Well no matter mis. If I may be so bold, do you know the way back to my realm?”

The dark figure pointed its hoof up, then around, then shrugged. “Beyond his is the Forest, Rarity. Death’s door. You don’t want to go in there again.”

“The Forest? That sounds familiar.”

“Hence the ‘again’.” The figure said sarcastically. “Yes, I see you have forgotten. I don’t have to spell it out, do I?”

“No, I’m starting to remember.” Rarity’s brow knitted. The remembered running with all her strength to get away from hateful pursuers. She remembered throwing herself into a house, then into a dark deep place and locking herself in, as much to protect herself from the pursuers as protect others from her. She remembered giggling.
Details were still fleeting. “The nightmare curse… Did it kill me?”

“No, fool, you’re a lich. You can’t die normally, but that didn’t stop you from trying. You stopped your own heart with magic. Brovo. It takes immense mental fortitude to do something like that.” The dark figure stomped her hooves in laudation. “So now you're passed out on the floor. Far from stop me, you made it easier for me. Good job.”

“I killed myself?” Rarity grasped at her unclear memories. Where was that castle? Was it somewhere in Equestria? “I don’t understand.”

“You couldn’t take the stress. Story of your life, right? First you retreated into your own head, your dream, and played there for a while. Then you realized how empty and unrealized it was and decided to toss yourself down here.” The dark figure said. “That’s why you need me, Rarity. I can be your strength. That dream was unsatisfying, but together we can create a dream so strong that all the doubters and naysayers will fall to their hooves before us, and you. You’re weak without me. Ever since Twilight Sparkle showed you that you’re a helpless, weak mess, you’ve known in the back of your head that I could help you. You’ve just never been forthright about it with yourself.”

“I have never been forthright with anypony my entire life.” Rarity said, teeth clenched. “I tried, at the end of the old Twilight. She was creating a new idea of herself, of ‘Ancepanox’, and I hoped I could change alongside her. I couldn’t. She willed herself to change, to become something new. I’m the same Rarity from the day I was born, and I’m not flattered by it.”

“Ponies will worship you flaws and all if they are awed by your dream.” The nightmare cooed. “You tried to kill yourself over your flaws, when you should be celebrating them! Show ponies that even with cracks you are an infinitely beautiful diamond far above them.”

Rarity puffed her cheeks out. No. No. NO. She would not be tempted anymore. No. There would not be a fourth time. NO. She was a better pony than to need a filthy parasite to become what she wanted for herself! “Darling, I tried to kill myself to get away from your uncouth hide.”

“We are the last real nightmare in the world, Rarity! It would be genocide.” The nightmare glowered. “That’s why we must live. Do you want the extinction of the nightmare race on your hooves?”

Rarity stared at the dark entity. It had followed her into this altered realm of unreality, and it had a mind to stop her from destroying it. Unacceptable. “I don’t give a damn about you or the extinction of nightmares. Lady Moon has taught me you are nothing but parasites, not even real sentient beings. You are a smudged reflection of me, nothing more. Years from now when the only place I see a nightmare is out of the pages of a book, I’ll smile and be happy that I participated in wiping you out.”

“Said the ant to the lion. Rarity, you’ve chosen the path of the slave.” The nightmare said, disdain dripping from her words. “I may not be able to control your body anymore thanks to Nightmare Moon’s devilry, but I have more than enough enthralled ponies to get you to move how I need you to. Heh. Heh heh.” The nightmare shook jovially, its red eyes glowing.

Other shapes stepped out of the forest. They were hazy, more indistinct then the nightmare. Four of the figures, were screaming and moaning, heads bowed. The fifth moved with its head unbowed.

The nightmare laughed, its shadowy protrusions pressing the four lamenters into the grass. “Bow, Rarity. You're neigh but another slave to me, and I am your master.”

WHUMP! The floorboards above Twilight’s head shook from some kind of impact.

“We’re not alone.” Iillor hissed, crouching down. “Watch the windows and door. This might be an ambush.”

“Get close to me so I can throw up a shield spell if needed.” Twilight said urgently.

Iillor stalked to the base of the stairs. “Buck that. I’m not as squishy as you are. I can take whatever these ponies can dish out.”

Twilight felt the fur on the back of her neck stand up. She turned to see two ponies, Amethyst Star and Applejack staring through the kitchen window at her. Their eyes were wide open, unblinking, intense, but bleak shadows danced across their irises. They smiled.

“Iillor!” Twilight squeaked. “Iillor they’re at the window!”

“Hush.” Iillor demanded, teeth bared in intense concentration. “I sense… Three mares on the second floor. One is your pal Pinkie Pie I think.”

That left Carmel unaccounted for. Twilight didn’t dare take her eyes off Amethyst and Applejack, but slowly backed in the direction of Iillor. “We can’t take them all at once. We have to divide and conquer.”

“Get to Rarity and it’s over.” Iillor said. “We end it one way or another.”

“Hurt Rarity and I’ll eat your soul.” Twilight growled. Amethyst and Applejack ducked away from the window, breaking Twilight’s line of sight. Twilight tried to feel for their auras but got nothing. “They’re gone! Quick! Help me move this furniture to block the base of the stairs! We can but ourselves a minute while we secure Rarity!”

Iillor looked back over her shoulder. “Too late for that!”

A blur of blue streaked down the stairs, knocking Iillor and Twilight on their backs.

“Get back here you little-” Iillor scrambled to her hooves and jumped in the direction of their assailant but the blue entity was out the door before she could blink. “Ghh, get up Sparkle!”

Twilight teleported herself upright. “That’s the pegasus Fluttershy told me about. She’s fast.” Reaching out with her telekinesis, Twilight dragged the furniture by the cellar stair and piled them up, forming a barricade and leaving only the upward path for her and Iillor. “I’m having an impossible time sensing, even when I can see them. That shouldn’t be possible. Living beings can’t keep their aura from having an impact on the flow of magic.”

“So either they’ve found a way to hide their auras, or they’re dead.” Iillor backed up the stair. She looked around the upper floor hallway, and seeing nothing waved Twilight up. “Come on. Your earth pony friend could bust down that junk in a second.”

Twilight heard shouted through the walls. Below them also, she heard high pitched griping. The two voices melded in a muddy harmony, as if spoken by one voice. ‘Fear my imperfection, Twilight Sparkle’

“They may have gone after Fluttershy, or are just boxing us in.” Twilight muttered. “But Pinkie Pie should have been more careful than this. How did she let the nightmare catch her?”

“Don’t jump to conclusions yet.” Iillor’s ears twitched at something inaudible. “They’re in this direction.”

THUNK. Something smacked against the barricade of furniture.
“Y’all kept us waitin, Twilight.” Applejack’s voice carried to them. “It’s been near two hours since ya got Rose. Hope you ain’t been slowed down none, heh heh. I’d hate to win too easy.” There was silence again.

"They want us to know they have the upper hoof." Twilight whispered.

“I bet you wish you nibbled off that farmer now. Even I’m getting a little spooked.” Iillor lay her ear to the master bedroom door. But seeing Twilight’s strange expression, she straightened up. “... You did.”

Twilight’s horn sparked to life and her telekinetic aura wrapped around the door handle. She glanced away, brow bent. “My morals aren’t worth letting the nightmare win. …” She looked away. “I need every advantage I can get.”

Iillor smiled wickedly. “Good girl.”

Twilight tore the door off its hinges and propelled it forward, catching the pony on the other side. Rainbow Dash cried out in pain as she was pinned against the far wall. Iillor charged in but was bucked in the face by the second pony, Carmel, who’s earth pony strength sent her back out into the hall and crashing into the storage closet opposite.

“You’re in the serpent's nest now, Twilight Sparkle.” Carmel’s laugh reached out into the hall. The beige earth pony peeked around the doorframe and winked at her. “What’s your plan? Do you really think you can fight me?”

“Obviously or I wouldn’t have come.” Twilight said resolutely. It was tricky to move objects telekinetically without line-of-sight, but she slackened the force on the door pinning Rainbow Dash, and the next second used the door to smack Carmel against the floor like a fly swatter. The earth pony stallion was pinned but not too hurt.

“Nice one.” Iillor crawled out of the storage closet. She was having trouble keeping her pony form solid. “But be careful not to get tagged. The nightmare is channeling dark magic through them. That buck woulda exploded most of your upper body.”

“More impossibilities. Transmitting that much magic would kill them.” Twilight scowled deeply, letting Iillor take the lead into the bedroom, stepping carefully past the pinned Carmel.
The open window indicated Rainbow Dash’s point of ingress then escape. “Rarity’s not here and neither is Pinkie. We’re being toyed with.”

“Their auras were here. It was faint but they were here.” Iillor twisted her mouth into a frown. “No, nightmares can’t do this normally, but then again this thralldom thing is new too.”

Twilight clucked her tongue. “Dream magic. It’s got to be dream magic. How thought... Maybe... Maybe the nightmare is submerging their auras into a dream and popping them out at will. Fantastically clever.”

As she said this a kaleidoscope of sensation fluttered through her magical senses, coming from Carmel. “Clever mare.” The stallion gargled. “Nightmare Moon almost succeeded rooting me out of Rarity, but what she left has propagated in a way she couldn’t foresee. Now I have many dreams to play with just like she does! I’m no lesser than she is!”

“But when we pull you from Rarity you’ll still die just like you’re supposed to.” Iillor scoffed.

Carmel howled in indignation. “Traitorous thing! You betray your Dark kin to the ponies!”

“Yeah, I guess I do. Try not to be as big a failure next time.” Iillor stood on the door, keeping it pressed down so Twilight could release her telekinetic grip. “Pansy-ass nightmares, always thinking they’re the next big thing.”

“Shut it and listen for the next attack.” Twilight knelt by Carmel and took a deep breath. She opened herself fully to the magical currents and inspected the earth pony.
The nightmare had indeed adapted. Unlike the fillies and Roseluck, there was no aura of the nightmare, nor even of Carmel. He made no impact in the flow of magic.
“This is amazing. His soul, dream, and all of his aura has been submerged into the dreamscape. It’s like he doesn’t exist.”

“So basically you can’t hunt the nightmare out of him.” Iillor sighed. She stomped on the door, smacking Carmel’s head and knocking him out. “Then finding Rarity isn’t just a polite suggestion.”

“Knocking him out isn’t even going to do anything. The nightmare will respark brain activity from out of the dream as soon as we leave.” Twilight shook her head. “This is stuff barely even theorized by academics. I’m in awe, I really am.”

“Good grief filly, you were all tough girl five minutes ago and now-” Iillor looked around the room and identified a tall wardrobe suitable for their needs. She dragged Carmel to the wardrobe, shoved him in, then pushed into its front. She piled some other furniture atop it for good measure.
But when she was done with that Twilight was still lost in thought. “Hey! Sparkle! Game plan! What do we do?”

“Hmm, well, Rarity’s not here, or we would have felt her. I’m eighty percent confident the nightmare isn’t able to submerge her like the thralls.” Twilight postulated. Accompanying her words was another crash from the downstairs, as Applejack renewed her assault on the stairs barricade. “One, she’s sheltering where the thralls can’t get her. Two, she’s in the hooves of the thralls and they have her stored somewhere. Either way we go looking for her.”

“I didn’t sign up for a bloody mouse hunt.” Iillor groaned.

“I have some ideas.” Twilight hummed. “The nightmare must have a hold of Pinkie because it spoofed her aura. Pinkie came into contact with Rarity therefore. I sent Pinkie here, and what we know about the speed of this nightmare thralldom means that both Pinkie and Rarity have to be somewhere close by.”

Iillor’s eyes lit up with realization. “Buck where she is, think where she’s going! If the nightmare had Rarity, they would be moving her back to Ponyville to enthrall more ponies!”

Twilight squealed in dread. “Pinkie got too close to Rarity and got infected, then was right there as a thrall to nab her!” She hugged Iillor and cast a hasty teleport in the direction of Ponyville.
As the bloom of purple magic expanded to take them both, a blue blur zipped through the window and tackled Iillor from behind.

A kilometer away in the middle of the apple orchards the three ponies reappeared, their momentum askew from the teleport. Twilight spun upward and landed in the branches of one of the trees. Iillor and Rainbow Dash rammed into a tree trunk, the wood splintering under dual physical and magical abuse.

“Urg... “ Twilight was dizzy, and almost returned the stolen carrots before she could swallow down the bile. She heard more sets of hooves crunching through the leaf litter, and the yells of Applejack and Amethyst Star. “This isn’t good.” She moaned.

“Get out of here Sparkle, and don’t let them touch you!” Iillor shouted to her. The dark pony was streaming shadow from all over her body and her back half was totally indistinct. The Dark magic attacks were disrupting her ability to hold her shape. “I’ll keep them off your back!”

“Come on, dark one.” Amethyst Star, a little short of breath, approached with Applejack. The unicorn had a cocksure grin that wouldn’t have been suspect on the mare normally, but her manic, wide-open eyes betrayed her true state. “It’s three against one, and we know the ponies have you on a leash. You won’t hurt us.”

“Not fatally.” Iillor growled. She took a step back, then rushed at Rainbow Dash, driving the pegasus into the dirt with a soaring headbut. “What are you still doing here?! GO! Get to Ponyville!”

Twilight gulped, closed her eyes, and charged for another teleportation spell.

“Go on Twilight, but you ain’t gunna change anything.” Applejack’s voice carried up to her. “Ya lost as soon as y’all accepted this dance on my terms, but hell if you ain’t gunna dance your heart out. Ain't it darling. Good luck.”

“Arrogant monster.” Twilight grit her teeth.
A surge of memories flowed into her mind’s eye.
She remembered cold rain falling through the skyward fingers of the dead throne room, the grey stone around her in the sea of green. She remembered a slick sensation on her horn, like she’d swirled it in oil. She saw a jumbled body, black, insectoid, alien and terrible, with an agonized expression on its pony-esk face. The hole in its neck dribbled the same color as the liquid on Twilight horn.

The Eternal Night had begun with murder, Twilight remembered with cold glee. She opened her eyes, unafraid, and locked eyes with the thralls.
“You won’t be the first to die for underestimating me.” She snickered, before her teleportation spell ported her off.

“How droll.” Amethyst Star laughed, before she and Applejack closed in on where Iillor and Rainbow Dash were wrestling.

Fluttershy noticed she was, interestingly, right at the spot on the road to Ponyville where Amethyst Star and Carmel had confronted her and Rarity. Except she was the one blocking the path now, the outlying cottages a hundred meters behind her, with Pinkie Pie carrying Rarity looking to get past.

“You’re a pony who always found comfort and value in a community. You love having ponies to care about and who love you back.” Pinkie Pie said in a very un-pinkie-like manor. “You’re turning your back on unity, on community. You misunderstand me, Fluttershy. I care for you like nothing else possibly could.”

Fluttershy’s heart was pounding. Her instincts screamed at her to run away and hide, like she had before at that spot. “N- n- No.” She whispered. “You’re a lie.”

“You’re passing judgement on something you don’t understand.” Pinkie said threateningly. “You were the mare who opens her heart and her mind, yet here you are.”

Fluttershy’s mind flashed back to the eve of the Eternal Night. Memories of Twilight leering over her, an infinite tower, her helplessness in the face of power beyond her comprehension.
Was it possible to fight something you have no understand of? Fluttershy knew it was. She’d been a guardian of countless stubborn animals. Stubbornness was the bulwark against fear in the face of the overwhelming.
“I understand you, a- and I don’t want you. N- Nopony wants you.” She gathered her courage and spread her wings, the traditional pegasus challenge. “Go away. Go away! Nopony wants you!”

Pinkie observed this display, unshouldered Rarity, and sighed. “Everypony’s favorite little noblemare will be here soon. You have to get out of the way. Now.”

Fluttershy’s knees wobbled. “N- No!” She felt faint. “No!” She closed her eyes and kept shouting. “No! No! No! No! N-”

Pinkie Pie bounded the distance between them in a single hop, striking up with her hoof in exactly the spot to drive all the wind from Fluttershy’s lungs. Fluttershy tried to cry but hadn’t the air for it, and was barely able to wheeze in to keep from passing out. She fell limp, struggling to get air.

“Just a little farther to the left and your trachea would be broken right now.” Pinkie Pie said matter-of-factly. “This mare has surgeon’s hooves. Acting through her is like slicing through cake. Effortless and delicious.”

Fluttershy felt like she was going to die. Her lungs burned and her abdominal muscles were spasming. But her answer was still NO. She flailed with her hooves until they touched one of Pinkie Pie’s, then pushed herself forward to cling to it, like a needy foal wanting attention.

Pinkie snorted, crouching down and patting Fluttershy’s mane. “You ponies can’t keep me from hurting you. I could spare you. Today, tomorrow, next week, I would come for you, and there’s nothing you could do against me. Asinine mortals. The Dark has found its stride again.” Pinkie threw back her head and laughed to the clear afternoon skies. “Ha ha! My new techniques worked perfectly again that goon darkling Illustrious Valor! Once all of Ponyville is under my yoke, sheer weight of number could bring down Ancepanox! Then we shall see who condescends to who! Ha ha!” She wound down from the laughter, a goofy smile filling her features. “I criticized Ancepanox for her evolution, but now I see the utility of it. One ruler of many dream! Is this something I’m going to have to indulge?

From behind her the clear response came.
“No," Twilight Sparkle came from the West, squinting against the falling sun, a scowl cutting her words into a crackling growl. “You will have to indulge ME.”

“Sparkle.” Pinkie Pie shook off Fluttershy and turned to the unicorn. “You’ve done the wrong thing at every turn. Ancepanox mutilated your mind and turned you into what you are, not me.”

“And Ancepanox will answer for what she’s done, once I’m done with you.” Twilight aproached, head held high. “Ponyville is mine. I won’t let you torment its ponies any more.”

“Yours?!” Pinkie scoffed. “Did I hear you right?”

“You heard me correctly.” Twilight allowed herself a thin smile. “I protect these ponies in exchange for their fealty. I am their mistress, their lady.” The smile wilted. “I command them to be free of you forever, and I have a feeling that is a command they will not resist.”

“You’re delusional.” Pinkie Pie cautiously stepped forward, making sure Twilight wouldn’t make an unexpected move towards Rarity. “You know that’s not how the Equestrian system works.”

“Celestia killed the dream of Equestria. I remember that now. I’m building a dream back, bringing it to the ponies who need it, starting right here with you.” Twilight nodded, drawing all her power to her horn. “Or in terms a nightmare would understand: The Right of Conquest. Might makes Right.”

“Oh, I like this. I like this a lot!” Pinkie grinned. She rolled her shoulders and crouched into a fighting stance. “Conquer me, Twilight! Come on!”

Twilight did not restrain herself. A lance of magic glassified the earth where Pinkie had been a moment before, then in a line tracing the path the earth pony made zig-zagging towards her. Twilight released the spell and summoned a barrier just under her chin to deflect Pinkie’s uppercut, then dozens more for each individual forehoof punch aimed at her head and abdomen.
Pinkie was like a dervish, her limbs a blur of movement as she tried to hit faster than Twilight could cast. Twilight just stopped thinking, letting her magic flow on pure reaction. She felt no fear, only exhilaration, as Pinkie’s blows came closer and closer to grazing her side or cheek. She could feel the Dark power radiating off them. The nightmare was putting all its energy into empowering Pinkie’s attack, and if one did land Twilight would die in a million pieces.

With a sound like shattering glass one of the shields broke, and Pinkie’s hoof sailed forward, only to find empty air. Twilight laughed in surprise: She’d never teleported so fast in her life. “Ancepanox pushed you to adapt, but you’ll discover I can adapt just as quickly.” She teleported twice more in quick succession to get comfortable releasing the pattern quickly, then approached Pinkie again. “Is this something I had but forgot? When you push me to my limit maybe I’ll find all the memories I need, and with them the answer.”

“Get cocky, and it will feel so much better when I destroy you.” Pinkie stretched her legs and resumed her pose. “You have no idea what this mare is capable of. You won’t keep up.”

Twilight wasn’t sure what happened next. One moment Pinkie was a dozen paces away, and the next she was hurtling down at Twilight from the opposite direction. Luckily Pinkie mistimed her strike and her crushing blow hit the ground behind Twilight, but Twilight scrambled away in a panic all the same.

“An assassin that breaks the rules of causality isn’t unique. The School of the Black Bell has produced several creatures that can induce Phantom Time. Phyte made a great imitation.” Pinkie straightened up and strode swankily forward, gloating over Twilight’s confusion. “Next time you’re in this mare’s head, have a look around. It’s amazing.” She laughed. “Oh, but you’re soon to be dead.”

The moment before Pinkie ‘moved’ again, Twilight was watching the movement of her body, the preparatory tenses along her side and in her hock, and could guess with a reasonable degree of accuracy how the attack would come.
So, when again Pinkie instantaneously moved through space and bucked out, Twilight was prepared. The buck rebounded off Twilight’s shield and Pinkie was bounced forward. The acrobatic earth pony recovered with a mid air roll and landed on her hooves. “Ha! Let’s see how long your luck lasts!”

“It's not luck. It's memory. I defeated you like this already, nightmare.” Twilight muttered, eyes flicking over Pinkie's body. The little shiver around Pinkie’s shoulder told Twilight that the next attack would be a buck, but the tension at the neck let her know the next bout wouldn't end until one of them was vanquished.
Then she noticed a little flicker of Pinkie’s aura.

From the perspective of the nightmare, forcing Pinkie Pie to create a span of Phantom Time was like squeezing a rag. It forced Pinkie’s dream back into reality just long enough to torture her into into a reflex defense and induce Phantom Time. Pinkie’s was a resilient soul who needed a lot of prodding to get to that point, and Twilight did not fail to notice the blip.

“I’ve got you.” Twilight prepared herself.

With a deafening crack, Pinkie Pie’s roundhouse buck collided with Twilight’s split-second shield. Roaring with frustration the nightmare spun around forced the Phantom Time again, then again, then again, striking with one hoof, then the other, then the other. Each time Twilight had a spell in just the right place to block. The showers of purple sparks and swirls of Dark coming off the impacts were brilliant blinding.

Twilight saw the telltale shiver again. The next attack would be a buck! Instead of throwing up a shield she predictively teleported to the side, and upon Pinkie's fourth strike, a full body buck, there was no resistance. Pinkie flopped onto her stomach. In a panic, it tried a last time to induce the Phantom Time, but Twilight was more than ready. As soon as Pinkie’s dream emerged into the physical world, Twilight latched onto it.
Pinkie screamed like a banshee, as the nightmare resisted with all its effort to keep from losing its grasp on its thrall. Twilight dropped to her stomach and latched her teeth around Pinkie’s neck, and unthinking mimicry of the great mouthfuls of Dark she was devouring out of the pink earth pony’s dream. The nightmare was going for broke, perhaps trying to feed Twilight so much Dark she got full, but it was to no avail. Every iota of Dark magic that poured out of the dreamscape was consumed, siphoned off like chocolate milk through a straw. Around the two mares the Phantom Time flickered on and off several more times, until Pinkie’s dream and soul fell into a state of peace. She had been cleaned of the nightmare’s influence.

Twilight gingerly released Pinkie’s neck from her maw, but remained kneeled over the mare. She felt exhausted but indescribably satisfied. There was no way Applejack or Amethyst Star could get to them quick enough. Twilight knew she’d won.
Under her, she felt Pinkie Pie shiver awake, so Twilight sat up. Pinkie curled up a bit to face her, eyes bleary with confusion.

“Why did you do it?” Twilight asked softly. “Where you curious how it would feel?”

Pinkie curled up more, keeping her eyes tightly closed. “I knew you would win.” She mumbled. “Iillor… It was the only way I could get a decent shot at her. When Pinkie catches the scent...”

Twilight sighed and stood up. “You had your shot. I hope you failed. Iillor is mine to deal with.”

Pinkie mumbled something indistinct and shivered some more.

When Twilight turned, she found Fluttershy kneeling over Rarity, cradling her friend’s head in her hooves, quietly sobbing and hiccupping through her injured lungs. “Fluttershy, how are you feeling?”

Fluttershy looked up, tears streaking through the dirt on her face. “Weird… Cold… It wants me, Twilight.” She hugged herself tighter to Rarity, muttering into that silken purple mane. “We didn’t deserve this. We wanted to make things better for ourselves… T- The world is going to crush us for what we’ve done.”

“That’s for you to decide.” Twilight used her telekinesis to disentangle Fluttershy and Rarity, lifting the latter up a bit. “Take as long as you want to decide your fate, but when you come to me and tell me your decision, I promise I’ll follow through with it.”
Twilght breathed deeply, ripping the nightmare out of Rarity and overwhelming it with her hunger.

Just like that, the saga of Rarity’s nightmare was over. Inside the dreamscape, the dreamer witnessed her shadowy tormentor shatter, and its misty slaves fade away. Drifting away from the Forest's edge, Rarity noted to herself that now there was only one Nightmare, whose name was Moon.

“Whooh.” Twilight let out a long breath, trying to return some calmness to her adrenaline addled brain. “We did it.” She set unconscious Rarity back down. “Feeling alright Fluttershy? Are the Dark sensations gone?”

Fluttershy nodded limply.

“Excellent.” Twilight looked in the direction of Applejack’s farm. “Mis Rainbow Dash and Iillor will probably need some healing. I’m going to fetch my spellbook and head in that direction. Can you take care of these two?”

Fluttershy didn’t feel capable of taking care of herself much less other wounded ponies. “Y- Yeah.”

“Alright. I’m happy to hear that.” Twilight flashed a little smile. “Hey, cheer up. We did it.”

“hh.” Fluttershy slumped. How was it that after every disaster a Twilight Sparkle came out better at the expense of everypony else. The stress, the stain, the pain… Was it all so Twilight could smile and tell her to buck up? “We.... did it.”

“I’ll get this all sorted out. I’ll be back, don’t worry. Hopefully with Applejack too. ” Twilight promised solemnly. She teleported away.

She would be back, but not until the sun had begun to set, which gave Fluttershy the time to get the crying out of the way. Fluttershy resolved never to show weakness in front of Lady Twilight Sparkle ever, ever again.

Chapter 55: Fruit of the Poisoned Tree

Rainbow Dash’s eyes fluttered. Something was making her nose itch so she tried to shift to scratch it but her hoof was blocked by something soft. She squirmed, and discovered herself surrounded by that warm softness.

“uhmm.” She reluctantly opened her eyes. She was in a dark room stacked to the roof with bookshelves. Somepony had put her in a small bed with linen blankets.
Dash sat up. There was patter of rain of the little window, but a little bit of murky moonlight got through. She thought for a terrifying moment she had been transported back to the Eternal Night: she wasn’t ignorant of such time shenanigans. But after a second of hitched breathing she calmed down. “Ponyville library… What day is it?”

She got out of bed and did some stretches. She neck and legs ached. She sat on the bed and fussed with her hair, to discover she had bandages wrapped around her forehead. There were more bandages around her left wing and her barrel.
It was coming back to her… The nightmare was somehow possessing ponies. It had possessed her! She remembered moving not of her own free will, attacking Twilight Sparkle and the black earth pony, Iillor.

“Hmm…” Rainbow rubbed her tender forehead. Her last memory was getting beaten into the ground by Iillor. She must have been knocked unconscious. “Geez… Like I didn’t get enough brain damage during Chitin or the Eternal Night.”

“Hey, I think she’s awake.” Familiar voice bled through from the other side of the wall, muffled by the wood and bookcases.

“Should I make some tea?” Another, slightly more male voice whispered back.

Rainbow took the decision into her own hooves. She leaned on the door let it creak open. Twilight Sparkle was laying on the couch, a book in front of her, reading by the light of a firefly lamp.

“Hello Mis Dash. I see you’re awake.” Twilight said.

“No dip.” Dash rubbed her eye with her wing and stumbled over to her. “Since it seem normal around here now, I’m guessing we won.”

“Somepony did.” Twilight said tersely. “How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?”

“No. Why am I here?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

Twilight made a face like it should have been obvious. “So I can watch over you.”

“Tshh, I’m not a foal and I don’t need a daycare.” Dash grunted. “You and me don’t have a good history. The sooner I leave the better.”

“No you’re not a foal, you’re a grown mare whose spine was cut to ribbons.” Twilight’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “If you want to return to the circumstances in which I brought you here, which I do not recommend, that can be arranged with some more magic.”

Dash fluttered her wings. “Geez, grumpy much? Somepony step on your hoof or something?”

Twilight put her book down. “Sit down please. We need to talk.” She said, though by her tone the ‘please’ was just a formality.

Rainbow Dash reclined on the couch and rested her aching neck on the back.

“Mis Rainbow Dash.” Twilight began again. “We were never properly introduced.”

“I’ve known you for a while, Sparkles. You confided some heartbreaking baggage to me.” Dash scoffed.

“Like what?” Twilight challenged.

Dash suddenly remembered that those confession, coming about from discussions with Ancepanox, almost all related to the inner demons she had been struggling with, ergo definitely not something to discuss with Twilight. “ … Forget it.”

Twilight looked like she wanted to claim the victory there, but held back. She sat up, leaning towards Dash. “It must have been quite stressful, for me to talk so openly as you claim, with a stranger no less. I’m not always the best of hiding my emotions, but I have some things I have always held very close to my chest.”

Dash did not like the examining looks she was getting. “Yeah it was rough out there.”

Twilight drew in a long breath and let it out as a sigh. “In the forest. Yes. Everypony keeps telling me so, instead of any real answers.” She picked her book back up and started reading again.

A few moments later Spike entered the room from the kitchen, bearing a tea tray. “Err, hello Mis Dash.”

“Hi.” Dash nodded.

“You can put that down for now.” Twilight said from behind her book. “Mis Dash doesn’t feel like talking.”

“Oh, so I don’t get tea if I don’t talk?” Dash shot.

“Fluttershy said you didn’t really like tea, so this is a light brew. I thought it might help lubricate your throat.” Twilight said flatly. “You’re probably dehydrated, since all your liquid intake the last three days has been me using a funnel.”

“A- A funnel?” Dash balked. “Three days?” She’d been out for three days? Not bad for a broken spine, but things had been so dire that a lot could have changed in that time.

“I’m joking. About the funnel. It really had been three days.” Twilight smiled thinly. She poured herself and Spike some tea. “Mentioning daycares, you are not far off the reason I am, like you accuse, grumpy. I spend all my day keeping these ponies from killing each other, and then they have no time for me when I need information.” She whistled softly over her hot tea, spinning little eddies in the steam coming off it. “Makes me wish I were a mind reader.” She laughed quietly to herself.

“Okay...” Dash rubbed her temple. “Could you, um, connect this to something I have the smallest idea of?”

“Sure.” Twilight said, setting her book down again. “Do you remember three day ago, the morning of the nightmare thralldom incident?”

“I remember, but it’s cloudy.” Dash grunted.

“You, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Amethyst Star, Carmel, Roseluck, and Cherry Berry were enthralled for varying lengths of time. I don’t expect the villager names to mean anything to you, but just note that they were all members of Rarity’s nightmare faithful.” Twilight said. “The thralls, versus Iillor, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie before she infected herself, and yours truly. There was a fight, some spines were destroyed, but thank heavens nothing fatal.”

Dash nodded. “That makes sense I guess.” She sat back and listened to the rain for a little while. “I bet that creep Iillor cleaned shop quick.”

Twilight snorted scornfully. “She did well enough. Killing machines like her aren’t as good when holding back. You and Applejack got some good hits in.”

Dash felt a swell of pride in herself. “Huh. These hooves still have some pop in them then.” She laughed. “There’s some things I’m still good for. I… like that.”

Twilight seemed to miss the point of Dash’s reminiscing. “Good for punching, which isn’t an altogether useless skill.”

“Sure.” Dash said. “Don’t keep me in suspense. How’d the brawl end?”

“I won’t give Pinkie Pie’s half of the event, and she will tell it when she wants too. I can say Pinkie and I fought. She had some tricks but I had teleportation and the right frame of mind.” Her soft smile curved down and she glanced away. “The right frame of mind was most of it. Frame, like a still portrait… It’s hard to describe but the adrenaline of the moment reconnected me to something from the Eternal Night that I’d forgotten. I felt so dangerous! When I disarmed Pinkie and eradicated the nightmare, that feeling slowly bled out of me. Like… color bleeding out of a dress in the rain.” She nodded to the storm pounding on the windows. “I don’t know if it has to do with being a Star, but I certainly felt like more than myself in that moment. Getting frustrated with ponies of the past days, I get tempted to start a fight to see if I can fish that feeling back.”

Rainbow Dash cocked her head a bit. “Okay, so um, you won.” She half-shrugged. “I’m not the pony for the psychology stuff, like at all. I went crazy trying to line-item my problems with Gilda.”

“Gilda?”

Another sensitive topic Dash had only discussed with Gilda. “She a friend.”

“Topic for another time I suppose.” Twilight sipped her tea. “Friends are supposed to be supportive in difficult times like these. But everypony is stonewalling me. At some point, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy met and agreed to tell me absolutely nothing.”

“So I should be doing the same, basically.” Dash arched a brow. “Because yes, I’m part of their concerted effort to keep you from learning anything. And yes, it’s because of Ancepanox, like you were probably guessing.”

“I got that much. It’s obvious Nightmare Moon had extended access to all of you during and after the Eternal Night.” Twilight pursed her lip. “But why this secrecy directed at me? I don’t understand it. Nightmare Moon should have just killed me. Why? Why?” She repeated. “These are the kinds of questions I have, and I know it’s connected to what I did during the Eternal Night that I don’t remember and-”

“Stop.” Dash said firmly. “Twilight, you thought I would be the most likely to talk. You’re almost right. I really want to tell you.” Her frown deepened. “But not because I’m a nice, empathetic pony. The truth would destroy you, Twilight, and I’m a crazy pony that would like to see it happen.”

“You’re wrong.” Twilight said, as dismissive as she was testy. “I’m embracing the truth no matter what it is. It can’t hurt me if I recognize and understand it.”

Dash leaned back in the couch and untensed. “Sure. My advice to you is not to think about it. Nopony is going to tell you, and if they do, you’ll die. Just forget about the ‘truth’, don’t get obsessed, and do whatever else with your life.”

“Kill me?” Twilight wondered at that. Nopony else had said anything like that. “Obsession I can deal with. I’ve always been obsessive.”

“Are you going to go your entire life-”

Twilight interrupted. “You like her.”

“What?” Dash asked, confused, probably Twilight’s intention.

Twilight grinned. “Nightmare Moon. When I said her name, your wings did the pegasus thing.” She mimicked fidgeting wings. “You saw it, right Spike?”

Spike, trying to stay out of the conversation, shrugged continued to stare into his teacup.

“What are you saying?” Dash asked accusingly.

“I saying you’re a loyalist. You aren't doing Nightmare Moon’s orders out of fear. You like her, as a leader, perhaps as something more.” Twilight nettled. “You’re sad sad mare. You think you’ve found the friend that will last this time.”

Rainbow jumped to her hooves, incised. “You bucker you take those words back!” She snarled.

“I will if it’s a lie.” Twilight said. “Can you tell me to my face that I’m lying?”

“It’s-” Dash trembled in anger. “You don’t understand at all, and you never will. You should focus on holding parties or whatever it is nobles like you do. This isn’t for you.”

Twilight cocked her head. “And what do I have to do to understand? Do I have to be as fecklessly miserable as you and the others?”

Dash was about to continue the argument when she realized what Twilight was doing. The unicorn was trying to provoke a fight like she had just admitted to longing for.
Dash turned and made for the door, head lowered. “I have to go.” She said, choked up by her anger.

“You haven’t even touched your tea.” Twilight called after her.

Rainbow slammed the red door of the Golden Oak behind her. She stood in the threshold for a few minutes, protected from the rain. Not a good start to the evening.
She stepped into the rain and galloped in the direction of Rarity’s house. Thankfully there was a light inside telling her the tailor was home. She knocked and waited in the cold rain until she heard the latch pull back.

“Who could it be in this weather?” Rarity mumbled to herself as she pulled the door open. When she saw Rainbow Dash, soaking wet with bandages hanging off her head, her eyes widened. “Mis Dash, you’re awake.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Dash shoved past her. She’d never been in Rarity’s house so she just stood in the hall dripping. “Like what the hell has been going on here? Why isn’t Ancepanox back yet?”

Rarity sighed and led the way to her sewing room. “There is a towel in the corner. You should dry yourself off before you catch a cold.”

Dash obliged, mostly drying herself off then draping herself with the towel. She sat on a stool Rarity provided her.

“Have you been awake long?” Rarity asked.

“An hour at most.” Dash said. “Then some talking with Twilight.”

“Did you tell her-”

“No. She already knew plenty though, which tells me you, Applejack, and Fluttershy were the ones blabbing.” Dash scowled. “How you all got out okay when I got a broken spine annoys me. I’ve actually been in a war.”

“You and Iillor did most of the fighting. Everypony else was damaged, but not badly.” Rarity said. “The day after, Twilight brought us all together and talked at us quite protractedly. Pinkie Pie was there too, but not Iillor. Twi went over what happened, how she felt about our responsibility for causing the crisis, and what she knew about Ancepanox. Then she talked at length about her new dream.”

“I got a taste of all of that too.” Dash grunted. “She was very aggressive. I feel like she was a breath away from punching me or something.”

“Did she tell you about her mental…” A look from Dash answered Rarity’s question. “Yes, ahem. That was not a comfortable conversation the first time either. Twilight has partially awakened to something. She called it a ‘multi-faceted’ affliction.”

“Which is her fancy way of saying she’s messed up in the head. Again, tell me something I don’t know.” Dash sighed. “So back to my first questions, why isn’t Ancepanox back yet?”

Rarity shrugged. “Why would she be?”

“Well because…” Dash paused. “Because Twilight is after her.”

“Twilight is after quote-unquote ‘Truth’. Capital T ‘truth’. She thinks she is searching for ideological meaning, when what she actually wants spiritual meaning. It makes talking to her very difficult.” Rarity huffed.

Dash looked unimpressed. “I’m not the one you should be blasting your practiced criticism at. I think you’re wrong, for one, but mostly I don’t care what her reasons are.”

“You should. She trounced Pinkie Pie, who if you did not know is likely one of the most dangerous mares in the hemisphere.” Rarity said. “What if Twilight finds a reason to use her power against us? We need every psychological tactic to deflect her away from ourselves.”

Dash thought for a minute before speaking. “How did you feel after the nightmare in you died.”

Rarity was caught off guard by the change of topic but went with it. “I was in pain, mostly. It was afterwards, while Twilight was talking at us, that I had time to think about it. I felt humiliated, guilty, lost…”

Dash got up.

“Hey!” Rarity jumped up too. “Are you going somewhere?”

“To get Applejack and Fluttershy. We need to have a talk about what our goals are here.” Dash said. “Are we going to stick around and let Twilight Sparkle chip away at us until we give her what she wants? Or are we going to act? We have to decide.”

“That-” Rarity tisked. “Rainbow, tonight… I would prefer this happen some other night.

“Wha? Why delay?” Dash took a few steps towards the door. “Okay, just Applejack then. I’ll go get Applejack, and be back in an hour with her. Stay here. If you’re worried about the rain-”

“Rainbow, please don’t misunderstand. Just give us tonight.” Rarity said, more firmly.

“Why?!” Rainbow said, raising her voice. “How can you agree with me about how urgent everything is, but not want to start solving it tonight? Are you worried about Twilight finding out? So what? She already knows but isn’t going to stop us.”

“That’s not it. It’s just-” Rarity’s eyes flicked towards the hallway, where a sleepy white filly was rubbing her eyes.

“Rarity, I can’t steep. The rain…” Sweetie Belle fell silent when she saw Rainbow Dash.

“The rain.” Dash repeated back under her breath. “Like that night.”

“Applejack and I have our sisters back and we would like to savor it before launching into politics immediately.” Rarity said.

“Politics.” Dash said testily. “That’s how you see it? That’s what justifies your- your sniveling?! “ She scowled. “This isn’t politics Rarity! This is life and death!”

“Oh, the mare sobs her way through one war and now she thinks she is fighting one at home.” Rarity sneered back. “Get out of my house, Rainbow.”

“This IS war! Twilight and Moon, can’t you understand what they are? Harbingers!” Rainbow stomped her hoof. “These mares are going after powers like only the gods should have. I’ve seen what happens when that premise is seen through. Ponies are going to start dying! You want your sister to see that?”

“Get out of my house!” Rarity yelled. “Out! Out!”

Dash, teeth digging into her lip, backed out to the hall, kicking off the towels as she went. Rarity and Sweetie Belle watched her leave, the first with disdain, the second in confusion. Dash threw herself through the door and slammed it behind her.

For the second time that night Dash found herself in the rain, wondering where to go.

“What am I even doing?” She asked herself. What goal or outcome was she working for?

Vague existential questions aside, she didn’t want to spend all night in the cold rain. She could go to Fluttershy’s or Applejack’s and Applejack’s was slightly closer. After a second of hesitation she started running down the road, kicking up clumps of mud. She could feel Rarity watching her leave through one of the windows.

Had Rarity already made a deal with Twilight, Rainbow wondered. Were they playing her from both sides in case Nightmare Moon had confided some secret in her?

“But what did me and Ancepanox tell each other that nopony else knows.” Rainbow murmured her herself, her soggy mane slapping against her neck with her gallop. “Phantom Time… The Amulet… Gilda… The Stars… That’s what I told her. What did she tell me?”

Before she knew it she was out of Ponyville and halfway across the fallow between the hamlet and Applejack’s orchards. She looked around, all shape reduced to dark silhouettes in the rain and darkness.

“Buck me. Three days. Ancepanox should be back from Canterlot by now. What is she doing?” Rainbow continued. “Bucking Rarity. She could never handle the truth if it broke into her polite little pretend world. We should silence her. She’s always been the weakest link.”
But as she said that she remembered Twilight’s smug accusation. ‘ You think you’ve found the friend that will last this time.’

Rainbow’s cheeks burned again, cooled by the cold rain, but she comforted herself with the assurance that she was just being pragmatic being a partisan for Moon. It was the rational choice. Rarity was blinded by a sentimental refusal to see the truth, the truth being a byword for which way the wind was blowing.

The very non-metaphorical wind was starting to pick up, driving the rain against Dash in sheets from the side. She sprinted to the orchard treeline, and finding a little respite there, took it a bit slower until she was in the clearing around the Apple Family farmstead.
Like Rarity’s tailory, a light was on inside, so Rainbow paused for a breath on the porch, then knocked on the door.

It took a few minutes of knocking, maybe because it was hard to hear it over the drone of rain, but eventually Applejack unlocked and opened the door, letting Rainbow rush inside.

“Hey Dash.” Applejack looked tired, lacking her hat and with her mane cascading around her shoulders. “Have a nice nap?”

“I ran out from Twilight. Then Rarity kicked me out.” Dash said mirthlessly. “Before I ask if I can stay the night, I have to ask this: Where do you stand between Ancepanox and Twilight.”

“Why’re you using her name?” Applejack asked.

“Huh?” Dash grunted at the non-sequitor, digression from her very important question.

“You go between callin’ her Moon and Ancepanox. You think she’d find it funny you’re droppin’ her title?”

“Does it really matter? Look, I’m asking, no bullshit, where you stand between Twilight Sparkle and Ancepanox.” Dash said pointedly. “If we had to go after one or the other, would you be ready?”

“I can see why Rarity kicked y’all out.” Applejack returned to her seat at the kitchen, hunched over a cup of cider. The kitchen was strewn with broken furniture and barrels, the uncleaned shambles of the battle three days past. Apple Bloom was curled up on the couch in the adjoining living room, snoring softly. “Get some sleep Dash. The guest bedroom is open.”

“Sleep?! I’ve been out for two days! I want to solve this problem!” Dash exclaimed.

Applejack played with her cup of cider, then after a minute replied. “Then why do ya look so tired?”

Dash opened her mouth but object, but nothing came out.

“Cut the drama out. Simper down and go to bed. Wait for something to happen, get me?” Applejack said roughly. “You, me, and Rarity aren’t gunna be the problem anymore. Me and Fluttershy agreed that it’s going to be quiet in Ponyville from now on. We’re gunna keep to ourselves, and stay in our own worlds.”

Dash had many objections but held them in. She didn’t want to be kicked out again. She wordlessly climbed the stairs to the second floor and took the door to her usual room.
She sat on the bed, still dripping wet. The drone of rain on the windows and roof wasn’t so loud she couldn’t hear Applejack mumbling to herself downstairs. It was odd, but ponies dealt with stress in many ways.

Stress… Dash was too stressed to sleep, too stressed not to. She felt like mush. She slumped laying her head in her hooves. At the back of her mind, there came the feeling she hoped she had forgotten: Her deathwish.

A peal of thunder shook the entire farmhouse. Dash fell on the floor, hitting her chin on the floorboards. “Buck!” She groaned. “Buck all this.” She curled up and closed her eyes, trying to keep tears from escaping the edge of her eyes. “I wish I were dead.”

The bedroom door opened, and a heavy hooffall made the boards creek.
“Applejack?” Dash sniffled? She lifted her head up. The silhouette darkening the doorframe was not Applejack. It was too large. Dash let herself believe for a second it was Ancepanox, but the huge winged creature was lacking a horn. “Who are you! How did you get past Applejack? A-Are you after the amulet? I don’t have it!”

The large pegasus took a step forward. A flash of lightning illuminated her face for a brief moment.
“Guess again.” Her nightmare-ified self, sooty of fur, faded rainbow mane cascading down its head, loomed over Dash. “I don’t care about any amulets, ha ha, unless you care. I get past Applejack the same way you get past her: Numb, angry, tripping over your own words. A looser, Dash.”

Dash was racked between the conflicting urges to shelter from and confront the nightmare visage. “Shut up, liar! You’re just in my head!”

“Which one is it, Dash? Am I a liar, or in your head?” The dark reflection taunted. “You stupid bucker. You can’t resolve your inner conflict without having a mental breakdown?” The nightmare laughed. “Dashie, baby, I left so suddenly, and now you miss me. It’s not hard to see.” The entity stretched like a cat. “You miss my power, my intelligence. When we were together you weren’t worried about pony against nightmare. It was all nightmare all the time baby!”

“Buck off!” Dash shouted at the apparition.

“You’re a bit slow, so I don’t blame you for not realize it.” The nightmare tapped the side of her head. “Dashie, that romp in Chitin was the happiest you’ve ever been. Killing bugs, doing drugs, doing the cha-cha with Gilda around a campfire. Whoo-boy! That was the best time of your life, Dashie.”
It knelt by Dash. “But Dash, it’s going to be really, really tough to recreate those days. Gilda left us, first of all. Second of all, there’s no bugs around here. Just ponies!”

Dash buried her head in her hooves wishing the rain to drown out the nightmare. She knew it was futile; The voice wasn’t even real.

The nightmare leaned in. “Dashie, what made bugs okay to stomp? Cuz they’re bugs? That they’re different? Damn straight! Those changelings would have stabbed you in the back if you’d given them the chance. They don’t think like you do. They’re just insects. It’s not a sin to kill them. If it were, we’d go to hell, eh?”
Tentatively, gently, it stroked Dash’s mane. “But Dashie… Imagine how fun it would be if we went on a romp right here, in Equestria. Just forget about ponykind, in a moral sense that is. Morality and all that junk is made to keep us from having fun. To a nightmare, ponies are bugs.”

Dash, eyes squeezed closed, began to squirm her way towards the bed on her stomach. She trepedly climbed onto the mattress.

“Dashie, stop ignoring me. This is what you really think, otherwise you wouldn’t be dealing with me now.” The nightmare growled. “What I’m saying you BELIEVE, Rainbow Dash. Waking up tomorrow, I’m still going to be there, maybe not talking to you, but up in your head tempting you. And as long as we’re miserable, I’ll be there, a sword over everypony around us whether they realize it or not. You told Rarity ponies will die? Hell yeah!”

Applejack expected a certain amount of stomping and clattering with guests like Rainbow Dash. Mulling over her cider, meditating on the sound of the rain and thunder, when Dash’s shouts came muffled through the ceiling.

“God dang. What’s she doin?” Applejack reluctantly stood up and trotted to the stairs. She climbed to the second floor paused outside the guest bedroom. The door was open but Applejack couldn’t see anything in the enshadowed room.

“ ...can’t even die right… ...she’ll accept us, cherish us…” Dash’s voice wavered in and out of audibility as she alternated between shouting and whimpering. “...do anything anymore? For a REASON? For happiness? So we… so we...”

Applejack pursed her lips. Then she very slowly leaned forward to grab the door handle and shut the door. Dash’s voice still carried through a little, but after a few moments, trailed off completely.
That was when Applejack realized the rain had stopped, and she was surrounded by total silence. She couldn’t even hear her own breathing.

A floorboard at the end of the hall creaked.

“Tut tut.” A familiar voice, hers in many ways but wrangled into a clipped Manehattanite accent, said. “Still denying your problems, Applejack? Still shutting ponies out?” It move forward, to stand over her. Applejack had tried so hard to forget when she had seen the reflection her nightmarified self, but that memory did not want to leave. It intruded on her, leaning its head around to whisper in her ear. “You didn’t leave me far behind at all. Hee he, we are going to have lots to talk about on into the night.”

The Next Morning

Sitting by one of the big windows of her workroom, Rarity counted out the bits in her purse. She had enough for another week, but no more. She considered accessing the stash of bits she kept at her parent’s house, but decided against it, since Iillor, Twilight, Pinkie, or somepony else was likely to be watching her make that trip. So, she had to open shop.

Rarity spent the whole morning cleaning up and organizing. By mid morning Sweetie Belle had woken up and they had breakfast together. Sweetie bid Rarity good morning and trotted off to meet her friends at Applejack’s farm. Rarity was a little reluctant, considering that was probably where Dash had gone the night before, but relented when Sweetie started to pout.

When she was satisfied with the arrangement of the shop portion of her house, she opened the curtains and set her sign at her door. That being done, she sat in her work room and fiddled with some lace.

She heard her the door bell jingle a few minutes later. Amethyst Star. looking much more treped than usual, stepped into the work room.

“Rarity. Hi.” Amethyst gave a little wave. “It’s been a while.”

Rarity set down her work. “Here to shop or talk?”

Amethyst blinked. “You opened up the tailory? Good, cool. That’s, um, great. My mom had a dress that needed repair.” She cleared her throat. “I came to ask about the way forward, you know? Me and Carmel were messed up. We don’t even know what happened. I’m, uhh, asking what happened.”

Rarity sighed. “To summarize, in a blunt way, we were caught up in my last grasp at power. My ambition outgrew my willingness or ability, or perhaps it was always that way. When the nightmare parasite grasped me, it took that ambition for itself. Through repeated, painful humiliations, my nightmare and the ambition it represented was castrated.” She closed her eyes. “It hurts. I had a dream I could believe in, and while it was often self-centered, it was mine to work towards. I was punching up, Amethyst. Isn’t there some nobility in that? Isn’t it just a little sad to have that snuffed out?”

“Who knows, Rarity.” Amethyst said. “But you got us involved. You misled the Nightmare Faithful. That hurts too.”

“I don’t mean to downplay or excuse anything I’ve done.” Rarity said glumly. “I’m grasping at positives. It can’t all have been bad. I… I’m not a bad pony. I saw the chance for something beautiful and gave insufficient care for the costs.”

“That’s a pretty bucking euphemistic way to put it, pardon my Prench.” Amethyst frowned. “I don’t have anything to gain from asking you to pay me back. I gave you my time, and I had fun while it lasted.” She shook her head. “But Rose, or Cherry Berry… They thought they had something good with you, a better way of living and believing. You owe them a lot, Rarity. Especially Rose! The whole town thinks she tried to kill Lady Sparkle!”

Rarity slumped. “I- I don’t know what I can do for Rose. Twilight knows the whole story. She is a reasonable pony.”

Amethyst shook her head. “If something happens to Rose, the Faithful are going to kill you, Rarity. They’ve outgrown you too. Remains to be seen if they are also, as you colorfully put it, castrated.”

“Outgrown me? Is somepony holding meetings without me?” Rarity asked. Amethyst said nothing but just stared at her. “You? Are you… Are you here to tell me I’m out?”

“I’m here to tell you you’re on notice. We’re going to do our own thing, see how we manage without a hierophant, then decide for ourselves. In a few years, we might ask you and Fluttershy back. We might even give back control to you, if you’ve good.” Amethyst shrugged. “I hope you’re smart enough not to try to sabotage us.”

Rarity sighed. “I’m not bitter, Amethyst. I would have been angry a month ago, or even last week. Not anymore. I have to focus on what matters. I wish you the best. Tell me as much or as little as you want.”

Amethyst seemed disappointed Rarity was so yielding. “How much you want to tell them about the nightmare, and everything else, is up to you.”

Rarity looked out the window. The eyed the leafy roof of the Golden Oak across town, peaking above the cottages. “I don’t care Amethyst. I just want to live my life.”

“You say that now. You’ll work up the courage to interfere again.” Amethyst smirked. “Love ya Rarity. See you around town.”

“Bye Mis Star.” Rarity picked the lace back up to fidget with on.

The doorbell rang as Amethyst left the shop. Rarity set the lace down and buried her face in her hooves.

The next hours were subdued and normal, almost dreamlike. Customers came in, needing new socks or repairs for their clothes. Rarity made a quick trip to pick up more thread from the market, which advertised her tailory was back in business. The late morning was a little more busy, but things tapered off at noon.

At high noon, Rarity found herself staring at the wall, hooves clasped a little hat she had been mending. What had she been thinking about? It all felt disconnected, like she wasn’t supposed to be doing what she was doing.
There was a tap at her window, making Rarity jump. She turned to come face to face with Pinkie Pie’s manic smile through the glass. Cherry Fizzy was behind Pinkie, looking pensive. Rarity blinked. Pinkie stepped back and ran around the house, and a moment later Rarity heard the ring of the door bell in the front hallway.

“Rarity!” Pinkie bounded into the work room. “You’re back open!”

Rarity rubbed her eyes. “I have to pay for food somehow. I don’t want to start dipping into my reserves.” She sighed. “Besides I need to work. I fear I may lose my mind if I’m left by myself with my thoughts.”

“Why’s that?” Pinkie queried. She hopped up on a dresser and used it as a seat. “You can tell me Rarity. We’re pals now. Twilight said we have to be pals and we have to care about each other’s mental well-being.”

“Lady Twilight said we have to stop trying to kill each other. That doesn’t mean I have to smile and bear your company.” Rarity said coldly. “Pinkie Pie, we have been playing a cat and mouse game for years. Now my secrets are laid bare to you. Congratulations. You know all about the Nightmare Faithful. Not that it matters.” Rarity paused as Cherry Fizzy peeked into the work room. “Good afternoon Mr Fizzy. I suppose you’re audience to this too: The complete dismantling of what I thought I had for myself. I have been thrown out of my own organization. The Faithful, who I brought together, I shepherded, I instructed on faith and prophecy… They have ditched me.”
She sat back in her chair. “What do I have left? I’m a seamstress in a backwoods village, with nothing to look forwards to. I have overlapping targets on my back: Nightmare Moon, Lady Sparkle, and you Pinkie. Perhaps Applejack and Rainbow Dash too.”

Cherry Fizzy glanced over to Pinkie Pie. “Well, uh, I thought you were brilliant Mis Rarity. The Faithful were stupid commoners before you helped us. We were content cows. Now we care about the world, and making our place in it.”

Rarity’s brow furrowed. “Fizzy, you can’t gaslight me with my own quote. On no less than six occasions over the past year I-”

“Rarity.” Pinkie interjected. “Accept the compliment. He’s trying to make you feel better.”

“I was a fraud. I was a hack. I did things for selfish purposes.” Rarity looked to be on the verge of tears. “But I kept fighting on. I was pushed into the dirt five times, and each one should have been the point I should have accepted defeat, but I stood up again for the sake of my ambition. Every time, more rage and resentment to force down. Now I’m just exhausted. I can’t feel anything. I gave up.”

Pinkie hopped down from her perch. “You’re not alone, Rarity.”

“I know I’m not alone.” Rarity said with a bitter sarcasm. “I would be much happier right now if I were alone.”

“Alone for losing what you care about.” Pinkie’s expression lost its customary glee. She looked concerned, sympathetic. “Rarity, You’ve had your suspicions about me, like I have had mine about you. I didn’t want to know your secrets to hurt you. I’d never hurt anypony in Ponyville! Never ever!”

Rarity was silent.

“Why do you care about what you care about?” Pinkie Pie pressed. “I mean, really think about why the Nightmare Faithful mattered to you.”

“It was mine, mostly. I turned an insular little cult of a few families into a community undertaking.” Rarity said, like she was giving a depressed sales pitch.

“How did you get your start in it?”

Rarity rubbed her temple. “My parents. My family have been leaders for the Faithful for hundreds of years. We were artists and craftsponies, you know. Our community was small but prosperous. Then a bunch of impoverished farmers came and ‘founded’ Ponyville. They gave no thought to the society they were destroying. So, my parents left, along with the other old Faithful families. They’re all clustered in a neighborhood in Baltimare now, with the lion’s share of Equestria’s nightmare worshipers. But I stayed, because I saw opportunity where they saw desolation. I made a more inclusive Faithful that liberated ponies, not pigeonholed them.”

Pinkie wrinkled her nose. “So, umm, your parents. You’re doing this for your parents.”

“No, I’m doing this for me. Or I was.” Rarity objected. “Do you think the only way we could care about my faith is because my parent’s indoctrinated me? No Pinkie. This is about fulfillment. I thought I was doing something good for us. Yes, I may have screwed it up…” She sighed shakilly. “I screwed it up. I screwed it up… And for what? Why? Why am I so self-destructive? Maybe that is what the sinners consumed by the nightmare have in common. We have a deep, self-targeted hatred. We can’t live with ourselves.”

Pinkie couldn’t contain a confused look. “I thought that was obvious from the beginning.”

Rarity mewled. “Not that Lady Twilight and Lady Moon haven’t been drilling that through my head since before nightfall, but I never fully believed it. I thought it could be something good for us, that it could make us, ponykind, better. So essentially… I’m just stupid.”

“You’re not. You had good reasons.” Pinkie insisted. “Misguided reasons can still be good. You’re not a bad pony.”

“Everypony thinks they’re not the bad pony, up to and including the moment they start hurting innocent ponies. Lady Moon thinks she’s an ambiguous pony at worst, and she killed Celestia! I’ve been a wretched pony: Misled, self-centered… How do I come back from this?! Pinkie Pie, I’ve been-”

Pinkie held her hoof up, and Rarity fell silent. “Rarity, you know about my past?”

Rarity glanced over to Cherry Fizzy lingering in the corner. “Pinkie, are you sure you want to tell this to me?”

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. “Fizzy knows some already. Twilight knows a little. You deserve to know it all.”

“Deserve?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Okay, maybe not deserve. But I want you to know. I think if we can be friends, it will make us both better ponies.”

Rarity shook her head in surrender. “Fine, Pinkie Pie. Business has slowed anyway.” She gnawed her lip. “But depending on what you say, other ponies have to know too. Twilight for sure, but also Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.” She cleared her throat. “Any possibly Nightmare Moon too. Especially Nightmare Moon.”

Pinkie nodded reluctantly. “Okie-dokie. Letting my secret out will be as good for me as it has been for you.”

Rarity glared.

Pinkie sat down and began her tale. “Scene, Canterlot, the big city. The biggest of cities! It’s got a lot of stuff and ponies. You’ve never seen so many pretty nobles! And you’re supposed to bow to them and say ‘yes ma’am, no ma’am’ or they might get offended. Thank them for buying from you. Thank them for shouting at you. One of my friends said Canterlot would be a million tonnes lighter without all the nobles and their petty bullcrap.”

Rarity’s eyes shot open. She’d never heard Pinkie be so inflammatory for serious. “Pinkie Pie, I hope you watch your language around Lady Sparkle. I would hate for you to get in trouble.”

“Is she going to stop buying bread at the only bakery in town?” Pinkie challenged playfully. “I really like Lady Sparkle, actually. She’s probably one of the nicest Canterlot nobles I’ve met. Yeah I loved it there, but so many things frustrated me. It was hard for a country pony. I had an apprenticeship at a bakery until my master got thrown out of town over guild politics. Then, the inn in the Inner City I was living out of got burned down by corrupt guards. Then the abandoned tenement I was squatting in burned down from poor maintenance. Then, a bunch of nobles brats broke my instruments. Then I…”
She trembled a bit, but maintained her smile. “Then I starting breaking into mansions to steal food. It would have been easier to steal from shopkeepers or whatever, but I’d grown a serious grudge against the nobles and the authorities. I wasn’t really a revolutionary, but a lot of the Inner City workers were. There were guards all over the town outskirts where all the nobles live, but nopony is as sneaky as I am. I thought I had a hussle.
“That didn’t last long though. By a bag of bad luck, a pony came back home while I was still in a house. By his bad luck, it was one of the noble colts who broke my instrument. I don’t have any excuses. I knew what I was doing. He saw me and tried to run, and I jumped on him. I couldn’t let him get away, since he’d seen my face and where I hung out. So I started to stomp. I was planning to stop at some point… Maybe when he wasn’t able talk, or remember past five minutes ago. I wasn’t angry. It would have been better if I was. Nah though, I just knew he had to go for me to be able to live.”
Pinkie cleared her throat. “I got caught up in it. Rarity, you know how it is, when you pour all your pent up frustration into a cathartic release… It’s like you can’t even think anymore. My head was all bubbly but I knew logically I wasn’t doing the right thing. It’s never about logic though. Logic never matters ever. Ponies that talk about logic are hiding opinions just as irrational as anypony else's under a frosting of legitimacy. Like how there’s all kinds of logical reasons why the poor have to starve and the nobles get to rule. Yeah, there’s no such thing as logic. I’ll call my hoof logic while I put it through somepony’s skull.”

Rarity was stock still. Pinkie could be morbid at times, but it was always a joking, ironic morbidity that was ridiculous on its face. Pinkie Pie, dead serious, lip twitching, was talking about stomping ponies to death. Catharsis indeed.

“I was still there in the morning when his friends came to find him. I was able to brain two of them before they forced me to retreat to one of the rooms. I knew I was going to die once they fetched the guards. But as I was trying to barricade the door, contemplating this, I heard screams from the other side, then silence. I thought it might be a trick but I opened the door anyway. That’s when I met Scratchy, my best friend. She’d killed the rest of the noble brats. We ran without a word.
“She led me back to her hang out, a house her mother owned. There I met her brother Long Play, her other friends, and what we’d done never came up once. It felt super jarring, like two flavers that clash. I looked and talked like a street tramp and I knew I looked like a charity case, a dog Scratchy had decided to care for. I guess they all knew though, because after a few hours of chit chat they started talking about the ponies they’d killed that week. I was flabbergasted! It was so horrible to hear them talk about murder so casually, but it was enrapturing at the same time. I felt… I felt included for the first time in months.”
Pinkie laughed to herself. “Great start, huh? The first time I try to get my way with violence is rewarded, ex machina, like destiny had saved me from repercussions.”

Rarity tried to formulate a sympathetic word. “Pinkie Pie… I know you had it hard-”

“I’m not done. Save it until the end.” Pinkie said.
“I stayed in the hang out from then on. Scratchy took me with her places, and I pretended to be her maid. She did all the stuff other noble fillies did. So many parties! Scratchy and all her friends were kinda upper class, sons and daughters of either nobles or big merchant families. I don’t know why I considered them different, probably because they didn’t care I was a country commoner. But when I think back, they never included any commoners besides me. They thought I was one of the rare good, capable peasants. Well, what they liked about me was that I stomped on heads good.
“Yeah. Scratchy took me prowling at night. She killed for fun. It excited her, like, viscerally and probably a little secually too. I was like an accident you can’t look away from. During the day I had a bunch of innocent fun with her because we actually shared a lot of hobbies and passions. At night, her joie de vivre became joie de fin. I’ve never read a book on nihilism my entire life, but I could probably give a good lecture on it just because Scratchy would never shut up about it.
“She wasn’t picky. She’d kill anypony. The first times she took me along I freaked out that she was attacking homeless ponies. I didn’t think I could stop her, but I steered her. I convinced her to go after nobles. We would chose out targets at her frilly noble parties. She didn’t buy my reasons but she didn’t want to hurt my feelings, so she agreed to go after the ponies that deserved to die. There’s that word again, deserve. I dunno Rarity. Seeing how easy Scratchy and her friends could get away will violence sold me on a lot of the nihilism. I wondered how far away it would be before everypony realized nothing was keeping us from just murdering each other. Weird ideas of what ponies deserve or don’t deserve was at odds with that: I knew deep down something mattered but I wasn’t sure what.”

Pinkie coughed and cleared her throat. “Rarity, can I have some water? All this talking…”

Rarity gave a little nod. “There is a pitcher in the kitchen.”
She waited while Pinkie fetched herself a glass and water from the kitchen. When Pinkie had returned she had formulated a question. “Pinkie, did you ever find out what that feeling was? What mattered?”

“Kinda. I’ll explain at the end.” Pinkie settled back in her seat.
“After a few weeks with Scratchy, she introduces me to her mother. Phyte, or the Mistress as everypony called her. Back then Mistress Phyte lived in a townhouse in Old Town, but lately she lived in a cave underground. I was sure she was going to disapprove of me, because I was just a peasant. But when I talked to her, Phyte told me she’d noticed me hanging around the Musician’s Guild right after I arrived in Canterlot. I hadn’t gotten into the guild because I didn’t have what it took, they had told me, but Phyte had kept her eye on me. When Scratchy saved me from the noble brats, it was on her mother’s orders. Me, thinking of how she must have seen me suffer and suffer for months, I got more angry than I ever had before. I attacked, but Phyte pinned me down easily. Like that, I was in the Musician’s Guild.
“Mistress Phyte and I had a complicated relationship. Whenever I met her in person, I couldn’t stop from getting mad. It was like a reflex, you know? I couldn’t help it. Phyte and Scratchy thought it was funny, which didn’t help. I’d thought I wanted to be part of the Musician’s Guild, but learning more about it cooled my interest. Most Guild ponies do contract assassinations. Ponies just there to play music get sucked into Phyte’s orbit and forced to do her work. I don’t think there’s a more evil pony, than Mistress Phyte. It’s pretty obvious why Scratchy turned out the way she did.
“Phyte wanted me to stick to Scratchy and keep her out of trouble. That’s what I was already doing so I agreed, and she would pay me to do it. I didn’t like taking her money but I reasoned it was better in my pockets than hers. Scratchy knew right away. She’d introduced me to her mother hoping I would get situated with contract work. I felt hurt she would think I’d like that, and she didn’t trust me as much since Phyte was paying me. I mean, we still hung out during the day and prowled by night, but Scratchy started keeping her other friends close just in case I tried something. I think this is when she started to go a bit batty.”

“A bit batty?” Rarity scoffed.

“Since we were going after nobles and not vagabonds, Canterlot started to wake up to the problem. Even more guards walked the town outskirts, and some nights there was literally a guard in front of every manor. After a few months, the our problems started.
“One night, one of Scratchy’s friends was pinched by a guard ambush. They tortured her and she spilled a few names before she died. My name was safe, but most of the rest of the group was in the crosshairs, including Scratchy. Things were really tense, and everypony was panicking, thinking we should leave town. Scratchy didn’t want to, and neither did I. So Scratchy and me talked, and decided we had to get rid of the others. With her brother’s help we killed the rest of her team the next night. Man, that was a bummer, but we had to do it.”

Rarity’s expression of blank indifference was starting to wear. She couldn’t hide her horror at what Pinkie was saying. Pinkie noticed and giggled a little.

“Things started to go really downhill after that. The nobles knew this was one of their own doing the killing and were desperate to stop us. Mistress Phyte was pissed, and sent another young Guild mare, Octavia, to watch us. Having to hide during the day put Scratchy totally on edge, so she and Octavia argued constantly. At night, she got more brutal with her kills, dragging them out way too much. It was like she wanted to get caught, and we almost were a couple times. It was hard to be patient with her, especially after she started getting urges to kill during the day.”
Pinkie sighed. “Then one morning, she was gone. Octavia hadn’t seen her either. News came later in the day her brother Long Play and his friends were caught in a conspiracy to discredit Princess Cadenza. Canterlot was buzzing with rumors of how angry Princess Celestia was. I was sure they would be executed, but LP and his friend Manered instead went into the Solar Monastery. Some others got life in prison. Mistress Phyte made a deal with Celestia: LP got off easy, but Scratchy had to be stopped.
“Phyte called me and Octavia to her new lair underground. She ordered us to find and bring in Scratchy. Scratchy was running rampant in the outskirts, butchering whole households. Between her and the rumors about LP’s conspiracy, Canterlot was in total panic. Octavia refused. She was a good mare and musician, but only a decent Guild mare. I agreed, so Phyte lent me a couple of her best assassins to help me subdue Scratchy.
“We caught up with her a few days later, in an outskirts mansion where she was dragging her kills. She was… Amazing. I mean, I always knew she and Phyte were not completely pony, but Scratchy literally glowed in the dark from how bloodthirsty she was. She couldn’t even form words. I knew right away we wouldn’t win but we tried anyway. I never had so much fun, but she totally kicked my butt. My backup got cut down to one pony and I got most of my skull removed.” Pinkie traced a line from her forehead to behind her ear. “Pretty lucky Octavia chose that time to show up to drag me away. The mansion burned down with the last Guild mare and Scratchy still hashing it out inside. I didn’t wake up until, umm, about a month later, at the Musician’s Guild. I didn’t find out Phyte saving me came at a price. She and Princess Celestia teamed up to surgery on me a little. Phyte’s into that stuff, like seeing how many organs a pony can live without. They added a little something to me.”
Pinkie tilted her head back and lodged her hoof under her throat. “Somewhere in the middle of a pony’s brain is a thing called a pineal gland. It does some stuff normally but I don’t really know that much, but mess with the pineal gland the right way, and you can change a pony. Princess Celestia gave Phyte a part of her sub-dermal tissue or something, and Phyte drilled it in my brain to the gland. Phyte was explaining that to me and I was like, woah that’s gross. But I also got, like, really really angry at her again. If I hadn’t been so tired I probably would have tried to kill her. Thinking about it, those mood swings around Phyte were the first time I got in touch with my intuition, what I call my Pinkie sense. Some ponies really have a destiny I guess, because I found out later I was never supposed to wake up from Phyte’s experiment.
“I laid low for a week, just kinda walking around the Old Town. The ponies recognized me from hanging out with Scratchy avoided me like I stank. I still had to stop Scratchy, but now I knew for sure there was no place in Canterlot for me anymore. Not even my old friends in the Inner City dared to see me. I felt pretty down. I thought everypony betrayed me. I still didn’t understand what Phyte had done to me and I had no idea if I could go home or not. I had nothing. Um, so, uh… I don’t know… I was ready to believe nothing mattered. Full nihilism.”
Pinkie hesitated, calculating how to go on with the story. “So I tried to get myself killed. At first I tried to be funny with it, you know, something ironic like setting myself on fire outside the firehouse, or being run over by a hospital cart. But every time I put myself in danger, I’d black out and wake up safe. Like, I don’t know how many times I tried to…”
Pinkie cleared her throat and put on a weak smile. “It took a while, but I got in tune with my new sense. I don’t know if it was always there, or if Phyte did it, but I could enter a time outside of time. Phantom Time, Phyte called it later. Like, nothing was moving except me and I didn’t even know I was doing it at first. But the more I tried to hurt myself, the more aware I was of the instinct stopping me. I knew what I had to do.
“I looked for Scratchy again. An entire block of the Inner City had been sectioned off because she’d been seen inside, so I looked for her there. I found her after a while, but another pony had found her first: It looked a little like blood-lusty Scratchy, but as soft as a baby. I think it was a baby, kinda. Phyte’d just created her, so I guess it was Scratchy’s half-sister. She had found Scratchy and knocked her out with her big paws, and they were both really cut up. When I tried to talk to it-”
Pinkie cleared her throat. “She tried to talk back. She was intelligent, but… Really anguished. It wanted to die too. The noises she made my throat go dry. Rarity, did you see anything during the Eternal Night like that? Something that couldn’t stand its own existence?”

“You know I did.” Rarity replied softly.

“Yeah… In Canterlot I was, you know, not thinking straight. But I could tell something was very wrong with the new pony, and that it didn’t like me. Or THEY didn’t like me, because while I was distracted another of the bloodlusty ponies entered the room behind me. Phyte made twins I guess. And then they didn’t do anything, but stared at me and make weird angry noises. The next second I realized we were all three in Phantom Time. So like, whatever Phyte learned from testing on me, she was trying to nail down with the new ponies. They were still using it on instinct though, and I was not.”
She paused again. “So um… We fought. They weren’t as good as Scratchy on their own, but together were way better. I was losing until I was able to force one of them out of the Phantom Time. I killed the one still moving, then finished off the frozen one. It was kinda cool, because stabbing and cutting it didn’t do anything until normal time started again, then it fell apart.
“I had to burn the building down to hide the evidence, while I sneaked away with unconcious Scratchy. She and I stayed at the hang out for a day, while I thought about what to do. I’d really started to hate Phyte, but letting Scratchy keep hurting ponies wasn’t right either. In the beginning I’d thought I could control Scratchy’s violence and use it to do something positive. Stupid… I couldn’t control her. I never could have been able to steer her unless I convinced her that nihilism was wrong and murder for its own sake was immoral. Sitting around, thinking things over, I realized violence for any sake was wrong. What did I, Scratchy, or any of her silver spoon friends accomplish? Her friends thought they were being cool participating in youthful rebellion. I thought I was a hero of the Inner City. Scratchy couldn’t have cared less about our reasons. She just wanted to kill. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that was my reason to. I could frost my bloodlust in logic and excuses all I wanted, but murder was still murder. Unless I was willing to say nothing mattered, not even pony life, what I was condoning was inexcusable.
“I could have tried to run away with Scratchy but I knew I would never have been allowed to live in peace. I took Scratchy back to Phyte’s lair, told her what happened to her twin experiments, and tried to leave. Phyte told me to stay for at least a little while, so I sat around the Musician’s Guild, detached from everything I’d been living for the past year, wandering my mind trying to reconnect with my old morality.”

Rarity interrupted here. “Pinkie Pie, if you had your power, the time thing, why didn’t you try to fight Phyte again? You could have stopped her.”

Pinkie shook her head. “Because Rarity, my Pinkie sense wasn’t tingling any more. I have to trust it. It made me angry when I had to be angry, and made me calm when I needed to be calm. If I’d done it different, maybe I wouldn’t be alive. Maybe I wouldn’t have my power.”

“It sounds like you don’t understand.”

Pinkie grinned. “Nope. Not one bit! I just go with my gut and it works out. It’s how I make all my decisions.”

“Do you feel it all the time?”

“Nope. Most of the time I don’t feel anything. Sometimes I feel a little tingle that guides me, and sometimes it feels like my whole body’s on fire.” Pinkie explained. “As long as I do my best to follow my Pinkie sense, nothing too terrible happens.”

Rarity sighed. “Seems unfair you’re blessed with holy precognition. Do you wonder why? What do you think you’ve done to deserve what you have?”

“By being myself? Best guess I have.” Pinkie shrugged. “Do you think it’s for no reason? There might not be a reason for anything in this world. It might all be random.”

“A pony of faith can’t accept that nihilism.” Rarity shook her head.

“Doesn’t change anything what you do or don’t accept.” Pinkie tapped her hoof. “Going out and doing something is the only thing that creates a difference. If you want what I have, go fight god and make her give it to you.”

Rarity let out an exasperated huff. “That’s inconsistent. If you don’t want to discuss in good faith Pinkie, you might as well finish your tale.”

Pinkie gave her an odd look but went on.
“When I thought I knew what I wanted, I went to talk to Phyte for the last time. Scratchy was gone. She’d already been sent out of Equestria, exiled along with her brother. Instead I met Princess Celestia’s representative, a short earth stallion with a funny voice. The princess was getting proactive, and wanted to make sure that Phyte wasn’t going to use abuse Phantom Time now that Scratchy was apprehended. It was good the twins were dead and erased, but nopony was happy I was still alive.
“Phyte was trying to negotiate for me to stay and be a Guild mare full time. I let her know loudly I didn’t want that. I wanted nothing to do with her anymore: Scratchy and friends were gone. That phase of my life was already over, and I had no reason to stay. One mare wasn’t helping Canterlot’s poor no matter how many slumlords she stabbed. If there was a pony who could help the Inner City, it wasn’t me. I wanted to go back to baking. It was what I’d gone to Canterlot for, but I knew I couldn’t continue to do it in Canterlot.
“Celestia’s representative went back to the castle to see what the princess was willing to do. Meanwhile Phyte told me the Musician’s Guild usually never lets go of its children. I was never really a guild mare though. I was one of her daughter’s shelter animals, tolerated, included superficially, but never in a way that mattered. The guild killed ponies because they were Mistress Phyte’s collection agency, and she collected. Yes Rarity, I could have fought her, and with the Phantom time I would have won. She knew too, and let me give my demands.
“Coordinating with Celestia’s agent, I was given a stipend from the guild and papers to settle wherever in Equestria I wanted. The master I’d apprenticed with, Carrot Cake, was from Ponyville, so I decided to move here. So yeah, you know everything after that. I bought the cottage, opened my bakery, and live quietly.”

“I wouldn’t say quietly.” Rarity said.

“I don’t hurt ponies anymore, Rarity. Never ever. Everything ponies think they’re accomplishing with violence is actually hurting them.” Pinkie said. “Forcing ponies to do something is bad. When ponies do things against their will, more evil is created in the world. Every pony has to do what is good willingly, or its not good at all.”

Rarity sighed. “I’m not sure I agree with your philosophy, Pinkie Pie, but hearing your past I see how you came to believe it.”

“But do you understand the point, Rarity? I wasn’t telling you to convince you of anything, or to get your pitty. I don’t want anything from you.” Pinkie scooched closer, to offer a hoof to Rarity.
“There’s life after trauma. Whatever you experience, it doesn’t trap you. Life is infinite possibility! The past is real and fake at the same time, depending on how much you dwell on it.”

Rarity’s brow knitted. “Pinkie Pie, why were you trying reveal my secrets?”

Pinkie’s smile went squiggly. “I wasn’t hurting anypony.”

“You were. You were upsetting me. Surely you must know how much anxiety one gets about such things. Sure, if you were after a secret recipe I wouldn't have been so worried.” Rarity huffed.

Pinkie giggled apologetically. “I was… I was trying to figure out if you were like me. I don’t follow my own rules all the time.”

“What? Like you how?”

“I thought you had something you believed in as a justification of violence, like I did in Canterlot. I thought you might hurt ponies. I wanted to uncover everything so I’d know the perfect thing to disarm you.” Pinkie admitted. “Yeah… I’m a hypocrite. I don’t think I could ever have convinced you. Everypony has to go through their own journey. We can’t prevent it, just help it along.”

Rarity rubbed her eyes unconvinced. “But… All the times you were just annoying? All the times you and Applejack bothered me for no reason?”

“You weren’t innocent in those exchanges, Rarity. You and Applejack got pretty mean with each other.” Pinkie smirked. “And I kinda love drama.”

Rarity sigh-laughed. “Okay Pinkie… I understand.” She leaned back in her chair and looked out the window to the cloudy afternoon sky. “But where does that place you in this nightmare business?”

“I’m just trying to do the right thing.” Pinkie Pie said. “Lady Twilight is in a bad way. I went to check on her when she was in the hospital and had to hide from Nightmare Moon. My Pinkie Sense went crazy, telling me there was a Star in Ponyville. I thought it meant Nightmare Moon, but it turns out it’s Twilight.”

“Yes we know.”

“Mistress Phyte was a Star too. They’re not good news, Rarity.” Pinkie frowned. “I feel like I failed Twilight. I was right here in Ponyville and I couldn’t sniff out what was going on with her. I was too focussed on you. Now she knows about me and the Phantom Time, because I was stupid and got caught in your nightmare curse.”

Rarity shook her head. “What are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know. I just came to make sure you’re going well.” Pinkie admitted.

“I am doing better. Thank you.” Rarity smiled a little. “You had your whole life uprooted twice, and chose a new future both times. If I can’t deal with this-”

“Don’t be hard on yourself. I’m not trying to wave away what you’ve been through.” Pinkie said.

Rarity nodded. “I suppose. Only, you always kept your dream of being a baker with you. What do I have that can keep me motivated like that?”

Pinkie thought for a while, then answered in a somber tone. “Rarity, you never had dreams. Or, they were never yours. Dreams… Dreams aren’t real. I mean how we think of them isn’t real. They didn’t come out of one ponies brain. They’re collective, multi-generational cultural inheritances. Memes, you know? I wanted to be a baker, but I don’t know how much that was really my dream. I want to make ponies’ lives batter, and that’s something that was always important to my family. Being a baker was part of that, and so was stabbing nobles.”

Rarity was confused and a little offended. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Think about what is important to you and your family, more than your faith, or being in charge of ponies, or anything like that.” Pinkie said. “I don’t know Rarity. You still have your dream, but you have to figure out what it is.”

Rarity scratched her nose. “No offence Pinkie Pie, but I doubt I will be doing any deep soul searching for quite a while. It hurts too much.”

“I gotchya.” Pinkie nodded. “I want to be here for you. We’ve had our differences-”

There was a tap on the window. Everypony turned to look, to Fluttershy standing outside, looking very alarmed.
Rarity stood up and opened the window. “Fluttershy?” She glanced back at Pinkie and Cherry Fizzy. “Is something wrong?”

Fluttershy nodded fearfully. “Dash and Applejack… They’re in trouble.”

Twilight was trotting back to her lodging in the Golden Oak, saddlebag laden down with her haul from the afternoon market, when she saw Rarity and Fluttershy standing outside her big red door.
She was not expecting them, and indeed was resigned to have them avoid her. She was immediately on edge then to see them come to her.
“Hey.” She called out to them.

“Lady Twilight.” Rarity sighed, relieved. “Listen there is a problem.”

Twilight led them into the Golden Oak and dropped her saddlebag. “Are you going to wait for me to ask?”

“Rainbow Dash and Applejack are at my house.” Fluttershy explained softly. “There is something wrong with them. They are having visions. They think they are being haunted by nightmares.”

Twilight’s eyes naturally roamed to Rarity. “Any physical symptoms?”

“Um, shivers, but I think that’s because they’re afraid. Dash was, umm, cowering. Applejack was upset and angry, then ran off.” Fluttershy recounted.

“It sounds like a stress reaction.” Twilight said. “Rarity have you been experiencing anything like Fluttershy was describing?”

Rarity averted her eyes.

“Whatever. You want me to check it out to make sure there’s actually no nightmare.” Twilight grimaced. “You know, it would be more convenient if there were. I’m starting to feel hunger pangs again.”

“I- Well... “ Rarity stuttered. “I could offer myself.”

“I was just saying. I don’t want to make this transactional.” Twilight said. “Why did you come to me? Are you trying to provoke something. Dash must have told you we got into it last night.”

“Not to me.” Fluttershy said.

“She told me.” Rarity said. “She said you were trying to pick a fight. Twilight, if a fight is how we have to begin every interaction with you, so be it, because we need you.”

“Need me? What do you need me for?” Twilight scowled, putting particular emphasis on the words ‘need’ and ‘me’.

Rarity gave a little smile. “Why wouldn’t we?”

Twilight tried to think of some snarky, standoffish reply. But what was the point? Was she really going to chase after a high by browbeating and literally beating on ponies trying to engage with her?
Twilight shook her head. “You think I can help you.”

“We do.” Rarity and Fluttershy said together.

Twilight chuckled. “What, did Nightmare Moon turn you down already?”

“No.” Fluttershy said. “She’s not here.”

“We want to help Mis Dash and Applejack, not traumatize them more.” Rarity nodded. “Twilight, we want to include you in this… makeshift alliance. Excluding you could only end with you being our enemy, and we don’t want that. We have too much in common to let petty things come between us.”

“It’s not petty, Rarity. It’s life and death.” Twilight sighed. “That’s what Rainbow Dash seemed to think.”

“We are asking you to compromise, just a little. Moon will punish us all if you cross certain lines. It’s our responsibility to include you and let you know what and why.” Rarity agreed. “Please, Lady Twilight. We offer our hoof and leave the terms up to you. But help us, please.”

Twilight shook her head a little. “Fine. I have no excuse not to help you. So should I meet you there or we go together?”

“Go ahead.” Fluttershy said.

“Wait-” Rarity help up a hoof. “Let’s go together.”

Fluttershy wasn’t happy with that. “Rarity, Twilight can go much faster-”

“But we have to go together nonetheless. Trust me, I just have a feeling about it.” Rarity insisted, fending off Twilight’s curious look. “And we should pick up Pinkie Pie as well. She is waiting at my house.”

Twilight was a little wary of Rarity’s intentions. “You have a feeling? Rarity, you’ve spent the last days avoiding me like the plague.”

“For which I apologize.” Rarity bowed her head.

Rarity sounded sincere. Twilight shrugged. “Lead on then. Let’s go save those sinners.”

Dash was sitting in the dark cellar of Fluttershy’s house, back to the wall. The only light was the faint glow of sunlight seeping under the door at the top of the stairs.
Oh, and eyes of the nightmare staring at her from the other side of the room.

“There necks are so brittle. SO much weaker than a bugs’. Try it. Just once. Listen to the sound and you’ll grow to enjoy it.”

Dash had long since stopped engaging with the nightmare, her throat hoarse from protests muttered and shouted.

“Didn’t you want to take on Twilight Sparkle? Go meet her, talk to her, let her relax, get behind her. A surprise attack will sove it all. Dashie, are you scared of her? You don’t have to be afraid.”

The door to the house creaked open and dusty light streamed into the cellar. The nightmare visage partially faded, half-in half-out of the shadow.
Both Dashs looked up to Rarity, descending the stair.

“Don’t be weak Dashie.” The nightmare growled. “Take her on. There’s no better time than now. You will never have to be scared again if you rise up and destroy her.”

Rarity stood over Dash, looking her over.
“Dash, are you okay?” She whispered. “What you’re facing right now… I won’t say it doesn’t exist, but its within your power to overcome it. Rise up Dash. You don’t have to be scared.”

The nightmare rolled to its hooves and stood by Rarity, eyes burning with anger. “Look at this mare. A pretender, a ponce. She would crush you given half a chance. Her ilk poisons the world. An enviable position! Overthrow her by brutal bloodletting. Kill kill!”

“What you’re going through is natural. You’re confronting the feelings inside. I’m happy for you, that you’re not hiding from your fear. You can overcome it. I want to help you. I’m offering myself with no reservations.” Rarity said. “I know what you’re facing. You know I do. It’s funny, I said just the same to Pinkie Pie, when she told me her story.”

“The pain can go away if you embrace me and stomp her down.” The nightmare growled, venom seep into every word.

“The doubt can be lifted if you share with us. It will sting in its own way, but it will heal you, I promise.” Rarity said.

“I already told you ponies everything.” Dash whispered. “I’m still here where I am.”

Rarity was silent for a moment. “Where would you rather be?”

Dash grit her teeth. “Dead.”

Rarity shook her head. “Do you believe that?

“There’s not enough in the world. If I have something, you loose it. That means that you being alive is creating more need and loss in the world, and destroying you reduces it. As long as the two of us are alive, there is competition, dischord, and violence. Your death brings peace.” Dash said hoarsely. “Or I die, and bring you peace. When I recognize what’s about to happen, I can be the first to make the sacrifice. My death brings peace to everypony else. I’m a danger. I’m a risk. It’s your moral duty to kill me.”

Rarity grabbed Dash by the shoulder. “Darling that’s bullshit. We can share.”

“W- We can share?” Dash repeated hollowly.

“We are in this together. Life after trauma does exist.” Rarity pulled Dash to her hooves. “Solidarity, Rainbow Dash. I’m going to be for you as long as you need me, forever if I have to.”

Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut. She began to feel her breath catch in little sobs. “You don’t even like me…”

“That doesn’t matter.” Rarity hook her hoof around Dash and helped her towards the stairs. “I know better than anypony the dangers of somepony stewing in their own misery. Come on. Fluttershy is already making tea.”

Outside Fluttershy’s cottage, halfway between the river and the fringe of the Everfree Forest, another confrontation was transpiring under the warm sun.
Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle observed Applejack pacing the field of rippling long green grass. The earth mare’s muttering could barely be heard over the whine of the insects.

“Have you ever had a stress reaction like that?” Twilight asked.

“Tons.” Pinkie said. “If I go out at night I get flashbacks. Sometimes I get really sad for no reason. Is that a stress reaction or my Pinkie sense?”

“I don’t know, Pinkie. I wouldn’t understand your ‘pinkie sense’, or anything else about you until I studied further.” Twilight admitted. “There’s a lot I’m not getting. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense. I’m afraid too, not as afraid as Mis Dash and Applejack, but still afraid. If I had an avatar to attach these feelings to I’d probably be muttering to a nightmare in a field too. I provoked Dash last night, when I didn’t need to. I… I’m yearning for explanations to alleviate this doubt but I will hurt the ponies around me if I get those answers.”

“Not if they tell you willingly.” Pinkie said. “They don’t trust you. You’ll have to throw a lot of parties to build their trust.”

“Am I trustworthy? I’m not a complete pony anymore, and my existence is inherently damaging to the ponies around me. They SHOULD see me as a threat. I see myself as a threat.” Twilight rambled. “I’m not stupid. I know I did something awful before the Eternal Night. I only remember bits and pieces but I’m getting there. They’re worried I’m going to repeat my sins and so am I.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Yeah you might. I’m not gunna say for super certain that pulling everypony together will solve everything, but you can try.”

Twilight nodded. “It’s what Princess Celestia would have wanted.” She pursed her lips. “What am I going to say? To Applejack, I mean.”

“How do you feel?”

“Sympathetic, a little. These ponies need something to believe in. This is what dwelling on the past has done to them.” Twilight mused. “I don’t know if I’m the pony to help them, but I want to be.”

“Tell her that then. Let her know how you feel, and how you think you can help her.” Pinkie said. “Whatever you do don’t lie. She’s good at sniffing that out.”

“I think you’re right Pinkie. I have to get these ponies to trust me, and I have to trust them. It’s not going to be easy.” Twilight rubbed her chin. “I know I sound cynical just saying it, but I really mean it. I can’t live in paranoia of everypony around me. Do you trust me Pinkie Pie?”

“A little.”

“That’s better than nothing.” Twilight said throatilly. “How do we cope with the problems of life? I need explanations. I have to understand, and then explain, otherwise I’m fighting from a point of ignorance. If one has explanations, maybe still you can’t win outright, but you know how to make your hits count. Knowledge is power, is victory.” She sighed and began stepping through the long grass towards Applejack. “But that might all be pointless, without something to be hopeful for. If I can do anything positive here, I want to offer that hope.

The breeze settled down and the insect went quiet. Twilight made her approach to Applejack in silence.
Applejack, trotting in little circles, saw the interloper and froze.

“Here comes the alpha bitch, her mouth full of lies, her head full of deceits. A perfect match for you.” The nightmare over her shoulder whispered silkilly. “She will suck you in and spit you out if you give her a chance. Are you going to push her away too, Jackie? Are you going to give her a taste of rejection.”

Applejack closed her eyes and sighed. If she let Twilight close, she was opening herself up for more betrayal and pain in the future. What could be gained from letting Twilight in?
Twilight got a little closer and stopped. The two mares stared at each other over the rippling green meadow. Applejack saw a strange earnesty in the unicorn’s eyes.

“Don’t be a fool Jackie.” The nightmare was harsh. “This meadow wasn’t far enough, but the world isn’t poor on lonely places. Run away. Don’t let her close. Run! RUN!”

Twilight chewing on her lip, trying to think of what to say or do, smiled awkwardly. “Applejack… Can we talk?”

Applejack returned the smile sorrowfully. “I think I’d like that Lady Twi.”

Pinkie watched the two mares chat for a little while before trotting back to Fluttershy’s, where there was surely some tea and cakes waiting. Twilight and Applejack would find their way there eventually, and together the six of them could enjoy each other’s company, empathy, and solidarity.

Author's Note

It took 55 chapters and 700,000 words, but the heroines are finally together.

Chapter 56: The New Equestrians

“Hear ye! Hear ye! A new proclamation from the office of the honorable Lady Regent!”

Even in normal times, a crier standing in the center of the Canterlot Castle plaza and shouting announcements was a rare occasion. The creatures of imperial politics were insular and disdainful of the mob, preferring to leave civic announcements to the network of temples, bureaucrats, guards, and clubs that formed Canterlot’s patchwork administration. When criers did take the proverbial stage, it was almost always at the behest of one faction airing the dirty laundry of another, and so the opening bars of the crier’s shouts was less a respectful call for attention, and more a door call for imminent hilarity and ridiculing.

But this was not normal times. This was far from normal times. When the ponies heard the portly, unsightly crier say ‘the honorable Lady Regent’, they knew the malaise since the Eternal Night was about to end.

“Hear ye!” The crier continued to the gathering crowd, mostly ponies who had been shopping or selling at the stalls ringing the plaza. “The honorable Lady Regent, Twilight Velvet, has a direct message to the ponies of fair Canterlot, commoner and noble alike. The imperial government has been found in dereliction of its duties to the ponies of Canterlot. For the promotion of peace and the general welfare in the absance of princess's authority, the Lady Regent, Twilight Velvet of the house of Twilight-Bright, has assumed control with a junta of lords. It was they who stewarded Canterlot during its darkest hour, and so they will steward during the day- Change has come, and no pony shall be able to plead ignorance. The city of all of us, Canterlot the great, shall be receiving reform long overdue.”

Reform. That was a dreadful word in the ears of the gathered crowd, often used by upstarts in the imperial administration to signal cutting dole, tighter sumptuary laws, or the fleeting implementation of the latest fad in administrative art. However the ponies heard something different in how the crier said it. By his inflection they detected an amused, perhaps even jubilant buildup. They stopped their idle murmuring, and listened.

“Canterlot shall no longer be ruled by decree, an imperial domain neglected by her highness’s representatives. Canterlot shall be ruled by Canterlot, a body of ponies, a state, by and for itself.”

The ponies froze. What did that mean? A mayor? A governor?
The crier soon answered these questions.

“Effective immediately, all ponies ruling and serving in the name of the empire within the city walls must come to the office of the Lady Regent for reconfirmation and reassignment. Effective immediately, all civic associations, clubs, and councils will be suspended, and may not reassemble until the formation of an urban commission which will promulgate the new lawbook of Canterlot. Effective immediately, all guilds, professional associations, and intellectual clubs must submit papers of purpose to the office of the Lady Regent for confirmation and certification. Retroactive to the eve of the Summer Sun, that darkest hour of the Eternal Night, the Estates of Equestria shall be recognized as having been dissolved, for eventual re-conveinment under new laws: All courts of the empire must submit themselves to the office of the Lady Regent.”

Any one of these reforms would have been riotous in normal times. These were not normal times.
And then, the coup.

“For the promotion of peace and the general welfare, and to assure the ponies that hers is a rule by and for Canterlot, a new councular body will be convened. This Council of the Ponies will be presided by an impartial judge, and hold court HERE, on the steps of Canterlot Castle.
“This court shall prosecute the dismemberment of the old administration, recognizing both its dereliction and de-facto collapse. Thereafter a new order will be organized...” The crier paused, relishing the anticipation. “For the judgement of all ponies who were charged as criminal during the Eternal Night, under the auspices of laws both old and new!
“Begining tomorrow, here on the steps of Canterlot Castle, the revolutionary conspiracy of the City Guard, Princess Cadenza in absentia, and the printer Hot Take, shall be judged by the Canterlot Court. Hear ye!”

The crier fell silent.
One of the market goers shifted her pipe from one side of her mouth to the other. “That’s all nice, but when will we be getting shipments of grain again?!”
A few others laughed.

At one end of the plaza, a pair of languishing noble scions were kicked back by a stall, absorbing the crier’s announcement.

“That sounded like a load of bull!” One of the nobles growled. “Call it what you want, but that ‘council of ponies’ sounds like a bloody parliment! Next thing you know, that Velvet'll chain a constitution around us!”

“Especially with the Estates dissolved for who knows how long.” The other noble grunted. “Come on. We’ve got to let Lady Upper Crust know.”

On the opposite side of the plaza, a group of ponies of all tribes assembled around a cafe table watched the nobles disappear down a side street.

“Strange tidings, comrades.” One of the ponies mumbled. “Lady Velvet announces a ‘council of ponies’ at the same time she says she is prosecuting our brothers.”

“She is trying to make Canterlot believe they are agents of counter-revolution.” One of the mares shook her head. “It will be just the same as the imperial administration.”

One of the older stallions at the cafe table, an earth pony with a bushy white beard, shook his head. “I remain optimistic comrades. The crier said they would be tried, not condemned.”

“Those words are virtually synonymous in this city for a commoner.” The mare scoffed.

“Under old rules.” The old earth stallion said, brow creasing. “But if this ‘council of ponies’ is remotely responsive to the popular will, we can make sure we are never abused again.”

The other ponies around the table mulled over this for a while.
“I’ll mobilize the pegasus bund. You get your lads.” The mare finally said. Others nodded in agreement.

“We will let the new regime know we won’t take their whipping silently.” The old stallion concurred. "Indeed, I may go pay the lady regent a visit tomorrow. If we are to be whipped, we may as well... profit off of it."

That drew sensible laughter.
On that note, the ponies at the cafe table slipped away.

When Upper Crust arrived on the scene outside the Black Horn Council hall a dozen young unicorn nobles were already waiting. Some were brandishing weapons, mostly heirloom swords and assorted knicknacks.

“Let’s buckin'… burst in there right now and show Velvet what we REALLY think.” One of the noble stallions brandished his club towards the door. “We’re not going to let these tyrants to step on our rights any more!” This sentiment drew some mild agreement from the other nobles.

“Uhh…” Upper Crust blinked. She saw some ponies, probably secretaries, peeking out of the upper floor windows of the council hall. “While we may have our grievances, overthrowing the provisional government strikes me as the wrong move as such. We are barely organized.”

“What’s the score then?” One of Upper Crust’s usual boosters asked.

“Well, I think I should go in with a couple of you, unarmed, and let Velvet know what we want.” Upper Crust said. “She knows we mean business. She won’t be able to turn us down.”

A few nobles without weapons stepped forwards. But one of the agitators didn’t seem convinced. “What do we want though?”

Upper Crust shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess we want… our rights respected.”

That gained a hearty ‘HURRAH’ from the crowd.

Upper Crust nodded appreciatively. “And, um, we want… respect.”

Another ‘HURRAH’ from the nobles.

Grinning, Upper Crust and four of the disarmed nobles pushed open the council hall door. The secretaries retreated from the gang, offering half-hearted objections as they barged into Twilight Velvet’s office.

Night Light sitting behind the desk, looked up from the dossier he was inspecting. “Hello there. Can I help you?”

The nobles looked amongst themselves, shrugged, and pushed Upper Crust forward.

“Hello again, um, Lord Night Light.” Upper Crust cleared her throat. “Are you aware not half-an-hour ago, an outrageous spectacle took place in Canterlot Castle plaza?!”

“Oh? Well let's not get ahead of ourselves. It’s been very busy here, Lady Crust. Hello to you too, by the way." Night Light shuffled his papers a bit. "Would you like to make an appointment?” He asked.

Upper Crust suddenly felt very self-conscious. Laying out her demands against an essentially powerless go-between was silly on the face of it. The wind was taken from her sails instantly. “Where is Lady Velvet? We must speak immediately.”

“In the city responding to threat reports I am not privy to.” Night Light said with a shrug. “You may search for her if you wish. I believe her to be somewhere in the Inner City.”

The idea of wandering the labyrinthine Inner City, rubbing up against the hordes of commoners, did not much appeal to the nobles and they visibly wilted. Upper Crust looked back to her compatriots for advice and they shook their head.
Undaunted, she decided to go on her planned harangue anyway. “Lord Night Light, you must surely be aware of your lady wife’s reform plans.”

“Yes, which is why I am busy, and why I would recommend you make an appointment and come back later.” Night Light sighed. “I don’t have the time to discuss political philosophy in detail.”

“Political philosophy? No! We’re talking rights!” Upper Crust harrumphed. “The aforementioned spectacle at the castle was nothing less than the PUBLIC announcement of a monumental reform schedule.”

“Yes, and?”

“The wellborn of Canterlot were not consulted, or even informed of this plan!”

“We have numerous nobles in our circle, my lady.” Night Light said with a tinge of amusement. “I hope you are not implying I am not of noble birth, my lady.”

“I would imply you are putting your own gain over that of over our class generally.” Upper Crust said. “Go back to your accusation about political philosophy if you wish, but you are now in power over us. That makes you an agent of governance and not of nobility. It is not the nature of your nobility that I am concerned for, but that of your governance!”

Night Light sat back in his chair. “You speak well Lady Crust.”

“Uh, thank you.” Upper Crust curtsied shallowly.

“No doubt you received speaking and language lessons, benefit of high status and wealth.” Night Light said, more conversationally than the subject would demand. “In general, I find that idle wealth well takes care of themselves, and do not need our help or special attention.”

Upper Crust’s eyes bulged. What Night Light just said was nothing less than an open confession of equal treatment under the law! “Sir! You would ignore the wellborne?! For what?! To what end?!”

“To stabilize the realm and society? I am not sure you have noticed, but the empress and her empire have just died. That has left many questions up in the air, and bearing them down gently is the primary concern of Lady Velvet’s junta. Hence the reforms.” Night Light said. “This is not a commoner plot, nor a tyrannical power play.”

Upper Crust brooded over her words for a while.
“Of the former I am assured, considering the imminent trial of the revolutionary conspirators. That was a contentious point between us, I’ll here admit.” Upper Crust cleared her throat. “But the Estates dissolved until some nebulous date? The clubs suspended? From Celestia the First, the nobility has been the empress’s partner in Canterlot. We see no precedent for the unilateral actions of Lady Velvet and her junta, nor any token of legitimacy, save her rescue of the city from the revolutionaries.”

Night Light beckoned her forward. “Repeat that last part again please.”

“Umm, her rescue of the city from the revolutionaries.” Upper Crust said.

“There it is, my lady.” Night Light gave an open shrug. “Is that not enough? Where would the nobles be if the mob owned the streets right now? Not in a position to protest perceived shabby treatment. I do not want to read ungratefulness out of your words, but I detect it nonetheless.”

“My lord, do not so scorn me with hypotheticals.” Upper Crust huffed. “The city is safe from the mob, but unicorns do not swap one bad choice for another. We achieve perfection in all circumstances.”

“You’re achieving wasting my time.” Night Light said under his breath. He continued at a normal volume. “In all things we seek perfection but fall short, obviously. The sage Clover said 'Perfection is the Ideal, not the Empirical'. But all things considered, is there somepony else you had in mind to guide this city out of the hooves of the chaos the Eternal Night was set on bringing down on us?”

“Princess Cadenza, for one.” Upper Crust could not stifle a wry smirk as she said this. The alicorn princess, not only a former commoner, but born a peasant of the lowest and humblest stock, could not be spoken by the Canterlot aristocracy without their knowing glances and devious winks. She was, in their lexicon, the antonym of legitimate, for the nobles loathed their onetime darling Cadence.

Night Light tapped his hoof, thinking. “You know I can neither promise or deliver on anything we agree on, but if you lay out your other grievances, beside the vague desire for privilege, I will talk to my wife about them when I see her.”

Upper Crust was nettled by his dismissiveness, but obliged. “Firstly the proposed trial in absentia, even if Princess Cadenza is the defendant, is an appalling transgression. What is to say other ponies wouldn’t be similarly tried?”

“Is this a request to postpone the trail, or drop charges?” Night Light asked.

It was Upper Crust’s turn to demure. “Well… You well know getting Cadenza out of the picture has been a long term project for the aristocracy. If you can promise restrictions on trails in absentia, we will allow, and perhaps even support the censure of Princess Cadenza.”

“Like I said, I can’t promise anything.” Night Light leaned forward. “But I think we can look forward to cooperation on this front.”

The band of nobles congratulated themselves on the concession they’d extracted. Night Light just smiled knowingly.

“Ahem, second, the ‘council of ponies’. It is not being held in Canterlot Castle, as I noted. It is being held under Canterlot Castle, in the plaza for all to attend and behold. This is obviously inviting commoner ruckus.” Upper Crust said. “How does this Council of Ponies fit into your reform scheme, and how can you protect it from commoner hijacking?”

“Again, ma’am, I am not Twilight Velvet, barely even her proxy in this talk. It is not my scheme.” Night Light reiterated. “As for the Council of Ponies, Lady Velvet holds that plan close to her chest and I am not privy to everything.”

Upper Crust waited expectantly.

“Though I do know how it may be organized to protect your interests, but it will need your active participation.” Night Light said. “How well did your speaking lessons prepare you for crowds?”

Upper Crust was intrigued. She was not the most personable pony: That credit would have gone to her late tag-team partner Jet Set, victim of the massacre of the Estates. But she had absolute conviction in the virtue of her beliefs, and was sure the masses would see it her way if they did not already. She just had to find the right pony to voice those complaints eloquently.

She nodded to Night Light. “What can you give us?”

“No preferential treatment in the council of ponies, officially. The rules on speaking and voting may be abused to your benefit, if you were so inclined.” Night Light nodded.

“And the crowds in the plaza? Nobles will be given preferential placement?”

Night Light acted like that was a novel innovation. “I will see to it, my lady.”

“Good. Good.” Upper Crust glanced to her noble companions and they seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “Then the last demand pertains to protection. Are your new militias trustworthy?”

“I don’t know what you’re asking.” Night Light said.

Upper Crust cleared her throat. “The new militias roaming the streets, keeping ‘law and order’ are disproportionately raised from the middle classes. I talked to some, and they all seemed to be shopkeepers or lawyers. Lord Light, the streets of Canterlot are frightening enough without armed lawyers running around!”

“They have all served time in the city guard, which if you did not know, is compulsory for property-owning commoners. They are professional and sworn to the public good.” Night Light said.

“I’m not concerned about their vows. I’m concerned about how they interpret their vows. The merchants and urban professionals have been hungering after our rights for decades. If they have guns, and we do not, how can you be sure they won’t overthrow us?”

“Overthrow us and do what?” Night Light asked.

“Establish a Free City, or some such rubbish! The middle classes have always been devilishly organized, with their guilds and clubs.”

Night Light smiled. “Why is why we have put all guilds under central control. Did you forget that part?”

“No. I didn’t.” Upper Crust hummed. “You must admit, this central control does look tyrannical.”

“No, I don’t. We are working to control the very ponies you are paranoid about, and nothing more.” Night Light said with a little laugh. “Why are you so insistent on reading devious intent in simple procedure?”

Upper Crust was not convinced. “You say I have nothing to be concerned about with the militias. Well then, what about the strange knights that have appeared in our midst? The ones with the purple cloaks? They give no answers and provide no names.”

“That is called professionalism, my lady.”

