Hoof of the North Star

Not so very long ago, in the magical land of Equestria…
War.

The seething resentment of generations of segregation and oppression finally exploded into a world-consuming firestorm. The Princesses have gone, their castle in ruins. Nopony knows anymore who or what caused the conflagration, only that nothing matters now but the primal law of strength and might. Those with power prey on the weak, in a wicked and brutal rule of nature ponies had thought was far behind them.
But through this darkness walks a light. One pony with the strength and conviction to protect the innocent, and punish the wicked…
-Hoof of the North Star-
Episode 2: Defy the Will of the Goddess!? Luna’s Terrible Army!

As Star sat, staring sullenly at the opposite wall in the cramped backseat of the transport wagon, she wondered whether the stars would consider her oath broken. Working with the Legion… she reflected that today wasn’t the first time somepony had used her filly to make her do something against her will. She would certainly make sure it was the last.

She focused on more pressing, less nightmarish things. Cog sat to her left, lazing attractively, the hood of her form-hugging bodysuit pulled back, luxuriating as if trying to remind Star how much younger and more beautiful she was. She arched a perfect purple eyebrow at Star. “I do wish you wouldn’t look so sullen. This arrangement could be so much worse for you.” Her face lit with a wicked grin. “The boys wanted to have a go at your nethers for a while. Call me a traditionalist, but I just can’t see gang-rape as the prelude to a successful business relationship.”

Star looked at the other unicorn, her eyes narrowing. “This is not a relationship of any kind. It’s blackmail.”

Cog rolled her pretty eyes. “Oh yes, I suppose, if you want to be boringly literal about it-”

“I do,” Star interrupted.

“But that’s no reason we can’t be civil and treat one another with courtesy and respect.”

Star smiled darkly. “I have to make sure at this point in the conversation that you aren’t interested in my nethers.”

After a brief expression of mild shock had passed over her face, Cog laughed loudly. She shrugged. “Well. I wouldn’t say no to a poke at them, but that seems completely beside the point.”

Star was staggered a bit by that one. “We… haven’t really talked about what you want me to do.”

Cog sighed. “Oh, that. I thought maybe we could have some girl time together, but if you insist on talking about such boring things…”

Star looked coldly at the lovely unicorn. “The only ‘girl time’ you and I are likely to have will involve your quick and messy death.”

Cog threw her head back and laughed with the easy surety of a pony who has another over a barrel. Star couldn’t help but think of the many interesting ways she could maim or kill the unicorn at that point. She burned for her death.

Her musical laugh dying away, Cog pouted at Star. “Now, Death-Hooves,” an informal title Star despised, “as I said before, there is no reason we can’t be civil.” A somewhat dangerous glint lit in her eyes. “And were I you I would take care. Offending somepony like me could be an unsafe proposition.”

Star’s face was a neutral mask that she had learned early in life. “Is everything I say going to result in a threat on my daughter’s life or virtue? Because I have little respect for somepony who can’t help but point out the leverage they have.”

“No no, dear. I love your daughter,” she spoke emphatically, placing a hoof on her breast. “The prospect of hurting her causes me great pain.” She met Star’s eyes, which many ponies feared to do, with an aggressive look. “The prospect of causing you pain, however…” she let the comment trail off.

Star’s grimaced. “I have no more patience for this. Tell me what you need of me, so that I can have it done and get my daughter back.”

“Very well,” trilled Cog, her airy smile returning. “Do you know of the Hidden City?”

Star shrugged. “I’ve heard it mentioned. One of the largest of the Cults of Luna, I believe. They’re supposed to have an impressive army. But I thought nopony knew exactly where it was.”

“The Legion has discovered it.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

Cog smiled wickedly. “We want you to get inside.”

Star blinked. “But nopony has ever done that. Not anypony who came back, anyway.”

Cog gave a one-shouldered shrug. “You’re resourceful and strong.”

Star laughed nervously. “Yes, but I’m not invincible. Those ponies are worshipping something down there. And it definitely isn’t Luna. Call me uninterested, but I’d rather not find out what it is.”

Cogs’ eyes narrowed dangerously. “How do you know?” She spat out with surprising ferocity.

“How do I know what?”

“That it isn’t Luna?” Cog burst out testily.

Star watched the mare, whom she was now certain was insane, for a moment, before responding. “The Goddesses have been gone for hundreds of years-”

“You don’t know that!” Cog shouted. “You have to admit there’s a possibility that it might be Luna down there.”

Star shook her head in confusion. “I… guess. But what do you want me to go down to see the Cult of Maybe-Luna for?”

Cog stared at Star for a few moments while she calmed down. “They have some… artifacts down there. We don’t know much about them. Our information is sketchy. But they seem to be fairly prominent in their worship, so they should be easy to find.”

“Why would you want them?” Star asked incredulously. “They’re as likely as not to be useless trinkets, anyway.”

Cog sniffed primly. “Why we want them is not your concern. We have information you don’t.”

Star cocked her head. “How did you get so much information about a hidden enclave into which nopony has ever gone?”

Cog grinned, seemingly back in her depth. As she was about to answer, the transport wagon shook violently. Star used her hooves to brace herself, a lifetime of training aiding her balance, and stayed in her seat. Cog, however, was thrown with some force against the right wall of the wagon. Then everything was still but for the sound of raised voices outside. After a few moments, there was a loud rapping on the back of the transport. “Legate Cog!” A stallion’s voice boomed out, “there is a problem!” Cog sighed and trotted down the short aisle to the door, pulling the lever with a flash of telekinetic light from her horn. It swung open, hitting the ground with a boom. A unicorn stallion stood outside, regarding the two mares awkwardly.

“What’s the problem?” Cog purred, danger in her pretty eyes.

“Uh…” the stallion stammered. “We hit a mine, Legate. Tread got blown off.”

Cog nodded. “How long to fix it?”

The stallion looked around nervously. “I don’t know that we can, Legate.”

“I see.” She looked back at Star, grinning sweetly. “Are you up for walking, Death-Hoof?”

-

The Legion ponies walked in tight formation, wary of hidden threats in the mountains around them. These mountains had never been hospitable places for ponies, even long before the Atomites’ Great War, if the stories were to be believed. But these days they were haunted with insane cultists of Luna, sleeping dragons, and worse. There were also stories, even if nopony believed them, of strange creatures from before Equestria was born that now walked these hills freely. They weren’t a place, Star reflected, into which anypony -at least any sane pony- should go.

