Followers of the Banished

by Band_of_Bronies

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Original Character, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 45956

Six friends help shape a long forgotten moment in Equestrian history.

//Currently under re-work, almost finished with edits.***************
//CHAPTER 1 (not the prologue) HAS UPDATED!

Six unlikely friends, two warring Goddesses, and one task set between them. As the fate of Equestria sits upon a shaky foundation, an old evil worms its way back into the history of the kingdom, taking a new shape. How will six traitors to the crown, facing banishment and uncertainty, shape a pivotal, yet easily forgotten, point in Equestria’s history?

A collaborative story written by six mentally unstable bronies with way too much time on their hands. Set before banishment of Nightmare moon.

-Credit to SpiritofthwWolf for the picture. (DA)

-ask the main cast questions on the tumblr!
http://followers-of-the-banished.tumblr.com/

Published 2012-04-20 01:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-02 21:59:01 UTC

Prologue

A/N So here it begins. The work of several people. This story is a testament to our work, our dedication, our passion.
Now everything there was a bunch of silly words. We thought this was a good idea and stuff. Hooray! Now, may the Band of Bronies present: The Followers of the Banished.

- Aeterna Aurora et Crepusculum
......

Long ago, in a not so far away land, I, Star Brew, the potion-unicorn of Everfree, unleashed an UNSPEAKABLE pot of coffee, but a foolish young avatar......

Star Brew shook his head and crumbled up the scroll on which he was writing. He just couldn’t decide on what to write. Princess Celestia had chosen him of all ponies to write the story of him and his friends, probably because he had a perfect memory, but he just couldn’t get it off the ground.

He looked out the window at the moon, which was just now rising. The unnatural formation of its craters formed a mare’s head which resembled the all-too familiar face of the beloved lunar princess.

Star Brew simply didn’t know where to begin. So much had happened in the past few years: Princess Luna’s mental decline, her insurrection; but Celestia didn’t want him to write about that. No, she wanted him to write about him and his friends. What happened after the princess’s banishment. What happened to the common pony when all hell broke loose.

The grey unicorn could see the wisdom in this; writing down what the common pony went through, the hardships they faced was all important. But still, to write about what his group of friends had done? After all that they had gone through? The hardships they endured, the marks of the betrayals, the deaths that still haunted their dreams? Star Brew wasn’t sure he could write down any of that; the memories were too painful. Canterlot’s ponies could barely stomach the romanticized stories about Princess Luna’s banishment; there was no way they would be able to read about the atrocities that they had lived through.
They had just narrowly avoided the destruction of Equestria, the destruction of everything everypony held dear, and Princess Celestia wanted him to write about it!? After all they had done in order to prevent the common pony to hear about, she wanted it to be public knowledge!

Star Brew honestly had no idea what the princess was thinking. Then again, she was the ruler of Equestria, so he didn’t really have any say in the matter.

The grey unicorn looked to his desk. Numerous scrolls were stacked haphazardly upon its slanted wooden frame. Each one of those scrolls documented the events that had transpired to Star Brew and his friends. Those scrolls represented nearly six years of adventure, tragedy, and hope. Inside those rolls of paper, his and his friends ideas and experiences rested.
As his thoughts drifted towards his friends, he considered how unlikely it was for all of them to have met in the first place. To begin with, himself. He came from a small traveling family that dabbled in all sorts of products. Star Brew had been born just outside the Everfree Forest, where he had lived simply all of his life.

Princess Luna had changed that for him. She had recognized his talent in brewing potions, a talent that he would have never discovered had it not been for her assistance. She took him in after an Ursa Major killed his family and gave him a place where he could make a difference. Star Brew would always be thankful to the Princess of the Moon, no matter what she had done.
Then there was what he considered his polar opposite: Silver Light. The spoiled earth pony hailed from Seaddle and as far as Star Brew could figure, she had never worked a hard day in her life. She was arrogant, yet intelligent. Even now, after all they had been through, he still wasn’t quite sure when she was being clueless.

Midnight Blaze and Honeuma both hailed from Princess Luna’s security forces. The former tended to be a bit overbearing at times, but all-in-all had a good head on his shoulders. Honeuma, on the other hoof, was an enigma. He had pledged his full loyalty to the Princess of the Moon, and in doing so, had earned the leathery wings which now graced his back. Both of the pegasi were now a bit lost in life, as their patron was now gone.

Ricochet hailed from Manehatten surprisingly enough. The female pegasus seemed to be everything the city wasn’t: head not in the clouds, agreeable, and friendly. The only thing she did seem to pick up from the cultured city was her way with words; Star Brew couldn’t even begin to count the number of times that silver tongue had gotten them out of trouble.

And finally, the oddball of the group: Arian. Arian was.... unique, to say the least. He was very quiet and caring; he never showed off. All of this was rather extraordinary, considering his heritage: Arian was a griffin. His adoptive parents had found him as a baby in the Everfree Forest and raised him as their own son. Despite the prejudice against the griffins, he worked diligently in his parent’s store.

Star Brew looked back out the window; the moon had climbed high in the sky. Time had passed quickly as he rambled about in his thoughts, flying from the time when he first arrived at Canterlot to the time when he was banished from the city simply because he was a supporter of Princess Luna. He recalled each memory vividly, as if each were occurring around him. He lifted the quill from his desk and set it against the paper once again. He let the memories tell him the story, the story that began ten long years ago, on that fateful night of the Summer Sun Celebration when he ran into Midnight Blaze.

The grey unicorn worked late into the night, filling scroll after scroll, his quill only stopping briefly to dip into the nearby inkwell. Finally, he set the quill aside, just as the rays of the sun entered through the window. After writing for half the night, he had finished. The potion master cast a quick spell to copy the scrolls, then stacked the originals beside his desk. Star Brew had filled nearly forty scrolls with the story; now all that was left was to deliver them to the princess.

He gathered the copies all up and set them neatly into his saddlebag. Star Brew walked to the door, then turned. His horn glowed with magic as he narrowed his eyes at his small room. A soft green light encompassed the room, which then settled into the walls. The great stone walls flowed from their solid state, filling in the window and the door frame. From the hallway where he stood, there was no trace that the room ever existed. He sighed, then turned down the hallway towards the new planted Canterlot Gardens.

He passed through the shrubbery that marked the entrance of the maze. Star Brew walked silently through the green maze, navigating the paths as though they were nothing more than a slight inconvenience. At last, he reached the center where there stood great stone pedestal.

Next to the small monument stood his friends; the pegasi, Midnight Blaze, Honeuma, and Ricochet, the griffin, Arian, and the earth pony, Silver Light. Behind them stood none other than Princess Celestia herself. Wordlessly, he lifted the saddlebag containing the scrolls to her with his magic.

A melancholy smile crossed his face as he walked towards the pedestal. He climbed to the top, where his friends soon joined him. Star Brew looked at Celestia, then spoke.

“Are you sure? Will this be worth it?”

She nodded.

Star Brew looked at his friends gathered around him. Soft, sad smiles of acceptance were all that he received. “Then do it.”
Princess Celestia’s horn began to glow with multiple layers of bright white light, which encompassed the six weary heroes that stood on the pillar. Star Brew stared out, his entire life passing in front of his eyes as he recalled every moment that had led up to this day.

Somedays, it really sucked to have a perfect memory.

......

A/N Hooray! There was the prologue, the next chapter should be up relatively soon. Now could you please review? It makes all of us feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. - Aeterna

Reviewing will make us write faster...maybe. Oh, and my potatoes are superior. - Anubis the Muse

Can’t think of anything related to writing. Or ponies. POTATOES!- Black
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihMMw0rnKz4

So, guess who sucks at proper intros? This guy, right here. Hope you readers have fun with this menagerie of psychosis we call a collaborative effort, I know I am. And do us all a favor and leave a review, yeah? I know it helps me get through the whole process a hell of a lot faster. And you lot should know by now... that my potatoes are known to God himself. - The Feral Muse

Sit back and enjoy the ride... It’s gonna be a long one - Ivory

This should be quite the interesting experiment, so lets see if we can make this amalgamation work. - Noize

I - The End, Into a New Beginning

A/N: Well, no potatoes this time, but a new beginning. This is a story about beginnings, after all, and of friends. Sometimes we take all that for granted, and we don’t realize how lucky we really are. Take nothing for granted, dear readers, as you move forward, for what good are memories, if they hold no meaning?

P.S.- Anyone who can tell me what that quote is derived from gets one potato. (I lied about there being no potatoes!) Everything revolves around potatoes. (quote is in the last part of the A/N above).

Black~

Chapter 1: The End, Into a New Beginning

Green branches curved over a road, forming a tunnel to block out the sun beneath. A wagon wobbled down it, deeper into the forest, creaking with every turn in a painful screech. Inside the wagon lay multiple rations, clothes, and other trinkets of varying value. What mattered to the pegasus sneaking behind them however, was the food.

“Mommy, how much farther until we’re there?”

“Hush now, we’re almost there.”

The daisy sandwich just barely dangled in their bag, hanging out of the side of the wagon, tempting the pegasus of another meal. His mouth salivated, barely containing his hunger lest he blow his cover. No, he had to wait, and just barely tip the meal out of their cart. What was one sandwich to those who could afford it?

The small pegasus crept up behind the cart, sliding along the pebbles that the road consisted of. As he approached his target, he licked his lips in anticipation. He had been practicing this thievery for quite some time, and would not let a lowly sandwich best him in skill.

He slowly lifted his wings, quietly taking to the air as the family kept on with their mindless conversation.

He slowly tipped the dry sandwich with his wet nose, giving the sandwich just enough momentum to tip off of the cart. He hurriedly grabbed it, skirting away into the bushes.

Another success. Certainly he wasn’t going to starve tonight. It had been a while since ponies took the paved path, but when they did, they always brought food. And who would notice a sandwich or two missing from their stocked bags?

The little pegasus found another opening in the trees. A small circlet of sunlight enveloped the green below, illuminating the surround by the contrast in light. He lay down, eager to enjoy his victory.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a small bunny leapt out of a nearby bush, snatching the sandwich away from the foal.

He growled, and begun chasing after the small critter, leaping on after it.

Despite only being slightly larger, his size came to be debilitating in this case. While the bunny leapt over and under branches and twigs, the pegasus had no room but to run straight into them, hampering his progress.

Too soon, the bunny had escaped, and with his meal too. This would be the third night in a row that he hadn’t had a bite to eat, and the Everfree forest was anything but forgiving. If this went on, there wasn’t much time left for the little pegasus, and dying of starvation certainly wasn’t a pleasant way to go. Regardless, he found a small spot next to the road to lie down, in case any more travelers should pass by.

Unlikely they would, though.

***********************************************************************************************

Patched green canopies. Scabbed woodland floor. Clouds a fluffy white. Sky painted a painfully bright shade of blue. Golden Sun. A foal laying in the woods, his face taut, eyes hollowed, and stomach barren. His ribcage is clearly visible even on the outside.

I woke up on a sunlit pane of reeds and shrubs, and felt much the same way I had for the short entirety of my existence: starving. My charcoal coat, black mane with a white stripe down it, and bright blue eyes weren’t meant for waking up in the mornings. I was barely even a foal, and I knew I wasn’t going to make it much farther, the unusual lack of leftover hay on the roads assured that. I was forgotten, abandoned, left to rot, scrambling for scraps whenever I could find them. I knew that, and yet, I waited. I waited for some vain hope, some faint messiah, some resuscitating good natured soul who would dare to care.

To my eternal surprise, somepony came.

I looked up with what little strength I had. Before me lay a mare, of elegance and beauty that still permeates my thoughts to this day. A long, starry, blue-black mane clasped to the head of a most regal figure. Her hooves treaded the ground lightly, parting the grass before her as it bowed to the side. Had I the strength left, I would’ve run at the first sign of that foreign object within my domain. Had I the strength then, I probably wouldn’t be here today.

She glanced down at me, her hard expression softening at my hungered appearance. Another small pegasus appeared from behind her, previously hiding from my sight. I’m not sure how I didn’t notice her earlier, perhaps the dominating figure of the pony before me kept my attention still.

“May I?” The silver coated pegasus asked. The larger one nodded.

The pegasus approached me, carefully trotting forward as she approached the unknown, keeping her gaze steady as she gained proximity.

“Hello?” It asked. I had no idea what it was trying to say, only that out of it’s mouth came strange sounds, much different than the usual chirps or roars I heard from the surround.

“Can you talk?” It asked again. I simply stared at it, honestly having no idea what it was trying to imply. Did it come to end my suffering? Did it come to help me? Or would it simply ignore me, as others had before it? I dared to hope that its intentions were pure, not having much choice otherwise.

It looked back at the starry-maned.... unicorn? Pegasus? A little of both, really. They exchanged a few more gibberish sounds, then looked back to me.

This is it. The moment whether I’ll find out whether I’ll be able to see tomorrow. I grimace painfully as the pegasus approaches me further, leaning her head next to my frail figure. The next words were smooth. Practiced. Rehearsed. Calming.

“Everything's going to be alright now. You don’t have to worry about food anymore.” I’m not sure why, but whatever the other pegasus said reassured me, gave me hope. The way that she said it had given me hope, a reason to go on living. My eyes widened larger, growing into a small smile that crossed my face. She, along with her much larger friend, then took leave of my presence. I remember catching one phrase as they walked away, towards the other end of the forest.

“Will he be alright, Princess Luna?”

“Yes, Ricochet, I’m sure he’ll be just fine. No pony deserves to be left behind, no matter how small or weak.”

Princess Luna. Ricochet. For some reason those names resonated within me, and I knew I would have to find them again someday, if I managed to make it ‘till tomorrow.

***********************************************************************************************

I woke up from my humble abode the following morning, a hollowed out log in a nearby clearing of the forest. My dreams that night had been unusually clear, my ears still ringing with those words: ‘Luna. Ricochet.’

“...of Princess Luna!” A shout came from the other side of the brush. I debated whether or not to hide, but if the voice knew this “Princess Luna” pony, then perhaps they were worth trusting after all.

I slowly flew up to a higher branch of an old oak, jumping from branch to branch, careful to make as little noise as possible. I finally reached a high enough branch to be able to spot a very peculiar looking unicorn, garbed in some sort of shining material. Whatever it was, it looked like it could take a beating.

Dare I go out? Dare I trust this new pony? I didn’t have any specific reason to... maybe if I just ignored them they would go away for a while. It seemed impossible that they could find me anyway. Perhaps if I just lay still on this branch...

Wait. The pony was reaching for something in his bag, possibly a weapon, maybe, or a horn to call for others, or....

Bread.

Oh wow that bread smelled good. The gentle fumes of the fresh bakery came in waves over me, engulfing my nose in the smell of nourishment. I had to get that bread from him. Maybe if I snuck up on him, I could steal it without him noticing! That’s it, I’ll just take it when I had the chance!

“Hello? Little pegasus, I’ve come with food! Her royal highness, Princess Luna, sent me out here, so I know you’re out there!” He was using his magic to wave the bread around, teasing me ever closer into desperation.

You know what, screw stealth! I wanted that bread, and he wasn’t going to stop me! I slowly crept up the branch, extending far above him. Perfect, I thought, now I could simply nosedive, take the bread, fly towards the nearby stream, and... ‘Whoa!’

He quickly pulled me out from my branch with his magic, carefully bringing me closer to him as he inspected my form. “Ah! There you are! I knew you’d come out sooner or later!” Whatever he was trying to say, I honestly wasn’t paying attention. That bread was so close, just out of my reach!

“Can you speak?” It questioned me again. ‘Just a little bit further!’ I thought, trying to grasp the food in front of me, despite being restrained with his magic.

“Well, I suppose you can’t then, although it’s not surprising, considering you quite literally came out of nowhere.” He looked up to the branches I had been perched upon, then looking back to me. “Oh, do you want this?” He waved the bread around me, teasing me with his damned magic. ‘Reach! Just a little further!’

“Oh fine, if you really want it...” He quickly dropped me and my target to the woodland floor. I leapt at my prey, decapitating it, devouring my meal ravenously.

“Wow, you were really hungry, weren’t you, little guy?”

I barely even noticed him. All I knew was, I wasn’t going to starve tonight, and that was good enough for me. I quickly finished my meal, remembering that there was a unicorn standing right next to me, who had come all this way just to give me food. I tilted my head to the side, trying to ask why he would do such a thing.

“Does that mean you’re curious?” The unicorn asked. I tilted my head to the side, unsure what he meant.

“Well, if you’re wondering why I’m here, it’s because Princess Luna sent me to bring you some food, little guy. Hard to believe you’re out here on your own. I still can’t believe that two parents would leave their foal in the woods and not even bother to get proper care for it, makes me sick...”

There was that name again. “Princess Luna.” I spoke, checking the pony’s face to see if I said it right.

He seemed to visibly recoil from my voice, which surprised me too, to be honest. “So you can talk! Although, your vocabulary does seem rather limited, but I guess we can fix that over time.” He seemed to ponder something in his head for a brief moment, glancing skyward for some sort of solution. His face brightened as he realised the solution he was looking for.

“Alright, how about this: I’ll teach you how to speak proper Equestrian and keep you fed, but in return, you have to stop hiding from other ponies.” He paused for a moment, hitting some sort of realization. “Why am I even saying this, you still can’t understand me...” His hoof met his face in a rather odd fashion, making a soft clopping noise as it hit his muzzle.

“Listen,” he continued, “it won’t always be me who comes to see you, but you have to trust the other guards that come here, they’re only here to help you.” He pointed to the hard object wrapped around his body. “Armor!” He said. I think I understood what he was trying to say, he was, more or less, trying to teach me something. If it meant that I could get more food by mimicking his noises, I was all for it.

I pointed at him with my hoof outstretched, saying as he did, “Armor!”

A sigh. “No no no...” He seemed to shake his head back and forth. “I’m a guard!” He pointed again to the shiny thing, “Armor!” He then proceeded to point to himself. “Guard!”

Got it. His name is Guard, and the shiny thing is Armor. ‘Right!’ I tried again.

Pointing to him, I tried saying “Guard!” I then proceeded to point to the shiny thing. “Armor!”

“Good, good!” He seemed proud of his accomplishment, despite the fact that I was just doing it for more food. Now there’s a thought, maybe he had more? I prodded his side, opening my mouth and pointing a hoof inward.

“Food? Oh no, I don’t have any more on me! I swear!”

Food. That word was easy enough.

“Food! Food!” I started pleading him for more. Despite the bread being filling, I was still hungry. Not eating for two days straight can do that to you, especially since I was only about three years old at the time, although I wasn’t sure of the specifics.

He started backing up at my pleas, trying to pacify my demands. “Listen kid, I don’t have any more! I promise though, either I or another guard will continue to come, just don’t stray too far, ok?” He patted me on the head, and began to turn away. Before he did though, he said one last thing. “Oh yeah, you’ll need a name. Can’t just keep calling you kid, can I?” He again tried to concentrate, trying to think of something.

He just sat there, the sunlight touching his mane in a break through the trees as it parted the shadows, and a hoof at his chin as he made soft mumbling sounds to contemplate his dilemma.

It seemed like forever until he finally snapped out of his meditation. His sudden outburst actually made me jump, since it came out of nowhere. “Midnight Blaze! That’s it! From now on you’ll be called Midnight Blaze, got it kid?”

Midnight Blaze. I liked it! I liked it a lot!

I pointed to him again, saying “Midnight Blaze!” With loads of enthusiasm to back it up.

“No, you’re” he said, pointing his hoof at me, “Midnight Blaze! Try again.”

I was a bit confused, but I guess I did it wrong, so I tried again. I pointed my hoof at myself this time, saying, “Midnight Blaze!”

“Right!” He seemed happy with my result, so I guess I got it right.

“Alright, Midnight Blaze, I’ll see you again tomorrow!” With that, he speedily took off back towards the other side of the forest. I didn’t have anything better to do, so I followed him. He had to be getting the food from somewhere, and I needed to find out from where.

I steadily soared above the trees, my newfound vigor propelling me through the evening air as the sun began to set. I saw the guardspony below me, and matched my pace to his. This pony cared for me, and I wasn’t about to let that go.

Branches fled by in a blur beneath my wings as I glided over my friend, following him from the break in the trees and the loud hoofsteps reverberating off the woodland floor.

It took a while, but eventually we reached a monumental structure, towering above the bushes, and even the trees themselves. I was stunned by the sheer size of it for a moment, the formation being a cliff of stone and mortar that I never noticed in my world of green forest and blue skies.

He was gaining ahead of me, heading straight for the colossus. There were two other guards there waiting at the entrance, garbed in golden ‘armor’, telling him something as he approached. I couldn’t hear them from where I was, so I swooped down nearby, taking cover in a nearby bush. The thorns made it a bit uncomfortable, but I could bare it for a while.

“...-elcome to Canterlot Castle, please head towards your proper barracks.”

Canterlot Castle. So that’s what this place is. He headed inside, but was stopped by some other pony. I couldn’t see past the other two guards, but I did recognize the voice. I couldn’t quite place my hoof on it, but I think it was that pegasus... Ricochet? I tried looking over the hedge to see if it was her, trying to be as quiet as possible. Snap! ‘Well, that didn’t work.’ A branch snapped in two beneath my hoof, protesting my obnoxious spying.

“What was that?” One of the guards by the entrance was alerted, and after some mumbling between the two of them, they both headed toward me, closing in around me.

‘Oh no oh no oh no oh no!’ If they found me, who knows what would happen! I didn’t know what else to do, other than crawl into my little ball, hiding my face from view with my outstretched wing. I hoped and hoped that they wouldn’t find me inside the bush.

The hooves came closer, crushing daisies beneath their iron boots as the clinking of their armor grew ever louder, indicating their proximity to me, the distance between us shrinking with every second.

Closer.

Closer.

I peeked out from under my wing, peeking under the bush, seeing a total of eight hooves in front of me. Through the breaks in the bush, I could vaguely see one of them begin to reach a hoof towards me. He was bound to find me, and then they would take me away, send me off to one of those orphanages, or-

“Guys, the princess needs to see you two immediately!” It was that same voice from before, Ricochet’s, that called out to the two guards. They quickly looked back, and slowly began to proceed straight into the castle. Before the heavy oaken doors closed behind them, I saw Ricochet wink in my direction.

That was too close.

I bolted out from the bush, retreating into the forest, back to my hiding place, ‘till morning.

***********************************************************************************************

“Hey, Blaze, wake up!”

I was awoken by a violent shake, opening my eyes to find yet another guard. He looked similar to the one before, but this one was a pegasus instead.

“Guard?” I asked. Not that it mattered, if he wanted to hurt me he could’ve very easily at that point.

“Yes, I’m another of Princess Luna’s guards. I’ve come to bring you more food.”

Princess Luna. Food. I came to associate these two together, and whoever this princess was, I would have to thank her sometime in the future. Although, these guards really had a terrible sense of timing. It was the middle of the night, for crying out loud!

“Sorry for it being so late, but Princess Luna keeps us working throughout the night, while Princess Celestia’s guards work throughout the day.”

That must have been those other guards from earlier, the ones in the yellowish armor. He hoofed me a small bundle of hay, left with a courteous “see you tomorrow!” and shoved off.

The next couple of months didn’t differ much from the usual routine. I quickly ditched my previous sleeping schedule, preferring to wake up at night when the food arrived. The night held some allure to it, after all, as the sky cradled the stars in the surround, and everything was quiet as the forest lay still.

It took a while, but I eventually learned a basic amount of Equestrain to be able to convey to others what I wanted, and understood their needs in turn. If I ever got the chance, I would have to thank the princess for all she put me through. She was under no obligation to help me, and yet, decided to help anyway. Was it pity? Was it an obligation to her citizens? Whatever her reasons, I was eternally grateful for the kindness she showed me.

***********************************************************************************************

Everfree forest. I know I always say this, but this place was absolutely beautiful. The lush of the greenery below you creates a certain effect that just... amazes you. The green willows near the castle bend to create a tunnel effect, becoming a major road to the castle. What the other ponies didn’t know though was the rest of the forest, except the castle. The forest was a vibrant place, albeit a tad dangerous at times.

Blurs of blue and green painted themselves across my vision as I opened my eyes to a new day. Typically, I would only wake up during the night now, but something interesting caught my eye.

Merely days ago, I had seen a unicorn, around five years older than me, pass along the outskirts of the forest. Why was he here? What reason would drive him to go into the Everfree Forest, a place known only for Canterlot Castle and devilish creatures? I gave in to my curiosity, skirting my way from treetop to treetop to where I last saw him.

Tents. There were tents set up along the Eastern edge of the forest, not too far from the expanse of the shrubbery. Off in the distance I squinted to find myself looking at what appeared to be a group of ponies, but... I had never seen them before. Were they here on royal business? Ricochet told me that ponies did that from time to time. Although, if that were true, then they would’ve been stationed closer to the road, not this empty plain.

I slowly snuck closer to the camp, slowly edging my way out of the forest, shuffling around a tent, hiding just behind the canvas. I perked up my ears to try to listen in.

“-and that’s why you can’t go in there son!” Masculine. Probably a father’s voice.

“Please dear, you must listen to us from now on. It’s dangerous to go in there.” Feminine. A mother.

“I know, I’ll be more careful from now on.” A colt’s....... They were a family.

Family. A comfort that I never managed to have, much less enjoy. I dared to peek out from the flap, barely sneaking a peek at this “warm” family.

They embraced tightly, although the colt didn’t seem to return it with as much enthusiasm.

I hated them. I burned inside with jealousy for what was absent from my life.

Why should they have what I couldn’t? Why were they allowed to have those moments, while I was left in a forest to die? I focused my attention on the unicorn colt.

“He doesn’t even realize how lucky he is....” I whispered, pulling myself back, tears forming in my eyes.

The parents had left, leaving the colt to his duties. It was time for me to go too, I’m not sure how much more of this I could take before completely balling my eyes out.

“Hm?” The unicorn turned around, catching a glimpse of my tail.

‘Crap!’ He must of seen me! Honestly, this tail got me in more trouble than it was worth sometimes. Perhaps I’d ask Ricochet for some assistance later trimming it.... No! I can’t be thinking of hair styling right now, I had to hide, and fast!