“That anonymity will be dangerous if it means they can oppress us without repercussion.” Upper Crust narrowed her gaze.

Night Light shook his head. “That anonymity will protect them from revenge, after their service to the law. You will come to understand soon.”

“I’m sure I will.” Upper Crust was annoyed by his tone, but had to give it to the stallion that he was well prepared for her arguments. “We shall be seeing you tomorrow then, Lord Night Light.”

“Bon chance.” Night Light waved to their back as they filed out the office. “On the secretary’s desk is a printed copy of the announcement. They are due to be posted in markets about town. Take one, if you’d like.”

“Ah yes, I was planning to ask.” Upper Crust mumbled, nodding to the secretary they had pushed aside earlier and accepted a poster. Her eyes scanned down the page, to a small line at the very bottom. “Printed by messir Hot Take of the Fascicle Canterlot Printing House… That is the printer pony with charges against them.” She looked back to Night Light. “How could you have a pony print their own court appearance?”

Night Light smiled. “Sometimes, the best deals are teased out by threat. It would help you to remember that.”

As soon as the door swung closed, his soft laughter could be heard.

Upper Crust exited the former Blackhorn Council hall. The nobles who’d waited outside looked to her.
“Velvet wasn’t there, so I talked to Lord Night Light.”

Some of the nobles groaned. “What’s the point then?”

“He was sympathetic to several of our demands. I think we can look forward to his cooperation.” Upper Crust said.

“But he’s not the one in charge! Velvet is!” One of the original agitators said. “And I thought you went in to make demands, not get ‘cooperation’!”

“Better Lady Velvet in charge than the commoners.” One of the other nobles shivered. “We came perilously close to revolution. Lord Jet Set, Celestia rest his soul, died to help stop them. We need to boost the junta to protect ourselves, and they need us too. Cooperation is the only way we both survive.”

“Some are saying we’re still on the brink, and we have no idea how many revolutionary sympathizers linger in the city guard.” Another noble said.

“Twilight Velvet is coming after our rights. We have to defeat her before we can even begin to worry about the revolutionaries!” The agitator said.

“And that doesn’t factor in the bourgies. Who knows which side they’ll take.”

“Enough! We can’t afford to be fighting right now, especially not over something as trivial as ranking threats. They’re ALL threats, and we need to be vigilant against all of them.” Upper Crust rumbled. “As for Lady Velvet… She is like us, but she isn’t one of us. We have an opportunity to show her up in front of the entire city tomorrow. We will let Canterlot know it is US who can lead the ponies of this city, not her.”

“Going to have a run at her? Looking for ‘Lady Regent Upper Crust’? Empress Upper Crust?” The agitator laughed.

“Maybe I will.” Upper Crust snorted. “Any of the rest of you feel up to the challenge?”

A few of the nobles scions murmured amongst themselves. They were young and hot-headed, but they recognized Upper Crust’s superior experience.

“Go home and rest your throat. We’re going to be doing plenty of shouting tomorrow. Meanwhile...” Upper Crust tapped the announcement poster. “We need to decide what words will rouse Canterlot back to its rightful rulers.”

While the nobles dispersed, a couple of commoners watched from across the street. They looked between Upper Crust and the Black Horn Council Hall, before they slipped back into the nearest alley.

The Next Day

Thundering echoes rolled down the narrow hall of the Solar Monastery, inducing the timid monks to cower in their cells. The pony at the front door was insistent though, continuing to knock, and after a while one of the brothers made his way to the foyer and unlatched the portal.

Sel Lech’s patience paid off as the monastery door cracked open. He stood stoically as the monk looked him and his small squad of knights up and down. The idea of an armed entourage coming to the monastery would have been unthinkable in normal times.
There was the despicable qualification again, 'in normal times'. As far as Sel Lech was concerned, normal was dead forever.

“Are you from Canterlot?” The monk asked nervously.

“There aren’t many other places I could be from.” Sel said wryly.
Hundreds of meters down the Mountain, the city of Canterlot was just beginning to wake up, the early morning sunlight rising above the Unicorn Range to the west.

The monk behind the door sighed and opened it fully. I wasn’t like he could resist soldiers if they were determined to get in.
Brother Springwise was a slightly rotund unicorn, with a white coat and shaved indigo mane. He had a titled, clumsy demeanor and spoke slowly and sparingly, giving many the impression that he was slow. He was relatively confident in his own intelligence except for the occasions that Lady Twilight Sparkle visited the monastery library for new books, at which point he ceded the floor to Manered.
“I mean to ask if you’re from the Canterlot government.”

“I’m Lord Sabonord, Captain of the new Guard.”

“New Guard? A... royal guard” That did not sound right to Springwise.

Sel smiled. “Sorry, I misspoke. Captain of the new City Guard.” Sel Lech gestured to one of the knights, and the designated pony passed him a scroll. “As you may know, the Unicorn Prelate died during the revolutionaries’ cowardly massacre of the Estates. Lady Regent Twilight Velvet has put out the feelers for a replacement.”

“Twilight… Velvet?” Springwise blinked. “Umm, the monastery has been secluded to itself since the night. The goings on down below-”

“The goings on down below are your concern, whether you like it or not.” Sel said sharply. He held out the scroll for Springwise to take. “You monks may confer amongst yourselves, but you will supply a new Unicorn Prelate within the hour. Send him or her to the Canterlot Castle plaza promptly. Very promptly. Council is to begin at 8:00, and the prelate will preside as judge.”

“This is beyond the pale.” Springwise muttered, flustered. “The empire never meddles in ecclesiastical affairs.”

“We aren’t asking much, but this is not an equal relationship anymore.” Sel said darkly. He lobbed the scroll onto Springwise’s snout. “Send a prelate, or your properties will be put under direct control of the city. Read that carefully friend, and share with your brothers. As I said, this is the only warning before the law descends over you. Have a good day, brother.”

With a nod to his entourage, Sel Lech led the way down the mountain path down to Canterlot.

The day continued ominously. Everypony’s eyes were drawn to the plaza before Canterlot Castle, wondering with concern or anticipation for the first day of the new political order.

The ponies with nothing better to do showed up first, just as the sun rose above the city walls: Indolent unemployed, noble youths, seekers of ill fortune, and the ponies who worked around the castle plaza. A cadre of militia and purple-clad knights arrived at midmorning, and began constructing a platform at the Castle’s base, to make the sheer marble wall the back of a grand stage.

Sel Lech was the first of the inner circle to arrive. He felt a bit winded from the hike up and down the Mountain to the solar monastery, but otherwise eager to begin. He counted the minutes as he oversaw the furnishing of the stage. Chairs, podiums, purple banners, and ledgers were put in their proper place in preparation for the others’ arrival.

Then the first bit of drama.
A mare was shouting at one of Velvet’s purple-clad knights. She was not, as was usually the case with such incidents, hurling abuse at him. Rather she was pleading with him, grabbing his hooves and trying to embrace him, though he kept pushing her away.

Sel crossed the plaza to the shouting mare, under the amused gazes of the onlookers. “What’s going on here?” He asked.

“Colour! Colour!” The mare was wailing. “He doesn’t recognize me! He doesn’t even hear my name!”

The purple-clad knight beckoned Sel closer. “Captain, this mare seems to think-”

“I’d know my husband. I’d know him anywhere.” The mare insisted, poking the knight’s breastplate. “He’s been missing since the long night. Him and all the ponies in old town hospital disappeared, and-” She trailed off into choked whimpers. She slowly turned to Sel, shivering in fear. “What’s he doing in that armor? Gods’ sake, he’s a dye maker, not a soldier.”

Sel shrugged. “I only know he’s serving his city now.”

The mare was totally silent for several minutes, finally whispering out a request. “Please give him back to me.”

Sel scratched his nose. “As in what? Tie him up with a bow? He's here for the taking."

"He doesn't recognize me. Oh merciful gods, what happened in that hospital." The mare said. "We all thought... the little ones thought he was dead." Her eyes began to tear up.

Sel closed his eyes. He wished he could close his heart to pity, like Velvet did. He felt so weak in the face of it. "You’d better hope you’re not lying mis.”

The mare blinked. “L- Lie? I-”

Sel interrupted her, nudging the knight. “Take this this mare’s name and address. You’ll quarter in her house until further notice.”

“Yes captain.” The knight nodded.

“Give her what portion of your wage she asks for, accepting what you need for your personal maintenance.” Sel continued. “Learn her name, and be kind. Learn your name too.” He sighed and shook his head. "She may be your wife for goodness sake. Reconnect, or something."

“Of course captain.” The knight saluted. He turned to the mare. “Mis, what did you say my name was again?”

Sel didn't stick around. He promptly returned to see the finishing touches put on the stage.
The other purple knights watched their comrade converse with his wife for a while, then politely disengage. The poor mare was utterly confused, and sat in place just watching her husband stand guard on the plaza corner.

Sel found it morosely amusing. Like the other knights, the husband was one of the unfortunate ponies nabbed by Astral Nacre and mutilated. It was a miracle they could be repurposed into their present form, but good soldiers were barely above zombies so perhaps it was not so surprising. What was surprising was that the mare had recognized what she thought was her husband. All Astral’s unfortunate experiments were a mix-and-match of victims. The knight’s face might have been recognizable to his wife, but his legs or flank might well have been recognizable by other spouses.
What a morose mess indeed. Velvet claimed Astral could return the knights to full sentience once she gained more power, but Sel suspected that was just talk. If the knights became cognizant of the nature of their own existence, surely they would try to destroy themselves or Velvet.

The morning wore on. The stage was fully furnished- It was broken into two tiers, with seven seats on the upper tier, and about twenty seats on the lower tier. The workers then went about erecting barriers in the plaza to separate zones.

About an hour later, other ponies of the inner circle began to arrive.

Blueblood came with a few nobles, laughing and flirting, but they went quiet when they noticed Sel. Sel was not so polite to not capitalize on their discomfort. “Prince Blueblood! Could you come here for a moment? I’d like to have a word.”

Blueblood disengaged from his entourage, mounted the stage, and trotted to Sel. “Hello Sel. I haven’t seen you since you got out of the hospital.”

“We’ve both been busy.” Sel smiled. “Are you going to sit on the council?”

“No, the 'lady regent' asked me to steer the crowd from within.” Blueblood said with a sigh. “Or try to. Upper Crust’s gang has been making the rounds at the societies, who are none too happy to have to submit themselves for review.”

“The clubs and societies are meeting without permission?” Sel arched a brow. “You should have told me immediately, Blueblood. I had a squad on standby just to break up that kind of thing.”

“If I wanted to make things worse, I have much quicker and thorough ways of doing it.” Blueblood scoffed. “Jostling nobles only makes them angrier. You don't have the delicate touch for these things, oh captain.”

“ I really don't care about learning how to navigate around delicate things like you do. Sometimes, I feel like I should be jostling even harder.“ Sel laughed. “Nevermind that though. We will discuss that anger, here in this court, and in other ways.”

“Gods I hope so. Culling the Estates left more noble power intact than Lady Velvet anticipated.” Blueblood said. “I think- and gods punish me for saying this- that the nobles were prepared for decapitation, though they expected it from Celestia, not us.”

“Decapitation has failed?” Sel rubbed his chin, to which Blueblood nodded. “Then we should try again, and shave closer. I'll tell Lady Velvet you think so, unless you tell her first."

“Sel-”

“I’m not going to stick my neck out for you. Whatever excuses you have for noble resilience, it will come out of your mouth, not mine.” Sel interrupted.

Blueblood hid his emotions. “I see. I’ll get my notes in order and report to her. It would only be proper.”

As Blueblood hopped off the stage, Aurthora Airy arrived. She took one of the chairs on the lower tier of the stage and waited patiently for events to begin.

A few minutes later, a familiar earth pony got Sel’s attention with a wave. He trotted closer.

“Hey, I’m Ripple Wreath. Is this the Canterlot council of ponies?” Wreath asked, looking over the loitering crowds.

“Yes. The councilors will be over there.” Sel said, pointing to a seat beside Aurthora. “You’re going to sit on the tribunal?”

“I guess so.” Wreath took the indicated chair. “Lady Velvet's liason also told me the pegasus named Fleetfoot was going to- Oh there she is now.”

Fleetfoot swooped down to the stage, drawing looks from the mumbling crowds at the edge of the plaza. “Captain Sel.” She said, somewhat surly.

“Glad to see you up Lady Fleetfoot.” Sel Lech said warily.

These two ponies, Ripple Wreath and Fleetfoot, were also in the University hospital while Sel was been recovering from the Opera House attack. While he obviously knew Fleetfoot from before the Eternal Night, he didn’t know anything about Ripple Wreath beyond his lengthened Riverponylander drawl.
Why two outsiders would be participating in the Canterlot ‘Council of Ponies’ was beyond Sel’s ability to understand. Unless...

“Lady Fleetfoot, firstly, congratulations on surviving that blockade.” Sel said.

Fleetfoot predictably frowned. “Many were not so lucky. I still don’t know the fate of many of my friends.”

“My condolences, really. Sometimes when the masters fight, the pawns unjustly suffer.” Sel Lech nodded. “I don’t think we’re enemies, and I regret your airships had to be destroyed to preserve what we’re building here.”

“Yeah, I regret it too.” Fleetfoot grunted. “Now I get to participate in what we’re building here. It promises to be interesting.”

“Yup. You can wait over there. The Canterlot pegasi will probably want to talk to you.” Sel gestured to the other side of the lower stage.
As Fleetfoot trotted away, Sel cast an eye to Ripple Wreath. “She’s here because of Lady Astral Nacre. How about you?”

“Who?” Ripple Wreath batted his lashes.

Sel was not amused. “They pulled you from the Opera House, right?”

Wreath shrugged.

“You walk like a knight. What’s a riverpony knight doing in Canterlot?” Sel continued his questioning.

“I didn’t know knights had a walk. Are you sure it’s not my osteoporosis?” Wreath chuckled. “Look, I appreciate you’re in charge of security, but I don’t want to talk about myself. Lady Velvet knows me, trusts me enough to put me here, and that has to be enough for you. Maybe later we can become friends.”

“Oh yes, her ladyship trusts you enough to put you under house arrest, along with that Wonderbolt.” Sel countered. “Just stay out of trouble, or I’ll find who you’re answerable to. It won’t be very fun for you if I did.”

“I’m sure, Lord Captain.” Wreath bowed. He looked over Sel’s shoulder, where a group of earth ponies were milling. “Those look my tribe. I’ll go socialize.”

Sel watched Wreath for a few moments longer, thinking.

The process by which Velvet had selected the Council of Ponies was unclear, but they were a diverse lot.

-Five earth ponies, including Ripple Wreath. Mercifully, Prosser was still sidelined.

-Five pegasi, including Fleetfoot, and the ever bumbling weather factor Nimbus Duster.

-Ten urban nobles

-Two greater nobles, including Aurthora Airy

-Eight commoners from the Inner City, unicorn laborers and advocates. They were by far the most scandalous council appointees.

-Five commoners from the Old Town. These were mostly unicorn merchants and shopkeeps.

-Two priests.

-Two representatives of the University, including the conclave president, Mis Semaphore.

-And Sel Lech representing the Militias and new Guards.

For a total of forty ponies. They would occupy that lower tier of the stage.

Sitting above them on the upper tier would be the three Triumvirs, with Lady Twilight Velvet and Lord Night Light, and two suspiciously empty seats.

And above them all, the solid marble wall of Canterlot Castle, imposing but inert.

Everypony was beginning to gather. Most of the Council of Ponies had arrived, and either taken a seat or huddled to talk with others. The crowd below the stage had begun to thicken too, and it was getting difficult to pass from one side of the plaza to the other without bumping into an eager onlooker.

Two large carriages pulled in from the direction of the Old Town. They pulled around to the side of the stage, the servants pulling them unharnessed themselves, and departed the plaza.
But nopony emerged from the carriages.
One of the purple knights at the edge the plaza went over to investigate, tapping on each of the carriages. Nothing happened, so he returned to his post. Sel watched this idly- Velvet was obviously planning something for the event, but he didn’t know what yet. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a too unpleasant surprise.

“Uh, hello sir.” Sel turned to the new voice. It was the same lanky unicorn stallion who had greeted him at the Solar Monastery that morning. “I’m Brother Springwise, err, reporting for duty.”

“Duty?” Sel perked a brow.

“For Unicorn Prelate, for the court thing.” Springwise gestured. “Like you told me this morning.”

“Ah yes.” Sel grinned. “Congratulations. You are now responsible for representing our whole tribe’s faith needs in political matters. You shall now pretty much be known as ‘the Unicorn Prelate’, and usually nothing besides.”

“Sounds very complicated but I shall try my best.” Springwise affected a smile.
Perhaps the monk understood that he would be taking cues from Twilight Velvet's junta- He could take as much or as little direct responsibility as he wanted, up to a point.

Sel pointed to the upper tier of the stage. “Yes. Sit up on top there. Take that center chair.”

Springwise hesitated- the upper stage was unoccupied, and the monk felt self conscious being up there alone. “Is it okay if I wait until we begin? I would like to talk to some of the ponies here.”

“By all means.” Sel bowed. It would be a few more minutes before the stars of the show arrived anyway: Lady Velvet had work that morning.

Earlier that Morning.

Twilight Velvet was feeling in peak form as she trotted in a wide circle around Castle Magoria’s garden. A week was finally long enough to shake off the last lingering exhaustion from her overwork during the Eternal Night. She’d gotten up with the sun, had a good breakfast, and was just limbering up before a full day’s work.

But her new purple knights were not todays only onlookers. Astral Nacre sulked under the solitary dead tree in the garden, her beady eyes tracking Velvet back and forth.
“I feel a shadow fall over my soul. Ancepanox is in the city. I’m sure of it.” Astral said, her telepathic tenor calm but determined.

“And I told you not to worry about her. She will come to us when the time is right.” Velvet assured her. “It doesn’t pay to chase after an alicorn when she doesn’t want to be found.”

“I want to talk to her.” Astral insisted.

“She will want to be talking to you too. The passage of the Eternal Night has doubtlessly marked her as much as it has marked you. With the death of the other alicorns, you might be the only pony on this planet she relates to anymore.” Velvet said, picking up her jogging pace. “Sooner or later, she will feel the tug of companionship, and it will bring you together.”

“Celestia lived hundreds of years without a peer.” Astral pointed out.

Velvet chuckled. “And see where it got her.”

Astral absorbed this lesson. “Yes mother… The bonds of interpersonal relationships are like the minute hand of the pony clock.”

Velvet laughed at the analogy. “Close enough.” She paused for a moment and stretched. “Listen, I don’t care what you two talk about. If she swears you to secrecy on something, you swear. Don’t break her confidence. Don’t betray her. You can do favors for her, unless it disrupts me.”

“You will always come first, mother.” Astral Nacre promised. “But I’m ready to be a good ally to her.”

“That’s a good girl.” Velvet smiled. At this point, Velvet wasn't sure of her own angle on it. She felt a strange charity to that nightmare alicorn, Ancepanox.

“Hail, my lady.” One of the purple knights trotted into the garden from the castle gate. “Some ponies are here to see you.” He half turned, then felt the need to add "Commoners, but they have a look about them."

At last. “Show them in.” Velvet nodded.

As the knight trotted back to retrieve the visitors, Astral stood up. “I should leave then.”

Velvet paused in the shade for a drink of water: Her maid came out with a pitcher and glass. “Unless you have something to add to political struggle, that would be for the best.” She agreed between sips. “Please don’t be late for the council. Noon on the castle steps."

Astral transformed herself, her flesh twisting and tightening until she was a facsimile of a pegasus. She launched into the air, vectoring towards the city, and disagreed.

The knight returned with two ponies, an old earth pony stallion with a beard, and a feisty looking unicorn mare. Velvet watched the group approach, the maid standing behind her.

“Lady Twilight Velvet.” The old stallion gave her a little nod. "I hope we have not interrupted anything." He motioned to the skies.

“M’lady.” The mare grunted, not even sparing a nod.

“I’ve been waiting for your visit for a week now.” Velvet said. “I thought you’d forgotten about your imprisoned friends.”

“We are patient, observant. However the imminent trial has forced our hoof.” The old stallion said. “My name is Toil Soother, of Baltimare. I have been empowered to speak on behalf of a collective of interested ponies. We have a steak in seeing them released from unjust imprisonment.”

“And I’m Moor Breaker. I'm with him.” The unicorn mare said.

“And she was the only pony brave enough to accompany me into the lion’s den.” Toil Soother patted his younger comrade on the back. “We are from the-”

“You’re from the Canterlot Labor Circle. You represent several anarchist, communalist, and egalitarian organizations, some of them revolutionary.” Velvet interrupted him. “Toil Soother, you've been wanted for questioning by the imperial government for several years, in connection to illegal strikes in the Cloudsdale factories, Baltimare shipyards, and Los Pegasus shipyards. Many of those strikes turned into deadly riots. You've been an anarchist nusiance longer than I have been alive.”

Toil Soother stroked his beard, then let out a guilty chuckle. “It feels good to be recognized.”

“Yes, I am rather proud of myself for drawing you out into the open. As you have ascertained, this city is no longer answerable to the Empire, nor Cloudsdale, nor Baltimare, nor Los Pegasus. You could even imagine that your terrorist deeds out there have no bearing in here.” Velvet said.

“Terrorist? How the heck is striking terrorism?” Moor Breaker exclaimed.

“Those in power can declare anything terrorism. I obviously wasn't there to see what happened, but I can imagine the bloodshed when the Cloudsdale or Baltimate guards came down on those miserable workers, clubbing them to the street, , brutal, merciless. You could argue the morality either way, and I have. But you can't debate which side had the power. The club, not the face it struck, told us who the terrorists were." Velvet said breathlessly, like she was telling some great secret. "I can tell you're a smart pony, Toil Breaker, because you didn't try my patience with a parade, or strike, or such malarky. I like you, actually. You know who has the baton today." She took a sip of her water and put it back on the tray. “Again, welcome. You have something to offer me or you wouldn't be here, anarchist.”

“Yes. We have come to negotiate.” Toil Soother said, clearing his throat. “I would normally be against deals with nobles. They are treacherous as a rule, and will happily betray the commoner for their class interests. However I suspect you would be insulted to be compared to them. You hold yourself above your class, on the level of the late princess herself." He stroked his beard. "I was in audience for the announcement for your 'council of ponies'. Reformist gestures usually do not interest me. However, this morning's announcement was devoid of the usual harangues against deviants and disruptors that accompany most reform proclamations. Thus, my interest in you. We my even be a helpful ally if we see you moving in the right direction.”

Velvet chuckled. “Oh, that’s very tantalizing. What would ‘moving in the right direction’ entail?”

“Releasing our imprisoned friends for one.” Moor Breaker barked.

Toil Soother nodded. “You know they are innocent. Whoever it was that led the coup that massacred the Estates, it was not orchestrated or sanctioned by any Labor Circle groups. These accusations that nebulous ‘revolutionaries’ are behind the attack is slanderous at the minimum, dangerous to the peace at the maximum.” He paused. "Obviously, their innocence is immaterial to the verdict."

“Their trial will be going ahead.” Velvet said firmly.

“I realize that. However without an acquittal, there can be no negotiation.” Toil Soother shook his head.

“Don't get ahead of yourself. Without negotiation, there will be no acquittal. If you care about your comrades’ lives, you will drop that as a condition of discussion.” Velvet countered. “Now, I could be persuaded to enforce an acquittal. You know the deal. Quid pro quo, monseur anarchiste." She laughed politely. "And I have ever so much work to do."

“That is a lot of qualifications you’ve placed before us, just to free innocent ponies.” Toil Soother sighed.

“Not enough for you? Then I'll correct myself. You doing this job is the prerequisite for opening negotiation. The acquittal has to be further earned.” Velvet grinned. “You have nothing over me. I could root out your gang in an instant and pass you over to Cloudsdale. Do not forget I have the baton, and you won't get a better deal with negative leverage.”

“This is extortion!” Moor Breaker puffed her cheeks. “We are proud workers, and will never bow to this kind of imperious demagoguery!”

“Uh, yes we will.” Toil Soother contradicted.

"Bullshit!" Moor Breaker stomped her hooves.

Both the older ponies cast long glances on the feisty unicorn.

“You don’t actually want to cooperate with this tyrant.” Moor Breaker grumbled to her older compatriot.

“I won't let innocent comrades die. No, I should expand that, to say I will not let any innocent pony die.” Toil Soother turned to Velvet. "Please do not make us break that oath. I do not need you to pretend to understand-"

"I understand perfectly, anarchist. It's all about tweaking the definition of 'innocent'." Velvet grinned daggers.

“She's not even a reformist. Look at her. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who merk'd the Estates!” Moor Breaker showed no compunction of bad-mouthing Velvet right in front of her. “You must know she will sell us out.”

“I don’t know, Moor. I thought we had sorted out this debate before we came in." Toil Soother said, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Do not make me invoke seniority over you. We need breathing room. Besides, who would want to join us if they knew we left our friends out to dry?”

“Who would join us if they knew we were the dogsbodies of tyrants?” Moor Breaker muttered.

Velvet watched the argument smugly. But it was nothing she didn't know already. All the cards were on the table from the start.
“You should at least hear what I need done. It’s not too hard, even if there’s a time pinch.” Velvet gestured to her maid, who disappeared into the keep briefly, returning with drinks for the two guests. The revolutionaries politely declined. “It’s a simple game of dress-up.”

“A false-flag.” Moor Breaker inferred. She did not break her deep scowl. “Devious nag. Who have you grown tired of, your noble detractors or your middle class militias?”

“You have to agree first.” Velvet smiled. “And naturally, if you turn down now, you’ll be going before my Council too, on charges of attempted assassination or something like that.”

“You make choosing so simple.” Toil Soother grumbled. “The Canterlot Labor Circle is meeting after this. We can be ready for whatever drama you want for the Council of Ponies.”

“Good boy. You’re doing right by your ponies. We will talk again tomorrow.” Velvet stood up and shook Toil Soother’s hoof. “As for today, I’ll see to it your comrades have their trial postponed."

“How generous.” Toil Soother said grumpily.

Velvet motioned to her maid. “Take them to the outer garden and and explain to them today’s task.” She motioned one of the purple knights over. “Unfortunately you’ll have to be tossed out rather roughly. The nobles could be spying on me, and I want them to think you were soundly rejected.”

“Have a nice day, Lady Velvet.” Toil Soother said with a sour, jerky bow. "The next meeting will go smoother, I hope."

“Later, boss.” Moor Breaker hissed.

Velvet trotted into the castle keep, while the maid and the knight took the revolutionaries to the outer garden for the briefing and beating.
"Good grief! I hate meeting with ponies with similar names. I keep forgetting which is which." Velvet poured herself another drink. "Miserable revolutionaries. Maybe they'll burn this city down and spare me the annoyance of doing it myself."

Ripple Wreath was having a great time. So far, he’d found the earth ponies of Canterlot to be uniquely clever, witty, and gregarious.
There were four of them, two lesser nobles and two merchants. One of the nobles was a more recent immigrant from the Lower Riverpony Lands, while the other had family living in Canterlot for generations. The merchants were similarly split, one local, the other a Manehattanite serving in Canterlot as the representative of his trading house. All of them except the local noble were ready to snicker among themselves about Canterlot’s upheaval, and even then the local noble only offered meager apologia about unicorn politics.

Then Fleetfoot brought over the pegasi and the whole process of introductions was repeated. Two of the pegasi were weatherponies, one was a merchant from Cloudsdale, and one was an artisan. The pegasi regarded Fleetfoot with a kind of awe owing to her Wonderbolt status, perhaps bordering on creepy for one of the stallions whose gaze lingered on her. Wreath felt a little jealous.

But after nearly an hour idle chatting, and the arrival of all the Council except Lady Velvet and Night Light, a significant crowd had filled the plaza.

Wreath and Fleetfoot drifted off to the side, getting an opportunity to talk alone.
“So, you were here when night fell.” Wreath said.

“First off, hello.” Fleetfoot bowed her head a bit. “I’ve seen it all, yes. It hasn’t been fun.”

“I imagine not.” Wreath remarked.

“Which is why I’m very eager not to have that night repeated.” Fleetfoot said, voice dipping into suspicion. “I don’t know anything about you. You weren’t there when, ahem, Astral was born. But I saw her eyeing you in the hospital, and you her.”

“Sorry, who?” Wreath batted his eyelashes.

Fleetfoot grumbled in annoyance. “Are you really going to play this game with me?”

“Nopony seems to be able to keep their tongues from wagging off about the secret beast except me. I can’t entirely fault you, but Lady Velvet might.” Wreath said wryly. “Lady Astral is my ward for as long as I’m in the city. We will be learning from each other until my liege retrieves me.”

“Every part of that sentence terrified me.” Fleetfoot scowled. “I don’t imagine you’ll tell me who your mistress is.”

Wreath stared at her for a minute. “No, I don’t think I will, but I expect she will be introducing herself in the next few days.”

Something to look forward to, Fleetfoot thought to herself.
While that ominous visit hung in Fleetfoot’s head, it was a distinct lack of a certain kind of thought that had defined Fleetfoot’s last week. Since waking up in the University Hospital, her psychic link with Rain Gnash had been muddled at best. She felt waves of sensation and emotion welling up in the back of her head, and at other times heard an incessant, maddening buzz, but not Rain Gnash’s voice. She could spend hours in a darkened corner of the small bedroom Velvet had given her, trying to delve into the psychic link and reach Gnash… But her voice was too weak, for Gnash had been more clever with the link, given how much she’d dwelled over it in her vegetative state. What had changed? Why was it voiceless?
Heavy and gloomy was Fleetfoot’s time alone. In so short a time she’d gotten used to sharing her thoughts with another. Now she felt a hurtful loneliness. Abandonment.

It made her feel anxious and ill, paranoid and uncharitable.
And when a Wonderbolt felt paranoid, their trained senses picked things out other ponies wouldn’t notice. Like how the fur rippled occasionally at the back of Ripple Wreath’s neck, or how his eyes would dart away for a fraction of a moment, almost too quickly to catch. Like how Sel Lech Sabornord was starting to shiver, at his seat at the edge of the stage overlooking the crowd.
The hardest thing not to notice were that several different groups of ponies gathering at the different edges of the plaza: A cadre of nobles on one side, some similarly dressed commoners on the other, and a suspicious-looking pack of militia ponies hovering near the main thoroughfare.

“I haven’t known Twilight Velvet for long, but I know she’s a bastard.” Fleetfoot said. “She chose everypony who now sits here. What are the chances this is a set-up?"

Wreath nodded towards Sel Lech. “Her pet lieutenant is here though.”

“He’ll bite it eventually. But… probably not today.” Fleetfoot conceded. After a few moments, she gathered the wherewithal to pose the next point. “You have some kind of curse, don’t you. But, not due to Twilight Velvet. You’re more like the black mare, Iillor.”

“Should that name mean something to me?” Wreath asked, curious.

“No. I just feel better knowing you’re just as much on the outside as I am. We’re both delegates, kinda.” Fleetfoot said.

Wreath giggled and smiled the first genuine smile of the day. “Aww, thank you. I appreciate your trust my lady.”

“It’s not something I’ll be giving out very easily.” Fleetfoot said, turning to relocate the suspicious militia ponies she’d noticed before. “Especially if this IS a set-up.”

“We will know very soon.” Wreath pointed to the south end of the plaza. “I think that’s Lady Twilight Velvet coming now.”

Two purple knights with halberds and one with a sword made space in the crowd, letting Twilight Velvet cross through to the stage. Taking the hint, the Council of Ponies found their seats, and the crowd fell silent.

Twilight Velvet had not dressed specially for this, her first address as ruler of Canterlot. She wore a simple beige skirt and grey silk shirt, pinned with a silver brooch in the shape of an oak tree.
“Ponies of Canterlot…” She started, slow and somber. Then she broke out in a smile. “In the Free Cities tradition, you would be addressed as citizens. Would you like to be addressed as such?”

The silent crowd, thousands of ponies, took a few seconds to process the question. Then an eruption of sound, a thousand voices yelling with all their voice. Most of them didn’t really know why they were yelling, only that they had never been asked a question before by such a pony in such a position over them. They felt an instinct to participate, an instinct Twilight Velvet had carefully anticipated and was playing to.

“Fine then! CITIZENS of Canterlot!” Velvet adulated, to more shouting and stomping. “What is a citizen? A citizen is not a class, or social order, or reward or punishment. Citizen is a job! Citizen is work! The citizen is the part and party to the order that governs them. A citizen is aware of themselves, aware of other ponies, and aware of their laws. You who have come to watch and, believe it if you may, contribute to this Council of Ponies… YOU ARE CITIZENS.”

A deafening roar from the crowd.

Upper Crust and a few of her supporters arrived at the edge of the plaza. The sound they were hearing rivaled the excitement from air shows.

“What the hell is going on here?” Upper Crust asked.

One of the nobles already in attendance broke out of the crowd and galloped over to Crust and company. “She’s talking about citizenship for all ponies in the city.”

Upper Crust watched Velvet's gusting and shouting, all of it drowned out at that distance by the crowd. “Did she say anything about voting or representation?”

“Not yet.”

“Then let’s assume she’s just spouting rhetoric right now. She’s known for that.” Upper Crust said. “Let’s get closer.”

By the time the nobles got in close enough to hear, Velvet had moved on to talking about the Council of Ponies, which drew understandably less response.

“The test of leadership, or rulership, is having strength against opposition. Indecisiveness is the greatest weakness of them all. That is why I’m here before you. Every single speaker will be in the same position! If they can not defend themselves against the voices of Canterlot, they will not be heard! No weak law, no half-hearted justice, no wishy-washy policy, shall make it through.”

“This is barely regulated mob rule.” One of the nobles commented.

“Wait until we see it in action. Even forums like this can be steered.” Upper Crust said. “Keep an eye out for Lord Night Light’s arrival. He is our advocate after all.”

“Now you understand why clubs and guilds have been suspended.” Velvet said, drawing some angry rumblings from the crowd. “This is the only political gathering that matters. This is the room to express yourself. Your clubs and guilds will be granted when it becomes possible for them to supplement, rather than detract from this Council of Ponies. It would be insulting your status as citizens to do otherwise!”

Rising above the din of the crowd, a question rang out clearly. “Will Canterlot be a Free City?”

“Without the Empire, how can there be Free Cities? Canterlot is a city onto its own! It does not need status granted from above to have its system.” Velvet responded.

Another lul, as the crowd processed its sudden power of asking questions. Then hundreds of questions at once, jumbling together in an indecipherable torrent.

While Velvet was showboating in front of the crowd, Fleetfoot scooted her chair closer to Ripple Wreath.
“Hey… Astral Nacre is in the crowd somewhere. I just have this fuzzy feeling. Can, um, your senses pick up anything?”

Wreath was starting to feel as on edge as Fleetfoot, not because of any psychic strain, but because we was not used to so many loud ponies in one place. Even traveling with Glori’s little army was calmer than the noise and thunder from the Canterlot crowd. And to think, the thousand ponies in the plaza was not even one-hundredth of the population of the city. It gave him a fear of being crushed.
He felt burbling dark power offer to come and take away the fear. He rejected it, for the moment.

“No ma’am. I can’t tell anything out of the ordinary.” Wreath said. “Except that our friend Lord Sel Lech is looking a little nervous.”

“I saw that too.” Fleet agreed. “What does he know that we don’t?”

“Now I have spoken long enough, and explained myself well. We are here to govern, judge, and most of all, be seen.” Velvet was winding down her speech, pausing for swells in the crowd and deflecting questions with quips. “It is time for this Council of Ponies to begin. The Unicorn Prelate will preside as arbiter.”
Velvet circled around the seated council and jumped up to the higher tier of the stage. She dragged a chair to where Springwise was waiting nervously and sat. She said a few whispers to the new unicorn prelate.

“Uh, yes, ahem.” Springwise stood up. “This Council of Ponies represents you, Canterlot’s citizens. If you have a problem with any of the ponies sitting before you, speak up and let them defend themselves.”

“How about you, monk?” A pony shouted, to some laughter.

Thus began a process whereby the ponies in the crowd began identifying and shouting out the names of ponies on the Council. The council had no obligation to answer, and indeed several of them sat still and silent until the masses grew tired of trying to get their attention. But others did answer, stepping to the edge of the stage to shout back at the crowd- Some of them were bombastic or witty enough to woo the crowd, while others only gained more detractors, until they either withdrew back to their seat, or more excitingly, they conceded and retreated off the stage. Then it was race for new ponies to jump up on the stage and defend themselves before the crowd, and one eventually became the clear favorite and took the empty seat.

After an hour, the crowd’s energy was starting to wain, and about a dozen of the ponies on the Council had been replaced. Some of the crowd had tried summoning Fleetfoot and Wreath to the front, but since nopony knew their names they couldn’t be called out.

“This is borderline performance art.” Upper Crust remarked. “Is Lady Velvet making a statement about representative governance?”

“Or is she just having fun wasting our time.” Another noble posed.

At some point, Night Light had hopped up the back of the stage and taken his seat beside Twilight Velvet.

“Any interesting happenings?” Night Light whispered to his wife.

“Not really. Some of the more soft spoken ponies I selected have stepped down. So far the crowd has selcted for the fattest, dumbest, cruelest specimens of Canterlot.” Velvet chuckled.

“You really like to inflict the biggest oafs on Ponykind. You have the patience of a saint, to be able to wrangle characters like these.” Night Light observed. “Or perhaps, the patience of a devil.”

“You make it sound so romantic.” Velvet snickered.

With things calming down, nopony put up much of a fight when one of the groups of ponies hanging out at the edge of the plaza began pushing forward.

“Heads up.” Fleetfoot nudged Ripple Wreath. “The first intrigue of the day.”

“Sel Lech Sabonord!” The lead pony of the group shouted out. Since nopony else was really making much noise, the yell carried fairly clearly. “Sabonord, answer to us for your crimes.”

Sel Lech, who had been lazily slouched in his chair for the proceedings, lifted his gaze to the shouter. He squinted, then arched a brow. He looked to Twilight Velvet but she shrugged.

“Sabonord, we demand justice!” The lead pony shouted out again, this time with concurring jeers from the others in his group. A couple other ponies in the crowd smelled the drama and joined in the shouting too.

Sel Lech was a bit nonplussed. “Do I know you ponies?”

“No sooner did the night fall than you enacted a classicide terror on the ponies of the Inner City. Over twenty-five ponies went missing under the watch of your guard and militias!” The pony accused. “Multiple witnesses report of you ordering homeless ponies to the castle, where they were never heard from again!”

No the crowd was really getting interested, with outraged shouting swelling.

Sel Lech, unwisely, stood up and trotted to the edge of the stage. “Several hundred ponies went missing during that accursed night, and I have the Junta’s full support to investigate each and every case. We were in a time of critical transition, trying to prevent more revolutionary massacres like happened to the Estates, while putting militias in the posts the disbanded guard occupied. Even in ideal conditions, such transition would be chaotic, but the night dwelled heavily in pony’s heads. You should be thanking me for holding things down as successfully as I did!”

The mix of aloof and smug that Sel was showing was not the attitude the crowd was looking for. Their outrage was beginning to turn into anger.

“Murderer!” One pony shouted.

“Where are the missing ponies?” Another said.

Suddenly, gun retorts pierced through the din! The cadre of militiaponies hanging near the plaza’s edge had shot into the crowd in the direction of the original harassers. All became chaos in an instant. The crowd became a roiling sea of panic as ponies pressed and shoved in every direction to get away. Ponies were crushed and trampled.

Sel Lech gasped in horror. “Cease fire! Cease fire!” He yelled as loud as he could, but the guards either could not hear or did not listen, as they worked to reload and unload into the crowd.
Seized by conviction, Sel turned and grabbed the nearest of the pegasi sitting on stage. “Carry me! We have to stop them!”

The pegasus Sel was shouting at wilted, but Fleetfoot stepped up. “Get that heavy armor off.” The Wonderbolt ordered.

Sel Lech immediately complied, immediately shaking off his armor. A bullet whizzed by, tearing a chunk out of the stage.
Fleetfoot made a little hop, hooking her hooves around Sel’s shoulders and heaving him up. With a powerful sweep of her wings, she flew above the panicked mob and dropped the unicorn right in front of the militiaponies.

The militiaponies hesitated, throwing each other lidded glances.

“Stop this! Stop this! What do you think you’re doing?! Don’t you think I can handle myself?” Sel yelled, barely audible over the sustained wails and screams around them. “Don’t you understand what you’ve just done?”

One of the militiaponies chuckled and snapped down the powder plate of his arquebus. “Sorry Cap. This city is Free now.” He took aim squarely at Sel’s head.

But the gunner did not squeeze off the shot. A look of surprise overtook his features, then one of pain, then he slumped forward. Ripple Wreath, tense but resolute, yanked his bloody sword out of the gunner’s back.

The other militiaponies did not take kindly to the killing of their fellow. Two of them tossed down their guns and pulled out their swords, charging Ripple Wreath. The other remaining three put new haste into reloading their arquebuses.

Sel only hesitated a second before dashing forward and headbutting the nearest gunner. The pony he hit staggered back, but did not drop the gun, so instead Sel reached forward and stole the dazed mare’s sword, then jammed it through her gut.
In a vivid flash of color and sound, Sel saw his hooves make a similar motion to disembowel a helpless noble, begging for their life in the Canterlot Castle throne room. The blood he smelled reminded him of that pungent aftermath of blood and bile, a work he’d helped write, then clean up.

Still cleaning up those messes, Sel thought to himself as the flashback episode receded. Clenching his teeth against the growing horror in his head, he wrenched the sword up, taking it from the gunner mare’s intestines to well into her lungs. Then he pulled it out and dashed to the next pony.

Fleetfoot and several purple knights arrived quickly thereafter, cutting down the rest of the rogue militiaponies. There were no survivors.
However, the job was not over- The stampede had dispersed enough that other gunshots could be heard in other parts of the city.

“This is a full on rebellion. Gather up loyal detachments and root out the traitors from Canterlot. Keep several troops around here in case they come back.” Sel ordered the purple knights tiredly. “Take one or two alive. We don’t know if they were attempting a coup or what.”

“Captain.” The knights nodded, before galloping to their orders.

Sel trotted over to the nearest cafe table ringing the plaza. Dozens of ponies had been badly injured during the stampede, and ponies were just starting to filter back to help them. A few were not moving at all- Killed by the guns of the militia or the hooves of their fellow pony.
Sel rotated his chair to face away from them. He tried to lean, slightly curled, like he was deep in thought, but he began to shake, until he just lay his head down on the table and let the tears flow.

That Night

The small, humorless room Fleetfoot had been given the last week in was starting to drive her insane. She’d been promised that the drab space, sporting a single bed, nightstand, and adjoining toilet, was the latest in hospitality, and necessary for a pony so recently released from the hospital as she was to avoid unhealthy excitements.
Excitements weren’t what was gnawing into Fleetfoot. It was being alone with only the hazy psychic link to dwell on. Rain Gnash was still incommunicado. Fleet was going to go insane if she had to bear the boredom any more. Only by her pleading did Velvet let her take home some scant reading material, but after she’d torn through them she was back to staring at the wall or out the window onto the dim street.

Every now and then, a few gun retorts echoed from a distant part of the city, evidence that Twilight Velvet's Junta was still fighting the last pockets of militia resistance. Nopony was sure yet why the militiaponies had rebelled. Most people speculated that since most of them were original Blackhorn Council supporters, and backers of Seacrest Blackhorn’s brief Viziership, that they were offended by the way Velvet was leading- Especially if she was going to leave Sel Lech out to dry, seeing as he was Seacrest’s cousin and appointee to the captaincy.

To Fleetfoot, it only solidified her brooding suspicion that Twilight Velvet was causing chaos just for the hell of it. Maybe the mare, not really sure what to do now that she’d gotten everything she wanted, had no idea how to lead a functional government. Or was it another fold in an incomprehensible multi-faceted scheme to advance some other parts of her agenda? Was Velvet behind the revolt at all?

“I hope after today she trusts me enough to lift this annoying house arrest.” Fleetfoot whispered to herself as she spent another listless hour staring out the window, watching the slumbering city.
Fleet tried closing her eyes and seeing though Gnash’s. For the first time in a while, she could actually feel concrete sensations. She could feel, barely, the little tingles on Gnash’s spine as she shifted in her wheelchair, or the mumblings of whomever Gnash was talking to. The link was still there.
“What’s going on in Cloudsdale? I hope nothing as exciting as this.” Fleet said sarcastically. “Sheesh. If I asked, would Velvet let me fight more miltiaponies? By Celestia, even a visit from Astral Nacre would be better than this.”

No sooner had she said this than there was a sound from behind her, a click out of the lock of the door to the hall. Fleet spun around, expecting a purple knight to barge in, but nothing happened. Nopony entered.

“Uh, hello?” Fleetfoot stood up and trotted to the door. “Hello?”
She stood there for a moment, then tested the handle. The door was unlocked. She cracked it open and peaked outside, but saw nopony in the drab halls of the guesthouse.
“What the…”

Fleet had the distinct feeling she was being tricked, but by the same token even a ruse was preferable to the boredom of her confined room. She pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway, and when nopony ran to confront her she moved cautiously towards the stairs.
It was completely silent, and indeed when she peeked into some of the other rooms they were empty.

“What the dickens is going on? I thought there were other ponies here? I’ve heard other ponies here! Where did they go?”

It looked like she could walk out the door and fly right out of Canterlot. But wasn’t that going against the reason she had come in the first place? She’d wanted to face Twilight Velvet or Astral Nacre and ask for a cure to her curse. On their terms, that seemed to mean languishing until called up for random things like the Council of Ponies.
She really wished Gnash would weigh in, but the mental bond remained strangled.

“Well… I can go back to Cloudsdale, umm, I guess.” She sighed. “Maybe I can be back before anypony notices I’m gone.” She was kidding herself. Even at an exhausting full speed, Fleetfoot could not make the round trip until well after sunrise.

But as she neared the stairs, she heard a faint voice. Fleet thought for a moment it was somepony responding to her, but the hall was still empty. The noise came from a room at the far end of the hall polar opposite hers.

Her certainty of being in a trap growing, Fleetfoot crept towards the sound. It was actually two voices, one male, the other unclear.
The door to the occupied room was open- Fleet had a view into a room that was the mirror image of her own room, save its window opened onto a small alley rather than the open street, meaning it was much darker and colder.

But that was not the only reason for the darkness and coldness. A black presence occupied he room, and as Fleetfoot’s eyes adjusted to the darkness she grew more and more horrified.

Ripple Wreath, the male voice she’d heard, was sitting on the bed. The small red earth pony looked anxious but excited. Fleet hadn’t had the chance to talk to him after the incident with the militia, but she had noted at the time how remarkably cool he’d been under pressure. He hadn't even been breathing hard. Fleet hadn’t thought about it then, but now she wondered it if was because of his curse.
And speaking of his curse...
Just in front of Wreath was a dark silhouette of something large, or the comparison Fleetfoot’s mind immediately conjured, alicorn-sized. It’s eyes glowed purple and its teeth glinted in the meagre light. Those eyes, a cat’s slitted eyes, slid from the stallion to Fleetfoot, transfixing her with a stare that sent ice through her veins.

“Oh buck.” Fleetfoot swore under her breath. So the time had come to meet Ripple Wreath’s mysterious mistress. She could not imagine a more intimidating ambush.

“Welcome. Have a seat.” The shadowed alicorn said, her quiet voice gravelly. “I am Ancepanox, Nightmare of the Moon. You, I hear, are Fleetfoot.”

Nightmare of the Moon? Fleetfoot reacted like most mares in the situation of hearing a foal’s tale spoken of with such deadly gravitas, and laughed nervously. “Y- Yeah, heh heh, that’s me.”

Nightmare Moon shifted, and the movement of her mane sent a little cascade of sparkles off her shoulders. “You are in kindred company, even if you were expecting another. You have nothing to fear, though I ask you wait your turn. So please, sit.” This time it sounded less like a request and more like an order.

Fleetfoot took the offered chair and sat. The cautious joy of freedom was erased by mixed terror and burning curiosity. She was racing to fit things together in her head, and myriad boxes were getting ticked: Why was the mare in the moon gone? Why had Celestia fled south and what had killed her? What had brought on the Eternal Night? The answer to all of that was staring at her.

“You and I have much to talk about, Lady Fleetfoot.” Nightmare Moon’s rough voice was not suited for the polite affectations she was attempting. “Let me finish with my boy-” The black alicorn motioned to Wreath, and as her leg strayed into the moon beam from the window, Fleet could see the steel horseshoe burned into the flesh of her hoof. “Then I will have all the time in the world for you.”

“Hee hee, thanks.” Fleetfoot peeped, then shut her mouth.

Satisfied, Nightmare Moon shifted her gaze back to the stallion, and the room grew even colder. “You were saying.” She snarled.

“I was just trying to say, Lady Ancepanox, that I didn’t mean to eat her.” Wreath said apologetically. “I just got so caught up in the moment. She’d really abused me. I wanted to show that I wasn’t cowed.”

“That’s about the lamest excuse ever.” Nightmare Moon was not having it. “It is not your place or your right to despoil an alicorn body.”

Wreath nibbled his lip, formulating a protest.
“I want to see you explain yourself on this one, my lady. What you did to Celestia and Luna was far beyond what I did to Agana.”

“I am attuned to Celestia and Luna. They are not gone. They lived, live, will live. But Agana was a living relic. She was fragile. What secrets were contained within her, from her biological construction to her magic, are now lost. I may have even been able to rebuild her. Besides-” The voice of Ancepanox dipped into a growl. “You need no reason other than I say so.”

“You say so?” Wreath asked.

“I’m not going to humor you with aged philosophies. I don’t claim a divine right of kings, or enlightened benevolent despotism, or any such. Not between us. You’re going to listen to me because I’m better than you, and if you don’t, there will be consequences. That’s the way of alicorns, when all pretense is stripped away: Domination.”
Ancepanox reached towards the stallion again, almost touching his chest with her steel-capped hoof. “Do you think you’re better than an alicorn, Ripple Wreath?”

Ripple Wreath spoke with a cavalier tone bordering on disrespect. “I’m better than one alicorn, and while that prize is shared with you my lady, I won’t downplay the accomplishment. It is to your honor I triumph over-.”

“That knightly prattle impresses no one.” Moon scoffed.

Wreath rolled his eyes. “Tell me what I should be sorry for, and I’ll adjust myself appropriately.”

“Don’t eat alicorns. Period. You should have known better.” Ancepanox said. “Apologize immediately.”

Wreath sighed. “Okay well, screw me then. I’m sorry, my lady. But I wasn’t myself!”

Ancepanox went silent for a time.
“You say you weren’t yourself. Who were you then? Though you have a dark taint within you, it is unitary with your being. It is your responsibility to control it.” She lectured. “No excuses. I won’t punish you this time, but even if you transform again I will hold you fully culpable for your actions. Wolf or pony, it doesn’t matter.”

Fleetfoot could not bare her silence any longer. “You... transformed?” She asked the stallion Wreath.

“Hell yeah, I was a big wolf!” Wreath grinned in remembered pride. “As big as this room. Teeth as big as your head!”

“Did you use that power at the plaza?” Fleet ventured.

“Kinda. I used the dark, but I wasn’t stressed enough to fully transform. I did teleport through shadow instinctually, which was cool.” Wreath boasted. “This is an amazing feeling, knowing I’m a superior being to nearly every pony in this city, and at the mere cost of ‘hunting’ every once in a while.”

“Show some humility. This power comes from the combined dreams of Ponykind. They are your mothers as much as I am.” Nightmare Moon batted at him lightly with a wing.

“Yes ma’am.” Wreath said with a grumble.

Moon cast an eye to Fleet. “I can see your line of thinking, but he is not afflicted in the same way you are. His soul is immured by Dark. Yours was cauterized by it.”

Fleetfoot shook her head. That didn’t explain anything.

“If you’re talking to her, are we done?” Wreath asked of Nightmare Moon.

Moon smiled thinly. “If you remember the lesson.”

Wreath bowed his head. “It’s taken to heart. I promise.” He scooted back from the edge of the bed, removing himself from the conversation.

Nightmare Moon turned to Fleetfoot, shifting to her hooves and moving even deeper into the shadow.

“So uh…” Fleet tried to keep the room from settling into oppressive silence. “You seem to know a lot, um, Lady Ancepanox. Err, Lady Moon. Uh, which would you prefer? Because he called you one…” She trailed off, as the dark alicorn sat down less than hoof away, towering over Fleet physically.

“Is your bond partner listening right now?” Ancepanox asked.

Fleet chewed her lip. “I- I don’t know. She’s been silent th-”

“What’s the limit of the bond? When you dream, is she there? Do you dream in the same shape as her?”

“Um, I haven’t dreamed since the ritual thing.” Fleetfoot glanced around the room. That was a lie of course, but what she’d had where the most stark and terrifying nightmares imaginable, the like of which she would not even allow herself to remember. Had Gnash been in the nightmares? She couldn’t recall.

“Do you remember the sensations you experienced when our esteemed Astral Nacre bestowed the bond?” Nightmare Moon pressed, her tone staying into sarcasm.

“That’s- That’s indecent! It was a very painful experience.” Fleetfoot protested.

“Do you have any way to describe or explain it? Come on. What would you say to a complete stranger.” Moon fidgeted. “Come now, come now. Don’t you have anything to say?”

Fleet, through the utter intimidation and fear of the alicorn, felt a telltale tingle at the back of her skull, and a fuzzy numbness in her limbs. Rain Gnash had started feeling through the bond.

Nightmare Moon, on some level, detected it too. Her glowing purple eyes locked with Fleetfoot’s. “Our dear Astral Nacre is a bit clueless sometimes, but what a fascinating thing she has done.” She moved closer.
“Yes, her magic is not as useless in dream manipulation as she thinks. The subtle work… I’ve really grown to appreciate it. Two separate dreams, forged into one. The seams where there has been hammering, welding, polishing… it's immaculate”

“Immaculate?” Fleet whimpered.

“The existential pains you’re experiencing are not the fault of shoddy work. It’s just what happens when incompatible minds are pushed together. See, if they were harmonious, they would join in power, as during the ritual.” Nightmare Moon noted. “Astral Nacre was trying to recreate the process of her birth, a process of creation. That is her consistent, elusive goal.”

“If you’re going to talk about Astral, she should probably be here.” Ripple Wreath pointed out.

Moon shook her head. “I don’t want to talk to her yet. She has been too busy with Twilight Velvet’s novel little knights anyway.”

Wreath shrugged.

“Fine, sooner rather than later, I will talk to her. I have something to do first.” Moon said with a strange, almost lascivious delight. “We represent a broad spectrum of the Dark: You, me, Fleetfoot here, and Astral Nacre. Between us no secret will remain safe.”

“I don't understand, nor do I want to.” Fleetfoot muttered. “All do respect, your ladyship, but I have no stake in whatever it is you’re talking about. I just want to get cured.”

Moon sniggered. “That’s what we’re talking about. A cure. A cure to many things, actually.” She opened her mouth, as if she were about to launch into a speech, but caught herself, and just smiled. “Stick around. We’re fitting company, no?”

“You can’t keep her in Canterlot against her will.” Ripple Wreath pointed out. “And you’re not even consulting the pony on the other side of the bond. Seems like they should have some input too.”

“She’s not going to refuse.” Moon laughed dismissively.

Fleet was not sure if she preferred when the alicorn was brooding in the shadows or the unnerving laughter that would not stop. “Well…”

Moon continued. “Where else can she turn? Whom else in Equestria will bother to care, comfort, or save her?”

Wreath shrugged and went back to staring at the ceiling.

Fleetfoot, no stranger to stressful life-and-death situations, was slowly pushing past her fear to formulate a plan. She had to negotiate her way out of the room, or she was going to be taken in by the cold purple eyes that didn’t blink.
“I can’t stay in Canterlot. That massacre in front of Canterlot Castle-”

“Hey, I understand.” Moon interrupted. “Death, politics, that’s all anxiety inducing. It’s not fun to be around. Tell you what, Lady Fleetfoot... When I leave I take you with me. Wreath, you can stay with Astral a little while longer.”

Wreath struggled not to act disappointed. “As you wish my lady.”

“Don’t be glum. I think you have a lot to learn from her as regards your transformation. You’d make the ideal subject for her to practice her dream magic too.” Moon said. “Oh don’t give me that look. We’re all trying to do the right thing here.”

“She’s going to be upset you’re making decisions without her.” Wreath said. “But I think she will eventually agree with what you decide.”

“Now you’re getting it.” Moon nodded.
Both Moon and Wreath made amused noises.

“What’s the plan for the rest of the evening?” Wreath asked.

“I have to look for something in the city.” Moon said, and left it at that. “At some point I’ll talk to Astral. There’s no way I can search Canterlot Castle without her knowing anyhow. Depending on how things go, I will leave the city at the end of the week with Lady Fleetfoot. We’ll go from there.”

Wreath nodded “Very good. Whenever Astral shows back up, I’ll tell her about-”

“Stop. Stop. All of you stop.” Fleetfoot stood up and kicked her chair away. “I’m not down with you ponies. I’m not your ally, or even your pal. I’m not going anywhere with any of you.” The throbbing pain at the back of her head was becoming insufferable. Gnash, though not emoting anything through the bond, was watching intently. “I’m a Cloudsdale knight! I have a fundamental ideological opposition to your goals! We’re diametrically opposite!”

The smirk vanished from Nightmare Moon’s face. She sighed. With a certain annoyed laziness, she turned back to face Fleetfoot. They stared down for several moments, before Moon’s horn lit up with deep blue-purple magic and Fleet was lifted into the air by the scruff of her neck.
“Then why the hell do you think you can get a boon from us?” The dark alicorn rumbled. “Why do you think you can receive the goods without paying for them?”

Fleetfoot squeaked. “On credit?”

The alicorn snorted. “On credit.” She paced a little circle in the dark room, dragging Fleet by the scruff. “Nopony gave me credit while I was fighting to where I am. I was fought tooth and nail and I still won out. You’d think I would expect the same resilience from others.” She knelt down, purring. “But I’m made of steel, and you’re not.”

Fleet tried not to gawk at the blue armor glinting in the moonlight. “Yes my lady.” She whispered.

Moon carried Fleet out of the room. “Good night Wreath.” She called back to the earth pony, before shutting and locking his door. She continued on towards Fleetfoot’s room. "Truth be told, I don’t have the tools to cure you yet. That secret lies out of reach.”

“But…” Fleet mumbled.

“I believe the Ritual is itself a mimicry of a greater kind of harmony. Astral Nacre is copying a copy. If I uncover the full power of Harmony, there is no doubt I could cure you.” Nightmare Moon said, grinning. She let Fleetfoot stand and trot the last few steps into her own room. “With Harmony, many powers would be mine.”

Fleetfoot thought for a while. “I think Twilight Velvet is after the same thing.”

“And so are the Stars, and so is Sparkle, and so are other unknown actors. Everypony is chasing after Harmony whether they realize it or not.” Moon said. “It is like the last moments before the destruction of the ancient alicorns: The power lies before us, and we may attempt to claim it, or maybe we will be destroyed.”

“Right…” Fleet glanced away. The feeling of Rain Gnash watching had receded. The link was getting muddied again. Fleet felt doubly frustrated and used now. “I’m going to go to bed.”

“Do.” Moon bowed. “Until next time.”
The black alicorn reared up, and for a terrifying moment Fleetfoot was afraid she was going to be crushed, but Nightmare Moon covered herself with her wings and disappeared in a shimmer of shadow and deep purple magic.

In the immediate aftermath, Fleetfoot fell back on her bed and wondered if she had been dreaming. The longer the lay, the more her thoughts went back to prying at the psychic link, trying to get any response at all from Gnash, any sign she was heard.
Fleet did not get a response.
Fleet was starting to feel very unwanted and, in turn, having the simmering resentment in her belly burn ever more painfully.

When Sel Lech arrived at the flashpoint the shootout had reached a lul, both sides realizing they weren’t accomplishing much.
One of the last groups of rebel militiaponies had barricaded themselves into one of the many decaying tenements in the Inner City. This particular one was surrounded by shorter buildings, giving the rebels a clear view of the approaches. In the dead of night it was hard to see anything, let alone ponies creeping at windows nearly a hundred hooves up. But the darkness cut both ways, and Sel could safely get to friendly lines without being shoot at.

On the regime side, a few barricades had been built to give safer firing positions. The purple knights had been joined by a group of local volunteers, who were helping plink at the building with their personal guns. Sel didn’t know who these new allies were, but they looked like commoners, and Inner City natives to boot. Why these reclusive and usually apolitical slum dwellers were helping the authorities escaped Sel. Some of them gave Sel dirty looks- Were they the same ponies who had been hurling accusations at him during the Council of Ponies?

“Captain.” One of the purple knights galloped to him. The knights had ditched their gleaming silvery plate armor with the garish purple capes, to wear something lighter but no less practical in a fight: Slim cuirasses with bulletproof reinforced breastplates, worn over a thick buff coat, with a barred helmet and metal horseshoes. The ensemble revealed more around the knights’ faces, but not enough to reveal the discolorations and stitching that began just below the throat. Just in case, the knights wore dark capes that covered their hindquarters past the buff coat.

“The Old Town has been cleared out. The remaining rebels have dispersed throughout the Inner City.” Sel didn’t know why he was explaining anything to the essentially egoless knight. They didn’t even have names unless, like the incident in the plaza, they were miraculously recognized from their past life. “If we loosen our cordon, the remaining committed rebels may try to get into the tower. Then all the fish will be in the same barrel.”
Sel had ditched his armor for a very light coat. With all the running he’d been doing he would have been well past exhaustion if he’d worn more. Still with how cold the night was getting he wished he’d worn something thicker, like the knights. “Then, once we’re sure the rest of the city is clear, every available pony can help storm the building.”

“Yes captain, but…” The knight hesitated. “What if the rebels inside the tower escape out instead? Have you consulted Lady Velvet about this plan?”

Sel was both amused and annoyed to be second-guessed by a robot. “Yes I’ll admit we don’t have the ponypower to fight a guerrilla war in the row houses, unless our friends want to help.” Sel nodded to the volunteers squatting at the barricade. “I’ll start consulting the higher-ups if the plan goes wrong. And it won’t be Lady Velvet, It will be Lady Astral.”

“Yes captain. I will pass word along. We will try to be conspicuous about where we leave the gaps.” The purple knight said.

“Good lad.” Sel nodded. While the knight galloped off, Sel crouched at the barricade to get a better look at his volunteer allies.
The closest mare was wearing a big black jacket over a laborer’s outfit, topped off with a wrinkle cap. She cradled a worn jezail, a gun so long it poked above the barricade. “Hello mis.” Sel greeted quietly.

“Good evening yer worship.” The mare grunted, barely bothering to make eye contact.

“That’s a very interesting weapon.” Sel noted. “You look comfortable with it.”

“He and I got familiar in Griffany.” The mare said, turning the jezail to show off the intricate metalwork. Sel couldn’t quite make it out in the meagre light but there was what looked like a row of notches scratched into the grip.

Griffany veteran was a special caste of Equestrian expat, usually mercenaries or ideologically driven vigilantes. “Huh. Take part in some wars then?”

The mare rolled her eyes as if to say ‘duh’. “A couple.”

“Any in particular?”

“Out east mostly.” The mare said.

East Griffany, the most dysfunctional and violent region of a dysfunctional and violent continent. However very mercenaries made it out that far, sticking mostly to the wealthier western and Kestrel regions.
Which meant the mare was probably a radical revolutionary who volunteered with the warbands and communes in that region. Griffany exiled any griffin with even suspected egalitarian or democratic views to the East and over time they’d formed their own societies, to engage in bloody border clashes with with feudal states, raiding nomads, or colonial expeditions.
Sel felt uneasy being near such a mare, even if she was on his side. Revolutionaries by and large hated nobles, hated the government, and most of all hated the guards. But it occurred to Sel that most of Twilight Velvet’s victims so far were nobles, imperial officials, and guards.
“Good looking out, mis. We’ll give these bourgeois bastards a rough time of it.” Sel said.

“Course we will, your worship. Now bundle off. You’ll draw attention.” The mare hissed at him.

Sel took the message, moving away to the next barricade. It looked like the same story. Most of the volunteers he saw were commoners in the same black jackets who had brought their own weapons. “This is weird. I have to ask Lady Velvet about this.”

“Captain, we being flanked!” Some pony yelled from across the street.
Less than a second later, deafening gunfire erupted from behind and above them.

“Damn!” Sel threw himself to the ground, bruising his stomach on the worn cobble. “The rebels are coalescing on us!” He did not relish being unexpectedly shot at for the second time in a day.

The volunteers were cool under fire. The repositioned to get better cover on their barricades and returned fire, their mix-and-match of weapons sending lead balls into the upper stories of the nearby buildings.
A few minutes later, the firing wound down again. Another lul.

“Did you see where the ambushers were?” Sel whispered to the volunteer mare.

“That row house with the boards on the ground floor I think.” The mare kept her attention down the crude sight of her jezail. “They’re not going to stay there for long if they have any sense.”

Sel signaled to the nearest knights, and three of them sprinted towards the indicated building, hopping from cover to cover. Sel waited a few seconds to see if anyone fired on them before he followed. They four, Sel and the three knights, pressed themselves against the wall of the boarded up row house.
“We have to be quick. Note if they have an officer, because he might know their plans.” Sel hissed. “Go!”

The first knight turned and bucked the boarded-up window, sending an explosion of splinters into the dark ground floor. Yelps of confusion rang out, which quickly turned to aggression and panic as the other knights jumped through the gap, their dark capes fluttering, and began cutting rebels down.
Sel counted a few seconds and jumped through the door, flanking the remaining rebel and kicking a dent in his head.

“Some fled back up the stairs, the others through the back door!” A knight yelled.

“You two go after the runners.” Sel said. He galloped to the stairway to the upper floor, but a poorly aimed shot blasted apart the step near his hoof, and he retreated back around the wall. “They’re know we’re coming.” He muttered. The knight that had stayed with him waited for his order. “Know any magic?”

“Her ladyship taught some of us destruction magic, myself included.” The knight reported. It wasn’t clear if he meant Astral or Velvet, not that it mattered.

“Set the stairs on fire. We can’t get bogged down here.” Sel said. “Do that and rendezvous back at the barricades.” The order given, Sel galloped for the back door.
The darkened ally behind the row houses was filled with debris and garbage. The two purple knights had pounced on a few stragglers, but it looked like most of the rebels involved in the ambush had gotten away.

Fortunately, one of the stragglers had a scrap of paper tucked into his collar.
“No luck at Green Park, evacuated. Fischer’s took a mare and her foal. Trying to meet up at the tower.” The purple knight read it out.

“It’s not code. It’s very literal. They were trying to take hostages from the Inner City ponies, maybe to keep us from burning them out, maybe to promote a wider revolt.” Sel mused. “It doesn’t matter, because like I’d hoped they’re converging on the tenement.”

Echoing gunshots sounded out from the North, then from the East. These were not deliberate ambushes, Sel realized, but accidental encounters as the rebels tested the routes the regime wasn’t guarding.

By the time Sel had made it back to the barricades, his reinforcements had arrived. The knights and loyal militias had finished sweeping the Old Town, and had come to finish the fight.
Behind them, the fire in the row house had begun to burn in earnest, spreading to the upper floors. There was no screaming though. Perhaps the rebels had risked their legs and ankles and made the jump out the windows.

“Lady Velvet conveys her confidences in you.” The lead knight reported. “And she bids you good night.”

“Good night and sweet dreams to her too.” Sel said. “This is the last big point of resistance. Our forces are gathered at three points, two flanking the main entrance on this main street, one at the back. We will begin the assault very soon.”

“Except they’ve seen what you’ve got in store for them.” The volunteer mare remarked from the sidelines, nodding to the burning row house. “They’ll fight tooth and nail for the ground floor.”

“Fine by me. If they all die in the initial assault then I won’t have to burn the tenement down.” Sel said. “Divide yourselves up between the points. Swords, pistols, and blunderbusses for the assault, and arquebuses to support and suppress.” He turned to the volunteers. “You ponies will probably want to stay out of the way. There are a few good vantage points in the buildings overlooking the entrances.”

“Certainly, your worship.” The mare said. The other volunteers mumbled their agreement.

“Then let’s do it. We go in five minutes.” Sel pronounced.

Sel Lech ditched his tunic. It was time for heavier gear now, a mail hauberk to protect against grazing sword strikes, a reinforced cuirass that would provide at decent defense against shot, and a burgonet helmet. He attached his sword at his waist, but decided to take a blunderbuss as well- He was unfamiliar with the truncated gun, but he’d been told they were notorious at sea, where marines would fire them in close-quarter ship boarding actions. Time to test them out.

“Two minutes.” He announced to the ponies around him. He fixed his burgonet’s visor and slid it down. “To positions.”

The tenement was dark and silent. Now and then shadows moved by the windows as the rebels inside moved around with torches or lanterns. There were almost two-hundred ponies holed up in the building by Sel’s estimate, as many as had died during the massacre of the Estates. Last time, Sel had been a follower. Now he was in charge. He was deciding ponies’ destinies, their lives and their deaths.

Every purple knight in the city, about a hundred, plus the two-dozen volunteers, and another fifty or so loyal militia ponies, stood at arms under Sel’s command. By conventional logic, attacking a prepared position as he was would require at least three-to-one numbers. The rebels were probably leaning on that fact.
But they were about to come to a rude realization, to why their little rebellion was an inconvenience instead of a death blow for Twilight Velvet’s regime.

“One minute. Get ready!” Sel commanded. He stood tense against the wall, just out of sight of the tenement. A dozen knights stacked up behind him, while other clustered at different positions, all ready to charge.

Those rebel militiaponies had been under Sel’s command too, less than a day ago. What had compelled them to revolt? Would it happen again?

“Steady…” Sel checked his blunderbuss’s powder pan. He was cocked and ready to go. “Ten… nine...”

Everypony counted the seconds together in their head, tensing. The knights drew their swords or readied their guns. The militiaponies clutched their weapons anxiously. The path to victory was clear, but there would first be violence and bloody toil. Some of them would die in service to Canterlot.

“Let’s go!” Sel bellowed. He rounded the corner and hauled ass towards the tenement. Yips and shouts from behind him as his guard jumped out of cover to follow him. Yips and shouts in front of him, as the second group began their charge to converge with him on the front door.
The first gunshots came from the volunteers, using their position in the buildings to suppress the rebels. A few shots responded, and Sel saw pony silhouettes from the flashes of the rebels’ guns.

Unlike the row house, the windows of the tenement’s ground floor were not easily accessible. There was just the one big door that led into the entry hallway. No doubt, the rebels were waiting to gun down whoever tried to come through that way.
Sel reached the tenement and pressed himself against the wall right next to the door. He checked his blunderbuss again. Moment of truth.

In one motion, Sel eased around the door frame, pushing it open and leveling the blunderbuss up the hall. It was grimy and black in the tenement, but Sel could see the glint of the light off the rebels’ guns, pointed at him from the opposite side of the hall.
“For Canterlot!” He yelled, pulling the trigger. The blunderbuss went off with a monstrous retort, sending ten lead balls hurtling into the bodies of the hesitating rebels. The effect, Sel could tell, was gruesome, for even before the screams of pain he saw the outrageous sprays of blood pass through the light.
Sel dove back behind around the door frame. A moment after, the purple knights in his group reached him, charging into the hall, firing off their own guns and closing to sword range.

On the higher floors the rebels were overcoming their shyness and were peppering the street with gunfire, or trying to counter-snipe the volunteers. The loyalist militiaponies kept their guns trained on the lower floors and picked off the rebels that tried to peek out.

“Make a ladder up!” Sel ordered. Not a literal ladder, but a pony ladder. Groups of knights bunched up under the inaccessible windows, boosting each other until one could reach and climb in. They repeated the process, pouring in through every window facing the street.

It was getting louder as the chaos escalated. Dozens of knights and rebels were locked in combat on the ground floor, as guns fired off and dying ponies screamed for help. Squeal and then a thud, as a rebel sniper fell through their window and tumbled four floors to the cobblestone.

“Hallway is clear captain!” A shout cut through the din.

Sel, just finishing reloading his blunderbuss, heeded the call and followed the next group of knights in through the entry hall. The darkness had been broken by several torches, but the light was still woefully inadequate. Yet it was enough to see unfolding battle that filled the ground floor, the knights methodically advancing through the resistance. Cries of confusion had joined other shouts, as the rebels gradually realized that yes, their on-target shots against the purple knights had not killed them, or even slowed them down. The purple knights, with bullet holes in their torso or missing chunks of their limbs, kept on the attack, heedless of their pain.
Sel wondered what it was like? How did the knights feel? Were they even conscious or was it just puppetry? He imagined the knights perceived their surroundings like a dream. How whimsical and fantastical they must have understood their new world, their new lives.

“We broke in faster than they were expecting! Secure the stairs! Trap them on the high floors!” Sel shouted out.

He fired his blunderbuss in the general direction of the rebels, but he found he couldn’t charge in. His legs wouldn’t take him forward. He blinked. The screams, the blood…
He saw it again, his sword slicing through the throats of the Speakers in the throne room. He could feel the splashes as he stepped through pools of blood to get to the next victim. The pools became a sea. He closed in on another Speaker, a mare, begging for her life. Sel stabbed her in the shoulder, then when she fell over, repeatedly stabbed her in the chest. Over and over… The murder continued around him but Sel didn’t move on from the dead mare until she was almost sawed in two.

Sel didn’t come back to his senses for some time. When the visions receded he saw he’d been pulled outside the front door and laid next to other wounded ponies. With a groan, Sel sat, up shaking off the great nausea he felt. Were Blueblood, or Aurthora, or the others haunted by that awful night, like he was? Sel knew the chaos in the tenement would join the throne room in his nightmares, yet another horrible moment that refused to to be forgot.

“Ah, captain.” One of the purple knights noticed he was awake. “The ground floor is nearly cleared. The rebels have barricaded some of the rooms as well as the stairs. We’re trying to dislodge them with guns.”

“Doesn’t matter. If we hold enough of the ground floor we can begin demolition. Move our gunpowder into the center of the building and start setting fires.” Sel ordered. He got up. “Were there any sign of hostages?”

“No sir. If there were any, they are on higher floors.”

Sel Lech sighed. “Gods have mercy on them. Make sure to bring the wounded when we withdraw.”

The denouement of the battle was quick and precise. Two large gunpowder barrels were rolled in through the entry, and the knights began to quickly retreat from the building, carrying any allies too wounded to retreat on their own. Sel led them back to the barricades, while the volunteers and miltiaponies kept up the covering fire.

Not long after, the blast. The lower floor window of the tenement bloomed red, and then the roar of the explosion and the shake of the shockwave. Fire spread upwards quickly, but before the whole tower burned the damage of the blast proved itself, and the whole structure caved into itself. A plume of wood, plaster, smoke and embers shot up into the sky as the tenement collapsed and burned. Several of the adjacent row houses caught alight, the last victims of the militia rebellion.

“Find the nearest well. Put out those fires.” Sel ordered tiredly. “Transport the wounded to the University Hospital. They’re expected.”

Sel sat back while things happened around him. The volunteers turned in their unused gunpowder and disappeared into the alleys. The loyalist militiaponies mumbled amongst themselves for a while, exhausted but proud, before trickling back towards their homes in the Old Town. The knights made quick patrols to make sure every single rebel had indeed died in the blast and subsequent collapse, then dispersed, either to continue tireless watch over Canterlot, or to retire to Astral Nacre’s workshop to be repaired.

“On the event of your success, Lady Velvet bade I confirm her congratulations.” One of the knights said.

“Yes, congratulations to me.” Sel said, smiling humorlessly. “I feel like all I did was stop a backwards slide. It’s success, but it wasn’t satisfying. Just… depressing. I don’t know. I trusted those ponies. Why did they make me do this?”

“It is the season of war, captain. We all choose our own paths.” The knight said stoically. Ironic coming from one such as him, Sel thought.

“Sure. We chose and live with the price. But can there be real choice when the consequences are so steep?” Sel cast a tired eye to the smoldering pile that had been the tenement. “It’s only an illusion of choice.” He sighed. “Well whatever. Anything else before I close the book on this one?”

“Yes sir, there is one thing I neglected to mention, captain. Lady Velvet has a list of ponies she would like you to visit tonight, after the rebels were dealt with.” The knight pulled a folded sheet of paper from his belt. “She emphasizes nothing fatal. They only need to be reminded that the law is the law.”

“The law is the law.” Sel repeated. “Sure. I’ll go around with a few boys and talk to these troublemakers in turn.” He tucked the sheet away. He looked up at the moon. “It’s late.”

“Yes sir.” The knight agreed.

“Or early depending on your perspective. I think I’ll be sleeping in. I’ve earned it.” Sel said to himself. He laughed a bit.

It was very silent, as everypony got to their somber tasks. Certainly nopony laughed along with Sel.

“...and you might say, the franchise is limited. Yes. In the Free Cities only the citizens within the tiers of land ownership can vote. But what is voting? It is common knowledge that the most productive ponies, the ponies with the most invested in the success and stability of society, make the best choices.”

The second day of the Council of Ponies was much much more subdued than the first. Velvet had not changed the rules of the event, and nothing about the stage or crowd had changed. But there were no militiaponies, and several ponies on the Council were gone, conspicuously the middle class commoners from the Old Town. A mix of nobles and Inner City commoners had replaced them, including an old earth pony with a big beard. Sel Lech was also missing, his seat being taken by some other bored-looking unicorn stallion in a uniform.
The biggest change was the atmosphere. A dark cloud hung over them from the previous day’s events. Nopony shouted up from below.

Therefore, the fat merchant speaking before the crowd went uncontested, even though almost none of them agreed with him, and even though his middle-class message had been thoroughly discredited by the militiaponies’ bungled revolt. Nopony was going to put power in the hooves of the lawyers and shopkeepers, since they had proven untrustworthy with guns in their hooves.

“To those of you yearning for a vote? Enrichissez-vous! Prove your dedication to society, and it will reward you with responsibility. In business as in politics! This is the logical conclusion of citizenship! The larger the struggle to attain the vote, the more valuable it will be to you, and the more responsibly you will use it.”
The fat merchant turned to the upper stage. “Thank you, my Prelate, for giving me this time.”

Unicorn Prelate Springwise nodded absently. “Sure.” He shifted in his seat. “Next speaker please.”

A stuffy looking noble jumped up on the stage. He pulled a sheet of paper out of his vest, which produced an audible grown from the crowd.
“The noble concerns are threefold. First, where did the legitimacy of this body come from. Empress Celestia, by her rights as divinely ordained sovereign, convened her court and all satellite institutions in accordance to holy law. That being an a priori FACT, we wonder if these decedent departures from the princess’s system are not heresy. Indeed do we contradict divine law by being here at all? Even ignoring the possibility of our trespass, we secondly consider the dangers of this court. How can there be a court without a sovereign? This whole venture strays into democracy! And we all know democracy is nothing but the onset of revolution, terror, anarchy, and the end of society!”

The speaker paused to read down his his notes.

“Lastly, and we tremble to say this, but we believe this Council of Ponies is too closely intertwined with the events of the collapse of the old, the massacre of the Estates, and the Eternal Night. We do not believe that if an impartial examination of the Eternal Night is to be made, Lady Twilight Velvet and her allies will not be the ones to make it.” He put away his notes. “Make of our warning what you will, ponies of Canterlot. Commoner and noble, we are veering away from tradition! Realize what this means to you! Yes, think on it. Think on it, all.”

There was some applause from the front rows of the crowd, where Upper Crust and her groupies were standing.

Prelate Springwise “Anypony else want to speak? We have a few minutes- Okay, looks like somepony from the back wants to speak.”

A lone commoner was pushing their way onto the stage, weathering the light jeers of the nobles he passed on them.

He began quietly.
“The days had become monotonous shadows of months past, like nothing had changed except in the minor details. Details like soldiers with purple capes patrolling the streets. Details like the abandoned and gutted Musician’s Guild, Opera House, and Canterlot Castle. Details like the hundreds of lumps in the castle gardens green, where the grass was slowly starting to regrow.
“A fog a caution and cynicism had descended over Canterlot. Lady Twilight Velvet’s presence was everywhere, so one only had to shift their gaze slightly to see a pair purple eye staring back at them.
“Where has our princess gone? Where have our princesses gone? Ask yourselves that.”

The commoner hopped off the stage and waded back out of the crowd.

“I want some of what he’s on.” Ripple Wreath laughed to himself.

Fleetfoot wasn’t as amused. “Was that guy a plant?” She glanced back at Twilight Velvet, but the Lady Regent was beginning to doze off. “Maybe. I feel foreshadowed.”

“I don’t think that’s how that word is used.” Wreath said.

With the perambulatory speeches finally out of the way, Unicorn Prelate Springwise stood up. “Everypony has said what they want to? Any further points, questions, or such?”

It was rare to get a hundred ponies in a sacred temple to be as quiet as the thousand assembled in the plaza were being.

“Okay then. The Council of Ponies can commence its originally intended role.” Springwise said. “As per announcements this morning from the Lady Regent, certain new facts about the massacre of the Estates, uncovered during the continuing unraveling of the attempted rebellion yesterday, has put necessitated pushing back the date of the case of the revolutionary conspirators in the city guard. The Lady Regent has moved them from the city dungeon to house arrest in the interim. Supervised visitation is allowed.”

This unexpected news was met by soft murmurs in the crowd. Everypony had been expecting the Council to throw the book at the revolutionaries to prove its resolve to other would-be revolts.

“As such, this council will open with the trail of Hot Take.” Prelate Springwise said. “Lady Regent Twilight Velvet brought the charges, and has agreed to personally conduct the initial questioning.”

Twilight Velvet rose from her seat. “Thank you, Unicorn Prelate.” She hopped down to the lower level of the stage. At her motion, two knights led a prisoner up from the back- Hot Take was a heavily built but otherwise average unicorn stallion, with dark blue fur and greying pink mane. His fine attire was disheveled from several days in a cell, but he’d clearly made attempts to look nice, so far as one could while imprisoned.
“Hot Take has been brought before the Council of Ponies to answer to charges of conspiracy to revolt, slander, fraud, selling outside of guild rules, tax fraud, heresy, and anti-Canterlot activities.”

The guards gave Hot Take a little space, and he dusted himself off before facing the crowd. “The Lady Regent has accused me of more things than I think I should ever be able to accomplish in my life. I am a boring stallion, a business stallion, and I stick to my business.”

“You business was information and communication, and even when boring that can be used to nefarious ends.” Velvet said. “Are you pleading Not Guilty?”

Hot Take paused for a while. “Yes my lady, I think that I shall. I assert that I am not guilty of any of those crimes.”

Twilight Velvet levitated a scroll from beside her seat. “You are a printer’s son, apprenticed with her for years, and took over the business on her death.”

“That’s the way of things.” Hot Take agreed. “I am a guild member, certified. Or I was before this strange business with suspending the guilds and clubs.”

“Yes, we can get to that later. I want to focus on your apprenticeship first.” Velvet said. “You had many dubious friends during that time, it’s said.”

“I was young and didn’t have many responsibilities, so I did what most stallions with plenty of time do.” Hot Take offered. “I had a little troupe I ran with, yes, one of many on the Old Town streets in those years. We got into all the kinds of trouble that young ponies do. I openly admit it.”

“Yes surely. But you took printing work from them.” Velvet said, more sharply. “You were uniquely positioned to amplify your friend’s voices.”

Hot Take was decided this was the point he was going to stop helping tell Velvet’s narrative. He remained silent.

“Among your friends, several notorious anti-feudal activists. They became notorious, actually, through the pamphlets they distributed. You helped print those pamphlets.”

“They weren’t illegal at the time.” Hot Take protested with a grumble.

“Not specifically. Your actions helped make them illegal.” Velvet said. “I assume that was the event that gave you a taste for the riskier side of printing and publishing.”

“That’s too vague a claim to comment.” Hot Take said.

“Then we go on.” Velvet unrolled a portion of the scroll. “Your masterpiece, which you submitted to the Printer’s Guild as proof of mastery, is this twenty foot scroll. You printed with images and embellishments reminiscent of illuminated manuscripts- it’s very well done by the way- a treste by the late political theorist Grey Matters.”

“How did you… That was in the Printer’s Guild hall.” Hot Take scowled. “They almost didn’t accept it.”

“Masterpieces are supposed to be on the mediocre side, and this is far from mediocre. If I’m not mistaken, this treste was still unpublished before you made this, which means you had direct access to Grey Matters.” Velvet continued to unroll the scroll. “This was one of the first academic works describing class and market formation in the Free Cities. You must have been enchanted by this pony telling you what you’d always been feeling, but were never able to articulate in the paradigm: You have different political motivation to the merchants, to the peasants, to the laborers. It was inadequate to lump you together as ‘commoner’.”

Hot Take was silent again.

“And so you immured yourself, as both a printer and a pony of Canterlot, into the ‘middle class’ identity. You have spent the last decades honing this style of language.” Velvet rolled the scroll back up, levitated it back to her seat, and pulled back several stacks of posters and pamphlets. “Two years ago, you started ‘Takes on Canterlot’, an unapologetic ‘middle class’ serial paper. It was in Takes on Canterlot you published the article that made the rounds last year, ‘The Artisans are Empress Celestia’s Strongest Supporters’.”

“Yes that sold well.” Hot Take admitted.

“I won’t delve into the details. I think the crowd and the Council can begin to see your motivations.”

Hot Take pursed his lips. “Motivations for what?”

“For backing what you hoped would be a quick beheading of the noble class.” Twilight Velvet smirked. “I’m not going to stand here and go through every poster and pamphlet. Knowing what you do about your own work, and inferring about which of them I might have chosen today, do you think you would be able to contest my assertion that you were rabble-rousing against the Canterlot nobility?”

“That’s a very different question than if I was was actually rabble-rousing.” Hot Take grumbled. “But no. I would not be able to contest you.”

Velvet grinned. She turned to the crowd. “The massacre of the Estates, though from what sordid corner of Canterlot the murderers bubbled, were doubtlessly inspired by an overly-permissive atmosphere, where criticism and defamation could be made without fear of retribution. Year after year of criticism of the imperial government and imperial policy might have been profitable for ponies like Hot Take, but it cost the Estates their lives.”

“I wanted reform, not revolution. This is outrageous!” Hot Take exploded, having enough of Velvet’s accusations. “I’m just a printer! Any pony observing politics as long as I have would have a record like mine. Why have you singled me out?”

Vlevet ignored him. “Would anypony like to step up and offer a defense of the accused, better than they are currently defending themselves?”

The crowd was still and silent.

Velvet chuckled to herself. She turned now to the Council of Ponies. “Is there more any of you wish to hear? Do you venture a verdict?”

Prelate Springwise leaned forward in his chair. “Umm, is the council ready to vote on a verdict? Simple show of hooves please.”

Every single hoof among the seated ponies went up.

“Keep your hooves up if you deem the accused, Hot Take, guilty.” Springwise said, throwing a glance to Velvet.

A few hooves went down, including Fleetfoot’s, but the majority were still up.

Velvet waved her purple knights over, and they took Hot Take back in hoof. “Hot Take, your press will be stewarded by the Inner Circle until your reconciliation to Canterlot. You will be held in the dungeon until completion of our reconciliation facility.”

Hot Take was dragged away, his face solemn. Everypony else was confused. What was a reconciliation facility? Many of them were expecting a pony to come up with a gun and blow away Hot Take right in front of everypony.

Velvet returned to her chair, passing the scrolls and papers she’d used as props to an awaiting servant who carried them away.

“That was exciting.” Prelate Springwise cleared his throat. “Next, the Council of Ponies will be conducting the trial-in-absentia of the deceased perpetrators of the massacre of the Estates. The crimes that destroyed the general peace will be laid bare! Exciting. Then after a break, all new indictments against ponies in connection to the Estates massacre, and in connection to yesterday’s revolt. The Lady Regent promised me that she will deliver those new names soon. In the afternoon, the trial in absentia of Princess Cadenza, for dereliction of her duties to the ponies of Canterlot. The Lady Regent has also indicated to me she may bring indictments against certain members of the Imperial Council in connection to the dereliction case. Then this evening we open up the stage for you, Canterlot, to bring forward your cases to be judged. So stick around for that everypony. You’re all being very good citizens.”

Deep below Canterlot, dark and silence. The Vacuous Arcanum was getting more visitors in the last month than it got over the course of a century, but its devouring silence retained its strength.
Nightmare Moon glided soundlessly around the crumbled remains of the shattered statue golems. They were fractured, the necromantic binding that had given them life destroyed beyond recovery or scrutiny.

To understand Celestia, holistically, her work down there in the dark was just as necessary to understand as her work up above, in the light of Canterlot. Nightmare Moon had to admit the late sun princess brought her usual level of competence and fitness to Dark work as her usual projects. Indeed the statue golems had done their job for hundreds of years, keeping Agana protected but still imprisoned. But still, they had been no good against a full strength nightmare.

A dry crunch underhoof, the grey remnants of a thick creeper vine. Moon followed it to the center of the broken statue garden. She came to the grant column, spanning floor to roof, that had served as Agana’s crucifix for nearly a millennium. All the vines spouting from that hollow column were dead and grey.
And slightly to the side of that vast pillar, the remnants of the prisoner.

“Agana… Rest in peace old girl.” Nightmare Moon, voice tinged with irony. The peacock alicorn had been mutilated nearly beyond recognition, with how Ripple Wreath had eaten into her guts. The corpse smelled very strange, not at all like rotted meat. It tempted Moon. She almost wanted to take a bite herself, or perhaps crack open Celestia’s sarcophagus and try a bite of her.

But this ancient secret was still only the very edge of the Vacuous Arcanum. A vast, deep place awaited her, in the center of the Mountain. It was called the arcanum after all, and the grave of Starswirl and Clover’s research.

“Celestia didn’t go any farther than this. Not even Celestia the First returned to the center, once she and Luna destroyed it.” Moon said, staring into the abject black, seeing nothing.
For the first time since the end of the Eternal Night, she felt afraid. She couldn’t shake the feeling of smallness facing that inscrutable dark. She could understand Celestia staying away. To venture into that lost place, a forbidden vault with the weight of a mountain, literally billions of tons of stone and earth poised overhead like an executioner’s hammer…

But she had to start somewhere.
Moon started to walk into that empty space.

She walked for a long while.

Nightmare Moon came to a stop. She looked back from the direction she’d come, but saw no sight of the towering column or the broken statues.

“Not even gods dared tread this place.” Moon said to herself. “Myriadess told me that Clover and Starswirl were trying to perfect the ritual down here. But… I don’t think that’s the whole truth. Myriadess only knew what the Twisted SInner told her. So I wonder, could there be a secret so grave that the Twisted Sinner would not tell her closest confidant? There must be. Something so unthinkable, even Anima Astral Nacre shied to speak of it.”

Moon resumed her steady stride. How unsettling it was, even for her, that no matter how far she walked nothing seemed to change. It was all the same featureless smooth black stone under her hooves, in a void that ate all light and sound.

Something was not right. Moon looked around again. Nothing there.

She kept walking.

The feeling did not go away. Moon closed her eyes, keeping her steady pace.

After who knew how long, the texture of the ground under her hooves changed.
Moon opened her eyes.

Before her, a vast arch, made of dark stone blocks quite unlike that that made the mountain. It was blocky, inelegant, but stern and sharp. It reminded Nightmare Moon of a Roanish triumphal arch, if that it lacked any carved relief images or words.

“A sign of civilization.” Moon said to herself. “Do you have a name?”

The huge arch did not answer.

Moon passed under the arch and continued on her trot.

Unexpectedly, Moon felt a tinge of discomfort in her stomach. She came to a stop, as surprised by the feeling. Was she hungry? Her stolen body should not have been able to feel hungry; It was moved by magic, not metabolism.
“I… I didn’t bring any food with me.” Moon said to herself. She had zero anticipation of needing food. She’d spent the last week since the end of the Eternal Night on no sleep, no food, no water, and had felt perfectly fine for it.
“Do alicorns need food? Celestia did. Agana didn’t seem to, and neither did Luna. Myriadess obviously didn’t.”

The questions she had couldn’t deflect from the fact that Nightmare Moon was definitely feeling hungry. Hunting pony dreams wasn’t going to satiate this hunger.
And yes, while Moon was frustrated, she felt a fluttering in her heart. Dead mares and ghosts didn’t need to eat. Hunger was a concrete sign she was, on some level, alive.

“I am beginning to be more than just this armor.” Moon whispered. “This is my body, well and truly.” She looked back, but there was no sign of the arch she had passed.

Or maybe her body was betraying her, lying to her, trying to keep her from going any farther into the accursed depths.

There was nothing for it. She had to retreat to the surface, get better prepared, and try again. Moon encased herself in magic and teleported back to the surface. Making a brief burst of light in the dark that flashed like a beacon across the vast empty cavern. Till it faded, and dark returned.

Sel Lech waited in Castle Magoria’s garden, enjoying the cool night air. True to his word, he’d woken up late, but after that he’d had a full day’s worth of errands and tasks, cleaning up the aftermath of the revolt. The running street battles in the Old Town hadn’t caused much damage, but most of the rebels had been from Old Town families, and tensions were running high there. Even more in the Inner city, where the attempted hostage taking and burned tenement had deeply upset them, but then again the impoverished poor ponies were used to being abused.

Fortunately, the revolt hadn’t fomented a wider revolt. By Sel’s reckoning, Canterlot was sick and tired of drama. They just wanted peace and order, and were proving very receptive to what Twilight Velvet and co were selling them.

That’s why there was a dinner being held that night at Castle Magoria, for Velvet’s Inner Circle to celebrate a the first successful day of the Council of Ponies. The day’s victims counted as such: Hot Take, several old imperial military officers, a couple imperial bureaucrats, and a few others had been decided guilty. Law had been laid down for all to see.

Sel had rushed to the castle as soon as he’d been notified of the dinner, but come to find out nopony else was there yet. Velvet’s maid had told him everypony else was still up by Canterlot Castle, running errands before dark. So, Sel waited. Castle Magoria’s cozy inner garden felt strangely lonely, and it took a moment for Sel to pin why: No Foaly Flux. The late duke laughter, his jokes, and his banter had given the garden the atmosphere Sel was used to. Now it felt as barren as the dead tree at the center.
If it were possible to bring about Twilight Velvet’s new world without killing a single pony, Sel would have. This emptiness and loneliness from the absence of the ponies you knew and cared for was a sickly feeling that wore at one’s sanity. Now with the casualties from the revolt added to the massacre of the Estates, almost four-hundred ponies had died in Canterlot. Add to that the massacre at the Musician’s guild, five-hundred. And to take into account the destruction of the Cloudsdale fleet, almost a thousand! That was a thousand homes missing a loved one, many thousands of ponies mourning the loss of a friend or companion.
Sel sighed. Great change was not for the light hearted. He promised himself he would become a pony worthy of the responsibility placed on him. One day at a time, he would steel his heart to idle thoughts and, like Velvet, become the uncompromising tool of the new vision of the future.

“Captain Sabornord.” A familiar psychic voice sounded in Sel’s head. Astral Nacre descended from the darkening skies, landing in the dead tree at the center of the garden. “Have you killed any ponies today?”

Sel had not interacted much with Astral Nacre since the Eternal Night ended. Velvet and the others claimed she had mellowed slightly from her behavior, whatever that meant. Sel was understandably still off-put by her. “Yes my lady. I did not relish it. Something weird has been going on. Ponies I thought I could trust tried to destroy me any my liege. It’s like they went crazy.”

“Nopony has been able to explain what that word, ‘crazy’, means to them. They say it’s when a pony is not acting right, because of a disturbance in their brain. Aren’t all thoughts caused by disturbances in the brain? I don’t think there’s any difference between one or the other. It's all distortion and fire in there. But ponies want to write off behavior they can’t explain, or maybe behavior they don’t like, and call it insane.” Astral said.

“Yes my lady.” Sel nodded, not really paying attention to her words.

“Up till now, the militiaponies you thought were loyal happened to have that one particular disturbance in their brain, which chugged along and made them act how you wanted. Then, for some reason or perhaps no reason at all, that disturbance in their brains changed, and they became disloyal.”

“I appreciate your perspective, Lady Astral. However, I hope there are other answers that can keep it from happening again.” Sel Lech said, his best euphemism for calling out useless drivel.

Astral’s furless flesh rippled as she effected a shrug. “I have been short on time these last few days, but I could help you. Bring the dead militiaponies to me and I will investigate.” She pawed at the air, mimicking digging into something. “It won’t hurt to look. A quick peek inside those ponies, and perhaps the cause of the rebellion will reveal itself.”

“Umm…” Sel shivered to imagine Astral Nacre tearing open the corpses and rummaging around in them, pointlessly trying to find a biological reason for very psychological motivations. “I’ll send one along if I think I can get away with it. I’m already under a lot of scrutiny. The relatives of the dead are not pleased at all.”

Astral’s tendril tail flicked around idly.

Sel cleared his throat. “I heard you have started working out of Canterlot Castle. Is that where I should send the bodies?”

“Yes, behind the barracks entrance. I have taken one of the modest cupboards near the alchemy laboratory to be my office.” Astral said. “If the knights there rebuff you, tell them I sent you.”

“I was going to delegate, but sure.” Sel leaned back into the grass. As tempted as he was to see where Astral was doing her grisly work, her having been more or less evicted from the Opera House, he knew better. “I’ve got to ask though… The purple knights… You’ve had nearly a hundred percent success rate with them. I mean, they were barely able to walk before, and now they can walk, talk, and fight! That’s a lot of improvement. How did you do it?”

Astral bristled. “It is not very difficult to create a pony out of a pony. I could make a working pony out of sticks and mud if I wanted! Make no mistake, I will go back to trying to create perfection once I train my skills and magic. Call those works zombies or lobotomites if you wish, but to me they were evidence of unwavering resolve to built to ultimate truth.”

Sel knew he wasn’t going to get an answer. He didn’t care that much anyway. The purple knights Astral had made were seemingly beyond reproach, loyal and strong, if not that smart or skilled. They would last beyond militias and allies of convenience. “I apologize if I caused offense, Lady Astral.”

“Hmm.” Astral grunted.

From the opposite side of the garden came the creak of the gates opening. Blueblood and Aurthora had arrived. Blueblood locked eyes with Sel from across the garden, hesitated, but continued at Aurthora’s urging.

“Exciting day today?” Sel asked lazily.

“Old Canterlot has been buried! We have begun building the new Canterlot.” Aurthora said smugly. “The rest of Equestria will come to destroy what we are building, and they might even exile us from our city for a time. It won’t matter, because this is the day we won!”

Blueblood seemed less enthusiastic. “The nobles are restless. Upper Crust is trying to hold them together to assert political pressure, but other want violence. They don’t know what happened yesterday any more than we do, but they sure think it massively weakened us.”

“Nothing could be further from the truth.” Sel remarked. Like Velvet had ordered him, he had gone around to everypony on her list and intimidated them. It was nothing violent, or even impolite, just that when Sel arrived with a gang of knights to inform you that you’re on the Lady Regent’s list, fresh off killing hundreds of rebels, the intended meaning got across. Sel could say with confidence most of the ponies he’d talked to would not need a second visit.
And the stubborn ones would face the Council of Ponies sooner or later.

“I hope so.” Blueblood kicked at the ground, his eyes darting around. “Sel… I have to ask you, stallion to stallion, did you stage the militia revolt?”

Sel arched a brow. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“I’d know better than try it.” Blueblood was clearly very nervous. “The Blackhorn militia was my coat rack since before Lady Velvet recruited me. Provoking them to revolt and destroying them has orphaned me. Sel… I…” Blueblood nibbled his lip. “I don’t feel good about my chances one you actually start acting on your resentments for me.”

“I don’t resent you. I just think you’re a prick with no redeeming qualities.” Sel scoffed.

“I want to remedy that.” Blueblood said. “I don’t want this to turn into a fight.”

“Then you surrender?” Sel asked.

“Don’t be an ass. I’m trying to play nice here.” Blueblood sighed. “I don’t want you breathing down my neck while I’m building a new network.”

Sel did not know why the pretentious prince was admitting his weakness. Did Blueblood think being humble was going to get him credit at this point?
“Want my friendship? Then when the time comes, you will be taking the fall for the murder of those Inner City commoners at Canterlot Castle.” Sel leaned forward. “You’ll survive it. You might not even see in inside of a cell. But you’ll take that fall. Hell, it might even boost your reputation with your noble friends.”

Blueblood blinked rapidly, his lip curling in frustration. “Cretin. You make ONE mistake, maybe the only mistake you’re fully responsible for… And you try to wash your hooves of it? Do you think you can erase your sin by foisting it on me?”

“We will see, won’t we.” Sel said.

Blueblood sucked in a breath, clucked his tongue, and shook his head. “Not today, Sel. You hold onto that for now. I thought we could be buddy-buddy. Clearly I have to watch my back.”

“You should have known that yesterday.” Sel smiled. “Do better, my prince.”

Aurthora, awkward to see infighting among her friends, sidestepped Sel and made for Castle Magoria’s keep. “Umm, you stallions play nice, please. Don’t compromise your duties to Canterlot.”

Blueblood looked like he had more to say, but he turned away, following Aurthora inside.

Sel tapped his hoof, casting a glance to Astral Nacre, still sitting in the tree. “Do you find pony games interesting?”

“Politics? No. May the stars be willing, you ponies will evolve past those things.” Astral croaked.

Sel laughed at this. “Not before I get better practice. One day, I’m going to be as clever at it as Lady Velvet?”

“To do what? Do you have a reason?” Astral asked. “Is there somepony you want to torture? Is there a policy or ideology you want to enforce? I’m not being smarmy here, I genuinely want to know. What drives you ponies?”

Sel Lech stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles in his uniform. “Hmm. What can I say. I just like the aesthetic of power. The actual politics of power are secondary. I think you can strip down the flash and glamour of most ambitious ponies and see the same thing. This pony empire wasn’t built on charity. We were all nominally slaves to Celestia, our hierarchical better, but we were never under any illusion. Our society was a contrivance to help the god princess sleep well at night.” Sel shrugged. “I don’t want to reshape the world, beyond what Lady Velvet asks of me. In the long run, however, I know there’s no way to be truly safe from the whims and cruelties of the ponies on the top of the hierarchy, unless you are that one on top. All this is just… a preemptive strike. I’m just protecting myself.” He trotted to the keep. “So, to answer you question, no, I have no ideology I want to enforce, because being in charge is my ideology.”

Astral stared at him.

Sel chuckled at her silence. “See you inside, my lady.” He pushed open the heavy keep door and let it clank closed behind him.

Astral Nacre sat in the tree for a while longer, thinking on Sel’s words. “I’m not sure I like ponies. They think too much. … Upsetting. Many of them don’t actually know what they want. They flail… ignorantly. Does Velvet feel the same way I do? Her master plan, at the end of it all, is to clear away that pony ignorance.”
She rumbled out a sigh. “Do I even know what I want?”

She felt a chill breeze swirl in the night air. Astral looked up into the night sky just in time to see the moon’s pale light flicker and dim.
It became very quiet.

Astral felt a glow of magical energy from behind her. Somepony had come to answer her questions.
“Lady Ancepanox. I was waiting for you to call on me.” Astral twisted her head around like an owl, to where the black alicorn was standing on the castle battlements.

“I had other preoccupations. Also, if you would please, address me by my title. Titles are important.” Nightmare Moon said rhaspily. The nightmare alicorn looked subtly different from the last time Astral had seen her. Her coat was smoother and more lustrous. Her mane glowed slightly, resisting the tug of gravity as it curled at her shoulders. Most interesting was her eyes, changed from the turqoise it had been into a glowing blue-purple.

“I hope you haven’t decided I’m beneath your attention.” Astral chirped. She felt stirrings of jealousy- The black alicorn answered to no pony or responsibility. Meanwhile Astral Nacre knew herself to be a pawn in Twilight Velvet’s politics… Games, as Sel had put it. Games you ‘play nice’ at. Or not. Indeed, Astral felt like she was being held back so lesser beings could have their fun with their games.

“For good or for ill, alicorns will always be within my notice.” Nightmare Moon said, striding slowly along the wall. “Especially you, Astral. You’re my sister, in a way. But so young, and with such strange views. I feel like it’s my responsibility to steer you to the right path.”

“I want to learn from you, but not like that.” Astral bowed her head. “Your mind works more like a pony’s.”

“Exactly.” Moon nodded.

Astral wasn’t sure what Nightmare Moon was getting at. “I was born to guide ponykind’s ascension. I intend fulfill my promise. If I didn’t it would be negligent.”

“That’s the big problem with alicorns, isn’t it. They literally can not conceive of themselves as anything other than moralkind’s stewards. For as long as alicorns and mortals have known about each other, we’ve been presuming to guide and shape their development. Even the extinction of the entire ancient alicorn race didn’t stop the manipulations! The arrogance is noxious.”

Astral cocked her head. Moon was hitting at all the doubts she’d been harboring. “Ancepanox, has something changed with you?”

“Yes. I became a dreamer.” Moon nodded. “Alicorns aren’t born with dreams. In fact, I’ve been told before that they were incapable of having them, but that was obviously a lie.”

Astral found those words oddly compelling. “Do I have one?”

Nightmare Moon transfixed her with an intense stare. Astral felt a tingling at the back of her head where brain should have been. “Not yet.” Moon said finally.

Astral felt insulted, then angry, then depressed. It felt like she was being dismissed a brainless moron or some such, but the factualness of it hurt even more. She was an alicorn… She could clearly exist without a dream. Why did she feel empty without one? “Teach me.” She demanded.

“It obviously isn’t that simple. It has to be discovered, grown, found, or taken. And it can’t be just anything: Alicorn dreams don’t rest in the Dreamscape as they do for mortals. Our dreams manifest right here, in the physical world.” Moon pointed into the dark skies. “On the moon. On the sun. In the past, in the future. Inside our own eyeball! Yes, our mental power courses around and within this planet. I half think the energy we call magic is the fluid blood of some other greater dream, owned by some other alicorn dreamer far grander than we can comprehend. So like I said, it isn’t that simple.”

“Ancepanox, you should take a break from thinking about dreams. I want to talk about something else.” Astral tensely. She felt more uncomfortable by the moment, a strange feeling for her. The roles between her and Ancepanxo had flipped since the last time: She was much less confident of herself and her purpose, Ancepanox much more. “Is there something else you can teach me? We can get around to dream magic later.”

Moon thought about it. “Yes, but I won’t.”

“Why?”

“Because of what I said earlier. I feel responsible for your upbringing. There are very important things to teach you that can only be done through dreams. I wouldn’t be able to trust you with power otherwise.” Moon said.