She walked at the head of the Legion column, the way she had walked at the head of many a column of ponies as a younger mare and in happier times. Then the ponies behind her had been her friends and even family. Her acquired family, at least, which was all she had ever known. She hadn’t wondered about her real family, about the ponies who had actually given birth to her, since she was just a filly. Now she could feel the leering eyes of the Legion on her. Judging her, viewing her as nothing more than a resource to be used and discarded, and despising her for what she had done to their comrades.

Star was so tired of all of this.

Beside her walked Cog, who seemed to be leading this unit now in the absence of any high-ranking soldiers, most of whose blood Star had taken a bath in back at Hope village. Her eyes were drawn briefly to the east. She wondered about the prison Bastion, far away. Was Silvercloud really there? She knew now that she needed to see her sisters, even the ones who had gone astray, before she died. Only the Goddesses knew how that would turn out.

The sun had not yet set since they had left Hope a few days ago, although here in the mountains its heat was less intense, veiled by clouds and muted by low pressure, the long Daylight continued. Cog walked with certainty and grace, and Star began for the first time to believe that she really might know where to find the Hidden City. Star knew that ability to inspire confidence by nothing more than her appearance to be a valuable quality in a pony whose task it was to lead other ponies. At least in that respect, she supposed Cog wasn’t the worst choice for a commanding officer -or whatever a ‘Legate’ was- that she had ever met. Still, they had been walking for hours.

Overcoming her general revulsion with the purple unicorn, Star took in a mouthful of air to ask Cog how long it would be before they found the Hidden City. She paused, noticing something off about the air for the first time. It tasted strange. Like water with soap in it. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she knew it wasn’t likely to be good. Star cast her eyes around at the undifferentiated rock.

Her adrenal glands fired only a brief early warning before a muffled clatter of tin on stone sounded and the explosives detonated. Inequine shouts of fury echoed off the rocks as an unknown enemy fell upon the Legion column.

The explosives, Star could see, were mainly meant to create smoke, to obscure sight and frustrate communication, rather than to kill. Still, the explosions, hitting the middle and end of the column, had badly injured a few Legion soldiers, and Star could hear their moans over the frenzied battle cries.

Star gasped as an enormous creature lumbered at her out of the thick smoke. It was taller than a pony, standing on two muscular legs and brandishing strong arms the size of small tree-trunks. It carried a shield and a spear made of some odd material resembling an insect carapace. Star thought the creature looked vaguely familiar. She had precious little time to give it serious thought before the strange beast screamed at her with a gurgling roar, flashing a mouth full of small, sharp teeth. Its gray, hairless flesh was puckered and its large, milky, vaguely lambent eyes were empty of any recognizably equine feeling.

Without much preamble it shrieked its frothing roar at her and drove its spear down with lighting speed and precision. Dodging lightly away as the spear struck the rock where she had been, Star thrust a forehoof quickly and powerfully into the haft, snapping the spear into two pieces with a sickening crunch, the carapace it was made of harder than wood but more brittle than metal. Backing away from the creature, she paused in the eerie still of her adrenaline rush, a state with which she was all too familiar, and briefly considered her options. She watched the disturbing creature as it stumbled, unable to arrest the momentum from the snapping spear.

She got the impression it couldn’t see very well, being clearly a creature adapted for subterranean life. She wasn’t sure its chakras were laid out in any familiar manner, and shuddered at the thought of touching it at any rate, even with her magic. Quite apart from physical unpleasantness, there was a slimy, disgusting magic about the creature, similar to the wrongness she had tasted in the air, with which she didn’t wish to entwine her own abilities.

A projectile was the obvious answer. Her wish was granted as the creature, seething with rage, threw the broken half of its spear in a brief but dangerous parabola towards her skull. Seizing it with magical force using one of the more rudimentary techniques of the Starhoof, she gave a small smile as she catapulted it back at the creature.

The jagged, broken end of the spear messily penetrated one lambent eye. The creatures’ head jerked back and it let out a terrible gurgling roar before falling heavily back to the stony ground, twitching.

Around her, the Legion were beginning to mount a defense, forming into as tight a phalanx as possible considering their numbers and making somewhat surprising progress against the group of creatures. Star looked on with considerable awe. She had never failed to be impressed with a Legion phalanx, even when she had broken them.

Pegasi and earth ponies stood in front, wingblades whirling dangerously at those who dared to close distance, stronger earth ponies facing off boldly against the creatures like wrestlers while the weaker ones bore sharp swords or cudgels in their mouths which scythed and swooped through the air with deadly accuracy. She had always been impressed by masters of armed combat who weren’t unicorns. They stood behind, raising barriers to protect the gaps left by their brethren or creating death and confusion among the creatures. It was the perfect synthesis of the three races of ponies for which the Legion was so well-known. Mares and stallions fought alongside, a thing unheard of for many other groups of ponies. Evil, she reflected, but egalitarian evil.

The creatures, sensing a stiffer fight than they were prepared for out here in the light of the sun, gathered together and withdrew quickly, keeping tight and in formation like professional soldiers. The Legion, in a similar and even more impressive show of professionalism, made no effort to follow their beaten and clearly retreating foes. Instead, they turned to their dead and wounded comrades. Star couldn’t miss the Legion ponies that the horde of creatures carried with them, some screaming loudly, some unconscious.

Cog faded in beside her once the creatures were gone. Small sharp discs, surrounded by sheaths of purple telekinesis, deposited themselves back into her saddlebags. Practically speaking, Star was very impressed with the young unicorn. Both she and her discs were splattered with the black, steaming blood of the strange creatures. Despite her obvious vanity she didn’t seem bothered. The unicorn did have a look of rage on her face.

It was directed at Star. “You barely even tried, Death-Hoof!”

Star didn’t correct her mispronunciation of the hated title. She shifted her expression to a neutral mask. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She snorted. “You’re telling me I’m a more efficient killer than the heir to the fucking Deathhooves Style!? I brought down five of those things. You barely took out one!” Her face was close to Star’s own now, her anger apparent. Star had neither time or patience to point out how large and fearsome the creature attacking her had been. Much larger than the other corpses lying around them.

Star arched an eyebrow. “You do have a temper, don’t you?”

Faster than she would have given the mare credit for, Cog’s hoof struck her square across the face. It didn’t hurt, of course. But it still made the blood-drenched pony in Star’s mind start screaming about all the ways she could kill the little unicorn. She looked into the obviously-insane yellow eyes, pausing for a menacing glare of her own. “I think you should see to your soldiers,” she said quietly.