I quickly bolted out from the tent, dashing forward as I leapt into the brush of the forest.

I guess I should’ve learned the first time, but bushes never gave me the best cover, especially now since I had grown twice my earlier size in the few months that I had a stable diet. The hoofsteps of the unicorn grew closer, increasing in volume exponentially.

I peeked outward, noticing the hooves in front of the bush, stalling there, waiting for me to reveal myself.

“Hey, you know I can see you, right?” the hooves asked. I remained silent.

Despite my silence, he persisted. “My name’s Star Brew, what’s yours?” I peered out of my hiding spot, if only a little, to gaze at my demise.

“It’s.... it’s.... Midnight Blaze,” I stuttered. ‘Why was I even talking to this unicorn? What had he done to earn my respect? Nothing! So why... why did he seem so strangely approachable?’

“Cool! My name’s Star Brew. Nice to meet you!” the unicorn said. “Are you just going to stay under there? Thorns have a tendency to cause infection if left untreated, you know.” I slowly came out of the brush, some slight cuts on my flank. I hadn’t even noticed the thorns earlier! In my recklessness, I must’ve scrambled into the bush so fast I didn’t realize I was bleeding.

“Oh my, give me a moment, I think I have a potion for cuts in my tent somewhere...” he scrambled off into his tent, returning shortly thereafter. “Here you go, use it sparingly.” He looked back to his camp, realizing he needed to be back soon. “Take care!” he dashed back into the tent, presumably to explain what just happened to whoever might have heard.

I stared down into my hoof, a small amount of fluid floating around inside a glass container. I carefully opened the lid, slowly pouring a droplet unto my wound. The wound immediately burned, pain searing through my sides as I cringed into a ball, squinting my eyes shut. Suddenly, it stopped. I carefully peeked down at my cut, noticing that, surprisingly, it appeared whole again, as if it had never happened. Maybe I misjudged that unicorn, if only a little. If he was kind enough to give me medicine and help me out with no benefit to himself, then he was alright in my book.

I was so excited that night, I immediately flew back to my niche with my remedy, a cooling night breeze passing through me as I flew through empty space. I can’t believe it! Another unicorn! It felt so good to have friends, and I hadn't felt like that in.... well, ever! We... were friends, weren’t we? Perhaps I’d go back to ask him later, but I’m sure he’d say yes! I chuckled to myself softly mid-flight.

I almost reached my niche when I realized that something was there, something large. It didn’t appear hostile, just... curious. Perhaps it was looking for something? I slowed down, quietly landing on a branch of an old willow tree covered in moss.

The stranger definitely wasn’t a pony, no, he was too big for that. He seemed feathered, like a pegasus, but, larger. Definitely larger. Still, he didn’t seem like he’d traveled here to hurt me, otherwise he’d be waiting in the darkness for an ambush.

In my newfound happiness, I did something I never did before: I started a conversation with a complete stranger.

“Um... Hi. Are you... looking for something?” I asked sheepishly, hiding the bottle I was carrying earlier in my mouth under my wing.

“Hm?” The shadowy figure turned around to find the speaker. I was sure it wasn’t a pony now, but a large feathered bird instead. “Oh no, I’m just looking for something. Something precious.”

Who was this new figure? And what was he looking for that would lead him into the Everfree forest at this hour? “Oh, well.. I know this forest pretty well, so I can help!” I spouted out a little too quickly in response. ‘Me and my big mouth.’ Although, I was curious to find out what this thing was doing here.

“I’m not sure you can, you see- when I was only an egg, my parents found me in this forest, and raised me, but I never knew my real parents. Sure, life at the shop is nice, more than I could’ve asked for, but sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me, being a griffin raised by ponies and all.” The feathered creature explained.

Another creature who was abandoned by their parents... just like me. “I...I think I know how you feel.” I quieted down, to barely more than a whimper. “It’s hard sometimes, not knowing where you’re from.”

The griffin gave a warm smile back, looking straight at me. “Tell you what, if my parents let me, I’ll come and visit when I can, ok?” was his enthusiastic reply.

Dumbfounded. Here was this new griffin, who I just met, already wanting to be friends? ‘I must be getting good at this!’. Failing to withhold my obvious enthusiasm, all that came out was, “Ok!”

“Name’s Arian, but you can call me Jet if you want, ok?” Arian reached his talon out for a hoof-shake, only for me to awkwardly meet it. “Tell you what, I’ll come back tonight and I’ll meet you here. OK? Can’t wait to see you, but I really should get back, don’t want to miss my date.” Jet flew off, only to leave a small loaf of bread at my feet as he did, yet another surprise in my curious lifetime. For the first time in a long while, I wasn’t as hungry that night.

***********************************************************************************************

Cold. Shortness of breath. A stinging wind blowing through the trees. The ground selfish, keeping its warmth to itself. A howl cutting through the silence. Surprise.

I woke startled, searching around me for what caused the noise. Nothing.

Around me lay the same hollowed logs and scarred trees that were always there. ‘Probably nothing,’ I thought.

Another howl.

No creature that I knew of would make that kind of sound, especially out in the middle of the night. The manticores roared, bunnies hopped, but nothing I could think of could howl with such a bloodlust as this.

I rose from my sleeping position, curious as a child, which I was. Peeking my head through the brush, I tried to see if I could comprehend what lurked in the darkness.

I peered into the blackness. Nothing. Nothing stirred, nothing moved. Everything was silent at once, a well orchestrated pause.

That wasn’t right. The forest was never completely silent, for even the nocturnal animals would produce some sort of noise at one point or another throughout the night. There would be only one reason for their silence: a predator.

Thud.

A noise reverberated through the gnarled branches.

Thud.

It came again, its pace accelerating into a dull roar. I decided that this was not the best time to be here, and yet, I was. I rose above the treetops, searching for any other clue other than auditory that would give me a hint to what neared.

Silence.

Were they gone? Did the hunters of the night simply vanish? Or had they found the prey they were looking for, only to return to their den to feast. I didn’t know, and I certainly didn’t want to find out.

I slowly descended, returning to find my comfy spot to return to so that I could finish my nap. What I found instead were a pair of glowing eyes, yellow as the morning sun.

Three more pairs of eyes appeared from the bushes just in front of me, one by one. I panicked, my heart racing from my failure to notice that I had just become prey.

I froze. One of the figures approached me, pawing its way into the moonlight, revealing itself. It was not unsimilar to the appearance of a wolf, except that its body comprised of wood, not of fur. Twisted branches and blacked wood caressed its hide, the pieces in its mouth sharpened to a spear. It came closer, treading lightly in case I should attempt to escape, ready to pounce.

I immediately turned around, fear captivating my features as I opened my wings to take flight above, where I would be safe. Bad mistake.

It pounced, expecting as much from prey. It flayed my left wing with its sharpened claw, blood running hot down my side. I collapsed down to the floor, whimpering from the stinging pain in my appendage.

The creatures closed in on me, forming a semicircle, glaring daggers at me. The wolf who had struck the blow came treading closer to me. Closer. His snout lifted skyward and sniffed, catching a whiff of fresh blood. The air was filled with my fear.

I began to hyperventilate, fearful of what would happen. ‘Am I going to die here? Is this the end?’ I remember asking myself that question not too long ago, when Princess Luna found me on the edge of starvation.

It would seem that timberwolves weren’t only cunning, but also arrogant. The same one who injured me came even closer, slowly lifting its paw up to my wing, pinning me against a nearby tree. It applied pressure to the wound, bringing a fresh wave of pain upon me.

I screamed into the dark abyss that was the night. Pain jolted through my entire body, matching pace with my pulse, every beat of my heart bringing a fresh wave of pain. I almost blacked out. Almost.

There was a screech in the distance, a feral scream of an unknown. The wolves checked around, and saw nothing. Even the wolf holding me in place let up his grip to check on the noise. They all sniffed the air again, waiting for the source of the noise to appear.

A flash of feathers. Seemingly out of nowhere, Arian had appeared in front of me, his back to my face as he stared at the wolves. The wolves approached him cautiously, as it was apparent that they’ve never faced this kind of creature before, a griffin. They seemed more curious than frightened though, eager to explore whether he was predator or prey.

Arian seemed to take advantage of this, puffing out his feathers in a frightening manner, screeching loudly at the beasts. If I hadn’t met him earlier, I would’ve thought him feral too.

The timberwolves backed away, looking back and forth between each other as if to ponder their next move. The same wolf that attacked me glared at me once again, deciding whether or not I would make a suitable meal between the four of them.

I suppose in hindsight a scrawny, small pegasus wasn’t worth the trip, seeing as though they turned to leave. They didn’t seem afraid of Arian, but more disappointed that they would have to go through such a fuss for so little a meal. They leapt back into the forest, disappearing into the night.

Arian calmed down, looking back at me. “Blaze, are you ok? They didn’t hurt you too bad, did they?” His concern for me was still baffling, as I had only met this griffin not but a few hours ago. Certainly he was worth trusting, if this experience had lead to anything.

“Yeah, I’ll live. My wing’s pretty beaten up though.” I wasn’t sure how I was going to fix my wing. Suddenly, I remembered the unicorn from earlier: Star Brew. He’d definitely have something to fix this up. Well, he probably had something to fix this up.

“Do you think you could go get Star Brew to fix up a potion to heal this?” I pointed toward my bleeding appendage. Arian tilted his head to the side, probably unsure of who I was talking about.

I continued, “He lives a bit North-East of here, just outside the forest. He’s a unicorn a bit older than I am, you can trust him, he’ll know how to fix this.”

“Alright.” The response was sudden, as Arian took off in the direction I specified, hopefully to return soon. I wasn’t sure why, but I trusted both of them more than I thought I did.

An hour passed. I had kept my wing against the tree in the same position it was before. In order to stem the bleeding, I needed to keep pressure on it for as long as possible. Wouldn’t help me now to pass out before help arrived.

I heard the rustle of the leaves, and the flapping of wings to indicate Arian’s return.

“Thank Luna you got here in time, I’m not sure I could’ve held out for much longer. Did you get the medicine?” If I was speaking clearly, it was only by a matter of luck, since I had already lost quite a bit of blood, despite my attempts to minimize it. The enormous headache wasn’t helping either.

He held a bottle in his claw, bringing it closer to me as he approached.

“Yeah I got it. You have no idea the look on his parents face when they saw a griffin asking to see Star Brew,” He opened the stopper on the flask, slowly pouring the concoction on my wing as I held it out.

“Agh! That stings!” I protested. Why was it that Star Brew’s potions always stung? Sure they were effective, but medicine shouldn’t make someone feel pain!

He tried to explain. “Star Brew said it was going to sting a bit. Hold still.” He helped hold my wing down while I struggled in protest.

I glared off into the distance as I prepared to ask the obvious.

“Arian, why’d you come back? You could’ve left me to die, easily, and slept soundly throughout the night.”

He stopped, and blinked.

“I said I was going to come back later, so I did.”

“Yes, but why risk yourself to help me? We barely know each other.”

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that someone was in trouble, and I wanted to help.”

“But Arian, you-”

“Shh.” He held a claw up in the air. The wound on my wing slowly closed up, steaming a bit from the potion.

He continued.

“You see, I can’t help it. It’s just my nature to help others in need.”

I smiled up at him. If anything, he had more than earned my trust. Although, I would have to thank Star Brew later too, of course.

“Arian, you’re going to make a wonderful father someday.”

***********************************************************************************************

I awoke the next morning, the dried blood caked on my wing. The wound had already sealed up fast enough to stop the bleeding. Still, flying was unlikely until that scab was gone.

It had taken some time to get Arian to leave, with his overwhelming concern for my safety. Eventually it boiled down to me reminding him of his shop, along with promising to go to Star Brew for more help with my wound.

I supposed I was up for a walk. Brew’s camp was about a ten minute flight from the marshes, which meant on foot I should’ve made it within an hour.

Walking around the forest floor was a habit I typically avoided, namely for the vines, thorns, and the poison joak. Flying held its own risk though, and up there you were out in the open for any predator to see if they cared to follow you for an easy meal.

Sunlight broke through the padded leaves, grasping to touch the hallowed forest floor. Water smashed against the rocks of the stream as it came rushing downwards into a larger pool. Small animals captured nuts and fruits, perfecting their art of humble scavenging. The forest truly was a sight to see, albeit looking ever more beautiful from a differing view.

As I neared, animals dropped their captive food, scurrying back towards their homes hurriedly. Were they afraid of me? I made a mental note to work on that when I got back.

My thoughts drifted back to Star Brew, the unicorn who had gone out of his way to help me, despite barely even knowing me. He seemed genuinely helpful and was certainly eager enough to be friends. Either way, I needed to apologize to him for my earlier jealousy and thank him for his help.

I neared the edge of the forest, my muzzle protruding from the bushes like a needle through thread. Cloth tents were pitched in an ovular array, the entrances facing the center in a dynamic pattern. A small stack of scavenged wood was stashed in the center, for what purpose I had no idea. Ponies gathered around it, talking about what they saw, how they solved a particular trouble, and so on.

I prodded forward, belly on the ground, careful to avoid being seen by the others. Searching for that same tent from before, I recognized the scorch marks and burnt leather flaps enough from the last time to know I found his tent.

I peeked inside, trying to see if anyone else was present. Slowly pushing my head in, I found only Star Brew lurking inside, preoccupied with his cauldron.

I eased up a little. Meeting other ponies wasn’t exactly stress-relieving, but it was comforting to know I wouldn’t have to do more introductions.

I crept a little bit closer behind him, lightly tapping his side. “Star Brew?”

“Hm?” He responded, still facing towards his concoction. “I’m busy; return again another time.”

I was saddened by his response, letting out a small sigh in rebuttal. “Oh, alright then. I guess I’ll come back later...” I began to scuttle off, kicking the dirt at my hooves in disappointment.

“Wait,” he began. His voice picked up a curious tone. “That voice, low self-esteem, slight sound of feathers against the tent flap...” He jolted around, coming face to face with me. “Midnight Blaze! What are you doing here?”

I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to be known for my low self-esteem, but... “Hi, Star Brew! I just wanted to come back and thank you for the medicine you gave me,” I lifted up my wing to show how it had healed. “It really works well!” I finished with a small smile, trying my best to work out how to thank someone “properly.”

He seemed confused for a moment, taking a step back in shock. “You came all the way over her to thank me?” He blinked in surprise. “You came all this way, across the forest, with an injured wing... to thank me?”

“Um... yeah. I just thought that what you did was really nice and all, so I-”

“Blaze.” He started, coming closer to me to lay his hoof on my shoulder, “You don’t have to thank me for everything. Should you even be moving around that much with that wing? Seriously, you pegasi...” He trailed off, muttering beneath his breath.

I stuttered, “Um... ok then.” I noticed the bubbling cauldron behind him, the liquid poking over the lid of the stone case. “Uh, Brew? I think your potion’s...”

“Oh!” He immediately spun around, levitating a wooden spoon into the mixture, swirling the concoction below. “Sorry Blaze, I need to keep this potion under control. You see, if you don’t keep stirring it, it forms air pockets beneath the surface, causing it to overflow, which could cause a catastrophic meltdown, making another hole in the ceiling. Like that one.” Star Brew pointed to the small charred holes in the roof in explanation.

“Funny story there, I was making a potion almost the same as this one, one that would ignite upon contact with air. It was supposed to become active after the powder I put on the cork sealed the flasks, but a slight gust blew in through the door and..... You’re not even listening right now. Hmm.....”

I stared blankly at him for a few moments, replying dumbly: “Uh-huh.” Ignoring the unnecessarily long detail, I began to ask, “What’re you making anyway?”

He looked back at me, then to the potion. “Honestly? I have no idea. I’m trying to create a recipe, that should cause ponies to become resistant to frigid temperatures; specifically the ones that occur around this region during nocturnal...” His gaze shifted back towards me, noticing my blank expression. “It’ll help keep ponies warm on cold nights. Uh, do you want to, uh, help me test it?”

I was excited at the chance to help out my new friend, over-eagerly replying, “Sure!”

His smile widened while he levitated the same wooden spoon to me, grabbing a notepad from his desk and ink quill. I opened my mouth, while the spoon poured the liquid down my gullet.

“So?” He inquired, “how do you feel? Warm? Fuzzy? Burning?”

A warm glow began radiating from inside me, flushing my cheeks and causing me to sweat. It was definitely effective, but probably best not to try out in the daytime. “Definitely warm.”

“Any other effects? Tingling, itching, sore throat, anything?” He was leaning towards me, a look of anticipation on his face.

Quickly, a creeping sensation tingled over my forelegs, feeling as though spiders swarmed their way up my appendages. What felt like hundreds of small, haired legs eventually reached my throat, itching as it continued downward.

“Is it also supposed to make me feel like spiders are crawling all over my fur? And I’m not too sure about my throat either... feels really itchy.” I tried my best to sit still, trying not to panic to the creeping sensations over my body.

He raised an eyebrow. “Thousand Leg Syndrome... interesting...” He was muttering to himself. “A reaction to sulphur? No, not enough, maybe the joak extract with the sulphur, that might do it....” He began scribbling furiously on the notepad.

“You put poison joak in this?!?!” I practically screamed, forgetting I was supposed to keep quiet to not attract attention.

“No, no, no. I used Funny Joak. Close relative. Significantly less dangerous. Please, I do know what poison joak does; I’ve been extremely careful not to touch it.”

“Then why is this happening?”

“Because funny joak likes little jokes. Nothing on the scale of poison joak. But funny’s extract provides an effect that multiplies other ingredients’ effects, meaning less potion does more work.... and you’re not interested. Right. So need to add a little honey to the concoction...”

I gazed back down at my forelegs. The sensation was still there, but I saw nothing that would cause it. Still, it wasn’t too bad, since it did achieve the intended results. I was infinitely more curious as to what he was putting in the potion now, and still didn’t know half of the things he was adding. “What’s honey?”

“Honey? It’s a food stuff made by bees; they gather nectar from flowers, then mix it up in their hives to feed their young. They make an absurd amount of the stuff around here, so we harvest it.” He tossed in a large spoonful of a yellowish substance. He passed me the spoon after he had done this; it had a bit of the goo on it still. “This is honey.”

I carefully sniffed the spoon, cautious of any more side effects. It smelled... sweet, almost too much so. Carefully, I slowly stuck my tongue out, just barely past my muzzle. Leaning my head carefully towards the spoon, I gently came closer to the substance until my tongue tasted the tiniest bit of it.

I pulled back almost instantly, reacting the same way to most things.

Wait, this was good. I smacked my tongue against the roof of my mouth, trying to get a better taste. I gleamed back at Brew, nodding furiously up and down for more.

“That was good! Really good! Is there more?” A wide grin beamed my face from ear to ear.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, there is more. I should have a bottle around here...” He levitated half a dozen bottles out of a trunk that I hadn’t noticed before. “Let’s see, saffron, chime grass, rainbow apple peel, fresh water... I’m out of honey. How am I out of honey? I always stock up, never letting it drop below half before replenishing...”

I didn’t bother waiting for him to finish. “Where can we get more?”

Star Brew’s eyes rose to the top of his head in thought. “The honey season is over, so bees won’t be making more for at least two more months... No, that’s far too long, who else would have honey? Dashing Hope? No, his father hates the stuff, bloody idiot. Bright Legacy? No, the elder needs to watch his teeth, they already stick together too much. Summer Sun?” Star Brew snapped out of his reverie, his eyes focusing on me. “Summer Sun. I’ll be right back, Midnight Blaze.” With that, he left the tent.

I really hoped he would hurry, that honey was good! I wonder if you could add it to anything... honey-coated bread... honey-coated sandwiches... honey-coated-

“And I’m back!” What? He was only gone for a minute! “Silly filly didn’t even put it in her chest, just had it on the table!”

I gleamed when I saw the new jar he held, but.... “Star Brew...” I sullied a bit, realizing, “did you steal that from somepony?”

“I prefer the term ‘re-appropriated.’ Besides, she already owes me something like thirty bits for all of the blasted shampoo she keeps on requesting. A bottle of honey like this is worth maybe ten bits; I’ll just call us even.”

“But...” I faintly reached out a hoof into the air. On one hand, Summer probably needed that jar for something, but on the other hand... My eyes delved into the honey, the sweet nectar bringing saliva to my mouth. Just thinking about that honey made me want to...

No! I shook my head, trying to clear myself of such thoughts. I remembered times from when I was a foal, when I had to steal just to get by. I glanced back to the tempting jar.

It wasn’t any different, because at the end of the day somepony was left with nothing, while I profited from what they had lost.

I couldn’t stand to be that kind of pony. Not again. I sadly stared back at Brew, hoping he would get the message before my stomach said otherwise.

“You’re going to make me bring the honey back, aren’t you?” Star Brew had some sort of frown on his face. It wasn’t anger or annoyance, but one of forced acceptance. “I recognize that look, Elder Bright Legacy gives me that look all the time.”

“We have to give it back, Brew.” My gaze drifted back to the jar, picturing a sweet mare missing out on such a delicacy, crying for her loss over such a treasure. A sigh echoed through the tent, loud and solemn. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Star Brew emulated a sigh, although his was one of exasperation. “Bleeding noble pony, aren’t you? Oh well, you’re the one missing out on the sweet nectar of the gods...” He glanced at me hopefully. “You’re still not buying it. Fine, fine, I’ll bring it back. She’s not likely to notice it gone anyways, Summer is a bit of a scatter-brain...” I soon lost track of his voice as he left the tent with the stolen bottle.

My stomach pleaded in protest, but I felt it was the right thing to do. I wasn’t a thief anymore, and should’ve felt lucky that I had what I did now. Maybe when the bees came back, I could get some more. Unti then, I’d just have to wait.

“OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!? ...... WHY WOULD I TAKE YOUR HONEY? I HAVE PLENTY! ..... NO, I DON’T! ...... THAT’S NOT TRUE! YOU STILL OWE ME FOR ALL OF YOUR STUPID SHAMPOO! ... OW! STOP IT! OW! WINTER WIND, GET YOUR BLOODY DAUGHTER OFF OF ME!”

“Seems she noticed after all...” I snickered as he came trudging back into the tent.

“Ok, I may have exaggerated a bit on my masterful sneaking skills. It seems that Summer Sun was actually asleep in her tent the first time I went over and she woke up seeing me holding the honey... I think you can imagine what happened next.”

“Oh, I heard what happened.” I could picture a humble Star Brew being bashed in the head a few times by a disgruntled mare, which would explain why he was rubbing his head so frequently.

“Where she found a frying pan, I have no idea.”

“You did enter her tent, where she keeps her things?” Maybe he was hit on the head too hard...

“But she doesn’t have cooking duty for another week! I should know, I wrote the schedule! That, and half of the recipes that they cook, but that’s not the point! Well, at least she paid me back. A bit anyways,” he held out his hoof, showing a few gold coins.

I smiled back at him, always getting into trouble. “You set the schedule for the entire camp? But you’re only a few years older than I am!” Surely the adults wouldn’t let him take charge of things?

“I’m also apparently the only one competent enough to write a fair cooking schedule. I have cooking duty in a few days anyways; I’ll get Summer Sun back then. Just a touch of funny joak in her salad...” There he was, going at it yet again. “Oh, don’t give me that look! She hit me with a frying pan! On my head! Besides, funny joak doesn’t last long anyways!”

“Star Brew...” I groaned inwardly. If it wasn’t stealing from others, it was plotting revenge.

“Fiiiiiiine. No Funny Joak, no spiking her water, no sulphur in her salad, no powdered creeping ivy on her pillow. Also no light vines in her quilt, no quill mice in her desk, and no hopping lizards on her tent flaps.”

I blinked in suprise over how extensively he had thought all this out. “You wouldn’t have gone that far, right Brew?” I laughed playfully, glancing back at him to check if he was joking. “Right?”

He casually gestured back, with no visible signs of sarcasm. “What? None of those are dangerous. A bit startling perhaps, but nothing intrinsically harmful to a pony. Perhaps a touch of chime grass to her water... leave her wondering why everything is so bright and colorful...”

“Brew!”

“What!? Have you ever had chime grass with water? It’s fantastic! Brightens the mood, brings razor-sharp clarity to everything, enhances colors of what you can see; it’s perfect! She’ll realize it was me, but I didn’t do anything bad, but she’ll know I could have!”

I stared at him blankly, holding my gaze to prove my point.

“Too complex?”

Almost instinctively, my hoof reached my muzzle with surprising speed. It seemed appropriate, strangely.

“Ok then. No revenge, no plotting... what about glares when I serve her her food tomorrow... glares that only she sees...?”

I sighed inwardly. He wasn’t going to get off this anytime soon, so long as he was on subject...

“Uh...” I glanced around the room frivolously for something, anything to change the subject. “What about the potion? Wasn’t that what we were talking about a while ago?” A stupid grin plastered my face. There was no way this was going to work...

“What potion? OH! MY POTION!” He spun around to the cauldron, frantically levitating the wooden spoon into it and stirring. “Oh please, oh please, no air pockets, no air pockets...”

How did that work...

“Ok, please cooperate. Oh, you need more purple ivy. Yes, a bit to cool you off, maybe a touch of ice leaves...”

Was he... talking to his potion? Suddenly, I couldn’t help but think of him as the ‘mad genius’ of the camp; the crazy (but brilliant) pony everyone respected, or in some cases, avoided.

“And a sprinkle of wolfsbane... yes, that is better, isn’t it?”

I put a hoof on his shoulder, “Star Brew? You ok? You seem rather... fond of your potion.” I stared into the bubbling pot, failing to see why it could’ve been so important.

“It’s an art work. The more you put into it, the more of yourself you put into it. Each time I brew, I feel.. completed. I can feel my work. Not seeing it, but... sensing? Yes, sensing it. I can tell what it needs, what it feels, what it says. My work speaks to me, Midnight Blaze.”

I wasn’t exactly sure why he seemed to bond with a boiling pot of chemicals, but I guess it was the same way I felt with the forest: how the rustling of leaves chimed in a cool summer breeze, and of how silence meant predators were coming. Perhaps the two weren’t all that different.