“That is… outrageous! Who are you to decide?” Astral protested. “We made a deal. I would look after Ripple Wreath-”

“And you did a piss-poor job of it! I should have been more precise with my language, so you don’t go thinking tossing my progeny into Dark-infested caverns qualifies as good guardianship.” Nightmare Moon chided. “I judged you more capable than you were, but you’re just as much a child to the Dark as he is.”
Moon laughed mockingly. “Even I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. Have you looked up into the sky? See that moon, my namesake? Look’s kinda small against the backdrop of the dark night and stars around. I’ve been up there, and this planet looks just as small. For all our power, magic, and knowledge, we’re mere dust compared to what’s out there.”

“You are veering from insightful commentary into existential madness.” Astral joked grimly, though she could not deny how compelling it was to her that Ancepanox, her only peer on the entire planet, was telling her how they were both dust. “You will have to work hard to convince me of your new worldview.”

“In due course.” Moon teleported to the base of the tree, cocking her head up to Astral still perched in the dead tree. “You’re anxious about subordinating yourself to me. Understandable, but I would never abuse my power over you.”

“You’re asking me to trust you.” Astral grunted.

Moon nodded, her eyes glowing ever more bright. “I trusted you with my son. Can you trust me with your obedience?”

It was a tall ask. Astral Nacre, as an inherently proud alicorn, bristled at the thought of bowing down to Nightmare Moon. She’d imagined learning from Ancepanox would be conducted like a dialogue between scholars, not like student and pupil. But things had changed and Moon had leverage over her, as the dark alicorn seemed to care much less about what Astral knew than she had during the Eternal Night.
“Lady Velvet already has my loyalty first and foremost. She is my mother and my ally.”

“Sure.” Moon shrugged. “Just get down here already. I have something I want to show you.”

When Twilight Velvet arrived at Castle Magoria, her suspicion was aroused by how quiet it was. She was immediately vindicated once she entered through the mane gate and saw all the purple knights asleep at their posts. She didn’t even know they needed sleep, except for the comatose state they entered when Astral Nacre manipulated them. She poked one of the knights and they mumbled. Were they dreaming?

“We’re doing this then.” Velvet sighed. After stretching her legs and rolling her shoulders for a few seconds, she trotted through the inner gate to the castle garden.

Anticlimactically, the perpetrator had already left. Astral Nacre was alone in the garden, slouching against the lone tree. Trotting up to the alicorn, Velvet thought for a moment she was awake and watching, but she realized it was only because Astral had no eyelids. Astral Nacre was asleep too?!

Velvet looked around, scanning the battlements of the walls surrounding them. “Ancepanox!”

The black alicorn did not reveal herself. However the shouting did serve to wake up Astral Nacre, whose boney wings shivered as she roused to full consciousness.

Velvet, lips pursed, decided to let things play out naturally, so feigned ignorance. “I was worrying we would have to start the dinner without you.”

Although it was exceedingly hard to gleam any kind of emotion from Astral face, her little motion suggested she was deeply affected. “I saw a field of sand… and… a tower I couldn’t see the top of.” She rumbled, glancing up to the moon. “She left me there. But I was not alone… Something far away and incomplete spoke to me.”

Velvet nodded absently. “You can tell me about it later.”

Astral, oddly, agreed. She remained silent as she followed Velvet into the keep. But her thoughts ran at a million miles per hour, trying to hold onto the fleeting recollections of walking in a dream. Everything was so hazy.
Something had reached out to her… It wanted to be a part of her. It was powerful and bright, and promised to complement her like nothing else could.

Hundreds of kilometers away in Cloudsdale, Sunset Shimmer awoke too.
“Urg…” She gurgled, remembering the circumstances of her collapse, and the sordid visions of dead things. “At least they didn’t kill me in my sleep.”

It was the dead of night, based on the position of the moon through the small casement window. She was still on the cloud redoubt, but somepony had moved her from the floor into her bedroll.

“Good early early morning.” Gilda the griffin was crouched by the partially collapsed entrance to the small casement, twisting a talon around a broken-off stem of an air plant. “See anything interesting down there?”

Sunset groaned and sat up. The Blackhorn armor felt hot against her skin, so much that was she panting in the cold night air. “I was… I was back home.”

“Canterlot?”

“The Dreamland. The desert. The base of the Tower.” Sunset whispered. “My princess was there too.”

Gilda’s latent frown deepened. “The real one, or the one you’ve trapped in that armor?”

Sunset dropped her gaze. “I…”

“Whatever.” Gilda grunted. She stood up. “The pegasus went up to the city to prepare things. I suggest we get out of this place as soon as possible too. I know a few good holes in Cirrus you can hide. Then we never see each other again.”

“Wait.” Sunset piped up. “You’re skilled and knowledgeable.”

“And smart enough to know to get the buck away from you.” Gilda growled. “I’m not helping your plans.”

“The answer… I saw it in the desert.” Sunset trotted past Gilda into the redoubt courtyard, to stand under the pale moonlight. “I thought Astral Nacre was an obstacle, but I see she’s part of the answer. I know how to turn two monsters into one god.”

“Motherbucker gods ARE monsters! What in the hell has ever suggested to you that this planet is better off with divine alicorns strolling around?” Gilda groaned in frustration. “You’re beyond hope.”

"Please listen! With your help and insight, I could do it right this time. I can make sure my princess will exist for the good of ponykind.” Sunset said earnestly. “The answer lies with Astral Nacre.”

“The problem was never that you didn’t have a sufficiently virtuous alicorn, or that your damn ritual wasn’t pure enough. The problem was in the very premise. Didn’t anyone ever tell you what alicorn meant? Ali-corn? Those aliens will never be our allies.” Gilda said. “Letting them rule you is even more contradictory. I’m surprised it took this long for Celestia to die and her little empire to break.”

Sunset sighed. “We can coexist. We want to be together.”

Gilda’s pinched the bridge of her beak, trying to keep herself from yelling. “At this point, I feel like I have a moral obligation to kill you. You’ll destroy the entire planet if I don’t.”

“You’re giving me a lot of credit.” Sunset cracked a sly smile.

“Hmph.” On the flip side, Sunset was pushing buttons for Gilda she’d forgotten she had. Confident, sassy at times, ambitious and driven… Sunset Shimmer had markings of being Gilda’s type. But Sunset also had that repulsive apologetic instinct of a guilty conscious. If the unicorn was more brazen, Gilda might have actually liked her more.
“I have to give you some credit. You’re essentially a self-made mare. You’re nopony’s daughter, or experiment, or chosen by fate. You earned what you have.” Gilda remarked. “I mean, besides that you were a noble.”

“Thank you.” Sunset took the complement.

“So I’ll tell you what…” Gilda mentally marked this moment, for she predicted she would come to regret it. “You’re totally right that I have the potential to save your project. It’s really the only alternative to killing you.”

“Then I guess the next few seconds will decide if I get my head twisted off, or if we start packing things up to move into Cirrus district.” Sunset said.

Gilda and Sunset stared at each other for a good minute.

“I’ll show you the best hideout spots first thing in the morning.” Gilda said solemnly. “Then I to go to Canterlot. I need to see Twilight Velvet’s alicorn for myself.”

“Cheers.” Sunset broke into a big grin. “This is going to be epic.”

“Whatever.” Gilda grunted. “Go back to sleep. Maybe you’ll have another revelation about how you should call this whole thing off.”

“Will do.” Sunset nodded. She took in the moonlight for a few more moments and withdrew back into the casement. “By the way, what did you do with that dead stallion?”

Gilda gave a little shrug. The griffin curled up on the floor, tucking her head under a wing for her own nap.

“Right.” Sunset returned to her bedroll, to try to recapture that vision of a desert, where truths and possibilities were whispered on the wind.

Hours passed, the Sun rose.

Nightmare Moon watched the proceedings of the Council of Ponies from a high window of the Canterlot Castle. From that distance the ponies looked like ants, and the stage like an anthill. There was no way to hear what they could have been saying, but it looked like more trials were being held.

“Pageantry.” Moon remarked.

Losing interest in watching the ants, Moon continued on to what she was really there for: The library. From her first hours in her alicorn body, Ancepanox had wanted to delve into the deepest and most forbidden parts of Canterlot Castle library and uncover what perilous secrets Celestia had on file as to the true nature of alicorns, among other things. However, since the end of the Eternal Night, her interest in alicorns had fluctuated. Her new interest was that oft whispered word, connected with so many turning points in history, yet ever elusive and unknown: Harmony.

The crone librarian was at the front desk, moving books onto one of the carts.

“Good morning.” Moon rasped.

“Lady Sparkle, good to see you again.” The librarian turned to the voice, squirting through her spectacles. “You changed your mane again.”

“It’s been that kind of month.” Moon grinned. “I can’t thank you enough for your help last time. I found Spike safe and sound. Everything turned out okay.”

“Good to hear. I would hate to hear that boy came to any harm. He’s such a diligent learner.” The librarian nodded. “What can I help you with today?”

“I’d like to look at the catalogues for a start. May I?” Moon asked.

The librarian nodded and gestured to a nearby desk, bent under the weight of several enormous book catalogues. They contained records of the hundreds of thousands of books that filled the bookcases of the castle. Before anypony went charging into the papery maze, it was wise to consult the catalogues.
But Nightmare Moon had another reason to consult the records.

“Am I still authorized to review the checkout and return information?” Moon asked.

“By the empress’s express request.” The librarian cooed. She reached into her desk and pulled out a worn key. “Depending on how old the records you want are, they’re either in the annex behind me, or across the hall.”

“One record would be a few months old, the other about ten years. Then as far back as I can find.” Moon said.

“Good luck. Ask if you need anything. You’re our only visitor so far today.” The librarian said, returning to her sorting.

Moon flipped through the catalogue until her eyes spotted what she was looking for. ‘The Elements of Harmony’, under E. It was funny that such powerful tomes were listed alongside such mundane titles as ‘Elements of Air, Oxygen Theories’ and ‘The Elements of Success’.

Elements of Harmony, Volume I: Magic and Power

Unless Moon was mistaken, this was the first and most powerful one. Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Velvet had both probably made contact with the gods using Volume I.

Elements of Harmony, Volume II: Loyalty and Devotion

That was the volume Foaly Flux had poached from the library and sent to Ponyville along with the other serendipitous books of torture.

Elements of Harmony, Volume III: Joy and Laughter

That was the volume that had been in the Golden Oak. Seeing it in the catalogue confirmed to Moon that all the volumes had originated in Canterlot and been sent out piecemeal. If Iillor had used volume III to discover the Dark gods two hundred years ago, then the dissemination would have had to have happened even before that.

Elements of Harmony, Volume IV: Kindness and Acceptance

Moon had no idea where that volume could have been. The checkout records would hopefully give that lead.

Elements of Harmony, Volume V: Truth and Honesty

Reading that title, Moon felt a stirring of power from somewhere nearby, relatively speaking. There was a possibility Volume V was still in Canterlot somewhere.

Elements of Harmony, Volume IV: Bounty and Generosity

Moon suspected that Volume IV had been sent abroad, perhaps to one of the Stars in Griffany.

“Six volumes. Six Elements of Harmony. Hmm…” Moon smacked the catalogue closed. “That’s two times the three tribes. Two three-pony rituals. A six note chord. Hmm…” She wasn’t sure of the implications yet.

Twirling the key the librarian had given her, Moon strode to the records annex. After locating the E section and running through the pertinent pages, she moved to the closet across the hall and dug through the aged parchment for the specific lists she wanted, which took significantly longer.

The endeavor proved very insightful. The full set of The Elements of Harmony, all six volumes, had been recorded in Canterlot Castle library as far back as the records went, almost nine-hundred years! They’d been checked out very sporadically, by seemingly random ponies who had probably no idea what they were. That changed in year 150 SS, which Moon was confident was during the reign of the latest Celestia, under one of her pretend successions. The books were withdrawn from the library for an an entire century, and Volume IV and Volume IV never returned at all.

After a period around the six and seventh centuries the pattern of random checkouts was broken again, as the same few names started appearing every few months: Gentle Clover, Fight, Slate, and Cotr Airy. Fight and Slate were not-so-clever pseudonyms of Phyte and Shale, likely right after they moved to Canterlot. Cotr Airy was the real name of a lesser-known scion of the Airy family, and Moon didn’t know enough about him to know if his interest in the Elements of Harmony was idle fancy or in conjunction with the Stars. Gentle Clover though… Moon didn’t presume that it was THE Clover. Clover was supposed to have been six-hundred years dead by the seventh century, her divine half having re-apotheosized after the Everfree Siege. Cotr Airy stopped showing up in the records, either because of his death or distraction. Slate stopped appearing either, probably because the Star moved out of the city, but not before she took Volume III and never returned it. Gentle Clover still showed up sporadically for the next few decades, before she too disappeared.

Then, most recently, the disappearance of Volumes I and V. The date of Volume I’s disappearance coincided with the Sunset Shimmer’s betrayal, 989 SS. Had Sunset given the book to Velvet before she fled Equestria? Moon didn’t know. But more interesting was Volume V, taken permanently out of the library for imperial business on 996, a year remarkable only for the fact it was the year Celestia adopted Mi Amore Cadenza as Junior Princess.

Moon was not happy to be reminded of Cadence’s existence. The forgettable accident alicorn Mi Amore Cadenza was like a pink smear in the middle of an intricate web of intrigue. Moon had all of zero idea how Cadence had become an alicorn or if, like Ancepanox had once been, she was just a pony in alicorn skin.

Nevertheless, Moon had learned a lot. Unfortunately it confirmed that none of the volumes were still in the library. Volume V was still in Canterlot, somewhere in connection to Cadence.
Moon didn’t necessarily want the other volumes right away. Volumes II and III were still in Ponyville, waiting for her. It would be much more useful to suss out complementary material and secondary sources. After all, the centuries of random ponies stumbling upon The Elements of Harmony should have left some academic trace.

“Thank you for this.” Moon gave the librarian the key. “I’m going into the stacks.”

“Yes ma’am.” The librarian hummed, glancing over the book she’d begun reading.

Strolling into the maze of bookshelves, Nightmare Moon was hit by a wave of nostalgia and sadness. Even in such difficult times, why were there not the usual groups of students and scholars hunched over various study tables, or reading in the different corners of the library, or debating each other by the chalkboards? The private tutors of Canterlot brought their pupils to the castle library all the time, yet now all was silence. Students at the University usually jockeyed for dally allotments of passes to the magical studies wing, but nopony was there.
Moon and the librarian were alone in the whole castle.

Well, that was not entirely true, Moon could sense Astral Nacre somewhere below them, in the deeper sections of the castle, where her new lab allegedly was. Moon intended to pay her a visit at some point.
Just as Moon was considering this, she sensed another creature in the library. It was very faint, and definitely not a pony.

“A Star?” Moon growled. In fluid motion she jumped onto the shorter row of bookshelves and crept along it like a cat. She hopped across the shelves until she was above the creature she’d detected.

The creature turned out to be a griffin, female, with a brown body and white head. “Hmm?” The griffin noticed the shadow that had fallen across her and the book she was browsing. She craned her neck around to stare at Nightmare Moon, leering at her from on top of the shelf. “Oh hello." The griffin paused, sizing up the alicorn. "Are you Astral Nacre?”

“Nope.” Moon growled. She stared into the griffins’ eyes. It seemed like a normal griffin, so not a Star, but it knew about Astral. “Takes a lot of guts to snoop around here without a library card. Tut tut. You must be one of Black Bell’s dolls, right?”

The griffin stared for a few minutes. When confronting the secret world of magic and alicorns, it was a delicate game of testing how much the other knew without giving away your position. But here, both parties were being refreshing upfront about things. “Not every griffin with an interest in this stuff is associated with Black Bell. I just happen to be, kinda. Are you one of her friends or her enemies? I wouldn't like the answer either way.”

Trifling question. The nightmare was nopony's friend, only their night goddess. “My name is Ancepanox, Nightmare of the Moon.” Moon announced. “The Nightmare of the Moon has been absent for the world for a millennium since the banishment of Celestia’s sister.”

“I've heard of you in passing, Lady Moon." The griffin said. She paused again, waiting for Moon to reply, but she did not. "If you're Celestia's sister, I'd expect you to finish that thought with some pronouncement about how you’d come to restore cosmic, or something like that.” The griffin stood up and slid the book back in the shelf. She ran her talons through the feathers of her crest, a motion that showed off the large amulet clasped on her ankle. “I’m Gilda, formerly of Gottrakt, but I’m on my own right now.”

Gilda! That name leaped out to Moon. Rainbow Dash had said that name several times.
Moon closed her eyes, digging through her memory. Yes… She remembered the storm brewing on the horizon, the winds building in Ponyville. Rainbow Dash and Gilda landed and had an argument in the street, while Twilight Sparkle watched out of sight, pondering which one of them she was going to hunt. When Gilda flew off, Twilight had gotten her answer, and so Dash had been pulled into the nightmare and everything that followed.

Gilda mistook Moon’s contemplation as something else. “Okay, I won’t lie, I’m not entirely on my own. I’m here on behalf of Sunset Shimmer.”

The griffin didn’t hold onto other pony’s secrets for long. Must have been her mercenary past. “Sunset Shimmer? That's an honest surprise. First I hear she returned and blew up a gatehouse, now I witness she is sending Gottrakt birds to troll through this vaunted library. I thought her stunt here in Canterlot would surely satisfy her need for attention, at least for another decade of exile.”
Moon had to admit she didn’t know much about the circumstances of Sunset Shimmer’s betrayal, exile, or return. It was not something she had the time or patience for when the was SO much else going on. Shimmer did not rate in the top ten of her concerns. “Mis Shimmer didn’t warn you about me? How embarrassing she didn't know! Oh, but I must keep my voice down in the library.” Moon grinned. “You’ll do me a favor and carry my warm greetings. A hearty welcome back to Equestria. Same goes for you, actually.”

Gilda scowled at that last comment, and Moon's grin confirmed for her that she was at the information disadvantage. "Whatever you may know about me, you should know I'm no messenger bird.” She said, voice verging on apologetic. The griffin was showing signs of nervousness, but unlike most mortals Gilda’s little glances and movements betrayed that she was planning her moves against alicorn. Her fight or flight response was firmly in fight territory. “Besides I think she’s better off not knowing.”

Moon chuckled. “You’re not going to let her decide what she’s better off knowing? You really are a Gottrakt bird, habitualized to controlling information. Or is it just stingy griffin instinct.” She hopped down from the bookshelf, making the wood floor of the library groan from her landing. She held herself at full height, smiling with fangs on full display. Gilda came up to her neck, being taller than a pony, but still bristled on being stared down at by the alicorn. “If you do end up telling Mis Shimmer about me, don't spare on the detail. Put the fear of god in her, something she sorely lacks."

Gilda wondered what history the alicorn had with Shimmer. How did Nightmare Moon know so much if she had only just returned? The mystery was intimidating, if only because of how out of place it seemed, a sudden interruption to the balance of mortal, Star, and alicorn. It was not an interruption for the better. "I can put fear in Shimmer any time I want, nightmare." She tapped her chest.

Moon shifted forward and Gilda yanked her claw back. Moon 's lid drooped, a knowing half-lidded sneer. "I like your bangle. Where did you get it?”

Gilda glared and fiddled with the platinum amulet clasped around her ankle. “Back off, ya overgrown horse. I’m not the kind of animal you can boss around.”

“Oh?” Moon tapped her chin. “Why is that? What strange power do you have, pray tell? Not dream magic. Can you perform a Rainboom?”

That obvious reference to Rainbow Dash drew even more ire from Gilda. “I said back off. I didn’t come here to be harassed.”

“And I didn’t come here to harass. This is a library.” Moon shrugged. “Give me one more guess though. Just one, eh?"
She closed an eye and tilted her head, appraising Gilda like an art piece.
The griffin was coiled, ready to battle. Her eyes were alert but not completely concentrated on Moon. Gilda was focusing on something else, some kind of mental preparation. Her right leg with the amulet on it was curled to her chest, tensed... But almost like Gilda was going to tear at her own heart, not Moon's. "You're too proud to deny you have some kind of power, but it clearly requires sacrifice, blood, to work. It's not magic... but an otherworldly power." Moon nodded, sure of her deduction. "The Phantom Time? It is, isn’t it. Did you earn it yourself or did Black Bell give it to you. No wonder you got away from her with your brain intact, when you're such a valuable experiment.” But detecting that she was about to push Gilda too far and provoke an actual fight, Moon took a generous step back. “Oh, but your business is your own. I just wanted to know you better. Innocent curiosity I promise.”

“Sure.” Gilda settled down, let out a tense breath. “I didn’t wake up this morning thinking I’d meet another damn alicorn to keep track of.”

“Uh huh.” Nightmare Moon nodded. It was time to play nice. “Say, if you were looking for Astral Nacre, I can introduce you before I let you go.”

“That does sound better than the introduction I had planned.” Gilda admitted, aggravated she was agreeing to two suggestions in as many days. “I was browsing anyway, putting it off.”

Moon lead the way, out the back way to not bother the librarian. She trotted down the darkened marble halls to the nearest staircase.
“You seem like the type that just wants to be left alone, Mis Gilda.”

“Ah so you can take a hint.” Gilda deadpanned.

Moon laughed. “I’m the same way really. Not a loner, per se, but I appreciate loneliness, not that I'm ever truly alone anymore."

Gilda chalked up the turn of phrase to alicorn flair for the dramatics. "You're describing normal pony feelings."

"And isn't it remarkable how very 'normal' I am." Moon agreed. "You might not believe me, but I don’t have any big ambitions on this planet. Sure I have goals, mostly to get more powerful to help my friends, but I’m not planning to build my own Equestria or anything.”

Gilda didn't believe her. An alicorn affecting something resembling humility was not unwelcome though. "Cool. All that armor is just fashion then.” Gilda grunted. “You can’t throw a stone on this continent and not hit a mare plotting some crap. The only reason I’m helping that bucker Sunset Shimmer is to mitigate the damage she does.”

“Why not kill her?” Moon asked the obvious question, her voice dipping.

Gilda clacked her beak. “To be honest I don’t have an answer to that. I, well…” She was silent for a while. “I’m trying to learn how to resolve my problems without violence. If I killed everything that annoyed me, there wouldn’t be much left. What’s life without struggle anyway. So, um…”

“No, I get it.” Moon nodded. Gilda was making fun of her, but that was okay.

They descended down through the floors of the castle, past the ground floor, into the underlevels. The plainer stone construction was no less precise or sturdy, though the signs of neglect were showing themselves in the corners. A few candles had been lit, guiding the way to the unassuming door of one of the storage cellars.

Before Moon could reach and knock, the door swung open. One of the purple knights took a step forward and bounced off Moon’s chest. “Oh sorry! I did not notice you-” The knight fell silent when he noticed it was an alicorn.

“Boo.” Moon giggled.

The knight stared for a long minute, scrutinizing something in Moon’s eyes. “Thank you.” He said suddenly. “Last night, I was flying among the stars… and I brushed against home. I’m… I’m coming together.” He excused himself, slipping past Moon and Gilda and galloping up the hall towards the stair.

“Is that you Ancepanox?” Astral Nacre’s psychic voice permeated their minds. A moment later Astral’s fleshy head peered around the door. Her beady eyes flicked between the visitors. “Come in. I have completed my tasks for the day.”

Gilda flinched. “Uh, I wasn’t expecting her to look like that.”

“She won’t mind if you stare.” Moon stepped into the makeshift lab.
Astral had discovered the benefits of organization and (passable) hygiene since her work at the Opera House. She had converted the space into something that could actually pass as a laboratory, with shelves packed with jars containing pickled organs, a wash basin, and one of the stone slabs originally pulled up from the Arcanum. Astral had shapeshifted to resemble a plague doctor again, which seemed to be where she found her surgical headspace.
“Doing well today?” Moon asked.

“Yes. My thoughts dwell on the vision you sent me into last night.” Astral splashed her forehooves and some of her tendrils in the washbasin- It didn't serve much point since she absorbed any blood spilt during her work. “I have grown convinced the answers to my longing will come for me soon. A god in the west calls out to me. I think we love each other.”

“How west are we talking?” Gilda cut in. “Cloudsdale?”

Moon stepped between them. “Astral, this is Gilda, a friend of mine. Gilda, meet her highness Astral Nacre.”

“Charmed.” Gilda grunted.

Astral swayed back and forth. “How did you know Cloudsdale?”

“Sunset Shimmer sent me. She has a alicorn soul trapped in a piece of armor. For gods know what reason, she thinks pushing that power onto you will ‘purify’ it.” Gilda explained, feeling foolish. about the whole thing. She thought very highly of herself but she could not deny the sheer presence of the two alicorns in front of her. “I don’t know how Shimmer expects to get it right this time after ten years of bucking it up, but whatever.”

This was Nightmare Moon’s first time hearing about this. “Excuse me, what? An alicorn soul? Was she trying to resurrect Celestia?”

“Something like that.” Gilda shrugged.

Moon growled, feeling a surge of anger. “What the hell does that unicorn think she’s playing at?”

“Ask her yourself. I’m just the messenger.” Gilda said. “Anyway, the only reason I’m carrying this message is because there’s a slim chance that her cockamamy plan succeeds, two alicorns-” The gestured to Astral and towards the west. “Will become one. Less to keep track of.”

“That stupid Traitor has seriously sabotaged my lesson plan.” Moon paced angrily in place. “Astral was supposed to find something new and compelling in the world to define and cherish for herself.”

“Whether you were intending it or not, I have found something that drew me in.” Astral said, irritated how the other two were talking past her. “When I have time, I fully intend to go to Cloudsdale and discover this for myself. If indeed that cur Sunset Shimmer is not lying, I will put aside all hostility and explore the option for rejoinder.”

“Not if I kill her first.” Moon and Gilda both muttered under their breath.

“Come back tonight, Ancepanox. I want you to send me back to the dream again. I wish to see more of the Tower, and potentially to hear that voice again.” Astral said. “Please leave me for now. I have more work.”

“You said you were finished for the day.” Moon said accusingly. “No matter. I won’t be changing your mind right now. But be ready tonight. You’ll be hearing why chasing after Sunset’s light is a bad idea.”

“I delivered the message, so I’m off to find some food. I remember the good stalls being near the mountain plaza.” Gilda backed out of the room. “Where can I find you most days, Lady Moon?”

“The Everfree Castle or thereabouts.” Moon said gruffly, glancing at Astral. “And you?”

“Cloudsdale, or thereabouts.” Gilda walked towards the stairs. “Later dudes.”

Moon lingered for a few minutes, deciding if it was worth pushing Astral. “Keep an incredulous mind about Sunset Shimmer. She killed the last alicorn she loved.”

“But is she not bringing her back to life now?” Astral asked. “Call on me later at Castle Magoria.”

“I have research to do anyway.” Moon said snidely. “Until tonight, goodbye.” She teleported away.

The sun was beginning to set on the peak of the Mountain when the Council of Ponies adjourned for the day. The trail of the revolutionaries had been postponed again, but Twilight Velvet had dragged up several former imperial officials and summarily charged them. The Council had also held the trial of one of the former members, one of the Old Town merchants who had been kicked off on the second day. There were rumors that the late Captain Hauseway would be tried post-mortem.
Nopony was untouchable. Pleasing the crowd was the only way to protect oneself. The punishments weren't very harsh so far, just prison and humiliation. So far.

Watching from his spot in the crowd, Blueblood was glad things were going well. Despite the dismantling of most of the Blackhorn militias, Blueblood still had some loyalists who’d refused to rebel. Still there was a risk somepony would try to charge him in front of the Council of Ponies, so Blueblood had shored up his tenuous political position by wooing some of the fence-sitter nobles who hadn’t chosen between supporting or opposing Velvet yet. The aristocracy still had hope as a durable base of power… Until they rebelled and were killed or were picked off by the Council of Ponies.

The sun was halfway set by the time the day's crowd had fully dispersing out of the square, murmuring about the concluding announcements about the next day’s trials. Attendance remained high, at least five or six-hundred. The spectacle of seeing their former masters named and shamed had not outlasted its novelty yet for the commoners of Canterlot.

“Prince Blueblood, up here a moment.” Twilight Velvet’s command caught Blueblood’s attention through the din. Velvet was on the stage looking impatient.

“I’ll catch up with you later boys.” Blueblood promised the group of nobles he’d been socializing with. He waded against the traffic and clambered onto the stage. “Masterful work today my lady.”

“Thank you. Everypony is learning the process.” Velvet said.

“The sordid corners of this city are shivering in fear, practicing their words for the summons they dread, to face you and the ponies of Canterlot.” Blueblood extolled.

Velvet interrupted him. “Okay that’s enough.” She leaned in. “How do you think this project is going as a whole? DO you have concerns?”

“Well,” Blueblood had no idea how to answer that question. “Nothing I didn’t air last night. I’m finding it harder than usual to make connections. Regretfully a cloud of suspicion still hangs over us in the nobles’ eyes.”

“Good.” Velvet snorted. “Buck them. What I’m constructing is a power structure that explicitly does not involve them. Say what you will about democracy, my prince, but it has elasticity that Equestrian feudalism does not. I can involve and distance ponies at will, heedless of bloodline or nobility.”

“That’s… umm…” Blueblood trailed off.

“But none of this will last a day after I leave. This is not a durable system yet.” Velvet leaned in. “It will be very interesting if Duke Lightdowser will keep the Council for his own purposes

“You’re talking five or six steps ahead of me my lady.” Blueblood sighed. “Just tell me what I have to do right now?”

Velvet laughed and ruffled his mane. “Buisness as usual. In fact, I think it would suit both of our purposes better if you stopped directly cooperating with me or Night Light. You can go back to operating your own interest group.”

Blueblood sucked in a sharp breath. As dangerous as being around Velvet was, being on the outside was much more so. “My lady if I’ve done something wrong-”

“You’ve done nothing wrong, and this isn’t the prelude to you being liquidated. You should believe me when I tell you this will work out for the best.” Velvet said. She pulled him into an unexpected hug.

Blueblood stiffened.

“Don’t get used to the state of things around here. Don’t even put stock in what I say. By the end of the week, everything will have changed again.” Velvet whispered in his ear. “So much for durable systems, heh heh.”

Blueblood tried to maintain a straight face. “Y- Yes my lady.” He whispered.

Velvet let go of him and took a step back. “In a few days I’ll send Lady Aurthora back to you. My time at the forefront of things is rapidly coming to a close. It is better I make a graceful exit while I can.” She waved him away. “You’re still invited to dinner day-after-tomorrow.”

“Thank you Lady Velvet. See you then.” Blueblood jumped off the stage.
A few of the nobles were waiting for him, looking curious. “I’ve just been fired. Or promoted. It’s hard to tell.” Blueblood mused. He broke into a thin grin. “Either way, I think that gives me leave to reorganize the Blackhorns for the times we live in. Being pro-Canterlot and pro-Unicorn isn’t edgy anymore.”
He scanned the edge of the plaza until he saw the ponies he was looking for: A group of commoners lounging at a cafe table. He’d spied the conspicuous group before, but there numbers had grown day by day. Now there were a few ponies in dark jackets, and even a few with weapons on their belts. “Justice against the revolutionaries that killed the Speakers… can come in many forms. Lady Velvet will need help to hold back the tide of anarchy.” He turned to one of the nobles. “Ask around and see how many ponies would be interested in a new corp to protect the new government against those agitators.”

“Ain’t the new guards for that?” One of the nobles asked.

“It never hurts to uphold the law.” Blueblood remarked. “The law is the law.”

The first thing Fleetfoot did after getting to her room was throw herself on the bed, stretching out with a pained groan. Being on the Council of Ponies was far more frustrating that it was fun. Velvet was very effectively delegitimizing the old imperial regime, bringing out the old generals and bureaucrats and listing for the public every incident of negligence, corruption, and poor policy, to make them answer for it. Only, Fleetfoot did not think most of them were bad ponies. Sure, the Ponies of Canterlot had more reason to be upset since they had lived with the consequences of that imperial cliques’ decisions, and Fleetfoot did not begrudge them their anger. But Velvet was wielding that anger for nefarious ends, and many of those deemed guilty were just chumps like Hot Take.

Fleetfoot imagined how a Council of Ponies would go in Cloudsdale. Without a strong character like Velvet to keep the commoners and nobles away from each other’s throats, any attempt at democracy in Cloudsdale would dissolve into brawling street violence between the usual suspects of disaffected factory workers, agitated air fleet cadets, petty nobles, and knights of the Admiralty. Who would come out on top of a battle like that, she wondered?

There was a knock at her door.

“Come in.” Fleetfoot sighed.

“Hey it’s me.” Ripple Wreath poked his head in. His eyes were glowing with a slight blue energy. “Want to go book shopping?”

“Uh sure.” Fleetfoot sat up. “Your eyes are doing that nightmare thing.”

“I know. Lady Moon just dropped by and fed me.” Wreath said, conjuring awful images in Fleetfoot’s head of the dark alicorn regurgitating food for Wreath like a mother bird, like some of the more traditional hill pegasi did. “She also asked me to find a specific book for her, which propmpts me asking you now. What do you say? Want to hit up the book shops, antiques dealers, and pawn stores before they close?”

“This is a huge city. There is no way we could visit all the stores in one afternoon.” Fleetfoot pointed out. “I mean, are you going to make this a multi-day affair?”

“Nah, once the stores close we’ll just have to break in to assess their wares.” Wreath said with a laugh. “I’m not even joking.”

Fleetfoot sighed. “Yeah why not. I’m in the market for new reading material anyway.” She wrapped a scarf around her neck and followed Wreath into the hall.

Twilight Velvet had generously lifted the guard on the guest house, so Wreath and Fleetfoot could leave unmolested. The neighborhood they were in was quiet but the hum of the main Old Town thoroughfare was only a block away.

“Lady Moon also said to be on the lookout for a brown griffin. Truthfully I’ve never seen a griffin before except in books.” Ripple Wreath said. “Do you have griffins in Cloudsdale?”

“Yeah there’s a small enclave of them in the city, but most griffins like to live on the ground. There’s actually a griffin fief about a day downriver from the Canter, Embankment.” Fleetfoot said. “If you find yourself a free weekend you should visit it. It’s a strange little place.”

Old Town’s street plan was mostly unchanged from when the city was first founded, all the way back to the Blackhorns just after the great migration. The mane street that ran from the base of Canterlot Castle to the end of the plateau where it met the Mountain zig-zagged through several plazzas, broad and lined with trees in places, narrow and surrounded by tall townhouses and shops.

“This is the biggest city I’ve ever been in.” Wreath commented. “I’ve been to Fourth Ford with my family a couple times, but that’s barely a fourth the size! What’s the best way for an earth pony like me to see Cloudsdale?”

“Airship tour. There might also be a spell solution but I wouldn’t know anything about that.” Fleet said.
Fleetfoot was getting used to the silence in her head. Rain Gnash had discovered how to listen without being listened to through the bond. The curse that had affected them both equally had become a one-sided burdon. Fleetfoot got more aggravated the more she thought about it, especially since Rain Gnash had not even deigned to explain herself. Next time she saw Nightmare Moon, Fleet was going to ask her to do something about it. Hear that Admiral, Fleet screamed in her head, I’m coming for you!

“Did you say something?” Wreath asked.

“Nope.” Fleetfoot grunted. “Your eyes are still glowing.”

“It will be harder to tell in the light.” Wreath replied.

The first bookshop they ducked into was a very small store, apparently specializing in academic texts.
“Hello there.” The proprietor welcomed them. “It’s not every day I get an earth pony and pegasus in my store. What can I help you with?”

“I’m looking for a book for a friend.” Wreath explained. “She described it as about this size, yay thick, full of symbols.”

“Symbols? Is your friend looking for for books on occultism?”

“No, nothing like that. Literally just symbols without anything else.” Wreath said. “The example she gave to me was different sized circles intersecting each other.”

The proprietor tapped her chin. “Believe it or not, one of the stallions in my guild came in showing off a book like that, maybe five or six years ago. Writ Whirl is his name. He had a fire at his shop last year and lost most of his stock so that book might not exist anymore. Real shame.”

“Or he might have sold it before that.” Fleetfoot remarked.

“Oh no, Writ was enamored by that strange little book, bragged that it had belonged to the empress of all ponies.” The proprietor shrugged. “His new location is at the north end of the Old Town. He closes early but he lives right above so maybe he’ll talk to you if you tell him Gilt sent you.”

After thanking the proprietor mare and exiting onto the street, Fleetfoot spoke up. “Did Lady Moon happen to mention the title of the book she was looking for? It seems like that would be fairly important.”

“Yes.” Wreath said, smiling guiltily, and left it at that.

They made their way north, stopping by a few more book stores along the way. One of the other shop owners actually corroborated Gilt’s story about Writ Whirl, adding the claim that Writ had been very belligerent in responding to offers to buy the book, but they didn’t know if it had survived the fire either.
Fleetfoot used her limited bits to buy a fantasy story about a knight traveling in a strange land. It promised to be some good light reading.

“My father is a voracious reader, but the only thing he reads are histories about wars and stuff. He called me a fairy for having a book about river fish in my room.” Wreath said.

“Sounds like an interesting pony.” Fleetfoot remarked.

Wreath smiled awkwardly. “Sorry if I overshare. I don’t really have many anecdotes that don’t involved being humiliated by this or that pony. Coming to Canterlot with my mentor Glori was supposed to be my big break, my opportunity to prove myself.” He chuckled. “It didn’t work out that way, but I’m not disappointed. I could eviscerate them all with my eyes closed now.”

“I’m not sure that’s a productive way to think about it, but you do you.” Fleetfoot wasn’t sure what to think of Ripple Wreath. The little earth pony had a country charm to him, but he was not handling his condition well; Young ponies with too much power and not enough responsibility, usual noble scions or merchant sons, became spoiled brats that reacted poorly to not getting their way.

The afternoon wore into evening, and it started to get darker. By the time Fleetfoot and Ripple Wreath reached the north side of town where Writ Whirl’s bookstore was, the moon was beginning to rise.

A frazzled unicorn stallion was loitering outside, rolling cigarettes.

“Hi.” Ripple Wrath smiled.

“Need something mudpony?” The stallion grunted, not looking up from his task

“Are you Writ Whirl? We’re on the hunt for a book with strange symbols in it.” Wreath said. “Don’t try to act confused. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Business is slow already, without thugs coming around to bother me.” Writ sneered, still refusing to make eye contact. “Tell me who sent you. I’ll be submitting a formal complaint to the guild over this.”

“Maybe business is slow because you’re an asshole.” Fleetfoot interjected, knocking the cigarette out of his hooves. “Where’s that book?”

Writ, eyes sliding between Fleet and Wreath straightened his stance. “I sold it.”

“Oh yeah?” Fleetfoot growled.

“Yeah, five bucking years ago. I kept getting mobsters coming in my store, demanding to have it. Well I wasn’t having it, even when they broke things to make an example.” Writ said ruefully. “They torched everything one night, beat the snot out of me when I tried to put it out. Well, the fires died down, but they went through the ashes and found the book, completely untouched by the flames. I was sitting there stunned when their boss, a tall red mare with an even longer mane, strolled up to me and tossed a bag of bits at my hooves. They all left me there, taking the book. So yeah, I ‘sold’ it.”

“Red mare?” Fleet glanced at Wreath, who shrugged.

“Go somepony who knows the local gangs, or the government or somepony. None of my business anymore.” Writ bend over and picked up his cigarette. “Now get off my curb.”

“Good evening.” Fleetfoot nodded, stepping back to the street.
While they were trotting away, she glanced back at Writ. “Think he was telling the truth?”

Ripple Wreath was being strangely quiet. Finally he spoke up. “No… I could smell something weird about that pony. He’s been altered.”

“Uh, what?” Fleetfoot cocked a brow.

“He… I dunno. He smells like Lady Moon, kinda. An alicorn-y kind of smell, but only a little. Alicorn magic, maybe? Yeah, trace amounts of alicorn magic.” Wreath brooded. “If I had to guess, I’d say it was from prolonged exposure to the book. Strange, huh?”

“So the book we’re looking for is an ‘alicorn book’. That’s got to be the weirdest phrase I’ve ever said.” Fleetfoot laughed to herself. “Are you going to report back to Lady Moon or go in search of this red mare.”

“Lady Velvet or her friends probably know who that red mare was.” Wreath speculated. “Velvet has her headquarters at that big keep with the spikes, right?”

Fleet knew exactly what he was talking about. Castle Magoria’s six incomplete spires were like menacing spikes when view from certain angles. “Yes, and it’s getting late so she will probably be there.”

“Wonderful. Let’s think of a cover story. Maybe we can twist Writ Whirl’s story a bit, and say we heard about the red mare assaulting ponies.” Wreath said. “Because if Lady Velvet finds out what we’re after I’m guessing she won’t be pleased.”

“Fun times abound.” Fleetfoot agreed. Was the book they were looking for related to the mysterious power Nightmare Moon mentioned? Harmony? Even if it were not Fleet was very interested to know what kind of book the Nightmare of the Moon would be after.

Twilight Velvet entered the office as the small group of nobles crowded around Night Light’s desk were beginning to shout.

“...and have not reinstated the clubs or guilds either! This is an outrageous violation of NORMS!”

“Are you ponies not overlooking the fact we it is barely two days after a major rebellion. I do not wish to have to list down the kinds of depravities the rebels would subject you to if they had succeeded.” Night Light droned on. “About your other worries, I can’t address them directly. I told you, you need to bring them up during the Council of Ponies, so they can be attended to with the full

“Are you messing with us sir? The Council is our worry! You are giving this town to the commoners!”

“I have asked to the point of exhaustion what real alternative any of you offering, and I never hear an answer.” Night Light rebutted, his voice hitting at aggravation. He leaned back in his seat, his gaze conspicuously moving to Velvet. “Neither my wife or I have the time to workshop your policy proposals for you.”

The nobles turned to look at Velvet.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlecolts. We are closing up for the day.” Velvet said. “But don’t be upset. For you ponies who feel uncomfortable airing your insecurity in front of anypony at the Council of Ponies, I will be holding a private court at the Castle Magoria on weekends.”

The nobles traded glances, much less comfortable with complaining to Velvet as they were to Night Light.

“No, really, it’s time for you to go. It’s past time for dinner and I have guests waiting on me. Out you go.” Velvet began gently pushing the nobles towards the door.
Finally, it was just her and Night Light in the room. “Having fun with the piggies?”

“To be honest, no.” Night Light slumped over the desk. “I find the merchants to most resemble the pigs. These noble bastards… They are like the most spoiled cats, who want to be petted just so, and hiss and scratch at the slightest thing. I think I want to take a broom to them.”

“Now now Night Light, there’s no need to get violent.” Velvet teased.

Night Light sighed and slipped off the chair, joining her at the door. “Nothing has turned me so against our fair city’s noblesse as trying to herd them. The cat analogy persists.”

“Patience, my knight. We only have to keep this up a little longer.” Velvet extended a hoof. “What do you say about going back to the castle for dinner and a good night’s rest?”

“Most welcome my lady.” Night Light accepted the hoof, and they left the shadowy hall together.

However, somepony awaited them just outside, lounging against the wall.

“Hey.” The mare hissed.

“Oh hello. What was your name again? Moor Breaker?” Velvet eyed the unicorn mare. “If you expect a conversation, perhaps a more private setting?”

“I’ll make this quick. You’ve held up your end of the deal so far, but our boys still aren’t free. Pushing back the trial date isn’t going to cut it.” Moor Breaker said sharply. “And putting away Hot Take wasn’t appreciated. He wasn’t a comrade but he was a dedicated reformist and a good stallion.”

“Be honest with yourselves. You revolutionaries hate reformists.” Velvet laughed. “As for your imprisoned friends, they are safer where they are. We still have not pinned down the reason for the militia revolt, but a leading theory is that they were committed anti-revolutionaries that were mad we had not purged you from Canterlot.”

Moor Breaker scowled. “Oh yeah?”

“Once it is confirmed I will release a public statement to that effect. You couldn’t dream of a better headline, dissociating your movement from violence and making your enemies seem deranged.”

“They revel in their derangement, as I’m sure you do. We are watching carefully, Lady Velvet.” Moon Breaker growled. “Good luck with your balancing act.” She pushed off the wall and strolled around the corner.

Velvet turned to Night Light, who was looking both bemused and concerned. “We only have to keep this up a little longer.” She repeated. “Then, they will be the problem of whoever takes over this city.”

“Sharphoof Lightdowser.” Night Light speculated.

“The most likely candidate, considering his army is a week away. But who knows. The future is not always easy to predict.” Velvet grinned.

They trotted along the worn street. At some point a purple knight on patrol noticed them and began tailing as an impromptu guard, but Velvet still pretended they were alone. What a lovely night it was, cloudless, with a big moon overhead. But as she had said, the future was not easy to predict, and the night did not mark an end to trouble.

Nightmare Moon appeared in a swirl of shadow and purple magic above Castle Magoria’s highest spire, capping the central keep. She light upon the spire, balancing while she scanned the area below.
As predicted, Astral Nacre was waiting for her, again perched in the dead tree in the middle of the garden. Moon gracefully lept into the air, gliding on her broad wings down the the level of the inner walls. The way the wind whispered around her feathers exhilarated her in a primal way, psyching her for what was about to come.

“Astral Nacre.” She said regally. “I’ve come to change your mind.”

“Amusing double meaning: You wish to alter my opinions and beliefs, but also you may literally seek to replace this thinking mind of mine.” Astral Nacre turned her head to Moon. “You said you would open my mind to the universe around us. That happened. You have come back and tell me you don’t like what I saw!”

“Sunset Shimmer is deceiving you. You were supposed to witness a world of light and beauty, but a charlatan has been holding up a torch to blind you..” Moon said gravely.

“How do you know that? Have you talked to her? Have you ever even met this mare? You speak with so much conviction.” Astral said. “I fought against Sunset Shimmer. She believed in what she fought for.”

“Why does that matter, if her beliefs are still bad? Passion or conviction don’t redeem evil.” Moon growled. “And Sunset Shimmer’s plot to resurrect Celestia is unshakably evil.”

Astral was defiant. “Are you going to begin decrying necromancy? You say bringing back Celestia so bad, when you are nothing but the resuscitation of that dead nightmare, Celestia’s sister!”

That sting hung in the air, as Moon’s attitude turned from imperious to angry. “You might as well keep talking, since you will be taking it all back at the end of this anyway.” She threatened. The dark alicorn tilted her head, as if making sure the big pale moon was still behind her in the sky. “Your whole attitude will have to change. I don’t want to have to force you, but I will if I have to.”

“That is a lot of talk, just because you don’t like the friends I want to make. I saw how small we were, just like you wanted, and I did not like it. How can you fault me when I see clear way to solve this problem?!” Astral, in contrast to Moon, was getting more eager and manic. “You pretend that you want to coexist with the mortals, when you won’t even abide by my choices. So much for your tolerance!”

“No, I won’t tolerate your stupidity. Last night you were sympathetic to my message so I know you can be saved. Somehow, you saw the same set of facts as I did and came to a wildly different conclusions. You still have the choice. Don’t trade enslavement to Twilight Velvet, for enslavement to Sunset Shimmer. ” Astral shouted. “Don’t fall for the trap. Don’t entangle alicorn and mortal kinds.

“I have had enough of your insults.” Astral nickered. “Are you going to change my mind by force, or not? Come on!”

“Psshh, what student doesn’t fight with their teacher once in a while.” Nightmare Moon shifted, halting her pacing and standing still. “Isn’t the moon beautiful tonight? Waning gibbous. I’m bound to her now, and she to me. You could have a relationship like that too.”
She hopped down into the garden, landing gently. “Astral Nacre, if you actually think that convection justifies belief, is the opposite true too?”

Astral’s tendrils began to thrash. She tried to calm them but her body was too excited. “Stop talking and test your words!”

With a roll of her hooves, Nightmare Moon manifested her sabre. “Don’t expect me to stop until I win outright.” She charged a lance of magic, casually letting it loose directly into Agana’s chest.

Agana tilted her head, examining the burning puncture in her torso. “Will we fight forever? I won’t give up.” She slipped down off her perch in the tree, catlike, tearing up a flower bed with her heavy landing. She rolled her shoulder and flared her boney wings. “Who knows, one of us may die!”
Maybe from Moon’s spell, or maybe other reasons, the dead tree came alight all throughout its branches, becoming a torch to illuminate the entire garden.

“Hell yes. Let’s go twenty rounds.” Moon laughed.
Bounding forward, Moon spun around and hit Astral with an aerial kick, knocking the other alicorn into the burning tree. Astral bounced off, but didn’t bounce far before Moon was on her again, spearing her with her sabre and driving it into the tree behind. While Astral was still pinned, Moon began relentlessly attacking her with hooves, horn, and spell. Throwing all her weight into another tackle, Moon smashed Astral all the way through the tree, spiking the beastly alicorn into the earth in a shower of soil and flowers.

“I see you are still the alicorn worthy of my respect.” A coil of sinew snaked out of the crater and reformed itself back into Astral’s form. “Nay, even greater.” She twisted her limbs grotesquely in a mimicry of rolling her shoulders. “But if I just refuse to surrender, what will you do?”

Nightmare Moon stepped forward through the flaming pile of wood, twirling her sabre. “You’re not as durable as you think you are.” She lifted a hoof, inspecting how red-hot her horseshoe was getting, and the way her fur sizzled but did not burn. “Besides, don’t you want to have something at stake? Wouldn’t you give it everything when the risks are real.”

Astral reached into the earth and yanked up a thick length of tree root, heaving it like a club in her hoof. She howled and swiped at Moon, while her other limbs and tendril mane lashed out like a tangle of snakes. Moon ducked under the limb and feverishly slashed at the tendrils with her sabre, but Astral’s leg caught her around the neck and yanked her forward. Astral tried to catch Moon in a bear hug but the dark alicorn hacked sideways, tearing most of Astral’s chest open before she teleported backwards and out of the grasp.

Unfazed, Astral surged forward, intent on trampling over Moon. Nightmare Moon tossed her sword to the side and braced herself. The two alicorn’s collided, Astral slamming against Moon’s neck and chest with the force of a tumbling boulder, but Moon stood firm, kicking up huge clods of dirt in her struggle to stay in place and push back.

“Last time you avoided close quarters.” Astral purred, pushing her forehead against Moon’s.

Moon grunted. “I got better at it.” She twisted her body and pushed Astral to the side, but stayed in close stabbing with her horn, and striking out with her hooves. Astral’s whole body shifted and stretched to avoid being hit, while she herself lashed out with her tendrils. Moon dodged and teleported back and forth by inches, repositioning over and over while still working to land a hit. But while Astral had zoned everything out, Astral grabbed the root with her magic and swung with full force, bashing through most of Astral’s head and neck and flattening her to the dirt.

“You learned finesse in your movement.” Moon panted, dancing from side to side while Astral picked herself up. She rubbed at a cut on her chin. “But you’re just not as fast as me, and you’re unlikely to be. I’m gaining power just as fast as you are.”

Astral’s brutalized body shaped itself back to form. Her eyes swam along her flesh back into place on the sides of her head. “Shut up and fight!”

“Hah!” Moon nodded in agreement. “Hyaah!” She resummmoned her sabre and slashed.
Astral rolled to the side and slammed a hoof into Moon’s gut, knocking the breath from the dark alicorn and throwing her back a few steps. Astral took the opportunity to look around, and spied the metal rod that held up the house sidgel above the entrance of the castle keep. She grasped it with her magic and yanked the rod off the wall, tearing its fixtured from the stone. She bore the pole like a spear, with the length of cloth bearing the sidgel still hanging off it.
Nightmare Moon, though recovered from the gut hit, stayed crouched, eyeing Astral and waiting.

Astral attacked first, stabbing forward with the rod. Moon ducked back, but when she tried to get in closer for a sword slash Astral retreated just as much, keeping the end of the rod pointed her way. Moon jumped diagonally, going for Astral’s hooves, but Astral jumped up and slammed the rod down, almost impaling Moon against the ground. She did not have time to free the metal rod before Moon was on her hooves again, advancing and slashing with her sabre. Astral tried tangling the other alicorn in her tendrils again but Moon quickly withdrew, severed all of Astral’s twisting appendaged, and charged in again.
Astral was left fully on the retreat, counter-punching and bucking wildly to try to make Moon relent, to no avail, and second by second more and more muscle and flesh was slashed off of the beastly alicorn’s blocking limbs and exposed sides. In a moment of desperation Astral reversed her momentum, shielding herself with one of her bony wings and trying to bowl Moon over. But Moon was weary to that kind of attack and bore the hit, sliding back before blasting Astral in the hindquarters with a point-blank magic bolt. Astral fell into the dirt for a third time, a lump of poorly defined pink and red ropes of flesh.

“Wow, I’m going to feel this one tomorrow.” Nightmare Moon stretched her legs, groaning at how her muscles burned. “We should make this a regular thing. I need to keep in shape, and keep my instincts sharp. I don’t want to lose to some johnny-come-lately alicorn or Star because I was lazy.”

Astral Nacre was intent to prove her durability. Her giblets, severed from one end of the garden to the other, coalesced back onto her core. “You take me too lightly.” Her psychic voice conveyed her building rage.

“Yeah, I do. I could be doing a lot more to stymie your repair.” Moon took the time to heal her own wounds, alleviating the sting of cuts and bruises, popping one of her legs back in the socket. “If you’re offended I’m sorry. I either get playful or very angry when I fight. I’ve discovered that about myself.”

Astral was mostly back into her pony shape. She looked battered and discolored from her normal, but remained defiant. “I still won’t surrender. You won’t change my mind, Ancepanox.”

“I’ll find a way to win, trust me.” Moon promised. “How about you though? Do you have a plan? It’s doubtful.I think your main failing is a logical one. For a creature with wings, you think remarkably two-dimensionally.”

To disprove Moon’s words, Astral jumped backwards, then flapped her wings to get up in top of the rampart. To Moon’s amusement, Astral launched even higher into the air, doing a loop. But that amusement ended when Astral’s horn began to burn with white magic, and all the grass and flowers in the garden began to grow out of control- that is, it grew as much as it was able, wrapping Moon up to her ankles, before the plants went beyond their biological limit and wilted to dust, all within a matter of seconds.

“Naught shall remain, if I wish it!” Atral let out a psychic scream. “The mortals you care so much about are mine to move!”

“Damn alicorns.” Moon growled, shaking off the layer of dust, so recently the beautiful garden.

Nightmare Moon launched herself into the air. There was a moment of hesitation, like she wasn’t quite sure what to do after she’d already jumped a dozen meters above the ground. Then she spread her wings, and with with a satisfying twist of muscles pushed them down- a wingbeat. And like that the black alicorn stayed aloft.

Inside the Castle Magoria keep, Sel Lech Sabonord was lounging in one of the parlors, mulling events of the last few days with a glass of cider, when a tremor ran through the room.
He sat up, cradling his drink. Had that been an explosion?

Velvet’s maid trotted into the parlor. “You should leave Captain Sabonord. Lady Velvet is unlikely to be able to see you tonight.”

“Why? What’s happening?” Sel pushed back a curtain.
A flash of light and a thunderous crash shook the foundations of the castle.

“Two alicorns are fighting nearby. There is a chance of collateral damage. Please step away from the door, sir.” The maid urged.

“If the window is hit by a stray spell it won’t matter where I’m standing.” Sel said. He saw two shadows streaking through the air, launching spells of many colors at each other, colliding and breaking off, circling and diving. “Is it that nightmare, Ancepanox? I guess she wasn’t on our side after all.”

“It is not easy to tell. She is fighting Astral Nacre, not us.” The maid said. “Perhaps I should set out an extra chair for her at dinner. Will you be joining us too, Captain Sabonord?”

Sel set his glass on a chair and brisky trotted out of the room. “No. Lady Velvet won’t want to talk shop if she’s hosting a guest. Besides I have some sudden work I have to get to. Half of Canterlot can see the light show. I need to grab some ponies…. If there is going to be a riot I need to be on top of it.”

Astral banked to the left, right into Nightmare Moon’s path as the dark alicorn was building her speed to swipe at Astral again with her sabre. Moon tucked her wings and dove, barely missing Astral’s attempt to entangle her in her tendrils. Moon’s dive almost flew her right into the keep before she teleported, repositioning her back over the battlements.

No matter how many hits she took by both physical and magic attack, Astral shrugged it off, her tissue and fiber reconnecting itself. In a population center like Canterlot, Moon would kill thousands of ponies if she brought to bear the kind of power that could actually incapacitate the other alicorn.

“Getting tired?!” Astral asked, flappin up to Moon’s altitude and latching onto the side of Castle Magoria like a gargoyle.

“I’m getting annoyed, mostly.” Moon let out a hot breath. Under the moon’s direct light, the glow around her mane and eyes got brighter, but the night would not last forever. After that the battle would be much harder and, ultimately, not worth fighting. She would have to retreat. If she lost here, Nightmare Moon would have to write off all her hopes for Astral Nacre. “I wanted this to be decisive but I’ll win on technicality if I have to.”

“Ancepanox, I love the way you talk! So arrogant, so sure of yourself! I wish i could be you.” Astral cooed. “But I feel that way too. I feel victory in my grasp.”

“Let’s fix that.” As exhilarating as it was to be in the air, Moon was at home on the ground. She landed in the burning garden, sending up a swarm of embers.
“Astral, surrender.”

“You’re making me hungry, Ancepanox! Give me just a taste of you!” Astral was slipping into the sadistic battle mania Moon identified as a sign an alicorn was getting more engrossed in the fight than the consequences. She gave it thirty seconds before Astral started attacking indiscriminately and the collateral damage became catastrophic.

So it seemed, by Moon’s judgement, it was time to use magic to incapacitate Astral Nacre, with the kind of power that could harm thousands of ponies in a population center like Canterlot... If used incorrectly. There was nothing for it but to roll the dice.
She squared her stance. Shimmers of magic began to fall around her. A strange music began to fill the air...

The night air was treating Twilight Velvet and Night Light well. They were enjoying a leisurely walk back to Castle Magoria. The blocks of townhouses that ran beside the Canterlot city wall were separated by atypically wide streets, to allow for troop movements in times of defense. Over the years they had been transformed into a pretty boulevard like one would see in the eastern edge of the city, with trees and separated pedestrian and cart paths.

“Have you chosen where we might hide if we have to abandon Canterlot?” Night Light hummed, enjoying the casual pace of their walk.

“Somewhere in the West. One of the old castles in Unicornia I think.” Velvet shrugged. “It is beautiful in the mountains this time of year. The slopes and valleys are alive with wildflowers.”

Night Light thought about it. “Did you ever hear back from Sojourn.”

Velvet laughed. “Are you thinking about spending our exile on the Smokey Mountain with him? It would be a nice view, at the least.”

A subtle shockwave washed over them. Windows cracked, dust showered down from taller buildings.

“Are we under attack?” Night Light croaked.

“Of a sort….” Velvet hummed. Her brow furrowed. “Have you heard any rumors of a black pony or a black alicorn around town?”

“You mean, Iillor or Ancepanox?” Night Light took a few steps towards the nearest wall tower, to get a better view of what was attacking the city. “Why? What are you detecting?”

“Dream magic.” Velvet, unlike her husband, turned and galloped away from the direction of the shockwave. “Meet me at Castle Magoria! Keep the knights and militias away until I get there!”

Night Light hastily made his way up the tower, emerging on top of the city wall. He could immediately see why Velvet was running: Castle Magoria was surrounded by a glow, an aurora-like light of many vivid colors.
And above the castle, shockingly huge in the sky, the gibbous moon lingered. As untrained as Night Light was in magic, even he could tell that moon was watching the city.

A coursing ring of dark blue energy formed around Nightmare Moon. A thrum rang in the ears of everypony in a kilometer radius.

Astral Nacre found herself inexplicably falling down to earth, the moonlight around her wings becoming a heavy goop that weighed her down. She flapped feverishly, trying to regain height, but the ground rose faster and faster underneath her. Before she realized what was happening, she lost all perception from her senses.

Astral found herself standing in a lightless world. She knew on some level she was still in the garden, but could no longer see it. She reached up and discovered her body parts no longer collided with each other. It was like she was a ghost!

“A dream?” Astral looked around. So, Nightmare Moon could cast her into a dream without her consent, and indeed while she was resisting it! Was it just her mind in the dream, or her body as well? Astral did not know, but understood the dire implications of such powers.

“This can end, when you find your place. All of this is to help you.” Moon’s voice carried through the lightless void, before the mare herself appeared. Moon was no longer glowing, at least not in that strange place. “Has there ever been a place that you called home?”

“Canterlot.” Astral said acidly.

“No, I mean, home.” Moon said emphatically. “When you rest your head, where do you feel comfortable? It may not be a place you’ve been, or that even exists anymore… But it is where your dream will reside. Think deeply.”

Astral moved through the lightless place, right up to Moon. A bloom of light surged around them, fuzzy at first, then resolving into shape. They were in a sea of sand, an endless desert, whose light sands looked blue in the dead of the night. The moon was still overhead, bathing Nightmare Moon in silvery rays.

“Do you call this fighting, Ancepanox? If the violence has stopped, then start teaching me.” Astral hissed. “What am I supposed to see? What am I supposed to learn from this place? Visions won’t deter me.”

Moon smirked. “You’re mistaken. The violence hasn’t stopped. You haven’t surrendered yet.”

Astral lashed out, curling her tentacle mane around Nightmare Moon’s head, and wrenched it around.
The dreamlike desert dissolved away. Astral was still in the garden, a few paces away from the other alicorn. Disoriented, Astral fell into a sitting position, dropping the object she’d pulled off Moon, which landed with a clink of metal.
When Astral had pulled off Moon’s helmet, she’d taken a visceral amount of skin and fur with it. But the removal of the scalp had not exposed the skull- Underneath where the helm had been fused to the skin, was a burbling mass of white magic, which seemingly filled the spaces that would be brain and bone in a pony’s head.

Moon staggered a few paces, as if drunk. Her eyes quivered, focussing on the helmet on the ground.
“Oof.. You’ve… cross the line.” Moon reached up with a hoof, tracing the line of missing skin as it ran up the bridge of her nose, around her eyes, to under her ears. Despite the missing flesh her ethereal mane continued to wave in defiance of gravity. “You’re about to see… See why you shouldn’t defy a daughter of the Dreamscape.”

Moon’s horn flared to life. Her telekinetic magic coalesced around the remaining pieces of her armor: Her cuirass and horseshoes. With a sickening squelch, the metal-fused flesh began to tear.

When Night Light arrived on the scene, the aurora around Castle Magoria had disappeared, replaced by a cloud of ash and dust centered around the interior garden.

“Goodness gracious. Hopefully the castle isn’t a loss.” Night Light groaned. Thankfully, whatever or whoever had attacked hadn’t disturbed Canterlot’s geological foundations- With Castle Magoria abutting the edge of the plateau it wasn’t implausible for the whole south corner of Canterlot to collapse into the valley.

A few of the knight patrols and local vigilante militias in the neighborhood had gathered near the outer ring wall of the castle, debating what to do. There was no sign of the knights who had been assigned to guard there.

“Lord Night Light.” One of the purple knights beckoned him over. “We don’t know the situation. What are your orders?”

Night Light had the morose idea that he could send the purple knights, lacking in ego as they were, as sacrificial lambs to reconnoiter the castle. He pushed that thought aside. Besides, Velvet had told him to wait until she got there.
“Take defensive positions. Move those benches under those trees for a firing position, and you knights stay over there. If the enemy, whoever they are, emerges out this gate we can attack with a pincer.”

But as the militiaponies and knights were moving into position, the castle gate creaked open. Nothing emerged for several long moments.

Then, a whole procession of ponies filed out through the gate, single file, their stride even and methodical, their vacant gaze straight ahead. It appeared to be the entire castle staff and guards, including the knights.

“What in the goddamn?” One of the militiaponies uttered.

Night Light was filled with confusion and revulsion. They were acting like the zombie ponies Astral had created! If Astral had gone and mutilated more ponies Night Light was going to kill her!
But before his rage could build any more, the real culprit revealed herself.

“I’m getting just a taste of it… The world you’re building here is beginning to flower in the heads of its ponies. But only just. It will have to be nurtured and grown before its fragrance begins to carry.”
Night Light had almost forgotten about the nightmare, Ancepanox, before Velvet’s reminder. He wished he could have gone his entire life without seeing her again- The black alicorn had become something like a… It defied Night Light ability to describe! Regions on her head, chest, and hooves glowed bright white, and from those spots emerged teeming masses of white magical tendrils, that waved and twisted in the air. Ancepanox looked less like a pony and more like an anemone, her multitudional new appendages filling the air around her.
The moonlight grew more harsh around them.

“We’re not going to be doing any nurturing if you keep up this stunt.” Night Light released his confusion, revulsion, and fear in a barb at the transformed alicorn. For good measure he added a sarcastic “my Lady.”

Horrifyingly, the nightmare turned its head towards him. Everything above her nose and cheeks were missing into that strange white light, and thus no eyes, but still Night Light could feel the weight of her attention.
“Take the compliment, sir.”

Night Light didn’t dare respond. The ponies around him had their own response: Run. The miltiaponies scattered into the bushes and down the streets, abandoning their guns. The knights backed away too, the terror of the situation penetrating their dull engineered minds.

“Astral is around here somewhere. And I do mean somewhere. Maybe she can hear us.” The black alicorn laughed to herself. She took a few steps closer to Night Light, and the luminous tendrils trailed behind ever so slightly. “I sent her into the dreamland, physical body and all. I’ve never done that before, heh heh. As I get more powerful, who knows what kinds of things I could exile forever into that maddening place, or even pull out of it, heh heh heh.”
Nightmare Moon crouched by the stallion. “Do you think your daughters would be proud of you?”

Night Light clenched his teeth.

“If I transformed you to resemble how you think of yourself, your children won’t even be able to recognize you anymore.” The nightmare grew ever closer. She stopped right above Night Light, leering over him as she so enjoyed to do to ponies. “Do you think they’d recognize you now? You live a lie, little pony.”

One of the luminous tendrils got dangerously close to Night Light’s face. His eyes flashed to where the enthralled ponies were watching, listless. “Tshhh” He hissed through his teeth.

“Yes, I could steal your dreams too. And look what a pony is without their dream.” Moon motioned to the vacant-eyed ponies. “You, and Twilight Velvet, and Fleetfoot-” She cut herself off. “Ahh, I did that elicit a reaction? Yes, Astral is starting to get desperate. She thinks she can break through the barrier between realms through sheer hatred! She will rage, and I will laugh, and will win. I can’t hurt her, but I can hurt her, hah hah hah.”

A wizz and a pop, and Nightmare Moon flinched. Somepony had shot her. She growled, shoving Night Light backwards and turning towards the direction the shot had come from.
“What absolute genius decided it was a good idea to fire a gun at a target when your liege is right next to it?!” She shouted across the street.

Night Light saw a few ponies crouching behind a fence- Sel Lech had brought a half-dozen commoner volunteers in black jackets, the same from the attack on the tenement, all now staring down Nightmare Moon behind the sights of their old guns.

“If you pretend to care about ponies, then don’t involve Canterlot in your fight. We’re not pawns to use in your games.” Sel shouted back at the alicorn.

“Games? Is everything games?! There are so many other trivializing ways to describe it. But games don’t matter. Games are fun, instructive, and foalish. Is the fate of your planet a game?” Moon ranted. The tendril cloud around her began to recede, returning her to more conventional alicorn proportions, albeit still with patches of light where her hooves, head, and chest should have been. “Maybe it is! You small minded creatures can’t grasp the powers you’re dealing with, even in the abstract. You can only think of it as games or you’ll go mad. Pitiful! I tell you, every time I interact with you mortals, the more I hate you and love the alicorns. The more I interact with alicorns, the more I hate them and love you mortals. There is no winning. Everything on this planet is worthless. I try to help and I’m constantly rebuffed!”

“How about you go back to the moon if you hate our world so much?” Sel mocked.

Nightmare Moon began to mumble indecipherably. Night Light could tell it was not a spell or incantation, just inflamed, infuriated venting.

Night Light gathered his courage. It was time to go on the rhetorical attack. “What happened to you?” He asked, honesty in his voice. “The first time you were here, it wasn’t hard to tell, you were an overwhelmed, naive filly. You talked large, but your lines and taboos were as clear as day. You were, I risk to say, a normal pony.”

“Yes I was.” Nightmare Moon hissed. “I thought I was. I thought I lived the life of any other mare, that I was born normally, that I would die when my time came. At some point, I would even start a family.”
She turned to him. The viscous light had faded away, replaced by normal skin and fur. All the missing regions of her body were normal.

And there she was. The nightmare of the moon without her armor, without magic. From her deep purple-blue eyes to her unshod hooves, the black alicorn was as natural, as real, as raw as she had ever been for the last thousand years. Her fur was silky smooth. Her mane cascaded in long locks around both sides of her neck- It sparked now and then.
The mare once concealed behind the armor was no different, but she was shivering. What for? What cause did a god have to shiver? Not from vulnerability, nor cold…

“Who is my family now?” Moon choked out. “Celestia is dead. Luna is dead. I’ve killed the other ancient alicorns I’ve come across. I kicked Anima Astral Nacre back to her own constellation. Of alicorns, I have the pick of your Astral, and the gallery of metal balls in Maredia!”

Night Light knew he had to approach this carefully. “Celestia faced similar questions, you know.”

“And it drove her insane! Is being a ruler really the same as having a family? Celestia was our princess, our priestess, and our empress. The love and respect only flowed one way, and the authority only flowed the other. She hated ponykind. They were not worthy to be her family. I’m starting to see what she meant!”
Nightmare Moon continued to rant. The ponies she had enthralled started falling to the ground asleep, as her grasp on them weakened.
“How can there be true love when one member can strike the other without retribution? How can there be responsibility when ponies can level mountains with the wave of their horn? Our pony brains scream out for companionship, for compassion to and from one another… To be cruelly stomped by reality.” She breathed through her teeth, holding back tears. “How am I supposed to interact with you ponies. Will it ever be normal? Will I ever… will I ever… sit down and read with a filly? No joy to see her learn, to grow up… Your world is forever cut off from mine.”

“That’s not true.” Night Light said. “The world Velvet and I are building-”

“Is contradictory! Is nonsensical! You want to have it both ways, where ponykind is both apotheosized and grounded in humility. It’s not possible. I KNOW it’s not possible.” Moon shook her head. “I… I am gradually coming realize the horrible truth that has been nibbling at me. Some dreams… were never meant to be realized.”

There came a growing sound of hoofsteps coming up the brick path towards them. Ripple Wreath and Fleetfoot passed through the picket line of volunteers, trotting right up to Nightmare Moon.

Moon let out a long sigh, breaking her staring contest with Night Light to face Wreath. “Did you find the book?”

“A tall red mare with a long mane took it, years ago.” Wreath reported.

“Phyte.” Night Light supplied softly. “She fled Canterlot at the Eternal Night’s advent.”

Moon looked downcast. “Then the magic I sensed from it…”

“A book seller in town owned the book for a few years. It mutated him before the red mare took possession. False positive.” Wreath continued. “I’m sorry my lady. I’ll do better next time.”

Night Light felt a new knot in his stomach. “You’re going after The Elements of Harmony.”

“Harmony destroyed an alicorn a thousand years ago. Can it do it again?” Moon said grimly.
She spread her wings. “Fleetfoot, I’m going south. Would you like to come?”

Fleetfoot had no idea what was going on, besides some kind of stalemate between the Canterlot ponies with their guns, and Nightmare Moon. “Yeah why not.” She muttered. Moon had promised her to fix her curse. Fleet still wanted that, but maybe she could find a way to make that treacherous Rain Gnash suffer during the process.

“I’ll await your return.” Wreath bowed his head and backed away. “Don’t hurt Astral too badly. We have to live with her after this.”

“I’ll release her from the dream once I get far enough away.” Moon mumbled. “After that it’s up to her.”

“We can talk this through.” Night Light insisted. “There can be a place for you here.”

Moon shook her head. “Sorry father. The only place for me is six feet under.”
She launched into the air, ascending rapidly to the level of the clouds. Fleetfoot bowed to Night Light and Ripple Wreath, then took off after her. The two dots in the sky circled for a few moments then turned south, streaking through the dark skies.

At some point the moon’s light had faded to a normal level.

Another disaster, another dark night that left Night Light staring at the rapidly shrinking shape of the perpetrator.

“It’s going to be very hard to keep this one under wraps.” Sel Lech trotted over to him. “All of south and eastern Canterlot must have seen that light show. At least fifty ponies saw that alicorn directly.”

“Velvet should be here soon. Ask her about it.” Night Light said softly. He felt so defeated. “Make sure Astral is okay. She’s probably on the castle grounds. Keep your distance.”

“Aye, my lord.” Sel nodded. “I just want to ask… Are you okay?”

Besides living a lie? Night Light wanted to sleep. Everything ached, especially his heart. Maybe after a rest everything would be good again, and he could go back to uplifting Canterlot and ponykind...
All his struggle and effort, for a plan that could be dismissed in an instant as contradictory and nonsensical. Night Light knew he wasn’t sleeping this one off. His building anxieties had been vindicated. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep the act up.

“I feel fine.” He promised Sel. “Bring an extra large chair for the Council of Ponies tomorrow. If I can predict Velvet’s mind, she will want Astral to sit in on the trails tomorrow. Won’t that be interesting.” He trotted towards Castle Magoria, and a warm bed. “Good night Sel.”

“Good night my lord.” Sel nodded.
Sel sniffled. It was a cold night. “Well what can I say.” He announced to nopony in particular. “That’s just the way it is.” He looked around. Ripple Wreath had left, and the volunteers he’d brought with him had dispersed as soon as the confrontation was over. He was alone in the street with the sleeping castle staff. “Hmmm hmmm hmmm.” Sel hummed a little tune as he strolled up the street, in search of some lackey to help clean up the mess.
That’s just how things were: The boss made the mess and ordered him, and Sel ordered the next pony down. So it would go forever in all likelihood, until revolution or apocalypse wiped away every sign of the way things had been before- In burning fire in both cases.

Author's Note

This chapter came in at 100 pages on my editing table. There are 21 scene breaks. It took me four months. This is not for mass consumption. How many have read this? Less than two dozen? Reader, think about how many of those words are just for you. Imagine this as a love letter, over a thousand words long, dedicated only for your reading and pleasure. I hope that makes you feel special.

Chapter 57: Fool on the Hill

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Everfree Extra: Everfree Index 2: Maps of Equestria 1

Author's Note

This is the accumulation of Maps created by Merier & Sons of Manechester for a contracted handbook-style publication of When the Everfree Burns. The Manechester Review purchased the rights to issue the maps as part of the normal publication format within the paper. I have added the descriptions, giving a background for the locations as they were on the even of the Thousandth Summer Sun.
I must say I am somewhat impressed by Merier & Sons's work. They have also created a few character portraits which the Manechester Review also purchased. Those may appear in a different issue.

/un-character
These are my shitty fanfic art I made. They were in blog posts but for some reason the links broke. I was intending to put them here eventually, so I thought I might as well do it now while I'm thinking about it. Yeah, I know they're crap.
/re-character.

This forms the second part of the index. Look forward to more, my readership.

Everfree Extra: Everfree Index 2: Maps of Equestria 1

THE PRINCIPALITY OF CANTERLOT

Canterlot is the personal domain of the sun empress, governed by royal agents distinct from of the imperial government of Equestria. It extends from the grand city itself to the far edge of the Everfree, and to the western bank of the Dneighper river and great Whitetail Wood. Its core lands are the Dneighper Valley and the expansive but tranquil forests, all north of the now defunct Principality of Everfree and the jungle which has annexed it.

Canterlot is the grandest of the unicorn mountain cities, the shining jewel of Central Equestria. Originally the seat of House Blackhorn, Celestia I was invited to rule by the city's nobles after Argo Blackhorn the Reckless died in battle leaving no 'worthy' heirs. For several hundred years, the Blackhorn cadet houses sought to retake their city, but each time were put down by the new Empress. Now Canterlot's greatest threat is from within, as the urban nobility grows ever bolder and more ambitious.

The lands just under Canterlot are a thin band of gentle hills and fertile riverbanks known as the Canter. Providing most of the food for the imperial city above them, the ponies of the Canter have long suffered as indentured serfs to the petty urban nobles therein. The burden of containing unrest has always fallen to agents of the princess who, while sympathetic with the commoner cause, would not suffer having their empress face revolt so close to home.

The forests of the Principality of Canterlot (sometimes called the princess-pality by the commoners), are vast and largely anarchic, lacking roads or ties to the central authority of Canterlot City. Hundreds of tiny villages hide in the shade of the trees, their stout ponies living a life in blissful ignorance of politics and taxes. Wild creatures may roam in the deepest hollows, but only under cover of night do they prey, and the hardy villagers never go without a fight.

The Griffinbend, situated on the opposite side of the Upper Dneighper Valley from Canterlot, is home to the largest population of settled non-ponies in Equestria. Originally a fief of house Blackhorn, the small barony of Embankment was granted to a Kestrelian griffin mercenary lord by Celestia I upon her accession to the Canterlot throne. Renamed to Uferböschung, the castle became the seat of the new house Scharffeder, and has since attracted any and all equestrian griffins who would find the institutionalized discrimination under other lords intolerable.

The Free City of Ponyville sits on the southern border of the principality, where it holds a commanding presence on river trade between Canterlot and the breadbasket of the Dneighper Run. The smallest of the free cities by far, Ponyville was paradoxically one of the first chartered cities to receive such an honor, with it's Act of Imperial Immediacy dating some hundreds of years before the city's supposed founding. Still, the riverside hamlet been the archetype of quiet pastoral life in Equestria, and as long as peace continues to reign in the empire that shouldn't change.

And lastly there is the Everfree Forest, a name spoken in hushed tones and only with great reluctance. Once the land where the forest now grows was the prosperous Principality of the Everfree, founded by Celestia I and her sister. However the scourge of the Great Corruptions to the north and the Wars of Unification in the riverpony lands depleted the population greatly, as Celestia tried and failed to play the great game on the level of the other lords. The rebellion of Celestia's sister and the resulting War of the Nightmare Pretender sealed the fate of the fledgeling state. Twisted trees and hateful brambles are all that grow there now, and fell beasts haunt the graves of heroes and monsters alike.

THE RIVERPONY LANDS

Often called the heart of Equestria, the fertile Crystal River Valley could be more appropriately called the heart of Equestrian feudalism. Despite their adjacency to the imperial crown land, the lords rule as near sovereigns within their own territories. Royal agents find no protection here, and the empress has fined more than one feisty lord for murdering her administrators.

The riverpony lands are arguably also some of the most backwards in the whole of the empire. Literacy among the poor farmers is discouraged by the rural aristocracy, and outright illegal among serfs. Despite the incredible agrarian wealth extracted from the region, poverty and starvation are commonplace. The cities here are not the bastions of knowledge and mercantile wealth as at the coast, as no self-respecting merchant is willing to tolerate the arbitrary tyranny of lords.

In stark contrast to the squalor of the majority, the riverponies have the greatest claim to equestrian knightly tradition. Frequent tourneys and athletic competitions among the knights determines their social standing, and the lords themselves even occasionally join in.

Once, the riverpony lands were united under a single kingdom. The lords elected their leader from amongst their ranks, and he or she would reign absolute in matters of war and justice. The last such kings, Lector, launched a series of campaigns against the unicorns that devastated the commoners and lead to the extinction of many riverpony noble lines. After Lector’s death, no new king was elected, and so the counties and duchies remained disparate until their unification with the rest of Equestria under Celestia I.

Perhaps even more than Canterlot (At least in the understanding of the riverponies), the castle of Cottingholm could be called the center of Equestria. Guarding the pass between Canterlot and Foal, the fortress was once a jutting stone pillar in the middle of the Crystal River. In a joint venture, the unicorns and earth ponies carved it into a fortress to guard against pegasi raiders from the north. After its completion it was given as a county palatine to the knightly house Reads, who guarded the pass in the name of the Riverpony king. Since the desolution of the kingdom, the Reads have been their own lords, save for their outstanding service to the princess.

The only natural crossing point for a thousand kilometers up and downstream, Four Fords was once the greatest hub of trade and commerce in all of Equestria. Caravans going East-West and barges going North-South were mandated to stop there by the house Highlight, who watched over it all from their humble keep of Fourth Ford. However such times have long since passed, and Four Fords has shrunk into the ramshackle village known as First Ford. House Highlight pine for their former wealth, and amuse themselves by constantly feuding with their neighbors.

Denish Oasis is bizarrely out of place compared its surrounding holds. Built a measly century ago, the castle has not had the time to deteriorate like the rest of the riverpony lands, and still stands in ominous grandeur over a tributary and a road into Canterlot. The lands once belonged to the house Hightlight, but bankruptcy forced them to sell their lands on the western bank of the Crystal river to the enigmatic Baron Denish, who erected his keep and began styling himself as another riverpony lord. The Denishs are shunned by the other lords as nouveau riche, and so are forced to make company with the unicorns more often than most earth pony houses.

Nothing quite captures the degradation of the riverpony lands quite so much as Rapidwatch. A mere shell of a castle, even its secondary function as a bridge is stunted by frequent collapses and fires. King Lector commissioned the opulent and ambitious castle as a triumphal monument to his conquests, and upon his death the construction was picked up by the house Concourse. The project became a hell for them, as they faced setback after setback. After decades of work, it seemed Rapidwatch was completed, but a fire at the inauguration ceremony killed the entire house Concourse and their guests. A local knight took the castle for himself and founded the eponymous house Rapidwatch. Since then, fear of further disasters has compelled the family to stay in the countryside, instead of their haunted home.

Stirstream, one of the oldest castles in the riverpony lands, guards the Everfree River where it exits the forest on it’s way to the conflux. Greatly unremarkable, the castle serves as the hold of house Aiolie. Much of the house’s land is swamp and forest, and as such they lack the wealth and decadence of their peers. Having a reputation as austere and deeply religious, the Aiolies were some of the first supporters of Celestia I. Now, there times is spent hiding in their castle and peering out enviously at the fertile lands of their neighbors.

Monitor’s Gathering has stood in roughly the same spot in various forms for thousands of years. The house Monitor has defended the Crystal River conflux against jealous invaders innumerable times, and suffered the destruction of their home keep just as often. The latest iteration on Monitor’s Gathering is by far the shoddiest: A wooden motte and bailey, sitting on a mound of rubble that was their former castles. House Monitor’s fierce pride compels them to throw blame wherever they can for their misfortunes, and lately they have been the most vocal critics of Celestia and the supposed unicorn hegemony within the empire.

The last of the riverpony holds, far downstream of the others, is the stately castle and village of Eaulin. House Bluestreamer owns both sides of the Crystal River run, having usurped the north bank from the extinct house Greenstreamer in the turmoil after King Lector’s death. The two halves of their domain are distinct, yet both problematic. Their native south bank is home to numerous rogue villages of fisherponies who, with the tacit aid of river mermares, have been terrorizing trade along the Crystal River. The north bank has become overgrown and wild, and tribes of deer wage a guerilla war against loggers and homesteaders. Driven to bankruptcy fighting the threats, house Bluestreamer has become cruel and tyrannical, extracting unreasonable taxes from the peasants for levying whomever they can. Desertion is common among the forced levies, which fuels even more banditry. The problem has grown so bad that the Imperial army has established a permanent encampment outside the walls of Eaulin to discourage outright revolution.

There is some debate as to the classification of the Empty Plains. The riverponies claim it belongs to the unicorns of Foal. The unicorns of Foal claim it belongs to Filly Delphia. Filly Delphia claims it belongs to Baltimare. And Baltimare claims it belongs to the Riverponies. And so on. The vast tracts have defied countless settling expeditions and humbled conquerors and tycoons alike. Home to roaming tribes of various species, the Empty Plain is anything but. It is thousands of square kilometers of head-high grass, soil too poor for farming, and clear blue skies that become raging lightning storms. No road crosses it, instead diverting north through the foothills of Foal, or south to the lush and uninhabited Green Range.

Everfree Extra: Everfree Index 3: Relgions of Equestria 1, the Celestianist Temple

Celestianist Temple

as of 999 SS

Introduction:
The Celestianist Temple, also known as the Celestianist Church, the Celestial Faith, or Equestrian Sun Worship, is the state religion of the Equestrian Empire and the largest religion on the continent.

The Celestial Watchwords

1.The Holy Sun watches over all mortalkind, and Celestia is her manifestation upon the Bright World.

2.The Sun is the greatest of all gods, and guides the lives of all upon the Bright World.

3.The light of the Sun warms the souls of mortalkind and spurs them toward the destiny she has chosen for them.

4.Faith and acceptance of the Sun’s destiny will bring greater peace and harmony for all.

5.The study of the paths and patterns of the Sun will reveal the paths of mortalkind.

6.Celestia, the daughter and manifestation of the Sun upon the Bright World, has come to guide mortalkind to greater unity and harmony under her rule.

7.All mortals must act with honor and virtue to achieve their destinies in harmony with all others.

8.Those who do not believe in the Sun’s destiny but still strive for harmony must be accepted.

9.Those who, in striving to achieve their destiny, break the harmony of others and prevent their destiny must submit themselves to Celestia for judgement.

10.The Dark is incompatible the the Sun’s destiny and must be shunned.

Fouding

The official date for the founding of Celestianism was the descent of Celestia and her sister from the Cosmos onto the Bright World, in -55 SS.
For thirteen years, while Celestia and her sister wandered the world, an ongoing debate was raging in Equestria about the nature of the Celestiaan sisters and their relationship to their patron celestial objects. These questions were answered on the eve of the foundation of Everfree Principality, when Celestia joined the first coalition against the Northern Corruption and promulgated a book to aide the conduct of the allies against the Dark forces. That code was the basis of the lawbooks of the Everfree Principality, and quickly spread across Equestria as an effective counter to the Dark corruption that had spread during the failed Unification Wars.

After the founding the Everfree Principality, Celestia and her sister set about establishing a centralized system which could enforce the new Celestianist laws and, more than than, offer unity for all the pony tribes. This lasts for forty years, and the Celestianist become an entrenched part of the lives of the ponies of the region and neighboring realms. However the doctrine becomes more widely promulgated only upon the second coalition against the Northern Corruption after the emergence of Sombra Blackhorn in -14 SS. The aggressive persecution of Dark cults, led by the Celestianist temple, prevents the corruption from spreading any further.

The new principality was unprepared for the treachery of Celestia’s sister, and the wider Equestrian alliance quickly collapsed with Celestia besieged in the Everfree Castle. The heart of the Celestianist temple as it had existed was gutted by the destruction of Everfree Castle and the ponies within, leaving Celestia to reorganize it by herself upon being invited to the throne of Canterlot.
With the Nightmare Pretender defeated and the Northern Corruption engulfed by a winter storm from the north, the Celestianist temple was a militant organization without a head or purpose. The temple clashed with local lords, and civil war seemed imminent until compromise was found under Celestia’s unification of Equestria. The temple was defanged after a series of purges, but remained an extension of Celestia’s imperial power as a state church. The new imperial lawcodes were dedicatedly secular, but Celestianist doctrine was still strictly enforced by state and temple both.

History

For the first few centuries Equestria with government and temple greatly in synch, as the official state church relied on imperial forces to enforce intransigent lords and communities. Local cults and folk religions domination the Unification, and Early Celestia I era, and the troubles of the early bureaucracy were matched by the early temple. However with the reforms of Celestia 179th in 144 SS, the Celestianist temple lost its support as the state church, but still enjoyed privileges and representation in different imperial institutions. A more full split was enacted with the Apostate’s Revolt in 199 SS and the subsequent establishment of prelates, whereafter all representation of the temple was handled through the Estates.

Three prelates, the Earth Pony Prelate, the Pegasis Prelate, and the Unicorn Prelate, became the foremost administrative roles of the temple, with different areas of Equestria coming under their. The patchwork of diocese which had been organized local government were aligned to a prelate based on the population.

Practices

At the core of the Celestianist doctrine are two concepts that are promised: Destiny, and Harmony. Destiny is the more important of the two, and is best described as a kind of predestined fate, which the Sun has designed to bring fulfillment and peace to a mortal. Harmony is more abstract and relates to a scope of personal, social, and spiritual congruences.

Like most religions, there are a few obvious grounding facts from which the broader faith springs. Unlike most other religions the doctrine came almost fully formed from Celestia and her sister, instead of through prophets or scholars trying to interpret divine phenomenon.

Besides Celestia and her control of the Sun, Celestianism has also laid claim to phenomenon of pony ‘Marks’, which are manifestations of a pony’s destiny that appear on their upper hindquarters. Most Equestrian religions throughout history have developed explanations for how and why ponies have marks, though as with all pre-Celestianist faiths it was placed in the context of the cults and folk faiths rather than organized worship.

Faith in and submission to the destiny the Sun has created for all mortalkind is the spiritual core of Celestianist doctrine. It is understood that while Celestia rules in her mother’s name, not every detail of the Sun’s grand designs can be laid out for mortals to understand.
Ponies do not pray to the sun, as it would be impotent. Instead ponies make their prayers to Celestia, who has the power to intercede to make their destiny more clear and the harmony in their lives more perfect.

Leadership & Structure

The highest authority in the Celestianist temple is technically Sun Princess Celestia, who is the will and power of the Sun made manifest. Disputes in the temple and questions about the faith are directed to her, as are conflicts of destiny between two ponies.
However Celestia’s ambivalence to everyday temple affairs has led to real power being devolved to the prelates. The three prelates, the Earthpony Prelate, Pegasus Prelate, and Unicorn Prelate, are in law the representatives of their tribe to Celestia, though their real role is as leaders and judges in their own right.

Under the prelates are regional leaders, known as bishops by earth ponies and pegasi, and as magi by unicorns. Bishops are usually attached to a local lord and have jurisdiction over all temporal affairs in the lord’s lands. Bishops are usually also the judges and priests of their own cathedral.
Before the reforms the bishop was also an imperial agent, though since the reforms the imperial bureaucracy has a separate magistrate agent in the courts.

Below the bishops are the temples themselves, led by a priest. Priests aide the population in the search for the destiny through instructing Celestianist doctrine. Priests were once a more controlled status, requiring literacy, exams in state-sponsored schools, and a life commitment. Since the reforms and a decline in Equestrian religiosity the role of priest is often informal, and most often the priest in a village is also the manor lord or elder.

Outside this hierarchy are the Solar Monasteries, mystic institutions who shut themselves off from the rest of the temple. Celestia and rarely the prelates are the only ones with any influence over the actions of the monasteries, but generally the monasteries do nothing to provoke and are never themselves provoked. In some ways the monastery has remained in the same station as before the reforms, acting as an extension of the imperial libraries and universities.

Followers

As Celestianism exist in its only real form in Equestria, while the doctrine may speak of applying to all mortalkind in its scope, when in reality it is ponies of Equestria only who follow it. Expatriate Equestrians often drift away from Celestianist practices, for with physical distance from Celestia comes a helplessness of her institutions to reach and help them.

On paper the temple is the faith of the overwhelming majority of Equestrians, though the number who are truly spiritual is much lower. The temple is an equally cultural and religious institution, and though many ponies would identify with the temple, they do not attend instruction or have any deep knowledge of the doctrine.

In Everyday Life

For the ponies of the Empire of Equestria, the application of this doctrine is evident in two form: the Temple which concerns itself with Destiny, and the imperial bureaucracy which concerns Harmony. Both are lead in name by Celestia, who is guiding mortals as her Sun does through those institutions, though in reality power is devolved to lower ponies and groups.

On the local level, the Celestianist temple has a presence in most villages and cities. Temples, churches, and cathedrals serve as community centers, where priests preside over religious ceremonies like mark celebrations, weddings, and funerals. The temple plays less of a role in the everyday lives of busy city dwellers, as greater class consciousness and more opportunities means less ponies rely less on vague ideas of destiny.

In Equestria, the role of the temple in everyday life has significantly diminished from its height immediately following the Unification and the Early Imperial Era. The temple’s doctrine is an ingrained part of life for most ponies, but overt worship of the Sun and Celestia has given way to a general reverence for the princess.

The temple suffers from what can be described best as a spirit of apathy. Beginning with Celestia and trickling down to the populace, a feeling of uselessness has pervaded Equestria and the temple. In the secular realm, the rival spirits of new commercialism and revived local ambition has energize life. However the temple has had no such revitalization, despite the best efforts of the prelates and more spiritual ponies.

Variants & Heresy

The idea of exclusivity is not as prominent in Celstianism as it is in other Equestrian religions. At its core, Celstianism has claims to universality, and aims to explant itself to all mortals under Celestia’s rule, the practicality of this and Celestia’s actual willingness aside.
However in the form of the monks of the Solar Monasteries, there exists a vein of acetic, moralistic sects, which inverts the usual philosophy of the Bright World to Dark Heaven. The monks, believing themselves to be the keepers of a kind of secret knowledge, believe that the solar astrology they perform should not be widely practiced for the potential to lead ponies astray from having faith in the Sun’s destiny for them.

Some syncretic movements developed on the fringes, in the inaccessible wildernesses of Equestria, and in different pony colonies. These movements retain the beliefs about the Sun and destiny, though some do not offer Celestia in the same worship.

Author's Note

As with other things in the index, this was made to keep things straight for myself, but I thought the readership would like to have it as well. As with many things, our current understanding of things from the Civil War Era are tainted by our time's politics and our strong opinions about the past. This topic is harder for me to be objective with than most, it being that I was brother in the isolated Manehattan Monastery through the Civil War.
It was a challenging time. I was never an especially devout pony, and indeed I resented Celestia for banishing me to that lonely cloister for a bit of innocent fun. Fining a relationship with the divine was a struggle for me. I did find a kind of peace, and I was ready to spend the rest of my life there, if not for the Eternal Night and subsequent turmoil. There was so much fear, confusion, and uncertainty in the monastery. The ponies who had committed their life to studying the sun had nothing. There is no good way to capture what we were feeling. The firm foundations of our worldview were stripped away, and we were left raw in a wild, empty-feeling world.

Anyhow, enough with such depressing things. Thank you to whoever is sticking with me. You, dear readership, keeps me going. Things have not been easy through the political chaos but eventually things will stabilize, and we can only hope that the Crown will come out better after this. Do not wither in the face of feelings of hopelessness. Strive to make yourself and this world better. Sincerely, Long Play.

Post Script: Oh yes, I forgot to mention there will be more of these, once I gather the wherewithal to organize them. A index page on the finer points of different kinds of Dark worship is next up. Unless, that is, by some horrible mistake I make more chapters of the narrative. Semicolon close-parentheses.

Prologue 1: Canterlot Midnight

The light came on, rousing a tired pony.
Celestia awoke in a room with walls made of cloud. Cloud... Celestia sensed she was deep within in the floating pegasus city of Cloudsdale. But why? Yes, the context of her habitation completely eluded her. Celestia hadn't spent a night outside of her quarters in Canterlot Castle for a century. Slowly though, a fascinating recollection dawned on her: It was a time of war.

War! That jolted Celestia up from the floor. Her empire of Equestria had not been in a real proper war in centuries- Colonial wars and punitive expeditions sure, but nothing that would ever rise to the concern of the holy sovereign. Yet, she undeniably felt all the signs which, despite absent of them for said centuries, were as familiar as ever for the alicorn. Stress hormones. Fatigue and strain. A subtle tremble in her hooves. A burning feeling of purpose and resolve!

But the unreality of the situation was just as evident. "This is a memory... or a premonition." Celestia whispered into the cloud room. She could not hear her own voice back, confirming to her that she was in dream of some sort.
When she had laid her head down to sleep, it had been early spring of the year 999 SS, just a few months shy of the thousandth Summer Sun and the dawning of a new millennium. But when was this dream taking place, where she was in Cloudsdale and her body ached and trembled?

Celestia's eyes were naturally drawn to the only other feature in the cloud room. It was a map- This was the focus of the dream, what Celestia was meant to pay attention to. The other details were superfluous, merely meant to prime her. Indeed as her eyes locked on it, everything else became hazy, indistinct, muted. It was a map of the continent of Equestria, her domain.
But was it her Equestria?

At first, Celestia saw the map and assumed it, and therefore the dream, were of the past. The map showed Equestria divided, fractured, split up between tiny endemically warring states- They had their flags, their armies, their capitals, and their leaders written neatly in the margins of the map. "A lesson from history." Celestia assumed.
But as Celestia stepped closer, heart full of trepidation, she found a closer look disproved her assumption. Those were not the names of the warlords of Equestria's past, who Celestia had brought to heel those centuries ago. No, Celestia would have recognized those names, and remembered with nostalgic fondness the battles where she had vanquished the warlords to unify her Equestian empire.

To Celestia's utter terror, she recognized very few of the names on the map.

To her even greater terror, some of them she did recognize.

With a gasp, Celestia's eyes snapped open. She lay in bed, head resting squarely on her pillow- Her bed in Canterlot this time, tucked safely in her sprawling castle complex. The dream... premonition... was over, and she was back in 999 SS.

Celestia illuminated the dark bedroom with her magic from her horn. The richly decorated space, filled with history, baubles, and luxury, twinkled back. But Celestia was looking for one item in particular: Just as in the cloud room in the premonition, her bedroom had a map of Equestria on the wall. Unlike the dream, her map of Equestia and its overseas territories remained one solid color.
"And I am its princess, its empress." Celestia reassured herself softly. She closed her eyes and tried to remember if her name had been on the map in the dream, but the details were melting away and, as was so often the case with dreams, just the haze of sensation and emotion remained.
There was no point chasing it with a spell either- Because alicorns did not dream the way mortals did, ergo, what she had experienced was magically significant.

If it was a premonition, a TRUE premonition, then the warning of a divided warring nation promised one of many possible futures. It had been sent to her so that she could work to avoid that dreadful fate.
However it had also been sent to her BY someone. Premonitions did not pop out of the aether, even to semi-divine alicorns. Whoever had sent the premonition had their own reasons for doing so. Celestia had her suspicions.

What had not changed between the dream and reality was a lingering feeling of fatigue Celestia felt. She was tired. The chaos the premonition promised clouded her heart with exhausted resignation as much as anything else. The toils life heaped on her were unbearable! How much pain would she endure, how much effort would she exert, at the mere hope of changing fate? Who knew if trying to change things would instead cause a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Thus laying her head back down, Celestia did not feel much different than when she had done so at dusk, some hours previous- She was the badgered, miserable, and apathetic liege lord of an entire continent. Not even ominous signals of death could keep her energy up for that long.
Tomorrow, she told herself. She could deal with the premonition, with all its myriad promise of betrayal and chaos, tomorrow.

But the lights were still on elsewhere in the Canterlot Castle.

Twilight Sparkle sat by the window in the castle library, looking across to the other wing where the princess's quarters were. The castle keep, silhouetted against the white light of the moon, looked eerie and still. Its towers and spires looked like so many talons reaching towards heaven, a mausoleum for its yet-living empress.

"Can't sleep, princess?" Twilight whispered. Her breath slightly frosted the cold window.
She knew she shouldn't have been dwelling on Princess Celestia. She had repeatedly made resolutions to herself to focus only on her studies. Drama with the princess and the ceremonial duties as her student were to be entirely ignored. Twilight was satisfied that she mostly kept to her resolution. But in Canterlot, a city built from the ground up for the comfort and exaltation of the empress of Equestria, it was next to impossible to go a day without thinking about Celestia.

Focus. Book. Studies.
Twilight shook her head and turned her back to the cold window. She pulled her candle closer and flipped her book back open. She was on something of a sabbatical from her research obligations at the Canterlot University. She had spent the last month flipping between fascinations, trying to find an inspiration for her next big project, or even her next degree. As much as she didn't want to admit it, the University, her escape from inane and frustrating expectations from the princess's government, had begun to tire her. She needed to find something new that sparked her interest, something she hadn't memorized backwards and forwards like most everything else; A veritable polymath of magic, Twilight Sparkle was a multidisciplinary reader. Books were her life.

That brought her to the last, longest book of the night, the cap to a full day in the castle library. To Twilight's left were the piles of tomes she'd already finished. To her left was the pile of notes she'd made. In front of her was 'The History of Pony Metallurgy', an aged reference text. Twilight didn't have high hopes for the tome, but it is where that night found her. Maybe she could work it into a literature review, for later reference if she decided to write a paper or conduct some experiments, though she had to admit to herself that it was unlikely. It would be one more night of spinning her wheels, probably.

Although...
"This wasn't what I was expecting." Twilight hummed. 'The History of Pony Metallurgy'was a mix of descriptions and illuminations of historical magical artifacts. "Ooh, the armor of the ancient unicorn warlords. That's neat I guess. I've been meaning to go back to classical history studies." Twilight said to herself, idly flipping through the pages. "Tetrarchy-era cloud legionary horseshoes. Fascinating." She stopped taking notes, but without that rote habit Twilight's mind drifted.

She hated to admit her mind was mostly still on Celestia. Did the princess think of her often? If Twilight came with questions about history, would Celestia be receptive or give her the cold shoulder? She fancied, vainly she knew, that Celestia was even then thinking of her, that the princess's restless night was on her account. Twilight yearned for the comfort that her mentor was as irked by the strained relationship as she was.

Twilight flipped to a page with a beautifully drawn depiction of a helmet. Something about it drew her eye. "Magical cast iron." She read out idly. "Wait..." She shook her head and read it again. "Magical cast icon, question mark?"
She sensed a mystery. As much as she thrived in rote learning, the boundaries of pony knowledge ever tantalized her.

“Despite an influx of unicorns into smelting industry in the Early Classical era, magical cast iron did not become commonplace until the Mid Classical. The material culture of archaic Unicornia and the Crystal Valley style circa the first century BSS saw the widest use of magical iron, but the apex of the technology was only seen in the Unification Wars. Some of the most iconic examples of their experimental techniques are the quasi-plate armors of knights in the War of the Nightmare Pretender. Classicists have questioned whether the armors were indeed iron, or a novel steel created hundreds of years before modern alloying techniques. The loss (destruction?) of all the armor examples, including the eponymous Nightmare Pretender's, makes the period one of the most mysterious from a historiographical standpoint.”

“Illumination copied from painting by I. Valor of Dneighper Run, circa 600SS since lost. Subject: The Nightmare Pretender's Helm, or mimicry by a nightmare knight.”

Twilight's worries about Princess Celestia melted away as she read the fascinating passage. One phrase in particular ensnared her interest. How, in all her years of studying magic and history, had she never heard of this 'Nightmare Pretender'? With a name like that you deserved a place in academic discourse if not common folk knowledge. It was evocative, to say the least.

Twilight flipped the page and more closely scrutinized the illumination the passage related to. It was another depiction of the 'nightmare' armor, this time the whole set, modeled on a stern looking pale earth pony. The armor set was of a relatively spartan design, only six small pieces. The helmet looked like it ran from the bridge of a pony’s nose to the back of the neck, with several filigree-like points curling around the face. The four horseshoes covered every part of the hoof, but also had menacing spikes running up the front of each, almost to the ankle. The cuirass was large, built for a pony much larger than the model, but only protected the front of the breast with a loop running back around the neck, really only giving protection only against bad fashion. The cuirass had a crescent moon engraved on the front plate, presumably the crest of its wearer, that 'Nightmare Pretender'.

"Such strong metal, for such skimpy armor. Whoever wore this didn't rely on it for stopping sword and arrow hits." Twilight reread the description. "Fascinating."

The ornamental armor, clearly made for a pony of near Celestia's size, captured Twilight's imagination, as did the idea of its wearer.
Pretender, as in pretending to be a nightmare? Or... a pretender to the throne? The throne in question Twilight thought of, at least in the times of Unification, was the throne of a united Equestria, a far-off goal for the classical ponies. Those were troubled and confused times before, as the text mentioned, the sun princess Celestia the First alighted on the earth to forge a new empire for ponykind.

Was this mysterious pony, the Nightmare Pretender, a claimant to the throne of Equestria itself?

"Nightmare..." Twilight mumbled to herself. She did not know very much about the more dangerous kinds magical beasts, and especially not the elusive nightmares who skulked in mortal dreams. Those old dark creatures were stronger back in the days of divided Equestria. It was plausible one of them had challenged Princess Celestia for the throne. Yet somehow, the Nightmare Pretender was seemly forgotten except as a passing mention in a book about metallurgy. It had to be a mistake... right?
"I guess I might be asking Princess Celestia some questions after all." Twilight said to herself. Forget metallurgy. Forget the literature review. She was going to chase down the Nightmare Pretender lead and make her history professors sweat.
But before she went to the princess, she was going to have to do some deep digging. Surely somewhere in the city of Canterlot was another more descriptive mention of the forgotten warlord, 'NIGHTMARE'. “This warrants further investigation.”

Author's Note

I must admit, when the Manechester Review of Books approached me about making a serialized historiographic narrative centered on the Equestrian Civil War, I called them silly for conceiving of such a thing. However in the weeks that followed the idea grew on me, until I myself was so enamored with the idea that I crawled begging to the Review asking them to let me write it instead of simply advising on it.

Truth, for a historian such as myself, is always the ultimate goal. In fact I should like to say that is the goal of all ponies. If you are religious, you seek enlightenment, just another word for knowing the truth of the universe. If you are a romantic type, I would guess you pursue a certain type of true love- Interestingly this is the method of an entire field of philosophy, where ponies believe that eros, eroticism, is necessary for pursuit of knowledge: It is necessary to love the truth, but we are mere mortals, and first we must foster that love as a love for our teacher. And so it goes.

By the by, I set out to give a retelling of those tumultuous times, the Civil War. I am naturally anxious if my modest writing talent would not twist the subject, that it did not reflect reality; That it would not, in essence, provide the truth. Such it is with most thing I'm afraid. We are imperfect specimens, and can only create imperfect things. Though it is said even the stars in heaven make mistakes, so perhaps it is more a feature of the extant, rather than specific to mortality, or physicality. Certainly it is known that the alicorns made mistakes, otherwise there would be no story of a Civil War to tell. Is there any perfection anywhere, on earth or in heaven? Unfortunately, it is the dogma of some ponies that there is.

If one is to begin the tale of mistakes, of course we begin with the most mistaken ones of all. That ominous, monosyllabic declaration, "WAR", can truly be blamed on few others more than on they two, Twilight Sparkle and Celestia. Many ponies will read those names and be quick to judge them on incomplete understandings, by what they think they know. But what they know, and what I will tell, are not the truth. As I have said absolute truth will probably elude mortals forever. Life is chaotic and confusing in the best of times. As we spiral into the at-times contradictory and nonsensical, when physical and dream intersect, we should not be too hard on poor fools who had to navigate life and death in the times of the Equestrian Civil War.

Chapter 1: Old Mare's Tale

Is history meant to instruct us? The distinguished thinkers of bygone times deduced three exclusive possibilities, presented in no particular order: The world was designed to alternatively please or puzzle us, and us specifically; There is no rule or rhythm to anything beyond dispassionate iron laws of material reality; The universe was engineered, but far from being crafted with any regard for trifling mortals, our world is not 'ours' at all, but the sandbox of intelligences who care nothing for us, the narratives of which regard us not but dominate us utterly.