Not flinching, Cog spat on the ground near Stars’ hoof, some black blood mixed in with the saliva. It happened in close combat, as Star knew well. “Seems I’m the only one who will,” she said as she turned to her recovering ponies. Star shook her head.

The fight had been costly. At least five more Legion ponies lay dead on the field, and twice that had been taken captive. The Legion’s strength at the best of times was never in numbers, and Cog’s unit was growing stretched. Star walked over to the creature she had felled and took a closer look. It couldn’t be…

“Cog!” She shouted to the mare.

A dangerous look in her eye, the unicorn turned to Star. “What?”

“I… think that these are… or maybe were at one time… Diamond Dogs.”

Cog wrinkled her nose, a very attractive gesture, Star had to admit. “That’s impossible.” She trotted over. “We have treaties or alliances with almost all of the Delver Tribes.”

Star looked quizzically at Cog. “Delver?”

“That’s how Diamond Dogs refer to themselves. The Atomites might have learned that at one point or another if they had taken the time to speak with them. They are intelligent creatures, you know.” Cog looked frustrated. Star had the feeling she had gone through this same conversation before.

Star looked back to the corpse of the strange creature. “You’re an interesting pony, Cog…”

Cog looked nonplussed. “Thanks?”

Star was also confused by the direction the exchange had taken. “You’re… welcome?”

Cog cleared her throat.

“Anyway,” Star continued. “I’m almost certain this is a Diamond Dog. It, and probably its ancestors have lived underground for a long time. And somepony used some really hardcore dark magic on it. But at one time…”

Finally, Cog nodded. “I think I’ll agree. There are some similarities.” Her expression grew dark. “But I wonder what in the pits of Tartarus could have happened to it?”

Star shrugged. “Something unspeakable on at least some level.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter at the moment.” The pretty young mare smiled daintily at the older one. “You are going to go find my men.”

Star turned to the young unicorn. “What!?”

Cog regarded her primly. “Watch your tone. Remember your situation. The Legion never leaves anypony behind if we can help it.”

Star looked at the mare -barely more than a filly, really- with undisguised anger. “I don’t care about your soldiers. If I weren’t under coercion I’d kill them myself.”

Cog stepped too close, directly into Stars physical killzone, she couldn’t help but notice. Here, she could end the brutal young mare with her own two hooves. “Many of them are fighting for their families, for their communities. Do you grudge them that?”

“Yes, I do,” Star said immediately.

Cog snorted and composed herself. “What you think doesn’t matter to me, Death-hooves.” With an upraised hoof, she gestured to a group of six Legion ponies, all fairly sleek and healthy. They came over immediately. “These ponies are all excellent trackers. As if the trail will be hard to find in the first place. Bring all of my ponies back alive.”

Star bit back another insult. She swallowed it down along with her disgust at all of these ponies. She was mostly disgusted with herself; that she had allowed herself to have a civil conversation with a monster like Cog for even one second. She still hadn’t made up for Hope. She simply gestured to the group of Legion trackers, three earth ponies, a unicorn, and two pegasi, all mares, and headed off with a seething look at Cog in parting.

-

Cog had been right; the trail hadn’t been hard to follow.

It was an obvious trail of blood and filth, leading into the open, gaping maw of a cave. Nothing could be heard from within.

Star looked to the Legion unicorn who stood behind her. “Can you light the way?”

One of the mares scoffed. “I’d have thought that the great Death-Hooves would be able to muster a simple magical light.”

Star shrugged, looking back at the dark mouth of the cave. These ponies were not her friends. “My magical talents don’t lie in that area.”

“No,” said another mare, a Pegasus. “You can only use your magic to make a good soldier’s eyes explode.”

Star kept her eyes forward. “Actually, I did that with my hoof. Was he a friend of yours?”

“You bitch-!” The pegasus made a move for her, but the unicorn, a wiser pony, held her back.

“As entertaining as all of this is for me, girls,” said Star, “I can’t see how it’s getting us any closer to rescuing your friends. Isn’t that what you were here for?”

With unpleasant sidelong glances, the unicorn walked up, a modestly bright light shining from her horn as they trotted cautiously into the cave. Star kept close behind the her.

Unnoticed by the others, she closed her eyes as they entered the cave.

I bet I can find you, Silver… she thought wistfully to herself, an unlikely smile lighting up her face.

-

She was around the same age as Splints when Elder Comet first taught them how to see while blind. She was never as good at it as Thundercrash. Nopony was ever as good at anything as Thundercrash. She ran through the halls of the temple where she had been raised, giggling under her blindfold as she searched with her filly’s senses for her sisters. Comet made it a game, the same as he did with every part of their training that he possibly could.

She couldn’t see, but all of her other senses worked even better. They didn’t let her ‘see’ as far as her eyes did, though. Still, she knew the temple well enough in her mind’s eye to know where she was. Silvercloud had already found Gem and Tree. That was no surprise, she thought as she huffed with joy, navigating stairs expertly. Gemstone was always the first one to get found. Of course, she knew as she searched around the hall, it was more the finding than the hiding that was the point of the exercise.

What could she possibly have to hide from anyway, she wondered, when she grew up to be a big strong warrior-pony?

At that moment she stopped, standing stock-still, a hoof in the air as she listened. A few rooms over, she knew she could hear somepony. Grinning gleefully, she ran as lightly as possible through the open doorway. She thought she was going into the monks’ cloisters, mostly empty these days. That always made her sad. In the third room down the hall, she heard something. At the sound of the gasp, Star knew she had been heard as well.

She knew it was Silvercloud already, knew the sound of her sweet, clear, silky voice, of her breathing, even. They had spent enough Nightlights and Daylights together, sleeping or playing, making up silly stories about what their real families were like, or crying after Comet, in response to their insistent inquiries, finally told them what had happened to the world outside of the temple.

“Silver?” Said Star.

At the same time, Silvercloud spoke. “Star?”

They both smiled. Star took off her blindfold and found herself looking into the pegasus’ sweet pink eyes. Star had always been jealous of her sister; she was so graceful and long-limbed. Star felt that she was awkward and stubby, though Silver assured her, in the sweet way she had of making everypony feel better, that she would grow out of it someday.

Silver smiled sweetly “I guess we both got found, huh?”

“Yeah,” Star pouted. “And here I wanted to try and find Thunder today…”

The pegasus cast her eyes towards the ceiling, thinking for a moment before she leaned close. “Well… we can pretend this never happened. Nopony has to know.”

Star almost gasped at the suggestion. “Wouldn’t that be breaking Comet’s rules?”