A bright smile danced across his face. “Well, I’ll just keep this recipe in mind. Perhaps a few minor tweaks, a bit more chime grass, a little less sulphur...” He stopped to look outside, just noticing the passing daylight.

“Right.” He smiled softly at me, seemingly pondering something in his head. “Midnight Blaze, it’s getting dark outside, why don’t you stay here for the night? It’ll give me time to make something that should heal that wing right up. The potion I gave Arian yesterday was more of a quick fix, anyways.”

Stay here? I wasn’t really sure what to say, since I’ve only slept in the forest my entire life. Why would anyone want to sleep in a tent in the open, exposed?

And yet, he was going out of his way to help again. Not because he owed me, but for another reason entirely. It was close to what happened those years ago, with Princess Luna. Perhaps a different setting, a different time, but the same kindness was still there: unconditional, willing, and honest.

Shuddering, I accepted his offer. “Um, I guess I could stay for one night...” I silently hoped the nightly guard wouldn’t be too worried from me not being there for a night.

He clapped his front hooves together betraying his excitement, “Excellent! I’ll get another potion, along with dinner started.” He hurriedly started pulling ingredients off the shelves, dumping them with precision into the vat

I cast a nervous glance at it, but realized that it was nearly empty; the only things in it were those that Star Brew had just chucked in. After several minutes of him throwing several seemingly random ingredients into it, the cauldron fizzled loudly. My unicorn friend then turned around and sat next to me.

“So-” he started, “how did you get that cut anyways? Arian just rushed over here, frantically asking other ponies for me by name. No one had ever seen a gryphon, so other ponies were more curious about his history rather than his question.”

I flinched as I remembered last night’s events. The howling, the hunt, and the stinging cutting sensation I still felt in my wing with each pulse of freshly delivered oxygen through my bloodstream.

“Timber-wolves. They found me in the night and cut my wing open.” I pulled said wing closer to me, examining the caked layers of dried blood on my feathers.

“Really!?” Star Brew seemed startled. “You’re sure they were timber-wolves? Of course you’re sure, they’re rather distinguishable. Hmm, timber-wolf aggression... how did you approach them?”

I re-envisioned the night from before. The howling, the short-lived chase, and the inevitable end came instantly, raising my pulse more than expected as I re-envisioned their golden eyes piercing through the darkness. “I.. I ran.”

“Hmm... That’s... interesting...” He had a thoughtful frown. “Just ran, nothing else? Where were you? Perhaps an orchid?”

“No, it was where I slept, near the clearing. And of course I ran! They were going to hunt me down!”

“What were you doing before that?” His voice pressed urgently. “Anything out of the ordinary? Maybe trampled through a bush or something?”

“No...” I drifted off, “Just... sleeping.”

“Huh....” He leaned back, looking as though he was about to say something when his nose twitched. “Ah, brew’s done.”

He meandered over to the cauldron, muttering to himself. Something about timber-wolf behavior-- Although, how did he know so much about them?

“Hey, Star Brew..” I started, the apprehension in my voice clear. “How come you know so much about timber-wolves all of a sudden?”

His stirring stopped immidietly, only to regain pace much faster after the initial pause. “What? Oh, uh, I-- study everything in the forest, you know, need to get stuff and all, right?”

“Now wait a second, Brew. I’ve been all over the forest and last night was the first time I’ve seen them.”

“Anyways, the potion’s done, need to get it on that wing of yours, no time like the present.”

“Stop.” I gave him a stare, there was definitely something he was hiding.

His voice tittered, quickening in pace as I tried to wrest an answer. “Stretch your wing out. Have to ensure complete coverage. Best application means quickest healing.”

“Brew. What aren’t you telling me? You never act nervous.”

“That the potion needs to be hot to work. If it cools off, it can’t be reheated. Now stretch out your wing. And never? I’m always like this, aren’t I? Now stretch that wing.”

“You seem awfully interested in my wing all of a sudden...”

“If it’s infected, we might not know until it’s too late, especially under all that caked on blood. Now then, stretch the wing.”

“I don’t care!”

“You don’t care if you lose your wing? Seems like a character flaw for a pegasus.”

I sighed again, heavier than I probably should have for my age. “Star Brew, if there’s something you want to tell me... I’m here for you, as a friend.”

“There isn’t anything.” He smiled plainly. “Although I do accept your friendship, Midnight Blaze of the Everfree Forest. Now, stretch out your bloody wing so I can apply the potion to it.”

“Fine.” I stretched out my wing, frustrated that I couldn’t get him to talk. If anything, he was more persistent than Ricochet was sarcastic, and that was a hard thing to do. “Just... get it over with.”

As I held out my injury, the concoction began to pour from the bottle. But instead of the suspected burning, spider-crawling sensation, or itchiness, it was cooling. Maybe he was a bit avoidant, but he genuinely meant well.

As the wound began to heal up as the rest of the potion was absorbed, the cooling intensified to that of the pond: chilly, but not freezing. I had hoped it wouldn’t stop, but it came to a close all too soon.

“Feeling better? Of course you are, it’s my bloody potion... Oh huh, bloody wing... HA!”

“Not funny...” I couldn’t help notice the results though: my wing was flawless, just as it had been two nights ago.

“Should get you some of that shampoo I make Summer Sun as well, would clean up your mane and coat really quickly...”

“Shampoo?” Another new word to learn! It didn’t sound as tasty as honey though...

“Oh, you might as well just stay the night. I have a lot to catch you up on, don’t I?”

“It seems like it...” I quietly wondered how much vocabulary I had been missing out on, and whether or not it would be beneficial to learn all of it.

“Great! I just have to go get us some dinner, some bread, maybe I can score some honey off of Vibrant Flare...”

“Brew, enough with the honey. We’ll be fine for one night.”

“What!? She’s on kitchen duty! I could just ask her!”

“You promise to ask her?”

“Yes. Besides she owes me money too; most of the camp does, now that I think about it...”

For a moment I was glad I was left out of the monetary system... All it did was make people owe each other: not for kind favors, but for metal coins. A society dictated by revolving metal circlets seemed less than kind, if not strange.

I looked up to tell him to at least ask nicely, when I noticed he was already gone.

And there he went... again. I wasn’t sure if his sudden and immediate disappearance meant he didn’t want to talk about the timber-wolves anymore, or that he was overly-eager to collect debts from the fellow camp members. Probably both.

“OW! WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE HITTING ME TONIGHT!”

Then again...

“SERIOUSLY, VIBRANT! I’M TRYING TO BE NICE! ..... WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NO!? .... WHERE ARE ALL OF YOU GETTING THESE FRYING PANS! THERE IS NO WAY THERE ARE THIS MANY OF THEM IN THE CAMP! ..... I DID NOT ORDER FORTY FRYING PANS FROM THE CITY! ... NOT A FORT TREE, FORTY! IT’S A NUMBER! YOU KNOW, FOUR TENS! OW!”

How many hits was that now? Three? I’d forgotten how many clangs I heard the first time, regardless.

“Note to self,” I heard Star Brew say as he entered his tent yet again. “Misplace all of the frying pans after dinner. Also, double-check spice stash; Vibrant Flare wants access and she won’t take no for an answer.”

“More problems?” I quizzically asked, hoping this wouldn’t turn into another revenge plotting session.

“Vibrant Flare wants access to my spice stash now. Got to throw her off its location. Maybe I’ll bury it... yeah, that sounds good. Anyways,” he said, levitating two loaves of bread out from behind his back. “Dig in! I have some butter around here if you want that too.”

“Does butter make it taste better?” Again, I had no idea what half of these things were. If the nightly bread was stale, dipping it in a stream usually solved the problem.

“Ok, you are definitely stopping by here more often. The tent, the camp, all of it. Definitely need to get you up to date with the world in general.”

“Well-” I stammered, trying to make myself seem a bit more knowledgeable, “Ricochet has taught me a few things, but she’s busy most of the time running errands for the Princess’.”

“Princesses? Hmm.... And Ricochet? Haven’t heard of that pony before.”

I became elated at the chance to show Brew something that I had better knowledge of. “Yes! Ricochet! She’s this awesome pony who is the Princess’ own royal student, and she goes around doing all sorts of stuff and- are you... yawning? I’m not boring, am I?” A small pout came out, with matching eyes and a whimper.

He was snoring. What? How did he go from yawning to snoring so fast? It wasn’t that late, was it?

I checked outside, gazing upon the moon held high in the sky with its twinkling stars clinging to the night’s dark fabric.

I guess it was getting late, anyways. I took the bread out from under him, carefully trying not to wake him. Seems he had worn himself out.

Chewing on the bread, I noticed the can of yellowish liquid next to him. In all likelihood, it was probably the butter he was talking about. Licking a bit of it from the can, it tasted a bit salty, but still good.

I looked back to Brew, who had spent the entire night simply making sure I was comfortable. I’d have to thank him in the morning, after that. My mind fell back to the timber-wolves, and how he had been so defensive about them...

But he had helped me, even without any benefit. And if he could do that, I guess he was allowed to keep a few secrets. I guess that’s just the kind of pony he was.

***********************************************************************************************

Days passed by. Months, Years even. I had kept up with Ricochet, Star Brew, and Arian, since they practically qualified as family for me. ‘Family.’ That’s still an odd word for me to say. In the days I wasn’t visiting Ricochet in the castle, I was helping gather ingredients for Star Brew, or if that fell through I’d help Arian with his shop. He always insisted that everything was fine, even when he was visibly struggling, so I kind of just showed up unannounced. He always thought I was “going out of my way” to help him, and in truth, I was. But what was a pegasus supposed to do all day? Linger around, counting the amount of birds that flew by?

It was another lazy day, just me, the clouds, and the soft cooing of the forest. The animals were happy, I was happy, the forest was happy. I honestly didn’t mind that kind of simple existence. As long as I had my friends, I would be die a happy pony.

“Hey you! Up there on the branch!” A rough voice barked at me from below, commanding my attention.

“I need to see the Lunar Princess, if you could point out the way that would be most appreciated!” Colt, he sure did have a rough voice. His body looked more like a skeleton than a pony, the leathery wings on his back arching off to create black panels to fly with. Who was this pony, and what did he want with princess Luna? What if he was here to take her away? Was he a nice pony? What would he need Luna for? Why in the world did he look so-

“If you’re still there, I require an audience with her. I would like to offer her my services, and I’d prefer not to waste anymore time,” the strange pony spat out.

Unable to decide, I just shook my head clear and answered him. “She’s in that castle, over there.” I pointed a hoof in the direction of her residence.

“Thank you.” And with that, he sped off. That was the first time anyone ever thanked me for something! It felt nice, someone appreciating you! Maybe one day, I’d get to thank all the ponies who helped me too.

***********************************************************************************************

Asking one of the guards, I learned later that night that the odd pony I had met earlier was named “Honeuma.” A strange name, but then again, he looked strange, so I guess it fit him. Apparently he went to join the Lunar Army, in service to Princess Luna, just like he said. I was curious, so I asked the guard about it.

“Oh, well the Lunar Army is great!” He had seemed more than happy to discuss his work, albeit a tad over excited.

“We get fed, only have to work during the night, and everyone there is really awesome! Oh! And the best part is that we serve directly under Princess Luna, of all ponies! Can you believe that?” There she was again. ‘Princess Luna.’ That pony so long ago who had made it her personal responsibility to keep me alive all those years ago, to this very day.

Perhaps this was my chance, to thank her for all she had done for me, all those times she had sent me food, checked up on me, and sent me guards to keep me company, despite them probably having better things to do. Should I join? Do I want to risk my life for a single pony?

No. That wasn’t it.

If I joined, it wouldn’t be just for the princess. It would be for all my friends, my family. I would fight to protect them, and everyone else who held others close to their heart. So I made my choice. I decided to sign up for the Lunar Army.

***********************************************************************************************

Only one month to my initiation ceremony into the Lunar Army as Private Midnight Blaze: Scout Extraordinaire! Although, I wasn’t really one for formalities, I was nervous. Really nervous. All those new ponies looking at me? I don’t think I’ve seen more than twenty or so ponies at a time, and that was when I was at Star Brew’s camp! Besides, the castle was said to be a big place, bustling with activity no matter what time of day it was. So, I did what I always did whenever I felt out of it: I went flying over the forest.

Winter had come to the Everfree, as it did over all of Equestria. Snow fell from the heavy-laden clouds, beginning their slow fall to the surface below. Refusing to stop, the snow covered everything, blanketing the once green firs. The white was uniformly spread out over the forest, the lakes frozen, and the animals hibernating. I flew over the white blanket of winter, a grey spec below clearly visible against the pale white.

‘Wait, the forest isn’t grey,’ I quickly realized as I neared the source of my uncomfort. Yet another pony, an Earth pony to be exact, but this one seemed more rushed than the others. Against my better judgement, I lowered my wings as I descended upon my target.

“Stop right there!” The new pony shrieked as I came into view. I did so. “And who...” she said, checking to make sure that I wasn’t feral, “...are you?” she finished with a frightened stare.

She was an Earth Pony alright, with a mane similar to mine, and a coat of silver. She wore a black scarf, white boots, and for some reason, a yellow saddle. I never understood what Ricochet defined as “fashionable.” Star Brew or Arian didn’t understand it either. Personally, we all preferred functionality to fashion, seeing more use out of the things we used beyond the mere purpose of appearance.

“Oh, um... my name’s Midnight Blaze, scout in the new Lunar Amy!” I bragged with some gusto at the end. Well, I wasn’t a scout yet, per se, but I was close enough!

“Oh, well then, maybe you can help me with something,” she spoke while digging through her saddle bags. I heard her grumble something along the lines of, “I am so not paid enough for this,” but I didn’t pay it much mind at the time. Shortly after, she mouthed some sort of leathery.... thing out of her... bag? “Could you tell me where Star Brew is?” she questioned, pointing a hoof at her leathery-thing. “I’m afraid that I need to speak to him about a certain potion for my employer.” I hadn’t seen anything like it, and the guards never showed me anything similar to it. I was at a loss.

Whatever an “employer” was, I had no idea, but she needed to see Star Brew, and she seemed like a nice enough pony, albeit frightened a bit too easily. “Yeah, he’s over there, past the birds’ nests!” I replied, completely ignoring her leathery thing and pointing directly into more snowy trees, my hoof shaking uncontrollably.

"Good, because if I don't get this dragon skin enchanted right she'll throw a fit!” She seemed to pause, thinking something over in her head. She seemed to notice my shaking. “Oh my, do you not have a coat?”

Coat. Like a coat of arms? The guards told me what those were, so how different could they be? Either way, I didn’t have one.

“No, I don’t have a coat.”

“Well, you better head home then. It’s quite chilly out.”

“But this is my home.” I gestured behind me. The nests, the ferns, all of it is where I belonged, and where I stayed.

“You mean you live in the woods? Dear me it must be cold out here-” Her voice seemed to trail off, seemingly to find a solution.

She looked around in her bag, visibly disappointed that she couldn’t find anything. Suddenly, she had an idea.

“You know what, you need this scarf more than I do, take it.”

“Really? I can have it?”

“Yes. Really.”

I took the scarf she hoofed over, gently rubbing it against my muzzle. “So soft...” I couldn’t help but feel like an idiot, what with me standing there obsessing over a scarf. Still, she went out of her way to help me, like the few before her.

“Yes dearie, it’s genuine silk. Try to keep it dry, would you?”

I nodded shyly.

A slight pause came before she spoke next. She kept watching me, content that I enjoyed such a simple gift so fully. “My name’s Silver Light, by the way. It was nice meeting you!" And with that, she was off. A strange pony, but certainly interesting enough here in my thicket of silence.

As I sped off back toward my hole, night fell over the forest. Ponies headed inside for the night. Darkness overtook the skies. Not a soul saw me, as I flew through the forest. The shadows of the trees seemed to cling to my coat as I swerved past them; the full moon above could never lay its pure beams upon my wings. I had this... ‘talent?’, I think that’s what Honeuma would call it, for going around unnoticed, learning from my earlier failures at ‘stealth.’ My charcoal coat, coupled with my black mane with a white stripe running down it, made me near invisible in the darkness, perfect for scouting in the army. My cutie mark emulated my love for flying at night- a crescent moon with clouds overlayed over the center: perfect.

Months later, Honeuma and I both eventually met back up in service to Princess Luna, both for similar reasons of loyalty and dedication. Some of my other friends were there too! Not as soldiers, but as advisors, potion masters, a helping hand, or simply for visits. Looking back, I didn’t appreciate those cold nights flying solo nearly enough as I should have.

***********************************************************************************************

Ten years. So much changed in what was such little time, with tensions escalating all over Equestria. On one side, there was the Solar Army, claiming harmony for all who followed. Peace was their objective.

On the other side was the Lunar Army, claiming equality and night for all. We were the rebels, the scum of the cities, and the mistreated. We may not have had the advantage in training, wealth, or class, but we had a motive. We were fighting for equality, freedom, and the chance for our voice to be heard. Princess Luna had been changed to NightMare Moon, becoming crueler, but somewhere in there, there lain the original Princess Luna: the one who wouldn’t leave a single pony behind. NightMare Moon was still the same pony, just more... rough.

We were desperate in our chance for victory, raiding villages, burning crops, anything we could do against the Solar Army to demoralize them. I never participated in any of the raids, instead using my specialty to scout and prey on the enemy.

We were winning, at first. We glorified our first victory over the so called “defenders of the realm,” implying that we were the aggressors. We kept pushing, and they kept falling back. Times were good, and we were rewarded by NightMare Moon graciously. No matter who she was, she always loved giving out gifts to those she held close.

We should’ve known it wouldn’t last long.

It was after the main force’s fourth loss in a row that we began to realize... if Celestia didn’t see us as a threat before, she surely did now. It wasn’t until later that we would learn that the only reason for her hesitation earlier was for some vain hope that Princess Luna would return to her. She didn’t.

***********************************************************************************************

Everfree Forest. No matter how much time had passed, the forest still held that same allure it always had for me. It was unfortunate, then, that this had been decided as the next battleground against the Celestial Empire’s forces. NightMare Moon was to take on Celestia within the castle, while the rest of us guarded outside in case of an attack, which was bound to happen anyway. Since the location was the castle within the heart of the forest, I knew it pretty well from memory. The same lush green terrain still eclipsed the landscape, the same stone walls of the castle still withstood the test of time, although they had visibly aged a bit. No matter how much I pleaded though, I couldn’t stop what would happen next.

Fire, lightning, and deafening screams filled the air as the new Lunar army and the Celestial Empire’s forces tore into each other, biting and tearing each other relentlessly just outside the castle in the Everfree forest. Soldiers screamed at each other, charging at each other’s line. Many fell.

The floor beneath them caked in blood, dried and fresh. The glint of daggers lit up the surround, creating the same twinkling that could be viewed late into the evening in the sky above. Swarms of ponies crashed into each other, cutting each other with their blades and spears, kicking each other across the field for those who were strong enough to do so.

I flew above the others, soaring above the unicorns and Earth ponies beneath me. Just as I caught the glance of a green unicorn, I froze. Not because I was held by his gaze, but by his magic. I struggled to no avail as he pulled me closer to him, picking me out of the crowd for a reason I had yet to discern.

He pulled my ear toward his lips, carefully saying the next few words just above the clatter of the soldiers. “And where do you think you’re going, little pegasus?” He used his magic to lift a stained dagger on the woodland floor, embedded in the chest of another.

“One cannot simply outrun Death.”

He lifted the dagger, my eyes growing in horror, still frozen in place.

A crash.

Another soldier, this one a friend. He nodded to me as he rammed into the unicorn, looking back at me only briefly.

“Go! I’ll keep him here, Blaze! You focus on helping the others!”

That face, he looked familiar. Had I more time to examine him, I could’ve sworn he was one of the guards who visited me in the forest all those years ago. Regardless, I nervously nodded back. I was no killer, that was for certain.

Just then, a glint of orange caught my eye- a fire. The red and orange malice was headed straight for us, consuming everything in between with a ravenous hunger, including the rest of the forest. I was prepared for fighting other ponies, dealing with heartbreak and loss, but not for this. Not to see my only home burn.

I couldn’t stop myself. I knew I was supposed to be doing something, but I just couldn’t look away from the flames that towered above me, gnawing away at my childhood, licking up the last remnants of what little happy memories I had. I just... froze, watching in disbelief.

I watched as birds tried flying out of their nests, leaving behind their unborn eggs to burn. I watched as the timber-wolves sprinted toward the pond, having forced to flee to safety from their homes. I watched as leaves fell from trees, curling into little blackened children calling for their mother tree, only to be carried away further into the fire by a passing breeze. No time left. No time.

“Blaze!” A weak voice called out to me from the darkness I had crept in. “Blaze!” It called again, with a forced pitch. “BLAZE!” I woke from my stupor to find Star Brew shaking me, a crazed look in his eye. I took in my surroundings, taking in the massed chaos that circled around me. Turning my attention to the grey unicorn, I half-listened, the horror of the situation turning my thoughts into a maelstrom of chaos.

“We have to get inside the castle, I think Luna’s in trouble, things don’t look so good in there!” Realization; the sudden panic was gone, replaced now with a violent need to protect the closest thing I had to a mother, before I lost everything else. I could bare to lose my home, given a few months of psychological care, but I couldn’t lose everything. Loss like that doesn’t cripple a pony, it destroys them.

I screamed back at him, half choking on my own tears from my sore throat, “Right, I’ll get Honeuma and Ricochet, you get Arian and Silver Light! We’ll meet at the entrance to the castle!” We nodded to each other, hurrying off in separate directions.

I slowly tried to remember how to run, much less fly, setting my sights on Honeuma first.

“Honeuma!” He ignored me, fighting in his small group, tossing ponies over shoulders, impaling javelins into faraway enemies.

“HONEUMA!” My voice was hoarse, barely audible over the raging battle.

I had his attention. “What? I’m kind of busy right now, Blaze!” He dodged another pegasus who leapt at him, stabbing him in the back as he whooshed by.

I was frantic. “The Princess is in trouble! We need to get back to her!”

His eyes opened wider, realizing the horror of the situation. “In that case,” he said, dodging yet another spear, “let’s get to her immediately!”

“I’ll meet you at the entrance, I’ll get Ricochet!”

He nodded and flew off immediately. The real reason I wanted to meet him at the gate was because I didn’t want him to see me crying. When I turned around the see the burning timber, I couldn’t help but open up. I couldn’t stop yet though, I had to get to Ricochet.

I shook the tears off my face, new ones appearing as I flew toward where Ricochet was. She was located just outside the fighting, as she wasn’t a fighter like me or Honeuma, although, I wasn’t much of one either.

I approached her, watching her yell at multiple soldiers, telling them what to do in a crisis like this.

“-get some water, and...” She noticed I’d come, turning towards me.

“The forest... just burst into flames... out of nowhere!” I said in between breaths, my vision blurred by tears.

“Calm down, Blaze. Focus: what has you in this much of a hurry?” She quickly ducked low as a spear came hurtling through the trees. “Hey, Shackle! Get that wall back up pronto or I swear I’ll stick you with one of those spears myself!”

The stallion nodded furiously, dashing over to the wall he was supposed to be rebuilding.

“Ricochet... The forest... the Princess... they’re both in terrible danger! We have to get to the center of the castle, quickly!” I couldn’t help but outwardly cry now. I just couldn’t stand losing the forest, or any member of the family I helped forge. My eyes widened, taking in the burning landscape as my eyes quickly darted around for something familiar, some patch of green or bird’s nest I would’ve seen as a sign that something was still normal!

Nothing but flames.

She snapped her head around faster than what I could have thought possible.

“Blaze...” She put a hoof on my shoulder, the sobs I was emitting pulsating up her leg. “I’m doing my best with the forest, honest.” I looked up to her, my eyes widening, looking to make sure that she was absolutely sure. “There isn’t a popsicle’s chance in Tartarus that I would let the forest burn down. But right now we need to prioritize and focus on what’s most important.”

I looked around again, taking in the flames as they began to finish their work. Whatever home I had here, was lost. The only thing I had left to fight for was my family, and I couldn’t let them be taken away from me.

I began to quiet down, regaining a small sense of composure. “Okay, Ric, let’s go.”

“That’s better.” She turned back to the soldier she had yelled at before. “Shackle, get second platoon on those flames and have North Company take the enemy’s flank from the west! I have to get to the Princess, ASAP!” She turned to me again, her wings spread wide. “Let’s move!”

We flew back to the castle, faster than we thought we could. As we hid behind the wall of stone, I took one last painful glance behind me, at my home, my heart, and my despair.

***********************************************************************************************

We charged into the castle, lain barren by the lack of guards, who were currently all outside fighting each other. The walls seemed to lean inward, toward the two sisters fighting inside. Moss gently clung to the walls outer edge, weaning away the further inward we headed.

Our group sprinted forwards, continuing to creep closer to their destination. A bright light shone from the courtyard of the now-ruined castle, screaming coming from the same direction. That’s when we saw it; that’s when we saw Nightmare Moon, on the ground before Celestia, who stood victorious.

I’m not sure if I’m the only one who got this reaction, but it seemed as though everything became a dream. I had lost my home, and now, the closest thing I had to a mother. It just wasn’t fair. Nopony deserved to have everything taken away from them that quickly, or ever. Nopony did, and from the looks of my five friends around me, I wasn’t the only one in shock.

"Princess Luna!" Multiple voices cried out, and I wasn't sure which one of us it belonged to. We ran to her, but stopped short in front of Celestia, hunched over, a melancholy disposition on her face.

"No more NightMare Moon. No more hatred. No more fighting." The sun princess spouted, hunched over her enemy. "This..." she said as her horn began to glow, "shall end it. Goodbye my sister, I will never forget you."

"Wait!" I swear if Celestia didn't realize we were there earlier, she certainly did now. It was Ricochet who stepped forward, and being the most coercive one of us, it was probably better that she handled this. We all stepped back, hoping her talent would save our beloved princess.

"Princess..." she spoke softly, "do you really want to kill your own sister? Is there no other solution?"

"Stay out of this, Ricochet, it doesn't concern you.” She looked between each of us. “Any of you," she spat back, tears welling in her own eyes.