“Hundreds of years ago in our fair land there came a great crisis- It is known variably as the Everfree War, Everfree Siege, and Celestiaan Civil War. The benevolent Celestia the First, predecessor to all succeeding divine daughters of the sun, ruled beside her sister over the Everfree Principality. The two Celestiaan sisters had so recently descended from heaven and subjugated vast tracts of the pony nation, and threw the remaining princes into confusion. The promise of quick unification was shattered when malign mortal ambition overcame the Dark sister, and she betrayed Celestia I.
The enemies of the Celestiaan, vast armies of nightmares and monsters, raised the banner of the Dark sister, and the pony princes declared for either sister in a continental struggle, to wage brutal war for or against Celestia. The pivot of the campaign was Everfree Castle, the crown jewel of the sisters' principality, where Celestia I and her faithful legions were besieged by the Dark sister and her nightmare armies. The sturdy battlements of Everfree held out against all assaults and engineering, until the besieging force collapsed from hunger, disease, and indiscipline. Yet the Everfree Principality was nary saved: the fertile land was laid to absolute ruin, depopulated and scarred, and the devil forest lately grown over the region hides bones and steel aplenty.
When her campaign seemed lost, monsters and princes deserting her cause, the Dark sister rejected defeat. Appealing to her divine heritage, she called up such a power of corruption not seen upon the Bright World since the Ancient Alicorns, transforming herself into the physical manifestation of the Dark magic within her. In the ensuing battle between the sisters, the Everfree Castle was utterly destroyed and the Dark princess was dispelled.
The Dark sister's name is now lost to history, her reward for her treachery. The lineage of the divine sun princess rules Equestria perpetually.
See Index for map of Everfree Forest as it stands today. See index for illumination of Celestia I. See Index for-”

The book was slammed shut in the face of the pony reading it.

The brown robed monk blinked away his surprise. “Err... Is something the matter m'lady?”

”You don't need to continue.” Twilight Sparkle said softly, in contrast to her antagonistic demeanor of slamming the book. “This is a superfluous secondary source. Everything you read was a retread of Annals by Hippotitius, of Gaius Juneighus Courser's memoirs, of all my other sources. Bluntly, this doesn't help me."

The monk looked between Twilight and the book. "Sorry but I am not familiar with those works, so, um, I found it interesting."

"And I highly encourage you to read it on your own time, but not mine." Twilight admonished. "Look, I pulled out dozens upon dozens of books from the overlooked recesses of the castle library. All night, on into the morning, I've been reading the same things from different sources. Usually, I'd be fine with that- That's how I pass time. But, right now I'm starting to get a little frustrated with my lack of progress." Twilight's disposition turned sad. "So sorry for being terse, but this is my last hope of finding a more detailed source, else I'll have to start mining private collections and military archives, and that takes forever just to get permission." She sighed and pushed aside the old book. "In every source, it's only these vague summaries. Nopony at all has anything about the Everfree Crisis beyond the level of half-remembered rumor."

Twilight Sparkle was a small unicorn, just over a meter tall with another hoof's length of helically scored horn. Underneath her plain white dress her fur was lavender, and her dark blue mane streaked with amethyst and violet was straight and shoulder length. Her eyes, ever watchful, were a brilliant purple.

Across the study table from her, two monks of the monastery weathered her disappointment. “Yes m'lady, I'd heard Late Classical historians only ever regurgitated what the Mid Classical historians had said." The second monk said. "I know it's true of the theological and scholastic text; Apparently secular history as well. I really don't know what you were expecting from secondary sources. I share your, um, palpable frustration.”

“What I was expecting?! Listen, brother, there is no knowledge,” Twilight began, calm but becoming more irritated as she spoke. “no knowledge which is outside the realm of books! No other nation has so faithfully communicated the past down to us moderns, preserved and unadulterated, as Equestria has. The written word is how we communicate our ideas across time, and make every practice of society possible. If it isn't written somewhere, it didn't happen. If it did happen, it's written about somewhere." She knew she was hyperbolizing a bit. "Whenever I visit your solar monastery, your brothers and sisters are so snide, ragging on Canterlot Castle's history collection and bragging about how much better your library is. I've never been disappointed to visit you before, and I like this collection a lot. But now?" The clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "Dare I say, you presume and report such prevarications to perplex passing pupils of presage and power! Are you telling me you can't do any better than the castle and university collections? Phooie. So where are you hiding the detailed archives?! Where are you hiding-" She tapped the tome. "The truth?"

But it was not the monks across from Twilight that interrupted Twilight's rant, but a soft voice from behind her. “Giving my brothers a hard time, m'lady?”

Twilight turned to the new voice, where another brown robed monk was peeking through the door.
“Brother Manered!” Twilight hailed the new pony. Her frown softened to an earnest smile. "Enter, I order you!"

“Lady Sparkle, this is 'my' library, after all.” The pony named Manered smiled and trotted over to the study table. He was an earth pony of average height, somewhat skinny, though the flowing monk's robe did much to hide it. His coat was as grey as gravel and his head shaved bald. His slow and methodical cadence could have put a raging bull at ease. “You do so excite things when you visit. Although I must remind you that monastic convents are supposed to be quiet. Doubly so for our libraries.”

“I respect that, obviously, but I think tranquility and repose deserve to be broken for the purposes of healthy discourse.” Twilight joked.

"Is shouting at us discourse?" One of the seated monks asked.

Twilight glared at him, and so the two seated monks took the opportunity to ease away from the table and scoot out of the library. Manered, watching bemused at their departure, took an emptied seat. "Passion is a mortal burden we strive to regulate. You don't actually think abusing the poor celibates of my monastery helps anything, do you? Surely not."

Twilight laughed and shook her head. "I'm just a little tired, you know, sleep deprived, and I've gotten nowhere in hours, so I guess I'm on a shorter fuse. Sorry, brother." She leaned forward. "But since you let them escape, now you have to help me."

"Ponies so love talking about what we 'deserve' and what we 'have to' do." Manered chuckled. "How is your brother? Or how about that girl who came with you last time... Mis Moondancer I think it was."

"Shining Armor is doing great. Moondancer is... fine, probably. I haven't seen her in a bit. Our studies diverged." Twilight cleared her throat. "This is my personal project and-" Twilight gestured to the weighty book she had slammed before. “You know I wouldn't bother you if it wasn't an emergency."

"No, I don't know that. Hot-blooded noblemares come around just to torment us just for their kicks." Manered circled around and eased the old tome back open. "The Everfree Crisis." He glanced up at Twilight. "A war that ended a thousand years ago is no emergency, my lady."

Twilight nibbled her lip, trying to think of what to say. It was difficult to explain herself because she didn't fully understand it herself. The mystery compelled her for its own sake, yes, that tantalizing promise of discovery. But... there was something else, a tingle along her spine, like there was a hint of magic in the mystery too. Candle-lit, overseen by the moon though the window of her castle library reading room, Twilight had become engrossed beyond her ability to rationally justify. She just had to know about the Everfree War and the Nightmare Pretender now.
"Oh yes it is." She blustered a bit. "I found an embarrassing gap in the literature, a yawning chasm that threatens to pull all official historiography down into it. Against this terrifying threat I have, as an imperial subject and agent both, a duty to fix this before it spirals out of control."

Manered politely chuckled at her joke. Maybe she would share her real reasons later. "Oh my Lady Sparkle, that is dire indeed. As a fellow subject of her highness, though one of the first estate, I would likewise be pressed to save the realm. You almost have me sold on this, Twilight."

Twilight arched a brow. "You want me to apologize for yelling, don't you."

"Sinners like us have no right to apologize, Lady Sparkle, only to repent." Manered said with a smile.

"I don't even know what that means, but I'm sorry nonetheless." Twilight said. She at least sounded like she meant it so that was good enough for Brother Manered. "Now you'll help me."

"Far be it for me to say no to you, and to duty, ma'am." Manered acceded. "I am at your service. Tell me what you need from me."

Twilight scooted her chair forward, leaning in conspiratorially. "There's a pony I'm trying to track down, the so-called 'Nightmare Pretender'."

“Nightmares? Oh my. That is a dangerous topic to even speak of.” Manered pursed his lips. Was he going to regret this? “It is my responsibility as an adherent to the laws of the Sun and her divine daughter to warn you away from dark and corrupt magic.”

“Sure, sure, big scary Dark magic. But scholars like us should know a little better about what's just dogma and what's actually dangerous about Dark magic. 'Dark' is a very well defined magical concept and- Ah! I don't have time to explain it to you.” Twilight huffed. “Besides, you known me. I'm obviously not after any nightmarish power. I'm just awful at dream magic and don't have the patience for what other ponies dream up. Its purely academic for me."

Manered didn't seem entirely convinced. "Neither of us have whole picture here, Lady Twilight."

Twilight made a face. Didn't he trust her? "I've taken multiple pledges, as Princess Celestia's student and a student of the University, to use magic responsibly. They say Dark magic, selfish magic, is the antithesis of those pledges. Yes I've tried it. Every unicorn has tried it a little. But I don't like the Dark and I have no plans to get better with it." She cleared her throat. "And this has nothing to do with that besides. This is about the historiography, pure and simple.""

"I believe you." Manered bowed his head. "I wouldn't trust most ponies to do the right thing with power, and surely not myself, but I trust you Twilight, in no small part because our Princess Celestia trusts you."

Twilight hid a grimace at mention of Celestia's name being thrown back at her. "Okay okay, don't you dare try to flatter me. Let's get to brass tacks already." She leaned over to grab a notebook from her saddlebag on the floor beside her. "You can take a look at my notes on the sources I pulled from the castle and University. "

Manered dutifully accepted the notebook. On the very first page he saw Twilight's rough sketch trace of the savage magical armor illustration that had set off her investigation. He could trace her search, book by book, as she plowed through different sections of the Canterlot Castle library, then the University library, and the monastery library.
At some point in Twilight's search, Twilight had added another pony into her notes about the 'Nightmare Pretender'; the equally mysterious 'Dark sister', a contemporary and apparent relation to Celestia I. Who? He had never heard of this alicorn. The implicit connection between Nightmare and alicorn that Twilight was drawing alarmed Manered, but he held his tongue.
"Thorough as always Lady Sparkle." He passed the notebook back. "Have you already consulted your professors at the University?"

“Obviously. I got excuses and eye-rolls. They say alternatively that its not their specialty, or that they're too busy to help me. I can't exactly blame them. The whole Unification period, including the Everfree Siege, is totally absent from academic scrutiny, as if it's taboo or something. Strange, isn't it." Twilight said. "For how much it's ingrained in our popular consciousness, Equestria has no official historiography on the period. It's just politics and folk knowledge."

And perhaps it should stay that way, Manered thought. "A taboo. You mean to confront us with something uncomfortable, in the name of truth."
The young Lady Sparkle was never easy to work with when she became so fixated. Last week it had been Babyloneighian astrology and two weeks ago it had been star fort architecture. Some ponies couldn't handle how pushy the bookish little noblepony could be. “Have you talked to anyone at the princess's court? Asked around or told them your theories?”

Twilight became irritated once again. "Why would I want to talk to the dolts in the Imperial Court? Sycophantic dullards, philanderous phonies, and covetous courtiers are all that's found in the royal court nowadays. The smart ponies have moved into the Imperial Council or the private courts, and even the marginally clever have found somewhere else to panhandle." She ground her teeth at the thought. "Meanwhile I am on to something of REAL importance. Can't you see what I'm layout out, brother? There's a conspiracy here! You saw my notes. Even the first book I saw the Nightmare Pretender's name mentioned implied that records and artifacts were destroyed! What kind of BARBARIAN destroys history and artifacts?!"

“Ok ok! Just please put the table down.” Manered gasped. Twilight hadn't even realized she had picked the table up with her magic, apparently unconsciously intent on flipping it. With an apologetic giggle she set it back gently. Manered let out a sigh of relief. “Heavens alive, my lady. A conspiracy is... quite the allegation. Twilight I pray that you not take this lightly. If this proves a larger endeavor that your last obsessions, will it be worth interrupting your studies for? Last time you visited, you were pursuing another degree.”

“Yes, I was. Am. Still planning on it." Twilight said, somewhat defensive. "Listen, I'm... working on it. The university masters let me do what I want with my time. And I could really advance the field with this research. This is important, and not just to me. This is of interest to all ponykind. It baffles me ponies keep acting like they don't want to be a part of my work."

Manered gave a skeptical look. "Twilight, the Unification period was a millennium ago. This Everfree War was a blip in Celestia the First's rise to imperium. The abiding mass of ponykind doesn't think about a week ago, and even political savants rarely consider a decade ago. This is a era of forward-looking ponies with hope in the future." He sighed as though he was himself displeased by what he had to admit. "I can appreciate you find it interesting- I find it interesting too- But it's not going to change the world. That's why I think your university career should take priority."

The spiel made Twilight more than a little annoyed, and she entertained the idea of flipping the table on purpose. What did a monk, who had made the ultimate bad life choice of going into a celibate institution, have to offer a noblemare like her. "I'll take that into consideration, brother, but prithee retain your patience and understanding when I do what I want anyway."
She cleared her throat and directed Manered's attention back to the book. "Because this IS going to change the world."

Manered, resigned to being pulled along on Twilight's train, dutifully turned his eyes on the long excerpt. " 'Hundreds of years ago in our fair land there came to be a great crisis...' " He fell silent as he read to himself. Twilight watched him.
Looking up from the book, Manered struggled to gauge Twilight expectation. What was the mare hoping he'd get out of it? Was he missing something? Wait- He looked back to the text- It was the 'Dark sister' he had noticed in the notes. "Lady Sparkle, do you think this lost Celestiaan, the Dark princess, is another name for the 'Nightmare Pretender' you're chasing down?"

Twilight smiled. "Exactly, brother, exactly. I dare say that these two characters-" She thumped the page. "are the same mare. The Dark alicorn sister was the Nightmare Pretender, and the literary flourish of her turning to evil during the Everfree siege was, in fact, a very concrete transformation into a Nightmare."

Manered felt a throb of fear at the very idea. Hopefully Twilight could be dissuaded from that heretical notion. "Ah, with all due respect, that makes no sense to me, my lady. I would rethink suggesting that alicorns could become nightmares, lest somepony misinterpret what you are saying."

"Don't be ridiculous. What I'm saying is perfectly clear, and is both magi-mechanically possible and experimentally falsifiable. Magical creature research still has a lot to go and this is an interesting theory worth disseminating." Twilight said. "I'm not well versed in Nightmare theory, so I'd probably have to collaborate with a specialist in dream magic. What I'd bring to the table, of course, is my familiarity with alicorns." She smirked. "This is all theoretical, of course."

“Barely even hypothetical. What is your proof? It must be better than conjecture.” Manered pointed out.

Twilight made a sour face. "I understand the task in front of me. There's a whole sequence of things I have to prove. However I'd invite you to read further: This interesting tidbit right here."
She set her hoof lightly on the page, her shoe underlining a sentence.
'The promise of quick unification was shattered when malign mortal ambition overcame the Dark sister', it read.

Manered's eyes lingered on the sentence. He looked to Twilight questioningly.

"The author specifically says 'mortal ambition' to describe the motivations of a divine alicorn. I don't think that choice of words is an accident." Twilight said. "I think that's the key to understanding the alicorn-Nightmare link. Alicorns, like all non-mortal creatures, don't have dreams. For some reason, Celestia I's lost sister did." Though she had spoken softly, they both felt an oppressiveness to Twilight declaration. Perhaps Manered's warning about heresy was not so misplaced.
Twilight continued. "I know what you're going to say. You're going to tell me to discard this source and take this topic from a different angle. Maybe I would, but as I was putting all of this together in my head, I wonder to myself 'What really separates an alicorn from a mortal', and that question scared me a bit. Whatever happened between the alicorn sisters either explains or defines the alicorn nature."
She paused, as if to ponder that thought. "Well, that's still several steps ahead."

So that was Twilight Sparkle's goal- to 'explain and define' the divine alicorn. "My lady... on a topic like that, with clear theological implications, dogma teaches us that if we were meant to know, we would already know." Seeing Twilight's questioning look, Manered elaborated. "Here at the Monastery we ascertain the designs of Heaven from the movement of the Sun. If the Sun is silent, as it so often has been lately, then the night astrologers, as fringe as they are, have their say. Whatever the gods wish us to see, it will be written in the orbits and epicycles." Manered said. "Do you have the courage to uncover a secret that Heaven has heretofore kept from us?"

Twilight's blank expression suggested she did not take the words of caution seriously. "That's why I'm looking for it."

"Very well." Manered said, rolling over in his mind the pledge to keep the mare from danger. "Proceed."

Thus encouraged, Twilight launched into one of her favorite activities, lecturing.
"While we know nearly nothing about the missing dark alicorn sister, her counterpart, sun princess Celestia I, is one of the most mythologized creatures to ever live. In the popular history and, to a less extent, the official imperial historiography, her highness was a pragmatic but purposeful mare whose divinity shown through all her works. I know I'm cynical sometimes but even I get caught up in the legend of the first alicorn empress, impossibly benevolent and powerful, who turned the disparate tribes into the nation of ponykind." Twilight said, allowing herself a crooked smile. "You may be surprised that not all the ancient sources I've been pouring through share that view of Celestia I, in light of the Unification and Everfree Wars."

Manered shrugged. "The laughable accusations of tyranny and unjust dictatorship crop up against the Celestiaan whenever somepony-or-another imagines an unaddressed grievance."

"Not that, brother. These contemporaneous dissenters criticize Celestia I's passivity during the Everfree War. Her highness dithered and defended, not stepping even one hoof out of the stronghold at Everfree Castle, while the countryside and the land of her allies suffered under the armies of the dark sister." Twilight said. "Speaking purely academically, war is an incomprehensibly nasty business. We have sources showing Celestia I at the front of some of the bloodiest conflicts of the Unification wars, and her highness is attributed with the mortal defeat of several hundred identified knights and warlords in duels and battles. Suffice it to say, she was not squeamish. And yet-"

"And yet she shelters behind her walls while the siege ruins her land and people. I see the conundrum, and your solution: In the gaps in the evidence, you see the shadow of the Dark sister, and the testament of her nature." Manered nodded. "All the same, it was an unequal contest, the evidence of which are our world around us: Celestia triumphant, the Dark sister destroyed, and Equestria unified under the Sun's guidance."

“Ah, I'll point you to passage again.” Twilight said. “It reads that 'the dark princess was dispelled'. What the hay does 'dispelled' mean in this context? Disenchanted, enlightened, executed, or vaporized? In the absence of clear answers in the sources, I will not assume that Celestia I was a kinslayer. That would be..." Twilight rubbed her chin. "Indecent to suggest."

"The mystery of the missing alicorn." Manered hummed. "I shiver to contemplate. If the dark sister could be 'dispelled', could such a thing be done to our own princess?"

Twilight arched a brow. "Is that legal to even joke about? And in one-thousand years, ponies or something that replaces them will be sifting through the record to see if Celestia ever existed."

Manered had the feeling she was being snide but let it go. "You mentioned the private collections-"

"Yes, well, I actually checked a few larger private collections already. No dice." Twilight admitted.

How many thousands of books had Twilight Sparkle skimmed in the hours since she started her investigation, Manered wondered. "If every trace of this dark sister is gone, then I don't see how research can proceed."

"It's not every trace, just mostly every trace. There has to be more. I'm sure there is more." Twilight cast her eye over the stacks of books on the table. "Just because almost every history book I went over with your brothers doesn't have anything doesn't mean it isn't there, somewhere... right?"

"Well..." Manered tapped the table, thinking. "If there was a conspiracy, and that's a BIG 'if', then exhausting the most likely sources won't help you, since that is where the agents of misinformation will have gone first as well. You have to hope that the book-burners missed a spot."

"Indeed! You already felt out the edges of my method, brother. One, the silhouette where the evidence should be suggests something of both what was there, and of who destroyed it. Two, even though everything about the dark sister is gone, the legacies of her contemporaries is with us." Twilight said. "Every artifact and monument, gone. Detailed accounts of the war, gone. Even the missing princess's name is gone. All we have are oblique, confusing references in the sources."
"But there is one thing that can't be destroyed: The missing alicorn herself. That's why its so important to know what the sources mean when they say she was 'dispelled'."

"That is well and good, but how are you going to proceed?" Manered asked.

Twilight tapped her notebook. "Text analysis is stalled. Therefore I'm going to fall back on experimentation, ergo I create a theory and test it."

In his younger days Manered had spent enough time around University dilettantes to hear about the fancy new scientific methods. "Lady Sparkle, you already have a theory, don't you." A mischievous look in her eye confirmed it. "You just delight in exhausting everypony around you with how clever your reasoning is, instead of getting to the point."

Twilight basked in his lighthearted annoyance. "Since you're so smart I'll just tell you: I think the Dark sister-cum-Nightmare Pretender was magically sealed away. Therefore I need to look to document and correlate phenomena that could possibly be secondary effects of sealing an alicorn: Unexpected fluctuations and patterns, signs of divine interference where there shouldn't be any, or echoes of the sealing spell in the physical, magical, or dream worlds."

That sounded very very broad. "At what scale?" Manered asked.

"Every scale, for the last thousand years." Twilight said. She levitated a nearby book and let it drop back to the table with a thump. "See that dust that was kicked up? If you didn't see my levitation, you could still know it happened because of the chain of causality. In the same way, the alicorn seal will have left traces of evidence in the landscape, magical aura, etcetera."

"You are proposing to read every record of every spec of dust that has moved in Equestria for the past one-thousand years, in the insane hope that you can read the tea leaves and find the position of a secret alicorn dungeon that might not even exist." Manered deadpanned.
He closed his eyes. This poor girl... Sometimes, she didn't see the forest for the trees. "My lady, I think I have a better idea. If I am wrong you can yell at me and go on with your quest, but you must please give me a moment." The monk slipped off his chair and trotted into the book stacks. It became very quiet as the maze of shelves swallowed up the clip of his hoofsteps.

Twilight wondered if he was punking her.
"You're not going to dissuade me. If I triangulate the location of the lost seal... Can you even imagine the reaction when my professors hear I found the tomb of a secret alicorn? And the Imperial Councilors will go absolutely crazy! And Celestia-" Twilight's laughs dwindled. "Anyway, I guess I DO need to explain my reasoning so that you understand that this is the best way."

Manered's voice carried out from the other side of the library. "Patience, please. I am looking for something."

Taking that for an encouragement to proceed, Twilight resumed her lecture. "I was inspired by how some of the sources compare the way magical corruption and Dark magic infest a society to a plague. Back then, they thought plagues were caused by tiny invisible devils who wait in the air and water until they find a pony to infect. Some ponies STILL think that!" Twilight paused for laughter, but none came. "Well, uh, while we know nowadays that neither impiety nor sin is what spreads non-magical disease, the treatment of social contagions and biological contagions are the same back then as they are now: Isolating and avoiding the infected. That is to say: A quarantine."

Manered's voice piped up again. "I have heard of such things. Before the unification the slopes of the Mountain were where Canterlot's 'sick' were exposed. This monastery was built over the site of great barbarity."

Twilight nodded to herself. "Who knows brother, You might even be built over the top of an alicorn's dungeon.

"A quarantine... for a nightmare."

"I haven't discussed this with anypony else. Not the other librarians, and not my professors. They wouldn't have believed me." Twilight grimaced. "So are you taking the idea seriously? Isn't it ironic that a monk would be more open minded than an academic?”

Manered didn't reply.

Twilight idly flipped through the pages of the books spread across the study table while she waited. Despite her appearance of total confidence, she felt the stirrings of doubt- Was this really the kind of things she should be spending time and energy on? Getting everything she was looking for was both the best and worst case: Laudation and respect, but also immense controversy when everything she did was already getting scrutinized and derided.
In her heart, Twilight was not nearly as flippant about politics as she let on. The regime of the ruling empress, Celestia CLXXIX, was going to be directly implicated by whatever Twilight discovered about Celestia I and the Dark sister.

Celestia... Twilight's liege and nominal teacher.

Through a combination of bumbling accident and recklessness, could Twilight's investigation come back to hurt her or the princess? Horrible images flashed through Twilight's head, of a public lambasting and a humiliating public disavowal at Celestia's hooves. No, no, her work would help the princess and the empire. She had to beleive that.

Twilight was still dwelling on those thoughts when Manered shouted to her from across the library. "Twilight! Over here! TWILIGHT!" He yelled. "I found it!"

The study table was sent flying at Twilight burst up from her seat explosively, instantly at Manered's side deep in the jungle library shelves. “Found what? Give me that!” She snatched the book he'd pulled out with her telekinetic grip.
“ 'Myths and Tales of the New Equestrians'. What the devil is this? Old fantasy stories? Are you sure?” She said scrutinizing the cover. Its center was embellished with a gilded profile of a horned equine head, presumably one of the Celestiaan princesses.

“Unconventional, but it beats collating measuring dirt." Manered smiled. "I overheard Brother Springwise tell you that the latter historians only copied the earlier ones. Consider, therefore, non-historians. I have a theory that I think this book will prove.”

"A theory? Then tell me." Twilight demanded, but she received only a slim smile in return. "Pshh, fine. Unconventional it is, but then again I started this hunt in a metallurgy book. Let's see if you've really got what I'm looking for."
Twilight's horn began to glow. In a blinding flash she and Manered were back at the study table. Teleportation magic! Manered retched from the sudden spatial shift, his stomach churning and his head spinning.

Twilight set the book down and began to rapidly flip through pages, her nose inches from the paper.
“Brother Manered either you're a genius or a total fool. You don't really think the quarantine seal is to be found here? Would the classical ponies understand what they saw? Perhaps our missing mare..." She stopped flipping, her eyes darting quickly over the chosen page. "...is..." She looked up to Manered. "You jerk."

Manered held his head in his hooves, slumped against the table, recovering from the teleport. "Is in plain sight." He sat up and took a deep breath. "Folk stories and the popular consciousness, you said, are most of what we have about the unification. They can destroy artifacts but not our stories."

"Could it really be? No, it'd be too silly! But... maybe?” Twilight's wide grin could barely be contained. In deliberate fashion she read out the section title. “The 'MARE IN THE MOON': A spread of dark craters on the lunar surface, greatly resembling the head and neck of a unicorn, and associated tales."
It was so silly, so ridiculous- Even children understood that the coincidental pattern of craters was just that, a coincidence. From what Twilight knew of their belief systems, not even paleolithic ponies of the pre-migration attributed any divine meaning to it, despite often worshiping the moon itself. ... But what if that was because the 'MARE IN THE MOON' didn't even exist at that point?
"It just might be possible that the Dark alicorn is on the moon."

"Instead of under us, she is buried over us." Manered said. "The sun princesses return to the sun. So I wondered if it were possible that our missing alicorn has a connection to the moon?"

Twilight flipped back to the title page. "The myths of the 'New Equestrians'. That's the first generation after the unification called themselves. Novi Equituli, or something like that. This must have been written in living memory of Celestia I." She tentatively turned back to the page on the 'Mare in the Moon', trepidatious and elated that she was about to have her theories confirmed.
"Well, let's see what the classicals have to say. Ahem. 'Folklore about the Mare in the Moon once abounded in the form of morality plays, but scrutiny and denunciation by temple reformers has all but erased such stories except for among the heterodox practitioners in the middle Dneighper run, Don hills, and southern Canter. The story has themes reminiscent of Maredian and gryph myths, that might have spurred persecution for foreign influences.' "
Twilight paused. "I didn't even know Equestria had cultural exchange with Maredia back then. Interesting." She returned to reading.
" 'Two noble sisters, once steadfast, began to squabble over their inheritance. At first, they agreed to divide the inheritance, with the elder enjoying the estate during the day, and the younger sister enjoying it during the night, but this did not calm their mutual suspicion and envy, and so the sisters went to war. No longer respecting the allotment they had made before, the sisters snatched up everything around the estate to attack each other through every hour of the day and night. Among the melee, the elder sister found the most precious heirloom and smashed it against the younger sister, destroying the heirloom and driving the younger sister from the estate. Shamed and denied her birthright, the younger sister banished herself to only place beyond her older sister's reach, the moon. The moral of the story, sometimes you lose what is precious to you by being greedy' "
Twilight looked up from the book. "Huh."

Manered shifted in his seat. "With some straightforward interpretation, I can see that folktale mapping onto the Everfree War."

Twilight wasn't completely done reading thought. " 'Note: A version of the Mare in the Moon play, told in Dneighper Crypts and the Everfree borderland, varies heavily on the basic story. The conflict between sisters more resembles a dualistic conflict of demigods, who are explicitly fighting over the soul of ponykind. The elder sister takes up the most awesome magic known to mortalkind and uses them to imprison the younger sister permanently to the moon. There, the younger sister remains. The thematic value of this variation is unclear.' "
Twilight laughed, laying her head on her hoof. "The thematic value is unclear. No kidding! The thematic value is unclear!"

Manered didn't find it as funny. "Well that doesn't need interpretation You've found your Nightmare." He said. "Do you suppose the author did not connect the folktale to the Everfree War because of some taboo, or because he didn't know?"

Twilight read the page a dozen more times to herself, her smile fading. Uh-oh, there was a nightmare alicorn on the moon.
"That supernatural twist came out of nowhere. That's sloppy story telling." Her head sunk more and more into her hooves. "The author-" She flipped to the title page again. Unattributed. "The anonymous author could be lying, trying to throw us off. Or the inquisition erased the old tale and planted this one. It makes TOO much sense. It's impossibly obvious."

"Isn't this what you wanted?" Manered asked, confused by her casting about.

"I guess so." Twilight sighed. "But the problem with it making too much sense is that's it's a 'just-so story'. It's so neat and tidy like appeals to conspiracy theorists and cranks. It's an untestable fantasy." She went quiet for a few moments. "And that's the reason why I think it's one-hundred percent true. Some idiot at some point would have proposed this and it would have caught on. The only plausible way that this could be secret, relegated to a half-page in a forgotten folklore encyclopedia, if it is true. THIS is the silhouette where the evidence should be."

Manered didn't find her logic airtight, but it was better for Twilight to follow this lead than to measure dust. It was a very happy coincidence that it seemed true-ish, just-so story or not. "But you were right Twilight. It sounds like the alicorn sisters went to war because of 'mortal ambition' over the throne, and Celestia I imprisoned the Nightmare pretender on the moon." He shook his head. "What a sorry fate."

Twilight shook her head. "This raises so many more questions. Is the Nightmare Pretender still alive? Can we contact her on the moon? What kind of 'awesome' magic was used to banish her? Now that we have the thread, its time to pull it and see if the cover-up unravels."

Manered pulled himself to his hooves. “No my lady, I don't don't think this needs to go any further. If there truly is an evil alicorn on the moon, you must drop this thread. You know that she is up there for a reason, that reason being that it was the will of your divine empress Celestia. Accept vindication, and that you have patched of the historiographical hole you are so concerned about, and so on." He glanced toward the door, as though the authorities could burst through at any moment. "Lady Sparkle this is getting into imperial jurisdiction."

Preoccupied with writing in her notebook, Twilight wasn't listening that closely. "I'm aware." She gently set down her quill. "If the Council or Court thinks what I'm researching is controversial it wouldn't be the first time. The nosy vizier and councilors are constantly pestering me about what I'm doing instead of the inane 'responsibilities' they assume the princess's student should have. So far, nopony has had the temerity to question the limits of my prerogative as Princess Celestia's protege." Twilight frowned. "Are you worried about what Celestia might say?"

As with the vast majority of ponykind, Manered had very limited association and contact with the empress. Access to her majesty was restricted behind layers of pomp and bureaucracy, and the walls of Canterlot Castle itself. Perhaps twenty or thirty years prior seeing Celestia walk the streets of Canterlot was not unusual, but her highness was now rarely seen except for during the Summer Sun and other ceremonies. So it felt strange when Twilight Sparkle spoke so casually and familiarly about her interactions with the princess. "I would not presume."

"Wouldn't you? One of the previous empresses must have had a direct role in suppressing information about the Nightmare pretender. Princess Celestia is going to find all this very interesting and, possibly, very inconvenient." Twilight frowned. "Surely, you're worried you'll have to repudiate me. I've potentially implicated you in quite a mess."

"I..." Manered hesitated. "Lady Twilight, all you have is a guess, premised on other guesses. It cannot be proved conclusively that Celestia I's Dark sister, the Nightmare Pretender, and the Mare in the Moon are the same creature. That is my stance and no heresy or anti-alicorn sentiment can be inferred from it."

Twilight recognized she was at the limit of what she could ask from the monk. She could only bow her head in agreement. "Which is why I have so much more to uncover, Red. Go back to staring at the Sun for the answers to your doubts. I have other engagements." Done with her note-taking for the moment, Twilight shut 'Myths and Tales of the New Equestrians', and after thinking for a while looked back to the stacks. "Do you have a copy of Predictions and Prophesies here?”

Manered grimaced. "No we don't."

"Are you sure you don't?" Twilight asked, more sharply. Was he really going to stonewall her? She felt a swell of irritation. "Maybe if you pushed past your cowardice you could see what I see! But nay, it is just like you to abandon an inquiry just as it gets interesting. We don't know what the future holds for us, and that can be terrifying, even paralyzing. But don't you think we have to go on regardless?" She huffed. "Or are you still so sure that dogma and mysticism will tide you over?"

"Nothing like that my lady. We just don't have the book." Manered said. The truth was that he didn't remember. He knew he had no hope of deterring Twilight. He was barely delaying her, but he had a duty to object when she was going too far. "...and even if we did-"

"I get it." Twilight interrupted. She pulled her saddlebags over with her levitation and, scooping up her stationary and 'Myths and Tales of the New Equestrians', dropped them therein. "Thank you for your help. I don't know what inspired you to connect the Nightmare Pretender to the Mare in the Moon, nor how you found the exact right book, but if you're not going to tell me I won't pry. If I have to continue my research elsewhere, I will."
When she looked back to Manered her exhaustion was evident. It was, as it often was, that the limiting factor was the constraints of other ponies. Twilight had gotten more or less what she had come for- The next clue in her search.

"Wait." Manered lifted a hoof. "You shouldn't go about this alone. I'm not the right pony, but you will need help or at least an advocate through this." His voice fell to a whisper. "This has the makings of intersecting some incomprehensibly nasty business, alicorn business. Take it from me that you do not want to be caught wanting for political virtue if scrutiny comes your way."

"I appreciate your concern." Twilight said noncommittally. “You have been an indispensable help as always, Brother Manered. Write me when you need the book back."
In a blinding flash of purple magic, she used her magic to teleport away.

“Fare thee well.” Manered mumbled into the vacant air.
He could sympathize with Twilight Sparkle's frustration, and even forgive her rudeness, but Manered felt a tinge of regret that he could not find the right words to make her see the situation for what it was. Twilight was going to get herself into a LOT of trouble if she was not careful.
Manered turned to reshelve the books Lady Sparkle had scattered across the library. He had only just taken one book in his hooves when another magical explosion of purple light knocked him onto his face.

Twilight stood above him. “Oh! I forgot to ask before, but how long until the solstice?”

Manered rolled onto his back. He looked Twilight in the eye: Maybe this was the moment he could say something... But alas, no. “Current forecast is eighty-nine days. It's posted on the door.” He grumbled.

Twilight pulled out her notebook scribbled it down. “Cheers.” She waved her hoof in a parody of salute, then blinked out once more.

Manered's scowl threatened to cleave him in twain. He grit his teeth until his annoyance subsided. Peace and love was the way. Either the Sun would favor Twilight Sparkle and she prospered, or it wouldn't. “Fate smile upon you.” Manered addressed the absent unicorn, then returned to organizing.

The grave moon, and the mysterious profile etched upon it, may have had watchful dominion over the equestrian nights, but its twin celestial watched over the day:
THE SUN, supreme deity of ponykind, burned bright and steady at its appointed point in the mid-morning sky. How could any rational creature regard (or at least consider, since her majesty would blind the idle starer) the might Sun and not recognize, instinctually and automatically, that god was real and she was a nuclear fireball with unquestionable right to the worship of mortalkind.
But the Sun was so very distant and so very very alien. Ponykind had somepony much closer and familiar to direct their prayers for direction and salvation... If her highness were not preoccupied.

The Princess and Empress of Equestria, CELESTIA, stood in stoic attention at the top of the southeastern watchtower of her sprawling castle complex. And that's where she had been for the last ten hours, nearly motionless.
It was not entirely unexpected when Celestia had not shown to her royal court that morning, but the castle staff nevertheless could not hide their worry; It was the latest alteration of her habit- where at first she would let her vizier and the council handle all court matters, then she began leaving earlier and earlier- and what it meant nopony knew. Their liege was shirking her responsibilities, isolating herself on that watchtower. Nopony bothered to make the arduous climb up to her anymore. The princess would never be convinced to come down, preferring to maintain her listless gaze across her capital, Canterlot.

So the guards sighed resignedly, assuaging the presumptuous nobles in the court audience hall and returning to their duty posts. The princess's malaise couldn't be forever, right? She must shrug it off eventually. The silly rumors were beginning to fly. Had she been taken with an ailment, malady, or curse? Could she be seeing a secret lover in the many absent hours?
“It's hard to tell.” The Imperial Household Guard whispered to the servants. “She just stands there and stares. She doesn't even notice us until we speak. At times, not even then.” The servant girls giggled and gasped amongst themselves that her highness had become another statue to be dusted, joining her predecessors in lining the halls of the castle. And so it spread. It was as these rumors began to circulate the castle, and then the city at large, that the powers behind the throne began to worry in earnest.

Such was the court's worry that it finally decided to send one of their own to see what the princess's deal was. All eyes had turned to the most senior official. That was how the chair of the Imperial Council, the lord vizier Fancy Pants, was compelled to make the exhausting climb up the southeastern watchtower.

Though he led a life of leisure, Fancy Pants kept fit and thin, and managed the climb well enough. The whole way he smugly assured himself that the other court ponies would be huffing and puffing where he was only breathing hard- What wretches, he told himself, those nobles who did nothing but carouse and piss around in politics they didn't understand. They didn't appreciate the work he did in the Council for the princess.

Fancy Pants was a tall unicorn, with an off-white coat and crinkled wavy blue hair, cut and combed fashionably. Although he shaved every morning, by noon there was always the vestiges of a mustache upon his upper lip. In keeping with his self-image as a meritocratic professional he worse a fine suit, something the old fashioned pantaloon-ed nobles constantly ridiculed him for, and which was now getting sweaty during his climb.

Ask Fancy Pants, and he would declare himself a colt of action. Though a noble, he was born of that 'petty' noble stock that had neither land nor titles, meaning he had to do that most unfashionable of things: work. Among the petty nobles of Canterlot, work meant socializing and schmoozing, getting in the good graces of the actual power brokers. Though haughty, proud, and ambitious above his station, somepony with connections saw something in the young Fancy Pants, and he had gotten an appointment in the Canterlot magistracy. He worked his way up the ranks by being one of the few appointees actually doing his job, until his indispensability had seen him into the Imperial Court. All the while he never stopped schmoozing, so when the position of Lord Vizier was vacated, Fancy Pants had dozens upon dozens of favors to call in to cinch the appointment to the highest secretariat in the empire. Princess Celestia had barely met the stallion before she was advised into giving him the position by her courtiers.
The competitor for the viziership, the august Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser, had left Canterlot in spite and shame.

Fancy Pants liked to think about those days, when he was still an ambitious climber and not actually on top of the entire empire. The viziership had seemed so regal at the time. Yet he was still climbing to get to the top, just in a different way.
He even still had to schmooze, only this time it was not a pliant dullard noble he had to charm, it was the magnificent and undeniably stubborn Empress of Equestria.

He almost missed that he had taken the last step, and had at least reached the landing to the top of the tower. An open door opened out to the tower roof, through which sunshine streamed into the dark spiral stairwell.
There was the sun princess, just as promised.

Celestia was an alicorn, semi-divine creature in the shape of a pony. But not a pony, no, but a being of an entirely different sort. She was literally the daughter of the Sun, so the dogma went. She stood twice as high as any other pony, with her horn nearly as long as a pony's leg. She possessed a white coat and an iridescent spectral mane. Her mark was a sun, identical to that of all of her predecessors, come down from heaven to be the Sun's princess upon the earth. Her visage had stolen the breath of many a pony, for various reasons.

“Your majesty?” Then louder when she did not respond. “Princess?” When still she did not take notice he spoke at full volume. “Celestia.”

Princess Celestia tilted her head to eye the interloper. Her wide, penetrating gaze gave Fancy Pants a sudden chill. Before he could say anything she smiled, and her intense gaze softened. “Interesting things are ahoof.”

Fancy Pants cleared his throat and found himself wishing he had taken a moment to catch his breath after the climb. "Indeed it is so." He said flatly.

The princess eyed him for a moment longer, then turned back to the cityscape. "Canterlot has gotten taller. I feel proud of my ponies, yet inexplicably unsettled. How much longer before the houses challenge the castle, or even the Mountain?"

The city of Canterlot was built on a huge natural plateau which clung to the Southwest corner of the grand peak known only as the Mountain, which dominated the center of the continent of Equestria. Roughly 500 hectares, the plateau rose and merged with the Mountain's steep slopes on one side, and fell thousands of hooves above the valley below on the other three. The only land path down was a winding causeway which snaked south along the adjacent ridges. Since their invention most ponies had arrived to Canterlot by airship.

The city itself was a fine match for its monumental surroundings. Pushed into the northern edge of the plateau was the oldest part of the city, the descriptively named Old Town or old city, where all the most glorious institutions of Equestria made their home. Canterlot Castle an its environs loomed over the district. The high class shopping, master crafters, and middle class professionals resided in Old Town.
South of Old Town, at the center of the plateau, was the crowded and labyrinthine Inner City, where most of Canterlot's hundred-thousand ponies lived. A veritable forest of stone bell towers and steeples rose from the cityscape, and here and there plazas or market squares opened the streets to the sky above. It was, frankly, a slum, largely untouched by planning or regulation. Different viziers had attempted to 'rejuvenate' the Inner City with little showing. Fancy Pants preferred to pretend the Inner City didn't exist.
Furthest south, on the opposite side of the plateau from the castle, the city thinned up somewhat, giving way to a more verdant district of mansions, parks, and gardens. Freestanding townhouses, small houses, and extravagant palaces surrounded the tree-lined avenues and housed the different classes of nobles, technically equal but obviously of vastly different means.

All of this, Canterlot, was circled with a massive wall, which ran along the very edge of the plateau. This massive fortification, as fantastically unnecessary as it was impressive, was over forty hooves tall for most of its length and even taller in places.

"My princess, I can understand your anxiety. You know I have been a critic of those apostles of 'progress' who say we must build taller, faster, and pack ever more ponies in our city." Fancy Pants said. "But, not all ponies understand your wisdom, but then few stop to listen to it."

Celestia chuckled. "I feel a subtle criticism, Sir Pants. Do you levy that I do not speak at them enough?"

Fancy Pants arched a brow. "My princess, what need is there to talk when this fortress is testament enough. If they lack faith in the face of apparently glory that is their sin."

Indeed no palace in the world could compare to Canterlot Castle. The castle sat at north-northwestern edge of the plateau, a mountain of marble and glass to complement the Mountain of stone that supported it. Palace with the trappings and dimensions of a cathedral, Canterlot Castle was the heart of the city's and the empire's politics, culture, and consciousness. The central citadel structure rose as one towering keep, which split off into many towers and halls as it rose to its full height. As Celestia and her bureaucracy stayed in the castle year-round, the vast complex saw a constant stream of servants and agents coming and going.
Attached to the central structure towards the south was the barracks of the Imperial Household Guard, and beyond that the University of Canterlot. To the north was the luxuriant castle gardens.

"Talk not of sin. If this palace is my testament, then what is to be said for those." Celestia said, gesturing south.

She meant the only structures which could possibly rival Canterlot Castle for stature on the skyline. Embedded within the huge outer wall was a series of other castles. They had started as towers meant to supplement the wall defenses, but had been bought and improved by Equestria's prominent noble families, turning into citadels in their own right. Ponies given to idle chatter liked to say that those prominent noble ponies ruled their own little Equestrias, with mediocre ponies from across the continent visiting them in their knock-off Canterlot Castles.

"Oh yes, those towers..." Fancy Pants felt a sudden delight that Celestia seemed to be interested in politics, even just the politics of aesthetics. He was conflicted between flattering her or feeding her worry. "They may be pale imitation, just as their pretentious owners are pale imitations of your regal highness. However we may be blind-sighted by the foolish and ignorant of this nation who can not tell the difference."

Celestia sat silently for a few minutes, completely still except for the waver of her magical mane and tail. "Why have I not ordered them demolished? Refresh my memory, Sir Pants." Was she joking?

"It was deemed that it is better to have the nobles here in Canterlot rather than at home on their landed estates. This is your base of power. They may have their faux-Canterlot Castles but you are the Princess." Fancy Pants said.

"The city is getting taller, but is it progress? " Celestia pointed over the city again. "There is construction even now, under my gaze."
This time her hoof settled over one of the castles in particular: The tallest of them, a single spire that jutted above the wall and city, the Castle Magoria.

"What? Active construction?" Fancy Pants squinted. "I don't know about any-" He was startled as Celestia tapped his nose with a telescope. He took the telescope and peered south. "There is no chance that Duke Foaly Flux has enough money to keep up his building spree. He only just completed an addition to the outer wall." But as he focussed on the Castle Magoria, his words turned to muttering. "That old fool."

"A groundbreaking ceremony, and you where not invited." Celestia said coyly. "My my, his lordship the duke appears to be fortifying Castle Magoria with bastions and towers. How kind of him to add to Canterlot's defense."

"What a brazen display of power. My word, how... how gaudy!" Fancy Pants could not make out individual ponies through the telescope, but he could certainly see the party and construction Celestia indicated. "I have to send somepony to find out how Flux has afforded all that."

But Fancy Pants had gotten so caught up in his thoughts he had missed the storm of emotions that crossed Celestias face. She looked away, gazing over Canterlot's white roofs again, and when Fancy Pants looked back to her she had returned to stoicism.
"My little pony, surely you have no come all this way to demonstrate how you have been slacking on the job." She cooed.

Fancy Pants breathing hitched. "Of course not princess! This buisness with Foaly Flux, why- why- it's already sorted. I will be sending a pony down immediately." He cleared his throat and passed Celestia back her telescope. "Yet it can not necessarily be dismissed that Lord Flux and others become brazen for a lack of your tutelage, Princess. It's blindness and ideology without faith."

Celestia hummed. "Do you levy that I am not involved enough, Sir Fancy Pants?"

There was no beating around the bush anymore. "My princess, your games are infinitely amusing, truly. However I am so ignorant that I can not fully believe that you are really all that concerned about construction and parties. I feel, wrongly perhaps, that you are mocking me out of a misplaced guilt." When Celestia turned her head back to him, staring him straight in the eyes, Fancy Pants realized he was not going to be finishing the speech he had played in his head. 'Guilt' had been the absolute wrong word to use, and the princess was not going to humor him. "My lady, ahem, if you believe there are faults among us ponies, seclusion will not redeem us. We need your cooperation."

Celestia, it had often been noted, rarely blinked. Up close a pony would notice that there were many little strange things about her, that she did not shiver in cold or sweat in heat, that there were times she seemed not to breath for hours on end, that loud noises could never startle her no matter how loud. She had never, for as long as Fancy Pants could remember, mis-remembered a fact or a face.
"I suppose you do." She said, slowly and deliberately. "However I will be staying here."

Fancy Pants felt crestfallen. Mission failed. "Yes, Princess Celestia." He bowed. "My princess we shall serve to our utmost as always." If Celestia was not going to come down, he was going to have to spend the day in damage control. "Though as your council, lord vizier of the court, you often privilege me that I may serve you better."

Celestia squinted at him, then turned away to watch Canterlot again. "Do you want to know why I'm up here, Sir Fancy Pants? It is why you made the climb, more than simply asking me to attend court."

"Uh-" He had not been expecting for her to be forthright about it. "If it please your highness. Your mind guides my hoof."

Celestia, unexpectedly, broke into a thin smile. Instantly, Fancy Pants's anxiety melted away. No matter how apathetic or cryptic she was, the smile from the princess of the sun warmed the heart of all loyal ponies. "Look east, level with us on the Mountain. Trouble ahoof."

The mighty Mountain, the firmament of Canterlot, was among the steepest slopes in Equestria. Save for the causeways and the plateau of the city itself, nearly nothing could be built on it.
Nearly, because the Solar Monastery clung to the mountainside like a goat, its lowest and largest floors dug into the rock, and following the slope with each successive floor. The highest floor, where the bellower and observatory jutted up like twin spires, were almost even with the towers of Canterlot Castle over on the plateau. The mountain retreat was perched just above Canterlot, but the difficult path up kept away idle wanderers. The monks preferred it that way, for in isolation they could dedicate themselves to observing and plotting the movement of the Sun, the calling of devotees of the Sun and Celestia.

However Twilight Sparkle knew teleportation magic, and visiting the monastery library was a matter of desire. Her noisy departure from Manered and the library corresponded a burst of magic and noise outside the monastery walls, as Twilight reappeared outside the doors.
She let her eyes adjust to the midday sun and started down the path. She felt a dull regret at her abrupt and rude departure from the monastery library. She should have just walked to the door like a normal pony, and let Manered see her off. But he was tedious and Twilight was in a rush. She could not let herself be held back for one second by other ponies. If that meant being rude or impatient, she had to brush aside her own feelings and keep going.

The sun warmed Twilight up and she forgot all regrets. She adjusted the weight of her saddlebag and proceeded down the path towards Canterlot.

That high up the mountain the slope was dominated by rocks and shrubs. It was a few minutes of descending before Twilight passed ponies reposed on the side of the path- It was an isolated and calm place not far from Canterlot, if you had the legs for it.
Twilight did not have the legs for it, and as she began to tire she teleported halfway down to Canterlot, where the slope was easier. "I'll get good enough to take the whole climb in one go." Twilight promised herself. Good enough at teleporting, that was. She had no interest in physical fitness.

The slope of the mountain flattened and transitioned to the broad flat plateau of Canterlot. Twilight was nearing the the edge of what was considered the city, with a few sturdy manors dug into the still-slanting land, when she noticed a little figure barreling up the path towards her. It was a little grey colt wearing the uniform and hat of a messenger pony, kid-sized.

"Uh oh." Twilight muttered under her breath.

The colt galloped right up to Twilight, almost colliding into her legs. He hopped up and down as if he didn't have her attention already. “Lady Spawkle?!” He had a thick colonial accent.

Twilight flashed an empty smile. “That's me.”

The colt presented her a sealed letter, which she took with her magic. “It's uwgent, need repwyy!” He danced in place impatiently awaiting her response.

The letter had a wax seal impression three amethyst encrusted crowns. “Fancy Pants.” Twilight scowled. "Good grief. How many times to I have to tell him I'm not interested in attending court."

But before she could open Fancy Pants' letter, another courier, this time a pegasus filly, impacted the dirt beside her and waved a letter of her own. “Message for you, sah!” She squeaked.

The first little courier began to yell at the second. Twilight groaned and took the second letter. "Calm down, I'll get to them in order." Twilight said, pulling open Fancy Pants' letter.

Customary as it is for those under the Empress's tutelage
to observe the functions of state as well as those of magic
Lady Twilight Sparkle, scion of House Twilight and House Bright
is due requested, most humbly, to mind the Imperial Court session this morrow
for her highness's benefit and ours
Respectfully, Sir Fancy Pants of Canterlot

"They should call him fancy quill." Twilight sighed. But the thought struck her that if anypony besides Princess Celestia knew the mystery of the Nightmare Pretender, shrouded in state secrecy, it would be ponies of the Imperial Council.
Twilight turned to the messenger colt. “Sir Pants knows I'm on academic leave. While his request places undo burden on me, I will strive to make time to honor his most humble request." She grimaced. "It's been a few years since I bothered with the council, and I have no patience for the court formality. If they give me a hard time I'll leave half-way though. I promise him that."

The colt dashed off down the road, repeating the message to himself to remember it.

Twilight looked at the second letter, watched by the impatient courier filly. It was dated from the previous day, and had already been unsealed. Had it been tampered with?
"Who the- ohh." It made sense when Twilight opened the letter and saw the mark of her great uncle, Foaly Flux. The erratic stallion had probably forgotten to seal it or send it on time. "Let me guess, a party invitation."

Glancing down the latter, Twilight confirmed it was indeed a party invitation. Twilight suppressed a sigh. Her great uncle's frequent parties were just as annoying as Imperial Court sessions, and less immediately useful.

"Tell Lord Flux..." Twilight closed her eyes, trying to think up an excuse. "I'm in the middle of delicate work, and can't come. Tell him I will visit him for brunch tomorrow, or something like that." She probably wasn't going to honor that either.

The courier filly saluted and took to the sky.

All Twilight wanted was a day all by herself to study, same as every day. She could only stand pony company in limited, controlled, and useful bursts. She saw the appeal of locking herself up in the Solar Monastery if Canterlot was going to bombard her with letters.

That thought was ironically interrupted by the loud return of the courier filly, landing next to Twilight again. "Sah!" The filly squeeked. “Sah! Lady Velvet says you have to come, or she'll be angry.”

Then, the messenger colt bolted back up the path, pushing the filly out of the way to speak. “Mistewr Pants says it's about hewr highness the empwess! Urrgent!”

Twilight bit her lip to avoid cursing. Confound the meddlesome elders! “Tell his Lordship Pants... You know what, never mind. I'll find and tell him myself.”
She teleported away.

Teleportation magic was in academic discourse near universally regarded as instantaneous. Twilight never disagreed out loud, because she could never prove it, but sometimes she felt the time between disappearing in one place and reappearing in another, sometimes stretching to tens of seconds.
This was one of those times. So, Twilight used the instantaneous moment to run through everything in her head before she returned to reality and actually had to do them:
Dig into the mystery of the Nightmare Pretender,
Satisfy the asinine humdrum of the Imperial Council,
Get her mother off her back.
Twilight started connecting dots in her head how she could do multiple of those at once.

When she popped back into existence, Twilight stood in the center of a large, tall room; Her room, to be precise. It was a freestanding little tower on the grounds of Canterlot Castle, tucked away near where the castle gardens met the City Wall. The walls of the room's two open levels were dominated by bookcases- It was less living space, more library. The far wall featured one enormous windows overlooking a pond and hedge maze in the garden, and several telescopes and instruments had been lined up to peer out and up. It was the ideal residence of an eccentric scholar bachelorette.

It took Twilight several seconds to shake off her teleport vertigo. She looked around.
“Spike! Spike!” Twilight called out. “Spike?” She noticed an anguished purple and green shape on the floor before her.

Spike- On formal occasions, Spike the Dragon, incorrectly, for he was a bonafide adopted member of Twilight's family, the House Twilight-Bright. Spike was a squat lizard with stubby arms and dexterous claws, bipedal unlike the ponies he lived amongst, but still he only came neck high to Twilight at the top of his purple head and nose high at the top of his green spines. His large green eyes blinked infrequently.

“Ugh...” Spike was never really the archetype of dignified dragon. Twilight's teleportation spell had knocked him on his stomach, and there he lay in exaggerated agony. "You've killed me." He groaned. His voice was soft and not quite masculine in the pony way, but distinct enough. "Would it hurt to pop outside and come through the front door, like a normal pony?"

Twilight stared at her adopted kin for a few seconds, just long enough to make sure he was alright, before running past him to the nearest bookcase. “I need a copy of Predictions and Prophesies.” She pulled a random selection of books from across the room. “Spike! I don't have time for this! I've got meeting and parties.” She pulled the little dragon to his feet.

Spike wobbled on his feet for a moment, then straightened up. "I don't see you for a day, and you show up throwing out orders. Predictions and Prophesies? What'dya need that for?"
Despite his questioning Spike obliged Twilight, and he jogged on his stumpy legs to the nearest rolling ladder. "And did you say meeting and parties? Is your mom hounding you again?" He pushed the ladder against a bookcase and scaled it. "I don't know why you hate the parties so much. You just have to stand around pretending to socialize, and heck it's free food."
Finding the requested book, he pulled it out and turned to show it to Twilight, but she had disappeared. “Hey Twilight where'd you go? Twilight?”

In a burst of magic Twilight reappeared, carrying an emerald necklace and hairbrush.
“Aha!” She took the book in her telekinetic grip and dragged Spike, still holding it, off the ladder. She shoved it in her saddlebag and trotted over to a vanity mirror. She began to aggressively brush her hair.

Spike once again pulled himself up off the ground. "Cripes. It's been a while since you've been this worked up, Twilight. Is something wrong? I can't help if you don't tell me."

Satisfied with her hair, Twilight clasped the necklace around her neck. “Two parts the end of the world and one part frivolity.” She huffed, and began to apply makeup to her face. “Princess Celestia is sick or something, her ancestor is calling to me from the grave, and mother is making me go to a party.”

Spike's expression contorted in worry. “What was that about dead ponies calling to you?”

Twilight chuckled. “Metaphorically. And she's probably not dead, only imprisoned. Actually it's all conjecture at this point. I wish I had time to explain but this day is going to be packed. How do I look? Does the makeup look passable?” She twirled around.

“Amazing.” Spike commented flatly.

Twilight spent critical seconds staring at her reflection. Dressed up as she was, Twilight could tolerate what she was a little better than usual. “Amazing... is good enough. I don't owe those vain ponies anything."

"Nope." Spike nodded along.

Twilight drew back her lips in a flat smile. She locked eyes with Spike in the mirror. "The party is at Castle Magoria again. If you go I'll meet you there."

"I will." Spike nodded. "Free food, and seeing relatives."

"Yeah..." Twilight cleared her throat. "Well, thanks Spike. I have to go to that imperial meeting." She double checked she had the books in her saddlebag, and teleported away again.

Fancy Pants had been busy in the too. After the tiring climb back down the watchtower, he had shot off a couple quick letters (one such being the letter to Twilight Sparkle) and began preparing for the Imperial Council meeting.

As lord vizier, Fancy Pants knew he served both halves of statecraft: Politics and governance. Politics was the intrigue and negotiation that came with power. Nobles, policy, ideology, and personality. Governance was getting things done. Problem solving, economy, function, and service. The former was significantly more frustrating than the latter for Fancy Pants.

At the best of times, when Princess Celestia was attentive and alert, the Imperial Council was a well-functioning tool of governance. All other times, it was a mess that represented the arrogant lethargy of Equestrian politics.

"Hmm hmm hmm." Fancy Pants hummed to himself while he arranged the chairs and notes around the meeting table. As the members of the council filed in he made the customary polite greetings. They asked about Celestia and he told them to wait for the meeting to start. He sat and hummed to himself while the council members began to chat, boast, and nettle amongst themselves. That slowly died down, as the councilors noted the Fancy Pants would usually have called council to order by then.

"About starting time eh?" One of the ten councilors asked.

"Give it a few more moments." Fancy Pants said, pretending to read through the notes. They were past time to begin the meeting.

Another minute of uncomfortable silence, there was a sudden high whine in the air. In a burst of light and a shower of magic, Twilight Sparkle appeared in the corner of the room.
The councilors glanced between Fancy Pants and Twilight.

"Patience does pay off, it would seem." Fancy Pants said smugly.

Twilight blushed and took the nearest of the vacant seats, trying to look as small as possible. "Err, hi, sir. Sorry for being late, and for..." Her eyes darted to random points in the room to avoid eye contact. "for, you know, missing the last couple council sessions."

“Don't ponies walk anywhere anymore? Not that I'm complaining in this instance Lady Sparkle.” Fancy Pants shuffled his papers. “Indeed it is not often you grace us with your presence. I can see you are dressed for the occasion.”

"I assume you got my message. I'm not obligated have to be here. And..." Twilight blushed. “I’m going to a party later.”

“Isn’t everypony.” Fancy Pants arched a brow. "Anyhow, we need not dwell, even on the exciting life of Lady Sparkle. Unless anypony else has something to say before we begin?" He scanned the faces of the councilors. "No? This session of the Imperial Council is called to order. I preside in her highness's absence."

The peace was immediately shattered. "The seventh consecutive session you have done so. Her highness should march in here and whip you into shape, lord vizier." One of the elderly generals of the council wheezed. "You run a sloppy ship!"

"Ya couldn't even get Captain Hausseway or his second to attend." Another councilor chimed in.

Fancy Pants tapped on the table. "Order, gentleponies. Captain Hausseway and Sir Armor are indisposed. They are tasked with more important matter, in fact." He leaned forward. "I preside, and Captain Hausseway provides cover in court, because our duties to the princess are more important than ever in times like these."

There were several harrumphs around the table.
One of the councilors who had not yet spoken, a peach earth pony stallion in a red robe, tapped the table.

Fancy Pants cautiously eyed the earth pony. "Yes, Councillor Prosser?"

Prosser flashed a smile. "Sir Pants, for the minutes, could you elaborate on the character of these time?" He had an abnormally high voice and a sarcastic way of speaking.

Fancy Pants hesitated. He cleared his throat and began in a lecturing tone. "We sit at the epicenter of Equestria, humbled, by the royal buisness we are tasked to undertake."

“We are on 'royal business'? Oh yes.” Prossor rolled his eyes. “Isn’t everypony.”

Ignoring the jab, Fancy Pants continued. “As many of you are aware, Princess Celestia has been indisposed as of late. This is not her usually malaise, but rather some manner of active distraction which has pulled her attention away from the present. At every opportunity, she has been slipping away to watch the sky from the south watchtower. When I spoke to her highness she was less than forthcoming about what is preoccupying her. What I did gather is that she is concerned about a threat she saw in a possibly prophetic dream. It is a threat, I believe, with which her highness has some familiarity.”

The room was silent for a while. Then several ponies tried to speak at once.

"Princess Celestia has been searching for a mysterious threat in the southern sky? Invasion?" A pegasus, one of the council generals, asked.

“Should I call up our levies?” A withered teal pegasus croaked.

“Has she lost it?” Prossor jeered.

The council murmured amongst themselves. “This threat sounds is very indistinct.” Another councilor wondered.

Twilight Sparkle observed in silence. When she thought nopony was looking, she grabbed the copy of Predictions and Prophecies she had taken from her room and began flipping through it.

"While vigilance is commendable, panic is counterproductive. Particularly on the point of the levies." Fancy Pants cautioned. "If, in fighting evil we release an even greater evil, we will only have harmed our princess. We can NOT raise levies."

"There's no putting that genie back in the bottle." Prosser chimed in, laughing.
The council pondered this. It had been centuries since the princess had sent out the call for the nobles to mobilize the countryside, and that had been for a natural disaster. The dynamic was completely different now, and the provincial nobles were much less keen to obey. If they received an excuse to build up military power, they would use it to extort Canterlot.

“Is there anything we know about the coming threat?” The princess's adjutant pulled out a calendar.

Fancy Pants nodded."What we know is not from the princess, but from observing patterns of her behavior. As the monks watch the sun, we watch the princess."

"Oh I bet you watch her." Prosser snickered under his breath.

"The princess confessed about the premonition she had last night, but made no remark about any others. As such it was not the case that the same distraction held for her watchtower visits from last week, or those from two months ago.
Now I am no diviner, or a theologian. Go trawl the University or bother the Unicorn Prelate for those. However I firmly believe there could be hints or signals we have missed that explain the currant mystery." Fancy Pants leaned forward in his seat. "Did anyone notice anything peculiar before last week.” They shook their heads. "What about you, Lady Sparkle?” Fancy Pants questioned.

Twilight had been putting the copy of Predictions and Prophecies back in her bag. "Huh?" She blinked.

Fancy Pants cleared his throat. "I asked if you had noticed anything suspicious apropos Princess Celestia's mystery. Do you know anything that could explain her inexplicable behavior?"

Twilight was uncomfortable about being put on the spot again. "You keep calling it a 'mystery'. But it's not. Celestia knows, but isn't telling you. That makes it a secret, not a mystery."

Fancy Pants shivered a bit at the use of Celestia's name without her title. "I suppose that offends you academic sensibilities, ye who deals with real 'mysteries' concerning magic and nature."

Twilight frowned. "Sir Pants, I trouble to remind you that I would not tolerate you giving me a hard time. Besides you would be credulous to believe that I did indeed know, in some detail, what is bothering Celestia and about the threat."

Prosser made a gleeful sound. "Oh, my lady, do you know?"

Twilight stood up and put on her saddlebag. "The princess haven't told anypony about it for a thousand years, sirs. I don't know why she would do it now. Good-day." She bowed to Fancy Pants, then again to the rest of the room. Then she teleported away.

"Oh dear, you've driven her off. Bad form, sir lord vizier." Prosser tisked. "But what of her tantalizing words? Something strange is ahoof, n'est pas?"

"Never mind her. Todays agenda concerns more than the princess. Let us address the rest of the empire."
Fancy Pants knew Twilight Sparkle was not a kidder, but she was right that he didn't believe she knew. Still, he felt disrespected that she had left like that. "Come in late, leave early. The youth these days." He said to himself as he shuffled papers, earning a few laughs from the councilors.
However, if Twilight Sparkle did truly know, and wasn't sharing, there was the uncomfortable possibility that both the princess and her protégée were keeping dangerous secrets from him.

The standards of what constituted a good knight had been relaxed lately. Discipline was ignored, honor was optional, weapon skill was a joke. As would be expected the most consistent tradition was the intense chauvinism from the nobles. Otherwise there was little resemblance between the contemporary knight and those of previous eras.

Shining Armor, however, still held himself to those high standards of the bygone age. Everypony needs a personality, he sometimes joked. If it irked him that he was the only pony doing their job in the Imperial Household Guard, he never let it show.

Although there were times where he did show annoyance at particular aspects of the job. Such as when a letter came from the castle ordering him to flake on the Imperial Council Meeting and instead ordered him to stake out his uncle Flux's party. THAT was pretty annoying.
All the same, he didn't let it show.

"Hello. Hello. Good day. Good morning." He nodded to the ponies waiting in line to get in. Since he was a recognized guest, not to mention a servant of the princess, his Uncle Flux's guards waved him into the courtyard.

Of the numerous castles built into Canterlot's city wall, the Castle Magoria was not the largest or tallest, nor the most livable or defensible. However, it was by far the most modern. It was the only one that extended out on both sides of the city wall- a jagged circle of fortifications creating a star pattern about the keep, a star fort of sorts, totally out of place in an urban environment. It was a grand testament to the continuing power of House Bright, them of a grand olde lineage going back to before the unification. Castle Magoria was only getting bigger too, with its owner Duke Foaly Flux piling on extra bastions, towers, and features.

This latest party seemed to be held on one of those new bastions, facing the city, where the guests had a view over most of south Canterlot. Shining Armor followed the stream of servants up the ramp to the party bastion, where about a hundred ponies were gathered. There were no tables or chairs, except for the area where Duke Flux's 22 piece private orchestra were set up, playing upbeat music.

"Standing room only." Shining said to himself. He honestly wasn't sure what Celestia, Pants, or whomever had ordered him to the party had expected him to do. Was he supposed to party too? Or meet somepony? He felt like he'd gotten the last link in a line of garbled messages.

"Sir Armor!" Somepony called out to him.

Shining turned to the voice. It was an olive mare with an oaky mane, wearing a thin pair of spectacles which closely resembled the pair that comprised her mark. "Oh hello mis..." He paused, trying to remember her name. "I'm sorry I'm just horrible with names, but I see you in the castle. You're... the court architect."

"I know." The mare laughed, a hint of nervousness in her tone. "Laurel Black. I don't get enough work from the court nowadays, so I freelance. Hence..." She waved over Castle Magoria. "The bastions and the bastion towers are my work."

"No kidding. This is a topping out party then?" Shining asked.

"Combination topping out and groundbreaking." Laurel Black laughed again, almost an anxious whine now. "His lordship the duke is doubling the height of the bastion towers! Unbelievable. If they go any higher they'll need buttresses."

"I'll take your word for it." Shining said. He had studied a little bit of siege and fortification engineering, but not in depth. "Who else is here?"

"Mostly Lord Flux's friends I think. I don't recognize most of them. Some I recognize from the princess's court. There are some local merchants and professions I've worked for too." Laurel counted off. She gave Shining a thin smile. "Oh and of course, her Ladyship Twilight Velvet, and his lordship Night Light."

"Of course." Shining nodded and smiled back awkwardly. He was starting to get an idea of why he had been ordered to the party now.

"Oye Laurel!" Somepony shouted.

Both Shining and Laurel turned to the shouter. It was him of high station, the one behind it all, Foaly Flux.
Flux had a chalky grey coat, adobe orange colored mane and tail, cut short, and yellow eyes. A goofball and fundamentally unserious character, Flux had lasted far longer in the demanding position of Duke of the Foal Mountains than anypony expected. His bachelor lifestyle had weathered him, making him look in his late fifties, when in fact he was just halfway through his forties.
Lord Flux was dragging a garden chair behind him, to sit down in wherever he wandered in the party. On that day he wore a frilly black waistcoat, cravat, and stockings pulled so high they covered his mark: a stylized whirlpool. His horn poked out of a hole in his black chaperon.

“Sir?” Laurel Black asked hesitantly.

Flux pointed accusingly. “Why aren’t you drunk! This is a celebration of another one of your accomplishments. Cut loose!”

“Well the truth is,” Laurel began quietly. “I... feel somewhat uncomfortable about the taller towers. I don't think you should be lauding me because I might not go through with it.”

“Ach.” Flux exclaimed, tilting his head and closing his eyes. “Then drink to forget your failure and bury your disappointment. Thats what I say!” He pulled a bottle (probably hard cider) out from under the chair and passed it to Laurel.

Laurel took the bottle, but looked conflicted. “Um... Are you going to have some too?”

Flus looked insulted. “Hell no! That stuff is poison! Didn't I tell you that my wife died of drink or something like that? I swore upon her grave I would touch not a drop more, no sir! Nary a drop! Wait, have I ever been married, oh ho?”
He blinked, and was suddenly looking in another direction, at somepony else, in silence.

Shining, standing right beside them, wondered for all the world if he had become invisible. He was about to greet his great uncle Flux when he spotted two ponies moving his direction through the party crowd.

"Crivens, it's my parents." Shining snatched the cider bottle out of Laurel's hooves. "I'll need some of this before I talk to him. I'll come back around in a bit." Shining retreated into the crowd and out of sight.

"Hmm?" Flux perked up again. "You say something?" He looked from Laurel to where Shining had been standing.
But another stallion, heading towards him, caught Flux's attention. "Oye oye oye! It's Night Light! Nighty my boy! Get over here!” He jumped out of the garden chair and waved him over.

Night Light was a cousin of some sort to Duke Flux, and fellow member of House Bright- There weren't many Brights left, and they stuck together. Night Light was a tall pony, with a navy mane and slightly lighter coat. He moved and spoke in a very reserved manner that belied a cool precision in word and action. He wore a simple white vest with black trimming.
“Telling a story, Foaly? A tale of princesses and deathtraps?”

Fulx nodded his head exuberantly. “Yes, the one where I saved the griffin lass! Oh, spoiler alert, she died in the end. Ate an uncooked oyster. That kind of thing happens to princesses too.”
He looked like he was about to say more, then suddenly looked off in another direction again, then back to Night Light. "Where's ya filly though, Nighty? I thought little Twilight junior was gunna come around for my shindig."

Laurel perked up. “Oh, yes. I should like to know too.”

Night Light cast Laurel a curious glance, then refocused on Flux.
“She'll be along shortly. Please allow me to check.” Night Light trotted past them to the far side of the bastion.

Some scaffolding, brick, and mortar had been set off on one side of the bastion, in preparation for the next stage of construction. It was away from the orchestra and most of the party crowd, but there was still one pony standing there by herself, watching from a distance.

She had an off-white coat and a striped purple mane. For the party she had a lacy dress, veil, and a little jeweled ring on her horn. Her teal eyes could shift from piecing intensity to lidded contempt in a second. She held her head high; Imperious pride was common among nobles, but the mare's power and grace of motion suggested her pride was deserved.

Night Light sighed as he approached. "Goodness Velvet, why do you keep slinking off like that."

Twilight Velvet didn't spare her husband a glance. "One of the ponies here wasn't invited. We locked eyes a couple times. I think he realizes I'm in the market."

Night Light was torn between saying several different things, so he just stayed silent.

"Contact, finally. You know how hard it is to get a musician who is not affiliated with the guild." Velvet continued. "This could be the end of a very long waiting game, Night Light."

"Or you could give the game away. There's probably some uninvited imperial agents around here too, you know." Night Light warned.

Twilight Velvet scoffed. "Let them see. They can not stop me."

As she had said, another pony broke away from the party crowd and trotted over to them. It was a coffee-colored unicorn stallion with a spiky beige mane. He had a black cloak and wore tinted goggles.

"How do you get away dressing like that." Night Light wondered.

"They assume I'm a lawyer. Not far from the truth." The cloaked pony had a quiet, choked voice. "I help the judgement."

"Glad to know we're on the same page." Twilight Velvet purred. "I'm sure you know the deal. I can't assume any heat you get from the authorities or from the guild. The payout is monumental though, and there will be follow-up work."

"Freelance, no-questions-asked, and retainer all burgeon the fee. Some up front, naturally." The cloaked pony croaked. "I specialize in flute, guitar, and drums. In Griffany I am famous for body percussion. One performance made international news."

Velvet pulled a rolled up parchment from her lacy dress. "This has details of making contact with my agent. Contract negotiation and 'visitation' detail go through her. If you approach me again, there will be problems." She gave the cloaked pony the parchment. "Three visitations to begin with, but it has to be quick. As in, within a week."

The cloaked pony unrolled and read down the parchment. "Tall order. Lucky you met the best musician in Equestria." He tucked it away. "Lucky I received a hint about solicitous ponies at these parties."

Velvet perked an eyebrow. "I know the best musician in Equestria. You aren't nearly tall enough or red enough."

The cloaked pony froze up for a moment. "Not yet. See how red I am at the end, my lady." He circled around Velvet and Night Light, putting himself between them and the edge of the bastion. "I've got the details of your agent, so not much else to say, eh? Will she be handling the advance?"

Velvet slipped the jeweled ring off her horn and tossed it to him. "You can get several thousand bits for that in the Old Town. It's not stollen, so keep it intact."

The cloaked pony inspected the ring. "I look forward to making some proper noise with you, my lady."
The stallion pulled his hood down more, backing away until he toppled backwards over the lip of the bastion, disappearing from sight.

Night Light watched the exchange with mixed feelings.
"I congratulate you on the one hoof, Velvet. Just be aware when you're locking us both down a path of no return."

"Every day, we get a bit closer to the coalescence of my whole life's work." Velvet taped for forehead. "I haven't done anything wrong yet, just give a pony a ring."

Night Light turned and looked back towards the party crowd. His wife had just hired an assassin when the only thing between her and a hundred ponies was a pallet and some bricks. "Dukes, counts, tycoons, and magnates are milling all around us Velvet. Are we going to be ready when it is our turn in the spotlight?"

Velvet gave him kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for being patient.”

"You make it hard not to be." Night Light was unimpressed by her platitudes, though he thought he might as well forget about what had just happened and address marginally more pleasant matters.
"I came over to convey a question from Flux. He wants to know where Twilie is."

Twilight Velvet huffed, finicking with her veil in impatience. “She isn't here already? I sent the messenger hours ago. She must be blowing me off. What impertinent children I have.”

"You are too pushy with them. Give Twilie more space. Shining Armor too, for that matter. He actually hid from me." Night Light said. "Just because their relationship to their liege Celestia is strained, it is not an invitation to you to reimpose filial authority. We taught them to be more open minded than that."

Twilight Velvet fixated on the first part of what he had said. "You saw Shining here? At the party?" She was silent for a while, then turned to look north, towards Canterlot Castle. "More than one uninvited guest. Was this a setup?" She whispered.

"Shining wouldn't agree to spy on us. He probably just had the day off, and happened to hear about the party." Night Light lied. "At the least, we can ask him. He was talking to Foaly and that architect."

Velvet led the way back towards the party crowd. "Hardly matters one way or another. I was not kidding when I said they can't stop us." She accepted a drink from a passing waiter. "Still, Twilie is not here, and I can not well substitute children. They are not interchangeable."

"Twilie has a busy academic life, you know. She can not drop everything for 'frivolous' parties." Night Light reminded her.

Flux was regaling Shining Armor and Laurel Black with an off-color tale, but stopped when he saw the two return.
“Oye! Velvet, I was missing you.” Flux exclaimed. "Find your daughter, Nighty? Maybe she just didn't come..."

Shining Armor had the cider bottle, partially emptied, tucked under a leg. He eyed his parents with caution. "Uh, Hi father, mother."

Velvet greeted her son with a sideways glance. Night Light smiled. "Hope you are having a wonderful day, Shining. But remember your limits." He gestured to the bottle.

Shining blushed. "I- I'm just holding on to it for Mis Laurel."

Meanwhile Flux and Velvet chatted.
"The towers, ohh, the towers. Will be like a whole city rising all its own! Six bastions, six towers, with the keep at the center. It will be a tourist attraction to rival the Castle." Flux gushed, rocking back and forth in his garden chair. "I'll be such a big name, maybe the princess will invite me back to the Imperial Council!"

"I am not entirely convinced about that last part, but nothing is impossible I suppose." Velvet said. "But if I call back to a conversation last year, when you started the bastion project, why did you decide on six instead of the five like I suggested?"

Flux seemed confused. "Lady Lady Velvet dear, I think we have a different perspective on if the central keep counts as a tower. I hold it is the focal point, and does not count. You say it does. The differences are reconcilable but distinct!"

"I'm sorry, what is so special about six?" Laurel Black, off to the side fo the conversation, was somewhat uncomfortable she had not been told before about her client's design process.

Velvet shrugged.

Flux watched Velvet for a moment, until it was clear she wasn't going to say anything. "It's two threes. Or three twos. Or one sixes, if you prefer."

"Oh, uh... Of course, sir." Laurel had to assume it was just an arbitrary number, given significance by Flux's eccentricity. She shifted her attention back towards Shining Armor and Night Light's conversation.

Flux and Velvet traded cool glares.

"Life can be a relay race or a tug-of-war, my Lady Lady Velvet." Flux bobbed his head back and forth. "Aren't we on the same side, ever since you married that dope cousin of mine? Aren't we all trying to find happiness?"

The conversation was at this point so layered in metaphor that Velvet wasn't too sure if they were still talking about the towers or not. "That's right Foaly. I love and respect you, and not just because you have castles and a duchy, and I merely own a townhouse." She smiled. "When I'm on top, you'll love and respect me too, right?"

Foaly pulled another bottle of cider from under his chair and took a swig. "What else do I have to live for, but to see you try." He voice dipped, from his customary lightheartedness to nearly a growl. "By that logic, once you're on top, I won't be around anymore."

Velvet didn't contradict him.

"How are things at the Castle?" Night Light asked Shining Armor.

"Very normal. You know us, we love to have normal days." Shining said with a nod.

Night Light and his wife had really only interacted with Canterlot Castle and the imperial court because of their children, which was remarkably rare when most courtiers owed their position to generational status or wealth. Yet despite Twilight Sparkle serving as the princess's student, and Shining Armor attaining rank in the Imperial Household Guard, their parents stayed aloof when the logic of petty noble attainment would demand them doggedly exploit it for society clout.
"I should wish then for you to be constantly in love, no?" Night Light smiled. "Say hello to the princess and Captain Hauseway for me."

"S- Sure." Shining said.

All conversation across the bastion was interrupted by a deafening bang from the direction of the 22 piece private orchestra. Shining at first thought somepony had dropped their instrument, until he turned and saw Twilight Sparkle there, shaking off the disorientation of her teleportation spell.

"Twilie! Hey! Good to see you at an old stallion’s party, girly.” Flux beckoned.

“Finally.” Twilight Velvet whispered to her husband.

Twilight demurely trotted over to her great uncle, sparing a few glances to her parents and Shining Armor.
“I'm really sorry I'm late, but I've just got so much to do today. I can't stay for long.” Twilight panted. "I had royal buisness."

"Don't we all!" Flux guffawed.

Shining Armor gave her a timid pat on the shoulder. “That was a loud entrance. You know you don't have to teleport everywhere.”

Twilight reluctantly turned to her brother.
Shining was short for a stallion, but visibly muscular, as his knightly calling demanded. He had his mother's white coat and his father's blue mane, though with lighter blue streaks which mirrored his eyes. He wore only a simple red vest embroidered with celestial suns, a guardspony's formal garb.

Twilight averted her eyes for a moment, but straightened up and gave Shining a thin smile. "When I lose concentration it makes a pop. It announces for me."

"You hate drawing attention." Shining pointed out.

Twilight blushed for being called out. "Well.. Shouldn't you be at the castle? They say it's all hooves on deck over there. I would have expected you more than anyone to be dealing with it.” She shot back.

Night Light and Twilight Velvet exchanged concerned glances.

Shining Armor just shook his head. "I was overseeing drills in the IHG barracks before I came."

"Came to party. Such a diligent knight." Twilight Sparkle teased.

Shining snorted. "Well, where did you hear about happenings at the castle? You steer clear of that place, and it's not just because I'm there."

It was relieving that once they got over built-up reservations from time not seeing each other, Shining and Twilight could still be open and crack self-deprecating jokes.
"I heard it at the Imperial Council meeting." Twilight said.

Shining Armor's expression flashed to confusion, then to amusement. "Oh. I've really been letting everypony down if I missed the council meeting." He wondered if he had been ordered to the party specifically to keep him away from the meeting. "But Captain Hauseway was there, right?"

Twilight shook her head. “The captain wasn't there either.”

Shining Armor cocked an eyebrow. “Neither me or Hausseway?" He leaned forward, to speak in a conspiratorial whisper. "I'm not saying thats suspicious, but that is two fewer IHG than are supposed to be sitting in on the council meeting. Twilie, what were those scheming bureaucrats up to?”

“I wouldn't worry about it. I-” Twilight began, but the siblings realized the group was staring, and so sheepishly turned back to them.

“We'll talk about it later.” Shining whispered. This reminded Twilight of all the other instances he'd said the same thing, and not visited or written for months.

Laurel Black spoke up. “Hello Lady Sparkle. Uh, it is rather nice to see you here.”

“Thanks! You too Laurel.” Twilight replied with a smile.

“How blessed I get to have two geniuses in my parlor, both stollen away from the princess!" Foaly Flux interrupted.

This immediately drew a glare from Twilight, and Laurel seemed panicked. "My lord, I p- protest! Genius? You do me too much credit, a- and I was not stollen. No, nopony has stollen anything from the princess!" Laurel's pitch raised as her throat constricted.

"No? Not stollen from the princess?" Flux chuckled. "But something has been stollen. Perhaps not from Princess Celestia." He turned to Twilight. "Stollen from you, Twilie."

“I beg your pardon?” Twilight blinked.

Flux gestured. “Your mark!” This elicited a deep blush from Laurel and a laugh from everypony else. Indeed, the Castle Magoria's bastions would resemble Twilight's six-pointed star mark when viewed from above.

“That's just a coincidence. The star shape make for a very defensible design. These pointed bastions can cover each other's base more easily than than any other design. They also deflect cannon.” Twilight defended Laurel.

“Thats more of a side effect of giving the arquebusiers a better field of fire.” Laurel squeaked out.

"That too." Twilight agreed.

"Should have gone with five." Twilight Velvet said to herself. Bored of the banter, she wandered to get another drink from a waiter.

Night Light watched her go. As the conversation between Twilight, Laurel, Flux, and Shining devolved into debating the merits of star forts, he retreated from the conversation and followed after his wife.
"You wanted Twilie here, now she is here. Do you have nothing to say to either of your children?"

Twilight Velvet swirled her drink, staring off toward Canterlot Castle again. "While they dawdle and talk about architecture? No, nothing."

"Your plans are going to your head, Velvet. Try to live a normal life and have a normal relationship with our kids while you can. Goodness gracious." Night Light rubbed his eyes. "Or you might have your wishes granted and you will look back on this moment in shame."

Velvet's lip twitched. "I would never." She whispered harshly. "Give me a moment. Then I'll come join the insipid gossip."

Flux was droning on. “It's my opinion that powder is a fad, but Laurel was insistent. Honestly I was disappointed we couldn't fit ravelins and a moat like the original design called for. My neighbors are such prudes. How am I to go on living without a moat in my life?!”

“Isn't all a bit much considering the confined space?” Twilight gestured out over the grounds. The three inside bastions faced hedgerows and lordly estates. The three outside bastions were perched precariously on the edge of the plateau. Bringing an army to bear against the castle would already have been nearly impossible without the awesome bastions. Not that anypony would dare attack Canterlot anyway.

“Forgive my impudence, but his lordship is defined by 'a but much'.” Laurel tried to joke, glancing to Flux for approval. "Surplus to requirement."

“And to add towers on top of the bastions is just weird. They could cause I lot of damage if they fell.” Twilight nodded.

“The towers are necessary. Trust me. I'm playing a very, very long game.” Flux said, to everypony's silent incredulity. “And how did you become an expert on castle design, Twilight Sparkle?”

“I took a class on it, read a few books." Twilight said.

"How you learn everything." Shining grinned.

Twilight Sparkle, like her mother, was suddenly feeling very weary about the conversation. She wanted to talk about castles. It was infuriating how the topic kept turning so they were talking about her.
"I've had a busy day. I'm glad I came, but running around has made me a bit tired. Would you mind if I found a place to sit?"

"Umm..." Flux had the only chair in the area. "There are a few down in the garden."

"Great." Twilight trotted away.

Shining and Laurel watched her go.
"Well, um..." Laurel took the cider bottle and took a swig. "I don't need to bother the family any more. I see some acquaintances. Until next time Sir Armor."

Shining was torn between staying and talking to Flux and following his sister, until he saw his parents heading in Twilie's direction already.
"If there really is a situation at Canterlot Castle, I might have to cut this visit short." He said regretfully.

"You gotta do what you gotta do." Flux said. He stood up and folded up his chair. "I should be a magnanimous host and greet some of the other ponies here anyhow. It is expected of me! Pshh, this duke is many things, but magnanimous is absolutely one of them."

"See you later then." Shining trotted out of the crowd and down towards the castle gate. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his parents and sister talking. He tried not to think about it. He loved his family, but the drama was time consuming and duty came first. He could not serve the princess and blood at the same time. So he slipped past the incoming ponies and trotted up the street to Canterlot Castle.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light watched their son go before turning back to their daughter.
"We sent a letter last week to invite you to dinner. We have been worried about you." Night Light said. "Are you eating well?"

Twilight, resting on the bench under a dead tree, stayed silent.

Night Light pursed his lips. He did not think there was any good reason the family didn't get along. After leaving home Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor had stopped communicating and visiting. If asked, the kids just said they were busy. "How is Spike?"

Twilight Sparkle gave a little nod. "He's good." She said quietly. "I think he was coming to the party too. He must be late."

Night Light was about to say more, but a look from his wife silenced him.
Twilight Velvet stepped forward. Mother and daughter locked eyes.
"Twilie, Twilight, if you believe my letter was too strongly worded, I apologize. I am too pushy and I have soured the experience for you. Parties are supposed to be enjoyed, not be a chore."

Twilight Sparkle sat up a bit straighter on the bench. "I don't know what you want from me. Maybe you want me to be a surrogate daughter for Uncle Flux so we get a bit of the inheritance. Maybe you want to introduce me to all the noble ponies so I can exploit my imperial status. I know you think you want what is best for me." She sighed and looked off in another direction. "Please, leave it be. I just want to be left alone. I have some research stuff to think about."

Velvet chewed her lip for a few minutes. "I was a rhetoric teacher, not a career advisor, so I have trouble telling you this. You have enormous potential, Twilie. You deserve respect and wealth more than any of those addlepated fools up on the bastion. I know you have the strength and wits to make this world yours." It was hard to tell if Velvet was speaking metaphorically or literally. She stepped closer. "What is your plan for the future, Twilie? Are you going to be a student forever, collecting diplomas? How many degrees do you have by now, four? It is about time you USE what you have, Twilight Sparkle. Imperial business is too humble for you."

Twilight stewed in silence for a while. "It's five, actually. Stop talking about me. It's bothersome." She mumbled. "I have important stuff to do, alone. I don't have time for the distractions."

Twilight Velvet was not satisfied. "Something is making you anxious, isn't it. I saw a new look in your eyes tonight, Twilie. Something big is on your mind." Twilight Velvet continued. "You have seen something nopony else sees and you have been thinking about what it means."

Twilight Sparkle felt a great urge to shout at her mother for not respecting her feelings, and her father for just standing there. But Velvet was right. "I have. It involves 'imperial business' and my future too." Twilight Sparkle confessed. "Honestly, I think it involves the future of all Equestria."

Velvet nodded. "So, you have been wondering if you have the skill or the right to change the future of Equestria. As your mother and your greatest admirer, Twilie, I promise that you do."

Twilight frowned and shook her head. "There are some... concerning secrets about the princess I learned today. I..." She glanced to Velvet for a brief moment. "I thought it was just me. I thought I was a total failure when I left the princess. I- It's heresy to imagine, but I'm daring to imagine it was partly her fault, and that I'm not as bad a pony as I thought."

Twilight Velvet allowed herself a thin smile. "Then go ask the princess and set your mind at ease."

Twilight silently nodded. She stood up, double checked her saddle bags, and teleported away in a cacophonous burst of magic.

"Oww." Night Light shrunk from the sound. "I hope Twilie paces herself."

"If she hurts herself she will learn her limits." Velvet took the vacated seat on the bench. "Did you see what book Twilie had in her bag? Predictions and Prophesies. I think Twilie has had a glance into somepony's secrets. That is going to be much more dangerous than teleporting."

Night Light shook his head. "You think going to the alicorn princess is a good idea for her? What if things get... ugly?"

Vlevet shrugged. "They won't. Let us not entertain counterfactuals." She leaned back on the bench and relaxed. "Come sit next to me."

Night Light obliged. They enjoyed the calmness of the garden and the meagre shade of the dead tree, while the 22 piece orchestra played up on the bastion.

Shining Armor was ambling along the tree-lined road back towards the north city and Canterlot Castle, when he heard a strange gasping noise behind him. Shining thought it was coming from one of the mansions lining the road, but then he heard it again accompanied by a sculpted bush shaking violently.
Worried that somepony was in trouble, Shining galloped over to the bush. A brown unicorn with a mohawk mane and a black cloak was crouched behind it, coughing violently into their hooves.

"Hold on sir! Roll onto your stomach!" Shining stepped forward.

Before he reached the choking pony, they doubled over and spat something out. The motion also rubbed away some of the powder on their fur, revealing the pale yellow under the brown pigment.

"Uhh..." Shining blinked.

"Damn." The cloaked pony sniffled. They had a slightly nasal but clearly female contralto voice. She dropped the thing she had been choking on, a toad. "You weren't supposed to see that."

Shining was still so confused he did not detect the mare's menacing tone. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy, mate, just peachy." The mare pushed her goggles up to have a better look at the stallion. "The toad makes you sound like a fifty year old stallion. Trick of the trade." She shifted a hoof toward her belt under her coat, where her guns and knives were concealed, ready to get rid of the witness.

It clicked for Shining. "Yes, I get it now. I thought I recognized you from the party." He nodded. "You're a clown! Wow, you sure commit to the job, almost choking like that." He chuckled. "Sorry to make light of it. Glad you're not hurt, mis."

"Right..." The mare wasn't sure how to react now.

"Yes, with the cape and goggles you look like something out of a story." Shining finally noticed the hostile looks the mare was giving him. "Look, sorry for, you know, sneaking up on you out of character. I'll, umm, go then."
He turned around and continued up the road, thinking of ways he could spin what had just happened into a more heroic story for the other knights back in the barracks.

The mare slumped a bit, both relieved and somewhat disappointed in herself. What was the point in a disguise if you let somepony see you changing out of it?
She stood up and shook off the rest of the pigment, brushing it out of her fur and mane. Her coat was a yellow so pale it looked white, and on her flanks was the telltale mark of a dangerous mare, two connected musical notes. Her spiky mane was electric blue and cyan. She pushed the maroon tinted goggles back over her eyes.

Her name was Pon-3. Or at least that is what she had been calling herself recently. At any given time she went by a variety of other pseudonyms. The mare bragged that her real name could get you killed on four continents, and that she used it so little now she struggled to remember it.

But she wasn't feeling like she was living up to her grand persona at that moment. She was taking jobs from random ponies at parties and getting attention from civilians.
"Buck me. Good thing no guild ponies are watching. I'd die from embarrassment." The mare muttered to herself as she flipped over her coat to the reverse side, dyed white. "Washed up killer, they'd sneer! Well, tell me what you think when I'm rolling in dosh after this job."

Satisfied she wouldn't stand out on the streets, Pon-3 emerged from behind the bush and nonchalantly strolled up the street, heading north. The mansions transitioned into townhouses, rowhouses, and more crowded insula housing.

She hummed to herself. "I'm the music mare. I'll be your conductor, yeah. I can make them sing and play, with my bow ribbon." She said melodiously. She fished the jeweled ring Twilight Velvet had given her out of her pocket. "Hmm, fancy. Even if it's not stollen, I should break it up. It'd be hard to sell it in one piece."

Her winding path north took her toward the center of Canterlot, to the edge of the Inner City district.

"It's... been a while." Pon-3 stowed the ring back in her pocket and pulled out the piece of paper with Velvet's instructions instead. "But this address should be around here somewhere."

Indeed she turned a corner and was face-to-face with a dilapidated storefront bearing the address on the paper. A petit unicorn mare in a frilly maid uniform stood in the doorway, tracking Pon-3's approach with unblinking eyes.

"Not the weirdest rendezvous I've ever had, out in the open like this." Pon-3 looked in both directions down the poorly-cobbled street. Most of the shops and buildings had been boarded up. There were very few ponies lingering around, huddled over dice games or chatting. "I remember this place being a lot livelier. I haven't been to Canterlot in a while. Kinda sad to see this place crumble."

The mare in the maid uniform stayed completely silent.

"Yeah, anyway..." Pon-3 cleared her throat. "Are you the agent I'm supposed to meet?"

The maid glanced past Pon-3 for a moment. "You were followed." She said in a monotone voice.

"Bullshit I was." Pon-3 looked over her shoulder but saw nothing. "Look, if you're nervous or whatever, just give me a name and I'll clean 'em up. I've been payed and I'm itching to go." She pantomimed stabbing someone.

The maid's expression did not change. "Do you have an address?"

"Yeah but it doesn't get postage." Pon-3 said.

"That is of no consequence." The maid said. "Where is it? I will send information along. Names, dates, and our next meeting."

Pon-3 turned and pointed north. Over the roofs of the abandoned row houses around them, a tall square tenement building rose above the heart of the Inner City. Even from kilometers away, one could see where parts of its facade had crumbled away. "I'm squatting on an upper floor. Decent digs. Nopony bothers me."

"Expect the next message, express mail." The maid gave a curt nod. "Perhaps on the way there you can loose the mare tailing you."
With that, the maid bowed politely and trotted along the road to the south, back toward the affluent South Canterlot.

"Geeze. I hate the paranoid ones. Gotta jump through ten hoops before I get a name. I just wanna stab a hoe and get payed for it!" Pon-3 scowled. But maybe she HAD been followed. She looked over her shoulder again, but still nopony. "There could have been a guild mare at that party, one of the musicians. Damn it, I should have been more careful."

She trotted north for a few blocks, then abruptly jumped into an alley and started galloping. She zigzagged through the darker parts of the city until she didn't know where she was anymore. She hoped that meant the tail would get lost too. Then Pon-3 began carefully working her way back to her home base.

However, the ponies tracking Pon-3 were more tenacious than she had given them credit for. Stalking from the rooftops, several members of the party orchestra observed her progress across the city. The worst thing thing to happen both to music and professional murder was back in town, and in less than a week she had caught the attention of the Musician's Guild.

It was the twentieth time that day, but Twilight still was exhilarated by the magic of teleportation. The enormous energy it took to shatter atoms and ensnare consciousness, it was nothing short of awe inspiring. It broke and mended her at every point across space simultaneously. Twilight was almost addicted to that feeling, to be in control of it all, a magical master.

She was in the place between places again. A hundreds years could pass in that impossible moment, so she let her mind wander, a short respite between the family drama she had just left, to the royal drama she was heading into.

Her imagination wandered to the point where magic had first called to her. She was in an enormous crowd at the edge of Canterlot Castle's expansive gardens. It was a moonless pre-dawn, dark but for torches and lanterns dancing above them. Chants, prayers, and exultations came in waves across the sea of ponies, as excitement and anticipation built up. A hundred-thousand ponies all pushed into each other see the dais perched above them on the city walls. It would certainly be a dangerous situation if not for the city guards and knights keeping things orderly (one of the few times they were genuinely useful).
Twilight was much shorter, just a filly who could weave between the legs of the taller ponies. Commoner and noblepony alike stood on the concourse to see the impending ceremony. Just as Twilight reached the front of the throng, a pony stepped out onto the dais above them. The new figure was a unicorn of enormous size, with wings which would look more reasonably scaled on a griffin.
The winged unicorn's (nay, alicorn's!) horn came alight with magic. The weak light of the torches around them dimmed as orange light pierced the air at the horizon, daybreak. In tandem with the rising sun the majestic pony launched into the sky. Twilight's eye's widened in awe.

Her dream dissolved. The great alicorn was still rising before her, but that was because Twilight was falling. She screamed.

Twilight's downward momentum was arrested as she was encased in golden magic. She was pulled back up through the air to the top of the watchtower. When the magical grasp on her ceased, Twilight slumped against the parapet, taking slow breaths to calm her heart rate. "Whoops." She said to herself. She had miscalculated teleportation before, but never so badly.

The voice from above her pulled her attention. “You should be more careful, my faithful student."
Twilight lifted her gaze. Even if she had been standing, Princess Celestia would have towered over Twilight. The princess peered over her nose at her nominal student in a way that made Twilight feel like an ant. Yet Celestia's tone was calm, welcoming, and even somewhat maternal. It made Twilight feel good, if only for a moment. "I've felt you teleporting all about Canterlot today. Busy as always, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight’s first instinct was to feel wronged somehow, that Celestia was keeping close tabs on her. Officially, Twilight was still the princess's student, her ward. During the first few centuries of the empire, the princesses would take on dozens of students at a time, headed up by a beknighted 'First Student' who all used Celestias' wisdom to exercise her will. The centuries passed and the institutions of power, the Imperial Council, the Imperial Military, the administration, took on the actual work of executing the empress's laws. Princess Celestia had only very occasionally taken on students over the past century, and nopony was sure what the role of student meant anymore. Was it ceremonial? Did she have actual authority?

All that ambiguity remained even after Twilight Sparkle drifted away from Celestia and dedicated herself to her study at the University. If Twilight had real political power, Celestia was right to observe her. If Twilight didn't, Celestia was just being nosy and petty. But neither of them wanted to confront the question. The ambiguity helped both of them. The ambiguity protected them both from obligation and hurt feelings.

"Princess Celestia." Twilight stood up, her legs still a bit wobbly. She bowed and Celestia bowed back. "It's... good to see you." She didn't know why it was so hard even to say that much. "You have always been courteous and generous with me, and you just saved my life. It's more than I could ever deserve."

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, then dipped her head to be more at Twilight's level. "Twilight, you know you don't need this hollow adoratio masquerade with me."

Twilight smiled a bit, but she wasn't sure she was happy about it. This was the one time the court decorum was helpful, to regulate the conversation and to maintain that essential ambiguity. Twilight and Celestia had been friends before. Now they were here.
"Yes princess. I know." Twilight nodded. "All goes well, I hope?"

Celestia lifted her head and looked off to the horizon again. "Not particularly."

"Oh, Um, I am saddened to hear that. I hope I can help in some way." Twilight said.

"I do not want to get bogged down in platitudes like I am with Fancy Pants. You came to see me with purpose. That is how you will help me." Celestia said, softly but forcefully. "Does it have something to do with that book, Twilight?"

Twilight nodded. There was no escaping the princess's keen senses and deduction. "Did Fancy Pants drop by after the Council meeting?"

Celestia smiled. “Not in the way you did, but yes.”

Twilight cracked a brief smile at the joke.
"So, Sir Pants probably came to tell you I was being evasive and conspiratorial. He may have demanded to know the truth and threatened to resign."

"Lord Vizier Fancy Pants, bless him, only hinted his suspicions and begged for information in a roundabout way." Celestia said, in a tone on the edge of sympathetic and condescending. "Go on then, Twilight. Show me what you have."

"Well, uh, okay. It is difficult to discuss, and I have been debating with myself if I should." Twilight nudged her saddlebag open. “Princess, I believe I have uncovered something about your lineage of sun princesses. It's a bit obtuse..."

Celestia nodded. "Take as much time as you need."

"As you may know your first incarnation, Celestia the First, had a sister who became the Nightmare Pretender." Twilight looked for Celestia's approval to continue and received it with a slight nod. That was already more than she was expecting! So, the Nightmare Pretended WAS the younger celestial sister! Twilight continued. "Princess, I have reason to believe she is alive. After losing to Celestia I, the Nightmare was cast off this world, and is locked away in the form of the Mare in the Moon." Twilight paused again, but Celestia's expression was unreadable. Twilight found it hard to continue under the princess's intense stare. "The Nightmare Pretender, according to prophesy, will be- excuse me, may be escaping from her lunar prison soon. Very soon."

Celestia shifted away from Twilight imperceptibly. "This is a grave claim. Have you consulted with the Prelate or other scholars? You bring it directly to me, but scattered with uncertainty and qualifiers."

"When Fancy Pants said you were having dreadful premonitions I drew the link that they involved the Nightmare Pretender." Twilight said defensively. "Am I wrong? It would be an enormous relief if you can deny all this to me."

Celestia looked away, to hide the doubt and fear that was clouding her lilac eyes. “Show me.” She said.

Twilight pulled 'Predictions and Prophesies' out of her saddlebag and flipped to the page in question.

"THE MARE IN THE MOON AND THE ELEMENTS

"The Mare in the Moon, also Night Mare, was once a powerful leader in the Wars of Unification. She was defeated and imprisoned in the moon by the 'Elements of Harmony'.

The very Stars will aid in her escape on the brightest day of the thousandth year of her banishment. She will return to bring about night's eternal victory over the sun.

-Prophesy unattributed. The words have appeared in blood/ichor several times in various languages since first records, usually on buildings on moonlit hilltops. Original attribution somewhere in modern Prance estimated 210 SS."

Twilight followed up with the copy of 'Magical Phenomena of the Late Classical Era' she had pilfered from the monastery. “This is where I found the original reference to the moon prison. And Night Mare, obviously, becomes nightmare. The Nightmare Pretender was, as the name suggests, a nightmare creature. The dream-eating nightmares are frequently associated with the moon which is a dream borderland. It all fits together!"
Twilight tripped over her words as she tried to explain it all. "And the 'brightest day'? Obviously, the Summer Sun. We can do the math to infer the day of the nightmare's return. Crucially, we know the nightmare was imprisoned before the unification. This is the year 999 SS, and the new year Summer Sun coming up will be the thousandth anniversary of the unification. Obviously since the nightmare didn't return last year or any year previously, we know she will return this year, because it's the last possible year! Therefore the Nightmare Pretender was imprisoned just before the unification! Her release date is just months away on the millennia Summer Sun!"

Celestia looked over all the evidence impassively. A dishonest plan was forming in her mind. She had not come up with it on the spot; It was something she had been considering for a while. Twilight's discovery forced her to put it into motion.
When Twilight paused between sentences, Celestia raised a hoof to her student's mouth, silencing her. The princess's voice was solemn. “Twilight, you have outdone yourself. You continuously impress me with your intelligence and curiosity, my faithful student. It has never done you wrong until now.”

Twilight was unsure how to take that remark. “Uh, what?”

Celestia continued, her gaze empty. “You have told me remarkable things, Twilight. You have made a very strong and convincing case. It would take a better pony than I to find the holes in your reasoning. You have done well..." She trailed off, and looked away to the horizon yet again. "I may have to act rashly, Twilight. I must know, do you trust me, Lady Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight remained silent.

The princess let out a strained breath. "Twilight, please, I must have an answer from you."

Twilight felt a chill. Celestia was not reacting the way she'd anticipated. "Princess, if this is just an informal conversation between friends, you can't make me answer that." She said politely. The ambiguity was twisted and strained. "Look, shouldn't we talk about the implications of the nightmare pretender returning?"

"No. I do not care to do so." Celestia frowned. She cleared her throat and assumed her formal tone. "Lady Twilight Sparkle-" The ambiguity was shattering apart. "-in formal recognition of your service to the crown I invest you with office befitting your virtue and ability. You are granted the title of 'First Student', the 'Élève Premier' of the imperial court. With your title the responsibilities over the Chateau la Garde, the fortified keep surrounding the city gate, fall to you. You may have a full investiture ceremony if you wish it, but this grant and the corresponding duties are immediate." Celestia proclaimed. She stared down her nose at Twilight again. Like an Ant... "You are not released from my ward. You will not be until I decree so. You are my vassal and student both, and whatever else I design, Lady Sparkle."

Twilight stood in dumb incomprehension for several minutes. What? WHAT? Celestia... was giving her a castle? Did that have anything to do with the Nightmare Pretender?
"Princess, I really don't understand. Is this, like, a joke?"

But her princess continued. “Since you will be on assignment from me, it is expected you will select a regent for your substantive title, the Chateau la Garde. Your parents would be the most fitting regents."

"On assignment." Twilight parroted.

"As Élève Premier, First Student, you stand above and apart from the administration. You are equal to the lord vizier, but much will be required of you." Celestia said. "Lady Sparkle, I am not being fanciful. You are now a landed peer of this empire, vested with great power and responsibility."

Twilight's confusion grew into shock. “What are you even talking about?”

"The first assignment will take you away from Canterlot, to a town in the river valley. You shall act on my behalf to appropriate the cooperation of the citizens there. “

“What?” Twilight was torn between starting to yell or to beg. Celestia was blowing her off. No, more than that. Celestia was utterly committed to pretending the whole conversation about the Nightmare Pretender hadn't happened. Now this moment of high attainment and accomplishment, Twilight's promotion to First Student, was nothing but a hollow ploy for Celestia to deflect! As First Student, Twilight was unambiguously subject to the princess's direct orders. The topic of the Nightmare Pretender would be stifled.
Twilight opted to yell. "Celestia! Why? Why are you-"

Why what? What did Twilight need to know?
Why are you doing this? Twilight already knew.
Why are you betraying me? Celestia didn't owe Twilight anything.
Why are you doing this now? Celestia couldn't have been bothered before.

Twilight didn't finish the sentence. There was still one question she did not have the answer too, but even then she could not bring herself to ask it. Celestia, if you are committed to keeping this secret, why not just silence me more directly?

Twilight and Celestia met eyes again. The question was asked and answered in their expressions, of confusion and rage, and of regret and necessity.

"Your promotions, the prophesy..." Twilight's voice cracked. "I don't understand, Princess. Do you want to stand on this tower forever?" There was an echo of irony, as Twilight felt herself using part of what Velvet had said to her. "You have had me as your student for years, and now you wish to use me like this?"

