The Dark Zoner

Chapters

The Rush
Suspicion in the Air (Pic Added)
Training and Court Orders (Pic Added)
Pains That Never End (Pic Added)
The Death of a Rainbow (Pic Added)
Of Ceremonies and Gambles
Who He Isn't
Prologue
Trials and Pain

The Rush

Rainbow Dash awoke early for the training grounds, she happily trotted her way with a huge smile on her mouth. Today was the day that she proved to her father that she was perfect for the title of being his daughter!

She performed the move that even the creators were having difficulties with, The Rainboom. It was a powerful technique that saved her clan and home and won many a battles against the wretched Lunar armies.

She first performed it as a young filly, by accident, and her father was proud of her. Of course, it’s been years since she’d done it perfectly and she took great strides and struggles to be able to perform that again without difficulties.

That time is finally here!

Now was the day that she can perform an official, controlled and documented Rainboom and gain recognition in the Starlight clan! She’ll finally get her sought after license!

Her clan was the elite of the elite in Princess Celestia’s Realm. Starlight Generals were equal to power and glory of Luna’s Zoners. That’s why the devil Princess Luna has never been able to take over their glorious Sun Realm in over 7000 years.

The Zoners may have been becoming more powerful but so have the Starlights, they weren’t sitting their on their flanks doing nothing, after all!

Whenever her clan wasn’t fighting the recent Zoner reincarnations, they’d be handling monster affairs, taking down giant Hydras and the like.

Even though the Hydras and other giant monsters were comparably weaker than the Zoners by a large landslide, they were more numerous. Like annoying scaly insects!

“Dad!” Rainbow Dash called out when she reached the training grounds. After this, she might even be Blessed by Princess Celestia herself! She grinned in conceited glory. “Ten seconds flat!” She said her signature quote. “I’ll be done with this before breakfast.”

“Oy!” A gruff looking cerulean came by while wearing thick and heavy dull gold armor. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?”

“Didn’t you remember? I’m here to show my Rainboom!”

“Are you still spouting out about that?” The eye-scarred pegasus spat out. “Quit your silly daydreaming and go do something useful.”

“That was years ago, and by accident. A fluke, never gonna happen again! You‘re just shooting blanks, reckless ones.”

“Anyways, where’s dad? Shouldn’t he be here? We made an appointment. I woke up early for this. Early!”

“My brother is off fighting that wench again.”

“-Gasps- Twilight Sparkle?!” Rainbow Dash covered her mouth in surprise.

“She broke through the first barrier and he dashed on over to get rid of her.”

Rainbow Dash smiled as she plunged into the air and headed in the direction of her father. “I gotta see my dad plow that little Zoner!”

“Plow?” Her uncle, Starry Lights, shook his head. “What kind of talking are you doing? That gal ain’t no simple pony, she’s a Zoner that’s been terrorizing us for almost 500 years!”

“Terrorize, smerrorize! She’s weak!”

“I know youngin’s are foolish but this is going too far, Rainbow! That kinda thinking will get you killed. No ones ever gotten close to killing a Zoner!”

“If I know someone who can do it, it’s my dad!” Rainbow took off of the ground and flew in the direction of the first barrier.

“Aye, if I was 20 years younger I could keep up with that filly but these old bones ain’t what they used to be.” Her uncle drooped his wings in shame. “She’ll learn the horrors of fighting a Zoner just like everyone else.” The ex-Starlight General limped away.

“Reiner Dash, you need to teach your daughter that there’s more to it to being a Starlight General. If anything, she’ll be the next one in line if you die…let’s hope that doesn’t happen until she’s ready.”

Thinking back on it, Rainbow Dash was just like her father when he and Reiner were young.

XOX

“Reiner, Reiner, Reiner!” A voice said condescendingly over and over.

A single light blue pegasus stood upright around his fallen comrades on a mountain trail. His rainbow mane was tussled and messy as it stuck out from his armor. He was wearing a shiny gold armor that seemed to emit its own source of light in the cloudy area. His entire face was covered in his golden helmet except for the slit that let two dark red orbs out.

“Zoner, this is your last day!” Reiner Dash cried out as he stared at the empty space around him.

“Poor poor, Reiner, like that was the first time I heard that.” A white streak appeared behind him and a small purple unicorn appeared, smirking evilly. “The long life of a Zoner makes it hard for me to have a really tough time swallowing your words.”

Reiner’s head shot up and he pulled a sword out of the scabbard at his side and twisted his neck to swing at the unicorn.

Just as his knife cut, it was like he sliced lightning in half, which was less impressive than it sounded. He missed and that small mistake was going to cost him.

“Gotta try better than that, my little pony!” A soft giggle ended up in front of him before he found himself knocked on his back to the floor. “I can swallow more than your words if that’s what you want.” Twilight wiggled her flank as she pressed down his forelegs on either side of his head.

She leaned in to the point that his nose and hers were practically touching. Twilight hovered her mouth over to the side of his neck and breathed softly on it. “Or I can give you a love bite, how does that sound?”

“I’m tired of playing your games, Twilight Sparkle!” Reiner struggled under her grasp but couldn’t get out of her hold.

“I thought that you really liked my games, Reiny!” Twilight giggled almost childishly. Her tail was swishing back and forth in a smooth but almost impatient pattern.

Suddenly, a flare of rainbows appeared over the mountain of where they were standing. Twilight immediately frowned when she sensed the stream of colors.

“Dad!” An obnoxious and boyish voice rung out, echoing through the mountains.

That sudden distraction gave Reiner enough time to struggle free and knock Twilight off of him just as Rainbow Dash landed besides him.

“Another Starlight…great….” Twilight twisted her neck and yawned, she has had it with the interruptions for today.

“As a parting gift, I won’t kill you, filly, but I will have to break a few of your legs, permanently.” Twilight’s body started to turn white as she sparked with electricity.

“No!” Reiner jumped in time with the split second attack and managed to push Rainbow Dash out of the way. “Dad!” She cried and winced. Sounds of bone crunching echoed through the mountain trail in a deafening tone.

“Hmm, wrong target. I didn’t expect you to care so much for that pony, Reiner?” Twilighit’s eyes seemed to change as she stared back at Reiner before her body was enveloped in a purple bubble and blinked out of existence. “I’ll be seeing you later, maybe without interruptions next time? Ta-ta, Reiny!”

“Dash!” Reiner strained through his voice to chastise his daughter. He could only stand on his forelegs before he crumpled to the floor in a sitting position.

“D-Dad…?”Rainbow Dash shrunk under his angry gaze.

“I-I’m sorry, dad, I just…,” Rainbow Dash shook her head as she tried to think of a good reason. None came to mind. “I’m so sorry!”

Reiner’s face fell solemn as he watched Rainbow Dash cry her eyes out, this wasn’t typical of the stubborn filly so she really was pouring her heart out on this. “No, I’m sorry, Dash. I failed as a father, I shouldn’t have yelled.”

“It’s just, be careful, it’s not all fun and games. We never lost the war but that never meant we won it, either. Nor does it mean we didn’t lose any lives.” He turned to look at his fallen Starlight brethren, many whom were close relatives of theirs.

Rainbow Dash and her father looked at each in the eye for about a minute, knowing what they had to do. A few painful hours went by, with Rainbow nagging her father over his pains every other minute, and they were finally finished.

The burial was set and their family members were put to rest.

“Let’s go home.” Her father’s voice was solid and stoic. The pain was excruciating but Reiner managed to propel himself off the ground with his broken legs before flying towards home, towards Canterlot.

“Dad!” Rainbow Dash hurried after her weak father in worry.

XOX

Everypony in Canterlot castle stopped what they were doing when they noticed a flying pegasus clad in full golden armor, only his wings, mane and tail, bits of his neck and legs were revealed under it. He also had a long flowing red cape with multiple Sun insignias, they immediately recognized him even from afar.

It was the Starlight General!

They cheered as they expected his return was from a great victory, so everyone fell silent, when they saw him fly lower near the castle courtyard before he plummeted out of the sky and rolled on the hard marble floor. He crashed onto the steps that led into the castle through the courtyard.

Immediately a few earth ponies dressed in medical gear marched towards him and tried to haul him off towards the emergency room.

Rainbow Dash landed shortly after and tried to go after her father but only to be blocked by the mob that stood between them. Everypony was worried about the great Starlight General. He was decidedly the most powerful to ever exist so it was a surprise to see him in such a condition.

Only one pony could put him through this, everypony realized, the Dark General of the Lunar Armies, the Zoner!

After a few hours of pacing back and forth in the hospital, Rainbow Dash was finally allowed to see her father.

Reiner looked completely different without the Starlight General armor that he would often be seen in. He looked much younger than the armor made him out to be. But his eyes had this aged war experienced soldier look.

“Is everything alright, father?” Rainbow Dash rarely called him father unless she was really worried about him.

“Oh, Rainbow, it’s you dear.” Her father croaked, making Rainbow wince.

“No! You did what any good father would do, and you do so much other good!”

“Rainbow, I—” Reiner stopped just as a unicorn colt walked in.

“Greetings, General Reiner and family.” The doctor bowed at Rainbow Dash and her father. He pulled the clipboard with his magic from under Reiner’s bed and grimaced. “I’m sorry to say I have bad news.”

“Do you have any good news?” Rainbow nearly screeched.

“Well, we were able to suppress the pains from the broken legs and it will go away on its own but…,” She didn’t like the sound of that ‘but’, “two of your legs will permanently be disabled and the two that do work won’t be very strong and they will continue to hurt. We suggest…an amputation of the two legs to save you from any pains and sufferings.”

“No!” Rainbow Dash fell to the floor and held her head with her forelegs in grief.

“I’m sorry, can you leave us alone for a few moments?” Reiner asked the doctor who nodded before leaving.

“Dad! Are you really going to go through with that?”

“Of course not, honey.”

At that moment, a purple unicorn had walked in. She had a dark purple mane and red eyes. Her cutie mark was of a cloudy Sun, the clouds were pink, on her rear. The two pegasi were silent for a few minutes as an uneasy calm came between them.

“Mom?!” Rainbow Dash ran to her mother who nuzzled her.

“Reiner, what is all of this about?” The mother, Cotton Dash, asked.

“Did the doctor key you in to all the details?” The look that she gave him confirmed his thoughts. “Then, there’s not much else I can say except that I’m not cutting off my legs.”

The look on Cotton’s face was mixed with worry and relief. “But I heard them say that it will continue to hurt for the rest of your life.”

“I won’t have to worry about that.” Reiner chuckled, “Not the way I’m going.” His wife frowned at his joke.

“In this condition, I believe that you should resign as the Starlight General.” His wife suggested.

“No, you know I can’t do that. If I am able, I will continue to serve our princess and stop the Lunar hordes that are always marching towards our home.”

“But you aren’t able, Reiner!” Cotton cried. “Why do you always keep hurting yourself? Pushing yourself?”

“Because I’m a horrible pony.” Reiner Dash said so quietly to himself that no pony heard him. “I have to, who else can stop Twilight Sparkle?”

Rainbow Dash saw her mother cringe at the name. “Somepony else, that’s who! You’re not the first or only pony to have been able to keep her at bay.” Reiner shook his head, knowing that his wife was right but that didn’t mean he liked it.

“Twilight—”

“No, no more mention of that Zoner’s name!” Cotton was at tears.

“Of course, honey.” Reiner sighed and apologized.

Once the doctor returned, he explained to him that he wasn’t going to take the procedure and that he wanted physical therapy as soon as he could. The doctor tried to tell him in vain that he would not be able to get his legs working like they used to but he would not take no for an answer.

A few days later, Reiner, still under hospital care, went to visit his daughter at the training grounds for a visit. All of his legs were bandaged and two were in a cast but he managed to move along fine with the use of his wings, if not a bit irregularly.

He couldn’t wear his armor, not like he really needed them at the moment. Without his armor, he looked very much like Rainbow Dash except for his cutie mark which was a bolt of white lightning compared to Rainbow’s, which was a cloud with rainbow lightning.

He was very young looking and anyone could mistake him for either a colt or mare if they didn’t get a good look at him. His eyes is definitely what separated him from his daughter, she had the eyes of the young and the reckless while his were more gray and solemn.

“Dad!” Rainbow perked and called out when she spotted her father. She ran up to him and nuzzled him.

“Are you ready to show me your mastery of the Rainboom?” Reiner smiled and said.

Rainbow’s smile widened as she hopped up and down in joy. “Am I able!” Her father cleared everypony out of the training grounds to allow for enough room for her to perform the technique. They set up the obstacle course and watched in the background.

A few moments later, a flurry of rainbows and sonic blasts surrounded the entire area. “Well, I’ll be.” Her father smiled solemnly, “I knew you had it in you.”

“I didn’t.” His brother, Starry Lights, came up beside him.

“Greetings, older brother.”

“Greetings to you, Starlight General.” Starry looked around before sighing. “I’m glad you’re back, Reiner, forgive me for saying this, but are you nuts?” Reiner just smiled at his brother.

“I know what you’re thinking but our clan needs me. Rainbow Dash needs me.”

“I swear, that little filly’s been corrupt from the start. It’s because of you glorifying everything and sheltering her. She really wants to become a Starlight General.”

“That’s not a terrible goal…?” Reiner smiled sadly.

“You and I both know that’s malarkey! Being a Starlight General is more than just power, you need a strong will to swallow everything. I’m surprised that you would even want to continue, little brother!”

“I’m just giving everypony hope, is that so bad?”

“False hope is bad! Let someone else take the reins.”

“I don’t want anypony else to deal with Twilight Sparkle, she’s my problem.”

“Stop talking like that! That Zoner’s been around for over 500 years and none of our ancestors had defeated her, what makes you think you can?” Starry shook his head. “I don’t know if its because you are reckless or if you are just dumb.”

“It’s your life to live, little brother so I won’t badger ya anymore, for now. Now go on and get that little girl of yours her Rainboom license.” He pushed Reiner towards Rainbow Dash with a foreleg.

Reiner coughed weakly at his smiling daughter before approaching her. Her smile was so wide and proud, this was the first time he’s ever seen her so happy, it made it hard for him to disappoint her. Not like he was planning on disappointing her because she passed the test but he still was worried about her train of thought.

Life wasn’t going to be this easy where they handed everything on a silver platter.

“Rainbow Dash!” He started speaking loudly, enough for everypony in the audience to hear him. A couple of ponies holding a small chest flew up next to him. He turned and opened the chest and pulled out a small white knife with a golden hilt in his mouth. Engraved on the hilt was ‘Star Cleaver: Rainbow Dash’.

“Rainbow Dash, come closer. I now declare you a Star Cleaver; Master of the Rainboom!” He placed the blade on each of Rainbow Dash’s shoulders, knighting her and giving her his full permission to use the Rainboom at will.

“Yay! Thank you, dad!” Rainbow Dash cried out after Reiner placed the knife into a scabbard and wrapped it around her waist. She jumped at her father and hugged him.

Reiner looked around nervously at the crowd. There were mixed feelings from the crowd, a few were holding in their laughter, a few were looking irritated and others were uncomfortable. He didn’t want the ponies to assume that he was going easy on her just because she was his daughter.

XOX

“You gave Rainbow her license?” Cotton asked with worry as she watched her daughter swinging around the sword like a toy. “Are you sure that’s a wise and responsible decision? She’s not exactly…careful.”

“By law, she performed the task that she was asked and she’s of the appropriate age now.”

“But you’re her father! You know how she is!”

“Honey, you know everypony was like that when they were younger, she’ll grow out of it.”

“I still can’t believe I agreed to all of this when we were married…!” Cotton shook her head pitifully. “I was just a simple city filly who dreamed of marrying a suave young unicorn colt and having a quaint little family in the city. Then, ‘Mr. Pegasus in Shining Armor’ comes and sweeps me off of my feet and proposes to me. Now I’m living in the castle with a knight for a husband and a tomboy of a filly who gets into too many fights.”

“It’s not all bad. You make it sound so horrible and dangerous.” Reiner laughed.

“You know that’s not what I mean, I’m just worried about everypony, that’s all. I love you all to death but I hate having to worry about you every single day that you’re not here.”

Rainbow Dash ran up the stairs to her bedroom with her license held tightly in her mouth. Reiner looks at the clock and saw that it was time for bed. “You don’t think that she’s planning on sleeping with that thing under her pillow or something?”

“Knowing her? Yes.” Cotton replied without any hesitation. “We should probably head to bed, too.”

Reiner started to walk and fell to the floor before steadily getting back up. Cotton winced as she remembered her husband’s condition and helped him to his feet with her magic. She wasn’t that strong but was strong enough to lift him a few inches off the ground.

“I-I don’t need help!” Reiner complained with his face turned red.

“I’m not listening to anything you say, you big baby.” She giggled as she carried him up the floor and into their bedroom.

Cotton still didn’t understand the whole idea of pride in the Starlight clan but she knew one thing, that her husband was stubborn but that’s what made her love him all the same.

XOX

Reiner tossed and turned in his bed before his eyes shot open. The pain made it hard for him to go to sleep. Her turned to see Cotton’s form rising and falling, indicating that she was still sleeping. He looked to see the Sun shining through the window telling him that it was early morning now.

He decided that now was a good time to wake up since he couldn’t go back to sleep anyways. The pegasus slowly got up, careful not to wake his unicorn wife as he headed out the door.

He shut the door with care so that it didn’t make a crash sound and quickly headed downstairs, past Rainbow Dash’s room. It seemed that he didn’t notice Rainbow’s door open just as he was going down the stairs.

Maroon eyes followed him just as he disappeared.

Reiner was walking around the yard of his home, ignoring the pain in his legs. He trotted along the path, aimlessly. With a grunt, he suddenly shot into the air and flew to one of the bastions overlooking the areas.

Rainbow Dash flew closely behind, not too close but not too far, occasionally flying behind a passing cloud.

Reiner flew through one of the open windows and started to trot to the left. He ignored any of the artworks that were hanging on the walls and artful glass windows. Rainbow Dash actually took a few seconds to look at the pieces of art as it seemed to depict a story the further you walked.

There were ponies of all types surrounding a duo of black and white alicorns. War seemed to start as the ponies were split and took sides. Much further down a picture displayed a single dark purple unicorn with a flowing mane. She seemed to be oppressing all of the ponies with powerful magic. She took up half of the glass window and the other ponies were as small as ants.

There was another piece of art with the same purple unicorn and this time she took up the entire left part of the portrait with half of her body going off the paper. Opposing her on the other side were ponies clad in golden armor and all of them were pegasi with their wings flared out. A single pegasus, similar to the unicorn in size, was opposite of the unicorn on the right, also sporting golden armor.

It seemed to be telling of her dad and Twilight’s battle with one another.

“Ah, Reiner! You’re here early!” A voice echoed through the empty halls. The sudden voice spooked Rainbow Dash as she dashed behind a large vase pillar and snuck a glance in the direction of the voice.

“I’m telling you, Reiner, that you’re not going to be able to walk again! At least not without pain and being weaker.” Rainbow saw a unicorn doctor show her father down the stairs. “Any lesser pony would have just killed themselves by now, if not sent to the asylum.”

“Doc, I need this! No matter what happens, I have to at least try.”

“I’m just worried that it might make things worse for you than it already is. If you at least rest your legs up and heal for a few months before doing this, the chances for healing increase by 20%…?”

“No!” Rainbow Dash never seen her father look so agitated before. “I need to do this now! As fast as possible.”

Chapter End

Suspicion in the Air (Pic Added)

Suspicion in the Air

“Dad!” Rainbow Dash grabbed at the cage’s bars and started to shake them. “Get away from him, Twilight, you monster!” The cage rattled loudly but she couldn’t break the bonds and was forced to watch the Zoner overtake her father.

“Not everyone can hold onto this moment. There are many that would like to be in your situation.” Twilight giggled as she brushed her lips off of his, completely ignoring everything else around her.

“I’m sure the masses are just waiting in line for you!” Reiner spat in sarcasm.

“True, you’d think that, since I’m a monster. But everyone here, knows how the birds and the bees for the Zoners work.” Twilight shook her head pitifully at Reiner’s reaction. “Everypony is afraid of being the Fated Partner but that’s a gamble, there’s only one. So odds are, they aren’t! Can you imagine how many ponies saddle up to me every night and day when they realize that they and I aren’t Fated?”

Reiner looked like he was about to say something but he couldn’t get the words out. Twilight laughed some more at this, “It’s not like I take them on their offers!” The look of disgust momentarily left Reiner’s face. “At least, not most of them.” Reiner sputtered as his face turned into a raging red. “My, jealous, are we?”

“You Lunar ponies are all the same, liberal-minded sickos!”

“And, you Celestian ponies are stuck up and too serious. That‘s no fun but you are still my favorite, Reiner.” Twilight held her head low near his armored chest and laid her ear against the metal surface. “I don’t mind, since we are Fated.”

The two of them laid on the floor for a few moments. The silence was finally broken as they noticed a metal clanging in the corner of the observatory. Rainbow Dash was shaking the cage so hard now that it was hopping up and down.

When Twilight got up to look at Rainbow Dash, a bit dumbfounded for some reason, Reiner took this chance to sneak up on her and pulled out his knife to stab her in the back of her neck.

Twilight howled in pain just as the chains holding the other pegasus and the cage holding Rainbow Dash turned white before they magically vanished to dust. The pegasi fell to the floor from their spots on the wall, the 5 foot crash was enough to wake them out of their apparent unconsciousness.

“Everypony, get out, fly back to Canterlot!” Reiner gasped as Twilight pulled the knife out with a spray of blood and lunged at him. The Starlight Pegasi weren’t sure if they should help their General or not.

They made up their minds when a horde of Shadowguards came into the room.

Everypony pulled out their weapon of choice and started attacking the other. Rainbow Dash only sat on her flank in astonishment. There was screams of pain as each pony was cutting another pony up but even with the pain they continued on.

She was in the corner, away from everypony so no one really took notice of her as she stood there. Her father was busy fighting Twilight, unarmed, until a couple of Shadowguards snuck up behind him. She was about to shout to him but he quickly bucked the pegasus guard behind him hard into the wall and did a 180 degree turn and grabbed the unicorn guard and slammed him flat on the floor before pulling out the unconscious guard’s sword.

“What are you going to do, stab me again?” Twilight shook her head in disappointment. “You surprised me there, Reiny, I didn’t expect that from you.” Reiner twisted his neck before flinging the sword out of his mouth at Twilight. Her eyes shot open as her horn glowed purple and she stopped the blade in midair, inches from her chest.

Before she could say anything, Reiner smirked and said, “Distraction!” Just as he exploded vertically into the air in a sonic boom. Everypony stopped what they were doing and watched the Starlight General shoot into the air. A few had their mouths open in awestruck.

He started to blur for a few seconds as he neared the glass ceiling before a thunderous explosion took place. Everything turned white from where he was before a burst of multiple colors exploded in all directions. The entire ceiling overhead just shattered.

All of the Shadowguards started to run back into the hallway in a panic as millions of sharp glass shards were falling down onto them. The Starlights, Rainbow, and Twilight didn’t move for a few seconds. The Starlight Pegasi and Rainbow smirked inwardly since they knew how to handle this, they were the elite fliers after all.

They all shot into the air, expertly dodging the falling glass, one of them got cut but she dodged it enough to only warrant a small cut. A few of the Shadowguard pegasus saw this as they were running and decided to chase after the Starlights. They were poorly able to maneuver around the giant glass pieces, unlike their Celestian counterparts, and many fell to their doom.

Twilight sighed as a small purple shield hovered over her and bounced the glass off of her, effortlessly. When all was said and done, the Starlights were gone. Her trap failed and she didn’t kill or maim any Starlights this time. And, they lost a dozen Shadowguards.

She closed her eyes as her horn glowed purple and the shattered glass around her began to glow purple also. The glass started flying back into the air and piecing themselves back into the ceiling, all of the blood stained glass also began to clean themselves. This only took less than a minute.

Twilight looked at the fallen Shadowguards around the area and sighed deeply once more. “They’re fresh.” She said to herself just as the retreated guards returned back into the observatory room. They all slowly approached Twilight with curious looks on their frame.

She slowly walked up to each corpse before stabbing her foot-long horn into the corpses’ chest. Just as she pulled out, the hole she punctured closed up immediately. Each fallen Shadowguard shot up with their eyes wide open and started hacking blood.

“Get yourselves cleaned up.” Twilight closed her eyes and started walking away. “Just because you died doesn’t mean you can laze around in bloody filth.”

All the stallions and mares looked at her exiting the open hall with star struck eyes. Because she was a Zoner, she was too far for them to reach but also because she was a Zoner they could be closer to her than anypony else. She truly is Princess Luna’s Firstborn.

“Hay…what a flank…!” A guard suddenly said when she was out of earshot as they watched her retreating behind.

Everypony looked at the earth mare who blushed furiously. “It’s true.” She said shamelessly. They all shook their heads and silently agreed, nodding.

XOX

“I don’t think they’re following us!” One of the Starlights said above the rush of wind. Everypony took a glance behind them and saw that he was right. They started to slow their flight, still not stopping though, back towards Canterlot.

“Well, this mission was a failure.” Another one said solemnly. No pony tried to argue with him. They never had trouble defending their homeland but when they were at the enemy’s front they rarely saw an important mission completed aside from the few sabotages and small battles.

At least, no pony came back dead this time, they all agreed.

“Where do you think you’re all going?” An all too familiar voice woke them from their stupor. They looked up to see a purple unicorn lying on her belly atop a white cloud, watching them in earnest.

“Zoner!” They all cried out in a panic. They were all too tired to fight and all too tired to run, especially not a Zoner.

“The game’s not over yet.” Twilight stood on all legs and hopped off of the cloud. She raced down to their level. The pegasus were stunned to see the Zoner walking in the sky as if it was dirt.

Twilight Sparkle looked at them confused for a moment before a smile spread across her lips. “All planes are my domain. The ocean, the earth, and the sky! Just as my Mother gifted me.”

“Run.” Reiner silently said. Everypony weren’t sure what he was planning and hesitated for a few seconds. “Run!” He turned and screamed at them.

They all raced passed the smirking Zoner just as Reiner lunged at her and tackled her into a large puffy cloud.

Rainbow Dash was trailing behind her clan and took a glimpse back at her father. He was going to follow them after he distracted Twilight, right? For some reason, there was an ache in her chest that told her otherwise. She remembered his hatred for the pony.

Definitely not going to happen.

She slowly turned and flew back, taking a small grey cloud for cover. The giant cloud that she saw Reiner pushed Twilight into was sparking with electricity. She could see giant shadows dancing in the cloud. It was like watching some kind of surreal movie.

The giant shadow of a unicorn raised a hoof and smiled as her mouth opened and shut. She couldn’t hear what was being said since she was nowhere near but it seemed to hurt her father as the pegasus shadow’s mouth twisted into a snarl.

He narrowly dodged a bolt of lightning that shot out at him, the electric bolt spread out of the cloud when it missed. Her father was fast but he barely managed to dodge all of the shots as Twilight increased her intensity each time. There were so many, that a few almost hit Rainbow Dash even though she was half a mile away!

Rainbow Dash decided to jump in, she was tired of always watching her dad from the background! This is where they defeat a Zoner!

With both hoofs above her head, she flew in with lightning speed, the shadow of Twilight turned in astonishment before being knocked over. She quickly got back up and tried to shake the disorientation out of her head but Rainbow came above her head and delivered a swift kick down.

“Rainbow! What are you doing?!” Her father panicked when he saw his daughter beating on Twilight.

“I’m saving you, that’s what!” Rainbow raised a foreleg and punched a surprised Twilight in the face. This time though, she didn’t fly back and Rainbow’s leg felt like it hit iron.

“You shouldn’t have done that, little filly.” Twilight growled, Rainbow felt her entire body freeze up as a white glow wrapped around her body. Electricity began to fill the cloud. It started becoming thunderous.

“What the hay, Rainbow Dash?” Reiner lunged at Twilight, breaking her concentration. “Stop getting in my way!” Her father looked more annoyed than she expected.

“B-But—!” Rainbow tried to say but had to dodge an incoming burst of white lightning.

“I hear that pegasi are innately able to control the weather…,” Twilight started to say out loud, not really speaking to anypony in particular. “Try controlling this!” Beams of light were shooting sporadically from her horn.