"Princess, you know that I've only served you and Princess Luna with the utmost respect, so please, just listen to me..." Ricochet began.

A pause.

She continued. "NightMare Moon may have started this insurrection, but that's still Luna in there!" Celestia checked the unconscious body, if only to check her words. She wasn't sure. This beast had corrupted her sister, started a war across Equestria, and had been responsible for more than its fair share of deaths and injuries. Yet, she waited, and listened.

"Princess, that's still your sister! You have to see that!" Celestia pondered her statement, giving glances over the group of betrayers in front of her. More than one of them looked tense, each for their own reasons.

"This thing is not my sister. Even if I let her go, she would continue to wreak havoc upon what was once a place of harmony, of peace." The air around Celestia was filled with contempt.

Ricochet sighed, looking back at her friends, giving each of them a sorrowful look from her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said with barely more than a whimper.

Confusion; what was she trying to do?

"Princess, Luna helped you defeat Discord and she's proved that she values harmony just as much as you." Ricochet prepared herself for what she was about to say. "So, instead of the alternative, please allow me to suggest another solution of sorts."

Another pause.

"Go on." was the only reply that was heard.

"Banish her."

***********************************************************************************************

There had to be a reason. There had to be a good explanation for suggesting to banish Luna. Surely Ricochet had given thought that we might be able to stall Celestia, and drag Luna away? Was there really no other option?

“Ricochet...” I softly spoke, not sure whether to feel hatred or sorrow toward my friend.

“RICOCHET!” Came the barreling response from Hounema. It was understandable why he was mad, he wouldn’t stand for any disloyalty toward our princess, and suggesting banishment certainly blurred the lines a bit between friend and foe. “What are you DOING?”

“What you’re talking about is treason!” Star Brew shouted in unison.

“Calm down, you two, I’m sure Ricochet has an explanation for this... don’t you?” The uncertain griffin spoke. After similar glances of confusion, concern, and hatred, Ricochet did just that.

“Everypony... I’m sorry, but we won’t win against the Sun Princess. I just... don’t see it happening. This is the best way to keep Luna alive, even if we don’t like it.” She looked down at her hooves, her voice beginning to waver. “I know how you all must feel, and trust me when I say that I feel the same, but I don’t want to see her die! Not like this...”

Honeuma snapped. He lunged forward at Ricochet, only to be just held back by Arian and I- only just. That didn’t stop his temper, however, as he took out his rage on Ricochet regardless. “You can’t just go and tell Celestia to banish Luna, whose side are you on anyways?” He was losing his temper, and we all knew it wasn’t going to end soon.

“Honeuma.” Arian voiced into his friend’s ear: “Calm down, it’s over. We’ve lost. The most we can do now is to make the best of it, ok?” In the immediate sense, nothing was happening, but slowly the anger visibly drained away from his face, replaced with a look of helplessness.

“Then what’s left for us?” He asked no one in particular. “What are we supposed to do?” His body slowly lost tension, as he sat on his haunches.

I looked up to Celestia, who had been watching us the entire time, playing our little blame-game. “I....I don’t know,” I replied, looking to my friends who bore similar marks of distress.

“So, what are you going to do, princess?” Ricochet asked, trying to draw the focus away from their loss.

Silence.

“I suppose...” she started, “banishment is punishment enough. It will give me time to think and repair what tattered remnants of Equestria remain.” With that, her horn began to glow, as the Elements of Harmony circled around her, pitched in a blinding white light.

A flash.

Luna was gone. What equine-kind would see as a blessing, we thought of as a curse. Celestia started again. “Now, what to do with you...” she spoke as her tone deepened, turning toward us.

“Princess..” I said, as I looked to my friends, who looked equally guilty. “We accept any punishment you give us, we won’t fight back.” None of my friends so much as moved as I spoke those words. I just didn’t want to lose any more than I already had. Not today. Not ever again.

The ruler looked at her rebels, apprehension in her eyes. Looking between them, she saw despair, admiration, hatred, kindness, but more importantly: a purpose.

“Guards,” She called outside. Not within two moments, three guards showed up, some with sores and cuts on them from the fighting. “Please, escort these rebels to the prison chambers.”

“But- “ I interjected, receiving a raised hoof in response.

“Make sure they are not harmed, and that they are well fed and taken care of.” Confusion. “I’ll call for you all when I know what to do with you; for now, go, and rest.”

“We do as you like,” I barely said above a whimper as we complied with the sun goddess’ demands.

“I hate prisons,” Silver Light said.

“Oh, so have you been in one before?” Star Brew asked with a solemn grin plastered across his face.

“Shutup.”

***********************************************************************************************

We were heralded by our guards into our cells, split up into two groups. I was put with Star Brew and Silver Light, the others sharing another cell down the hall. ‘Great. I get to sleep with the two bickering foals.’ Honestly, they acted more childish than I did at times. It wasn’t hard to ignore them though, my thoughts focused on what remained of the forest after the fire settled down.

The room was plain, painted a dark color only made more so by the time of day. Against the walls lay several haystacks, which we were assumably to sleep on. Other than that, there wasn’t much left to detail other than the cold sting of the iron bars barring us from leaving, and one bed that was supposedly supposed to be shared between us.

“Can’t believe I have to stay in this mangy cold cell for the night!” Silver Light grumbled.

I’m not sure if I heard right, but it seemed like Star Brew was snickering under his breath. The only problem with prison was that after a time it became... unsettling. Looking up I expected starry skies, green-tipped trees, and the flapping birds that nested in for the night, but all I received was silence.

I was sure by now I was the only one still awake. Running scouting missions in the middle of the night turned you into a bit of a night owl. I’m sure Honeuma was probably still awake too, now that I think about it.

As I felt the warmness of the hay beneath me, I couldn’t help but remember how we failed Princess Luna. How we arrived too late, how we could’ve done better. After all she’d done for me: fed me, given me a place in her army, and even cared for me, I couldn’t help but feel... inadequate.

“She deserved better. My friends deserved better,” I said to the unresponsive wall. And then I remembered something I really didn’t want to; something painful.

Burning.

Trees set ablaze, birds crying out in vain attempt to try to call for help, the trees themselves crying out in pain.

Anger rose up in me, and I swore that I would someday find whoever was responsible for lighting that fire. I wasn’t exactly sure what’d I’d do, but they would pay.

For all the animals whose homes were naught but ash, for everypony who didn’t make it out in time, for all of the memories I had lost there, I swore revenge.

As a becoming all too familiar ritual of mine, I cried myself to sleep that night, for those who had suffered.

***********************************************************************************************

//Re-doing scene for FEELS

“You know Luna, if you need any help, I could always-”

“No! I want to do raise the moon myself tonight ‘Tia!”

Celestia gave a slight chuckle, her face brightening at the sight of her sister’s efforts. Luna had tried the past five nights to try to raise the moon by herself, and had failed every time. She was so small, but she didn’t give up. Each new night she would try again, despite her previous nights failures.

Celestia stiffened, hoping that tonight would prove different.

The new moon hung to the outer rim of the sky, it’s craters now forming a mare's head, casting a gentle glow across the ruined timber of the surrounding forest. What had once been a place of peace and law was now a smoldering ruin.

And yet...

Celestia was alone, although it wasn’t always so. Yes, there were ponies who came and went, an uncommon fruit from the bushel of life, who all eventually came to her, usually seeking guidance or some innate favor, when court wasn’t in session at least, but she withstood it. She knew that her sister, being the only other close to her, knew the real her. Not the princess that the common pony saw, not the envoy of the Celestial Sun, but as Celestia.

She became the symbol of harmony, perfection, an image she had crafted over the years as she practiced her formalities, and she could continue that, as long as she was able to be herself from time to time. In the days before Discord, she remembered her little Luna being not so serious(playful?), remembering the days that they would laugh and play together, free from any troubles that plagued them. But the crown of leadership was heavy, despite each only carrying half the weight.

They grew apart, Luna and her. She would occasionally stop by, if only to informally disagree with a decision made in the royal court. If only it had stopped there. Things got progressively worse, until Luna simply refused to see her at times, insisting on locking herself away in her room instead. Night court went on however, as Celestia filled in for her absent-minded sister. Perhaps if she kept this up, things would return to normal, one could only hope.

Then Discord came.

Discord, the one who had cast a shadow across Equestria, the one who had waged war against the royal sisters, the one who took away her Luna in the end, a last bitter reminder before he was imprisoned in stone. No, Luna was gone, replaced by NightMare Moon, a beast who had only one desire: to cast eternal night over all Equestrians.

Her initial reaction was one of shock. How, and more importantly, why would ponies fight against her, the one who had kept everything peaceful? How could her sister have changed so quickly, her once blissful cheer boiled into madness? She had ensured that everypony was taken care of, from farmer to noble pony, and everything in between.

And yet...

Inevitably war came. Ponies rose up from the crevasses from which they hid, rebellious libel and slander spread like wildfire, and it became apparent it was already too late. The tidal wave of insurgents tackled the castle in a flood of troops. Had Celestia been present, they might have stopped the rebellion right there. It fell however, and the time of waiting was over; Luna was not coming back.

No longer could she hope, no longer could she wait for her dear Luna to come back from the nightmare she drowned in. No longer could ponies simply sit on the sidelines and enjoy the hard earned peace that graced them. The Celestial Empire was formed, and war officially began.

Battles ensued. Ponies were hurt that didn’t need to be, all because of this reckless abandon to seize the throne that was so recently shared. So many ponies were hurt, that didn’t need to be; all of it because of her. And yet, time and time again, her efforts proved fruitless. No matter how much she wished it would stop, it never did.

Little Luna wasn’t coming back, she had to accept that. Too many lives had been lost already on account of her stalling for her once dear sister. No more. No longer would her subjects have to sit and watch their towns burn to the ground, their families slaughtered, while she stalled for a reason as petty as hope. With that knowledge in mind, the resolution was clear: NightMare Moon had to be destroyed.

No more weakness, no more tears. The Celestial Empire began to counterattack, regaining ground once lost, and even advancing toward the Lunar Army’s main force. She knew her sister well, but not the nightmare that surrounded her, yet surely they were similar in some ways.

One night. Everything would end tonight. She had sent her army to attack those stationed outside the castle, while she went inside to deal with Nightmare. In order to finish her, she had to use the Elements of Harmony, the very things she and her sister used not too long ago against Discord.

Before it was finished however, she had noticed that six ponies had dared to interfere. Their argument was persuasive, if only just. Now that she looked to the sky again, she certainly hoped they were right: that eventually, Luna would return, same as before.

Was she wrong to hold hope? Was she wrong to listen to them? She still wasn’t sure. Whatever the answers to her questions were, one fact remained: it was going to be a very lonely millenia. Before leaving, she gave one last glance skyward to the epitome of her failure.

***********************************************************************************************

The iron gates creaked open as I woke from my slumber. The air was still warm, probably from how close the castle prison was to the fire of the forest, providing a unpeasent waking from the haystack I had been sleeping on the night before. From the look of it, Silver Light and Star Brew hadn’t been up long either. As I looked toward the source of the disturbance, I saw three guards blocking the exit, assumably here to pick us up.

“Alright you three, come with us; the Princess wishes to speak to you all.” One of the guards commanded.

“Ugh, it’s far too early for these meetings, even the other Princess didn’t get up until noon!” Silver Light complained.

Mumbled agreements came from both Star Brew and I, rubbing the sand out of our eyes with our hooves.

“Get up!” One of the more impatient guards barked at us. Ponies slowly rose from the floor, our eyes adjusting to the light just now beginning to enter the window with its soft amber glow of sunrise. We all slowly marched to the door, where the only guard who hadn’t spoken yet was giving me a hateful stare. I ignored him, of course. As long as my friends were fine, I could deal with others hating me.

We soon met up with the rest of our troupe as we were carefully taken a very peculiar route to the main chamber of the ruined castle. Strangely enough, the winding path held no view of the outside; perhaps that was the point of this deliberate waste of time.

Eventually we came upon the throne room itself, or rather, what was left of it. After the battle that had been fought here, compounded with the royal sisters’ fight, the place looked a fraction of what it once was. Ripped banners were held in place by single wooden shafts, the main throne singed; the one next to it, Princess Luna’s chair, toppled over. The red carpet in between, which would usually hold guest of honor in times of celebration, held none of its former allure.

As we entered, the guard who had so intently glared at me, said one word, with all his malice and hate combined: “betrayer.” I hadn't expected that. I was sure that when I joined the Lunar Army that eventually, peace would come, and that ponies would thank us for generations. It was a hollow dream.

The creaking wooden doors slammed behind us, the echo reverberating off of the ceiling, and back unto us. We all looked forward toward the Princess, the Sun Incarnate.

“I’ve brought you all here for a very important reason, as I’m sure you’ve assumed,” she said from up high on her throne, positioned specifically so that one had to look up to her to make eye contact. “I’ve done a lot of thinking lately, and have decided your punishment for being extremely active... participants in this rebellion.” She seemed to spit out that last part- rebellion. “That, and the remaining populace demands justice be done.” I could already tell I wasn’t going to like what came next. The rest of my friends tensed up in a similar manner.

“You shall henceforth be banished from the kingdom of Equestria.”

“WHAT?” came the barreling response from nearly everypony left in the hollowed-out room. Among the silent were Arian and Star Brew, who held similar looks of shock.

Celestia frowned, while raising a hoof to quiet the group down. “Please, you must understand,” she began. “The populace needs a scapegoat; unfortunately, you all are the most well-known, and hated, group we currently have in captivity.”

“Yes but-” Ricochet interrupted.

Celestia frowned again, staring at Ricochet until she fell silent. “There is another reason,” the powerful alicorn stated. The group held their silence, waiting for the princess to continue. “There is something... unsettling.” She turned her head towards the desert. ‘To the west?’. “I need to know what’s going on there, but I must stay here.” At that, Celestia glared at us all. “To deal with any more of yo- the rebels, and to rebuild. So I am sending you all there to investigate.”

“Not to sound ungrateful, Princess....” Ricochet started, “but why are you trusting us with this task?”

The alicorn paused again. “Because, my dear subjects, this way you will all be banished, calming the public, and can also check on the source of the disturbance. It would take months for me to prepare a scouting team to investigate the west, and only after the reconstruction is complete can I begin to mobilize a force.”

Star Brew interrupted. “Princess Celestia,” the unicorn practically spat through clenched teeth. “The west is a barren wasteland; with no civilization, no settlements, no pony, nor living, sentient being out there. And you have a feeling that something is out there!? And you would send six prisoners of war out there, to investigate!? What’s really going on, your highness?” Somehow, Star Brew seems to make her title sound like an insult of the worst degree.

Another pause. Arian spoke up and stated, “The outlands is a horrible place. There is no possible way for any creature, pony, griffin, or even dragon to live there. I’ve been there! My family thought there might be something of worth, anything at all. We began an expedition and there wasn’t a single thing there. Just dust, lava, poison, and DEATH!” The griffin paused, taking in a deep breath. “Over half of the expedition died, do you know how bad it feels to have that on your mind!?” Celestia knew alright, more than he possibly could have. “There isn’t anything out there but sand as far as the eye can see! Well, except for the the Gates of Tartarus.” We all looked to her for an answer, a small smile from the alicorn telling us all thats exactly what she had planned.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Arian said in disbelief.

“The Gates of Tartarus...” Star Brew said reverently, his voice nearly a whisper. “You want us to investigate the very gates of the blasphemed realm...”

“The gates of what now?” I questioned.

“The Gates of Tartarus. It’s a place where all manner of horrid creatures exist.” Star Brew was speaking slowly, his eyes focused on some unseen point in the distance. “It is one of the few points in the world where creatures of truly evil nature can pass between the blasphemed realm and ours. And the only way for either of the princesses to know of something wrong there, would mean that the guardian of the Gates, Cerberus, thought there was trouble.”

Our attention snapped back to the princess, who looked be enjoying our little conversation amongst ourselves. “And that is why I need you six to go there. Of all of the remaining ponies here, only you six thought to even check on me and my sis-” Celestia seemed to choke on her words. “NightMare Moon. You six have the fortitude and intelligence to carry this out.” The Princess of the Sun glared down her muzzle at us. “Especially since it was you six who... dealt with my personal guards that night.”

Ricochet continued to stare at Celestia, her eyes glossed over as her mind raced through every available option on the table. She sighed heavily, coming to what I knew was the second unwanted choice in the last twenty-four hours.

“Considering our current situation, what with ravenous citizens and the chopping block leering at us, we don’t have much of a choice.” She recovered herself, standing in a sturdy posture. “But, Celestia, what promise of yours do we have that this isn’t just some scheme to rid us from the remnants of what used to be a kingdom? How can we be sure that you aren’t just creating a ghost for us to chase?” Ricochet spoke in a voice that was far too informal for the situation, but business was business; especially when it came to Ricochet.

Celestia bowed her head, giving a slight smile. She obviously knew something we didn’t, and it seemed to bother Ricochet the most.

“No games, Celestia. We’ve been through far too much for more of your impish antics!” She nearly yelled at the princess, I could see tears forming on the corners of her eyes; she was at her limit, the grief of the previous night was far too near.

Celestia smiled softly. It was true that they had been through a lot, but for the sake of Equestria, they would have to go a little further. “My little ponies,” she started upbeat, “this is a difficult task to accept; I understand that. However, it is imperative that this disturbance be investigated, lest we have yet another war on our hooves.”

We pondered what she said. “Well,” I started, “it’s not like we have much of a choice, anyway, and this does seem better than the chopping block...” I received glances of muted agreement from everyone. “So... banishment, huh? As in we can never return?”

Celestia nodded in silence.

I thought about what I was about to lose: the colorful newfound cities, all the different kinds of ponies I had come to meet, all of the possible freinds I could have made, and the forested trees I knew so well. I looked at my friends, who seemed to be pondering the very same thing on their minds, and accepted my fate. “If that is our task, then we will perform it,” I said, the shock of it all still in my voice.

“Admirably.” Honeuma added. He always was one for loyalty, although I don’t think he’d forgiven Celestia yet, or would anytime soon for what she did. None of us would, really.

“Well then, I shall call on you all tomorrow, when the banishment ceremony is held,” Celestia finished.

“Just one question, your highness,” I couldn’t help but express my curiosity.

I assume her silence meant she had no objection.

“What are you going to do now, I mean, after our banishment? This castle is worn down, and the Everfree Forest is...” I choked on the next words as they came out. “Ruined.”

“Certainly you won’t stay in a place like this,” Silver Light added.

Celestia closed her eyes, visibly lost in the ghosts of her past. “One would think that this place would hold memories too bitter to taste. But I knew it to be different. Contented moments, whole-hearted smiles, and true friendship lived within these walls. Now, there is only my memories and I; alone.” She opened her eyes to the destroyed ceiling above, sunlight began to streak through, shining on her pure white coat, hope gracing her face.

“I will build a new castle. One that overlooks all of Equestria, if only took keep a weathered eye on my little ponies.” She continued. “Although it will take a great amount of time to do so, I will have construction begin immediately. Prepare yourselves for tomorrow, and rest.” The group nodded affirmation, and left the room to be escorted with the guards back to their cells.

“Good luck, my little ponies,” The Princess cooed as the heavy-laden wooden doors shut behind them. “You’re going to need it.”

***********************************************************************************************

Summer Spark was a young filly unicorn, still a blank flank, teased by her fellow classmates about her inability to find her talent yet. “Blank flank, blank flank!” All the other kids would tease her, despite them being blank flanks not two months earlier. She wore a bright orange mane, with a sizzling yellow coat to match. Typically one could find her playing hopscotch or pin the tail on the pony, but today was different. Today was special.

Today, everypony was called down to Canterlot Castle, or what was left of it anyway for an “assembly.” Older ponies kept mumbling about some “betrayers, heretics,” and whatnot, but whatever that meant, everypony was going to be there! Maybe the princess was going to throw a party! That’d be really, really fun! Although, parties usually make ponies happy, which these ponies definitely weren’t. Some wore looks of worry, while others stared firmly at the stage. Spark went with her parents, Solstice and Winter Night, only to become distracted by a passing butterfly.

The forest was different from what she remembered. Everything was blackened soot, and what little trees remained cast a harsh comparison to the surround. A sea of ponies stood before the stage, too tall to for the young filly to see over. Luckily, Summer found a small crate to stand on to see what was happening.

The red curtains shortly hung on the charred wooden planks that comprised the floor, pulling back to reveal their ruler: Princess Celestia. She took to the stage with carefully measured steps, drawing closer to the edge of the stage, wings expanded to their full measure. A covered wagon waited in the distance, off to the side, with four ponies ready to pull it.

“My dear subjects.” Celestia started, as she always had in formal affairs, “today is the day of the banishment of the rebels that caused us so much harm and dissonance as of late.” Cheers and roars from the crowd. Summer thought that whatever was going on, people were starting to like it.

She turned her head to the side. “Bring the rebels forward.” She said evenly to one of the nearby guards. He returned shortly a few moments later with six other ponies, all in black-iron shackles, single file. Summer thought they looked rather strange, or at least not happy, that was certain. Whatever this banishment thing was must have been a big deal for those ponies. The six were then lead up to Celestia, keeping their backs to the crowd.

Summer prodded her mother’s side. “Mommy, who are those ponies up there? Did they do something bad?” she asked, her voice brimming with childlike curiosity. Solstice tore her eyes from the stage and looked warmly at her child.

“Yes, dear. Those six ponies were very, very naughty. They didn’t like how the princess watched over us, and then they did bad things to her.” Solstice looked back to the stage, spastic joy rampant in her gaze. “And now, they have to be punished!”

Summer didn’t like how her mommy was talking. It was a bad thing to be punished, right? But then, why was everypony so happy about it?

She was about to ask again, to sate her persistent curiosity her mind had so graciously provided, when she felt magic lift her into the air. The world spun and moved around her as she landed in a familiar spot.

“Here you go, kiddo. Best seat in the house!” Her daddy told her as his magic waned. Winter Night set her up on his broad shoulders, where she sat and watched, perplexed.

“You, “ Celestia began, “you six who had chosen to serve NightMare Moon, bringer of chaos, destruction, and eternal night. You, who have betrayed your country, what do you have to say?”

The six on the stage were silent, and the very air around them seemed to hold its breath, waiting.

Celestia moved forward. “If you have nothing to say then so be it. For these crimes that you have been accused of, I hereby find you guilty. For the High Crime of Treason against the Crown, the Crime of Inciting a Rebellion, the Crime of Destruction of Property, and the Crime of Killing the Guards of the Land, you shall be banished until the end of your natural days. You shall never again place a hoof in Equestria Proper; failing to do so shall result in the immediate forfeiture of your lives.” The Princess looked to the mighty royal guards standing nearby. “Guards, take these traitors from my sight.”

***********************************************************************************************

Banished. Never to return, under any circumstances, was a hard burden to bear, in any situation. One last look back at the crowd revealed a horde of angry ponies who wanted nothing less than to never see us again. They might even be glad if we died in the desert, although most of them appeared not to care. They just wanted us gone.

We hobbled over in our shackles toward the wagon that awaited us, destined to drive us into a forsaken land. The black curtain covering the back was pulled to the side by one of the guards watching us, urging us to get inside. We each took one last look at what we were leaving behind- our homes, our friends, and our aspirations.

A voice could be heard from the crowd slightly above the others: "I always knew that griffin was bad, I can't believe I let my kids be around him." Mumbled talk of agreement followed. I looked behind me to Jet, who looked like he had been defeated, almost as if his soul had been crushed by the ponies he had just tried to be friends with from the start, defeated yet again by his race. We were all used to discrimination, Arian and Honeuma being key examples, but they still stung. We quickly escaped to our transport, if only to avoid the commoners’ insults.

It was a fairly large wagon, easily able to hold up to ten ponies, a driver, and the ponies that pulled the thing, a size to be expected of a prisoner transport. As soon as we were all inside, the creaking wooden vehicle surged forward. Our driver was an Earth pony, typical in most ways. Brown coat, blonde mane, and not very talkative. He signaled for the other four ponies to start pulling.

“So much for my aspirations to live the good life.” Ricochet sighed. “Still, beats being beheaded, right?”

“Just wait till we get to the Blasted lands; you’ll wish you were beheaded.” Arian said glumly.

I couldn’t help but notice how visibly distressed Arian was. Whatever that pony said to him, it cut him deep.

“I can’t believe I of all ponies could be banished! My family name used to count for something!” Silver Light grumbled.

“At least your family is still alive,” Star Brew grumbled. “At least they can live in the safety of Equestria. Or, at least, the relative safety of Equestria Proper. Just wait until the mobs come down on them for birthing a traitor.”

“It’s not like they’re worth anything anyway. They disowned me,” the pony admitted with her head hanging.

“A family...” I said, jealous of what I never had.

“The worst family in the world.” There were tears in her eyes now.

“Oh no!” Arian said, visibly distressed. “Oh no no no, I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

“To your wife and child, you mean?” Ricochet inquired. “I’m sure they know better than to think that you’d do otherwise on purpose.”

“At least they still believe in you. My family sent a letter. Not even a personal one! It was all legal documents!” Silver Light cried.

“If you ask me, dear, you’re better off without them.” Ricochet interjected. “They are, indeed, a bunch of high class foals; no offense.”

“None taken,” Silver Light sniveled. “I’m glad that I have you all, at least.”

“Hey, all of you back there.” Our driver bellowed back at us, his first response the entire trip. “Catch.” Almost immediately after, he threw a key back into the rear of the cart, clinking against the wooden floorboards as it fell.

The only unicorn in the cart grasped the key with his magic. He set to work on his bindings immediately. “Her entire family’s high class snobs. Including her,” Star Brew said, gesturing at the crying earth pony. As he finished saying that, his shackles fell off. “Finally; that took longer than I thought it would.”

“Alright, enough of this, we all need to stop bickering!” Arian yelled banging his claw on the seat for emphasis.

“And yelling won’t solve anything either.” Ricochet sighed. “Can we maybe focus on the task ahead? Star Brew, Arian, you two seem to know the most about this place we’re headed to. Anything we should know?”