Silver shrugged. “Maybe a little bit, but… how much would it hurt anypony, really?”

For a moment, Star thought seriously about it, a contemplative look on her face.

The thoughtful expression was broken by a sudden smile. “You’re right! It’s so much more fun this way!” She put her blindfold back on, but could still feel the gentle presence of the gray Pegasus. “Did you see anypony, Silver?”

There was a pause as Silvercloud put her blindfold on again. “Nope! Nopony in here!”

Giggling, the two dashed off in opposite directions, and at that moment, Star couldn’t imagine how there could ever be a day as perfect as this one.

-

The smell inside the cave was nightmarish.

She hadn’t been prepared for the smell, despite the fact that the decaying world the Atomites had left behind was full of more smells more horrible than she could ever have imagined before she had come into it. The smell of burning flesh, the smell of unwashed ponies, the smell of decay or blood… this was worse than all of the most terrible smells of the Wastes combined.

Her eyes were still closed, the light of the Legion unicorn’s horn a dull red glow through her eyelids. She could feel each of the six mares around her, almost see them in her mind’s eye. There were other things as well, moving ponderously out in the darkness beyond the light of the mare’s horn. She knew what they were, could smell them and, as a pleasant bonus, could feel the sickening, slimy magical aura that hung around them, oozed off them. Star was certain at that moment that this had been a pointless mission. There were no ponies out beyond the vague light of the Legion pony’s horn. Beyond that light was a world anathema to ponies. She knew the Legion mares could feel it too, heard them breathing hard and whimpering unintentionally. They all knew the same thing; the Legion ponies these monsters had drug into this cave were dead if not worse.

She reacted quickly when she sensed the things out in the darkness scuttling forward, shouting a warning to the unicorn mare. She could already tell the mare was doomed, and there was nothing she nor anypony else could do about it. Star simply couldn’t move quickly enough. The other mares cried out as their comrade was dragged screaming into the horde surrounding them, and her screams were cut off with a chilling finality. Star, for her part, threw herself into the darkness, striking out at the figures as she became aware of them, unable to aim for their chakras, but shattering their carapaces and killing or fatally wounding them just as certainly. The monsters, unprepared, hissed and seethed and gurgled their unpleasant surprise. Her hooves caused them catastrophic damage, the rigorous training of the Deathhooves style having made her far stronger than a regular pony. Her senses reeled as she came in contact with them, the slimy magical aura seeming to stick to her, not causing any harm of which she was aware, but filling her with a dull, bleak hopelessness. She focused on the fight, and as she struck out, the creatures died.

She winced as she caved in a face with a crushing blow from her hoof. She felt the sticky, warm blood within oozing out. Another she bucked almost in half as it tried to sneak up behind her, spear raised. She was dimly aware of the remainder of the Legion ponies screaming and crying, and could only distinguish three voices remaining. Star shouted as loud as she could. “Legion ponies! Here! Stay close to me!”

“Where are you!?” One shouted, sobbing hysterically, just before giving a long, high-pitched wail which was cut off at its’ zenith.

“Come on!” She shouted desperately. “We’ve got to go!” Rushing towards the remaining voices, leaping over the sweeping haft of a chitinous spear as she ran, she felt a Legion mare press against her hard and hold tight, weeping and trembling. She could smell blood and sweat from her, as well as other liquids. The little mare was terrified, and no matter what she was or what she may have done, Star swore quietly to guide at least her out safely. As she made her way for the exit, eyes still shut tight, she heard a slow, laborious, grinding noise coming from in front of her.

One of the creatures was pushing a boulder over the exit. Her heart sank as she heard it slam to. It was possible to get through it, but not without a moment to focus. She couldn’t do that with a spear in her back. She spun when she reached the exit, bucking the legs out from under the creature who had blocked the door and bringing a forehoof down on its skull, crushing it. She was overexerting herself. The Legion earth pony screamed as she was showered with the viscera from the creature’s rupturing cranium. Star turned to face the crowd in the darkness, immediately pulling up a shield. She was surprised not to hear any projectiles hit it. She sighed, opening her eyes.

She looked out on pitch blackness. She tried closing them again. As she had thought, there was no difference at this point. Not with the entrance blocked. Still, the creatures weren’t surging towards her in their inexorable numbers just yet. I may get out of this alive after all, she thought to herself.

From out of the darkness a horrible, gurgling voice spoke. It was clearly not used to speaking Equestrian. “Hail. Warrior pony,” it said haltingly, but with surprising intelligence. “You fought… well. Many Moonspears… fallen.” It was a credit to her fortitude that the Legion pony was simply mumbling nonsense under her breath, rather than screaming hysterically. She held Star tightly, her earlier dislike a dim memory. “None who have… ever entered this place have done… so well. We… honor you.” Star had the impression of the strange horde bowing as one. She nodded, keeping her face neutral even in the dark.

“A true honor would be to move this rock so that this mare and I can leave,” Star proclaimed to the darkness.

A hissing chorus of gurgles went up from the surrounding army. The mare at her side cowered, whimpering helplessly. Although her face was an unexpressive mask, Star was right there with her on the inside. However, she was just about ready. “Pony is not… in a position to bargain with us. And yet… we offer you… such mercy… as we have to give you.”

Star was legitimately curious. “Oh?”

“Give to us the soldier-pony-” at this the mare at Star’s side clutched her tightly, whining and sobbing pathetically, pouring out variations on the themes of ‘please’ and ‘no’. Star shushed her and nodded to the strange voice to signal her understanding. It continued. ‘Give her… and warrior-pony will be allowed… to join honored guests.”

“Whose ‘guests’ do you mean?” Star’s rear legs throbbed with stored power now. But she was curious.

She could swear there was mirth in the awful voice. “Goddess… Luna… of course.”

Star frowned. They were either insane or… no, on second though, they were definitely insane. She wanted nothing more than to leave this place. Everything about it was wrong. “I’m sorry,” she told them. “But that isn’t happening.”

Her eyes flaring white, she lashed out at the massive stone behind her with a supernaturally-strong buck. At the impact, the stone cracked and shattered into many pieces. With some effort Star took the shards in her telekinetic grip, catapulting them as fast as she could into the angry hissing screams that went up in a chorus from the horrific creatures.

Then she turned and galloped back out into the cloudy Daylight, which looked to be drawing to a close, as quickly as possible. The earth pony clung to her miserably. As soon as they were in the light and had put some significant distance between themselves and the awful cave, she noticed the filth and black blood that covered both she and the earth pony.

“Eww!” she whined.