“Twilight is a dangerous mare, she’s too powerful for you to handle!” Reiner chided his daughter. Surprisingly, he could dodge the lightning without even looking, he even slapped a bolt with his hoof with ease. Rainbow didn’t even try to argue with him, too astonished with how he was taking everything.

He seemed so weak earlier, but now he seems to have gained a whole new level of power. Is this her father when he’s angry? ‘Wow, just wow.’ She thought to herself.

For a moment, Rainbow considered trying to slap lightning with her hoof but reconsidered it. As much as a daredevil she was, now wasn’t the time to be testing her abilities.

When she saw Twilight’s attention momentarily leave her, she took the chance to use the cloud they were in to their advantage. Twilight seemed to have the same innate magic like pegasus ponies, if that’s true…she could use it against her.

“Rainbow!” Her father called out before getting scratched by a bolt of lightning.

“Sorry, dad!”

“Dad?” Twilight stopped as the purple returned to her eyes. Within seconds, Rainbow flew near Twilight with a piece of the giant cloud in tow. She started speeding faster and faster until the cloud became flat and thin before going around Twilight.

“I think I did that better than even Applejack!” Rainbow praised herself as she crossed her forelegs over her chest in pride.

Twilight looked so stunned, it wasn’t really because of her being captured but the method. Who in the world ever thought of using clouds as some kind of…restraint?

Her entire body was covered in the extremely tight cloud ‘duct tape’. Only her head was poking out, so she kind of looked like some weird form of caterpillars.

The childish and somewhat adorable look on the purple Zoner’s face immediately turned sour as her glare returned and it was forced fully on Rainbow Dash.

“I remember you now! You’re that Starlight from before!” Twilight started to struggle in her snare but it was like some sticky rubber band, forcing her body back into the tight squeeze no matter how much she struggled.

At this, Rainbow started to giggle, attempting to stifle her laughter to no avail.

“Think this is funny, do you? Try laughing again once I rip your organs out.”

“I’m sorry if I have trouble believing any of your threats, ‘Ms. Flying Cocoon‘.” Rainbow smirked.

Twilight’s mouth hung open in shock, she’s never had anyone treat her like that before, not even from an enemy.

“How dare you, I am Mother Luna’s Firstborn! My brother and sisters are nothing compared to me!” Her eyes and horn turned white as she started to stretch the cloud in a way that made it balloon out. There was a hiss sound as the purple returned in her eyes and the cloud band painfully bounded back and smacked her sides. Hard.

Rainbow Dash was going to throw another insult but her father had other ideas. He lunged at her and started to zoom far away from the bound unicorn monster.

“Hey, I wasn’t finish with taunting her!” Rainbow complained between her father’s forelegs.

“Dash, you almost got yourself killed!” Reiner said through his teeth. Rainbow started to take notice of the smell of burning copper and noticed that her father was bleeding, bleeding burnt blood. Apparently, slapping lightning wasn’t as easy as he made it look.

She looked up at her father’s face in concern, he wasn’t looking at her as he was too intent on heading home. Then, she looked over behind his shoulders to look at Twilight, they were too far gone now and Twilight was lost in the sunrise filled sky. There was a loud roar before a burst of waves gently shook the air around them.

Something told the filly that it was Twilight Sparkle, the dark Zoner. It was a bit depressing, considering what could have happened if she stayed a bit longer, but at the same time, it was amusing to see that she could poke fun at the greatest monster in the world without coming out harmed.

XOX

“And, then, I was like who’s the one who should be embarrassed here? Not the super-supreme-totally-awesome-spectacular-riffic Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow flew into the air with one hoof pointed proudly at her chest.

Her two friends looked at her speechless. Applejack was about to say something until she was interrupted by Fluttershy’s soft, “Yay!’, as the other mare was clapping with vigor.

“Now, I don’t have an inch of doubt that ya’ll fought the Zoner and all, but I do doubt that that’s what happened.” Applejack couldn’t really get herself to believe Dash’s story.

“Okay…,” Rainbow drawled out. “So, maybe I smudged the info a bit, it’s called showmanship!”

“No, it’s called telling tall tales, nothing short of lying.”

“Well, I did tie her up like a hog with a cloud!” Rainbow complained, she flew down near Applejack and held her head against the farm mare’s. “And, that’s the truth!”

Applejack glared back at Rainbow Dash, pushing against her friend’s face. She looked at Rainbow in the eyes with annoyance staring into Rainbow’s eyes for any sign before pulling back out of the glare fest in shock. Applejack looked up and down at her blue pegasus friend before shaking her head.

“You’re telling the truth?!” She shook her head and tilted her head down sideways. “Well, I be darn. Now ain’t that something?” Rainbow Dash smiled in victory. “For the fact that you told the truth, now, I gotta respect ya some for that!”

Rainbow’s smile dropped and she frowned. “Hey! I just took down Twilight! Give me some cred!”

“I respect you!” Fluttershy interrupted in a soft tone, making both ponies look at her. “I mean, if you don’t mind?” She blushed and turned away.

“Okay, jokes aside, are you crazy, R.D.?!” Applejack grabbed an apple off the table near her and took a bite out of it. “I mean, no pony,” She looked at Rainbow hesitantly, ”in their right mind would do something so reckless.”

“Are you saying that I’m weak?” Rainbow frowned as she landed on the ground.

“No, just mad, is all.” Applejack finished her apple and swallowed it with some effort. “No offense?”

“None taken.”

“I mean, Granny Smith told me a lot about Twilight Sparkle.” Applejack said the words as if they were a curse. “The Zoner is bad news, she can do things that you haven’t seen yet!

“I get that she’s a flying unicorn? What’s more to know?” Rainbow huffed and turned to her side.

“She’s the Zoner of Destruction, she can do so much without the aid of her real powers, that was just the tip of the iceberg. That Zoner is just playing around. She could have unleashed a horde of phantoms or other boogey monster on you with a flick of her mane!”

“Pssh!” Rainbow waved at her friend with a ignorant hoof. “They’re nothing but Ursa Minors.”

“Your pride is showing under that chin of yours…,” Applejack mumbled to herself and shook her head. “You’re also forgetting about The Menace, Eon, and Cry!”

“The who, what, now?” Rainbow Dash asked as if she was asked, ‘How many beanies can fit in a spoolunker?’ Totally un-cool gibberish, in her own words. “Is that some kinda fudge?” She asked scratching her head.

At this, Applejack did another face-hoof. “How is it that everypony except the Starlight General’s own daughter knows about the Trinights?” The look of further confusion on the blue pegasus’s face made Applejack want to face-hoof Rainbow, hard in the face, enough to leave a bruise or a broken jaw! “The Trinights, Twilight’s personal elite lieutenants?”

“I heard that the Zoner of Destruction killed their family when they were mere foals and brainwashed them into obedience…!” Fluttershy hid her eyes behind her hoofs. “Through magical torture! Oh, I can‘t imagine!”

“It is said that the Trinights are almost equal to Twilight’s power when all three are together. Granny Smith mentioned that they were chosen from birth and given a training from Hayel until they were only loyal to Twilight and only Twilight, not even loyal to Princess Luna.

“The three are only known as The Menace, Eon, and Cry. I think they ar’ only codenames, not their real names. Menace is an earth pony, Eon is a unicorn, and Cry is a pegasus. Menace is known for her love of butcher—”

“Hold it, if they are sooo awesome, why have I never seen them with Twilight—?”

“That’s what I’m sayin’, R.D.!” Applejack complained, “If her elite lieutenants ain’t there, that means she’s not playing with a full bushel of apples!”

“I’m surprised that you didn’t know, your father fought them multiple times before.” Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane when Rainbow turned to look at her in surprise. “I mean, doesn’t he tell you a lot about his battles, if you forgive me for asking?”

“Now that you mention it…,” The blue pegasus looked left and right as if someone was listening in on their conversation. “I don’t think I ever heard him mention anything besides Twilight…?”

Rainbow bid her friends goodbye as she flew out of the café, almost forgetting to pay her bill until Applejack snagged her back by the tail. The Starlight Pegasus immediately headed over to the training grounds to practice her swordsmanship with her uncle, Starry.

“That sounds mighty suspicious!” Applejack frowned as she watched her friend’s fleeting back.

“You think Rainbow Dash is up to something?” Fluttershy asked with a worried look.

“No, not Rainbow, sugarcube. But I do have a strange feelin’ about another Starlight Pegasus.” Applejack paid the bills for herself and Fluttershy before walking outside with her. “I’ll explain back at my ranch.” Applejack looked at Fluttershy with a look that said, ‘It’s between you and me‘.

Chapter End

Training and Court Orders (Pic Added)

Training and Court Orders

When Rainbow Dash made it to the Starlight training grounds in Canterlot, she was met with a sour cerulean face. An old scarred face.

“Sorry, I’m late.” Rainbow chuckled lightly and rubbed the back of her head.

“’Sorry‘? Are you kiddin’ me, Rainbow? You’re at least an hour late! What in the world were you doing that made you late by an hour?” Starry Lights complained. “You may be the Starlight General’s daughter but that means nothing here!” The older pegasus paced back and forth in a strict military fashion. He glanced up at his niece without breaking his pace. “Well? Explain yourself!”

Rainbow winced as her uncle’s stare burned into her eyes. “I was with my friends…?” He gave a loud ‘humph!’, “In Ponyville…?”

“Ponyville? That’s at least a five hour trip from here on hoof!”

“I took the train…!”

“You have a lot of your father in you. Too much if you ask me!” Starry shook his head in shame. “I can’t believe you two are part of the Starlight bloodline, if you didn’t have fur the color of the sky and rainbow manes, I’d have thought you two be some other ponies.”

Rainbow was used to her uncle’s rough words. She knew that it didn’t mean that he hated her and her father, it was just that he was born during a strict and hard time. Starry was just that ‘tough-love’ type of person, if he didn’t yell at you, it meant that he didn’t care. Not meaning that she’s ever seen him not yelling.

The big differences between Starry and Reiner, besides the obvious physical aspects, is that Starry is a hard worker that got to where he is whilst Reiner was basically born with his talents. Starry was in no bad shape at seeing his younger brother being gifted, he wasn’t petty. After all, war didn’t care about luck or cheaters, it only mattered if you took all of the advantages that you could get.

“I’m here to teach you swordplay, not to baby-sit you. Celestia knows I’ve done plenty of that when you were a toddler! Can‘t believe Cotton disapproved of my babysitting methods…!” Starry said the last part to himself. “If she’s old enough to talk she’s old enough to run a flight course on ‘er own….”

She was sure that she wasn’t supposed to hear those two things that he said but ignored it and smiled obliviously. “I’m ready when you are.”

“I’ve been ready the moment you were born!” The old colt complained, “It’s you who’s not ready.”

“Nuh uh! I’m ready—!” Just as she said this, a dagger flew past her, barely scratching her cheek and taking a few strains of her hair with it.

“Right…!” Starry rolled his eyes. “You may have Reiner’s…gifts, but you obviously haven’t been working on them.” He glared at her, “I bet you’ve been working solely on that Rainboom, haven’t you? Skipping the low-tier skills and working only on the high-tier ones.”

Rainbow’s blush only confirmed his beliefs. “I can’t believe you, even Reiner isn‘t that foolish. Well, better starting on the basics now than never.”

Starry guided his brash niece over to a bunch of dummies made of hard logs.

“I want you to hit them.” He sighed when Rainbow gave him a confused look. “With your sword, you know, the one that Reiner gave you for achieving the rank of Star Cleaver?”

Rainbow still looked at him funny but did what he said, she leaned her head over her side and pulled the blade out of its sheath. She walked over to one of the dummies and started to peck away at it. From an outsider’s view it would look like she was mimicking a chicken or turkey, bobbing her head up and down.

When she thought that she was getting the hang of it, she started to ‘peck’ harder, making loud smacking noises. She looked reminiscent of a chicken looking for worms in the dirt.

A few passerby Starlight trainees were laughing to each other when they saw sight of their fellow warrior.

Starry groaned as he watched a few of the pegasi fly or walk by.

“Hey turkey, eh, Rainbow Dash!” The scarred pegasus yelled out to her. “You’re doing it wrong.”

“How was I supposed to know? You just said ‘hit it’ and that’s what I did!” Rainbow complained when her uncle moved her aside.

“Well, I’m showing you now, aren’t I?” He mumbled with his own blade in his mouth.

Instead of swinging his head up and down, he was swinging it side to side. Rainbow wasn’t really impressed until he started to run through the maze of dummies, slashing at each multiple times without stopping. He raced back in a blur of multiple colors before sheathing his blade.

He looked at Rainbow’s slack jaw expression with mild interest. “Are you going to stand there gawking or are you going to listen?”

Rainbow had trouble with the first dummy, her neck cramping ever so often that it made it hard for her to continue swinging it for too long. It took her a couple of tries to finally get the hang of it. Slashing and running was a whole lot easier than just standing there swinging since she didn’t need to swing that hard to cut.

It wasn’t as good as the way her uncle did it but it was better than how she started out. Her drill sergeant of an uncle forced her to repeat this for four hours plus another two for being late.

It was safe to say that she was exhausted by the time she finished and got home. She pushed herself against the door to her home before collapsing on the floor when she got inside.

Rainbow Dash shuddered when she remembered her uncle saying, “That wasn‘t too bad, soldier. After a few more of these warm ups, I can get you on to the real stuff.”

“Good evening, Rainbow—Oh, I forgot that you were with Starry Lights.” Her father chuckled and bent down to look at his daughter, eye to eye.

“No more…!” She complained.

“Well, that’s not normally like you.” Reiner laughed at her writhing in agony. “Where’s the great Rainbow Dash who wants to follow in her father’s hoof-steps?”

“This is like flight school all over again!”

“I thought you liked flight school?”

“When I was on the track team! Not when I was taking classes!”

“Gee, I thought you failed twice because you wanted to stay in school a bit longer. Didn’t you have a crush on that one colt, wasn’t he like the team captain or something?” Reiner reminisced in happiness.

“Yeah, but he had a filly-friend and Uncle Starry scared the living daylights out of him, anyways.”

“Hey, you two, stop yakking and come in the kitchen! Your dinners are getting cold!” They heard Cotton yell out from the other room. “We’re having honey-glazed carrots and baked sweet potato! Roasted-nut muffins for dessert!”

Rainbow Dash practically vanished as she blurred into the kitchen, the thought of food made her forget her aching muscles.

“Oh, Dash.” Her father laughed as he followed suit at a slower pace.

XOX

“That damned filly…!” Twilight muttered under her breath as she trounced back to Neighrun on hoof. The eerie dark Everfree forest didn’t hinder her at all. It was basically her second home next to the castle that she was born in.

She was in no rush to hurry home so she took her sweet time getting there, an occasional manticore or phantom flew by pass her, the giant monsters seemingly ignored the Zoner.

Twilight felt sorry for those creatures, her brother and sisters. They were mindless and only ran on instincts, unlike her. Sentience was one of the more difficult and time consuming gifts that Princess Luna could bestow on her creations, a trait that she had no choice but to skip in order to mass produce the other creatures.

And, due to the conflicts, most of her brother and sisters were aggressive towards ponies since they instinctively had to protect themselves. Fighting off Celestian ponies was so ingrained into their genes that they would even attack Lunar ponies unless they were tamed.

They also seemed to have developed a taste for ponies, at first, it was because they couldn’t leave the corpses there to fester and scavenged it but slowly it became a treat for them.

She couldn’t say what the taste of horsemeat would taste like but she could imagine since there were a number of pony blood that managed its way onto her palate in the past hundreds of years.

And, no. It was not because she ran around biting ponies like some kind of vampire. It just happened that years of fighting usually covered her in so much blood that some got into her mouth.

As Twilight was walking, she didn’t seem to take notice of a puffy pink mane in the shadows following her.

XOX

Celestia’s Sun rose bright and early. The light filled up Rainbow Dash’s half-cloud half-oak room. There were a few pictures hanging up on her walls. A few were featuring a pegasus with orange blazing mane, Spitfire, the Captain of the Wonderbolts, one of Dash’s favorite athletic fliers.

Some of the other pictures were of some of the lesser Wonderbolts and even of her father, Reiner. Hanging on her door was a young child’s drawing in crude crayon of an azure pegasus in golden armor, covered from head to toe with his mane sticking out, a striking flurry of colors.

Next to the crayon Reiner was a smaller version of him with a similar but oversized armor and there were at least four giant blades, twice the filly‘s size, held on her back. She even had a bow and arrow, too.

That little pony was her.

“-Yawn-!” Rainbow stretched her forelegs into the air as she sat up in her cloud bed. She looked out of her window to see a small canary sitting on a branch outside, chirping happily.

It was a normal day but nice nonetheless.

She slowly headed into the personal bathroom next to her closet in her room. She spurted a rainbow-colored shampoo into one hoof before lathering it into her mane then dunked her entire head down into the pool of water in her tub. The pegasus repeatedly dunked her head for a few moments and when she found that the soapy residue was gone, headed to the sink.

Rainbow hated brushing her teeth, the taste of the white paste made her want to vomit but her parents bought blue gel this time and it wasn’t too bad. She did like the perky clean feeling after, just not during.

After making sure she looked presentable in the mirror, skipping bathing entirely, she headed downstairs for breakfast.

The smell of fresh pancakes filled her nostrils as she reached the end of the stairs. It was blueberry! There was a flash of prism colors that jumped into one of the cushions near the table. Rainbow slammed her rump on the pillow and hungrily dug into the stack of pancakes that laid before her eyes.

She didn’t even look up as she chomped down as much of the doughy mixture as if her life depended on it. When she finally looked up, her face was smeared with syrup and pieces of blueberry jam. She saw Cotton and Reiner looking at her with frozen faces.

There was a few seconds of frozen silence.

“Awesome pancakes, mom!” Dash broke the silence with a huge syrupy grin. Her white smile was caked with blueberry guts and apple syrup.

Cotton’s muzzle continued to hang open until she shook her head. “Dash, that’s very improper behavior for a lady such as yourself!” Her mom chastised her as a wet cloth hovered near her face in a pink glow. Rainbow frowned and tried to dodge the offending object.

She managed to dodge it for the most part until she turned to look in another direction and another cloth appeared and smacked her hard in the face.

“Oooh!” Rainbow Dash groaned as her mother finished cleaning up her face. “Mom!”

“I honestly don’t understand where you get that, missy.” Cotton huffed as she turned to look at her husband. The male pegasus was neck deep in his stack of pancakes, it looked as if the pancakes had swallowed his head. Later, there was a loud obnoxious slurping sound as the pancakes were shrinking until they filled into Reiner’s mouth.

Cotton frowned as her husband turned to look at her, with his pancake-filled cheeks puffing out, and asked with a muffled “Wad dud Ah duh? (What did I do?)” His act of innocence made her even more furious as another wet cloth came and smacked Reiner square in the face, this one came so hard that it knocked him to the floor and missed most of the stains on him.

She did not really bother to clean her husband up. Her daughter was someone she had to take care of and watch over, that was her duty as a mother. It was not, however, her duty to watch her husband like he was some newborn colt. There was nothing in the wedding promises that included that, not even in the fine prints!

Reiner stood back up, swallowed his food, sighed loudly, then said in a calm voice, “Can I have more pancakes? I love them!” He smiled in an idiotic way and looked at her.

Rainbow Dash gave a similar smile, nodding her head furiously. “They’re awesome, mom! Your pancakes are 20% cooler than plain, old, regular pancakes!”

Cotton sighed but she inwardly took the compliments before going into the kitchen to make more pancakes.

As she watched her mother’s flank disappear behind the doorway, Rainbow leaned beside her dad and said, “I can see why you married her! She’s a radical cook!”

“Heheh,” Reiner chuckled. “Yes, your mother is something special.”

“When I find that pony I want a trophy wife like mom!” Rainbow declared proudly.

“Rainbow, now don’t talk like that. ‘Trophy wife’ is such a fierce term. I want you to find somepony special that you love and want to marry.” Reiner shook his head when he thought about what his daughter had declared, he asked, “And, shouldn’t the term be ‘trophy husband’? Not wife?”

“It’s okay, I got it all figured out, the pony I want is someone who stays home, soft, shy, a great cook, and cute. See, calling him ‘husband’ is too strong so I think it’s better to call him the ‘wife‘!”

Reiner sighed and patted his daughter on the head, “Just don’t let your mom hear you saying things like that, you might make her angry. She might blame me for that or something.”

“I mean who wouldn’t want someone like mom? She the best mare in the world!” That’s Rainbow Dash to a T, loyal to a fault, although, sometimes a bit too brash.

Just as she said this, Cotton came back with a new fresh batch of pancakes.

“Oh, Dashy! That’s so nice of you to say that!” Her mother beamed at her proudly before placing the large stacks of pancakes on both of Reiner‘s and Rainbow‘s plates.

Reiner sighed a thankful release, his wife didn’t hear their daughter’s sexist remark. His ears were safe from disapproval for the time being.

“You two eat so much.” Cotton said offhandedly. “I wonder where you two put it all?”

“Easy, when you’re the best you eat the most!” Rainbow momentarily stopped eating to explain to her mother and bumped her chest with her hoof, with pride.

Reiner shook his head at her, his daughter is so energetic, so athletic, so…cocky! She means well but sometimes it off-puts others. “She means to say that we, as pegasi, especially Starlight Pegasi, use up a lot of energy since we fly around a lot and have the need to consume a lot of calories.”

“In other words, the best of us eat the most!”

“Oh, Rainbow Dash…,” Her mother smiled tenderly at their daughter. She raised a hoof and patted her on the head.

After Rainbow and her father were done cleaning their plates, Reiner was called to a meeting with Princess Celestia. It seemed like she had something important to speak about with her Starlight General while Rainbow Dash headed for her daily training with her uncle.

She trotted carelessly along Canterlot Castle, occasionally bumping into a few of the staff ponies, since she wasn’t watching where she was going. Her mind was a bit cloudy and unfocused as she thought about the past few days.

Evil Twilight, deceitful father, sergeant bloodthirsty uncle…what’s a young filly like her to do about all of the drama?

She bumped into another pony, this time hard! She and the other pony fell back and landed on their flanks. Both held their heads in their hooves in pain.

“Watch where you are going, you clumsy fool!” A whiny yet familiar voice roared. Rainbow Dash looked up with a frown and replied, “Oh, it’s you.”

The blue unicorn looked at Rainbow Dash, aghast. “You? How dare you speak of The Great and Powerful Trixie as if she were some hogwash apple farmer?” The white maned unicorn didn’t seem to notice Rainbow grit her teeth when she said this. “Show some respect to someone of higher standing, you worm!”

“Of course, how can I forget The Great and Powerful Trixie? You are, after all, the greatest -cough-pain-cough- magician in all of the Sun Kingdom!” Trixie puffed out her chest in pride, seemingly not noticing the pegasus’s mocking tone. “Part of the Princess Celestia’s grand court of powerful and talented generals! Why, I think I shall bow down to that rock you are standing by, since your majesty is so strong and…adhesive.”

“Why, yes, Trixie’s power is very adhesive!”

“Like crazy glue under a waste basket…!” Rainbow muttered under her breath as she puffed her hanging rainbow mane out of her eyes.

“Oh, yes, Trixie remembers now!” Trixie started saying. “The Great and Powerful Trixie was called into court by Princess Celestia. Apparently, she’s called her entire court to the war room, especially your father, Reiner Dash, since a great deal seems to concern him.

Well, I must be going. I know that Princess Celestia can’t but need my assistance in combative planning. Ta ta, Starlight Daughter.” It seemed that Trixie forgot to speak in 3rd person at that last part.

Rainbow Dash was tempted to actually follow the blue unicorn and spy on the generals and war advisors and see what they were talking about but was too lazy to go through with the idea. Besides, Starry was going to skin her worse than a bunny in hunting season.

XOX

“Rainbow…?” Starry asked with a bit of annoyance. He looked around for his niece in the castle’s courtyard. He then looked back at the giant maze behind him, “Did she get lost in the maze…? I told her to wait for me before hiking.” His torn ears folded down in confusion. “Is she that brash…? …Yes, she is.”

The scarred blue pegasus turned around and headed into the maze. A few young mares were walking by and saw the older pegasus trek into the maze. “Isn’t that Starry? Where do you think he’s going?” Another fawned, “Wouldn’t it be dreamy to get lost with him in the maze?” The three mares paused for a second and looked at each other.

Moments later, the mares ran into the maze after Starry Lights.

XOX

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is present!” Trixie came up to the grand hall leading into Celestia’s chambers.

The two black and white furred pegasusi guards looked uneasily at each other before proceeding to open the doors for her.

It looked like Trixie was a bit late since a dozen of other ponies were already in the room, chatting away. A few took the chance to look at the opening doors to glance at Trixie before looking back at Reiner and Celestia.

Trixie spoke proudly, announcing her arrival and thanking everyone for waiting for her. Many ponies ignored her theatrics. Her abilities and position within the court gave her great authority but her demeanor garnered very few respect from her peers. Although, they all agreed that she was an invaluable asset all the same.

“—Is a dire choice…!” One of the talking stallions stomped a hoof hard into the hard marble surface.

“We can’t continue these acts, it is unbecoming of ponies!”

“Fight as monsters against monsters!” Another voice interjected.

Trixie sat there with a small frown but stay uncharacteristically quiet. She needed to understand the situation to a degree before voicing her opinion.

Reiner sighed after shaking off everypony’s words.

“Enough!” Reiner yelled out, losing every inch of calm in his voice. He coughed in relief as they all quieted down. “I assume this is not just a mere war assembly, is that not right, Princess Celestia?”

The white alicorn merely smiled, a tender smile. “It is true.” She said, to everypony’s gasp. “I called everypony here to discuss something that I feel we need to deal with.”

“Is this about the she-whore, Zoner of Twilight?” Trixie finally spoke up, bringing all eyes on her. Many cringed, even Celestia herself, when she said that forbidden word. She smiled as she took the attention and saw the recognition fall over Princess Celestia’s eyes, almost forgetting the tingling sensation in her beating chest.

“Yes and no…,” Celestia spoke in a voice of fine silk. “Yes, I feel that the war has been going on for too long but the other side does not seemed content on stopping except for the occasional ‘peace treaties’. The Zoner is a particularly heavy issue.”

“Reiner is not doing a very good job, it’s his duty to hold the she-witch at bay, neigh, even push her back! But I see nothing of the sort!” An old red earth pony with long thin mustaches said. His brown eyebrows were covering his eyes but they could sense the contempt from his face.

“Sir Gerald, we know that the Zoner killed your son but we cannot hold Reiner accountable for such a tragedy. ‘Tis the tides of war.” A blue unicorn, who looked much younger than most in the court, said with a poetic voice. “The beauty of life and foulness of death is one and the same. We all know where we stand in life in this chaotic world.”

“Oh, please, Blazing Tides! Stop with your nonsensical speeches. We’re in it to win it! It’s the same with them Lunars, we just gotta push harder and faster until they’re all dead!” Another earth pony, who stood taller than most of them, said in a gruff voice. His coat was a dark brown, almost black.

“My unit is meant for the sole protection of the entire borders of our great country of Equestria and our great Princess. We are only ponies and are not perfect, though we strive constantly to get closer to it each day, and that includes threats besides the Zoner, Twilight Sparkle.” Reiner said after getting tired of listening to the others’ petty squabbles. “Many lives are often wasted but for the greater good of our people. That is our duty, all of our duties.” He stared down everypony with a stare that challenged an opposition.

Everypony was quiet for a moment. His words were cold but true.

“Some duty!” Trixie finally said, shaking her head. “Trixie and her squadron of elite unicorns had to deal with a scourge of cockatrice that were rampaging the border town of Hoofmore! All Starlights were none to be found! We unicorns took great lengths to revive the townspeople of their stone prisons.”

After she said this, everypony started getting into more arguments, ranging from mundane such as ‘Who ate my carrots?!’ to serious like ‘I held my husband’s disembodied head hours after he promised to return to our anniversary!’

Celestia shook her head and raised her hoof above her head, silencing everypony once more. “This is enough for today. It’s getting late and I believe we should continue this discussion until next week. Everypony may go back to their previous engagements.” Just as Reiner was nearing the door, Celestia spoke in a low voice, “Except for you, Starlight General.”