“How do you even know so much about it? Did you live there or something?” Silver Light enquired.

I interrupted. “Didn’t you say something earlier about an expedition, Arian?”

Star Brew picked himself up and moved towards Arian. After a few seconds, the griffin’s cuffs fell off. “I would like to know about this expedition as well. When did you have the time to set up something like that?”

Arian sighed and began the explanation, “My family came across some money a while back. They thought it would be a good idea to look for some new products from exotic places. Seeing as how nopony had ever come back from the Blasted Lands, they thought that there might be something out there,”

“The only thing out there is the Gates,” the unicorn scoffed. He turned to Ricochet and gestured for her to raise her hooves for him to work at the bindings. She complied.

“We know that now,” Arian said very matter-of-factly, “My parents hired some muscle, bought supplies, and hired some ponies from the Explorers Guild. All they needed was someone to lead it. Long story short, we got there, wandered around, got sick, and left with half a crew and nothing to show for it. We did however, get a glimpse at the land where the Gates begin.”

“And we have no clue as to could have possibly escaped? Cerberus would never let anything through,” Silver Light mused. “And why would it stay in the Blasted Lands? Like you said, there’s nothing for it out there.”

“Seems like anything from this Tartarus place would be pretty dangerous...” I said.

“We don’t even know it’s something from Tartarus,” Star Brew said as he moved on from Ricochet to Honeuma. “All we know is that something spooked Cerberus. Something might have been trying to break in.”

“Or out.” I added.

“What I don’t understand, is how something as big as this could have gone unnoticed by either side during the war. You’d think that one of us would have heard something, at least. I didn’t even know about this until yesterday...” Ricochet mused.

“My parents never saw the Ursa that killed them either,” Star Brew whispered. The shackles around Honeuma’s hooves clanged loudly as they bounced onto the wooden floor of the cart. “That thing was at least the size of the castle.”

Silver Light noticed Honeuma had been silently sitting in his corner of the wagon with his leathery wings covering his face.

“Do you know anything, Honeuma? You’ve been outside Equestria before,” Silver Light enquired.

Honeuma turned his head and stared at them silently. “Let’s just complete this assignment so we can get out of this horrid place.”

“Agreed.” I pulled back the sheet covering the window with my cuffed hooves, looking outside. In the far distance was nothing but sand. Star Brew moved towards me and undid the shackles around my hooves as I held them up to him. He moved quickly back to his seat, leaving only Silver Light in her cuffs.

“Ahem! Forgetting something?” Silver Light called, shaking her shackled hooves.

The grey unicorn glanced at the female pony, then to the key resting between his hooves. With a slight nudge, the key fell out of the wagon. “No, I don’t think I am.”

“Oh, you are just the worst kind of pony!” Silver Light hissed.

I couldn’t help but fail to suppress my laughter.

“Real mature,” Arian said as he started to use a talon to pick her lock.

“Uh, I wouldn’t do that.....” Star Brew started to say to the griffin. Arian bit back a small yelp as the magic in the shackles shocked him.

He shook himself after the mild shock. “I’ll be right back,” Arian said with a sigh, hopping out of the wagon to retrieve the key.

“You would do well to treat the lady with a bit more respect, Star,” Honeuma glared at him

“Um, Arian! Jet! Please tell me I’m not the one who has to go after his feathered hide!” Ricochet shouted, running towards the end of the wagon.

I interrupted. “Don’t worry, he knows what he’s doing.”

Star Brew glared at the griffin who had jumped out of the wagon and sighed. The potion master focused his magic on the cuffs surrounding Silver Light’s hooves, which subsequently popped off. “They didn’t even lock hers. All they did was close them...”

Arian soon appeared back in the wagon, key in talon, and covered in sand. “Oh, you already got it,” Arian stated, shaking the sand out of his feathers.

“And I would appreciate it if you would think before you leap!” Ricochet shouted as she clocked Arian one in the shoulder.

“Hey now, no need for violence!” Arian said jokingly, “Besides, I know enough about the desert to keep my second pair of eyelids shut.”

Ricochet was not as amused. “Pride is a fickle mistress, Jet. Just keep your head on straight, yeah?”

Star Brew snorted. “Pride? What pride do we have left? We’ve been banished, cast out, lain aside. My patron, our leader, has been banished, her name now a curse. And you talk of pride!?”

Honeuma snapped, “ Pride indeed; what pride is there in serving the enemy? We’ve been banished from the kingdom, yet still answer to its ruler? What is there to be proud of? That we didn’t die at her hooves!” By this point he had risen to his hind legs and was flapping his leathery wings; a remarkable feat, considering the size of the covered wagon. Without a sense of his normally calm demeanor, he now roared, “ I would have been PROUD to have died in the service of our Princess! Then I wouldn’t have to live with the horrible reality we now face! Any pride I had died when we lost her!” He threw an angry glare at Ricochet, a single tear staining the fur below his left eye.

“Pride in a purpose is still pride!”, Ricochet yelled. “ We may never see our homes again, nor will we see the one we served loyally for all our years, but at least we can keep Luna’s dream safe; keep the land she helped to bolster strong...” Ricochet looked like she was next to tears. She had her own motives after all.

“I agree with Honeuma. Surely there could’ve been something else we could’ve done for her, instead of abandoning her. She would’ve wanted us to fight, not volunteer for a suicide mission for the enemy,” I added.

“Things aren’t always as black and white as they may seem.” Ricochet choked, “In no way do I sympathize with Celestia, and don’t any of you dare think otherwise. But we knew the real Luna; we six knew what kind of ruler she was. Would you think that she would want us to die?! For a cause that she did not herald?! Could you live with yourselves knowing that Luna would blame herself if we had died there, in that throne room?” Ricochet was trying her best not to cry openly, but she couldn’t hold back any longer. “Would you really want to leave her alone again?”

I interjected. “She’s more alone now than she ever was! She had friends, followers, ponies she could trust!” I couldn’t help but shed a tear or two. “And now she’s alone for the next THOUSAND YEARS! No family, no friends, NOTHING!”

Ricochet glared at me, her body shaking. “Exactly. That’s why we couldn’t leave her alone again. Remember, one day she will return, even if we won’t be around to greet her. We can at least give her the hope that we’re alive, even if we’ve changed, so no more fighting each other, okay?” She exhaled a breath she had been holding for quite a while.

I looked back at her. “I’m... sorry. I guess I just got carried away, we’ve all lost so much; too much already.” I apologized, remembering I no longer had a home to go back to; none of us did now.

After those outbursts, we all fell silent. I think that the realization that we all had just been banished was finally beginning to sink in. As I glanced around the shaking cart, I noticed that each of us was lost in thought; more than a few faces were tear-stained.

Finally, after what seemed to be hours, Star Brew spoke up.

“You know, I would usually be getting ready to make some potions about now. The moon should be rising any second now, and it’s a full one tonight.” He closed his eyes. “The magic of her majesty’s heavenly body would be shining down upon my work, ensuring that my potions were the most potent in all of Equestria.” The unicorn sighed. “What I wouldn’t give for my workshop...”

Surprisingly enough, Silver Light spoke next. “I would be helping the Princesses’ niece right about now. The tables would be set and I would be directing the kitchen staff as dinner would be laid out. That little brat always needed more help than all of Equestria could muster.” She finished with a melancholy grin.

Honeuma sighed, “The night would just be beginning as I rose with the lunar light, hurrying to meet the Princess as she returned from her sacred task. Just seeing her smile as I greeted her made everything in my life seem worth it. We would sit and share stories of the histories of our Lands, and she would listen, fascinated by our conversations together. The Lunar Princess truly was as gentle and kind as the Lunar Temple that took me in as a foal had taught me she was.” He finished with a small smile.

Arian sighed and said, “Right about now is when I would close the store, do my nightly flight to visit my friends, and travel back home. I would see my family, and my wonderful wife would already have dinner set up.” He seemed to chuckle a bit, smiling at the fond memories. “Then I’d tuck my sweet little daughter in and take a well deserved rest.” He finished with a warm smile. It seemed like an average day to me, but perhaps that was what was so special about it.

Ricochet wiped the tears from her face. “Right about now, I think, is the time when I would catch Princess Luna on her way to her tower. My day would be done, and we would just talk about nothing in particular; just chatting in the middle of the Grand Hall for what sometimes took hours. She would always know just what to say to brighten my mood on those bad days. She never cared about work, not right then; always dodging my questions about what she had planned for the evening. She was always picking my brain on what was going on out in the kingdom: how were the shopkeepers faring in these times or if I had heard any good jokes lately. And whenever we would part ways, I would bow, and she would give me the warmest and most genuine of good night’s a pony could ever receive. I’m going to miss those nights.” She finished with a warm smile.

I couldn’t help but reminisce about those days in the forest. Those days when I didn’t have to worry about being imprisoned, captured, or fighting anyone, where I could just lay calmly on a patch of blade flowers, their slightly orange hue resembling that of a blaze. Days where you could just focus on staying near the watering hole and waiting for the guard to deliver the next meal, and it was those average boring days were the ones I missed the most. I couldn’t go back to that though, none of us could. We were banished, cast out, abandoned by our peers to eternal damnation in these fiery dunes. “Secret mission” or not, it was unlikely all of us would come out of this place with our lives.

“And I have to get working on a few things to make sure we don’t die of heat stroke.” Arian said, shaking me out of my thoughts. He started, grabbing some cloth and sewing it together with a needle and thread he pulled from within his feathers.

Finally, the wagon came to a stop. Creaky hinges groaned in complaint as they were forced to stop their continual motion. The curtains flew slightly inward from the lost momentum. Turning to us, the driver plainly stated, “We’re here,” as his muzzle retreated back into the driver seat, out of view from the inside.

We all slowly exited the transport, being careful not to bump into each other as we came out. We slowly moved forward toward the front, wondering if we should say anything to the driver that went through all the trouble to get us here in the first place.

“Here, you’ll need this for the trip,” the driver spoke again, passing us a few containers of water, some hay, and a map, despite the Western portion being mostly blank. “Oh, and good luck out there,” He said as he gave our group a little wink, then encouraged the Earth Ponies pulling the cart to hurry back before a storm blew in.

Whatever we were headed into, we would surely need it. In front of us lay the most desolate, dry, and barren wasteland of a desert known to pony-kind, abandoned as a foalish hope to try to colonize by even the sturdiest of ponies or griffins. We had arrived at the Blasted Lands.

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A/N: Well, that took a bit longer than expected. Fortunately for you, we delayed putting out the prologue when it was written until this chapter was close to completion! Wasn’t that nice of us? As you’ve probably figured out, each chapter is going to be spearheaded by the current group members OC. We all pitch in and help pull the chapter together, so regarding the question of “can a six-headed beast walk straight?” The answer is no. But it can hobble and limp over towards the finish line. Black~

Heads up, fillies and gentlecolts! I’m up next, bringing you the story as seen through Ricochet’s eyes! Gird your loins, my friends, the fun is only just beginning! And leave a review. I promise I’ll love you forever and ever and ever! - Feral

I currently need to make a potato cannon to fire at Black, because I know that Hydras can walk just fine with six heads. I’m sure Star Brew can give me pointers on construction. - Aeterna

Things never really seem to go well for Arian, more later! :D - Ivory

Anu wants you to read this. Then Anu wants you to review. Then Anu will permit you to enjoy the story.-The Great and Powerful Anubis

Honeuma and I both thank you kindly for taking the time to view this tail of ours. We do hope that everypony’d be willing to leave a comment or two regarding our work - Noize
Aeterna Aurora Crepesculum:
Always. XD, you've only had two!

Dylan Black:
This entire fanfic is 90% recollection, remember?
Aeterna Aurora Crepesculum:
How do we know thousand years?

Dylan Black:
Good point. Will come back to this later.

II - Where, oh Where Should I Begin?

A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. You’ve seen and seeing is believing. Your ears and your eyes will be bleeding; please check to see if you’re still breathing. Hold tight ‘cause the show is not over; if you will, please, move in closer. You’re about to be bowled over, by the wonders you are about to behold here! -Feral(quoting “Ladies and Gentlemen” by Saliva)

And I thought I had a flair for the dramatic - Aeterna

Haven’t you heard of a little thing called showmanship? Gotta hit ‘em with the old razzle dazzle every now and then! Anyway, welcome to the second chapter, as told by my character: Ricochet. Don’t get your hopes up too high, kiddos; things from here on get bumpy. -Feral

“razzle dazzle.” Someone, kill me now.- Black

Chapter 2: Where, oh Where Should I Begin?

So, I’ve been asked by the princess herself to write out all of the details of our little trip, as seen through my eyes. But, to be completely honest, I’ve never been too adept at putting my thoughts down on paper, so I figured I’d save myself the trouble and tell you about it, word for word, straight from the horse's mouth; so to speak. I just hope these “Speak and Write Scrolls” that Brew gave me work like they should...

What should I tell you that you don’t already know? Hmmm. Well, I might as well get on with a proper introduction. Couldn’t hurt, right?

My name is Ricochet, and as the name implies, I always bounce back. You name the situation, the time, and the place, and no matter what you need done, I’ll get it done. That’s right, I know anypony who is anypony in Equestria, and then some. I can get you simple things like a roofer, or someone to paint your house for free. Or, if you’re willing to pay a little... extra, I can make all of those nasty warrants and bill collectors just disappear; Poof!

How? Well, this silver tongue of mine isn’t just for telling stories, you know. Yep, I can talk my way through practically anything; a skill I picked up when I was a kid. You learn to keep yourself alive living on the streets like I did.

Oh, yeah. I may not look like it, but I was a no-good street rat from the get-go. Grew up on the more... unsavory parts of lower Manehattan; crime central, let me tell you. Everywhere you looked, stallions, mares, fillies, colts, and everything in between, all busy just trying to make it to tomorrow.

I remember this one colt -can’t for the life of me remember his name- but he was maybe a few years older than I was at the time. He was mugged right in broad daylight: beaten senseless, robbed for all he was worth, and left to rot in some gutter between Hill street and Main. I was maybe, oh, five at the time. So that placed this poor colt at around eight. Yeah! Can you believe it?! Eight! Just some poor kid out to, I dunno, get a hay shake or something, and BAM!, left bleeding off to the side of some litter filled walkway.

So, I guess you can draw some conclusions about where I’m from, right? Well, if you were thinking, ‘Filly stuck in an abusive home, with parents that just didn’t give a flying feather.’, then yeah, you’re spot on my friend.

Wasn’t pretty in that old shack of a house, let me tell you. I don’t think I ever got a decent night’s sleep living in that hellhole. Roof leaked water all the time thanks to a broken water pipe, which, by the way, was conveniently placed right above my bed. Hah, I say ‘bed’ when I really mean ‘rucksack filled with old matted straw’. But that’s not the point here.

Whole place leaned way too far to the left when you looked at it from the street; only thing keeping the place up were the buildings next to it. Ugh, that dump constantly smelled of cheap “cider” and moth balls. The carpet was all sorts of done for. Makes me sick just thinking about it.

So, what’s a girl to do, hm? Authorities said I had to just deal with it, learn to live with the hand dealt to me. Buck that! After what my no good father did to me... oh, this is a good story, here.

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Get this: I’m on my way home from school, right? Don’t get the wrong idea, schools in Manehattan are free to attend; and going was my idea. Anyways, I step up onto our little stoop, right, and lo and behold I hear screaming from the other side of the front door. Now, this is just the normal case of the Mondays working their magic, but when I stepped through that door, I wasn’t expecting what I had walked right into.

There was my deadbeat mother laying on the floor, all four legs splayed out in different directions, blood pouring out of the fresh cuts and bruises the broken bottle of cider had made, leaving her whimpering like a dog in its final moments. Dad, standing above her, this wild look in his eyes, freshly painted with mom’s splattered self all over his work shirt. They had fought before, but never, and I mean never, before had this sort of thing happened.

I froze, what else could I do? It was just me, standing in the doorway, my makeshift saddlebags hanging loosely at my sides, mouth hanging open like some kind of idiot. But the fun doesn’t stop there, oh no. See, dad was really pissed. Like, really, really pissed. So, guess who gets the bottle this time? Mmhmm, you guessed it: little defenseless me.

I still, to this day, can’t remember anything after the first two hits he gave me. One across my right shoulder, then another that split my head open while I was down. Cheap bastard; not enough to beat a filly, let alone your own daughter, but to hit her while she’s down? I... I just... I have no words. Still got that scar, too, right here, behind my ear.

I woke up in a drying puddle of my own red fluids; head pounding like a jackhammer, unable to feel my right leg down from my shoulder. The house was dark, cold, and lifeless. Nothing unusual, but it was more profound than it used to be. I hobbled my way to our dirty-as-all-hell bathroom to take a good look at myself.

There I was, or there I should have been. My light grey coat was stained a dark brown, the gash in my head still letting out a small, but constant, stream of trickling blood. My right ear was torn to pieces; shards of glass stuck out of the thin pieces of flaps I had remaining. My right eye was swollen, my cheek was torn up... haha, I was a complete mess.

I grabbed a piece of the long-shattered mirror and held it carefully in my left hoof. I used it to check on my banged up shoulder, and I really wish I hadn’t. Man, let me tell you one thing: when my dad lets loose, boy does he let loose. That gash in my leg had to have gone to the bone, even after however many hours I was out, it was still bleeding. I could see something still lodged in there, if only just.

There was no way I could get at whatever it was still stuck in my leg; I would need help. But, I knew better; at six years old, I knew better than to hope that somepony, anypony, would stop and help a near dead lump like me. So, I did the only thing I could do: I had to fish the thing out myself. Crazy, right? But, adrenaline and death knocking on your door can make you do some crazy things.

I grabbed the tweezers from the top of the sink. I would have cleaned them first, but I would need both my front legs to do so; so that was out. I tried my best to get the stupid things to cooperate, but I was far too woozy to do something that precise. And, I’m not sure if it was the loss of blood or the overwhelming fear of an untimely demise that got me to even consider this, but that piece of glass was looking mighty handy right about then.

I grabbed the cleanest piece of cloth I could find near me, dragged my sorry hide to the tub, gripped the piece of glass, and got to carving myself like some sort of carpentry project. I remember pain unlike any other, screaming as loud as my little lungs could muster, and the slow draw of tension the glass made against my swollen and bruised skin.

I’m not sure how long I sat there, hot tears running down my face, causing long streaks to form in the dried blood that had matted into my coat. But my efforts paid off as I felt glass scrape against glass. Cutting a little below the lodged piece, I was able to shimmy my makeshift scalpel onto the other side, and after a few attempts, I finally removed the piece of the bottle my dad had so graciously given to me.

You know, here’s a tip for you: If you have something stuck in you, that also happens to be the only thing keeping all of your blood from spilling out, don’t be so hasty to remove it. I... didn’t learn that from hearsay. When I pulled out that jagged piece of bottle, I sprayed blood all over the wall next to me.

Yeah, I was freaked out! Even with the adrenaline and the way blood loss plays with your head, watching yourself lose that much of, well, yourself, was always a sobering event. I panicked, I freaked out, and the one thing that can get your heart pumping faster: just that.

I didn’t know what to do; I was six for crying out loud! So, I did what I do best: improvised. I recalled this one time I saw somepony get cut doing... something or another, and the best advice he had received was to keep pressure on the wound. So, grabbing the now dark crimson towel, I placed it between the wall and my right shoulder, and pushed myself into it as hard as I could.

From there it was a battle against my urge to lose consciousness. I was young, but I wasn’t an idiot. If I had blacked out then, I was done for. But, as luck would have it, even when I did blink out of consciousness, I woke up the next morning; in pain, but alive.

I walked -or hobbled, rather- out into the rest of the house. Whole place had stayed just as I had left it, a heap of trash. An empty heap of trash.

‘Where did they go?’ I asked myself. And wouldn’t you know it? I found the answer myself.

Some three days after my little... accident, I got a knock on the front door. Yeah, I know, three days. But anyhow, standing on the stoop was two police stallions and some stuffy looking mare in a business get-up. There weren’t many words shared between them and I, only shocked expressions and hushed whispers, ending in a very informal: “You’re coming with us, dear. You’re safe now.”

I agreed, not that I had much choice. They stepped inside the ramshackle hovel I called home, dancing around garbage and trying their best not to breathe.

They asked if I had any clothes I could pack. None.

They asked if I knew where my parents were. I didn’t.

They wanted me to tell them what had happened to me. I couldn’t.

In just a few moments I was off, loaded into the back of a clinical wagon that was called on my behalf.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Long story short, I was put into a group home for wayward foals; in other words: an orphanage. They told me that I could stay here until they found my parents and I was almost happy to oblige. This was the kind of place a little filly like me hoped to wind up in. It provided an escape, a haven, a bastion against the outside world. Three square meals a day, a fairly comfortable bed, working bathrooms, and a roof that didn’t leak; I was in heaven. Or, so I thought.

Now, I’m not one to reinforce the oldest clichés, but this place was one of those: ‘Pretty on the outside, but just to keep appearances.’ kind of place. You know, the kind of place you read about in old fairy tales. Whole thing smelled fishy from the get-go, I tell you what; and this nose never lies.

During my very brief stay at Hopeful Sunrise Orphanage, I was picked on, made an example of, verbally abused by the faculty and my peers alike, and generally ignored. But, living in an adoption center taught me one thing, a lesson I still utilize to this day: how to act.

When some unfortunate souls came by the orphanage looking for a replacement colt or filly for one that they had recently lost, or were never able to conceive, the whole building put on a production unlike any other. Smiles were plastered on every face, some of the children took to trying to beautify themselves by some means. And lo and behold, every time, the one who was the best actor was chosen.

From there I picked up on the finer points of subtlety; like when it was appropriate to smile or when you could or couldn’t say something within a certain context. I dissected the flow of speech and took my time rooting about in its mysteries. I learned so much in the little time I had spent there, and even with all of the animosity thrown in my direction, I had found a place to feed me, house me, and even get me back to walking without a limp. But, after only a month, things started to get lively once again.

Having your parents turn you away is one of those life-defining moments that you just never forget, no matter how hard you try. It’s also one of those moments that puts everything into perspective; lets you see the big picture.

I was minding my own business -reading a book, I think- when Caress, the brood-mother, told me to come to the front lobby. Not wanting to receive yet another flogging, I complied. Standing in the lobby were two ponies I thought I would never see again.

Dad looked as he always did: half drunk, messy, and generally unhappy. Mom, well, she was using her “everything is fine, my life is wonderful” face again. They were flanked by two soldiers in golden armor who seemed like they were just having the time of their lives, what with those stern and rather unamused faces of theirs.

Despite my sadness, my anger, my absolute hatred for the both of them, I still felt like a thousand bits right then.

‘They care for me! They must really love me!’ I thought. But, wouldn’t you know it? I was wrong, as usual.

“Is this your daughter?” One of the soldiers said. Mom almost spurted something out, but dad shot her a glance telling her to keep her trap shut, or he’d wire it shut. Dad looked me up and down, a perplexed look on his face.

“Nope,” He grumbled. “Never seen this kid before in my life. I would know a train wreck if I was the one who made it.”

I was crushed. No, crushed isn’t a strong enough word. Devastated, ruined, dismayed, destroyed, horrified; those are a little closer. I thought that I couldn’t cry anymore; I didn’t even cry when I saw my ruined self in the mirror a month ago. I figured that I had done enough crying for one life; enough crying to last a thousand lives, and I was only six. But I wasn’t the brightest kid back then, and I learned then that tears don’t have a limit.

“Are you certain, sir?” Caress tried. “This filly matches the description your wife gave, and-”

“I said she ain’t mine!’ He shouted.

I flinched backwards, fresh tears running down my face. Caress turned to me, a genuine look of worry on her face. Even in this fresh hell, she was my favorite. What can I say? She who beats less, gets loved more. “Honey, do you recognize these ponies? Are these your parents?”

I didn’t know what to say. I was scared and lonely, and I just wanted to go home. Back to that piss-stinking, rat infested, condemnable, dumpster fire of a home. But then it hit me: ‘Why the hay should I have to go back? What did they do for me, that I couldn’t do for myself?!’

So, I looked my father right in the eyes -right in his big, stupid, ugly face- with all of the defiance and fury I never knew I had. “No,” I said, “Never.”

Then, right there, that was the flipping point. When I had finally figured out that my life was what I made it out to be. Screw the rules, I write the rules! To hell with the way things work, what’s the point of falling in line if you just get stepped on over and over again? Well no, sir! I wasn’t having it anymore! And as I stared into my father’s shocked eyes, a triumphant smirk on my face, there was a flash of light.

My cutie mark appeared, right then.

I bounced back. Hahah, I wish you could have seen the look on my dad’s face! Priceless, in every sense of the word! I even took my tool of a mother by complete surprise! Oh, man, let me tell you, that was one amazing moment.

Caress knew I had this tell, my right ear, the one that got messed up, would twitch whenever I would lie. It was only the smallest of movements, but it was there nonetheless. I knew she caught it, and I knew that she knew that I knew what I was doing; that this was what I truly wanted for myself. She gave me a grin and a nod, then asked the soldiers to “Kindly escort these two from the premises.”

My first victory, and I had never, never, felt more sure of anything before.

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I know what you must be thinking right about now: “Where does your tie-in with Princess Luna come in? Why were you asked to write this scroll?” Well, I’m getting to that, there’s just a lot of stuff to work through first...

How about I give you the short version? Yeah, that would help to speed things on a bit, right?

Okay, so after I was done with my parents, I faced a life in the orphanage, waiting day-in and day-out for somepony to come on by and decide that I was worth their time. Now, after having my little epiphany I knew that I had options; ones that didn’t involve me suffering beneath someone else’s hooves. So what did I do? I left. Simple as that.

I went back to the streets, age six, not a bit to my name, and brimming with newfound confidence. But I wasn’t entirely helpless, mind you. No, I had something better: a dynamite personality. I could con anypony out of a few bits; that’s how I made a living back then. I once blackmailed a local deli owner with proof that he was having an affair with some mare two towns over. Got myself a nice chunk of change from that endeavor.