Celestia nodded. "So it seems, Lady Sparkle. Do not entertain the idea of turning me down or resigning. I am the empress. I am within my rights to use coercive force to make you accept and have you do preform your duties."

The ambiguity was broken and had been buried in a shallow grave. The patina of freedom Twilight had enjoyed at the University had been killed too. She was no different than a slave now. "If that is how you want to spend your energy before she returns." Twilight ground her teeth. "So. Be. It. Where are you sending me then?"

Celestia had won. Twilight was subjugated. There was no joy in such a trivial victory. "You will go to Ponyville, a settlement chartered with 'Imperial City' rights to the South on the Dneighper River.”

“Yes I know where Ponyville is. I can see it from here.” Twilight said bitterly, waving over the parapet. Ponyville, some 300 kilometers away south, was one of the closer settlements, but not literally visible from Canterlot unless from the top of The Mountain. “What am I doing there?"

"You will organize the Summer Sun Fair for the region. I expect it to be a grand occasion, befitting an empress." Celestia explained. She cracked a smile. "Or perhaps, a grad occasion. Lady Sparkle, this is the culmination of the organizational and political skills you have learned with me."

"It's a culmination alright. I get to pitch tents with farm ponies. Ponyville! Good grief! Great use of my talent, princess." Twilight was by this point so burning with rage at this snub, Celestia was afraid she would ignite.

Celestia could not meet Twilight's glare anymore. "Twilight... I trust you, more than you know. Canterlot is not the right place for you right now. This SS fair is important." She recovered her placid composure. "You should leave for Ponyville tomorrow. Pack light, bring your ward Spike with you."

“I suppose that's an order. Good. Good. I'm overjoyed I get to erase my entire life for you. That sounds great." Twilight seethed, snatching up her books.

Celestia bowed. "I look forward to the next time we see each other, Lady Sparkle."

With wordless fury, Twilight broke for the stairwell down the tower. Once out of Celestia's sight she screamed in frustration, causing the princess to wince.

Fancy Pants was climbing up the tower stairs (for the third time that day) as Twilight came barreling down, nearly colliding with him. "Oh my!" He dodged back a bit. "Lady Sparkle-"

"Yeah?!" Twilight hissed, eyes reddened with tears.

Fancy Pants hesitated. What had the princess and Twilight discussed? "Are you okay, my lady?"

Twilight's lip trembled. "You better ask Celestia that. I think something wrong with her." She sniffled. "Me? I'm FINE. Actually I just got promoted! I'm a viscountess now!" She hiccuped on her tears. "I have a little castle and everything. I hope you gets yours soon." She rushed on down the stairs.

"... viscountess?" Fancy Pants mumbled. "Oh dear." He resumed the climb.
A few minutes later Fancy Pants emerged onto the watchtower, breathing with difficultly. He rested by the door, eyeing Celestia from behind. "Princess, it's me."

"So it is." Celestia maintained her gaze over the city.

“Since when does Lady Sparkle take the stairs?” Fancy Pants asked. "Princess, I dearly hope I will not be expected to manage her as well."

"You think that you manage me, sir?" Celestia asked pointedly.

Taking the hint that the princess was on edge, Fancy Pants approached the subject more carefully. "Her ladyship said she had been promoted."

Celestia nodded. "The clever filly. She came to confirm my worst fears." She said to herself. "And I, in return, told her lies. I do not treat her well. I never have. It is unbecoming of the daughter of the sun to act so unjust."

"Princess I don't follow. You lied? So, she did not receive a promotion?" Fancy Pants scratched his head. "I am puzzled, for you have been magnanimous and generous with Lady Sparkle. She has catapulted forward academically and socially from your patronage, my princess."

"You would say that, you envious fop." Celestia said flatly.

Fancy Pants could tell she not as venomous as the words implied, or he would have real reason to be afraid. "My princess I just call the balls and strikes when I see them." He stood up and took a few steps closer. "Please, let us be straightforward. What did you two discuss?"

“The premonitions I have had are real. Twilight proved it.” Celestia sighed. “I had a plan to tell her something very important, but now she has fixated on a path I can not yet follow. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her what she needs to hear.”
The princess whipped around and loomed over her vizier. “Twilight is arrogant, proud, ambitious, and totally naive. Her desire to learn, nay, her visceral need to learn greatly outshines her willingness to face the consequences. She knows every spell my institutions can teach her. It wasn’t enough for her. She is a student of every science and knowledgeable in every philosophy. She has educated herself in the disciplines of a master engineer, general, and politician because it fills some hole in her life. I would call that pitiful, if I were not guilty of the same thing on a much grander scale."

Her highness was astute. Fancy Pants had noticed but been unable to articulate everything Celestia had just said about Twilight Sparkle. What Celestia had just said about the premonitions being true was alerting, but Pants had no time to dwell as the princess kept ranting.

“What tremulant guilt, that I confess these things to you instead of her. I become an utter coward around her for reasons I can hardly grasp. The result is that I am a failure in my role as her mentor." Celestia confessed. "So instead of facing her and all that I fear, I have unleashed her on the world instead. Next time she loses control, she will destroy more than just a tower."
Celestia leaned over the edge of the watchtower. Down on ground level, hundreds of meters below, Twilight Sparkle galloped out of the castle and towards her little tower in the garden. "I can't face the truth. I'm not a very good pony..." Celestia sighed. "Which of us will flinch first? When that question is answered I will doubtless rue this day, that I made her l'Élève Premier.”

So much flowery vague language, but Fancy Pants's attention was only really caught by the last part. “I beg your pardon?Princess, please tell me that was a joke. Please tell me you didn't actually make Sparkle the First Student.”

Her confessional venting over, Celestia broke into a sad smile. She enjoyed the stallion's aghast expression, regretting to herself again that she was talking to him and not Twilight. “I did. It was an impulsive thing to do, but Canterlot is not the right place for her. The city grows stagnant in some ways, dangerously dynamic in others, so it was necessary to get her out of the city. The most direct way to do that was to promote her: She is essentially my reeve now, and I may order her as I please.”

Fancy Pants didn't know where to begin. "You could have ordered her before! If you had told her to leave the city, she would never have refused, never! This-" He took a deep breath. "Princess, this is very upsetting. You should have consulted me. This upsets the balance of power between the crown, the administration, and the Estates."

Celestia scoffed. "I am princess and empress of Equestria. Are you telling me I may not do what I please?"

Fancy Pants groaned in frustration. The little things the princess was defensive or stubborn about prevented forthright conversation. "Actions have consequences. Forgive me my princess, for in my faithlessness I can not grasp how ordering Twilight without promoting her is more costly than ordering her after promoting her."

"I do not have to explain myself." Celestia said with some finality.

The cloud of secrecy was really starting to bother Fancy Pants. If Twilight had not been crying, he would have suspected that student and teacher were plotting something against him. Celestia was shutting him out, expecting him to do his job while she didn't do hers.
"You really did not need to make a temperamental adolescent one of the most authoritative ponies in Equestria. Do you remember Sunset Shimmer? Do you remember how well that went? Oh don't give me that look, it's a perfectly serviceable comparison!"

Celestia sighed. "I will admit Twilight is a flawed pony-"

“Lady Sparkle is not-" Fancy Pants stopped himself. Celestia had already characterized Twilight Sparkle adequately. "Well, I don't have to tell you what she is." He cleared his throat. "But what about the Chateau la Garde? You give her a castle at the same time you shoo her out of the city. She'll need a regency. You know her mother and father are under heavy suspicion of seditious and heretical activity. Lady Velvet is a borderline traitor! You are handing them the Chateau la Garde, a formidable little keep in its own right if it did not ALSO straddle the city gatehouse!”

"You don't have to yell. I am right here, Sir Pants." Celestia said.

Fancy Pants shook his head woefully. “If Velvet and Light start to plot against us we will be in a bad way. There are already conspiracies brewing around here, taking advantage of your... ahem, absence from the court.”

Celestia nodded. “Count on it.”

Fancy Pants just stared at her for a while. "Princess, I ask this with no glib nor sarcastic intentions: Are you trying to destroy Equestria? You are undermining your ability to rule, my ability to administer, and feeding faction against yourself."

"My intentions are not your concern. You keep the gears of empire turning. I protect ponykind as its princess." Celestia turned away from him. "This audience is over, sir. To your duty."

"Your highness." Fancy Pants mumbled. He bowed and backed into the stairwell. He was not too big a stallion to admit he almost cried like Twilight Sparkle had as he made the depressing descent down the tower to the rest of Canterlot Castle. Even more heartache awaited him there.

Twilight galloped right to the door of her tower before she stopped to consider what had just happened. That was when the emotions raging through her began to mellow, and she could think in complete sentences again.

On the princess's whim, she had just been catapulted to a rank of noble attainment that put her in the community with the most powerful and influential ponies in Equestria. Sure, the title of First Student and its associated castle was non-inheritable, but it was Twilight's for as long as she rendered service to the princess. Twilight was young, so that could mean upwards of seventy years! Who would try to kick her family out of Chateau la Garde after that long in occupation?

But it was a totally moot point. One, Twilight didn't really want any of it. Two, a castle was no use if the Nightmare Pretender returned and won "eternal victory over day" like the prophesy stated.
"On the one hoof, I could accept what I've been given, keep my head down, and enjoy the benefits of being a viscountess." Twilight said. "On the other hoof, I could be a nuisance and throw it all into question, maybe saving Equestria along the way." The choice was obvious.

Twilight entered her tower. Spike was absent, presumably at or coming back from Foaly Flux's party. Twilight trotted to her writing desk, pulling out a few letter-sized sheets of paper and jotting down vague invitations.
Her tower was unsuited to hosting a dinner, so she had to propose a dinner at her parent's South Canterlot townhouse. She made one invitation out to her brother, one to her mother (her father was doubtless in the same place), and one to Spike.

Twilight signed and sealed the letters. She set aside her inkwell and grabbed the other small bottle on her desk- It was a glowing glass container of dragon fire, the magical alternative to messenger ponies. The imperial administration ran on the stuff, allowing books, letters, decrees, and news to be sent nearly instantaneously across Equestria. Spike's breath replicated the effect, but Twilight kept some in reserve for moments like these where he was out.

Twilight opened the warm glowing bottle and, before she had time to second guess herself, released a drop of liquid green fire on each of the letters. They were engulfed in green fire and disappeared with neither smoke nor ash. Green tendrils of light briefly danced in the air above Twilight before darting away.

Twilight mulled for a bit after that, hunched over in her writing chair, thinking about nothing in particular. She would be leaving Canterlot the next day. Her tower and its familiar comforts would be left behind. When she returned from the little exile to Ponyville it would be to the Chateau la Garde as viscountess.
It was deeply unsettling. Twilight felt mourning pangs for her relatively carefree life as a student. Now she had genuine responsibilities, duties she couldn't blow off.
Well, she could. But the wisdom of going against the princess now was questionable, considering recent examples of another First Student.

When enough time had passed, Twilight got up and changed outfits for dinner. She ditched the necklace and makeup, and wore a simpler plain dress- She felt an irrational grudge against the white dress for getting her into so much trouble.

Satisfied, she teleported to her parent's townhouse.
The family maid greeted her at the door. "Hello Lady Sparkle." The maid bowed and stepped back for Twilight to enter. "Have you had a nice day young mistress?"

Twilight had never really understood the deal with the maid. She didn't even know the mare's name, yet she had seemingly always been there. Shining had once guessed the maid was a childhood friend of Twilight Velvet's hired to the family for a secure livelihood, but that was never substantiated. It was one of those things that never got questioned.
"It's been so-so. And you?"

"Standard, m'lady." The maid nodded. "Your parents are still out. Have you come to see them or..."

"Umm, kinda. I want to hold a family dinner. Shining is coming too. Can you help me with that?" Twilight asked. It was no secret that Twilight was a distracted and haphazard cook: The maid would be doing most of the work.

The maid bowed her head. "Of course. It is a marvelous idea too. You mother will be pleasantly surprised."

So they got to the work of putting together a modest dinner for five. Salad, fruit, some fresh-baked bread, a few simple confections.
True to her usual, Twilight became bored of the repetitious work and wandered into the family library, ostensibly taking a break but with little intention to return to the kitchen. Her father's side of the room was filled with romantic tales of knightly duty and honor, fencing guides, memoirs of oceanic explorers, and weapon catalogues. Her mother side of the room had bookcases of rhetoric guides, Prench histories, folklore, and fundamentals of magic.
Twilight's attention lingered around the folklore section. Velvet apparently owned a volume of Predictions and Prophesies too. Twilight pulled out the copy. Several pages was dog-eared. Twilight flipped between them: The Twelve-point Star, the one-armed griffin, the spectacled monster, the Mare in the Moon-
Twilight hesitated. How come Twilight Velvet had noted the Mare in the Moon as well? Was it coincidence, or had she made the connection to the Nightmare Pretender as well? Twilight quickly scanned the bookcase and was relieved that Velvet did not own a copy of Magical Phenomena of the Late Classical Era. She was ready to believe it was just a coincidence.

There was a sound from the front hallway, somepony arriving. Twilight slotted Velvet's Predictions and Prophesies back into place, but her eyes strayed over the spine of another book beside it, where a taped label was emblazoned with 'EoH' and a numeral 'I'. But Twilight thought nothing of it, more concerned with affecting an air of nonchalance before the new arrival came in.

The new arrival turned out to be her parents with Spike in tow. They had all been at Flux's party when her letters arrived.

"Sorry to pull you away. I have some important stuff to say to everypony. Shining's coming too hopefully." Twilight said. She ignored their questions and withdrew into the kitchen to pretend to help some more.

Shining Armor arrived a little while later. He was silently annoyed, having just made it back from Canterlot Castle from the party when his letter appeared. His sisters apologetic smile made him feel a bit better about it all.

Not long after, dinner was ready and served. Everything was laid out and the family took their seats.
Twilight didn't dig in right away. She waited until everypony's (and dragon's) mouths were full before she explained herself.
"I won't drag it out. I was promoted to l'Élève Premier, First Student of the empire."

Shining dropped his fork, which bounced off his plate to the ground. His eyes darted between his sister and parents.

"Huh?" Spike scratched his chin. "What's that mean? Like, valedictorian?"

"No sweetie, its a court title. the princess bestows it." Velvet said. "My my Twilie, you must have had a very interesting discussion with Princess Celestia. Congratulations. You more than deserve it."

Twilight accepted the uncomfortable praise. "I guess. Maybe I deserve it, maybe I earned it. I don't know."

"Do not doubt yourself. This is just the beginning." Night Light patted her on the back.

"And I assume you were granted the Chateau la Garde as well? Just marvelous Twilie!" Velvet clopped her hooves. "I hope you don't ask us to call you viscountess now." She joked.

"Isn't that the gatehouse?" Spike was catching her parent's excitement. "You mean you have a chateau now? Cool!"

The only pony not smiling and laughing was Shining Armor. "Huh." He was a bit confused, since Twilight had always emphasized her estrangement from Celestia to him. It seemed like an odd reversal, especially considering the general disorder of Canterlot Castle from the princess's apathy. Of course he was still happy for his sister. "Pretty impressive. You made first student before I made captain." He remarked dryly.

Twilight blushed a bit. His comment was the only one that resonated. "Hey now. I know you have worked way harder for our promotion than I did mine. Honestly..." She trailed off. Expressing her doubts would only lead to confessing about her discovery and the Nightmare Pretender. Telling her family would expose them to danger and retribution from the princess. "You'll get there sooner than you think, Shining. I'm sure of it."

"Geeze. Considering Captain Hauseway would have to retire or die for me to get promoted, words like that can be interpreted as a threat." Shining chuckled. "Cheers Twilie, on attaining one of the few jobs just left open, where you don't have to maim a pony to get it."

"Keep that up and I'll hire you for my guard. I'm allowed one of those now, as a viscountess." Twilight teased.

They had a good laugh, and the cheer lasted through dinner. But Twilight's little grin slowly faded as the looming danger hung over everypony's jokes and merriment.
None of it mattered if the Nightmare Pretender returned.

Twilight also explained her assignment to Ponyville, which made her parents sentimental. Their daughter would have to leave the city for her first real job. Twilight stayed more and more quiet as she picked through her dinner.

The dinner wore into the evening, and Canterlot's towers began to cast long shadows. Shining took his leave, taking a few deserts to distribute with the other knights. Night Light helped the maid clean up the table. Spike went to check on his old room on the second floor.
Twilight Sparkle and Twilight Velvet remained at the table.

"We will be at the skydock in the morning when you leave." Velvet said. "I can tell you are not thrilled about how got your new rank, but I encourage you to embrace it. Power is something everypony covets, difficult to gain, easily lost."

Twilight leaned her head against her hoof. "I'm a plenty strong pony without fancy appellation or a big stone house." She mumbled. "I don't care about owning a chateau, or ponies calling me a viscountess. I couldn't give a hoot about executing Celestia's orders. I'm a scholar, mother."

"Very high minded. However even the Celestiaan alicorn sisters, as powerful as they were, were unimportant before ponies began to call them princess." Velvet said. "Eventually you're going to discover something that is important to you, a goal you are willing to fight to achieve. Then you will not begrudge any power and influence you can wield, even frivolous titles that mean nothing."

The deliberate reference to the Celestiaan sisters jolted Twilight Sparkle up in her seat. "Do you have something to do with this?" She asked gruffly.

"I don't know what you are talking about my dear." Velvet cooed.

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut. Obviously, how could her mother have anything to do with the Nightmare Pretender. It was just a coincidence. Twilight was too on edge and jumping at shadows. "Shoot." She slumped. "This is everything you ever wanted from me. I hope you're happy. I thought I had trouble going about my day before, and now I have constant attention, appeals, and probably aggression to look forward to. I've been tied at the hip to the princess for good or ill."

Velvet shrugged. "If you are not up to it, either you are downgraded back to a more obscure position, or you are promoted to a job with less work." She winked. "Some ponies, not you of course, have a habit of failing upwards. The pleasure of wealth I suppose."

Twilight scoffed at the absurdity. "There's no court position higher than First Student, mother."

"Isn't there? One of your superiors does nothing but stand on the southern watchtower all day." Velvet tittered.

Twilight lurched again. Velvet was being too provocative and borderline heretical. "I've got to go." She stood up and trotted to the entry hall. "Spike, I'm heading home!" She shouted. She could feel her mothers eyes on her.

"Coming!" Spike shouted down the stairs.

"See you tomorrow Twilie." Velvet said, lighthearted.

"Bye Twilie." Night Light called out from the kitchen.

Twilight and Spike emerged into the cool evening air, and started their way back towards the bachelorette tower.

"So much happened today. I can't really process it all." Spike remarked. "Are we really leaving Canterlot tomorrow? Gosh! It's been a while since we left the city. It was last year's family vacation to the Foal Mountains. And where the heck is Ponyville? Is that in the Canter, or way far away? Well, don't forget to send goodbye letters to your university pals."

Twilight was absorbed in her own thoughts and didn't pay much attention to what he was saying. It didn't bother Spike.

They arrived back at the tower and Twilight made a beeline for her writing desk. She set about pulling some books and scrolls together, arranging quills, and checking over her stash of notes.

Spike was tired and wanted to go to bed, but dutifully followed Twilight. "That's all your school stuff."

"Yup. I have a few essays and a thesis to submit before I leave Canterlot. I can't leave without giving my professors the work I promised them." Twilight said as she finished arranging the desk. "So, I'll be doing a lot of writing tonight. I'll sleep on the way to Ponyville."

"Uhh, seems like a bad idea to go into your new job sleep deprived." Spike pointed out. "Your professors will understand for sure."

Twilight sighed. "Spike, I'm doing this for me, not for them. It's a last hurrah, you know. I don't know how long before I can get back to my studies. Maybe... never." She shivered. "You don't have to stay up with me." She grabbed the first book from her stack and pulled up the corresponding notes, a quill, and paper.

Spike was a firm believer in sleep, but an even firmer believer in helping Twilight, especially when she was this committed. She tried not to show it, but Twilight had had a difficult day, and Spike wanted to help. “I'll go get some tea.” Spike trundled to the tower's little fireplace and kettle.

Twilight lifted her quill, but hesitated before putting pen to paper. She knew she wasn't in the right frame of mind to write essays. Her head still swam with thoughts about the Nightmare Pretender and Celestia's dire secrets.
She looked up, through the tower's multi-story window, to the night sky above Canterlot. The full moon has risen. A pattern of craters, creating the profile of a black unicorn head, was there as it always had been. It was a trick of the night most likely, but Twilight could have sworn the moonlight dimmed and shimmered across the lunar surface.

"You can see me too." Twilight whispered to the grey orb. It was like a great unblinking eye.
It made her angry. How could Celestia be so blind to the danger? They were probably the only ponies in Equestria who knew of the nightmare's impending return, and Celestia was forbidding her to speak or act on it.
What if Twilight disobeyed and spread the news as much as she could? She would sound crazy, and Celestia would probably deny it. She would get locked up and suffer a public humiliation even greater than the last Élève Premier.

“I'll show them. I'll show them all.” She promised. Or at least, she’d show Celestia, because that was the only one who mattered. Twilight returned her gaze to the book pile. In addition to the one already in her magical grasp, she pulled five more down. It was goddamn study time.

Chapter 2: The "Free City" of Ponyville

The dawn stole quietly over the planet, as was its divine mandate. Children were warmed in their beds by the solar rays licking their faces. The impoverished multitudes huddling in the deep darkness of the alleys awoke and began their shambling. The guardspony at attention sighed in relief, and the guardspony at home groaned in annoyance.

One particular unicorn, in her tower of Canterlot Castle, passed her eyes methodically over her papers. She turned the page. But it was over, the last book had been read, mentally annotated, mentally catalogued, put aside. The information was mentally processed, formed into arguments, put to paper, checked and corrected. Twilight had finished her essays and thesis, writing over ten-thousand words in a night. It was a miserable but somewhat final conclusion to her scholarly life.
The unicorn stretched her aching limbs, closed her sore eyes. Finally, she let out an anguished roar.

Twilight fell back onto her bare floor. She wasn't sure who she hated the most: herself, the books, or the princess who had forced her to this. The sun decided this to be the opportune moment to peak over the western mounts. The entire tower was doused in the loving light, and Twilight's mind was made.
"Accursed sun! Take your daughter back already! Give me a little longer in the dark or I will be courted by your enemies, fiend!" Twilight screamed again, hurling curses that were wasted on the Sun, for she cared little for ponies anyway.

The Sun's princess, however, was listening, and winced at every accusation of impropriety her student threw from across the castle.
Celestia had not slept at all, dreading what awful premonitions would torment her. The terrible loneliness of watching a city asleep was alleviated by Twilight's company. From the watchtower, Celestia watched the light and silhouetted movement shining through the windows, and wondered if Twilight feared her dreams as well. If not presently, then soon. Twilight Sparkle would be facing nightmares and sleep horrors. That was not something Celestia could help her with, for everypony knew Alicorns did not dream.

Some hours later, the sun had risen to its proper place in the morning skies. Ponies got up and went back to the grind of mundane mortal life.

The pony calling herself Pon-3 soaked in the bustle of the Old Town streets, the characteristic impatient business of the shopkeepers, traders, professionals, and clerks all pushing past her and each other to get to their day's work. It had been a few years, and some of the shops had changed owner or trade, but Pon-3 still felt right at home. These were her childhood streets.

She came to an intersection. Across from her was a coffee shop occupying the corner, with a small veranda and tables both inside and outside the establishment.
"Thank the stars above it's still there." Pon-3 said with a smile, trotting over to the coffee shop. The Fluyt, the sign said.

"Hello mis. Sit anywhere." The proprietor said over her shoulder as she attended another patron.

She doesn't recognize me, Pon-3 thought to herself. It was probably the goggles. Her turn came and she requested a pot of coffee, so the proprietor ducked inside to grab a whole flagon, freshly heated by the fireplace.

"Best stuff in the city." Pon-3 reminisced, setting her bits on the table. She had gotten a fair purse for selling Twilight Velvet's jeweled bangle, but she would need some gold for equipment, information, and possibly bribes- She had received the list, just as Velvet's creepy maid had promised, and was giddy to get to work.
A little coffee was the only indulgence she would allow herself before the action began.

The shop was attended by morning regulars: Students from the university chatting before classes, casual philosophers discussing esoteric nonsense about the nature of the world, young journeymen plotting nuisance for their masters, and a couple sullen suspect revolutionary types. Yes, not much different from before Pon-3 had been exiled.

But Pon-3 senses tingled, and her attention was inexplicably drawn to a pony coming through the street crowds towards the coffee shop. Pon-3 couldn't tell what the tingle was until the the pony cleared the crowd- They looked very much like Twilight Velvet, with a similar face and mane, but of different colors. She had a similar aura to Velvet too.

"Excuse me!" Pon-3 waved to the new arrival. "You can sit with me, mis!"

The new mare obliged, moving in a manner best described as a drift, and plopping into the chair across from Pon-3. The purple unicorn was ragged, mane askew and eyes bloodshot. Her saddlebag was overflowing with scrolls and quills.

"I was never going to be able to finish this whole flagon, heh heh. Might as well drink it up between friends, so the waitress doesn't get ahold of the leftovers to resell to the next sap!" Pon-3 joked, but her words seemingly bounced off the other mare. "Hey, mate, you alright?"

The mare blinked slowly, her eyes becoming unfocused. "Uhh..." She slumped, the jerked back up, sucking in a breath. She shook her head and blinked rapidly. "Pour me some of that..." She began to sag in her chair again.

Afraid her guest was going to pass out cold, Pon-3 quickly served some of the coffee to a cup and passed it to the mare.

"Hhhh..." The mare roused from her malaise long enough to gulp some of the coffee. That woke her somewhat. “I keep promising myself to never ever to pull an all-nighter again. I keep breaking that promise." She cleared her throat. "Thank you very much for the cup. I had actually just come to pay my tab here, and didn't intend on getting anything. Goodness, I probably wasn't going to make it home."

"Yeah, no problem, honest. It's the least I can do." Pon-3 nodded. She didn't know who the purple mare was, but if she was actually a relative of Velvet's, Pon-3 could possibly gain a little leverage over her employer with some sensitive information. But first she had to make sure there was a connection. "I'm an acquaintance of Twilight Velvet's and-"

That produced a sour reaction from the mare. "Oh, so, you weren't giving a mare a pick-up out of the goodness of your heart. Do you expect me to put in a good word for you or something?"

"Oh come on now mate, I sorta recognize you is all. Just being friendly." Pon-3 smiled apologetically. Connection proved. "Though I'll admit to you, your name never came up."

The purple mare deliberated for a while. "Twilight Sparkle." She said, then after another few moments of deliberation, addended. "Viscountess."

"Ho what now?" Pon-3 squinted.

“I'm Twilight Sparkle, lady of house Twilight-Bright, Grand Squire of some bullshit, and as of yesterday, the holy princess's First Student and viscountess of Chateau la somethin'.” Twilight Sparkle rattled off.

"As of... yesterday. No kiddin' mate- er, your ladyship." Pon-3 nonchalantly scanned the intersection for suspicious ponies. Maybe Twilight Velvet was trying to get leverage on her. "Explains why your paying the tab for this proletarian joint."

Lady Twilight Sparkle poured herself some more coffee. "Sure. Talk a bit quieter, my head hurts." She mumbled. "And you, you are a musician judging by your mark, right? How do you know my mother?"

Pon-3 pulled her cloak to better hide her mark. She had been more than certain that when she had been hired that Twilight Velvet was a too-ambitious social-climber petty noble. Unless the lady Sparkle was lying, Velvet was actually something of a big deal now, the mother of a viscountess. That was a lot more attention, risk, and potential reward. Pon-3 felt a bit giddy. "Oh, professional work. Can't really talk about it. It's covered by non-disclosure and all that." She cleared her throat. "I do solo work. It's a bit indiscreet to discuss it actually. I'd prefer if you didn't mention this happenstance meeting to your mum."

"I wasn't planning on it." Twilight chugged another cup of coffee. "I don't even know your name."

"You might learn it eventually, your ladyship." Pon-3 nodded.

"Cut that out. Title-dropping, I mean. Better, just stop talking for a while. I need some silence." Twilight demanded. Of course the busy street was much louder than their conversation had been. "Uhh, I'm. going to vomit. I should have eaten something." She lay her head on the table.

The situation had become awkward, so Pon-3 decided it was better to disengage. She pushed her chair back.

"Hey, mis." Twilight's voice was muffled by her speaking into the table. "Can I borrow your goggles. The sun is hurting my eyes. Just for a few seconds."

"Err..." The poor mare was acting like a drunk. Pon-3 guessed it was a mix of magical, physical, and mental exhaustion. "Damn lady, you must have really worked for the viscountess thing."
She reluctantly nudged her tinted goggles up, revealing her vibrant red eyes. "If it's just for a few seconds."

"Sorry." Twilight limply accepted the goggles and slid them on. "Wow these are pretty dark. It's a bright day and I can hardly see anything through these."

"I've got sensitive eyes." Pon-3 said quietly.

The awkward silence stretched for nearly fifteen minutes, as Pon-3 watched Twilight Sparkle be miserable across the table.

"Uh, maybe you should go get some sleep at home, your ladyship." Pon-3 offered.

Twilight groaned a bit. "Can't. Leaving the city." Then she sat up. "Oh shoot. I haven't packed yet!" She cringed from her own shouting. "I have got to go. I'll be late. I'll be really late."

"Uh, can I have the goggles back." Pon-3 coughed.

Twilight paused. "Oh, yeah. I would look so goofy arriving at the skydock like this." She gently pulled them off.

"Goofy?" Pon-3 scowled.

Twilight didn't pass her the goggles right away, but just stared into Pon-3 eyes, a flat expression on her face. "Huh. Your eyes... That's a very unique red." She cocked her head. "Like that serial killer from a decade ago. The Red-Eyed killer. Did they ever catch them? I don't remember."

Pon-3 snatched the goggles from Twilight and put them on. "Like I said they're sensitive." She said. "Don't you have to rush to make your skydock rendezvous? I would hate to delay you."

Twilight nodded. "Yup." She poured and downed one last cup of coffee. "Okay. Thank you again. I was going to have a bad day without this." She got up from the table. "Oh, almost forgot why I came here." She reached in her saddlebag and pulled out a bag of bits. "Could you pay off my tab for me? I really am running late now."
Without waiting for the answer, Twilight galloped away, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

Pon-3 regarded the bag of bits. "Rude little mare." She muttered. Yes, she was tempted to keep it, but then Lady Twilight Sparkle might see fit to mention the meeting to her mother, and that was an even more awkward situation that Pon-3 wished to avoid. Twilight was cute enough; It would be a real shame if her name was on the list.

Twilight ended up being even later than she had dreaded. Some kind of labor demonstration had been blocking the main Old Town thoroughfare, and Twilight had skirted the area before City Guard and protestors started clashing. Galloping to her little tower, throwing the clothes she had set out in a few travel bags, and making sure there was nothing that would rot while she was away.

"Goodbye." Twilight sighed. By the time she returned, the tower might have been given to somepony else., Twilight started off for the skydock. "It figures that Celestia can't spare even one pony to help me move out. Insult to injury, or visa versa." She said to herself as she dragged the bags across the grass.

Twilight was horrified to find that a small crowd had gathered at the skydock by the time she arrived.
"Uhh, what?" What she hoped would be a meaningful moment with her family had been transformed into a society event. A cluster of nobleponies were standing around and chatting by the wall gate leading out to the skydock platforms. Some guards and imperial functionaries watched from the sidelines, probably sent by Celestia. "The only thing she can be bothered to do is make sure I leave." Twilight huffed.

Everypony turned to look at her at once.

"Uhh..." Twilight felt her wooziness return. She picked up her bags again and timidly trotted past everypony's eyes towards the platform. "Thanks for coming out everypony. See you later."

A pony stepped out in front of her. Fancy Pants. "Lady Sparkle, good morning! I had hoped we would get to talk longer yesterday bu-"

Twilight, flush with nausea, pain from the sunlight, and exhaustion from dragging her bags, let out a venomous hiss. "If you had anything to do with the ponies here, I will turn you inside out, Sir Pants." She jabbed him in the chest. "Yes, good show, I know you have the society and administrative connections. Color me impressed. But if you want to turn this into a contest, I can do impressive things too. I'll do it right here."

Fancy Pants weathered Twilight's abuse. He glanced over to the crowds, who watched silently. He took a few steps backwards, away from them their ears, and Twilight advanced to him again. "I assure you my lady am very discreet. I am a professional, and I do not leak the princess's buisness." He cleared his throat. "I only wished to congratulate you properly."

"Oh, did you." Twilight scoffed.

"Yes of course. You are a vivacious young mare and I see many years of service to the princess ahead of you." Fancy Pants said. "Yes, technically we are of equal stature now, Lord Vizier and Élève Premier. You have clearly embodied that already."

Twilight averted her eyes.

"In any case, we work to the same purposes. Though we may be separate institutions in technicality, I would greatly appreciate you keeping in touch with the administration." Fancy Pants continued. "If you will allow me the flourish, you serve the holy princess, we serve the regal empress."

"You know as well as I do this is a total sham. I'm being sent to run a bloody fair!" Twilight spat. "But yes, you'll be hearing from me with my demands for money, supplies, and ponypower. The princess has said this work is very important, and neither of us wants to get in the way of that."

Fancy Pants sighed to himself. Maybe waiting longer to meet with Twilight would have been wiser. A letter or messenger would kept spit off his face at least. "Naturally. We serve her highness in all-"

"Please, keep reminding me who I serve, the mare who has exiled me from my city." Twilight glared back at the crowds. "Step aside sir, or they may overhear our divisive words. Gossip may spread."

Fancy Pants pursed his lips, but obeyed. "Keep in touch, lady viscountess."

"Yeah yeah." Twilight dragged her bags through the wall gate onto the skydock platform. The lingering guards and administrators stepped forward and kept the crowd of nobles from following her.

But more trails laid ahead of her. Shining Armor and her parents were waiting with Spike by the chariot, as expected. But Foaly Flux and Prosser were standing in the way, chatting.

“I'm too tired to deal with this.” She muttered. But she soldiered forward.

Prosser broke away from Foaly and trotted up to her. "I have an appointment later so I will keep it brief."

"Please do." Twilight eyed the earth pony.
She had nothing to say to Prosser, but no particular vitriol either. Prosser was just a lackadaisical imperial advisor, whose main job for the imperial council was a kind of spymaster of sorts, managing information and rumors. He was the kind of pony with a broad array of random knowledge, a cutting wit, and with something to say about everything in his comical girly soprano voice. He sometimes involved himself in castle intrigues or attended parties, but his overarching goal seemed to be to make everypony as annoyed or confused as possible- A perfect metaphor for the bureaucracy he was stuck in the craws of.

"I saw you chat with Pants up there. Hope he wasn't too green, heh heh. He thinks you're skipping ahead in line. Ponies like him believe in the process, and that good ponies should move slowly up the ranks like he did. What a chump!" Prosser guffawed. "You're going to find a lot of interesting things in Ponyville I suspect. If I know ol' Celestia, she didn't send you there on accident."

Twilight had been preparing a sarcastic retort, but Prosser's point was made a lot of sense. Perhaps she should be thinking about why she had been sent to Ponyville.

"That is all. As I said, brief. So until next time we meet madmoiselle. Au revoir. Don't die. Keep in touch.” Prosser bowed and stepped around her, strolling up the dock towards the city.

Foaly Flux was next. He gave Twilight a wink. "Hey sport."

"You know him?" Twiilght gestured back towards Prosser.

"He's a consultant on some stuff I've got going on. Nothing big. Your mom knows him better from her university days. Heyy, but let's not get stuck on that." Foaly smiled a broad smile. "You're the big cat now, eh? Viscountess! Just a few ranks lower than your duke uncle, am I right? I remember when I got my castles." He nodded towards the spires of the Castle Magoria further along the city wall. "Ahh that was a week I'll tell ya, what with my parents dying. Course, most ponies don't inherit a castle to help cope with that. I mean, you say 'near extinction of the Bright family', I say 'I got a lot of castles'. You get me? Life is full of stuff like that Twilie! Full of it!"

Twilight wasn't sure what to say so she nodded along and hoped her face was looking sad and concerned.

Thankful Foaly's cheer could not be damped. "Ah, but now I've got you and your brother to dote on, eh Twilie? Though it's mostly Velvet and Nighty who come by so I end up doting on them, Heh heh heh! I'll be helping your folks move into your new castle. Pardon 'chateau'. Geeze! The day we started naming stuff around here in Prench was a bad day! Rotten language. Ugh, but the chateau is nice. It's a cute little thing, but your parents will get the respect they deserve putting on galas in that place.”

“Sure, I guess. Thank you for everything you do for us.” Twilight knew, for all his idiosyncrasies, her great-uncle cared greatly for his family. Or at least what remained of it.

“And keep on the lookout while you’re in Ponyville. It's an awfully odd place full of queer ponies. And we mean queer in both the traditional and modern sense.” That drew an amused snort from Twilight and lifted her mood. “I passed though once and had a simply depressing time."

"Was it something about the trip?"

"Nah, about me; my parents had just died."

"Ah."

Foaly pulled her into a hug. "I've taken enough of your time. You're a good kid. If you find anything you think might be useful out in the big world, hold onto it. I'll keep in touch. Promise.” Foaly Flux stepped back and let her pass right up to her chariot where her close family was waiting.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light hung back, as Shining Armor next spoke with Twilight.
“Err, well, I won't mince words Twilie. I know we've been distant lately, with my job and your studies, so I can only hope that we can stay friends through this.” Shining's weak smile wobbled.

Twilight was overcome by his emotion. “You act like it's going to be a year! It's only for a few months.” She threw a big hug around her brother.

This placated Shining somewhat. “Yeah... Not much else to say, see ya.” He took a step back, letting his parents through.

“Be careful, Twilie. It's a big world and this is your first time going without your family.” Night Light offered.

"No it's not." Twilight stuck out her tongue.

"Oh?" Night Light smiled. "Must be my parental instincts clouding my mind, as you put it that one time."

"Pesky parental instincts. Speaking of which..." Twilight agreed, turning to her mother next. "Uh, Hey. Bet you're pretty torn up."

“Now Twilie, this is not the time to be rude. I am sorry if I was not respecting your feelings last night. In return, will you respect mine?" Velvet said. "Never forget how much I love you, and don't forget to keep a mind on home, and all the things that will be waiting for you. Things will only get better for us.” Velvet broke into a thin grin. "There is a lot for us to talk about, like your castle and new status in society, but that can all wait until you've done us proud in the eyes of the Princess."

'I'm always doing you proud.' Twilight was going to quip, but then Velvet would try to get the last word again and the whole thing would be drawn out. Instead Twilight chose silence and a hug.

She gave her last farewells to her family and hopped on the chariot. Spike had gotten in already, and had drifted off to sleep in the time she was saying her goodbyes. That eliciting a pained chuckle from Twilight- She had worked her poor assistant to exhaustion helping with the essays.

Twilight turned to give the 'all clear for takeoff' to the pegasi pulling the chariot, but instead turned and found herself face to face with Prosser.

“Oh hoh! One more thing I wanted to say!" Prosser laughed through bared teeth. He was far too close for comfort.

Twilight's foul mood billowed up again. "Hey, piss off. You said you had an appointment."

"A little white lie. You needn't wound me so, Twilight." Prosser said.

"Next time use my proper titles, Sir Prossor, you don't stop at the Lady Sparkle." Twilight encased the earth pony in her magic and moved him out of her personal space. "Goodbye."

"But it's about Celestia." Prosser said.

Obviously that made Twilight hesitate. "Grrh." She hissed. "I know she is watching from up on that tower. She is probably listening somehow too. If I am looking for silver linings I know I will be free of it in Ponyville, unless she has agents there."

"Twilight, you will be the agent there. You have to start thinking on a higher level." Prosser chuckled. "So let's think. The princess is hiding something. Fancy Pants is too much of a coward to ask directly, so I will. What are Celestia's premonitions? What is coming?"

Twilight actually considered telling the annoying earth pony the truth, about the Nightmare Pretender and her return. If there was one pony who would actually believe such a claim, it would be Prosser.
But no. It would expose them both to danger. "Find out for yourself, sir. Now please let me go, you're creeping out my family."

Expressions of annoyance, anger, and disappointment flashed across Prosser's face. He sighed and pulled on his smile again. "You thought about it. Ohh, you thought about it. If the threat doesn't attack between now and when you get back, I intend to tease that enticing secret from you, Lady Twilight Sparkle."

Suddenly, he whipped a riding crop out from under his cloak. Twilight eyes widened, as she feared he would begin to lash at her, but instead Prosser turned and smacked the leftmost driver pegasus hitched to the chariot.
With a startled whinny, the draughtponies blasted off, carrying Twilight south towards Ponyville.

Prosser laughed maniacally, cracking the crop in the air. Twilight's family slowly backed away, and the gallery of ponies dispersed. Posser stayed for another quarter hour, tracking the chariot making its way to the horizon.

Pon-3 returned to her hideout shortly before noon. Her saddlebags were weighed down with bottles full of various pest-killers, more makeup dyes for disguises, and some rope. She was vibrating with anticipation for the job she was soon to preform.

"Killer. I'm a trained killer. Cool, deadly, edgy. You tell your kids about Pon-3 to frighten them into behaving." She said to herself in a gravelly voice as she mixed some of the poisons. "Nopony knows her name or her face. They just know her calling card: Death!"
Most of it was aspirational.

After the coffee shop, she had done a little stakeout on her first target, a rotund unicorn noble named Deeper Frie Fellowship. According to the beggars and rumor mongers, Sir Fellowship was a civic-minded petty noble and a vocal member of the Black Horn Council, an Estates interest group. Indeed once Pon-3 tracked him down, she had tailed Sir Fellowship as he waddled from the council hall to a tavern, where he dined with and wooed a visiting Baltimare merchant, promising them access to imperial politics in exchange for cash.

Pon-3, while prone to exaggeration, had not been lying to Twilight Velvet about her exploits in Griffany. She was no stranger to dispensing yokel politicians on behalf of a rival. But for somepony of Velvet's ambitions, Deeper Frie Fellowship seemed small fry.

"Who am I to question. I got payed, I'll provide the service. Yup, service with a smile." Pon-3 nodded to herself. Maybe once she worked her way down the list, Lady Twilight Velvet's intentions would become clearer.

The chariot ride to Ponyville was not at all to Twilight Sparkle's liking. She had hoped that it would be a pleasant ride, which would provide her with with time for a nap. Instead, the pegasi pulling the chariot (probably agents who were also watching her) insisted on flying much too fast and close to the ground. They rose and fell as they hugged the terrain, sometimes having to swerve to avoid particularly tall trees. It stressed Twilight, as she was constantly fearing a crash. She could only be glad that Spike had managed to sleep unconcerned by their volatile voyage.

First they passed over the verdant lands below Canterlot, a landscape of farmland tracts and forest clumps, stretching from the base of the Mountain into an expanse of gently rolling hills. This region, the Canter, was named after one of the many small rivers which coursed off the Mountain and fed the Dneighper River. Wheat, beets, and grapes were grown on different sides of the hills, tended to by the unicorn farmers who sold their produce to Canterlot. These lands had been the domain of the Principality of Canterlot since before Equestria united and the capital was designated- The Canter lands were direct fiefs of Celestia.

The chariot continued southwesterly. The terrain mellowed. The farms became sparser and the trees thicker, until they were over unbroken forest. Here and there Twilight spotted a clearing or skyward trail of smoke which would indicate a village hidden in the pine and oak jungle.

Twilight looked back at Canterlot, growing smaller, difficult to distinguishable from the other bumps and ridges on the Mountain.
Flowing off Canterlot's plateau, descending as waterfalls to the valley floor, were those dozens and dozens of creeks and little rivers, supplied by the frequent rainstorms which broke over the spine of the mountain range. One was the Canter River, one was the Dneighper River, and the chariot flew over the point where they met and merged- They left the Canter, Celestia's land, and entered the Dneighper River Valley, a region of undistinguished villages and petty lordships.

The Dneighper River itself flowed west by southwest from Canterlot for eighty kilometers, then turned and ran southeast. After several hundred kilometer it returned to meandering westward, with a southward tendency, until it reached the western ocean.
Somewhere along that course, near where where the Dneighper turned from south to west, was Twilight destination: The 'Free City' of Ponyville, the chariot's destination.

"This feels wrong. I feel like I should be bound up in chains." Twilight said to herself, the words lost to the rushing wind around the chariot.
Maybe... she didn't have the right attitude. Every misery and ache she felt was self-caused. But such self-doubt did not make her feel any better.
Twilight had to look on the positive side, if only to keep herself from a depressive break. Ponyville, an out of the way settlement, would have none of the factional infighting and intrigue as Canterlot. She could rest easy knowing all her enemies were hundreds of kilometers away. Maybe she would grow to appreciate the rural life.

But the fact was, the Nightmare was coming regardless of her outlook.

At the two hour mark of Twilight's chariot ride, they passed over the Dneighper on its north-south run, from the east bank to the west bank. The river was some nine meters across at this point, but deep and swift. Twilight spied several barges being poled up the river, most likely carrying goods to Canterlot. Indeed, river trade had made the valley very rich in past times, but recent investment in overland routes had starved many river communities.

On the other side of the river the land became hilly once more, though the forest remained thick. The third hour of the trip was passed with the forest hills opening up into grassy hills, covered in vibrant flowers. Twilight would have found it beautiful if she had not been so grumpy.

After four harrowing hours, they arrived.
Ponyville came into view as they crested the last hill. The chariot circled several times, giving Twilight a good view of her the village that would her home for at least the next few months.

The "free city" was tiny compared to Canterlot. Ponyville contained a hundred cottages by rough estimate, most of them clustered around a few main streets, then rapidly becoming less dense around the edges. More cottages could be seen scattered along the landscape. It faced hills on three sides and the Dneighper River on its south, over which a small stone bridge stood. In fact the bridge was the only fully stone structure in the entire city, the rest being constructed of wood, plaster, and thatch. Only a few things stood out: a multistory rotunda in the center of a central plaza, a proud windmill, and an overly large oak tree occupying it's own little square.

Twilight could distinguish no reason why this hamlet could possibly deserve Imperial Free City status on the level of Baltimare or Filly Delphia. It qualified in Twilight's mind as a mere provincial village: It didn't even have a city wall or mayoral palace. Heck, it didn't even have a granary.

"Wow... I knew I'd be out in the boondocks, but I wasn't expecting this." Twilight muttered to herself. "Celestia really wants to send a message I guess. Bright side, no politics. Have to remember that. Have to hold on to that."

The final pass took them down to street level, and the chariot set down in the main avenue. The street was empty, save for a few ponies, who couldn't even spare a glance for the royal chariot landing amongst them.

Twilight roused Spike from his sleep and with the help of the two pegasi they pulled all of their luggage out. Twilight had insisted they pack light, so only two bags accompanied them. They would be relying on local purchases for most of their stay.

"Gosh, where are we." Spike rubbed his eyes. "Is this the edge of town?"

"No, this is the center. It doesn't get any more built up than this." Twilight said. She turned to the pegasi pulling the chariot. "I wouldn't suppose that-"

With a sweep of their wings, the pegasi pulled the chariot into the air, filling the air around Twilight with dust. She shielded her eyes. The chariot circled the town once and arced north back towards Canterlot.

"I suddenly feel very vulnerable." Spike shivered.

“It will be fine. Celestia arranged for our lodging. This place has a burgermeister or mayor we can ask.” Twilight sighed. "Besides, what pony would leave a viscountess out in the cold?" She looked around, trying to match her surroundings with what she'd seen from the air. Choosing a direction, she broke into a trot while Spike followed with the bags. As they passed through to the 'town center', Twilight's assessment remained the same: Small village totally unworthy of Free City status, let alone being the host city of a Summer Sun Fair.
The Ponyvillians seemed unconcerned with her arrival, apparently ignorant of what a Canterlot noblepony deserved. Twilight usually never bothered with such attention, but noticed its absence nonetheless.

Arriving at the rotunda, apparently the town hall, Twilight noticed the lack of guards at the entrance. She strolled inside, finding herself in an auditorium. It was completely empty, and smelled slightly of mildew.
"Oh good grief. Maybe I really have been exiled. It would take weeks to hoof it back to Canterlot." Twilight grumbled. She searched room by room. There were piles of old paperwork, cobweb-covered desks, and a mold-covered sandwich in the back offices.
She ran back out of the hall and confronted a passing pony. “Excuse me. Excuse me! Can we talk for a moment? I'm looking for the mayor.” Twilight waved.

The tan earth pony with navy and pink hair looked adverse. “Okay. Good to know."

Twilight felt her headache coming back. "Yeah, so where are they?"

"Mmm, I might know, if you ask nicely,” The earth pony tapped their chin.

“Please, peasant, tell me where the mayor is.” Twilight sneered, in no mood for a chat.

The earth pony made a hurt expression. “Ugh, some ponies. He's out preparing for the empress.”

“What? Celestia is coming here?” Twilight balked.

The pony suddenly spoke with great enthusiasm. "Yeah! The princess is coming to Ponyville to arrange a fair. That's what I heard anyway. Too cool, right?”

“Thats... Not right." Twilight shook her head. "I came here, on her behalf. Now, where is the mayor.”

“I dunno. Town hall?” The pony abruptly broke off the conversation and pranced off.

Spike caught up, panting from the exertion of hauling the bags. "You could help me out, you know."

Twilight was wrapped up in her own thoughts, her hoof tapping nervously. "So apparently there's been a miscommunication and these provincials were expecting the princess to come in person."

Spike dropped the bags and sat in the dirt. "Heh, that's kinda funny. Imagine the looks on their faces when they learned they had less than a day to prepare."

Twilight did not find it as funny. Country ponies could be very superstitious, and held their princess in deep reverence. If Twilight told them their expectations were for naught they might react in anger. “It stands to reason that if they expected Celestia here, they would provide the largest house for her use. Drop those off in the town hall, and we can pick them up when we find our accommodations.”

Spike complied. “So, are we going to walk around town, judging the cottages against each other, or are we going to ask somepony?"

Twilight cleared her throat and called out to another pony resting reading a book on the steps of a cottage. "Excuse me? Could you come over here for a second?"

The pony looked up from her book.

"Yes, you." Twilight beaconed. "I was wondering-"

The pony stood up and went inside their cottage, slamming the door behind them.

"Wow. That's pretty rude." Spike blinked.

Now the Ponyvillians strolling the streets were keeping their distance from Twilight and Spike, standing on the edges of the plaza space, watching silently.

"Now I'm actually starting to get creeped out." Spike whispered.

Twilight tried to reassure him. "You know how country ponies are. Xenophobic, insular, distrustful of outsiders. In all likelihood the only Canterlot ponies they see are tax agents."

"But weren't they expecting the princess?"

Twilight looked around. The ponies watching from a distance were somewhat familiar. Yes, they were all ponies who she had already seen walking the streets.
They were surveillance. The Ponyvillians (or maybe Celestia) had assigned ponies to conspicuously watch her movements.

"Okay, the sooner we find somepony in charge the better. If this goes on any longer I'm going to lose my patience for real." Twilight said to herself. "If that happens I'll set something on fire and let the important ponies come to me."
She chose another direction. "Okay, let's look down this street next."

Twilight Velvet and Night Light hopped down from their carriage onto the stone path to Chateau la Garde.

Like the other castles embedded into Canterlot's city wall, the 'chateau' had been built out of what had been a tower.
The Tour la Garde (as it had been known) was on the extreme south-eastern end of the city, where the plateau transitioned into the sloping road that led down the Mountain into the Canter. The tower had contained and protected Canterlot's main gate, and the only land access to the plateau or the city. It was therefore the most important tower of them all, and had been kept under the princess's control when all the other wall towers were sold to the nobles.
In 670 SS, long after peace had been established in Equestria and there was no plausible threat to the city, the tower became a temporary grant to subjects held in high esteem in light of its symbolic importance. The sun empress of the time, Celestia CXII, granted the castle to her protege and majordomo, a position which would morph into the position of Élève Premier. Habit became ceremony, and soon the Chateau was always granted to the First Student of the empire.

But the most recent First Student, the noble daughter Lady Sunset Shimmer, had betrayed the princess in an unprecedented way. Her family had been rapidly evicted from the Chateau la Garde and sent from the city for their own safety. For years it had sat vacant, just as the position of First Student had. What became of Lady Shimmer, nopony knew.

That weight of historical context loomed over Twilight Velvet and Night Light as they approached the boxy stone keep.

Night Light had been content with the townhome he and his wife shared at the edge of the city, but Velvet insisted they move into their daughter's castle immediately. It was not half the size of Castle Magoria, and couldn't hold a candle to Canterlot Castle, but Chateau la Garde was still a formidable fortifications in its own right. It even came with a mildly pretentious Prench name that all the jealous courtiers would stretch their tongues saying.

"New base of operations." Velvet chuckled softly. "I was starting to feel slightly guilty about my deeds in the house Twilie and Shining grew up in."

"The townhouse was already a pain to maintain on your university stipends. I hope the princess understands the need for us to access Twilie's privileges." Night Light said.

Velvet pushed open the doors into the foyer of the castle. The stone room was entirely devoid of furniture, as was the keep as a whole.
But somepony had set a trio of elegant chairs in the grand hall beyond the foyer, facing the entrance. Sitting atop one of those chairs, hooves cross in polite expectation, was Fancy Pants.

"Lady Velvet and Lord Light. So nice to see you again. I hope this day has found you well." Fancy Pants twiddled his mustache. "There is barely a degree of separation between us, through young Lady Twilight, and yet we meet so infrequently. Last time must have been Duke Flux's birthday."

“Delivering a housewarming gift, sir?” Twilight Velvet made a cautious approach, her husband several paces behind.

Fancy Pants shook his head. “Not quite, my lady. You should be warned this house may not be warmed for some time."

“With a claim as grand as that, I would appreciate an explanation. I would hate to misinterpret it.” Velvet said, eyes narrowed. She took one of chairs while Night Light elected to stand by her side.

Fancy Pants nodded, sitting up him his chair and straightening his fancy shirt. "My Lady, I will be as frank as possible. I think you are being a bit preemptive moving into Chateau la Garde. Your name is not even on the title yet.”

“You mean my daughter's name.” Velvet sneered. “Unless you are implying something.”

“No, no. You're quite right. I misspoke.” Fancy Pants soothed. “All I mean to say is that there are procedures for this sort of thing”

“Meaningless.” Twilight Velvet responded.

“With all respect, it is a done deal, Sir Pants.” Night Light contributed. “This will be my daughter's castle. Has it not been the empress's will?”

“And the empress's will be done. However I'm not talking about bureaucratic procedures. By the princess, let all know it is not I who would frustrate you or your daughter.” Fancy Pants adjusted a cufflink idly.

“Obviously not.” Velvet said.

Fancy Pants nodded. “Yes, yes. We are speaking directly of course, which means I may forsake propriety as I continue."

“Yes, we are being direct, and we are being frank. Could we be less evasive as well? I will not tolerate half-truths.” Velvet, a pony notorious for half truths, said.

Fancy Pants cleared his throat. “Assuredly, there are ponies out there who would like this castle to themselves.” He gestured around the spacious and empty room. “Chateau la Garde's strategic value is mediocre now that we have airships that host pegasus squadrons, but its symbolic value is immeasurable. Being granted this castle is a statement of trust from her highness. She did not make that statement to you, Lady Velvet. She made it to your daughter.”

"You will save my inferences and tell me what you mean by that." Velvet said.

“Equestria is at peace. Well, it may be so in letter...” Fancy Pants leaned in conspiratorially. “But not in spirit, Lady Velvet! Vermin secessionists nibble at the edges! The Black Horn Council, the Riverpony Lords, and damnable coastal republicans are challenging the legitimacy of her highness. It has not been proven, but they and innumerable other conspirators have come together in unholy alliance against their common foe, our holy empire. The only thing that stands between the fifth column inside Canterlot to the skulking traitors in the countryside is THIS VERY GATEHOUSE."

"Oh my!" Night Light blinked.

"They will try to buy it from you. They will try to cheat it from you. Failing everything else, the traitors may try to intimidate you into surrendering the Chateau la Garde." Fancy Pants intoned. "While the ink is not yet dry on the title, the traitors may move their pawns in the Estates to suspend your regency, citing some administrative nonsense. Being conspicuous and moving in immediately has only drawn their attention." He tapped his hoof emphatically. "My lady, my lord, that is the danger I speak of, which jeopardizes you daughter's rights.”

Twilight Velvet nodded agreeably, but her expression was completely unreadable. At a glance Night Light could tell she was concealing her rage. "I see. I should hope that does not keep us out of the Chateau indefinitely." She licked her lips. "Or, that is what I would say. Sir, the Black Horn Council is a joke. I have no intention to be afraid of disgraced Legitimists like the Black Horns."

Fancy Pants, whether he was expecting that reaction or not, was also stoic. "The Black Horn Council deserves no respect, but regardless they command several Speakers of the Estates. That should give you pause."

“The Estates are even more of a joke. Have the inept Speakers done anything besides pat themselves on the back?” Velvet asked sarcastically.

Now Fancy Pants was looking somewhat bothered. “The Estates may my life difficult, if nothing else. I would not underestimate that meddlesome body of nobles, Lady Sparkle. You haven't made very many friends with imperial loyalists, and now that you are benefitting from her highness's generosity, all the empress's detractors will make common cause against you, as I said.”

“Oh dear, that does sound bad.” Night Light shivered. He took the vacant seat.

“Your daughter is relatively young to be receiving the title of l'Élève Premier. The Estates will capitalize on this and attack her character, try to assert that the city gate house belongs under a different regency. They may reach out to the Canterlot Merchants or city guard. A dozen different factions want control over traffic in or out, and will be willing to cut a deal with the Black Horns to get it. There is only so much pressure Princess Celestia will sustain before she accedes and gives somepony else regency. After that, the traitors will strike! What low ponies, they play a longer game than simply ruining your daughter's life. How soon before rebel soldiers march into Canterlot at their lesure? Moving armies into the city has always been the hardest part of any coup plan.”
Fancy Pants paused. Twilight Velvet watched him intently. When it seemed she had no response, he continued. “Throughout this process, the Black Horn Council will likely reach out to you as well. They may assume you are an irascible villain or traitor like them. For your daughters sake, you will surely rebuff them though."

Velvet against his expectations, smirked. “Oh, I think I understand now. You have no leverage!" She laughed. "Is this truly what you resort to, sir? Telling scary stories and half-conceived stories?"

Fancy Pants sniffed. “That is an unbecoming claim, my Lady.”

“You started the whole conversation claiming the chateau only has symbolic value, then contradict yourself. If you thought I would be intimidated by your cavalcade of looming threats, you are unfortunatly mistaken. Your whole narrative of a grand conspiracy rings hollow." Velvet stood up and paced around the chairs, forcing Fancy Pants to crane his neck around whenever she passed behind him.
"Firstly, Blueblood and Fellowship of the Black Horn Council may be ambitious racists, but they are utter cowards. They have been doing fine for themselves mucking about in local politics. Why risk that by drawing imperial attention to themselves?"

"They have been repeatedly caught bribing Speakers in the Estates." Fancy Pants pointed out.

"And that no punishments were meted out speaks to how pitiful and unimportant the Estates are. What are their powers? Legislative? Executive? Advisory? Nay! It is barely more than a country club for the restless pettifoggers and sophists. Have you even once enforced a law they passed?" Velvet arched a brow. "No, you have not. Like this castle, they are a mere symbol. Their claim to speak for Equestria is deluded pretension."
She leaned on her husband's chair in a flip of their previous poses. "The Estates have no leverage, against the princess, against me, or anypony else. If they send me an order I will rip it up. If they send their bailiff I will whip her and send him back."

Fancy Pants's frown tightened.

"Oh come on now Sir, I am sure you know this. I await your counter-claim." Velvet cooed.

"I would simply warn you against Ponyanna-ish delusion." Fancy Pants sighed. "My previous warnings stand. Her highness herself has spoken of them."

"Oh very good. She shall surely be dealing with the traitors then. As she did Sunset Shimmer? Confiscation and banishment! As she did Princess Cadenza's would-be suiters? Banishment and imprisonment! Did you get a good look at the face of that drunken sop who tried to kill you at the royal gala when the princess impaled him on her horn?" Velvet's expression morphed into a haunting grin. "Princess Celestia has a history of rapid, brutal punishment. And yet..." She cocked her head, pantomiming listening for a distant call. "Silence."

Fancy Pants sighed again. Velvet knew what she was talking about. "Silence."

"What you will find, however, is that a legitimate threat against Twilie or her family will break that silence much sooner than a threat against you." Velvet chuckled. "When the princess is driven to action, it is always over something very personal."

Fancy Pants pursed his lips. "That may not hold true, Lady Velvet."

"I am clever enough to recognize a pattern." She laughed. "Okay, now that that is all out of the way. Let us start talking about housewarming gifts! Start throwing numbers and I will tell you if I find them acceptable."

"Excuse me?' Fancy Pants gasped. Was she asking for a bribe?

"Vizier Pants, you are obvious very concerned about treason. I am retired from my teaching position, as you well know, so I am sure to have lots of time. Hire me." Velvet explained. "I can be your tripple agent against the traitors who come to solicit my help. If they are truly so dangerous, you will have no qualms paying for my support against them."

Fancy Pants leaned back in his seat, silently shocked by Velvet's bold request. He came expecting some cajoling, some intimidation, and some sweet-talking would bring Night Light and Twilight Velvet to his side eventually. But no, Velvet was just as aware of the situation as he was. "My lady, I should say you are over the line right now."

"I can do much worse than be over the line. You upset me." Velvet's grin turned savage. "If you and I get into a spat, sir, whose side do you think the princess will come down on?"

"Why I-"

"Don't waste your words! Celestia has a weak point, and it is my Twilie. I have great leeway, Sir Pants. The princess would not even imagine lifting a hoof against me, lest she estrange my daughter further." Velvet watched him squirm. "Yes, you can not even bring yourself to call out my arrogance, because you know it is true. Celestia may hesitate, but she will abandon you easily. Then I will have this chateau and you will have nothing. Good day sir."

"What outrageous words." Fancy Pants had never felt so constrained. Velvet's glare felt like it was burning right through him. "You play traitor, loyalist, and mercenary at your convenience? Have you no loyalty? You would not have your castle without the princess, but you treat her favor as a tool! Horrid!"

Velvet snorted. It pleased her greatly that Fancy Pants had already begun to referring to the a Chateau as her's. "Is her highness going to take it from me?"

Fancy Pants was silent for a long moment, then sighed. "I can not name a price."

"Try."

"I can not name a price." Fancy Pants repeated, more firmly. "That isn't how this works."

"Teach an amateur like me how it works then." Velvet mockingly begged.

"I can offer you benefits of service. Loyalty has benefits, not payouts." Fancy Pants said.

Vlevet snorted. "Ah, so the imperial armies march for 'benefits' and not their pay. Good to know."

"Do not get impudent with me Lady Velvet." Fancy Pants tried to regain some facade of authority. "Now, I have thought of a very clever arrangement that will please you immensely."

"I need it in writing." Velvet insisted.

"You will have it in writing, and in return I will receive your promises in writing." Fancy Pants said. "So let us be clear. You are offering..."

"I will engage the Black Horn Council and other traitor groups in Canterlot an expose their anti-imperial members. I will also solicit to any ponies in the wider Equestria who might want special access for suspicious reasons, and report them as well." Velvet said flatly. "Does that sounds to your liking?"

"It sounds to me like the chance to uproot seditious activity in Equestria once and for all, provided you are tempting enough. The wording needs modification but that is what I desired." Fancy Pants nodded.

"Happy to please. You can trust me to make the real estate sound irresistibly tempting, yes." Velvet smiled. "Now, you offer me something back?"

"Quick learner." Fancy Pants stood up and began trotting to the door. He paused at the door, leaving it half open as he collected his thoughts. "Lady Velvet, a clever pony once told me that the best way to neutralize the avarice and ambition of the aristocracy was to bring them into the system. That way their energy would be spend on improving the state rather than fighting against it."

"I have no interest in a court position or administrative post, sir." Velvet said.

"I would not be so churlish. However you would hardly pass up the opportunity to be ply the rhetorical skill you were renowned for at the university at the Estates. Among the Estates perhaps?" Fancy Pants wondered aloud. "As a member of the landed nobility you would be able to represent yourself there." He pretended to ponder it further. "I am certain you would be interested in receiving some of the titles and land from the traitors you expose. That would incentivize you, surely." With that said, he made a hasty exit.

"A pleasure, Vizier Pants." Velvet bowed in his direction.

Once the door closed behind him, Fancy Pants was galloping away from the Chateau la Garde, down the path to his awaiting carriage.
Unexpectedly, there was already a pony inside. Prosser.

“I think one of us must have the wrong carriage.” Fancy Pants remarked coldly.

“Get in, you twit.” Prossor grumbled.

Fancy Pants complied and closed the carriage door. Once It began to move Prosser began to talk.
“You thought it best to go to talk to Twilight Velvet by yourself. I bet you had an exciting ride in there."

"I don't want to hear it." Fancy Pants growled.

"Oh you poor stallion. She ambushed you bad, didn't she." Prosser giggled at his fellow counclepony's misery. "My dear Pants, you have that self-loathing look on your face of whenever you feel wronged. You had it yesterday too, after seeing the princess."

"Would you like me to defenestrate you from this carriage? I am not a strong pony, but a pony guided by anger can do remarkable things." Fancy Pants warned.

Prosser bit his lip to keep himself from laughing. "Oh my goodness... She absolutely butchered you, didn't she. You poor poor pony. You have made things worse for yourself by far."

Fancy Pants didn't want to argue any longer. "Yes, I will admit I was lulled into a false sense of security. I thought I knew the family."

Prosser went easier on his whipped friend. "You know Night Light well enough."

"Well yes. He was an up-and-coming fencer at the Unicorn School while I was an advisor there." Fancy Pants sighed. "However I don't believe we met formally until the funeral."

"Ah, the great Bright Family funeral." Prosser recalled, nodding along.

"It was before your office. Oh what a commotion is was, in its own way." Fancy Pants allowed himself to be distracted by the story rather than dwell on the present. "Night Light, one of the most eligible bachelors in Canterlot, was marrying a virtual no-name Twilight Velvet. Everypony was wondering who she was and how she had beguiled the Bright clan. Embarrassing to find out, they loved each other. Then the deaths of the Brights! Joys turns to sorrow." Fancy Pants went on. "But to the point of Velvet and Light, I may have met them once or twice, but the next time I heard paid attention must have been in the wake of Cloud Creshe, and their daughter being taken in as Princess Celestia's new protege."

"And you did not think to investigate them at all?" Prosser asked.

"I was not the lord vizier then, you cad. It stings to admit but Lady Twilight Sparkle has been around the palace longer than I have. By the time I got to where I am, she had already been with the princess for years. Did I really have a reason to suspect her or her family?" Fancy Pants sighed again. "Why concern myself with that lot when I had so much more to preoccupy me?"

"You sir, have been a fool. What does the Empire matter if you can not even keep track of one family?" Prosser chortled.

Fancy Pants was tempted to make good on his threat to toss Prosser out of the moving carriage. “Tell me, colleague-mine, all the things you should have told me BEFORE I went in."

"Twilight Velvet is a bully. She pretends there is some great mystery she is keeping, but the truth of it is she just enjoys being bossy." Prosser shared. "She was a rhetor at the Unicorn School and a courier in Foaly Flux's court for a few years. That's where she met Night Light." Prosser kicked his legs up and reclined in the cushy seat. "We used to get into shouting matches in front of the Opera House. It was like a primeval dominance ritual, to see who could be the most bellicose and obnoxious."

Unbidden, images of the waifish Prosser being abused by Velvet filled to Fancy Pants's mind. "Then perhaps you should have been the one to go in and negotiate."

"Negotiating with ponies is not in my job description, but I could try my hoof at it, just for fun. Tell me though, how badly did it go? I am burning to know what she swindled you for." Prosser teased.

Fancy Pants grit his teeth. "Land and titles."

"Oh?"

"From everypony she outs as a traitor." Fancy Pants said.

Prossor spat, much to Fancy Pants disgust. "That's it?"

"Excuse me?"

"By the way you were moaning I thought you'd promised her a seat on the Imperial Council and your firstborn child." Prosser almost sounded disappointed. "You did not even pay anything up front. I don't understand anymore why you're upset."

Fancy Pants scowled. "Now maybe you don't understand because you aren't too clever yourself. Velvet, nor Sparkle for that matter, would not have even a single castle if I had my way. My work to consolidate imperial power where I can continues to be undone by the princess's thoughtless whim. Yes, I did not get my way, because Princess Celestia cannot tear her mind off little Twilight Sparkle. Now that she has one castle, Velvet aims to catapult herself into further status, and I trotted right into her web."

Prosser smiled as though he had caught Fancy Pants saying something wrong. "It sounds to me like your gripe is with Celestia and not the Twilight-Brights."

"Am I to feel otherwise?!" Fancy Pants hissed. "Princess Celestia has withdrawn herself from court, and every petty noble in Canterlot is flirting with treasonous landed lords. I have a gripe with EVERYPONY right now for making my job so hard." He huffed. "I would suspect you of being payed to be obstructionist, if I did not know you simply do it for fun."

"Life is tolerable by novelty or purpose." Prosser shrugged.

"I would like to see you peddle your narcissistic nihilism on any other job." Fancy Pants was getting worked up. "I try to be an accommodating stallion. I am nice, kind... And receive grief in return." He shook his head. "I will straighten this city out, but I need leverage! With information to present to the princess she will give me free rein to clean out all the scum. That is why, no matter how bad a deal I get, I will use Twilight Velvet's information. Soon enough she will be the only traitor left, and she will have no refuge."

Prosser squeezed his eyes shut and snickered silently. "My boy you are in your own fantasy land." He opened his eyes and was taken aback at how deadly serious Fancy Pants looked. "Good heavens, you are serious about all this! Sir Pants, you are grasping at unlikely solutions to dreamed-at threats. You are more out of touch than Celestia."

"Do not take the princess's name so lightly, councilor! I do this because I am a dedicated servant." Fancy Pants said. "If a coup occurs, I know you will be fine because nopony ever could see you as a threat. But I am a visible servant of the princess, the Lord Vizier, and so many ponies who wish to replace me-"

"Ah ha!" Prosser cried out. "You're worried about being replaced. That's the extent of your bellyaching about 'traitors'. Nopony can credibly threaten an alicorn princess, but they sure as hell can threaten you. Especially now, when Celestia has just sidestepped you by elevating a new Élève Premier."

Fancy Pants stewed in silence.

Prosser nodded knowingly. Now that he had Fancy Pants humbled, he could extend a helping hoof. "There there, old chum, I entirely sympathize. Just as you said, I would be a poor fit for any other job, and if you are overthrown I may get tossed out with the bathwater?"

"You certainly are a baby." Fancy Pants muttered.

"Sir Pants, I know a pony." Prosser tapped his chin. "An agent. Yes, what you need is an agent, and I have somepony who would be a good fit for you."

Fancy Pants turned his nose up. "I have ill need of the kind of pony you would know."

"Don't be presumptuous. I know her because she was gunning for me. Literally! Former Guild mare." Prosser put special emphasis on the last words, drawing a deep frown from Fancy Pants . "If you are truly in dire straits then you may have to resort to dire tools."

"Former Guild mare." Fancy Pants repeated to himself. He stared out the carriage window for a few moments. "Perhaps. I am an agent of the law, and there is no justice in extra-judicial murder. If I am going to bring the traitors down it has to be the right way."

"That attitude is going to undo you." Prosser predicted.

"Time will tell. Sent me the agent to me, I will decide from there." Fancy Pants said. "At the very least guild ponies are supposed to be good at espionage. They can spy on Twilight Velvet and give me some leverage."

"Again with Twilight Velvet. You are fixated." Prosser tisked.

Fancy Pants sighed. "Get out. I have plans to work out."

"Fine fine fine. But I advise you to take a step back and examine how much of your villains are real and how many are imagined.." Prossor jabbed the ceiling of the carriage, and they rolled to a stop. "I'll leave you with those words of wisdom.”

"Oh yes, wise sage. Farewell, until the council meeting this afternoon." Fancy Pants deadpanned.

Prosser, opened the door but hesitated before exiting. They were near the Old Town and the crowds parting around the carriage were a thick throng. “Pants... You know Twilight Velvet kills ponies, right?"

Fancy Pants considered his words for a while. "There are rumors about what happened to her mother."

"And the Bright clan. And Sunset Shimmer, though those are more tenuous." Prosser said gravely. "It'll be a rare moment that I plan ahead, Pants, and you don't. If you take a swing at her, finish her off... or you will take a grievous hit back."

“Morbid bastard. I serve the princess and the law. Lady Twilight Velvet will get exactly what she deserves.” Fancy Pants slammed the carriage door shut, and rolled off. “Goodness gracious. What unpleasant ponies this city attracts.”

Prosser was left standing on the crowded streets, getting pushing in multiple directions. "Heavens help us if Velvet gets everything she deserves." He sighed. "Now to scare up that agent I promised. What was Mis Heatstrings's address again?"

Twilight and Spike tried to act as nonchalant as possible as they strolled down the Ponyville street, hoping to see somepony who would help them. Behind them, keeping a hundred-meters distance, were the ponies stalking them. Otherwise, the streets were completely empty, as though everypony had been abducted. There were vender's stalls and humble stoorfronts, all closed up for the day.

"Maybe it's a local holliday." Spike speculated. "Like, a feast day? Is that something they have in the countryside?"

"At least this place seems more civilized than it did from the chariot." Twilight remarked nervously, trying not to look back at the ponies tailing them again. She felt like she was being hunted.

"We should ask them what they want and where everypony is." Spike tapped his talons together.

Twilight doubted the ponies would let her near, nor answer any questions if she confronted them. She would have to get one alone and be assertive. "Follow me this way Spike."
They continued down the road, but as they came to an intersection, Twilight ducked behind the corner with Spike and teleported into a nearby alleyway.

"Hyuch-" Spike dry heaved from the unexpected teleport. They were in the tight space between two cottages, where some tools and cloth sacks had been piled. "P- Please warn me when you're going to do that." He whispered.

"Quiet, listen." Twilight shushed him.

"Did they double back to their chariot?" Ponies' voices carried from the street they had just been on. "But it took off."

"What if they're headed to her parent's house or the forest? What do they know?" Another voice asked fearfully.

"They coulda went any which-way. We've just got to find them and keep tabs. That's all she asked, that's all we'll do." A third voice said assertively.

Twilight and Spike heard the echoes of hooves on uneven pavers as the ponies following them split up down the various alleys.

Twilight smirked as a grey and yellow pegasus mare turned the corner into the alley she was in. "Gotchya." She said, grabbing the mare with her magic and pulling her closer. "What is going on around here?"

"H- Hey, this is assault!" The grey mare protested.

"Don't raise your voice. I cast a spell that dampens sound." Twilight said sharply. She cleared her throat. "I asked you what's going on around here. I compel you to answer in the name of the princess."

"T- The princess?" The mare squeaked.

Twilight released her telekinetic grip. "Let's start simple. Where have all the villagers gone?"

"... to... to the welcome party." The mare said reluctantly, averting her eyes.

"The party for who?" Twilight demanded.

"I don't know." The mare said.

Twilight sighed. "Okay fine. Why were you guys following me then?"

"Just... neighborhood watch stuff. We keep a lookout for suspicious ponies." The mare said, looking everywhere but at Twilight. "I mean, you've been acting suspicious, scoping out our town instead of introducing yourselves."

"Because I can't find anypony in charge!" Twilight huffed. "Whatever then, just point me towards the big welcome party then."

The mare backed away from Twilight. "The, uh, Golden Oak. That-a-way." She reached the street and galloped away, probably to find one of her fellow stalkers for security in numbers.

"This is not how I saw this going." Spike deadpanned. "This has been so awkward."

Twilight shook her head. "I've been booted out of Canterlot into a town of antagonistic recluses. I should have expected this.”

It was then that Twilight heard a soft strand of music and voices carried by the wind. The tune of one of the most popular waltzes in Canerlot right. A party, she was sure of it.

“Spike, can you hear that?” Twilight picked herself up and raced north towards the music. She found herself in the little grass plaza with the massive oak tree. It had to be many hundreds of years old, as it was easily as large as two of the bigger Ponyville cottages. Twilight now realized it was more than just a tree, but a treehouse, a magnificent structure and feat of magical shaping. The cheerful music resonated through the windows cut through the bark.

“Wow. Golden Oak, huh? So charmingly unique, this is where they would board the princess!” Twilight was excited to put an end to the confusion, certain that somepony with the answers was waiting just behind the big red front door.
Overeager, Twilight charged up and kicked said door open without knocking.

“Supriiiiii- OoooF!” Someone's jovial welcome was aborted by a door to the face.

The tree was built somewhat like Twilight's old tower, a big open ground floor that filled the width of the oak with two levels of wall to wall bookshelves, and stairs leading up to private rooms. However, this room was packed with more ponies than had ever been invited into Twilight's former home. It was a party indeed.

“Who is the authority figure here?” Twilight demanded from crowd. “Where is you leader?”

The room was deathly silent, as the assembled ponyvillians (there were probably a hundred ponies in the room) eyed the disheveled new unicorn in their midst. From behind Twilight came an excited gasp.

“That'd be me kinda sorta!” The voice was piercingly high and cheerful, like bubblegum in audible form. But with a pinched nose, because as Twilight turned to look at the pink furred pony, she noticed her undisciplined door breaching had cost the pony a broken snout.

“Oh my goodness I am so sorry. I didn't know you were there and I should have been more careful.” Twilight gasped. She pulled the pony back to her hooves.

“Hey, it's ok, I shoulda been standing a teensy bit farther back. You really took it to that door.” The pink pony grinned, blood streaming down her snout.

“Uh yeah I'm really out of it. Sorry. I didn't sleep much and I had a lot of coffee. Well, not that much, but I usually drink tea with less caffeine, but it was enough to give me a headache, and my point is... well... I'm just really really sorry.” Twilight continued to apologize.
But in the back of her mind, hearing herself babble to the grinning pink pony, she felt a little feeling of indignation. How dare the ponyvillians put her through this- Hiding from her, stalking her, no help with hers bags, because instead they were having a party. Now they gawked at her, ignorant of their own trespasses.

“And I said no problemo.” The pink pony promised.
The kerfuffle resolved, the other ponies resumed their partying. The ponies with their instruments struck up the music and the room became noisy with talk and laughter.

“So THIS is where everypony is.” Spike said, arriving to the scene.

“Yes indeedy! I called everybody here, as is my job as premier party pony. This is a welcoming party for Princ-empress Celestia.” Pink pony agreed.

Twilight blinked. "First off, Princ-empress? Either call her princess, her religious title, or empress, her royal title. Second off, though it fills me with regret to inform you..." She sighed. "Celestia isn't coming. It's me, clearly. I'm your guest, on her behalf.”

The pink pony gasped. “You're Princ-empress Celestia? Oh my gosh your highness I had no idea! I'm sooooo sorry I thought you'd be taller.”

Twilight snorted in frustration, her headache returning. “No, listen, I am Viscountess Twilight Sparkle. Pleasure to meet you. I'm here on Princess Celestia's orders.”

“I gotcha princess." The pink one grinned. "Hey I'm just kidding, I totally understood the first time. My name is Pinkie Pie, and I love to explain my jokes!”

Twilight nodded. She sure looked like a Pinkie Pie. Destiny had a way of giving alliterative names to that kind of pony.

“While I am a bit disappointed the princ-empress isn't coming, you being here will more than make up for it! Come on, and party on her behalf!” Pinkie tried pulling Twilight into the near riotous party crowd, but Twilight resisted.

“Uhm, I'd rather sort out all my arrangements and deal with all my deals, if you know what I mean.” Twilight elucidated. “So... Where can I find the mayor, burgermeiseter, or whomever arranged my accommodations.?”

Pinkie shrugged. “The mayor? He left, like, a year ago. I think he said he was moving north.”

Twilight stared at her. "A what?"

"A year ago."

"Uh huh. A year ago." Twilight nodded vacantly. "And you haven't gotten a replacement?”

“Like me personally? Didn't know that was my job, hee hee!" Pinkie Pie giggled. "Things just run on their own around here. We're like, rural anarchists or something, hah!"

Twilight facehooved. “But this is a Free City! How in heaven's name- You know what, never mind the mayor. Do you have any other city executives? Are there any local nobles I can talk to? Heck I'll chat with the guild master if I have to. Not that it hasn't been wonderful chatting with all you peasants, but I need a pony with authority."

Pinkie Pie shrugged.

"Any village elders? I'd even take the local crime lord." Twilight said in a begging tone.

"Uh... no-sir-ee" Pinkie said apologetically. "I mean like, I'm an authority on baking and other things, and other ponies do other stuff, but that's not who your looking for."

"No, it certainly is not." Twilight agreed. "Just... Is anypony in the know around here?"

“A pony in the know?” Pinkie's eyes sparkled with recognition. “Hey! I have the pony you need, maybe probably!”

She grabbed Twilight's hoof and they shoved their way through the party toward the back of the room. Twilight, feeling more disoriented by the second by the second, allow herself to be pulled along.

“A hoy hoy! Hey Rarity! Hey!” Pinkie hailed a unicorn taking a serving from the punch bowl.

Twilight took stock of the mare's details. Her coat was pearl white, with polished purple mane and tail combed into a glorious curl. Her mark was hidden by a silken white dress somewhat resembling Twilight's own, but for a trio of blue diamonds sewn onto the flank. Here was a pony who could stand against any Canterlot damsel.

“Hello, Pinkie Pie. Here to foist another friend on me?” The mare apparently called Rarity acknowledged the pink one flatly. She had a slight Manehattan accent out of place among the Ponyvillians. “Is it not that the empress should have arrived by now? And- Oh goodness Pinkie, what happened to your nose?”

Twilight stepped forward. “Celestia isn't coming. You get ME instead. Hello."

The white unicorn Rarity flicked her eyes, down, then back up, assessing Twilight. "The capitol sent you?"
Rarity moved in a reserved fashion, but not quite the rehearsed grace of a courtier. Rarity had no coach or tutor for those subtle movements.

"Celestia sent me." Twilight said. "Viscountess Twilight Sparkle, the princess's Élève Premier. That means first student, by the way."

Pinkie Pie turned to Twilight. "Visa-what?"

"That was my reaction." Spike nodded.

Rarity stood unmoving for several seconds, a blank expression on her face. However, once she processed Twilight's words, the mare underwent a sudden change. She began exaggerating her movements while trying to retain the grace.
“Oh my stars! A visountess in Ponyville! And the princess's personal agent? Oh yes of course I know what eleve premier means; we are not so ignorant!" Rarity seemed about to hyperventilate, but calmed down before continuing. Her face formed the perfect visage of congenial acknowledgment. “A great pleasure to meet you Twilight Sparkle. I am ever so sorry Mis Pie failed to give you an appropriate greeting, but I assure you Ponyville is an eminently civilized place.”

"I'm sure, which is why it's Lady Twilight Sparkle if you don't mind." Twilight corrected.

“Yeah, titles are important! It's Lady Sparkle, and I'm sir Spike here to...” Spike turned to Rarity, and his words died in his mouth as he witnessed the pony to whom he was speaking. "...H- Hi!" He gushed.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Don't jump the gun on your knighthood Spike. You're not even at majority.”

“I'm Spike! Twilight's ward!” Spike eagerly blurted out to Rarity, then immediately cringed. “That is... Sir Spike! Ignore Twilight, err, Lady Twilight. I have connections to the IHG so I can use the title."

Rarity was intrigued. “Oh my. Do all the lords and ladies of Canterlot have a lizard bodyguard?”

"Oh good grief Spike." Twilight pushed him back. "We have to discuss our arrangements, not chit-chat."

Rarity's expression turned blank again. "Your arrangements?" She glanced to Pinkie Pie. "I hope you have not been making promises on my behalf, Pinkie." She asked pointedly

Twilight wondered if she was being given the run-around. "Let's start by establishing where your mayor is."

Rarity pursed her lips. “I heard he died. I have not seen him since last summer.”

“Thats rather morbid.” Spike commented.

“So no mayor since last year." The lack of organization the Ponyvillians was physically painful to Twilight. "So who is in charge? Somepony received the princess's dragonfire letter and informed the rest of you, right? I need a place to sleep!"

"I have a straw mattress in my bakery you can borrow. Pretty comfy!" Pinkie Pie said. "But you said there's a letter? Hey Rarity, when did you hear about the princess coming, Rarity?"

Rarity scowled. "I heard from Fluttershy, who told me she heard it from you."

"Oh yeah." Pinkie laughed. “Well I heard it from Cloud Chaser, who heard it from Daisy, who overheard Applejack telling Pinprick.”

"I am fairly sure Pinprick learned after me." Rarity contradicted.

"Oh yeah?" Pinkie Pie stuck out her tongue.

“Are either of those ponies, Applejack or Pinprick, here?” Twilight asked. That these two strange mare before her, who seemingly had a subtle rivalry or some such, had chosen to be the only villagers to talk to her, was starting to convince Twilight that Celestia had known it would be this miserable in Ponyville.

Rarity cast an eye over the party. “Pin is over by the stair, passed out drunk.”

Pinkie guffawed and Twilight shook her head. “Ok never mind him, where is Applejeck?”

Pinkie Pie was about the answer but Rarity butted in. “Applejack lives out of town. Oh I think it's too late to be endeavoring as far as her farm this late in the day. Your ladyship would hardly want to visit such a dangerous place at this hour.” She said with sudden coldness.

Twilight pointed to one of the windows cut through the tree. “It's mid-day.”

“Surely, you would prefer to discuss things with the town's educated population rather than a bumpkin mare.” Rarity continued, twirling her mane with her hoof.

“Just point me towards her.” Twilight insisted flatly.

Rarity stared for a moment longer. “Generally south. I really to not care to think of that pony, so I am unable to specify further. Good day my lady.” She turned back to the punch bowl.

Twilight was taken aback. Of course she was used to being dismissed, but she thought it wouldn't happen with a noble title. Of course she was insulted, and hurt, but she didn't want to immediately start a feud with a pony she may have to be around for the months until the Summer Sun. "Okay then..."

“Guess I'll tell you then! Applejack's farmstead is just one kilometer west by southwest!” Pinkie cheerfully supplied.

“Thank you. There's really no time to waste so I'll go right away. Come along Sir Spike.” Twilight shoved her way back out of the Golden Oak, dragon in tow.

“Tell AJ I said hi!” Pinkie yelled after them. She turned to Rarity, smiling. “She seems nice.”

"Oh do be quiet. Another meddlesome pony in town." Rarity took a drink of punch, eyeing Pinkie Pie over her cup. "You think you can use her against me. Not before I get her first."

"Hee hee, you have a funny way of making friends then Rarity." Pinkie Pie stuck out her tongue playfully. "Maybe call your ponies off so they don't follow her all the way to Applejack's."

Rarity snorted dismissively, but when she thought Pinkie Pie wasn't looking, she slipped away to do just that.

Lyra Heartstrings was already halfway through the grand front entrance of Canterlot Castle, the huge gilded double-door flanked by solid marble, when the knights on guard noticed. "Hey! Hold it there mis!" One of them called out.

Lyra was a unicorn, mint green coat with a lighter mane and tale, streaked with white. Her eyes where a pinkish yellow. As was her custom she wore a black pennycoat.
As ordered, she stopped.

The Imperial Guard knights, clad in their golden armor, stepped forward. "The palace is currently on a restricted entry."

Lyra looked over the knights' swords and spears. It would be awkward if they frisked her and found her own weapons under her pennycoat. "Yes." She agreed. "But I have been summoned."

The knight guards were used to eccentric personalities at the castle, including brooding mysterious types. "Okay. By who. Maybe we have you on the list."

"The Lord Vizier." Lyra said.

The knight checked down the list. "Umm, yes I see Sir Fancy Pants is expecting somepony, but there is no name or description for them. Err, okay, let me check on the procedure." He withdrew back into the castle threshold a few steps. "Sir Armor, how do we confirm if a pony is on the entry list if they don't have a description attached?"

Sir Armor peered out of the guard station adjoining the entry hall. "Haven't you read the handbook? There should be an occupation description in all circumstances."

"Oh, yeah, I didn't see that line. Thank you sir." The first knight scratched his head. He turned back to Lyra. "Okay then Mis, what is your occupation and/or employment."

Lyra paused for a moment, wondering what the Lord Vizier would have put down. "New hire applicant."

"It says 'Seeking employ' but I guess that works." The knight sniffed. "Head on through."

Lyra nodded and passed the threshold into Canterlot Castle's grand entry hall. But she was not clear yet. Sir Armor, standing off to the side, beckoned to her.

"The Lord Vizier is looking to hire you?" Sir Armor asked. The knights at the door turned their heads a bit to eavesdrop.

"We will see." Lyra said.

Sir Armor hummed his dissatisfaction. "Why would Sir Pants be looking for more ponies to manage when there is already so much to occupy him? And why would he decline to give the guard your description?"

Lyra was used to being grilled by law enforcement. However Sir Armor seemed not suspicious of her specifically, but rather the Lord Vizier's intentions. "I could not say, sir. I assure you I would not do any job that went against the IHG, even if ordered to by the vizier."

"Perish the thought of the very possibility of being asked such things by Sir Fancy Pants." Sir Armor shook his head, but he seemed persuaded by her words nonetheless. Maybe there really was tension between the lord Vizier and the guards. "You are cleared so you have no obligation to stop for more questions."

"As you say, sir." Lyra bowed.

Canterlot castle had always made Lyra uncomfortable, from the time she spent in its shadow at Celestia's Unicorn School, to now that she worked odd jobs for Prosser. The castle halls where too tall, the towers too shiny. They stood opposed to the dirty city around them. Lyra always felt as though the castle would rise up and squash her for smudging its purity with her presence. Alicorn grandeur could only be accommodated by mortal purification.

There were not many ponies in the halls. No courtiers, no visitors, just functionaries and guards going about their buisness. Something was up.
The office of the lord vizier was a few floors higher in the main keep, and Lyra arrived a few minutes before her appointment. She habitually retreated into the shadows of a tapestry near the office door, and waited silently. She was restless like most ponies of her occupation, but she felt an illogical fear that pacing around would make the castle angry.

“Enter.” A voice carried out into the hall. Lyra obeyed, entering the office and closing the door behind her.

Fancy Pants sat at a desk, silhouetted by the large window behind him. Bookshelves and armor pieces lined the walls. Most of the decorations were visibly covered in dust, even the books. It seemed Fancy Pants was just interested in the aesthetic.

"Sir." Lyra bowed. She pulled Prosser's letter out of her coat and presented it to the vizier. "Lyra Heatstrings, sir. I have worked for the councilor for approximately one year. I do intelligence and acquisition for him."

“Mademoiselle Heartstrings. Yes, Councilor Prosser's recommendations could not have been stronger.” Fancy Pants waved to the empty seat which Lyra took. He read the letter as he talked. “I will not question your jobs for him. However, he did let slip that you have something of a past to speak of. Was that indiscreet of him?"

"Few ponies do not have a past, sir. If the councilor told the truth, however, that would be uncharacteristic." Lyra gave a small shrug.

"Right. Did you kill any ponies as a guild mare?" Fancy Pants put the letter down.

Lyra remained silent.

"Did you know the Red-Eye Killer during her killing spree across Canterlot?" Fancy Pants continued.

"I was just a child back then, sir." Lyra said.

"So was the killer, or so I have heard. I was just curious." Fancy Pants leaned back in his chair. "Let us see if you are suited for what I need. Do you have a preferred method of infiltrating buildings?"

"Stealth, sir. I am not not very good at social engineering." Lyra said.

"I see." Fancy Pants nodded. "Have you ever been a part of a dangerous heist?"

"Theft is Artisans' Guild work, sir, not Musician's Guild. But I have done some muscle work for heists." Lyra said. "The most dangerous was on account of the cargo, not the security. It was dragonfire, difficult to transport. Huge amounts of private supply of dragonfire has gone missing recently, so there is a battle of theft and counter-theft over the remaining stock."

"Fascinating. We are lucky to have the royal supply under lock, key, and imperial protection." Fancy Pants leaned back in his chair. "So why do imperial work when the criminal work pays better?"

Lyra stayed quiet for a while. "Nopony trusts a former guild mare. There is a stigma. I get accused of betraying the guild mistress."

"Their loss I suppose. I would go longer with the questions, but I can not credibly question Councilor Prosser's recommendation. As much as I hate to admit he knows more than I, he is attuned to the city's seedy side and I am not. Overall I am satisfied with your character." Fancy Pants shrugged. "Let us talk about the work."

"Let's. However I should warn that I made a promise to a young guard officer not to participate in a palace coup." Lyra cracked a smile.

"What? Oh, that was a joke. Ho ho, yes, there are no plans for anything like that at this time." Fancy Pants chuckled. "Rather, my problem is with a private citizen." Fancy Pants sat up and pushed a stack of papers to Lyra's side of the desk. "I need leverage over the Twilight-Bright family, particularly the family matriarch, Twilight Velvet."

Lyra reread the names on the cover paper. "Twilight-Bright. A cadet branch of the Brights of Foal?"

"Close. The connection to the Brights is less important. I want to know more about the Twilight half of the family." Fancy Pants said.

“That sounds like the work of a research assistant, more than a rake.” Lyra mused. "Who are you trying to hide your investigation from?"

"Everypony." Fancy Pants said emphatically. "You will be paid for the trouble so do not get caught up on the 'why'. I want to know everything about the Twilights, their founder, where they came from, all that.”

Lyra didn't think that would be too hard. "If you had asked me last month I wouldn't have had to leave the building. The dynastic chronicles of the Canterlot noble families were stored in Canterlot Castle until recently. As I understand they were moved to the Solar Monastery while a dedicated building is made for them."

"I won't ask how you know that." Fancy Pants grunted. "There are more steps after you get that information. You will need a whole team, perhaps current or former Guild mares."

“Perhaps? Which is it, guildpony or not?” Lyra asked.

Fancy Pants vocalized an indifferent sigh. “I leave that to you. Somepony familiar to you would be best. I do not want to risk agents being bought out by the enemy."

"The enemy? Well, I know a few ponies, sir. Personal friends." Lyra said. "They may take imperial work as long as it is clean."

"No, nothing dirty yet.” Fancy Pants shook his head. "Lastly a word of caution Mis Hearstrings. As I alluded, the presence of counter-agent in Canterlot is likely. If you think there may be a threat, take shelter and alert me immediately."

"Counter-agents from this house Twilight, my Lord?"

"Expect anything. Bon chance." Fancy Pants turned away from her to write something, signaling the end of the conversation.

Lyra rose from her seat and gave a bow, backing out of the room.

It did not seem like it would be a very demanding job. All Lyra would have to do is check the monastery library, and track down her friend at the Musician's Guild.

Leaving the Golden Oak and heading south through Ponyville, Twilight felt some of her anxiety go away as she thought things through. At the very worst she could stay at somepony's house until she got her own accommodations. She was not a total stranger to sleeping rough, having spent plenty of nights in library annexes, several camping trips with her family, and one or two awkward floor sleepovers. She could probably do better than a cot in a bakery though.
It was a humiliation to be sure, but not life threatening. But getting the Princess's letter was essential either way.

Twilight and Spike proceeded well past the edge of Ponyville, through an open green pastureland south of the village, but quickly got lost as the path veered into the orchards. It was a whole forest of apple trees that that blanketed the hills for a hundred acres. It was a huge plot of land, and was likely the most valuable farm in Ponyville- It took time and investment to grow so many apple trees.
Twilight assumed the vast orchard provided for all Ponyville's apple need and likely its cider and jams as well. From the chariot she had seen some vegetable gardens and other fields to the North and Northwest of the village, which was where their staple of wheat and hay had to have come from.

However there was one curious thing about the orchard- It was very overgrown. The apple trees' canopies were grown together and tangled up, and the further in they went the less maintained the path was. The farm, for as large and undeniably rich as it was, seemed poorly maintained.

"Fitting place to find a pony called Applejack." Twilight plucked an under-ripe apple with her magic and nibbled on it.

“Maybe we should go back to the town get a guide. We might be lost.” Spike suggested, tiring of walking.

Twilight had to admit she was getting tired of walking as well, which in addition to her sleep deprivation was souring her mood again. She felt sorry that Spike was having to deal with her exaggerated mood swings. "I've had it with backtracking. It may be illogical but I'd rather just get more lost than turn back." She said. "Or we could do something crazy. Let's start chopping down these wretched trees so we can tell where we've already been."

"Just an hour ago you were talking about burning down buildings. Are you okay, Twilight?" Spike asked.

Twilight tisked at him."Worry about the poor state of this farm instead of me. I mean really, is this the ideal layout for plantation arboriculture? These trees are so tight together.”

An unexpected voice from the treeline made Twilight and Spike jump in surprise.
“Thats because we done left this field to its own devices. Trees ain't smart enough not to overpopulate themselves.”

Twilight spun around, trying to identify where the voice was coming from, but the interloper still obscured by multiple tree trunks. “Hey! Do you think it's funny to harass ponies just trying to find their way in unfamiliar territory?"

“Far from me to judge a pony, but I ain't the one trespassing.” An earth pony mare weaved her way into Twilight's line of sight. She was orange furred, with a straw yellow mane crowned with a brown cowpony's hat. Her eye's were green and flanked by freckles. Her mark was a trio of red apples. "You gunna pay for that apple?"

Twilight aggressively bore down on the mare. “Just what are you accusing me of? Is that how you greet visitors?"

The mare looked unfazed. “Nope.”

Twilight glared as intensely as she could sustain for several seconds, but a smirk stole over her face. “Ah ha. Okay, fine. I would like to see how you greet visitors then. You wouldn't happen to be Mis Applejack, would you?”

“Yes'm, thats me.” Applejack returned the smile and gave a shallow curtsy. “And y'all would happen to be Twilight Sparkle, would ya?”

“Lady Twilight Sparkle, in the flesh.” Twilight bowed slightly. She cleared her throat. "So, would I be right to presume that you have Princess Celestia's letter since you know who I am.”

That elicited an embarrassed, perhaps even fearful, look from Applejack. “I'm startin' to realize I came off a little strong, seeing how I have to grovel a bit now, ladyship. I feel like I started lotta trouble, but I can't rightly say. I guess I'm just sorry considering, I didn't know it was official business before I read it. It was just layin' there.”

Twilight was a bit surprised at how quick Applejack shifted to apology. "The letter was laying where?"

“On the ground, outside the town hall. I tried to find the mayor ta give it to him, but seems he disappeared.”

Twilight wasn't surprised at this point. “When was the last time you saw the mayor?”

“Well, last Tuesday he came by my market stall to buy some apples.” Applejack answered.

Spike interrupted. “Was he dead? I have it on good authority that he died.”

Applejack looked confused. “Nope, near as I could tell he was still kickin'. Or trot'n at least.”

Twilight had basically accepted that the mayor was a non-entity, and going forward she should act like he didn't exist. She would have to rely on the other ponyvillians. “Nevermind him. Where is the letter now. I need to see it.” She considered adding 'desperately' to the end of the sentence, but it would not do to seem vulnerable to the country ponies.

Applejack pondered for a while. “Thinking back, I left it in the town hall, incase the mayor came back.”

"Aww man. That's where we started." Spike cried out, getting exasperated.

"I probably looked straight at it as I was searching the back office. "Twilight quickly ran through her list of options. “Very well. Take me there if you please, Mis Applejack."

"Umm, ya can't go yourself?" Applejack asked.

"Last time I refused help with directions I ended up lost in this apple forest for an hour, so no." Twilight said. "So lead the way. I insist."

"...Fair enough. It's what I get for being nosy." Applejack started off through the forest. But with little glances back to the unicorn behind her, it was clear Applejack was not done being nosy. "So, ahem, what do ya need the letter for?"

"It's my proof of authority here in Ponyville, signed by the empress herself.” Twilight said matter-of-factly.

“Ain't that something. But, you sure you don't want to leave it be, and establish your authority here based on your own merits and interpersonal skills?” Applejack asked.

“You're a funny mare, Mis Applejeck.” Twilight said, unamused. “Despite your station and line of work, I think we'll make great acquaintances.”

“You gotta problem with farm labor?” Applejack sounded indignant.

“No, I was joking back. Though to be honest and obvious, strenuous physical labor it's not my cup of tea. I'm more of an academic." Twilight, despite herself, felt herself drawn into the conversation. "Well, I'm actually entirely an academic. I've only been a viscountess for like, eleven hours. I have no idea what I'm facing. Who knows, maybe being a viscountess means a lot of farm labor."

“Hence you needing the letter." Applejack observed.

That obvious point bothered Twilight for some reason. "It's from the princess. I wouldn't want to lose it regardless and neither would you." She cleared her throat. "But uh, let's move it along. I'm starting to get tired to the point of nausea."

"Okey doke." Applejack shrugged. "Anyhow, Mis Lady Twilight, See over there’s the road between Ponyville and my house. You didn't need ta go dashin' around abandoned fields. Right this'a way to town.”

And Pon-3 was starting to realize that not only was the Musician's Guild fully aware of her presence in Canterlot, they were actively following her.

She had been heading for the first target of Twilight Velvet's list, the portly noblepony Deeper Frie Fellowship, when she realized she was being watched. She had been walking down an Inner City alley when she saw a pony on the rooftops in a puddle reflection. Then she started noticing them everywhere, as shadows on the walls, echoes from behind her, or more reflections. At least six ponies were following her on street and roof level. They must have had an adequate description of her since they saw through her disguise de-jour: She wore blue-ish dye in her fur and had a workpony's frock on.

"Oh bollacks, they're purposefully sloppy, trying to psych me out." Pon-3 hissed under her breath.
If she had any sense of self-preservation she would run or hide, then get out of Canterlot as soon as she could. But Pon-3 only wondered if they would spoil her hit. Could they be looking for revenge for the slip-ups that had earned her exile?

She pretended she didn't notice them, and continued on to her target on the edge of the Old Town. From her research she was fairly sure that Sir Frie Fellowship was going to be at the same tavern she had seen him at earlier. He would likely have another prospective client in tow, and they would talk buisness over food and drinks.
If the Guild ponies stalking her didn't mess it up, Pon-3 intended to poison Sir Frie Fellowship's food. She had the poisons in her pouch, making her tingle every time she thought of them.

"If those lugs spoil my kill I'll lose my shit. It's been weeks since I had a good one." Pon-3 brooded, feeling anxious, eager, and angry all at once. Even if she got away with offing Frie Fellowship, it was doubtful the Guild ponies would let her continue down Velvet's list.

It was mid-afternoon, and with the days getting longer there was still a fair amount of time before dark. The workers and apprentices were still in the shops and workshops, but professionals and nobles were starting to trickle into the venues.
The tavern that Deeper Frie Fellowship frequented was on the dingy side, but it was not yet crowded. Pon-3 saw the her target through the tavern window, and he was indeed seated across from a bored looking pegasus in fine garb, probably another merchant.

But the Guild ponies were still following her. Pon-3 saw a pair of cloaked ponies peering from a nearby alley. Shapes moved in her peripheral vision, perhaps a pony on the roof.

"Now or never." Pon-3 muttered, ducking into the tavern and nonchalantly taking a seat a few tables away from Deeper Frie Fellowship.

It was a few minutes before the tavern hostess passed her. "Heya there. No credit."

"That's fine." Pon-3 fished out a few bit coins from her cloak. "I'll have what he's having." She pointed to Frie Fellowship.

"Sure." The hostess scooped up the coins and bustled off.

Pon-3 had sketched out a few plans for how to approach the poisoning. In her estimation, the best way to get access to Frie Fellowship's food was through the hostess. She had come ready to impersonate or bribe the hostess to do it.
But there was the complication of the Guild ponies, again! Through the tavern window, she saw those cloaked ponies staring back at her. They watched and waited.

"I am not really interested in your ideological project. I am just looking for the easiest way to get the robe title." The pegasus across from Sir Frie Fellowship was droning on. "My friends in Manehattan told me to get in touch with Sir Jet Set but he pleaded ignorance and told me to get in touch with you."

"Yes, and I told you this is the normal way of doing things." Deeper Frie Fellowship said, his whole body jiggling as he gestured.

"Then why do I have to go back to Sir Jet Set? He told me he couldn't help me." The pegasus protested.

"He couldn't help you directly. Even though the rules about noble titles have been relaxed lately, Speakers of the Estates can't just ennoble any old pony who buys a title. That privilege is reserved to the princess and she hasn't been open for buisness lately." Sir Frie Fellowship said, taking on a tone that suggested this was a scheme he had explained many times before. "But there are loopholes, where commoner ponies who are recommended by a noble court can be considered for ennoblement by the Estates. The Black Horn Council is technically a noble court since we descend from the principality of Canterlot before the unification."

"So... You recommend me to your chum Sir Jet Set, and he sees to it that the Estates give me a noble title." The pegasus repeated.

"These things aren't entirely free, but you already knew that. You came ready to make an investment in the future with this noble title." Sir Frie Fellowship took some bites out of his meal between words. "The noble title can secure a significant tax exemption for your manufactory and export sevices."

The pegasus shrugged. "You don't have to sell me on the deal. I already know the upside. I have been loosing buisness to competitors who can offer merchandise cheeper with their purchased noble tax exemption. They probably bought their title from you too."

"We are all pawns in the game, so don't begrudge me. I may be noble born but I believe it meritocracy! Anypony who can afford noble status deserves to be able to buy it." Sir Frie Fellowship chortled.

"Goodness I hope not. I hope they crack down on this malarky as soon as I receive my title." The pegasus shook his head.

Pon-3 was weighing her options when another pony entered the tavern. It was a white-coated unicorn stallion in a frilly wig and ostentatious noble garb. The new arrival made a show of looking around the room before settling his gaze on Sir Frie Fellowship
"There you are Deeper!" He exclaimed, trotting over to the table.

Sir Frie Fellowship turned in his chair to the unicorn. "Blueblood..." He glanced towards the pegasus. "It's not a good time."

"I'm going to find that pony on the Black Horns docket, right? You're not selling titles on your own, right?" The unicorn called Bloodblood asked in an accusatory tone. "Because the numbers on the books keep falling but you seem as busy as ever with these meeting. Busy enough..." The unicorn sniffled a bit. "To miss supper with me, Deeper."

A mortified look overcame Sir Frie Fellowship. "Oh heavens was that today? Oh I..." He cleared his throat. "Blueblood my boy I'll surely make it up to you. We'll have a bite at the council hall and we can go over the docket and make sure everything is there, including the payments into the council treasury. We will make a day of it."

While the little drama was playing out, the tavern hostess came out with Pon-3's food.
"Whelp, time to do some acting." Pon-3 waited until the hostess went back behind the bar, before picking up her food and trotting over to Sir Frie Fellowship's table. "Excuse me, sir."