Celestia turned her head to the right and looked at the cloaked pony in the corner of her vision. “And, you too.” The cloaked pony stopped, hesitantly. They were shaking with fear at being found. Their cyan muzzle took a big gulp. “Rainbow Dash, I can’t believe you snuck into this meeting. Are you that eager to be a Starlight General?”

Celestia ordered all of the guards and staff, besides Rainbow and Reiner Dash, out of her throne room. “My little pony, this is a grave misdemeanor to eavesdrop in a confidential war meeting.” The white alicorn sighed, heavily. “But this isn’t the only reason why I stopped you two. It has to do with your involvement with Twilight Sparkle.”

Both Dashes looked appalled and shocked, the older one even looked a bit nervous. “I’m glad to see you two made it back safely from that dreadful encounter in Neighrun Castle. But you are taking things too far, Reiner. Trying to assassinate my sister was reckless, even incorrigible. I may be your princess but I can’t control everything you do, just don’t try that again.”

After the small lecture, Princess Celestia let the two Starlights go. Reiner glared at his daughter as they walked alongside one another in the hall. “Really, Rainbow? You left your uncle to spy on us? You need to stop playing around.” He said with a bit of frustration.

“I wonder how’s Uncle Starry doing right now?” Rainbow asked nonchalantly, out loud. “Oh my gosh! Uncle Starry!” Her eyes became the size of dish plates as she darted out in a flurry of colors into the royal garden.

XOX

“Where in the blazing daisies did that filly go?” Starry muttered in annoyance. He saw a light red mare wave to him in the corner of the large maze. As he got closer he noticed the mare fall down, unconscious. One of her legs were twitching. “Isn’t that the fifth time I saw this mare?” He asked to himself out loud. ‘I’m not that scary, am I?’

After taking a few more turns, he finally found his way out. He gasped in shock as he saw a panting Rainbow Dash laying on her back in front of the exit.

“Why, Dash!” He started yelling out loud.

“Really, Uncle Starry, I—” Rainbow Dash started to stand up and tried to think of a good excuse to give her uncle.

“I can’t believe you found your way out better than I had expected. I’m proud!”

“—Yeah…? That…Sure, let’s go with that…?” Rainbow Dash accepted her luck and took the credit.

Chapter End

Pains That Never End (Pic Added)

Pains That Never End

“Oh, no! It’s her! It’s The Menace!” A unicorn guard screamed as he levitated a dozen daggers by his side. He held them aloft before shooting each like a bullet at the impeding mare.

The light red mare, whom was dressed in a dark fabric that covered most of her body and face, easily dodged his blades.

She was quicker than any pegasus that he could imagine. His comrades, half a dozen other guards, came to his side just as she was nearing him.

A few of the unicorns erected a small barrier as The Menace jumped up with a spin as blades sprung out from her leg bracers.

There was a ‘boing’ as she fell back from the barrier’s impact.

Two pegasus guards took her rebound as an opportunity to attack as they swooped in from behind the barrier, attacking her in either side. The red maned mare looked at both pegasi with a look akin to boredom before doing a double-barrel back flip, causing the two to collide against one another.

Her blue eyes flashed as she clapped her hoofs together, springing out her hidden blades in her bracers, before stabbing both pegasi in the back of their necks.

An earth pony came charging at her blindly from her back, knocking her into the floor. He came on top of her, preparing to pummel her under a flurry of his hoofs but she was too fast for him.

She punched her foreleg into the ground and quickly twisted her body into a spin. Her lower legs opened a hidden blade in each bracer as her spinning cut the earth colt’s own legs, knocking him to the floor on his flank.

Before the colt knew what hit him, she jumped on top of him and smashed his skull in with her hoofs.

Two dozen arrows suddenly sprang forth as she took a dive to dodge them all. Only one managed to graze her backside before hitting her flank.

She looked up to the direction of the shots to see a dozen more Celestian patrol guards coming onto her, a few were pegasi who were flying above her as they fired down.

“We’ve got you now! You’re surrounded!” A pony said with conviction, as they surrounded The Menace. “Surrender now and you will die swiftly! Refuse…” He looked side to side to see them flanking her, preventing her from escaping. “And may Celestia have mercy on your soul!”

“I’ll have to apologize to Mistress Twilight for being late, tonight.”

The Menace had decimated the entire squad of twenty, single-hoofedly. She shook her head with a sigh as her blades clicked and retracted back into her bracers. ‘Losers, I didn’t even break a sweat.’ She thought with a huff.

Her ears twitched just as she turned to see a group of unicorn guards flanking her. ’Royal Unicorn Guards…!’ She back-flipped as their horns glowed, their magic were just out of reach as she dodged at the last second.

It was a narrow miss! Or, at least, it looked like it. The Menace had only feigned a delayed reaction, she wanted the Royal Guards to think that they almost had her. It was more fun that way, letting her prey feel like they were close to achieving their goals, she liked it like that.

Even though she was an earth mare, none of their magic could work on her, anyway. She was used to fighting the magical fools. She knew every trick that they had in the book and then some.

The red-maned filly raised her hoof dramatically as a single dagger appeared. She made a waving motion with her hoof, making a dozen more appear in her hoof, spread out like a deck of cards.

With a white flash in her eyes, she threw all of the blades. She repeated her motions, making more daggers appear, before throwing more of the blades. It was like she was pulling blades out of thin air as she kept barraging the guards with her throwing knives.

The unicorn guards were quick to form a barrier but some were too weak as her blades ran them clean through, killing a few of the guards. They may have had magic but even magic had a limit.

The Menace gave an uncharacteristic smirk, ‘Too easy.’ She dodged a blast of magical energy. She heard the sound slow flapping wings from behind her. ‘Pegasus wings…!’ And not just regular pegasus wings, either.

She looked up with a snarl to see a overly cocky looking Starlight Pegasus floating above her with his forelegs crossed.

“So, you’re the big bad The Menace that I heard so much about? You‘re just a little earth filly!” The stallion scoffed at her. “Weak!” He blew his rainbow mane away from his eyes.

‘I’m not gonna kill this one…’ She thought with a dark frown. ‘I’m going to murderize him into oblivion that not even Mistress Twilight can revive his pitiful carcass!’

The Menace leaped into the air, surprising the young stallion as he narrowly dodged her. He was surprised that she could jump so high. She was just as good as the rumors say but that didn’t matter. He was going to be the one that defeated The Menace and rise in the ranks of the Starlight clan.

“Breaker! Don’t be an idiot, you can’t handle her alone!” One of the unicorns shouted at the Starlight Pegasus. Just as the stallion said this, The Menace somehow appeared behind him and slid her blades into his throat.

“Your voice is grating on my ears.” She said with a sigh as she kicked the unicorn’s gagging corpse off of her blade.

“You damned bastard!” The other unicorns screamed as they levitated their weapons to attack her, only for her to disappear in the group under a haze of smoke.

“Leave her to me, I’m a Starlight! This is what we were born for!” Breaker said as he performed a Aerial Twister, blowing the smoke away with his mini tornadoes.

“We’re staying, you are going to need all the help you can get, Starlight or not.” The unicorn speaking looked nervously over her shoulders, The Menace was the worse of the Trinights. The crazed mare was beyond homicidal and loony. “Besides, help is coming!”

“We just need to hold her off long enough, right? Right?”

The Menace growled from behind the large boulder that she was hiding by. She was standing on her two back-legs like a bipedal creature. The introduction of the Starlight Pegasus was unexpected, she had to tread carefully.

The mare reached behind her back and pulled out a large 4-bladed knife. The blade was bigger than her head, it was unimaginable for her to have had sheathed it in her assassin garment.

“I’ll definitely have to apologize to Mistress Twilight for being late.” She pulled out a second wind shuriken in her other hoof. “Time to shed some blood on this situation.” She held the blades over her chest before jumping into the group of ponies.

Magic, bladed projectiles, and screaming surrounded her as she charged forward into the chaos.

XOX

Twilight sighed heavily as she walked down the long hallway. A row of Shadowguards were frozen in their guard position. Only the rising and falling of their chests indicated any life that they had.

They each stared at her with loyal and alert eyes. She ignored the eyes. She was well aware of the wide array of emotions that each eye was filled with.

Fear.

Anxiety.

Desolation.

Loyalty.

Desire.

Twilight the Zoner was Princess Luna’s Pride and Firstborn. She was no mere pony. She was something beyond any mortal coil. And that is why her fellow allies kept her at bay. She was a weapon to them, a means to an end. She was also a being on the same level as the princesses.

At least, that’s what that they thought in their minds. Twilight, as powerful was she was, she was no match for the tyrannical Princess Celestia in one on one combat. That’s where her intelligence and resourcefulness came in.

Before Twilight could finish her thoughts, she found herself at her intended destination.

Princess Luna’s bedchambers.

Only she and a hoof-ful of trusted associates were ever allowed into this section of the castle. The last time since somepony, other than Twilight, came to visit the Princess there was almost over 300 years ago.

Princess Luna, also known as the Secluded Princess or the Paranoid Princess, didn’t trust anyone besides her beloved Zoner incarnations to be alone with her in her chambers.

Twilight, when not out scouting, would always be at her princess’s side in case of any danger. One could say that Twilight was a bit overprotective of ‘Mother Luna’.

“It’s me, may I come in?” Twilight raised a hoof and knocked on the wooden doors.

“Thou may cometh, my cherished Twilight Sparkle!” Princess Luna’s voice boomed from behind.

The dark purple Zoner smiled inwardly and stepped through.

She looked up to see her princess standing regally near the tall window, the curtains blowing with the wind from the open glass panels.

The princess had a dark coat, black as the night sky, and her eyes were looking outward in lost thoughts. She was wearing a light blue mythril plate across her chest and a matching helmet. This was the Mare of the Night, the Nightmare Moon that haunted the dreams of the young fillies who cried for their parents in bed.

This was the evil ruler of the Moon Realm!

“M-Mother…?” Twilight hesitantly closed the door and approached the princess.

Princess Luna let out a breath of air that she didn’t realize that she was holding.

“How are you, my young pupil?” The words were both ironic and true, considering that she was ages beyond Twilight even though Twilight was around 500.

“I am fine, Mother Luna.” Twilight decided to step back and kneeled down to bow.

“It’s alright, you don’t need to be so formal with Us.” The princess waved a hoof in front of herself. Her form changed from a tall black alicorn mare to a small light purple little filly, just a head smaller than Twilight. “Just as We you.”

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle! My precious friend! I’ve missed you so much!” The filly Luna’s voice was softer and more squeaky compared to before. Even her choice of words and attitude seemed to change drastically.

This was Princess Luna’s true form. A form only Twilight and her bloodline ever saw.

The princess trotted over to a large round velvet bed that was in the center of the room, hopping onto it. She curled into the covers like a snake coiling itself.

Luna’s tiny head popped out of the furry ball to look at Twilight with eyes of want. The blue orbs were dilated as tears threatened to come out.

“Alright, Mother.” Twilight sighed as she knew exactly what the princess wanted. She hopped into the bed alongside the blue-maned filly.

They both cuddled next to each other with their heads popping out from under the covers to stare at the tall windows. The full moon in the dark sky peered down at them through the window‘s glasses.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Princess Luna said off-hoofedly.

“Not more beautiful than the one who made it.” Twilight chuckled as a blush adorned the smaller filly’s cheeks. “And, the one who made me and my siblings.” Twilight hung her head down to nuzzle the princess’s mane.

“I didn’t make you, silly.” Luna shook her head, “I made your ancestor, Dusk Striker.” She corrected the Zoner.

That only made Twilight Sparkle laugh. Even the ageless Luna was a bit naïve on a few things, this included.

“I wonder what Celestia is doing tonight…?” Princess Luna said suddenly. Twilight could hear the regret in her creator’s voice. Even though Luna has been keeping war with her elder sister for over 7000 years, she didn’t like it.

Luna has tried many times before, during Twilight’s life, to reconcile her and her sister’s differences but to no avail. Princess Celestia was stubborn, she warranted that Princess Luna remove all of her ‘children’ or else any real peace was denied.

The princess was not totally against the idea of destroying her creations to end this dreaded millennia war, especially since most of her creations become wild and mindless, but she couldn’t do so without good conscious. Especially, not if she had to remove her precious Twilight from this world.

They’ve made peace treaties that were less of a…termination but there were restrictions that were still quite cruel set on her creations. Those worked for the most part besides the fact that the demons broke out and killed a few innocent lives due to their entrapments.

Luna could control her creatures and make them easier to deal with, hay, she can even wipe their minds blank so that they were harmless. But she was against the idea of taking away what little will they had left. It was too wrong, too cruel.

“Mother, forget about that old stag. She was wrong and you were right. I would sooner die than let her wipe my brother and sisters off the face of this world.

You were lonely, she didn’t see that and let it hurt you from the inside. What a horrible sister! That’s when you created Dusk Striker so that you weren’t lonely anymore. What’s wrong with being happy?”

“The demons are dangerous. They hurt and kill ponies, even their own.”

“That’s only because of the treatments that those bucking damned Celestian ponies made us go through! They are so xenophobic!”

“Even if I was right, I should’ve been the one to fix the problem instead of letting it get worse. I started it, I could’ve made everything better before this war happened.” Princess Luna looked up at Twilight with tears dripping down her face, “Then we could be together, in peace.”

Twilight bit her lower lips, she didn’t know what to say or how to respond. The words she used were too full of hate and wrath, it only made her princess feel worse.

“I’m sorry, Mother, but the past is the past. There is nothing we can do about it.”

“I miss you Twilight Sparkle, my precious friend.” Princess Luna suddenly said.

Twilight hesitated for a moment before responding with another nuzzle. She felt a small hoof wrapped around her own. The Princess was holding onto her out of fear, fear of the world that they lived in. But most importantly, the little mare was afraid of losing Twilight, which she knew was soon.

‘I miss you’ was not about not being able to see Twilight in a while, it was about never going to be able to see Twilight again. She could disappear at any moment now since she reached the 500 year mark.

The Fated Miracle/Curse.

‘When it happens, it happens. I should prepare an Aegis Stone when I can. At least, Mother won’t be too lonely, then.’ She thought about her potential foal and thought of what names to give them. If it was a colt, ‘Dash Cutter’, if it was a filly, ‘Dash Starker’.

She smiled pitifully, even the great Twilight Zoner of Darkness feared the end. She shook the bad thoughts away, death was immortal and eternal it was not something to truly fear. Even though she could revive the dead…to a limit, she could not stop the cycle and revive herself.

‘Stop feeling so weak and mortal, Twilight!’ She yelled at herself. ‘You will do what you must. That is your duty! Only Luna’s health and happiness, and Celestia and her ponies’ death matters!’

XOX

“Wh-What are you…?!” Breaker Storm found himself pinned against a broken tree stump. He looked up at the earth mare who had him pinned with one hoof. He was beaten and battered, one of his wings were snapped in half, the other wing was torn out completely.

‘This mare…she took 3 Rainbooms head-on without a scratch! How?! Even none of the unicorns’ magic seemed to affect her, either!’

“I told myself I wasn’t going to kill you…,” The Menace growled, a surgical knife twirling in her free hoof. “And, I intend to make sure you live through this for every second you have left.”

His friend, Minni, the unicorn guard that had said that reinforcements were coming…was wrong. Somehow, someway, The Menace had killed them all off before they could even come.

He closed his eyes tight as the surgical knife went up to his neck and started carving under his skin. ‘I’m sorry everypony, I-I…was too cocky. I failed you all….’

XOX

It was a few hours later, after Twilight was alone with Princess Luna. She was currently at the Royal Library. There was a single large floating lantern, above her, that made the dark area even more disturbing than a lack of light could do with its dim and eerie glow.

She had over a dozen books scattered, floating around her in magic. Each book was open and their pages were all turning at a different interval each.

“Finding love…(mumble)… Butter knife… Mixing coffee…?” Twilight shook her head in exasperation, she wanted to toss the book aside and hit someone with them.

She was researching like she usual would do with her spare time. She had already spent hours reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War among other war books.

This time she decided to research love and romance which she found painstakingly difficult. What is love? How does love work? None of these books could detail enough for her beyond ‘feelings’.

Sure, she felt…different around Reiner but she needed to be able to make him feel the same for her but she had no clue. She flirted just like the books told her to but it only seemed to make him angrier.

“I could always just overcome him like Dusk Striker did to his Fated One.” Twilight mumbled to herself. Of course, she tried that. too. With just as horrible results.

“I don’t understand these mortals and their…feelings.”

“Master Twilight,” A black mare wearing blue torso armor came and bowed to her. She was speaking in a deep and strict voice. “Is there a problem?”

“It’s alright,” Twilight waved a hoof dismissively without turning to look at the mare. “I’m done, anyways.” The books disappeared in a burst of purple light. “Love is a confusing emotion, is it not, Shadow Light?”

The black mare blushed and looked to the side. “Love is a precious emotion. It is simple and complex, it is everything in this world but no one can put it into words or into an equation.”

“Ooh…I beg to differ.” Twilight laughed darkly as she approached the mare. She brushed her shoulder with the smaller mare’s. She moved her mouth over the Shadowguard’s ear and breathed, “I intend to find every ins and outs of this feeling. I’m sure you can help me with that, can’t you?”

Twilight smirked as she left the library with the frozen Shadow Light visibly shaking. She knew how to control the emotions but she still couldn’t understand them.

How do they work? Why do they work?

“Maybe Shadow can help me research in my room later.” Twilight laughed.

Twilight decided to go out to get fresh air. ‘Should I go to the farmers’ market…the training grounds…the Neighrun Archives?’ She wasn’t quite sure what would help her relax more.

She was not really in the mood for food, chicken or beetles, otherwise. She had more than enough fight earlier that day that she dismissed the idea of training, both herself and other ponies. And she just came from a branch of Neighrun Archives.

In the end, Twilight decided to just wander around the Neighrun City’s square. As an afterthought, she bought a blue beetle on a stick for a snack as she window-shopped. Her purple cape fluttered as she passed many ponies. Most of whom were shocked and a few were frozen in place as they caught sight of the Zoner.

“It-It’s, Twilight!”

To them, meeting Twilight in person was as if they were meeting royalty. In a sense, she was sort of a royal pony because she was related to Princess Luna, in a way.

Many of them stopped what they were doing immediately and bowed down to her, a few were so shocked, in fact, that they tripped over themselves attempting to bow while still trotting along the streets.

Twilight was a bit preoccupied, though, and took no notice of whatever the ponies around her were doing. This was a normal occurrence to her either way. She just learned to block it out when it didn’t concern her.

“Master Twilight!” That voice sounded familiar, immediately drawing Twilight’s attention. She disappeared in a purple flash behind a dark alley.

“Twilight!” The pony who had called her name nearly stuttered. “Don’t do that! Don’t you know how frightening that is when you teleport at random like that?” The white unicorn sighed as she placed a hoof at her chest to calm her nerves.

“What is it that you want, Miss Rarity?” Twilight asked in a threatening tone. Rarity, the white unicorn, started walking away as Twilight followed behind. Rarity didn’t respond to Twilight’s threatening aura and kept on walking. Even though Rarity seemed to be a bit disrespectful towards Twilight, the Zoner did not voice any complaints. This seemed to be a usual event between the two of them.

When they finally stopped walking, they reached a circular building with a pointed roof. This was Rarity’s shop. Twilight already understood what Rarity wanted now.

“You want me…,” Twilight let out an frustrated groan, “To model for you?!” If looks could kill, Rarity would have been dead a hundred times over. Rarity just smirked and nodded her head. Twilight shook her head before she smiled, “Sure, why not?”

Somehow, as time went by, Twilight went from wearing a white frilly dress that accented her dark coat to having her mane done by Rarity.

“Darling, really!” Rarity spoke with a pose accent, “Why in the world do you let your mane hang flat like that? You are the Zoner, a royal general! You should take care of your appearance more.” The purple-maned young mare made Twilight’s hair wavy to the side that covered half her face in a sensual mystique.

Twilight had to admit, it was a good look on her but impractical. With her powers she could easily remake this mane-style easily but it was such a waste of magic, in her opinion.

“So, where’s Sweetie Belle?” Twilight decided to ask.

“Oh, you know her, she’s still trying to figure out her Destiny Mark.”

“I swear, that foal’s been Markless ever since I ruled.” Twilight joked but stopped when she saw Rarity give her a stern look.

Suddenly, the door to Rarity’s shop, the Carousal Boutique, flew inward. It nearly smacked Twilight whom was sitting just inches from the doorway.

“Rarity!” A dark voice proclaimed. Twilight sighed as she immediately recognized the voice. A light red mare came in with a snarl wrapped in her face. She was drenched in what looked like blood. “Where’s Master Twilight?!” The mare looked around frantically until her eyes fell upon Twilight’s form. “Master!” The mare immediately pounced on Twilight, sending both of them to the floor with their legs tangled.

“Menace! Look at what you have done! Now Twilight’s mane is ruined, forever, forever!” Rarity cried out a bit melodramatically.

“Master Twilight!” The Menace cooed as she nuzzled into Twilight’s chest, smearing fresh blood all over her. “I was looking all over for you!”

Rarity was aghast at the affectionate display, not because it was sickening but it was sickening! She didn’t mind that The Menace had a crush over Twilight Sparkle, everypony but Twilight seemed to see that. But it was the fact that she was ruining her fine velvet carpet with blood!

‘The stains will never come out!’ Also, rubbing fresh blood into another mare’s coat was disgusting too, she guessed with a wave of her hoof.

“Can you leave my model alone?” Rarity huffed at the mare atop Twilight Sparkle with a high nose.

“This is inappropriate for someone of Twilight’s standing! This is something you know very well, The Eon.” The Menace stated with a low growl.

“Psh!” Rarity waved a hoof at The Menace without a care. “I stopped being Eon when Sweetie Belle was born.”

“A very poor decision…!” The Menace got onto her hooves and glared at Rarity’s way. Her blades on her bracers shot open with a ‘zwik!’.

“I may have only been The Eon for only 10 years but I was one of the strongest Eons to have existed. My power is forfeit but I‘m still strong enough to fight you. You don‘t scare me one bit!” The purple-maned unicorn eyes started glowing purple as her magic surrounded her entire body.

Both mares had their faces shoved into one another’s. Their snouts were pressed flat against each other as Twilight was forced to break the two apart. She grabbed The Menace with a hoof around her neck and nullified Rarity’s magic.

“Now, now, girls! This is no time to fight amongst ourselves.”

“But she started it!” They both complained and pointed a threatening hoof at the other mare.

“You two used to get along so fine before, I don’t understand how everything changed.” Twilight sighed as she pressed her hoof to her temple.

“Well, I haven’t seen my brother and sisters for a while. I think I’ll visit them in the Everfree Forest.”

“Wait, Master Twilight!” The Menace turned around and tried to get her superior’s attention.

And with that Twilight vanished in a purple blink. “You do know that she’ll never love you, right?” Rarity laughed with a high pitch shrill as she nudged the solemn The Menace in the shoulder.

“Shut up.” The mare groaned before leaving the shop.

XOX

“Twilight, where are you!?” Reiner heard of sightings of the Dark Zoner being in the Everfree Forest. This was his chance. It had to be!

“Dad, don’t you think this is going too far? Your old wounds are opening up again, at this rate you are going to get killed.” Even Dash was a bit worried about her father’s recklessness. They were deep in the middle of the Everfree Forest, during a full moon. Worst time to be alone at the worst place.

“I told you, leave me alone!” Her father complained. “This is my duty, only I can do this!”

“Do what? Kill Twilight!? What about everypony else? Are you going to leave us for some petty revenge?!” Rainbow Dash shoved her face against her father’s, surprising him. He backed away in shock. His thought seemed to lose their momentum.

Suddenly, a roar was heard! It was unmistakable, it was the roar of an angry phantom. The giant white creature peered down over the two ponies, its sharp toothless maws were open with acidic saliva. The creature’s empty white eyes stared into his fearful purple eyes.

Reiner tried to jump at Rainbow, and take her away from the creature’s oncoming attack but he felt himself frozen as if by an invisible force. He, then, tried to scream at his daughter to look at the creature hovering behind her but no words came out of his open mouth.

In slow motion, he saw the creature come down upon Rainbow Dash as it turned into a milky white puddle and seeped through the ground, leaving nothing but the bones of his daughter behind.

“Rainbow Dash!!!”

“Hehehehe!” A familiar feminine voice laughed above him.

“You!” He turned his head to see Twilight hovering above him with a smug look on her face.

“What’s wrong, Reiny, dear? Can’t handle the fact that your daughter is dead because of you?” Twilight Sparkle attempted to hide her mouth behind her hoof as she laughed in a vicious screech.

“You killed my daughter!” Reiner realized that Twilight forced him to watch his daughter die.

“No, Reiner. I didn’t.” Twilight stopped laughing but her smile never left her soft face. “You did. You lied to everypony, to Princess Celestia, and worse to your own family.” She flew down to the surface and looked at him at eye level. “You knew what would happen but you did it all the same.”

That sparkling smile of hers never left her mouth and her eyes gleamed under the moonlight. “Twilight!” Reiner suddenly found himself being able to move again and lunged at her, knocking her onto her back.

“Reiner…,” Twilight said softly, without an inch of mock. She looked so innocent under him.

“I hate you so much…!” Reiner growled as he bent down and forced his lips on her own. Twilight raised her forelegs and wrapped them around the back of his neck and pulled him in closer. “I betrayed everypony and my own daughter and wife…but I don’t care!” He declared out loud.

Everything turned black.

“Hah!? Huff, huff, huff!” Reiner shot up out of bed with sweat pouring down his face.

“Reiner, what’s wrong, honey?” Cotton’s eyes opened slowly and she watched her husband from where she slept.

The aching in his legs made him feel so numb. His chest was rising and falling rapidly. “No-Nothing, Cotton. It’s just nothing. Bad dream, just a bad dream. Go back to sleep.”

XOX

The nightmare was short but the effect it had left in him was powerful and draining. Seeing his own daughter dying before his very eyes was not something many fathers would be able to take.

Luckily, it was all just a horrible dream.

‘Or is it?’

Reiner took in a deep breath before sighing. He walked outside with a heavy heart. Cotton was taking care of their home like usual while he went out for a breath of fresh air.

He felt the tingly sensation in his hoofs and legs again. It was something that he feared and knew.

His legs were only temporarily healed. They were starting to return to their previous state. If his dream came to fruition, he won’t be able to save his daughter.

Fortunately, it seemed that while the pains and aches were returning they weren’t going to be overly severe and impede him very much like before. He’ll still be able to run and trot and do normal things like before, as long as his activities weren’t too strenuous.

“I have to tell Cotton and Rainbow the truth…!” Reiner growled at himself for being so weak. “Before it’s too late.”

Suddenly, a unicorn guard ran up to him, breaking him out of his daydream. “Sir! Your daughter, she ran into the Everfree Forest!”

“What?!” The cyan pegasus ran to the armory to gather his armor.

XOX

Over in the Everfree Forest, Rainbow Dash was hiking through the thick foliage, taking care not to step her hoof in the wrong area. She was smacked in the face by one of the branches that she was holding with her hoof.

“Now, where did Trixie say that flower was?” Rainbow held out a piece of paper in her hoof that had a picture of a purple flower and white stripes on it. “Luna's Moonflower was supposed to be around here somewhere…?”

She turned her head and screamed, “Ah ha!” The blue mare dropped her parchment and ran to the flower in the clearing. It was a single flower and there was a ray of light breaking through the ceiling that landed over the flower in the dark forest.

“Sweet! Now I can take this and bring it to mom, she’ll love it!” Rainbow Dash smirked as she thought of the praise that her mother was going to give her for the exotic flower. “And maybe I’ll get more of those awesome pancakes of hers!” She drooled at that last thought.

“My, oh my. What do we have here?” A familiar voice sounded in the empty forest, making Rainbow take a step back in shock.

Chapter End

The Death of a Rainbow (Pic Added)

The Death of a Rainbow

“Oh, shi—!” Rainbow Dash immediately shut her mouth as she recognized Twilight’s voice. ‘Of all of the places in the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle is here!’ She nervously chewed on the flower in her mouth.

“This is so unexpected!” Twilight was laughing viciously like a little foal with a new toy. “It’s been a while since I got to release some stress.” Was Twilight going to play with her corpse?