After playing the game for a while, I took residence in an abandoned warehouse on the lower east side. I couldn’t get my hooves on real property, being now the age of seven, but I could buy furniture and the like; and with all of my connections, heh, I was practically stealing goods with how cheap I could get them. Yeah, I was living a fairly comfortable life, I even started growing bold enough to con some of the big-wigs that Manehattan is notorious for having. The more pompous they were, the easier the mark.

Yet, not everything goes as planned; mice and stallions, and all that. I was slumming it with some of the upper crust Manehattan had to offer, mostly sizing up possible marks and better refining my ‘Daughter to a Duchess’ act. This was going to be an amazing job, one that could have set me up with a steady income for life. Rumor was that one of the princesses was to be in attendance, so how could I pass that up? Wouldn’t you know, some two hours into this shindig, I had found my target.

He was ripe for the picking: throwing money around like nopony’s business, mares hanging off him, completely hammered off his plot. He was a recipe for disaster, and I was going to be the one to catch him in the act.

I stuck next to this guy for a while, waiting to catch something good enough to work with, but I was being held up by some drunk mare with an endless supply of questions. I can multi-task, don’t get me wrong, but this mare had more questions than I had answers. She would keep digging into my history, which lead into my family’s history, which started posing questions on what my family did for a living.

Well -curveball!- sure enough some guard was listening in on the entire conversation, and he wasn’t nearly as drunk as my little reporter friend here. Well, long story short, he didn’t buy into any of my “carefully thought out act” and he, as expected, apprehended me.

I thought I was done for, finished, about to be shipped back to the orphanage I had more than readily left behind. A number of soldiers in over-the-top dress armor came to take me away, and I, losing all sense of cool, began screaming my little lungs ragged trying to get away from them.

But, as we neared the paddy wagon, the relentless iron grip of the soldiers restraining me, I heard a soft and gentle: “Hold.”

Now, this is the part where I tell you that Princess Luna showed up and saved me from a fate that I couldn’t stomach. The part where I tell you that she took me in and raised me alongside her off in a castle like some fairy tale cliché. Well, good news, it wasn’t Luna, but Celestia who was my savior. I know, right? Where am I going with this? Well, hold on and I’ll tell you.

I watched in awe as the Solar Goddess stepped down from the entrance to the hotel, her gilded hooves clinking daintily on the concrete steps. When I first saw her, my jaw hit the dirt. She was perfect; beautiful. And even though she spoke with a gentle demeanor, one that could barely be heard, the soldiers restraining me stopped dead in their tracks, standing at attention.

She approached me, her magenta eyes locked on mine. She had this sort of majestic flow to her movements, each one exuded power and grace unmatched by anything I had ever witnessed. “What is your name, my dear?”

“Ricochet...” I blurted out. I couldn’t even try to lie to her, I just... couldn’t. “My name is Ricochet.”

Well, glossing once again over the uninteresting parts, she told the soldiers to free me and asked me to come inside where I would then tell her everything about myself and my life thus far. When I was finished, she debated with herself for a while, eventually coming to the conclusion that I would come to live in Castle Canterlot, where I would be taught how to use my talents for the greater good, rather than self gratification.

And so it was. I left behind my life of being a conning prodigy and into a new life learning the tricks of the diplomatic trade. Celestia took me under her wing, so to speak, and made me her private pupil; teaching me a wide variety of languages and politics.

Technically speaking, I couldn’t be adopted by royalty because of my heritage. But, a little loop hole made it so I could be adopted by one of her hoofmaidens, my surrogate mother, Bless. She taught me how to act like a lady should, how to behave with the proper decorum that was expected of the pupil of the princess; not that any of it took, mind you. But that was all mostly for show, Bless was more of a friend than a mother.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Now, the part I’m sure you’ve been waiting for: how I met Luna. It was during my studies in the Castle, not more than a week or two after getting settled in. I hadn’t seen her around much because of her schedule. Ponies, being primarily diurnal, have issues staying awake in the night; only those who received the special augments from joining the Lunar Vanguard had the ability to really push through the long, dark hours.

Yet, one night I found that sleep just wouldn’t come. I tried everything: counting sheep, tapping a hoof on one of my bed posts to get some white noise, I even thought of trying to find that elusive beast known as the “Sand Pony” and bludgeoning him to death with a knobbed stick if it meant getting some rest. But my mind refused to sit still, and there I lay, staring at my ceiling.

Everything was so quiet there, in the castle. I was used to the murmur of the sleepless city and the sounds of carts rumbling along the crude streets. Here, nothing but the cry of the nightingale and the whisper of the wind through the trees outside my window. It was all peaceful, and in no way did I ever think that it wasn’t beautiful, but it was just so... quiet, boring, bland.

I got up out of bed and walked over to the dark window. The moon hadn’t risen yet; I wondered why. In the distance I could see things soaring through the air: owls, bats, and the like. Above the trees of the Everfree, the stars stretched out into an endless oblivion, their ethereal light faintly illuminating the forest canopy. It was all beautiful... but where was the moon?

I figured I wouldn’t worry about it and go to bed; then figured that going to bed was a near impossibility. So, what else could I do? I took a walk. Just a harmless walk around the castle at night, that’s all.

I toured the corridors looking at nothing in particular. There was a hallway lined with a bunch of paintings, an atrium filled with statues, and I even passed by a room that had a ceiling that would reflect the night sky above; a sort of planetarium.

After a while I had walked my way to a lesser known portion of the castle. The carpets here had ceased to be the searing red that had made itself known across the entire building, and instead featured a dark and regal purple.

I followed the carpeting to a rather interesting door. It was made of a thick, black oak, and had ornate gothic designs carved into it. In the darkness I could discern the moon and its cycles, a star filled sky, and the royal crest.

Having no sense of subtlety this early in the night, I pushed my way through the entrance and was greeted by a spiral staircase leading upwards, and because I was just that curious, I started my way up. My hooves clopped loudly on the dark staircase; it was so dark, I had to walk with my right side brushing against the wall to be sure of where I was going.

I knew the top of the long spiral when I had gotten to it, as the stone flattened out once again, but I couldn’t tell how far I was to the door. Well, until I smacked my blind self right into it, that is. The wooden door opened with a hollow creaking noise, one that seemed to echo on forever along the corridor behind me.

I was about to turn around and bolt back down the steps, when I heard a soft voice coming from beyond the threshold. It almost sounded like somepony was arguing with somepony else, and like a good little snoop, I just had to listen in.

“No!” Said a voice; female. “Celestia is right! I am just as loved as she is!”

“And you honestly believe that, don’t you?” Said another female voice, this one decidedly more firm. “She is playing with you, like a cat with yarn; leading you by the nose like some kind of cattle. She’s simply playing with you until she’s bored, then she’ll throw you away, like the trash she believes you to be!” There was a bout of quiet laughter. “Hahahah, they may give you smiles, or perhaps a friendly greeting, as is their wont, but beyond that they care nothing for you! They hide behind their masks of falsehoods only for political gain! You are nothing more to them than a figurehead, a lowly shadow in Celestia’s rule!”

There was a shocked silence, accentuated by a loud gasp from voice number one. “Silence, you vile thing! I will not have this anymore! Be gone!”

There was a crash, followed by the twinkling melody of glass hitting stone. I listened with bated breath, I had thought someone just got thrown out a window, or something. That was until I heard the crying. Not of someone in shock at what they had just done, or horror of witnessing an event that took a turn for the worse, but the gentle whimper of defeat; a sound I was all too familiar with.

Drawing the courage I needed, I gently opened the door just enough to allow my small form passage. The round room I found myself in was practically barren, save a wooden desk in the middle. Bookshelves, holding a practically endless library of various volumes, lined each and every wall, only breaking at the large bay window to the right. The ceilings above me were like that of the planetarium from before and showed the entirety of the cosmos overhead.

I took in the awe of what I would later find out was known as the Forgotten Tower. Yet, as I stood there, I noticed that I wasn’t alone. Standing at the far end of the room, opposite the door, was a tall mare, the color of the deepest midnight, her mane, the darkest of shadows, twinkling with starlight, flowing freely about her form. She was looking towards the floor in front of her; the shattered mirror surrounding her at every turn. Between the hushed sobs, I could hear her tears splashing on the floor; the space where they landed glowing for a brief moment.

“Um... hello?” I tried. Well, what else was I supposed to say?!

She started for a moment, my entrance completely slipping by her awareness. “Who-? How-? When-?” She stopped for a moment to regain her composure, wiping the tears from her face. “What are you doing in here? Who permitted you to enter my tower?”

I didn’t even bother with those questions. “Why were you crying just now?”

She looked flustered, standing there with her questions ignored. But she knew who I was, I assumed everypony in the castle did by now. “Ah, yes. You must be the young Ricochet. My sister’s newest pupil.” She was awfully curt. “I’ve heard some interesting stories about you, little one.”

“I am not little!” Yes. I was. “And what kind of stories?! Did Celestia say anything about me that I should know?!”

The Midnight Mare laughed; a heavenly sound that echoed well in the mostly empty chamber. “Calm yourself, I was merely poking fun.” She walked over to the desk in the middle of the room, her silvered hooves crunching on the broken glass.

“Now then,” She looked at me with a kind stare. “How did you manage to find my tower?”

Still wasn’t answering my questions, but I played along. “Well, I couldn’t get to sleep earlier, so I decided to take a walk is all.”

“Couldn’t sleep? Why do you think that is?”

Beat the hell out of me. “Well, I think it’s because the moon wasn’t out. I can’t get to sleep some nights without a window with a view of the moon.”

The mystery mare looked taken aback for a moment, like she was honestly surprised at what I had just said; a look that was replaced by a sly grin.

“Oh, then, my apologies. It seems that my duties have completely slipped my mind. Excuse me for just a moment...” She got up from the desk and shuffled over to the bay window, which promptly opened at the behest of her magic.

She stood up on the windowsill, her horn glowing a deep blue, wings outstretched as far as they would go. As she lifted her head slowly, I could only spectate in wonder as the full moon began to rise behind her, casting her in a silvery silhouette.

As she turned to me, her mane flowing like mad, infused with the raw power the moonlight had given to her, I really didn’t need to know who I was talking to anymore. In that instant I knew that I was trespassing on what had to be sacred ground. I was flustered, to say the least; tripping over myself trying to make an apologetic escape from the tower. But she cut me off with a smile and a nod, telling me that staying behind would be fine.

“I’m so sorry, Princess Luna! I had no idea that this was-”

“Calm yourself, child.” Luna interrupted, “If you would like to stay here and talk, I would be more than happy to. Anypony who is worthy of my sister’s time, is most certainly a welcome guest to me.”

From there everything was grand. Luna and I would have our little meetings whenever we could afford the opportunity; always meeting up in her tower for some reading or just playful banter. She would teach me everything that Celestia didn’t; mostly Equestrian history instead of foreign politics. She even took to fixing my beat up ear for me; the doctors had told me that there was nothing they could do with it, so it was still in pieces before Luna fixed it.

She once asked me if I wanted to get rid of the scar on my right shoulder. I told her no, it was a reminder of where I had come from; a reminder of what I had to do to be sure I didn’t wind up like that ever again.

“Admirable,” was the word she used.

Yeah... it was the best of times. Until... well...

****************************************************************************************************************************

When we burst into that antechamber, and when I saw Celestia standing over Luna’s limp and broken body, my heart leapt into my throat. After the fire began to rage through the forests outside, and the fighting, and then this?! I was beside myself.

What could I do? I mean, up until this point I had been completely useless! I’m no fighter, and how the hell were we supposed to take on the Solar Princess herself?! There was just... there was just no way. So, I did what I do best: I bounced back. If I couldn’t fight, then I damn well had to do something.

So, I swallowed my fear, pushed all doubt from my mind, and put this tongue of mine to work. I was able to talk down Celestia, and even convinced her to banish her younger sister; my greatest friend. Honeuma wasn’t all too happy with me, but everypony else seemed to understand. Ha, I nearly lost my game face there in the middle.

We played on Celestia’s honor to receive leniency on our impending execution, trading up for a couple of cold cells instead. Several soldiers in tarnished golden armor, battered and bruised, hauled us off to the seldom seen dungeons, where they separated us into two groups, and threw us away.

Midnight Blaze, Star Brew, and Silver Light were tossed into a cell on the other end of the corridor; Arian, Honeuma, and I were placed in our own. I could hear talking coming from the cell down the hall, but ours, well...

Honeuma was still upset with me, even if he had reluctantly agreed with me. If ever there were two complete opposites, save Brew and Silver, it was Honeuma and I. Where he followed Luna in blind faith, I followed in tested honor. He was a firm believer in that his actions would speak louder than words, whereas I knew my tongue was my greatest asset in a conflict. I knew him mostly by reputation, a reputation that nearly preceded him. He was a fine soldier, one of the best in the Rebellion. Otherwise, I had seen him at formal gatherings or diplomatic meetings; my being the impartial negotiator and he the guardstallion to Princess Luna. Er, Nightmare Moon, that is.

Arian was sitting in the far corner, staring glumly at his talons. I knew him since before all of this, you know. Yeah, being a business consultant and diplomat meant that I was all over the place. Arian here, well, he was a peculiar case. He was a griffin; a griffin raised by ponies. I had worked with his foster family on several occasions, helping them to sort out business deals and the like. I found him to be quiet, shy, and altogether pleasant. He was a family griffin; devoted husband and proud father to a little girl. Now, he was in a musty prison cell, looking at a fate that could very well be far worse than death. I would be lying if I said my heart didn’t break a little for him.

Star Brew, well, he and I are much the same, to be honest. While we disagree on some key matters, he has absolutely no tact when it comes to handling other ponies. Where his smarts come from books and careful study, mine came from personal experiences and learning from my mistakes. He’s fairly agreeable when he wants to be; always looking at things from a logical standpoint. Though, he does have a tendency to see the world like he sees the text in books: in black and white.

We met while I was on an errand a long time ago; back when I was still a stupid teenager. Brew had decided to look for jobs in a higher position, and I was more than happy to suggest his amazing concoctions to Princess Luna. Before long, Brew was the go-to stallion for anything that needed enchanting or brewing for nearly all of the kingdom; his recipes and methods sought after by nearly every scholar the world over.

Silver Light, my sister-in-arms. You’d think that her and I would be just too different to get along: she grew up in a nice home, born into a prestigious family, with everything going for her. And me, well... you know. But, you want to know the reason I like her so much? Because she hated that life; not that I could blame her in the least.

Ugh, I don’t even know where to begin with Silver’s family. So, I won’t. Bottom line: they were the atypical rich snobs that I loved to take advantage of in my early years. Upturned noses, silver spoons stuck where the sun don’t shine, and just bottom-line rude. The kind of family that tears itself apart because of a financial or political dispute.

I couldn’t help but feel at least a little sorry for the poor girl. I mean, her family signed her over to Miss Prissy Princess herself: Princess Ruby Slippers. Let me tell you, that is one job that I would never wish on anypony. Not even my worst enemy.

And, of course, there was the innocent of our group: Midnight Blaze. Grew up in the Everfree, the way I understand it. Living off the land and fending for himself. I’ve been told that he never knew his family, and that the closest thing he had to a home was burned to nothing but ashes. Of all of us, he had to have fallen the farthest. Going from practically nothing, to a position of esteem, to less than nothing, had to be one hell of a trip.

I remember the first time I met Blaze. It was only a month after I settled myself into my new life at the castle, when Princess Luna asked me if I would, “Like to accompany her on an errand.”

Not one to sit around and gather dust all day, I agreed, not really expecting a walk through the Everfree. She led me through paths I never even knew existed; winding between trees that stretched higher than the tallest of Castle Canterlot’s towers. It was like I was in another dimension; some sort of fantasy.

Princess Luna stopped in front of what looked to be a hovel made out of a tree hollow. It was crude, but sturdy, and it looked like it could keep out the elements. Better constructed than the hole I lived in, at least. She called out to the little shelter, and wouldn’t you know it? Out popped a colt around my age. He was nothing but a ball of charcoal grey fluff back then; I couldn’t help but giggle at the sight.

Princess Luna produced a small satchel, apparating out of thin air at the call of her magic. She willed it over to the young colt and laid it open, revealing the foodstuffs inside. The colt was beside himself with joy as he began to work on the meal. Again, I couldn’t help but snicker.

We didn’t bother sticking around long, Princess Luna said something about some sort of work that she needed to busy herself with, or something. On the way back, I asked her why she left him behind.

“Because this is his home,” was the only answer I received.

I got wind that she had started to send a care package to the colt every day via delivery by a few of her most trusted soldiers. Every day, I would wait by the front gates, waiting for one of those soldiers to come back empty handed. And every day he would tell me the same thing: “He’s doing just fine.”

****************************************************************************************************************************

So, there I sat on one of the beds, next to that glum griffin, and thought about what may come. Celestia had just told us that we were to be banished the next morning; something that we weren’t all too excited about. The words, “Good luck,” rang out in my head, played back by Celestia’s voice again and again.

‘Out of the pan and into the fire, right? Moonlight save us, what have I roped us into...?’ I thought, apprehension starting to seize my thoughts with near panic.

I looked up from the floor, at first to Arian, whose focus was pointed towards the iron bars of our small cell. Then shifting my gaze to Honeuma, who was glaring at me. I knew he didn’t exactly favor me much right now; not after the moves I had made for everypony.

“Look, Honeuma,” I started. “There just wasn’t any other option.”

He snorted. “You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Does it matter if I believe it? All I know is that we’re alive, and so is Luna.”

“And you would do well to remember who made that possible,” Arian said glumly.

Still glaring, Honeuma spat back. “What makes you think I want to be alive if it’s without her? She was the one thing that gave my life meaning, and she’s gone now.”

“Gone, but not forgotten. At least she is still alive, and so are we. If we somehow get out of this alive, we just might be able to bring her back. Or have you not thought of that?” Arian stated.

I kept my eyes locked on Honeuma’s. “Easy, Jet. This situation is a little more delicate than that. And you,” I began addressing my glaring counterpart. “Throwing your life away doesn’t mean anything in the end. No matter what the purpose, death is death. Nothing more.”

Now visibly upset, Honeuma got to all fours, “Yes, death is death, take a look at me and tell me what I look like!” He stepped into the faint light given off by the torch outside our cell, showing the skeleton-like marks of his coat. “I look like it, so I may as well be it. Without Luna, nopony is going to accept somepony like me, so who cares if I throw my life away, it’s mine isn’t it?!” As he yelled, a single tear fell from his eye.

“I care, and I’m sure Ricochet cares too,” Arian said very father-like as he put his talon on Honeuma’s shoulder. “Trust me, It will be hard, but if you let your true character show through, the other ponies will look past appearances and will be sure to accept you.”

Before that moment, I had thought Honeuma was just some ground-pounding, battle-loving, meathead. But now, I realized, he was just somepony who had lost everything; just like the rest of us.

“And I’m sure that our Lady, our Mare in the Moon, cares as well.” I gave a slight smile and a nod of my head in Honeuma’s direction. He seemed to get where I was coming from, at least for the moment, anyway.

He slunk back to his corner of the cell, trying to hide his tearing eyes behind his leathery wings. With a wavering voice, “That’s just it, she was the only one to ever care, and now that she’s gone, it’s just like before...”

“Then don’t let her actions be in vain. Stand tall as her most trusted soldier; as the Sword of the Lunar Rebellion. If you give in now, what will it prove to everypony that stood against her? That she only took in the meek and helpless as some sort of sick joke? No, she saw something in you, in all of us. Don’t just sit there and mope, hold your head high! Honor our Lady in everything that you do, and know that no matter where we end up, you will never be alone.” I took a deep breath. Everything I had just said flowed out of nowhere, like I was channeling somepony else’s thoughts. Kind of freaked me out.

Honeuma gave a wicked little smirk through his tears, “You forget, I’m from another land with different ways of doing things. To honor her would be to take my life, as I failed in my one goal of protecting her, bringing dishonor to myself.”

“Yes, that was there, but now you live in Equestria. And I swear, if you kill yourself, I will go to the very depths of Tartarus to resurrect you, just so I can kill you myself!” Arian said as he puffed up his feathers and spread his wings to make himself as imposing as possible. It wasn’t working all too well.

“You can’t resurrect a dead person in Tartarus, Arian. You have to bring them outside of the Gates before you can do that,” corrected Star Brew from down the hall.

I gave a sigh. This was getting us nowhere, fast. Maybe Honeuma would see things from a less traditional standpoint one day, maybe not. I would have to work on that. I stopped trying to cheer him up after that; I figured a dark smirk was as good as I was going to get at this point.

Then what Star Brew had shouted to us sank in. “Oh, gee! Thanks for the vote of confidence, brainiac! I swear, no tact.”

“I apologize,” the unicorn said, the sarcasm in his voice clearly evident. “Ol’ Silver here isn’t very good company. All she ever tries is to-” Star Brew’s voice cut off as we heard a loud crash, then yelling. “SILVER LIGHT! DON’T YOU PUSH ME OFF MY COT!” A chuckle from what must have been Silver Light, followed by a mumbled groan from what sounded like Midnight Blaze.

Great, now on top of everything else, I was laughing in spite of myself. Though, I wasn’t complaining; and neither were my cell mates.

“Keep it down in there,” a guard called out from the other side of the hall.

Honeuma actually chuckled, “You know, it’s not like I even have any way of doing that anymore.”

“Well it’s going to be one heck of a day tomorrow, we might as well get some rest,” Arian said with a yawn.

With a round of agreement, everyone set themselves up for the night, trying to get as comfortable as they possibly could with what limited space we had.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Sleep didn’t come easy that night. No, it came with a club and a big “Buck you!” stapled to its head. I felt like I did all those years ago, back when I had met Princess Luna for the first time. Everything just felt... wrong, like the air I was breathing wasn’t actually there, like this was all some dream.

I tossed and turned, and the lack of a window in this cell was driving me crazy. Call it a pegasus’ prerogative to need to be able to see the sky at all times. It’s just, I don’t know... comforting. But what with the lack of sky, and the lack of moonlight, sleep was just a wish to me.

I had finally given up trying to rest myself for the night, instead pacing in small steps, trying to figure out a game plan. It was fruitless, of course; even through all of the rumors and advice I had received over the years, there was absolutely no mention of the Blasted Lands, or what we could expect there. I was just taking one big stab in the dark on this gamble; ante up, all in! Chips on the table! Momma needs a new toaster, come on!

I had nearly run myself ragged with what I was sure to be eventualities; namely a rather unpleasant demise, probably caused by dehydration or malnutrition. Until I heard the door to the hallway open with its trademark SCREECH!

I trotted over to the bars to see who was moving our way, but the bars gave my vision little purchase. It wasn’t until the old-as-dirt unicorn stepped right in front of me that I was sure of who it was.

“Ricochet,” his voice cracked, “Now what have you done this time?”

I couldn’t help but feel a little melancholy. He was an old friend, but not necessarily my ally. “Star Swirl. How you been holding up, you old fart? Heard you’ve been tampering with timelines again.”

He was used to my sarcasm by now, so he dodged the remark. “I was just informed that you and your... friends are to be banished tomorrow. The Blasted Lands, or so I hear.”

I looked to the floor and nodded glumly. “Yeah. It was the best I could do. I mean, I did what I had to! You know that, right?” He just looked into my eyes, his bushy eyebrows obscuring my view of his. “Please, just, please, tell me what I did was the right thing to do. Please...” I slumped down to the floor, bracing my sobbing body against the cold bars.

Star Swirl’s knees cracked as he sat down behind me, his back pressed against the opposite side of the bars between us.

“Ricochet, you know that I cannot reveal to you the answers to your questions. To do so would be a vast misuse of my power.” I could feel the rickety heave of his breathing against my back. It was a calming feeling, like a father. “But, my friend, the only thing I can tell you is that no matter the consequences, you six must remain united. Each of you has a gift, something that young Luna saw in all of you. Something that Lady Celestia has seen this day. I can only tell you that the time will come when you all must face your true demons, in order to defeat the ones that await you in the Blasphemed Realm.”

He was cryptic, as usual. I swear, no matter how many ponies tell you otherwise, Star Swirl the Bearded’s special talent was being vague. But, it proved calming nonetheless, and my sobbing stopped for the moment. Star Swirl continued.

“You six knew young Luna as she truly was. You six knew not the ruler of a kingdom, but the kind hearted and unfairly judged mare she wanted to be known as.” He let out a sigh and stood back up, giving out a grunt that made even him sound old. “But, you knew not just young Luna, Ricochet. But you also know Lady Celestia, knowledge your comrades fail to keep with them. Remember well your greatest lesson, my friend: In war...”

“...there is no such thing as good and evil. Each side has their heroes and their tyrants. And know that nopony is ever in the wrong; only those who have become misguided or lost, fight a war and fail to see a compromise,” I finished. Celestia had taught me that; my winning lesson, the one that took me to the very top of the political chain.

I still hate that old codger for being able to make me complacent when I just want to break down and lose it. You know, those times where you want to feel guilty, or sad, or angry, just to validate your stupid, unwarranted self effacing? But, I guess that just means I have some respect for him after all; and that I owe him one. Ugh...

I stood up again and looked at Star Swirl’s stupid smile, not able to keep myself from smiling in the process. He reached a scraggly hoof through the bars and wiped the tears from my cheek.

“And always remember to do what you do best, Ricochet. Whatever comes your way, whatever trials your comrades, these five wayward souls, encounter, never run away. You have a rare gift, my friend; one that will play a large role in how this journey plays out.” He rested his hoof on my right shoulder, his horn glowing for just a moment. I felt my right leg tingle, and when he pulled his hoof away, my old reminder, that scar I had carried with me all these years, had vanished.

I looked at him with fresh tears. He just nodded, his smile widening. “This is a new time, one that will be forged by the hooves of everypony in the land. Past happenstance has no hold here, you understand?”

I responded with a simple nod, because if I had opened my mouth to say something, anything, I would have started bawling loud enough to wake everypony else up. The last thing I wanted right now was to have everypony see me talking with a well known Solar Sympathizer in the middle of the night.

“Ahem. Now, get some rest. You will have a long day ahead of you, and an even longer journey shortly thereafter.” And with a turn of the head, and a swish of his ratty tail, he was gone; off to sort something or another out for the better of the kingdom, I’m sure.