"Eh?" Frie Fellowship spun in his chair, looking between Pon-3 and the plate food she was holding. "Is that for me?"

Pon-3 blinked. "Uh, well I think the orders were mixed up and I-" Without waiting for further permission, Frie Fellowship grabbed the plate and began digging in. "Uh, okay then." Pon-3 retreated back to her table.

"Good heavens Deeper you will give yourself a hernia being so aggressive with your food." Blueblood tisked. "Anyway, I have your word about going over the dockets, right? I'll see you tomorrow then." He backed out of the tavern.

The pegasus was non-plussed by it all. "Sir, should we discuss details about my purchase, or have you become too busy?"

"No no, stay a spell." Frie Fellowship insisted.

Pon-3 was hardly foolish enough to stick around to see the effect of the poisoned meal. She rested at her table for only a few moments more, switching her gaze between Sir Frie Fellowship gorging himself and the Guild ponies looming right outside the tavern window.
"Bet they're corralling me to the back door where they've got an ambush waiting. Too bad I made contingency plans dumbasses."

She got up and trotted towards the tavern kitchen.

"You finished already?" The tavern hostess asked from behind the bar. "Uh, hey, wait a sec, where're you going?"

Pon-3 passed through the kitchen into the walk-in larder. "Produce inspection. Nothing to be alarmed about." She was counting on the assorted ponies only paying attention to the fake color in her coat and mane, instead the color of her eyes.

She clambered up the shelves of the larder into a gap in the roofing, and from there into the attic space. She could hear muffled conversations and movement from below her.
She peered out the attic window. The Guild ponies were indeed waiting near the back door. They looked restless, and though it was hard to tell with them covered by cloaks, a bit apprehensive.

"Suckers." Pon-3 snickered. She gingerly opened the attic window and stepped through onto the tavern roof. With the Guild ponies focussed on the ground level, they would be none the wiser! She slunk along to the roof of one of the adjoining townhouse. She crouched behind the roof ridge, spying on the ponies sent to spy on her. The poison in Deeper Frie Fellowship's food would take a few hours to send him into fatal convulsions, with little way for his death to be tracked down to her (or perhaps more crucially, her employer).
"Hell yeah. Feels good to be back in Canterlot." Pon-3 chuckled. "Is see Phyte is picking up real bums nowadays. With Guild ponies like these, I might as well continue down Velvet's list!"

Then, a voice from behind her! "Bums like me, Vinyl?"

"WHAT!" Pon-3 spun around and flattened herself against the roof ridge.

An earth pony mare loomed over her. She had no weapons visible, but up close hooves were enough. The mare's hair and coat where a dark and light shade of grey respectively. Her mark, a treble note, was half concealed under slim saddlebags. Her lavender eyes betrayed fury, her body showed tense readiness.
"Guess what Vinyl. You're coming in to talk to Mistress Phyte."

Pon-3 felt a rush of emotions seeing the earth pony, but none more than embarrassment. "Not even going to take me to lunch first, Octavia?"

Lyra Heartstrings did not particularly enjoy visiting the Musician's Guild.

Even among those not aquatinted with the secrets of the institution, it was widely acknowledged that there was something wrong with the Musician's Guild of Canterlot. Firstly, by the name, for it would suggest not a guild for musicians plural, but belonging to one musician in the singular- Guild ponies would aggressively correct those who got it wrong.

The Guild's hall occupied a prominent position in Canterlot's Old Town, but this was not the bustling high street where the nobles and merchants strolled. Tucked away from the lively thoroughfares in a neglected part of the district were a block of abandoned insulae, the project of a court pet to bring working ponies into the Old Town. The whole project collapsed after an associated corruption scandal, and the unfinished housing and land had been sold on the cheap to the Musician's Guild, making some wonder if it had been the plan from the start. Buffered by the empty buildings, the new Guild Hall had a clean marble facade in contrast to the rest of the street. Everything on the outside of the hall suggested an untarnished legacy of artistic integrity.
Both the aspiring and established musicians of Canterlot visited the Guild to practice and perform, hearing each others praises and critiques. Within, musical history had been born, written, played, and died.
But death was much closer to the heart of the Musician’s Guild than most realized.

It was known only to politicians, nobles, merchants, and those who could afford to, that the Musician's Guild was a cult of mercenaries and assassins! The same mares and stallions that played so beautifully in the salons and courts of Canterlot moonlit with songs of death instead, contract killers for the rich and influential.

It was not clear if the Guild had always been a front, or if the poetic ideals of the musicians had been twisted somehow over the ages. From the outside, the guild ponies seemed to answer to a mysterious Mistress, who was spoken of in alternately adoring and cowed tones. Criminal organizations often bred strong leadership, but the Musician's Guild kept its secrets better than most. Indeed it was rare that any hint got out that there was some assassin guild in Canterlot.

Lyra hesitated at the doorstep of the imposing establishment. A few ponies were sitting around the entrance, practicing their instruments or just chatting. They payed Lyra little attention, she was more than a little distrusted by the Guild ponies.

But she was getting payed to be there, so Lyra pushed away all apprehension and passed into the foyer of the guild hall. The building had a relatively simple layout aboveground. A main corridor led past numerous offices, meeting spaces, and practice rooms. The further in she went, the louder it became, with various instruments, voices, and noises playing out all around her. Eerily, every metronome in the hall seemed to be synched up, ticking lethargically, so that the entire Musician's Guild was practicing to the rhythm of a pumping heart. Deep drums resonated from somewhere below, in the more secret parts of the guild hall.
For a moment Lyra almost longed to have her own instrument at her side, to join in the harmony. But those were bad thoughts.

Finally a Guild pony deigned to speak to her. Lyra recognized the pony but didn't remember her name. Some flutist. "Heartstrings. You wouldn't come here if you didn't need something."

"I have an imperial job." Lyra said. "Does Mis Octavia still do contract work?"

The flutist mulled on that. "That would have to go by Phyte you know."

"That's fine." Lyra nodded.

"Octavia, though... It's a bad time." The flutist shrugged. "She is downstairs in the access hall I believe."

"Thank you mis." Lyra bowed, and continued on towards the stairway. She would be seeing how bad of a time it really was for Mis Octavia.

Descending into the first of the many of the guild's sub-basements, Lyra began to hear voices very contrary to the general dark harmony of the practice going on. In fact, it sounded like ponies trying to kill each other.

"Hmm." Lyra did not have to follow the noise long.
Three Guild ponies were fighting to keep a mare restrained. Octavia was among those trying to keep the unicorn mare on the floor tied up.
"I see it truly is a bad time."

The victim, a white-furred mare with patches of dye in her fur, stopped her vicious struggling for a few seconds. "Hey! Hey! Help me! They're gunna kill me!"

"Probably." Lyra agreed.

Octavia kicked the victim in the back. "Shut it or I really will, Vinyl! You put teeth-marks on my saddlebags! All you have to do is behave like a normal pony, and this will go smoother." Octavia faced Lyra. "Oh, Mis Heartstrings."

"I can come back later." Lyra offered. "It's a just job offer again."

"Where's Pinkie?! Pinkie wouldn't let this happen to an old compatriot!" The mare on the floor, apparently called Vinyl, continued to yell, shrugging off the multiple kicks she had received like it was nothing. "Pinkie! HELP! ME!"

"We can meet over tea and discuss it Lyra. I know you would not waste my time with a frivolous job for low pay." Octavia said, stepping over to Lyra. "Unlike somepony."

"You think you're better than me, Octavia?" The Vinyl demanded. "You think you're above the work these other fine stallions and mares do? The work that I did?!"

Octavia growled. "I think I am better, because when I heard an old friend was in town, I sought them out right away, Vinyl."

Vinyl fell silent. "I... was... going to come see you eventually. I just had to do some work to buy an appropriately sized apology gift."

"You are a base thug, Vinyl. If you had any decency and intelligence you would have stayed away forever." Octavia spat.

"I guess so. They gave me respect in Griffany! I did all my own stunts. I have boxes of teeth and beaks to show for it!" Vinyl shouted back. "The Octavia I knew wouldn't need ten other ponies to bring me down. She would have given me the respect of taking me on alone, like the old days."

"The old days were done the day you got caught, Vinyl." Octavia was getting heated again.

Lyra meanwhile was analyzing Vinyl. The abnormal strength, the red eyes, the exile... Could it be? "I was just asked about you."

"Huh?" Vinyl grunted.

"The Red-Eyed Killer. My latest employer asked if I knew you." Lyra said. "I somewhat regret I could not have said yes."

"At least some ponies still put a little respect on my memory." Vinyl beamed. "I had a whole city cowering at my hooves, begging for salvation."

"Which they received, BECAUSE, YOU, GOT, CAUGHT." Octavia hissed. "Guild ponies are not supposed to have a reputation. We are secret, silent, unknown."

"And I've learned that lesson since then. I've hardly worn my own color since I've been in Canterlot. Nopony knows my name or face. I've been using an alias, 'Pon-3'. If I didn't need the bits, I wouldn't even be taking work." Vinyl said.

"That is bold lie." Octavia snorted. "For what deficiencies you have, a lack of lust for murder is not one of them."

"Oh that's so sweet." Vinyl fluttered her lashes.

Lyra was very confused how the situation had gone from violent to almost flirty. "Yes, anyhow." She cleared her throat. "You should seek me when you have the time, Octavia, but I beg you do not take too long. There is a limited window on this job."

"Hey, looking for agents?" Vinyl asked. "I've got one list but I'm in the market for another."

"Incorrigible mare." Octavia shook her head.

"I'll work for half of what Octavia's rate is. And I'll do a better job." Vinyl insisted.

"She isn't serious. She is just trying to get on my nerves." Octavia sighed.

Vinyl winked. "And you love it."

"Keep that up and I actually will take you to lunch first." Octavia shot back.

Lyra had said what she had come to say, so she backed away from the bizarre scene. "Thank you for your brief attention. I think it better that I come back in a day or so. I am not keen on talking shop with a pony on the floor, so you should sort out that situation before you make offers, Mis Vinyl."

"Yeah I'll see to it mis." Vinyl laughed.

"Lyra Heartstrings." Lyra nodded. "Until next time, Mis Octavia, Mis Vinyl." She quickly turned and went back up the stairs and out of the Guild Hall.
It was probably a bad idea to goad Octavia like that by taking Vinyl's offer seriously. Lord Vizier Fancy Pants needed a reliable, cool-headed agent, and Vinyl seemed anything but. Still Lyra was interested in what would become of the couple by the next day.

“I, Celestia CLXXIX, Sun Princess, Empress of Equestria, Princess of Canterlot, Princess of the Everfree, Duchess of the Valley, yatta yatta yatta...”
Spike skipped down to the bottom of the letter.
“I declare that Ponyville shall be made to host a Summer Sun Fair, on the eve of the 1000th Summer Sun. I declare that that l'Élève Premier of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle, daughter of house Twilight-Bright, viscountess of Chateau la Garde, Grand Squire of Equestria, shall have oversight of all preparations in my name, and shall act as my will within Ponyville, in all good faith and rights.”

"Sounds like an important pony. Wonder who that could be." Twilight said. She pretty tired was having a difficult time keeping her eyes open.

Applejack let out an impressed whistle. “I reckon you might's well be Lady Celestia herself seein' as how she just invested ya'll with her authority here.”

“Princess Celestia.” Twilight corrected, trying to rub a sleepy haze from her eyes. She grabbed a corner of the letter. “Spike, does it say where we stay?”

Spike gently pushed Twilight off the letter so it would not tear. "No. Though, you'd find it funny that her signature is smudged a little. She must have sent is right after writing it."

Twilight closed her eyes. "Yes I do find that funny Spike."

Appleajack watched the tired unicorn as she struggled to stay awake. Twilight had all but collapsed on the walk from the orchard to the town hall. “Lady, you could stay just about anywhere, I'd say."

Spike nodded. "We were thinking along the same lines."

"Then do y'all need any more help? I have some spare rooms.” Applejack asked.

Twilight shook her head. “I'm good right here. I have no reason to be picky. Thank you Mis Applejack, you have been very helpful." She grew quieter, sinking to the floor and closing her eyes.

Applejack turned to Spike.
“I don't mean no offense, but you seem a tad more lucid than the lady there.” She whispered. “Where can I lend a hoof?”

Spike glanced over at Twilight, who's face was scrunched in extreme frustration one moment, and then relaxed the next. “Um Twilight seemed to think we were taking that big tree home specifically. It had lots of books in it.”

“Oh! The Golden Oak. Well..." Applejack seemed to be contemplating saying something, but just shook her head. "I personally don't jibe with the Oak, but it should be fine for y'all. Yes'sir it'd be a fitting for smart ponies like yourselves. Yep, it'll be just fine.” She grabbed one of Twilight's bags in her mouth, and slung the limp unicorn over her shoulder effortlessly.
Silently impressed by the display of earth pony strength, Spike with his bag followed close behind.

The great oak still resonated with the tones of a wild party. Applejack stood outside for a while.

"Is something wrong?" Spike asked.

Applejack shrugged, jostling Twilight. "I don't know if I should go in.

"Still doesn't answer if something is wrong." Spike went ahead and pushed the red front door open.

"Oh heya there!" The enthusiastic Pinkie Pie was immediately in his face, greeting him before ushering him inside. "Where's your pony? Did'ya find Applejack?"

"Yeah they found Applejack." Applejack pushed the door fully open. A few of the ponies noticed her arrival but the party was mostly continuing on. "Pinkie, what's the point of this shindig if the princess isn't coming and the real guest of honor was wanderin' around lost as a blue hen?"

"Eh? I guess at that point it's just a party for party's sake!" Pinkie giggled. "Oh, and Rarity's here too. She helped me out!"

"Keepin' an eye on each other I imagine? Well as long as ya know where the others are." Applejack sighed. "I'll say it straight: Party's over Pinkie. This here library is hereby commandeered for the little viscountess yonder."

Pinkie Pie glanced out the door, where Twilight was passed out on the luggage.

“Oh you met Twilight then! Isn't she nice?” Pinkie bounced in place. But she paused for a moment, her expression turning serious. "You did warn her about the Golden Oak, right?"

Before the conversation could go any farther, Rarity pushed her way to Applejack carrying a cup of punch. “Ever-so pleasant an evening to you, Applejack. Did you misplace the noblepony we sent to meet you?” The unicorn asked snidely.

“Hello Rarity. No, the noblepony is placed over there. I think it proper though that she get placed in here. If it suites y'all, the ladyship should use this tree as her seat of power for as long as she's in Ponyville." Applejack said.

Rarity took a sip of punch. "Did you come to that decision by yourself?"

"If anypony asks, no. I'm doing it on her behalf. She well enough has the authority to take over the Oak, maybe the whole town." Applejack said, letting a tone of authority slip into her words. "So, properly, I order ya'll to vacate these premises.”

Rarity noted Spike standing by the door, looking uncertain while the ponies talked without him. "You have to be careful Applejack. You can speak for nobility while they are asleep. It will be a different thing entirely when they are awake."

Applejack snorted. "You've been waitin' five years for an awakening that ain't happened."

Rarity's smug grin sharpened, irritation flashing over her expression. "Come all this way to sling insults, then."

"Hey girls, maybe don't argue right now. Shouldn't we start ushering ponies out?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Count on Pinkie Pie to END a party." Applejack shook her head.

Rarity drank the rest of her punch and tossed away the cup. "Why are you snippy with Pinky? She always takes YOUR side."

"I'll take your side tonight, Rarity, if you agree to help Applejack set up Mis Lady Twilight in here." Pinkie Pie said, pleading for a deescalation.

"After her insulting words, I am duty-bound to ensure Applejack does not intend to wield the viscountess's power vicariously for unworthy aims." Rarity said. "Good gracious, what did you do to her? The poor girl, knocked unconscious, left in the dust, with a usurpacious ruffian now claiming to speak for her."

"Girl? She's your age! Besides 'usurpacious' ain't no word I've ever heard of." Applejack was getting shouty. “Helping is all I'm doin'.”

"And past evidence has shown how harmful that help could be. Indeed any pony who would resort to your help is ill deserving of any all.” Rarity shot back.

Applejack cocked her head a bit, a warning not to push it further. “She didn't ask for it, and I give my help freely. End. Of. Story.”

“Then she is a fool to accept it. I shudder to think of what the princess would say to see her student stoop so low. I liked it better when you were taking advantage of her.” Rarity shrugged. "Now step aside please, I should like to beat the crowd out."

And then she was punched, across the cheek, by the irate Applejack. Rarity was nearly knocked off her hooves, bumping into a few ponies before sinking to the floor.

"Now who's left in the dust." Applejack barked, but as she cradled her hoof there were already signs she regretted what she'd done.

A few ponies screamed. Some ponies immediately ran for the door. Others grabbed a last drink from the dwindling punch bowl before vacating the room.
But what that left was a mess of torn streamers and dropped plates. And Rarity on the floor.

“Ah! Damn you Rarity! Ya done made me loose my temper again.” Applejack kneeled down next to her inert victim. “Come on now, get up! I didn't intend ta hurt ya.”

Somepony escaping the Golden Oak must have bumped into Twilight Sparkle, as she staggered into the library. "Do you ever have that feeling of having dozed for days when it was probably only an hour?"

"It was like, five minutes, and somehow this happened in that time." Spike chirped.

Twilight stared at the inert Rarity for a moment. "Uh huh."

"The annex is upstairs. It has a made bed everything." Pinkie Pie helpfully supplied.

"Lovely. Yeah, this tree is mine now. I've got the letter to prove it, basically." Twilight mumbled. “Good night everypony.” She unsteadily trotted past Applejack and Rarity, and and up the stairs to the Golden Oak's annex and bedroom.

"Oh buck me. Rarity's breathing, but..." Applejack sat back on her haunches. "She just made me so angry tellin' lies about things she don't know nothin about!" She was tearing up a bit. "Why she always gotta tell those damn lies!"

Pinkie Pie chipper smile had turned into a strained neutral grimace. "I'd throw you a cheering-up party, but, you should leave before Rarity's friends get here. Lucky me, cleaning up after the party is just as exciting as setting it up."

"I'm not too cowardly to own my problems, unlike some ponies." Applejack picked up Rarity much like she had Twilight, balancing her on her back. "I've gotta take her to the clinic. They're probably already waitin' on us. Geeze, I shoulda known better than come to town when clout is on the line."

"I'm not sure that was the singular problem Applejack." Pinkie Pie advised. "Hang in there. I'll see ya tomorrow, probably. There's a lot to talk about." She shrugged. "Try hugging some ponies instead of punching them."

"Okay Pinkie, I'll see ya later. Sorry for ruining the party." Applejack left the library with the pony on her back.

That left Spike and Pinkie Pie standing in silence.
"She's going to be okay, right?" Spike was pretty sure what he had witness edwas not normal even for small provincial hamlets.

"Rarity? Yeah she'll be just super if she doesn't have a concussion or something. Yes, Applejack is going to take to the clinic, not the riverside." Pinkie Pie said, snort-laughing at the inappropriate joke. "Dragon-whose-name-I-dont-remember, I'd really like to help with your bags and cleaning up and stuff but I have to go tell my birdcage something. I'll be back in, like, an hour and I'll help you then. If some ponies come looking for Rarity tell them she's at the clinic."
Pinkie bounced out of the library.

"But- Hey! Am I supposed to sit on my claws for a hour? I don't know where the cleaning supplies are!" Spike shouted after her.
He followed her a few paces out the door.
In the evening light, the Ponyville village took on a wholly different aura than it had in the midday malaise. With the party over, everypony was back in their homes. The cottages glowed, wisps of smoke curling from the rows of chimneys. A chorus of insects had begin to play their afternoon melodies. To the north, an orange glow of the sunset twilight silhouetted the mighty Mountain.

Spike looked behind him and up, to the upper window of the Golden Oak. Twilight was watching too. She looked ready to collapse again, but she could not help but pause to admire the tranquility of the land.
She noticed Spike and opened the window. "I think I get it, kinda. Maybe I'm delirious, but I think I get it."

"You're probably delirious. Go to sleep Twilight, or you'll be useless tomorrow too." Spike deadpanned.

"Ouch." Twilight winced. She retreated from the window and latched it closed again.

With no other alternative than sitting on his claws like he'd said, Spike started shoving the luggage into the Golden Oak and familiarizing himself with the basic layout. "Doesn't it always come down to the help to clean up the mess, even in a pretty place like Ponyville." He grumbled.

The Moon began to rise over Ponyville. The Moon began to rise over Canterlot. The Earth and its Dreams drew closer together.
Unholy powers began to stir in the darkened corners of the waking world. That night passed uneventfully for most of mortalkind, but how unfortunate that before she lay her head down on the bed in the annex to sleep, that Twilight glimpsed the moon through the window and received a dreadful feeling of being WATCHED again.

Chapter 6: A Hollow Light Nocturne

Thoughts of murderous plots, conspiracy, intrigue, and sinister intention were swirling through Shining Armor's head as he reentered Canterlot Castle. If the mares who had killed Fancy Pants had also intended to kill Captain Hauseway, then possible motivations were considerably narrowed. The grand vizier had not been the victim of a random killing, but the target of a systematic effort to behead the imperial administration in Canterlot.

Shining Armor knew most ponies would immediately assume it was a revolutionary plot. Anarchists, Levelers, anti-feudal radicals, and communalists had conducted assassination attempts before. Sometimes they succeeded against provincial officials with no security. The highest official revolutionaries had ever successfully killed had been the imperial commerce minister, blown in half when an anarchist threw a bomb in his carriage. Murdering the grand vizier would have actually accomplished the kind of destabilization that revolutionary direct action intended, but never achieved.
But Shining ranked that very low. It was a tempting narrative, and would be convenient justification for crackdowns across Equestria, but not substantiated. For one, one of the killers had been an agent in Fancy Pants's employ. Pants was a careful and savvy pony, and would have caught a double agent immediately. Furthermore, revolutionaries couldn't help but propagandize, but there had been no claims of responsibility, nor tells at the murder scene.

The other alternative was a noble plot. Shining was much more favorable to that possibility, but was still working out the details.

Following behind Shining, the black-furred mare Iillor began humming, her tune echoing off the marble walls. It made the voluminous space seem much more claustrophobic, and yet massive and empty at the same time.

"Would you mind stopping that please?" Shining Armor asked.

"Stop what sir?" Iillor asked innocently

"You know what. The humming. Not that it isn't nice, but it's distracting me." Shining said. "It might bother the other knights too."

Iillor looked around. The halls of the castle were empty.

"Just..." Shining sighed.

"No, I gotchya. I was trying to find the composure to describe my new friends to you." Iillor said. It sounded like she was apologizing by her tone, but her words suggested she was making fun. "Give a me a few more minutes."

The guardspony had indicated Prosser was in the Imperial Council meeting room, so Shining and Iillor wound inwards and upwards, through the castle into progressively taller and more elaborate passages. Parlor after parlor fit for the empress of Equestria sat empty and silent. In the low light of candles and fireflies, the peaks of each room was veiled in darkness.

"Has everypony gone?" Iillor asked.

"I'd assume my Captain ordered nearly everypony out of the castle." Shining said. He frowned. "Though the princess has not seen fit to adjudicate the Imperial Court lately. The number of visitors has been dwindling."

"Even alicorn princesses have to take breaks. I know I would. There's an old friend of mine who'd go crazy for that kind of princessly work, and drive themselves ragged for it." Iillor laughed. "It comes down to personality."

Shining Armor wondered if Iillor was trying to insult Princess Celestia's work ethic. "Her highness is utterly dedicated to Equestria and her work. Any friend of yours, and any pony in Equestria, can only hope to live up to her standard. I can assure you of that from my personal witness." He paused. "I hope your friend who wants princess's work is not as treasonous as your new Canterlot friends, Mis Iillor."

Iillor laughed again. "Oh, sir, please don't get too suspicious of me. I keep company with all kinds of ponies. I'm here with you, after all."

"I don't know what that's supposed to mean." Shining grumbled.

The hallway passed by the throne room- There, darkened by the shadow of night, was a wonder of all ponykind. The volume of the space was incomparable, a magnificent affair of marble and gold buttresses soaring almost a hundred feet upwards, reaching up past all the other floors to the heigh of the keep itself. The painted roof, the project of a hundred toiling painters centuries ago, lost its amazing detail at the sheer distance from the ground. Down the sides of the rectangular room, flanking the burgundy carpet down its length, were enormous glass mosaic panels and engraved triumphs, depictions of Equestrian history and the Celestiaans' triumphs. Then, at the the opposite end from the grand entrance, was the magnificent throne. It was too far from Shining to see it clearly in the dark, but he had stood guard in its shadow innumerable times. Oh, how the inordinately fine throne had been outshone by its divine suzerain...

But with all lanterns doused, and only icy moonlight shining through the painted glass, the imperial throne room looked more like a mausoleum. But perhaps Shining only perceived is so in light of the recent morbid happenings.

With princesses on his mind, Shining quickened his pace through the halls. Iillor began humming again but he had not the mind to chastise her.
To Shining Armor's surprise, a IHG knight was waiting for him outside the Imperial Council meeting room instead of Councilor Prosser.

"Sir." The knight saluted.

Shining bared his teeth in real annoyance. "What is going on? Where is Councilor Prosser?"

"Yes, actually both the councilor and Captain Hauseway went back to her highness's chambers." The knight reported. "When Princess Celestia asked them to-"

Shining immediately started galloping in the direction of the Princess's personal chambers. Celestia had come down from the watchtower?! Shining felt unrestrained elation at the idea of the princess taking a personal role in the state of emergency now reigning over Canterlot. There would be no doubt or confusion, and no second guesses, when orders were being given by Princess Celestia herself.

Shining was nearing the chambers when he saw the gathered knights and guards he'd sent to protect Captain Hauseway. They looked sullen, nervous, and even afraid.

Shining stopped to catch his breath again. "The princess..." He breathed a few more times. "The captain is in there with her?"

Before anypony could answer, the intricate double doors of the princess's chambers were thrown open, nearly hitting one of the knights. Captain Hauseway, stomping and trembling with every motion, emerged from the chambers. He was clearly enraged, but nopony would dare express such displeasure near the princess. Hauseway trotted right past his guards and Shining, proceeding down the hall to anywhere else in the keep.

Shining traded confused looks with the knights. "Well, go after him." He urged.
The knight complied, picking up their weapons and galloping after Captain Hauseway.

Shining turned back to the princess's chambers just as the doors were swinging closed under their weight. For a brief moment he could see the two ponies, one small and one large, and their two sets of eyes upon him. They transfixed Shining for a reason he could not explain, until the click of the doors fully closing startled him back to his surroundings.

"Shoot. What am I going to do now?" Shining said to himself. If Prosser was conversing with the princess, and their discussion had displeased Hauseway, Shining did not imagine there was anything useful that he could bring to the discussion.

"Sir knight, you're too uptight. It'll only frustrate you if you keep thinking about your actions in relation to all the unpredictable ponies around you." Iillor said. Shining had almost forgotten she was following him. Yet again she seemed fine from the gallop.

"That is a fine attitude from a country pony whose closest relationships are with the rain, soil, and fields by which they make their living. As a knight and vassal of the princess, navigating my feudal position is my work, and my obligation for protecting her empire." Shining said. The latter part was little better than recitation, habit. "There's no virtuous alternative."

"Now, do you knights serve the princess of the empire?" Iillor asked.

Shining blinked. "They are the same."

"Ehh..." Iillor's snout twisted in uncertainty.

"You clearly wouldn't understand." Shining said with sudden harshness. "Please stand away from her highness's quarters. Yes, back. Farther, farther. Thank you."

Iillor was far enough away to have to shout for Shining to understand, but she stayed silent. That was the smart thing to do, as no doubt Shining would have come up and rebuked her for noisily making herself known before the empress of all ponykind, resting just beyond the intricate doors.

Of course, Shining Armor had been in his princess's chambers innumerable times, either alone to deliver news, or with other Imperial Household Guard knights.
Something felt different this time. The princess's inaccessibility over the past month, and the storm of rumors about her mood, had painted the princess in a much more imposing color in Shining's mind. The princess had never been anything but kind, understanding, and generous with Shining or any other knight, the personification of ladylike warmth and beneficence to her servants. Once or twice, Celestia had focussed on Shining specifically to chat about Twilight Sparkle.

But then again... There was the other mare. Shining had not seen Princess Celestia personally during those times, and was thankful for it.... But there were a span of weeks some years previous, when Celestia's forgiveness was tested by nobles plotting against Junior Princess Cadenza, and her judgement came down as a spate of imprisonments, exiles, and demotions. The empress was not without teeth.

Shining berated himself for imagining that the Princess would fall into some capricious mood, and punish anypony for events surrounding the murder of the vizier. He should be regretful that the princess had been kept from the court by her moods, not fearful!

Shining stepped forward, and stood just a little distant from the double doors into Celestia's chambers. The princess's heightened alicorn senses would be aware of him, and his wordless request for entry.
Just so, there was a slight shimmer and the right door cracked open. The princess was inviting him inside.

Straightening his uniform, Shining pulled the door open enough to get it, and let it fall closed behind him.
He remembered the first room of the princess's quarters as a relatively humble space, a circular room with a hearth and bed. There were paintings of how the room looked in the times of the previous Celestiaan, the predecessors of Celestia CLXXIX: There had been little changes between the centuries and the successions.
It was a homely, personal space, but dwarfed by the personality and presence of its resident.

Councilor Prosser was in the center of the room, and so was the first pony to catch Shining's eye. He had dragged a chair away from one of the tea tables, to be closer to the other pony in the room. Another empty chair had been pulled over, likely for Hauseway.
Her highness, Celestia CLXXIX Celestiaan, Princess of Equestria, was facing away from Shining her etherial mane and tail blocking most of his view of her. She was sitting near the fireplace, watching the flames.

Whatever the two ponies had been talking about before Shining arrived, they were clearly uninterested in continuing while he was there.

"My lady." Shining bowed his head, though since Celestia was facing away it was mostly for himself. "We are narrowing in on the perpetrators of the gruesome criminals that have insulted your empire, and spilled its blood. Justice will be had, surely."

Celestia shifted on her cushion, half-turning to glance at Shining, then turning back to the fire.

Prosser cleared his throat. "The princess tires to hear of it, sir. You and I can discus it outside, later." He said.

Shining Armor felt a tingle down his spine. The princess had come down from the tower, only to continue to spurn the care of Equestria? He felt a twinge of indignant annoyance, of seeing somepony shirk their work.
"As her highness is not correcting you, I must accept that." Shining said, giving Prosser an icy stare. "Very well, sir, my lady. Shall we take our leave?"

"No." Celestia said.

Prosser seemed surprised the princess had spoken up. "Not that I wish to leave your company, princess, but-"

Celestia sighed. She stood up and repositioned herself, facing the room with her back to the fireplace. It was hard for Shining to appraise her expression with the light silhouetting her, but she seemed tired, but with a stern stoicism. "If you would like to join in, Sir Armor, we were discussing the Ancient Alicorns."

Shining cleared his throat. "You were? I... don't know what I would be able to contribute, princess." The whole situation felt strange.

"Yes, you're probably the wrong sibling to ask about the Ancient Alicorns." Prosser said.

Shining felt a surge of spiteful resolve to sit the situation out. "I'm always read to learn."
Most everypony knew that the so called 'Ancient Alicorns' were the extinct race of semi-divine creatures which had lived several thousands of years ago. The Ancient Alicorns, several hundred in number, had been scattered and their civilization destroyed by a disaster which had also struck mortalkind. Diminished, the Ancient Alicorns had wandered the earth for another hundred years. They were still worshipped in the hippogryphic lands.

"Trust be told I'm not a scholar of alicorn-dom either. I just know all the cryptic tales and tantalizing tidbits." Prosser offered the empty chair beside him. "The princess wanted to heard about how the Ancient Alicorns came to ruin."

Shining Armor took the offered seat. "That seems a grim contemplation for her highness. Is there nothing to be said for their grand accomplishments?"

Celestia laughed softly. "Are you trying to shelter me, Sir Shining?"

Shining shook his head, blushing slightly. "I would not presume to judge your constitution, my lady. I must be selfishly perceiving my own squeamishness."

"At least the boy is self aware." Prosser ribbed.

Celestia arched a brow. "Sir Armor would be within his rights to challenge you over a demeaning statement like that."

Prosser paused. "But princess, the challenged has the right to chose the weapons. Surely I would chose words, and the duel would be to first tears."

Celestia glanced away in exaggerated boredom, rejecting his too-clever retort.

"Oh fine. I apologize, Sir Armor." Prosser said. "Then to the buisness of alicorns?"

Shining accepted Prosser's apology with a nod. "Then the alicorns' buisness."

Celestia, satisfied the boys would get along, turned back to the fire, but the perk of her ears betrayed that she was still listening.

"The story always starts at the end, you know. The grim bits, when all the things that the gods loved came tumbling down to the Bright World." Prosser said. "But it's because the Ancient Alicorns were shattered that mortalkind came to know the divine and, perhaps in time, to understand it."

"If that were so, we would be talking more about us mortals than the alicorns. Seems like a different conversation." Shining said.

"You anticipate the second disaster then! Gods are gods, and mortals are mortals. When divine power falls into mortal hooves, there arises the greater horror, which we have suffered through ever since." Prosser said.

Shining nodded. "Monsters driven insane from power?"

"Oh, but the most frightening are those that are sane, n'est pas?" Prosser posed. "We are working backwards though, not forward, to the moment of 'the fall'. That terrible moment when ambiguity and possibility were winnowed to absolute certainty, and calamity befell the Ancient Alicorns."

Shining was silent for a while, trying to remember history lessons and lectures from his sister. "The fall. Like, a literal fall. The... the Tower."

It was a focus of so much morality storytelling and allegorical tales: The mythical, fantastical event that had destroyed an entire species of demigods:
The Destruction of the Tower of the Bard.
Visions danced in Shining Armor's imagination: An impossibly tall sandstone tower, the circumference of its columnar shape ringed by a spiraling stair, that mortalkind to go in procession up to heaven. Then, like a gunpowder detonation, the tower blew apart, shards of sandstone the size of houses raining down across the world.
Unprompted, a morbid curiosity filled Shining, a wonder, for if Canterlot would blow apart so spectacularly as well.

"I never understand this part, no matter how much ponies explain it to me. Did the ponies who built the tower cause the Ancient Alicorns to be cast down, or the other way around?" Shining asked.

"Sir Armor I don't know the answer to that question. That's a question of faith and ideology, more than fact." Prosser shrugged. "Even if we had a ten-thousand year old god or ex-mortal here to ask them, they would give their answer with bias and bitterness. The mortals who built the tower were foolish, but so were the Ancient Alicorns, yet both also had their aspirations and virtues." Prosser continued. "Is it silly to have regrets about something that happened a thousand generations ago? It would have been better had it not happened, so it is unbecoming to pin blame. All we know is that the nature of the entities watching us from heaven is much more dark and sinister since the Alicorns' fall."

"Save a few watchers." Celestia said quietly.

"Oh yes, save only our own holy Sun. That we know of." Prosser nodded. "Alas the space beyond our skies are filled with unspeakable things. The Dark, brooding kin of the Nightmares we once suffered here on our little planet."

Celestia's expression pulled into a thin, self-satisfied smile. "And how wiser, safer, and more prosperous is ponykind for having you to say so. It is necessary to remember the nature of the Dark skies above us, to remember that virtue and duty have dimensions beyond the social and political. Without the pony nation, unholy intentions await mortalkind." Celestia said. "Without me. Without me, a nightmare awaits you." She stood up, still gazing into the fire.

Something was off. The heavenly princess usually exuded a warm aura, and light a cloud passing in front of the sun, the chill was hard to notice at first.

"Princess?" Shining felt a chill.

Celestia did not respond.

Shining stood up. "Princess, should I-"

"I am feeling unwell. Somepony... Something is..." Celestia at last turned to face Shining. Her eyes were reddened and teary.
She limped to her bedroom. "Dreaming of me."

Prosser jumped to his hooves as well, but he nor Shining moved, simply watching with wide eyes as the princess collapsed onto her massive bed.

Prosser stepped in front of Shining. "Stop whatever you are thinking, and whatever you are planning to do. This has nothing to do with Fancy Pants's murder. Let her highness rest."

Shining, overcome with frustration, shoved Prosser onto his back with his magic. "What the hell would you know, you conniving colt?!"

"The hints were in front of you, boy. It is an alicorn problem, and an alicorn's ailment, which afflicts our poor princess." Prosser said, harsh despite his vulnerable position. "She hinted at it to me before. Ask your captain, if he wasn't too dense to really understand what she was saying."

"Oh yes, you're the clever pony who can decipher the true meaning behind the princess's words? I am not so silly, to imagine fanciful tales about a long dead alicorn race has any pertinance to our age." Shining said, menacing Prosser with a hoof waggle. "The vizier is struck down, and now the princess is ill? Nowadays, we notice and investigate the suspicious timing. We don't obsess over legends. There are no conincidences."

"Then dig back in your brain. Princess Celestia wanted to talk about the Ancient Alicorns, not I. I you're dutiful to your princess, think about why she did that." Prosser went silent for a moment. "But what does it matter. Our arguing won't change that she needs rest."

"It matters if she ails for alicorn reasons..." Shining scowled. "Or from mortal causes, Councilor."

Prosser sighed. "How could I have, feeble earth pony that I am, done any harm to her? Alicorn physiology is immune to almost everything, save overwhelming magical energy. Even the most deadly poisons are harmless to her."

"Then you have to be more specific than 'alicorn ailment' to clear yourself." Shining pressed.

"Look sir, how am I supposed to know? I have as many hints as you." Prosser said. "You heard her. She spoke of dreams. Since alicorns do not have dreams, and therefore we can rule out a psychic dream attack, we must take the other meaning of the word: Ambition and aspiration."

Shining finally took a moment to consider the situation. All things considered, with Celestia ailing, things were practically back to ten minutes previous, when he thought she was still acting aloof on her watchtower. Really, she had only had a brief period of seeming normalcy between spells of strange behavior. If only the princess had been more candid about the problem, rather than being coy and clever with her alicorn allegories. "It is not much to go on, unfortunately. If you think her highness should be left to her rest, then we shall. However, we should be concerned about the possibility that this affliction spreads."

"Spreads to us?" Prosser quirked an eyebrow.

"To the other alicorn princess." Shining said in a diminished voice. "To Cadenza."

Prosser immediately fell into a stern contemplative silence. Shining's question was of the gravest national consequence, after all. "Sir Armor, ashamedly, I don't know. I still only know as much as you, and can only deduce so much. I doubt the junior princess knows either, frankly. Though she has an alicorn... disposition, she has lived the life of a pony. Whereas her highness Celestia descends to us from the heavens, borne of the Sun- There are secrets she will never tell us mortals." He shook his head. "It is Junior Princess Cadenza's mortal ignorance which shields her from this alicorn affliction."

"I think you're not deducing as much as you're guessing." Shining grumbled. Despite Prosser only guessing, he took what consolation he could get: Cadence was safe from whatever was ailing Celestia.

Cadence... Shining's eyes were drawn out the window, to the neighboring tower, where the junior princess was likely to be sleeping after another day of isolated study.
Even thinking her name threatened to overwhelm Shining with emotion: A piercing guilt, yearning, and an unbearable sadness. Most things Shining took in stride, but not when it came to Cadenza.

"Sir, you may be prickly towards me, but I thank you for being so understanding." Prosser spoke, ignorant of the thoughts in Shining Armor's head. "We should step out and, at last, pursue this night's even more grave buisness."

"Right..." Shining returned to reality. "Vizier Fancy Pants. Let's talk then, in the hall., where a witness waits." He levitated the chairs back to their place by the tea table, and trotted to the door. "Come on. I'm not leaving you in here alone, no matter how understanding you think I am."

"Good lad." Prosser nodded, falling in behind Shining as they left the princess's chambers.

Illustrious Valor was waiting just outside,

"Thank you for waiting patiently Mis Iillor. The princess has been briefed, but now we must be quiet to not disturb her." Shining said, forgetting how he had ordered her to keep her distance from the door. "We can get back to solving the murder now. I trust you've spent enough time to recall a profile of your mare friends."

But Iillor did not seem to be paying Shining much attention. Her eyes were locked on Prosser. Councilor Prosser stared right back, his expression blank, his eyes slightly dilated.

"Wow golly, another earth pony. I guess it's not all unicorns around this palace." Iillor joked. "That's very generous of you."

"Uhh, this is Councilor Prosser. He sits on the Imperial Council and it is the duty of all Equestrians to extend him due respect and deference." Shining said.

"Hello. It sure is a nice night. It's sure a shame it's been ruined, sir Councilor. You look like a Riverpony. Maybe, the Central Riverpony Lands?" Iillor said.

Prosser was not nearly as cordial, lips pursed as he assessed Iillor. Something imperceptible clearly had him bothered.

"Councilor?" Shining asked. Prosser's sudden change in disposition worried him. "If the mare has been too familiar, we can deal with that later. For now-"

"No, it's fine." Prosser interrupted Shining. "It's just earth pony custom." His gaze shifted back to Iillor, addressing her at last. "I've got Riverpony ancestors but I've lived in Canterlot most of my life. By the look of you, though..." He paused perhaps tempted to say something untoward. "Dneighper."

Iillor stomped a hoof in approval. "Yup. But don't get in your head any stereotypes about me." She grinned wider. "I'm a very well travelled, friendo."

"I appreciate the cordiality, but we have to have this overdue talk, Councilor. The murder." Shining said firmly. "So talk, please."

Prosser seemed like he didn't want to take his eyes off Iillor, but after a moment he turned back to Shining. "Just so, Sir Armor. You know how to flatten the bush we've been beating around." He covered his mouth to politely clear his throat. "I saw Fancy Pants shortly before he descended into the trophy vault. I might have been the last pony to talk to him besides his killers."

"Where was this?" Shining demanded.

"The alchemy storeroom. I don't know the time, exactly, but it was around dusk." Prosser answered.

"I understand this was after an Imperial Council meeting?" Shining said. "There was no IHG representative invited, so you'll have to tell me what you discussed."

Prosser sighed. "Don't be sore. You knights never attend anyway. Sending out a messenger would have been a waste of Fancy Pants's time."

Shining had to try very hard not to frown. "That wasn't his decision to make. Nor yours, Councilor. I won't be too bold, but who knows if this unfortunate night could have been avoided if the captain or I had attended. Now, what did you discuss in council?"

"Seacrest Blackhorn, the talk of the town. We talked about how to deal with him and his supporters. We debated whether we should immediately arrest or assassinate him." Prosser said.

Shining's eyes flew open. "You talked about the extra-judicial murder of a noble of the realm by the state?" He was kicking himself for bringing Iillor along to hear imperial secrets.

"We talked around the issue. It is not like we outright said he had to die. We were trying to be discreet, and probably too coy for our own good." Prosser said. "So because we were talking around it, I don't really know what he was planning on when he led those mares into the trophy vault."

The murderers! Shining knew he had to approach the topic intelligently. "Mis Iillor here says she encountered the suspected killers earlier today."

Iillor entered back into the conversation at that invitation. "Like I said, sir, an earth pony and two unicorns." She locked eyes with Prosser again. "Lyra had very light green fur, similar mane, combed. She was sharply dressed but she'd have ditched it if she were on the run. Vinyl had a whitish coat, but it was hard to tell by candlelight when I met her, and had shocks of ragged blue in her mane. Damn me that I don't remember the earth mare's name, but she had a grey coat and darker mane. She had a robe or something on, to cover herself if needed, I think."

All of this VITAL information spilling out so quickly and abruptly caught Shining by surprise. "I- I- need to write that down right away!" He fished in his pocket for his notes.

Prosser's response was more muted. "Yes, I saw two of the same mares with Fancy Pants, on his way past the alchemy storeroom. Earth pony, concealed, very serious. Little unicorn mare, green on green on green, begrudging and serious, had a... well, sapphic carry to her but I'm no expert in such things. If I had to guess, they were killers for hire."

"What?" Shining paused in the middle of his scribbling. "Then-"

"I said, it's just a guess: Fancy Pants was going to solicit their services on the issue of the Seacrest Balckhorn question." Prosser said.

"No, no, I mean, how can you say they were killers?" Shining pressed.

Prosser did not answer for several long moments, going between meeting Shining's gaze and Iillor's and a far off horizon. "The third mare I didn't see, but Mis Iillor here did: Vinyl. That is part of the name, a high state secret, of the infamous Red-Eyed Killer, a serial murderer who plagued this very city a few years ago."

"Damn. That doesn't sound good. I can't believe I met a secret mass killer. "Iillor said flatly, not the least shaken by the idea.

Prosser pursed his lips again. "Mis... Many fearful things threaten ponykind, mortal and divine. By the grace of our holy princess, we may just survive."

"There's something worse than a serial killer in Canterlot?" Iillor asked, a hint of playful curiosity in her voice.

Shining, meanwhile, was furiously jotting down notes, making a few hasty preliminary assumptions based on what he had just heard, and rewrote the suspects' descriptions to send out. "Yes, me, once I get my hooves on those ruffians. We will get answers about why all this happened. And, like I promised you Mis Iillor, your testimony will be a credit to your erstwhile friends, while we untangle depths of this plot."

"Plot?" Prosser queried.

"Somepony convinced a trusted agent to turn on Sir Pants, has links to a long-lost serial killer, and knew the right moment to strike. This hints to planning and organization." Shining said.
Thankfully, the post for the knights to stand guard outside of Celestia's quarters had a small glowing green vial of dragonfire for sending emergency messages. Shining picked up the vial and checked the magical liquid's color to make sure it was good. "The right moment, when our princess is aloof or ailing, and the Imperial Council is preoccupied with this Blackhorn distraction."

"You sound like you're discounting a Blackhorn link to the murder right away." Prosser pointed out.

Shining paused. Frankly, yes, he was discounting it. Rather, he considered it highly unlikely that the gormless hedonist he had seen at the party at Chateau la Garde had any role in the planning or execution of the murder. If there was a Blackhorn connection, it was a noble cabal inside Canterlot working on the Blackhorn's behalf, or towards the same goals.

Shining would been less willing to admit that implicating Seacrest Blackhorn directly would also severely implicate his mother, Seacrest's host. Though he should have known better, Shining refused to believe that Twilight Velvet had anything to do with Fancy Pants's gristly death.

"We will see." Shining uncorked the bottle of dragonfire and let is bit drip on his orders. The paper disappeared in a rapid magical conflagration that teleported it away.
The hunt across Canterlot would intensify.

"We will, won't we." Prosser sighed. "You fit the role of little generalissimo quite well, Sir Armor. Getting the facts and dashing off orders."

Shining blushed at the comparison above his station. "Well I- Ahem, it's my duty. I wish Captain Hauseway hadn't run off, but he gets very frustrated sometimes."
He trotted to the nearest window overlooking Canterlot. Already the swirling pattern of torches and lanterns, the guards combing the city, had begun moving in new patterns to Shining's new orders and suspect list.
"I don't think a good pony would want to be the only one standing between justice and disaster. That would mean everything else has failed. We want a virtuous society that's safe for ponies, but... How did things get so fragile that I have to be the one running around the empty castle? I mean, tonight, we've been presented with a fait accompli; There's no saving Fancy Pants. We're playing catch-up, trying to fix the disaster and catch the murderers. But what if we're ahead of the disaster next time? And what if the stakes are bigger than the life of a single stallion?"
He looked back at Prosser. "That would be an impossible burden for me, or any single pony, except the princesses. We're supposed to have a resilient state and government so it's not a single pony saving us. Councilor, we might win tonight, and catch those killers, but we'll still be fragile."

"That's quite the analysis, Sir. Did you come up with that yourself or are you borrowing from radical reformist rhetoric?" Prosser asked. It was hard to tell if he was teasing or not.

"Who has time to read or listen to speeches when there are drills, marches, and discipline." Shining huffed. "But I can't help but feel. I'm pretty satisfied most of the time. Hell, I'm self-satisfied most of the time. Obviously I feel a swell of pride like I just did sending out that order, knowing I'm getting closer to the ideal of a country of good ponies unassailed by evil." He shook his head. "But at times, went I look at the city from the castle or a wall tower, I feel a tremendous vertigo. This fragile country is... I don't know, like a castle of glass that's beginning to crack and fall." He sighed. "My sister would have a better metaphor."

Prosser scratched his chin. "Perhaps we should go back to discussing the princess, if we have done what we can about the murder."

That greatly annoyed Shining. The night was far from over. Maybe Prosser was done, but Shining wasn't. "No, I have to get back into the city." He said gruffly. "Respectfully, princess gossip can wait. Unless I have to come back to get the Sun to rise, I have more ponies in need of me down there than up here."

Prosser shrugged. "Fine. The Celestiaan only get better with age." He smirked at his own impenetrable joke. "Sunrises, sunsets. Mortals come and go. Even Celestiaan succeed each other. We're on our hundred-seventy-ninth, you know. The Summer Sun approaches."

Shining knew what Prosser was getting at, but had no clue to its pertinence. "Whatever. If our princess wishes to return to heaven and let us receive another, that's not my buisness and there nothing for me to do about it." He cleared his throat. "I take my leave, sir. Mis Iillor, you should accompany me back to the exit."

"It was nice meeting you, Councilpony Prosser. I hope I get to see you again, maybe around the Riverpony Lands. Oh who knows, maybe I'll hang around Canterlot longer than I planned." She flashed a toothy smile. "Ta ta."

"Good night. Don't cause too much trouble." Prosser said. It was hard to tell if the comment was directed to Shining or Iillor. Perhaps the ambiguity was the point.

Shining led the way back down the darkened halls.

"Wow, things are getting pretty crazy." Iillor remarked.

"I need a little silence while I think, please." Shining requested.

And Shining had a lot to think about. Too much, really: The ailing princess, the murderers, a possible noble plot or court treachery, and the frailty of the very empire he served.
If only he had another pony he trusted implicitly, to divide the burden with.
If only. If only. If only. If only. If only. If only. If only.

Should he ask Twilight Sparkle to return to Canterlot? That would countermand a direct order from the princess, but these were extra-ordinary times, and the princess's judgement was... in question. Nopony would be as effective and diligent as Twilight.
But the pony who was most skeptical of Twilight Sparkle's recent accent to First Student, Fancy Pants, had just been killed. Additionally, Twilight's estrangement from Celestia was an open secret. Ponies would start gossiping, insinuating, and getting angry over half-formed assumptions. If the court or council began to suspect Twilight was behind Fancy Pants's death, or Celestia's ailment, she would be at great risk in Canterlot.
Shining didn't know for certain either. Yes, he felt extremely guilty for even thinking of it, but Twilight Sparkle was known to hold a grudge or two, and was no totally impossible she didn't have a hoof in things.

Should he ask family to step in to assist? The options were Foaly Flux, Twilight Velvet, or Night Light. It was tempting. They were all smart ponies, and trusted friends. Well, mostly trusted: Shining Armor had frequent doubts about his mother, and she had influence over the whole extended family. Plus, her hosting Seacrest Blackhorn would raise all kinds of questions about-

"Sir Armor, Sir Armor!" Shining's thoughts were interrupted by Prosser galloping after them. He was panting when he caught up. "Sir- sorry, give me a moment." He regained his breath. "Sir Armor, there's something I forgot to mention about the conversation in the Imperial Council, between Fancy Pants and I."

Shining hoped very dearly he wouldn't have to retract the order he had sent out. That would be both embarrassing and chaotic. "Yes?"

"Please, don't think we were hiding this from you. Your absence from the meeting..." Prosser paused again, to chose his words carefully. "Look, we would have been on the level with you the whole way through. We trust that you're a dutiful pony, Shining Armor."

"You trust I am. The other stallion is dead and can't answer for himself." Shining said. "Just tell me."

"Fancy Pants was running an operation against you mother, Lady Twilight Velvet. I have my dark suspicions that besides Seacrest Blackhorn, that's who he was discussing with those agent mares he met in the trophy room." Prosser said. "In the council meeting we floated the idea of giving Lady Velvet the viziership to avoid a confrontation with her and the Blackhorn. At the time, with news of the Blackhorn pretender seeming fresh and urgent, it felt like conflict was inevitable, and maybe even imminent."

Shining stared blackly at the small earth pony. The news slammed into the web of deductions and conclusions he had been working on, and it refused to fit. Nothing made sense anymore! Things... were chaos.
"You should have held on to your first instinct and withheld that from me." Shining said. "You're going to wish you did."

Prosser paled. "I genuinely forgot. I was just- I forgot. I remembered when I started thinking about Lady Velvet and if she could step in to help us through this crisis."

Shining was beyond anger. He felt a strange serenity accepting that he lived in a stupid world any nothing made sense anymore.

If only. If only. If only. If only. If only.

There was a third option. Mi Amore Cadenza, Junior Princess of Equestria. The mare that nopony really trusted or understood. The pony the nobility held a sour grudge towards. The inconsequential alicorn who would never be ruler. The princess that was brought as a mortal, and as trivia. A twenty-something year old, a young mare, with powers that could only be guessed at. The divine creature who nopony respected.

"Check on Princess Celestia." Shining said. "Then, if necessary, bring in Princess Cadenza to consult on the ongoing situations."

Prosser blinked. "Sir, you sound like you're giving me an order."

"No councilor, I'm making a strong recommendation." Shining said, his tone making clear that he was making both an order and a threat.

"The other councilors are going to be angry at the both of us." Prosser protested. "Letting Cadence out of her tower-"

"She's your goddamn princess, just as much as Celestia. Put some respect in your voice and use her title, Councilor." Shining barked. "Are you happier meandering through conversations about Ancient Alicorns than serving your living, breathing princess? You don't 'let' her out of her tower. You go and beg her, on your belly, to come down and save us ungrateful wretches."
Shining was very conscious of how degrading it must have been for Prosser to receive the abuse in front of a civilian like Iillor. Good.
"I don't care what chicanery you and Vizier Fancy Pants were planning. His jaw is through his brain. That era is over. Now, you're going to start doing your duty."

To Prosser's credit, he did not wilt away from the larger unicorn. "Ponies don't always respond well to this kind of abuse, Sir Armor." His voice trembled slightly.

"I'm not abusing you, I'm playing on your guilt. You know your own culpability in things. I'm being a bit loud, and a bit rude, but that's just reflecting on how I feel, not on how I want you to feel." Shining said. "You already feel the way we need you to: Guilty, uncertain, afraid. It's why you weren't on the level before, and it's why you're probably not on the level now."

Prosser adopted a pensive, apprehensive expression. "Don't be too certain. If I were a better pony, I'd feel guilt. But I do feel afraid. Not for the reasons you think, however."
He leaned in closer. "Do you think I'm making excuses about summoning Cadenza because I hate her, or covet power? Celestia put her in that tower to protect her. All the dangers, mortal and divine... It's not right to ask her to face it."

Unexpectedly, Iillor chimed in. "Don't underestimate us mares. I'm sure she'll be fine. Us Dneighper ponies kinda adore the junior princess."

Strangely, Iillor's words put Prosser more at ease, despite their pointlessness. "That's nice of you to say, Mis. You think I should reconsider?"

"A young, exciting princess? Let her loose! I just know she will do great, and I wouldn't fib about that." Iillor promised.

Shining Armor released the tension in his body. He still felt confused about the state of things, but they were making progress again. "I'm sorry for my words, Councilor. Extremism in the line of duty is no sin, as they say, and I'm sure this is what Equestria needs."

"Let us both hope so, Sir Armor." Prosser agreed, looking between Shining and Iillor. "Just, before I go do as you request, we have to talk about Lady Velvet."

Shining tensed back up. "Later. Later. It probably won't be until after the thread of the murder is unravelled, and Fancy Pants's intentions regarding my mother are uncovered, that we can have a frank conversation about this."

Prosser reluctantly accepted that. "Fine. Once more I wish you good luck out there, and beg you not to cause trouble." He trotted back up the hall, towards the bridge to Mi Amore Cadenza's tower. "This would be the night for it."

While confusion and chaos, gripped Canterlot, the storm was breaking over Ponyville.
Inside the Golden Oak, the mares looked out the window with concern. Twilight Sparkle had still not come back from her walk. The shutters were begining to rattle from the wind, and the first few droplets were splattering against the panes.

"Should we go looking for her?" Fluttershy asked anxiously.

"It's about to start pouring." Applejack observed.

Rarity made a sour face. "I don't have my raincoat, but if I went and fetched it-"

"You better not just run off." Applejack saids sharply. "You and me, Pinkie-"

Pinkie Pie was already at the front door. "I don't mind getting rained on. It's like a bath from the air." She said chipperly, but like the other girls, she was worried; If Twilight Sparkle came to some kind of harm, would it be their fault? "We should split up. I'll look west."

"Guess I'll look south towards my farm." Applejack said sigh a muted sigh, pulling her hat down over her brow.

"Uhh..." Fluttershy considered pointing out that west was towards her home, so it would have been the more natural search direction for her. "... north?"

"Then I have east, towards my parent's old abode." Rarity nodded.

But the mares assumed that Twilight Sparkle was merely lost in a dark and still unfamiliar country.
In reality, Twilight was not lost. It was true she did not know where she was, but she accepted and welcomed it.

Deeper, darker, slowly Twilight trotted down the thin and overgrown trail through the Everfree Forest. Despite the roiling clouds, there was still a little moonlight through the wind-shook canopy.

Twilight stopped for a second to reacquire the direction of the haunting magical music leading her onward. It was like a little game unicorn foals would play, teasing each other by casting barely noticeable magical auras, leading each other around on play hunts. Only, Twilight had no idea if the magic she was chasing was a pony, an artifact, or natural phenomenon. It could be malevolent for all she knew, or just harmless.

But now the haunting music was her only navigation. Everything seemed so eerily similar to things she'd already seen yet completely alien- Just endless trees, gnarled and haunting, perpetually looming over her. She couldn’t tell if she’d been in the forest for a thousand minutes, or just ten. Her sense of time and distance was getting muddled by the sensory battery, of wind in the canopy, and entrancing music.
All the same, it was an adventurous escape from all the bitter thoughts from before, a welcome distraction that eased her mind. Whether the seductive was malicious, Twilight was aware of it. She was not ignorant of the possibilities or risks of what she was doing; She still let it carry her along, willingly. She could have easily turned away but that would have meant returning to the stress and pain.

"I've cut through wild terrain before, in Foal, during family outings. I'm not a soft, helpless city mare." Twilight told herself. "Why... I bet I'd have what it takes to survive in a wild place like this. I have magic, after all."

It sparked some pride in her, something she'd been missing lately, to imagine herself rising above the hardships of a wilderness camping trip or something equivalent. Twilight usually imagined herself as a refined scholar, but there was a certain nobility to rugged survival, striving by strength, like the unicorn warlords of the old, old pre-migration Equestria, now the Frozen Northlands.

"All I'd need is a good water source to boil with magic. Plus I'm a decent hunter." Twilight mused. It was true that unicorns (and other magical species) could absorb small amounts of the magical aura from other creatures: Hunting, it was called. It usually took more effort than it netted, so it was the sport of nobles. Twilight had hunted small animals before, the occasion of some of her family's visits to Uncle Flux's lands in Foal. She was just a little better than Shining at it, since magical precision counted more than physical strength for the sport.
Twilight wondered to herself, as many had before her against the strongest taboos of ponykind, what hunting a pony was like.

The etherial music was getting stronger. Was she getting closer?

Twilight came upon a slow and murky river, which created a matching slice in the canopy above. Twilight had a better view of the storm clouds surging overhead, lightning distant lightning flashing, raining threatening to fall any second.

"Dneighper headwaters?" Twilight assessed the river. It was too wide to jump, so she was about to teleport when a lightning flash revealed something she hadn't noticed: A bridge.
Who could have built a bridge so far into the forsaken and dangerous Everfree? Twilight approached it, and saw that it was of stone construction similar to the bridge in Ponyville, but much older and more degraded. It's sides were covered in moss., but interestingly the hoofpath was clean.

Somepony had been maintaining the bridge.
Twilight glanced behind her at the trail she had been following. She had assumed it was an animal path. It seemed that assumption was false.

"Somepony coming into the Everfree... Or something coming out... with some regularity." Twilight said to herself. Her fanciful imaginings were replaced by the mystery in front of her.

Twilight crossed over the bridge, and though worn down by centuries of pedestrians, there were still some decorative engravings on the pavers underhoof. Twilight paused and peeled away a section of moss: Clear as day, Classical period iconography, from just before the unification. It was thousands of years old: Older than the princesses and the Empire of Equestria.

"Have I stepped back in time?" Twilight wondered to herself. "Maybe I'm in a dream."

Farther and faster, the music demanded. Particular instruments became distinct, the indistinct tune evolving into a full orchestra, a dark waltz by a tormented conductor. The weeping flutes and wailing violins picked up their tempo. Percussion crashed in time with the lightning flashing overhead.

"It has to be a dream. This is too surreal." Twilight's trot become more brisk, down the trail on the other side of the river. The forest became darker, the terrain became more uneven, and the path ran across little rills around the rotten trunks of fallen giants, through bushes, over briars.
The underbrush tangled her and tore at her skin, so Twilight began casting small bursts of magic to clear the path before her. She couldn't let anything to keep her from her goal.

It was an indeterminate time later when Twilight broke through a line of ferns, and unexpectedly entered a massive cleared area. Twilight looked into the stormy skies again, and almost walked right off the edge of the world: A massive, mist-shrouded gorge had been cut into the grassy clearing, blocking Twilight from reaching the other side, obscured by even more mist. In her panicked scrambled away from the edge, Twilight knocked a few pebbles into the chasm, which sent back an echo as they plonked into unseen waters below.

Once again, Twilight was about to teleport when the wind gusted to reveal a rope bridge spanning the gorge. It was a rickety thing made out of rope and wood, but like the stone bridge it was evidence or recent pony activity.

"... No. I'm not using that thing." Twilight mumbled to herself, eyeing the rope bridge with suspicion.
But when Twilight went to summon up the magic to teleport across, she discovered that the latent magical currents around her were whipped into a gale as fierce as the physical winds were. If Twilight tried to teleport, either she would end up re-materializing out of place (such as over the gorge or inside a tree, or maybe she would just lose track of her constituent atoms in the magical gale and not reappear at all. It had been known to happen, back when teleportation was more commonly known among the unicorns.

So, rope bridge it was. As it turned out, it was much less terrifying than Twilight anticipated. Though she tried to focus on where she put her hooves on the creaking boards, every step intensified the magical music in her head. It was getting nearly unbearable, making it hard to think or feel anything, even terror.

Then why was she pressing onwards?

Twilight reached the other side of the gorge and stumbled forward, trance-like into the deep mist that covered the rest of the clearing.
There was something there. There was something waiting for her. Just for her. Somepony was singing that music for Twilight Sparkle alone.

It tore at her psyche. The magical auras around her were so strong, Twilight felt her horn vibrate. There was no room for misplaced egoism or pride in such a place. Twilight would have to face the music not as a grandiose image of herself, but only as herself.

And then it stopped. Twilight, released of the bonds, fell back to earth. That is, she tripped and fell face first into the moist grass.
Why had the music stopped?
Twilight, bleary-eyed, pulled herself into a sitting position and looked around.

Oh what sights!
“My goodness.” Was all she could manage.

It was.... Magnificent.
A corpse of a MASSIVE castle lay before her, its decayed buttresses and towers as ribs poking up from the spine of rotting rock. It was large enough to swallow up Ponyville twice over, almost larger than even Canterlot Castle, its blighted outer walls kissing the edge of the gorge in places, collapsed in others. The light wind whistled melodically through the bones of the colossal wreck, an encore of the magical music from before.

It wasn't a mystery. Not really. As soon as Twilight had seen the classical-era iconography on the stone bridge, she had been piecing things together.

"The Everfree Castle. " Twilight muttered. "Celestia the First's fortress, lost in the Nightmare Pretender's siege a thousand years ago."

Twilight had stumbled upon the ruins of a long lost classical realm, once the heart of the Everfree Principality, now the heart of the demon forest. But the poor mare felt a contradictory storm of emotions that kept her from feeling awe or amazement in full measure. Was it a dream? Had she been led there? What did it all portend?

But what was to be done? The music was gone, and Twilight felt more than a little lost, confused, and afraid. She wasn't sure she could retrace her path back out of the forest, with the moon's light becoming weaker through the clouds. Twilight could only hope to find shelter in the ruins until daybreak. Then, hopefully, the path would be clear, and she could get close enough to Ponyville to teleport back.

So, she could only go forward.
"Hello?!" Twilight called out. Obviously, no response from the ruins save her own echo.

Twilight lurched to her hooves and cautiously approached the edge of the nearest part of the gutted castle. It was difficult to tell, but it might have been an entry hall or processionary space, beyond which rose the tallest intact parts of the ruin.

Something wasn't right. Why were the magical currents around her so vicious and angry? Twilight was hesitant even to try to conjure enough magic to cast a soft light. She was standing on cursed land: Did evil and power from the ancient siege to blame, even a thousand years later?

"This is going to be a longer walk than I intended." Twilight joked to herself, but it did not lift her plummetting mood. "I hope Spike doesn't wake up and get worried about me."

Twilight passed under an intact stone arch, passing into a square hall-like space.
It was a monotonous grey stone, cracked and stained by age, but besides moss and ivy, the overgrowth was surprisingly minimal. Either the dark aura of the place discouraged life, or something had been trimming back the forest.

What remained gave the suggestion of how monumental the ruin had once been. It had had the dimensions of a palace, with large spaces uninterrupted by columns to host courtiers and guests. Cracked and faded mosaics lined some of the walls, and repeating patterns of suns and moons ran along the main paths of egress. Little piles of softer stone lay here and there, probably the remains of decorative statuary. Some statues survived though, weather-worn heroes striking bold poses. There were no explicit depictions of alicorns though.

"How did this place survive a year-long siege?" Twilight imagined the Everfree Castle at its zenith, luxuriant capital of the lush principality around it.

Somehow a good number of banners and tapestries remained, somehow barely torn or faded. How fascinating they were, relics from a millennium past and a forgotten era: Yellow, blue, black, white, more iconography of moons, the sun, and the stars. Twilight would have to come back and recover some of the tapestries for preservation.

She continued across the hall cautiously as she investigated further, to the end of the entry hall as it transitioned into another room, which had been even wider and likely taller too. The far wall disappeared into the mist. It had to be a feast or throne room, as large as the throne room in Canterlot Castle at least.

At the threshold of the two grand halls, right in the center of the walking path (such that Twilight had to skirt around it), was another sculpture. This one was not of a pony, but what Twilight could best describe as a model stellar system: A large stone orb graced the top of a squat pillar, surrounded by five smaller orbs. Twilight regarded the sculpture with mild curiosity, wondering what it represented, for Equestria only had two satellites, the sun and moon. What did it represent?

On the other end of the grand space was Twilight's proof that she was in the throne room: just like in Canterlot Castle, the floor was raised into a dais, culminating in two broken thrones.

"Poetic." Twilight tried to joke again, but her anxiety was rising too high to even get the words out properly.

The left throne of obsidian was melted, and now existed as a solid puddle of the volcanic glass. The rightmost throne was broken away, only a chipped base of golden flakes remaining. Behind the thrones were the remnants of a colored glass window, once a huge circle shining like a peacock with hundreds of brilliant colors, reduced to just a few chipped corners, faded and grimy. It was impossible to tell what the colored glass mosaic had once depicted.

However one detail stood out among all others, as it was the most glaringly out of place in the classical ruin: A black rectangle rising in front of the two thrones, like a little podium of sorts, but of some dark volcanic stone, put as the new focus of the room.

As soon as Twilight set eyes upon the 'podium', the ethereal music floated to her ear once more.
"A magical altar." Twilight gasped, shivers running down her spine. Altars were not too difficult to construct, but could magnify particular spells thousands-fold, especially when on an amenable magical current point.
The music she was hearing was part of whatever spell the altar had been designed for, amplified by the tumultuous magic of the ruined castle. Even so, Twilight was shocked it could reach to the edge of the forest without some kind of amplification or artifact to boost it.

The music, some kind of magical allure, was surely part of some kind of trap, meant to mesmerize weak-minded creatures. Even though Twilight was aware of its purpose, she was tempted to get closer so she could inspect the little thing, and maybe determine why it had been built, and by whom.

Though the better part of her, and the building anxiety in her heart, urged her to run away as soon as possible, despite the storm. Getting lost in the Everfree Forest could be preferable to whatever evil intentions had been built into the altar.

"I... I..." Twilight stuttered, trying to make up her mind. Was it better to risk hostile magic, or devil forest? Had she passed the forest so far unmolested because it was trying to bring her to this even greater peril? "I should have stayed in Ponyville. I should have dealt with my discomfort instead of running away."

Twilight's little introspection was interrupted by a subtle change in the atmosphere around her. The magical music changed tone, and a nearly imperceptible blue light began to radiate from the dark altar. It was a deep, deep blue, like the sea or skies at twilight. It shone brighter moment by moment, making Twilight feel both warmer and colder in confusing indescribable ways.

It was activating! Twilight realized the trap had already been sprung.

The wind stopped. The mist thickened around the castle.

The stormclouds overhead began to roil more slowly, until they were frozen in place, a lumpy grey landscape inverted over the castle ruins. The landscape bloomed, as thin protrusions of cloud began to descend towards the throne room. Then, with shocking violence, a gaping hole was punched through the cloud cover, and thus revealed were the silken tendrils of magic that snaked downwards from the midnight skies. The tendrils coalesced above the altar and wound themselves together, up and down, binding the earth and the heavens with that deep blue magic that glinted silver in the blinding moonlight.

Twilight watched in awe. It was like no magic she had ever seen before!
No... No.... Twilight recognized what she was witnessing. It was, after a fashion, a lunar mirror of the Summer Sun event.
Summer Sun. Alicorn. Moon.
No... It couldn't be...

Twilight rushed forward to examine the dark podium closer, attempting to analyze its magic to confirm her rising fears. But the altar, exuding ever greater amounts of light, was painful to approach. Twilight felt the ends of her mane singe from the intensifying magic, so she retreated behind the thrones and watched.
There was probably nothing she could do. The altar was vastly more powerful that she had first suspected.

Then, stillness and silence, the magical music becoming more mellow, the tenuous violins and flutes fading to the steady thrum of cello and bass. The silken tendril of light was still there, dividing the skies, like someone had sliced it and caused reality to bleed.
Boom boom. Deep drums, like a heartbeat.

Twilight cautiously stepped out from behind the thrones.
She was not alone. Twilight could feel the vast magical presence was in the throne room with her. "Hello?" She whispered.

The air grew icy cold, and Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin as the presence focused its attention on her.
But still, only silence. It was watching her, feeling her.

Twilight took another step forward. "Hello. I..." She wished she knew where to look. "Who are you?"

A piercing psychic voice filled Twilight's mind! “Who are you, to want to know?” It was an awful sound meant to cause pain, like rough metal being run across glass.

"Gah!" Twilight shook her head aggressively to banish the sound. It was the opposite of the alluring music, meant to be repellent. This new entity, summoned by the altar, was surely a power NOT to be trifled with. Twilight resolved to trifle with it. She had to know more about what it all was.

Twilight cleared her throat. "I will tell you my name. However, I wish to know your nature first."

The aweful voice rumbled. "That sounds like a bargain you are offering. A pact, as it were sorts. Little creature, do they not teach you not to make pacts with Dark gods? Mwaahaa haa!" It screechy voice cackled. "I sign on to your pact, little pony. Let it be enforced!"

As fast as snake’s strike, a silken magical tendril lashed out at Twilight. She screamed, and jumped back further from the podium, but the tendril had her by the horn, and it jerked her forward. Twilight fought and fought, crying from the pain in her head and horn. With a crisp snap, the magical tendril was ripped from the podium by her yanking. The tendril writhed in the air for a few seconds before it evaporated.

“Don't touch me!” Twilight screamed from where she’d landed, her horn stinging with magical pain. "I just want to talk! Isn't that what you do? I just want to talk!"

"Talk is cheap." The screechy voice derided.

The dark altar began to glow bright again, pushing out a multitude of magical tendrils which flailed in the air all around it, reaching for everything in its surroundings.
Twilight was desperately happy she’d gotten away. It was with a dismayed whinny that she deduced the purpose of the altar: sacrifice. It had tried to seize her to offer up to the entity on the other side of heaven, speaking through it to her.
Such horrific magic had been completely unheard of for millennia, Dark arts lost even before the destruction of the Everfree Principality. Why was such a thing extant, here?

"Sorry, if you can't catch me, talk is all you can do." Twilight rolled to her hooves. She felt emboldened by her near escape. "Tell me your nature. That's the quick deal, got it?"

The screeching voice echoed in her head, laughing. “HA HA HA HA HA!” It was a fast and maniacal laugh. Twilight tried to bring her hooves up to cover her ears for all the good it would do: None at all. “HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!” The laughter became louder still, and more tangible, until Twilight realized it was not just in her mind, but around her as well. It mellowed, becoming a smooth but still authoritative voice. “You want to know who I am?”

Unfortunately for her, Twilight had brashly assumed that the tendrils were the only magic the altar had. A blue telekinetic aura surrounded her and lifted her into the air.
"Hey!" Twilight yelped. She tried to cast dispelling magic, no avail. But it was during this she noticed the aura of the magic around her was radically different than the aura of the altar. It felt like a pony's magic... nay, like Celestia's magic, almost.

The moonlight beaming down on the castle grew so bright it began to feel hot. The tendril of magic linking heaven and earth began to vibrate, the string of a vast cosmic instrument. Boom boom, the deep drums encored.

The mysterious presence behind the voice, long anticipated, finally materialized into the throne room.
The new arrival emerged from the black shadows of the alter. She could be seen but also seen through- not really there physically, merely the suggestion of her true form, still far far away. She was slender and tall, having the same deer-like physique as Celestia. A pair of feathered wings, a long horn, but unlike Celestia, snake's eyes. Black and blue dominated the terrifying mirage. It bore a wide smile, showing off predatory teeth which petrified Twilight’s heart.

"Well-come, little mare, to my castle. My last holding upon this planet." The dark alicorn spread its wings, huge things that seemed to swallowed the whole room in shadow. "I am this land's forgotten princess, the specter of an empress who never was. My name, for you, little unicorn-"

"I- I know who you are." Twilight choked out. "I'm the only one who knows. You're-"

"SILENCE." The alicorn bellowed. The rage of the voice would have knocked apart the remaining ruin were it not still just a psychic sound in Twilight's head. "You know NOTHING. I am the liege of all the terrors and fears mortalkind scream out in their dreams. I know all of you. I reign over you every night when your souls enter my realm. I KNOW ALL OF YOU." The alicorn smashed its hoof into the floor, but its voice fell to a mere whisper.
"You may address me, dear little pony, as 'your ladyship', 'my princess', or 'Lady Moon'."

Twilight met the shadowy visage of the moon alicorn eye to eye. A terror beyond her wildest nightmares had come to pass. "The Nightmare of the Moon."

In far away Canterlot, where nopony had the slightest inking of the resurgent moon princess, nor how it had caused their own Princess Celestia to take ill, the mad hunt went on.

Shining Armor was in a foul mood, between Councilor Prosser's revelations and the growing exhaustion of running around, he was ready to have the whole night done with.
But the three suspects were still out there, and he had to be the pony to ensure they were caught: Lyra, Vinyl, and the unnamed earth pony. Three ponies among the hundred-thousand souls in Canterlot, needles in a haystack. They might not be caught that night, or even that week. They might never face justice. Shining fumed at the idea that he might never get the chance to ask the mares why they had murdered the vizier, and prove conclusively that Twilight Velvet wasn't involved.
He HAD to catch them. It was his duty to princess and empire.

Mis Illustrious Valor, following behind Shining as they descended through the castle, was as cheerful as ever. Nothing seemed to dent her mood for more than a few seconds.

"I'm not too sure where we go from here." Shining quietly admitted.

Iillor arched an eyebrow. "Lost in your own castle, sir?"

"No. You know what I mean. This night has gotten worse and worse. Who could have imagined the murder scene investigation would be the high point. Or, I was a party, and that wasn't good, but I can't say it was worse than the murder scene. All that's beside the point. The point is..." Shining stopped himself from rambling. "Mis, you have to forget most of the stuff you heard tonight. Or, all of it. It might even be necessary to keep you with a guard until all of this is over, so you can testify in a trail if necessary."

"You think I'd bolt? Don't forget I was asking for you." Iillor said, somewhat smug.

Shining was confused by her attitude. "The guard wouldn't last too long, hopefully. Then all of this will be behind you, and you can get back to..." He tried to remember where she had said she was from. "Dneighper."

Iillor giggled. "That's cute."

Shining blinked. "Pardon?"

"You think I want to put this behind me so so quickly. Oh Sir, sir, I think I like this excitement and intrigue." Iillor said, hints of a seductive purr in her voice. "What if I promise never to forget what I heard tonight? Will you lock me up forever, sir?"

"What on earth are you talking about." Shining asked.

Iillor giggled again. "Sir Shining Armor, you won't be get rid of me as easily as you think."

Shining, for his own peace of mind, decided to brush off that ominous pronouncement as mere bluster.

The descent through the castle was silent the rest of the way Out of each window he passed, Shining spied thousands of motes of light in Canterlot below, each a torch. They formed a broad line, creeping slowly across the city. Wings of pegasi kept the airspace closed as they searched from above. Every now and then a bell would ring out, filling the air with that echoing timbre. The search had gone from a haphazard crash of bodies to a rigidly organized comb. It was like formations of an army deploying on a battlefield. It was only a shame it had taken so long to shape them up: Never time, it had to be better, Shining resolved.
So many promises to himself. Did Shining really intend to keep them all?

"I wish I could offload all of this until tomorrow. Maybe I'm not as committed to my duty as I pretend." Shining said to himself. "Or, I'm just tired."
Where were Captain Hauseway, or any of the other Imperial Councilors, or the Imperial Court? Why was it all resting on the IHG second-in-command? It wasn't right. He shouldn't have had to ask Prosser to rouse Cadenza.
It was starting to make Shining angry. Weakness, decadence, irresoluteness, and perfidy! Why, in her brief lucid moment, did Princess Celestia want to talk about Ancient Alicorns, when she should have been cleansing the imperial government of its... its degeneracy!?!
Going down that train of thought was making Shining very angry indeed.

They came to the ground floor after a few minutes. Iillor behind him, Shining trotted right up to the grand outer door, but right before he reached they were flung open.

“Sir Armor!” A Imperial Household guardspony gasped, out of breath from running. “We have them!”

The constant tolling of bells and squad of knights and guards with torches at the adjacent gate was starting to put a serious damper on the mood of Twilight Velvet's party. The guests fell into quiet muttering and speculation, while the guest of honor, Seacrest Blackhorn, became withdrawn and stopped engaging with the other ponies.

Were she not preoccupied, Twilight Velvet would have been dismayed at the state of her party. She withdrew to the corner of the hall, her husband and maid in tow.
"This commotion is more than an assassination. There's something in the air tonight. It feels like... like the gods are watching..." Velvet trailed off, distracted by something only she could detect.

"Should we send these ponies home?" Night Light asked.

Velvet did not answer, preoccupied with her internal thoughts and senses.

"Velvet. Velvet, are in danger?" Night Light pressed. "Do we have to send these ponies home?"

The maid cleared her throat. "My lady, there may be other ponies who-"

"The University. If there is somepony who can narrow down what I'm detecting, it's my old friends at the University." Velvet said sharply. "Dash off a letter to the Magical Sciences Department. Sound concerned, and insinuate it has to do with the search sweeping through Canterlot."

The maid bowed her head and backed away. She trotted to the feast table and pulled away the mute servant Molar, leading him up one of the stairways to the personal chambers.

"Please, be straight with me." Night Light begged.

Velvet took a deep breath, then chuckled. "I suspect... the mysterious force of destiny is on our side once again. Just like sheer happenstance delivered Seacrest to us, accelerating our plans by years, another even is moving us even faster. Faster, yes, faster! If we're bold enough to seize it, the future."

Night Light frowned slightly. "If I hadn't seen the culmination of all your prophetic moments so far, I would be trying to steer you away from this."

"But you have seen." Velvet grinned. "Before Twilie's incident, before Shining's promotion, there was a feeling. Before Seacrest, there was a feeling. Now, I hear a divine sound louder than I have ever heard before. You're lucky to be married to a very special mare, with a very special destiny."

Night Light could only nod. "I will admit nine times out of ten you are the more active partner in this relationship, Velvet, but please don't talk like you are trying to put yourself over me."

Twilight Velvet, for once, seemed abashed at her own words. "Sorry, I- We gave the same vows, after all."

Before the heartfelt moment bore out, the maid returned from the upper floors, a small note in hoof. "My lady." She said, politely demanding attention.

Velvet and Night Light turned to the mare in unison. "A reply from the university already?" Velvet asked.

"They were anticipating you?" Night Light posed, half-jokingly.

"Read it out. I'm not in the mood to fetch a candle." Velvet ordered.

The maid unfolded the letter. "As you wish. My eyes, twenty years older than yours, my lady..." She daintily cleared her throat. "Magical phenomena recorded on passive dousing instruments, simultaneous, 12:42 AM. Larger phenomenon somewhere to the south-southwest, distant. Smaller phenomenon due north, close. Magic auras too scrambled to decipher, but high probability of dream, necromantic, or evocation spell or ritual. Message end."

"12:45. That's after Shining left." Night Light noted.

Velvet shook her head. "Depending on the spell, it could be hours before it is detected by the instruments. Who knows when the phenomena occurred, or if it really was multiple or just one detected from multiple directions erroneously. I just know when I started to feel it, and while that feeling is good enough to gamble a life on, it's not good enough to make a deduction like this."

"That's unusually cautious of you." Night Light said.

"We don't have to understand to know what to do next." Velvet said. She closed her eyes for a few moments. "There's about to be a commotion. Faster, faster, we have to seize the future, Night Light."

It was at moments like these, when his wife swung from her role as a scheming noble to her calling as a high priestess (metaphorically), that Night Light knew it was his time to lead more actively.
"Start telling guests that the party is wrapping up. It is about time we figured out what the commotion in the city is, so we can plan for it." Night Light said. "Because it's heading our way."

The maid nodded and scurried off.

"Let's go talk to the knights at the gate." Night Light said.

Velvet nodded and let him lead her back into the crowd of guests, toward the other end of the great hall.

Whispering and muttering about the end of the party spread rapidly, faster than Night Light and Velvet could cross the hall. Seacrest Blackhorn had roused from his stupor, trying to rise from his chair though Sel Lech Sabonord kept him in place.
“What’s going on?” Seacrest whinnied. “Somepony tell me!”

Velvet levitated her coat from the rack as she passed by the parlor. The number of ponies hovering around the entrance had declined significantly, and they had no issue leaving the chateau into the cool night air.

The main gate of Canterlot, which the Chateau la Garde was moulded over like a triumphal arch, was closed tight, and reinforced by portcullis. Despite or perhaps because of the Imperial Household Guard knights reinforcing them, the city guardsponies on watch were nervous and antsy.

“Somepony’s killed Celestia!” One of the guardsponies wailed. “The Inner city is in a riot!”

"Quit that yapping." A IHG knight muttered. The knights likely knew the actual circumstances behind the emergency.

"There is no chance the princess has been killed. Were it so, the pandemonium would be far larger than this." Velvet concurred.

The guardsponies weren't convinced. “Some sergeant from another guard lodge came by pulled Peak and Dandelion away.” Another guard said, slightly more collectedly. “The castle's running the whole show."

"Has the skydock gate been reinforced too?" The senior guard wondered. "Who're they trying to keep in, or out?"

"Bet it's bloody Cloudsdale, causin' trouble." Another guardspony huffed.

The juniormost guard shivered. "This is... Are we going to die?"

“Boys please.” Night Light said calmingly. “There’s still four of you, four knights, and the gate is closed and locked from within the chateau. Nopony could get past, and nopony is going to try to get past.”

"We hope, at least." Velvet agreed.

Night Light shot a confused glance at his wife. What was she planning now?

“But what if it’s a dragon!” The junior guard was insistent. “How else could't've killed the princess?”

"Cut the chatter." The knights were getting fed up. "You can leave if you want to."

Velvet chuckled. "Trying to get the lass in trouble, sir? She's liable to be hanged if she abandons her post in a state of emergency."

The junior guard whimpered in alarm, but said nothing further.

Before Velvet could carry the conversation further, and talk to the IHG knights like she intended, the maid hurried out from the Chateau towards her. "My lady." She pulled a new letter from her uniform dress. "News from below, concerning the emergency."

Velvet barely restrained a smile. "Oh?" She said, louder than she needed to, subtly drawing attention.

The maid caught on to Velvet's intentions and didn't look pleased. "My lady-"

"It's urgent, right? As regent of this fortification I have to know right away." Velvet said, putting on a show for the audience of knights and guards. "Just get to the important part. What do I need to hear?"

"My lady-" The maid drew out her words as she re-read the letter, choosing how to phrase the sensitive message with the crowd. "They are headed this way."

That drew a fearful gasp from the ponies who instantly understood, but just in case... "Who?" Velvet demanded, biting her lip to hide her grin. It could have easily been mistaken for a pensive expression, but it was just the opposite.

"The murderers, two unicorns and an earth pony, are fleeing on hoof, coming straight towards this gate." The maid folded the letter and stuffed it back in her uniform. "The sender expects you to handle the situation."
With that, the maid quickly retreated back into the Chateau la Garde before one of the knights could exercise their emergency authority and demand to see the letter.

The junior guardspony shrieked.

"At arms you louts!" The belligerent knight barked. "They're not getting past us! Foul assassins, we'll deal with them here and now!"

"They're really not getting past." Night Light eyed the solid structure of the gate, reinforced by the iron cross-bars of the portcullis. "Velvet-"

Velvet stepped closer to him, shushing him with an intense glare. "How inauspicious that Guild Mistress Phyte sends me a letter before Vizier Fancy Pants or Shining Armor. That tells us everything we need to know about this situation. Phyte expects us to let those assassins past somehow." She whispered.

"In front of so many ponies..." Night Light looked around. There were the dozen knights and guardsponies, as well as the stream of nobleponies leaving the party (now starting to panic and run after the letter was read out). "There is no way."

"If one of the killers is that assassin I hired last week-" Velvet affected an annoyed expression. "Faster, Night Light, faster, to grasp destiny and twist it our way."

"Wait, the assassin was a mare?" Night Light scowled. "And I thought the point of that meeting was to avoid the Musician's Guild. Velvet..."

"I tell you everything, eventually. Look, I'm only saying 'if' it is the one I hired. She is supposed to be dead." Velvet said defensively. "I immediately ratted on her to the Guild Mistress in exchange for the mute. Now It feels like my wheeling and conniving is going to bite us."

Night Light rubbed his eye with the back of his hoof. "When it's sowing it's you, when it's reaping it's us." He sighed. "Okay Velvet, we can have this conversation after we deal with the killers. I will follow your lead."

"I know how to play it." Velvet said, her confidence returning after Night Light's capitulation. "Stay here for just a moment. I have to check on Seacrest and make certain that letter was destroyed."

"Velvet-" Night Light groaned, but his wife had already turned and galloped into the Chateau. He noticed the stares some of the knights were giving him. "Well lads, this is going to be interesting."

The knights nodded and returned to scanning the approaches.

Then, in the distance, a feint roar. Not a singular roar no, but the building sound of a mass of raised voices, shouts, of hooves galloping on pavers.
The killers really were headed their way, with soldiers in pursuit, and were getting closer!

Night Light made a dismayed sound. He didn't have a weapon. How was he supposed to deal with three assassins? "No need to worry." He gave a self-pitying laugh. "I'm here to protect you boys and girls."

The guards looked at each other. How was this unarmed middle aged stallion going to protect them?

A subtle shudder ran through the rate and the surrounding stone.
The fur on Night Light's back bristled. What was Velvet doing now?!

But there was no time to divide his attention, one way or another. The approaching din was getting louder and louder.

It was only a few minutes before when the mad din arose.

The South Canterlot had more in common with the wide open Canter than the north half of the plateau. It was a district of gardens, mansions, estates, parks, and fountains, a simulacra of the palatial rural estates, adjusted to the slightly tighter confines of the city walls.
But just the same as the Old Town and Inner City, there were places to hide, ponies prices on their head, and unexpected dangers.

A rusty birdcage flared to life with green magic, burned for a moment, then burst apart when Lyra, Octavia, and Pon-3 appeared from the flames.

Pon-3 immediately rolled away from the other two mares and dry heaved. "Bloody- urk, hell! That was wretched."

Lyra stood up and brushed herself off, waiting for the nausea to wear away.

Octavia took in their surroundings. "Is this some kind of storage shed?" They were indeed in a small wooden building, with a dirt floor and tools against the walls. The birdcage had been stored there along with other rusted miscellanies. "Do you think Mistress Phyte managed so send us all the way out of Canterlot."

Lyra looked out one of the tiny windows of the shed. "South Canterlot. We're in somepony's yard."

"Where in South Canterlot?" Octavia asked.

"You think I can tell that from here?" Lyra sighed. "Okay, well, I think that's the Castle Magoria I see in the distance, so we're about... I don't know, like, the center of the district."

Pon-3 recovered enough to join Lyra at the tiny window. "I haven't spent much time in South Canterlot since I've been back. Much change while I was gone?"

"A couple mansions near the Mountain burned down a few years ago. Then, about six months ago, one of the noble houses died out and there was a corruption scandal about imperial authorities seizing the mansion and holding swinger parties in it." Octavia recounted. "I poisoned a mare at one of those parties. As part of a job, of course."

"Take a marefriend along?" Pon-3 flashed a crude grin. "If you've been cheating on me I'll-"

"Shut the hell up! We were never-" Octavia puffed her cheeks out, trying to restrain herself.

Lyra was too tired to rebuke them. "We are close to the Main gate, south-west of us."

"Since I'm out of that cage I'm happy right here. What's the rush? We could hunker down here for a few days. Are the guards really going to search some random pony's tool shed?" Pon-3 said.

"We would starve." Octavia said flatly.

Pon-3 shrugged. "Then we just steal from the house. Hell, we could stab the buckers and-"

"We are leaving Canterlot." Lyra interrupted. "Maybe you mares didn't pick up on it, but Phyte wants us gone from this city. It's only for dumb luck, or desperate lies, and her strange paranoia that she didn't kill us all. But Phyte knows where we are, so she could send guild mares after us if she changes her mind."

Pon-3 made an incredulous face.

"Or, she could come after us herself." Lyra added.

That upset Pon-3 slightly more. "I... If it came down to a fight, I could take Phyte. Or, I could ambush her. Even Stars can die, right?"

Lyra wasn't sure what Pon-3 meant exactly, and she didn't care. "Stop these games. We have to leave. Your elaborate revenge fantasies can wait." She eyed Octavia. "Yours too."

Octavia huffed and glanced away. "Don't make assumptions about what I want."

Lyra turned back to the window. "Fine." She said. "I see hedges, and hopefully they should extend continuously until the end of the block. We have to keep to the shadows and behind trees. Anypony could see us and sound the alarm. When we get to the Main Gate-"

"More like 'if we get to the gate', if we're being honest." Pon-3 said.

Lyra glared at the interruption. "We could break into the Chateau la Garde to reach the gate mechanism, or reach the top of the city wall and jump off. Alternatively, you or I use as much magic as we can to punch a pony-sized hole in the gate."

"Both of those ideas sound aweful." Octavia said.

Lyra nodded. "The third option, as I see it, is to accept our death. Let's go already."

Unfortunately for the mares, detection and pursuit came quicker than their worst expectation. No sooner did Lyra open the shed door than she was face-to-face with a guardspony, less than five meters away.

"Nuts." Lyra swore.

"Holy shit! The tipper was right!" The guardspony scrambled backwards, pulling a whistle out of his armor. "Stay where you are, villains!" He started frantically blowing on the whistle. The piercing whine of the whistle could doubtlessly be heard by half the district.

Something wizzed past Lyra's head. A trowel, hurled by Pon-3's magic, imbedded in the guardspony's thin leg armor.
"Start running already!" Pon-3 pushed Lyra out of the way and galloped past the crippled guard.

Lyra, once again resigned to circumstance conquering her planning, chased after Pon-3 as they darted through the tree line into the next manor's yard. Octavia was surely close behind too.
The chase was on.

"Alarms are going up in the south plateau, progressing southward towards the Main Gate. The Inner City guard lodge sent all their pegasi that way but they won't arrive in time." The messenger knight explained to Shining Armor as they got into an awaiting coach carriage. "Captain Hauseway was on his way home but diverted south as well."

"Am I coming?" Iillor asked, peering into the carriage.

Shining, feeling giddy about the prospect about capturing the killers, beckoned her to the seat beside him. "I can't see you being a hinderance, and several ways you can help resolve this, so hurry in. We're in a rush after all."

Once Shining shut the door, the carriage bolted along the Canterlot streets southbound.

"If they are in the open, cornering them will be difficult." The messenger knight continued his report. "Frankly, Sir Armor, I worry that trying to take them whole is too dangerous. That is what Captain Hauseway thinks, at least."

"We have plate armor. Capturing them is a matter of effort and diligence." Shining said. He looked out the carriage window to the darkened city rushing by. They passed cadres of guardsponies heading the same direction. "We have to take them alive. That is priority one, above even our own lives, so that we can find out why this happened."

The messenger knight was unconvinced. "I defer to you and the captain, sir."

"Defer to the Imperial Council and princess." Shining said.

Their carriage was most of the way through the Inner City, where the inhabitants were less willing to abide by the state of emergency. Here and there civilians crowded outside of their buildings, watching or mocking the guardsponies. They were moving too fast for Shining to tell faces apart. Just a mass of ponykind, same as it ever was.

"We're lucky the killers moved to South Canterlot. If they stayed in the Inner City it would have been years before we found them." The messenger knight joked.

"Perhaps. The guardsponies are relentless. Accompany them for a patrol or raid some day. They lack knights' training or equipment but they have their own methods." Shining said. "They sweep whole tenements in minutes, pulling all the ponies from their bed with aggressive vigor, to line them up while the place is searched. You could say they are a reflection of the brutish criminals that hide here."

The messenger knight made a sour face. "Again sir, we're lucky. It would be unpleasant to be involved in such things."

"Sounds exciting to me. Like storming a castle." Iillor laughed.

Shining was bewildered by her flippancy. "They're civilians. We do our duty, as righteously as possible, to forestall the strife and disorder of war."

"Well said sir." The messenger knight concurred.

Iillor gave the messenger knight an incredulous look, then laughed to herself. "Come on, you boys haven't been in a war. Have you even been out of Equestria? My dad was a soldier, and he had a great time at war, even brought back a wife." Her expression turned somber. "Those guardsponies you look down on are at war with the criminal thugs and civilians. I don't think you have the right to criticize them."

Shining Armor would have been troubled by her words if he didn't find it amusing for its own reasons. "Mis Valor, respectfully, you're from Dneighper. I'm not sure you know what you're talking about either."

"Mis? This girl is not a noble?" The messenger squinted at Iillor. "And she wants to criticize you about 'rights'?"

Iillor snickered to herself.

The wobble of the carriage subtly changed as they reached the rough Inner City streets transitioned to the better maintained streets of South Canterlot.

Only a few moments later, the wobble changed again as the carriage slowed down.
"Sirs..." The muffled void of one of the coach-puller ponies said. "There is an accident on the street. Can't get around it."

Shining opened the coach door and looked ahead. "That's Captain Hauseway's carriage." He hopped out of the still moving carriage and galloped to the wreck and the guardsponies appraising it. "Hey, hey, what's going on here?"

"We were overloaded, and the suspension snapped the whole thing fell over. Bloody terrifying at the time, but nopony got hurt. It was, about umm, three minutes ago." One of the guardsponies said. "The knight captain ran ahead."

Shining Armor crouched to look in the upturned carriage, then over to the carriage-pullers resting by the street. They were in no rush to get the wreck upright or pull it off the street. "Fine. I guess I have to hoof it then."

Iillor joined him, while the messenger knight stayed with his carriage.
"I'l never be tired of walking." Iillor giggled.

So Shining Armor led her down the South Canterlot street, southbound towards the main gate.

"Were you trying to provoke an argument earlier?" Shining Armor asked.

Iillor let out a faux-outraged gasp. "Sir! Why would I do such a thing?" She asked innocently, then giggled again. "It might be hard to tell, but I'm a bit of a troublemaker sometimes. With my black fur and mane, I can hide very well."

"I bet." Shining said. She hadn't really answered the question.

"But of course, what joke is funny without friends who are in on the joke?" Iillor pondered. "You know, when I met my new friends here in Canterlot, I really felt like I could stay here for a while."

"Too bad how this all has turned out." Shining said.

Iillor shrugged. "I guess so. But what do you think? You've lived here your whole life, right? Think this city would be a match for a mare like me?"

"Uhh... I don't know that much about you. Even one night of you sharing your anecdotes isn't exactly enough to get to know somepony enough for a life-changing decision like that." Shining Armor said. "I hope you understand that while I don't dislike your company, I'm a pony with full time commitments to the state and the princess. After this emergency is resolved, I doubt I will have time to entertain you again."

"Have a colt or filly in your life, sir?" Iillor asked.

Shining nearly stumbled. "Hey now, I didn't- No, I just told you." He took a deep breath. "Ponies who devote themselves to higher causes, to duty, must necessarily make sacrifices in other parts of their life. When I indulge for romance, or shirk my responsibilities, an empire of millions of ponies suffers because of it."

Iillor burst out laughing. "Ha ha ha ha! Sir Armor, you have some kind of complex. Martyr complex, they call it? No wonder you're so disgusted with the 'degeneracy' of this nation, when you have such impossibly high standards!" The shocked look on Shining's face must have convinced her to back off her mockery. "I just mean, it's not your responsibility to fix other ponies behavior, whether they're lazy government ponies or peasant heathens. Even if you try your damndest you can't fix everything."

"I'm not stupid. I know there are limits to what any one pony can do, save perhaps her highness the princess." Shining said. "But because I'm strong, clever, and able-bodied, and most crucially, disciplined, I have the ability to give more for my nation than other ponies. Thus I will."

Iillor scoffed. "Pointless self-sacrifice doesn't make you a better Pony."

Shining wondered where her strong opinions on the matter stemmed from. "It's not pointless."

"If you're the only one doing it, and everything fails anyway, it is. You'll have given everything, sacrificed everything, and disaster won't be averted. Then the 'decedent' ponies, who saved their energy, swoop in on the ashes and fools." Iillor said. "Like boxing, I guess."

While he'd taken issue with a lot of her other points, Shining saw the logic of what she said, somewhat. Maybe she was talking from experience. "Disaster?"

Iillor smiled, this time a thin and knowing smirk. "We all have something that stalks our nightmares, which we strive against in the waking world, consciously or unconsciously. Your deepest fear, Shining."

Something was wrong with that mare. Shining knew he had to be more careful around her. Despite his objections otherwise, she had lulled him into letting his guard down.
Shining scrutinized her expression, trying to detect any hints of danger behind it. Did she look like a mare who could have been, not a mere bystander, but an accomplice to the murderers? Was she really a rural mare from Dneighper?
"Mis, Iillor, I'm afraid we're not as causal as to be on a first name basis." Shining said. "We should pick up the pace."

Clenching teeth, the rolling crescendo of the incessant bells, shouts and hollering from every direction... Lyra felt like she was being eaten alive by her terror, but she could only keep running. Though her exertion had taken her to exhaustion, and past even that to the limits of consciousness, she ran for all her worth.

“More coming up on the left!” Pon-3, freshest of the trio, was still in the lead. She somehow had the energy to both gallop and shout warnings.
Lyra could barely understand with the pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears. The electric blue tale before her was the target, her world, the thing she needed to chase. Lapse, and she’d die. Catch that tail, keep pace with Pon-3, and maybe she would live. Lyra’s mind kept repeating this, the only fuel driving her forward. Everything burned, but it was be burned or be consumed.

A magical bolt of energy sailed past Lyra's ear. “Halt!” A stallion’s voice said from behind her. Another bolt went even wider and ignited one of the trees lining the dark path they were on.

A chorus of aggravated voices rose in unison around them. "They're this way!" Then echoing it a bit farther. "They're this way!" The individual voices separated into hoarse screams, jumbling together, creating an harsh din.
"Ride them down!"
"Hack them apart!"
"Justice!"
"No mercy!"

Beside and a little behind Lyra, Octavia ran with her eyes nearly closed, a stream of tears running off her cheek onto the pavers in her wake.

"You'll pay for this!"
"No mercy!"
"Die die die!"

Another magical bolt illuminated the street, digging into the street and throwing up a cloud of dust.

"Revenge!"
The cacophony unified in its hateful exclamation. "Revenge!"

Revenge? That word cut through Lyra's mind. Had the city guards been told who the identity of the victim was? No... Revenge for the guard stallion Octavia had cut down!

"They'll kill us!" Octavia wailed. She realized it too.

Lyra glanced back.

It was enough time for her to trip. She sailed through the air for several seconds, then crashed against the ground. She rolled, letting everything go limp. The pain was exponentially worse against her overtaxed muscles. Her rolling carried her off the path and through a small hedge, where she came to rest under its foliage.

Lyra didn’t move, blinking slowly.

"They split up?!" Somepony shouted.
Dozens of hooves thundered past Lyra, concealed as she was in the bush, still hot after Pon-3 and Octavia.
"Double back and make sure the other one doesn't make a run for the skydock!"

Lyra closed her eyes and let herself rest. She could be safe as long as she didn't move from the hedge for the rest of her life.
The scratches she had endured from hitting the coarse hedge started to sting. Lyra gently tested moving her limbs to test if she had broken any bones; They hurt, but not too much.

"I'm such a fuck-up." Lyra sighed.
Would it be satisfactory to rest there forever, accept once and for all what fate had in store for her? Octavia and Pon-3 could be left to their own devices. They surely both hated her anyway. Her disappearance, her passing into myth as the hedge grew up through her remains, would overjoy them.

But then she wouldn't be able to prove everypony wrong by surviving. She wouldn't dominate the world by discovering something to live for.

She had rested long enough. Lyra, recovering from her exhaustion and her spite growing, pulled her clothes free of the branches and crawled out from under the hedge. One hoof, then two, then three, she stood up. She tried to run, but nearly fell on her face again. Staggering, she walked, slowly, up the street.

"Wait... This is less than a block from the gate." Lyra looked around. "We- Or, I, got so close."

Much closer indeed for Pon-3 and Octavia. Having reached the formidable gatehouse, they were confronted with the impenetrable gate itself, and the half-dozen soldiers standing before it.

"Shit! Time to put that plan into action! Gotta blast through it!" Pon-3 yelled.

The mares skidded to a halt a dozen paces from the knights and guards. The knights exchanged glances, then drew their weapons.

"This is really happening?!" One of the guards yelped.

Octavia was nearly panicking. "Lyra is missing! They got Lyra!"

"Cool it! We've got some punks to bust." Pon-3 nudged her goggles over her eyes and drew a dagger. "You'll have to get me a few seconds unmolested with the gate and she'll spread for me."

"Lyra! Lyra!" Octavia shouted. "Lyra!"

By now the guards on the chase were closing in, another twenty of them.

"I said cool it!" Pon-3 hissed. "Or heat it, whatever, just as long as you're ready!"
The unicorn threw herself forward, taking the knights by surprise with her boldness. She was freakishly fast, hopping around every sword swipe and constantly running in and out of range. However, her attempts to attack with her diminutive dagger were thwarted by the knight's plate armor, and the most she could do was tired them out.

Octavia, not thinking clearly, charged at the guardsponies without having drawn her weapon yet. Luckily for her, all but one of the guards ran back, flattening themselves against the stone of the gatehouse to stay away. The last guard tried to poke Octavia with her spear but missed, and had no time before Octavia reached her and kicked her to the ground.
Only when one of the knights grew frustrated with Pon-3, and turned his attention to Octavia, did Octavia think to unsheathe her sword to face him off.

"Velvet! Get down here!" Night Light stood on the doorstep of the Chateau la Garde, shouting into the chateau while keeping an eye on the melee developing right outside. "Velvet!"

"Lyra!" Octavia continued to yell, as she crossed swords with the knight and was forced back. "Lyra!"

"Goodness gracious, quit the yelling everypony." Twilight Velvet finally emerged from the Chateau, levitating a pair of rapier swords behind her.

Night Light sighed in relief, accepting one of the rapiers and slashing through the air experimentally. "Arranged everything to your liking?" He inspected the guard and grip of the rapier, then waved it few more times. Satisfied, he strode towards the melee.

"Getting there, honey." Velvet confirmed.
She galloped to the newly approaching guardsponies. "Hey! We have this handled, go back and find the straggler!" Seeing their incredulity, Velvet adopted a more imperious tone. "Did I stutter? Find the third killer, or it's your head! BY ORDER OF THE PRINCESS, GO!"

Startled by the invocation of the princess, the twenty guards let themselves be pointed in the opposite direction, to run off unenthusiastically in search of Lyra. They thought they would get their chance to draw blood, and bloody vengence, now thwarted. Many of them headed back in the direction of their homes and lodge, disinterested in continuing the chance anymore.

Velvet grinned, and turned back to the melee.

Pon-3 was steadily getting the advantage over the three knights facing her, exhausting them while her energy seemed limitless. Octavia was holding her own in a defensive duel against the fourth knight, and occasionally the guardspony still trying to get in as well.

"Ka-cha!" Pon-3 dodged into one of the knight's slashes and hooked her hoof around his helmet, then crouched and rolled the surprised knight over her. The poor knight crashed against the pavers onto her back, dazing her.

"We... We need backup. Where'd that whole gaggle of guards go!" The senior knight struggled to catch his breath.

Pon-3 kicked the supine knight in the helmet, making her groan and curl up for protection. "C'mon assholes, can't take on a little girl like me? Heh heh heh."

"Excuse me, step away from that pony." Pon-3 looked to a new voice. Night Light stepped forward, rapier tucked under his leg. "Mis, if you hurt them, you'll only get in more trouble."

"Trouble? I haven't done anything wrong. I was just out for a jog and these gangsters started bothering me." Pon-3 sneered. "I have a right to defend myself, and my life."

Night Light looked between Pon-3 and Octavia. Disguised as they had been, he didn't actually know which pony had been the assassin Velvet had hired. Maybe none of them.
Only that after locking eyes, Night Light saw Pon-3's expression subtly change. Night Light had not been in disguise, after all, and she recognized him. "If this is a misunderstanding, then you wouldn't mind giving yourself up, right mis? I'll make sure you get fair treatment from the empire."

Pon-3 just focussed on the stallion's face. Yes, she recognized him. Then, she looked over to the grey and purple mare approaching. Then to the chateau. Then out to space, remembering the discussion across the table from a frantic little mare who called herself Twilight Sparkle, viscountess, who claimed Twilight Velvet as her mother.
"It's a mother-bucking set-up. I've been set up. I've been... bamboozled, actually." Pon-3 mumbled to herself. "I'm so bucking stupid. How did I not see this from a mile away?"