“I have to outrun Twilight but how?!” Rainbow could see Twilight sharp eyes piercing her. She felt her legs freeze up and her ability to run or fly gone.

“Sister, it’s been a while.” A hazy voice started. Rainbow Dash almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the new voice. It was a sound that felt like it tore into her very soul and ripped it to sunder.

“I know, I know. I’ve been meaning to visit everypony but I haven’t been able to find the time.”

Who in the hay was Twilight talking to? Rainbow Dash looked around to see nopony nearby. She could hear the other pony but couldn’t see them.

“We’ve missed you so,” The voice croaked like broken glass. Suddenly, the trees ruffled as a sight beyond belief came into Rainbow’s view. A giant bony white claw reached down and grabbed Twilight. The dark purple Zoner gingerly walked onto the open palm while still having that slasher-smile plastered on her face.

To say that the look on Twilight’s face and the white claw had freaked out Rainbow Dash would be an understatement. She saw Twilight with an evil look before but it was like a calculative mind, this look on the other hand was like someone thirsty for blood. It was a look of a crazed chainsaw-wielding killer.

The prismatic-maned mare moved closer to see what was going on. She looked up at the sky where she last saw the giant claw. To her surprise and horror, there was a giant white phantom towering over her!

The phantom, also known as Luna’s Wrath, was so huge that it stood atop the tall black trees as if they were grass.

She’s only heard stories of the rare and legendary phantoms, to think that she would see one so up close and without knowing!

Rainbow was surprised that the phantom was talking to Twilight, they were known to be one of the most blood-thirsty of Princess Luna’s False Ones. They were also known to have a bit more intellect compared to the other demons but they used it only to hunt prey easier not communicate, or so she was told.

“How…are the others?!” Twilight seemed to be screech with a blood curdling giddiness as she smiled. Rows of sharp fangs filled her mouth.

“Some lost, some found, older sister.” The white demon said slowly. The phantom’s ghostly white maws were thick and huge, each point was the twice the size of Twilight. Drool seemed to be steadily dripping down them. Even as the demon talked, though, none of its words matched its mouth. It was like the mouth only moved when it breathed and talking was another action altogether.

On a closer look, Rainbow Dash noticed that the phantom had no real ‘mouth’, just an empty hole that lead deep into its stomach. The ‘teeth-like’ structures were really just the outer skeletal skin of the phantom, there were no gums or real teeth, not even a visible tongue.

A large drip of saliva fell from its jaw and splashed near the area that Dash was standing by. A small but deep hole appeared with a hiss. ‘So, its saliva is acidic…that’s good to know…!’ Rainbow Dash gulped.

For some reason, Rainbow Dash’s fear started to disappear as it was overwhelmed by a great sense of curiosity. Twilight was here for a reason and what is that reason? Not to mention, if she somehow managed to defeat this phantom, imagine the rewards and acknowledgement that would come her way. She would not just be ‘Reiner’s Daughter’ but ‘Reiner’s Pride’!

Her fearlessness that suddenly overcame her made her climb up the phantom’s nearby leg. The large creature didn’t seem to sense her presence, which was good. It was comparable to a small bug climbing a pony’s coat so, as long as the pony was distracted or not looking in that general direction, the phantom would not notice her.

“The others…are as mindless and vicious as ever, my dear sister.” The phantom groaned like giant rusty steel bars. The poor excuse for eyes, that were actually a endless black void, looked at Twilight with expectation.

“Always mindless!” Twilight cackled, she brought two hoofs to her face to cover her mouth as she continued her insane rant. Her purple eyes had a red tint to them, almost like a blood vessel popped under her eyelids. What Rainbow Dash saw next freaked her out beyond belief.

Crunch!

The unicorn-esque pony started to chew on her own hooves, both drawing blood and cracking bones.

“Pain…pain…!” Twilight started to say out loud. “So much hate…!”

“I am so sorry about your suffering, sister.” The phantom apologized as it raised its other claw to gently nuzzle her chin, which was a feat in itself, considering how large that claw was.

“No!” Twilight stopped munching on her hooves and stared at the phantom with hate in her eyes. “It’s those Celestians’ fault! It always is! We just wanted to live in peace…why can‘t we live in peace?!”

Rainbow Dash was now peering over the phantom’s shoulder, looking at Twilight with hesitation. Thank Celestia that Twilight didn’t notice Rainbow looking her way. The blood from the Zoner’s hooves were dripping in endless fountains that created a giant puddle of blood after a while.

“We’re monsters in their eyes, dearest sister. We feed off of their fears and deaths. That is all one can expect.” At the mention of ‘monsters’ Twilight grabbed the claw hovering near her with her teeth and tore it off, cleanly. For some reason, Rainbow noted that Twilight screamed once again in horror as she held one of her bleeding hoofs.

The hole where the claw used to be started to drip with a clear fluid. The fluid was most likely the phantom’s own blood but unlike its saliva it didn’t seem to eat away at anything except that it was extremely viscous. Soon, after a few minutes or so, the clear fluid turned white and hardened quickly, it sealed up the hole and made a distorted looking claw where the previous had been.

It was amazing to see the phantom’s claw being ripped out without so much as a cry of agony or pain from the creature. There was no real reaction, whatsoever, from it. Then, Twilight started ignoring the creature and ate away at the disembodied claw as if her life depended on it.

Rainbow Dash turned green and felt queasy, she would have barfed right there and then if she wasn’t so worried about the two monsters finding her.

“You are so angry…!” Twilight said between bites, loud bone crunching noises were coming from her mouth.

“Do not change the subject, sister.” The phantom said in a threatening tone. “We do not have your Empathy but we can still sense the turmoil inside you.”

“Pain…!” Twilight muttered crazily to herself again.

There was a streak of rainbows as Twilight found herself falling until she hit the ground below.

“How dare you attack our sister?!” The phantom roared as it lunged at the golden armored pegasus.

“What have you done with my daughter!?” Reiner screamed in a panic as he dodged the giant claw. He looked around fearfully as if expecting something.

‘Dad!’ Rainbow Dash wanted to scream her words but for some reason she found herself quiet and her throat raspy. She looked down to where she saw Twilight fall and her eyes widened as she could only see a small crater in the ground but there was no Twilight.

“Re-Reiner!” Twilight nearly screeched, her words dripping with disdain.

She appeared behind Reiner as her eyes turned white. “Y-You hit me!” A giant burst of lightning shot out of her horn but Reiner managed to dodge it in time. Missing, it hit the phantom instead.

“Rawr!” The phantom cried out as a giant gaping hole appeared in its chest. It looked at the wound and covered it momentarily with a claw before reaching out to grab Reiner. The hole was quickly sealing back up.

‘Oh, Celestia! What do I do, what do I do?!’ Rainbow Dash panicked as she clung onto the phantom’s shoulder for dear life.

As big and bulky as the phantom was, it was swinging its arms pretty lucidly like it was some kind of liquid moonlight. The phantom’s claws swung repeatedly at Reiner, each time gaining more and more speed until it looked like knives were spinning in all directions at an incredible speed.

“Rainbow Dash!” Reiner cried as he flew out of the claws’ range. He did a back-flip before he took a torpedo dive straight for the phantom’s open maw. As he got close to the phantom, his entire body spun more until a white gust of wind surrounded his entire body.

The wind armor was huge and thick but it started to get smaller and more narrow as he reached higher speeds. Finally, the wind was as thin as a needle as Reiner ran through the phantom’s mouth and ripped through on the other side.

When he broke through the other side, the wind surrounding his body had all but left him. The phantom ‘eyed’ him with its empty sockets, stunned for a moment, before its head exploded in a strong torrent of circulating air.

“We may be gone for now, intruder, but more will take our place.” A wispy white shadow evaporated like smoke.

‘Celestia, no!’ Rainbow Dash found herself pulled into the giant pseudo-tornado as it ripped away at the phantom. The phantom broke into small pieces like fine china with Dash sucked in with it.

“Help!” The rainbow-maned mare finally screamed out.

“R-Rainbow Dash?!” Her father looked back in horror to see his daughter spinning with the phantom’s shards. She tried her best to fight against the artificial air currents as the sharp bones flung at her from every direction. Without hesitation, Reiner flew into the swirling vortex and lunged at Rainbow, trying to pull her out of the deathtrap.

His whiplash, as he shot through to catch Rainbow, both broke the vortex and made Rainbow’s eyes spin around in a hazy daze. “Whoa…whoa!” His daughter moaned before holding her head still and shaking her eyes back to normal.

“Reiner…!” Twilight appeared with a hiss behind Reiner before sinking her fangs into his shoulder blades, ripping through his armor.

“Argh!” He cried out in pain and dropped his daughter.

Twilight snarled into her bite and started chewing on his flesh and savoring the flavor until the red glint in her eyes slowly faded away, leaving behind her normal purple hue. Her eyes widened in shock at her display before she pushed Reiner back and spat out the blood.

“Reiner…?” She reached a hoof to her teeth and felt it caked in Reiner’s fresh blood.

The Starlight General reached behind himself in an attempt to hold back the pain but he felt his body seize up as he lost control of his muscles and an intense pain swallowed him.

“Reiner….” She started to move closer to him, her horn glowing purple. Before Twilight could get any closer to the Starlight Pegasus, he turned around and slapped her away. Some of his blood splashed on her face.

“Don’t you dare come closer, Twilight!” He was huffing and puffing as blood was dripping down half of his body.

“….” Twilight didn’t say anything. She had a look of confusion that was quickly washed with a look of disappointment, which also quickly disappeared. “I’ll be seeing you again, Reiny. The games we play aren‘t over, yet.” The mare said with a flirtatious voice and had a seductive smirk plastered to her face.

She vanished in a flash of purple light as Reiner flew gently down to his daughter. “R-Rainbow, it’s safe now. T-Twilight’s gone!”

“D-Dad? Y-You…,” Rainbow Dash stuttered. He saw her visibly shake and was afraid that he may have traumatized his poor daughter for the rest of her life. “Awesome! Cool! So totally radical!” The young filly pegasus hopped up and down in a giddy fashion around her father. “I mean you totally took down that phantom creep and scared Twilight Sparkle away!”

“It’s not over, yet.” Reiner tried to give her his best smile. He did not have the heart to tell her that his legs were acting up again, that would only worry the poor filly more. Not only that, but it appears that when Twilight bit into his neck, she severed a spinal nerve that controlled his left wing.

“-Cough, cough-” He raised a hoof to his mouth. To his horror, he found blood spurting out of his lungs. Reiner looked back at his daughter who was happily trotting alongside him, seemingly lost in her own world. ‘Thank Celestia that Rainbow Dash is without a scratch…!’ There was an aching feeling in the back of his mind that told him that this was not the end of it.

They were in the Everfree Forest, after all, it wasn’t truly safe until they returned back to Canterlot.

“Eeeh!? I almost forgot!” Rainbow Dash roared in a panic that was probably loud enough to wake the entire forest. Reiner nervously looked around to make sure that no more demons were coming. “Got it!” He heard Rainbow say as she uprooted a large bouquet of flowers that were white with purple streaks. The stems of the flowers were red and the flower seemed to excrete pure moonlight.

“You came all the way here for Luna’s Moonflowers?” The pegasus stallion could not help but ask in shock. He smirked as he ruffled Rainbow’s mane with his good hoof. “I don’t know whether to call you brave or foolish but I‘m proud either way!”

XOX

“Rainbow…,” Reiner called out to his daughter as he tried to swallow a lump in his throat. “I think that it’s time I told you the truth.”

“What is it?” Rainbow asked without looking up at him, she was too busy staring at her bloated saddle that was filled to the brim with Luna’s Moonflowers.

“I….—” Before he could say anything else, he was knocked to the side as a horde of gigas surrounded the two pegasi. The large slug-like creatures growled at them while revealing their circular mouths that had 4 rows of circular triangle teeth.

“Eeeww! Gigas!” Rainbow Dash shrieked. “Eeeww! Eww, eww eww!” Most mares, and even stallions were disgusted by these slow moving bloodsuckers.

But while the gigas were disgusting to look at for many ponies, they were more dangerous than they were ugly. Which is actually saying quite a lot.

“Oh!” Rainbow had an ‘ah ha!’ expression as a figurative light bulb brightened above her head. “I remember in Monster 101 that the gigas can’t fly so since we’re pegasuses, we can just fly away from these wormy thingies.”

Reiner wasn’t sure whether he should point out the obvious fact that the gigas were dragging their flat bellies on the floor and had no wings, or just praise Rainbow for actually remembering one of her lessons.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow, you go on ahead. I’ll catch up to you on foot.” He decided as he ran through the swarm of gigas.

“Dad, wait!” She followed after him. Even though his legs were bruised and sore, he was able to outrun Rainbow by a few good extra miles while she was flying.

He kept on running blindly until he was finally stopped short as a dark blue tentacle painfully wrapped around one of his hind legs and pulled him straight into the air. He was lifted a few feet off the ground and to his horror he saw that it was an adult gigas that grabbed him. The gigas was bloated and had lost the ability to move as it rooted itself into the ground but it had multiple tentacles that pulled its prey in. The worm-like creature resembled a disfigured fleshy plant now more-so than a living creature.

“Dad!” Rainbow growled as she pulled out her Star Cleaver from her saddle. She gripped it tightly in her mouth before charging at the 6 foot gigas. With a single slash, Rainbow smirked and put her blade back in her saddle. She didn’t even look back as the gigas glowed black before it exploded in a flurry of stars.

“How was my pose?” Rainbow asked her dumbstruck father. She finally turned around to see the remnants of the gigas with a few stars still leaking out. “Oh, Celestia! That is so radical! What just happened? Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I missed it!” Rainbow raised her hoofs to her face making a weird rounded baby face, gleefully.

He couldn’t believe his daughter. That was typical of Rainbow Dash, she wanted to act cool but that was actually the first time she‘s used the special blade and the little filly couldn‘t control her joy at what it did. It reminded him of when she was a young foal, she would gush at every little thing like it was a miracle.

His smile suddenly turned to a frown as he moaned in a never ending pain. Flashes of red appeared before his eyes as a throbbing filled his brain. The sounds of a quickly beating heart pumped through his ears.

‘Is this how it ends?’ He thought with a tear as a shadow appeared in front of him.

Before he opened his eyes, he felt a cold trickle of water splash down his face. “R-Rainbow?” ‘How long has it been since I seized up?’

“D-Dad!” Rainbow cried into his chest, the wet sponge fell out of her hoof. “W-We’re almost home, out of this place. Just hold on a bit longer.” He noticed in the corner of his eyes that Rainbow Dash had created a stretcher out of some leaves and twigs. “Just hop over here. It’ll make things easier.” She wrapped one of his forelegs over her shoulder and half dragged him over to the stretcher. “Y-You can rest if you want. Everything will be okay once we get to Canterlot, right?”

“Yes, of course, Dashie.” Rainbow started for a moment, surprised that her dad had called her that old nickname from when she was just a foal. She ignored his weak tone as she tied a rope around the stretcher before wrapping it around her mouth.

“Hang on, dad!” She said through the ropes as she trudged on.

The howls of timber-wolves filled the moonlit night as Rainbow tried her best to protect her father. He was getting weaker by the moment! She needed to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

The young filly didn’t notice the shadow hovering over them as she trekked through the thick woods.

“What the—?!” In one fell swoop, the shadow flew over her and her father, swallowing them whole.

XOX

“-Smack smack-” Twilight puckered her lips as she tried to ‘taste’ away the flavor on her tongue. Pony blood, and not just any pony’s blood but Reiner’s! It was surprisingly tastier than normal. Was it because he was her Fated One or was his blood just that tasty? Who knew?

While the thought of eating pony flesh left a bitter taste in her mouth, drinking their blood didn’t really make her feel any real sense of foreboding.

“It’s a shame that that brother died, I’ll miss him in the afterlife.” Twilight sighed, she could sense a few more signs of her siblings’ deaths. Her Empathy, her connection with them, allowed her to feel everything they went through. The phantom’s death was the worse since the phantoms had much more sentience and more capacity to ‘understand’ those pains besides the mindless anger like the others.

“I still can’t believe I almost killed Reiner….” Twilight mumbled to herself. “I’m sort of glad that he killed my brother…who knows what might have happened if I was still under the Empathy?” You would be able to live another 500 years by Princess Luna’s side. She shook the words away, they weren’t her thoughts but sometimes she would hear senseless suggestion such as those.

“It’s my duty to find and consummate with the Fated One and give birth to a more powerful heir. My past duties are over.” Many of the other Zoners lived beyond 500 and even near 1000 before they were finished with their duties. Reiner might not even be the Fated One.

“Am I arguing with myself? This is completely asinine!” She huffed before continuing down the hall. ‘Reiner’s blood did taste pretty good…I wonder if he’ll let me take another nibble next time?’ She giggled to herself, sadistically. “Time to research on how to obtain blood at their best!”

XOX

“Show yourself! Are you afraid? Well…you should be!” Rainbow Dash held her Star Cleaver in her mouth and looked at the darkness around her.

“Fear not, little pony. I am not here to bring pain, you see.” The shadow appeared from behind one of the trees, drabbed in a large brown cloak that covered its entire body except for its mouth and hooves. The pony placed their hoofs on their hood and pulled it down, revealing a zebra with a shaven mane. “Little one, what are you doing under this forest without the Sun?” The zebra, a mare, smiled in a motherly nature. “It is dangerous here, the moon and darkness can only make that much more clear.”

“I can say the same about you, bub!” Rainbow continued to grip the blade tensely in her mouth. This pony…zebra, whatever, was bad news. There was a dangerous vibe that was coming off of her.

“I am merely passing by.” The zebra laughed, “I just saw a wounded pony and his mare, and I thought to say hi.”

“T-This isn’t my colt-friend!” Rainbow stuttered at the zebra’s assumptions. “T-This is my father, damn you!”

“I am very sorry to suggest that!” The zebra said with sincere apology. “It was very wrong of me to think of that off the bat.” The white and black striped pony shook her head. “I am very sorry, it was rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself, I am Zecora. I am a zebra of many trades and was in search of some flora.”

“Huh…?” Rainbow ignored the strange pony’s rhyming and cryptic behavior after seeing that she was no real danger, at the moment.

“I see that you are carrying some of Luna’s Moonflowers in your bags? Would it be fine if I were to take some off of your hoofs if I may so beg?” Zecora reached into her cloak and pulled out a small bottle. “I will even offer up some of my wares. Please, do not stare. These will be of use for those in pain. You will have much from me to gain.”

The zebra handed a potion for Rainbow Dash to drink, it was a small glowing blue concoction. She sheathed her blade and chugged the bottle, feeling the scars and wounds seal up. It was like she had just rested up and was full of energy!

“W-Will they help my father?!” Rainbow cried out as she tossed the bottle aside without a care.

Zecora suddenly turned to look to her side as she drooped. “My potions will heal the weary but that pegasus will not be able to heal fully. If not ever, I can see his life sever. He’s been through too much that he is beyond help. I am sorry that I am being seen as a whelp.”

“No! Don’t say that!” Rainbow grabbed a mouthful of flowers and threw it under Zecora’s feet. “Take all of that, they’re not worth the trouble I went to get them!”

“Your father will not make it, even with my potions. I suggest that you prepare your farewells for that is the only solution.” Zecora bent down to grab a small bundle of Luna’s Moonflowers but left a majority for Rainbow Dash, she felt that it was wrong to take them as payment since she could not help her dying father. Zecora silently left without another word or rhyme.

“No! Father!” Rainbow cried as she opened each bottle and tried to shove it down Reiner’s throat. “Come on, damn it! Work!”

After she went through a colorful variety of the healing potions, her father finally woke up with a cough. “Ra-Rainbow?” He choked.

“Dad! You’re okay!” Maybe all of those chemicals mixed together were able to revive him?

“-Cough!-” Reiner choked some more, this time blood appeared. She began to panic. “I’m so sorry, Rainbow, I don’t think I can make it.”

“No! Stop kidding around!” Rainbow said with tears streaming down her eyes. “You are the strongest and fastest pegasus in all of Equestria! You are better than any Zoner or Starlight General! You can’t die!” This time Rainbow started to break down in a sob. “You’re my father! You cannot die on me!”

She held the broken pegasus up to her chest, hugging him for dear life. “Please…don’t die…!” The entire forest seemed to go quiet. Slowly, the Sun started to rise and the dark forest was lighting up a bit.

“Dashie, my little Dashie…,” Reiner croaked. He raised a hoof to his daughter’s face so that he could get a better look at her. “I love you and I always will. I have regrets and secrets that I want to tell you…before I die.”

The look on her face as he said the dreaded D-word, made him chuckle pathetically. “Don’t fear the end, Dashie, not for me. Not for a worthless mule that I am.”

“What are you talking about?! You are a great stallion! You achieved so much in your life, you helped so many people.” The young mare shot back, angrily.

“It’s all a lie.” Reiner regretted the words but knew he had to say them. He could see Rainbow’s metaphorical window and mirror shatter before her eyes.

“L-Lies? Wh-What are you talking about?!”

“I’m not the strong-willed and ‘awesome’ pegasus that you know me for. I’ve been living a lie, a Celestia-awful lie!” He shook his head. “I never really tried to save ponies’ lives, I just did it for show. I made myself look great even though I wasn’t really great.”

“B-But why?”

“Because I felt I had something to prove….”

“To who?!”

“To…To…I don’t even know anymore.” Reiner Dash said, he knew the name but could not say it in fear of destroying his daughter’s hopes and dreams even more. “All I can say is that being a Starlight General is an illusion, Dashie. Whatever you do, don’t follow this stupid stallion in his path! It’ll only lead to pain.”

“Father!”

“I only wished…that we were not Starlights but just regular pegasus, maybe weather ponies?” Reiner laughed. “I’m so sorry, Rainbow…Cotton….” His eyes finally turned white as his body began to turn stiff.

“I must be a horrible daughter, huh?” She wanted to cry but found that her tears had run dry, the faucet was empty and no more could come out. “When my dad is dead, I stop crying. What a horrible daughter I am!” She spoke to the corpse as if there would be some reply. Rainbow looked away as she closed his eyelids, no longer being able to stand those empty orbs looking her way.

“Being a Starlight General is meaningless? Everything was a lie?” The young mare cried out in anguish. “No! I’ll prove that everything wasn’t a lie! I’ll prove that I can be the best Starlight General!” She turned to look at her dead father’s body, her eyes fell on the helmet that laid loosely around his skull.

“I can’t be the Starlight General as Rainbow Dash…,” A forlorn expression filled her eyes. “Rainbow Dash cannot bring hope to the ponies of Equestria…but Reiner Dash can!” She softly pulled his helmet off of him and donned the accessory on her own head.

“I will see everything through your eyes, dad! And I will make everything better! Those lies won‘t be lies anymore!” She screamed out to the heavens.

XOX

There was a knock on the door to Cotton Dash’s cloudy home. Even though she was not a pegasus pony, she could easily walk around since the clouds were mixed with non-cloud materials and they were level with the earth.

“Coming!” She called out as she made sure that her food was done or out of the way so that they didn’t burn or catch fire. Her apron, stitched with a large Sun, was powdery white and a bit crusty from cooking all day. She was making her husband and daughter’s favorites for when they came back home.

Reiner had told her that he was picking Rainbow off from Ponyville and might be a little bit late. Who knew that it would take him up to the entire night? But at least she was able to make a banquet while awaiting her family. The Sun was peering through now but she wasn’t really that tired. She loved cooking and it always made the hours go by like nothing.

When Cotton got to the door, she opened it with glee. “Reiner!” She glomped the blue pegasus. ‘Reiner’ had a large bundle of flowers in his mouth as he handed them to her. “Oh, my! These are beautiful Reiner!” She took the flowers and set them on a plate, she even took a nibble and savored the flavor.

“These will be perfect for dinner!” She gave ‘Reiner’ a slow long kiss on his lips. Cotton felt his body tense, like something was wrong, she stopped the kiss and backed away.

“What’s wrong, honey?” She looked behind ‘Reiner’ and saw that there was no other pony there. “D-D-Did something happen to Rainbow?!”

“Nothing happened.” A cold but familiar voice said. A voice that didn’t belong to Reiner.

“Ra-Rainbow?!” Her mother was shocked, she was especially shocked that she kissed her daughter on the lips but that was not important now.

Rainbow Dash removed the helmet and shook her mane loose. “I…Dad, he died. He came looking for me and…he got killed by Twilight.”

Cotton Dash fainted.

Chapter End

Of Ceremonies and Gambles

‘Why are we doing this on a sunny day?’ Princess Celestia had called for a sunny and cloudless day to prepare for the ceremony. Times like these were when she regretted that civilian pegasi controlled the weather. ‘Why won’t the Princess just let it rain?’

Rainbow and Cotton Dash both sat beside one another, quietly. Cotton looked over to her daughter with worry, she's never seen the loudmouth keep her calm for such a long time.

They watched as a small casket was being carried by two black unicorn guards as they stopped at the altar and laid it gently down. Princess Celestia rose up from the left side and towered over the casket. Her horn alit with a white light before bushel of red and white roses surrounded the crate. A long golden blade, the same size as the casket, laid atop its wooden surface.

The Princess turned to look at the audience around her, many of whom already lived in the castle. Very few of them were from the City or anywhere else. This was a quiet and secret event. Even then, it was still quite a hoof-ful of ponies.

“Everypony, this is a sad day for Equestria, we lost a great general and an even greater pony.” Celestia said with solemn in her voice but it didn’t show in her face. “Reiner Dash was one of the strongest Starlight Generals that we have ever had and he had one of the most potentials that very few ponies could stand up to. He will be missed, immensely.”

Starry Lights came up to join Celestia, his big built seemed tiny compared to the princess but overpowering all the same. “Listen up, maggots!” The change in tone ruined the atmosphere. He glared at everypony in the audience, many of the Starlight ponies stood up with attention.

“My young brother is dead but the rest of us are still alive and raring to go!” He yelled loudly for everypony to hear and also because of his strict ritual. “Finish crying and moping now! There’s no time for that in the battlefield, you hear?”

Cotton Dash wanted to stand up and complain about Starry’s callousness to her husband’s death. Before she could say anything, Rainbow Dash brought up a hoof to calm her down. “He’s right, mom.” Said Rainbow Dash.

“That doesn’t mean he has to be so heartless about it, though.” Cotton said softly.

“As the Lieutenant Starlight General has said, we should not just grieve for Reiner but remember the day for the living!” Princess Celestia added after she managed to stop Starry from scaring the non-Starlights. She gave him a look which he just huffed at. “The time for preparation will take place but not now. Now, is a time for mourning, last words, and respect!”

Just as the princess said this, she turned to look in Rainbow Dash’s direction. “I’m sure that his family and friends will want to say a few words. Right, Starry Lights?” She turned to face the ragged pegasus.

“Fine!” Starry growled as he took his place beside the casket.

Cotton and Rainbow Dash both got up to the platform. By now, Cotton was practically tearing up in wet sobs that she couldn’t form coherent words.

Rainbow watched her mother as she laid over the casket crying. Her face was devoid of any emotions. ‘I can understand where Uncle Starry comes from….’ Rainbow Dash thought, pitifully. She placed a hoof gently over her mother’s shoulders in comfort.

She had already said her words and didn’t feel compelled to say them again. “Thanks for everything, dad.” Was all she could say before she pulled her mother off of the casket and guided her away.

One by one, many ponies who knew Reiner and was close to him said their final farewells.

“He was a great pony.”

“He was a hero.”

“He was the light in the darkness.”

“He was strong, brave….”

Rainbow Dash just drowned everything out. What a pain in the flank. Sure, she was sad, but now she was just empty. Empty and angry!

She got up and left before the ceremony was finished. “Rainbow Dash!” Her mother whispered but let her daughter go. Of all of the ponies in Equestria, Reiner was immortal, invincible, all-powerful to her. Somepony more than a hero; her father, her protector, and her idol. His death was probably eating away at her, too.

It was best to let Rainbow Dash find herself in this one. For the young mare, her father was the world, he was her everything. Now that he’s gone, there’s a giant void in her chest that left her lost and clueless.