I dragged myself back to the cot, picking up my hooves only to be sure not to kick Arian square in the beak. I layed back down, and caught myself staring at the ceiling... again. But, this time was different; and I’m still not sure why. Maybe it was the smile on my face, or the hopeful flame I had burning in the farthest recesses of my heart, but I felt like I did back in that orphanage; back when I turned my parents away.

I felt like everything was right; like I could take the world and all it was worth. I was ready.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Or, so I thought. Funny how you can be so sure of something one second and go to kicking yourself in the teeth the next.

Once I jumped out of that prisoner transport, and hit the sandy, cracked earth beneath me, I knew I couldn’t stomach this place for long. I mean, I was built for urban survival! Not literal survival! I was in way over my head, a fact that drove itself home when I got a good view of the nothing that was the start of the Blasted Lands.

As far as the eye could see: nothing. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Can I possibly say that enough? The entire stretch of land before us was covered in naught but sand and dust. Over to the right! You see that?! Oh, wait, never mind. Just more nothing to be had! Just miles and miles of... well, you get the picture.

I shifted my little bag off my back and checked the contents, making a mental checklist as I went. I had everything I would need, for the time being: rations of dry hay, a canteen, a small box of tinder twigs, a small length of rope, and so on. You know, the basic camping equipment. I had a hard time coming to terms with how little we were given, before Star Brew noticed the enchantment placed upon our bags and canteens: a replenishment spell. It wasn’t anything fancy, and we would still need to ration food and water during the day, but at midnight, everything would be back the way we had started.

I picked my bag back up and looked to our two “experts”. Star Brew had read a number of books on this area of the map; Arian, on the other hand, had first-talon experience.

“Well, where to?” I asked, “All I know is west.”

Star Brew looked to Arian, a compass floating in his magical aura in front of him. “You’d be right about that.”

“But be careful not to lose each other,” Arian cut in, “You would be surprised how easy it is to get turned around in the wastelands. Just stick close, and we’ll all be fine.” He handed us each a strip of cloth. “Those might be thin, but they’ll keep the sand out of your eyes. I would suggest wearing these at all times, unless it’s absolutely necessary you take them off.”

We all complied, Arian sparing not a single cloth for himself; he has two pairs of eyelids after all. After we had geared up, we all took one last glance to the green speck of land to the east of us; the place we had once called home: Equestria.

I could feel the same wave of depression wash over all of us. It was like we were given one last slap to the face. “Take that, you foul swine! Never return!” We spared enough time to only allow a few memories to pass by; unchecked and unhindered.

Without a word, we all turned our backs to our old home, and walked forwards into a future that was sure to kill us. We stayed quiet for a long while, longer than what I had felt necessary. The ground beneath our hooves crumbled and cracked with volume that equalled the loudest thunder; it drove me nuts!

So, what could I do? What could I possibly say that would pick everypony up and perhaps even get them to smile? I almost hate to admit it: I sang.

“~The fire of friendship lives in our hearts~.” I started, soft and slow, seeing if anyone else would catch on. Nothing. “~As long as it burns we cannot drift apart~.”

“~Though quarrels arise...~” Arian started, also soft and slow, at first. I adopted a spring in my step.

“~...their numbers are few!~”

“~Laughter and singing will see us through~.” Silver Light even chimed in. Now it was a party! I grabbed a hold of Silver Light and Blaze.

“~We are a circle of pony friends!~” I sang out, all sense of modesty out the window. I looked to Blaze to see if he knew the end to the song, even in his depressed-as-all-hell state, no one could resist a good song, right? Right!

He was reluctant, but wound up being a complete idiot like the rest of us. “~A circle of friends we'll be to the very end?~ That’s how it goes... right?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Hahah! That’s right! Now, for the second verse! ~We will---~”

“Can you ponies be quiet? I’m trying to read this map,” Star Brew said sourly from the front of our group.

Honeuma hung his head and sighed, “Really? You consider this to be an appropriate moment to sing?” He and Star Brew both looked disapprovingly at the rest of us.

“Of course we do, just because you guys don’t know how to have fun...” came Silver Light’s rebuttal.

I dropped back on all fours again. “That’s fine, not everypony likes to sing.” I nudged Silver in the side and whispered, “Not a stick for miles, and still they walk that way...”

So, my little scheme didn’t work for everypony, but it hit where it really mattered. I was able to get Blaze to smile, even if it was for the briefest of moments. From there, well, we walked; still not talking much aside from the occasional question regarding where we were headed or when it would be appropriate to rest.

I never had a real appreciation for how freakin’ hot the sun could get before then. The heat was absolutely brutal. I could only imagine what my dark-coated companions were thinking. But, before long, nightfall came; the new visage of the moon cresting the farthest dunes right when it was supposed to. And, you know, nights in the desert leave you wanting the sweltering heat of the midday sunlight! I couldn’t even feel my wings, it was so cold.

We had decided that the later hours of the day would be a bad time to move, and even with the blinding light of the full moon, we would freeze to death in no time. We had set up camp in a small culvert in a series of dunes; helped to block the wind, according to Arian. Before long, we had a fire, and everyone was treating themselves to a quiet dinner.

I wish I could tell you more, but that was everything that happened that day. No, really! Honest! After we ate, we just went to sleep...

Oh! I know what will catch the wind in your sails! How about I tell you about how the nightmares started? Oh yeah, nightmares after the Rebellion were much, much, more terrifying than before. I remember somepony talking about the latent power of Nightmare Moon and how she used the moonlight to exact her revenge, or something.

Yeah! I think that’ll work just fine! And, hey, I might as well leave a space for everyone else as well. Get the whole story that way; the big picture.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Midnight Blaze

Ricochet beckoned me over, telling me something or other that I was supposed to write down what happened that first night, the night we all had nightmares, the first of many. I trotted over to where I was summoned, away from the others as I recollected my thoughts, my hooves scraping gently across the grass. I really wished that these scrolls of Brew’s didn’t require you to speak, for thoughts usually held some sort of privacy and comfort to me. Alas, it wasn’t called a “Speak and Write Scroll” for nothing. You know, nightmares have a weird way of starting off like memories, only they end up twisting them in a horrid way.

The night was as cool as the shifting sands sunk underneath us, while the blackened sky above us whirled around circuitively. The twinkling stars above shown through the dark curtain, revealing themselves as they clung to the dark fabric, spinning in harmony. The night sky above us clashed with the darkened sands beneath our hooves, creating a greater division between us and our former home.

I think sleep came easier for me than it did others that night. Living in the forest means you never got the luxury of a bed or haystack, but it also held its advantages. You learned to fall asleep quickly, and make sure you stay in a light sleep in case of an emergency. Seeing the night sky above reassured me that at least I could always fly away if I needed to. My eyelids closed slowly, shutting out the light from exposing my aching heart. I could’ve sworn I heard a lullaby faintly in the distance.

Day 54, year 5. I wasn’t actually five, but I started counting the days I’d been truly alive, and I only really felt alive ever since I met princess Luna and my friends. It was a beautiful evening, one to which I simply couldn’t ignore. I promised to meet the gang in a clearing of the forest, and I wasn’t about to go back on a promise anytime soon. After all, I didn’t want to lose the friends I had so recently made. I would give almost anything to prevent losing them.

I flew above the green of the trees below, spreading my wings wide as I felt the rush of Spring’s breeze push up against my feathers. I flew over to where my friends were waiting for me, in the clearing, just like we agreed. I swept downward toward a landing spot, where I greeted my friends, embracing them with warm smiles and intentions. Everything was... perfect.

We all gathered around in a circle; everyone was laughing, smiling, and was so nice that I easily lost track of time. We weren’t here just because of some random reason, we were all there because tonight was a full moon, one that princess Luna said would be particularly special. I couldn’t stay for long, but what little I did see was definitely worth the trip. The princess was right; everything about that night was perfectly planned- the glittering stars, the radiating moon, all of it. Before I knew it, my time to leave had come.

“Sorry guys, but I need to leave, I need to settle down before the nocturnals are active, otherwise they might spot me.”

Everyone froze. The laughter and joy they had so recently been partaking in grinded to a halt, their faces as solid as stone. Slowly, everyone turned toward me, their expressions deepening. “You’re not going anywhere,” Star Brew told me. It was only then that I realized Arian was missing, and that I soon fell into unconsciousness.

Confusion. As I slowly opened my eyes, I took note of my surroundings. I was in a depression in the forest, surrounded by the timber of the nearby trees. My friends flew above and circled around me, leaving little room to escape. It was then that I noticed that the wood wasn’t just encircling me, I was trapped underneath it as well.

“Why are you doing this? Why am I trapped under here?” I begged for an answer. It was again Star Brew who responded.

“Because you’re responsible. The forest is gone because of you.”

I took another look around me, if only to check his statement. The forest I had so clearly seen a moment ago was now naught but ash and ruin. I tried to defend myself. “The forest’s burning wasn’t my fault! There’s nothing I could’ve done about it! I don’t even know who started it!”

It was Ricochet’s turn to weaken me next. “Exactly. You were so weak you couldn’t even save your only home, you just sat there and watched it burn.” Tears brimmed in my eyes. Despite me wanting to reject all they had said, some part of me knew it to be true, and I hated it. I had simply sat there, dumbfounded when everything went up in smoke, despite my mixed feelings.

“You could’ve tried to save an animal, but you didn’t even try that, now did you?”

“Arian, not you too....” I couldn’t help the flow of tears now. “I.... I just don’t know what else I could’ve done... I’m just one pony!”

“You’re weak!” spat Honeuma, my friend through military training, now another critic.

“Now, as your punishment, you’re going to finally know the depth of your folly,” Silver Light finished. She came around to each of the others, bringing torches with her, passing them out to the other four. They each glared daggers at me as they held their torches, preparing for what would happen next.

I suddenly realized what was going to happen. The torches, the kindling, it was all for me. “No!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. If there was any breath left in me from my sobbing, I used it there. “Please, you have to believe me! It’s not my fault! Please!” came my final plea of desperation.

One by one, they each threw their torches on the timber. Slowly, the fire encompassed me, creating a ring of destruction that was to be my judgement. “Please listen to me! I really just didn’t know what to do!” They gave me blank stares, declaring justice over my fall. “I’m sorry! Please, just let me go!” The fires grew closer now, and I could feel the flames heating up the wood in front of me, preparing to combust.

My eyes widened as I realized my fate. I wasn’t going to escape. This was my punishment for failure, for letting such an atrocity go on unchecked. As my friends trotted away, I begged one last plea at them with the last reserves of breath I had in my lungs, reaching a hoof out to them in desperation as the tears poured from my eyes, “I’m sorry!”

The flames consumed me, eating up my sorrow, my life, and my pain.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Honeuma

Sleeping at night was something new to me, I had been accustomed to resting during the day since foalhood, but the events of the last few days had sapped me of my energy. I found a spot a little ways away from my companions to lie down on the cool sand. Pressing my head against my side, I covered it with my wings to try to keep some kind of warmth. I’m not sure when, but I eventually drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to a sight that brought horrible memories flooding back; I was in the cobbled courtyard of the orphanage of my foalhood in my homeland. As the moonlight illuminated the courtyard, I looked around; everything was just as I remembered it. At each corner of the courtyard, a large pillar held the roof of the building up, with wooden walkways lined with smaller wooden pillars for additional support. The archways in the North, East, and West led to the different wings of the building. To the East were the colts’ rooms, to the West, the fillies. To the North was the dining hall, and the rooms where the monks who took care of them stayed. Everywhere, there were carvings, paintings, and banners of the sun along the walls of the building. It was appropriate, as the orphanage was run by the Temple of the sun. Dead center in the courtyard however, was the statue of the one I never knew would bring such pain to my life. I looked up and met the gaze of The Solar Princess, Celestia.

I scowled. I never wanted to see this place ever again; it was a place where unwanted foals and those who lost their parents were brought. I could hear the monks singing their hymns. I knew all of them, and they angered me so. Songs of joy and praise to the sun and of its goddess. I could hear the foals join in their singing, clacking their hooves along to the melody. I wasn’t wanted here as a foal, my appearance made sure of that made sure of that, nopony wanted a foal who looked like death. I didn’t belong there then, and I surely didn’t belong now.

I looked to the sky, gazing past the Temple of the Sun above the orphanage upon the stars and the moon with visage of my lost Lunar Princess. Longing to join them, I sprang into the air and unfurled my leathery wings, rising silently into the night. I could see everything, the mountains, the treetops of the forest, the fields, the village’s triangular roofs, and off in the distance, the Temple of the Moon in its clearing. It was my home, and I longed to see it again.

I flapped my wings as fast as I could, joy bringing a smile to my face as raced through the night air towards the Temple of the Moon. I desperately wished to see my master, the priests, and the priestesses again. I wanted to tell them of my time in Equestria and of the Lunar Princess of who we praise. Though as I sped through the clouds, something caught my eye in the village, the glint of steel. I banked right and began my descent to get a better look. As I approached the rooftops I noticed that it wasn’t just steel, no, what I had seen had been armaments. The halberds of warriors lined the outside walls of the town bar with crowds of interested ponies admiring the impressive weapons. Despite the hostility I had come to know from them because of my appearance, they were peaceful ponies. Most of them were earth ponies skilled in farming the land, and they certainly weren’t fighters. As I looked around searching for an answer, I noticed banners and lanterns adorning the building of the town.

“What’s going on?” I asked myself under my breath.

Taking a closer look, I noticed the banners were adorned with a symbol. One I recognized instantly, Taiyou, the sun. Within each symbol was the character for victory. I didn’t know what to make of this, until I saw the tents in the fields the village farmed. They were the tents of soldiers, Soldiers of the Solar Empire. Suddenly, I knew what was happening; the songs in the orphanage were songs of victory to come. They were a prayer the followers of the sun sent to their soldiers before battle.

As horror struck me, I rose in the air and sped off towards the Temple of the Moon. It was located on an island in the center of a crescent shaped lake. I began to slow down and descend to come to the edge of the water. As I approached, the water of the lake acted as a mirror reflecting the temple in the glow of the moonlight. I gasped in horror at what I saw in the reflection. Above the water, the temple was as beautiful as the Lunar Princess herself. The temple itself was surrounded by a grand wall with eight spires in total rising towards the sky, one at each point of the compass to form a circle centered around a grand spire in the atop the center building. The tiles of the roof were of a brilliant turquoise crystal that glowed in the moonlight, the buildings themselves a dark blue hue flecked with turquoise to resemble the stars in the sky. Atop each of the ridges of the roofs’ peaks and corners sat crescent moons. From the main island, bridges branched out to smaller circular islands with more buildings in which the ponies lived. It was a breathtaking sight against the night sky. Below however, the spires were twisted and cracked with black metal, crackling with a dark energy, bent around the towers in a spiral fashion to the peaks. The temple in the reflection gave off an aura of evil; of darkness.

As I gazed into the water, something caught my attention; a faint orange glow came from the archway of the gate in the water. I glanced up to see the same glow at the entrance of the real temple. Curiously, I moved towards the bridge that would take me to gate and began to cross. I reached the gate to find it wide open, as was normal for this time of night. The ponies that dwelled within the temple walls were primarily nocturnal, preferring the gentle glow of the moon to the harsh light of the sun. I broke into a gallop as I thought of seeing my old friends again, and burst through the common area towards the main building of the temple. I hardly took notice when the guard ponies made no attempt to stop me as I flew past them, all I could think of was getting to see my master again. He was a kind old unicorn who had lived in the temple his whole life. As I galloped through the grand hall, I came to a trot when I reached the courtyard to find a peculiar sight. Everypony was there, the monks, the priestesses, and at the center of the crowd, my master. They were gathered around our statue of Princess Luna, or rather where it should have been. In its place, standing over everypony, now stood the figure of Nightmare Moon. Everypony seemed to be staring at the statue. I ran to my master through a break in the crowd. I knew that he would be able to explain what was going on.

As I approached him from behind, I bowed myself low in respect. “Master, I’ve returned,” I said excitedly.
There was no response. “Master? Master, can you hear me,” I asked hopefully. There was still no response from him. “Master?”, I asked one last time hopefully putting my hoof upon his shoulder. I was worried.

I turned to the crowd to see them all fixated on the statue as my master was. I found one of the monks and shook him trying to get an answer as to what was going on. There was still no response and I began to panic. I went from pony to pony, but still no luck. Making my way to the front of the crowd, I yelled “Can’t anypony hear me?!” desperately hoping for an answer.

“I can hear you just fine,” came the voice of a mare behind me. I turned around to find the statue was gone, and in its place stood the real Nightmare Moon.

In the sheer awe of the moment, I nearly forgot to bow. “Your majesty, what’s going on? Why can’t anypony hear me?”, I asked.

“Because you are dead to them. You failed in your mission, and brought dishonor to yourself and to this temple. Because of what you failed to do, they are without their goddess,” she said as she began to move about the crowd.

Moving through the crowd, she turned her head to look at each pony’s face.“Your mission was to guard me with your life, to give me your total devotion, and to do everything I asked without question, was it not? To do anything for your princess?” she asked as she turned her gaze upon me.

Shaking, “Of course Princess, my purpose in coming to Equestria was to protect and serve you in any way that I could.”

“Why is it then that you weren’t there when I was fighting my sister? You, The Sword of the Lunar Rebellion, my personal guard, let me fight alone, and now I’m gone, trapped within the moon. Your people have lost their goddess, as Equestria has lost one of its princesses, and your friends have all been banished. Would you like to know why? Because you failed in your mission. I needed you in the battle against Celestia, and you were nowhere to be found!”, she roared angrily as she advanced towards me.

Tears began to well up in my eyes, as I struggled to find the words to answer her. Through the tears, I noticed that the temple began to change around me, becoming the twisted vision I had seen in the reflection.

“Do you remember those soldiers you saw on your way here? The Solar Empire has received word that I’m gone, and have begun to purge my followers from towns and cities throughout the country. They’ve been labeled as dangerous heretics that need to be brought to justice before they can do harm. They are going to die now that I am gone, because you weren’t there to defend me. Thousands of innocent ponies will be dead by your incapable hooves, including your friends here at the temple. Come dawn, the soldiers will attack, and have been ordered to show mercy to nopony. How you can stand to live with yourself knowing that you failed at the one thing that you had to do?” she asked.

“If you had any respect for your traditions that you bored me with, you would have ended yourself the moment of my defeat. Yet here you are, living a dishonorable life that has no right to be. You know what you have to do, don’t you?”, as she asked, she slid a dagger across the ground to my hooves.

She was right, I had failed, and thus had no more reason to continue to live. I looked around at the twisted temple and at everypony there, imagining the bloodshed that would come with the rise of the sun. Knowing that they were going to die because of me, I reached for the dagger. I couldn’t bear the thoughts of what had happened because I had failed. As I looked at the gleaming dagger in my hooves, tears began to fall freely from my eyes. It was all my fault, and I knew what I had to do.

As I began to lift the dagger shakily, Nightmare Moon and all the ponies in the courtyard disappeared into a cloud of starry black smoke that rose towards the sky. I thought of my friends and of what I had caused to happen to them. With one last deep breath I prepared myself.

Standing there alone with tears in my eyes, I whispered, “ I’m sorry everypony.” I brought the dagger down hard and fast into my stomach, and everything went black.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Arian

The nightmares, the horrible nightmares. Ricochet asked me to write them down, even though I would much rather forget them. I am only doing it because she asked me, and I owe her a lot of favors.

The nightmares started during the first night we spent in the blasted lands. Once we had set up camp I began to finish the project I was working on during our time in the wagon, humming hush now, quiet now to help everyone else get to sleep. It was an old nursery rhyme that I found continually useful for putting my daughter to bed. Once everypony fell asleep I decided it was time for me to hit the hay as well, or sand as it may be. I soon fell into a deep, horrible sleep, one I that still haunts me to this day. My darkest fear became my worst nightmare.

I woke up outside my house, looking over myself, discovering that I saw I was covered in cuts and blood.

‘For me to be this badly injured we must’ve lost one heck of a fight,’ I thought. ‘But where is everypony?’

I walked over to the entrance of my house, discovering signs that a fight had broken out, the broken window and blood all over the lawn being a big one. To my regret, I rushed inside to see something that still haunts my memories. I saw my wife and child, torn to pieces.

I threw up right there on the floor. They were torn to literal shreds, the only part intact being their heads. They were set up on the table staring to the doorway, a smile on their faces, some kind of sick joke. “Who would do this!” I screamed. I looked around to see if I could find a clue, a note, anything of use. As I searched the room, I heard a bump that sounded like it came from upstairs. I bolted straight up and threw open the door in a fury. Inside I found the killer, something I never saw coming.

It was me.

I opened the door to find myself staring face to face with myself, or a mirror to be more exact. It wasn’t some horrific killer who had taken my family, no, it was me. The blood I clearly attested to earlier now held a much more horrifying explanation than the one I had crafted. No, there had to be another explanation! I wouldn’t do this; least of all to my family. I continually tried to come up with an excuse for my appearance, that is, until the memories came flooding back in.

I had just gotten back from a fighting in the war. I was flying back to my house, but I didn’t notice that I was followed. It was a scout, just a lowly scout! He burst in through the window and fired a crossbow at me. It went wide, sweeping past me as it burrowed into my daughter, and I went balistic.

I pounced on him and tore him to shreds, but and then something happened. I went feral; I turned. Any resemblance I had of my former self was gone, desecrated, replaced by a creature only capable of hate and fury. My wife tried to over to try to calm me down, but instead of doing so, I turned on her, losing control of my mind and body. All I could do is watch as I did all of those terrible things to her. Eventually I blacked out and it’s all a blur after that.

All I know is that I became the monster everypony made me out to be.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Silver Light

I dreamed I was home. For some that might seem like a pleasant dream. For me it was anything but. I found myself sitting at a table, as if sitting down for dinner. The finest china was out and I could tell the wine was from my father’s favorite store. What were we celebrating? As I looked up I could make out shadowy figures along the impossibly long wooden table. Although it had to be as long as the Everfree forest I could still see to the end with no trouble.

The room seemed to shift, going out of focus and distorting. I became aware of a pair of red eyes at the end of the room. They were staring directly at me.

“Hello?” I asked. “Who’s there?”

A deep chuckle resounded throughout the room. As it echoed off the walls it grew louder, roaring until it filled my head and ravaged my ears. I clapped my hooves over my ears in an effort to block it out. My hooves did naught to stop the noise. It just kept getting louder. I struggled to remember where I knew that laugh from. It was so familiar. Yet part of me didn’t want to remember. Part of me wished for those memories to stay buried.

“Stop it!” I finally managed to yell.

With a jerk I awoke in my bed. It was all a dream, I thought. We weren’t banished. It was all just a bad dream. I pulled myself out of bed and trotted to the door. A nice walk around the palace would calm my nerves.

Something was off, though. The moment I stepped into the hall I should have known something was wrong. I began walking down the passageway, along my usual route. The hallway seemed to stretch, no matter how far I walked I wasn’t moving anywhere. I chalked the whole thing up to my imagination and continued to move along the corridor.

I caught sight of a shadowy figure out of the corner of my eye. “Princess?” I questioned. “Princess Luna? Is that you?”

Something brushed against me on my other side. I jumped back and looked wildly around for the source. The corridor was empty. “Who’s there?” I was shaking.

That chuckle, the one from my dream, began again. Was I still dreaming? I began sprinting down the passage. A creature with red eyes appeared in front of me.

I swerved to avoid it. Pleaseohpleaseohplease, I repeated over and over in my head. I could no longer form coherent thoughts. I threw open a random door and leaped in, slamming it shut behind me. Whatever flimsy protection it provided was better than nothing.

I was in a hall of mirrors. I don’t remember there being one in the castle.

I took a few tentative steps forward before they begin appearing. The red eyes. They are everywhere, they are watching.

A stallion’s reflection appears in the mirrors, their glass distorting his face. “Hello, Silver,” he says with a smirk. “I’ve been waiting for you. Ever since you left me I’ve been waiting. Now it’s your turn to know how it feels to be alone. It’s your turn to be abandoned. You will be left alone with no one to love you. You will be invisible.” His reflection disappears from the mirror, leaving me alone in the dark. His voice resonates throughout the hall, “Not even your friends can help you. Not now, Silver. Slowly, even they will forget you, because you will not matter. Just as I didn’t matter to you.”

“Star’s Wish, I’m sorry!” I look wildly around for him. “I didn’t mean to!”

My brother’s laugh resounds around the room. I am truly alone.
****************************************************************************************************************************

Star Brew

I knew I was dreaming. I knew that this was a nightmare. Knowing is half of the battle right? Knowledge is power? For all of my life, knowledge had comforted me, giving me an edge over other ponies. My knowledge had always allowed me to learn and advance faster than anyone I had ever met.

And yet, all of this knowledge could not save me from myself.

I was standing in my tent on the edge of the Everfree Forest. The wind battered against the open flap of my tent, repeatedly breaking my focus on the voices outside. I could hear the shouting of soldiers as they approached my camp. I knew they would violate my work, pervert it to their own twisted means to use against the Lunar Princess, something I would never allow to happen.

I seized my research and hurriedly shoved it into one of my saddle bags, barely even bothering to seal it; time not being on my side. Quickly placing the bags on my back, I ran out of my tent, only to be met with a sight that I would remember vividly for many months, no matter how intense my desire to forget it.

Piles of dead ponies were laid aside tents; the common area of the camp in total disarray. Soldiers of Celestia murdering my people with their impossibly sharp spears, spears that I had helped forge. Crossbow bolts were buried in one poor mare, bulging from the body that I couldn’t bare to look at any longer.

And the worst part of all of this? I knew it was a dream. And even with that knowledge, I couldn’t wake myself.

So I ran. I ran into the dark depths of the Everfree Forest; the forest I had played in as a young colt. I could escape from the nightmare! I knew every path; there was no way those snobs of the Solar Army could follow me through that forested maze.