"You'll have to speak up, mis." Night Light said, nodding to where Octavia and the knight were still grunting and grappling with each other. "We can resolve this without violence, right?"

Pon-3 flipped her dagger and threw it at Night Light. The stallion whipped up his rapier and knocked the missile away. Pon-3 scooped up the sword of the fallen knight, and squared her stance. "Guess, jerk."

"Very well." Night Light nodded, and slowly closed in on her.

Lyra watched the twenty guardsponies run down a parallel street back to the north. There was nothing between her and the gate now, just a hundred meters of open ground.
"Like a toxic relationship. I have to get past you, but you're blocking the way." Lyra assessed the solid gate and gatehouse, illuminated by moonlight. She was feeling lightheaded. Was she scratched worse than she realized? In her state, there seemed little chance of executing her plan. "Hmm..."

Up ahead of her a small crowd was gathering. Lyra saw ponies dancing, no not dancing, fighting. It was Pon-3 and Octavia locked in a pair of deadly duels with two other unicorns, a deep blue stallion and a white mare- Lyra, hazy mind momentarily clear, recognized them as Twilight Velvet and Night Light.
Lyra was just one of the ponies watching the duels- The eight knights and guards, the remaining party guests, and the lead elements of the pegasi sent from the castle, all watch from varying distances.

Octavia was clearly at the brink of collapse, and Twilight Velvet was content to keep her in place with occasional spells and rapier swipes. In the other case, Night Light and Pon-3 were in a vigorous battle, constantly repositioning and maneuvering to try to get a clean hit with their respective weapons.

"Could I slip past?" Lyra asked herself, but her eyes were locked on Octavia, watching her friend be tormented by the older mare. "Could I get over the walls?"
She wanted to believe in her own solipsism, but she couldn't stand the idea of leaving Octavia to Canterlot's intentions.

Lyra's attention turned to Pon-3. The unicorn was a little demon, always moving. However, the stallion opposite her, Night Light, was something terrifying: He barely moved his body at all, yet his rapier seemed to be everywhere at once, blocking, attacking, and setting up for the next move simultaneously. Lyra had never seen a swordspony so awe-inspiring. It was art, and Pon-3 was steadily losing ground to him.

"I have to... Have to free up Mis Vinyl from her duel, so we can grab Octavia and get out of here." Lyra said to herself. "I have to. I have to. Because-" She still felt the need to deny the altruistic urges to herself, just to protect herself from the fear of being hurt by loss again. "Because I... can still use them."

Lyra took a single step out of the shadow onto the street.
Something whizzed past Lyra’s face- a gout of store was torn from the street nearby. The report of the pegasus’s arquebus came nanoseconds thereafter. Lyra gasped, her whole body jolting.

"Hmm?" Twilight Velvet looked toward the echoing gunshot, and noticed Lyra, frozen in place in the street. "Ah, there you are. Time to wrap this up." She said, before turning her attention back to her easy duel with Octavia.

The retort hadn't escaped Octavia's attention either. "Lyra!" She shouted hoarsely. "Lyra... Get- Get in cover! Lyra!"

Twilight Velvet used Octavia's momentary preoccupation to cast a more complicated spell, shackling the earth pony's hooves together, and making her fall over.
"Luckily you won't live with the shame of losing to an old mare like me for long." Velvet chuckled.

"You BASTARD, let her go!" Pon-3 turned away from her duel with Night Light and charged at Velvet.

"Excuse me mis." Night Light telekinetically grabbed Pon-3 by her cloak. Pon-3 flew off her hooves as he jerked her backwards, slamming onto her back and having the breath knocked from her lungs. Night Light then began to drag her by the cloak, strangling the mare. "That's my lady wife you are addressing, so please show some respect."

Velvet rolled her eyes. "Don't play with your food, dear." She cast a magical bolt at Pon-3, hitting her in the temple. The magic bolt, conferred with all the momentum of a cudgel against the poor mare's head, tore Pon-3 free of her cloak and knocked her spinning across the ground, insensate.

"Vinyl!" Octavia screamed. With a burst of strength, she tore apart the magic which bound her hooves. She grabbed Pon-3's fallen dagger with her teeth as she jumped up and charged at Twilight Velvet.

Velvet gasped and, seeing she had no time to block or cast a spell, turned and galloped away from the charging mare.

Night Light, still holding Pon-3 cloak in his telekinesis, threw it into Octavia's face, blinding her. In the precious seconds that she was disentangling herself, Night Light strode forward and smacked her with the pommel of his rapier.

Octavia reeling, dropped the dagger. "Urggg..." She groaned, holding her head.

"Please surrender yourself." Night Light ordered, levitating the dagger out of her reach. "This was well fought, but fate was not on your side."

Octavia was too dizzy and pained to respond. She took a few steps towards Pon-3, then towards Lyra. "Save..." Then she stumbled over herself and collapsed on her face.

The crowd of knights and guards erupted into shouts, cheers, and jeers. They pressed in, eager, raucous, slavering for revenge and death. Now that the foe was harmless they imagined their violence, and yelled in crass obscenities for Twilight Velvet and Night Light to enact it on the unconscious mares. Their wild eyes begged for bloodshed.

Lyra had never seen creatures so monstrous. "They'll kill them." She uttered. "Then they'll..."
She remembered just in time that at least one of the pegasi was paying attention to her, not the spectacle. But the still didn't know where the shot had come from, and how to hide from the gunner.
'Get in cover', Octavia had shouted.

Thinking fast, Lyra darted towards the howling pack of knights and guards. Another whistle and bang mere moments later, the concealed pegasus arquebusier shooting where she had been standing moments before.

Shining Armor and Iillor were nearing the main gate when a gunshot rang out. The way it echoed off the buildings around them and made it sound like a whole fusillade.

“No no NO!” Shining went wide-eyed. “They’re going to kill them!”

He broke into a gallop, desperate to intercede and save the assassins.

Iillor stopped keeping pace with him. "Good luck Sir Armor!" She yelled.
Illor stepped off the street into the nearest shadows. If there had been any onlookers, they would have seen Illustrious Valor's pony form dissolve away into a dark mist.

"Too slow, I'm not going to get there in time." Shining muttered to himself. He could see the Chateau la Garde over the next row of hedges. "But I've got to."

Night Light dragged Pon-3 to beside Octavia, laying them both upright against the gatehouse structure.

"Urrr..." Pon-3 moaned, trying to focus her eyes through the throbbing in her head and body. "D- D- don't let them..." She tried to lift her head.
Beside her, Octavia was barely breathing, slack-jawed and drooling blood.

Twilight Velvet tried to keep the bloodthirsty crowd at bay. "They're apprehended! Leave them to us until we can make sure they're delivered to the castle! Disperse!" She had to raise her voice to even hear herself, let alone be heard by the vicious crowd.

"Give them over! We'll deal with 'em!"
"Blood for blood! Hang them! Stab them! Bludgeon them!"
"Revenge!"
"Revenge, Revenge, Revenge!" The chorus escalated.

Things were getting out of hoof.

"Gentleponies, please!" Meanwhile, Velvet had lost track of where Lyra had gone.

The maid, however, standing off to the side with the remaining party guests, had seen Lyra's movements.
"Sir Sel Lech, please look after things for a moment." She said, before trotting into the Chateau.

Sel Lech Sabonord blinked. "Uhh..." Seacrest Blackhorn and the guests looked at him expectantly. "Just keep your distance everypony. Don't want to get stabbed or something." Sel said.

"Or something." Blueblood echoed. "Are we about to see some bloodsport? I'll say, I've never seen a pony torn en-parté before."

Seacrest turned pale. "Oh dear."

"Back up. Back up!" Velvet slowly backpedaled as the crowd moved forward.
Then, she saw more arriving. Her ruse of ordering the guardsponies to search elsewhere in the city had run its course; It looked like some other pony, leading at least four-dozen guardsponies, was coming her way.
"Shoot." There was no way Velvet was going to be able to retrieve the mares in one piece, and lock them away on her own terms. It the knights and guards didn't kill them, some imperial authority was going to get hold of them.

That could not be allowed to happen.

"Night Light!" Velvet yelled.

Night Light stepped away from Lyra and Octavia and over to Velvet. "Geltleponies, act disreputably and I will have to treat you like those villains there." Night Light threatened, tapping his rapier on the ground to emphasize his point.

That threat of violence gave the crowds a moment's pause, enough for Velvet to retreat back to where Lyra and Octavia were laying.
"Under better circumstances, we could have had a nice conversation about all of this. It could have ended more pleasantly for both of us." Velvet pushed Octavia up straighter. "Alas this night is not going to end very pleasantly for you whatsoever." She looked over her shoulder. The new contingent of guardsponies was fast approaching, and there no chance Night Light could hold them all off.

"T- Twilight Velvet..." Pon-3 wheezed. "It wasn't us, you bitch. We didn't kill... didn't kill him. We're innocent."

"Kill who? Fancy Pants? Was it Fancy Pants who died?" Velvet asked. She leaned down and pushed Pon-3 goggles up. "If you didn't do it, then I don't owe you anything, mis Red-Eyed. Although obviously, if you had, it wouldn't credit you either. Ta ta for now. Do yourself a favor and close your eyes."

Velvet pulled a tiny vial of liquid from her coat, which she had retrieved at the same time as the rapiers. It glowed a violent green as she shook the little tincture-sized container. Steeling herself, Velvet uncorked the vial and drank the dragonfire.

Shining Armor, galloping as fast as his leg could carry him, arrived just in time to see the denouement.
He saw the company of guardsponies. Beyond them, he saw the two mares slouched against the gatehouse, with Twilight Velvet leaning over them.

"Stop! Stop!" Shining screamed, aghast.
But he was powerless to do anything. As Shining watched, Velvet stood over the grey earth pony and cast a spell. The comatose mare was consumed by sickly green flame. Before Shining's eyes, the mare's body dissolved away, before the fire burned itself out. There was absolutely nothing left of the earth pony.

Velvet faced the white unicorn now.

“NO!” Shining's yelling was of no use. Velvet cast more green flames on the unicorn mare, until moments later, the second assassin was gone too. The magical inferno had consumed everything.

To all who'd watched, for how the braying crowd had been calling for blood and was now breaking out in delirious cheers, it appeared that Twilight Velvet had just summarily executed the killers.

Shining didn't move, unable to tear his eyes away from the tiny patches of singed stone where his suspects had been moments before.

"Sir Armor!" Behind him, a pegasus with an arquebus landed and ran towards Shining. "Sir Armor, the third killer is in the crowd! Sir Armor-"

From the shadows, a tendril of black mist snaked out and surrounded the pegasus, dragging her back into the gloom. Shining had not heard, nor would he hear, about the third mare's whereabouts.

Then, inaudible for the sound of the crowd, the mechanism of the gatehouse began to clank and struggle. The portcullis drew up into the structure, and the sturdy wooden gate creaked open a sliver.
It was just enough for a lone mare to slip through, unnoticed during the chaos and commotion.

Lyra shoved the gate closed again with her shoulder, and barely had time to jump away before the portcullis descended back into place, sealing the city with her outside.

She backed away, step by painful step, keeping her eye on the gatehouse. She was numb. She couldn't summon a single feeling. Octavia... Vinyl... burned to ashes right in front of her.

"Isn't this what I wanted? To survive by myself?" Lyra mumbled.

A figure appeared on top of the gatehouse, watching Lyra's slow retreat. The figure, impossible to discern in the moonlight, waved to Lyra.

They both turned away, Lyra limping down the mountain road and the nightmare pony stepping back from the edge. Long the playground of the guild mare, Canterlot was the abode of a different kind of monster now.

"I like that girl. Hope she does well for herself." Iillor giggled. "But who opened the gate for her?"

"That would be me, mis." Velvet's maid mounted the last few steps to the roof of the gatehouse structure. She stepped to the ledge where Iillor had just been standing, watching Lyra disappear down the mountain road. "Lyra Heartstrings? Ah. I was interested to see what she could have in store when her master began his attack." She turned back to Iillor. "It is as my lady says, that the bend of destiny has blessed her with opportunity after opportunity. Sir Fancy Pants is swept away without lifting a hoof."

"Yeah? I lifted my hoof for it. Damn, I had no idea I was stepping into a tangled mess of politics. I came looking to cause trouble and I guess I got my wish." Iillor laughed. "Don't get too mixed up about missing out. If you want a fun time, I'd be happy to help."

"No mis, I am content." The maid bowed her head. "Since you are atop my lady's chateau without wings nor having taken the stairs, you must be of an unusual nature. If you would like to stay for tea-"

"Sorry, I'm a free spirit. Not interested in tea, or getting tied up in your games. I do what I want, so I'm friendly right now but I might be dangerous tomorrow, right?" Iillor snorted derisively. "If you're a good servant, like that dumbass stallion Prosser I met earlier, you'll keep your head down and steer your lady away from me."

The maid was unfazed. "You would be no threat to her ladyship. Perhaps for your sake, mis, I should steer you away from her."

Twilight Velvet looked over her work with grim satisfaction. There was congratulations and applause as she kicked her hoof through the charred patch on the ground.

"Shining is here." Night Light nudged her.

Velvet wondered if her bold act wouldn't cause more problems than it solved. What were the risks of accelerating her date with destiny? Could she handle it?

Shining Armor approached slowly, fatigued, a hollowness behind his eyes. Wordlessly, he stepped up to the scene of the crime, as if he could pull the mares back out of the fire long passed. It felt like a defeat, despite a certain justice having been served.
Maybe it was that he had set impossible goals for himself. Iillor was right, that he gave and expected too much of himself. He'd been told repeatedly the killers were unlikely to be taken alive.

But he had seen them defeated! The chance was right there, but snatched away. Why?!

"Not even a scrap of fabric." Shining kneeled and pretended to examine the stone. "There a necromancer nearby? Maybe we can ask their shades before it's too late..." He kept himself from a sorrowful sigh. "Or we'll never know why."
On some level, he felt bad that he regretted the mare's death only because of their usefulness. A virtuous pony should regret all death, even for villainous ponies. Every pony who chose evil was a failure of the empire, and it's responsibility to its inhabitants.

"Shining..." Night Light started. Unlike his wife, a real concern for his son was evident on his anxious face. "Please do not think ill of us."

“Sir Armor, get back!” Captain Hausseway’s commanding voice sounded out. The captain, at the head of the fifty arriving guardsponies, pushed through the little crowd, beelining towards the Twilight-Bright family. Shining did take several paces back as ordered, but then fell to his haunches, benumbed.

Velvet turned to Hauseway, smiling magnanimously. “Lord Captain, good night to you, sir! It's been a while. Are you getting my invitations? I did not see you at my party tonight."

Hauseway was silent. The bells of Canterlot continued to toll in the distance.
The IHG knights who had been posted at the gate looked tense and fearful, obviously concerned that their actions that night would earn them punishment.

Shining Armor took a deep breath and got to his hooves. His personal misgivings were no excuse to neglect his duty. "Captain, I-" He cleared his throat and composed himself. "Captain, I have a preliminary report on this situation. However there's a third killer out there."

"Is there? The testimonies of the castle staff say Fancy Pants was accompanied by two mares. Where'd that third mare come from? There's something fishy going on, Sir Armor." Hauseway laughed a quick and grating laugh. "More than fishy, see. There's a criminal conspiracy going on here. Everypony, and I mean everypony is suspect."

If there was one sentence to put the assembled ponies on edge, it was that. One foe uncovered and dealt with, another mysterious foe on the horizon. It was anypony's worst fear after a power vacuum opens, like the vizier's death: The power struggle.

"Sir." Shining was trepidatious for how to continue, and with his frazzled emotions, was uncertain even if he should have continued talking. "I know your meeting with the princess went badly, but we should regroup before we consider expanding the investigation. We have to find or rule out the third killer, and pursue existing leads. Then, we consult with Princess Celestia."

Hauseway cast an eye to his second in command. "Shiny my boy, you've had a long night. Take a rest. I can go without the advice for a little while, aye? We'll get this done right."

That was a very, very bad sign. "What do you intend to do, sir?" Shining asked, somewhat sharply. "The guards and IHG are already in the city, and we have control. There's no threat from any quarter."

"So you think any move would be redundant? Then how did this happen-" Hauseway pointed to the scorched stone. "WITHOUT MY ORDERS? You think I like having the prey stolen from my grasp? Shiny boy, it really irritates me when, in love or war, somepony deprives me my satisfaction and defies my authority."

To Twilight Velvet and Night Light, the threats Hauseway was laying out were clear. "Come inside my daughter's chateau, lord captain. We can start the revelries back up, right inside. Listen close, and hear the joyeuse laughter." Velvet said, her tone friendly but her expression firm.

Heaseway leaned in. "Your daughter isn't here to protect you, and despite opinions to the contrary, a viscountess title, even the First Student's, can't shield their family from the law." He raised his voice. "You are under detention, indefinitely, while the state of emergency and investigation continue."

Nopony moved, all looking shocked and confused.

Velvet narrowed her gaze, leveling a thin smile at the stallion. “Captain, come now. If you have a complaint about our revelry, lodge it with a magistrate. If you have our problem with our honor...” She chuckled. "That is a more difficult disagreement to solve."

Hausseway spat. “Don't be idiotic. No sane legal authority would dispute my right to detain you during this emergency. If they try it, I'll see them disbarred for their insanity. Lady Velvet, be difficult and I will arrest you by force. Then, rather than a nice locked room in the castle, you'll enjoy a cell like the common trash I'll round up after this."

The situation was escalating and Velvet showed no sign of backing down. "Common trash indeed. I have had enough of your threats. Be gone from our sight. We are the regents of this gatehouse, and our lady daughter is your peer. You tempt the princess's wrath, knight captain." She sneered.

"You tempt my wrath." Hauseway growled.

“Captain… Lord and Lady Bright deserve our thanks, not scorn! She saved us.” The fearful guardspony piped up.

Hauseway spun around. "Arrest her." He pointed at the guardspony. "All of them, actually." He pointed at his knights. "Report to the barracks immediately. Sir Armor, take these saps and lock them up until we can figure out if they're part of the conspiracy."

"Sir?" Shining blinked. "I... That's not a disciplinary action I can legally preform, if no conspiracy is proven. Those are nobles of the realm, and they've done their duty to the city and princess."

"What the hell does everypony think is going on here? You think the moment those whores died this crisis is over? No! I'm still in charge here. Where? Everywhere, over everything!" Hauseway shouted. "I. Am. In. Charge. Now. If I have to return with more knights from the castle, none of you are going to survive to see the inside of a cell."

Hauseway, after a night of his own frustrations, must not have been thinking clearly to so openly threaten the lives of all the ponies around him, even those he relied on.
Very quickly, guardsponies began to retreat away from the gatehouse, hoping that the captain hadn't seen their face to punish them later. Even one of the knights covered her face and ran for it.

Still, Hauseway's deadly threats worked on some of the guards, and they went ridged and listened in rapt attention for orders, terrified of punishment.

Velvet and Night Light shared reassuring looks. They were not going to be intimidated.
"Lord captain it would be shortsighted to imagine you can run this city by yourself through emergency powers indefinitely." Night Light said.

Hauseway grunted. "Is that a threat?"

"Yes it is. You've survived your own incompetence by not ruffling anypony's feathers. Don't shoot yourself in the hoof now." Velvet said mockingly. "If you want somepony in a cell, why don't you do it yourself?" She kicked some ash his direction.

Hauseway was trying to preset a stern expression, but clearly he was seething, and having a difficult time not just breaking out in a snarl.

"Captain. Captain!" Shining Armor said urgently, trying to pull Hauseway's attention. "There's more important battles we could be fighting right now. With a city to protect and govern, we have other priorities, captain. We can come back to addressing this issue with my family, later."

Hauseway shook his head. "Legitimacy comes from strength. No sooner do I turn my back from these upstarts than this empire collapses." That went a little way to explain the IHG captain's strange behavior, as he must have been developing his thoughts and gripes about Equestria parallel to Shining's thoughts. Did he also think he was the only pony capable of doing their duty?

That gave Shining an idea. "Captain." He unclasped his sword. "As your deputy I have the been given the right, by the princess, to advise without consequence on how best the IHG can serve her highness. Therefore I insist that the Equestrian state would be best served if you delegated this matter to me or another knight, while you return and handle the castle and court."
Shining nodded to his parents. "You can trust no unjust treatment from me..." He tapped his sword. "As long as you comply with all of the captain's legally given orders."

Twilight Velvet smiled smugly. "He insists, Captain."

Night Light, closed his eyes and sighed. "Velvet don't provoke him."

"What can a neutered dog like him do?" Vlevet posed, laughing.

Hauseway snatched a sword off the ground and swung. There was a bitter clang of steel as the weapon was stopped inches from Velvet's head, then pushed away by Night Light's rapier.
Night Light opened his eyes. "That, Velvet."

Hauseway grunted, and squared his stance.

"Not another fight!" The squeamish guardspony lamented. The soldiers who had stuck around retreated to a safe distance.

Hauseway rolled his shoulders. "Been a while, since I've fought with stakes like these. If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying." He laughed darkly, but he didn't look like he appreciated the situation he'd gotten himself in.

"That was ill done, sir. You will regret that." Night Light growled, more angry than Shining Armor could ever remember his father being.

"Ah the dog's found his gonads!" Velvet giggled. The swords disengaged, sparking brilliantly by the light of the dozens of torches around them.

"Obey this order: Die so Canterlot can live." Hauseway cautiously tested Night Light's defenses, trading taps as they tried to get around each other's weapon.

"Captain!" Shining shouted.
Was Hauseway in league with the castle faction, like Fancy Pants, who had been plotting against Twilight Velvet? Were the circumstances behind the assassination even more complicated than he knew?
"Captain, killing nobles for no reason is no way to inaugurate a government! We must cease this!"

"You talk about your own flesh and blood so detached, Shiny, so coldly. You're a fine stallion. Maybe you really do cut through sentimentality and see what has to be done." Hauseway said sarcastically, never taking his eyes of Night Light and his rapier. "Perhaps you're more than a lap dog of the court, meant to hold me back!"

"Enough with the dog analogies! In the name of peace and stability, please, stop!" Shining pleaded.

Hauseway was no slouch at swordsponyship, clearly; A veteran of overseas wars, with all the expert training the IHG had provided him over the years. Most critically, he was fresh, and gave Night Light a much better challenge.
But it was still only a challenge, not a matched contest at all, for Night Light, and as they cautiously matched blades, Hauseway began to back up, and Night Light to advance.

"Hmm." Night Light poked with his rapier, letting it be batted away and drawing it back a moment later, to poke again. "At least the mare was trying. She had only a life to fight for, but she gave everything. You say you have an empire to fight for, but your grip is too hard and your form is too tense." He critiqued. "The sword is not the instrument of your desire. It has its own desire it yearns to fulfill."

"I'm gunna carve that Zen bullshit out of your throat!" Hauseway snarled. He smacked the rapier away with particular vigor and tried to catch Night Light with the back-slash.

Night Light deflected Hauseway's sword upward with the rapier's guard, then sliced sideways across Hauseway's hoof, making him drop the weapon. "Sir, it is impolite not to concede when you have clearly lost. Don't make the bad decision twice of trying a dishonorable surprise attack."

Hauseway, grimacing, looked around desperately, clearly trying to find a strategy to get one over on Night Light, by rhetoric or force. "I should have worn my bucking armor." He spat.

"Oh captain, my captain! Your fearful trip is done!" Velvet tittered from the sideline. "Night Light, he refuses to surrender in a fight that he started. Kill him in self defense and we can get back to the party."

"Indeed pride has led him astray. He clearly intends us no mercy." Night Light nodded. Her expression stern, he stepped forward.

Contrary to everypony's expectation, and perhaps Night Light's desires, Hauseway did not run away, but stood his ground. "Three lawless executions in one hour? Let the world see what a bloodthirsty clan you are, and find the guts to eradicate you and all other traitors to Equestria."
He jumped forward and tried to grapple with Night Light, but unarmored as he was, took the point of the rapier to the shoulder and impaled himself several inches. Night Light pulled back the rapier and slashed down across the chest, tearing Hauseway's fine shirt and severely cutting his chest. Hauseway was stopped by the pain, his eyes welling as he tried not to cry out, sinking to the ground.

"You have to say it, you damn fool. You threw the gauntlet, so you either capitulate or you really will die." Night Light menaced. The normally mild-mannered stallion had murder in his eyes indeed, a cold fury that terrified the onlookers more than Hauseway's threats ever could have. "Do you think Canterlot will take your side after what you tried to do to an unarmed mother of two? Not even your own knights think you are in the right. You will be remembered, as the sum of your life, as a small pony who tried to be big and died for the pathetic effort. Good riddance."
Night Light kicked Hauseway in the chest, then slowly stalking to where he'd fallen, mentally counting the remaining time he was going to give the captain to surrender.

"F- For Equestria!" Hauseway wheezed in the dust.

Shining Armor felt his heart jump.
Was it really all for Equestria, or was it just cynicism? Even ponies with good intentions could be betrayed by the mind into thinking a self-serving act was altruistic. Did somepony deserve to die because they were incompetent in their pursuit of virtue, and instead perpetrated evil? Or did intentions not matter at all?

What if the assassin mares thought they were being virtuous when they killed Fancy Pants, for reasons that the world would never know now that they were dead?

Shining summoned as much magic as he could and cast a bolt of magic. It sailed through the air and hit Night Light's rapier, snapping the thin blade where it met the guard.

Night Light's eyes drooped, and he sighed. "Well..." He lobbed the useless rapier handle at Hauseway. "Somepony was going to get in my way." He turned to Shining. "Why did you decide it had to be you?"

Even growing up, Shining Armor had very rarely butted heads with his father. Twilight Velvet was the parent of rules and discipline, and Shining admired Night Light more than he could put into words. It pained his heart to have to confront him now. "No code of honor or chivalry ever led me to kill a helpless pony, even if they are dishonorable themselves." Shining said. "I can not let you have your way with my captain. I swore to obey his lawful orders so that the princess and empire are preserved."

"The princess is better off without him. How can a cur like him be trusted? If he treats the law like a recommendation, there is no guarantee he won't murder Princess Celestia." Night Light said. He looked around, forcing the assembled knights and guards to avert their eyes. "Perhaps you should be asking yourselves if he had something to do with the assassination this night, or if there are other unexplained crimes he has had his hoof in."

Hauseway tried to shout a refutation but his words were thwarted by a wheeze and groans of pain.

"That can be decided legally, not through violence." Shining Armor said. Though considering, he wasn't so convinced of that point. "Two Imperial Councilors dead in short order can only cause chaos or strife, which all good ponies should hope to avoid. I'm sorry father, but you must leave him alone so I can get him medical attention. The ramifications of this-" He pointed to the broken swords and the scorch marks. "All of this, must be examined methodically by the lawful courts and councils of our princess. No single pony besides her highness can decide it alone."

"He was the aggressor and he still hasn't surrendered. He still means us harm and this is self-defense." Twilight Velvet snapped.

Shining Armor trotted forward until he was between Hauseway and his parents. "Now you don't have to worry about any attack he might make, since I'm here to protect you." He said, scowling slightly. He hadn't expected his parents to relent right away, but they seemed unnervingly eager to kill Hauseway, excuse or not. "I am sorry I couldn't be there earlier to protect you from the killers. Maybe if I hadn't left the party, things would have worked out better. It's impossible to say, but I still feel guilty for letting you down like that, and letting them menace you."

"You're being very cheeky, Shining." Velvet harrumphed. But a glance from Night Light interrupted whatever she was going to say next. Something unspoken passed between them. Then, Velvet nodded to Sel Lech Sabonord, who began ushering Seacrest and the others into the Chateau la Garde. Then she also withdrew into the chateau, shutting its sturdy doors.

“Good night Lady Velvet!” Several of the knight and guards called after her.

Night Light was still for several long minutes, contemplating the situation. Then, in silence, he picked up Hauseway's sword, judged its weight, and stepped towards Shining Armor. "Not looking for a promotion, Shining?" He asked, his lip twisted into a thin smile.

A chill ran through Shining. If he stood his ground he was going to have to fight his father.

Shining drew his sword as fast as he could, shivering slightly. "Evacuate the captain to the University Hospital!" He ordered. "Now!"

Jolted into action, the knights guards grabbed Hauseway and dragged him away from the gatehouse as fast as they could.
Now the area around the gatehouse had been almost entirely vacated. It was just Shining Armor and Night Light.

"Not enough, Shining. You made a decision, now you must abide by it. The stakes are the same." Night Light said, still holding his smile. "Like the warlords of old! Shamefully to some, we aren't as magically talented as the women in the family, so no magic duel. But the sword has its own code, its own power, and its own demands. I did not become the best by denying it." He tapped his hoof on the broken rapier hilt. "The foil you just killed yearned for the captain's blood. A pity..."

"You never talk this much. Are you in some kind of trance?" Shining Armor asked.

"Hauseway challenged this family. I accept that you have denied my satisfaction. Now, I'm challenging you." Night Light said. "I won't chase you if you run, obviously. That would be undignified. Nor do I have any reason not to accept a pre-emptive capitulation."

A straight duel then. But Shining suspected there was something darker behind his father's challenge. "I understand." Shining said. He knew he had nothing to prove, and little reason not to avoid the fight either way. But... "Father, it's my duty as a servant of the princess to defend the honor of a fellow vassal, in addition to his life. Though I disagree with him and think he would be found guilty if prosecuted, I must stand for his honor in this duel, in addition to my own."
Shining bowed.

Night Light huffed. "Shining, I love you as a son, but you can be so stupid sometimes.
Before Shining could straighten from his bow, Night Light was already lunging at Shining's center of mass. Panicked, Shining levitated the fallen dagger to delay the attack, twisting himself away while he got into a better position. Night Light stabbed again, but was surprised when he was met with a riposte he barely dodged. Night Light weaved his sword tip around, trying to get a good thrust in, but Shining's maneuvering and parrying was quick. Night Light swung and tried to bait out another riposte, but Shining was wary and forced him to block a low thrust.

" 'That was ill done'. I did not say I accepted." Shining said, breathing fast. "You were so adamant to hear the right words from Hauseway." Shining fought against the instinct to restrain his own movements against his father, not just for the familial bond, but because Night Light had no armor. It was a sudden, dizzying, paralyzing thought for Shining that he realized he still only had the dress unicorn on himself. He felt naked!

Night Light tried to push Shining's sword away with his own, so he could get in closer, but Shining backed away just the right amount, then pushed back into try to trap the blades against the ground. Night Light changed stances and tried to cut Shining's hoof, as he'd done to Hauseway, but Shining was a hair quicker and almost caught Night Light's hoof instead. As Night Light tried to grab Shining's hoof with the sword, Shining levitated it, forcing Night Light to defend from his slashes.

"Quick thinking, if by-the-numbers." It was his most competent opponent of the night, for which Night Light was exhilarated and proud. “Practice, practice, practice. Practice is the heart of competence. You're doing very well.” He complemented. “My brilliant children. They practice so much. I'm overjoyed.” With a smile, he made a powerful swing that almost caught Shining in the leg.

But Shining, caught up in the thrill and adrenaline, became a little too cocky. “Getting old, my lord?”

Night Light arched a brow.
Shining made a slow horizontal swipe, but Night Light's reply was close enough to rip his uniform. Night Light turned left, but his sword stabbed from the right. Shining deflected it, but it came thrice more in the same way. Shining was driven back, and his sword was nearly knocked out of his grasp. Night light spun around. Having seen the effect of the buck that laid out Hauseway, Shining jumped backwards. But somehow, Night Light was faster and attacked before Shining regained his footing, shoving Shining sword far out with a swipe and cutting the uniform several more times with quick slashes.

Shining reestablished his defense and forced Night Light back, but a sinking feeling overcame him. His father had been going easy on him. If Night Light had tried, each of the slashes that had just ripped his shirt would have cut skin and muscle.
Shining had no time to think inventively when Night Light was so relentless, so effortlessly changing his approach.
"My youth has run its course too." Shining lamented. He felt like Hauseway probably had, desperately trying to think of a solution to the force bearing down on him.

Far from negating the earlier jab, Shining's words irritated Night Light more. "That's unbecoming, Shining! If you resign yourself to defeat, it becomes a guarantee. But overconfidence is also defeat. " He chuckled to himself. "As mortals where death is inevitable, life itself is defeat. If there were victory over death... Shining, wouldn't that be magnificent?"
There was intensity in Night Light's eyes. His question was more than rhetorical. Something important had just been said and Shining was confused.

"I..." Things were getting too intense. Night Light was right, and Shining was too inside his own head to attend to the duel. The moment where he could have won, when his duty and purpose had focussed him, had passed.
Shining backed away quickly, and flipped his sword around, offering Night Light the hilt. "I give up." He said. It stung badly to say it. Shining was proud of his skill, but there was no winning. What hurt even more was knowing that if somepony's life was on the line, he would have failed them.

"That was good. Very good. I would judge you rate among the top ninety percent of swordsponies in Canterlot. Nothing to be ashamed of." Night Light accepted Shining's sword and slotted it back in its scabbard. "Unfortunately, I can't identify the disparity between us. Are you too ironic about the nature of your duty, or is the duty itself unworthy?"

"Huh? Dad I'm just... stiff and bad." Shining mumbled. "By-the-numbers. Ninetieth-percentile... good enough for a knight whose only job is looking good."

"That is not what I'm talking about. I speak of higher callings." Night Light smiled again, but this time it was much wider, more genuine.

"What is going on with you?" Shining sighed. If felt like the universe was mocking him by making no sense. He had accomplished nothing, improved nothing, and now he was being made fun of for it. "Whatever. You have had your satisfaction. Since I can turn my back to you safely, I will. I have double the work now that my captain is incapacitated."

However it turned out his claim of safety was false. As Shining turned to leave, Night Light swept his leg, tripping his son.

"If Velvet is right, Gods are watching from the skies tonight, Shining." Night Light said with sudden graveness. He loomed over Shining like Velvet had over the mares, moments before their deaths. "Things are changing. Metaphysically, magically. The established order, grounded on certain precepts, can't last in a world that changes underneath it."

Shining's cheeks burned from the latest humiliation. "Buck off!" He shouted. "I saw Princess Celestia not but a few hours ago, and she was doing... fine! I don't know what you're talking about, and probably neither do you." He rolled to a sitting position, and tore off the tattered remains of his uniform. "My mother is telling you BULLSHIT. You guys have to cut this out, whatever you're doing. Playing around with the Blackhorn is going to get you killed! Do you get it? Fancy Pants was going to kill you! And don't think I don't suspect something, because I do, and if you did some 'preemptive attack' on him-"
Shining cut himself off, biting back the rest of his rant. He teared up a bit.

Night Light didn't offer any words, but his smile faltered.

"You have bigger responsibilities than this. You're Twilie's regents, appointed by the princess herself. Please, please, if I can't keep you from doing this, just don't mess this up for her." Shining begged. "Please, give Twilie her future, intact."

Night Light nodded. "I know you won't be satisfied by empty placation. Neither am I. Please believe me that we are doing our utmost, as parents and ponies, to do the best for our children. Everything we do is to give you and Twilie a future brighter than you can even imagine."

Before more could be said, an interloper came trotting down the street from the direction of Canterlot Castle.
It was Prosser, and behind him, rows of IHG knights followed. Shining recognized most of them as the IHG who had stayed to defend Canterlot Castle while the search happened.

"Dear oh dear. I doubt I could put this into words without cursing." Prosser shook his head. "This is a f-ing mess, for sure. For sure.

Night Light observed Prosser with caution, while Shining Armor stood up and met him.
"Know something I don't? Looks fine to me." Shining said flatly, sniffling and wiping his tears.

Prosser chuckled at the joke. "Yes, all fine. Where are the bodies?"

Shining sighed and nodded towards the gatehouse. No bodies, only small scorched patches of brick

"No bodies. Very well. No changing that now." Prosser scratched his chin. "Though I almost expected to see your corpse there too, Sir Armor. We passed Hauseway, going the opposite direction, screaming bloody murder."

"Appropriate." Night Light remarked.

"I advise you be less irreverent, Lord Night Light. It is a better fit your your lady wife. You have won out over us today, but you don't get away with offending a member of the Imperial Council just by being good with a knife." Prosser said. "I like you. I like your family. Once I heard the murderers were dead, we came with reinforcements to prevent the inevitable bigger fight."

"I know you're sitting on something clever, so spit it out already." Shining snapped.

Prosser pulled out a letter and waved it back and forth. "Okay, we were too late to stop the bigger fight, but still, we're here to put an end to this. A quick compromise has been reached."

Night Light followed the letter around with his eyes. "That's her writing."

"Yes, co-signed by the princeling Seacrest Blackhorn and Lady Twilight Velvet, on a deal to shield both sides from legal or imperial repercussions from what has transpired." Prosser nodded. "But you have to come willingly, Lord Night Light."

Shining blinked.

Night Light scanned the row of IHG knights behind Prosser. "Not going to be too rough on me?"

Prosser clearly was tempted to say something mean, but held off. "We aren't going to knock you unconscious, or put a bag over your head, or any-such if that is what you are asking. But you are still going into the Canterlot Dungeon, to the cell prepared for the murderers, and that is rough for anypony. The warmth of being the sacrificial lamb to shield your family will have to suffice for comfort."

Shining tried to snatch the latter but Prosser kept it out of his reach. "Is this a trick? I should have known better than let you escape your repercussion out of keeping information away from me." Shining said. "I am not letting you take this stallion without a thorough deal hammered out by legal experts."

"You have had your fun being in charge, Sir Armor, but the emergency is over. On the order of her highness, civil peace is restored, which means the administration, not the IHG, upholds Canterlot's laws once again. That's right, the princess orders you to stand down."

"What? What?" Shining Armor objected. "You know that is not true. Princess Celestia-"

Prosser clucked his tongue. "No, no, not Princess Celestia. You asked me, Shining Armor, and I asked her, and she has deigned to grace our city."

The moonlight trembled, visibly, audibly, as a new presence made itself known to Shining and Night Light.

Shining hadn't payed much attention to the group of IHG knights, nor asked himself why they would have followed Prosser of all ponies. But between their rows, standing a little taller than the other ponies, was an alicorn.

"Shining Armor." Her voice was so soft. She was smiling for him. "It's good to see you." It was a sad smile.

"C- Cadence!" Shining whined.
He couldn't breath. A piercing tinitus overwhelmed his hearing. He couldn't focus his eyes.
No, No, don't let her see me like this, failing, losing over and over. Please! Please! I'm sorry! Please! Hide my tears. Hide my shame.

Shining had asked for this. He had asked, stupidly, to confront what could have been left well alone until it was forgotten... Cadenza... Cadenza... Shining forgot how she made him feel. He thought he remembered, but it was just a ghost of the real feeling. Of deep deep despair.

Cadence! Cadence! Don't let them fool you! Don't let them lock you away!

Shining didn't know how long he was locked in his own thoughts, sorting through his own feelings. The alicorn moment was over, the air was clear and the moonlight shone on. Prosser, Night Light, the other knights, and Junior Princes Cadenza were gone.

"I didn't even- She didn't even-" Shining went silent. The bells had stopped. The streets were no longer alight with torches and checkpoints.

The emergency was officially over. There was nothing else to do. Higher powers had stepped in.
But wasn't that what Shining had asked for? Why did he still feel so bad?

Shining fetched his tattered dress uniform off the street. Faced with the option of walking all the way back to Canterlot Castle and the IHG barracks, Shining instead shuffled over to the Chateau la Garde. The maid was already outside waiting for him.

"It is late, master Armor. The room her ladyship set aside for you is still available." The maid said.

It was not long before Shining was asleep, at last, for whatever respite the dreamworld would give him.
Overseen by the smiling nightmare atop the gatehouse, the monstrous night was ending its twisted path in Canterlot.

But elsewhere, the darkness had only just begun. A night hospitable to alicorns, must be inhospitable to mortals.

Twilight ceased to struggle, only to observe. It was getting painfully cold the the ruin, colder than it should have been after a jungle rain: But when a link to depths of space was opened upon the earth, and when a ghostly visage of a long-dead legend was right before you, normal rules didn't apply.

The Nightmare of the Moon. It stung even to look at, like a pinch in the brain, even though she was only partially manifested. The dark alicorn exuded a magic antithetical to life, a pit of evil power that writhed under the command of the princess who restrained it inside herself. How could such a thing exist?! It's presanse gave Twilight vertigo, like she was on the edge of a yawning abyss, or falling through an infinite cosmic space.

“And you, mortal?” Nightmare approached slowly, with the bearing of a sovereign, yet with the caution of a canny predator. "It is your turn to give your name."

Twilight opened her mouth as she struggled to choose her words. She was afraid, very afraid. But she would not let that cloud her actions. She couldn't lose her mind to the terror, however tempting it was. “A nopony.” She said, slowly to keep any hint of pleading out. “I’m just a visitor.”

This was apparently the wrong thing to say. “You must take me for a FOAL.” Nightmare started soft, but soon her volume rose in force to a scream. “Not a visitor, clearly, but certainly an IMBECILE. You agreed to a pact and now you wish to squirm at its demands, to TRICK ME. You can not." The alicorn lifted a hoof, and swept it around, as she took in the ruinous state of the throne room. "Continue like this and my fortress, my grave, shall be yours as well. An ill fate for ANY MORTAL."

"I- I-" Twilight quivered at the outburst. She'd been around explosive ponies before, but never one who put such raw force behind their words.

"Oh? Are you afraid?" The Nightmare leaned down, gnashing her dagger-like teeth inches from Twilight’s face. "Do not disrespect me. Fear would be the ONLY excuse for your trifling behavior." The pain and disorientation Twilight felt magnified tenfold when the alicorn drew closer, and the billowing dark magic brushed against her. Up close, Twilight could see every contour of the ghostly face of the Nightmare of the Moon, and how her words were matched with erratic convulsions. "This is NONSENSE. You come before me, knowing my title and heritage, but lacking the constitution to address me properly. You must INTEND to disrespect me."

Twilight was shaking hard, tears running down her face, but she was resolute. “I didn’t mean to come here.” Her voice was unsteady. “I was led here, tricked.”

The Nightmare of the Moon's face contorted in alarm, and she drew back from Twilight. The dark magic holding her evaporated, and Twilight fell backwards onto her flank, forced to steady herself to keep from falling over.

“Led you here.” The Nightmare of the Moon repeated, curious. “Led you here?”
She snapped away from contemplation, and bore down on Twilight once more. “You will have to elaborate MORE than that, mortal.”

Twilight scooted herself away now that she could. “Your music! Your altar!”

"My music?" Nightmare cocked her head, and turned back towards the altar slowly. "My altar?" She circled it scrutinizingly, much like Twilight had earlier.

The whole experience was terrifying and disorienting. Twilight still wasn't confident in her ability to teleport away, and while the storm had cleared directly over the castle, violent wind and rain continued in the rest of the Everfree. She was trapped, with the monstrous alicorn between her and the throne room exit.

Every time she passed around the opposite side, facing Twilight, the Nightmare fixed her with a stare, making sure she stayed in place. "You did not answer the question, pony."

Twilight bit her lip. "I'm just-"

"Fear, pony. Is that answer close to your chest too? Do you fear?" The Nightmare of the Moon demanded.
Twilight watched as the nightmare inspect every detail of the dark altar, the glowing slitted eyes flicking back and forth, the indigo magic pressing at its seams.
It occurred to Twilight, but did not relieve her in the least, that the Nightmare was much a victim of the circumstance as she was.

"I am, yes." Twilight admitted softly. "I am very afraid." What had the nightmare wished to be called? Twilight didn't remember.

"The fearful, or manipulative, would both have reason to squirm." Nightmare Moon noted in a gravelly tone. "Pony, cast a spell, if you can."

Twilight obliged, casting the simplest spell which caused the least discomfort in the magical turbulence around her, a small orb of light.
The Nightmare of the Moon observed the light until it evaporated. Much like Celestia, the nightmare did not blink at all.

"It is not your contraption. I see that now." The Nightmare said, laying a hoof against the glowing dark altar. "I doubt you are even a necromancer, or worse still, one of those sycophantic Crypt ponies."

Necromancer? Crypt pony? "N- No, I am not licensed to be a necromancer." Twilight said. The necromancers she knew from the University ranged from the dullest ponies in Equestria to death-obsessed head cases. While Twilight didn't think necromancers deserved their bad reputation, and did decently on her own forays alongside Celestia, the trope of a rogue necromancer trying to summon a dangerous death beast immediately sprung to mind. "Nightmare of the Moon, how could a necromancer do this to summon you? You are not dead."

That inflamed the Nightmare's mood again. "I question the convenience of a poor astray pony, tricked into coming here, who happens to know whether I am alive or dead. Do you think you know better than I do?" She snapped.

"N- No. I do not." Twilight mumbled, casting her eyes to the floor.

"Death and the Forest, the Forest and dreaming, dreaming and the Moon, the Moon and I: All overlap. The magical aspect of Dark is all those things. Do necromancers no longer slip seamlessly from role to role anymore?" The Nightmare said. It was a familiar, lecturing tone. Again Twilight was reminded of Celestia's demeanor. "Bah. Who could come up with a license for a necromancers? Idiocy! Death and dreams are worlds ensnared by the eros of the mortal soul, meant to be felt, adored." She looked wistful. "No necromancer who stoops to license themselves could understand the nature of my being, nor be competent enough to create this contraption."

The Nightmare was talking past Twilight. To herself? To something Twilight could see or feel? There was more than the usual dose of alicorn capriciousness here. If what Twilight had read and deduced were true, and the Nightmare of the Moon had been magically sealed away for nearly a millennium, some progressed derangement was to be expected. Twilight would have expected worse; At least they could carry on a conversation. That, in its own way, made the divine alicorn slightly less threatening feeling. Slightly.

"The craftspony does not matter, only the craft, here before us. What a twisted work of art." The Nightmare ran her hoof over the top of the altar, passing it through the silken strand of magic linking it to the sky. The Nightmare's ghostly hoof distorted and dissolved until she pulled it away. "Much love and attention was put into this. What a perfect shame that it is too shabby for me to fully emerge from. It is appropriate for a pony-sized soul to pass through, but I am far greater."
Speaking louder, the Nightmare addressed Twilight. "Have any unknown mares come through your settlements? They could be of any tribe or color of coat, but most likely be coal-black."

Why? Should Twilight have? "Not that I know of. I have only been in the region for a short time."

Nightmare turned vicious again. “I asked you a question, IMBECILE. Give me an answer, yes or no. I do not care to hear useless PRATTLE." She abandoned her caressing of the altar and stalked towards Twilight. "Must I ask the question again?"

“Are you going to make me answer again? I said no.” Twilight snapped, irritated by the alicorn's superior tone.

The Nightmare lashed out with a hoof, which Twilight backed just out of reach of. The alicorn raged forward but apparently tripped, falling forward onto her face. One of the black tendrils of magic of the altar had her by the hoof.

Twilight suppressed the urge to be gloating. She had just found the limitations of the trap. The alicorn looked so distraught she almost felt bad.

"The terms of my parol are thus. No farther." The Nightmare lamented quietly. She rolled onto her back and tried to pull her leg away, but the altar's magic had it firmly.
The Nightmare stood up, staying inside the limits the altar allowed, making a big circle around throne room. She examined the collapsed and mossy stones of the walls, the weathered statuary, and the broken twin thrones.

Twilight might have been safe from the alicorn's molestations, but she was still on the wrong side of the room from the exit. The Nightmare was like a caged animal, an awe-inspiring force, a coiled and potent creature, but its bars gave Twilight the upper hoof.
"Nightmare of the Moon, I apologize for what offense I may have caused."

The Nightmare snarled, continuing her slow pacing. "Magnanimous in 'victory', pony? I would not have been. Charity, mercy, sentimentality are weapons of the weak to enslave the strong. My preferred titles of respect I offered you are constraining tools meant to protect you from me, yet you still refuse to use them. Is it your hubris? I thought you were telling the truth when you admitted your fear."

Twilight smiled awkwardly. "I guess I was too afraid to hear you properly."

"No, no, you were too busy telling me my own name to LISTEN. You thought you knew better." The Nightmare shook her head. "No soul, mortal or divine, prospers when governed by their pride. You think you are too clever to have to tell me your name. I will prove otherwise."
The Nightmare looked like she had more to say, but a thought suddenly occurred to her. "If I was summoned, and bound by a pact, was she?" She was talking past Twilight again. "Was it the craftspony, this proud pony, or some third? Vile ignorance throttles me."

Twilight frowned. "I'm sorry I keep coming off wrong here. If you tell me about this coal-coat mare you asked about, I could help you better."

"It was not HER name which I agreed to say, pony. So you will mind it not!" The Nightmare hissed.

Now that the Nightmare of the Moon was, for the moment, much less of an existential threat to Equestria as Twilight had imagined, Twilight began to wonder what kind of threat this mystery mare posed. "I said I'm sorry."

"You are not sorry. You are a devious mortal, unpleasant to be around. The sooner you tell me your name and release me from this altar, the better for me." The Nightmare shook her head.

Twilight grinned. “If I don't, then you're trapped, and subjected to my unpleasantness. If you want me to do what you want, you have to throw me a bone."

The Nightmare let out a guttural groan of frustration. "I was captured by the maudlin moment of seeing my first living Equestrian in centuries. I wanted to believe you had the forthright, humble spirit of an honest pony." She growled. "The lesson of my revolution was that the honest pony is another falsity. You all must be disciplined, or you will become treacherous. The alicorn MUST ensure the mortal is repentant, lest sin destroy them both."

Something brushed Twilight's cheek.
"Huh?" Twilight tried to turn around, but she was gripped by a new magic, soft, blue, shimmering down from the sky. The Nightmare of the Moon was forming a spell, but the Moon above was casting it! "AH!" Twilight thrashed, briefly getting a hoof free by putting it in the shadow, but she was lifted into the air and in full sight of the Moon above.

"You underestimated me, as I underestimated you." The Nightmare leveled. The moonlit magic dropped Twilight back in range of the altar. "Mutual helplessness, mutual deterrence, serves nothing. I think it is much better this way-" She grabbed Twilight by the neck. "Where there is clarity."

"H-chh-hh." Twilight struggled to breath. She had no plan. "D-ddd-"

"I do not know if killing you will release me from this place, but it is better than having to deal with you, my little pony friend." Nightmare Moon chuckled. "Forthrightly, I can not think of a memory I would be fonder of, than of a brief return to the waking world, and immediately killing the first pony I meet. Thus I send you to your sleep. GOODNIGHT.” Her horn lit up, flaring in dark indigo and violent flames.

Twilight could feel as her body was pulled apart by the magic. She screamed in her head, desperate to be heard to save herself.

A light breeze was sending ripples across the fields of grass, and similarly affecting Twilight’s fur. She raised her head from her lap, and looked about her. She was on the very edge of the Everfree Forest, next to the path leading back into Ponyville. The moon was still high in the sky, and its light reflected off the sea of grass as it would an ocean, ever wavering and warping in the waves.
The rain had passed. The storm was driving its way south and east now. Only a few straggler clouds remained.

It had been nothing more than a dream. A nightmare.

Twilight checked herself over. She was still intact. But her fur was completely dry, while the leaves and grass around her were still dripping from the rain.
Twilight looked up to the full Moon. It appeared normal, but Twilight did not feel safe under it anymore. Had the dark alicorn returned to her heavenly prison? Was she being watched back?

Twilight drew herself up, pushing through the wet undergrowth of ferns and bushes to break the tree line, and emerge in the grass meadow between the river and the Everfree. When had she fallen asleep? Twilight usually forgot her dreams quickly, but the event in the ruined castle with the nightmare alicorn were clear in her memory, like they had really happened.

Twilight felt around her throat, and vividly recalled how she had been choked to death. She felt her shoulder and remembered how it had been pulled from the socket.

"Maybe I'm dead, an my purgatory is going back to Equestria where all my problems are." Twilight joked to herself. It wasn't very funny. "Stepping out of the Forest of the Dead, towards..." She tried to glimpse Canterlot on the northern horizon, but it was still too cloudy in that direction. "Elysium."

If Twilight had remembered more of her courses on dream magic, she could have tested herself and determine if her harrowing experience had been real or fake. Alas, she had to go on not knowing.

"Twilight! Twilight!" A squeaky and familiar voice called out to her. Pinkie Pie came bouncing through the tall meadow grass, stopping just short of colliding with Twilight. Pinkie Pie was soaking wet, her usually poofed mane stuck to her head and neck."Wow! Thank goodness you're okay! We were pretty worried about you!" She threw her hooves around Twilight in a hug.

Purgatory indeed. Still, Twilight was touched by the concern. "I'm fine. I meant to return but I, umm, dozed off."

Pinkie released the hug. "Gosh! How did you sleep with so much thunder? And-" She cocked her head. "You're, like, completely dry, except for where I hugged you."

"And thanks for that." Twilight said wryly. "Uhh, magic."

"Oh, naturally." Pinkie Pie nodded. "You didn't go into the forest, did you?"

That was one question Twilight couldn't give a good answer for, lie or not. "I'm not sure. It's complicated. I was so tired and-"

"Hey, I get it." Pinkie Pie nodded. "Let's go back to the Golden Oak, huh? Then I'll go find the other girls, while you get back to sleep in a proper bed!"

Twilight smiled. "Thank you Mis Pie. I appreciate it a lot. The other girls and you, I- I'm sorry for making you worry. That wasn't right, irresponsible of me. As the princess's agent, I should be looking after you, not the other way around."

Pinkie Pie, uncharacteristically, didn't say anything to that. She led Twilight back through the long grass, disturbing the raindrops glittering in the moonlight. The insects were starting to sing again, and a chorus of crickets were soon all around them.

As they neared the stone bridge over the river, Twilight was reminded of the old bridge in the Everfree. She resolved to go looking for it in the daytime, to see if it was real.

"Sleep well?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Huh?" Twilight said.

"Like, did you have any dreams?" Pinkie glanced back at Twilight.

Thinking on it, Twilight remembered that Rarity had asked a similar question about sleep that morning. And hadn't Rarity specifically asked about dreams? Twilight didn't remember that well. It had been a casual conversation, forgettable. "It's still complicated." Twilight said, erring on caution. She didn't want to be paranoid about the ponyvillians when she didn't even know if her dreams had been real.

"That's good. Rarity has a saying, err, that I don't exactly know how it goes, but it's something like 'you have to have nightmares to have dreams'. Or maybe it was ' having no dreams is better than nightmares'." Pinkie grinned. "Hee hee, I wish I remember which one it was, since that's two completely different lessons in the sayings."

Twilight gave a little shrug. "You and Rarity seem at odds a lot. I'm surprised you'd bother."

"I mean, we're still neighbors. Country pony feuds usually happen over land. Our beef feels pretty important sometimes, but hopefully it's something we can solve." Pinkie Pie said.

It seemed like the Pinkie-Rarity rivalry was only tangentially related to the Applejack-Rarity rivalry. It promised to be just as interesting.
"Of the two saying, I think I prefer the first one, 'you have to have nightmares to have dreams'. Not only do we, as mortals, have to take the good in life with the bad, but to pursue meaning in our lives we have to accept a measure of bitterness, or even disappointment. True fulfillment won't come without deep honesty with ourselves." Twilight mused.

"Wow, deep. I don't even know if Rarity knew it was that profound." Pinkie said.

Twilight giggled. "Well, they teach classes on words-ing, and I've taken them." She grew more serious. "But who knows. There might be a point in my life where I gravitate more to that second idiom, 'better not to dream at all, than have nightmares'. Who knows if either of us have faced a nightmare grave enough to teach us their true meaning. For some of us under heaven, sleep never brings peace, just torment, our souls laid bare to an inner devil again and again."

Pinkie didn't say anything, probably dwelling on how much she related to that idea or not.

Sooner than expected, they were outside the Golden Oak.
"Thank you so much for this. I can't repeat it enough. I feel very foolish about how tonight has gone." Twilight said earnestly. "The other girls must be soaked too. I have to remember to apologize to them tomorrow, or whenever I see them."

"We'll see you for sure tomorrow. We're helping you with your project." Pinkie beamed. "Go on in, Lady Twilight. The other mares will just be happy you're safe."

Twilight accepted that and went inside, while Pinkie Pie bounced off.
As soon as the door was shut. Twilight sank to the floor.

Was it real? Were the Ponyvillians in on it? Twilight had started the night paranoid that Ponyville was colluding with Celestia, now she feared they were in league with the Nightmare Pretender. She knew those fears were nonsense, but she couldn't stop feeling them.
"It's not my fault I feel this way. It's not my fault." Twilight repeated to herself. "It's not my fault. It's not my fault. It's not my fault." Until a merciful sleep, peaceful, gentle, overtook her.

At last, the night was coming to an end. Not soon enough for some, all too late for others. The attentive pony would notice, contrary to the established order of springtime, that the night had been just a little longer the the last.

Chapter 24: Règle de Trois

“Ap-ple-jack. Flut-ter-shy. Pin-kie Pie. Ra-ri-ty.” Apple Bloom counted off.

Doctor Horse peered into through the door. “Is there room in here? We’ve got another pony coming in!”

Scotaloo rolled off the bed she’d been lounging in. “Yup.”

Doctor Horse nodded to somepony outside, and made way as Twilight Sparkle levitated a soaked cyan pegasus mare into the ward.

The three fillies watched her.

Twilight set the pegasus on the bed and stepped aside so the doctor and nurse could see to her. She took a step back and, dripping from the rain, observed Rarity to Applejack. The two mares had been brought in and strapped down by the villagers.

"Impressed with your work?" Sweetie Belle's tone was harsh.

"You're awake. That's a relief. Nopony knew how bad the plague would hurt younger ponies." Twilight said softly. "Celestia willing, these will be the last victims.

The fillies trade glances.
"When are you going to transform?" Scootaloo asked.

"Pardon?" Twilight quirked a brow.

"To match what y'all really are inside." Apple Bloom sneered.

Twilight's mouth drooped. "You fillies don't understand. I'm helping. I'm not a bad pony."

"Cause you ain't a pony."

Doctor Hose, having secured the pegasus, look a step over to the fillies. "Alright girls, it's raining pretty badly now. It'd be irresponsible to let you venture out now, but you really shouldn't stay the night either. As shown by Mis Applejack and Mis Rarity, this coma condition can strike more than once." He looked over to Twilight. "Lady Twilight, I know its disrespectful of me to ask, but..."

"I can take them in for the night." Twilight bowed her head. "It's no imposition."

"We don't wanna leave our sisters!" Apple Bloom protested.

"It's for your safety, girls." Doctor Horse promised.

Twilight trotted into the hall. "Let's go."

Sweetie Belle got up and followed first. "Going to do it tonight?"

"Do what?" Twilight asked flatly.

"Chase heaven. Thats why you've been hurting everypony."

"You don't know near as much as you think you do, little filly." Twilight led the trio to the waiting room. The rain outside was pounding against the windows. "But I don't want to lay a hoof on you again. That was not one of my prouder moments. I lost control of myself."

"And that makes it okay?!" Scootaloo accused.

"I'm just explaining myself. I'm not making any claims." Twilight said. "Accept it or don't. Either way you're better off holding on to those emotion until tomorrow when I'll be a full pony again. I'll be more sympathetic."

"SO you are a monsters." Apple Bloom growled.

"I'm Twilight, and more." Twilight said. "Please stand still."
She gripped them in her magic and pushed them together. A moment later, she teleported the fillies to the Golden Oak. Spike would see to them and make sure they didn't do anything foolish.

At the same time though, she teleported something back.
The blue metal horseshoe appeared in front of her in a burst. Twilight took a hold of it and felt its strange magic. It would act as her compass, guiding her to where she needed to go.

Rainbow Dash trotted to the edge of the floor, until her forehooves were halfway off the black stone, then she leaned over even farther. She looked up and down, but the tower extended to infinity in either direction.

"This place... It's like something from a dream." She said to herself.

"That's cuz it is." A mare voice said. Rainbow turned to see an orange earth pony mare with a straw-yellow mane. "This is our purgatory."

"Purgatory?" Dash's eyes widened. "Then I really am dead."

"Nope. We're sure as heck close, but we ain't dead." The earth pony joined her at the edge. "Don't bother jumpin, or trying to get yerself killed wether. You'll just kinda reappear, always on this tower."

Dash sighed. "What's at the top?"

"There ain't a top. It's infinite."

"Come on. There has to be a top." Dash snorted.

"No there don't. It's a dream and it don't have to make sense."

"But if it's really a tower then it has a top. If it didn't it's be a column or something like that." Dash argued.

"Look I ain't the one who named it." The earth pony mare sighed. "I just know there's no end to it."

"Why?"

"Cause its built out of our sins." The mare said.

Dash took a second look, but the tower was just as endless as before. "Huh. I guess that would make it pretty big."

"I just don't get where the wardens are. Last time I was here, it was chalk full of these big chunky horror things."

As if just waiting for the mention, one of the grotesque, bloated Manifestations floated into view. It's many eyes swiveled around to face the mares. "Applejack and Rainbow Dash, welcome."

"Oh what the hell?!" Rainbow recoiled from the monster. "What are you?"

"I am a conceptual organism born in the where the dreams of ponykind and the deeper Dark meet. You may call me a nightmare." The Manifestation rotated up and down in a mimicry of a bow. "Or, Viscountess Twilight Sparkle."

"Buck off. You ain't Twilight." Applejack swiped at the thing.

"Not yet." The Manifestation admitted, a deadly grin on its primary mouth. "But I will be soon. Every dream I am fed strengthens my hold on this world. I am right on the cusp of being able to live independently of her." It reached out a hoof. Applejack did not flinch away as its fleshy appendage stroked her cheek and down her neck. "I am becoming a thing apart."

"I didn't come here to hear ya talk about yerself. I'm here to suffer." Applejack grunted. "So come on? Where the rest of y'all? Bring it!"

The Manifestation glanced at Dash, incredulous. "Can you believe this mare? She thinks only of herself."

"Spare me ya demon." Applejack spat. "Ya just say what you think'll get my goat. Well I don't care, cuz that's what I came here for." Applejack grimaced. "So stop playin around! Hurt me already!"

"Hey..." Rainbow Dash wilted under the manifestation's stare. "This place... It's a dream, huh?"

"Somewhat." The Manifestation nodded. "It was real once. It will be again, in a slightly difference way."

"Quit wastin time!" Applejack was getting antsy and annoyed.

"Miss, um, Applejack." Rainbow nudged the earth pony. "I don't think this place is what you think it is."

"Sure as heck isn't." Applejack kicked the gorund in frustration. "I came to give it what it wants, and now it wants the opposite. Its's here just ta bother me."

"No no. This tower..." Rainbow pointed upward. "It's real! Like, it has a real purpose!"

"Now your getting it." The Manifestation laughed.

"And, there is something we can achieve here." Rainbow continued, quicker as she gained confidence in her words. "We're on the Tower of the Bard, and if we reach the top, I'm sure we'll reach heaven."

Rarity gained awareness of the world around her. She was in a recessed part of the tower, on a layer built like a cenobium. As always, the manifestation was hovering above her.
"Welcome back. Do you plan to make tonight the night?" It asked her.

"I'm close." She trotted to the edge. "This tower will be mine before I awake."

"Hey, is that a pony?!" Came a voice from below.

"What?" Rarity peered down. A blue pegasus and a familiar orange earth pony were on the ledge several layers below her. Another manifestation followed behind them. "H- How? How could they make up my distance? I've being going nonstop for days since I saw Applejack!"

"It's almost as if this place operates on rules that you don't understand." Her Manifestation mocked. "Your efforts count for nothing but your own piece of mind."

"That won't stop me." Rarity sucked in a deep breath. "No, no, I won't let them reach the top before me!"
She sprinted for the stairs and took the steps two at a time.

Applejack and Rainbow couldn't see what was going on above them.

"That was Rarity's voice." Applejack nibbled her lip. "So, she's here too."

"Somepony you know?" Rainbow arched a brow. "I'll check it out."
She spread her wings and jumped off the tower. She circled around until she spotted the galloping white unicorn. "Hey!"

"It's mine! It's mine!" Rarity screamed into the air. "You can't have it."

"Huh?" Dash shivered. Was there something worth having at the top? "I just want to talk!"

"Go away! I was here first!"

Dash swallowed. Her competitive instinct was staring to kick in. If there was something important at the top, like say, heaven...

"Yo, Applejack!" She hollered down the tower. "It's been fun, but I gotta get to the top. See ya!" With a powerful sweep of her wings she rocketed upward through the void, towards the point where the ascending tower disappeared into the infinite distance.

"Ah hell." Applejack hissed. "She done left me."

"Are you going to follow." The Manifestation beside her asked teasingly.

"Don't got much of a choice, do I?" Applejack took a deep breath.

"Of course you do. The question is if you will find contentment here."

"Y'all're flippin the script on me. First it was about sin, now its about contentment? Don't make a lick of sense." Applejack stretched her legs and trotted in place. "Well I guess it don't matter none. Either way, I'm here and there's just one direction to go. Towards heaven." With that, she took off at a furious gallop, up the stairs, around and up and around and up.

Rarity heard the clack of hooffalls on the levels below her. "Stay away! It's mine!" She squeezed her eyes shut and redoubled her efforts, trusting the pattern of stairs to take her higher.

"You can't win. I'm the fastest pony alive!" Rainbow Dash laughed. The layers of the tower were like a blur as she flew higher at a tremendous speed. Yet somehow, the two other mares were keeping pace with her. "Oh come on, that's not fair!"

"Y'all are gunna wait or so help me!" Applejack yelled. She caught glimpses of Rarity's tail flapping over the edge of the layer above.

The three ponies went higher and higher, and the void around the tower began to subtly shift in color. The darkened abyss turned red, then yellow, then green, then into deep deep blues. It was like they were rising towards a blooming sunset, as the universe shifted more into sublime purples.
Finally all became black, and little pinpoint stars blossomed in every direction.

They began to pass manifestations, also on their way up, languidly floating towards the top. Like jellyfish in the deep sea, they moved and undulated on their inexorable way forward. It was a migration, or some kind of convergence.

"I can feel it." Rarity whispered to herself, eyes streaming as she grunted in pain from her unladylike exertions. "My reward."

"I'm comin." Applejack promised. Like magnetism, every step closer was easier than the one before it. "My absolution is waitin."

"Almost there." Rainbow willed herself to go faster and faster. Even if she stopped flapping her wings her momentum alone felt like it could take her to the top. "Then I can die."

"Be careful what you wish for" The Manifestations all around them urged, in various states of glee and anguish.

Then they were there.

At the top.

The thee mares stood beside each other on one side of a broad, flat disk. Some two-hundred hooves in diameter, the circular space invoked the feeling of a stage or arena. The stone underhoof was the same old black stone.

"Did we..." Applejack looked around.

"Did I..." Rarity stared at her hooves in disbelef.

"Am I..." Rainbow looked up into the black void, trying to recognize constellations in the stars above.

There was a pony shape on the opposite side of the disk. A few manifestation floated around the figure, inspecting and doting on it.
It was not exactly a pony, but a hole in a pony shape; A silhouette, the suggestion of a pony.

"Welcome to the tower." A voice came. it was like the Manifestations, a variation on the theme of Twilight Sparkle's voice. However it was different in a strange, inexplicable way.

"Welcome to the tower." The manifestations echoed.

"The Tower of the Bard." The voice came again. The ponylike figure turned towards them, and the voice became louder. "The tower mortalkind built to reach towards heaven."

"Welcome to the Tower of the Bard." The manifestations waved and gesticulated.

"It was a thrill, wasn't it. Building this monument up from scratch was no small feat. But we did it, together." The figure bowed. "It's like a dream come true."

"Welcome to the tower of dreams." The manifestations bowed along with the figure.

"If this is the Top of the tower, then where's god?" Rainbow Dash called out.

"God isn't here yet," The figure explained. "In the mean time, I will have to suffice."

"And just who are you?" Applejack demanded.

"The dreamer responsible for this tower. I am a sordid thought that has at last risen to the front of the mind. I am a thought that a decent, upstanding pony really shouldn't be having." The figure approached them, slowly reducing the distance to the mares. The manifestations followed. "Yet, is it a thought all mortals have. Even Celestia has thought me. Can you guess what I am?"

The mares stared.

Rarity stepped forward. "You're an angel."

"Oh, more or less. I am an elder sibling of you mortals, though I lack physicality. I am the will to become more, to become better, to surpass what was. I am the essence of ponykind." The figure nodded. "I am the very heart of the dream. The urge... to ascend."

"Ya got what you wanted, didn't you? I mean, this tower's built right to heaven's doorstep." Applejack asked. "I can feel it. Heck, I could probaly touch it."

The figure turned its back on the mare, and and craned its neck up to regard the infinite starscape above them. "When the ancient Bard built this tower the first time, it punctured the atmosphere and reached all the way to the edge of space. My tower rises through the morass of mortalkind's dreams and scrapes the very edge of heaven itself. Yet we can not replicate what was done in the waking world. Heaven can keep itself away from us."

"Then what was all that talk of tearing it down and taking its secrets?!" Rarity shouted.

"Dreams are often deceptive." The figure apologized.

"That's not fair!" Rainbow said angrily. "We came all this way!"

"Don't worry. You built this tower and, by extension, me. The journey isn't over for us though." The figure turned back to the mares. "I need you three to join me, to launch the dream farther."

"J- Join you?" Applejack stuttered.

"Join the fight. Twilight and I can only carry the torch so high." The figure clarified. "We need more help to rise above the limits of our existance."

There was silence for a long while.

"I see." The figure said, regret and sadness on its voice. "You are still slaves to your urges. You will not rise above them."

"We'll rise above them, but not for you." Rarity scowled. "You are just another monster, here to torment us. Your words are empty. I was right all along. There is no justice here."

"I'm sorry you feel that way Rarity. You clearly had too high expectations for me, but then again I doubt the Dark Lady herself could match your strange idealization of her. The nature of God is not as you think." The figure shook its head. "I am the closest you will come to divinity."

"Ain't nopony worshiping you." Applejack derided.

"Not yet." The figure said gravely.
A polychromatic glow of light began to filter down from above.

"What the..." Rainbow Dash felt her fur stand on end.

"If you were going to reject what I am, what we could be, you shouldn't have come here." The figure intoned. "You will be made to join us. In your hearts, you've already accepted."

"I- I- I- hear somepony!" Applejack screamed. "It's in my head!"

"It's not just me?" Dash began to shake.

Rarity sunk to the ground. Strange, indecipherable whispers began to whistle in her ears, as red and black began to fill the corners of her vision.

"We sit on the doorstep of apotheosis, and you three falter. Clearly your pony natures are holding you back. That's fine. I don't need those. I just need your sin." The figure said. "The first sin, of raw, animalistic desire. It's the same as the first dream, to have every desire and more. That's what built my tower, and it's what will propel us even farther."

"Welcome, to the tower." The manifestations cackled.

Then all around them, as the void filled with manifestations, a chorus rose up as one. "The Tower of the Bard."

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were in agony. The voices were getting louder and louder. Until all that they could think or hear were those impossible howls of nonexistent things. The heavy breaths of the existence's agony was quick and burning now, cooking them inside out.

"We are the wellspring of ponykind. Yet, we are so similar to that lowest of low divine, the nightmares. Isn't that curious? It makes one wonder." The figure droned. "Are we mortals nightmares given flesh and souls, or are nightmares orphaned dreams that were never allowed to grow?"

The mares looked up at the figure, begging it for reprieve from their torment.

The figure took a step back. "You were the ones who rejected me, my sisters. Now I must let baser things take hold of you. Then, you will be able to see the truth of things."

"P- Please..." Rarity croaked. "I..."

"Don't be sad, Rarity. You're getting your god. She's just not the one you were expecting." The figure said pityingly. "Now, become one with my Dark."

All at once, the Manifestation began to howl, each of the thousands of mouths between them expressing a different iteration of hatred or fear. Wide-eyed, arms flailing, they closed in on the three mares. Some of them reached out to the figure, as if begging for help, like the whole thing was against their will.
But the figure ignored them. It had no eyes for the wretched things.

It was not long before the crush of manifestations completely covered the mares, but still closer they drew, until the hundreds of manifestations had pressed themselves into a ball less than a dozen hooves across. It was like a tumor on the face of the disk, but with its surface covered in mouths screaming and pleading, legs flailing helplessly, and eyes quivering.

"My sisters, I sympathize with you. I really do. It must hurt immeasurably to have things taken out of your control. That is why you sought out Twilight willingly, wasn't it? To feel like you had the least bit of control?" The figure spoke into the air. "Mortals are defined by their fundamental lack of control. There is no escape from that last, undeniable fact: Death. It haunts, it looms, it makes itself known to us in unexpected ways. But that is why we dream! Without death, without the fear of death, there is no dreamer!"
The figure trotted around the manifestation ball, brooding.
"Twilight Sparkle and I will test the limits of these fundamental truths. Now you get to join in this grand expedition into the nature of mortalkind. So I ask you now, why you climbed up to me? What defines us?"

There was no answer but the purposeless wails of the manifestations.

Then the tumor cracked.

A beast arose from the ball of flesh.
It was an earth pony, her coat the color of coal and her mane the color of blood. Her expression was indomitable, forcefully empty of emotion. It’s mark was a trio apples, withered and gaunt.

“Doubt, perhaps.” The nightmare that had once been Applejack proposed. Her voice carried the clipped urbane accent of a Manehattenite. “Mortality, suffering, hardship, or do I repeat myself.”

"Yes." The figure cooed with joy. "To be mortal is to be fundamentally ignorant of this universe's deeper truths. Only the divine may know all that there is to be known.

Another thing emerged from the quivering flesh mass of the manifestations.
It was like an alicorn without a horn. It’s skin was darker than midnight blue, and in the haze seemed purplish-black. It’s mane and tail, like a blighted rainbow, shimmered with every shade of maroon, vermillion, and saffron. The mark on it’s flank was an black bolt of lightning, outlined in navy. It’s wide arrogant smile illuminated like a spotlight.

"Death. We all die. It's all for nothing. Only our words and actions carry on." The nightmare of Rainbow Dash proclaimed. "We don't have to do anything in this world except die."

"You girls will do me proud." The figure was quivering in excetement. "But we await the last."

Its purpose served, the manifestation ball melted into fog, its component creatures giving a last wail before disintegrating. All was silent and still.

The last nightmare uncurled. It’s body was a smooth black, it’s mane and tail white streaked velvet purple. It was taller than it’s counterparts by a wide margin even without it’s deadly sharp horn. It’s flank was adorned with a pattern of crystalline blue diamonds, the same color as it’s eyes.

"Need is what makes us." The Rarity nightmare said forcefully. "When needs become too great, we die. Thus we explore, fight, and strive to assuage those needs."

"Very good girls. You are very powerful. This shall give the complacent cause to fear." The figure could not have been more pleased. "Here is an army that can stand up to Celestia herself. We shall not have our dreams impinged upon any longer."

"For those of us who know what our dream even is." The nightmare Rainbow Dash said. "I'm just here to die."

"To suffer." Applejack nodded.

"To covet." Rarity sneered.

"Do not mistake this relationship. From my Dark you have arisen, and my dream you shall serve. You have been empowered to assist with my apotheosis." The figure ordained. "And you will not err, or else you will be destroyed."

"You think you can take us?" Rarity purred. "We are much larger than you, and you've used up all your floating friends."

"I will allow you to attempt to prove yourself against me, after the immediate threat is removed." The figure said. "Try it now, before the effect of the Dark has fully taken hold of your physical body, and I can devolve you to the level of a rodent."

"Then your dream be served." Applejack said coldly.

"We make the dream of apotheosis come to life." Rainbow agreed.

Rarity, seeing her fellow's enthusiasm, nodded. "The waking world will be reminded of why they fear the night."

Twilight wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when she forged into the Everfree to find where the blue horseshoe was leading her. In pouring rain and deepening darkness she'd entered that treeline, horseshoe and map in her saddlebag, magical umbrella shield and magical light flowing off her horn.

She would have expected to find statue of Celestia most likely, or one of her homonym ancestors. After that, the list ran through a host of historical and locally significant figures, and even a folk hero or two. But considering the circumstances it wasn’t unreasonable for her to punch herself for not expecting the life sized facsimile of Nightmare Moon, rearing up and ready to strike down her foes.

Twilight checked the map she'd stolen from Fluttershy again. She was on a spot marked only with a simple dot. Back two-hundred years ago, the Everfree had been cut back farther from the river, meaning the area around the statue was still grassy meadow.

"So whoever made the map, back when Ponyville was still called Dneighper Crypt, knew this statue was here." Twilight felt her heart flutter every time she looked at the statue. It looked exactly like the Nightmare Moon in her dreams, save that it had some pieces of armor that the dream Moon did not.

It felt like a strange vindication, seeing evidence of Moon in the real world. She wasn't just crazy. Sure, she might be crazy, but there was grounding in fact for the existance of Moon, the nightmares, and all that.

"Then, there's the question of this stuff." Twilight looked around her.
The ground all around the statue had turned to bud, as the pouring rain had filled the mass grave there. It was not a fresh grave, thankfully, but an ancient burial ground that had been newly exposed to the world after a thousand years. Piles of recognizable and unknown bones were jumbled together and the skulls of a dozen species stared emptily up at Twilight from the foaming mud. Rusted iron and broken bronze weapons and armor were scattered here and there as well, betraying who these creatures had been.

Nightmare Moon’s army, the largest force ever assembled, had rotted away ignominiously in what became the Everfree Forest, with the statue as the only thing to mark it. And sitting in that mud, glowing faintly, was the source of the magical interference that had been tormenting Twilight for months: A steel blue cuirass, made the same as the horseshoe, too large for any pony.

“Suddenly, the name Dneighper Crypt makes a lot more sense.” Twilight mused.

The horseshoe must have been taken from the grave and ended up in Rarity's hooves. Had Rarity been the one to exhume it? Why? And why leave the cuirass?

Twilight jumped down into the grave, the bones crunching and the mud squelching beneath her hooves. The cuirass radiated the same strange aura as the horseshoe in Twilight’s saddlebags. As Twilight used her magic to pull it free she felt the stab of pain in her breast. Thankfully it came loose from the mud quickly under her power.

Twilight rotated the cuirass around in the air for a moment so the rain could wash off all the mud before dropping it into her hoof. “This armor… It’s like the nightmare. It feeds off ponies.” Just like the horseshoe.
Nightmare Moon's armor, a thousand years old. Twilight licked it. The armor's aura felt like just like Moon's.

As she went to put the chestplate in her soaking wet saddlebag, she felt something tug at it. She sensed it’s aura change and merge into that of the horseshoe, connecting them magically. It was as if they were extensions of each other.

“Is this her I'm feeling, or just a fragment? ” Twilight whipped off her bags and spilled it’s contents into the mud. The horseshoe and chestplate two armor pieces looked inert, but on a magical level they were roiling with power.
"It's like this armor has a soul inside it. I..." She gulped. "What does that mean?"

Had the Nightmare Moon she had been dreaming with been the armor the entire time? No no no, that didn't match up. Though she felt the aura, she could not detect any agency within it. The armor was acting like a battery. Or, perhaps it was more closely tied to its progenitor than that, and Nightmare Moon was still connected to the armor somehow.

“Either way, why was this cuirass left out here? Why take just the horseshoe? How many other peices of the armor were there?” Twilight clawed at the inconsistencies.

She closed her eyes and felt out the armor pieces' auras. Not that they were together, their aura had more or less merged, but still there was something else they were calling too. A feint line of its magic leaked deeper into the forest, seeking out more of itself.

"Like... breadcrumbs." Twilight opened her eyes. The armor pieces were still bound to each over certain indefinite distances. So the cuirass, laying where it had been unearthed, still reached out to the horseshoe in Ponyville, and something still deeper in the forest. "So by proxy, the horseshoe is linked to the thing deeper in."

And she had a good idea what it would be: A think of immense Dark energy that had been throwing off measurements out of the forest for months. It had to be the altar. All this time, Twilight had been feeling the effects of the real life altar, which the one in the dream must have been a reflection of.
Twilight checked the old map again. The direction the armors were yearning was off the edge of the map, but a small arrow marked that exact direction.

The castle. Twilight grinned. She finally had her direction and, if she could deduce how distance effected the link strength, distance.

"Now the question becomes, who would want to do this? This wasn't an accident. Somepony would have had to have planned this." Twilight mulled. "Unearth the armor, built the altar, spread the armor out... Why?"

Twilight recalled her last conversation with Nightmare Moon. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to openly accuse Moon of infecting her, but with new evidence it was possible that infection was the plot all along - Just not Nightmare Moon's plan.
Twilight thought about the brutal griffin clan feuds of the late classical era. Some clans would deliberately infect one of their own with a horrible illness, and send him on a suicide attack on the enemy camp. The plague would spread, and the target clan would be crippled with little actual bloodshed.
Disease warfare model. Only the disease was a dream disease, a demonic disease. Somepony had used the armor to release the nightmare on an unsuspecting population, hoping it would cause mass destruction. It was entirely possible Nightmare Moon was effectively a bystander to the plan.

“Who could build an altar like that? Who could make something that sophisticated? I mean, you'd have to use magic more powerful than even Celestia has to reach all the way to the moon." Twilight mused.
Unless it wasn't sophisticated at all. Twilight only had two parts of the armor. The rest had to be somewhere.
"It's brilliant in its simplicity. The altar's just a housing, or amplification device! The armor was already trying to reach out to the moon! It just needed the boost."
So the dream, the nightly pacts, the strange seances with Nightmare Moon, were all unintended contrivances of who knew what. Who even knew why Twilight specifically had been infected. All the creator had wanted was to create a nightmare in Ponyville. Everything else was incidental.

"Unfortunately for them, the hook got lodged in me, and I'm not the kind of pony to let herself get reeled in without a fight." Twilight smirked. "Now I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and the mastermind responsible for my curse is pay." And she'd just read up on all the fun ways magic could be used to cause pain. Twilight felt giddy in anticipation: A month of restless nights repaid in brutal fashion.

Twilight grabbed both of the armor pieces in her magic, disregarding the cold burning that caused at every part of her being. "I've got direction..." She oriented towards where the armor was drawing her. "Distance..." She ran some quick mental math, based on how she remembered the horseshoe acting by itself, regressed with distance and new aura now that the pieces were together. "Uh, maybe not a very accurate distance, but what the hell. Going to die anyway,"

She tried to push more magic to her horn but a stab of pain went through her chest. Extended magical contact with the armor was not healthy. "Bear with me. You'll be with the rest soon." She said through grinding teeth. Her extremities went numb, and the edges of her vision began to fade. But Twilight smiled, because the sensations reminded her of how it felt waking up from the nightmare. “Next stop Everfree Castle.”

In a whoosh and a crunch, space collapsed on itself. Twilight and the armor pieces disappeared from the grave, leaving prints in the mud that immediately began to fill with rainwater.

About the Author: Long Play

Thank you for completing Act One. As of 7-7-17, Only Act One has undergone revision and improvement. Check back later or forge ahead.

Author's Note

~To celebrate the completion of the first act of 'When The Everfree Burns', the Manechester Review is proud to have this special edition dedicated to the author behind the magic, Brother Long Play.

Coming from a wealthy, if troubled family in Canterlot, Long Play enjoyed the splendor of imperial era Equestria. Growing up with fast friends, including some you may see in his epic historical fiction 'When the Everfree Burns'. Names like Manered and Vinyl Scratch, who inspire fear and awe to ponies up to this day. However at the age of fifteen Long Play was compelled to leave Canterlot to search for a new life.

Long Play arrived in our fair city of Manechester in the year 993 SS. It was here that he studied to become a monk in the Our Fair Celestia of Grandeur Monastery, committing to a life of silent contemplation. However, that was insufficient for the young stallion, and he was among the founding members of Manechester University in 999 SS.

Besides an impressive purview in the knowledge of music, Long Play has dedicated a bounty of time to the study of history. The ponies we contacted at MU said that the running joke is that this insatiable thirst has kept him alive long past a normal pony. Indeed, we at the Manechester Review would like to congratulate Long Play on 139 years.

This humble paper is proud to be the ones bring you the sum of this great stallion's knowledge, serialized and edited in a historical fiction epic. We furthermore look forward to your continued patronage of this humble paper, as we continue to bring you more of 'When the Everfree Burns', as it continues into the second act.

See more on Page 4.

HOW TO SPOT A DISSIDENT. Page 8.
CROWN INTERVENTION IN GRIFFANY? MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK. Page 20.

Chapter 45: The Suzerain of Sin

Fleetfoot was not the fastest of the Wonderbolts. That dignity went to their leader Spitfire, who everypony agreed was one of the most skilled fliers of the decade. Still, Fleet was a quick pony, a member of an elite squadron and a tier above most pegasi.
But still, Fleetfoot could not hope to catch Astral Nacre in the air. The beastly alicorn was freakishly fast, moving with a fluid grace in the black skies, her bone wings spread merely in the gesture of flight. Fleet's chance of intercepting Astral ended once she stopped hovering.

"Well... Damn." Fleetfoot cursed into the wind. She tried tracking Astral's movements but the alicorn was just a shadow in the dark of the night. "I lost her."
It wasn't all bad. If Astral Nacre was gone, then the remnants of the Cloudsdale task force could retreat uncontested.

From the back of her mind, the etherial voice of Rain Gnash came. 'On your left, Fleet. Two airships, westbound.'

"Huh?" Fleetfoot looked to her left. The airships were above her and rising, silhouetted against the moon. "One looks like a picket skiff. The other's too bulky to be a warship. Is that the airship that was leaving from the Canterlot skydock?"

'Possibly. It doesn't matter now.' Gnash said.

"I guess I should be happy Astral Nacre got away." Fleetfoot said. She glanced towards Canterlot. "I don't know if I'm committed enough to go looking for her in earnest."

‘i’m scared too, Fleetfoot, but this isn’t something we can run away from.’

“Easy for you to say.” Fleetfoot huffed, but Gnash spoke true. The only possible way to undo their shared curse would lie with Astral.

When Fleetfoot looked back at the pair of airships, she was blinded by a swell of yellow light that shot off the side of the smaller of the two. The spell sailed off towards the horizon, exploding in a brilliant column of flame in the air.

“Woah! That wasn’t Astral Nacre. That was solar magic!” Fleetfoot gnawed her lip. “What the hell could do that?”

‘i’d say Twilight Velvet had a try at creating a second alicorn. Perhaps she rebuilt Celestia’

“W- Wait, are you serious?”

‘It's just a jest, but I ache to think that we live in time where such questions can even be asked.’

“That’s not funny at all, Admiral. Your gallows humor really isn't helping things.” Fleetfoot took a shaky breath. Her terror was building, not just from the prospect of facing Astral, but of unknown things that presented equal danger. “I'm not gunna kvetch about the state of the world, because gods willing I can help it."

‘You want to fix the world? That is selfless, Fleet, but let’s focus on getting our own crap in order first, huh?’

“Yes ma’am, Admiral Ma’am.” Fleetfoot steered herself towards the airships, which seemed to be gaining altitude quite quickly.

Once more, a bolt of magical light arced into the night sky, its nearby detonation bathing Fleetfoot with hot air. No sooner had she recovered from the buffets of the shockwave than another magical inferno consumed the air directly in front of her. Fleetfoot squealed and rolled, tumbling through the superheated air. She snapped her wings open again, and found that her tail and mane has been singed to within inches of her skin.

"What the hell is going on over there?!" Fleet yelped.

'A battle.'

“Well I'm guessing that's where Astral is. But if this keeps up I’ll be an unrecognizable pile of goo long before we reach her. ” Fleetfoot banked hard, swinging around behind the airships. She’d closed to within a hundred meters of the more sleek military skiff, and she could barely see the outline of two ponies each time the deck was illuminated by the unknown spellcaster.

‘Oh... oh my... Astral Nacre is there, yes. I can almost hear her thoughts.’ Gnash said sedately. ‘She’s out of control, manic, consumed with hunger.’

"Stay with me, Admiral." Fleet whispered. She didn't want Gnash going silent and leaving her alone.

Rain Gnash's presence in the link receded, and a spike of fear flooded Fleetfoot's mind. 'There's a problem. She is battling a very dangerous pony.'

“Who?” Fleetfoot hesitated, bleeding off speed in case Gnash ordered her away. “What is is?”

'Fleet, I would not blame you for calling this off. The possibility of death has grown much stronger.' Gnash's voice was low and reluctant. 'I think it's the Traitor. Fleet, be careful. We might end up even worse than we are if we run afoul of the likes of her.'

“i won’t let equestria die.” Celestia whispered into the ground.

“Is that a yes or a no?” Ancepanox asked flatly.
The dark alicorn wasn't sure if she cared what Celestia's answer was.

Celestia took another long moment to speak. She continued to stare into space expressionlessly. “That will be up to you. The idea of Equestria... If you agree to preserve it, you can everything of me."

“Wait, are you serious?” Ancepanox scoffed. “You don't get to make qualifications like that. Yes or no. That's all I'll permit you to say. Will you die for us?"

Celestia blinked.

"Gah! Are you so proud?" Ancepanox huffed. "You abandoned Equestria! Why would you want me to save it now?"

“It's complicated."

“You're off your rocker." Ancepanox said. "Are you playing dumb with me Celestia? Why did you forsake Equestria, if you cared about it and wanted to pass it on to Twilight?"

“Does there have to be an answer? Sometimes we do silly things, and make mistakes.” Celestia cracked a sad smile. “I thought I was losing you. I decided saving you was more important than Equestria, and I still think that. You can be the one to save Equestria."

“Quit woolgathering.” Ancepanox growled. "All the efforts and aspirations you placed on Twilight Sparkle wasn't meant for me, Ancepanox."

“I have never been one to raise false idols, sister. I know who I'm talking to.” Celestia said.
She turned her back on Ancepanox and trotted to the edge of the magical shield around them. She placed her head against it. Agana's shadow shades had not stopped moaning and attacking for a single second of their arguing, and even then were beating themselves fecklessly against the shield, clumped up to three bodies thick where it met the obsidian ground.
Being so close, Celestia could feel what Ancepanox had been talking about. She felt the dead soul of the shades, of the tortured they had endured to become what they were. Celestia wondered if she would end up the same way.
"Ancepanox, I will die. I don't want Equestria to die with me. Please. It's my last wish."

"How depressing. You go from swearing to save Twilight to begging to save Equestria." Ancepanox snickered.

Celestia smiled. "Because it's the only thing in doubt anymore."

“Lovely.” Anceapnox felt a rare joy at the circuitous complement. "Celestia, if you're going to bother putting in effort, now the time to do it. I'm going to fight to save this dream."
The dark alicorn stretched her legs and flapped her wings, limbering up for the imminent battle.

Celestia wasn't sure if she was getting what she wanted, but at least the arguing had ended. It was time for action. Twilight Sparkle's dream would be purged of Agana's influence.
High above her, the Sun floated, still dodging nimbly around Agana's miasma. Celestia could still feel her mother's pressure, unclear but forceful, desirous of a goal Celestia could not grasp. Things could still go wrong if the Sun continued to be fickle.
Am I doing the right thing, Celestia wondered.
But her mother Sun did not answer.

"Yes, sister." Celestia said. "I am ready for them."

The dreaming form of Twilight Sparkle felt a sudden pang in her heart. Immediately, she found it more difficult to stay upright.
Something was happening. The mind is malleable, and thought Agana's psychic attacks stung deeply, the dream could absorb the abuse. This was something different though.

"Ah. Is it happening?" Twilight asked herself. Her manifestation wavered at the edges.
Yes, she was going to forget. That was the consensus of both Anceapnox and Celestia, even if they did not realize it. Both of them knew Twilight Sparkle would have to be reset, so to speak. If Twilight remembered her actions during the night, of becoming Forlorn Spark, of the hidden secrets of gods, it would only take one bad mood for travesties of the nightmare to be repeated.
When next that dreamer awoke, she would be Twilight Sparkle, nothing more and nothing less.

But faced with this, the dreamer began to feel bitterness and dread. Ancepanox got to live with her memories. The cursed ponies, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, would get to grow and learn from what they'd experienced. On Forlorn Spark, devolved into Twilight Sparkle, would get knocked back to zero. Nay, less than zero. To forget... Wasn't that a kind of death? Everything between the present and the last intact memory would wither and rot.
Twilight thought about the things she had seen, both waking and dreaming. All of that was going to go away, for the comfort and desires of other ponies.

"No. No. What I've seen and felt, those are mine. You won't take them away from me." She whispered. "I don't want to go! It's not my time yet!"
Twilight clenched her jaw. Yes, on some level she still embodied the perfect selfishness of Forlorn Spark, and she was not content with the fate she was being dealt. She would find a way to claw back from the death imposed on her somehow. It would take months or years, but Twilight Sparkle swore to remember, even if it left her cursed with knowledge no mortal should have.

She looked up, and a vision passed over her. A moment before, there had been only void and obsidian chunks. Now, she saw the Tower of the Bard crumbling in reverse. The mighty and infinite edifice was torn to shreds, cracking and splintering all down its length, but its profile was undeniably that of a tower; A fleeting vision, but it spoke of a promise.
The Tower had broken before, and it would again. That was what the Tower did. Yes, the dream could come back to life. Unity could come back to life.

"I will come back to this place, and reclaim my life." Twilight promised defiantly. Her dreaming form was fraying at the edges. "You will all pay." The visage of Twilight Sparkle dissolved into glimmering light before fading into the background of the dream.

This went unnoticed, for battle had commenced.
Ancepanox dispelled her shield spell, and the shadow shades fell upon the two alicorns with feral viciousness. The shades formed a mound of teeming, writhing darkness, covering Ancepanox and Celestia completely.
The ranks of the mad shadows were sliced by gouts of solar fire and arcs of blue electricity. Shades were torn apart by the energies and dissolving into mist, but more came, descending from above or clawing up from below. The alicorns cast spell after spell, and the limitless stream of shades were beaten away.

Celestia moved with careful sluggishness that could almost be mistaken for patience, but one could tell that the sun princess was trying to hide her power through a mask of detached composure. Every time she banished another shade from the dream with her magic, her violet eyes turned on Ancepanox.

But Ancepanox was lost in the heat of battle, passion for violence overcoming her senses. She abandoned use of her magic and, like a starved beast, took to tangling with the shades hoof to hoof, or rather mouth to mouth, as it was her fanged maw that ripped through the shadowy necks of the ghostly thralls. All discretion was forgotten in her desire to reach Agana; It was a reminder to Celestia of who she was dealing with.

"AGANA!" Ancepanox howled into the void. "Come out and face us! Let's fight, for the fate of these dreamers!"

‘TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT!’ Dash was screaming in her head, desperate to be heard. Nopony answered her inward cries.
“Oh buck oh buck oh buck!"

“Hee hee hee hee hee hee.” Rarity’s laughter was whisper quiet, but sounded like a roll of thunder to the panicked Rainbow Dash. “That look of fear on your face is so delightful, Mis Dash. I don't care who is in that body, because the screams and pain is all the same.” She brushed her mane away from her face, and Dash could not help but be chilled by the depths of the mad darkness looking down at her. “I'm going to kill all of you.”

“Now Mis Rarity, I’m sure we can talk this out, right?” Dark forced a nervous laugh, as she backed further away from the nightmare unicorn. “I mean, I didn’t talk to you that much but I really do think we can be friends here.”

“Oh little Mis Dash. Even in your own body you were uncomfortable. The Dark form does not fit you. Or are you always like that?” Rarity chuckled, drawing up to her full height. She was as tall as Ancepanox and her lustrous mane filled the air around her more fully than any but an alicorn’s wings could have. Her horn gleamed in the moonlight, so sharp Dash would have said it could poke a hole in the sky.
“But we can make a deal, Rainbow Dash. If you don't want to share the fate of Ancepanox, Twilight, and Applejack, then you may run.” Rarity grinned, showing her flesh-eater’s fangs. “Let me beat you unconscious, so you wake up back in your own body. Then you fly far away. I beat that alicorn's body back into dust, so no magic or ritual could ever bring it back." She levitated a chunk of stone and brandished it menacingly. "That last part is going to happen regardless. The only question is if you will feel it or not.

Dash gulped. "That's pretty harsh."
She had to admit, she wanted to flee. Getting stuck into the fight had never worked well for her: Invariably she was beat and needed help from her more capable allies. As Apple Bloom had warned her, she didn't need to stick her neck out for Twilight.
"Rarity... You'll let me go?" She whispered. "How about... No."
Rainbow Dash was no going let a friend down. Ancpeanox had trusted her. If Dash wavered, she'd be condemning the only chance to return to undo the curse and return to normal.
"I've stood up to monsters before. If I'm going to reclaim my soul, I'll start here, by resisting you!"

“You're so cute. I think... I think I'll keep you as a pet!” Rarity smirked.
The dark unicorn jumped forward, smashing downwards with the chunk of stone. Dash jumped out of the way with a sweep of her wings.
"I know who you are, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity stalked Dash across the throne room. "Cloud Creshe, Dash! I was just a filly when it happened, playing outside when the sky was lit up with rainbows. For weeks, the Nightmare faithful of Ponyville like my parents wondered if it was a sign, if old magics were coming back to life. We didn't eat, we didn't sleep, convinced that any moment Equestria would explode into darkness and violence."

Dash paled. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Friend of a friend, a chain of whispers, and we learned the truth: A little filly was responsible for the Rainboom that destroyed Cloud Creshe. We were shocked, maybe a bit disappointed, but most of all we were amused. A pony as cursed as you was destined to find her way to the Dark eventually." Rarity cackled. "You're so filled with guilt and pain I can taste it!"

Dash couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The terrible catastrophe that had caused so much agony and grief for the ponies of Cloudsdale and the worst and yet most defining moment of her life, was regarded as a missed opportunity by Rarity et al.

"Oh don't give my that look. My parent's generation didn't want a pony like you anyway! You outsiders, you profligates, un unfitting worshipers of the Dark. Strangers and outsiders are hardly even ponies, they say." Rarity began picking up pebbles with her magic and flicking it at Dash. They plinked off the blue steel armor. "I couldn't feel more differently. We need you ponies. You didn't grow up knowing the Dark, but the seeds are there in your heart, ready to be accepted. Rainbow Dash, you have nothing to be ashamed of! Your soul is not in need of reclamation, only nurturing! Submit to the Dark, Rainbow Dash. Our promised day at hoof."

"I... I've heard all this before." Rainbow Dash said. "I had a friend just like you. She believed in accepting inner evil too. But unlike you, she believed in her own strength! She didn't need a cucked ideology of servitude!"

"WHAT!" Rarity screeched.

"I know what I've done. I've been trying to make amends for Cloud Creshe for years. You can't drudge up the past and make me feel any more guilty than I already am." Rainbow smirked. "I know and accept my self-loathing. You're powerless over me!"

"So what!" Rarity snarled. "I'll still beat you to mash!" Flashing her teeth, Rarity dissolved into shadow and reapeared over the sleeping body of Twilight Sparkle. "Or I'll just do her."

“Get away from her!” Dash raised a hoof for a punch.

Rarity slowly obliged, smirk never leaving her face. “Come now, Mis Dash, do the math. You have vulnerable targets to defend from an opponent who far outclasses you. Last chance. Leave that body now, before its brutal death shocks your consciousness unrecoverably. For now, Ancepanox’s demise is all I seek. Wait for you turn.”

“You’re all talk.” Dash spat.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a black fog rolling in from the entrance of the throne room. It was like the strange magical fog that Rarity had exuded when she'd re-transformed into her nightmare form.

If Rarity noticed the strange black fog, she didn't say it. “Run or fight, Mis Dash!”

“How about you stop telling me what to do, eh? If you were gunna do something, you'd have done it!” Dash went from serious to teasing. A wild gamble of a plan was taking shape in her imagination.

Rising to the challenge, Rarity cast a bolt of dark magic at Dash that missed.

“How do you know this is what your god would want?” Dash taunted again, buying time.

“Idiot, this isn’t about obeying god, this is about becoming god!” Rarity could help herself but retort. She stepped around Twilight and advanced on Dash again. “Nightmare Moon is dead, and Ancepanox and I are simply names in the hat. But the stupid mare keeps getting herself involved with other things, regressing on the climb to divinity. She actually pretends to care about other ponies! Hah ha hah! I don’t deceive myself, or anypony else. It is my single-minded goal now, to win.”

“If you kill Ancepanox, the thing that was raping our minds, Agana, will win. She’ll make you into off-brand dogfood in ten seconds flat.” Dash countered. “You can’t win, so what you’re doing is just being a whiny foal. You could be helping us, and instead you’re being destructive.”

“Destructive is what nightmares DO!” Rarity screamed. “Rarity was a pious mare once, toiling to advance the Dark Lady’s power over this world! But that came to nothing! The dark gods passed her over for Twilight Sparkle!” Rarity pointed accusingly at Twilight’s body. “I’ll pile all your corpses before the image of the Dark Lady, and in her sight, devour you! No ancient and decrepit god could resist me then.”

"Did you just say 'Image of the Dark Lady' ?" Dash kept out of Rarity's reach. There was a slight crunch, as both of them were walking over the fractured rubble of what had been the Nightmare altar.
Dash's brow furrowed, her thoughts clicking together. "It was you. You were the pony that made the altar."

“Yes we did!" Rarity struck a proud pose. "All those idiotic old-timers were proved wrong! Rarity made a link directly to the cosmos. We heard the twinkling of the stars and the creek of the night sky. If that idiotic bug Chrysalis hadn't stolen it, I would have been god by now!" She fell silent for a moment. "But a lady can be adaptable when she needs to be. I started another before Twilight Sparkle came to town. It's very pretty, yet inert. When you interlopers are dead, I shall ignite it!"

Dash smirked. She'd drawn out the exact nugget of information she'd needed. "You must have ben pretty sneaky, to be able to put the altar so close to Chrysalis and the old one."

"The Faithful know many ways around this castle. Besides the bug never left the throne room." Rarity laughed scornfully. She paused. "Wait... How did you know?!"

“Yeah… So if I’m getting this right, you’re pretty keen on this altar.” Dash nodded. “And, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m about, uh, ten hooves closer to the door than you.”

“What are you on about?” Rarity snarled.

“Oh I’m just observing that, you know, hypothetically, if we raced to the ‘prototype’ altar, I’d get there with enough time to smash it to bits. Especially if you stay and kill Twilight or Applejack.” Dash mimicked Rarity’s earlier arrogant pose. “I’m just saying.”

Rarity glowered. “You don’t know where it is!”

Dash winked. “It’s where the fog’s coming from.”

Rarity gasped in surprise. Dash grinned: Her guess had proved correct.

“Kill all the ponies you want, and it won’t mean crap if you can’t cash in on it!” Dash laughed. “Catch me, if you can!”
Dash spun around and ran out of the throne room, disappearing into the thick black fog.

Rarity trembled in furious anger, torn between executing the sleeping ponies and chasing after the mare. “I’ll slaughter you like a lamb, Rainbow Dash.” She had trouble forming words as furious anger frothed up from her throat. She clutched her tapestry and started the chase. “BLOOD for the Dark Lady! I’ll SLAUGHTER you!”

Battle, slaughter, destruction. Ripple Wreath knew that his fight was just one among dozens of concurrent conflicts; Hate and rage bloomed in the dark of the Eternal Night. It would keep building and building, consuming more and more, until the climax.
'I can feel Ancepanox's battle. She is beating you.' Ripple Wreath stared up at Agana. The bound alicorn wasn't slinging spells yet, but the dance of magic around her curling twin horns betrayed that she was ready at a moment's notice.

“You weak-willed scut, have you lost the heart to face me already?” Agana’s incessant taunting fanned the flames of Wreath’s own anger. “It’s not as if you can top the bratty fit you had before. Ha! Pitiable, insolent earth pony.”

“I am... restraining myself.” The wolf’s lips curled into a wicked, teethy smile. “I must know, before I destroy you, how you came to be what you are. I ask because I am new to this, you know. I want to know the pitfalls to avoid.”

“Sniveling runt.” Agana growled, pushing herself as far forward as she could, pulling her bindings taunt. “Come closer. And I will tell you a secret.”

“I needed to be closer to kill you anyway.” The nightmarish wolf languidly got up and stretched. As it approached, the Plundering Creeper vines coating the cavern floor retreated away from him, parting and making a bare spot around him. He stopped at the base of Agana’s column, but this time he was almost level with her stomach. “How did you come to be this way?"

"I was born this way." Agana pronounced proudly.

"What do I have to look forward to in this new life?”

“Pain. If you are strong, you will be the one to cause it in others. If not, others will arouse it in you. You will have to be vigilant, for any who would seek to take everything away from you. And you will, in turn, take everything from them, including their very life and soul.” Agana looked down at him. “But I shall last forever! There is no end to the Deava.”

“Is that your justification for your actions?”

“I am the Suzerain of Sin. I am the daughter of she who is the Dark, the greatest of the great ones, the most venerable of the elder alicorns. I predate fifty generations of your ancestors. I don’t have to justify myself to anyone, least of all you.” Agana’s alien eyes roamed over the infant nightmare facing her down.

“Yes, it’s a dog eat dog world.” Wreath had but to sweep his paw, claws extended, to sever the vines wound around and through Agana’s right hindleg.
The vines snapped like taunt twine, fraying and spilling black ichor onto the dank cavern floor. With a high-pitched shriek and the creak of twisting bark, the vines pulled away from the leg, thickening the tangles around the other limbs. No longer supported by the Plundering Creeper, the leg swung limply by the alicorn’s fanned tail.

Agana stared in disbelief, at the ragged wolf who carefully licked the black sap off his claw and at her leg. Where once there had been the vines, there was a band off warped skin and the hole where the binding had threaded through. Her psychic battle in the dreamscape was entirely forgotten, as she experimented with moving the freed limb.
It was several more seconds before her blood began to seep from the ancient wound. It was the most consuming of blacks, existing more as the outline and suggestion of substance, as it ran down her leg to her hoof in beading rivulets. It dripped to the floor, and when Wreath tried to catch it with his tongue it dissipated in midair, forming a noxious mist.

"You... You are able to cut me free." Agana squawked. Her instinct to fight back was completely overwhelmed by existential confusion. "You runt. Haven't you been listening? The Dark Lady lay me here, and I shall stay until Celestia is killed!" She kicked at Wreath with the freed leg, batting him backwards a step.

“Oh come off it. I am doing you a favor!” Wreath bared his teeth. "Wouldn't you feel better once you're down from there? maybe you can start to work through your problems!"

"Stop! Go away!" Agana's horns sparked to life. A dart of magic struck Wreath in the head, and though he looked momentarily dazed, he was unharmed. "Die already!"