“When she decided to dress up as Reiner, that took me off guard.” Cotton shook her head. “She still intends to follow him in his hoofsteps, doesn’t she?” Even as much as it pains her to see her daughter fight, there was nothing that she could do. It was every Starlights’ duty to fight against the demon scourge. Some more than others, but all had to take up arms.

They weren’t the only military forces that they had but they were a special breed of ponies. The Starlight Clan were elite pegasi combat forces. They were only ones that could efficiently fight off Luna’s Children.

It was just how it was.

The ceremony took quite a few hours before it was finally over. One by one, everypony got up to leave. When Cotton was getting ready, she was stopped by Starry Lights. “I really am sorry for your lost.” He said in a rough voice that didn’t really sound all that sincere, but she knew he meant well.

“I can say the same to you, Starry. You lost your only brother.”

“I also lost a valuable asset in the clan.” He took a deep sigh. “Finding somepony of that caliber, hay, finding somepony half of his caliber, will be nearly impossible.”

“Hello, my little ponies.” Princess Celestia walked alongside them and greeted the two. “Oh, my, where is little Rainbow Dash?”

“She ran off earlier, I’m not sure where she went. She’ll come back home when she’s ready, this really hit her hard, I think she just needs a little time.”

“I just hope that young filly remembers her training with me today!” Starry grunted.

XOX

‘He’s gone. He’s gone. He’s gone. He’s gone.’ Rainbow Dash thought over and over as she flew. She left her mother without a word but she couldn’t stand to be in that place any longer.

It was bad enough that she watched her father’s life fade from his eyes, then she had to carry his corpse home and finally held a funeral for him all within a span of a couple days. It was too much for her to bear.

“I’m so lost, I don’t know anything anymore. I want to follow my dad….” She shook her head as she looked down to see Ponyville. “I’m sure that AJ and Fluttershy will be able to help me.”

Reiner’s death was supposed to be a secret, it wasn’t good to have the populace learning of their hero’s demise, it would send them into a panic and the enemy would jump at the power gap. But she wanted to talk to somepony about this, she didn‘t care about lame-o rules!

Applejack would understand, wouldn’t she?

XOX

“I don’t understand.” Applejack said clearly as she munched on an apple.

“W-What?! How can you not understand my feelings?”

“I understand alright, ‘bout your father’s death, that is.” Applejack said in that ‘I know what you don’t know, you fool!’ tone. “What I don’ understand is why ya’ll obsessed with becoming the General? Didn‘t ya father tell you not to?”

“That’s exactly it!” Rainbow slammed a hoof on the table. “I have to become a Starlight General so I can see everything from his eyes!”

“I think ya’ll getting this all wrong, sugarcube.” Applejack raised a hoof and rubbed circles on her own face. “Somethin’ tells me that your father just wants you to be happy, to live as safe as a life as you could. I think doing the exact opposite won‘t make him very proud, you think?”

*Ding dong!*

“Well, who in the blue blazes could that be?” Applejack looked up at the clock on her kitchen wall. “It’s still too early for the rooster to be crowin’.”

Rainbow Dash followed her friend from behind as the farmer opened the door to her home. A flurry of colors and confetti filled the cowpony’s face.

“Go~oood morning!” A loud voice exploded in both of the young mares’ faces.

“Who the hayle are ya?” Applejack asked, flustered, as she wiped off some of the confetti that stuck to her face.

“I‘~m Pinkie Pie!” The light red mare shouted as she hopped into the living room.

“I don’t think I ever met you before?” Rainbow Dash glared at ‘Pinkie Pie’ suspiciously.

“Well, I hope not, silly filly! That would be so awkward! I just moved in the neighborhood, after all! Unless you were one of my old filly friends from kindergarten. Oh! Are you an old filly friend? Talk about a quinky-dink! How are you? Do you remember me?! Remember when I used to go parading in the muffin basket when the teacher wasn’t looking? Good times~!”

Pinkie Pie jumped in Rainbow’s face, filling her mouth with the frizzy bubblegum mane. “Puh! No, I don’t think we’ve ever met!” Rainbow pushed the overly excited mare out of her personal space.

“Well, howdy! Good to have you in the neighborhood, Pinkie Pie. It’s always nice to have a new face around here.” The blonde-maned mare tilted her nonexistent hat with a curt bow. “I hope you don’t mind and all but what are you doing here in my farm? Especially so early in the morning?”

“Oh! Ooh! Ooh! I know this one!” Pinkie stopped her hopping and waved her hoof in the air, wildly. Her face was puffed up as she struggled to contain her excitement.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at one another with a confused expression. “Ah, yes, Pinkie Pie?” Said Applejack, after realizing that the blue-eyed mare was mimicking a classroom.

“I! I!” Pinkie stopped her erratic behavior and raised a hoof to her chin, thoughtfully. “Oh! I know this one!”

Rainbow Dash face-hoofed as she watched the cycle repeat. “Why are you here, bub?”

“I’m here for some ingredients!” There was a devilish smile on the happy-go-lucky mare’s face. “I think you two girls will be perfect for it!”

“What for?” They asked, curiously.

“CUPCAKES!” There was a red gleam in her eyes. “Apple cupcakes! Grape cupcakes! Cherry cupcakes! Grass cupcakes! I need to make all kinds of cupcakes!”

“Just cupcakes?”

“Nah, that’ll be silly! Why would I have a bakery shop that only sells cupcakes? It would be called a cupcake shop, then! But I wouldn’t be able to sell pies or cakes or doughnuts…? I guess I can invent a doughnut cupcake and pie cupcake then everything will be honky-dory! How do I make a cake cupcake though or even muffin cupcakes?!”

“Okay…?” Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack and made a horizontal whirling motion with a hoof near her head accompanied by a tongue sticking out and crossed eyes.

Applejack ignored her friend’s rude gesture, rolling her eyes. “Don’t worry, sugarcube, I’m sure you’ll solve that problem when you come to it.” She stuck a hoof out to Pinkie Pie. “I’m Applejack.” She pointed her free hoof at the blue pegasus. “And that idiot over there is known as the Rainbow Dash, daughter of the legendary Reiner Dash! Eh, was.”

“Oh! Cool!” Pinkie Pie took Applejack’s hoof and shook it vigorously. “What do you mean by, was? You even said it in italics, it must be serious!”

Rainbow Dash made a ‘coo coo’ sound from her mouth and blubbered her lips with a hoof. “Wait a moment!” She stopped her mockery of Pinkie Pie and yelled at Applejack. “That was supposed to be a secret! She’s not supposed to know that my father is dead!”

“Dead?!” Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened and she fell onto her back, lifeless. Her legs became rigid as they stuck out in the air.

“Oh, dear. I messed this up didn’t I?” Applejack shook her head in apology to her pegasus friend. “And I think we scared the poor filly. Not everyday that you hear the savior of the world is dead and that we‘re left defenseless.”

“Want me to splash her face with ice cold water?” Rainbow offered.

“I think it’s best that we just get her to the couch and wait for her to come to her senses.”

XOX

“What! Who! Where! When! Whatchamacallit-Why!?” The pink pony exploded out of the couch and jumped in front of the two mares, scaring them. Her mane lost its puff and was downright flat. She had a look of fear in her eyes.

“Calm down, sugarcube!” Applejack moved her hoofs over the other mare’s shoulders to keep her in place.

“Is…what you said true?” Pinkie Pie’s eyes contracted to the size of small pebbles. “Is Reiner Dash really dead?!”

Both ponies looked at their new friend with a solemn look in their eyes, nodding. “Oh…I…I—”

“Don’t say anything. That’s all you can do fer us, especially Rainbow Dash.” Applejack closed both of her eyes in thought before opening her left eye, sending a green orb gazing Pinkie’s way. “I hope that you darn tootin tell anypony else, neither.

“Oh! I promise! I Pinkie Pie Promise! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie did the motions as she said this and ended it with a literal cupcake thrown into her eyes. That didn’t look at all pleasant but the mare just laughed and her tongue stretched out at an impossible length to lap at the destroyed cupcake.

“Oh, okay? You are a strange one, Ms. Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow Dash found herself laughing, a real laugh that she hasn’t felt in what seemed like ages.

The baker mare left, not before she took a cartful of apples to her shop. The mare wanted to drop a load of bits on the table but Applejack insisted that she’d give them away as a symbol of new neighborly hospitality.

Smiling one of the widest smiles that neither Applejack or Rainbow has ever seen, the giddy mare dropped a pile of different baked goods in the living room. They were surprised to see how the obviously earth pony managed to hide those on her person. It was like magic!

“Oh, boy! I haven’t ate since the incident!” Rainbow Dash found herself drooling over the prospect of diving into the large food pile.

“Hold your horses, Dash.” Applejack clenched her teeth on the prismatic-maned pony’s tail and pulled her down. “We should be respectful of everypony else and wait for them to wake up so‘s we can share this bounty.”

“Meh!” Rainbow crossed her forelegs and flew outside to pass the time.

“Hmm, Fluttershy might like some, too.” Applejack chuckled as she mentally divided the stack of food. The cowpony considered introducing Fluttershy to their new neighbor but feared how the young pegasus would react, knowing how shy she is.

XOX

“What’s this?” A young flying pegasus spotted Ponyville in the distance. Her legs were wrapped in bandages and her mane was a mess like she was a burn victim. Near her shoulders, visibly where the bandages didn’t cover, there were patches of white scales. The night blue coated pegasus eyed the ant-like ponies below her with curiosity. There seemed to be some commotion going on down below.

She flew lower to the border town to see what was going on.

XOX

Twilight quietly crept with her belly close to the floor. She was in a giant grey cavern. Her ears told her that her target was near.

Next to the dragon laid a rather decent pile of jewels. ‘Rarity might like some of those.’ Twilight thought to herself.

She magically conjured up a small scroll before her eyes. On it were a list of a few things that she needed for her experiment.

At the top of the list there were large bolded letters: AEGIS STONE. Below, there were a few ingredients listed that she needed to obtain.

Two of the things that she needed were already here; dragon flesh and blood, and the second, water diamonds from the deepest caves pure and natural. Good thing dragons loved to make their hordes.

She wasn’t afraid of the dragon but she had to sneak around to take him by surprise. This young dragon was the only dragon available near Neighrun for hundreds of miles. Most dragons left the area thousands of years ago due to the previous Zoner incarnations wiping any of them nearly extinct that were on Luna’s side of the border.

The dragons were fierce and territorial and very independent but they were no match for a single Zoner. ‘That’s what those fools deserve for siding with the enemy.’ Twilight growled as she remembered a horde of dragons attacking her country back when she was first born. ‘The fools thought that I was some weakling just because I was a newborn!’

Many Lunar Ponies were killed that day but less than what would have had happened had it not been for Twilight’s intervention.

Yes, she was not afraid of this mere teenage dragon but she couldn’t have him running at the sight of her. She was in no mood for the chase.

She quickly teleported from behind the teenager and whipped her tail at him. Her razor sharp tail struck him from behind his right shoulder, she could feel the crunching of bones.

“Gah!” The dragon roared. He reached out over his shoulder with his good claw but roared in more pain as Twilight whipped her tail back, ripping off some of his bones and flesh.

He fell onto his back as some of the lava flew up from his fall. A few drops hit Twilight in her eyes and another hit her six-sided star Destiny Mark. Her flesh began burning at the lava as her burnt eyes became a hollow hole and her Destiny Mark was singed beyond recognition, even showing a bit of her pelvis bones.

The dragon looked from where he was on the floor to see Twilight trounce up to him, with her forelegs atop his uninjured shoulder.

“T-Twilight!” The young dragon screeched in recognition as he realized who had attacked him.

“Hello, little dragon. I am in need of your fluids!” Twilight said with giddy as her empty eyehole and good eye looked on the horrified dragon’s face. The sounds of liquid being slurped out could be heard as a white aura covered his torn shoulder.

XOX

“What in tarnation is going on here?!” Applejack first had expected the typical ponies wandering around as she headed to her stall but instead found ponies running to and fro, in a panic. “Excuse me, ma’am—? Eh, sir—? Hey, little one, what’s going on?” Applejack managed to get a small young filly to stop and explain to her about what was going on.

“Well, everypony is panicking because—” The little girl was immediately snatched up by a running mare, presumably her mother.

“Wait one apple-bucking moment!” Applejack was getting annoyed with the flustered townsponies. She reached for her saddle and pulled her lasso out with her teeth. She looked at the closest pony to her, a yellow pegasus, and leashed her unsuspecting pony victim!

“Now, hold on, you!” The farmer munched on a piece of straw in annoyance. “What in the world—Oh, Fluttershy!” The orange mare apologized to her friend for roping her. “I’m sorry about that but could you explain to me about what in the hay is going on?”

“Oh! Um…that is…if you don’t mind,” The pegasus mare started fiddling with her mane with her hoof making most of her face was covered, except for half of one blue eye looking Applejack‘s way. “There were some news. Grave news! Meep!”

“Please, sugarcube, can you spit it out?” Applejack didn’t like pushing Fluttershy but at this rate she’ll never find out what was going on.

“Reiner Dash is dead!” The young mare shouted a bit louder than she had expected.

Just as Fluttershy said this, another pony yelled out, “It’s the end of the world!”

“The Zoner will feast on our flesh and her Dark Mistress will feast on our souls!”

“Everypony for themselves! This is a Celestia-damned world!”

“Blood of the innocent will rain down on all of us sinners!”

“Celestia is no longer with us! The Princess is dead!”

“You’ve got to be kiddin’ me!” Applejack smacked her forehead with a hoof. “How in the world did everpony find out?!” A happy pink go-lucky face appeared in her mind, “Pinkie Pie!”

“Hey, what’s up?” Rainbow Dash flew down above her two friends. “What’s with all the hubbub?”

“We’re looking for a mare who couldn’t keep her mouth shut!” Applejack growled.

After interrogating a few ponies, they managed to find Pinkie Pie’s bakery, Sugarcube Corner.

It was a happy-looking round building. ‘Not for long!’ Applejack growled. She hated nothing more than liars, and breaking a promise was the worst form that a pony could lie!

Without warning, the door to Sugarcube Corner was smashed opened by Applejack’s strong hind-legs.

“Ooh! Hiya, Applejack, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie popped up from behind the counter in front of them, wearing an apron and chef’s hat. In one of her hoofs, there was a ladle, and a whisk in the other. Both objects were dripping with cake batter. “I see you brought another friend along!” She jumped over the counter and ran straight for Fluttershy.

The bear-hug that she gave Fluttershy sent the young mare into shock and covered her with batter all over. “You’re so soft!” Pinkie Pie squealed. “You’re like a giant plush doll! Wait, are you a plush doll? How are you moving? Are you a robot? Toys are so fancy nowadays!”

“Eeep!” Fluttershy groaned as her face turned blue from the lack of oxygen.

“Stop that!” Applejack split the two girls apart. “We’re not here for pleasantries, sadly.” She gave Pinkie Pie a glare and shoved her back with a hoof. “You swore that you wouldn’t tell anypony about her dad’s death!” She gestured towards Rainbow Dash.

“B-But I didn’t?” Pinkie stopped smiling and her puffy mane drooped. “I Pinkie Promised…?”

“Well, I don’t know what you think about that!” Applejack moved out of the way so that Pinkie could see the panicking ponies through the open doorway. “Somepony had to have told them! It wasn’t me and I doubt Rainbow Dash here is prancing around telling everypony that her father and hero is dead!”

“B-But I didn’t…I didn’t do it…!” Pinkie dropped to the floor and started crying.

“Easy, AJ. I think she’s telling the truth.” Rainbow Dash flew between the two mares and held Applejack back.

“She looks so sad.” Fluttershy added. “Sadder than when one of my pets died…and I was really, really sad because of that!”

“I don’t know, she’s either telling a really good lie or you’re right!” The honest pony shook her head. “But who else could have told the townsponies?”

“I…I did….” A soft voice said from behind them. They all turned to face the doorway to see a small earth pony with a yellow coat looking at them. Atop her red mane was a giant bow, bigger than her head, her blue eyes were teary as fountains threatened to pour out.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think dat ya’ll be mad at me, sis!” The small pony ran up to Applejack, begging for her forgiveness. “Ah hear’d ya and Rainbow talking from upstairs. I-I couldn’t keep my mouth shut!”

“It’s okay, Apple Bloom!” The older sister comforted the younger one. “You did something that you shouldn’t have but there’s no point in crying over spilled milk. There’s no point in arguing over it now.”

The group of ponies didn’t notice a green-coated unicorn mare peering at them through the window. “So, that’s what happened!” The mare smiled, her smile was stretched across her entire face.

She ran behind an alley and reached over from behind her, pulling at her back, revealing the night-blue pegasus from before. “I have to get this information to Mistress Twilight!”

The bandaged mare quickly shot into the sky and disappeared into the distance. On her flank, there was an Destiny Mark of an opera mask.

XOX

“T-Twilight?!” The dragon groaned in pain as the Zoner finished draining the last bit of blood that she needed.

“Goody! I even have some dragon meat!” Twilight exclaimed with glee. The horde pile started glowing white as a dozen large blue liquid-filled diamonds floated near her before she threw them into a glass container.

“Oh! Mommy!” The dragon cried.

“Shh! Shh! The pain will be all over, my little dragon!” Twilight smirked as she observed his torn shoulder. She closed her eyes and when she opened them her eyes were glowing purple. The purple light surrounded the torn sinews and made fiery hot flashes. Quickly, the flesh started melting together with the bones growing back and the wound was starting to close.

“Shh! Now that’s better, isn’t it, my little dragon-poopsie-woo?” Twilight nuzzled her face against the purple dragon’s cheeks.

“Mom! That hurt!” The dragon complained.

“Oh, don’t be such a big baby, Spike! I healed you, didn’t I?” Twilight jumped down from his shoulder to let him stand up. He towered over Twilight by a few good feet but he didn’t look at all very intimidating.

“You almost ripped my arm off!” The dragon complained some more. Spike stopped his complaining when he noticed Twilight’s missing eye and her singed flank. “Oh! I’m so sorry! Did I do that when I splashed the lava?”

“It’s no big deal, it’ll go away on its own in a few more hours.” Twilight waved a hoof nonchalantly at him.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Spike leaned down and poked at the empty socket, he accidentally stabbed deeper than he had intended with a claw. “Sorry!” He said with worry.

“It’s alright. It hurt the first moment but the flesh in that area is dead now so I didn’t feel anything.” Twilight chuckled, evilly. “You get used to this after a few centuries, long life does that to you.”

“I don’t think I’d ever get used to pain, no matter how long I live.” Spike shook his head. “I think it’s just because you fight so much that’s why you are so used to it.”

“Well, thanks for the ingredients! I needed those!” Twilight called out as she started headed in the direction that she came from. “See ya later!”

“Wait, what are the ingredients for? Mom!” Spike couldn’t help but be curious. He only vaguely remembered a few things that dragon blood could be used for and he was sure that Twilight didn’t want to make a lava-proof sun lotion.

“Oh, I was just trying a new recipe for…stuff!” Twilight stopped walking and yelled out from behind, not turning around to face him. “Adult stuff that you don’t understand!”

“It’s for an Aegis Stone, isn’t it?” Spike cried out, the cavern started to shake from his deep roar.

“That’s not important. See ya when I see ya, kid. Take care!” Twilight continued her walking.

“It matters to me!” Spike fell to his butt and stared at the floor, afraid to look at Twilight Sparkle. “I don’t know what I will do if you are gone.”

“You could learn to be independent.” The blackish purple mare sighed before she disappeared out of sight.

“I just woke up, mom! Why are you already deciding to leave?”

XOX

“Oh, dear. It seems that everypony seemed to have found out about Reiner’s death?” Princess Celestia looked out over her balcony with worry.

“Something tells me that this has to do with Rainbow Dash.” Starry walked up beside the Princess. “My brother was strong but not a god, not like how they revere him. I will never understand how the everyday ponies think.” Starry Lights sighed from beside Celestia.

“While I admire your diligence, you do need to liven up a bit. I think a vacation may be in order for you, Lieutenant Starlight General.” Princess Celestia said, motherly. “It’s good to work hard, but bad to work yourself to death.”

“Please, princess.” Starry shook his head. “What will a raggedy stallion like me be doing outside the battlefield? The civil world has no need for a warmonger like me.”

The blue pegasus stepped down from beside Celestia and started walking away. She turned to peer over her shoulder to notice a mare freeze up when she spotted Starry Lights before kneeling over with her body stiff.

“D-Did he just kill that mare?” The Princess sighed a breath of relief when she noticed that the mare immediately stood back up once Reiner was gone, although there was a wooziness in the mare’s step. She winced when she saw the mare ran face-first into the wall.

Starry may be right, the civilians were indeed strange.

XOX

“We have to find a way to fix this problem!” Applejack said, huddling up with her family, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash back at her farm.

“How?” Fluttershy asked.

“We just have to find a way to make Reiner’s death not seem a big deal, no offense.” Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash with regret in her eyes.

“It’s okay, what’s happened, happened.” Rainbow Dash sniffed.

“Ooh! We can say that he’s away on a special bunny rescue mission!” Fluttershy said so quietly that it was hard to hear but they could hear the eagerness in her voice, all the same. Everypony looked her way, giving her strange looks. Her ears flattened, “I’m sorry.”

“We can say that he’s out hiding in Conscendora, and that his death is actually a ruse so that he can take the enemy down from the inside!” Big Macintosh, Applejack’s brother, said with stars in his eyes. “We have to convince them to play the part.”

It was a nice idea but Applejack didn’t like that it was too flashy, he watched too much Colt Bond movies.

“We can say that he’s in the hospital, not dead!” Applejack thought out loud, there were a few clamors of conformity. “And we can say that he’s so injured that he can’t fight anymore! But he’s already found a suitable replacement that he will name (written, not verbally) at a certain point in time.”

Everypony liked that idea and found it pretty reasonable and down-to-earth. At least, until one more pony made a suggestion.

“I know! Why don’t we have Rainbow Dash pretend to be Reiner Dash, after all, I can ne’er tell the difference between those two! They are tougher to reco’nize than a needle in a haystack!”

Apple Bloom added, thoughtfully.

“That way, Rainbow Dash could finally have her dreams filled by becoming the Starlight General and learning everything about her father, and everypony won’t be panicking no more when they see ‘him’ in the flesh! And when the Lunar Ponies realize that Reiner is still alive, they won‘t be tryin‘ nuthin‘ ta mess with us.”

That was actually a pretty solid idea, everypony nodded in silent agreement. Everypony except for Applejack.

“Oh em gee!” Rainbow Dash had a smile wider than Applejack had thought possible. “That’s the perfect idea! I had a similar idea but I was just going to prance around in his armor and meditate in my parents’ room and look up photo books and read his war books to understand what he meant.”

“I don’t like this idea, one bit!” Applejack stated. “It’s too dangerous! Besides, you’re not ready to take on the duties of a Starlight General! I know, why don‘t we mix the plans? You parade as Reiner and giv’ the position to somepony else?”

“No way, no how! I’m not going to let my dad look weak!” Rainbow declared. “I’ll show everypony that he will always be the strongest and bestest pony there is! Hoofs down!”

“Come on, this is too crazy!” Applejack looked at Fluttershy, her older brother and grandma. They all seemed to agree with Apple Bloom. “This is too reckless, even for her!”

“Apple Bloom is right,” Big Macintosh started. “We can’t just have ‘Reiner’ give up, not right away. He has to still look strong when he finally gives up his position, not because he has to.”

“It’ll probably be some nameless Starlight with no strong war record, them Lunar varmints will see the new Starlight General as easy pickings. They‘ll amass an army and tear through Equestria.” The old mare, Granny Smith, said. “We need to wait until a Starlight Pegasus earns enough prestige close to Reiner’s before we pulled the wool over their eyes.”

“I agree….” Fluttershy said, giving Applejack a look of helplessness.

Applejack sighed, “Fine. We can go with it. But you still need to work on the act of being Reiner. That Zoner miscreant will be hesitant to attack you head-on if she thinks you’re your father. You gotta bluff that one good!”

“Heck yeah! Awesome plan for the win!”

“I’m surrounded by idiots….” Applejack moaned and tilted the brim of her Stetson hat over her eyes.

XOX

“That’s an interesting proposal!” The blue wizard said with a nod of her head. “The Great and Powerful Trixie only wonders why you have come to her for this arrangement?”

“Because you’re the best pony there is, obviously!” Rainbow Dash followed beside the mare from above, she was in an upright position with her legs dragging down near Trixie’s head. ‘I don’t really know any other unicorns good enough and willing to perform the spells on me, especially somepony within the court.’

“Of course, who else is as grand and wonderful as The Great and Powerful Trixie?”

Rainbow Dash was the best pony at rubbing egos because she had a giant ego and who had a bigger ego than her? Nopony, that‘s who.

‘I will finally walk in my father’s hoofsteps! Literally!’

Rainbow Dash quickly retrieved and wore her father’s armor and helmet, the armor was obviously too large for her but the helmet fit pretty snuggly.

“What a ‘dashing’ look on you.” Trixie giggled.

“Yeah, yeah! Hurry with the magic, sister!” Rainbow tapped a hoof, impatiently.

Trixie sighed and closed her eyes, aiming her horn at the young pegasus. Soon, a blue glow wrapped around Rainbow and she felt herself being stretched out like dough.

The loose armor, started to get a bit tighter and formfitting. She grew a few more inches until it stopped. Rainbow turned to the mirror beside her to watch her new form.

“I look just like my father!” It was amazing how simply making her body growing to that of an older mare made her look just like her father when she was wearing his armor. “I still sound like a girl though!” She complained and reached two hoofs to her mouth in shock.

“I have a spell for that, too. Don‘t get your harness in a knot.” Trixie waved a hoof, nonchalantly, before she performed another spell.

“Do I sound more stallion? Like my dad?” Rainbow said in a voice that was all too different from her own. “Oh, my Celestia! You did it! I sound and look like my dad!” She couldn’t help herself as she plunged at the annoying mare and gave her a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“It’s no problem,” Trixie wheezed. “Now, if you please, remove your dirty hooves off of my neck, The Great and Powerful Trixie cannot BREATHE!”

“Oh, sorry.” Rainbow let go of Trixie, making the mare fall to the floor with a crash. It looked like she unconsciously flew a few feet into the air with Trixie in her arms when she hugged the older mare.

Rainbow Dash quickly rushed out of Trixie’s establishment and headed straight towards the Main Castle. She burst through the hallways, ignoring the gasps of astonishments, as she blasted through Celestia’s Meeting Room. The Princess was currently having a meeting with a group of influential Starlight Ponies and were discussing about who to appoint the new Starlight General. The meeting ended just as abruptly as the door slamming open.

A few of the ponies fell back, unconscious, while others just stood there frozen. All eyes were on her, even Princess Celestia was stunned with her mouth agape.

“R-Reiner?” The Princess started to say but was interrupted by Starry Lights, “Reiner, is that really you!? How in the heck did you…you’re dead! I saw your carcass in that casket that Rainbow Dash brought in!”

Rainbow decided to play along for a bit and said nothing as she walked up towards the Princess. She stopped, just a few feet away, and took a deep bow adding, “My Princess, what you may have heard or seen is a great lie. As you all can perfectly see, I’m fine.” She turned towards the other ponies and smirked. ‘This is too fun!’

“Master Reiner!”

“W-Welcome back!”

“Oh, Lord Reiner, it’s a sight for sore eyes!”

“The best of the Starlights is alive and well!”

Starry ignored some of the other Starlight Ponies, many of them were young, or at least younger than him, and were not used to Reiner’s presence and power. He walked up to Rainbow and nuzzled the mare stiffly. “I am glad to see that you are…alive, younger brother. Celestia knows that I can‘t be the Starlight General, again, and she also knows that none of these spineless excuse for soldiers can replace your horseshoes, either.”

Rainbow chuckled to herself, that was one of Starry’s rare intimate moments. He must have really hated the idea of choosing another Starlight General to replace her father.

“Rainbow Dash! Tell them of The Great and Powerful Trixie’s glorious plan!” Trixie barged in through the double-doors. Everypony stopped and turned to look at the new intruder.

“Rainbow Dash?” They all said in unison and turned to look at Rainbow.

Starry looked at her with confusion in his eyes before reaching out to pull her helmet. Rainbow smiled, cheekily, as she bent her head in shame. “Hi, everypony?”