Until I ran into a cliff that shouldn’t exist. And atop that cliff was her. An impossibly bright white alicorn stood at the summit, radiating a brilliant glow that demanded attention. I blinked, and suddenly, she was right in front of me, watching me with those unblinking, piercing magenta eyes. I turned to run, but her guards were there, blocking my escape.

Every unicorn learns some basic spells in addition to the ones directly involving their talent; among these are those for levitation, light, and fire. It is surprising how many talents relate to fire; for me, I used the spell to light my cauldron everyday.

So, to spite these proud defenders of the realm, I flung my saddle bags into the woods, lighting them ablaze as they sailed through the air. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of simply handing over my research.

Then, something unexpected happened. Instead of the research simply setting on fire, it also began to burn everything around it. The forest caught fire. The oaken trees burned, the bushes screamed. I heard animals call and chirp out to each other in panic before perishing in the flames that I had unintentionally started.

I-

...

...

No. I can’t. The memories are too painful.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Ricochet

I was the last to fall asleep that night, right after Arian had finished his supremely creepy lullaby. It hit me like a sack of bricks, and before long, the entirety of our first day sank in and seized away my ability to remain conscious.

I “woke up” in a room; my room, the one I had known since I was seven years old. It was all so real to me, too real: the way the silk sheets whispered with every movement I made, the way the curtains billowed outward from the open window, even down to the smell; a warm scent of cinnamon and lilacs.

It was one of those dreams, where when you were in it, you thought that your actual reality was the dream instead. It was warm, it felt right, and by all means, I was happy; curled up beneath my warm bedding on that cloud-stuffed mattress.

Screams.

‘No way... this had to be a dream?’ I thought, now fully “awake”. And, haha, it was.

The yelling was coming from somewhere far off, out in the blackness that was the Everfree at midnight. It was loud, constant, and familiar. I had heard that screaming before... but I was sure it couldn’t have been what I thought it was.

I ran out of the room, frantically looking for a guard or random soldier to assist me in investigating the wailing. But, as nightmares often prove, I was alone.

The screaming was getting louder, so loud, in fact, that I could have sworn that whomever was in the act was right next to me. I pushed my way towards the main gates: past the Atrium, through the Grand Hall, cutting through the Throne room, and finally winding up at the front gates. The open front gates.

You know, I don’t know quite what I was thinking at the time, maybe I was railroaded into it, I don’t know, but for some reason, I pushed my way past the threshold and into the bitterly cold night. I had gotten maybe halfway to the edge of the Everfree, when I found out where all of the guards and soldiers left to. And this is where things get weird.

Just outside the castle gates was a path leading to a very wide, and very deep, chasm, only crossable by a rope bridge. But, standing on either side of the path was the two opposing forces that contributed to the Lunar Rebellion: the Celestial Vanguard, and the Lunar Militia. Both had taken opposite sides of the path before me, the left hoof side of my vision was a stream of gold, the right, a stretch of dark blues and purples.

“What in the...?” I started, but was quickly cut off by a loud crack of thunder and more of that impossibly loud screaming. I tried to scream in fright, in pain, in panic... all of the above, but I couldn’t even hear myself over the maelstrom of wails.

I looked away for only a brief moment, closing my eyes now in terror and pain, holding my hooves over my ears to try and prevent that wretched sound from driving me mad. And when I had looked back up, both sides of this little not-so-active conflict lay dead in piles of bones and discarded armor. Standing on the rope bridge was a saving grace, a hope, a midnight blue beacon of light: Princess Luna.

“Princess!” I ran to her, the yelling that filled the air starting to invade my mind, gaining ground with each passing second. Her back was to me, and she turned to face me as I stepped onto the bridge; she was smiling, smiling the way she always did when somepony would come to her with some pressing matter.

“Ricochet,” she said, her voice cancelling out the screaming for the moment, possibly so I could clearly hear what this nightmare had to say to me. “This-” she said, placing so much emphasis on the word that it sounded like a curse. “-is your fault.”

There was a loud CRACK! and Luna fell lifeless onto the wooden planks before me. Standing tall and proud behind where my Lady had stood, was the one pony I loathed the most: Nightmare Moon.

She snickered at me; the look on my face must have been priceless to that harpy. “Oh, hohohoho. Now, that was something, wasn’t it? I never thought it would have been this easy to end everything she held dear.” She kicked aside Luna’s limp body, sending the fresh corpse plummeting into the shadowed depths of the chasm below. “Hahaha, pathetic!”

“You... how could you just...” I was beside myself with both rage and a sorrow I had never felt before. Nightmare Moon started to walk closer to me, soon beginning to walk in circles around me as she started spouting lies into my ear.

“She meant it, you know. Luna? Yes, this, all of this, is your fault. You couldn’t save her from me; no matter how hard you tried, I still proved to be the victor! And now look, lonely little Luna is dead and gone, never to return to this world.”

“But, this wasn’t... I just, I couldn’t--”

She stomped one of her hooves down onto the bridge, the flimsy structure quaked violently. “There are no excuses for your failure, Ricochet! You knew about me, about my goals, even my power! But you honestly believed that you, you, a lowly servant could keep me at bay?!” I felt my body lose all sense of control as she willed me off the ground with her magic.

“You pride yourself on that silver tongue of yours, worm. And while I can commend you on your use of persuasion to prolong my coming, it still proved to be useless in the end.” She willed me high above her head, stretching all of my limbs as far as they could go. The pain was unbearable; it felt like I was being torn apart at the seams.

Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally at my screams of pain and terror, but she grew bored easily, and tossed me through the air, back to the edge of the chasm nearest the castle.

“Look around you, you simple, worthless, waste of breath! These are the souls that you willed away; the lives of the innocent soldiers that you used to satisfy your own narrow minded greed!” She continued, my will being torn to pieces with every word.

“No! These aren’t... I only wanted to--”

“To, what?! Save your precious Princess; the one you foalishly thought of as family?! Tell me, Ricochet: how many lives did you end for that foalish endeavor?! How many soldiers did you send to their graves, all for that weak excuse for a Princess?! You turned your back to the land you swore to serve; instead pursuing your own selfish desires! You chose the needs of an individual, when you should have chosen the needs of the collective!”

I couldn’t move a muscle; my aching limbs and my racking sobs wouldn’t let me. Then, the Nightmare spoke her last.

“Know this, Ricochet, you simple foal! I will always haunt your dreams! What was once Luna’s curse, shall now be set upon all of the world! And keep in mind,” The skeletal remains of the dead soldiers began to move on their own; without the help of her magic. “THIS IS YOUR FAULT!”

Before I could even think of what would have come next, the army of dead soldiers began to grab at me. They smelled of damp soil and rot; their combined breath washed over my body in a nauseating cloud. They began speaking to me, all of their voices combining to make that same wretched sound from before.

“YouR FauLt!” “How could you--” “Betrayal!”

“Ricochet, why?” “SINNER!” “defiled...” “...Dead.” “Loved... her...”

“Your failure... absolute...” “Lifeless!” “Chaos, eternal night!”

I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t keep myself from listening their cries. “No! NO! IT WASN’T--”

****************************************************************************************************************************

“--MY FAULT!” I awoke, screaming in a cold sweat.

“You should try to keep it quiet; it’s still pretty dark after all,” Star Brew said softly from his place standing next to me.

After I got my bearings, I realized that everything that had just happened was nothing more than a nightmare. But let me tell you something, I was never scared of anything more in my life. The voices of the skeletal soldiers still rang out in my head, the noise only receding by the smallest of increments as time crawled by.

“You were moving around a lot and talking in your sleep,” the potion master said. “I’m assuming nightmares?”

I tried to get myself to stop shaking. “Bingo,” I responded. “You too, huh?”

“.... Something like that. Come closer to the fire. I’m fixing up something that should stop them.” With that, Star Brew turned away from me and gently walked over to the small fire in the midst of our group. A small brown pot was atop it.

“Smells... familiar.” I commented as I approached my to-be seat. “Is that... cinnamon?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. I wish. They didn’t pack any cinnamon. I suppose exiles don’t deserve most spices. I barely even managed to grab anything out of my saddle bags,” Star Brew said, mourning the loss of his possessions. “If we had that, well, we would be dining like royalty every night.”

Well, regardless of what that stuff was made of, it smelled like the same scent my room took in the late summertime. Guess that gave me a trigger, of sorts.

“Don’t rub it in,” I joked. “Now, you gonna stand there, or is that stuff ready yet?”

The unicorn rolled his eyes. “It’s almost done, you impudent mare,” he said, the humor evident in his voice. “It’ll be done when it’s done.”

He was a sarcastic mule sometimes, but I guess it sort of added to his charm, if you could call it that. He could play ball and I admired that.

Not wasting time, I decided to break the ice with a stupid question: “What was yours like? Your nightmare, that is.”

He stiffened, then quickly shook himself. “I didn’t have a nightmare...”

I wasn’t buying it. “Come on, I’m not an idiot, Brew. What’s on your mind?”

He sighed, then stared intently at the bubbling pot before him. “Before I talk, I need two small favors. Well, one more small than the other.”

“Shoot.”

“First, the small one. Can I... borrow one of your feathers?”

It took me by surprise, to say the least. “Uhh... sure, I guess.”

“It’s not for me. I need a pegasus feather to stir the mix,” Star Brew said, gesturing to the small pot. “Pegasus feathers have trace amounts of magic in them; it’ll strengthen the brew.”

It didn’t make much sense to me, but he was the best potion master around. I looked back at my wings, the feathers had become ruffled and disheveled as I had tossed about in my sleep; removing one wasn’t much of an issue.

“There,” I said. “Now, the second thing?”

He accepted the feather and began stirring the potion with it. Small sparks popped out of the pot, making a peculiar crackling noise as they landed on the sand. He looked back at me, the feather continuing its swirling of the mixture while surrounded by the pale green glow of his magic.

“The second,” he said, carefully enunciating his words. “You must not tell anyone. Not Arian, not Silver Light, not Honeuma. And especially not Midnight Blaze.”

“I can keep a secret, Brew. The things I could tell you would reshape your entire view on the world we once knew.”

“I doubt that, but I digress,” Star Brew said, snorting at my statement. “I didn’t have a nightmare, per say. It was more of... a memory.”

This was bigger than what he had let on; now things were a little more difficult to handle. “Okay, then. I’m listening.”

“I was in my tent, studying my potions. I’m always studying my potions, you know that. Anyways, I heard the Knights rampaging through my camp,” he said sadly; from what I could tell from the light of the fire, his eyes were welling up.

“There was only two things of value to them in my camp: me and my research. If they had either, then they could torture me or just take it and use everything I learned against Princess Luna. I couldn’t let them do that.”

“I could escape into the depths of the forest, but I couldn’t take my research. It was too bulky, too much. So I did the only thing I could think of to stop them: I lit my notes and tent on fire.”

“I figured that they would see the burning tent and give up, but they didn’t. They really wanted everything in there. Paper and parchment doesn’t burn very fast; they might have gotten something.”

At this, Star Brew made sure to catch my eye. His gaze was intense. “Do you know how unicorn magic works?”

I ruffled my wings. “Can’t say that I do.”

“Our magic is based heavily in will and emotion. For you pegasi, your magic is innate. You don’t have to worry about losing your mind; the magic that allows you to walk and rest on clouds, to manipulate the weather; as long as you are alive, you will not lose control of it.”

“For a unicorn, to perform magic, they must have a driving will to complete their spells. If their will falters, then the spell is weakened or even fails. If they don’t have their emotions in check, drastic things can happen. Spells may miscast, be underpowered; the spell may even be something completely different than what’s intended.”

“That night, I lost control. My anger at them for ruining my camp, killing my people; I just lost it. I had intended to just throw a small fire spell at the remains of my lab, but that didn’t happen.”

I started to draw the conclusions already; I just hoped I was wrong. “Brew... did you--”

“Anger has a funny way of manipulating spells. It can unlock power in you beyond belief, if you let it. That night, I cast the most powerful spell I had ever seen. And... I liked it. The power. But... it scared me too. Ricochet, until that night, I had never lost control of a spell. Sure, I had the same trouble at casting spells as any unicorn, but I had NEVER lost control like that.”

“Brew--”

“That night, I unleashed a spell of fire so powerful, that I wouldn’t be surprised to see the ground of my camp be glass right now.”

“Brew, hold on--”

“But the spell didn’t stop there. It went on. I could feel it, tied to me. The flames, stoked by my anger, went towards the only being that I could direct my rage at. The being I felt and still feel is responsible for everything.”

“I get it, really, but--”

“The Everfree Forest burned that night because of me! How many ponies did I kill that night? How many acres of forest are gone?”

And there it was, out in the open. But, I still had the feeling there was more.

“And that’s not the worst of it. I know you pegasi are all proud of your complete control of the weather and all, but it’s not that way in the forest. That much forest gone, the weather patterns in the forest will change. I might have just destroyed the entire ecosystem of the Everfree Forest, just because I GOT ANGRY!”

Everything went quiet, well, even quieter than it was before. My jaw hit the dirt; my eyes had to have been wider than a basilisk’s mouth at feeding time. I was relatively speechless for the moment; I hated drawing conclusions, especially when they turned out to be right.

“Brew...” I breathed. My eyes shot over to Blaze, who was busy tossing in his sleep; too preoccupied with whatever his nightmare happened to be. “Does he... does Blaze...?”

“No. And he can’t learn about it. I’ve heard him in his sleep, heck, all of you talk quite a bit when you sleep. Midnight Blaze wants vengeance on whoever started the fire. To know that it was me would break him,” Star Brew said. “If only I had been able to control myself, we might not even have been in this situation. If the forest wasn’t burning, maybe we could’ve made it to the castle in time. We could’ve saved Princess Luna, stopped all of this madness--”

“Brew!” I interjected. “Calm down for a second, will you? We can’t change the past anymore than we can know our future.”

“Well, actually, now that you mention that...”

I could only hope he hadn’t read up on any of Star Swirl the Long-Winded’s study material. “No, Brew.”

“That might have been the subject of some of my studies,” the grey unicorn said. “I think it was the reason they attacked...”

He was on one hell of a rant. “Listen for a second!” I shouted, still trying to keep my voice as quiet as possible so as to not wake my other companions. “Stop trying to shoulder the blame, will you? There’s six of us that were banished, after all!”

“Then who’s fault is it, Ricochet? My father, who taught me the spell? Celestia, who provided me the anger? Or was it the princess? She gave me purpose, a will. After my parents died, she ensured that I had something to do! A unicorn needs willpower to do magic, remember?!” His eyes were burning with an almost feverish glint.

“Nopony is EVER at fault!” I hissed, my nightmare playing fresh in my head again. “No matter what happened then, no matter whose fault it is, all we can do is own up to our mistakes and move forward. When you hit a wall, when you hit rock bottom from an all-out freefall, all you can do is bounce back! Stop seeing things in black and white for a change, pony up!”

“Not all of us are you, Ricochet. I wasn’t abused as a foal like you, I didn’t pick up all my learning on the street; oh, don’t give me that look. I studied all of you, you all have your mannerisms. I’ve read them. You bounce back from everything; I... I just weather them out. I endure, but I don’t change like you. The trials that I face shape me like a river does to its banks. I figure that I’ll eventually get over this. But it won’t be until I see what I did either fixed or atoned for.” He seemed to have calmed down significantly now, slowly taking in deep breaths.

“Then how about you use some of that almighty unicorn willpower and atone for it?” I settled myself a little, I had to remember who I was dealing with. “I’m aware that not everypony can have this same tenacity; it’s what makes me, well, me. But, what I can do is at least help you out here. Don’t try to shoulder a burden that can drive you this insane! I mean, what happens if you need to cast a spell with this hanging over your head?”

He winced. He actually winced. “... you’re right. I shouldn’t sound so surprised, should I? How long have we known each other? It’s been what, five, six years? In all that time, you’ve always been right. How the heck is that even possible? I know I’ve taught you a thing or two in all that time.” A sudden pop came from the fire. “Brew’s done.”

I smiled at him; he was really an okay guy, he just took a little extra elbow grease to cut through that stubborn personality of his.

“Finally,” I said, eyeing the concoction with the slightest hint of greed. “I’m still shaking from that dream.”

I looked in the small pot, but all I saw was a bright yellow powder.

“Wait...”

“Yes?”

“This potion doesn’t seem to be very... potion-y...”

He chuckled. With the faintest glow, he levitated some of the bright dust out of the pot to in front of his face. “Where do you think the myths of the Sand Pony came from?” He pursed his lips and exhaled. The yellow powder surrounded him, then spread out, resting on each of our friends eyes. Instantly, their restless sleep ceased as expressions of peace crossed their faces.

“Huh... Wasn’t expecting that, to be honest.”

“Just because my name says brew, doesn’t mean I only do liquids. Now go to get some sleep.”

I gave a small shrug as I grabbed the small pot and fished what little powder remained in the bottom. “Fine, but one last thing, Brew. You have to tell Blaze about what happened. If you don’t, then I will. I’ll give you all the time you need, but if this becomes a problem, well...”

“Ricochet...”

“No buts. We have to take these trials as they come; that way we can grow and become all the stronger for it. Run that by some of that logic of yours and you’ll know I’m right.” I gave him a wink and placed the powder in the corner of my eyes. It tingled a little.

He sighed. “It takes a unicorn to activate it, silly.” I saw a brief glow in front of my eyes, followed by a sudden drowsiness. “As for Midnight Blaze... I will tell him. Hopefully after all of this mess is sorted out.”

“That’s...” I yawned heavily. “...good to know. I’ll catch you at first light.”

Before I could even hear a response, Brew’s powder caught hold of me in full force and I was out like a light, off to Slumberland on the Peaceful Express.

****************************************************************************************************************************

First light came way too soon. I hate to give credit to that egghead, but that powder worked wonders. I never had a problem waking up this early in the morning; it had been a part of my job to be ready and alert by the time Celestia had finished raising the sun.

I was the first to wake, as per usual. Brew was curled up near the fire pit, right where he had been the night before; the others in their spots as well. I stretched my wings wide, feeling a pleasant popping as the joints reset themselves into place.

I decided I’d walk to the top of the easternmost dune to catch the sunrise. And as I stepped up onto that crest, I was given the sun unlike anytime before. Here it wasn’t just a bright orb that floated along in the sky, it was power; raw, uninhibited power. As I watched the light cascade along the terrain, I took notice of how the dunes had shifted in the night. Arian’s warning about easily getting lost replayed itself in my head, really driving the point home.

I thought of the nightmare from the previous night, and what it had meant to me, as well as what it meant for the world. It felt like a message, or a challenge, and I never turn down a challenge. I smiled at the sun, and did what I always did in the mornings: I prayed. It was an old practice, something that hadn’t been even mentioned in recent history, but talking with the sun made my whole life seem safe; like it was a direct line of contact with Celestia. I just hoped that nopony would find my little... habit; Celestia wasn’t exactly a favored figure amongst my companions, if you hadn’t already guessed.

But, I still loved her; Celestia, that is. Because I knew, that if I were in her horseshoes, I would have done the same thing. I would always owe her one, no matter how much hell she put me through. She saved me, and that was more than what I could have asked for.

“Celestia,” I started, keeping my eyes closed and my head high. “After all these years of doing this, I’m still not sure if you can hear me; guess it’s my fault I’ve never bothered asking you before, huh? Well, I’m talking to you for some advice. Or, maybe I just need some validation; some proof that I’m right.”

“I was visited by her last night: Nightmare Moon. She told me... she told me that I was a tyrant; that everything I had done for Luna was worthy of a death sentence. I didn’t want to believe her, really, but... if only you could have seen it. I knew them. I knew all of them: Brawn, Flicker, Paradigm, Crumble, just to name a few. And they were blaming me for... for...” I had to stop for a moment to gather myself.

“How do I live with that? How do I live with the knowledge that I was the one who negotiated the deaths of nearly half of the population of Equestria, all to keep Luna safe? I didn’t want Nightmare Moon to come to power, but at the same time I had to keep Luna safe, right? And, what else could I do?! I only did what I had to, right?! There weren’t any other paths to choose from... right?”

I knew that I was talking to thin air. I knew that there wouldn’t be a reply, an answer to my questions. I hung my head downward, a few tears escaping my eyes and soaking the sand below.

After the sun had risen above the terrain, and the inescapable heat began to settle over everything, I turned back to the campsite; my gaze falling on my five companions. My friends. My family. And that was when it hit me: ‘Enough of the moping, Ricochet! Sure, you have some things to work out, and perhaps they aren’t something you should put off. But right now, in this moment and the moments to come, those ponies down there need you. So grab the reigns and suck it up buttercup! You’ll figure it out on your own time, but you can at least help everypony work out their own issues!’

I couldn’t help but smile again. Haha, I was right, as always. If I couldn’t find the answers to my questions, then I could at the very least help my family find theirs.

“HEY!” I shouted. “WAKE UP ALREADY, YOU MANGY MULES!” I jumped from the top of the dune and soared downwards at the campsite. “Start of a brand new day, everypony! Gotta move while the sun shines!” I ran around and shook everypony with what I guess would count as a little too much enthusiasm.

One by one everypony grudgingly woke up. Brew, Honeuma, Silver, Arian; in order of appearance. But, Blaze seemed to be slacking a bit. That wouldn’t do.

“Blaze. Blaze!” I shook him a little more. “Hey, wake up already!

Something gave and Blaze’s eyes shot open, waking with a bit of a start.

“Whoa, there!” I backed up a bit to give him some room. He settled down after he was able to get a grasp on where he was. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, just a bad dream...”

I didn’t like where this was going. “A bad dream? Or a nightmare?”

He didn’t respond; instead giving me this quizzical look.

“Yoohoo! This is Ricochet, anypony home?”

“Yeah, I’m here Ricochet, I just... need some time to think.” He said, intently staring at the ground.

“Come on, Blaze. What do you have going on that you can’t talk with me about?”

A silence clung to the air.

“Do you... mind if I ask you a question? It’s rather specific, actually.”

“Yes, this is my natural mane color.” I tried a joke, but it didn’t work. He was being serious, continually staring downward intently the entire time. “Uh... sorry about that. What’s up?”

“That day we were in the forest, fighting the others...” He was obviously being vague, perhaps to put the question as delicately as possible.

“Do you.... blame me for what happened?” He looked up at me, his eyes reddened from crying during the night.

My stupid thoughts travelled back to the nightmare I had the previous night: ‘SINNER!’ ‘TRAITOR!’ ‘YOUR FAULT!’. But I shook them from my mind, I couldn’t break down; not now.

“Blaze...” I placed a hoof gently on his shoulders. “There is no fault in what happened during that time, for anypony.”

“I meant about the forest, about how I stood there like an idiot while everything was burning around me. How I didn’t even think to help the others trapped in there. How I failed.” Tears began to well up in his eyes.

I knew how much the forest meant to him; it was just as Princess Luna had said all those years ago: it was his only real home. I looked up, catching sight of Brew fussing around with the map and compass. I didn’t really know how to approach this, but I had to try.

“Blaze, what happened to you, your home, wasn’t your fault. How could I possibly blame you for doing something that I know you didn’t do?”

“Just... please. Tell me you forgive me for my inaction. Tell me I’m not a bad pony. Tell me that that forest didn’t burn down for nothing!” Tears now flowed freely from his eyes, darkening the sand beneath our hooves.

I smiled at him, the warmest one I could muster. “I forgive you, Blaze. You won’t find me saying anything otherwise, and that’s a promise.”

He gave a sniffle. “Okay Ricochet. I believe you. One day, when we’re done with this, I’ll find out what really happened.”

“Then...?”

Another pause. “I just don’t know Ricochet. I just.... don’t know.” He resumed looking back down at the ground where he was originally.

All of this gloom in the morning and we haven’t even gotten to the good parts yet? Ugh, it drove me nuts!

“Alright, then. Now, what say we get some food in us before the uptight duo over there start marching us ragged, huh?”

A sigh. “Yeah, I could go for some food I suppose, although it’s still too early for my tastes.” He began to unfurl and wing his way over back toward the camp.

“Oh, and Ricochet?” He hovered above his spot, looking back.

“Yes?”

“How can you be so sure it wasn’t my fault? You seemed pretty confident.”

‘Oops.’ Was the only thought that ran through my head. I had to think of something, and fast!

“Confident? Of course I’m confident! Somepony around here has to be, right? Just follow your gut, and you can’t be wrong!” ...Ugh. I can improvise my way out of a death sentence, but this performance was just... just terrible. But Blaze was the innocent one, so I guess it must have worked.

There was a brief moment of silence before the response came. “Well, okay. If you say so.”

I watched him fly his way towards his impending meal. I looked over to Brew, who was giving a decent berth between himself and Blaze. I gave a little sigh, because I knew what I was getting myself into. A secret is bad enough to keep, but when it’s somepony else’s? Things could go downhill, and fast. I would have to keep an eye on those two, that was for sure.

But, for the time being I did what I do best: act. I may be caught in the middle, but that didn’t mean everypony had to know about it; not yet, anyway.

After we had filled our bellies and made sure our replenishment enchantment had worked properly on our canteens, we geared up, and set off towards the west, not nearly prepared enough for what awaited us on the distant horizon.

****************************************************************************************************************************

A/N: Well, that was fun, huh? Ricochet is one hell of a lady, right? Okay, enough of my gloating at actually finishing a chapter. I had a ton of fun writing this out; moreso than usual. Don’t have much to tell you other than that if you leave a review, or comment, or whatever, you will receive one potato! Now, how can you possibly pass that up, people? I mean, seriously! Just look at that tater! - Feral

Oh, Star Brew, watching your anger is such a chore, no? Maybe you should chuck some potatoes at Silver Light, that’ll be sure to cheer you up. - Aeterna

Oh Blaze, you’re so clueless! XD But that’s ok, he’s just having a hard time right now. Perhaps some of that food will cheer him up! I wonder if they packed potatoes in that bag.... - Black

I wanna thank you all for reading the story, and don’t worry, Arian’s part will be coming up soon - Ivory

Silver Light is currently building an anti-potato fort among the sand dunes. She’ll get back to you later. Oh, Star Brew? She has better aim than you. - Anubis

Thank you everypony for taking the time to read our story, if only you knew what it meant to us. - Noize