-

Cog was predictably furious.

“Where are the prisoners!? And the other trackers I sent with you!? You’ve done this on purpose!”

Star stood her ground. “You’re a lunatic. The Legion must be seriously slipping for somepony like you to be put in charge.” She momentarily chewed on something she found in her mouth, likely acquired during the course of the close-quarters battle in the cave, before realizing she didn’t know what it was and probably didn’t want to know. She spat it out on the ground and tried not to think about it.

Cog fumed. “I send you in with my best trackers to retake a few captured soldiers, and you return with one barely-functioning earth pony? I’m starting to think little Moon wasn’t even worth abducting.”

It was at that point that Star nearly lost her temper. It was only the thought of Moon’s safety that kept her from killing the pretty but clearly very stupid Legate. “You sent me and your ponies to our deaths in there. I hope whatever you’re trying to accomplish here is worth it. I’m sick of this. Let’s get on with it.”

Cog looked at Star with disgust. “As you say. But fail me so badly again and maybe I will tell them to use dear little Moon as entertainment.”

Growling to herself, Star walked away from the situation lest it turn on her.

She found a spot removed from the Legion to sit and try not to cry. She wanted to see Moon, go back home, and try to live as gentle a life as she could. She had never felt like the Heir. And she didn’t now.

Hearing hoofsteps, she turned her dour gaze on the blood and filth-covered earth pony she had rescued, a pretty young mare with a cream-colored hide, yellow mane, and blue eyes. She was still trembling, but she sat down at a healthy distance and smiled. Her cutie mark was a bloodstained dagger, Star noticed. “What?” Star asked her flatly.

It took the mare a long time to get going on that one. She tried to start a few times but kept choking on her own tears. Finally, she got her hooves under her, conversationally speaking. “I just wanted to say… thank you.”

Star’s flat, disgusted expression did not change. “Was there more?”

“I… I know what you think of us. And you’re right. We don’t deserve your forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I’ve done so many horrible things. Watched so many horrible things happen. And done nothing to stop them. There isn’t an excuse.” She was silent for several moments. “…I guess what I’m trying to say is that you helped me out in there and you didn’t really have to. You probably didn’t even want to. But it means something to me.”

Star couldn’t stand herself for being taken in by this ponyshit. But she looked at the little mare and suddenly saw not just a filthy, gore-streaked Legion monster, but a deeply-flawed young pony who maybe hadn’t wanted her to life to be this way. Goddesses knew, she had met many of those. Been one of those, even. Her awkward speech finished, she rose shakily and turned to leave. Star spoke up. “…wait.” The pony turned, still shaky on her hooves, and looked at Star in surprise. None of this, Star couldn’t help but notice, seemed feigned. “I don’t know your name.”

The pony smiled weakly. “It’s… Tulip.”

Star couldn’t help it; her eyes flickered from the bloody dagger on her flank to the earnest blue eyes.

“Ah. My mama wanted me to be a flowerpony.” She looked away in obvious pain. “That didn’t work out.”

“I’m Star, Tulip.” Although she wondered about the cutie mark, it was rude to ask.

Awkwardly, Tulip looked up at her. “You’re… wondering how I got it, aren’t you?”

Star nodded lightly.

Tulip sat down again, a little closer, pausing for a long moment before she began. “The town where I was born was… small. Sort of like…” she looked away awkwardly, not finishing the comparison of her town to Hope, in whose destruction she had played a vital role. “It wasn’t as nice, though. Families fought each other over resources. My mama thought it didn’t have to be that way. She knew a lot about books. She could read and write, do math and science. She was the smartest pony in the town. And she always tried to get them to solve their problems without violence.” She smiled vaguely, a sad expression. “They never did, though.”

She resumed, not looking at Star. “Anyway, one day while my papa, who was a really strong pony, was away, my best friend’s brother broke into our house. And he…” her face contorted as she tried to say what came next. “Killed my mama. Slow, too. And… he did other things, before. I was there. I saw him do it.” There were small tears in the corners of her eyes. “And when he was finished, when my mama was dead, I knew I was gonna find him and do the same to him. So I took a knife from my papa, and the next time he was sleeping, I snuck into his house and into his room... and I just kept cutting and cutting until somepony pulled me off. That’s when this showed up on my flank.” She sniffled.

“I guess it was a few years later that the Legion came through. They…” she trailed off and Star, without much difficulty, filled in the blanks. “And after a while I guess I proved myself to them. And I’ve been doing this ever since. I-” she cut off before she went any further, seemingly abandoning her next statement.

Star spoke softly. “I hope you didn’t feel that you owed that to me.”

Tulip looked up, wiping her eyes with her hooves and trying to smile. “No. I haven’t really ever told anypony that. Barely remembered it myself. But… thank you.”

Star fixed her with her silver stare. She wasn’t sure if she should speak her thoughts, but ultimately she did it anyway. “I think you’re better than this, Tulip.”

The earth pony gave one pathetic sob and then swallowed the rest down. “I’d better get back.” She left quickly.

Star sat and stared into the undifferentiated gray hills. She was tired.

-

Cog glared at her as she re-entered the quiet Legion camp. “We need to speak privately,” she said simply, then turned and began trotting away. Star followed.

Once out of earshot of the other ponies, Cog sighed and turned to Star, barely-restrained hatred in her eyes. “There’s something I need to say. I would appreciate if you would just let me say it. Alright?”

Sitting down, Cog nodded at the young unicorn.

She met Star’s eyes. “I know what I said earlier. About… Moon. That was out of line. I don’t like you. I hate you. Pretty sure you feel the same way about me. About all of us.” She flashed a brief smile. “Though I’m pretty certain you’re in with Tulip if you’re in the mood for that.”

Star scowled at her vulgarity. “That started off almost politely.”

Cog shrugged, her smile fading. “I just wanted you to know that for all practical purposes, you are now a member of the Legion.” She raised a hoof to silence Star’s objection. “Against your will, perhaps, but that changes nothing. And trying your hardest but still failing is never looked on as failure in the Legion.”

Star arched an eyebrow and cocked her head quizzically. “Are you trying to give me a pep talk?”

Cog rolled her pretty eyes. “No… yes. Maybe a little bit.” She shook her head in frustration. “What I’m really trying to say is that if you go down there and never come up again, there will be no repercussions for your daughter. We will care for her and raise her as well as possible.”

Star couldn’t keep the shock off her face. For ponies that methodically raped, exterminated, and dominated other ponies, this was surprisingly decent. “Thank… you?” These exchanges between Cog and herself always seemed to be more awkward than usual.