“Reiner Dash is a girl?!” One Starlight exclaimed in shock. All eyes looked at the red pegasus who had said that with an intense stare. “I-I mean…’Oh, no! It’s Rainbow Dash, impersonating Reiner!’?” The young colt chuckled nervously as he shrank, attempting to hide his body under the war table.

“That Twisty Spring is so clueless sometimes, hard to believe that he’s a good fighter….” Another pony said off to the side, they all nodded in agreement adding their own comments.

All eyes went back to Rainbow Dash, waiting for an explanation from the young mare. She not only tricked them but she had the galls to prance around as somepony who died very recently.

“Okay…, so—” She started.

After explaining everything to the Starlight Ponies and Princess Celestia, they all stood silent for what seemed like hours. They looked at one another before looking back at Rainbow Dash. Their stares were melting right through her skull.

“That’s an interesting proposal…,” Princess Celestia admitted.

“Interesting indeed.” Starry agreed. “Not just interesting! That’s actually a very good war plan! To think that a little foal came up with the idea, it brings a tear to my scarred eyes!” Leave it to Starry to get emotional over some war scheme. “The young ponies may be worth it, after all!”

“So that means…?” Rainbow asked, slowly.

“Yes,” Princess Celestia closed her eyes and nodded. “We will let you pretend to be Reiner Dash and even appoint you the new Starlight General. It’s a dangerous position but you are the only one who can fill that role.”

“We’ll just have to send whatever Starlights that we have at disposal to watch your back, kid. And I need to train you even harder so that you can fulfill the abilities expected of the Starlight General.” Starry laughed out loud and patted Rainbow in the back a bit too hard that it almost sent her flying to the floor. “Remember, it’s only temporary and it’s mostly decoy and bluff duties. The accompanying Starlight that is with you will do the more harder stuff. I‘m proud, all the same.”

“Thanks, Uncle Starry!” Rainbow beamed in joy.

XOX

“Mistress Twilight!” A midnight-blue pegasus flew in through the open window and landed in front of the Zoner of Darkness, who had a large book on the floor, reading it.

“What is it?” Twilight Sparkle asked, a bit surprised to see her subordinate here instead of on patrol.

“Reiner’s dead!” The pegasus screeched in amusement.

Twilight’s heart seemed to stop as she registered this new information. ‘Reiner’s dead?!’ But…he’s her Fated One…!

“H-How? Where? Who?” Her surprise melted quickly as she grew angry.

“Apparently, the citizens think that you did it!” The winged mare smiled, her teeth were black and shiny with metallic sheen.

End Chapter

Who He Isn't

Like flashbacks? Thought so, well you're getting a flashback anyway!

Bit of a warning, what have you. This chapter is my attempt at making things more dark as the tag says. Shouldn't be any more graphic than teen but some peoples have weak hearts and tough hearts. Can't say if this is hard to chew or not.

It's a bit silly in some regards and...not so silly. A little more than mild cursing and some graphic(?) fights and deaths. (No one important dies, just so you know.)

I also removed the romance tags (Twilight flirting does not count!) and other things because I felt that it didn't represent the story as it is now. I'll be adding the tags/characters that come into play. Keep an eye on Applejack and Fluttershy later, they're important, too.

Who He Isn’t

“Dawdy! Dawdy!” A very small and young blue filly called out, impatiently. She was laying on her back on top of a big soft cushion, her wings were fluttering out from under the blanket wrapped around her. She watched the somewhat-teenage aged stallion beside her with huge eyes of wanton.

Reiner smiled and coughed in a hoof, trying to clear his throat. “Does my little Dashie want to hear another bedtime story?” He smirked when he saw the eyes of his daughter beaming. There, in her eyes, was the sharp glint of a determined adventurer who loved tales of glory and wanted to live every one of them.

“Are you telling her another one of your wild stories of how you faced that monster?” A voice called out from another room. “She’s too young for that war nonsense, try telling her a different story this time!” Cotton Dash urged as she went about finishing her chores in another room.

“Hmm,” Reiner frowned. “That is true. I have been telling you a lot of stories with Twilight in it, haven’t I, Dashie?” He rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. “Maybe this time I should tell a different story, to keep everything fresh?” The blue pegasus turned his head to look at his daughter who suddenly had a large frown on her small face. He laughed inwardly since he knew exactly what she was thinking. It was cute to tease her, but he couldn’t help himself and wanted to drag it on a bit longer.

“Want to hear a story about my wedding?”

She shook her head. Well, that was expected.

“How about when I first fell in love with your mother?”

The filly stuck her tongue out in disgust. Of course the young coltish filly wouldn’t want to hear something so saccharine like that. Love was never really her interest but who would be at such a young age when playtime was the only thing that mattered?

“How about when I first earned my Cutie Mark?”

The prepubescent Rainbow froze for a second, in thought, before shaking her head. Too bad, Reiner thought, that was a very interesting story in and of itself. Not to mention, he figured that she would have wanted to hear that one since the young Dashie was still a Blank Flank.

“Darn, I’d thought you would like that one.” Reiner chuckled and smiled, his teeth were shining as they seemed to force Rainbow to cover her eyes with a hoof. He was happy that his daughter loved hearing of his stories about the Dark Zoner and he especially loved telling her about his exploits against her, not to rub his ego or anything! “Let’s see, what story should I tell you this time?”

What story didn’t he already tell her by now?

Aha, an idea came to him. If Dashie didn’t want to hear about his first meeting with Cotton Dash, why not tell her about when he first started out, as a mere hoof-soldier against Twilight. A time when his brother Starry Lights was the most acknowledged and powerful name: A Starlight General.

XOX

“It was a cold and stormy night. A hoof-ful of Starlight Pegasi and some of the Royal Guards were with me. This was my first mission against Luna’s horde but I felt prepared for anything. I was, after all, training my entire life for this.” Reiner started as he tried to remember all of the gory details. “Even though it was night time, the entire area was well lit from the glow of the giant hovering moon above us."

“The moon seemed to give the other ponies and monsters an upper hand while its beautiful white glow seemed to all but drain our strengths. But we held our ground, we couldn’t let the Dark Ones reach the settlement where the civilian ponies were residing.”

“This is it! I can finally kick some Lunarian butts!” Reiner smirked from his spot around ponies much larger than him. The others looked grimly and didn't seem as ecstatic as the young blissful lad.

They didn’t mind his idealistic stance on everything but it was grating on a few of the much more experienced ponies who knew just how horrible this war was. It was especially worrisome if they had to go against the She-Demon. That witch was not of this world!

“Don’t get too hopeful, Kid Reiner.” A large bearded earth stallion shook his head at the colt who was no bigger than his own hoof. He looked on at the dark trees that hid all from watchful eyes. “Intel says that a small invasion force is coming along. A hoof-ful of Wickers, Crimsons, and even a few Derelicts. There even seems to be hearsay that the Whore of Conscendora is among their ranks. Though that last information is a bit doubtful.”

“We have to stop them from getting to this village, they‘ll land a major foothold and it will weaken our territories in the Outer Rim.” Another pony, a unicorn, commented. “We just need to hold out until sunrise. Though, we can probably handle what comes our way.”

Not only was this an important key point to protecting the Rim territories, the Dark Ones were known to do horrible things to our kind, something that we couldn’t just let them do! A few of us were more than uneasy with the gossip circulating around the guard post about the Dark Zoner, rumors or not, she was a being not to be trifled with, not something I learned until after I faced her.

Thunder sounded overhead as lightning cracked the skies into a million shards. The wind seemed to suddenly freeze as only the sounds of thunder and flash of lightning could be heard and seen. Everypony grew rigid, they could all sense a growing danger and all eyes fell onto the dark shadowy forest, just passed their outpost.

CZZT!

ZAP!

CZZT!

CRASH!

That last bolt of lightning fell in front of them, lighting the entire area for a good minute, revealing nothing hidden in the darkness. Though, once the darkness slowly fell back into place, a few dozen orbs blinked into view from behind the trees. All varying colors but holding one similarity - glowing eyes of indescribable rage and hate. They were all staring back at the guards, unblinking.

Another bolt of lightning shortly flashed, once again, and just as the light filled the perpetually dark forest walls, the eyes and their owners were nowhere to be seen. Just total darkness like before.

A giant roar from inside the forest had suddenly erupted out in an ear piercing screech, forcing many of the guards to hold their ears down and clench their eyes shut. Before they could react, a few dozen arrows shot out at them from multiple directions. A few guards and soldiers were already taken out of the count as they silently collapsed. Dead.

The sounds of many whips whizzed in the air again as more arrows were fired into the sky, blanketing it with death. This time, many of the unicorns managed to summon a barrier to deflect most of the projectiles once they shook away their initial shock, protecting everypony else.

The enemy finally began to show themselves as they appeared from behind the shadows of the forest, charging at them with their weapons drawn. His allies did the same and with just as much vigor. He decided to do the same and pulled out his Celestial blade, something that he's only used on monsters and never on another pony. To say that he was a bit hesitant, as adventurous and proud as he was, would be a great understatement.

Reiner could see Starry Lights coming into the battlefield from the peripheral of his eyes, along with a squad of pegasi, consisting of both Starlights and non-Starlights. Quickly, out from one of the clouds, a shadow whipped by. Three pegasi who didn‘t take notice of the flying shadow were thrown off their balance and were plummeting far in the distance. They could be seen struggling with their foe, valiantly, but feebly all the same. Soon after, more dark balls shot out and grabbed a couple more of his soldiers.

“Damn you, demon cowards! Fight like real stallions!” Starry yelled out in annoyance. Just as he said this, another shadow shot out, heading towards him but he raised a hoof and managed to grab the black pegasus in time by the neck, choking her. He continued to stare out at the dark void, ignoring the mare in his grasp. “Is this all you demon lovers are good for? Pthooie!” He spat out before wrapping a wing around the blue armored mare’s body and began to pull at her limbs, effortlessly ripping them clean off, one by one. The cruel general dropped her lifeless husk after he was finished with her.

XOX

“Eww!”

“I know, Uncle Starry was never really a normal pony. That‘s probably why fillies are so afraid of him. Anyway—”

XOX

Starry fell down and pummeled an unsuspecting enemy unicorn into the ground with a force so great that it left the stallion’s body mangled in all directions. The pegasus huffed as he raised his hoof around the other pony’s head and twisted it around to face his back.

“Damn you ponies, damn you all!”

Many of the Dark Ones backed away as they stood on their hind legs, prepared to either pounce or flee from the ruthless General. He was as cruel towards their kind as he was ruthless.

“Starry, Starry, you disappoint me. I thought you would have brought a more ‘welcoming’ party than this?” A voice that made a few hearts freeze spoke out. Twilight, in all of her unholy glory, appeared in front of Starry in a burst of electricity. “Although, I can say that you have a way about showing a mare around.” She eyed the dead unicorn under Starry’s hooves.

“I can say the same to you, you poor excuse for a mare!” Starry made a hacking sound before spitting onto one of Twilight’s cheeks.

XOX

“And, den yew came en’ puncha her!” Rainbow said giddily, waving a hoof in the air for added effect.

“No, no. I wasn’t always the stallion I am today, I was a rookie back when I met her. I was actually really useless that day. Actually, it was a day that I had almost died.”

“Ooh! Did yew die, dawdy!?” The little filly’s eyes were bulging out of her socket, her mouth were quivering with anticipation.

“Ha ha ha…?” Reiner laughed nervously at the rather redundant question.

Instead of making the expected effect, Twilight simply stared at him and smiled. A row of fangs crept their way from under her lips and her eyes dilated into a pair of blinking red stars which made even the rugged Starry shudder a bit.

“Don’t disappoint.” Twilight said as she started to glow black. Her eyes were flashing a bright green and her form seem to melt into the background like a shadow.

Twilight raised one of her fore-hoofs and slammed it into the ground. At first, nothing happened but then the ground shook. She stamped her hoof down again. Each stomp had an interval of a few seconds as she continued this 'bongo' of hers on the earth.

“What the?” Starry looked at suspiciously at Twilight who merely smiled and looked behind him as he flew back up to dodge the shock-wave. Even in the air, he could feel the waves but less so. He turned around to look at their outpost and saw the stone structure crumbling, crushing a few ponies as they all scurried out like drowning ants at an anthill.

“Damn you!” Starry Lights fell back, intent on salvaging his troops at the base.

A few Starlights followed their General in assistance but the majority stayed behind, including Reiner and the Royal Guard Ponies.

Reiner wavered for a bit, his hooves were shaking and urged him to follow his elder brother back but his heart urged him onward, intent on proving himself to the others. A bold notion but also a reckless one that could end his life, he knew.

Twilight smiled at all of them but didn’t come any closer, instead, she simply raised a hoof at them and said, “Attack.”

Five pegasi landed around her out of the sky while making small craters as they landed and joined the battlefield. They weren’t wearing the usual armor and it had streaks of blue lightning carved into them. The Shadowbolts!

Reiner hesitated for a moment, he heard tales that the Shadowbolts could rival the Starlight Pegasi in speed and agility. He watched as his ponies and Twilight's ponies fought one another, viciously.

One Starlight Pegasus charged at the closest Shadowbolt head on, intent on not letting the dark pegasus gain any advantage.

The young Reiner gulped as he saw a unicorn, only a few feet away from him, impaled by a very wide and sharp spear from his mouth and through his stomach that was thrown by another unicorn.

‘I can’t be afraid!’ Reiner reasoned, ‘I am a Starlight. I am the elite! I have to help!’ He looked around the battlefield, wanting to join in but afraid of the fight cloud that surrounded him. Sharp and dangerous weapons were thrown all about and he could easily get his head chopped off, by his own allies no less, if he rushed in without thinking about the situation.

Just as the young pegasus was about to jump in, he failed to notice a looming shadow from behind him. The massive yellow earth pony yanked him by his mane and tossed him into the ground.

Reiner fell on his back as the pony stepped over him. The earth pony raised a hoof over Reiner’s neck, trying to hold him steady before delivering the final blow with a dagger held in his mouth. Eyes filled with malice and discontent stared down into his fearful own.

“Die, Starlight Worm!” The pony growled just as he lunged down, the dagger going straight for Reiner‘s skull.

“I closed my eyes, prepared for the oncoming blade but the feeling of the sharp metal didn’t touch my skin and I suddenly felt like I had lost 350 pounds of meat off of my shoulders.

“I opened my eyes to see Starry flipping the pony over and pinning him to a tree before he chomping at his neck with his mouth, pulling the earth pony‘s esophagus straight out before spitting the bloody organ out….”

“Super gross!”

“Haha, yes, Starry is…very thorough. As I've said—”

Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof, trying to stifle a yawn as she watched her own pony fall down dead, his eyes wide open staring at her own. It was the look of a hopeless individual who was crying for help.

“I see things don’t change with you, Starry.” Twilight giggled, looking back up to face the Starlight General. “Maybe if you were younger and less sore on the eyes, you could catch a few attention from the mares…or stallions.” Twilight’s eyes flashed green, then, red.

“Just because you Lunar Ponies have doors that swing both ways doesn’t mean that we Celestian Ponies swing like that.” Starry growled as he pounced on her. Twilight was momentarily caught off-guard by the sudden jump but simply smiled at his ill-fated attempt to harm her. They simply rolled across the floor, creating a small dust cloud, wrestling with each other in a way that two friends would. Or, at least, that’s how it looked.

For all intents and purposes, Starry was trying to kill the mare with all of his strength but even giving his best, Twilight was unimpressed. With good reason.

After they finally stopped rolling, Twilight ended up on top of Starry and held him down firmly. She leaned down so low that their noses were touching. “Why do you think I tore down half of your fortress’s walls?” She asked with a husky voice. Her warm breath could be seen due to the nightly cold.

Obviously, Starry figured that she wanted an opening to their base to invade. Why else?

“No, it’s not so I can weaken your forces. It’s so I can bring in a few of my friends.” Twilight laughed, making Starry nervous. Her eyes flashed green again. “I really don’t understand you mortal ponies, it makes me wonder how you can be the way you are. I almost…envy you.” Twilight said in a low voice, snarling at him.

Using her magic, she created over a dozen giant puddles of reflective water in the sky. The ’pond’ covered the entire area, reflecting the battle going below or above them.

That wasn’t even the most shocking part! The floating liquid seemed to glow and it was like an invisible hand was reaching out to grab at the ponies that it reflected upon.

“Screeeee!” A shattering cry sounded out from the liquid mirrors and the reflections within them started to come alive as if they were their own ponies.

“Jurelians.” Starry grunted as he kicked Twilight off of himself. He watched on in horror as spine-like creatures fell from the water. They fell on top of some of his ponies and started to squeeze the life out of them.

The creatures’ ribcage-like appendages were wrapping around his allies until they started to seep deep into them. The abominations called Jurelians were fusing deeply into his ponies’ nerves, eating away at their still living husk. He knew that it was the end for those that the Jurelians had attached to and the only thing he could do was spare them the horror of what comes next.

“Fire! Get a fire started now!” Starry roared at his ponies. “Stay away from the infected and fight at a distance! Use projectiles, magic, or fire just don‘t let them touch you!”

“Gen-General…!” An earth pony with a Jurelian attached to his spine was calling out to Starry, staggering with every step. “H-Help, I f-f-feeeel...soooo...coooolllddd!” The pony’s eyes started to whiten as his eyes rolled behind his skull.

It really was a pitiful sight. Reiner stepped alongside his brother with a look of disbelief and sympathy. He’s seen pictures of these creatures and wrote reports on them in the Starlight Academy but never has he seen them up close and in action. The books and lessons would never have been able to teach him of the horrors that he would learn that day about those creatures known as ‘Shadow Mirrors‘.

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing that I can do for you. It‘s too late.” Starry shut his eyes in pity as his wings started to vibrate at a high frequency.

“B-But you are a Starlight, our saviors!” The pony started to cry, but his eyes leaked black blood instead of real tears. “Wh—Screee! Kraaah! Kiiiccchh!” The pony’s head suddenly shot out, his neck torn but his spine growing, some of his blood and guts were falling out from the semi-disembodied head!

The hovering head started screeching at Starry, drooling out of its newly formed mandibles. His chest ripped out as a perverted version of his ribcage was sticking out more than horsely possible. The bony appendage was moving like the legs of a centipede as the husk of the former earth pony approached the Starlight General and his young brother, threateningly.

“S-Starry, can we help him?” Reiner asked in uncertainty, especially after seeing the pony‘s head tear off of his shoulders. There was probably only way to ‘save‘ him now.

“Twilight, you bitch.” Starry Lights shook his head. He opened his eyes as blue streaks of static electricity filled his irises. “I’m sorry.” A powerful burst of lightning shot out from the pegasus’s wings as the infected pony’s entire body was engulfed in the white light. After the light subsided, all that was left was ashes in the shape of the former pony’s disfigured body. Even that crumpled to nothingness as the winds broke the charred form apart.

Reiner’s heart sunk after watching his brother commit such a act without the slightest hesitation. It was an act of somepony who’s grown old and weary. A pony who can only save others in one way and only one way: War

“Should you be teaching her such bad words? And what’s with all of that gory detail, she’s only 4 years old!” Cotton Dash came into the room and chastised her husband. “She’ll be having Nightmare Moons for weeks!”

“Uhh?” Reiner looked back, stunned at his angry unicorn wife. His eyes shot back and forth between Rainbow Dash and Cotton Dash. Each time he looked at the young Rainbow Dash, he noticed that her eyes became bigger as giant wet blobs of tears were forming. And each time that he looked at Cotton, he noticed that her eyes becoming thinner as they were turning into a sharp glare.

“Oops?” He chuckled as he rubbed the back of his mane with a hoof. Cotton just glared and smacked him with a hard pan that she levitated in.

“Well, I’m going to bed, and don’t fill her mind with anything more morbid.” His wife started to trot out of Rainbow’s room. As soon as her flank disappeared from view he heard the threatening words, “Or else.”

“Ehe, hee, so where was I?” Reiner thought for a second about what his wife told him. “Well, let’s just say that I was running away from the infected ponies while Starry rallied the group together. I managed to kill a few on my own, though, not in the same way that Starry did.” The Starlight General coughed as he tried to sum it all up without going into too much detail.

“Well, we managed to destroy the liquid mirrors that were sprouting the Jurelians and all of the Starlights banded together to perform a super Starblaze Blitz, creating a light so big that it was a miniature version of Celestia’s Sun and burnt all of the infected ponies sky high. (Jurelians are super weak against intense light.)” Reiner sighed, “We thought that that was the worst of it all but Twilight had another card up her non-existent sleeves….”

Twilight bit her lips in annoyance as she watched all of the infected ponies standing there, screeching in pain as the bright light evaporated their entire bodies. The light was even having an effect on her own ponies, even though they weren’t Jurelians they were still more accustomed to the darkness, so she had to summon a shield to block off the intense light.

A tingle ran down Twilight’s spine as she watched the demise of her monster army. The green in her eyes suddenly faded back to purple. “Bastards!” She said under her breath.

“Oh, right, no foul words….” Reiner scratched his head.

The frown on her lips quickly switched back to their cocky expression. They may have ‘cleansed’ the infected ponies but now they had less than half of their previous unit size.

The Ponies of the Sun started to fall back to their broken base as she and her ponies stayed behind to watch, not intent on giving in to the chase. It was more than likely that they had set traps behind and Twilight had anticipated that.

‘They think they’re so clever, don’t they?’ She thought with a smirk.

“Haaah!” Twilight took a huge intake of breath. All of her ponies watched in awe and backed away from her as far as they could. They knew exactly what was coming next. “AAAAAHHHH!!!”

The entire area turned black and white as her screams reached the pony encampment, everypony that was shot by her screams froze in their steps, their outlines turned white as they were filled with blackness.

Twilight held the screams for what seemed like another good dozen minutes before finally stopping. Life seemed to come back into the surrounding area as the colors returned where her screams had went. All of the ponies hit by the magical scream turned back to their colorful spectrums, thankfully, and found the ability to move once again. There seemed to be no physical harm done at all, at least to them.

After the inverted colors faded away, they watched in horror as the magical/physical barriers and traps that they had set ‘popped’ before their very eyes. All of the protection that they had prepared for had just vanished into thin air.

“It’s not over until one of us dies, after all.” Twilight bellowed out. The Dark Ponies charged towards the broken fortress in hordes, passing by the Dark Zoner as she stood there, patiently.

“Batten the hatches! Pony the working arbalests! Prepare the boiling oil vats!” Starry ordered his troops as he watched as the enemy charged closer. “And pray to Celestia that we can make it through this till sunrise.”

Giant arrows flung into the sky as they landed heavily on a few unprepared ponies. Even their unicorns couldn’t stop the thick arrows with their summoned barriers. But even as their enemy were suffering some losses, they marched on, without wavering.

‘Like true monsters!’ Starry thought with a grimace.

Suddenly, the sounds of giant flapping wings filled the air. *Whoosh! Whoosh!*

Giant black shadows started to fill the already dark skies above their fortress, to his disappointment, and Starry’s ears flattened as he felt the last of his strength leave his body. He was prepared to sound a retreat, leaving the settlement to the Dark Ones’ cruel hooves until he heard a voice.

“I guess we’re not too late, Starlight General?” The deep voice chuckled as a giant red dragon fell down on one of the black masses near the fortress.

“Sharptooth!” Starry grinned in joy as he looked at the giant red dragon who stood at half the size of their fortress walls. The red dragon started to blow a wave of fire, making the Lunar Ponies back away, many couldn’t escape in time and were singed to ashes.

“I’m glad that my brethren and I could come to assist you, Master General.” The dragon, Sharptooth, grinned before plowing through all of the ponies beneath his feet.

‘Yes! We’re gonna win!’ Reiner cheered as he watched his brother jump out into the foray to help the dragons.

“Dragons. Why does it always have to be dragons?” Twilight muttered under her breath. There were about two dozen dragons devastating her ponies. Even her elite Shadowbolts couldn’t stand up to that many dragons.

She had already spent a lot of power summoning the Jurelians and producing that Broken Haze spell, not to mention that the Sun was nearing within the hour. There was no way that she can take down the base and take over the settlement within time.

While she was contemplating this, a trio of full grown dragons broke off from their flock and rushed towards her while plowing her ponies out of the way. They were quickly gaining distance even though she was more than a few kilometers away from the base.

“There’s the murderous demon [bad fillyfriend].” The green one declared as he fell right in front of her. He dug his claws into the earth, grabbing some tons worth, before pulling his head back to breathe fire. After a quick inhale, the green dragon unleashed a blue fire that engulfed the Dark Zoner before she could react.

He held the fire with such intensity that it looked like he would not let up any time soon. After scattering Twilight’s ponies, his allies joined him just as he finished. There, where Twilight once stood, sat a curled up purple fur-ball with patches of burnt skin atop molten earth.

The three dragons eyed the ball curiously before a purple eye opened at them, one filled with anger and bloodlust. Her eyes turned red just as she used her horns to summon the shadows from nearby objects. The shadows that she pulled out were surrounded by a white glow as she kneaded them into sharp spikes. And in a flash, the spikes ran through the chest of the green dragon with one spike protruding out from his chest.

“That’s not too graphic, is it?” Reiner looked at his daughter who was sucking on a bottle of milk and rolling on her back. “So innocent,” He sighed and continued. A little blood shouldn’t ruin the mood since she’s at the age where ‘blood’ means nothing.

The green dragon’s body laid dead, instantly, with the spikes of shadow penetrating his thick scaly hide. His brethren grew angry as they lunged at Twilight, wanting to rip her in twain.

But before the two dragons could even touch her, a giant white claw fell from the sky and grabbed them.

“Claws off of our sister, serpent!” A giant phantom held the two struggling dragons. Its voice like the shattering of glass forced the surrounding ponies and dragons to attempt to cover their ears. The dark voice literally tore at their souls.

The two dragons struggled more and finally managed to break free, ripping off the phantom’s arm, while doing so. Just as they prepared to fly back around and attack the phantom, a silver liquid shot out from the phantom’s torn limb and wrapped around the closest dragon.

“Die.” The liquid instantly hardened as it closed in on the smaller dragon, crushing it while forming a new claw. The other dragon opened his eyes wide in shock and hastily flew back to join his brethren near the fortress.

“I didn’t need the assist, Sin.” Twilight moaned as she stretched her back on the floor. All over her body there were cracks where her blood were burnt and dripping out. The phantom lowered a claw in an attempt to pet the large pony but she moved just out of his grasp and shook her head at him.

“Sister….”

“I’m fine, you worry too much. My body may not be made of out pure moonlight like yours but I can still heal through any damage.” She shook her entire body like a dog after a bath and her crusty skin and blood immediately fell off like it was just a fabric of clothing, revealing newly formed fur and skin from underneath.

“Sun almost out.” Sin said quietly. “Can’t help our sister when daybreak.”

“It’s okay, we don’t need your help, we can take them down even if sunrise comes. I am the Dark Zoner, after all.” Twilight smirked and turned to watch the ongoing battle in the distance. “We still outnumber them by a good portion even if they have two dozen dragons.”

Twilight looked back up at Sin’s newly grown claw, noticing the dragon’s corpse still protruding from it. She grunted in disgust before jumping with a spin and sawing off the claw with her tail.

“I can’t believe you just leave your body like that.” Twilight complained before heading out to join the battle.

Sin was about to join the battlefield until he noticed the blare of the Sun’s light coming out from the distance. “We are sorry, sister.” He stood there as his body started fading where the sunlight touched his form. “We shall help, another time.” The see-through phantom walked away, back into the forest. He stepped on a few trees and ponies but they went through his foot as if it didn’t exist.

Back at the fortress Starry joined his friend, Sharptooth. ”Good to see you, you ol’ big fat lizard!” The pegasus greeted the large red dragon.

“Same to you, featherbrains.” Sharptooth chuckled and clapped his claw with Starry’s hoof in greeting. Reiner flew down beside his brother nervously. “Ah! Little Reiner, how good to see you! Still a runt, huh? You ponies get smaller every time I see you.”

“That’s just because you keep getting fatter!” Starry chuckled, “Gotta lay off them hordes of yours.”

“What a nice little reunion, isn’t it?” A patronizing voice called out to the group, breaking the conversation. A dozen meteor-like balls of fire fell down in a circle around the group.