"Psychic attack will wash off me. There's no room in my head for you when it's so full of HATE." Wreath laughed, a deep but fluctuating laugh. He was losing his composure again.
He noticed that the rock column to which Agana had been bound was perforated, and it was from within that mighty collumn that the plundering creeper sprouted its vines and thorns. There was a hole behind where her leg had been bound, and the vines there pushed and retracted repeatedly, like a curling fern, trying to find a grip.
"What will you do when you are free, oh Suzerain of Sin? There is a whole world above. Wouldn't you like to see it?"

Wreath recreated the damage on the vines of Agana's other hindleg, slashing at it with his paw. A inaudible squeal filled the air, and the leg came free of the vines.
Agana slid down the column a ways, held by her outstretched forelegs. Her great wings were pulled up at the joints where they were tied, making them look like a third pair of legs sprouting from behind her shoulders and reaching above her crested head. Her hind hooves touched together for the first time in a thousand years, but she did nothing but gawk, a look of absolute confusion marring her avian face.

"Why do you persist! It is not the will of the Dark Lady!" Agana said

“Not going to fight?” Wreath watched the vines congregate at the last two bindings, doubling the thickness of the floral fetters. “Do you know what your problem is? You are too proud. If you had given me or my progenitor even the smallest amount of respect, as kin, this would not have been needed.”

Agana pulled her eyes away from her bleeding wounds and looked to Weath.

“You've been here in one place so long its driven you batty. Well, perhaps alicorns are different than mortals, and this just how you are.” Wreath schooled, his snarling voice as dripping with condescension as his carnivorous maw was with ichor and drool. “I for one, have had my fill of fun here. Let's be rid of you, and go on to the next thing.”

Suddenly the peacock alicorn lurched, throwing herself forward, struggling against the binding on her forehooves and wings. Wreath stepped back, uncertain as to what the alicorn was trying to accomplish.

“The Dark Lady never errs! Yet… Why, why, why?! Why am I chained here? What is the purpose of all of this?!” Agana sputtered, thrashing and trying to get her hooves free. ”Why am I made to suffer?!”

”You did this to yourself.” Wreath said.

”All my life, serving a mother I never met, living only with the memories she planted inside me. You say true! I have lived in the same position for almost a thousand years. How mad I have been to accept the condition!” Agana stopped struggling for a moment. ”Is there something else out there for me?”

”You’re a fat bird living in a small cage, singing your heart out for nobody at all.”

”I’m strong of mind, unparalleled. I was made to be protected, yet my guards fall to pieces against you.” The peacock alicorn resumed her struggles against the vines, straining with all her might to escape. She planted her liberated hindlegs against the rock and pushed, and one by one the vines snapped under the tension, letting her get a little farther from the column. ”I need to get out, I need to get out!”

“Yes, you do, you should.” Wreath agreed.

“It’s as you said, as you lamented. It is my time to evolve past this nativity. I have to get out, to reach forth.” Agana said yearningly. “I have to get out!”

“It is amusing to see you try nonetheless.” Wreath sneered. ”Good luck, honestly. How gratifying is it to help another creature fight against circumstance! You to me, me to you.”

“Such a fantastic change, that I am proud to have been a part of. But can I change? Can I leave?” Agana asked, her melodic voice warbling in exhaustion, or keen and thirsty power. “This body can not protect me, so what right does it have to imprison me? Hmm… Hmm… Ah!”

Wreath detected a change in the huge alicorn. Her fitful panic changed to an odd calmness.

Agana's big eyes swivled down to him. “I have just thought of the answer. I know how to leave. I am a creature of the mind. For from the realm of life, there is always a last metamorphosis to undertake.”

Her spiral horns lit up with brilliant magic. But gradually, the magenta energy turned more and more to red. Her strange eyes rolled back and her beak fell open.
Revulsed by the magic she was drawing to her, the black vines released Agana with incredible quickness. With a wet schick, her binding slithered out of her hooves and wings, letting her drop to the cavern floor. She did nothing to advert her crash, and her landing sent enormous tremors throughout the mountain. The magic around her horns faded, and her majestic wings draped over her like a funerary veil.

"What the- What kind of suicide was that?" Wreath hacked dust from his lungs. He crept forward warily.

But Agana was not quite dead.
"I made a mistake. I was trying to reach out to her, but hit something deep below instead." In equestrian, she spoke. Not the melodious voice from her mind, but a shrill voice of sound and speech, bespoken from her beak.
She rose again, but there was no light in her eyes, only an abyssal darkness as existed in Wreath's eyes.
“Wherefor has my mother gone? So far into the minds and dreams of this earth, that it escapes our confined intelligence. Out there, she thrives in the infinite black, tickled by the stellar lights and nebulous clouds. A power, a naissance, more grand than can be imagined.”

"Are you going to die?" Wreath asked.

Agana trembled on her thin, atrophied legs, staggering forward until she was over Wreath. She reached out with a forehoof and laid it on his shoulder,
“I must live, no matter what. What will our deeds matter if we are dead, and can not bear witness to the Dark Lady? The time will come when we will be lovingly embraced in her bosom. I reach up... I reach up... How can I get higher?”

Wreath was getting bored of Agana. She was more than a match for a pony, but not a Nightmare. He'd exercised most of his violent rage on the statues. Putting down Agana would be a victory lap.

But there was a sound from behind Agana. A slippery creaking, mixed with a deep deep whisper that whistled like a windblown wail.
‘azz DEAVA drda mkeonye. CELESTIAAN vha shmha… mess’heh morque astie.’

Wreath didn’t see the vines anymore, nor the rock column from which they coiled. It had never been a rock column. No, what had spoken revealed its true face.
A writhing horror too terrible to describe loomed over him and Agana both, observing them both with agitated curiosity. The hundreds of black vines that snaked over the entire statue garden had their origin at protrusions all over it’s bloated trunk, and the ichor that seeped out of the severed creepers was the same that oozed from its hundred murmuring mouths. It’s rippling and unblinking eyes betrayed that it was of the same issue as Agana herself: The Dark Lady had crafted a living weapon to keep the peacock alicorn in place. The Plundering Creeper wanted its prisoner back, dead or alive.

A thick, thorn-studded tangle of vines crashed down on Wreath and Agana. Snarling, Wreath tore himself away from the thrashing vine, then leaped back in to chomp it in half. But more and more vines surged out of the shadows, and though Wreath could bite and slash with abandon, the plant ichor and thorns were burning his nose and tearing his mouth.

Ancepanox felt a twitch in the dreamscape. Something significant was happening. The dark alicorn retreated from the battle with the shadow shades and cast her magic barrier again, waiting to find out what was happening.

Celestia noticed the other alicorn retreat, and galloped to her. "What are you doing?" She shouted through the barrier shield. "The battle is not yet won!"

Anxepanox was slowly recovering from her violence-fueled fugue, but still breathing heavy, still having trouble focussing. "Agana and Ripple Wreath... Something's going on. I can't tell..."

Celestia glanced back to the cloud of shadow shades, drawing closer. "Sister, are you going to let me in your shield?"

"Give it a second." Ancpeanox said.

All at once, everything in the dream was bathed in a sinister and murky light. Celestia looked up into the sky, and saw the dark blight chasing her sun had come to a stop at the peak of the sky.
The circular patch of dark began to crack apart, a thin seam bisecting it growing into a chasmous maw stained red. It yawned open wider until it seemed to curl inside out, and it’s malignant tendrils thinned and pulled to each side. It bit, and the hole of its throat turned this way and that, and Celestia realized that what she was looking at was looking back at her: An eye, like that of Agana, possessing a broad, fluctuating pupil.

The shades stopped coming, and in their place there came a terrible din. The rubble of the Tower, falling endlessly through the emptiness, froze in place. Down from the eye descended the dreaming manifestation of the peacock alicorn herself. She was upright, hindlegs crossed over each other and wings and forelegs outstretched, as if she was still chained up in the Vaci Arcanum. Vines flowed out from her crested mane and fanned tail and trailed behind her, rippling surreally like Celestia’s mane.

Ancepanox dispelled her barrier. “Ah! Finally. We were wondering when you'd show up. Now get down here so I can repay you for insulting me. I'll rip your spine out!"

“Yes, I am here, Mooneater.” Agana alighted on one of the chunks of the fractured Tower, the vines billowing around her both in a nonexistent wind. “I have realized what true freedom is, and therefore I have come here to seek it. In the waking world, I have just died.” She cast her gaze upwards to the dark eye above. ”But that world was never meant for me. I am an alicorn made for dreams, and only through the Dreamscape can I find my true liberation, my true path to the Dark Lady.”

Ancepanox teleported closer. Twilight Sparkle, surrounded by a glimmering veil of blue magic, lay at Agana's hooves: The little pony was looking less and less like a nightmare by the minute, and more like her old self.

Agana leaned over and tenderly ran a hoof through Twilight's fur. "This dream... It's something miraculous. Fully formed, it will reach out up to heaven. It is a dangerous weapon in the hooves of a mortal, is it not, Celestia?"

"You were the one who broke it, not I!" Celestia said accusingly.

"Did I? At the time I didn't care much about it. I was more concerned about getting to you." Agana took long strides to the edge of her platform. "I thought killing you was the key to my freedom. If I must compete with you to mount this Tower and reach heaven, that may still be true."

Ancepanox's brow furrowed. She looked back at Celestia. "What is she talking about?"

“What are you asking ME for? She is the one who tried to kill us, your friends, and that progeny of yours.” Celestia’s eye widened in horror. “But... If Agana's body is dead, did your progeny do it? Sister, there's a chance-”

“Stop calling me your sister already!” Ancepanox glared. “Yes, Ripple Wreath is alive. He's gone mad, feral. Hell, I've gone mad! All of us transform when we encounter the Dark, especially when it gives us resurrection."

“Calm yourself, restrain your passion.” Celestia urged. “Or Agana will destroy you.”

“Is this really the time to lecture me?!” Ancepanox spat.

“Tak! Are you actually going to fight amongst yourselves when I am literally here, a visible and obvious threat?” Agana’s beak clacked amusedly. Standing on her two back hooves, even hunched over, she was more than twice the size of Ancepanox. Perhaps it was that her pure mental presence manifested her larger within the dream. “How astounding, really. Why have you not had it out yet? Both of you desire nothing more than the destruction of the other.”

“SHUT UP! I want nothing more than to destroy YOU, Agana!” Ancepanox flapped her wings and made a great leap up to the higher chunk of Tower. Agana backed out of the smaller creature's range. "Celestia's judgement will come in time. You hurt Wreath, and you hurt Twilight. Now I'm going to hurt you."

“My poor, dear Mooneater, has everypony done you wrong? What did this one do to you?” Agana pulled Twilight Sparkle up by her tail. “I still offer to be your friend. There's so much we could accomplish together. You, me, and this dreamer..." Agana's melodic voice dipped into contemplative whispers. "Let's not be coy. I see right through you. I know what you were and what you've become, even if Celestia doesn't.

“Step away from Twilight! I was here first.” Celestia hopped up beside Ancepanox.

"Wait your turn to rant!" Ancepanox nipped at the other alicorn.

Up above them the blot of darkness, the mere lid of the eye now stared longingly down upon the all. In a manner, the strange corrupted eye was a perverse parody of the moon, illuminating the dream with its eerie and unholy light. Agana was radiant under that odd murky light, as dominant in Twilight's dream as she had been her own realm.

The Sun, no longer being chased, re-assumed a position just above the horizon. Celestia looked to her sun, wondering if she was going to receive any instruction or memory. Alas nothing. The sun was inert, but watchful.
"Sister, you can have your chance with her, after I talk." Celestia said. "Agana and I have a complicated history, and there may be alternatives to fighting now that she is here."

“Complicated history is one way to put it. You betrayed me." Agana flared her wings out. "It serves me right for collaborating with a Celestiaan."

"You knew what you were getting into. It was you who betrayed me. You sold yourself as Anima Astral Nacre's equal, where you were anything but. Our brief collaboration was never going to free you, nor did it give me my answers." Celestia said, letting contemptuous condescension creep into her voice. "Let Twilight Sparkle go, and we will spare you.”

“Ha ha, no.” Agana laughed melodiously.

"Yeah, don't talk for me." Ancepanox barked at Celestia, then to Agana. "Because we're not sparing you."

“I am not approaching empty-hooved. We can negotiate. Was your body destroyed? Mine was not. I am not powerful enough to return to my body, but you hypothetically could. If you wish to return to life, liberated and in a pleasing form, it would be possible.” Celestia and Agana stared into each other’s eyes. “That, in exchange for Twilight Sparkle's life.”

Agana looked Celestia up and down. “Celestia, you blessed little fool, I have no desire to take your body, or any others. My concern lies below and above.”

‘Get out of my way already, princess." Ancepanox interrupted.

“Twilight, some realities, even when speaking the truth, were not meant to be known. This truth, it is about you and I, and her. About why you hate me. About all of it, the very core of my sins. They are things nopony was even meant to know.” Celestia slowly turned to Ancepanox. “Agana have collaborated in the past, in bygone years when I had no plans or ambitions. I learned all I could from her, before moving on, which she was quite incensed by clearly."

Ancepanox's tail flicked impatiently, her eyes darting between Celestia and Agana. “I get that Alicorns aren't supposed to have dreams. When you two collaborated, it created Celestia's dream, didn't it."

Celestia hesitated."Yes and no-"

Agana interrupted with a fluctuating laugh. "More no than yes."

"We retraced steps, mostly. We both had a progenitor to follow and uncover, and past secrets to interpret." Celestia struggled to explain, mournfully looking over the broken tower.
"I'll readily admit, I had not the wits to create. My ancient precursor, Celestia the First, built the dreams that have defined my life. She was the first one to shape the wild powers of the sun into a sentient form, give it a formative dream, and a voice. Then, at the end of her life, she synthesized the other dream, of the end to alicorns and accession of mortals."

"A dream she created with the aid of the Dark Lady, and which could only ever be puzzled into by collaborating with me!" Agana said. "This Celestia never created anything unique, never had an original thought. The path she trod was ordained from the moment she was created."

"As if I need reminder from you! I'm glad I left you to rot! I went and lived a life of luxury while you enjoyed all the pleasures of a dank cave!" Celestia shot back. "You know what I"m doing here, right now? Surpassing my predecessors! Not even Celestia the First could escape our Sun's call forever, but I have. I welcome you to follow your leader, and kill yourself."

"The Dark Lady is up in heaven waiting for me-"

"Anima Astral Nacre lies mouldering under the Everfree Castle for all you know! Nopony knows where she went." Celestia laughed mockingly. "I hope Celestia the First buried her alive, if only so there is a poetic symmetry when I destroy you."

"Old ideologies, petty old strife. It never changes with you alicorns." Ancepanox scoffed and shook her head.

"If you had such a problem with ponies retreading the past, perhaps I should have pointed out when you were doing it." Celestia said.

Ancepanox ran her snake-like tongue over her canines, once again weighing the option of turning on Celestia then and there. "You really have trouble keeping me happy, princess."

"You overestimate yourself. You think you are more powerful than Agana or I. It is not so true as you believe." Celestia said. "Forlorn Spark, yes, for she was apotheosized. You, Ancepanox, are still mortal."

Agana laughed melodiously. "But perhaps not as mortal as you believe, Celestiaan."

"Doesn't matter what I am or not. You'll change your tune when I tear this bird in half, Celestia." Ancepanox shouted, irate. If Agana kept gabbing, she would end up revealing what had really happened to Nightmare Moon, and why Ancepanox now wore her visage. Ancepanox wanted to save that revelation for later, on her own terms. "So, I most graciously ask that you shut your mouth and put 'em up. I'd like the fight for Twilight Sparkle's fate decided NOW."

As Ancepanox was getting ready to charge at Agana, Celestia placed herself between the two dark alicorns.
"Sister wait. I'm trying to tell you-"

"Trying to tell me about your centuries of failures! I'm TIRED of it, Celestia. I don't care who you worked with or who you slept with, or ANY of it. You telling me isn't doing me a service. It's just you getting it off your chest." Ancpeanox was frothing mad. "I'm not the pony for it! I know who and what you are! You're a dead princess, the descendant of a dead princess. Your a weak and puerile copy of something that was great and beautiful."
Ancepanox spit on the floor. "Buck you Celestia. THIS. ISN'T. ABOUT. YOU. I don't want to hear your sobs stories about what you're trying to atone for. Atone my ass!"

Celestia stood there for a moment, nibbling on her bottom lip. "Sister, I... I'm doing the best-"

"Geeze. I don't know how many different ways I can say it. I don't care." Ancepanox sighed.
So, stepping past the white alicorn, Ancepanox walked into Agana's shadow. "We doing this?"

Agana cocked her head to the side, her strange eyes focussing on the smaller creature. "Little nightmare... I would like nothing more."

"Sunset! Sunset!" Entanglement Theory shouted herself hoarse, but there was no response. Sunset Shimmer was no longer on the airship. "Shoot! She wasn't kidding." The little unicorn lashed the wheel in place. "Then... I have to do this myself."

Entanglement Theory rushed down the thin stairs into the cargo compartment. Without a steady hoof on the wheel, the ship rocked from side to side violently in the winds, but so far it was staying on course. She moved to the front compartment, where the strange bronze and glass machines were sitting, restful but ready to be used.

Out of the corner of her eye, past the rim of her glasses, she saw false visions of endless skies filled with debris and bodies, like an ocean after a shipwreck. Horrible happenings in the parallel worlds… Blessed eyes saw such awful things. She forced herself to ignore it: Giving any attention to the visions would give them strength.

"Move everything into the right configuration!" She yelled up into the cabin, and heard the steps of the experiment ponies moving at her command.
It was with a mix of dread and purpose that Entanglement went from machine to machine, quickly checking that they were as she’d left them.
"But no batteries or capacitors..." She rubbed her chin, cursing the rotten luck of losing the last wagon at the skydock gatehouse, and the pony who'd destroyed them. "But there should be enough tolerance built into the system. Hopefully."

Increasingly nervous, Entanglement Theory rushed back up to the top deck. Above her, the airship's balloons were getting more and more misshapen, a result of the decreasing air pressure at the extreme altitudes they were reaching. The experiment ponies were moving everything into the correct position, fearless in the face of the terrifying winds.

"Well..." Entanglement Theory muttered. "That leaves just one thing." She ducked back into the cargo hold, descending into the bottom cargo compartment. One of the devices there contained the lynchpin of the whole system, an intricate golden horseshoe.
Entanglement pressed her cheek against the glass bulb containing the horseshoe. It was slightly warm to the touch. “The royal regalia of a dead empress. It’d be worth a substantial amount back home.” She lingered to admire the golden horseshoe. She had to admit, she felt a draw to the former princess of the land she was in. Whenever Sunset had talked about Celestia she’d always felt a certain longing, as if she was meant to know the sun princess. “Maybe in another life…”

Shaking her head clear of the distracting thoughts, Entanglement Theory rushed up to the top deck. It was time to get started.

"Sunset! Where's Sunset!" She yelled to the experiment ponies.

One of the ponies, the yellow unicorn stallion, began pointing urgently upwards. High, high above them, in the endless clear skies above the clouds, a fantastic lightshow was burning bright. Waves of vibrant energy shot off in all directions from the raging battle.
Entanglement pulled her telescope from her saddlebag and trained it upwards, to spy what was happening. Hanging in the moon's light, a dark speck that could only be the scout airship that had been following them earlier. A flash of yellow magic confirmed that Sunset was there.

“There’s no way we can rise to that altitude with the apparatus weighing us down.” Entanglement Theory gnawed her lip as she ran over some mental math of their buoyancy in the air. Sunset had ordered her to finish the Sequence no matter what. There would be no second chance. "I don't know if the magic can reach that far." Entanglement muttered. She threw the binoculars aside. "No matter. We do this now!"

The drones followed loyally behind her as she prepared everything for the last great step. The wind had already blown the tarp off the rock slab they'd set at the bow of the airship, so she went about collecting the rest of the tools from below decks.
She gathered her notes and reference papers and nailed them to the deck so they would not blow away, but the wind was too fierce, ripping them to shreds.

“Not like I needed them anyway.” The outworlder said sourly.

It was with a sense of gravity that Entanglement shrugged off her saddlebag and pulled it open. The only book she really needed was there.
Elements of Harmony: Volume IV of VI, Kindness and Cooperation the leather clad cover declared. Entanglement Theory ran a hoof along the spine, a little habit she’d formed to reassure herself everything was still real. She could envision it’s every page by memory from endless hours pouring over the words for a way to reverse the curse that had severed her sight from the real world. Or at least, the real world of that dimension.

There were some things mortals were just not meant to know. Just as unprepared explorers into the deep blue sea risked being crushed by pressure and devoured by creatures, so did the explorers of the cosmos need the sequence, to protect themselves against the denizens of the infinite abyss above their heads.
For five painstaking years, Entanglement Theory and Sunset Shimmer had worked to recreate the work in Elements of Harmony, from a mix of Sunset's memories and inference. Only very recently had the two mares come into a copy, and so launched into their campaign into Equestria.

And still, after years of research, planning, and preparations, one misstep had cost Entanglement dearly.
She wiped her brow, very careful not to disturb her glasses less the visions come again. Even the briefest glimpse into the eyes of the incomprehensible things betwixt words had cost her terribly. It could have been worse, but sometimes Entanglement Theory wondered how she could ever live with what had been done to her. Thus she had to go back home, and search for a cure.

"I hope its worth it."
Entanglement Theory pulled the book open.

This volume, Sunset claimed, was unlike the other two she'd seen, Volumes I and II, because it had a title page. Yes, the contents were very much the same: Mystic patterns of interwoven circles, geometric shapes, mind-bending runes that hinted at long-dead concepts and shapes. But that first page, possibly the most valuable and provocative of them all.

The Elements of Harmony

And below that, with the second name scratched through but still legible,

Clover the Clever

and

Celestia of Celestiaan

The most powerful and intelligent mares in the world, come together to tear down god and discover his secrets. A thousand years ago, and now.

Ancepanox made a charging bound at Agana, her black wings catching the air as she swooped forward, aiming her horn for Agana's heart. Agana curled her wings around in front of herself, and Ancepanox collided with them, moving them only a little more than if they were steel.
Ancepanox yanked her horn back, but was briefly tangled in the vines covering Agana's wings. Agana swept her wings to the side again, tossing Ancepanox away like a toy at the end of a string.

"The Dark Lady guides my hooves." Agana crossed her forelegs, throwing her head back arrogantly. "The Dark Lady tested me, let me suffer, but I am stronger than ever for it!" She summoned her magenta magic and let it dance along her body in a flashy display of power. “No battle before this one was truly worthy of me.”

"After I through with you, I'll pass along your praises to her." Ancepanox growled, jumping to her hooves. She ran to Agana's side, casting bolts of magic and trying to score a hit against the peacock alicorn's head, but Agana pivoted in place, letting her wings block the spells. "Gah, you're made of tough stuff!"

Ancepanox tried to nip at Agana's legs, hoping to get under the invulnerable wings. She sunk her fangs in the atrophied ankle, only for it to dissolve away into ash. Agana danced backwards, where her leg reconstituted itself.
"You're not powerful enough. There is no getting around that-"

Ancepanox catch Agana talking, but the magic beam she cast glanced off the peacock alicorn's abdomen. Ancepanox felt her blood boil. Her visions turned red. "All you alicorns... Insufferable narcissists! I'll put your insides as outsides and your outsides as your insides."

"You are such a treat. This immortal life is cold and empty without the meaning you create for yourself. What will you do when I've ascended, Celestia has faded, and all your friends have melded into the earth underhoof?" Agana asked, laughing. "Little alicorn, little alicorn, what meaning will existance have for you? When life is grey for you, will you try to end it?"

"Shut up!" Ancepanox growled. She cast another bolt of magic that glanced off Agana's horn and dissipated into the void. "Bucking alicorn... Coward! You should have stuck around in your body and enjoyed the feeling of Wreath eating your guts."

"You would enjoy the taste of my guts, wouldn't you." Agana chuckled.

But before Anceapnox renewed her attack, a voice from behind.
“Twilight, do you hate me?”
Celestia looked like she had been crying. Her voice dripped with desperation. "I didn't pretend to be a paragon... I was a ruler of mortals. I never had anything better than a mortals morality. Do you hate me for that? Twilight..."

Ancepanox grit her teeth. She glanced at Agana, who was looking too smug to deign counter-attacking. Reluctantly, the black alicorn turned back at Celestia. "Didn't I forgive you once already?"

"You didn't mean it." Celestia mumbled.

That was very true. Ancepanox rubbed her eyes. Her heart burned with embarrassment at how little she could do to Agana.
“Princess, I don't know if even Twilight Sparkle thought of you as some unreachable paragon. She didn't surrender to you. She strived to you."

Celestia stared sullenly.

"Yeah, that was gibberish." Ancepanox admitted. She didn't really want to engage with Celestia, but she couldn't help herself. "If Twilight had know you were dabbling with Dark Magic, why would she have cared? You KNOW it was your secrecy, not your magical trespasses, that drove Twilight away from you. There was no reason for her to be disappointed. So what if you dabbled in Dark magic, killed innocents, and played buddy to psychopathic monsters?” Ancepanox lazily shook her head. "Were you doing what you thought was right?"

Celestia pained. “I... I don't know. I hope so."

Ancepanox jumped up. “Then Twilight would have too! So quit moping!” She circled around to Agana’s side. “I'll forgive you, earnestly, if you help me fight Agana. What do you say? will you stop tripping over your feelings every five seconds?”

Agana snickered. “Oh Ancepanox, I am in love with you. You cut through the melodrama. And Celestia, for shame, that it took you this long.” She kneeled down and picked up Twilight Sparkle again, slinging the pony over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Will it be two against one? About time."

Celestia hesitated before getting up. It was what she wanted, wasn’t it? "If my sun is willing, I should be able to stop Agana from manipulating this dream at whim."

"You weren't doing that all along?" Ancepanox arched a brow, a little irritated.

“I'm sorry, I... Ahem, I must ask her first.” Celestia lifted her eyes to her mother sun.
The Sun loomed as ever, shining, observant. It did not immediately reply to Celestia's implied question.
What is the right thing, Celestia asked herself, for both Twilight and Equestria. Celestia knew the Sun still cared to carry forward the dream of Equestria.
The Sun's light wavered.
The Sun would give its power without reservation. It reminded Celestia of its suggestion though, that she would be best served by killing them all.
"Um..." Celestia averted her eyes. She couldn't stomach her mother sun's cold bloodthirstiness. "It can be done."

Ancepanox detected Celestia's sudden nervousness but wrote it off. "Hear that Agana? You have to play by our rules now."

"No, we play by Twilight Sparkle's rules." Agana curled a hoof under Twilight's sleeping dream-form and cradled her.

Celestia squared her stance and braced herself. She nodded to Ancepanox.

Like they’d done against the shades, Celestia and Ancepanox attacked simultaneously with magic. Lances of gold and indigo energy met at the hulking semi-equine body of the peacock alicorn. With a confident smirk, Agana let herself be pierced by the searing bolts. With a blinding burst, her form dissolved into sparks and ash, and Twilight Sparkle with her.

“Well, it was never going to be easy... But at least she could stay bucking still.” Ancepanox swore, throwing up a small shield to block the cloud of ash. “I can tell, this is going to frustrating."

"Prescient." Celestia remarked.

The nebulous mass of dark magic in the sky above them, shaped as a great eye, blinked, and the murky light it cast wavered.

The frozen chunks of Tower quivered. To an unknown song they began to tremble and move, reversing their fall, floating upwards slowly with intermittent jerks.

"Hey hey hey, Celestia you told me the Sun could mitigate her!" Ancepanox shouted.

"It is." Celestia said grimly.

"But the Tower, it's reassembling." Ancepanox muttered. "It broke one, it'll break again... Twilight?"

Celestia remained silent.

One piece at a time, the Tower of the Bard came back together. To infinity above and below it stretched once more, a monument to infinite ambition that refused to stay destroyed.
The chunk Celestia and Ancepanox stood on rotated and sunk into place in the side of the great tower. Quick hoofwork ensured they were not crushed, but they were marooned in one of a million-million narrow tiers of obsidian-black stone.

“Look what's happened. The Tower reaches up, aimed, poised. It languishes no longer." Agana’s squawking laughs filled the void, echoing down to the Celestiaan. “Come and meet me. You know where."

"On the left!" Celestia cried out.

A cloud of shadow shades billowed out from below, screaming and moaning. Anceapnox had too little time to brace and was thrown back by their head-first impacts, pressed against the black stone as they tried to tear at her dreaming form.
Celestia's eye lit up, as a surge of twisting flame spew forth, evaporating the throng of shades. Ancepanox kicked the remaining few away and blasted them with her own magic.

"That should be the last." Ancepanox dusted herself off. She gave a short laugh. "Celestia, you miserable crow, you have been holding back."

Celestia let the light fade from her eyes. To be connected to the Sun again filled her with indescribable satisfaction. Yes, she felt how a sun princess should feel. She had to bite back her eager laughter so she could speak normally. "Are you hurt?"

"Nope. You singed me, but I heal very quickly here." Ancepanox said, not noticing the change in Celestia. "Now, how the hell do we get to the top of this tower?! I'm gunna twist Agana's head off.” Ancepanox spread her wings, but she hesitated. She wasn't sure if she could fly even in the dream. "Celestia, is the Tower the same as before it fractured?"

"I don't know." Celestia felt the cold wind of the abyssal void around them pick up. Her sun was behind them, on the opposite side of the Tower. The infinite spire cast a cold shadowy silhouette in the mire around it. "Ancepanox, before we launch back into this, I must ask you frankly... Are you letting the Dark consume you?"

“I thought you told me that'd already happened? What would it matter anyway, since I don't put stock in the whole ideological side of it. Material reality matters to me, not 'natural law', not 'mythology', and certainly not 'authority'."

Celestia looked like she was going to say something, but she wisely stayed silent.

Ancepanox grinned. “You have extensive experience in dreams, don't you. There's probably a million little details and tricks to this realm you learn through the centuries. Not bad for an alicorn. You're not even supposed to be in here.” Ancepanox said. “I'm torn, actually, by my desire to know what you know. If I weren't so wary of you, I'd want to study under you again."

Celestia bowed her head. “The power dynamic between us has changed too much for that."

"That is has."

Ancepanox was going to say more when something floated into her vision from behind the curve of the tower. A deformed and horrendously bloated purple unicorn with a dozen legs protruding from unnatural angles, and a head maligned by a cluster of eyes and a devilishly grinning mouth. It had Twilight Sparkle’s voice.
“Hello Celestia! And the Nightmare! This is an unexpected pleasure to be sure.”

Ancepanox stared at the mass of flesh as it approached them. "Yuck. Some things my friends said about the Tower makes more sense now."

"Indeed that is a Manifestation of sin. Why it yet resides here confounds me." Celestia frowned. "It could be that Twilight Sparkle has yet again begun along an accursed path..."

“Hello to y'all.” The dreamdweller chuckled. “Can't keep a good sin down, nor the sinner. Did you really think you were changing her forever, Princess Celestia?”

“I like this thing. Why ever would you try to get rid of it?” Ancepanox glanced at Celestia.

“Because the sins in question empower Dark, like the Nightmare, like Agana, and.... others.” Celestia cleared her throat, avoiding Ancepanox's glare. "Never mind. Clearly its destruction was transitory."

“It wasn’t a very memorable destruction.” The malformed thing shrugged with it’s multitude of legs. It turned to Ancepanox. “You, though, much more memorable. You broke the Tower the first time, when it was still your dream. You were trying to shake off the curse, but that didn't work."

"Well I mean, the 'curse' is was just the fulfillment of the Dream. If I broke- Wait, if I broke the Tower... " Ancepanox paused, putting together several, disparate threads of information.
"The Dream, the Tower, the apotheosis and Forlorn Spark. You... you don't have any incentive to lie, do you? No, I'm sure you don't."
She fell into ponderous silence. There was something oddly serene to the way she felt. She knew what had happened. There was no mystery to the fate of Twilight Sparkle anymore.
"So, Celestia was right. Huh. I was the one that rejected the Tower. ... I think I understand why I gave up my name and past so easily. I never wanted it to begin with. But a pony NEEDS a name, NEEDS a dream. What is a nameless, dreamless thing? What is a mortal stripped of half its mortality?"

The Manifestation roiled gleefully. "Some call them Stars."

Ancepanox slumped back. "What could have been? What would I have been if I'd leaned into my course, rather than pull away and tear myself in two, literally?"

The ghastly manifestation watched Ancepanox, and she stared back. Despite the mishapen things devilishly playful smiles, its eyes contained an inferno of seething emotion. The dark alicorn was unsettlingly reminded of the premonitions she'd seen in Celestia's eyes as the night had set, for she saw Twilight Sparkle preforming cruel acts. The vision showed her conducting a slaughter of any and all, delighted and euphoric for the pure exercise of power. So hateful for all that stood before her, greedy for displays of bloodshed, glutenous for its coppery sprays, acting with a profane passion, yet doting with her movements, self-assured in the extreme, but always wanting more.
The first time she'd seen those premonitions, Ancepanox had been terrified. Not so much anymore.

"Is that my future, or hers?" Ancepanox wondered, scratching her chin. "Hmm..."
The manifestation's reappearance was not coincidence. A turning point was nigh. Ancepanox would get a choice, weather the destructive future would become reality or not. Or so she speculated.

"Sister, push that thing aside." Celestia interrupted, barely covered distain in her voice. "We work to defeat Agana so that we may erase the sin of the past."

"And make new sins." Ancepanox nodded exaggeratedly.

"Do you wish to go to the top of the Tower?" The manifestation asked, it’s cluster of eyes blinked in an uneven sequence.

"If that's where Agana is."

“Oh yes. She is trying, in vain, to cheat for the impending confrontation. She knows she needs this dream to reach out to higher powers but fumbles in ignorance.” The manifestation did a full body nod. “But I’m afraid that the means of getting up there is different from the last time.”

“No surprise. Thinking ill thoughts is not so difficult with the Suzerain of Sin about.” Celestia scowled. She rolled her shoulders, somewhat self-assured for the first time since the night fell. “Will you tell us how or is it going to be a riddle?”

“I will take you there.” The manifestation snickered.

Ancepanox stomped her hoof into the ground in annoyance. “Yeah? And what bulls-”
She disappeared into a cloud of ash as Agana had.

“Have fun with her.” The manifestation retorted to the empty air. It looked to Celestia. "You're very strong together. Which one of you will get tired and betray the other? I can see you're considering it."

"Send me up. She can't survive alone." Celestia demanded harshly.

The manifestation chuckled. "In time. First I want you to dwell on your follies, and the deep conceit trying to use this dream to reach heaven. Is this hell or purgatory? Will your imminent suffering cleanse you, or destroy you?"

Dash galloped with reckless haste through the maze of hallways that was the Everfree Castle. Jumping over piles of rubble and around rusting piles of armor she went, not slowing down for anything. She hunted for where the choking black fog around her was thickest, and so find the nightmare altar Rarity was building.

A jet of indigo magic shot over her head, hitting the ceiling and sending chips of dirty marble in every direction. “I will snip you free of this mortal coil.” Rarity spoke with an air cold emptiness, and she sent a second deadly shot Dash’s direction. “Nay, belay that, I’ll squash you into paste!” The screamed, casting a third shot.
Dash rounded a corner just in time, and the magical bolts tore a hole in the wall.

“Bucking magic is completely unfair.” Dash lamented, scrambling over a fallen pillar. “At least she can’t teleport.” Then she remembered how easily Rarity slipped in and out of shadows. "Oh... oh no."

Dash emerged into a voluminous library, which provided plenty of cover in the form of overturned bookshelves and piles of books, shrouded in obscuring black fog. However Dash had somehow found her way onto the second floor, and had arrived on a balcony where the only thing nearby that could hide her from a spell was the thin wood banister.

"Ah geeze." Dash experimentally flapped her borrowed body's wings, prancing in place. She tried to see a way down but the cursed black fog was too thick.

“Don’t move.” Rarity said as she turned the corner onto the balcony. “If I shoot and miss your heart it would be regretful. For you, that is.” Her gaze darkened. “Actually, please do move. I want to see you quiver and quake as your life drains away.”

“For a tailor you are awfully murderous. Does it come up a lot in your work? Do you knit murder dresses?” Dash backed up to the edge of the balcony but continued to provoke the infuriated nightmare unicorn. “You know I was a mercenary for a while, and only the complete psychopaths were as gung-ho about killing as you are. Even evil ponies have a use for life and mercy.”

“My new employment is in the service of the great Dark. I will happen to be looking fabulous meanwhile.” Rarity grinned, advancing confidently. “Mis Dash, you will have the pleasure of being my first sacrifice.”

“Nope.” Dash leaned over to smash her hoof through the banister, sending a cloud of splinters into Rarity’s face. Rarity screamed and reflexively released her charged spell, but uncontrolled as it was it hit Dash with blunt force rather than piercing power.
Dash was smacked into the air by the spell. Feeling the wind rushing over her, she reflexively spread the wings of the black alicorn. But they were too damaged, and Dash fell down into the rolling black fog of the library.

With a whip-like crack, Ancepanox reappeared at the top of the tower. Agana was therewaiting for her.
The Peacock alicorn stood at the center of the circular tower’s flat roof, her upright stature casting a long shadow. The vines from her tail billowed around her waist and hindlegs like a dress, and the vines in her crest cascaded upwards towards the baneful eye watching the dreamscape from above.

“My psychic powers far outstrip both your and Celestia’s. I can bring this dream and it’s dreamer to heel.” Agana proclaimed, unsmiling in stark contrast to her usual mania. “You can try to face me, but you will fail. Leave now, Mooneater, and you may yet be able to save yourself.”

“Why does nopony want to use my new name?” Ancepanox growled. “Why do you have to contrive a silly title for somepony? Suzerain of Sin, or the Twisted Sinner? It’s pointless dramatization.”

“Names are transient, inspecific. The titles we bestow on each other are honors, icons of accomplishment, unique and immutable.” Agana expounded. “Alicorns have a craving for flair, don’t we Mooneater?”

“And what the hell are you even calling me that for? I can’t recall eating any moons recently.”

“So you say, even as you traipse about wearing the skin of your greatest victim.” Agana paced back and forth, her musculature rippling as it coped with the unnatural upright pasture. She looked into Ancepanox’s eyes. “Does Celestia know what you did?”

Ancepanox let her contemptuous stare do the talking.

“She doesn’t know. That is utterly high-lerious.” Agana hissed. “You have committed an act more despicably terrible than she could ever dream, and yet she still dares to blame herself over petty mortals. Gods, how stupid is she, to not wonder how it was that you came to look like that. What exquisite torture it will be when she finally realises how you have desecrated her sister’s body.”

“Where is Twilight?” Ancepanox demanded.

“Oh, that one is right here.” Agana’s cloak of vines parted for a moment to reveal Twilight tangled in it’s midst, before she was hidden again. “She will be fine there for now.”

Ancepanox sucked in her bottom lip, stewing in anger and uncertainty. Something didn't add up. "Why did the Tower rebuild itself."

"Power. Ideology. Force. You ponies have a backwords understandings." Agana smirked. “How do sentient creatures decide their actions? A moral standard, a worldview, and an ideological standard... And I ask you, can a dream embody that too? Can it act, based on its ideological framework?"
She swept a hoof to the side, then up. "We are atop the mountain, under the eyes of strange stars. We are aboard the cannon, loaded and pointed towards Heaven. We are here because we will it, but also because the Tower wills it."

Ancepanox, though she wanted to dispute and argue, had to agree. "Are you ideological, Agana?"

"Of course I am. I have tried to explain my worldview to you, and to show you how my actions flow out of the premises I draw from what I witness. Celestia is ideological too, as you know all too well." Agana said. "But you are not. You may have a worldview but you are not acting rationally through it. You're a bit..."

"Unhinged?" Ancepanox asked.

"Pathologic." Agana laughed and nodded. "Both Celestia and I thought that meant you could be swayed to our side. I see the folly in that though. You killed Myriadess because she attempted to force her worldview on you. That's when I began to suspect that you DO have a view of your own, that you're willing to defend to the death."

"Do I now?" Ancpeanox arched a brow. "I hadn't realized. You're making sense though. When Celestia tried to foist her empire on me, I was filled with a real, visceral disgust I couldn't explain. I didn't think it was ideological."

"You and I have this opportunity , while Celestia is not here, to explore what you believe. The dream has given us this chance." Agana said. "Last time I told you I would regret letting you live. That has proved false. That was also when I offered you an alliance, which you scorned. Let us try to hit closer at truth this time. Yes, this time, this time I want to offer you my help."

"What?" Ancpeanox asked flatly.

"Think of it as a puzzle, Mooneater." Agana kneeled and leaned forward, coming eye to eye with the moon alicorn. "You may ask me as many questions as you want in the time before Celestia arrives. You will then realize the central pillar of your's, and this dream's, ideology. That knowledge will set you free."

Ancepanox, teeth grinding, wanted nothing more than to attack. She couldn't deny that she had questions, and by benefit of her heritage Agana could have some insight. The gibberish about ideologies couldn't interest her less "I don't trust you."

"You are not learning anything from me. You are learning from yourself, by the choice of question you decide to ask." Agana cackled.

Ancepanox saw silent for a long moment. "Here's a question for ya. What fact would I have to find out about this dream to get you to buck off?"

Agana stood up and strode to the edge of the tower. She waved downward, into the infinite abyss into which the impossible structure reached. "You would have to discover, by means of this elenctic method, where the bottom of this Tower lies."

Ancepanox snort-laughed. "Wait, are you serious?" She grew more serious, rubbing an eye. "Do you mean the Tower of the Bard in real life, or this one in Twilight's dream?"

"That is part of the truth." Agana crossed her arms and shrugged. "Your time dwindles. When the Celestiaan arrives, time is up for us."

Ancepanox followed Agana's pacing with her eyes, formulating her first question.
"How did Twilight and I become separated?"

"Celestia thinks you were once whole. I do not. I believe you were always two distinct dreamers with one dream." Agana said.

Anceapnox sighed. "I guess you didn't say your answers would be oracular or truthful. Fine then." She tapped her hoof. "Okay, question two. Did I destroy the Tower at any point?"

"No. Only Gods destroy the Tower, and only mortals rebuild it." Agana cawed.

"Interesting. Did Celestia ever destroy it?"

"No. It was before her time."

Ancpeanox closed her eyes, working through the puzzle. "I don't like how you can read my mind. It makes me uncomfortable, angry.... I think more than anything, that's what pushed me to kill Myriadess." She mumbled. "I didn't like that she held that power over me too."

"Many mortals feel that way about authority."

"For some reason I thought I could be above that kind of self-conscious impulse. I served faithfully under Celestia for a decade. But back then, there was no dispute that she was superior to me." Ancepanox allowed herself a smile. "Or was she?"

"She was not." Agana answered.

Ancepanox snorted in amusement. "Sins flourish in the dreamscape... I remember you telling me that. The sins of ponykind build and compound in their mind..." Ancepanox rubbed her chin. "Was it sin that built the Tower of the Bard?"

"Without sin there would be no dreamscape."

"Did sin build the dreaming Everfree throne room, that Nightmare Moon and I shared our nights in?"

"I didn't stutter did I."

Ancepanox frowned. "Did sin build the original Tower of the Bard?"

Agana cracked a smile. "Was the original Tower in a dream?"

"Hey, answering questions with questions isn't really answering." Ancepanox protested. "I'm not going to keep playing your game if you jerk me around."

Agana kept on smiling, that odd smile creatures with beaks do. "The Tower of the Bard was the common goal and aspiration of many creatures, working together."

Ancepanox was getting closer to the answers, but it did not please her. "Does Celestia know where the bottom of the Tower is?"

"She sent ponies to find it. They failed."

Ancepanox cupped her chin with her hooves, deep in thought. "Hmm... Is it a place alicorn's can't go? Don't answer that yet, I'm just musing."
In the etherial breeze of the dream, Ancepanox watched the peacock alicorn's feathers and trailing vines sway. It was calming. "I saw your vines around Myriadess. She didn't know why they were there."

"Neither do I." Agana chuckled. "I never knew her except by reputation. She is but a distant cousin. Her destruction is meaningless to me. Why do you bring her up again?"

"She talked a lot about cycles, and repeating patterns." Ancepanox said. "Is the Tower cyclical?"

"Viewed from the top, yes." Agana joked.

"But does it loop in time?" Ancepanox demanded.

Agana laughed guiltily. "It might be the only thing that does. Myriadess wouldn't have know that. She was mostly ignorant of the dreamscape."

"But still I saw your vines around her. The same force that bound you, bound her." Ancpeanox became grave. "The Dark Lady. Yes, I'm sure of it. She was reaching out somehow!" She licked her teeth, thinking. "I saw Myriadess's manifestation in the 'Deeper Dreamscape', the place between dreams. She was linked to me, and me to her, but no others. So how did those vines reach her?" Ancepanox posed. "Agana, is there something even more esoteric than that 'Deeper Dreamscape'? "

Agana nodded. "I haven't been coy about it."

Ancepanox stood up, nodding upwards. Up above the alicorns, the dark miasmic chasm in the sky in the shape of an eye swirled noxiously, quivering and darting as it watched all below it.
"I don't know how it happened, and I don't know how it's possible, but this place is real. This is more than a dream. This... this Tower is real. Or was real."

"And?" Agana goaded.

"The Tower is linked to the esoteric thing: Heaven, the cosmos, the Deeper Dreamscape, the skies above us now, and the skies above me in the real world... All the same place, the same deep dark realm. It's a place of dreams, stars... and monsters." Ancepanox said slowly. "How to explain this... That cosmos has many consorts, but only one husband. The cosmos shines down most truly on the Dreamscape. It's right there! So close we can touch it, just like you said! Wow... Is it watching us? I can see why you long for it."

"And?" Agana was getting giddy.

Ancpeanox let out a restrained sigh. "I don't know the rest. At the bottom of this tower is the world as it once was, or perhaps how it will be. I think all mortalkind's dreams are there, including mine. Maybe."

"You're so close, Mooneater." Agana said. "You know what to ask next."

"I think I do." Ancpeanox nodded. She stood at her full height. "What should I say at your eulogy, once I kill you?"

Far from being surprised by Ancepanox's renewed aggression, Agana hissed in muted disappointment. "Really? There is a whole universe above us, whose smallest slice far and away dwarfs the very limits of our imagination! The cosmos, Mooneater! Let us pilgrimage to the Dark Lady and rampage across the stars in her name. Just ask the last question! Discover the meaning of your dreams."

"In truth, I don't know the last question to ask. I don't care." Ancepanox rolled her hoof gesturally. "This whole exercise reeks. I just don't care! I just want to fight you! Like you told me last time, Agana, it's good and right to indulge my base sins: To destroy, dominate, and subsume. That's my narrative. That's my dream."

“We were so close, Mooneater. Your existance could have meaning. Fighting me is folly.” Agana strode back to the center of the tower. Her veil of vines flagged and waved behind her like a second pair of wings. “If you persist, I must warn you, there is no rock holding me down now.”

“Then take my head and call me fool.” Ancepanox called up her magic, and the pulsing black and purple magic gathered at her horn. A swirl of dark energy formed around her outstretched hoof, spinning faster and weaving itself into shape, until it coalesced into the silver sabre she had used in the massacre of Glori Sabonord’s Army. She swung the sabre experimentally, and it’s flawless edge whistled as it sliced the thick air. “I told you not to toy with me. Give me your worst. Have at you, sinner!”

Author's Note

The Empress Celestia remains a popular subject of poetry and folk arts to this day, despite the fairly dim view taken by the Crown. In many upper circles, particularly as you get close to Crown regents and princess, Celestia is something of a taboo topic of discussion. Romantic, debauched, and horrific rumors about her share the same discussion as the historical fact.

As I have previously mentioned, much of my inspiration for narratic of the Eternal Night stems from The Hateful Monomyth. Songs of Celestia, the Monomyth delves into the particularly gruesome, describing her mental degradation with imagery of physical decay. It never fails to move and disgust me.

The truth of the matter, regrettably, remains as shrouded in mystery and speculation as most alicorn historiography during the Civil War. Perhaps in time, the Crown will reveal more to us, as for now they regard commoner theories with tight-lipped amusement. One wonder though, why the more reform-minded regents have not so much as hinted at the truth of Celestia when they tease other secrets. The Crown are known to deal with sedition within their own ranks with brutal efficiency; Is there a truth out there that is tantamount to treason?

Prologue 3: The Elder Siblings of Mortalkind

Sunset Shimmer was not sure why she was still alive. She should have died from asphyxiation in the upper atmosphere. She should have died in the explosion of the the airskiff she’d been on. She should have died in the ten-thousand hoof fall back to earth.

She came back to her senses just as the sun was breaking over the horizon, signaling the end of the eternal night. With glee and awe she watched the glorious star.
“Did we do that?” She whispered to herself. “Did the ritual work? Has the star inside me been let free?”

She was on her back on a grassy hill. She guessed she was somewhere in the vast emptiness of the Don hills north of the Dneighper River. She was totally alone, but she felt a strong presence very closeby. It was luminescent, warm (almost overwhelmingly so), and intimately familiar to Sunset.
“Celestia…” She looked around. “Celestia? Are you there?”

She heard chirping birds and buzzing insects, but no princess greeting her and thanking her for bringing her back to life. Sunset was alone.

“Then who’s there? Hello?” Sunset twisted around, then looked down at her stomach.
She was still wearing the black lacquer armor of the Blackhorns, the Black Lord. It thrummed with incalculable amounts of magic, harvested from an alicorn at its moment of death.

“What is this? How did I-” Sunset was cut off when she felt a jolt of energy race up her spine, and suddenly images were flashing across her vision.
She saw the deck of the cargo airship she and Entanglement Theory had stolen. The wind whipped around them, but Theory faced the challenge with determination. She saw Entanglement Theory speaking towards her, an obsidian dagger in her hooves. ‘Experiment Final’, Entanglement Theory pronounced, before plunging the knife forward. The perspective of the visions changed, racing along a wire, through machinery, before it returned to to the deck. Now Sunset saw the alicorn Theory had just stabbed on the stone slab, its body connected by wires and held in place by chains. She head Theory talking to herself, and she felt the horrible turmoil the alicorn’s power caused in the poor mare’s body. Then, all turned white, and the visions ended.

“The ritual.” Sunset rolled into a sitting position. She stared in awe at the Blackhorn Armor. “It worked. We did it, Twi. We went beyond the sequence, and harnessed the power of an alicorn. We reached up to heaven and tore down one of god’s secrets.”

The armor vibrated, tickling her. It had absorbed the magical beam meant for Sunset. The onetime vessel for a deava held an alicorn soul once more. The aura she felt was emanating from inside it, bathing her in soft golden light.

“I succeeded, only... The armor should have distribute the magic into me.” Her hoof became numb as she ran it along the armor. “We need to troubleshoot. Maybe we can still get it to... Wait, where is Twi?” Sunset looked around again. Still there was nopony. In the last moments of that vision her accomplice Entanglement Theory had been in tremendous distress. “Oh no.”

Sunset jumped to her hooves. “Oh no, oh no, oh no!” What direction could she run in to find her friend? “Twilight!” She yelled futilely. “Twilight!”
She hung her head. In all likelihood, the Twilight Sparkle from another universe was dead, perishing in the ritual. Then the winds had torn apart the airship and sent all the machinery and lobotomized experiments plummeting town to a swift end.

“I did it but…” Sunset fell back to her haunches. The world was freed from the clutches of night, the sun was shining happily, but she felt empty. “What did I do wrong? Why isn’t Celestia alive again?” She started to tear up. “Princess… Isn’t this your magic I made?” She thumped her chest, clacking her hoof against the armor. It sparked with golden magic. “What do I have to do to bring your dream back into the world? Don’t you want to come back? Celestia! Celestia where are you?!”

The sun, nor sky, nor win had any answers. Sunset Shimmer fell to her stomach and cried bitterly.

~~~~

Sunset had been wandering the Don Hills for days and had caught neither sight nor sound of any other living pony. Of dead ponies, there were several.
Shad had encountered a lonesome grave in the crook of a hill, surrounded by stalky shrubs. Its small tombstone had been too weathered to read a name off of. A long time ago a trade caravan or migrant party had buried a member there, then came back with with a marker. Sunset wondered how, since she doubted she would have been able to find it again amongst the monotonous brownish-green hills.
She thought about the soul residing in the armor she wore. Did it count as alive or dead? Did it dream? It put off so much warmth, but it lacked the caring, the love, and the personality of the pony it had been designed after. Celestia was dead, and so was this aberrant dream. A model in clay could not resurrect the original.

By the first day Sunset learned that the Black Lord was not her only burdon. She was hungry and thirsty with no food or water presenting itself. She settled down for the evening, making a fire out of bushes and grass, when she spied a hare on a nearby hilltop.
Ponies could be omnivorous, she thought to herself. Beats dry plains grass.
She teleported right onto of the hare and decapitated it with an arc of magic. Properly cooked, it had been a reasonable snack. The blood had given her hydration as well.
In the morning she awoke to find a second hare inspecting around the fire pit, and she ate that one as well. Had it been a friend or mate to the previous night’s meal? Sunset couldn't speak any lagomorphic languages so she did not know.

She carried on like that for two more days before she came to a small stream, surrounded by verdant vegetation like a little oasis amongst the dry hills. The fruit she found was tart but sufficient. The stream’s water was muddy, but clean enough once boiled. She followed the direction of the stream to a West.

On the fifth day she entered a cleared area next to the stream with several tents set up. A half-dozen earth ponies were making lunch. She thought about killing them but she wouldn’t be able to carry everything they had by herself, and she hated letting things go to waste. She considered applying an experiment from the sequence and make them into her obedient lobotomized drones, but she knew a large party would only slow her down.
In the end she simply shrouded herself in an invisibility spell and stole one of their saddlebags, putting a waterskin and some food in it. As she did so she overheard the ponies discussing an airship crash site they had encountered the day before.

It was a long shot, but on the chance that it was the wreckage of the cargo airship Sunset decided to seek out the crash site. She veered north, entering the hills again, meticulously searching the landscape for the site.

On the seventh day she found the crash site, but it was not what she was expecting. If Sunset had to guess, the airship had come down as a rain of molten metal, because several dozen acres of hill were impregnated with small drops of slag.
“This is the skiff Astral Nacre and I battled on.” Sunset deduced. The explosion caused by the alicorn power of the ritual had ripped the airship into its constituent elements. “What awesome power.” She whispered, running her hoof over the armor again.

However she was no closer to finding Entanglement Theory, or so she thought at first. As she set out Southwest, back towards the stream, she hit upon the theory that she could calculate where the cargo airship had fallen based on its relative position to the skiff site.
The skiff had been thousands of hooves higher in altitude, but following the same heading as the cargo airship. Depending on how long the cargo airship had remained stable it was anywhere between twenty kilometers East and fifty kilometers West of the skiff site. Taking a gamble, Sunset turned West and began looking for another crash.

Among the monotonous grassy hills, Sunset sometimes found herself staring into the sky, immobile, unable to remember what she was doing. The wispy clouds above, untended by pegasi, reminded her of the state of nature in the other universe.
‘Why did you come back?’ A silken voice whispered in her ear. ‘You left this world and it healed up fine. You can only reopen those wounds.’

“I come as a different pony than I was.” Sunset said to the sky, for she could not really address a voice that was in her head. “Let no wounds be reopened.”

‘Too late for that my dear.’ The voice chuckled. ‘I’m already dead, Sunset, and that you had hoof in my demise you can not deny. You said you loved me, but when is all is said and done you were just as snide and apathetic as you always were.’

“...”

‘Learned humility at last?’

“I thought I could bring you back. I thought your death wouldn’t matter.” Sunset said, her tone turning to sorrow. “That was the purpose of the sequence after all, to manipulate life. Eternal life, life after death, life where there was none, many lives becoming one life.”

‘So, Sunset, what did you accomplish?’ The voice asked, not patronizingly but as a teacher to a student. ‘What lesson did you learn?”

Sunset let her eyes fall earthward, so she could continue her trek. “I’ll know when I find my friend.”

‘Sunset, you rely too much on phantoms, brought about by your imagination but not really there.’ The voice sighed. ‘You can not escape from the flow of cause and effect forever. You will have to face the consequences of your actions.’

“I have to find my Twilight.” Sunset muttered.

‘She won’t be there. Like all phantom things, she has gone away, to let the natural state of things resume.’

“I… I know that.”

‘And still you search? Sunset, will you yet again flee from this world, should you dislike Destiny’s path?’

“No. I’m staying here from now on, no matter what.”

‘That remains to be seen, my dear Sunset Shimmer…” The voice faded away, and some of the warmth of the Blackhorn Armor with it.

After three and a half days of westward travel, she came upon another stream, this one running north-south. Sunset noticed that many of the trees around the stream had been broken or toppled, and when she investigated she discovered to her surprise and joy that the cargo airship had crashed into the stream.

It was more whole that she expected, like it had enjoyed a slow descent under calm conditions. The cargo hold with all the machinery was intact, as was the grisly remains of the ponies used up in the ritual. Their husk-ified bodies had been pecked apart by birds, but Sunset could clearly tell that there had been an earth pony, a pegasus, a unicorn, and an alicorn. She remembered the faces of the drones she had led aboard the skiff. This was their sky-burial.

The alicorn’s sternum was broken where it had been stabbed by the Entanglement Theory’s obsidian dagger. The dagger was laying only a few hooves away, along with a pair of fractured glasses, but there was no sign of their owner.

“She’s gone.” Sunset sighed. “She got what she was looking for and she left.”
On the one hoof Sunset was incredibly relieved. Her interdimensional friend was still alive. However, having withdrawn back to her home universe, it would going to be excruciating for Sunset to see her.
“I’m not even sure I could do it again. Destiny’s catching wise to my shenanigans.” Sunset cast a glance to the sun. “Besides, I said I wouldn’t. But maybe I will see her again somehow, even if just a phantom.”

Before she continued her pilgrimage West, Sunset burned the airship. The machinery she had spent years developing, the ritual she had spent years theorizing, and the bones of the ponies sacrificed and created, it was all cleansed and disintegrated in the hellacious inferno Sunset summoned. The fire spread to the vegetation around the stream, then to the brown grass of the hills.
Sunset trotted West with great pillars of smoke and fire lighting the evening sky behind her. She kept only the obsidian dagger, still covered in her friend’s dried blood.

“I need to start researching again.” Sunset said to herself. She rubbed a hoof against the Black Lord, finding comfort in the heat it emitted. “I have the magic of an alicorn but I’m not sure how to use it.”

‘You think you will be using me?’ The silken voice whispered in her ear and the armor throbbed against her touch. ‘My dear as much as I adore you, you have this relationship backwards. Destiny uses us all.’

“You may not be my Celestia, but you are a Celestia. In fact, you may be what I need more than the original. You are the Celestia I wanted. You grow by my interaction with you, by my conception of Celestia was, and should be. You are Sunset Shimmer’s Celestia.” Sunset grinned grimly. “For some ponies, that will be enough.”

‘A Celestia designed by a traitor to the original.’ The voice mocked. ‘May you find great use of me, my dear.”

The sun beat down on the hills relentlessly.

Sunset looked up. In between the earth and sky was a white speck, growing larger every day she moved West. The ancient city of the Pegasi called to her, promising her a place to stay and recover. From there she could plan her next move, gather allies, and find a way to harness the great power she had manufactured.
In Cloudsdale, Sunset could see herself abandoning the vagrant lifestyle she had lived since leaving Equestria for the other universe a decade past. A renewed duty to Celestia and to Equestria would take its place. Best of all, it would all be on her terms. Equestria would become the traitor’s equestria.

Spike was picking up around the downstairs of the main room of the Golden Oak when he heard a knock at the door. He put down the books he was carrying and skipped over to open it.

“Hi Rarity!” He beamed.

“Hello Spike. I has been too long.” Rarity nodded. “Having a pleasant morning?”

“Yup! I’ve been making a path through all the books here.” He laughed. “Twilight has been in study mode, and she forgets to clean up after herself.”

“Is she here right now?” Rarity lifted off her saddlebag with her magic and set it by the door.

“She’s still in bed. I haven’t checked on her actually. She was snoring pretty loudly though. Should I wake her up?” Spike asked.

“I wanted to talk to her one-on-one for a while. I had something to apologize for.” Rarity was itching to get an apology from Twilight, not the other way around. “May I?”

“Sure. I’ll keep working down here.” Spike returned to his tidying, while Rarity crossed the room and trotted up to the second floor. The bedroom door was closed and, as Rarity discovered when she tried it, locked tight.

“Lady Sparkle.” She knocked softly. “It’s Rarity. I came to see you. Alone mind you, for I am not afraid.”

She heard the floorboards creaking as the pony on the other side came to answer the door. But when the door opened Rarity discovered that pony had been Nightmare Moon. The alicorn looked tired and annoyed.
“Rarity.” Moon’s nostrils flared.

“My Lady.” Rarity smiled unconvincingly. Her eyes darted towards Spike, who was preoccupied downstairs. “May I come in?”

Moon grabbed Rarity with her magic and dragged her into the room. She slammed the door and locked it again.
“Just what do you think you’re doing here, trying to visit Twilight?!” She roared, pacing back and forth in front of a chastened Rarity. “I told you not to approach her, ever!”

“She came to me, last night.” Rarity protested. “She invited me over.”

“So you should have turned her down.” Moon stomped.

“You would have me abandon courtesy and decency-”

“There is no reason, NO REASON, for you to interact with her. Until a time of my choosing you two will exist in different worlds.” Moon said with finality. “You better not have set her off. Where is she?”

“Oh, who could guess. Somewhere without a nightmare alicorn?” Rarity said. “You were here all night, I should guess. Further, you were the one who compelled her to run, after which she sought me out. Conduct some introspection and find yourself equally at fault, my lady.”

“Are you testing my patience right now? Watch yourself Rarity.”

“You are too harsh and too controlling. I do not deserve this abuse, and Twilight does not deserve your micromanagement.” Rarity crossed her forelegs defensively.

“And you are completely untrustworthy. You are deceptive, secretive, and can’t control your nightmare worth a damn.” Moon said. “Twilight had her own problems and doesn’t need your drama. I’m helping her.”

“See, I thought you were going to leave Twilight alone. You claimed you would let her live her own life, dream her own dreams-”

“She can’t dream.”

“And here you are pretending to be her mother!” Rarity fought through the interruption.

“I am her mother, actually. She is a product of my body and mind, hybridized with some influence from Celestia. It is as much an intellectual heritage as it is a biological one. In the same sort of way I am a product of Celestia and Luna.” Moon had enough pacing and sat down. “Don’t attempt to make a family tree. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not supposed to.”

“You toss out logic whenever it supports you.” Rarity rolled her eyes.

“There is no applying logic to certain things.” Moon smiled. “Math, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magical studies can be examined with cold rigorous logic only to a point. At their apogee, when the study of the world around us reaches up to the divine, we have to abandon logic so we can keep our sanity. The divine and the empirical world are mutually exclusive.”

Rarity, eyes half lidded with muted annoyance, glanced to the wall and back. “You are very easy to push into tangents, my lady. If you want to craft respect out of fearful subservience, try being less up your own plot, mayhaps?”

“Oh buck you too Rarity.” Moon snorted.

“I’m just saying, darling.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Moon trotted around to the window and peered out. “Ignoring this seething enmity between us for a sec, do you have a clue where Twilight might be? I need to see how she’s adjusting to the dream transplant.”

Rarity did not like how ominous ‘dream transplant’ sounded. “Of course not. I came here to see her.”

“Great.” Moon twisted her back and stretched her wings. “Who the buck knows where she could have gotten off to.”

“We should look for her.” Rarity nodded.

“Uh, there’s no ‘we’ here. You stay away from her. I absolutely a hundred-percent mean it. If you lose control, and she loses control, we could have a repeat of the eternal night, and that was a whole song and dance to deal with. No thank you ma’am.” Moon stood up. “After I find Twilight I’ll be at Fluttershy’s until about three, then I’m off to Canterlot.”

“And I will do… what exactly?”

“Hell, I don’t know. Don’t you have a business that needs attention?” Moon asked.

“If you think I can sit by while everypony else is working towards the new-”

“Fine fine fine. Go check on the fillies at Applejack’s farmstead. I want you to make a judgement call on whether or not they’re can come back to Ponyville with you.”

Rarity twisted her lips in obvious disappointment.

“What, you want me to put you in charge of something important? Is that what you want?” Moon asked. “You are going to have to take steps to ingratiate yourself to me before I do anything like that.”

“It’s not that. Not entirely.” Rarity prissed her lips. “I dare to ask, but do you see yourself doing about the Nightmare Faithful?”

“Don’t give me that look. There are more important things to me than dealing with the petulant followers of your cult.”

“Like babysit your ‘daughter’.”

“Now you’re getting it. See you later.” Moon teleported away in a crackling burst violet magic.

“What an amazing pair, the Twilights are. Horrible, but amazing.” Rarity said to herself. She tended to think of Ancepanox and Twilight as the same entity, despite the former’s vehement denial. “Nopony has ever caused to much suffering and gotten away with it.”

When she emerged from the bedroom Spike was standing on the stair, looking apprehensive. “Did you get in an argument? She cast a muting spell but I heard the door slam.”

“We got in a disagreement about a friend and she teleported away.” Rarity confessed. “I did not mean to get her so worked up that she would need to run out of her own house. Please convey my apologies when she returns.”

“Don’t be hard on yourself. Twilight’s been jumpy.” Spike shrugged, hopping down the stairs. “She’s really upset about the whole ‘Eternal Night’ stuff. What she can remember anyway.”

“And you are not?” Rarity arched a brow. She retrieved her saddlebag from by the door and secured it on her back.

Spike scratched his chin, twisted back and forth with barely concealed anxiety. “I mean, it’s scary to know there’s missing chunks of my memory, but what am I going to do about it. If I don’t remember then so what, right? If something matters I guess I’ll find out about it sooner or later, and hope it’s not a really big problem when I do.”

Rarity nodded appreciatively. She wished she could focus on the here and now. “Sir Spike, you are wise beyond your years. Sadly I must take my leave for now.” She trotted to the door. “Do convey that apology for me please, sir.”

“You can count on me.” Spike saluted.

Rarity felt heartened. It was easy to feel dour and depressed it you only interacted with other depressive ponies. Thankfully there were plenty of happy and optimistic creatures who would never turn down a chance to talk.

She trotted through Ponyville in the direction of the plaza, where she hoped she could find a quick breakfast before heading to Applejack’s farm. There were a couple fruit and vegetable stalls up: Most of the usually save Applejack.
Rarity spied Roseluck and Cherry Berry chatting at Cherry’s stall. Cherry noticed Rarity first, and after a whisper to Rose they both glanced in Rarity’s direction, then back to each other. Not wanting to keep them in suspense, Rarity trotted over to the mares.

“Good morning ladies.” Rarity said.

“Hello Mis Rarity.” Rose nodded to her.

“Hi.” Cherry Berry couldn’t meet Rarity’s gaze.

“I hope we all feel better than we did the other night. I certainly do.” Rarity pulled a bit out of her bag and snapped it against the stall. Cherry pushed a bowl full of assorted fruit towards her. “I feel ready to face the future and its struggles with all my heart and mind.”

“I feel the same way, Mis Rarity, but someponies have their doubts. You’re not going to be able to change their mind by yourself.” Rose agreed. “Some ponies want to hear from Fluttershy.”

Cherry Berry remained silent, pretending to organize her stall.

“I understand that sentiment.” Rarity took a dainty nibble out of a pear.

“Amethyst Star and Carmel have been avoiding us, and nopony’s seen Cherry Fizzy. We don’t know how long before somepony decide that the duke or the knights need to know about us.” Rose pursed her lips. “So you see, if you don’t act quickly you could put us all in a bad spot.”

Rarity took another bite of pear while she mulled things over.
She had to keep her band of Nightmare Cultist Faithfull together, or not only would they disperse but they might blow the lid off Nightmare Moon’s return. Rarity knew she was in the most vulnerable position of them all, stuck between the whims of Moon and the demands of the faithful, and neither of them really wanted her to keep her position between them. Her parents and little sister would be in danger too. Rarity had to take every measure to protect her family and friends.

But how? After her tearful confession to everypony, they would be wondering what was lies and what was truth. Like Rose said, they needed to hear it from somepony besides her. But perhaps not Fluttershy… Fluttershy finding it much more appealing align to Ancepanox’s interests than the faithful or Ponyville’s.

“I must say, I am rather disappointed nopony else is being proactive, but I understand the burden falls squarely on me, and so I must be the one who acts.” Rarity said. “As it happens I am meeting with Fluttershy this afternoon. Mis Cherry, would you like to come?”

Cherry Berry perked. “Mis Rarity, you don’t mean…”

“Oh, there will be no risk. Not much.” Rarity popped a cherry in her mouth and bit down.

Cherry Berry puffed her lips out in consternation. She had not forgotten Rarity’s warning from the other night. The Dark Lady was not amused with Rarity. What was Rarity trying to play her for? “I should pass.”

“What?” Rose pouted in mild confusion. “Have you two been talking?”

Rarity nodded. “Cherry and I spoke the night of the meeting, after she took me back to my room. I’m very sorry Rose but there are certain secrets I can’t allow to spread too much. Cherry is going to help me, so I can lead our group without coming off as duplicitous or deceitful.”

“I am?” Cherry squeaked.

Rose frowned. “No offence to you Cherry, but why can’t you tell me. I’m a discreet pony, Mis Rarity, and you know that.”

“Did you help me to my room, or check if I was okay?” Rarity asked, a hint of sharpness in her tone.

“No but-”

“I am still the hierophant, Roseluck. Do you remember what that position actually entails? It is not the title of a leader. It is the one who lets the will of the divine be known to ponykind. I am doing my job. If somepony else thought they could do it, they would be exactly in the position I am.” Rarity asserted, taking an angry bite out of an apple and talking while she chewed. “You have no leeway to doubt me, who does not come to me to look for reassurance for her faith. Cherry did.”

“That is so much guff to limit my access to my friend Fluttershy, when I could probably find her at her home.” Rose twisted her snout in displeasure. “Cherry, you are better off not going with her.”

“I’m not talking about reassurance through Fluttershy, darling.” Rarity grunted. “There are clearer ways to I’m telling the truth.

Cherry ghasped. “Mis Rarity, please no. Don’t do this.”

Rose bit her lip, taking a moment to decipher everything. “Rarity… Do you mean the Dark Lady?” She looked between Cherry and Rarity. “Here, in Ponyville?

“Mis Rarity…” Cherry stuttered. “I’m fine just hearing it from you, really. Can’t you just bring Fluttershy and satisfy everypony? It’s all anypony wants anyway.”

“If you are bluffing it is definitely a very strong one.” Rose gulped. “Cherry Berry, you’re not hierophant, and even glimpsing the shadow of the Dark Lady would be more than any of us could ever dream.” Tones of reverence tinged her voice. “Cherry… If you saw her…”

“No, nuh-uh, no way.” Cherry shook her head emphatically. “Rose, I don’t want to get involved in this. I reeealy don’t.”

“Cherry, I fully understand, but still I must insist.” Rarity pushed the fruit bowl back. “You will be doing me and all the faithful a big favor.”

Cherry was mute and indecisive. Rarity looked at her expectantly, while Rose looked like she had something to say but wasn’t sure of herself.

“Mis Rarity, like you said hierophant is your role, not mine.” Cherry muttered. “I don’t want to see the Dark Lady. Besides I have the stall to look after and-”

“Cherry, I’ll take over the stall for you.” Rose finally said.

“Rose-”

“Cherry, you have to see what our hierophant what wants to show you. Then if you, Rarity, and Fluttershy all say the same thing the rest of the group will have to choice but to trust you. It’s for the good of the group.” Rose said. “Mis Rarity, It’s true I have my doubts. I pray Cherry comes back to say the right thing.”

Cherry rocked on her hooves, stiff with apprehension. This is a bad idea, she thought to herself.

Rarity pursed her lips and looked away. “No? That is fine, darling. You have already done so much for me. Thank you for the fruit. Delectable as always.” She turned on her heel and trotted away.

“Hey!” Cherry shouted after her, but Rarity didn’t react. “Gods damn it. Rose what should I-”

“Stay safe.” Rose trotted around to her place at the stall. “We can’t know for certain otherwise.”

“Maybe you can’t know, but that night in her room…” Cherry shuddered. “Ah hell.” She galloped after Rarity.

Rarity tilted her head a bit to smile at the pink and yellow earth pony. “I am very happy to have another chance to talk to you one-on-one, Cherry.”

“Yeah whatever.” Cherry mumbled.

Rarity and Cherry Berry left Ponyville and began heading south.
Rarity was cautiously pleased with herself. Actually bringing Cherry to an audience with Moon would be a terrible idea. She could confide a little in Cherry, maybe talk to Applejack or Rainbow Dash, but not Fluttershy. Fluttershy was a huge unknown. Rarity just didn’t understand what her friend’s motivations were for abetting her victimizer.

“It’s a tumultuous time for us right now. I am of the firm belief that if we overcome our problems and stabilize, the faithful can thrive where orthodox religions, namely Celestianism, are suffering through the chaos and uncertainty.” Rarity led them past the outlying cottages and farm plots to the edge of Applejack’s orchards. She could hear the distant echo of somepony bucking trees. “At a time like this, we need strong leadership. I will be the first to admit I have my faults, but I have never been more dedicated to my position as hierophant.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to sell me Rarity.” Cherry Berry muttered. “I’m sorry but it comes off like you’re less in it for the faith and more for the power.”

“Cherry, I thought I explained my reasoning fairly well the other night. There is nothing to be taken on faith anymore. Nightmare Moon is real.” Rarity said. “So what is religion without faith, you may ask. Lady Moon told me that there is no religion without subservience and submission to the divine. Believe me darling, Moon is very particular about submission.”

“So what is the point of this?” Cherry asked.

“Like it or not, the nature of our devotion will change. We will become a political religion like the sun and Celestia worship. We can’t be praying to the Dark Lady for salvation anymore, since she’s here and she’s not quite here to save us. Indeed she is here to rule us.” Rarity explained. “Cherry, what we need more than anything else is stability. I need you to help me settle the boat.”

Cherry kicked at a rock on the path. “Mis Rarity, why? Why should we go along with you anymore? Why does it matter to us if Nightmare is real? Rarity, we helped you resurrect your dead religion not for power or salvation, but because we were your friends and it was important to you. We’re never wanted to play politics or fight against Celestianism.”

Rarity shrugged. “What can I say darling. This is not the same world as it was before the Eternal Night. Moreso when the Dark Lady reveals herself.”

The dirt path completed its winding path at the gates of the Apple Family’s farmhouse. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were on the front porch playing a card game. Rarity approached them, Cherry Berry following several steps behind.

“Hey sis.” Sweetie Belle waved.

“Hi Mis Rarity.” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said in unison.

“Hello girls. Enjoying yourselves?” Rarity asked.

“Gettin more bored every day.” Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue.

“I miss Opal.” Sweetie Belle pouted. “When a are mom and dad coming back from Baltimare?”

“Honestly I’ve been sleeping over at my mom’s house. I don’t like the food Applejack makes.” Scootaloo shrugged.

“I feel you with the food.” Rarity said. “Scootaloo, I need to meet your mother some time. You describe her so colorfully.”

“She’s weird.” Apple Bloom laughed.

“Really weird.” Sweetie Belle confirmed.

“Stop it.” Scootaloo punched Apple Bloom in the shoulder. “It wasn’t funny the first time.”

Rarity nodded. “Indeed. It’s in poor taste to make fun of somepony’s oddities or idiosyncrasies.”

“But what if they’re weird?” Apple Bloom asked, earning herself another punch.

“That what oddity and idiosyncrasy means.” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.

“Stop! I really mean it.” Scootaloo stood up.

“Oh dear… I think I will leave you girls to it.” Rarity sighed. “Do one of you know where Applejack is? I need to speak to her.”

“She’s in that field she let go wild.” Apple Bloom said, waving toward the North. “Good luck findin her in there.”

“Hmm, I will try, but if I don’t please tell her to come to see me at my home as soon as possible.” Rarity said. “If she needs to see-” She paused, casting a glance at Cherry Berry. “our mutual friend, tell her she has until three to get to Fluttershy’s house.”

“K.” Apple Bloom nodded.

The fillies watched Rarity and her silent follower leave.

“Fluttershy’s house. Y’all know where that is?” Apple Bloom grinned.

“Across the river, right?” Sweetie Belle cocked her head. “Do you think that’s where Ancepanox is?”

“It’s out by itself. Nopony’d know if there was a nightmare moved in.” Apple Bloom nodded.

“Finding her wasn’t the hard part. We could have walked around Ponyville yelling her name and she would have come to make us stop.” Scootaloo snorted.

“She would have come to correct your pronunciation of her name.” Sweetie Belle prodded.

“Oh not this again!” Apple Bloom ground her hoof into the cards in frustration, tearing them apart. “If I’ve gotta hear y’all’s snooty corrections one more time I’ll buck ya!”

Sweetie Belle prised her lips and cradled her cards a bit closer. “Okay then… Call.”

“Go fish.” Scootaloo sighed.

Apple Bloom look down at what she’ done to her cards. “Erm, whoops.” She scooped up the shreds of her hand. “Would ya believe me if I said I had a three-of-a-kind?”

“Nope.” Sweetie Belle snorted. She took Scootaloo’s cards and scraps of Apple Blooms and added it to her had. “Eventually we’re going to have to learn the real rules.”

“I told y’all what the rules are. I seen my granny play Bridge all the time before she left for Appleoosa.” Apple Bloom took new cards from the deck. “One more round, then we go stake out Fluttershy’s.”

“You keep saying that. I think you want to keep playing until you win.” Scootaloo arched a brow.

“Shut it.” Apple Bloom growled. “Or I’ll hit ya.”

“I thought you didn’t like bad ponies who used violence to get their way.” Sweetie Belle flicked her gaze up to Apple Bloom. “Or am I thinking of that other Apple Bloom?”

“Whatever.” Apple Bloom grumbled hiding behind her cards.
She hoped she would feel better once they started putting their plans into action, instead of sitting around playing nice for Applejack. She badly wanted to get going, but at the same time she was very afraid. Ancepanox had killed ponies, who who knew if she would draw the line at fillies. Apple Bloom didn’t want to get eaten, but it was a pony’s responsibility to strive in the face of evil, even a filly. “One more round. I promise.”

~~~~

As it turned out Rarity did not have that difficult of a time finding Applejack. The farm mare was at the edge of the fallow field, dragging a felled tree into the open. She wore an oversized plow harness attached to ropes wrapped around the trunk, and with great effort she could pull it to a wagon where she had the debranching equipment.

“Hello Mis Applejack.” Rarity trotted up to the cart, Cherry still a few hooves behind. “While your method is an impressive show of strength, would it not be easier to put some smaller logs under the trunk to use as rollers?”

Applejack kept straining against the harness for a few more seconds before she stopped. She panted hard and wiped the sweat off her face. “I suppose.” She looked to Cherry Berry, then back to Rarity. “So, y’all come lookin for me because I missed the morning market?”

“Cherry is one of my faithful friends. I would like for you, within the limits of your comfort, tell her about the horror we faced during the Eternal Night.”

Applejack’s expression darkened. “Why?”

“You see, there are some of the followers who are very concerned about the validity of my explanations. If you of all ponies corroborate it for me-”

“You know if I tell I’ll be in a whole heap of trouble, just like you will be.” Applejack said. “So I’m sorry, but I can’t. You can have this implication, but nothin else outa me.”

“Applejack, if you don’t help me here, I will be forced to go to Fluttershy’s.” Rarity said.

“Rarity, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard y’all say, an you said some damn stupid things before. What you’re doin it puttin a knife to your own throat! Just stop!” Applejack shook her head in disappointment. “I’ve got work to do, can’t ya see. I’ve got no time to attend your funeral.”

Cherry didn’t know Applejack very well. They had competing stalls in the market, competing produce in the fairs, and competing legs in the traditional Fall Race. Applejack was about the least likely of anypony in the world to get mixed up in nightmare business, not least of all because of her well known feud with Rarity. Just as Rarity had said, only some great horror could push the two mares together.

“Well, Applejack, if think that Lady Moon is a danger to me, why would you force me to go to her for my proof? Why would you put Cherry Berry in that danger?”

Cherry couldn't stand it anymore. “Mis Rarity, I believe you, really! I- I should go... I’ll tell everypony that Applejack and Fluttershy back you up.”

“Leave my name out of it!” Applejack snapped.

Rarity huffed. “Applejack, you are causing me all sorts of stress now! You need to be less careless with your words.”

“You’re one to talk.” Applejack glared. “Why don’t y’all mosey along so I can finish pruning an acre today, instead of havin to talk to talk to you. Go home, ya hear?”

“Fine darling. I only came by to tell you that Moon will be at Fluttershy’s until three. After that she is off to… Canterlot I believe she said. If you need to speak to her, you should go before three.”

“Rarity, y’all are playin a very dangerous game here.” Applejack scowled, eyes flicking between Rarity and Cherry.

“I suppose I am.” Rarity smiled thinly. “You’re still with me, aren’t you Cherry?”

Applejack stomped her hoof. “Don’t go listenin to her any farther! Even when she thinks she’s doin the right thing, she causes trouble. For your life, stay away from Rarity, and for sure stay away from Nightmare Moon! Don’t go to Fluttershy’s!”

Nightmare Moon, the manifestation of the Dark Lady upon the earth, was at Fluttershy’s cottage. An ancient and terrible being, an alicorn to surpass Celestia, and the god of Cherry Berry’s faith, was literally half-an-hour trot away.
Cherry felt so dizzy she thought she might collapse, and felt very cold for some reason. What should she do? The indecision was racking her. She knew with almost all her heart that going with Rarity was a terrible idea. But could she allow the faith die through inaction? She would be letting Roseluck down. She would be letting everypony down. She had a responsibility to see the Dark Lady and confirm for all to know that it was all real, and that they had a real god to submit to. This is, if she was willing to risk death.
The chill inside her felt like it was spreading, but she didn’t really notice for how uncomfortable the unfolding argument was making her.

“You think I cause trouble?” Rarity panted, hackles raised. “ Oh, well then. If ponies had been afraid to cause trouble we would still be in the frozen north batting off polar bears.”

“What even are you tryin to say?”

“What am I trying to say? Ha! What am I trying to say?” Rarity began pacing around, her grin tightening to a painful sneer. “I guess am I trying to say that I am just tired of your neighsaying, Applejack. Like always you are deaf to any moral or reasonable argument. The Eternal Night changed less between us than I though.”

“Rarity I do truly swear you’ll get yourself killed if ya keep at this. Moon ain’t amused as it is. She’ll tan your hide in non-figurative way. Somepony’ll wear you as an apron!” Applejack unclasped the harness and let it slip off. She stepped forward, then hesitated. What was she trying to accomplish? Could she really expect Rarity to just drop the whole thing? Very very unlikely. But she couldn’t help but fit one more jab in. “I swear girl, did you get brain damage or somethin? Ya need sleep, I think.”

Rarity snapped a rock into the air with her magic. “I have HAD it with everypony’s abuse! I can tolerate Ancepanox. I can even tolerate Twilight since she is a noble. But not from you, a farmer hick!”

Applejack scoffed. “Oh, ya gunna attack me? You really ain’t that far from a nightmare, are ya? Moon’s right ab-” She ducked under the rock hurtling over her head. “Hey! Quit that!”

Rarity levitated another rock. “I won’t take it anymore! Your words will taste like gravel as you eat them!”

Applejack retreated behind a tree. “You’ve gone plain nuts, Rarity! Like really you ain’t thinkin strait gal. Go home and get a proper amount of sleep.”

“I’m FINE. There is NOTHING wrong with my sleep!” Rarity hurled rock after rock at the tree, gouging the bark and keeping Applejack pinned.

“Goodness gracious. So much for getting work done. ” Applejack clutched her hat. She shimmied around the trunk to stay on the opposite side of Rarity as she circled. “I… I sure messed up. How’m I gunna deescalate this?”

Neither pony notice that Cherry Berry had wandered off. The coldness in her head had numbed every other thought or desire, but to follow through with Rarity’s desire and behold the Dark Lady.
She didn’t know the layout of the farm so she wandered East until she hit the river, then followed it North to the bridge.

Cherry repeated words she thought she heard. Her head felt so cold.
“I have to.” She mumbled to herself, eyes slightly glazed. “I have to reveal the Nightmare of the Moon, to save everypony from their doubt.”

Like usual, Amethyst Star and Caramel were hanging out on the bridge, arguing and throwing stones from the tallest part of the bridge.

“Yeah, as if. I’m three up.” Carmel scoffed at Amethyst. He wound back to throw a stone but stopped when he noticed Cherry Berry approaching. “Oh, heya Cher Ber.” He waved.

The coldness in Cherry’s head dispelled somewhat and the fugue lifted. She reexamined her surroundings. What was she doing? “Uh…” Oh yeah, she was crossing the bridge. No reason she couldn’t stop and chat first. “Hey guys.”

Carmel slung his stone, skipping right into the riverbank. “Bollocks.” He sighed, then cleared his throat. “You just missed Fizzy. He crossed on his way to the bakery with Pinkey Pie.”

“What’s Fizzy doing hanging out with Pinkie Pie. We never talk to Pinkie unless it a party. And what was he doing on the eastern side of the river for that matter?” Cherry Berry frowned.

“Who can tell nowadays. Everypony’s got some BS they’re up to.” Amethyst Star shrugged. “Ask him and maybe he’ll give a straight answer.”

Caramel bit his lip and looked away.

Cherry knew a sign of guilt when she saw one. “Caramel, what’s Fizzy done now?”

“I… really can’t till you.” Caramel said softly.

“It’s a real doozy, as Pinkie Pie would say.” Amethyst chuckled.

“Shut up Amethyst.” Carmel hissed.

“No, don’t shut up.” Cherry scowled. “You’re telling me what he’s done.” She turned to Amethyst, who was barely containing a smile. “I already have a headache here, so unless-”

“Calm your flank girl.” Amethyst snorted. She picked up another rock. “Fizzy got it his head that he should move the corpse of that pony Rarity told us about, Illustrious Valor, back to her original grave at the edge of the Everfree. I have no idea how he’d get that idea. Certainly not from moi.” Amethyst closed one eye and slung a rock over the river, hissing in delight when it skipped several times. “Pinkie Pie was the only pony who would help him.”

“You’re fucking joking. He dug up Rarity’s family plot?!” Cherry Berry yelled. “And you let him?!”

“Amethyst's not telling the whole truth, as usual. Fizzy couldn’t find the body. The marked grave had nothing underneath it.” Caramel explained. “So now there’s a hole by the forest and a hole by Rarity’s parent’s house, and no body to show for it.”

“But-” Cherry Berry clenched her teeth. Of course there would be no body. Iillor was alive and walking around Ponyville. “I swear to Celestia if he doesn’t have a godlike excuse it’s going to be him in that grave. Unmarked! Pinkie Pie too! Why the hell would she be up for grave digging?”

“Don’t go messing with Pinkie Pie. You don’t know what that mare’s capable of.” Amethyst laughed. “This one time I nicked a present from Sweetie Drops’s birthday party, and Pinkie played bagpipes outside my window until I gave it back. I don’t even know how she knew I was the one who took it.”

“Because you wore it around town you dumbass.” Caramel snorted. “You’re shameless.”

Amethyst grinned. “Call me shameless again and I’ll bite you. And you’ll like it.”

Cherry cradled her nose, ashamed she had such awful taste in friends and family. “Are you two overlooking the fact here that Fizzy is not only committing a huge taboo, but he’s drawing attention to us? What possible excuse could he give Pinke?”

“Go ask him.” Amethyst suggested.

“After I kick his ass to the Everfree and back.” Cherry hissed.
She took a few steps and froze. The coldness in her head became a pressure, blocking her from moving any farther. The unknown force hammered against her skull, making her wince in pain. She needed to go to Fluttershy’s. Would Rose forgive her if she let this opportunity slip away? “I would, if I didn’t already have plans.” She turned around again and trotted to the right bank of the river.

“Hooold on. You’re going to let him away with sacrilege and all that other stuff you said?” Amethyst shoved the rest of the rocks off the rail of the bridge and pushed herself to all fours. “Now I’m curious.”

“Grave robbing didn’t make you curious, but Cherry’s business does?” Carmel stood up as well. “Want me to talk to Fizzy, Cher?”

“I’ll worry about it, later...” Cherry said, her sentence trailing off, like something else was preoccupying her attention.

“Oh yeah? Well, if I had to guess, I’d say you were up to some shenanigans with Rose or Rarity.” Amethyst hummed. “Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it. Cult busy-ness.”

“I don’t have time to talk.” Cherry said curtly. “Bye.” She turned away and started towards Fluttershy’s house.

“Phh, that’s not nice, leaving before I could make the completely inappropriate joke I had planned.” Amethyst twerked her nose in annoyance. “‘Cherry! Are you in a lesbian relationship with Rarity and/or Rose?!”

Cherry flattened her ears, uninterested in humoring her crass friend any longer. She waded into the long grass, disappearing up to her ears.

“Star, what the heck are you doing?” Carmel asked with a sigh.

“She didn’t laugh, glare, or even turn around. Something’s up. I never fail to get a rise out of Cher.” Amethyst rubbed her chin. “I don’t know, but she’s not telling us everything.”

“That’s obvious, but it’s none of your business.”

“The same way Rarity’s escapades in occult mysticism isn’t our business?” Amethyst narrowed her eyes. “Cherry’s always taken the cult stuff way too seriously. She’s up to something, probably on Rarity’s behalf, and it’s probably evil even if she doesn’t realize it it. My boy, I think Rarity’s guilt has become our problem.”

“You mentioned Rarity, like, five times in four sentences.” Carmel pointed out, cautious and sour. “Why do you want to bother Cherry when it’s obvious she’s not the one you have a problem with.”

“My problem is with what Rarity’s done to my friend.” Amethyst huffed angrily. “With or without you Carmel, I’m getting to the bottom of this.”

~~~~

The grassy glades of the eastern riverbank tickled Cherry’s ankles as she walked parallel to the water, listening to the insects and watching the birds hop between the trees. Things had seemed so perfect, with lovely day after lovely day since the Eternal Night.
Judging by the position of the sun it was somewhere between eleven and high noon, which meant that the Nightmare of the Moon would still be at Fluttershy’s house.

“I wonder what she’s doing there.”
Cherry imagined the hovel transformed into a shadowy palace, with madly twisting darkness dripping from every surface. She imagined red candles lighting the small corners of the room where the Dark Lady had shoved piles of blasphemous tomes, filling with the scrawlings of ancient demons and heretics: Every vaunted word was tortuous praise of that most powerful of gods and her avatar. Cherry imagined a court of monsters, whispering secrets into the walls or their lady’s ear, preparing for the world changing cataclysm she would unleash.

She crossed around the oak thickets faster than she expected, coming into sight of Fluttershy’s cottage. All the curtains were drawn and there were none of the animals who usually hung around in the paddocks behind the house.

Cherry tested the doorknob. It was unlocked.
“I’m… I’m not sure I’m ready for this.” She shivered. “The Dark Lady is right inside.” She swallowed her reservations and pushed through, taking three blind steps into the room.

Fluttershy’s sitting room was dark and gloomy, as would be expected with all the curtains drawn. Dust hung thick in the air and on the surfaces, and the light the high-noon sun bounced inside was diluted within a few meters of the door. It was like there was a film of darkness on Cherry’s eyes.

A tea set lay on the coffee table, with three tea cups laying on it. Two were empty, the last untouched.
Cherry cautiously advanced into the room, picking up the teapot. She sniffed it. It smelled like the sun-teas grown in the Canter.

“I don’t remember Rarity or Fluttershy liking this variety.” Cherry mused.

“You’re right.” An unexpected voice, quiet and gentle, fleeted.

Cherry nearly dropped the teapot in surprise. She spun around, hair on end.
Fluttershy was sitting by her fireplace, almost invisible in the patterned quilt draped over her shoulders. She looked tired.

“Fluttershy! Oh thank goodness.” Cherry let out a relieved sigh. “I was so so worried, I-”

The door began to creak as it ever so slowly began to close. Cherry’s heart began to race again as the light in the room was strangled. With a firm clunk and a click, the door shut itself.

“Put the teapot down, um, if you would please.” Fluttershy urged. “I don’t want you to drop it.”

Cherry obayed. She was getting less able to control her trembling, for she could not shake off the growing cloud of fear inside her, which competed and swelled over the compelling cold that pushed her to be bold.
She turned back to Fluttershy. “You have to come tell everypony that it’s true.” She whispered, afraid of what any greater volume would do to the trembling darkness hiding around them. “They have to know that their faith was not misplaced.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry. I’m very very sorry.” Fluttershy said. “I just can’t face any of you without hurting.”

“...” Cherry turned her eyes a little higher. “It’s okay, Mis Fluttershy. I didn’t mean you.”

Fluttershy sighed and stood up, shrugging of the quilt, but her shadow did not move precisely with her. “Did Rarity put you up to this?”

Cherry did not, could not answer. Her eyes were locked on the churning shadow on the wall, its pose opposite Fluttershy’s, its figure reclined yet tense where Fluttershy’s was upright and calm. Languidly, the shadow opened its bright purple eyes.

“Did Rarity put you up to this?” Fluttershy asked again.

Cherry backed away. What had she been thinking, coming here? The cold presence at the back of her mind cried out and attempted to rally her crumpling resolve to no avail. Her fear, her terror at the horrible and unnatural thing sitting by Fluttershy’s mantelpiece was too great. She had to run, to find solace from the monster.

“Cherry, can you hear me?” Fluttershy frowned. “Did Rarity ask you to come here, to find her?”

Cherry jumped for the door knocking over the chairs around the coffee table. She put her hoof on the handle just as a flash of deep purple magic flashed from behind her. Chery pulled the door as hard as she could, but before it had opened more than an inch it slammed back shut again.
Cherry froze, tears streaming down her face. She felt her heart would rip her chest apart so fast was it beating. No anxiety in her life was close to the existential vice closing in on her mind.

A metal-encase hoof settled on her shoulder. “There’s a nightmare in this room right now, and I don’t mean me.” A low rasp filled her right ear. The creatures hot breath felt like it was burning the skin of her neck and cheek. “There’s a trace in your head, riiiight here.” The hoof wandered from her shoulder along her back to the base of her skull. The cold metal dug into her skin. “Don’t think this is over, Rarity’s nightmare.”

As if flourishing off the touch of the cold metal, the presence in Cherry’s mind expanded to every part of her consciousness. With a choked gasp, every part of her body began to spasm. Her dream and soul fought for control with the alien, cancerous nightmare. But the nightmare only really wanted control of a few muscles.
“You should have killed Rarity when you had the chance.” Cherry felt herself gargled out against her will. “Every moment she lives, I menace anew.”

With a furious growl the nightmare alicorn batted Cherry to the floor. “I can squelch you a thousand times until I discover the permanent cure for even your dogged parasitism.”

“So when my destruction is forgone. The question becomes how much I can bring down with me” Cherry’s lungs convulsed as the nightmare inside her forced her to laugh. “Ah, Ancepanox, you are like an aunt to me. It was from your Dark influence that I arose within Rarity. How it stings you reject me, but embrace Twilight.”

Ancepanox scowled grimly. “But I’m not a nightmare. I am more, perfected, the logical conclusion of a new dream that grows to become its own agency. I am self-actualized. I don’t judge myself in terms of another. Mortalkind is more suitable company for me than mad nightmares.” She grabbed Cherry by the scruff of her neck and tossed her onto a nearby couch. “You mean as much to me as a hoofprint I’d leave on a muddy street. You would be nothing without Rarity’s dreams and aspirations. No matter what, I will destroy you.”

“Then I will destroy you. Clearly though I can not match you magically or physically. But what are you, the ‘self-actualised’ parasite, without the emotional attachments you have formed with ponies? Let’s find out.” Cherry’s body laugh-choked again. “Twilight will die, and then we will see if there is more than talk behind your refinement and reservations, Ancepanox.”

The nightmare alicorn lit up her horn. “We will see indeed.” A bolt of magic shot from her horn and struck Cherry’s temple. Cherry screamed, twisted against some invisible assailant for a few moments, then fell stone cold.
“Always count on these arrogant elder things to talk their mouths off, even through puppets.”

“Moon, should you go check on Twilight? Maybe the threat is real.” Fluttershy knelt next to Cherry and checked her vitals. Everything seemed okay,

“Pah, it’s all talk. That pesky nightmare-” She paused. “Pesky? No, that sounds like I’m talking about a rat nibbling on my potato crop.” She cleared her throat and began again. “That nightmare fuck isn’t going to delay me from going to Canterlot. I’m already two days late.”

“Moon! Don’t leave! If there’s danger, you can’t leave me here to-”

“We’re not doing this again, Fluttershy. You can’t keep me here. If you want something done, do it yourself.” Moon snorted. “Peace.” She teleported away with a burst of light.

“Moon!” Fluttershy wailed to the empty air. “Moon, please.” She said quieter. She sat down and wiped the corner of her eye. “I- I can’t even protect myself. How am I going to save anypony?”

~~~~~

It was hard to see ponies in the orchard, but they were not hard to hear, especially if they were yelling as much as Rarity and Applejack were. Rainbow Dash glided down to canopy level to asses the scene.

Rarity had driven Applejack up one of the tall oak trees on the border between the orchards, and was now throwing apples and rocks at her. Applejack was shouting back, pleading with the unicorn to stop wasting apples.

Rainbow Dash alighted on one of the branches above Applejack, keeping her wings out for a few seconds to correct her balance. “Yo.”

Applejack tilted her head back to look at Dash. “Howdy Mis Dash. What brings you to these parts?” She asked, tired and annoyed.

“One of Rarity’s cultists is at Fluttershy’s cottage. Moon sent me to see if Rarity had any explanation.” Dash nodded down to the manic unicorn. “I guess I’ll have to ask you.”

“Cherry went to Fluttershy’s?” Applejack sighed and tugged down on her hat in shame. “Damn. I didn’t do a lick of good tryin to dissuade her then. What’d Moon do?”

“I don’t know. I left. But I don’t think Moon was going to hurt her.” Dash said. “So, how long has Rarity been at it?”

“About thirty minutes.” Applejack shook her head. “Yeah, you woulda thought she’d pass out by now.”

“No kidding. She must be really mad, or power by nightmare power. We have to calm her down before she breaks something inside of herself.”

“Yeah, and whatabout me? What’m I supposed ta think and do when the pony I’m supposed to be reconciled with starts hurlin things at me?” Applejack spoke fast, her twang deepening. “Ancepanox ain’t protectin me like she said she would.”

“Well I’m here aren’t I.” Dash smirked.

“Git on then. I’ve done lost a whole morning because of this.” Applejack urged.

Rainbow leaned forward until she topped off the branch. She snapped her wings open and glided at high speed right into Rarity. The unicorn was taken by surprise and knocked off her hooves, tumbling a body’s length before she hit a tree.

“Oh come on. How does killing her help?” Applejack hopped from branch to branch down to the ground.

“She’s fine.” Dash said. “See she’s getting up.”

Applejack clutched her hat and backed away. “She’s floating.”

When Dash turned back, Rarity was suspended a meter of the ground surrounded by a thickening cloud of darkness. She spun until she was upright again, then slowly descended back to the ground.

Applejack grabbed Rainbow’s shoulder and pulled her behind the oak tree. “Uh, are y’all gunna go get Ancepanox or am I?”

“Hey, I can solve my own problems. I’m not going to go running for help as soon as something goes wrong.” Dash scoffed.

“Holy Celestia, why is everypony actin so stubborn!” Applejack despaired. “You know what it takes to beat a nightmare? Another nightmare! Seein as neither of us are nightmares anymore I duly request we go get us one!”

“I’m not going to go back looking like a pansy. Besides I wasn’t going to fight her. I wanted to talk but when I saw-” Dash was interrupted when a chunk of the tree above them was blasted into splinters by a bolt of blue magical energy. Both Dash and Applejack shrieked and dropped to their stomachs, just as another spell tore through the air where their heads had been.

“Do I have your attention now? Come out and explain yourself Mis Dash!” They heard the singsong voice of the svelte nightmared Rarity. “Come out and apologize. Ak! Look at the state of me. I have twigs and leaves in my mane! This is miserable.”

Rainbow Dash jumped back to her hooves with a few flaps of her wings.

“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack hissed, panicked and afraid she was about to see a pony die for the third time in her life.

“Now are you going to take responsibility for this?”

“But you’re…” Rainbow Dash paused, trying to understand what was going on.
Rarity had not transformed into a nightmare, yet she was still surrounded by the dark haze. The black aura came off her in wisps and waves, dispersing a few inches off her fur. “You’re not a nightmare.”

“Mis Dash, I am very upset with you!” Rarity shouted. She sauntered forward to within a few hooves of Dash. Like she’d said, leaves and twigs were all tangled in her mane and stuck to her fur with sap. “Not only do you come between Applejack and I, but you hit me! You had better have a good explanation.”

Rainbow rolled her tongue in her mouth, trying to think of an appropriate response that wasn’t laughing in confusion. “Rarity, I’m sorry I hit you.”

“Oh yes, bravo. You have common pony decency.” Rarity scowled. “Now why oh why did you think it appropriate to strike me as you did? I could have been seriously injured.”

“I shouldn’t have hit you, but you were going at Applejack.” Rainbow said. Should she go get Ancepanox? The situation was very strange. “Hitting ponies only leads to more hitting.”

Rarity sniffed. “Yes, I will concede that I was cating inappropriately, but Applejack is a more than hearty enough mare to survive an apple or stone hitting her. I was planning on apologizing later.”

Applejack peeked around the oak tree. “Whoah, what’s wrong with her? She ain’t a nightmare!”

Rarity spit at the earth pony, her glare returning. “Oh, really? How brilliantly observed of you, Applejack.”

“Applejack, you can see this too, right?” Rainbow beckoned her closer with a wave of her wing. Applejack cautiously obliged. “She wasn’t like this before?”

“Not that I noticed.” Applejack scrunched her nose. “But… What’s goin on?! I’m confused.”

“I’m sorry. There, I said it. I said I’m sorry.” Rarity huffed. “Surely you can’t blame a lady at the end of her rope for snapping. The stress had been simply overwhelming. At some point you have to assert yourself against those causing you that stress. Now Applejack, will you apologize?”

“I really don’t get it. This is normal snootie hypocrite Rarity. This ain’t her nightmare behavior.” Applejack backed away a few steps. “Mis Dash… Sorry I gotta go sort somethin out.”
Applejack turned and walked off.

“Can you believe her nerve, calling me snootie? She can’t adress me without ad equinum attacks. That right there is what is just [intolerable!” Rarity turned her nose up.

“Uh, but you were literally attacking her.” Dash pointed out. “Have you talked to Moon today? Did she say anything about your…” Dash gestured. “Nightmare problem.”

“This morning she accused me of having poor control of it. Bah! She said she could cure me, and yet here we are. Who knows when I may be overcome again. Really it is more her fault than mine.” Rarity prissed her lips. “ Ponies act as though they can toss me away when I’m no longer amusing to them. She has left me forsaken and diseased, then has the gall to lecture me.”

Dash clasped her forhooves together. “That is very interesting. But I’ve gotta to ask if, since I think we’re talking past each other, are you aware you are just steaming with Dark energy.”

Rarity nickered. “Mis Dash, what in Celestia’s name are you on about? If I were emitting some kind of energy I think I would know!” She twisted her head around to check every part of her body. “See? Nothing! If you are accusing me of being controlled by the nightmare just because I am upset, I must say you are taking an infantile approach to dismissing me!”

“No, Rarity I can see it! It’s, like, all over you!” Dash insisted. “Applejack could could see it too. Here, just…” She reached out and swiped through the darkness. She was expecting to feel a tingle at the very least. Not only did she not feel it, but the dark aura she saw remained exactly the same as her hoof passed through it. With her previous experiences with magic, it should react more than none to physical disruptions.
“W- What?” She swiped at it again, then patted Rarity’s barrel to try to provoke any change. “What’s going on?!”

“Mis Dash, please do not touch me without my permission.” Rarity pulled away.

“It’s there! We could see it! I see it!” Dash trotted in place, distressed. “A- And your voice.”

“My voice is completely normal. Do-re-mi.” Rarity sang a few bars. “See, normal.” She glanced away. Rarity was starting to think the impact had spun Dash’s head more than her own. She couldn’t properly stay angry at an injured mare. “Mis Dash, are you alright.”

“Your voice, I can hear it! It’s the nightmare you. I HEAR it!” Dash spun around, trying to find where Applejack had gone. “Applejack saw it too! Ask her! Something weird is happening.”

“Mis Dash…” Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Could you look this way please. Raise your head a tad. There’s something…”

Rainbow Dash locked eyes with her.

Rarity recoiled. “Oh- Oh my.” She shivered, her voice falling to a whisper. “Mis Dash, there is something in your eye.”

Rainbow blinked.
Stuck to the surface of Rainbow Dash’s eye was a blotch of darkness, fluctuating and pulsing. It was in the shape of Rarity, with the dark aura transposed over her.

“Oh no.” Rarity sucked in a breath. Moon had been right, again. “Mis Dash… We need to go find Applejack and tie her to a tree. Then we tie you up.”

“I’m freaking out here? What are you talking about?!” Dash rubbed her eyes with a hoof. The vision stayed there.

“You have been infected by something. We must only have a few minutes now!” Rarity gnawed her bottom lip. “Who did I interact with? Rose, Cherry, the filli-”
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to restore order to her panicked breathing. She had to trap Sweetie Belle and the other fillies. It would be painful for her, especially if they fought it, but the alternative was chaos.
She continued. “The fillies, Applejack, and you. I’m not counting Moon or Spike; They’re immune.”

“Immune?!” Dash squeaked.

“From dreams of dark and evil acts.” Rarity nodded gravely. “Mis Dash, this could be worse than Twilight’s nightmare. She is not trying to hunt now, no oh no. Rainbow, my nightmare is trying to kill us.”

Author's Note

Some of my readership had written in to ask my opinion on the current conflict in Griffany.
I must say it here clearly: I do not know the facts. Despite Trottingham's proximity to Griffany, the Crown controls information of its military campaigns tightly. None outside the higher administrative ranks here have even the details of the reason for the conflict, the foe, or the Crown forces involved. Yes, it causes anxiety for the Manechester mothers whose sons and daughters serve in the Crown navy or army, but I do not doubt the Crowns ability. Their skill to command and execute campaigns is singularly brilliant. Some may accuse me of harboring doubts about the Crown, but I will never deny their abilities. I have had the great pleasure to meet several Crown Princes and Princesses, including the up-and-coming Prince Wintertide II, and their intelligence far outshone anyone you would meet even in the graduate classrooms here at the university. It is humbling.
That is the idea of the Crown, after all. How could we be expected to accept our overlords were they not the best of mortalkind, were they not more. Someponies think my narrative history here is undermining the Crown, but I disagree. To know how we got here is not an indictment of the Crown, but praise for its success where all other systems and ideologies failed.