Cog gave another frustrated sigh. “Yes. We’ll do everything we can for her. Though I’d guess the loss of her mother will be a wound that never heals. And I do like your daughter.” She leaned forward, her eyes seething with dislike. “So you’d better do your best to come out of there, Death-Hoof.”

Star nodded curtly. “I’m… still not sure what I’m looking for down there.”

Seemingly back in her depth, Cog gave a condescending smirk. “All in good time, my little pony.” She beckoned with a hoof as they began heading back towards the camp. Star wasn’t sure what she was planning to do with the 60 or so ponies left standing, but Cog needed to do it quick. If they grew much weaker these hills would consume them and they would never be heard from again.

Cog led her to a ridge overlooking the camp and levitated a pair of binoculars from her saddlebag. She gestured with a hoof to a bare rock face about 350 meters from the camp. “Look at that. What do you see?”

Star gently levitated the binoculars out of Cog’s magical grip. She was much stronger, even telekinetically, than the svelte young unicorn. Placing them over her eyes, she looked at the bare cliff to which Cog had referred. She studied it for a moment before answering. “Am I meant to be seeing anything?”

“That,” Cog spoke proudly, “is the entrance to Luna’s Hidden City.”

Star gave her an incredulous look and looked back through the binoculars. “That must be some heavy illusion magic.”

“It isn’t magic. That’s a well-hidden gate. There’s another gate beyond it. The city isn’t new. It’s built on -or possibly in- someplace much older. Ruins. Or a crypt of some kind.”

“Atomite?” Star inquired.

Cog considered as Star kept studying the cliff face. She would believe it was a gate when she saw it. “I don’t think so. Even the Atomites had few if any outposts in these mountains. It’s something older than them.”

Star levitated the binoculars back to the Legate. “What, then?”

Cog shrugged. “How should I know? I’m not interested in archaeology. Some in the Legion think we need to reclaim some half-imagined ‘glorious past’ in order to have a future, but not me.” She looked out to the bare wall of rock. “I say let it stay buried.”

“Strange to hear you say that, given our errand here.”

“I’m under orders, Death-Hoof. Nothing else.”

Star nodded. “Following orders isn’t always a bad thing.” She looked pointedly at Cog. “Until the orders become insane.”

Cog rolled her eyes. “Let’s not fight, alright, dear?”

Star just gave a disgusted grimace and shook her head. “So you say that’s a gate. We’ll take that as established for the moment. How am I meant to get in?” With time to focus and probably after a little sleep, Star might have been able to break it, but that would leave her with almost no energy to face whatever dangers she might find inside.

Cog just smiled. “I’ve got all that taken care of, Stars.” The young pony looked genuinely excited, her eyes sparkling. “I have a gift for you.”

“Oh?”

The unicorn’s horn flared, and out of her saddlebag floated a tightly-folded black bundle. She allowed it to unfurl, and Star saw that it was a dark stealth suit like the one Cog had worn when she first appeared. In the dying light of the finally-fading Daylight, a Daylight that had gone on for weeks if Star’s memory served her rightly, she could see that it was laced or embroidered with some kind of elegant tracery, looking like vague but strangely uniform gold veins running somewhere just underneath its black surface.

The younger unicorn grinned brightly at Star. Within moments, she blushed, seeming to remember herself and calming down. At that moment, Star wondered just how young she was. “Um, so, Death-Hoof… do you know the magic required to activate one of these?”

“N...”

The unicorn didn’t let her finish. “No of course you don’t, because my own personal dad...” she stuttered awkwardly for a moment. “…Because the Legion invented them.” Her smile now was self-satisfied. “But I can teach you.” There was an odd singsong nature to her speech at the moment.

Is this what she’s usually like? Star wondered.

“Put it on,” Cog admonished, still staring at the elder unicorn.

Star took the suit lightly in her own telekinetic sheath, looking pointedly for a moment at Cog. When she didn’t seem to take the hint, Star raised her right foreleg and spun it around while it faced downwards, indicating that she should turn around.

Cog started mildly and turned. Star shook her head and undressed quickly.

“You need to get out of those, anyway,” Cog said over her shoulder. “Those clothes are filthy.”

She spoke as though Star could possibly remain unaware that she was covered in a light sheath of unnatural blood and viscera. Testily, Star deposited her worn clothes and saddlebag in a pile, stepping gingerly into the bodysuit, which even had a sheath for her horn. It was tight but strangely snug, and after a few seconds felt sort of like not wearing anything at all.

“Done?” Cog asked her without turning.

“Yes,” Star told her, getting used to the dimensions of the suit.

Cog turned and started, a strange expression on her face. “Wow. Don’t let it go to your head, Death-Hoof, but you actually look pretty good in that. You’ve kept a nice figure for a mare your age.”

“I’m not even that old…” Star muttered angrily.

“Yes, well.” She looked Star up and down once again. “How are you with spells?”

“With some I’m almost perfect. Others… not so much.”

Cog nodded. “Well, I can either teach you the spell or cast it on you. It would be best if you learned it, because a variety of things can disrupt it if you’re not careful.”

Star nodded.

It took about an hour of fruitless horn-sparkings and sullen expressions of dislike passing between the two mares, but Star finally managed to successfully cast the invisibility suit spell. She discovered she didn’t like being invisible much. She felt insubstantial enough already without being unable to see herself. The sun was low on the horizon when she disengaged the spell.

Cog nodded, looking tired. “Fine. We should get a little sleep while we have Nightlight. It’s so much easier to sleep when the sun isn’t out.”

“It could come out again in an hour,” Star pointed out.

“Please don’t ruin my fun, Death-Hoof.”

Star smiled a bit in spite of herself. “You mind telling me the plan before we bed down?”

She told her.

Star blinked. “That’s insane. But I can’t really object, can I?”

Cog grinned.

She loaned Star a sleeping bag and a pillow, and Star set up apart from the rest of the Legion. She thought for a moment, as she closed her eyes, about finding Tulip and seeing if Cog had been correct. She may not have been into mares, but it would be such a good way of keeping warm.

That, she thought as she drifted off, was possibly the very worst thing she had ever thought of doing.

-

It wasn’t long afterward that she woke, shivering. The stars were out, clear and crisp in the cold mountain sky, the clouds having moved on. It was Nightlight now, and nopony could say for how long. Usually Nightlight and Daylight lasted anywhere from several hours to two or three days. Nightlight, as a general rule, was shorter. However, from time to time, as with the just-ended Daylight, one cycle could persist for weeks or even months. It had been this way for over two centuries, and most native flora had either adapted or died out.