Out from all of the points of contact, a group of Shadowbolts walked out.

“You old stallions should just croak already!” A small female Shadowbolt approached Sharptooth and the others, not afraid.

“Nice for the Vice Captain of the Shadowbolts to join us.” Starry spat out and returned the mare’s advance with his own.

“That’s Ms. Captain of the Shadowbolts to you!”

“What, they run outta reliable Captains?” Starry laughed.

“No.” The purple mare vanished in the blink of an eye. The Starlight General’s mane was cut and Sharptooth fell back as a powerful force knocked him to the ground. “Obviously, I’ve gotten better.” The Shadowbolt laughed as she hovered above the group. “Attack!”

The other Shadowbolts rose into the air before turning into a ball of fire, streaks of shadows paved their way before crashing into the ground like a siege weapon.

“Damn, they’ve learned some new tricks.” Starry muttered as he called out for covered from the exploding balls.

Sharptooth shot back up to his feet and swung a tail at a few of the fireballs, knocking them out of the air before they could explode.

Reiner found himself pressed to the floor as a large mare crashed into him. “Wow, you’re so tiny, how old are you anyway?” The mare asked, curious. Her face was so close to his that he was afraid that she might bite him!

“How does that concern you, S-Shadowbolt?” The small pegasus squeaked under her grip.

“It concerns me plenty, twerp.” The Shadowbolt quickly let go of Reiner before flying back at another target. “I don't kill the young.” She jumped away and fell on an unsuspecting unicorn, stabbing him in the back of the neck with the blade on her bracer.

“Huh?” Reiner looked around and noticed that many of the Shadowbolts were purposely ignoring him, not intent on fighting him where he stood. That was interesting. While it saved him from a confrontation with a Shadowbolt, he couldn't help but be a bit peeved at being overlooked just because he appeared small and young.

He could use this to his advantage, he grinned.

Reiner jumped into the fray, holding a long sword in his mouth. He snuck behind the Captain of the Shadowbolts in an attempt to kill her before she could make the situation worse but she noticed him too soon.

“Ah, sending little colts to attack me, now?” The Captain turned to look at Starry while she held the blade in her hoof. Then, she ripped the sword from Reiner’s mouth before tossing it aside giving him a displeased look. “I knew that you Celestians were horrible but using the young to fight your battles is just disappointing. Careful, Starlight, I might accidentally rip your head off if you come my way again.”

He struggled in her grasp, amazed at how the tiny yet still larger pegasus was able to hold him firmly without weakening her hold on him, no matter how much he struggled. Her strength was comparable to Starry Lights'. This was definitely a bad idea.

Finally, she dropped him with a shake of her head.

Reiner sat there stunned as he watched the battle go on around him. The other dragons noticed their leader’s distress and rejoined him, quickly overwhelming the Shadowbolts killing a few with the survivors retreating.

A ray of light fell over Reiner‘s eyes, telling him that the Sun was finally out. Has it really been that long? We just need to hold out until daybreak. He remembered the words of his brother and he felt a newfound energy fill his body.

He looked around and still saw the battle going on, in fact, it seemed to get even more blood thirsty! There was no real sign of the battle slowing down at all!

Of course, it wasn’t like the Dark Ones were roaches and would flee at the first sign of light but it should have weakened them enough to make a tactical retreat. But this was a real battle, just because one side was weaker it didn’t mean that they would give up so easily especially if they had a cause that they believed in.

In short, it was stubbornness, just plain stubbornness. But the real question was, where? Where did that stubbornness come from?

As if it was an answer from Celestia herself, the Dark Ponies stopped fighting around him and made an open path. Shortly afterwards, Twilight came into view, walking with a high head.

A few of her ponies who could manage, bowed before her even with the ongoing battle around them and those who couldn't simply pinned his ponies to the ground enabling them to do so. The fact that they seemed to regard Twilight Sparkle so highly was amazing in and of itself. Reiner would never have been able to try to bow down to Celestia while his life was at stake like that as brief as it is.

“You know, I never really liked dragons.” Twilight laughed inwardly at the irony of her statement. “Scaly, obnoxious, and don’t even get me started on the crying and bedwetting!”

“Who are you calling a crybaby?!” A dragon quickly lunged at Twilight before he found both of his claws chopped off.

“I’ve never used the word ‘crybaby’, have I?” Twilight tsked at the dragon before charging a bolt of lightning from her horn and blasting a small hole through his chest. “But you can say that you are all crybabies, too, I guess. Crying in blood, at least!” His large form fell stiffly to the ground with a thud near Twilight who didn't even give it a second glance. She walked over the corpse of the dragon and approached Sharptooth and Starry.

Just how powerful is she? She fell a dragon single-hoofedly in one strike. A feat nearly impossible for any other pony! And she acted like it was no big deal, like it was the kind of thing that she's done countless times! A shiver ran down his spine as he realized that Twilight had killed dragons numerously throughout the years.

“I can’t believe that the Starlight General and one of the Dragon Masters are here. -Whistles- Wow, you really know how to show a mare around, Starry!”

“You are no mare, abomination!”

“So you keep saying….” Twilight shook her head. She looked up at the Sun that was now hovering over all of their heads. “You all probably thought that we would retreat just because the Sun is out? What made you come up with such a foolish notion, you dumb [female dogs]!”

'Really, these self-censorships are just getting ridiculous,' Reiner thought with a shake of his head. In the corner of his eyes, he saw a frying pan laying on Rainbow's desk, shining and in full view, mocking him. He rubbed the wound at the back of his neck, 'Oh, yeah...'

“You can’t fight anymore, Twilight!” Starry tried to reason. “Your ponies are a third of our forces and the more you linger here, the more ponies you lose! Don’t you care at all about their well being?” It was sort of amusing to see ‘Mr. General Ripper’ try to reason pony safety with the enemy in the warfront.

“If there is only one pony left standing on our side and all of yours are dead, then, we win!” Twilight declared, showing all of her fangs in a crazed smile. A number of Shadowbolts flew down beside Twilight, ready to assist her. “And my ponies still seem like they still want to fight.” She looked side to side before her eyes fell on the Shadowbolt Captain. The two mares nodded towards one another in silent agreement.

The Shadowbolt Captain jumped in front of Twilight and shot out in a straight path, setting everything in her way on fire.

The dragons who were pretty much immune to any sense of heat were better off than many of the ponies who couldn’t get out of the way.

“Damn you, Twilight!” Starry lunged at the Zoner but two Shadowbolts jumped in his way, blocking him. He was pushed back as he had to use his wings as guards against the attacking pegasi.

Each time one of the pegasi jumped in to attack him, they quickly rebounded before he could retaliate with the other one jumping in to deliver another blow. If this was one on one, he would have killed them already!

Taking a big risk, Starry stopped his steps and firmly held himself down. He immediately lashed out his wings at the pony that came to strike him, catching him completely in a tight bind before slamming him into the hard surface.

He got cut in the chest but he managed to wrangle the pegasus. Starry, without hesitation, stomped on the pegasus’s ribcage repeatedly until he felt the softness of the muscles pressing itself with the hearts and lungs. While finishing off the Shadowbolt, the other one came and stabbed him in the stomach.

Starry withstood the cuts and pains, and used that moment to take the other pegasus by surprise. As Starry brought the other Shadowbolt closer to him, the blade went deeper into his open wound but Starry could hold his pain better than any other pony and continued pulling until he could grasp the other pony.

Using one of his wings, he grabbed the pegasus and threw him up into the air before slamming him down on his teammate, crashing their skulls together, killing the both of them.

“Grr! Face me yourself, coward!” Starry roared as he smacked another pony aside with his hoof.

Twilight didn’t say anything and just smiled. She took a few steps back before she disappeared into the crowd. Her guards filled up the gap that she left behind, forcing Starry to push through them.

“Wait, Starry! It’s probably a trap!” Reiner called out as he saw his brother disappear. It was amazing as to how Starry ever managed to become a Starlight General when he was so reckless and careless.

Reiner went in pursuit of his brother, hoping to save him from whatever horror he might end up in.

Thankfully, he managed to evade falling debris of weapons and corpses due to his small stature. His small size was a curse but in certain cases like these, they were a godsend! Still, there were ponies who took notice of him and tried to give chase.

Reiner jumped backwards as a dagger nearly cut him. He was able to dodge the next blade and jump kicked the owner on the head, knocking her unconscious, as he continued on in his pursuit of Starry. “There’s big brother!” He saw a glimpse of Starry and flew above the crowd after him.

As he followed the two great powers, Reiner noticed that they were nearing the edge of the battlefield with the surrounding ponies becoming more and more scarce.

All of the signs led him to believe that this was some sort of elaborate trap that Twilight had concocted to lead Starry Lights into his doom. He bit his lips, hopefully his brother will be okay!

“Starry!” Reiner cried out as loud as he could when he turned around a tree. The clearing was empty with no ponies, fighting or otherwise, in sight! Where was Starry?

Suddenly, he heard a loud and slow gasping sound, like somepony was hurt and in danger.

*Huff Huff Huff*

“Starry!” Reiner cried again, worry eating away at his small heart. Even with the light out, the clearing was a little more than ominous. He knew that Starry was strong enough to fend for himself but there was this nagging feeling that was just chewing him out! “STARRY!” Reiner grew more worried with each passing second, visions of Starry Lights’ gruesome fate flashed before his eyes. He saw dead accusing eyes staring back at him hanging by a tree branch by its own cord. Gulp.

Reiner Dash shook his head, no time for nightmares that can be prevented! “Starry!” He yelled out into the silence once again. He raised his head high, biting his tongue, as he listened to that labored breathing. It was near, very near.

“Starry!” Reiner walked closer to the sound but he didn’t notice a shadow grow out from a nearby tree that was behind him. The shadow stretched and twisted until it turned into the shape of a rather large mare with a horn.

“Hello.” Twilight hung her head low near the young pegasus’s ears.

At the sound, Reiner spun around while backing away, horribly falling to the ground from tripping over his own hooves. “T-T-T-T—”

“Twilight Sparkle?” Twilight took a few steps forward for every step that he took back. “Why, I believe that is what they call me? How nice of you to know my name.” She bent down with her face uncomfortably close to his and smiled from ear to ear, revealing a row of blade sharp teeth.

Reiner froze as he clenched his eyes and turned his head away.

“What’s wrong, little one?” She cooed, he could tell that her face was still close to his from the cold breath of air that washed over his cheeks. He was surprised at how soft and gently her voice was. “Afraid?” Her voice quickly went deep and menacing. His nerves became unraveled as he fell back.

“You look just like my dear Starry.” Twilight walked over Reiner and breathed into one of his ears, making him clench his eyes harder. She laughed when she saw him shaking. ‘How cute.’

“You must be his brother or some other, right? Honestly, all of you blue-coated rainbow-maned freaks are related, so I wouldn’t really be making a wild assumption, would I? You inbredponies!” She hissed the last one before stomping on the ground beside his head, forcing his eyes open.

“<…….>?!” Reiner found some courage and spoke up in a low voice, so low that a normal pony wouldn’t have been able to hear him but Twilight did.

“What was that?” Twilight laughed before standing straight and trotting a few feet away.

“Starry <…>!”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear that?” She licked her sharp teeth in amusement, her tongue ended up being cut a bit as she tasted her own blood.

“Where’s my brother Starry?! I know you did something to him!”

“Oh? Why didn’t you ask?” Reiner felt something furry yet slightly metallic wrap over his shoulders and neck. When he looked down, he realized that it was her tail, somehow stretching with a life of its own. It even brushed against his cheek like a snake and left a small cut.

“You’re pretty stupid for a little colt, aren’t you?” Twilight laughed once again, her voice was like a dark choir in the church. “I could kill you where you stand, right now, don’t you know?” He felt her tail grow ‘sharper’ and ‘harder’. “There‘s just so many different things that I could do to you right now, alone and defenseless. I should chain you up, beaten and battered, and hold you as collateral against the kingdom. You deserve nothing less, Starlight Trainee!”

“I’m not a Trainee! I’m a full fledged Starlight Soldier!”

“Really? They let somepony as feeble and nerve-wracked as you, become a real warrior?” Twilight Sparkle let go of his shoulders and turned to look at him with amazement, truly impressed. She smirked, inwardly. ‘This could prove interesting.’

“I may be small…and a bit nervous! But I can do a Rainboom, Aerial Cutter and a bunch of other stuff!” Reiner pulled out his scabbard with the shield insignia that proved legitimacy of a Master of the Rainboom. His face was beaming with pride.

“I see, so they’re weren’t stupid, after all.” Twilight’s mood went down fast once her eyes fell upon the blade holder. Damn Starlights and their Celestial blades. “At least, not completely stupid.” She huffed at him, mockingly. “You talk to me like I‘m a pony, like I won‘t kill you this very second. Talk about naïve!”

Twilight closed the distance between him and her within the blink of an eye before slapping him sideways into a tree. “But I’m not a pony! I’m an Illaen! A monster! Mare of the Night! Your enemy!”

“No matter what you are, be it alicorn or pony or demon, you’re not a monster!” Reiner groaned from the pain in his chest. “There is no such thing as a monster!”

Twilight stood there with a blank expression, void of any emotions but deep down she was shocked at the young colt’s declaration. Her face grew soft as she became silent.

“My brother taught me that! No pony’s a monster so we don’t have to be afraid of them! We are all blessed under Celestia‘s light!” Reiner continued, his voice growing more and more passionate. “Starry spoke of the day that we would destroy you, not as a fearsome monster, but as a worthless pony who terrorized the innocent! Somepony who can be stopped. Somepony who’s not indestructible or invincible!”

Twilight’s face fell. She wanted to be angry at the words but she laughed to herself, knowing full well that that was typical Starry Lights behavior.

Reiner added with a soft whisper, “But while I don’t agree with the killing part, I do agree that you aren’t a monster and that you need to be stopped, peacefully! As another living creature, I think we can work our way pass our differences and reunite our two kingdoms back into one!”

Twilight shook her head at the young blue pegasus, laughing as rudely and loudly as in-ponely as possible. “Wow, great speech! I give it 4 stars!” She wiped a tear out of her eye. “You think this is some fairy tale? That everypony will forgive me for all of the atrocities that I’ve committed? All of the lives that I’ve ended prematurely and families that I ruined? How rich!”

“With the power of justice and love, anything is possible! Even a pony like you can be forgiven!”

“This is why I hate you Celestians! All so pretentious and high on that pedestal of yours! Never admitting to your wrongs but to everypony else’s.” Twilight stopped laughing and glared at Reiner. “Okay, so let’s say that we do magically become friends, what of it? Will your stupid princess ever accept my brothers and sisters as creatures who deserves life? Doubtful, but here’s a proposition, little one—”

“Reiner Dash!”

“My, a bold one, aren’t you?” She brushed off his rudeness with a flick of her mane. Twilight approached Reiner and pulled him in with her tail. “How about this…?”

The dark mare leaned in to whisper a few words into his ears, making his eyes widen in shock. Before she could finish her proposal, a ball of what appeared to be a timberwolf came tumbling down into her side, knocking her away from Reiner. The timeberwolf shattered into a million bits of wood shavings and Twilight was covered in sawdust.

“Huff, huff! Damn you, Twilight and your damned monsters!” Starry roared with a beat of his mighty wings. He swooped down and pounced on the mare.

“I didn’t take you for the rough lover, Starry!” Twilight smirked under his grasp as a white aura surrounded him, lifting him up, and slamming Starry into the ground.

Starry Lights growled before he rebounded and charged at her, swinging his bladed wing at her, cutting her neck and face before jumping back. She was momentarily stunned by the cut allowing him to rush her with all four of his hooves to topple her into the ground.

“I’m getting tired…of this game!” Starry got up and stamped on her face between each word.

“So am I.” She sighed, with her face bruised and bleeding, seemingly not at all affected by the more-than-fatal punishment that he was dealing on her. If she was any other pony, she probably would have died right there and then instead of shrugging it off.

“Starry!” Reiner jumped at his brother as he attempted to stomp on the larger mare some more. The two Starlights rolled onto the ground before hitting a large boulder that was nearby.

“Reiner, what in Celestia’s name do you think you are doing!?”

“W-We can’t kill her, not like that! We’re Starlight Knights, we have to do this honorably!”

“What in the world are you yapping about? This is no place for honor! This is a battle—” Starry was cut short as a flutter of Twilight’s tail brushed across his face, cutting him in the eye. “Aurgh!” Starry roared as he covered the afflicted eye with one hoof. “You-You…!” He turned to glare at Twilight with his one good eye.

“Aww? Poor widdle Starry needs meh to kiss his boo boo away?” Twilight laughed as her wounds were quickly patching up within seconds. Starry merely growled at her, showing his teeth.

Reiner backed away a bit in amazement and horror. He ended up with his flank bumping against his elder sibling who merely shoved him aside.

“Stay out of this Kid Reiner.”

“Wait, Twilight” Reiner tried to say something but his brother just ‘shushed’ him. He frowned and held his head down, not seeing the glint in Twilight’s eye as she watched on in amusement.

“Don’t ruin the surprise, kid.” The dark mare laughed in a deep and low voice. “Come at me, Scarry Eyes!” Twilight tempted the bigger pegasus, making a back-flip as he bombarded where she last stood with a flip of his wings.

‘Oh, dear Celestia!’ Reiner backed away as he watched the two titans take stance.

A shadow seemed to cover the two and a brilliant white light was surrounding Starry’s form while Twilight was consumed by a dark blue light.

“No more Mister Nice Stallion.” Starry muttered as he stomped each of his hooves into the ground to gather his bearings. Twilight merely smiled at him in return. “This is the day you finally perish under the might of the Starlights, She-Demon!”

“Many Generals have said that and yet here I am. Be more original, my little pony.”

Reiner found himself squeezing his eyes shut as the two opposing forces collided in a blinding flash of light. Starry stretched out his wing-guards in front of him as an offensive, slamming them against Twilight’s chest when he charged at her in lightning speed.

The force pushed both him and Twilight a few feet away but the mare held her stance, able to prevent herself from flying back. “Nice try.” Twilight spun around and whacked him with the side of her tail but Starry rose his wing-guards in time to block the attack.

He added more force into his wings and attempted to gain more ground, Twilight attempting the same. The two powers continued their little push as the air around them began to turn into a vacuum. The earth cracked, the sky changed colors, and rocks crumbled in a magical bubble covering them. Static electricity filled the air before turning into tiny bolts of lightning.

They both seemed to be giving it their all while destroying their surroundings in the process. Even though the bubble around them was tiny, Reiner tearing from the outside in from just watching them. Sweat protruded down their faces and rips and tears appeared all over their bodies. These wounds seemed to be so great that Twilight couldn't heal them fast enough.

They seemed to be on even grounds with one another to an outsider but Starry knew he was at his limit, much more than Twilight. His Ticorium-alloy plated armor set began to crack before exploding off. Then, his heart snapped. “Hwaah! Argh!“

“You’re getting too old for this….” Twilight seemed crestfallen as she took a step back. “Let me put you out of your misery!” Twilight did a somersault and kicked him hard into the floor. She smiled as she stood over him and charged a lot of raw magic into her horn. Sparks were ricocheting in all directions, one nearly hit Reiner but amazingly none were even close to hitting Starry. It was like there was a small invisible shield around the weakened pegasus.

“Starry!” Reiner cried out in terror. This was the first time that he’s ever seen his strong hearted and cool brother ever looking weak. Starry looked so…helpless like he‘s giving up hope! A rage seemed to fill his chest as his mind became clouded. Starry will not die, today, if ever! Not if he had a thing to say about it.

No more Mr. Nice Pony!

“Starry!” Electricity surrounded Reiner’s entire body as the entirety of his eyes turned pitch black. In an instant, Reiner found himself vanishing into thin air.

Twilight momentarily paused her charge as she looked through the corners of her eyes. A large smirk stretched across her cheeks as she saw the new power rise in Reiner Dash. ‘It’s about time.’

She looked back at Starry Lights, “Goodbye, Starry Lights.” Starry’s eyes widened in shock at the tone of her voice, fear seeping through all of the fibers in his being. He thought wistfully to himself, closing his eyes in regret of things done and not. Twilight’s magic was fully charged but before she could unleash it she was knocked off of her hooves, crashing through a few dozen trees before finally hitting a giant boulder that cracked in half.

“Stay away from my brother! I won’t lose another family member!” Reiner cried out. “I don’t wanna hurt you but I‘ll kill anypony who hurts my brother!” Tears started to fall from the blue pegasus’s black eyes before he kneeled over in shock.

“Heh, another Starlight General…?” Twilight looked at the young pegasus, “And so young, too.” Her body was engulfed into the darkness as Reiner’s vision became blurry and all of his consciousness flew out of his mind.

XOX

Young Reiner saw and heard nothing but he could feel the air around him changing constantly, like he was being constantly moved around and watched.

Slowly, but surely, everything returned to him as a small thin shred of light penetrated his lids in small trickles.

“Come over here! He’s waking up!” He heard a mare’s voice called out.

“Reiner!” Multiple voices were overlapping one another as they all cried out his name. The thin white horizontal line started to stretch out as a burst of light blinded him, temporarily.

There around him, he saw a crowd of strange ponies who were wearing medical garbs and a few were dressed in shining gold armor. The bed was soft and fluffy unlike the makeshift beds found in the battlefield so this must have been the hospital. But where were they, this hospital looked too modern to be anywhere close to the rural battlefield.

A large figure from behind the crowd started to shove its way pass all of them, roughly, before nearing the edge of his bed. Reiner squinted his eyes at the large figure before his mouth turned into a large smile. “Starry!” He cheered, “You’re alright!” Relief and joy filled his somewhat empty heart upon seeing his elder brother, still alive.

But when Reiner got a better look at his brother his joy suddenly collapsed. Around the large blue pegasus’ head, a bandage cloth, drenched red, covered over one of his eyes.

Starry Lights looked at Reiner, his good eye widened. He unconsciously rose a hoof to his bleeding eye before saying, “Damned nurses were intent on keeping my eye wrapped.” He laughed, gruffly. “I told them that I wanted them to gouge out the wound but they wanted to let it ‘heal’. Meh! I can’t even see outta the dang thing, what’s the point in having it in my head?”

For some reason, even though Reiner was worried for his older brother, he giggled like a little schoolcolt. It was like it was the funniest thing that he’s ever heard as he continued his giggling fit for a few more moments. Everypony looked at Reiner cautiously before turning to look at Starry.

Soon, Starry’s serious face also grew into a smile, something that amazed everypony in that room before he too started to laugh with his younger brother. The laughter that they shared together seemed to be a secret laughter, a laughter that only those two as brothers could understand.

All of the ponies smiled in knowing as they all left the medical room, one by one. This was a time to leave the two brothers alone, to let them enjoy another day of living and happiness. That was all the normal ponies could give to the Saviors of Equestria, the Starlight Pegasi.

When all of them were finally gone, their laughter finally started to die down. Reiner wiped a tear from his eyes as he scooted on the bed closer to his brother, a feat he realized that was harder than he thought as the wounds were still fresh and his body ached so much. The young pegasus started to wipe more of his tears but felt them turn into waterfalls.

Starry’s smile quickly turned into a concerned frown as he held his brother in his arms. “S-Starry, I-I thought that I’d lose you!” He felt Reiner’s tears soak his bandaged wings. “I was so afraid!”

“There, there, little brother. I know, you were too young any of this, I wanted you to stay behind but you just kept growing and I couldn’t slow you down.” Starry’s eye started to water but no tears flooded their rims. “I’ll protect you for as long as I have left.”

“Starry, you’re wrong. I wasn’t afraid of the Dark Ponies or the Illaens or even Twilight! But I was afraid of the anger that I felt in my chest. I couldn‘t control it -hic-,” The little pony sobbed uncontrollably. “I wanted to destroy everypony and everything that was going to hurt you! I was afraid of that other Reiner Dash!”

“It’s okay, little brother. The nightmare’s over for now.” Starry became serious again. “You should be proud, you are going to be the new Starlight General soon! I’m not sure when but soon! And I could never be more proud of you, Reiner.”

Reiner pulled away from his older brother. “Huh? But I don’t think I’m ready!”

“Don’t worry, once she chooses you, you will become the Starlight General. She has an eye for the greatest Starlights, after all.”

“Huh? Princess Celestia wants me to become the Starlight General?!” His tears vanished as giddy replaced the feelings in his chest. Starry just smiled at his brother before solemnly leaving the room.

XOX

“And that was the beginning of my days into the Starlight ranks.” Reiner chuckled.

“Wow, was Uncal Stars weely dat nice?” Rainbow Dash asked with big glowing eyes. That didn't sound like the guy who threw her into the teethes of monsters in the Everfree Forest, or the guy who fed her rocks to 'toughen' her up!

“Maybe.” Reiner teased his daughter, nuzzling her on the nose. “Now’s time for bed, Dashie. You gotta get up in the morning to get ready for Trinity Elementary School.”

“Aww! But I wan ta goh ta the Starwight Acatemy!”

“Now, now, you’re too young for that Dashie. First you need to finish your education, not to mention you still need to go to Newton’s Flight Academy after.”

“But schewl’s so boring!” Rainbow complained as her father tucked her so tightly in the blanket that she could not wiggle or move an inch. Soon, the tight and warm embrace of the soft blanket lulled her into a peaceful sleep allowing Reiner to leave quietly without another word.

“She chooses the Starlight General…hahaha.” Reiner laughed morbidly. “What a cruel, cruel mare….”

Chapter End

Prologue

Prologue: Legend of the Zoner

Once upon a time, there existed two Realms on this Plane. The Everfree and Everlasting Moon Realm. The other Realm, was the Glorious and Gracious Sun Realm.

The two Realms were governed each by one Princess, the luminescent Princess Luna who controlled the Moon and her elder sister, Princess Celestia, who in turn controlled the Sun.

The two Realms were once One until a struggle between the two sister grew. No one knew quite what had happened that tore the rift between the two loving sisters but everyone knew it had to do with their opposing beliefs and powers.

The younger sister, Princess Luna, had grown a bit lonely since there were none that could relate to her besides her sister and had decided to breed a new life into being. They were her creations in finding something beyond the Realms of the Moon and the Sun. They were in the zone of impossibilities, whom she aptly named the Zoners.

She spent countless time and power on their creation but the fruits of her labors were shown. The Zoners were everything that represented the ponies that she had lived among but more powerful, more graceful, more unique.

And to further their uniqueness, she created only one. She sent her creation to live among the normal ponies and learn to coexist together.

This creation added into the rift that grew between the two powerful princesses.

It was a Sin in Princess Celestia’s eyes to breath false life into the world that they lived in. Her idea was that the False Life dirtied and plagued the world of the beautiful life that already existed here and that Princess Luna was blemishing the world they that they lived in.

Princess Luna ignored her sister’s words, taking them as wild rants. So, she continued to create more creatures. This time, she desired more in quantity than quality so as to fill the world with many of her creations as much as possible.

After the Zoners, came the Cockatrice, then the Hydras, and many more afterwards. Each creation she made was more disfigured and unrecognizable from the last. To Princess Luna, this was an art, each creation was different and special.

This only disgusted Princess Celestia more.

The Prime Lives and the False Lives began to live together in an uneasy but uneventful peace.

This went on for quite some time, until a certain event came that finally ripped the final bonds holding the two great sisters together.

One of Princess Luna’s creatures went into a wild rage and took the life of one of the ponies. This was the first ever recorded ‘non-natural death’ and ‘murder’ that the creatures in this world ever knew.

Princess Celestia could stand Princess Luna’s experiments no longer and decided to confront her sister more directly. She demanded that Princess Luna removed her creations and to return their world to its once harmonious paradise. Or else.

To her surprise, Princess Luna wasn’t going to listen peacefully. She blamed that the pony that was killed was harassing her poor Hydra.

In a fit, Princess Celestia raised a hoof to strike her sister but only to get pushed back by Princess Luna’s first creation, the one and only Zoner.

“You cretin!” Princess Celestia roared in a fit of rage and struck the Zoner with a powerful blast of magic. In her rage, she spent more magic than she intended.

“Noo!!!” Princess Luna cried out, her First was obliterated right in front of her eyes. She turned to look at her elder sister with teary eyes, “And you say that they are the monsters!”

The black ash on the ground started to move up before shaking. It brushed off easily, leaving a badly wounded but still living Zoner under it. Celestia, and even his own creator Luna, was shocked beyond belief.

“Princess, are you okay?” The Zoner asked without a hint of pain in his voice although his body was twitching and dripping endless fountains of blood. Princess Luna flew over to him, grabbing him, and fled to a safe haven away from Princess Celestia.

Everypony just saw what had just happened between the two sisters, and adding that to the death of their own earlier, became more tense not just with the False Lives but with each other.

They were split among each other on who to side with. The eccentric but sound Princess Luna who had every right to defend her creations or the protective Princess Celestia who only wanted her ponies safe and out of harm’s way?

That was when the ponies of the Equestrian Realm went to war among each other. One protested the extinction and eradication of beings that they considered a virus while the others disapproved of the cruel and heartless treatments.

Princess Celestia created a Realm of peace and prosperity with a proud and pure clan of pegasus as her front guard, the Starlights. They headed her armies against the demonic creations of her younger sister as much as they could to protect her citizens.

Princess Luna created her Realm with freedom and an open mind. She too chose a head for her armies, her First, the Zoners. The Zoners would take on the blunt of the Solar armies to weaken them for the rest to take down.

They were at war with each other so often that it became the norm and no pony knew of any other life.

Each sister had an opposing mind and opposing strategy in their warfare that were opposite but equal with one another that made them end in an endless stalemate. That is, until the Zoner, known as Dusk Striker decided to create more Zoners the way only nature knew.

Dusk Striker was a powerful Zoner, aging to the ripe old age of 700 and something inside him suddenly ticked. His biological clock was ticking and he needed to find a mare to breed with.

Even though he was old enough to be a pony’s great grandfather several times over, he had the appearance of a middle-aged pony. And he wasn’t exactly bad looking with his shiny black and purple coat, and multi-shade of purple and dark red mane.

Everypony found out what allowed the Zoners to be truly called ‘monsters’ when they found out how the aged Zoner looked for a mate.

This poor soul was then dubbed, the ‘Fated Partner’.

It seemed Dusk didn’t know himself of who his Fated Partner was, only that she was to the East. He flashed by in streaks of lightning as he left a fiery trail behind in his wake.

He eventually found the place he was looking for. It was a small village with a few hundred ponies. Celestia’s ponies, he momentarily growled in realization.

He walked without a care out in the open, allowing all the ponies to catch a glimpse of him. Dusk didn’t react when the ponies pulled out their torches and pitchforks. He followed the invisible string that was pulling him along until her found a single mare by her lonesome. She was gathering water at the nearby lake.

He smiled a toothy grin when his eyes met hers. He didn’t take notice of the horde of ponies that prepared to jump him with their weapons out.

Before the young mare could react she found her entire village set aflame with Dusk staring at her with those same lost eyes. Her eyes grew blank as she continued to stare at Dusk.

“I found you.” He snarled in joy before he overtook the pony. She didn’t know what to do and was quickly swallowed up in darkness.

A few weeks later, the earth pony mare was going into labor in a section of the Moon Realm’s Castle. She was crying red eyes of pain as she struggled to release the weight inside her.

Dusk smiled proudly at his newfound child. It was a colt, oh glorious joy!

“He’s lovely!” The doctor said as he slapped the baby on the bum before handing it to the mother.

“My…son, my little colt…!”

“He has your eyes.” Dusk cried out to the earth pony. He turned to look back at his captive who he had imprisoned after his massacre of her village. His jaw dropped when he saw her shining green eyes turn white and her forelegs drooped to her side.

“The prisoner…she’s dead.” The doctor said after checking for a pulse. He turned to face Dusk with his mask covered face, “What shall we name him, Master Dusk?”

“Call him…Dusk Shine.” Dusk Striker said without hesitation.

“What an excellent name, sir!”

News of Dusk Shine’s birth brought great joy to the Moon Realm, having another Zoner was only the beginning!

It was decidedly a grand and somber day, that day. Princess Luna’s Shadowguards went to receive Dusk Striker for the celebration’s preparations but only to see his fresh corpse on the ground in his room. Next to it was the young Dusk Shine feasting on his dead father.

Dusk Striker was turning into a black and red gloop that Dusk Shine greedily suckled like a mother’s milk.

One of the Shadowguards charged at Dusk Shine in an attempt to stop the brutal display only to end up on the dinner plate as well. Dusk Shine disappeared in a white flash and appeared behind the guard, leaving a large hole in his shape through the individual’s body.

The other guards started to panic and headed for the door only for it to shut heavily on them, leaving them trapped with the devilish infant.

None had made it out of that room alive.

Any pony that went close to Dusk Shine was immediately dealt the same wrath, all except for Princess Luna. He snarled and attacked anyone who was in his way but grew docile when he was met with Princess Luna.

He still didn’t comprehend or learn speech yet but the way Dusk Shine wagged his jaw and gestured with his hooves was similar to how many of the ponies bowed and greeted the princess.

“Hello, little one.” Princess Luna raised a hoof and petted Dusk Shine on the head. A tear streaked down her cheek. She lost Dusk Striker but he left her a farewell gift. She realized that when she made the Zoners first as one that only one Zoner will exist at any given point and time.

The new Zoner turned out to be even more powerful than his predecessor and he grew into adulthood pretty quickly, in a span of 2 months.

But as powerful as the new Zoner was, he was still not on par with Princess Celestia’s powers or her elite pony guards, the Starlights.

The war was still deadlocked, but less so now.

With every new Zoner that grows into existence, they are more powerful than the last. Each one will continue to look for their Fated Partner and meet the same fate. If mare or colt, it ended the same way for the Zoners, only one was born and the parents always died in some way, shape, or form.

Usually, the Zoners will start to search for their Partner when they breach 500 years, interestingly, the Zoners always look for their Partner after 500 years but sometimes it’ll take a few hundred extra years for that partner to be born. The 5th generation Zoner, Spark Zone, was a ripened age of 1000 before finally finding his mate.

There was also a secret, one that Princess Luna would hope that her treacherous sister would not find out. Zoners were all powerful but they had one distinct weakness. They were not weak as infants and were by no means impaired if the Zoner is a mare going through child bearing but there is a weakness in their invincibility.

Two, if you really felt inclined.

Zoners were powerful beings but they were by no means immortal, they could die when struck hard enough or wither from old age. But the first is nearly impossible and the latter is cancelled out through the birthing process.

But that very process is also the very weakness Princess Luna was hoping that her sister didn’t catch. Zoners only existed as one and so do their Fated Partners. If a Fated Partner is found and killed before the Zoner can take them, then the Zoner’s life is forfeit since they can no longer procreate. Zoners cannot reproduce with any other pony, only their Fated Partner.

It’s been 8 generations of the Zoners and this is the beginning of the last. Princess Celestia never really found out the Zoner’s weakness but she didn’t need to. The last Zoner took care of it herself.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna’s star pupil and caretaker.

Tales of the final Zoner.

Chapter End

Trials and Pain

Trials and Pains

Reiner and the doctor turned after a few more steps down the stairs and headed into a thick wooden door. The doctor used his magic to open it as it creaked with dust and grumbled before opening.

Reiner could have probably opened it without help…that is before his condition. Now, it seemed very unlikely. The look in his eyes seemed to convey the same thoughts as the doctor let him go ahead.

Rainbow Dash quickly rushed in just as the door was shutting. She didn’t want to open the door and alert the two stallions to her presence.

“I know I said this before but I’m just worried about your condition.”

“Then, don’t worry.”

“Easier said than done. I understand your types, needing to go back into the glory days. This is an all or nothing procedure, like I said it would be safer to wait—” The look that Reiner gave him made the doctor shut his mouth.

“I’ll help you the best I can, just remember, if this doesn’t work, none of your legs will work and you’d probably open the nerves on the frozen ones. Four times the pain and everlasting, are you sure you want to do this? Of course, we can amputate all of your legs if you so desire…if that happens.”

Rainbow Dash gasped at how impatient her father was being. She knew he was overzealous with his job but this seemed to be risking it.

“It’s not a matter of what I want, it’s a matter of what I need. Me and a few of my clan are going to infiltrate the Moon Realm’s castle and I need to be in top condition. I need to be able to deal with any and all obstacles, especially Twilight Sparkle.” Rainbow never noticed how much her father seemed to hate Twilight before but now that she thought about it, he always wanted to be there whenever there was a chance that she might show up so that he could deal with her. He was rarely home since he went on duties so many times.

Was her father one of those vengeful type of ponies? Did Twilight do something so bad to him that he desired her very death by his own hoofs?

“I understand, sir.” The doctor relented and started to put nerve sensors on Reiner’s body before letting him start the physical therapy. He also broke open the two casts on his legs and removed the bandages.

Both the doctor and Rainbow Dash could see her father wince in pain as he lost his leg supports and started kneeling in greater pain. They knew what he was doing was foolish but there was nothing they could do or say to change his mind.

This would end badly. He was going to end up paralyzed from the bottom of his body to his legs down.

Reiner started to do some stretches, there was the sound of bones creaking as he lifted a leg above his head or bent it to kneel down and stand up. He did this for several grueling hours before finally collapsing.

“We should rest for now.” The doctor said and handed Reiner a water bottle and some pills, probably for his condition. Reiner greedily drank the bottle and swallowed the pills before wiping his mouth with a loud sigh. “Maybe next week?”

“No.” Reiner shook his head furiously.

“Tomorrow?”

“No!”

“Later this evening?”

“No, now!”

The doctor looked puzzled, there wasn’t much that he could do. He handed Reiner some more pills, both for pain and for energy.

Reiner started on the treadmill, walking at first. He then started to sprint a few minutes into it. He ran for about half an hour, at full speed, before he was knocked back. He crashed to the floor. The doctor went up to him for help but he just said, “More!”

Rainbow Dash watched her father continue the physical therapy for a couple of more hours. He finally decided to let it up for now and continue tomorrow. By then, it was already past the afternoon.

When both the doctor and her father left the room, she snuck out a few minutes after them.

Rainbow wasn’t sure what to think of it all, her father was so different than she remembered him. He was so serious and angry. No, not angry, just impatient.

She left the castle walls to think more about what she had just saw when a voice woke her out of her thoughts.

“Rainbow Dash!” A familiar voice called out to her. She opened her eyes to find herself face to face with her earth pony friend, Applejack. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t know that she stopped flying and started walking on the surface in her friend’s farm.

“Watcha doin’ all the way out ‘ere?” Applejack asked with concern. “You don’t look fine at all, if you ask me. Something wrong, sugarcube?”

“No, nothing’s wrong. Just thinking.”

“Wow wee, the Rainbow Dash, thinking! Who’d have thunk?” Rainbow Dashed rolled her eyes at her friend’s response.

“It’s just about my dad.”

“Oh, sorry.” Applejack said, she heard about what had happened to the Starlight General. Heck, everypony, except for the ones not born yet, heard of it. “That’s a big pickle if you ask me.”

“Everything was my fault, if I didn’t go to the outer perimeters, none of this would have happened.”

“Now, sugarcube, you know that’s not true. It was probably going to happen regardless. Even if it wasn’t, it already happened.” Seeing that Rainbow Dash was still looking depressed, Applejack decided to cheer her up. “Say what, how ‘bout we go hang out with Fluttershy like we used to when we were foals?”

“Heh, that little flutter soft still living in the cottage?” Rainbow Dash perked up when remembering her other friend.

“Yeee...Yep!” Applejack said as they both started laughing at some inside joke.

XOX

“Eep!” A young yellow cried out as a shadow grew over her. She covered her eyes with both of her hoofs and laid down on the floor of her home. “Eee!!”

A white rabbit bounced into view as the shadow started to shrink back to him. He tapped Fluttershy on her head with his paw, making her stand up before he headed back to the kitchen.

“Oh, it’s just you, Angel.” There was a knock on the door of her home. “Eep!”

“It’s us, sugarcube.” She heard Applejack’s voice.

“Oh!” Fluttershy smiled, she loved when she had guests over, especially when it was her two closest friends. “Welcome, I’m sorry if my home is a little messy. I wasn’t expecting guests.” Fluttershy said as she opened the door to let her friends in.

“It’s alright, we were just barging in without warning.” Applejack looked around the room as she was the first to get in. Her ears drooped in embarrassment at Fluttersy’s modesty. It was far from dirty.

“How’s my little grounded pegasus doing?” Rainbow Dash said after Fluttershy shut the door from behind her.

“Oh, I was just…,” Fluttershy was looking back and forth as if there was someone in her house. “Doing nothing…eep!” The sound of Angel’s hopping made Fluttershy jump onto the ceiling like a frightened cat. “What was that?!”

“Hey, what’s up with you?” Applejack asked worriedly. Angel looked at her with a puzzled look and shrugged his shoulders before leaving the room, again. “It’s like you saw a ghost or something?” Fluttershy screamed at the mention of a ghost and ran under a small round table for cover. “You didn’t…did you?” Applejack wasn’t sure if she was in the mood for something ghastly at the moment.

“I-I got a letter!” Fluttershy trembled from under the table. She had both of her forelegs over her eyes so that she couldn’t see.

“What letter?” Both of her friends asked, it must be serious if a letter frightened her like this.

“Is someone threatening you?!” Rainbow Dash snarled, this was not the first time that Fluttershy was being bullied. At that moment, Angel came back carrying a small envelope and handed it to Applejack.

The farm mare opened the torn flap with hesitation and pulled out the letter in question.

Dear Fluttershy,

This is an urgent message from flight school, we have found that you have not completed all of your classes and by technicality you have not graduated. We wish to inform you to retake the missing class(es) as soon as possible and/or attain a certified tutor who will examine you in the field(s). The class(es) you have failed to complete is: C—

“Cooking?” Applejack looked up from the letter and stared at her frightened friend. “You plum forgot one class and are fussing over nothing?”

“I-I don’t want to go back there! There will be small ponies and they’ll all be laughing at me!”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, sugarcube. You just made one mistake and now you have to fix it. No one is laughing at ya.” Just as Applejack said this, there was a snicker from the corner of the room. “Rainbow Dash!” This only made Rainbow Dash fall over and laugh out loud. “Well, except for Rainbow. Seriously though! I thought you were a good cook? Why didn’t you finish that class?”

“I…everypony was staring at me! I couldn’t go to class with all eyes on me!” Fluttershy admitted.

“Oh…!” The yellow whined.

“Yeah, she knows what she’s talking about.” Applejack elbowed Rainbow with a smirk on her face. “Ain’t that right, ‘Ms. 2 Years Held Back‘?”

“Hey…they were teaching stupid stuff that didn’t make a lick of sense! And they made us read!”

“Yeah, yeah. They were near torturing you. What a poor filly…!”

The three girls had their little laugh and the farm mare and the blue helped Fluttershy get over her fears by prepping her for the oncoming test. It was mostly Applejack who helped though, Rainbow Dash just threw cake batter at everypony, licked the spoon and ate some strawberries meant for cooking.

By the time Rainbow had left the cottage of her best friend, it was already late as Celestia’s Sun was setting. Luna’s Moon was just coming over the horizon. She could feel the air turning cold around her already. That was typical of the night’s Moon. Whenever that big white ball was in the sky, monsters seemed to get more power. She wasn’t sure if it was a mental thing or if that actually did happen.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t worried that her parents were going to be mad at her for being late since she was old enough to do whatever she wanted now. But she was worried at the ominous feeling in the dark sky, so she felt herself rushing back home. It still took her half an hour to get back to Canterlot castle, though.

When she landed at the front gates of the castle, she heard somepony from behind call to her. “Isn’t it a little late to be wandering, little Dash?” Rainbow’s ears immediately perked as she turned to the familiar voice and took a deep bow. “Your Majesty!” Rainbow said quickly without looking up.

“Stand down, you can relax.” Princess Celestia giggled at the young pegasus. “Give my condolences to your father, I heard from my advisors about what had happened to him.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about that! My father is a great pegasus, he can take anything that Twilight Sparkle can dish out. I have faith that he’ll be back to his normal self in no time!” The princess cringed at the mention of the Zoner‘s name. Then, Celestia laughed a light feathery laugh.

“You are very similar to your father, in both mind and body. I‘m sure that he will get better in due time. He‘s no foolish pony as confident as he is.” She stretched out her wings and gave a small yawn, “Now if you excuse me, the night takes the energy out of me so I need to go to sleep.”

“Good night, Princess!” Rainbow said with almost too much energy.

“Good night, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia smiled before she disappeared from view.

When she reached the section of the castle where she and her family lived she found her father knocked out cold on the couch in the living room.

“Shh!” Her mother warned her. “Your father’s been like that for a few hours now, he just collapsed on the couch so it’s best not to disturb him. The pain must be more than I thought. I’ll take him up to our room later.”

Rainbow Dash’s ears drooped down as she remembered her father’s physical therapy. It was likely due to a different kind of pain than her mother was thinking of. Pain from that intense workout rather than from the injury. It was best to not tell her mother of this. It’ll only upset and worry her some more.

She quietly went to sleep that night but nightmares plagued her empty mind. It involved her father.

The next morning, she decided to keep a watchful eye on her father whenever she could. When they were eating breakfast, she would sneak a peek at him whenever he wasn’t looking.

When Reiner went grocery shopping or when he went to the café for a bite, she kept a close eye on him.

It almost looked like he had forgotten entirely about his appointment with the doctor until a few hours later. He started to act strangely and started to skid through alleyways and out of view from other ponies.

“This is it!” She exclaimed.

Reiner met with the same doctor from before in the same area of the castle. Rainbow quietly flew up near the ceiling of the room and hid behind a pillar. It was high up there that made it hard for her to listen to their conversation but luckily for her they were speaking in a way that made the entire room echo.

“But Reiner! This is insane!” The doctor warned.

“I understand, Doctor Breeze, but this is important to me!”

“What about your family? Your daughter and wife must be splitting hairs worrying over you!” The doctor shook his head and brushed his white mane out of his face. “I highly doubt they would enjoy knowing you are making such a foolish choice. Even if you were your old self, the mission is still suicidal.”

“This is something I have to do! I can‘t give this up…not even for my family!” Reiner Dash regretfully shook his head. “This…is more important!”

Rainbow Dash’s heart dropped when she heard her father say this. Was killing Twilight Sparkle that much more important…than his own family?

Reiner Dash continued to do these physical therapies for a few more weeks and shockingly enough for both Rainbow Dash and Doctor Breeze, he actually achieved not only functional legs but full recovery! It was like he was never paralyzed or crippled in the first place.

While that was good news, that also meant one thing. He was finally ready to lead the attack on the Moon Castle, Neighrun. It was going to be impossible to send an army without notice and causalities so he could only bring 20 Starlight with him.

Reiner felt it was better for him to go alone but Starry Lights convinced him to bring along 20 other ponies. Cotton didn’t take the news well when she found out that her husband was intent on leaving after his sudden recovery.

His daughter, Rainbow Dash, wasn’t quite sure of how to feel. Her father wasn’t the person that she had always thought he was. He had lied to her and her mom behind their backs and he didn’t really care about them as much as she thought he did. But, he was still her father, and she still had faith in him.

“I may not agree with his decision but I am not going to shun him for it!” Rainbow declared to herself. “I’ll accompany him on this attack!”

XOX

“No, no, no!” Reiner shook his head in rejection. “I cannot and will not let my only daughter join me on this mission!”

“But—”

“No buts! This is too dangerous, we are going deep into the Everfree Kingdom and it is too risky and dangerous for a young filly such as yourself to be accompanying me.” Reiner was attempting to hold in his anger and disappointment. “Rainbow Dash, I can’t allow you to join me, what of your mother? We can‘t keep her worrying about both of us!”

“Mother…Mother knew this was the risk of marrying into our clan. She gave me her permission to come!”

Reiner froze, did Cotton really allow her to come? He shook his head and turned to look at the other ponies standing behind him, waiting on his orders. Each pony was from a branch of the Starlight clan, they all wore golden armor but each one had a slight difference to represent their extended families. The difference could be either a different emblem or a different edge in the armors among any other changes.

Their armor covered a majority of their chests and they had leg braces and a helmet that covered their heads and the area between their eyes. But unlike his armor, they had more visible features, you could easily see each one‘s faces, tail, and mane, and distinguish them. A few even had their cutie marks plastered on their rear end armor or removed that part altogether. And typical of the Starlight clan, their armor had holes on the sides to let their wings out.

Each Starlight huffed roughly in patience as they waited for him to call out their duties. These ponies each had a family of their own, parents, siblings, and other relatives waiting for them to come home. If he could relinquish his daughter, what would that mean about their lives?

“Alright, you can come along…!” Reiner said with regret, he made a mental note to make sure that she was not in the path of danger as far as he could see.

Even though they were all pegasus, they spent as little as possible flying in the skies. They flew mostly in the moonless nights and when there were thick clouds. The journey from Canterlot to Neighrun took over 7 days and nights, they made sure to not rest or eat much if possible. The small group only camped out once, knowing that the longer they stayed the more likely they would alert their presence to the other ponies.

Rainbow Dash was a bit tired, she wasn’t quite prepared for the journey in question. It was a last minute decision, after all. Mostly though, she was not prepared for so much running.

She trailed behind a couple of ponies ahead of her, they were a red mare and a yellow colt, the mare had blue streaks on her upper body and the colt had blue freckles. The soldiers’ manes were the typical streaks of colorful rainbows but in different combinations.

They were family, distant but family, so she wasn’t surprised to see them all carrying a physical trait somewhat similar to hers.

She looked further ahead past more of the armored pegasi to see her father leading the charge. He looked so serious and heroic ahead of the pack. The only sounds she could hear around her were the silent cooing of owls and the clink from armors and stomping of hooves.

It reminded her of those action movies where the main pony would say something along the lines of, ‘It’s quiet, too quiet!’ Just as something was bound to happen.

Everypony stopped dead in their tracks as they rounded into the deeper parts of the dark forest. A mountain seemed to be closing in on them, it was similar to the mountain that Canterlot laid on except more ominous and sinister.

Neighrun was huge, it was a dark castle with many towers and spires. Its walls were lined in a dark purple marble and the Moon only seemed to accent the castle’s dark majesty. There were scattered giant torches atop the towers and Rainbow could see a few black armored ponies patrolling the area.

The night was nearing its end, meaning it was almost the perfect time to strike. Most pony in Everfree were day walkers but their leader, Princess Luna, was not. And they wanted to strike her when she was most vulnerable.

While that was the plan, they were easier seen sneaking around in the day than the night so they had to get pass the castle walls before day broke, which was within an hour. All of this easier said than done.

Reiner marched everypony near a blind spot on the wall before pulling out a long rope and flying vertically over to the top. He came across two Shadowguards and quickly dealt with them and tossed them over the side of the wall with quickness and silence.

A long rope fell along the walls in front of the ponies allowing them to climb the stony walls. Each pony, one by one, started to climb. Rainbow Dash was one of the last ones to climb and tied the end of the rope to her back so that no pony would see it.

When they all reached the top, Reiner gave a signal with one foreleg, silently telling everyone to split up and search for the Princess’s chambers. Rainbow handed the rope back to her father before joining him with another pony.

The three of them, had to dodge 5 patrols, clinging to the dark parts of the ceilings and jumping out of the guards’ peripherals.

Rainbow found themselves on the castle grounds, trailing along a castle wall. There was a white sparkle on one of the upper walls. It was a signal from one of the groups, telling them that they found out where the chambers were.

They all found themselves at a small bridge that led from one section of the castle to another. “Is this the place?” Reiner asked the two ponies who gave them the signal, they nodded in confirmation, they said that they saw the Princess heading in this direction.

Everypony crossed the small bridge, careful to not fall into the moat that was probably invested with carnivorous piranhas or some such. They opened the giant double doors that led deeper into the building.

They immediately hid alongside the walls as they all caught a glimpse of Princess Luna walking with two of her guards down the corridor. She wasn’t wearing her armor and looked like she was preparing for sleep. They followed her as best as they could.

Rainbow and company eventually found that they were in a royal library, even larger than Canterlot’s own. The bookshelves seemed to never reach the endless ceiling and a few books were almost as tall as they were. The darkness only seemed to make the tall shelves appear even more grander.

Eventually, each pony began to disappear one by one. No one caught the glimpse of a pink blur that ran from behind them. They were losing sight of where they were and where they were going. This giant library was like a maze, Rainbow realized.

She saw her father run in one direction and gulped, she didn’t want to lose sight of him so she jumped after him. His tail looked like it was about to be swallowed by the darkness until a light opened ahead of them. The light showed a long empty hall with scattered torches lighting its way.

The flames eerily appeared to be floating on magic but her father and she followed the path nonetheless. They kept on walking until the halls opened up to a new area.

It was dark but the ceiling was almost nonexistent as stars were pouring out through the crystal clear glass. “Is this…an observatory?” Rainbow Dash stated more than asked.

“Right you are, little Starlight.” A more than familiar voice laughed. “You Starlights sure took your time.” The room lightened up as black torches began to magically turn on, one by one. Twilight Sparkle walked into the area with a shake of her head. “And here I spent hours preparing a welcoming party for you!”

Just as the last torch became alit, Rainbow realized that the other Starlight ponies were each chained to a wall around them. There were manacles around each of their legs, keeping them firmly chained with the wall against their backs.

“Twilight, leave them out of this!” Reiner stepped in front of Rainbow and waved an accusing foreleg at her.

“I don’t think you are in a position to order me, Starlight General.” Twilight smiled as her horn began to glow. A white spark seemed to glow on the floor before it spread in multiple directions with a vein-like appearance. As each white vein stretched and neared the walls, it crept up and struck each chained pony.

The unconscious ponies started to shake and scream as electricity filled their nerves. It was hard to tell if they were screaming in their unconsciousness or if they woke up. At that moment, the area became a dim orange as the Sun was starting to rise.

Twilight stopped her display of torture after seeing a satisfactory expression on Reiner’s face. She turned to look from Reiner to Rainbow and smirked. Even though her helmet covered the upper half of her face, Rainbow knew that her eyes were filled with fear just as she found herself being lifted off the floor and thrown into a cage.

“I’m sorry, filly, but I miscalculated on the arrivals and haven’t yet had the chance to prepare another chain gang member. Have fun.” Twilight turned back to Reiner and laughed. “We’re finally alone, again. And this time without any rude interlopers.”

“Twilight…!” Reiner growled under his breath.

“You know, Reiny, I thought about playing a game, since it’s been a while since we last played together.” Twilight sang in a beautiful voice. “It’s a hometown favorite, Bail Ball. The rules are simple.” Twilight flashed white before appearing besides him, uncomfortably close. “Catch the ball, and your friends go home free. If I catch it?” There was a low chuckle coming from the Zoner. “Let’s leave that little surprise for later.”

The purple unicorn-esque Zoner didn’t even wait for his reply and summoned a sparkling black sphere with a few spikes spread around it. “Catch!” She playfully shouted before kicking the ball and making it bounce. The ball started to ricochet off of the walls, gaining momentum and speed with each bounce until it became a blur. Ironically, as fast as the ball was going, it didn’t seem to knock anything over. It was like a thin magical shield was protecting the objects’ surfaces.

Twilight stood still as she eyed Reiner for a good minute. Her expression was a bit shocked when she saw him not taking any actions. For a moment, she thought he had abandoned his comrades until he disappeared in dust.

The Starlight General began to turn into a blur, too, as he followed after the ball. She smirked as her plan was going into motion.

He stretched out a foreleg as he was so close to touching that ball. There was the familiar sound of static and Twilight appeared between him and the ball before smacking his hoof away. Reiner grunted in annoyance and jumped around her.

The two of them kept this up for quite some time, him twisting and turning, trying to get the ball, and Twilight simply cutting him off each time.

“Stop that!” Reiner finally lost control and lunged at Twilight and forcing her onto the ground. He was breathing heavily as he held all of her legs down with his own. His chest was rising and falling so high and low. His face was leaning down so close to Twilight’s, glaring her down.

“I love that about you,” Twilight breathed hard also. She raised her face to meet with his so that their noses were touching.

“Get out of my head!” Reiner growled menacingly.

“I’m sorry but I can’t, you are my Fated Partner, after all.” Twilight smiled and pushed quickly so that hers and Reiner’s lips collided.

Chapter End