Star, for her part, still wasn’t used to it.

She groaned as she rose, looked over to see the shape of a unicorn pony walking towards her. It resolved itself slowly into Cog. “Rested now?” Was all she said.

Star nodded groggily.

She could see the Legion ponies assembling around her, gearing up with hard looks on their faces. They wore the expressions of soldiers who knew they probably weren’t going home. Cog saw Tulip, equipping herself like the rest of them. The earth pony mare gave her an awkward, confused smile, obviously not knowing what else to do. Star returned it in kind.

Cog was now back in her own stealth suit, cleaned of the fetid-smelling black blood as best as it could be. She looked towards the supposed gate to the Hidden City. “Nothing now but to have it done,” she said. She looked back to Star. “Meet up at the rallying point once you have… whatever it is.”

Star nodded, wiping the sleep from her eyes and focusing. With a flash of white, she was invisible.

Cog spoke to the air where she had been. “Good hunting,” with that, she was off.

The Legion was efficient. Assembly took no longer than when Star had commanded soldier ponies years ago. She continued to be impressed by their efficiency. Of course, she reminded herself, that was what made them so much worse than any other random group of marauders.

As she moved into position behind the column, she noticed Tulip again, now fully-armored and looking nervous. Something hurt inside her when she looked at the small earth pony. She reminded herself of what Tulip was, despite her appearance or her personal tragedy. And discovered she didn’t much care. At heart, no matter what she had done, ponies like Tulip were still innocents. In a place like this, that sometimes earned them death as much as it did the monsters.

Star walked near her, wanting to speak but unable to think of anything to say.

The march was not a long one, and soon the small Legion force stood before the gate. Star still didn’t know that she believed it was one, and yet she had to admit that the way the topography of the area led up to it was disconcerting. A pegasus stallion stepped forward. Star could feel a sickening, oily sort of magic around her, like the aura accompanying the Moonspears but subtly different. It didn’t notice her, she thought, but she could feel it questing, searching, like writhing tentacles.

This was a bad place, she knew suddenly. Worse than she had thought before. Maybe one of the worst places in the entire Waste. The stallion stood before the rock face, looking like he felt silly, and proclaimed in a loud voice: “We are the Legion! We demand that the ponies of the Hidden City turn us away or surrender, in accordance with our own law and with ancient custom!” He certainly knew how to project.

Star could feel the strange presence moving around, feeling out the Legion ponies. She watched the bare stone.

Nothing happened. For some time, nothing continued to happen. Things were beginning to look awkward. Star waited. She looked around but couldn’t see Cog. Most likely vanished already.

After what seemed like a very long time, there was a resounding crack from the rock face, and it began, slowly, to split down the middle. Star couldn’t believe it.

The noise of rock grinding on rock was deafening. Even more so were the exultant, hissing gurgles of the Moonspears that began pouring from the entrance as soon as it was open wide enough to accommodate them. The first to squeeze its way, screaming and hissing and laughing, through the fast-opening door was impaled through a bright eye by a unicorn-cast spear. Over that corpse many more Moonspears surged with an insane and terrible din as the gate continued to part.

One of the fiercest battles Star had ever seen was joined within moments. The Moonspears were clearly strengthened and fortified by the Nightlight, their lambent eyes blazing, and they no longer feared the stalwart defensive phalanx of the Legion ponies, no matter how many of them it might kill. Star slipped past the raging battle. She hoped the sacrifice of these capable soldiers was worth whatever she would find down there.

Moonspears continued to pour out the dark hole, but Star nimbly ducked and dodged around them, finding an alcove in which to hide while they passed by. She was certain the Legion was outnumbered roughly 5 to 1. They were all going to die. Cog, she knew, would escape. She was just that kind of pony. Star would have felt nothing for the others, if not for the slight pang as Tulip’s sweet, earnest face flashed through her mind’s eye. Why couldn’t things ever be simple?

When the tide had thinned out, Star nimbly slipped past the remaining Moonspears, further into the black tunnel.

Luckily it wasn’t pitch-black as it had been in the Moonspear’s cave. At the end she saw a light. Keeping her frightened breathing to a minimum, she moved towards it, not galloping for the sake of stealth, but moving quickly nonetheless.

At length she emerged into a large chamber, the sounds of the vicious struggle outside nothing but a murmur now. The chamber was truly vast, lined with torches in wall-sconces. It had to be at least 200 meters from one side to another. At even spacing small alcoves were hollowed out of the stone. They all contained, without variation, a cot, a bedside table, and a chair. Most were empty but a few contained exhausted-looking ponies, almost all sleeping. To Star’s left and right were yawning pitch-black passages, leading she supposed to the quarters of the Moonspears.

She stepped further into the chamber. The vaulted ceiling lay some 20 to 30 meters above her head. It had once been painted with a frieze that was now crumbling and indistinguishable, lost to time and decay. She looked down into the pit. Unidentifiable sounds came up out of it, and there was some sort of commotion far below. She couldn’t even see it.

Looking around, she saw that an uncomfortably-narrow path with no railing wound down around the lip of the pit. She moved along it quickly, passing the alcoves, some occupied, most empty, as she went. The sounds of the fight had completely faded now. From below, however, sounds began to grow more distinct as she laboriously walked the narrow path. She could hear laughter and screaming, grunts and moans, weeping and cursing. Every kind of noise a pony could make. When she was ten or so meters above the bottom, she lay on the edge of the narrow path and looked down at the scene below.

Ponies were packed onto the floor of the chamber, moving around a central dais, a throne surrounded by stacks of valuable items, most likely given in tribute by the cultists, Star guessed. All around the room ponies were engaged in all manner of what Star could only sensibly refer to as depravity. There was sexual perversion of every variety, some of which Star had never heard of. At one table, several ponies dined amicably from the spread-eagled corpse of another pony. There was an open space before the throne where ponies fought to the death unarmed, biting and bludgeoning. Other ponies stood around the ring, bloodthirsty glints in their eyes as they cheered them on. A group of unicorn musicians played lilting, beautiful music like Star had never heard before. Star tried to turn off the part of her that was revolted, but found it difficult. All the ponies, she noticed, were off in some way. They seemed absent, empty. She had never been more frightened.

But none of that compared to the pony who sat in the throne, surrounded by treasures.

On the ancient chair of gold, resplendent and lovely, sat the Princess Luna.

She looked out on the copulating, debauched ponies with a fond, gentle look on her face, her ancient eyes full of wisdom and kindness, her hair beautiful and light, her coat not too far in color from Star’s own. Star herself discovered that she wanted, almost, to go to her and do whatever the lovely night-blue alicorn might ask of her.

But then Star felt the oily, terrible magic brush up against her.

And Luna raised her serene eyes up…

…and looked directly into Star’s own.

The effect was horrible. Even though she was invisible, Star knew that the creature, which she was now certain was not in any way the beloved Mare of the Moon, could see her perfectly. Whatever it really was sitting on that throne was old, Star knew, and insane, and evil beyond anything she had ever met.

This was a bad place.

Not-Luna cocked her head curiously at Star, the serene expression not changing.

Its mouth did not move, but in her mind Star heard a terrible voice, its rasping tones searing her thoughts, echoing and overlapping a hundred million times over. Wilt thou not join us, warrior? Thou couldst distinguish thyself in the battles, thereby winning my favor. Come. Our celebrations shall last forever.

Through the pain, Star noticed the stone shards that sat on a dais near the horrible thing. Reaching out with her telepathy, the lasting pain of the mind-searing voice conspiring with her own range limitations to make it difficult, she seized the shards, which she could only hope were what Cog and the Legion wanted, and levitated them quickly over to herself. She dropped them in her saddlebag and rose.

Star made the mistake of looking, one last time, at the thing on the throne. Although the serene expression did not change, she felt it scream in her mind, and she screamed along with it, her vision going red with the agony of the awful noise. She could feel blood trickling freely from her ears and eyes as her blurry vision returned. She turned to run as every pony in the pit of debauchery below her broke off from whatever pleasure they were indulging in, turning instead to howl, gibber, and follow after her in a wild, raucous, screaming cacophony. Star did not want to get caught by them, but she heard the awful voice speaking in her mind as she ran. Dost thou think thou canst escape, warrior!? There is no leaving! Only pain and pleasure! Which shalt thou choose?

She caught a glimpse, out the corner of her eye, of the creature that had masqueraded as Luna. It was still the shape of an alicorn pony, still the same size, but it retained none of the features of the departed Goddess. Its skin was burnt and twisted, gnarled like a dark tree, and it had no face or eyes, the space where they should have been flat, twisted dark skin and nothing more. She stumbled in pain as it screamed again. Then pain it shall be! She heard the voice resounding inside her brain.

Feeling a sudden need to expedite her escape as howling, frothing pegasi closed in on her, Star bent her legs and leaped far across the pit and several levels up. She ran as fast as she could, and the screaming tide didn’t catch her. If this wasn’t worth it, she would make Cog gouge her own eyes out. Star had never wanted to be anywhere less than she wanted to be here.

Unable to arrest her own momentum when she reached the top once more, she stumbled and crashed into a wall, her vision momentarily dancing with stars. Struggling to her hooves, she looked down at the ponies surging wildly up after her, many falling from the path to their deaths below. The creature didn’t seem to be with them, but Star didn’t intend to spend much time checking that out. She ran down the tunnel leading out, and was horrified to find only blackness before her.

She felt the bottom fall out of her stomach. They’ve closed the gate!

She skidded to a stop as her blind sense picked up a thick gate, not even the false wall of rock from before but another, inner gate made of something more durable than stone. She stared at it hopelessly as she heard the gibbering horde closing on her from behind.

When the door exploded inwards, burning with a strange blue flame, it was only quick reflexes born of a lifetime of training that allowed her to miss being crushed by one of the double-doors sailing down the hallway, out the tunnel, and smashing into the far wall. There was a light and painful pressure in her eyes, now adapted for darkness, as the bright blue light of the triangular talisman flared in front of her. The black bear Volta was still wearing it, his glowing amber eyes looking concerned. “Come, pony!” He roared. “Bad things down there! We must go now!”

“I fucking noticed!” She said, but didn’t argue with his command. She galloped out, managing to keep stride with the massive creature. The orgiastic din behind them had not died out as they emerged into the Nightlight. Star nearly tripped over the bodies of Legion and Moonspear alike. A fierce struggle had raged here. She noticed that Volta’s white claws were stained with blood, both red and black.

Once they had cleared the tunnel, Volta skidded to a stop, turning around quickly. She found it fascinating to see such a large creature move so gracefully. She stopped and looked back. “Volta, what are you doing? I thought you said we should go!”

Looking back, Volta nodded. “Yes. But cannot let Remnant escape. Would hunt for you. Maybe other ponies. Definitely other ponies.” He looked back, reaching into a satchel he wore on his right side, removing a small wooden tablet with strange letters carved into it. “Quiet please, pony. Need to focus.”

Star watched as the great bear muttered in a thick, guttural language. The tablet flashed blue and floated in the air in front of Volta. Volta continued his incantations, the tablet beginning to glow brighter. Star’s mane stood on end as power like she had never felt began to gather to the bear. She could hear the screaming of the creature coming down the tunnel, together with the bloodthirsty howls of the maddened ponies. Star hadn’t wanted to kill them, but maybe it was the kindest thing to do. Their equinity seemed lost. She thought of stopping Volta, but then saw the creature in her minds' eye, burnt and gnarled and featureless and horrible, and simply watched the bear work.

His chanting growing in volume, he almost gracefully extended a paw to the tablet where it floated before him. With a great intake of air, he shouted a strange word that shook Star’s blood and rattled her eyes.

With a ringing tone, the tablet exploded, and from Volta’s outstretched paw a tide of blue light roared down the tunnel, collapsing it and a large part of the surrounding mountain along with it. Volta stood until the noise of collapsing rock and stone had finally died away into silence. Only when he heard the silence did he seem to relax, sitting down heavily, kicking up a cloud of dust, and breathing deeply in relief.

Star walked around to his front, looking into his amber eyes. “Volta?”

He raised a paw. “Will leave soon, pony.” He gestured vaguely to the now-destroyed Hidden City. “That… is not as easy as it looks.”

She had a million questions to ask him, but knew that this wasn’t the time. Tired herself, she sat beside him in silence. Looking over the corpses of the Legion ponies, she wondered if Tulip had died a quick death, what sort of means had taken her, and where she might be now.

Star looked up at the bright white moon as tears, intermingled with blood and soot, began rolling silently down her cheeks.
Next Time: The Hooves of my Enemy!? An Unlikely Alliance!
Thanks to Damsus Rhee for giving me this idea and to you for reading. Check out his fanfiction ‘Of Hoof and Paw’ on EqD.